The RHEA International Workshop “Fluid Horizons” (September 2026) will explore how planning and design can navigate the delicate threshold between land and water to actively enhance urban resilience, ecology, and collective civic life.  Anchored in the universal principles of sustainable urbanism, the upcoming RHEA International workshop will investigate distinct climatic, economic, and infrastructural conditions across three global waterfronts: Riga (Latvia), Amaravati, AP (India), and Deepwater, Minnesota (USA). The following themes, Climate Change and Resiliency; Conflicts and Catastrophes, Health and Well-being; Technology, Big Data and AI; and Construction and Materiality will be explored across the diverse site contexts. 

Participants will tackle the unique challenges and opportunities of these three sites and come up with proposals to create distinctive places to enhance the quality of life of people while safeguarding the planet. 

In Riga, proposals will focus on the Daugava riverfront, integrating historic Baltic identity with modern ecological corridors to counter seasonal freezing while reconnecting the urban core to the water. 

Amaravati is a new capital city being built in Andhra Pradesh over an area of 217 sq km, assembled together from the farmers and land owners under a large land pooling scheme in India. The Krishna River including its several river islands with the existing city of Vijayawada to the north and Amaravati to the south is under the pressures of rapid urbanization and extreme monsoon dynamics as well. For the Krishna Riverfront context sensitive strategies that will integrate open space, sustainable civic infrastructure, heat-mitigating social, and spatial configurations should give due consideration to the national and local codes—where public accessibility, climate adaptation and, economic vitality coexist.

In Minnesota, visions and interventions at an upper watershed  brownfield (former strip mining) site will address the profound transformation of a ravaged landscape (strip mined for Iron Ore over the past century, and now other precious metals), the realities of harsh winter climates, and new diverse ideas for economic development, new freshwater water reservoirs, and innovative research and education, focusing on the adaptive reuse of industrial infrastructure, ecological restoration, and the creation of thriving, sustainable year-round community hubs.

Participants will develop innovative proposals that demonstrate rapid iteration, collaboration across time zones, cultures and diverse site contexts. Global-local thinking is no longer optional, it is the future of planning and design practice. 
Across all sites, the core actions will be clear: ADAPT, RECONNECT, SUSTAIN.