Description
Book SynopsisWay Beyond Bigness is a design-research project that studies the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine river basins, with particular focus on multi-scaled, water-based infrastructural transformation. The book proposes a simple, adaptive framework that utilises a three-part, integrative design-research methodology, structured as: Appreciate + Analyze, Speculate + Synthesize, and Collaborate + Catalyze. To do such,
Way Beyond Bigness realigns watersheds and architecture across multiple: scales (site to river basin), disciplines (ecologists to economists), narratives (hyperbolic to pragmatic), and venues (academic to professional). The research critiques and recasts Oxford Dictionary's two very different definitions for a 'watershed': 1) "An area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas" and 2) "An event or period marking a turning point in a situation in a course of action or state of affairs" and its two very different definitions for 'architecture': 1) "The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings" and 2) "the complex or carefully designed structure of something." The book highlights the author's comprehensive work of over more than a decade, including in depth field research across the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine, along with a diverse body of academic and professional collaborations, ranging from the speculative to the community-based.
Table of ContentsForeword (Margarita Jover) / 8 Acknowledgements / 12 Introduction Bigness, Katrina, Conflict, Hybridity & Audience / 18 Backstory “from Times Beach…” / 32 Definintions Watershed, Architecture & Way Beyond Bigness / 44 Appreciate + Analyze [A+A] / 53 Description (Anthony Acciavatti) / 55 Why the Mississippi, Mekong, & Rhine? / 62 Who Manages the River Basins? / 66 Mississippi, Mekong, and Rhine River Basin Atlas / 84 (with Jess Vanecek, Paul Wu, Chenyu Zhang) Mississippi River Basin & the World / 86 Missouri River Basin / 96 Erasure (Kees Lokman) / 121 Scar (Meghan Kirkwood) / 132 Upper Mississippi, Ohio, & Tennessee River Basins / 144 Reconnection (Chuck Theiling) / 169 Depth (Jesse Vogler) / 183 Between (Jennifer Colten) / 196 Above (with Jess Vanecek) / 199 Lower Mississippi & Arkansas-White-Red River Basins / 202 Splitting (Forbes Lipschitz & Justine Holzman) / 227 Shifting (Alex Kolker) / 239 Mekong River Basin & the World / 250 Development (Dorothy Tang) / 260 Balance (Palakorn Chanbanyong & Simon Krohn) / 344 Adapt (Shelby Elizabeth Doyle) / 355 Monitor (Duong Van Ni) / 366 Rhine River Basin & the World / 378 Transform (Han Meyer) / 388 Revive (Robbert de Koning & Dale Morris) / 451 Speculate + Synthesize [S+S] /469 Context (Ian Caine) / 471 from the Big Six to the Birds Foot / 487 (with Jonathan Stitelman, Allison Méndez, L. Irene Compadre & Chad Fisk) from the Third Pole to the Nine Dragons / 500 (with Jess Vanecek & Rob Birch) from the Rheinquelle to the Leo Hollandicus / 518 (with Jess Vanecek, Paul Wu, & Han Meyer) Collaborate + Catalyze [C+C] / 525 Advocacy (Neeraj Bhatia) / 527 Public Lab River Rat Pack / 539 (with Washington University in St. Louis) Flood—Fight—Fail / 552 Territories—Watersheds—Infrastructures / 557 (with Washington University in St. Louis) Tracing Our Mississippi / 584 (with Washington University in St. Louis) Afterword “...to Quarantine Island” (“Big Muddy” Mike Clark) / 589
