ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the work of the Boston Architectural College (BAC) Huxtable Fellows. As a competitive and selective program, the fellowship promotes design leadership, civic engagement, and service learning across design disciplines. The fellowship reinforces the BAC’s commitment to applied learning in the field and underscores the utility of design as a tool for community-based collaboration and advocacy. The Huxtable Fellows worked in partnership with residents of East Boston and the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing to identify the challenges and opportunities for community-supported resiliency planning related to climate change and sea level rise. Through quantitative geospatial research and qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, the fellows worked collaboratively to communicate the specific consequences of sea level rise in East Boston, to design materials that demystify climate change, and to develop strategies for addressing these complexities at the scale of the home, the street, and the community. Through participatory fieldwork and trust-based relationships, the Huxtable Fellows have situated the role of the designer as facilitator, mediator, advocate, and leader.
