Thinking ahead: design-directed research in a city which experienced fifty years of sea level change overnight

Disasters are an engine for innovation; creativity becomes vital in responding to a disaster and leveraging it. For Christchurch, New Zealand, the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 have driven many ideas about how to rebuild the city and have inspired an explosion of temporary landscapes, events, and buildings. While the earthquakes themselves have invoked this remarkable opportunity for inventive thinking, they have also created a scenario which has ramifications far beyond the city itself. Because of the massive changes-to the city's topography and hydrology, as a consequence of the multiple earthquakes, flooding has increased dramatically. This article focuses specifically on the implications of the city being catapulted into a watery future-that are only still being imagined in other cities around the world. We share ideas that herald possibilities rather than fully resolved scenarios, remembering that it is crucial to avoid leaping to conclusions when delving into situations of dramatic change.