As oceans expand and storms intensify, coastal regions face a rising threat: water. Whether due to deluging downpours or surging seas, flooding has increased in frequency for shore communities. Throughout the past two decades, landscape architects and urbanists associated with the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) have explored ways in which oceanfront regions can […]

In the Attica region of Greece this August, says Bas Smets, wildfires ripped through forests left parched by record-hot temperatures, with heat waves starting June 12, earlier than ever before. “They had to close the Acropolis,” he said, “which is the most visited tourist attraction in Athens.” By the end of the summer, the fires […]

In 2022 and 2023, Monterrey, Mexico’s second largest city, experienced a critical shortage of water and, like Cape Town in 2018, was close to a Day Zero of water provision. The emergency made international headlines , as the state government rationed water for many of the city’s five million residents. While struggling at times to […]

By the early 1900s, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had emerged as an industrial powerhouse, due in large part to its prodigious steel production. More than a century later, the city has refashioned itself as a center for innovation. It is thus fitting that Jeremy Ficca, MArch II ’00, an associate professor and incoming Associate Head of Design […]