(Outside of course selection) This is an international outgoing project based on Erasmus+ guidelines.

“Bodies of Water” is a blended intensive program (B.I.P.) with online sessions and an in-person workshop in Catania, which in its second edition is no longer dedicated to aquatic systems, but to drought. The starting point is the increasing aridity in the Mediterranean region: heat waves, seasonal droughts, and desertification are considered climatic and cultural thresholds and examined in their interaction with water, design, and climate. Based on environmental humanities, the program understands arid regions as active environments intertwined with the hydrosphere and the desert as a changing figure that brings together ecological, political, and aesthetic issues. Aridity serves as a vector for students to design concretely situated futures and analyze how environmental changes transform social practices and material cultures.

The program also opens up critical perspectives on renewable energy infrastructures, geoengineering, and solar extractivism, showing how climate adaptation is intertwined with large-scale infrastructure projects and regional visions of the future. The focus is on plant species that can mitigate aridity, as well as design as a tool for strategies such as water harvesting, moisture retention, and microclimatic regulation in urban spaces. Participants work between theory and practice, developing site-specific research in Sicily and testing design strategies for conditions of scarcity and change; dry territories are understood as laboratories of situated knowledge and as spaces of possibility for alternative models of resilience and the future.

Coordination:
Accademia Abadir, Catania, Sicily, Italy

Participating universities:

• Accademia Abadir, Catania, Sicily, Italy
• SWPS – School of Form, Warsaw, Poland
• ESAD Matosinhos, Porto, Portugal
• Esada Granada, Granada, Spain
• Faculty of Design Würzburg/THWS, Würzburg, Germany

The project cannot be selected in the course selection. In December, the Faculty of Design was invited by Academia Abadir to participate in the EU-funded project “Bodies of Water” with eight students. The participation process for a B.I.P. corresponds to the Erasmus guidelines for a semester abroad. Therefore, late nominations are no longer possible.