Resilience is an architectural buzzword at the minute, which centres around designing for the climate adversities faced by humanity in the years to come. To design well is to design for the long term, accounting for inclement weather and natural disasters that come with it.
HDR’s design approach has been constantly refined for over a century across a number of human-centric projects and sectors. HDR believes there are four pillars of resilience: ecological, social, cultural and organisational, which it aims to consider and integrate into each of its projects.
HDR Civic Principal Mark Gazy says that a regenerative design framework developed by the practice helps them address the factors of resilience and focus on the continuous renewal of our evolving socio-ecological systems. It is supporting designers in moving beyond basic high-performance design goals towards net-positive impacts and metric-driven targets for carbon, water, nutrients, air, biodiversity, social and health categories.
When it comes to ecological resilience, a project in the United States may hold the answer for mitigating flash floods.
"\We've had all this flooding recently in Southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers, highlighting the need to embed climate resilience into our infrastructure and land use planning,” he says.
“In Hamilton, which is a small town in Washington, in the USA, the town is located in a floodplain that would on average flood every three years. Council engaged HDR to look at relocating the town centre to higher ground. And through that process, we employed triple net-zero design, which looked at net-zero energy use, water use and carbon use within a circular economy framework to mitigate flooding and biodiversity degradation."
"It was a really brave decision by Council, and the opportunity it could create for some of our towns in Australia would be incredible. To take all the aspects of what's important to the local community and create a resilient community that prioritises wellbeing, but is also future-focused and future-proofed, is just so inspiring.
“Moving forward, we need brave councils and brave people to come together to unlock a new approach that truly reconnects humans and nature. This is something we haven't entirely seen here yet."
Gazy believes societal awareness and understanding the impacts of certain actions will influence the built environment’s way forward, with the ideals and customs of First Nations peoples front of mind.
"I think it's a snowball effect. We're now starting to engage with reconciliation, designing with Country, and in the last few years, that's really taken off,” he says.
"As we become more aware of what our actions are actually doing in this ecosystem, we'll become better at being better humans and living more sustainably with the planet, and creating better communities. All these things will build cultural, organisational, and social resilience."
If resilience is an architectural buzzword, the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals are an architectural framework often adopted by the world’s foremost architecture practices. Gazy says that there isn’t a directive for HDR to design with the SDGs per say, but that their data-driven processes and design frameworks of the practice align with the goals.
From a healthcare perspective, Gazy cites the HDR-designed Dubbo Base Hospital Redevelopment and the Western Cancer Centre in NSW’s west as a benchmark hospital in social and cultural resilience. The facility was informed by an HDR research study, Rural Resolve, which reconfigured town centres to integrate healthcare services, high quality parks, recreational spaces and amenity.
“It's an industry-leading community healthcare facility that integrates with Country and the First Nations knowledge, with a focus on biophilic design principles,” he says.
“Through the use of landscaping, natural life and material selections, we really challenged the notion of what a hospital can be for its community."
As for what comes next for both the practice and the wider built environment, Gazy says that the human aspect will be the key to crafting outstanding outcomes.
"If we think about the future and the design in the architecture profession, I think a big part will be human-centred design. Our wellbeing as an individual and as a community will be at the heart of everything we do," he says.
"This won't be the traditional model where the humans on top of the pyramid will be designed with humans as an equal part of the ecosystem. First Nations peoples have an intrinsic way of living in the environment. So, we need to find the equivalent in today's environment and envision a regenerative future."
