The extreme city INTERNATIONAL DESIGN WORKSHOP
climate change and the transformation of the waterscape
VENICE, APRIL 3-14, 2010
Erasmus Mundus Intensive Program EMU_UPC BARCELONA TU DELFT KU LEUVEN IUAV VENEZIA prof. Paola Viganò (paola.vigano@iuav.it ) Università IUAV di Venezia
The extreme city INTERNATIONAL DESIGN WORKSHOP climate change and the transformation of the waterscape
A DESIGN AND RESEARCH THEME The goals of the workshop are to deal with the transformations of the space of water in climate change conditions. A “research by design” approach is the starting point of a reflection on techniques and forms of knowledge which use the project to tackle complex issues. A multidisciplinary approach is proposed to deal with the vulnerability of a dispersedly inhabited region. A research on water space in conditions of climate change and in territories as the Venice lagoon with its metropolitan area means to explore the "extreme city": the urbanized land margins towards the water where the maximum risk is located. It needs a dialogue with other disciplines, the comprehension of specific logics, those which determine the rules of water design and management, those which have in large extension contributed and still do to the definition of the territory. How and how much can urban and territorial design, integrated to hydraulic engineering, landscape ecology, geography… - tackle and contrast the negative effects of the ongoing mutations? What scenarios can be individuated? What prototypes of integrated infrastructures can be imagined? According to the definition of IPCC [1996] a territory vulnerability to climate change measures its ability to produce damages and to modify a system. In the case of coasts, vulnerability is extreme meaning the current incapacity to face the consequences of the climate change and the raising of the sea level. The situation of the
Venice lagoon, particularly, is so fragile that it requires diminishing the risk of flooding in the inner land not only for the damages there, but also for the damages that could be produced in the lagoon itself, worsening the already harsh and severe situation. If the lagoon is the most vulnerable part, because of the present difficulties to adapt it to future conditions, the hinterland seems to be more flexible, its grade of resilience, its capacity to re-find the stable conditions after an event, can be investigated as much as its resistance, i.e. the ability not to be perturbed by the events. Research by design: it is evident these new conditions request an integrated approach and a group of design strategies that can conjugate the existing conditions of the different systems - water and settlement - in a approach made by scenarios and prototypes. A research on the "extreme city", territories at the edges, the spaces in contact with water can teach a lot about possible approaches and solutions also in others territories similarly dispersed and that will be compared to the case study (as an example Shangai irrigation plain or the sprawling city connecting the main coasts in Taiwan).
ORGANIZATION AND TIMING main activities The Intensive Programme will be made of - 3 days of preparatory works by means of thematic seminars contemporarily held in the different schools and of on-line discussions via blog specifically made for the experience; - 10 days of design workshop in Venice for field work, design atelier in thematic groups, lessons of EMU teachers and lectures of invited experts, discussions, presentation of final design results. target groups The design workshop is open to the students of the EMU_Post Graduate Masters in Urbanism (UPC Barcelona, TU Delft, KU Leuven, IUAV Venezia). Compatibly with the available places the workshop is also open to students and tutors coming from other schools. The participating students will be coordinated by tutors from the different schools. Lectures and seminars will be held during the workshop. Lectures and interdisciplinary seminars will be organized during the workshop. Limited grants are available for EMU students and other students; the submissions must be sent before the end of January. An exhibition will be organized at the end of the workshop as well as the publication of the works.
period: April 3-14, 2010
International design Workshop
The extreme city INTERNATIONAL DESIGN WORKSHOP when: from the 3rd to the 14th of April 2010 where: Venice lagoon and its catchment basin who: students from EMU and other postgraduate courses credits: the workshop is an integral part of the European Master in Urbanism program and gives 2 ECTS costs: all costs for travel and accommodation will be paid to students who will be selected to participate to the workshop. selection: students interested must send their portfolio by the end of January 2010 for more information: Lucia Basile (lucia.basile@iuav.it) tel.+39 041 2571859 fax +39 041 8106727 cell+39 335 7123851
Erasmus Mundus Intensive Program EMU_UPC BARCELONA TU DELFT KU LEUVEN IUAV VENEZIA Università IUAV di Venezia prof. Paola Viganò (paola.vigano@iuav.it