Design for Coastal Futures: Rethinking Space and Time with a More-than-Human and Transcultural Lens.
Abstract
Amid the intensifying challenges of climate change, there is an emerging consensus within coastal academic and practitioner networks on the importance of integrating design led-approaches that enhance resilience and foster the long-term adaptation for coastal communities. However, coastal environments present peculiar contexts for design actions, as the movement of water consistently challenges the boundaries between water and land, along with the relational interactions between human and non-human communities—both in cyclical and unpredictable ways. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in tidal coastal and estuarine areas across diverse geographies, this article proposes ways to cultivate design’s response-ability (Haraway, 2016) to the more-than-human temporalities of the sea and its pluriversal communities. Specifically, it argues for a seascape epistemology (Ingersoll, 2016) to engage with the fluidity of time and space in intertidal places, and reflects on how this could shape design actions and foster dialogues with plural ways-of-knowing beyond modernity.
Keywords
coastal futures, more than human, temporality, climate change
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2575
Citation
Pollastri, S., Montalvan Lume, J., Mullagh, L., and Ilic, S. (2026) Design for Coastal Futures: Rethinking Space and Time with a More-than-Human and Transcultural Lens., in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2575
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Design for Coastal Futures: Rethinking Space and Time with a More-than-Human and Transcultural Lens.
Amid the intensifying challenges of climate change, there is an emerging consensus within coastal academic and practitioner networks on the importance of integrating design led-approaches that enhance resilience and foster the long-term adaptation for coastal communities. However, coastal environments present peculiar contexts for design actions, as the movement of water consistently challenges the boundaries between water and land, along with the relational interactions between human and non-human communities—both in cyclical and unpredictable ways. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in tidal coastal and estuarine areas across diverse geographies, this article proposes ways to cultivate design’s response-ability (Haraway, 2016) to the more-than-human temporalities of the sea and its pluriversal communities. Specifically, it argues for a seascape epistemology (Ingersoll, 2016) to engage with the fluidity of time and space in intertidal places, and reflects on how this could shape design actions and foster dialogues with plural ways-of-knowing beyond modernity.