''Gatherings like this allow us to begin to look at the whole range, from individual buildings, to larger symbolic buildings, to the landscape itself," said Reed Kroloff, dean of Tulane's School of Architecture.
He said many of the projects on display would likely never be built. ''They are intended as thought-provoking, visionary schemes," he said.
Design ideas will be on display in Rotterdam through March 6 and will then travel to Washington, New York, and eventually to New Orleans, though exact dates and venues haven't been scheduled.
Kroloff stressed that rebuilding New Orleans will require restoring trust in government and the involvement of the city's residents.
With this in mind, the Rotterdam firm MVRDV drew inspiration from a drawing made by a New Orleans elementary school girl of an imaginary hill that would have provided safety when her neighborhood flooded.
So the firm designed a hill, just across the freeway from the Superdome. It would contain an elementary school cradled in its heart.
''It could serve as a safe place when the city floods again, but it's also a little cynical, a reminder that it can happen again," said exhibition curator Emiliano Gandolfi. ''It's good to be critical, to remember that."
A joint plan by architects Hargreaves Associates of Cambridge, Mass., and West 8 of Rotterdam would use New Orleans's City Park as a recovery centerpiece.
First, fresh water would flow through the park to flush out salt water absorbed during post-Katrina flooding, and temporary housing would be set up on the park's west side to house residents as they return.
Then, as people moved out to new, permanent homes, the park would be used as a tree farm. When mature, some trees would be used to replace those lost in the city's destruction.
In the final stage, the park would go back to being just a park. But it would contain mini-river deltas capable of absorbing and pumping extra water out to sea in case the city floods again.
