Co-Designing with Beavers
At the GSD, faculty and students are rethinking how to address climate change by designing interventions that work with natural processes.
To improve wetland health and biodiversity, Karen Lee Bar-Sinai, assistant professor of landscape architecture, and Jordan Kennedy, a former research fellow, have enlisted an unexpected partner: the beaver. With strategically placed cuts in the landscape, Bar-Sinai and Kennedy encourage beavers to engage in their innate excavating behaviors, creating dams, canals, and ponds that enhance water quality, reshape hydrology, and support a range of wildlife, from birds to bears.
This research lays the groundwork for future interventions—including, potentially, the design and fabrication of a robotic device that mimics beaver behavior and extends the impact of these strategies beyond what living beavers alone can achieve. Together, these investigations represent a bold approach to landscape architecture—one in which humans learn from and collaborate with other species to help heal the planet.
This research was conducted in partnership with the Beaver Institute and made possible by the Center for Green Buildings and Cities Research Grant, GSD Faculty Research Grant, LUMA Foundation Research Grant, and the GSD Brown-McCann Award.
