In September 2019, a group of students and faculty from the Boston Architectural College studio “Resiliency Designing for Change”—led by Arlen Stawasz and Tyler Hinkley of Perkins + Will and Rob Adams of Halvorson—visited The Netherlands to explore resilient strategies and understand how the country is living with water.
Through a partnership with the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, students and faculty were given an opportunity to interview local climate adaptation design professionals and tour several important resiliency projects designed to address the effects of climate change as well as the socioeconomic needs of the community.
While there, the students were tasked with developing a concept for dealing with a hypothetical 20 feet of sea level rise by 2200, which some climate experts believe is a distinct possibility. Designs needed to incorporate a “BOTH/AND” response, in that they must “BOTH solve the challenges of climate change, AND enhance the communities they serve working effectively in a homeostatic fashion.”
Learn more about the trip and some of the projects visited by the studio via the BAC and Archinect, and read Arlen Stawasz’s article about the lessons learned in “Giving Water Free Reign” written for the issue SHARE of ArchitectureBoston.
