Nicolle Navarete is an interior designer with a strong background in institutional and commercial design projects that span across the New York City area. Her design solutions utilize unconventional materials with minimal environmental impact to provide imaginative and enriching spaces for the occupants without compromising on style. Today at Davis, she focuses on the current climate change crisis’ impact on coastal communities. Through the adaptive reuse of ship liners, Nicolle creates an architecture of refuge for people hit by natural disasters. The liners establish new and sustainable aquatic communities to serve future generations.
With the increasing frequency and catastrophic impacts of natural disasters, there’s a pressing need for the United States to adapt their disaster relief plans to this new reality. The usual government led emergency protocols are inadequate in dealing with the recurring threat of wildfires and earthquakes in the West, hurricanes in the East, and pandemics worldwide. Due to the developing threats from the climate, the current US government efforts are unable to evolve or develop fast enough leading many communities at risk and in the path of natural disasters. The Atlas a speculative prototype that incorporates the conversion of deserted or retired cruise ships to provide the victims of natural disasters along the Gulf, East and West coasts of the United States a place of refuge. With the abundance of stranded cruise ships continue to burn fossil fuels while floating within the ocean, due to company debt or oldness, this proposal aims to convert these abandoned vessels into a mixed use facility that allows for abundant of medical care, and through the use of open social spaces acts as an area of protection during a time of crisis or evacuation while providing community engagement, and comfort to its users.
