Lecture

Energy Futures: Tools for Designers in Changing Climates and Uncertain Futures

Thursday March 14, 2024 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Room B3, Meyerson Hall
210 South 34th Street
Philadelphia , PA 19104

How does one design buildings, cities, and landscapes in increasingly uncertain times? Jamie Vanucchi, associate professor at Cornell University in the Department of Landscape Architecture, will discuss approaches to managing the unknown (engineering, science) and working with and through uncertainty (design) using an array of tools, such as scenario and disturbance tests, future imaging, and others. Tools discussed are compiled from Jamie's teaching at Cornell and SUNY-ESF, and from a group of contributors to an upcoming book titled Design Research for Uncertain Futures (ORO, 2024), co-edited with Dr. Ozayr Saloojee and Dr. Sarah Dooling.

Speakers

Jamie Vanucchi

Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture

Cornell University

Jamie Vanucchi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Cornell University whose teaching and research test the capacity of design and design research to address our most pressing 21st-century problems. She is interested in “strong sites”, landscapes driven by change in the form of powerful constructive and destructive processes, and design that intentionally intersects with those processes and unfolds in time. Current projects include the study of floodplains as unique, disturbance-driven landscapes and potential community assets, designed forests for climate mitigation, and framing design research as a distinct mode of knowledge production that is complementary to science and especially needed now due to the novelty and uncertainty of climate-changed futures. Her research is funded by the Graham Foundation, NIFA, Cornell’s Atkinson’s Center for Sustainability, The Landscape Architecture Foundation, and Cornell Council of the Arts. Jamie is a partner with the Great Lakes Design Labs and LoDo Lab at CU Denver.