It is estimated that Venice could be completely underwater by 2100 due to the acceleration of global warming and the fact that the Mediterranean Sea is supposed to rise by 140 centimeters by the next century. The Maldives and other coastal cities are sinking for the same reasons, but the founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT, Skylar Tibbits, might have found a sustainable solution.
Tibbits believes that if we learn how to harness the movement of the ocean — or at least find a way to mimic its force — we can protect these coastal communities from Mother Nature. But how?
Tibbits has a few ideas about how to respond to this rapid change. While people could ignore it or move away from the rising sea levels, 40% of the population lives in cities that are near or at sea level; this just isn’t a sustainable option. Another option is building walls, but that’s not great either since the force of the environment will continue to get stronger, Tibbits explained. The third option is dredging, which is actually what they do in the Maldives. Dredging is the process in which you displace sand from deep within the ocean and rebuild the beaches and coastline with said sand. A big problem with this tactic is the harm to marine life. In the Maldives, the community does this year after year, but in the time it takes to rebuild the beaches, sandbars have naturally formed. So where did the sandbars come from and how did they form? This is where Tibbits and his scientists believe they can step in.
The team has created 4D models that are activated with forces within the environment—gravity, wind, waves, temperature, sunlight. The team did a few experiments in their lab before travelling back to the Maldives for the real test. In the lab, the team created a variety of what Tibbits calls geometries. They filled a tank, placed various geometries in the tank, allowing machines to mimic ocean currents and assess how the sandbars were created. Later, they flew to the Maldives with bigger geometries they crafted with biodegradable materials. They are still in the testing phase after about two years, but Tibbits and his team propose that we work with the forces already in nature while using less materials and energy in order to accelerate a natural process that is already in. Therefore turning natural destruction into natural construction.