The Gulf Coast is alive with motion and tension. Communities face immediate shocks from technological disasters and storms, along with long arcs of sea level rise and land loss. These impacts force migration that exacerbates both rural and urban poverty, intensifies agricultural and industrial waste, and produces vacancies and residual spaces. Addressing these complex issues requires innovative framework and big ideas that exceed traditional disciplinary boundaries.

The LSU School of Architecture held the Gulf Coast 2050: Speculative Design for Possible Futures workshop at LSU January 28–31, 2026. The interdisciplinary All-School Workshop & Symposium (ASW) brought together students, faculty, and leading voices from architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, the humanities, social sciences, and coastal research to imagine possible futures for the Gulf Coast.

Organized by the LSU School of Architecture and the Caribbean Spatial Justice Lab, the ASW is a three-day experiment in collective foresight. It convenes students, faculty, and leading voices in architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and coastal sciences to visualize possible futures. The event has a special emphasis on storytellers who can turn evidence into provocative narratives to guide the second half of this century.

The 2026 All-School Workshop in coordinated by architecture faculty Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Traci Birch, Sergio Padilla, and Irene Brisson – with generous support from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program and the Caribbean Spatial Justice Lab.

“Through collective mapping, storytelling, and speculative design, teams examine[d] ecological, social, and infrastructure systems, then project bold, evidence-based scenarios for life in 2050,” the faculty organizers said.

“This is a space for experimentation, risk-taking, and big ideas that push beyond disciplinary boundaries toward resilience, equity, and long-term well-being.”

The workshop was an interesting learning experience, said Trey Meyer, Bachelor of Architecture candidate, particularly in analyzing the role of AI as a potential support tool. “The premise of the project was incredibly interesting, but made me question the use of generative AI in a project about sustainability,” he said.

Using co-production and design thinking, workshop participants mapped the relationship between ecological, social, and infrastructure systems in order to analyze current and probably conditions. These mapping function as analytical instruments and creative provocations that frame each team’s future scenario.

Given the scale of what is at stake, minor adjustments will not do. This is a space for boldness, no grades and no judgement, where risk and experimentation outperform incrementalism. Over the course of three days, experts from diverse institutions and practices will guide interdisciplinary teams through an intensive exploration of possibility.

Themes include retreating and receiving communities, regenerative coastal infrastructures, and adaptive ecological networks. The goal is not to predict the future. The goal is to expand it, then design responses as large as the challenges ahead to improve health, well-being, and cultivate long-term Gulf Coast resilience.

“Architecture is interdisciplinary by nature. We might be among the best situated to face such a complex task. You will team with voices from ecology, public health, engineering, social sciences, the arts and many more to connect beyond our usual comfort zone and build scenarios that stand up to scrutiny.”

Dasjon Jordan, an organizer, designer, and planner from New Orleans, gave the opening lecture “Broad Community Connections.” Workshop leaders included Tori Bush, postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Global Humanities Center; Caulin Donaldson, social and environmental activist “Trash Caulin”; Jordany Fortune, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras; Daniel Jato-Espino, Universidad Internacional de Valencia; Madoche Jean Louis, water resources engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through Dynamic Solutions; Casey Jones, University of California, Berkeley; Anca Matyiku, University of Cincinnati; Vanessa Moscardó Garcia is a Data Scientist and Senior Researcher at the Interntational University of Valencia; Rebeca de Jesus Crespo and Thomas Douthat, assistant professors of environmental sciences at LSU; Brendan Harmon, associate professor of landscape architecture at LSU; Nolanda Jones, assistant professor of interior design at LSU; Hannah Hopewell, associate professor of landscape architecture; Sophonie Joseph, Pratt Institute; scholars Courtney Klee, Marty Miller, Haley Blakeman, and artist Hannah Chalew.

The workshop concluded with a public exhibition and symposium where teams present their work to community stakeholders, agency partners, and scholars, opening an honest conversation about our shared future, opening a conversation about how we design the futures we want to inherit.