Symposium: Water Cycles – COP28 Design Conversations
How can artistic and design practices contribute to the maintenance or rejuvenation of healthy water cycles? How can community-driven and collaborative design offer solutions to urgent hydrological issues caused by climate change?
This symposium gathered experts from the fields of architecture, social practice, and the arts to discuss how practices centered on design and the arts can influence the understanding and health of water cycles in various regions. In line with the COP28's designation of December 9, 2023, as Nature, Land Use, and Oceans Day, this event at the Jameel Arts Centre featured speakers from the Netherlands, India, Kuwait, and Bahrain. It explored grassroots regenerative strategies to address the hydrological effects of the climate crisis. spacefourt and other speakers were involved in rethinking and redesigning frameworks and teaching methods that encourage community-led actions and the co-creation of new visions of water.
Viewing water as a commons that extends beyond human ownership, the presentations and panel discussion will focus on four main questions:
How are designers, architects, planners, and artists combining design research capabilities and locally based adaptation methods to create human habitats centered on the water cycle?
How can this be achieved in a way that empowers local communities and civil society, particularly in regions affected by water-related disasters?
How can the long-term involvement of communities and governance partners be ensured, thereby influencing socially responsible governance, policies, and related resources?
What types of policies and city plans facilitate an approach focused on restoring the hydrologic cycle? What are the opportunities for citizen involvement and public discussion?
The speakers included Professor Dr. Carola Hein and Architect John Hanna from Delft University of Technology; researchers Ain Contractor from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and Anjali from Yugma Collective; and artist Aziz Motawa from Akkaz Collective.
