The Climate Pilots research platform advances geographically specific approaches to climate adaptation. Integrating scientific inquiry with design practice, we examine the spatial and cultural implications of climatic impacts and effects; frame problems of adaptation in terms of the built environment; and develop multi-sited pilot projects to draw inferences and yield insights anchored in distinctive places. We focus on design research projects that mediate across scales from the bioregion to the site-level in partnership with practitioners in a range of allied fields. See our index, projects, and papers for the latest news.

Helen Kongsgaard is an American designer. Her research situates design within the emergent field of climate adaptation and examines the concepts, methods, and practices at work as cities and regions adapt to climate change. In practice, she integrates design and planning within scenarios of future environmental transformation to guide decisions in the present. Kongsgaard holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University, where her research was supported by the Center for Geographic Analysis, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She teaches in urban design.