Displacements: Water

Please join us for a special AIA New York Global Dialogues conversation hosted jointly with the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning Urban Design Program and ASLA – NY, examining the role of water in the future design of global cities including Rio de Janeiro, Kolkata, Amman, Accra, and New York.

Water in its scarcity, abundance, and quality is becoming an increasingly powerful force in determining the health and viability of global cities, challenging their infrastructure and influencing the future shape of social life and built form. While in New York centralized infrastructural adaptations have begun to address storm surge and reliable sources of drinking water, other cities internationally face hydrological extremes with comparatively fewer resources and a need for bottom-up and localized solutions. For example, Kolkata in eastern India faces flooding during monsoon seasons and sea level rise, while Amman, Jordan is confronted by drought and dependency. These two cities, the sites of the Columbia GSAPP Urban Design program’s current studio investigations, are discussed alongside other global cities to reveal potential of a socially and ecologically driven approach to climate adaptation.

Speakers:
DK Osseo-Asare, Founding Principal, Low Design Office; TEDGlobal Fellow and Co-founder, DSGN AGNC 
Dilip da Cunha, Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Co-author, Design in the Terrain of Water
Guilherme Lassance, Associate Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Nora Akawi, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Director, Studio-X Amman 
Geeta Mehta, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Moderator: Kate Orff, Associate Professor and Director, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Urban Design Program; Founder, SCAPE; Author, Petrochemical America