Sustainable Habitat: the role of cities

Brussels, 19 November 2012Save the date

26 November 9am - 5.45pm & 27 November 9am - 2pm @ Studio 4, Flagey, Place Sainte-Croix, 1050 Bruxelles

What will urban lifestyles be like in the future? Such is the question to be tackled at this colloquium, which will seek to provide concrete, operational answers to the issue of housing, in terms of building construction and city planning.

The aim is, on the one hand, to consider the issue of future urban living, in particular the environmental challenges ahead, on the other to explore the question of the city as a habitat.

The increasingly urbanised global context is raising specific challenges, such as supplies water, food, raw materials and energy. This colloquium will deal, amongst others, with the conditions required to create the resilience necessary for sustainable urban lifestyles.

Becoming aware of the influence of human activity on the environment, seeking to reconcile cities and the natural world, considering the role of towns: the colloquium will shed light on the human and morphological resources currently available and imaginable in the future, here and elsewhere, with a view to establishing a global policy for living in Brussels.

In trying to understand people’s relationship with the different elements that make up a city, participants will be unlocking the potential of different urban morphologies; analysing and assessing the potentialities and mechanisms of the city’s “raw material” in mapping out the transition to the sustainable city.

The colloquium therefore aims to be positive and forward-looking in trying to view the challenges ahead as opportunities rather than constraints. It also seeks to be anchored in reality, so that its conclusions can be operationally transposed into the housing policy of the Brussels Region.

The themes to be tackled will take into account the local and global dimensions, considering at each level the players involved, lifestyles, housing, intermediate spaces, neighbourhoods, urban networks and how the city fits into its territory.