November 18 2022

Climate Responsive Urban Scale

Lecture at NUST Faculty of Architecture, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Diego Romero, Lakshmishree Venu Gopal, Christine von Raven and introduces Climate Responsive Urban Scale.
Dive into the world of the urban design by understanding the impact rapid growth of cities and climate change can have. The team follows up presenting approaches towards sustainability and livability on an urban scale. The concept of density at different scales form the size of dwelling to the population of an urban area is used to shed light on aspects urban life like mobility, outdoor comfort, health and participatory planning. How architecture can influence Urban Quality is discussed. The presentation ends with an optimistic outlook into the future, presenting Carbon Neutral Cities and fields of action.

This lecture was held on November 18, 2022, and is part of the collaboration of the Transsolar World Academy and NUST Faculty of Architecture in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The Transsolar World Academy contribution complements the university's Sustainable Building course.

See presentation >

Overview content:
Intro Climate Responsive Urban Scale | The Challenge: Rapid Growth and the Climate Crisis | Big Growth – From first settlements to mega cities | The link between growth and carbon emissions | Approaches towards sustainable and livable cities | The multi-facets of urban planning | Density – the key for Climate Neutrality | Resilient Urban Infrastructures | Mobility and Outdoor Comfort | How do you travel to get to university? | Walkability improves quality of Life | What is Outdoor Comfort? | Design for Sun | Design for Wind | City Dive | What would you improve in your city with an unlimited budget? | How can architecture influence Urban Quality? | How many floors are in the house you live in? | Urban archetypes based on Martin & March | Steps of urbanization | Case Study – Abuja Masterplan | How does the Future look like?

„This will greatly contribute to the diversification of the research areas that the department is currently involved in. It will give a sixth sense to the future focused architecture students to be able to identify challenges and opportunities, thereby responding to the needs of people and environment. This partnership will enhance the environmental design module. The students will continue to develop locally driven, climate-responsive architectural solutions and leadership qualities in solving the climate crisis using the built environment.”

Initiator: Innocent Mhandu

Innocent is currently a Consultant - Climate and Susainabilty with a Singapore based company GreenA Consultants Pte Ltd. Based in Africa he works on the company projects around Africa. He is both, a NUST alumni and Transsolar Academy alumni. He started the collaboration between Transsolar World Academy and The Department of Architecture at NUST.