Designing hydro-logical community resilience

Traditionally, infrastructure, ecology, and architecture in a city have existed in separate systems, jurisdictions, disciplines and scales. Our architectural design perspective will offer an innovative opportunity to expose the interconnectedness of these parts within the Lents and Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhoods to examine where current efforts are falling short in providing a holistic solution for floodwater risk, health, displacement, and economic prosperity within a historically disadvantaged community. The project, currently in the conceptual design stage, begins with an urban design framework addressing watershed-scale concerns with interventions for storing, evaporating, and infiltrating water to restore natural hydrological systems and reduce flood impact while promoting community wellbeing. With this awareness, the architectural intervention consists of an industrial building where captured floodwater becomes a resource for production processes which will use, store, and clean water. Following the Danish Industrial Symbiosis model, the building will include additional public and private uses to encourage the sharing of “waste” resources in the form of water, heat and materials to improve ecological health, business creation, and community place-making. Our partners in this project represent a range of disciplines in the private and public sector including hydrology, engineering, economics and art to recognize the importance of collaboration in producing urban hydrological designs that can encompass economic, political, ecological, and social challenges. The objective of this project has attracted the attention of various organizations and I believe that it will inspire questions and thoughts among the audience interested in diverse approaches for addressing ecological and human health in Portland