Città, clima e architettura

The Climate Adaptation Lab aims at rethinking climate control – a key concern of the discipline of architecture – through the lens of city climate and climate change phenomena. Architecture’s one-sided obsession with controlling the indoor climate of individual buildings will be questioned and the (thermal) dialectics between inside and outside examined instead. Climate has become a multiscalar topic, that requires a new understanding by architects.
 

The seminar highlights in particular the manifold implications of the notion of “urban climate” for architecture and urban design. Due to its man-made character, the city climate differs fundamentally from the natural climate. By looking at the historical emergence of this concept since the beginning of the 20th century (as urban climatology) and the complex adaptation in the field of architecture and urban design, a robust architectural knowledge for today’s discussions on the “climate adaptation and mitigation” shall be provided. After an introduction into the history of modern architecture and urban planning striving for new “climate cities,” case studies and methods with particular relevance for today’s architects will be addressed. The seminar sheds light on the growing capacities of urban societies to provide urban climatic data (via thermal measurements, wind tunnel modelling, simulation techniques), while at the same time highlighting evidence-based design strategies referring to urban climates (such as heliomorphism).
 

Relying on these theoretical approaches, the city of Vienna will serve as a main case study for the students. The city of Vienna is projected to change its climatic zone from the humid-continental to the humid-subtropical by 2050. This climatic shift of cities can also be described by defining city analogues (Bastin et al.). This method holds interesting implications for architectural research: What (implicit) knowledge can we derive from the study of analogue cities for the climate adaptation of Vienna? Which cities are appropriate examples of study? The seminar will therefore look more closely at the similarities and differences of the public realm in the humid-subtropical city of Milan, analyze the material, socio-cultural and legal preconditions that constitute its urban thermal landscape and develop ways of transferring this knowledge to Vienna.

Climate change is transforming the discipline of architecture. In the coming semester, the Chair of Theory of Urbanization and the Urban Environment will offer two seminars for undergraduate students that provide both intellectual foundations and critical awareness of the climate crisis. In the Climate Adaptation Lab (5 ECTS), we will focus on design methods that support evidence-based urban adaptation. In the Material Transitions Lab (2.5 ECTS), we will explore critical materiality that seeks a new understanding of architecture based on insights into embodied emissions.

The seminar aims at rethinking climate control – a key concern of the discipline of architecture – through the lens of city climate and climate change phenomena. Architecture’s one-sided obsession with controlling the indoor climate of individual buildings will be questioned and the (thermal) dialectics between inside and outside examined instead. Climate has become a multiscalar topic, that requires a new understanding by architects today.

After an introduction into the history of modern architecture and urban planning striving for new “climate cities,” case studies and methods with particular relevance for today’s architects will be addressed. The seminar sheds light on the growing capacities of societies to provide urban climatic data (via thermal measurements, wind tunnel modelling, simulation techniques), while at the same time highlighting evidence-based design strategies referring to urban climates (such as heliomorphism). 

Oral and written during the semester.