LIVING ON THE EDGE

Abstract

Historic fishing towns have long anchored regional and national fisheries, shaping cultural identity while sustaining vital coastal economies. Today, however, these communities face converging pressures: accelerating sea-level rise, recurrent high-tide flooding, aging and unaffordable housing stock, and the economic precarity of small-scale fisheries. Studies show that fishing-dependent communities experience higher impacts from climate change than any other coastal communities in the United States, due to their geographic exposure, economic dependence on vulnerable marine ecosystems, and limited adaptive capacity. These forces endanger not only the physical fabric of coastal towns but also the continuity of fishing-dependent livelihoods and the cultural knowledge embedded in waterfront landscapes. This thesis argues that historic fishing communities are not simply “living on the edge,” but inhabiting strategically vital thresholds where culture, economy, and geography converge. Their resilience depends not on withdrawal from coastal conditions but on reimagining how architecture can mediate between environmental uncertainty and cultural continuity.