sub-city examines climate adaptation as a condition of continuous infrastructural modification rather than resolution. the project situates contemporary responses to environmental instability within the longer history of zoning and housing regulation established by the 1901 tenement house act, treating law as an active mechanism that continually shapes building typologies and urban form within a city.

through the fictional premise of raising new york city’s ground level with fill to mitigate storm surge and rising sea levels (see piles), the project traces how adaptation strategies generate new spatial and social pressures.

at 556 west 53rd street in hell’s kitchen, a soil-bentonite slurry wall is constructed as a utilitarian intervention that stabilizes and protects building foundations and masonry while complying with contemporary light and air regulations. the drawings examine the project objectively and detail the comprehensive design of the wall, while the model investigates how such a project is lived in and lived with.

sub-city examines the bureaucratic and social dimensions which emerge as climate infrastructure becomes commonplace; highlighting how current adaptation strategies unevenly distribute care and expose class-based vulnerability.