Barrier Islands Morphology and Prospective

The Semester long Studio was developed for Longboat Key, Sarasota and Manatee Counties, located in the West coast of Florida, between the Gulf of Mexico and the Sarasota Bay. The initial research examined the wider context of the Central West Coastal areas of Florida in three sections covering from Bradenton to Sanibel Island. The studio examined the coastal conditions of the barrier islands, bays, rivers and estuaries as well as the Gulf coast, carriers of natural and man-made hydro-generated environments. These territories were studied through their vulnerability and resilience conditions as well as their socio economic, infrastructural ,environmental ,and planning capabilities perspectives. NOAA Sea Level rise models were applied and evaluated.

Typological morphologies of residential settlement patterns were summarized to sixteen recurrent situations that apply to the Florida coastal areas. The issues identified by the studio for the Longboat Key case can be applied to other similar coastal situations and include : connectivity to mainland and environmental security, permanence of infrastructural facilities ;seafront as resource facing endangering conditions and the stage for beach erosion; bayside as the stage for sea water intrusion; permanence and protection of natural systems; central island transportation artery and its dual character as a thoroughfare and as activity location; aged residential typologies bearers of older coding requirements and in the need of creating new paradigmatic models to facilitate the settlement permanence over time.