GLDL CHARRETTE: WATER IN FLUX
WATER IN FLUX
Collaborators: ASLA (University of Minnesota student chapter), Planning Student Association
Panelists: Dan Milz, Anita Anderson, Vincent deBritto
Moderator: Karen Lutsky
This workshop brought together students and practitioners from disciplines such as landscape architecture, public health, and urban planning to explore the past, present, and possible futures of water in an interdisciplinary context. The workshop began with a panel discussion which discussed some of the health, policy, and landscape implications of precedent studies, then followed with a design charrette that focused on collage as a medium to communicate the variability and fluctuation of both scenario and scale in the variety of different water futures discussed during the panel.
The images above and below are the result of the interdisciplinary charrette, Water In Flux on November 9, 2018. Drawing from disciplines such as landscape architecture, urban planning, public health and engineering, participants met for a panel discussion followed by a design charrette. During the charrette, attendees used collage to communicate their relationships to water, as well as what inspires hope or fear in water scenarios of the past, present or future.
All work was produced by charette participants:
Sydney Shea, David Hedding, Mary Collins, Will Metcalf, Brett Stolpestad, Marla Brown, Sean Cochran
What Is Your Relationship to Water?
Consumer User // Enjoyer // Like to play in it // Made up of 80% of it // Consume and use for nearly everything // Recreation //
Not reciprocal // I need it to live // Absorbs my stress and guides me in balance // Hunting and fishing // Healer // Tool // Cleaner // Calming // Quencher // Life force //
What are ways of thinking about water that scare you?
It will run out // Pollution and Water // Rate of non-sustainable use // Scarcity // Waste // Water as a scarce resource // Thinking about water ONLY as a resource // Water is viewed only as a commodity and not as a human right // People who don’t have access to clean water have the least power // Drought // Contamination or dirty water // The water quality of the Mississippi river locally //
Industry threatening water sources for capital gain // Able to be bought and sold to the highest bidder // Who controls water, privatization of water // When industry and private yards pollute it without awareness of the consequences
What are ways of thinking about water that inspire you?
Vast // Plentiful // Changing ideas and methods to help protect waterways // Protection // Talking and fight for water // We have to start somewhere // People know how to protect it // Designing systems with water that promote health, quality, and ecological diversity // Fishing and enjoying bodies of water recreationally // River restoration // Water as a relation, water as mother, sister, brother, father // Standing Rock resistance // Recognition
The charrette highlighted the ability of collage to combine both themes and scales in order to communicate new and existing relationships. Above, that same principle is used once more to investigate possible interpretations of participants' work, and to visualize the relationships, fears and and inspirations associated with water.