Designers at The Netherlands’ UN Studio have been imagining the future for the beleaguered citizens of New Orleans. Their impressive-looking solution, with its stair-like structure, is certainly a break from the French Quarter’s style. The Dutch team are calling it a mediatheque, and envisage it as part of a series of public buildings devoted to learning and culture. Theirs would house a library and civic offices, along with a vertical garden. As UN designers put it: ‘Public institutions such as these define and raise the quality of urban districts and provide vital opportunities for a young, developing population.’ UN Studio is in good company; Morphosis and Hargreaves Associates in the US and fellow Dutchmen MVRDV have also come up with proposals for the recovering city.