New Normals Part 2 Project 2019 Logan WeaverAlexandra Adamski University of Pennsylvania | USA New Normals is an investigation of what it means for humans to design in the Anthropocene, the geological age defined primarily by our presence and actions. Specifically, it examines the architectural future of the Mississippi River and the inhabitants of its floodplain (an area encompassing nearly half the continental United States), who are increasingly faced with environmental calamities and challenges to their modes of dwelling.The project begins with an exploration of the failed attempts on the part of humans to control the river and the disastrous impacts on humans and nature alike when those methods of control fail. New Normals posits this: If humans are to continue inhabiting the river (and, more generally, anywhere), we must abandon this illusion of control and accept both culpability and agency in the world we’ve shaped so profoundly.What follows is a series of speculative fictions - scenes from a projective future in which new modes of living and dwelling are embraced by necessity. In this future, our present experience of environmental calamity has become normalised, and yet humanity persists: cultivating a new, collaborative relationship with the planet that sustains it. Tutor(s) Winka Dubbeldam