Circular Cities way!
With a collaborative approach, Future of Cities: Circular Cities conference comes as part of the transition towards circularity and will enable systemic accomplishment of a sustainable future for our generation and the ones to follow.
10.00 – 11.00 CEST - Opening session
11.00 – 13.00 CEST - Urban Resilience in Emergency Situations. Covid -19 Crisis
Moderated Talk and Q&A – 30 min
Break
15.00 – 17.00 CEST - Urban T/Issues Of Tomorrow. Green and Blue Cities
Moderated Talk and Q&A – 30 min
11.00 – 13.00 CEST - Future Thinking. Solutions. Green energy, Smart cities, Circular cities …
Moderated Talk and Q&A – 30 min
Break
15.00 – 17.00 CEST - Round table. Conclusions. Statement.
Over the years, the resilience of cities has been tested countless times in the face of natural, industrial, political or health disasters. These imbalances can generate great disturbances in the city dynamics that destabilize the sustainability, or even lead to permanent disruption of the whole urban settlement, which leads to decay, or the appereance of the phenomenon called “shrinking cities” – the city’s complete disappearance (Ur. Uruk, Babylon, Tel El Amarna, are all examples of cities that, although they prospered and represented important landmarks for human civilization, failed to demonstrate their resilience and as a result, they came to an end.
At the other end of the spectrum we have factors that enhance the development of cities such as agricultural prosperity, the discovery of deposits or other natural resources, technological changes which call for labor, the emergence of new commercial routes, administrative changes at territorial or regional level, etc. These factors result in more or less controllable increases in the success of a city, which may break the established growth patterns.
The important question is how we can mantain the balance between the environment,
economy, society and politics so that cities can prosper in a sustanaible manner. In most cases, the
increased metropolitan agglomerations around successful cities cannot sustain their economic
prosperity without endangering the environment and thus the well-being of citizens. Therefore, we
can observe major malfunctions in terms of housing, inclusion, lack of green space and civic space,
poor air quality , stress caused by outdated urban mobility, waste water disposal problems and the
quality of the built environment.
In the same time, small human settlements are facing problems of a completely different
kind: depopulation , visibly reduced workforce or lack of facilities that fulfill the minimum standards
of human aging.
Overall, the 2020 city network can be viewed metaphorically as a set of multi-cellular
organisms each living in a lower or increased alert state, seeking to find a balance that enables them
to find a secure a point where they can become sustainable. From the giant cities facing major crises
(Mexico City) to the small post-destruction nuclei such as Lupe or Copsa Mica, urban gears are
struggling in a precarious balance that is perpetuated by shallow solutions, low financial resources
or urban policies that are not drastic enough.
The year 2020 has brought in addition to the already existing environmental and resource crisis, a major health crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, which has quickly become an unexpected but systemic problem for cities around the world. The entire existence of the terrestrial antroposphy has been subjected to one of the most severe resilience test in the last 100 years.
Mankind has stopped its industrial and economic activity and redirected its attention and financial effort toward the fight against the pandemic. After more than a year of health crisis, humanity can benefit from all of this by learning some lessons. We need to accelerate future thinking and realize that such systemic crises are preparing the urban settlements for the near future.
Purpose (Aim, Target)
We invite you to design together the city of the future that will be capable of ensuring its survival and prosperity in the face of the increasingly severe conditions imposed by climate change and the profligate consumption of urban resources.
In this context, we want to find out whether we need a different urban behaviour or a different manner of constructing public policies based on the principles of prediction and anticipation. We will discuss how to build a system of immunization for urban settlement that is proactive, preventive and not reactive in tackling linear externalities. Therefore, we invite you to analyze together the concept of urban resilience and to discuss what are the future prospects of cities in terms of their circular development. This will be done through a future thinking exercise focused on the city as a complex being and its capability of behavioural change.