Rising seas, stronger storms: How Florida is rethinking its coastal cities

As rising seas, storm surges and extreme weather put increasing pressure on coastal communities in the United States, Florida is turning to climate-resilient architecture and urban design to protect homes, public spaces and infrastructure.Across the state, architects and designers are combining buildings with flood-management systems, natural habitats and heat-mitigation measures, seeking to make coastal development better equipped for worsening climate risks.For landscape architect and Florida Atlantic University professor Jeffrey Huber, the urgency is personal. He was 12 when Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992 and tore the roof from his childhood home.“One day there was a roof. The next morning it was gone,” Huber recalled, while speaking to news agency AP, describing how first responders struggled to reach affected communities, families relied on food donations and his own family lived in a trailer for more than a year.“It wasn’t just about the storm itself, but it was about the aftermath of that storm and how we begin to design for those aspects,” he told AP. “We are seeing extreme storms, extreme scenarios like this that are becoming much more common.”With nearly 40 per cent of the US population living in coastal counties, the challenge extends well beyond Florida. In Miami, Huber said communities increasingly face tidal flooding, storm surge and long-term sea level rise.“So the question isn’t about how we stop water, but it’s how we live on, with and over it,” he said.One example is the development of “living seawalls” by Miami-based Kind Designs. Founder Anya Freeman left her legal career in 2024 after repeatedly dealing with flooding in Miami Beach.“But nobody was doing anything practical about it,” she said.The company's 3D-printed seawalls are designed to protect shorelines while creating marine habitats. Freeman said the structures can dissipate at least 45 per cent of wave energy and can be customised to mimic features such as mangrove roots and barnacle clusters.Climate-resilient construction is also being applied to housing. Miami Beach's 119-unit Vista Breeze affordable senior housing project is elevated 10 feet above sea level and designed to withstand storm surges of up to 20 feet.“They’re some of the most simple, easy steps and they don’t cost that much,” Huber, the project's principal architect, said. “But they’re going to make our buildings more resilient starting up front.”In US' Fort Lauderdale, DC Alexander Park has been designed to serve as both public space and flood infrastructure. A native maritime forest around the park helps absorb rainfall and saltwater flooding while providing habitat and recreational space.At the University of Miami’s Center for Urban and Community Design, director Thomas Klein is working on ways to make such resilience measures more accessible to lower-income communities.“In 2026, is it acceptable to just build a road to move cars?” Klein asked. “Or does the road need to also move bicyclists and have a bus rapid transit lane, but also manage stormwater and ameliorate for heat island issues?”The centre is also planning “sponge parks” in South Florida using green infrastructure to absorb rain and manage stormwater.For Huber, Florida is becoming a testing ground for approaches that could be replicated in other coastal cities.“The ideas that we’re working on here... designing for, you know, these extreme scenarios like 5, 9 feet of sea level rise are going to become increasingly relevant to any coastal cities around the world,” he said.