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This multidisciplinary study aims to increase flood and drought resilience in New Orleans by integrating technical adaptation measures in the built environment. The development of a design framework and detailed design interventions follows from a vulnerability analysis that focuses on the different capacities of the built environment in dealing with weather events of various magnitudes. For this analysis, the threshold (preventing damage), coping (mitigating damage), recovery (recovering from damage) and adaptive (flexibility to change) capacities of the built environment are investigated. The analysis shows that subsiding soils and ageing infrastructure leave the city unprepared to increasing climatological extremes. A main conclusion from this research is that the flood and drought resilience of New Orleans can be best increased by introducing open water in the urban environment. These findings are consolidated in new hydrological framework and urban design for New Orleans. The proposed design offers a high potential of meeting the required water storage capacity, with the intention to reintroduce the lost identity of wetlands to the suburbs of New Orleans. Typological and urban design across scales aim to integrate water system elements into the urban fabric, and to merge a new water-based urban environment with traditional desired American neighborhood qualities.