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 

Dissemination:

Research featured in book "Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture," Applied Research + Design Publishing, 2023

The Hidden River, 2024 (video feature)

Exhibited in Berlin (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Chicago (Co-Prosperity), Columbus, Indiana (Exhibit Columbus 2020-2021), Minneapolis (Q'arma Gallery) and St. Louis (Des Lee Gallery, The Luminary auction, G-CADD, Historic Lemp Brewery)

Published in Archinect, Landscape Architecture Magazine, WashU The Source, 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)

The Common Reader, Jeannette Cooperman, 2024 (book review)

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

MAS Context book excerpt preview, 2022

MAS Context lecture, 2023 (with Virginia Hanusik)

MAS Context, Chicago, 2023 (book event, moderated by Kotchakorm Voraakhom)

Engineering with Nature podcast part 01, 2022 (with Kotchakorn Voraakhom)

Engineering with Nature podcast part 02, 2023 (with Kotchakorn Voraakhom)

Pulitzer Arts Foundation "Your Mississippi" tour, St. Louis, 2019

Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 2022 (panel moderator)

Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 2023 (book launch)

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) annual conference presentation, St. Louis, 2023

American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) national conference, Minneapolis, 2023 (book signing)

Council of Educators of Landscape Architecture (CELA) annual conference presentation, St. Louis, 2024

Ladue Chapel Continuing Education series, Ladue, MO, 2023

University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design lecture, 2024

National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Architecture lecture, 2024

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Practice Research Symposium (PRS) keynote, Ho Chi Minh City, 2024

Funding:

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

Haus der Kulteren der Welt

Landmark Columbus Foundation

[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)