In an effort to promote resilience for the Sandy-affected region, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan has launched a multi-stage regional design competition that is intended to attract world-class talent, promote innovation and develop projects that will actually be built. Dubbed Rebuild by Design, the competition will accumulate a variety of design solutions, ranging in scope and scale, for review. Once the best ideas are identified, HUD will incentivize their implementation using funds made available through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program as well as other public and private funds to actually build the project.
“As globalization, urbanization, and climate change converge, shocks such as Hurricane Sandy will only increase in frequency, scale and impact,” said Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation. “As a result, we must come together to design around these problems to build greater resilience within our cities. Rebuild by Design gives us the dynamic opportunity to uncover the innovative collaboration and connections that will allow us to strengthen our resilience as a city, a region, and a nation.”
Rebuild by Design will center on four focus areas: coastal communities, high-density urban environments, ecological networks and a fourth category that will include other innovative questions and proposals.
The competition will have a region-wide focus to help provide solutions to problems that are larger or more complex than individual towns have the capacity to solve themselves. The regional focus will also help provide a better understanding of the many interconnected systems (infrastructure, ecological, climate, economic and others) in the Sandy-affected region. Design teams will start with regional analyses to understand major vulnerabilities and then, through the collaborative design process begin to focus on local implementation and key projects for improving the region’s resilience.
The Rockefeller Foundation is the lead funding partner for Rebuild by Design and will provide support for the analysis and design process. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will serve as a special partner that provides critical expertise in the shaping and launching of the competition.
More information on the competition here.
News via HUD
