We live in an urban world, a world of unpredictable changes and uncertain futures. In the last decades we have witnessed in greater frequency extreme weather and climate disaster events affecting our cities due to the effects of global warming and climate change. This talk will discuss the consequences of climate change and fast urbanization, elaborating on how to Design with the Unpredictable and Plan with Uncertainty.

Based on the analysis and study of the projects developed in the last four years by the DRiA interdisciplinary research network for Hainan (China), Valenzuela (Philippines), Semarang (Indonesia), and Bangkok (Thailand), the presentation will suggest some inspirations to address these challenges through urban planning, urban design and architecture solutions that, rather than just remediating or responding, aim to anticipate and prevent to the effects of climate change. Beyond sustaining (sustinere), ‘reinstate’ (recuperare) is the innovative approach that this talk proposes as an alternative to design our cities with pro-positive solutions that can restore the original environmental qualities in our cities.