ISUP Symposium
Climatic Urbanism. From City Climates to Climate Cities
10–11 November 2022
organised by Jonathan Sergison Sascha Roesler Frédéric Bonnet João Nunes
with the support of Mosé Cometta and Enrico Sassi
The challenges posed by global warming to the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design are unprecedented. Being responsible for “one-third of global final energy consumption,” the construction sector is also one of the primary causes of “total direct and indirect CO2 emissions” (“nearly 40%”) and as such, is one of the key drivers of climate change (International Energy Agency, 2021). The transformation of ecosystems and rising temperatures will lead to the comprehensive and continuous adaptation of the built environment. The political goal of net-zero emissions will have to be transferred not least by the planning disciplines into reality.
In the twenty-first century, cities are not only main contributors to climate change; they are also particularly affected by global warming. Cities will have to adapt by creating new infrastructures, decarbonizing material cultures and introducing new forms of climate control.
In Swiss cities for example, ever warmer summers are leading to the increased use of air conditioning during the summer months where two decades ago such mechanical cooling was virtually inexistent. Energy transition and climate adaptation should be conceived as one and the same process: cities are not easily governable entities but they are “the communities, spaces and political arenas through which change is invented, implemented, enacted and experienced in always specific and different ways” (Rutherford and Coutard 2014).
The symposium sheds light on the growing capacities of societies to provide climatic data (via thermal measurements, simulation techniques etc.), while highlighting evidence-based design strategies referring to urban climates. Each presenter foregrounds one specific city. Based on urban design projects and empirical case studies from cities around the world, the future practice of climate adaptation shall be discussed. The objective is to assess the different scales of urban climate adaptation and their cultural, political and economic contexts.
On Scale. How globalisation reshapes spatial understanding
Friday 3 December 2021
Online Webinar
Organized by Matteo Vegetti
Coordinator Enrico Sassi
The traditional concept of scale is increasingly challenged by new trans-scalar spatial logics. It is enough to think of the interconnection between the local environment and the global levels, of new communication and visualization technologies, of earth and space infrastructures, or even of the relationship between the city and urbanization processes, which are much broader than the urban scale.
Interactions between scales are complex: they can create new social and economic landscapes, they can lead to forms of spatial competition, or may ultimately generate forms of “immunity”, of non-relationship. This raises a number of questions: How do local and the global scales relate (or not) to one another? What are the relationships between scales? How can we develop trans-scalar spatial thinking?
The Symposium will try to address these questions with a transdisciplinary approach.
More or Less Density
29–30 October 2020
Mendrisio
- Buildings: Rethinking housing strategies for denser cities
- Landscape: Centres and hinterlands
- Resources: Urban energy landscapes and the question of density
- Governance:Inter-territorial cooperation
The inaugural symposium organised by the Istituto di studi urbani e del paesaggio (ISUP) aims to rethink density as a conceptual category that extends not only to urban areas but also to the surrounding territories. Dense living environments have become the norm in many parts of the world, and the rural/urban divide is obsolete when it comes to conceptualising density. Globalised realities are much more complex and new spatial entities are constantly being created by the movement of people, goods and services.
The widespread notion that high-density agglomerations and densification policies are indiscriminately positive (and conversely, lower densities wasteful and inefficient in terms of resource use) must be reconsidered today. The idea that gained currency over the last decade that the “city of the future” must be dense to be sustainable requires careful recalibration. Vertical housing and complex logistics infrastructures are part of an ecological narrative that justifies the design of denser neighbourhoods. In Switzerland, this doctrine has been enshrined in national legislation (Raumplanungsgesetz, 2013), accompanied by expert discussions on urban densification and populist debates on density stress.However, in the light of our current ecological and social vulnerability, density can no longer be read as an absolute parameter, measurable in numbers of individuals per surface unit. Rather, density must be conceived as a relative condition that may be referred to as the “load capacity” of political ecologies. Rather than contrasting the supposed urbanity of denser areas with the presumed dullness of low-density places, the desirable degree of density should relate to the capacity to accommodate specific programmes and to provide high-quality living environments.
While landscapes differ in terms of density ratios and architectural typologies, what counts is their interaction with other spaces: being well connected, providing easy access to large natural areas to residents of the densest metropolitan centres, as well as access to intensely urban public spaces for those living in suburban areas. Hence, the dynamics of the densest metropolitan areas are highly dependent on the resources provided by low-density areas. This interdependency is still insufficiently recognised, at least with regards to urban governance (fiscal and financial aspects) and energy balance (provenance of material components and resources). To reconsider the question of density today we must focus on balancing interactions between different territories, from city centres to the most remote rural areas.
The symposium addresses these controversial aspects of density. We aim to foreground the links between architecture and infrastructure, densely populated inner-city areas and productive hinterlands, high-rise buildings and under-populated rural landscapes. The dynamics of population shift, growth and decrease have local, national and even global consequences, as evidenced by the current Covid-19 pandemic, with densely populated urban areas becoming the epicentres of contagion. Rethinking future scenarios for densely built urban environments is crucial to ensure quality of life and optimise the use of resources.
Contributions are clustered around four themes: buildings, landscape, resources, and governance as focal points of reflection on density. Panels include researchers, scholars, designers and planners and each is hosted by one of the four members of the recently established Istituto di Studi Urbani e del Paesaggio.
