Designing for Denial: Private Property on Dauphin Island

Rather than escalate the concept of “climate change” into a massive, intractable problem with a passionate cadre of worried supporters, this paper advances the concept that growing engagement and knowledge around environmental change should be made personal and political through sitespecific protocols. Using the case study of Dauphin Island, Alabama; this paper examines latent spatial potential of private property along coastal landscapes that are facing sea level rise, increasing storm events, and shoreline erosion. On this barrier island, resilience is a term that applies more to real estate than to the island’s ecology; despite the visibly changing landscape, new development, investment, and reconstruction efforts continue at the water’s edge. Here, conflicts between property interests and shoreline dynamics generate a landscape of contradictions, but simultaneously open the door for alternative sites and strategies of engagement and activism. Ultimately, we argue that designers can forgo the uphill battle for legislative change, political realignment, and economic restructuring; and instead leverage physical space and the embedded spatial logics of development to reveal the shortcomings of the status quo and to encourage alternative attitudes towards land and the changing climate.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.107.45

Volume Editors
Amy Kulper, Grace La & Jeremy Ficca

ISBN
978-1-944214-21-0