49 | März 2021: Future Cities Lab Global - NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft

Dear reader,

Future Cities Lab Global (FCL Global) is an international, interdisciplinary research collaboration between ETH Zurich and three Singapore universities – National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD) – operating from two hubs, one at ETH Zurich and one the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), a partnership established in 2010 between ETH and NRF (National Research Foundation Singapore). The collaboration will see scientists from both countries come together to develop solutions to help cities and their surrounding regions achieve sustainable growth. Find out more about the FCL Global programme in our latest NSL newsletter.

We hope you enjoy the read!

A cow peacefully grazes on an open field, a real estate development site with a row of houses and electrical poles in the background. Such landscapes are commonly seen around the world – and it could be just about anywhere there is arable land. In this case it is in Manila where, as in many countries, we find the rise of mixed land uses, the enclosure of formerly public land for private uses, and the conversion of agricultural land for industrial, commercial and real estate purposes. Although arable land is rare and valuable (only about 4% of the earth’s surface) this is a familiar pattern – urban eats rural, and rural eats wilderness. The ambition to break this pattern is at the heart of the FCL Global programme. © University of the Philippines Population Institute, «Spaces in Transition: Mapping Manila’s Peri-Urban Fringe,» with the kind permission of Prof. Arnisson Ortega, Syracuse University.

Thinking Future Systems

Prof. Sacha Menz & Dr. Matthew Skjonsberg | Future Cities Lab Global (Zurich Hub)

FCL Global addresses the globally significant challenges of expanding urbanisation and aims to create a better understanding of the relationship between the city and its surrounding region, so as to make city-regions more sustainable. Following FCL Global’s Launch Event on 2 March 2021, FCL Global Co-Director Professor Sacha Menz and Dr. Matthew Skjonsberg, FCL Global Associate Director (Hub Zurich), discussed the programme’s philosophy and attitude – urban and rural, nature and culture, design and engineering, people and politics.

View of the agro-urban landscape of Antananarivo © by Rod Waddington

FCL Global Tana – Co-designing a Blue-green Future for the Agro-urban City of Antananarivo

Dr. Nicolas Salliou, Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey | Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems

The capital city of Madagascar, Antananarivo, is a high-altitude city. Traditionally, the Merina culture settled on hills dominating rice cultivation in the plains. However, urban growth is changing this landscape fast as city dwellers are more and more settling in the rice plain. This growth also raises the demand for bricks made by mining. The soil of the plain rises and back-fills are eating up the sponge capacity of the city to cope with floods.

Territories of urban potentials for the Geneva region in 2050. The plan outlines the future land use strategy for a polycentric, equitable and ecological region. The project methodology serves as a precedent for the FCL Global research. Source: Team Grand Genève et son sol, M. Topalović, F. Hertweck, K. Kostka, N. Katsikis, 2020.

New Agendas Under Planetary Urbanisation: Designing Sustainable Agri-Urbanisms

Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid | Sociology & Prof. Milica Topalović | Architecture and Territorial Planning

What is the future of the manifold agricultural territories across the world that support contemporary cities? While discussions on urban sustainability have focused on cities and urban regions, many agricultural territories are equally exposed to rapid and far-reaching urban transformation processes with massive social and environmental implications, opening a research gap for ‘agri-urbanisms’.

The existing cargo port in Tanjong Pagar will make way for a new expansion of the central business district of Singapore. The Rail Corridor with its terminus station could be integrated into the strategic use of the open spaces to dissipate the urban heat island effect. At street level, the airflow improves thermal comfort. Designs by ETH and SUTD students applying the design method by Philipp Urech, simulations in OpenFOAM by M.O. Mughal.

Form and Performance in Shaping Urban Landscapes

Dr. Philipp RW Urech | Chair of Prof. Christophe Girot, Landscape Architecture | Future Cities Laboratory

Digital technologies have become ubiquitous in current design practice for urban landscapes. Not only does the rapidly increasing extent and resolution of digital data help to study urban systems, but digital technologies have also enabled the inclusion of dynamic conditions in the design process. Understanding these conditions makes it possible to design shapes that respond to the characteristics of a site.

Figure 1 Ecosystem Services-Design Loop (Credit: Ecosystem Services in Urban Landscapes Project).

Introducing Ecosystem Services-Design Loop

Dr. Zuzana Drillet | Chair of Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS) & Prof. Peter Edwards | Environmental Systems Science

Until recently, urban planners and designers gave little consideration to the multifunctional design of green spaces. This was partly because quantitative information about the extent of ecosystem benefits was not readily accessible to landscape professionals. Future Cities Laboratory (FCL), Singapore-ETH Centre has developed an ‘Ecosystem Services-Design Loop’ that creates an effective link between ecosystem performance and the landscape design.

Kurzmeldungen

Alpine Seenlandschaft Schweiz, Wasserbedarf künstliche Beschneiung © Lukas Ryffel, ETH Zürich

Beschneiungsspeicher: erfassen, analysieren und beurteilen

Thomas Kissling | Professur Günther Vogt, Landschaftsarchitektur

Der Klimawandel verändert die Konditionen für die touristischen Regionen in den Alpen. Zahlreiche Speicherkapazitäten für die Produktion von Schnee wurden in den letzten Jahren gebaut oder sind projektiert. Diese artifiziellen Kleinstseen stellen massive Eingriffe in das sensible Gefüge der alpinen Landschaft dar. Das von den Toggenburg Bergbahnen geförderte und von der Professur Günter Vogt ausgeführte Forschungsprojekt entwirft basierend auf einer Auslegeordnung und Analyse bestehender Beschneiungsspeicher Szenarien für die zukünftige Speicherlandschaft der Alpen mit Fokus auf die Schweiz. Thomas Kissling

Ehemaliger Bahnhof Oberstadt, Baden. Bild: AZ / san

Oberstadt4D

ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE, Entwicklungsplanung Stadt Baden, CONT-S GmbH

Das Projekt «Oberstadt4D» unterstützt die Entwicklungsplanung des Badener Quartiers Oberstadt. Dieses soll sich zu einem dichten, urbanen Wohnquartier transformieren. Im Fokus der Untersuchung stehen die künftige bauliche Dichte, die Bebauungs- und Freiraumstruktur sowie das Nutzungsverhältnis von Wohnen und Arbeiten. Mit dem partizipativen Ansatz schliesst es Wissenschaft, Praxis und Verwaltung sowie weitere gesellschaftliche Akteure frühzeitig und durchgängig ein.

Publikationen

This is a selection. Find a complete list in the ETH Zürich Research Collection.

Internationales Doktorandenkolleg – Forschungslabor Raum (Hg.)

Grenzen überschreiten – Räume aktivieren. Transnationale Ansätze der Raumplanung in Europa

Die Herausforderungen der europäischen Raumentwicklung sind nur in transdisziplinärer Kooperation zu bewältigen. In einem sich dynamisch verändernden Europa mit seinen komplexen Wandlungsprozessen sind neue, integrierende Planungs- und Entwurfsansätze gefragt, um den Zusammenhalt zwischen den Ländern und Regionen zu stärken.

Paradise Now Die neuen Grenzen des Gartens

Günther Vogt, Violeta Burckhardt, Frank Fehrenbach (Hg.)

Paradise Now. Die neuen Grenzen des Gartens

Das Urbild des Gartens ist das Paradies, das durch hohe Mauern von einer unwirtlicheren Welt getrennt war. Die heutigen «Paradiese» sind Saatgutbunker in Spitzbergen oder gigantische künstliche Welten zur optimierten Produktion von Lebensmitteln.

The figure shows all 7.945 identified building parcels and their respective additional size of development in m2 in the whole agglomeration of Lausanne's residential and mixed-use zones. © Michael Walczak, ETH Zurich

Michael Walczak

A Multi-dimensional Spatial Policy Model for Large-scale Multi-municipal Swiss Contexts

Switzerland’s widely adopted spatial policy rejects the use of new land in favour of promoting the densification of existing buildings or brownfield developments. However, to date there has not been an assessment of the volumetric building reserves that are still available within the current building regulatory framework. This paper addresses this lacuna using a case study of the agglomeration of Lausanne.

Location of building E1 within the hospital (left), and location of the PET centre in the ground floor plan of the building E1 (right). The blue box around the PET centre, labelled with the letter «A», marks the area of interest for the analysis. Left image courtesy of the University Hospital of Zurich.

Miriam Esders, Claudio Martani, Bryan T. Adey

Evaluating Initial Building Designs Considering Possible Future Changes and Decision Flexibility: The Example of The New PET Centre of the University Hospital of Zurich

The uncertainty on the future treatments demand, recently evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it challenging for hospitals managers to determine the optimal design of new clinics. Flexibility can help in optimally minimizing the service risks when the benefits of the investments justify the costs, considering the dynamism of treatment demand.

Dead wood in a mountain forest near Davos, Graubünden. © Ana Stritih, ETH Zürich

Ana Stritih, Cornelius Senf, Rupert Seidl, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Peter Bebi

The Impact of Land-use Legacies and Recent Management on Natural Disturbance Susceptibility in Mountain Forests

Mountain forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and protection from natural hazards. Forest cover in the European Alps has increased over the last century, but in recent years, these forests have experienced an increasing rate of natural disturbances by agents such as windthrow, bark beetle outbreaks, and forest fires.

Front and back of the book CUARZO by Dr.Andrea González. STL Spatial Transformation Laboratories. Image: Mainichi / Nippon News

Andrea González

CUARZO: Cities, Urban Planning and Architecture in the Reconstruction of the 0 Zones

The Creation of the First Japanese Cities, the Recovery After the Second World War and the Reconstruction of the Cities of the North After the Tsunami of 2011.

Figure 2: Change in passenger-kilometres (PKm) by mode against baseline (autumn 2019). Data: https://ivtmobis.ethz.ch/mobis/covid19/en/

Kay W. Axhausen

COVID-19 and the Dilemma of Transport Policy Making

This short paper sets out the basic dilemma of transport policy making today, as how to strike the balance between the benefits of accessibility and the induced externalities in terms of sprawl, greenhouse gas emissions and congestion. The impacts of the Corona19 pandemic sharpens the dilemma.

Daniel Kiss and Simon Kretz (Editors)

Relational Theories of Urban Form. An Anthology

This project stemmed from the editors’ shared interest in theories of urban form and a reading seminar they jointly taught at the D-ARCH, ETH Zurich. In their ongoing investigations into questions of form in theory and practice, the relationship between the social and the material emerged again and again as one of the momentous central themes of the discipline.

Stellenausschreibungen

Weiterbildung | Studiengänge

Luzern © Timon Furrer

Master of Advanced Studies ETH in Raumplanung 2021/23

Bewerbungsfrist: 1. Januar – 30. April 2021. Continua

Collage by Goda Budvytyte

Master of Advanced Studies ETH EPFL in Urban and Territorial Design

Call for applications PROLONGED until 30 June 2021.

Urban and territorial design has acquired a new meaning and urgency. From drivers of progress to the source of planetary hazards, the impacts of cities and wider urbanisation processes are being recast in the public sphere. The critical examination of anthropocentric world views, the proposed politics of a Green New Deal, growing social movements, and climate activism are reflected directly in urban and territorial space, highlighting power asymmetries and fuelling the exploration of alternatives. The imminent future of the urban engages social and environmental imaginaries, which now extend beyond-the-city and beyond-the-human.

Seminario in Bhuji, India, 2019 © MAS ETH in Housing

Master of Advanced Studies ETH in Housing

Bewerbungsfrist VERLÄNGERT: 1. Januar bis 30. Juni 2021, Kursstart: September 2021.

Das MAS setzt sich zum Ziel, durch multidisziplinäre Ausbildung und Forschung auf hohem Niveau dazu beizutragen, Lösungen für die Herausforderungen des Wohnungsbaus in der Schweiz, in Europa sowie in Ländern mit niedrigem und mittlerem Einkommen weltweit zu finden.

Strada vuota in Singapore (CC0 1.0 by VizAforMemories via Unsplash)

CAS/DAS Verkehrsingenieurwesen ab Herbst 2021

Anmeldung: ab Januar 2021 – 31. Juli 2021. Continua

Marseille © 2019 ETH Zürich, Professur Günther Vogt

Master of Science ETH in Landschaftsarchitektur

Bewerbungsfrist: 1. Nov. – 15. Dez. 2021 & 1. – 30. April 2022 Continua

ETH-EPFL Summer School: Transects Through Alpine Water Landscapes

16-21 August 2021 | Application deadline PROLONGED: 1 July | Villa Cassel, 3987 Riederalp, Kanton Wallis.

Aktuell

This is a selection. Head over to our News-Page for more.

Architektur für einen Planeten in der Krise | Architecture for a Broken Planet

26.3.–29.8.2021 | ZAZ Zentrum Architektur Zürich.

«Critical Care» ist eine Ausstellung des Architekturzentrum Wien und wurde dort erstmals 2019 gezeigt. Continua

Posters_Exhibition_the-view-from-the-car

The View from the Car: Autopia as a New Perceptual Regime

30 March 2021 – 15 June 2021 Online exhibition | 15 September – 15 October 2021 Real space exhibition at the Baubibliothek, ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg. Continua

Projektdokumentation Jugendjobbörse Winterthur

Age-Talk: «Sackgeldjobs – Wie funktioniert das?»

8. April 2021, 11 Uhr | online.

Diesen April findet der von der Age-Stiftung organisierte Age-Talk «Sackgeldjobs – Wie funktioniert das?» zur Jugendjobbörse Winterthur statt. Zu Gast ist die Sozial- und Kulturanthropologin Dr. Eveline Althaus (ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE), die über den kürzlich erschienenen Bericht zur Jugendjobbörse Winterthur spricht.

Weitere Informationen

Wohnforum Talks

16. März / 13. April / 11. Mai / 1. Juni, jeweils 13.30–15 Uhr | online.

Die Wohnforum Talks (ehem. BBL) eröffnen eingeladenen Gästen und Mitarbeitenden des ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE die Möglichkeit, aktuelle Bereiche ihrer Forschung zu teilen und Ideen, Konzepte und Ergebnisse zu diskutieren. Die Veranstaltung findet online statt, jeweils Dienstag, 13.30–15 Uhr (unregelmässig).

School of Architecture for Reconciliation: Cooperative Housing and Sustainable Habitats in Post-conflict Colombia

12–16 April, 9:00–17:30 | ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, HIT H22.11 or online, depending on the current rules. Continua

Call for Contributions trans#39 Comfort

We are happy to invite you to propose contributions for the upcoming issue trans#39 Comfort. trans magazin is the bi-annual architecture journal of the Department of Architecture at th ETH Zurich. We are looking forward to hearing your proposals in English and German. Please send a brief abstract to trans@arch.ethz.ch by 14 April 2021. For further information please visit the trans website. Elisaveta, Ella, Jeremy, Juliette.

Writing Model Histories

12 May, 10:00–13:00 | Colloquium | online.

Invited Lecturers: Professor Dr. Thea Brejzek, School of Archi- tecture, University of Technology, Sydney; Professor Dr. Mari Lending, Oslo School of Architecture and Design; Dr. Matthew Wells, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich. Continua

Locarno. Ozornsky CC/ BY-SA3.0

Public Space: The Real and the Ideal

5th Biennial Conference of the International Society for the Philosophy of Architecture.
2 to 5 July 2021 | Monte Verità (near Locarno), Switzerland.

Urban Policy Analysis: Theoretical and Empirical Developments

Panel at the 5th International Conference on Public Policy in Barcelona from 6–8 July 2021, registration until 28 June.

This panel will explore theoretical and empirical developments of urban policy analysis. Continua

Co-opolis: The Collective Production of the City

Video now online!

As urbanization intensifies all over the world, so do contestations over how city space is produced. Citizens, politicians, urban designers and architects become increasingly aware of the fact that the city can no longer be solely developed as the playing field of private interests or of state ideologies. Instead, they propose to look upon the production of the city as a ‘common matter’, guided by common codes and the care for common resources.

Redaktionsteam

Isabelle Fehlmann, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Landschaftsarchitektur
Melanie Fessel, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Städtebau
Claudia Gebert, Koordinationsstelle NSL, Chefredaktion
Maarten Van Strien, Institut für Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung (IRL)
Jan Westerheide, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Städtebau
Caroline Winkler, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme (IVT)