The Second Terrace: Reconnecting with Water and the Vernacular in the Ifugao Rice Terraces

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2026.1.12

Published

2026-02-21

Issue

Water & Heritage for Sustainable Development

Section

methodologies and case studies

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Copyright (c) 2025 Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi, Shubham Majumder, Sara Sabry

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

The Second Terrace: Reconnecting with Water and the Vernacular in the Ifugao Rice Terraces. (2026). Blue Papers, 98-111. https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2026.1.12

Keywords:

Banaue, rice terrace, water systems, vernacular, landscape

Abstract

The traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that is deeply embedded in the Ifugao Rice Terraces offers crucial insights for socio-ecological adaptation and resilience in times of climate change. It helps sustain local biodiversity and supports ecosystem processes while inspiring new design ideas that encourage an epistemological shift that involves integrating traditional knowledge with incremental innovations from the past into future solutions. The Second Terrace Lodge research-by-design project highlights the importance of the Ifugao community’s local landscape and cultural heritage, illustrating how traditional water and land management can be integrated into contemporary architecture and landscape design. 

Author Biographies

  • Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi, Polytechnic University of Milan

    Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi is an architect and assistant professor (ricercatore RTT) at Politecnico di Milano, working on the Floating Habitat research project. He received his PhD at IUAV and TU Delft Universities as a Joint Doctorate with research on The Heart of the City (published by Routledge in 2018). He was a postdoc at KTH Stockholm, a visiting lecturer at TU Delft, and a guest researcher at ETH Zurich, TU Delft and UNSW Sydney. He has won the Europan competition and several other architectural awards. He is a cofounder of CoPE.

  • Shubham Majumder, Polytechnic University of Milan

    Shubham Majumder is an architect from India, who has worked since the completion of his bachelor’s studies on urban and peri-urban morphologies, with a focus on waterfront urbanism in Mumbai. He continued exploring this topic while completing a master’s degree at Politecnico di Milano, where he recently graduated with a thesis titled “Living with Water,” focusing on resilient urban paradigms adapting to rising seas. 

  • Sara Sabry, Polytechnic University of Milan

    Sara Sabry is an architect and urbanist from Cairo, Egypt, with a degree in architecture engineering. She is pursuing a master’s degree at Politecnico di Milano, focusing on architecture, urbanism and geopolitical boundaries. 

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