ABSTRACT
The precise definition of how design teaching focused on the climate emergency may be defined remains an evolving area of deliberation. The following chapter is a reflection on a series of design studios aimed at defining new models for urbanization. These courses were structured using water-based disruptions brought about by climate change as its main considerations and determinants. It offers a reflection on how design teaching engaged with the fluid context of unstable waters may be structured and delivered.
The emphasis in this assessment, is on how pedagogical and practice lineages were reconsidered for the construction of design courses to conceptualize architectural and urban design’s creative engagement with climate concerns. An acknowledgement of the transposition of antecedent approaches, afforded a reflection on how these lineages may be extended and made more specific to the new climate contexts. Informing these courses was an investment in bridging some of the more applicable precedent models of design practice and teaching into the climate change arena, understanding that the definition of new pedagogy can benefit from evolution rather than radical invention. A reflection on the nature of the urbanism and architecture associated with the design outcomes of these courses is also outlined here. A consideration of the effects of this pedagogical and conceptual framing of the creative process is intended to offer an evaluation of the associated design tendencies, emphases and sensibilities that are emergent from this realignment of design teaching.
Unstable Waters outlines the conceptual frameworks which helped to direct these earlier modes of creative practice towards pedagogical experiments that inform a more deliberate dialogue with the challenges of the hydrosphere. Transformations of earlier practices through the lens of climate change is outlined here to provide a reflection on how teaching about climate change may be broadened from existing lineages. It interrogates the course outcomes to explore how teaching in unstable waters may go beyond technical competence and to be able to operate as practitioners who are proactive in their engagements. This chapter explores the outcomes of these courses and outlines how they were deliberately organized to explore issues that have the potential to be transformative for our disciplines and professions.
