Maryland Institute College of Art, Department of Architectural Design (MICA) has been partnering with Deltares to develop visionary schemes for the Markermeer, the Netherlands last unbuilt polder. Katie O’Meara, architect, geographer and professor at MICA, and  Gerda Roeleveld, Landscape Architect and Spatial Planning and Policy expert at Deltares, have been working together with the 3rd year architectural design students at MICA to develop innovative designs that address fragile ecosystems, urban expansion and combined risks of flooding.

In the classroom: Gerda Roeleveld, world-renowned landscape architect and surface- water expert at Deltares, mentored a team of 12 MICA juniors in AD310 to create design schemes that integrate ecology and urbanism for the 45km Markermeer, the Netherlands third and last unbuilt polder.