HWKN Architects of New York say they have created a skyscraper that is resilient in the face of climate change and ready to “occupy the wetter world of the future.” The Skygrove vertical office park was designed to respond to rising water levels in the same way that mangrove trees respond to periods of high tide.

Mangroves, which grow in the tropics and subtropics, develop complex root systems that branch out over an unstable and constantly flooded landscape. They are resilient in the face of disaster, holding up in the face of flooding, drought, high winds and heat.

In a similar way, the Skygrove high-rise distributes its weight over a series of points instead of a single foundation, according to renderings featured on a couple of architecture sites. Each floor of Skygrove is self-sufficient, designed to survive even the worst of disasters. The building’s floors are connected  via a compartmentalized infrastructural façade that contains all the services necessary to sustain basic survival for its occupants, including vertical circulation, plumbing, electrical lines and air supply, according to eVolo. This arrangement provides lateral support for the building while creating some interesting formal and programmatic relationships.

The designers hope that a series of mangrove-type buildings would also serve to protect buildings further inland, in the same way that mangroves protect neighboring trees.