Designing a More Resilient Tomorrow: UB’s International Competition and Exhibition

Within the context of a looming planetary polycrisis, the School recognized the pressing need to reimagine how we inhabit our world and the critical role that designers must play in combatting the challenges of the future. “Traditional disciplinary-based approaches are no longer enough,” Dean Julia Czerniak explained. “The competition is based on the belief that we must move beyond the current approaches in our fields—architecture, landscape architecture, planning, engineering, ecology, and real estate development—and advance new strategies across all scales of the built and living environment.”

The challenge was publicized widely, and seven multidisciplinary teams from around the globe were selected by an esteemed jury to participate:

• STOSS Landscape Urbanism and Höweler Yoon Architecture
• OBRA Architects and LOLA Landscape Architects
• MVRDV and RIOS
• MASS, EinwillerKuehl, SITELAB Urban Studio, and Second Nature Ecology + Design
• LTL Architects, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and Derive Engineers
• Barkow Leibinger, TOPTOTEK 1, Transsolar KlimaEngineering, and Guy Nordenson and Associates
• ASPECT Studios, Woods Bagot Architecture, and Dr. Jillian Walliss

The teams were challenged to identify climate and other socio-ecological conditions that UB and its surrounding region may experience in the years 2050 and 2080. They were to design accompanying scenarios for the campus landscape as well as two specific buildings—the existing Health Sciences Complex (HSC) and a new University-Assisted Community School, a project being led by the UB Graduate School of Education.

They were asked to imagine these possible futures and consider what UB’s South Campus, the city of Buffalo, and the planet might look like, how we might adapt, and what role design can play in these adaptations. Their submissions were to foster a resilient, adaptable, and inclusive setting that recognizes and integrates the interdependencies among the campus’s many constituencies and species (both human and non-human).

The challenge foregrounds two distinct concepts that describe a living system’s ability to thrive and flourish: resilience and sustainability. Resilience refers to a socio-ecological system’s ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from—and, if necessary, transform in the wake of—shocks and disturbances. Sustainability focuses on meeting today’s needs in ways that don’t limit the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

The teams had 16 weeks to complete the challenge. In October, they visited Buffalo to tour the campus and surrounding neighborhood, learn from University staff, and meet their faculty and student advisors; each team was paired with a liaison from the School’s faculty as well as student assistants to help provide local expertise and assistance.

“My biggest takeaway is how collaborative this field is,” says Master of Architecture Student Lydia Diboun. “I learned how to site analyze differently, how to document, how to portray critical information clearly — all through the various processes and iterations from the firms. Even MVRDV + RIOS, prominent, established firms, are still experimenting and going out of their way to learn new technologies and tools, which was very insightful.”

While the Resilient Campus Competition centers on South Campus, the School’s ambitions for its impact are far broader. By positioning the University as a test site, the ideas and strategies generated through the competition have the capacity to extend well beyond the bounds of the campus itself. Ultimately, the work featured in the exhibition is meant to be shared, debated, refined, and adapted—informing emerging methodologies, shaping future planning and policy discussions, and supporting ongoing efforts to build more resilient, climate‑responsive environments at multiple scales.

The exhibition in Crosby Hall is the first step in sharing these ideas more broadly. Curated by Dean Czerniak and Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Exhibitions Maia Peck, it creates a space on campus for students, faculty, design professionals, planners, policy makers, and community members alike to come together to explore the teams’ work, reflect on their own place in these potential futures, and contribute to an ongoing, collective dialogue.  

Each team’s submission displays a collection of ideas and strategies aimed at navigating the varied challenges the next 20-50 years may bring. A multitude of scenarios were envisioned: rising energy demands, increased snowfall, snow replaced by more frequent heavy rain events, climate instability, greater demand for clean energy, climate-driven migration, declining birthrates, and widespread movement of invasive plant species. One team explored a future in which population decline and expanded online learning prompt the campus to take on a new role as a vital community hub offering continuing education, events, and public health services.

Teams were encouraged to apply novel design and data-forwarded approaches, and they heeded that call. One team envisioned a covered loop system encircling the campus through which biomass is collected in the fall to be used for winter heating and snow is collected during winter months for summer cooling. Another considered that with the implementation of successful agricultural, architectural, and energy pilots, teachers, farms, medical researchers, and planning students might co-design curricula around food sovereignty, bioregional health, material ecologies, and climate accountability to sustain the university in the face of increased climate events and migration.

A common theme among the submissions was the integration of natural landscape elements—forests, wetlands, wellness and refuge parks, and community gardens— to increase biodiversity, mitigate the effects of new development, and increases access to green space for the broader community. One team envisioned a full forestation of South Campus, establishing a diverse landscape of native trees and plants and transforming the university into a living organization: “one that breathes, witnesses, remembers, and teaches.”

On January 30, each team presented their work before a design jury, which then determined the winning submissions. First place was awarded to the team of LTL Architects + Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects + Derive Engineers for their project titled “Field Studies: Growing a Biogenic Campus.”

“The winning project reimagines South Campus as a productive landscape shaped by geothermal wells, productive forests, and buildings grown from biogenic constructions materials,” said Charles Waldheim, chair of the jury and professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. “Their proposal conceives of campus resilience through circular economies of plant materials and their infrastructures shaping a robust public forest landscape."

Second place was awarded to Stoss Landscape Urbanism + Höweler Yoon Architecture for “Campus Entanglements: Protocols for Learning”, which presented an atlas of landscape and architectural types to guide the long-term transformation of South Campus. Third place went to MASS + EinwillerKuehl + SITELAB Urban Studio + Second Nature Ecology and Design for “Our Future is a Forest,” which reimagined the campus through afforestation, positioning a renewed forest landscape as both ecological infrastructure and an expanded educational resource for human and non-human communities. MVRDV + RIOS received an Honorable Mention for their experimental visualizations.

The Resilient Campus Exhibition will be on display and open to the public in UB’s Crosby Hall, Room 116 through March 13, 2026. From there, it will hit the road for a traveling exhibition starting with Aedes – Architecture in Berlin, Germany followed by other venues across the U.S. and abroad. An upcoming fall symposium at UB will critique the work through different disciplinary frameworks—considering climate change, biodiversity loss and human vulnerability, and how these design strategies can be replicable across all scales of the built environment. A related publication will also be released at a later date.

It took the hard work of many individuals to bring this competition and exhibition to fruition. Associate Professor Jason Sowell served as competition advisor. The exhibition design team included Director of Exhibitions Maia Peck, Dean Julia Czerniak, Manager of Shop Services Wade Georgi, Clinical Assistant Professor Stephanie Cramer, Associate Dean Bruce Majkowski, Zachary Izzo (MArch ’25, BS Arch ’23), and Edwin Sanchez Rodriguez (MArch ’27, BS Arch ’25).

Faculty liaisons included: Director of the Building Environment Visualization Lab Mohamed Aly Etman, Associate Professor Martha Bohm, Assistant Professor Nick Bruscia, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Student Professional Development Elaine Chow, Adjunct Instructor Randy Fernando, Associate Professor Hiro Hata, Professor Joyce Hwang, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Exhibitions Maia Peck, Adjunct Instructor Jon Spielman, and Assistant Professor and Director of the Design with Resilient Environments Lab Kristine Stiphany.

Student assistants included: Ryan Bingham, Lydia Diboun, Danny Escandon, Ethan Ikegami, Ben Jellinick, Jamie Jiang, Ashley Johnson, Kaya Jost, Shruti Kunadia, Allison Lavis, Ryan Mellen, Janice Ng, Alec Pitillo, Ester Rafailova, Gianni Rinaudo, Gennaro Rovello, Edwin Sanchez Rodriguez, Berkan Sari, Sukriti Sharma, Will Sundell, and Daniel Syperski. 

The competition was sponsored by the UB School of Architecture and Planning with assistance provided by the University at Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education, Office of Sustainability, and University Facilities.

For more information, please visit the competition website.