What is resiliency? Vocabulary.com defines it as “a quality in objects to hold or recover their shape, or in people to stay intact. This is a kind of strength.” According to Merriam-Webster, being resilient means that someone is able to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens.

Likewise, resilient design is the design of the buildings, landscapes, and communities to withstand superstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters (natural or manmade) in order to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of those inhabiting them.  In other words, it is design for strength and endurance.  Jill Fehrenbacher’s Inhabitat piece, Resilient Design:  Is Resilience the New Sustainability?, still rings true three years after it was published.  It makes the case that resilient design must include consideration of both worst-case and everyday wear and tear, in an effort to achieve sustainability.

For more information on resilient design:

https://www.nibs.org/?page=irdp National Institute of Building Sciences Integrated Resilient Design Program

https://www.asla.org/resilientdesign.aspx American Society of Landscape Architects Resilient Design

https://www.buildinggreen.com/resilient-design Building Green

http://greendatabase.org/2016/10/12/preparing-for-the-next-big-disaster/  GreenDatabase