19 schemes to survive climate change.

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As climate change intensifies, architects, designers, and scientists are devising better ways to deal with almost anything nature throws our way.


▼ Record-breaking hurricanes, historically bad fire seasons out West, unprecedented flood levels in the Midwest, and “bombogenesis” becoming a household word along the Eastern Seaboard: Devastating weather events are the new normal in nearly all areas of the United States. Climate changeis causing both more-frequent and ­more-severe calamities. Add to that ongoing threats from earthquakes, ­tornadoes, and volcanoes, and it’s no surprise that, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, natural disasters cost us more than $306 billion in damage in 2017. But a new generation of ­architects, designers, and experts is creating infrastructure and buildings that respond to both extreme conditions and ongoing stress. Here’s a look at some of the most ­innovative approaches to living in an ­increasingly apocalyptic world.
The fog collector
Challengerought
Location:Mt. Boutmezguida, Morocco

Harvesting H2O
Moisture ­accumulates on durable mesh-wrapped frames.
Courtesy Aqualonis GmbH (2)
Some residents of ­Morocco who live near the Sahara used to spend hours ­every day retrieving ­water by donkey, but a new fog-​­collecting system is changing that. The ­Aqualonis Cloudfisher’s sturdy ­fabric mounts onto frames and can resist ­74-mile-per-hour winds while collecting moisture from the frequent mountain mist. This drips into a 16-mile pipeline, then flows directly into taps in more than 70 homes. Though people have erected similar systems in South America, Aqualonis claims Cloudfisher is the first to withstand stronger gusts. Innovative ­drinking-​­water solutions will gain importance as climate change alters rain patterns across the globe.
Living breakwaters
Challenge:Rising seas
Location:New York
2012’s Sandy was one of the deadliest hurricanes in New York City’s history. More than half of the 43 people killed were on Staten ­Island, where tidal surges as tall as 14 feet swamped the coastline. As the waters retreated, a federal task force held a competition to figure out how to best protect the  area from future tempests. Living Break­waters, one of the winning designs and led by architecture firm SCAPE, plans to tame the waves along the borough’s south shore with a 4,000-foot ­necklace of rubble, stone, and concrete barriers. The structure will also encourage ­protective ecosystems, including oyster beds, which form natural reefs.
Fire-resistant houses
Challenge:Wildfires
Location:Western United States

A firefighter sets off a controlled blaze to burn down brush and protect threatened homes in California.
MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Fire season has expanded in the U.S. by about 78 days over the past several decades. While experts say that not living in flame-prone zones is probably the best way to minimize risk, for people who already live there, some easy changes will improve their property’s likelihood of making it  through a blaze. One of the best is to lessen the number of combustibles near their homes, says Patricia Champ, an economist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station. Use less-​flammable roofing material, such as asphalt shingles, clay tiles, or aluminum. (Some of these happen to be among the cheapest options out there.) Trimming or removing trees and vegetation near structures also makes a big difference, she says.
Self-healing concrete
Challenge:Crumbling infrastructure
Location:Worldwide

Cracked concrete fills itself in—before and after.
Courtesy TU Delft
Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere actually accelerate deterioration of concrete. As CO2 penetrates a structure, it reacts with already present moisture and calcium hydroxide, progressively eating away at the layer of cement covering steel reinforcements, leaving them vulnerable to rust. Fortunately, Henk Jonkers, an environmental scientist at TU Delft in the Netherlands, has invented a self-​­healing version. Jonkers embeds concrete with nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium lactate, and a ­limestone-​­producing bacteria. The additives lie dormant until a fissure emerges, admitting air and moisture. Then the bacteria activate, feeding on the calcium lactate, converting it into limestone, and sealing the split.
Electric cars that back up local grids
Challengeower failure
Location:Worldwide
It turns out that cloudy, windless days don’t yield much renew­­able ­energy—​a road­block in shifting power grids away from fossil fuels. But electric cars, which are essentially ­batteries on wheels, might accelerate a solution. Their drivers could be ­encouraged to use their vehicles to stabilize the grid by rewarding them for storing extra power. While owners are working during the day, their vehicles can charge on energy from solar farms, and later, parked at home, earn their owners a little cash by selling surplus juice back to the grid. Alternatively, since wind typically blows harder at night, electric cars can store this fleeting power and release it the next day. Networked car batteries could thus provide stability to local networks, lowering the possibility of blackouts, not to mention providing their owners with emergency power. The potential impact is surprising: In a recent paper, researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggested that California’s aggressive ­policy—​requiring 33 percent of its energy to come from renewables by 2020—can be met simply by using electric vehicles as storage. Doing that will also lessen the need, and cost to taxpayers, to build stationary storage infrastructure.
Street-draining tiles
Challenge:Flooding
Location:Copenhagen, Denmark (▪ ▪ ▪)

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