Way Beyond Bigness is a design-research project that studies the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine river basins, with particular focus on multi-scaled, water-based infrastructural transformation. The book proposes a simple, adaptive framework that utilizes a three-part, integrative design-research methodology, structured as: Appreciate + Analyze, Speculate + Synthesize, and Collaborate + Catalyze. To do such, Way Beyond Bigness realigns watersheds and architecture across multiple: scales (site to river basin), disciplines (ecologists to economists), narratives (hyperbolic to pragmatic), and venues (academic to professional). The research critiques and recasts Oxford Dictionarys two very different definitions for a watershed: 1) An area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas" and 2) An event or period marking a turning point in a situation in a course of action or state of affairs and its two very different definitions for architecture: 1) The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings and 2) the complex or carefully designed structure of something. The book highlights the authors comprehensive work of over more than a decade, including in depth field research across the Mekong, Mississippi and Rhine, along with a diverse body of academic and professional collaborations, ranging from the speculative to the community-based.
Foreword (Margarita Jover) / 8
Acknowledgements / 12
Introduction Bigness, Katrina, Conflict, Hybridity & Audience / 18
Backstory from Times Beach / 32
Definintions Watershed, Architecture & Way Beyond Bigness / 44
Appreciate + Analyze [ A+A] / 53
Description (Anthony Acciavatti) / 55
Why the Mississippi, Mekong, & Rhine? / 62
Who Manages the River Basins? / 66
Mississippi, Mekong, and Rhine River Basin Atlas / 84
(with Jess Vanecek, Paul Wu, Chenyu Zhang)
Mississippi River Basin & the World / 86
Missouri River Basin / 96
Erasure (Kees Lokman) / 121
Scar (Meghan Kirkwood) / 132
Upper Mississippi, Ohio, & Tennessee River Basins / 144
Reconnection (Chuck Theiling) / 169
Depth (Jesse Vogler) / 183
Between (Jennifer Colten) / 196
Above (with Jess Vanecek) / 199
Lower Mississippi & Arkansas-White-Red River Basins / 202
Splitting (Forbes Lipschitz & Justine Holzman) / 227
Shifting (Alex Kolker) / 239
Mekong River Basin & the World / 250
Development (Dorothy Tang) / 260
Balance (Palakorn Chanbanyong & Simon Krohn) / 344
Adapt (Shelby Elizabeth Doyle) / 355
Monitor (Duong Van Ni) / 366
Rhine River Basin & the World / 378
Transform (Han Meyer) / 388
Revive (Robbert de Koning & Dale Morris) / 451
Speculate + Synthesize [ S+S] /469
Context (Ian Caine) / 471
from the Big Six to the Birds Foot / 487
(with Jonathan Stitelman, Allison Méndez, L. Irene Compadre & Chad Fisk)
from the Third Pole to the Nine Dragons / 500
(with Jess Vanecek & Rob Birch)
from the Rheinquelle to the Leo Hollandicus / 518
(with Jess Vanecek, Paul Wu, & Han Meyer)
Collaborate + Catalyze [ C+C] / 525
Advocacy (Neeraj Bhatia) / 527
Public Lab River Rat Pack / 539
(with Washington University in St. Louis)
FloodFightFail / 552
TerritoriesWatershedsInfrastructures / 557
(with Washington University in St. Louis)
Tracing Our Mississippi / 584
(with Washington University in St. Louis)
Afterword ...to Quarantine Island (Big Muddy Mike Clark) / 589
Derek Hoeferlin, AIA is principal of [ dhd] derek hoeferlin design, an award-winning, trans-scalar architecture and design practice based in St. Louis. He is an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate level multi-disciplinary approaches to architecture.
