Stormwater. Designing for Flood Management in Public Open Spaces

All cities increasingly have to deal with the effects of climate change, and especially with extreme weather events. As the urban grounds’ absorptive capacity is limited, stormwater emerges as a challenging agent that reveals the intrinsic fragilities of built fabrics. Stormwater offers a systematic presentation of design strategies and a comparative analysis of stormwater-embracing open spaces. Investigating the four categories of urban parks, neighborhood parks, squares, and streets, the authors present 26 European best-practice case studies with photos, project descriptions, and drawings. These sites were conceived as amphibious landscapes that dynamically adjust to both dry and wet conditions. The atlas demonstrates how to effectively respond to stormwater and engage it as a design medium, investigating the varied possibilities it offers in the articulation of adaptive urban landscapes.