Thesis Highlights

Atacama Desert Project

Summer 2024 has been recorded as the hottest period in Earth's history. From January to September, the average global temperature was 1.54 °C above the pre-industrial baseline. This trend positions this year to become the warmest on record. The intensification of global warming is exacerbating environmental hazards and contributing to increased desertification worldwide. How will we adapt to living in a warmer climate?

The Atacama Desert Project: Research Studio will focus on one of the driest and most ecologically distinctive environments on the planet. The Atacama Desert’s ecosystem supports nearly one million inhabitants and is crucial for key industries such as copper and lithium mining, renewable energy production, innovative agriculture, and advanced astronomical observatories, among others. While certain areas of the Atacama Desert have experienced decades without rainfall, the effects of climate change—including unforeseen climatic events, a global rise in temperatures, and the spread of desertification— make it an exceptional site for learning valuable lessons and testing innovative ideas to mitigate and adapt our built environments to a warmer scenario.

By participating in a journey to Chile and the Atacama Desert, students will researched and proposed improvements to urban settlements within this extreme ecosystem. Emphasizing social equity, sustainability, ecological integrity, and risk resilience, the research studio provides an opportunity to face real-world challenges, explore impactful solutions for sustainable development in extreme environments, and gain skills that can be extrapolated to similar contexts globally.