Campus Resilience

What is resilient design? Resilient Design is the practice of identifying vulnerabilities to natural and man-made threats in buildings, cities, and their communities, and creating design responses to help achieve stability and adaptability. These threats could be acute events or chronic stressors. Acute shocks are events such as wildfires, earthquakes, flooding, severe storms, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, disease outbreak, riots, etc. Recent hurricanes, floods, and wildfires in the United States are examples frequently seen. Chronic stressors refer to ongoing exposure to problems such as poverty, unemployment, poor air quality, etc. Racial inequity, food insecurity, and polluted water systems are common examples. These shocks and stressors as significant forces impacting design decisions that academic institutions must make. To address these issues, it is important to undertake a designthinking process that leverages social, economic, and physical capital to create campuses with greater diversity, more resilience, and vitality. Social Resilience considers examples such as population health, environmental justice, social equity, community cohesion, and inclusivity of vulnerable populations. Economic Resilience reinforces examples such as business continuity, economic stability, development opportunity, and benefit-cost analysis. Environmental Resilience focuses on ways to balance natural systems and man-made environments.

� Phillips Academy, Snyder Center

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