About Ecological Urbanism
The scientific community widely shares the observation that the theoretical and operational concepts of urban planning, inherited from the 20th century, do not allow an eco-systemic approach of the phenomena and the combined stakes of globalization, urbanization, sustainability, energy transition and climate change. Broadly speaking, the disciplines that investigate those questions are progressively brought to reprofile and interact with one another in order to understand the current mutation phenomena, and to help the expansion of public and civil authorities that can help to deal with it in a resilient and appropriate way. This is particularly the case for ecology and urban planning, which for thirty years have shared the observation of the weak integration between anthropogenic and natural dynamics of territorial systems, but whose theoretical and methodological corpuses continue to mark specific territories - both scientifically and in planning strategies and practices. The problematic of the Ecological Urbanism seminar means to bring the two terms together, on the basic assumption that, joined to one another, they open the way to new ways of thinking complexity and make possible a double transcendence: the one of the dualisation human-being - nature and the one of the containment of practices in autonomous fields. These include – for instance – understanding and analyzing how ecological consciousness transforms the ways of thinking and producing the future of territories; how the scientific need of ecosystem-based management of urbanization processes is reflected in territorial planning, urban design and landscape practices; and how the ecosystemic approach – global, transversal, collaborative, precautionary, multi-scalar and reversible – reprofiles the conditions of an applied, implied and critical research by the urban and territorial project.
Based on concrete situations and research experiments, the seminar suggests a survey of concepts, methods and practices that emerge at the crossroads of the scientific and operational domains concerned by the urban and territorial project. It aims to contribute to the development of theoretical and methodological frameworks that foster an ecosystemic perspective. This collective and interdisciplinary approach is also part of the public debate on the future of Brussels, in the perspective of the applied, involved and critical research of Metrolab Brussels.
Half-day sessions are organized in three moments:
- a lesson offered by a key speaker;
- one or two presentations of operational and / or research experiments;
- a discussion
Presentations will be given in English or French.
To know more about the research seminar see Ecological Urbanism Seminar.pdf
Agenda:
Session #1 Le sol des villes | 29/03/2017
Session #2 Ecological urbanism and new bioregional infrastructures | 9/05/2017
Session #3 Ecological urbanism in old industrial valleys | 7/06/2017
Session #4 Recycling Territories | 11-12/10/2017
11th October 2017 Conference | 18:30 "Recycling Infrastructures - Nouveaux cycles de vie pour les infrastructures territoriales en Italie" par Lorenzo Fabian (IUAV Venise)
Lorenzo Fabian nous parlera de recyclage comme une manipulation "re-créative", un moyen d'attribuer une nouvelle valeur et une nouvelle signification aux objets ordinaires du paysage italien et en particulier vénitien : les routes, les fossés, l'eau, les réseaux d'énergie, les chemins de fer, les champs. Portant une attention particulière aux questions environnementales, il expliquera comment le recyclage offre l’occasion de repenser l'accessibilité des territoires et l'émergence de nouvelles économies.
12th October 2017 Round Table | from 9:00 to 12:00 "Recycling Territories - La ville compacte"
