The complexity of urban systems and the uncertainty of the impact of urbanization and climate change ask for new ways of thinking about planning objectives and solidarity in action. Cities are complex, adaptive systems of networked services and infrastructures. Growing urban populations, the concentration of resources and capital, unclear contingency planning, the often inadequate and environmentally unsound water supply and sewage management, the menacing continual destruction of ecosystems, and out-dated infrastructures and buildings, all present massive challenges to city planning.

With the goal of strengthening resilience, there has been a lasting change of perspective in planning. The scope has been broadened from a specialized viewpoint to an interdisciplinary understanding of interactions and processes within the cityscape. Resilience is an anticipatory principle that transcends risk reduction and attempts to mitigate the effects of system failures while increasing capacities.

The overall aim is to combine resilience strategies and sustainability by:

i) enhancing sustainable urbanization ii) improving ecosystems and nature-based solutions iii) developing climate change adaptation and mitigation iv) strengthening community-based approaches and social resilience

Developing a network is an important step to promote resource-sensitive urban design and enable educational and professional shift towards resilience and sustainability. Thus, the International Workshop at UIC Barcelona in cooperation with UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Programme (CRPP) and TU Darmstadt will offer the possibility to bring innovative ideas on resilience to discussion. The joint research hub, Urban Resilience Institute (URI), in cooperation with UN-Habitat CRRP aims to analyse practices and processes in the design of resilient and sustainable cities. The hub will gather young researchers from the European Joint Doctorate Programme within the Mundus Urbano Consortium, and from the Fellowship Programme on “Urban Infrastructures in Transition: The Case of African Cities,” as well as the research group on Critical Infrastructures at TU Darmstadt. Currently working from academic institutions based in Europe, researchers from Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Uganda, and Spain, will present their research projects in four sessions covering the topics of: critical infrastructures, resource-sensitive urban design, housing and land management, and post-crisis emergency reconstruction; opening for discussion on conceptional approaches “towards urban resilience” with international researchers, Master- and PhD-students.

Sessions:

A_Critical Infrastructures: As the dependency on technology increases, there is a growing need to reflect on the role of infrastructures to sustain human activities. Infrastructures are critical for the functioning of society, not only as the physical components in cities, or ‘hardware,’ but also as structures embedded with the intangible essence of human groups and our understanding of them in specific contexts and throughout time.

B_Resource-sensitive Urban Design: In face of rapid urbanization and the negative impacts of climate change on natural and built environments, this session calls analysis of practices and processes of resource-sensitive urban design. Urban design can contribute towards an educational and professional shift towards resilience and sustainability by focusing on integrative approaches, such as district-based networks, low-impact approaches, and climate-adaptive planning and building.

C_Resilience and Multi-level Governance: This session seeks cross-scalar and multi-level frameworks which help in understanding cities as complex and adaptive systems. Contributions should problematize urbanization processes and include tools and strategies which explain scalar arrangements of nature and power. The role of international and global frameworks will deem necessary in laying the base for transition and transformation of cities, and to contribute to the development of urban resilience.

D_Post-Crisis Emergency Reconstruction and Upgrading: This session aims at understanding refugee camps as a form of urbanization and sets the basis for rethinking camp design and their temporality. Contributions should bridge social structures and their physical transformations, as a means for their integral regeneration. This session looks at examples where resilience in the social fabric of informal settlements and low housing estates can create a sense of belonging and act as a force for their physical upgrading.

TOWARDS URBAN RESILIENCE International Workshop, May 2017, 23th & 24th for young Researchers, Master- and PhD-students