The Deborah J. Norden Fund 2011

“Anticipating, Negotiating, Conditioning: Tidal [Infra]Structures of Patagonia”

In 2011, the Architectural League awarded one grant to Melanie Kaba, who traveled to three points along the Chilean coastal region of Patagonia to study vernacular responses to extreme tidal conditions. Kaba saw these cases as valuable in informing rising extreme conditions at the interface of land and water, believing that “documenting evidence that shows us how humans have successfully woven built conditions into extreme terrains (natural, political, or otherwise).”

Melanie Kaba is an architect and educator. She has taught in the architecture departments of the University of California, Berkeley; California College of the Arts; and the University of Michigan. Originally from Kansas, Melanie earned her BS in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University and her MArch from the University of Michigan. She currently practices architecture in San Francisco and is engaged in several projects where land meets the sea.