FIU LAEUD Professor Roberto Rovira delivered the opening keynote address at the 2025 Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) 56 Conference on Wednesday, May 28 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Speaking to an international audience of designers, researchers, and scholars, Rovira introduced his talk, “The Art of Uncertainty and the Crisis of Why: The Role of Imagination in Climate Action and Design,” by positioning the conversation within EDRA’s long-standing role as a leading forum since 1968 where environmental design research and practice converge.
Building on EDRA’s legacy of inquiry and experimentation, Rovira underscored the urgent need for design disciplines to pair analytical rigor with expansive, future-oriented thinking. While data, metrics, and technical precision remain foundational to addressing the climate crisis, he argued they are insufficient without imagination, optimism, and a shared sense of purpose. Drawing from his work across landscape architecture, research, and art, Rovira invited the audience to reconsider uncertainty not as a hindrance but as a productive catalyst in shaping meaningful climate action. He emphasized the importance of balancing the practical with the poetic to cultivate community resilience and equip the field for emerging ecological challenges.
Rovira’s keynote galvanized the conference’s opening by reaffirming design’s critical role in structuring the ways communities envision and realize climate-responsive futures. His remarks challenged attendees to embrace uncertainty with intellectual courage and creative clarity, setting a resonant tone for the discussions ahead.
Assistant Professor Linda Chamorro also presented her research at EDRA 56 with a paper titled “Language as a Design Tool for Climate Resilience.” Her work examined the often-overlooked role of language in shaping cultural worldviews and argued for its importance as a critical design instrument, particularly when engaging communities in climate-responsive planning and design processes. Anchored in her ongoing collaboration with environmental design scholars at Purdue University, SUNY–ESF, and UC Davis, Chamorro’s presentation outlined methods in both practice and pedagogy that leverage language-based tools to redefine and reawaken how communities understand their environments and the ecological changes ahead.
A recording of the keynote is expected to be available on YouTube in the near future.
