The loved ones who have supported me in chasing my dreams and inspired me to know that we are all capable of building a better tomorrow, today.
To my mom, Teresa, and my dad, Mario, for the constant support of my education and aspirations from day one. You have each instilled life lessons in me to reach for the stars, never give up on my dreams, and if nothing else, to be kind.
To Will, for being my person, my sounding board, and my other half. You inspire me to be a better person and designer each day, and for that I am eternally grateful.
To Amanda, Aynsley, Elizabeth, Lenny, Michelle, Paxtyn, Rachel, Sophie, Trenton, Tricia, and the friends who have spent countless studio hours with me and who have challenged me to be a better visionary and community driven designer, thank you.
Introduction
The First State, The Blue Hen State, The Diamond State, The Small Wonder, “a true microcosm of America”, the lowest-lying state, and an environmental disaster state - all nicknames given to the state of Delaware [21].
As the birthplace of our nation, Delaware has faced climate crisis disasters that have only escalated in the past two decades with the destruction of everything from the state’s coastal communities, to the rural farmlands and the urban hub of Wilmington. It is obvious - the climate crisis will only worsen - but it is up to communities on how they prepare and respond.
Design workshops like Rising Currents: An Incubator for Design and Debate enacted a watershed moment in architectural theory and practice, changing how designers associate themselves as stewards of the Earth. Climatefiction movies and environmental, edutainment precedents, such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, have underlying themes of conservation, sustainability, and environmental ethics, masked with a fantastical and entertaining facade.
Public, play-based design that responds to the environmental context combined with entertaining, educational opportunities can empower Delawareans to recognize that they have the power and ability to utilize sustainable actions in their everyday lives. In a crucial time of need, disaster relief and sustainability “edu-tainment” can transform communities to promote building a better tomorrow, today.
1Context
Wilmington, Delaware is one of the oldest cities in America, dating back to its Swedish colonization in 1638 followed by Dutch, British, and Quaker rule. Under British colonization, Wilmington’s urban plan was developed as a grid-like pattern most similar to Philadelphia, designed by Thomas Willing. Because of its rich geographic location, Wilmington throughout history has had influence due to its proximity to its large trading port and ability to travel upstream to Philadelphia. In 1837, the Industrial Revolution boomed in Wilmington, allowing the Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad to transport goods via water, road, or railroad. Later, World Wars I and II had major influence on modernizing Wilmington to be a city crucial to America’s prosperity, including the city’s development of its gunpowder mills, shipyards, steel foundries, machinery factories, and chemical engineering industry. Finally, in the late 20th century, liberal taxation policy allowed the city the opportunity to become a corporate capital, bringing in banking institutions to incorporate such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Barclaycard, M&T, and WSFS Bank [39].
More recently, Wilmington has come under fire by residents and environmentalists for its poor urban infrastructure in supporting its city community during environmental disasters. Because of its unique geography, the city experiences all four seasons, including dangerous blizzard and ice conditions, disastrous hurricanes, and severe heat and sun exposure, and in addition, was recently voted the second worst city in the Northeast for air pollution [24].
Geographical Context
New York City, NY Philadelphia, PA Wilmington, DE
District of Columbia
A Climate Unleashed
The 200-Year Flood: Tropical Storm Ida
On September 1, 2021, Wilmington, DE was catastrophically hit by the thendowngraded-hurricane Ida. It caused the city to go into a State of Emergency to protect the residents and property of Wilmington. However, Ida rainwater and storm surge was just the beginning of the factors that caused this catastrophic flooding [17]. The unique geographic location of Wilmington situated around Christina River, The Delaware River, Brandywine Creek, and the Atlantic Ocean, brews a perfect storm for flooding and detrimental effects on the urban form. “The floodwaters from Ida happened to hit Wilmington as tidal water from the Atlantic Ocean pushed up the Delaware River, continued into the mouth of the Christina and into the Brandywine” [17]. As a historic city, Wilmington is home to intact 17th century blue rock quarries, however these craters in the urban community cause the quarries to act as a pool, and later, a levy, breaking during a major rain event like Ida.
Local news station, Delaware Online, reported that “residents are in danger similarly to how New Orleans residents were during Hurricane Katrina”. The station interviewed Wilmington resident Joshua Henson, who then reflected on the similarities of New Orleans and Wilmington, as Katrina and Ida, “They popped the hole and put [water] down the Black neighborhoods and killed all them people. And they’re doing the same thing here” [17].
Residents across the city had a severe displacement rate, with many scrambling to find a dry place to reside until the over $100 million in damage remediation efforts could begin [4]. Wilmingtonians were left climbing out of windows to escape the waters, eventually displacing over 200 households, a majority of those in lowincome neighborhoods, who were then left on their own to find relief [5].
Just years before Tropical Storm Ida, Wilmington was exposed to Superstorm Sandy in 2012. This is yet another storm that ripped through the state from the sand dunes of sourthern Delaware to the urban streets of northern Wilmington. Shawn Garvin, the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, reflected, “[we] saw a lot flooding, a lot of breaching of dunes, just general impact mainly more from the water, but what it did was just to underscore the vulnerability we have in our state” [10]. The state of Delaware has small scale pockets of vulnerability to natural disasters, especially in the case study of Wilmington.
Wilmington is no stranger to environmental disaster or severe flooding concerns. “The city of Wilmington has severe risk from flooding. There are 5,582 properties in Wilmington at risk of flooding…This represents 21.5% of all properties in Wilmington,” however this will only increase to be a ¼ of properties within city limits in the next 30 years without environmental action [38].
Because of the increased severity of storms combined with the vulnerability of the coastal city, Wilmington’s marginalized communities face adverse effects of climate disasters and climate change at an increased rate compared to their privileged counterparts - be it because of homelessness, low-income housing, industrial urban corridors, pollutant contamination, or access to transportation and green space.
Usual Occurences
Wilmington’s Flooding Damage Days After Hurricane Ida
A City at Sea Level
With the surrounding Christina and Delaware Rivers and Brandywine Creek, Wilmington has a direct connection to the Atlantic Ocean with high and low tide a constant impact to its rivers and creeks. Flooding continues to be the most common weather hazard in Delaware.
Neighborhoods highlighted in yellow are at a topographic level of 15’ or below, some as low as 4’ above sea level. These areas can expect frequent flooding in the rain season, however they also are housed within the the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 100-year floodplain.
Wilmington, DE Average High and Low Temperatures
Heat Island Compounds Detrimental Disaster Effects
In addition to flooding, Wilmington has a great risk of urban heat island effect, as it experiences extreme temperatures and solar exposure in the summer. “High concentrations of buildings, pavement and other infrastructure made of heatabsorbent material like asphalt, brick and steel can make urban spaces up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than greener spaces and suburbs” [34]. Urban heat islands, while hot transiently during summer months, continue to have severe effects on communities, as heat island infrastructure consumes more energy on cooling, causing a higher concentration of emissions and pollutants [34]
Environmental disasters are not just displacing populations but are causing adverse health effects. University of Delaware reports that, “extreme heat is the number one cause of weather-related death in the United States, making urban heat islands a significant public health concern” [34]. Environmental disasters like flooding, hurricanes, and blizzards, cause a domino effect once infrastructure is damaged: without stable shelter or power, the affected are left without proper heated or cooled areas, without utilities to cook and store food and water, without medical assistance or proper medication, and left with life-threatening conditions to endure. There is a heavy demand on utilities such as water and electricity during disaster, as University of Delaware cites, that can cause mitigation efforts such as controlled blackouts, or even result in citywide power outages [34]. Low income neighborhoods in particular are more likely to be hotter than their wealthier counterparts, and data shows that not only are the affected the poorest of a city, but also tend to be disproportionately people of color [2]. The affected continue to be the most vulnerable, as they are hit with disasters, higher concentrations of pollutants, and severe health effects such as asthma and heart disease [2].
Environmental Justice & Advocacy
Equitable Living Conditions & Historic Public Policy
“‘What happened in Delaware is a highlight of why equity needs to be front of mind when it comes to disaster response, because the people who were disproportionately impacted were folks [who were] extremely socially vulnerable,” [5].
Environmental justice is the equitable treatment of all people in decision making and activities that affect human health and the environment so that all are protected from disproportionate effects of climate change and environmental racism, and all are given equitable access to a sustainable and resilient environment [37].
Many direct effects of environmental injustice correlate to historic redline techniques instituted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and insurance or mortgage loan providers of the early 20th century. The federal roll out of redlining in 1934 impacted the urbanization of the United States, practically denying people who lived in “risk” zones access to a line of credit for a mortgage [32]. The FHA continued to limit the “occupancy of properties except for by the race for which they are intended” causing systemic racism to influence governmental decisionmaking. This left those that were not white or not wealthy to live in areas deemed low risk on an FHA produced map, frequently including polluted, industrialized, unsafe, and environmental disaster zones as the only option for residency [32].
It is no surprise that Wilmington continues to face adverse effects of redlining policies nearly 100 years later. In an interview with Sophie Phillips, Delaware’s District 18 Representative and environmental advocate, she recounts that what urged her to run to be her district’s representative was the gap of environmental justice initiatives in Delaware government and policy. As a graduate of University of Delaware for her undergraduate degree in environmental and marine science and her graduate degree in energy and environmental policy, Phillips continued -
her academic research through tangible community-driven projects, granting all the access to green space and community gardens. Phillips reflected on this lifechanging moment for her, “I already loved the parks, but I wanted to make sure everyone has access to the parks and to green space…not only add green space but usable green space so people could grow their own food” [27]. She wanted her work to continue as long-term solutions for legacy communities in Wilmington, which is the reason she currently works on cumulative impact policy as a State Representative.
As of September of 2024, Delaware passed Senate Bill 237, requiring communities to plan for disaster while addressing climate change through resilient design considerations [8]. “You have to take climate change into consideration and how urban heat island is gonna get worse, and how flooding is gonna get worse… and prior to this [bill], they didn’t really have to think about it, but now because you have to have something related to climate change and sustainability in these plans, it’s something they’re really going to have to start thinking about” Phillips adds about the recent changes to state environmental policy [27]. Without a state or federal mandation of resilient infrastructure through policy, there is a lack of change and even conversation surrounding a more sustainable future.
Federal Housing Administration Redlining Map of Wilmintgon, Delaware, circa 1934
average household income: $26,059
average household income: $46,466 household
Application to Wilmington
The crossroads of socio-economics and environmental disaster zones is evident in Wilmington, whether it be in its roots of historic policy or in the crises residents face today. In analyzing the low-lying, flood zones of the city, there is a direct correlation to those areas being home to households considered low-income. The four neighborhoods above demonstrate their household income is between $26,059 and $46,466, while these neighborhoods also have an overlap to being in the FEMA severe flood zone and on property only 15’0” or less above sea level.
Environmental Justice continues to be a conversation and action item in the United States, as environmental justice only became a part of the governmental decision making process in 1994 with former President Bill Clinton making a call for action. Today, states like Delaware have adopted their own form of cumulative policy surrounding issues such as environmental justice, as state officials listen to legacy communities to understand their needs while uplifting those who have felt silenced in the past.
Southbridge
11th Street Bridge
LOMA East Side
4
Resilient Design
Bouncing Back from Disaster
In Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design, the authors, Pickett, Cadenasso, and McGrath, link theory and architectural practice to promote sustainable cities. They compare urbanization to a great tsunami, “swiftly and powerfully rolling across the land…and unlike a [natural] tsunami, afterward there is no opportunity for rapid reconstruction or restoration of the forests, farms, and waters we also treasure” [33]. There is a blurry line in design where architects are tasked with both promoting and pushing urban design to the limits, while also understanding how urban contexts can coexist and even foster the natural environment without harming the world that came before urbanization. An approach that Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design promotes is “combin[ing] environmental and socioeconomic dimensions equally in the plans and action” to push humanity and the natural environment to the forefront of community and local urban design to foster small-scale change [33].
As the authors continued to study, cities account for 75% of the world’s energy use, 60% of residential water use, 80% of wood used for industrial purposes, and 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions [33]. However, this is not a permanent factor to resource use and emissions, as designers have the ability to create resilient design for urban environments that promote sustainable goals while planning to bounce back from environmental disaster.
Resilient design strategies are objective to the geographical and environmental context of a site, as disasters vary globally. It is the role and motive of a resilient architect to design for people, the environment, and for the context of their project, so that their designs not only have a lasting presence, but have a positive output on nature and human health.
Rising Currents: An Incubator for Design and Debate
In response to more frequent and violent superstorms coupled with sea level rise, designers were tasked in a workshop to respond to the destructive effects of the climate crisis on the New York City waterfront community in 2010 and beyond. A studio of ecologists, architects, and landscape architects came together to produce iterations and visions of what the New York/New Jersey shoreline communities could look like and how they could respond to storm surge and sea level rise.
On the Water: Palisade Bay, Guy Nordenson
One project produced by the Rising Currents team, On the Water: Palisade Bay, attempts to understand the difference between hard and soft infrastructure on the coast line, and how utilizing biodiverse flora instead of manmade seawalls can be of benefit to a city. The team argued that “the waterfront would best be conceived as a dynamic limit moving across a gradient” rather than pushing up against a hard line in section to a seawall [30]. The team then designed three approaches to what they coined “soft infrastructure”:
Reduce the impact of waves + protect estuarine environments with an “archipelago” of built reefs
Flexible zoning formulas that evolve with climate change to increase community welfare
Combination of tidal marshes, public parks, and finger piers for recreation for a softer coastline
Proposed Masterplan: Palisade Bay
Palisade Bay Before and After Designing for Soft Infrastructure
Seen above, the approaches to soft and hard infrastructure have vast differences on the natural environment, built environment, recreation area, and strain on energy and utilities in a city. By modularizing both above and below water elements, the team behind Palisade Bay allowed for small scale change to create a tremendous impact.
Many of the soft infrastructural moments includes approaches that were both dynamic and static, to mimic the ever-changing tides and the constant urban scape. The word Palisade derives from Latin word “palus” meaning, “stake”, as the team designed “stakes” into the surrounding coastal waters, creating shallow flats below the surface of the water. These flats then thickened the edge of the urban scape to gradually blend into the seawater.
The flats also were productive zones along the coast, restoring shoals, oyser beds, artificial reefs, low islands, and stormwater filters in the bay to have a purifying and cleaning effect on the polluted bay.
Masterplan Proposal, Palisade Bay
Working Waterline, Matthew Baird Architects
An additional project produced through Rising Currents includes the coastline remediation and disaster-relief driven efforts of Working Waterline. Matthew Baird’s design group focused on the low-lying and industrialized lands of Bayonne, New Jersey, similar to the conditions familiar to Wilmington, Delaware. The firm described the project as “energy production and industry coexist with recreational opportunties - from kayaking among industrial artifacts of the twentieth centiry to swimming over the glass reefs...[this project is] a regional economy stimulated by rising sea level, generating value from detritus” [30].
The design team focused their efforts on reusing manmade and natural resources local to the context to create moments of recreation and disaster-proof nature in some of the lowest lying areas of New York and New Jersey. One major focus was the reuse of industrial efforts for the benefit of nature. In particular, historic shipping piers were reused to capitalize on displacement of ports due to rising sea levels and glass from nearby factories was saved from landfills and repurposed into modular reef and estuary habitats. The efforts of reuse of piers and recycled reefs lessened the blow of major storm surge, while cultivating estuary community and savoring industry as an ironic positive force in climate change.
Masterplan Proposal, Working Waterlines
Masterplan Proposal, Working Waterlines Existing Exports of Glass Waste
Seville Sustainable Hub, Dar[e] Europe Design Competition
Design competitions have emerged with similar values to that of Rising Currents, however Dar[e] Europe hopes to realistically construct the Seville, Spain sustainable hub and art center as a part of their 2024 competition. The winning entry produced by Patrizio Maria Puppo and Martina Di Marco celebrated sustainabilty on the bank of the Guadalquivir River with low-energy-impact materials with a key role of passive design strategies [31].
Large EV Charging Station
Requirements, R.A.S.
Puppo and Marco coined the project, R.A.S., or Riverside Art Studios. The design process started with modularization of program and biomaterials to form the project’s infamous 6x6x6 meter modules. The materials and systems used for this repetetive module included: square-sized wooden columns and beams, wooden wall panels, fiberglass and resin roofing, naturally sourced wood flooring, natural cellulose and hemp insulation, photovoltaic solar panels, and locally significant curtains and drapery for sun shading [7]. To better support the interior structure and efficient systematic design, Puppo and Marco conducted a local study of native trees and shrubs that could provide seasonal shading to both the building and exterior spaces. From their research, additive fabric drapes and membranes combined with perimeter trees with seasonal foliage lessened the amount of sunlight exposure by up to 1300 hours [7].
Solar Analysis, R.A.S.
Programmatic
Young Artists’ Creative Hub
Public Space with Urban Connection
Selection Strategy, R.A.S.
Floor Plan, R.A.S.
In a riverside town similar to Wilmington’s setting, Seville has seasonal attributes that Puppo and Marco had to account for in its all-weather passive design strategy. The above plant selection study understands what kind of trees and shrubs were most beneficial for their deciduous leaf benefits with summer shading and winter sun. On the ground floor plan, soft and hard infrastructure are denoted in different textures to understand that the majority of the site is made up of trees, with the secondary object being the building. Finally, this project allows for all three programmatic requirements to flourish in its modular design. In permanence, the project is deemed a creative hub and urban public space. However, ever changing are its visitors that are constantly coming and going from the 200-vehicle electric vehicle charging station attached to the site. The station allows the EV drivers to park and wait the time needed for their vehicle to charge while exploring the creative spaces and public amenitites along the river.
Pae Living Building, Pae Engineers
Located in Portland, Oregon, the Pae Living Building is the first developer-driven and largest urban commercial Living Building in the world. Completed in 2021, the 58,000 square foot office building was designed to withstand 500 years of life, navigating through the following content areas [35]:
Plant
Ground
The living building is understood to have the value of place through its rooted urban connection in public transportation. The building’s context currently has a 99/100 walk score in addition to 23 bus routes within a half mile radius [35]. The building offers unique water solutions through its collection of 100% of the water dropped on its roof and repurpose of the water in its recycled greywater system [35]. A first in the United States, the Pae Building can run completely off of its regenerative battery with its energy produced using photovoltaic solar panels [35]. Health and happiness are achieved through a combination of fresh air, low pollutants, and natural daylighting throughout the designed office spaces. With the use of operable windows and ample space for sunlight throughout the year, employees are able to have a happier and healthier workplace [35]
Section, Water Systems
Section, Health and Happiness
Materials were sourced in a majority from local British Columbia forests and lumber mills, with a designation as a Category IV building to fit the seismic risk of a 500-year sustainable building lifespan [35]. The engineers of the Pae Building considered equity as a primary design consideration, both in investing in local community and through employing local artisans for the investment into the living building [35]
Within the realm of the building, the interior designed murals and decor, like wood carvings, were provided by local craftsmen and businesses to Portland. Exterior to the Pae Building, the building continues to donate a percentage of their sustainable solar power grid to a local affordable housing community [35]. Finally, the building embodies the value of beauty through its exposed CLT structure and golden-ratio followed design strategy [35]. With a strict design language and seven major goals to follow, the Pae Building is a successful example of a living building connected to its urban environment through environmental and social contexts. The building has larger goals than surviving a human lifetime, but surviving 500 years, resilient to urban change, environmental disasters, and programmatic mobility - a pioneer take on resilient architecture in the modern world.
Community Disaster Relief, Oleg Drozdov
No matter what type of disaster, be it environmental, health pandemic, or war, communities need a safe space to flee to and uplift one another. This is a similar notion to the way Oleg Drozdov practices as a principal architect and co-founder of the Kharkiv Architecture School of Ukraine. On February 24th, 2022, when war broke out in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Drozdov and his students fled the city to Lviv to seek refuge during a dangerous time [29]. In an unclear, unknown, and incredibly lif-threatening situations, disaster relief is a necessary step for communities to rehabilitate and get back on their feet following disaster.
Drozdov and many other architects have a fluid view of the built environment during disaster, as well-designed spaced can be converted to meet the needs of community. For example, Lviv’s Regional Sports School for Children and Youth was converted by Drozdov and his design students into temporary housing for displaced peope in war-torn areas of Ukraine [29].
ArchDaily writes, “sports halls hold the ability to reflect and solidify a community’s identity and sense of place, anchoring a wide variety of social activities...these versatile spaces can be quickly adapted to serve as shelters or distribution centers during natural disasters...providing a crucial resource for community resilience” [12]. Any community public building, be it a sport hall or public center, maximize safety, accessibility, and maximum space - all elements critical in disaster relief shelters.
Lviv Regional Sports School for Children and Youth, Disaster Relief Shelter
Edutainment as a Tool
Application of Learning in Themed Entertainment
Falsely thought of as faux reality, a movie set, and only for vacation, themed entertainment destinations and experiences are historically rooted in goals such as discovery, adventure, and fantasy that pair with education for many unique educational opportunties.
Edutainment has a manifest function of entertaining guests and visitors. In a typical themed environment, guests are visiting to be amused and leave the world of reality behind them. However, the latent function of edutainment are set goals and educational standards that the original concept designer may place on an attraction or exhibit.
Edutainment comes in many forms such as theme parks, zoos, aquariums, museums, games, movies, and other types of media. For the purpose of this argument, climate- fiction movies and themed entertainment destinations will be precedents to directly relate to the design environment. Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Seaworld, EPCOT, and Futuroscope, all have direct purposes surrounding family or children’s entertainment, however they each function to teach lifelong lessons about sustainability, health and well-being, and environmental ethics.
“Welcome to the Kingdom of Animals”
Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened as the themed entertainment destination company’s fourth and final theme park installation in central Florida. However, for the first time, humans were a secondary client. Disney coined Animal Kingdom a “new species of theme park” with values central to sustainability, conservation, and the relationship between humans and the natural world in which they live [19].
Key design elements of the park surround the idea of natural power, “the clear dominance of landscape over architectural forms”, as the Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) team took on over 500 acres of land, the largest theme park they have ever constructed, to be confident that the designed space looked, felt, and was in fact, organic [19]. Joe Rohde, architect for Walt Disney Imagineering and director of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, reflected in an interview that, “part of what we try to do with these [design] details is to push away the idea that there was a designer here and rather put designs in front of you that make you thinking it has to be real… nobody would design that’” [16]. The focus of the architecture of the park was not to instill high architectural design, but simple, vernacular design that took the focus away from the humans and infrastructure and onto the common focus of animals and conservationism, “you’re not going to see barriers, you’re going to see animals as they exist”, Rohde explained [16]. The experiences designed on the interior of the park were designed to start a visitor’s conversation about protection of the natural world, and provoke the concepts of environmental ethics, conservation, and sustainability [19].
Hidden Habitat Zones
Entertainment
Based Site Lines
Site Line Sections, Created by Walt Disney Imagineering, Sketched by Caroline Scalora
Animal Kingdom’s Hippo Habitat
Animal Kingdom’s Giraffe Habitat
Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of Jane Goodall Institute and a United Nations Messenger of Peace reflected on the design of the park, “I think Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a wonderful way for children to become interested in and excited about conservation. First, when they come here they are having fun - and fun is important; but then they get to talk with these amazing caretakers who do such a wonderful job of telling the stories of the animals in their care” [19]. Many of the experiences at Disney’s Animal Kingdom are designed for a direct impact of entertainment, but an indirect and underlying impact of knowing a human’s place in nature. This is similar to many zoos, museums, and other edutainment destinations in creating clear messaging to enact change, while designing an entertaining experience.
Cli-Fi: The Uprise of Climate Conversations in Media
The rise of media, be it print and literature, social media, or television and film, has had a profound impact on how society forms thoughts, opinions, and reactions to global events. Climate disasters are no stranger to film and television - some films even fetishing the idea of disaster for specific responses and obsessions from audiences. Avatar, the 2009 James Cameron blockbuster regarding the exploration of humanity in Pandora, the world of the indigenous Na’vi, represents an example of a film that entertains with its fictional imagery while educating with its underlying ethical question. Researcher Justin Fritz recognizes that the film emulates an environment that is a “foil for Earth’s technology-dependent resource-intensive -
Concept Art and Designed Reality, Disney’s Animal Kingdom
society” [14]. He continues, “the environmental message in Avatar is one which promotes balance and harmony between humans and nature...this balance is represented by the film’s essentialized Indigenous population...the ‘ecological Indian’” [14]. The portrayal of environmental war for a resource driven capitalist society is one that evokes a direct parallel to fracking industry in the United States - the harnessing and mining of natural gas at the destruction of native species, plants, and biomes.
Twister May 1996
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs September 2009 Walle June 2008 Avatar December 2009
Interstellar October 2014
Notable Climate-Fiction Films, Timeline
Don’t Look Up December 2021
Twisters July 2024
Other notable climate-fiction films include the popular 1996 film, Twister, followed by a surge cli-fi films in the 21st century, Walle, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Interstellar, Don’t Look Up, and the recently released, Twisters. Each of these precedent films falls on the scale of fantasy and children’s entertainment driven to distopian, post-apocalyptic nightmare, all while having underlying climate disaster thematic elements. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs uses a fantastical “spaghetti” storm for childish, comedic relief depicting a severe weather event causing mass destruction on the town of Swallow Falls. Walle similarly was aimed more at a children and a family friendly audience, imagining what the earth would look like as a wasteland of trash and garbage. Interstellar and Don’t Look Up both fall in a post-apocalyptic and dystopian future oriented film, more for an adult audience, challenging perceptions of current technology and climate crisis events.
What each of these films provides, no matter what side of the spectrum of dystopian fiction versus comedic fantasy they fall on, is an influence and education of mass audiences of the power and high stakes effects that climate destruction and disasters have on the planet and humanity. The films provide a view of the world imagined with a certain future-forward lens, be it negative or positive, that conceptualize and start the conversation of what education about the environment can be in all forms of entertainment: theme parks, film and television, literature, and museums and educational centers.
post-apocalyptic Twister Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Walle Avatar Interstellar Don’t Look Up Twisters
Climate-Fiction Films, Genre Spectrum
“Play is the Ultimate Tool”
The concept of both the theme park of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and climate action through film and media entices guests and movie-goers alike to understand the natural environment and human effects on the climate through an entertaining facade. By enticing people with the promise of entertainment through experiential architecture and design or a multiple-hour-long film allowing guests to watch or re-visit these films and theme parks time after time, the designers instill lifelong messages of climate action, conservation, and sustainability.
Futhermore, the action of play and entertainment design as an education tool is a principle many designers and teachers utilize to teach students about new theories.
Jennifer Pindyck, Assistant Professor in the Bachelor of Architecture and the Bachelor of Interior Architecture programs at Auburn University, is an advocate of play as an education tool. In an interview, Jennifer described that when “you realize how tight the [education] system is…how tight the box is…that sort of provokes someone to redefine what the box is or erase the box” [28]. In a world where a growing number of children are raised to adapt to skills only useful for university acceptance, to have specific skills for a high-earning profession, and that success is only defined in academic grading, the learning process and education system becomes this “box”, as Jennifer described it, that does not allow for other modes of learning.
Integrating play into daily life for all people, regardless of age, reaps benefits more than just collaboration, teamwork, and fine and gross motor skills. “Play offers you the opportunity to be vulnerable without seeing yourself as a vulnerable person…[people are] vulnerable to learning...[play allows] the possibility to hear and to actually listen” Jennifer reflected [28]. With a facade of enticing entertainment, risk taking, and low stakes environment, play allows for education in a safe, accessible, and impactful environment designed for all. Play, whether it be through gaming, play grounds, or theme parks, is the “ultimate tool that we have now as educators”, as designers and educators alike are tasked with harnessing the power of play for the benefit of all [28].
Entertainment Design Typology 6
Entertainment Design Typology
From circuses to robotic simulator attractions, themed entertainment has allowed for the exploration of play in design: being playful in concept and creation of entertainment by pushing design to its limits which in turn makes a play-filled product.
Edutainment is a unique sector of themed entertainment that can be categorized by factors of entertainment design principles and educational subjects:
Virtual Simulation: Tornado Chasers
Futuroscope, a theme park in Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, is home to Tornado Chasers, a simulated, multimedia presentation encompassing being “whisked away” by a tornado [36]. The park achieves the tornado effect through the design of a circular, spinning theater. While the seats rotate about a spoke, 360º film screens combine with special effects of strobe lighting, faux smoke, water mist, and forced wind. Special effects and simulated motion create the desired tornado effect, preparing guests with the knowledge of the severity of tornado disasters. Furthermore, the attraction has interactive elements in the queue to allow for additional education, and it recently earned an Outstanding Achievement THEA Award in 2022 by the Themed Entertainment Association [36].
Physical Simulation: Namazu
Namazu, an ATV Roller Coaster located at Vulcania, the “European Park of Volcanoism” in Saint-Ours, France, encapsulates the feeling of seismic rumbles [22]. Throughout the queue, guests are passively taught about the ancient Japanese belief in the namazu, a catfish, that controls seismic energy. After boarding the coaster attraction, guests are wound through an underground cave, soon seeing warm lighting effects and feeling the cave rumbles. Instantly, the coaster involves a drop-track effect, dropping guests multiple feet to their launch point [22].
Circular Theater
Attraction Queue Experience
Underground Seismic Simulation Outdoor Launch
ATV Themed Ride Vehicle
Technological Exhibition: Forests For Our Future
A since remodeled exhibit, EPCOT’s Innoventions Center hosted a variety of education based attractions and interactives including Forests For Our Future, running from 1999-2004 and sponsored by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI). Opening in 1999, the TAPPI sponsored exhibit illuminated sustainable forestry in harvesting wood, pulp, and paper products from the natural material. TAPPI described their involvement as a “public outreach initiative” utilizing the entertainment industry to reach a large group of guests and potential clients through entertainment in an exhibit and short lecture style [15]. The exhibit featured interactive trees, hosting “TREE-via”, EPCOT and TAPPI’s entertaining way of communicating sustainability centered facts and trivia to 1000s of guests a day [15]. Furthermore, an EPCOT cast member served as the exhibit’s host each day, answering questions about the sustainable forestry technology and its effect on the pulp and paper products industry. This is another way to use resources and staff members to create a memorable and educational experience for guests.
Forests For Our Future, Educational Presentation
Show-Based: Rescue Tails
Seaworld in Orlando, Florida, presents many aquatic animal shows per day. One of those offered, Rescue Tails, teaches the importance of conservation and rehabilitation through the inspiring lecture-style show with previously rescued, live animals [11]. This offers guests a real view into the lives of animals rescued by the Seaworld team, as their keepers go on stage to showcase the animals and the company’s conservation efforts. While this could be deemed an educational lecture, the opportunity to meet real animals, see the rescues perform tricks showing their rehabilitation efforts, and the use of rotating themes to captivate audiences produces an entertaining, yet educational stage show.
Competetive Scavenger Hunt: LEGO City Deep Sea Adventure
LEGOLAND California hosts LEGO City Deep Sea Adventure, transporting guests through a real underwater habitat through the use of a submarine. While aboard the watercraft, guests can view LEGO models amongst a coral reef, featuring living sting rays, reef sharks, rabbitfish, and over 2,000 underwater creatures [20]. In conjunction with the underwater ride, guests can visit a multitude of tablet devices for competetive scavenger hunts pointing out LEGO sculptures and natural fish habitats to create an educational, yet mildly competetive experience.
Rescue Tails Scene Rescued Animal Keepers
Children Viewing Aquatic Creatures
Scavenger Hunt Tablet Built into Vehicle
Factory Tour: Living with the Land
Defined similar to a factory tour, Living with the Land takes guests on a boat ride to explore a working agricultural and aquacultural farm and research greenhouses run by Disney’s EPCOT staff [9]. This farm showcases new foor production techniques, such as hydroponic and aeroponic growing systems growing produce for a nearby EPCOT restaurant, The Garden Grille [9]. In-vehicle narration paired with a slow-moving tour of the farming facility and informative signage makes for an education-based experience turned theme park attraction and self-producing restaurant farm.
Roller Coaster: Penguin Trek
Seaworld’s newest addition to their Orlando theme park, Penguin Trek, is a high speed family roller coaster themed around arctic research of penguins. A fictional research labratory sets the stage for the research story, as guests are prompted to read statistics, data, and analyses throughout the ride queue [26]. The rollercoaster includes on-board audio to enhance the immersive penguin research experience, as snow mobile blasts make a guest “feel” as if they are searching for penguins in the snowy Antarctic terrain. Following the attraction, guests are guided into a penguin exhibit, where 100s of rescued penguins inhabit the Seaworld themed facility [26]. This experiences provides an all-around holistic view of penguin education through the fictional queue, coaster, and real-life penguin exhibit.
Concept Designed Queue
Penguin Exhibit Coaster Scene Storyboard
Hydroponic and Aeroponic Greenhouse
Educational Garden Signage
Wildlife Attraction: Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive
Located just north of Central Florida’s theme park capital, Lake Apopka offers a free wildlife drive through their protected, water management district land. On the land of the third largest lake in the state of Florida, Lake Apopka is home to over 367 different species of birds and creates a popular spot for tourists, birdwatchers, and local Floridians to take an approximate two-hour drive throughout the property [1]. This entertaining drive allows for guests to view the animals in their natural habitat, staying out of the protected land through the vehicular trails throughout the property. For convenience, the district offers an audio guide for guests to listen to during their scenic drive, and also only opens its gates on the weekends for minimal human disruption to species natural patterns.
Passive, Immersive Film Viewing: FlyOver America
FlyOver America, located in Minnesota’s Mall of America, presents a short-film in a flying theater environment to enhance the immersive quality of the guest experience. While the film is only 10 minutes, the “flying” feeling of seeing landscapes and national parks around the United States, allows the guest to increase their environmental awareness by seeing cultures, environments, and monuments brought across the country to life in film [13].
Wildlife Drive Map Vehicular Movement on the Lake
FlyOver America, Flying Theater View
Interactive Display: Moana Journey of Water
In Disney’s EPCOT theme park, the 2023 walk-thru attraction, Journey of Water: Inspired by Moana, attempts to entertain guests through interactive water elements while teaching about the water cycle. As defined by Walt Disney Imagineering, Journey of Water, “feature[s] a breathtaking outdoor exploration trail that tells the story of water from the sky to the seas and back, via engaging narrative elements and special aquatic effects, including interactive, responsive water” [10]. This story perfectly intertwines with the story of Moana, Disney’s 2016 blockbuster animated film with themes relative to the conservation and protection of natural resources.
The responsive special effects make this interactive attraction a very personal experience for a guest, as elements are only activated by guests movements and interaction with the hidden aquatic system. This further instills the notion that each guest has the ability to have a positive impact on the environment.
Journey of Water, Signage and Interactives
Play through Edutainment as a Driving Force of Change
Seen through each of the mentioned precedent studies, children and adults alike learn though the facade of entertainment and the act of play. The immersive quality of these experiences allows the participant to fully engross themselves in that particular environment, to focus on nothing but the task at hand. However, a common critique is that each of these experiences are stand alone attractions, unable to integrate into a pre-existing space in a zoo, theme park, or city space. While some may come from similar parks, the only themed entertainment destinations that fully are designed around the integrated edutainment are DIsney’s Animal Kingdom and Seaworld Resort. Through the use of each of the typological -
Themed Entertainment and Education Design Typologies as One themed entertainment design tools, spaces utilizing wildlife, climate and weather, ecology, thrill, teamwork, and awe, all in one project, have the opportunity to create change on a mass education scale.
Through the entertainment element of thrill, guests are presented a memorable experience through the way the design of space or interactives make a guest feel, like in the Namazu rollercoaster or Tornado Chasers simulation attraction. Teamwork has the element of socialization and ability for guests to learn from strangers around them, presenting new ideas and collaborative moments. Moana Journey of Water is a prime example of this, allowing guests to see how others interact with water while completing water activation elements in groups to promote teamwork. Awe-inspiring attractions give guests the opportunity to learn something new and be motivated to pursue these interests again, like the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive or Living with the Land
With the addition of education elements of wildlife, climate and weather, and ecology to encompass each of the entertainment elements, a park or attraction is able to inspire, entertain, and educate guests on crucial, heavy topics in a fun and awe-filled way.
Teamwork
7
Program Proposal
Building a Better Tomorrow, Today
The program was selected to respond to the environmental disaster-prone city of Wilmington while allowing for edutainment to be a sustainability-minded and awe-inspiring, playful teacher for all generations.
At the core of the program is the disaster relief hub. Whether it be flooding or severe heat and sun exposure, the center will be equipped to be a safe relief space for those in danger. In instances of flooding, the core of the built environment will be designed to withstand storm surge. In cases of heat and sun exposure, natural shading elements paired with opportunities to travel underneath the canopy of the building can act as a public relief area. For short term disaster relief solutions, the core will be converted to an overnight safe space for local residents in crisis.
It is crucial to design the entirety of the site with climate resiliency in mind, especially as the programmatic elements hug the river’s edge and sit no more than 4’0” above sea level. Soft, anti-flooding infrastructure coupled with areas for species movement opportunities and biodiverse habitats will make for a naturefirst community space with opportunity for human interactive moments.
Finally, a series of entertaining and interactive experiences themed around sustainable and resilient strategies for daily life are the driving factor in the program. The power of edutainment is what draws visitors to the Edutainment Center, where each of these interactive experiences will be sorted into content and site areas: built environment, water, ecology, and wildlife.
Edutainment Center + Disaster Relief Hub
INTERIOR SHELTER
(1) room for overnight guests/cots
(2) locker room/restroom facilities
(1) kitchen area
(1) storage area
(4) flexible meeting rooms for FEMA/insurance assistance
INTERIOR INTERACTIVE EDUTAINMENT FACILITY
(1) facility space
(1) cafe
(2) restroom facilities
(1) administrative offices
(1) welcome desk
(1) field trip meeting room/classroom space
(1) back of house storage
MOBILE STATION - EDUTAINMENT ON THE GO
(1) loading dock
(1) storage room
EXTERIOR ELEMENTS
soft flooding infrastructure
parking lot
interactive edutainment elements
biodiverse habitats off limits to visitors
canoe/SUP launch + dock
picnic area
2350 sq. ft.
2 x 1000 sq. ft
250 sq. ft
250 sq. ft.
4 x 75 sq. ft.
20,000 sq. ft.
250 st. ft.
2 x 250 sq. ft.
300 sq. ft.
TOTAL SQ. FT. INTERIOR:
28,700 sq. ft.
TOTAL SQ. FT. AVAILABLE ON SITE:
948,000 sq. ft.
Site Analysis
Urban Wilmington Corridor
The Wilmington corridor selected connects the Brandywine Zoo to a site in the Southbridge neighborhood through the connection factor of Walnut Street.
Six factors were implemented in site selection and analysis:
Ability to amplify public space
Contact zone to serve community
Reaction to nearby environmental context
Piece meal aggregation of sustainable infrastructure
Connection to existing neighborhood; not creating a new “district”
Activation of underutilized space
Each factor was used critically to select a site to solve the program of the thesis project with strict goals of sustainability, climate resiliency, education, and entertainment. This site connects sustainable infrastructure in North Wilmington, including the Urban Bike Project and the Brandywine Zoo, to center city with the Emmanuel Dining Room and Parkland Park, and finally to South Wilmington with the Chase Fieldhouse and Southbridge Wetlands Park. The corridor bridges the connection of the existing sustainable development infrastructure to allow a “green corridor” to develop, allowing Wilmingtonians the opportunity to visit each program on this route. Furthermore, this site presents a challenge of designing in the lowest lying area of the city - just 4’0” above sea level - and a site specifically with a relationship to the Christina River and likelihood of storm surge and flooding. As of recent, the site sits as an abandoned industrial lot on a busy urban street.
Proposed Urban Corridor, Wilmington, DE
Proposed Site
Southbridge Wilmington Wetlands Park
Chase Fieldhouse + Sports Park
Brandywine Zoo
Urban Bike Project
Emmanuel Dining Room
Parkland Park
Proposed Urban Corridor, City Context
Proposed Site Boundary
Wilmington Native Plant Species
Native species of plants provide benefits, especially in a 21st century environment poisoned by invasive species. Native plants adapt to their environment quickly, as they are already acclimated to the soils, air quality, and climate of the localized area. They have a stronger survival rate, as the plants live in harmony with their surroundings promoting a deeper root system.
Native plants play a crucial role in the rest of their ecosystem, as they create symbolic relationships with pollinators and keystone species, providing habitat and nutrients. A crucial part of designing for resiliency and sustainability is to be inclusive to native plants. with stronger and larger root systems, they are a natural part of stormwater management in flood-prone areas and are a nature-based solution for climate change.
The following are native trees to the Wilmington, Delaware area [23]:
Sassafrass Red Oak Witch-hazel
White Ash
Bald Cypress Sycamore Flowering Dogwood
Thesis Project 9
Bibliography 10
Essay Sources
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(Top right image) https://www.themeparktrader.com/theme-park-guides/walt-disney-world/ disneys-animal-kingdom/9-awesome-facts-and-secrets-about-kilimanjaro-safaris/ (Bottom right image) https://blogmickey.com/2018/10/photos-tour-rafikis-planet-watch-atdisneys-animal-kingdom-closing-today/
