Coastal cities have always been a point of attraction for residents, tourists, and businesses. Alongside the aesthetic features, their proximity to the sea has made these cities a focal point for maritime transportation with the construction of ports, as well as hotspots for recreational and aquacultural activities. However, the past decades saw these particular regions threatened with a shortened lifespan; rising water levels, floods, and recurring cyclones, along with other natural disasters, have endangered coastal communities, putting their population, ecosystem, and built environment at risk.
Although artificial intelligence is showing the potential to carry out successive iterations with good results, designing the layout of spaces takes up large portions of a designer's time. The organization of elements present within a space determines the flow of movement, the points of view and will largely dictate how it will be used. But the idea of stifling the use of the environment may not work for all cases. Due to space restrictions or supplementary uses that a room can have, some architects have developed dynamic layouts that have more than one possible use. Whether through dividing elements or special modules, these projects allow the space to change radically through movement.
The popularity of pre-designed and pre-fabricated homes is growing, moving much of the construction process from the building site into factories. While countries like Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom are increasingly adopting modular buildings to meet labor and housing shortages, Nordic countries like Sweden already build 90% of residential single-family houses in prefab wood. Despite the recent surge in interest, off-site building is by no means a new concept. In fact, the construction method has been present throughout history in many attempts to consolidate its use in construction: as far back as A.D 43, the Roman army brought with them prefabricated forts to Britain, while Japan has been building in wood off-site and moving parts in pre-assemblies for at least a thousand years.
