Previous spread: Henk
Ovink in New York in 2015
when he was a Senior
Advisor to the US
Department of Housing
and Urban Development
and on the Hurricanevulnerabilities and interdependencies, and helps
identify opportunities, with researchers,
climate scientists, water experts, communities,
mayors, policymakers, stakeholders, etc.
I believe design is the bridge to our aspirations;
it is solution-oriented, inclusive and
comprehensive, and it can bring together the
needs and interests of different stakeholders.
Design can connect through scales, from the
community scale to river basins, coastlines and
deltas. Design is political, its aspirations and
its inspirational capacity make design a
catalyst for change.
It is not only about the design, however, it is
the process and coalition that we change.
Bringing in all the stakeholders from the very
first moment and keeping that coalition
going to the end. The ambition of the researchers
has to lead the implementation as much
as the economics of the financial sector needs
to inspire the designers to innovate. So, we also
bring in the financial sector and this is
exactly where the funnel — which I mentioned
earlier — starts to change. By working together,
inspiring and informing all the stakeholders
throughout all the phases, we redesign
interventions and their investment schemes.
I was recently in the three cities and we had
the city officials, design teams and international
development and investment partners meet in
Singapore. It was the first test, a little like a
first date. I wasn’t sure what was going to
happen but the sparks were there, inspiration
all over, and we scheduled a second date!
We couldn’t have expected such enthusiasm,
dedication and commitment from the
financial partners for the first ideas the design
teams and their city representatives were
presenting. Very promising indeed.The ten issues of Domus edited by Winy Maas in
2019 will look optimistically at our future. Do we
still have time to save the Planet?
Yes, I was born optimistic. My mother was a
teacher and a community leader; she was the
embodiment of the UN motto “leaving no one
behind”. My father was an engineer and
architect; he saw every problem as an
opportunity, totally solution-oriented.
They were two amazing people who still inspire
me every day. But it is not enough to have
the genes of optimism and to look at the
future brightly. Genes don’t change the world
but they help.
The IPCC report is very clear: there is a
big difference between a 2-degree Celsius
(compared with pre-industrial levels) warmer
world and a 1.5 degree warmer world, a
massive difference in terms of destruction
and devastation of our environment, our
ecology and economy, and of ourselves
as humans.
The IPCC states that there is a small window of
opportunity to curb this 0.5-degreeCelsius difference and scientists are
optimistic that we can do it. But that does
demand systemic change on all levels. In our
policies, our politics, our investments,
our programmes and the projects we develop
and implement all over the world.
We cannot save everything, it is too late for
that. We lose species, environment, people
and capital every hour of every day but
yes, with the political will and our collective
action, there is definitely hope. Yes we can!
I believe that the ten issues of Domus should
address this challenge from our ability to do
it and to make it happen. But be aware,
there is no silver bullet, no one solution for
salvation! The change has to come from
us collectively, not from technology alone.
We must be the change ourselves, own it and
be part of the change; otherwise it will
never work. That might be the biggest
challenge ever and the best thing to work on
every day.Henk Ovink is the founder of Rebuild by Design
and, in March 2015, was appointed Special
Envoy for International Water Affairs of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands. He has been a
Sherpa to the United Nations/World Bank High
Level Panel on Water. In 2012, he was a director
of the 5th International Architecture Biennale
Rotterdam (IABR).Sandy Rebuilding Task
Force. Photo © Cynthia
van Elk/De Beeldunie.
Next spread: People
displaced by flooding
and conflict in Jowhar,
Somalia, 2013