Resilience Is the Design Imperative of the 21st Century

To survive in a world of change, stop designing for the best-case scenario

Animation by Shira Inbar

In March of 2008, salmonella infiltrated the public water system of the town of Alamosa in southern Colorado. The resulting disease outbreak infected an estimated 1,300 people, over 14% of the town’s population. Of those infected, one person died and 20 more were hospitalized. The Alamosa outbreak was the second-largest water-borne illness outbreak in the United States that decade.

Though teams worked as quickly as they could to sanitize the water system, the people of Alamosa were unable to use the water for weeks. While some people were able to get water from friends who had wells or were otherwise not connected to the system, most had no options. Without undertaking the major operation to deliver and distribute bottled water for drinking and cooking, it would have been extremely difficult for the town to weather the outbreak.

Before I became a designer, I spent five years as a public health emergency planner. I planned for and responded to disease outbreaks, tornados, and pandemics. When the Alamosa outbreak occurred, I was part of a nine-person team dispatched to help manage the first week of the incident. What played out in Alamosa was not unique. The story is a microcosm…