Design

Mar 28, 2013

Soak it Up! Philadelphia Designs Showcase Rain as a Resource

award, Buildings, Design, Ecological Services, Green Infrastructure, Green Solutions, Partnership, Philadelphia, Stormwater, Technology, Watersheds, Webinar 1 Comment

By Ken Hendrickson

Sitting in the auditorium at the Academy of Natural Sciences and watching the presentations of the nine finalists in the Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! design competition, you could feel the excitement in the air. The pecha kucha presentation format gave the evening a rhythm and cadence, but the design teams gave it substance. All of the nine finalist teams had creative ideas and I didn’t envy the judges’ position of having to pick the final three winning teams – but in the end, they did. Throughout the evening as I viewed the design boards, talked to the designers, and watched the presentations, I had the same three thoughts.

My view from the audience at the Soak It Up! Awards

First, stormwater is exciting, or perhaps more accurately, green infrastructure design solutions to urban stormwater are exciting. The design solutions treated stormwater as a resource and made it a visible and important part of each site and, by extension, the city. What is exciting is that not only did these teams provide real, workable, and affordable solutions to addressing one of our most pressing water quality concerns, these designs would also make the city a better place to live and work.

My second thought had to do with collaboration. I was impressed at the level to which these teams had embraced the collaborative approach to design. While the competition did specify that teams needed to include a civil engineer, an architect, and a landscape architect to be eligible, the finalists seemed to take this integrated and collaborative design approach a step further. I couldn’t help but wonder about the process that lead to these designs. What future partnerships, collaborations, and design solutions might be born as a result of this competition?

Which brings me to my final thought about the Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! design competition: that these designs are not just attractive imagery and impressive reports. They represent a shift in the way we view urban stormwater and the solutions we design to control it. Each of these designs has a story and they are stories that everyone with an interest in clean water and livable communities deserves to hear.

In an effort to help make these stories available to all, the G3 Academy (Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns) is partnering with the Community Design Collaborative to host a webcast on April 4^th featuring the design competition winners. The webcast is free and open to anyone. For more information and to register for the webcast, please visit this link.

Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! is a joint effort of the Community Design Collaborative, the Philadelphia Water Department, and EPA to inspire innovation in green stormwater infrastructure. This design competition was the latest product of the partnership between EPA and the City of Philadelphia to advance green infrastructure for urban wet weather pollution control. For additional resources on green infrastructure, visit the EPA green infrastructure website.

How does stormwater affect your community, and how would green infrastructure help? Do the designs from the Philadelphia: Soak It Up! design competition inspire ideas for where you live?

About the Author: Ken Hendrickson has worked at the EPA since 2010 and is the Green Infrastructure staff lead in the Office of State and Watershed Partnerships. Ken has a background in landscape architecture, geology, and watershed management. He enjoys working to empower communities to improve their environment and finding solutions that create more resilient social, environmental, and economic systems. When not in the office, Ken enjoys challenging and rewarding outdoor activities and creative indoor hobbies.

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Aug 30, 2012

Encouraging Design Thinking to Develop Integrated Green Infrastructure Solutions

Buildings, Campus, college, Design, Education, Green Infrastructure, Green Solutions, Land, Philadelphia, Responsible Land Use, Storm Drains, Stormwater, students, Technology, Water Quality, Watersheds, What you can do 1 Comment

By Ken Hendrickson

When you hear the words “design” or “designer”, what comes to mind? The latest couture on the runway? Swiss furniture with names that are hard to pronounce? While you may envision the products of design, I tend to think about design thinking – the process of working through a complex problem. In many cases, I believe the understanding gained during this process is more important than the product or end result. Design can result in beautiful or interesting things, but design thinking can help to integrate multiple disciplines, create positive change and advance our understanding of the world.

We’ve all heard the phrase “thinking outside the box” – to be creative and not use the same old thinking to solve complex problems. Design thinking takes that a step further. It helps to reframe the problem, consider information from several fields and test possible solutions. It’s a perfect vehicle for advancing ideas in new and unexpected ways. This explains the popularity of design competitions as a way to encourage creative thinking around a particular set of environmental problems.

One example is the use of design competitions to explore the possibilities of green infrastructure to address urban stormwater. These green techniques use vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage stormwater close to its source. They also have the potential to provide additional social and environmental benefits. Design competitions are helping to build an interdisciplinary discussion around the potential of green infrastructure – thinking outside the pipe.

Region 3’s Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns (G3) Initiative did a webcast this spring exploring how design competitions can be powerful tools to spur innovation and adoption of green infrastructure communities. View the archived webcast by visiting http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/watersheds.htm#g3academy and clicking “G3 Academy Studio.”

The Community Design Collaborative, Philadelphia Water Department, and EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office are partnering to host Infill Philadelphia: Soak it up!, an exhibition of best practices in green stormwater infrastructure. The goal of the exhibition is to showcase projects that soak up stormwater while creating healthy, engaging, and visually-appealing urban places. Selected entries will be on display at Philadelphia’s Center for Architecture this fall. The exhibition is also a build up to a national design competition.

Design competitions can also engage and educate students. The EPA’s Campus RainWorks Challenge seeks to engage college and university students from multiple disciplines to develop green infrastructure solutions. This design competition is an exciting opportunity for college and university students to be on the cutting edge of a real-world issue and contribute to the discussion. Students must form teams and register to participate. Registration for the competition is open from September 4 to October 5, 2012, and entries will be due on December 14, 2012. Visit the Campus RainWorks website for more information about the competition.

Have you ever thought about designing something to solve a problem? How did your thinking change from when you started designing to when you developed your solution? What kinds of things did you have to consider? How would you design green infrastructure for your neighborhood?

2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the nation’s law for protecting our most irreplaceable resource. Throughout the year, EPA will be highlighting different aspects of the history and successes of the Clean Water Act in reducing pollution in the past 40 years. The month of August will focus on Science and Innovation.