The unit offers a range of thematic, experimental and applied approaches, which establish a robust framework for developing creative practices across the College in relation to knowledge sharing / exchange and our wider social purpose(s).
The unit explores how relational and networked-based practices can create positive impact, based on a shared concern for a specific place or community of humans and non-humans, to create common and shared well-being.
Special thanks to MA Cities, Diana Ibanez Lopez, and Juliana Ribeiro Muniz Westcott for leading this multi-year research and for inviting MARD and MACC into the collaboration.
This February we launched our collaborative unit between MA Communicating Complexity, MA Regenerative Design, and MA Cities to explore urban resilience in Recife—Brazil’s most climate-vulnerable city. This collaboration offers an opportunity for interdisciplinary learning, allowing us to engage with the world within a shared context. From this position, we exchange, challenge, and expand our capacity for learning, seeing, and making.
Students are working in collaborative remote ‘research offices’ while individually exploring the role of mapping methods in enabling new ways of synthesising information, exposing gaps, and identifying opportunities for climate resilience efforts in Recife. Each ‘research office’ will investigate project challenges while working as ‘remote co-researchers’ alongside Recife-based specialists.
Recife, Brazil’s most climate-vulnerable city, faces severe flooding challenges due to its geographic location and increasing torrential storms. A devastating flood in 2022 affected 100,000 people and claimed 130 lives. In response, the city is focusing on nature-based and social-infrastructural solutions to mitigate climate impacts. MAC’s main institutional partner, ARIES, plays a key role in supporting the city’s long-term resilience plan. While major resilience projects are already being implemented, this collaboration seeks to introduce new ways of thinking and problem-solving through the set of challenges for our students.
Updates on the project will follow
This project will finish in spring 2025