Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture

Principal Investigator:

Derek Hoeferlin

[A+A] Team:

Derek Hoeferlin (lead), Jess Vanecek & Paul Wu (primary research assistants), Chenyu Zhang, Wendy Stradley, Caroline Amstutz

[S+S] Team:

Derek Hoeferlin (design lead), Jess Vanecek (primary design assistant), Rob Birch, L. Irene Compadre, Allison Mendez, Han Meyer, Jonathan Stitelman, Paul Wu

[C+C] Team:

Derek Hoeferlin (lead facilitator)

Collaborators: Washington University in St. Louis Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts seminars, studios, students, and research assistants (Nathan Stanfield, Joel Leon, Qingshan Hu, Lindsey Compeaux, Weicong Huang), Big Muddy Adventures, Exhibit Columbus (Iker Gil & Mimi Zeiger, co-curators), Angie Tillges, Monique Verdin, Paul Wu, Haus der Kultern der Welt "Mississippi: An Athropocene River Project" St. Louis field station, Continental Cement Company, Public Lab, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District, "Art + Landscape STL" exhibition at GCADD (Gavin Kroeber, curator), among others

Recognition:

Research featured in forthcoming book "Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture," Applied Research + Design Publishers, 2022

Exhibited in Berlin, Chicago, Columbus (Indiana), Minneapolis and St. Louis

Published in Archinect, among other media outlets

HKW "Mapping Invisibilities" interview featuring Derek Hoeferlin and Monique Verdin

HKW "Mississippi: An Anthropocene River" video (Hoeferlin minute 00:40-01:22)

Speculative Infrastructure presentation, Chicago Humanities Festival, 2021

Great River Passage Conservancy presentation, St. Paul, 2020

Missouri Historical Society presentation, St. Louis, 2020

University of Texas San Antonio School of Architecture lecture, 2019

Funding:

Washington University in St. Louis: International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (InCEES) Grant, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Creative Activity Research Grants

Haus der Kulteren der Welt

[dhd]

Project Description:

Way 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. While much of the current research into these river systems prioritizes their delta regions, this research challenges us to look far "upstream," across entire river basins and across multiple scales within comparative contexts. The research proposes a simple, adaptive framework that utilizes 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 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 Hoeferlin'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.

For more detailed & archived information:

www.waybeyondbigness.com (website by Andy Lee, animations by Lex Agnew, photography and video by Hoeferlin, student work by Washington University in St. Louis)