Resilience in the Terrain of Water (Embracing Land + Water +  Community) addresses flooding from increasingly regular severe ty­phoons and  rising sea water levels (due to global warming) that af­fects Valenzuela City  in the Philippines. Urban compartmentalization is a strategy we propose that  divides the site into six containable ar­eas by sets of double protective  walls to embrace the current com­munities to create a new linear raised  settlement infrastructure.

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We have carefully surveyed the existing communities and locat­ed  these walls to protect the existing institutions which we see as the mainstay  of each community: churches, schools, cemeteries, facto­ries, hospitals,  basketball courts and markets. We add additional sig­nificant buildings to  link the clustered communities together, such as Trade School, 3S Centre,  Church & Orphanage and Jeepney Muse­um. The listed significant buildings  are intend to fulfill the community needs and at same time to maintain the  existing culture on the region.

By creating clearly defined boundaries between land and water in  this previously ambiguous landscape, we are able to accommodate efficient  water based transport systems, such as a ferry system and water taxis along  the Pulo River which acts as a spine (not unlike a main road) to the proposal  and encourages trade -based programs and economies along its edge between new  and existing communities.

The project allows for an expansion of the brief requiring 800 in­dividual homes and one significant building by proposing that new hous­ing be built within the double walls, so that the existing building stock in the interior can be upgraded as necessary or desired. To simply provide a solution for 800 new families in the existing community in the context of the significant threats now evident in the existing settlements is short-sighted and inadequate. Any proposal must ac­cept the limitations of any small scale or temporary expedient ‘quick fixes’. By using a ‘kit-of-parts’ system of in the design, based upon local materials especially plastics and technology, the proposal pro­vides a resilient design system when catastrophes occur in addition to enabling the community to have more control of the building systems when they want to upgrade the houses or buildings after the prob­lems have passed. Resilience in the Terrain of Water (Embracing Land Water + Community) is the key to the future of these communities.