Design in the Terrain of Water

Design in the Terrain of Water makes room for water as a ground in design: water that is everywhere before it is somewhere; water that is in rain before it is in rivers, soaks before it flows, spreads before it gathers, blurs before it clarifies; water that is ephemeral, transient, uncertain, interstitial, chaotic, omnipresent. This is water to which people are increasingly turning to find innovative solutions to water scarcity, pollution, aquifer depletion and other problems that are assuming center stage in local and global politics, dynamics, and fears. It is also water that is celebrated and ritualized in ordinary and everyday practices across many cultures. The book brings together the work of eminent professionals, designers, artists, scientists and theorists, who respond to the challenges that this water poses, its visualization, its infrastructure, its politics and its science. At a moment when design disciplines are beginning to embrace measures such as flexibility, agility and resilience, this book makes an important and timely contribution. These are measures that we associate more closely with water and watery imagination than the terra firma that grounds aspirations of prediction and control that have proved elusive, perhaps even detrimental. The book asks if in this time of uncertainty and ambiguity brought on by increasing openness of economies, cultures, and ecologies, we need to re-invent our relationship with water.