Abstract:

This project envisions architecture as an open, socio-ecological system embedded within Oakland’s watershed and cultural landscape along the San Francisco Bay. Responding to climate-driven risks such as flooding, sea level rise, and extreme weather that disproportionately impact historically underserved communities, the project reimagines urban infrastructure as a resilient public commons anchored by the Carmen Flores Recreation Center. Through the daylighting of buried creeks, integrated flood mitigation, habitat regeneration, and rainwater reuse, building, landscape, and infrastructure are consolidated into a single adaptive framework. The design prioritizes long-term durability, environmental protection, and resource efficiency while embedding cultural memory and public accessibility into its spatial and material strategies. Grounded in local conditions yet structured for replication, the project advances a place-based model of resilient urbanism defined by adaptation, reciprocity, and collective care.