Envision Resilience: Designs for Living in a Changing Climate

SPACE is honored to host the third of a multi-month series of exhibitions of adaptive proposals for Portland and South Portland.

Curated by local artist Brian Smith, the exhibition features innovative architectural and landscape designs by student teams in the Envision Resilience Challenge—now in its fourth year—that emphasize nature-based solutions to sea level rise like living shorelines and green stormwater infrastructure, address challenges like housing through materiality and circular economies and reimagine infrastructure and transportation systems in a low-carbon future.

The Envision Resilience Challenge is a multi-university design studio and community engagement initiative developed by Remain, connecting interdisciplinary student teams with coastal communities to envision creative pathways forward in the face of climate change. Remain is part of the philanthropic organizations and initiatives created and funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to work toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.

With eight participating universities, the Envision Resilience Portland and South Portland Challenge brought together graduate and undergraduate students in urban planning, architecture, environmental justice and landscape architecture to connect with community stakeholders for an iterative process of researching, developing and proposing adaptive solutions for vulnerable sites along the cities’ coastlines. Participating institutions were Cornell University, Harvard University, the University at Buffalo, the University of Maine at Augusta, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, Yale University and the program’s first international partner, the University of Toronto. Over five months, students immersed themselves in the culture, values and history of Portland, South Portland and the Casco Bay Island communities, developing innovative designs that addressed challenges such as affordable housing, sea level rise, transportation, urban heat, equity, local industry and ecology.  

The Envision Resilience: Designs for Living in a Changing Climate exhibition is open now at the Portland Public Library’s Community Gallery through March 15.

Cover image: A design by Charlotte Devine of the University of Virginia, depicting Portland, Maine in a hypothetical future projection.