imposing a landscape <\/a>onto a property, Gevelinger organizes plantings to stabilize the ground and manage the movement of water. \u201cResiliency takes a layered approach,\u201d she says. \u201cEach technique compounds on the other.\u201d In one of her recent Sanibel Island projects, native spartina, muhly and lovegrass create a dense, fibrous root system. Meanwhile, clusters of gumbo-limbo and seagrape trees provide shade year-round and help diffuse wind pressure before it reaches the home. Many landscape architects also install narrow chambers buried beneath driveways, so water can settle and seep without\u00a0altering the visual landscape. Throughout, low areas are raised just enough to block neighboring runoff, and subtle contours are added to hold and absorb stormwater onsite rather than pushing it toward downstream homes.\u00a0<\/p>\nSome master planned communities take things further. Babcock Ranch has installed Smart Pond systems from National Stormwater Trust, which use live weather data and automated valves to assess available storage and lower water levels ahead of a storm. Before Hurricane Ian\u2019s first bands reached the coast, one Tampa Smart Pond drew down its lake by 4 feet, creating enough capacity to prevent discharge into nearby neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the landscape absorbs and deflects, the structure above must anchor. Forward-thinking architects have long traded wood for concrete, but Ian accelerated the shift from recommendation to expectation. Naples-based Michaela Reiterer Henning of Naples\u2019 HLevel Architecture opts for Omni Block\u2014a cementitious masonry unit similar to insulated concrete forms (ICFs) but better suited to hot, humid climates. The block delivers structural strength, energy performance and sound control in one. On top, fiber cement siding can preserve the look of classic cladding without bending to the elements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Architect Joyce Owens, Sanibel and Captiva Islands\u2019 resiliency evangelist, uses concrete all the way down to the home\u2019s deepest layer, even when it\u2019s not required by code. She drives the concrete pilings deep below grade and ties them together with over-reinforced grade beams. Above it, steel-hardened concrete shear walls rise perpendicular to the water, lifting her homes\u2019 primary living level well above flood thresholds. She places rebar at 2-foot intervals, rather than the code minimum of 4. \u201cThese houses that we are building now are going to last hundreds [of years],\u201d she says. Following each of the recent years\u2019 storms, Owens surveyed her sites. While neighboring homes were tattered or even leveled, hers stood with only the landscape impacted. \u201cWe design to allow Mother Nature to do what she\u2019s going to do,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
In a humid, coastal climate, long-term resilience isn\u2019t just about impact ratings, but keeping moisture out of the structure year-round. For an additional layer of protection, Schenkel Shultz\u2019s principal architect, Nathalie White, may utilize a rainscreen\u2014a thin, ventilated layer of cladding that allows exterior walls to breathe and shed moisture. \u201cImagine building another wall in front of your wall,\u201d she says. To keep roofing in place, architects have myriad solutions\u2014from utilizing aerodynamic designs that reduce uplift\u00a0to employing premium synthetic underlayments. However, materiality rules. Short of building a full concrete roof, standing seam aluminum remains the gold standard for creating a tight envelope that resists corrosive, salty air.<\/p>\n
As the main structure strengthens, the ground level stays intentionally minimal. Breakaway walls remain a smart way to enclose flood-risk rooms, but Owens prefers to keep most of the undercroft open, capturing it as sheltered outdoor living. \u201cWe don\u2019t like the sun as much as we used to,\u201d she says. \u201cNow we want plenty of protected space outside.\u201d Post-storms, the areas can be rinsed clean with nothing critical at risk\u2014plus, they\u2019re resistant to the daily tread of sandy feet, she says. Any necessary ground-level rooms receive composite trim that mimics wood or fully tiled walls in lieu of wooden baseboards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside, materials are chosen for recoverability as much as aesthetics. Porcelain flooring, waterproof plaster walls and native cypress for millwork can withstand repeated wetting without swelling or warping. Concrete appears in more places, too\u2014sometimes incognito, treated with stains, microtoppings or thin plasters that take on the warmth of wood or stone. Elsewhere throughout the home, outlets rise higher on the wall; marine-grade sealants protect window and door openings; and mechanical systems migrate to upper levels, where they stay dry and serviceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the most progressive projects, the team ensures the home can operate even when the grid is down, a move that also lowers the home\u2019s environmental footprint. Solar paired with reinforced battery storage is moving from novelty to expectation, with low-profile Tesla\u00a0panels increasingly covering Southwest Florida\u2019s roofs. Rainwater-capture systems provide an additional layer of independence, utilizing cisterns and on-site filtration to supply irrigation and some potable water when utilities fail. Meanwhile, advances in laminated, impact-rated glass further tighten the shell, reducing heat gain and improving long-term stability. \u201cYou\u2019re creating a skin that keeps heat out and AC in,\u201d White says.<\/p>\n
Most of what has become best practice today isn\u2019t new. Architects have long advocated for elevated living, tighter structural cores and landscape-driven hydrology. But the past few years of storms advanced the conversation. Clients stopped questioning the need for resilient design and began asking how far it could go. \u201cIt\u2019s only gonna get better,\u201d Owens says. \u201cEven if climate change gets worse, we\u2019re going to try to adapt and evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across the Gulf Coast, resilient design has become less about creating a fortress and more about working with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57437,57432,28,30,29,320,57431,57434,57436,57433,57435],"class_list":{"0":"post-112885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-annamarie-simoldoni","9":"tag-design-inspiration","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-home","14":"tag-interior-designers","15":"tag-landscape-architects","16":"tag-local-architects","17":"tag-local-designers","18":"tag-outdoor-spaces"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}