What Remains: Designing for Temporal Resilience
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Chan-katcha22-bs-arch-2026-thesis (1).pdf
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45.32 MB
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Author(s)
Chan, Katrina J.
Advisor(s)
Mazereeuw, Miho
Date Issued
February 2026
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
How do you design a functional ruin? Upon construction, architecture begins to negotiate an uneasy relationship with time. While ancient structures persist as weathered testaments to endurance, contemporary buildings, despite unprecedented construction efficiency, often deteriorate within mere decades. In the face of this accelerated obsolescence, demolition and replacement have become normalized. Yet the act of razing a structure long before its materials reach the end of their lifespan results in immense waste and erases the evolving relationships between site, community, and built form. Such practices are no longer tenable, particularly within the escalating volatility of a changing climate. Rather than conceiving resilience as brute longevity, this thesis presents an alternative mode of design, reframing resilience as an ability to transform: fostering a relationship between environment, community, and time. To do so requires understanding a site not as a static set of existing conditions but as a continuum: what is present, what could occur, and what is anticipated to come. By projecting potential future states of a site, designers can shape buildings that will not only withstand environmental change but will age into forms that remain functional, beneficial, and embedded within their ecosystems. Structures should not be considered complete at the moment of construction; like a living organism, they move through stages of performance, decline, adaptation, and reintegration. Designing for these stages from the outset creates new opportunities for community use, environmental reciprocity, and stewardship. This thesis outlines a design philosophy that anticipates deterioration, harnessing weather events as a generative force and deliberately shaping the spatial and formal conditions that emerge as structures age. By designing for initial, future, and indeterminate states, buildings can remain valuable beyond their prime without requiring total demolition or contributing to cycles of carbon-intensive reconstruction. Thus, ruin is not an end but a segue: marking a new phase of use rather than the end of one. Time becomes the activator for architecture to reach a dynamic state, not just in function, but in form. Nowhere is this reframing more critical than along the coast. Rising seas, frequent flooding, and increasingly destructive storms continuously force communities into cycles of rebuilding, each reconstruction compounding the environmental pressures that necessitated rebuilding in the first place. Structures are asked to endure forces that shift faster than traditional design life cycles can accommodate, resulting in a cycle of perpetual replacement. This thesis applies its methodology and design philosophy to a riverside performing arts complex in New Orleans, a city shaped by water, subsidence, and the long temporal arc of environmental precarity. By anticipating material decay and channeling environmental forces into intentional spatial transformations, this thesis demonstrates how structures can remain functional beyond their prime, reframing deterioration as a productive phase rather than a terminal one and offering a model for resilience that endures time through transformation. Structures can be defined not by what they lose, but by what remains.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
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