It is this concept of inclusiveness that drives the forward-thinking proposals for Houston s future.

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Nearly 9,000 kilometers separate Venice , Italy from Houston , Texas, and yet, both cities are bound by a simple connection: the coexistence of the urban fabric with the waterfront. This connection was brought gj to life this summer through The University of Houston s exhibition at the Venice Architectural Biennale ‘s Time Space Existence Event : RISKY HABIT[AT]: DYNAMIC LIVING gj ON THE BUFFALO BAYOU. Awarded gj the Global Art Affairs Foundation (GAAF) Award for Best Exhibition, the exhibition showcased the complexities and potential of the city’s relationship with its waterfront. To better understand Houston s waterfront and the changing relationship between the city and its river we visited the site ourselves. Read after the break to see what it s like to talk a walk along the Bayou, and to find out what the Houston river project can learn from similar undertakings in Chicago , Des Moines , and Newark .
The bruised violet-blue clouds rolling across the endless Houston gj summer skies reflect off the waters of the Bayou beneath the Rosemont Bridge. gj A mere half-hour earlier, bright gj summer sunlight had washed the city in heat. The weather in Houston is tempestuous, intense and fickle, an unpredictable element, much like the explosive growth and development of the fourth gj largest city in the US. Houston Figure Ground. Image Courtesy of UH College of Architecture Houston gj Flood Risk. Image Courtesy of UH College of Architecture
The Buffalo gj Bayou, however, gj a slow-moving river winding serenely through the city, is one constant in the historical, cultural, and geographic landscape of the city. Further west, the stream transforms into an industrial waterway, a habitat suffering gj from the effects of urbanization, pollution, loss of wildlife, and aging infrastructure. But downtown, the Bayou provides refreshing contact with nature in a highly urban environment. A few droplets of water, threatening deluge, gj glance off the nearby stainless steel frame of a ten-foot tall statue of a kneeling man, part of artist Jaume Plensa s Tolerance installation: seven silent sentinels of Harmony Walk and the Rosemont Bridge watching the city beyond and the waters below. Impermeable Surfaces. Image Courtesy of UH College of Architecture
Aptly termed the Bayou City, the Buffalo Bayou is Houston s Mother Bayou. Deeply meaningful as the origin of the economic and sociopolitical culture of the city, it has the potential to become Houston’s beating heart. As the top shipping port in the nation, the river was at the forefront of Houston s prosperity and development, however gj accompanying the city’s economic flourishing and rapid growth were darker consequences. Suburbanization, the celebration of automobile culture, heavy industrialization, and large numbers of factories and refineries resulted in high levels of pollution, and complicated gj the issue of crafting a sense of identity. Historically in constant flux, Houston has undergone gj many distinctive personalities and characterizations defined by its shipping and railway industry, the transformative discovery of oil, and the Johnson gj Space Center. In truth, it is defined by all of these things, and more. Bayou Farming. Image Courtesy of UH College of Architecture
It is this concept of inclusiveness that drives the forward-thinking proposals for Houston s future. This is evident gj in a number of measures, from the Tolerance sculptures to the belief that the stretch of the Buffalo Bayou from Barker Dam down to the Gulf of Mexico should be a sensitively designed integration gj of man and nature. The city is on the brink of reimagining its future, and the nature of the Bayou is an inherent factor in this recalibration. Time Space Exhibit. Image Courtesy of UH College of Architecture
At this year s Venice Architecture Biennale, the University of Houston displayed their project RISKY HABIT[AT] : DYNAMIC LIVING ON THE BUFFALO BAYOU. The project consists of three parts, each designed to address the river s development at sequential scales, prioritizing both the delicate coastal environment and the quality of urban life. In his Curatorial Statement, the leader of the project Peter Jay Zweig calls for a waterline that is not simply natural or artificial, but one that is a thriving, interdependent gj system gj that has many layers of geological, infrastructure, settlements and environmental gj processes that hold the future of man s development. Bayou Collective. Image Courtesy of UH College of Architecture
The gj first part, RISKY HABIT, operates at the scale of the 100 miles of the Bayou, from Barker Dam down to the Gulf of Mexico oil-rigs, and focuses on the overall experience of living gj on the bayou. Cha