sustaiNYC

[Design by João Sequeira, with Ana Figueiredo, Marta Moreira, and Pedro Ferreira, of Lisbon, Portugal]

Not so much fun to consider, but what if NYC was rocked by a Category 3 hurricane? A competition thrown together by Mayor Bloomberg and the Office of Emergency Management addressed just that.

From the Times’ City Room blog:

What if a Category 3 hurricane struck New York City, ravaging much of its 578 miles of coastline and leaving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers at least temporarily homeless? This is not just a scene from yet another disaster movie. The city’s Office of Emergency Management, with support from nonprofit groups, sponsored a $100,000 open design competition “to generate solutions for post-disaster provisional housing.”

The name of the competition — “What If New York City…” — evokes the doom-and-destruction theme that seems to be running through popular culture. The premise of the competition, announced in September, is far more practical. Designers were asked to consider a “fictional but realistic New York City neighborhood” — Prospect Shore — that was devastated by a hurricane, leaving 38,000 families without housing. Could effective designs be used to provide safe, comfortable living space for displaced people in a hurry? Could such shelter be inexpensive, environmentally responsible and reusable in other settings, including future emergencies? [read more…]

Gothamist has another take, and a much more ridiculous headline: Global Warming’s Perks: Plenty of Free NYC Housing.

The competion’s official website is here.