Metaamo + World Bank take on Urban Resilience in the Pacific

We are thrilled to share that Metaamo has been selected by the World Bank to be the Urban Design Consultant for a new Urban Resilience project in the Pacific: Urban Design Analysis of the Delap-Uliga-Djarrit (DUD) area in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), which is part of the World Bank’s broader RMI Urban Resilience Project (RMIURP). This World Bank-executed technical assignment has the objective of supporting the Bank and the RMI Government in identifying potential Resilient Public Space investment options in Majuro, through the development of an Urban Design Analysis and Urban Profile of Majuro, an Urban Design Handbook for Resilient Public Space, while delivering a Capacity-Building Workshop to Government Stakeholders to enhance their capacity on Risk-informed Urban Design.

At the grass-roots level, Metaamo has been working, researching, and partnering with communities in the RMI for nearly a decade on issues dealing with Climate Change Adaptation, Urban Resilience, and Risk-Informed Community Planning, while foregrounding the preservation and celebration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and cultural specificity. In addition to this World Bank project, Metaamo has also been developing a masterplan and design for a K-12 School, as well as designing a new model for resilient housing rooted in local material supply chains.

For more info and background on the RMIURP: World Bank: RMIURP Background

Metaamo Awarded SSHRC Grant for Pacific Atolls Work in Micronesia

Very happy to announce that Metaamo has been awarded a significant SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

The award is in partnership with Metaamo and our friend & collaborator Dr. James Miller (OCAD University, Toronto), and will be used to launch a series of workshops on participatory, community-based disaster risk reduction planning that will lead-in to a new K-12 school project we're master planning and designing with communities on Majuro Atoll (RMI).

Congratulations and thanks to all our partner organizations who’ve helped on this important project: The Genuardi Family Foundation, Seventh Day Adventist School of Majuro, Living Islands 501(c)3 Non-Profit, WAM (Canoes of the Marshall Islands), OCAD University, College of the Marshall Islands, the SDA Guam Micronesia Mission, and the RMI local government, to name just the short list.