Applied Resilience by Design

Catalog description

Resiliency has captured the imagination of designers, advocates, and scientists as a way to resolve the challenging shocks and stressors of increasing environmental risk. This course will explore approaches to increase the adaptive capacity of the built environment, particularly in relation to climatic risks, the potential compromises inherent in designing change, and ways to productively communicate, learn, and coordinate with a broad range of stakeholders. The focus will primarily be in United States, both in exploring physical challenges as well as developing an understanding of the complex interrelationship of federal policies programs and changes in the built environment. As climate resiliency requires an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental risk, we will explore levers of design intervention in buildings, infrastructure, and natural systems. This includes multi-hazard risk assessment and the potential means of responding to risk in spatial, infrastructural and policy projects at a variety of scales. While developing an understanding of evolving environmental risk, students will gain an understand of the interrelationships between natural systems, infrastructure, racial and social equity, and public policy. Students will evaluate and then develop their own adaptation interventions in policy civil engineering, landscape urbanism and planning, or architecture projects.This course is appropriate for future sustainability practitioners, planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, and students of public policy.