Genoa Ascendant: The Sopraelevata as a Net-Positive Resilience Machine (2026–2100) How can a decommissioned, six-kilometer elevated highway—a "concrete ribbon" that once severed a city from its harbor—be transformed into a beacon of climate adaptation? This book documents the radical reimagining of Genoa’s waterfront by the Spring 2026 FIU World Centre Graduate Design Studio. By synthesizing historical urban trauma with aggressive climate strategies, these visionary projects propose the "Vertical Metabolism": a new architectural paradigm where buildings function as living organisms that breathe, adapt, and generate more energy than they consume. From subaquatic engineering and AI-driven workflows to carbon-positive "Resilience Machines" capable of surviving a 16-meter storm surge, this work explores the threshold where urban infrastructure meets the cosmic and the biological. Spanning a timeline from today to 2100, Genoa Ascendant is a definitive blueprint for the rebirth of the Mediterranean City-Port in an era of environmental crisis.
