BEYOND RESILIENCY II

Rosalea Monacella spoke with Chris Reed from Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Boston), Lisa Switkin and Richard Kennedy from James Corner Field Operations (New York), Bryna Lipper of 100 Resilient Cities (New York) and Sacha Coles of Aspect Studios (Sydney). See Landscape Architecture Australia issue 162 for part one of the interview.

Rosalea Monacella: Who or which organization do you think is in the best position to catalyse change?

Sacha Coles (Aspect Studios, Sydney): Previously, responsibility lay with the government to make policies that encourage and enable the private sector to implement resilient designs in a cost-effective way. However, this has not happened fast enough. Although rare, there are recent examples of committed private sector organizations driving change, for their own reasons: for branding, market definition or whatever else. Landscape architects working for these “new Medicis”–the city-makers, developers and urban regenerators – have the opportunity to test and implement progressive projects. I still believe, however, in the strong role of government to incentivize and/or show leadership around achieving societal health. A resilient environment is central to this.

Bryna Lipper (100 Resilient Cities, New York): Mayors and city managers have extraordinary opportunities to increase the resilience of their cities. They can formulate progressive policies and incentives about how land is used, and can leverage their investments to broker partnerships with the private sector, based