It happened in 2007, but I still remember it vividly. It had been raining nonstop for days. Tropical Storm Noel had struck with unexpected force and, in a matter of hours, turned many residential areas of the city into islands isolated by water. The news was full of reports of emergencies, but the most shocking thing wasn't on television. It was on people's faces: families trapped on second floors, transformers knocked out, staircases collapsed, streets swallowed by mud.
When I returned to my office a few days later, a client called me from one of his recently completed projects. "There was no electricity, no way out, even the underground parking garage was flooded," he told me. And then, with a mixture of frustration and anguish: "This can't happen again."
That's when I understood that something had to change. That in the Caribbean, architecture could no longer be conceived solely in terms of sunny weather.
Tropical Storm Noel left more than 70 dead in the country and thousands of homes damaged. But it also taught a lesson: buildings are not designed to withstand the climate realities we are already experiencing. And while we have made progress in aesthetics, densification, and cost efficiency, we have been slow to integrate real resilience into housing design.
Today, the challenge of multifamily housing in the Caribbean is more complex. The threat doesn't come only from the wind. It comes from water, extreme heat, disruption of basic services, and urban fragility. Our projects must stop focusing solely on appearance and begin to address how they function when everything else fails .
A resilient home isn't just stronger: it's smarter.
It's a home that considers ventilation when there's no power. That allows for movement even when there's water in the streets. That maintains thermal comfort with or without air conditioning. That incorporates common areas as support hubs during emergencies. That not only protects, but also cares.
From a technical point of view, this implies transforming our practices:
- Read the microclimate accurately: orientation, natural ventilation and active shade areas.
- Work with materials that have low thermal transmittance and good resistance to moisture.
- Include rainwater harvesting systems, emergency storage, and more efficient stormwater drainage.
- Elevate transformers, technical areas, and essential systems out of the risk level.
- Design safe and naturally lit vertical cores, hybrid zones for multiple uses and community spaces that serve in times of crisis.
This type of design not only makes social sense, but also financial sense.
According to the Global Resilience Index Initiative , developments that integrate resilience strategies increase their value by 7% to 12%, reduce vacancy rates after climate events, and significantly lower insurance costs. Investing in resilience is not an additional expense; it's a strategic decision.
But above all, it's a human decision. Because nothing inspires more confidence in a client, an investor, or a family than knowing that their home will withstand—and respond to—when the environment becomes hostile. That this building wasn't just designed for sale, but for real life.
The Caribbean's multifamily future must be more than just a collection of units. It must be a living platform capable of adapting, protecting, and sustaining. And to achieve this, we need to design with more data, yes. But also with more memory, more empathy, and more vision.
Noel spoke to us almost 20 years ago. Today, the weather continues to speak. The question is, will we listen this time?.
