National Academies Funds Interdisciplinary Design for the Gulf Coast

The funding supports classes in landscape architecture, biosystems engineering, natural resources management, graphic design and architecture. Students in these courses work collaboratively with one another, learn about how their disciplines intersect with the issues faced by communities on the coast of Alabama and other Gulf states and work with Gulf community partners to address those coastal issues through design research.

Speaking about the award, Holmes said, “issues like storm risk, habitat loss and public access to coastal landscapes matter tremendously to communities on the Gulf Coast. This award is part of a tremendous investment by the Gulf Research Program in the idea that design has an important role to play alongside science and engineering in addressing these issues. We’re excited to be able to model that role with our students.”

This award will build on two pilot years of the project, in which Gulf Adaptation Design Studio students worked with The Nature Conservancy, the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the City of Orange Beach on projects in Grand Bay and Perdido Bay. Graphic design students and faculty were recognized with awards at the Biodesign Challenge Summit for their work on the pilot project in 2022-2023. The new round of grant funding will allow the team to deepen connections between participating courses, create a new interdisciplinary seminar course and provide direct benefits to coastal community partners by allowing for more sustained community engagement.

The Gulf Adaptation Design Studio team includes Rob Holmes (landscape architecture), Christopher Anderson (coastal resources management), Anna Linhoss (biosystems engineering), Devon Ward (graphic design), Isaac Cohen (landscape architecture), Aurélie Frolet (architecture) and Daniel Meyer (LIDL).