Humanity faces an urgent challenge to redesign our communities, including buildings, neighbourhoods, parks and infrastructure, to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. How can we develop novel responses situated within the here and now, that anticipate and reinforce viable mid-term and long-term strategic outcomes?
Two projects I have worked on recently might provide some insight. The first was developed through Yale University’s Urban Ecology and Design Laboratory (UEDLAB), working with my former PhD student Timothy Terway as part of the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Framework for Coastal Resilience. The Nature Conservancy was the client and the project worked across towns in Connecticut, including Stratford. The second example is the Design with Country studio which I co-taught in 2021 with Jefa Greenaway (Wailwan/Kamilaroi) and Kirstine Wallis (Palawa), two Indigenous staff at the University of Melbourne. Both these examples, in which long-term landscape vision around climate adaptation informed near-term design proposals, could encourage and inspire Australian landscape architects. These approaches can also build on Indigenous perspectives that foreground generational thinking. In both instances, the use of temporal diagrams in planning and communicating to decision-makers supported a deeper
