"Rebuild by Design” in New York City: Investigating the Competition Process and Discussing its Outcomes

Abstract

"Rebuild by Design" was a four-stage, interdisciplinary design competition aimed at bolstering the resilience of the New York region after Hurricane Sandy. This paper explores the extent to which a design competition like Rebuild by Design can be considered a viable form of disaster recovery. This includes the use of twenty-three key informant interviews conducted with the principal actors involved in the competition are analysed. Their results are then used to both understand what features of the competition worked well – and which did not – and to provide the first critical analysis of the six winning proposals. This paper concludes by discussing the programmatic elements of Rebuild by Design that hold promise for future application and by identifying those which must be reformed if the notion of recovery-through-competition is to find success outside of the New York region.