Catalonia in Venice_Water Parliaments: Projective Ecosocial Architectures

Water Parliaments: Projective Ecosocial Architectures studies the codependent relationships between humans and non-humans, and the water systems on which they are based, in order to propose hopeful future scenarios. Droughts and other periods of water stress urge us to rework the frameworks of political, economic, and spatial agendas. In this sense, far from considering water as a mere object of exploitation, the project highlights how different bodies of water connect humans, animals, plants, minerals, architectures, stories, legends, languages, and traditions, building a cultural landscape.
This design-by-research project learns from the past by collecting, studying, and enhancing local knowledge and involving local experts from multiple fields and diverse forms of knowledge. Water Parliaments brings together land and sea caretakers, scientists who work to understand or transform the geological, climatic, biological, and hydric territories, as well as activists, artists, and designers from the public and private sector in order to update our collective imaginaries and perspectives on how to build an ecosocial balance that is as necessary as it is urgent.