Topics

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Topic 1 – Knowledge and sustainability: How do we plan the sustainable cities? 

Mitigation and climate change

Urban resilience: what is it and how can we promote it? (Adaptation, mitigation, reduction of Urban Heat Island effect, the reduction of ecological footprint …)

Old and new models for sustainable city planning

How the various forms of sustainable cities are stated in Asia is declined and what are the origins of the model? (E.g.: transfer from the “Northern” to the “Southern” countries? …)

Does a circulation of the models exist (international or regional circulation, imitation, and differentiation; what is the role of the “starchitects”, world’s well-known urban planners, designers and most recommended cabinet’s thinkers …)?

What are the patterns behind the rise of the sustainable city?

Among those archetypes, which ones do we observe in Asia and at what scale: slow city (soft access and mobility); eco-district; eco-city; smart-city (based on smart-grid, digital network, sensor and technology platforms …); city in transition; city energy project …?

Knowledge economy to support smart-cities and eco-sustainable development

The knowledge economy and the « smart » planning of eco-friendly cities arouse the interest of a huge number of municipalities around the world to the extent that new emerging concepts appear: Knowledge Based Urban Development(Ygitcanlar, 2008) ou Urban Knowledge Based Project(Ingallina, 2016). This is the reason why we inquire into the ongoing interpreting models, especially visible in the specific literature, but also the long-term strategies (individual or collective, private or public) and their way of expression (conception, package, instruments and action plans...).

Building a city based on knowledge: what patterns, features, shapes, policies and actions?

What are the models of smart city used in Asia? How are they linked to the western model? Are they more or less efficiency models?

How can a « knowledge city » can be defined? To what extent does it differs from an ecocity or a smart city?

How do knowledge economy, clusters and smart-specialisation in terms of innovations question and renovate approaches of the sustainability of urban areas (transport, waste, green spaces, high-connected networks…)? Do we mostly observe the emergence of urban small-scale clusters or city-clusters?

Universities and sustainable cities

How can Universities contribute to experimentations in “sustainable city” arising, either by direct tools used by pilot-project in identified learning spaces and neighbourhoods, or by regional and international innovations? What are the available evaluation criteria to characterise or to quantify the success or the failure of those cross-fertilization?

Resilience and energy transition: what is the best project for the city?

In terms of energy provision and saving, how do we plan the sustainable city (solar potential and exploitation, windmill, biomass…)?

How are the demands in terms of renewable energies translated into the planning documentation?

It could be interesting to detail the often double bind choices in terms of energy sources regarding the sustainable development motto and their implication on the urban morphology evolution?

Topic 2 – Governance and sustainability: Who are the stakeholders?

Build the city: urban project management & urban operation management  

Who are the key stakeholders of the urban project management? How is their role conceived and what is are the less recent evolutions, and the more recent ones?

What are the sustainable elements at the different stages of the urban project (conception, design and development, use, management, assessment…)?

On what scale do the project owners, supervisors and contractors build the eco-sustainability (buildings and networks; architecture and landscaping; planning and urban programs; integrated spaces …)?

Decision making and key actors

How is governance defined? Who are the stakeholders involved, the change among them and the evolution of scales and areas of influence? What are the conflicts going on?

Who provides the funding to sustain cities in Asia? What are the consequences of the involvement of contractors, purchasers, land owners and financial backers on the final step of project selection? 

How do political choices impact the sustainable city? Who endorse the leading role between the creator (starchitectes, landcapers …), the funders, and the project manager/owner? How does occur the arbitration between several alternatives occur?

What is the role of skilled workers and experts (agencies, cabinets, consultancy offices…): feasibility and tools dedicated to sustainability?

Approaches and methods used in sustainable urban development 

Which is the planning method is applied (comprehensive, operational, participative …)? And what are the scopes and stakes of the various strategies (success/mismatch)?

How do the top-down (political, market-oriented…), bottom-up (participation of community, inhabitants…) or consensual approaches work? 

What is the role of the city-dwellers in the conception, monitoring and evaluation process of urban projects (regeneration or new construction in the city)? What form does the concertation with the population in case of public-private partnership take?

Topic 3 – Well-being and sustainability: What are sustainable cities made for?

Who are the beneficiaries of the sustainable city?

What is the importance given to net zero-energy buildings? Is this type of accommodation and housing affordable for every citizen or is it in fact reserved for a small (and high-income) part of the population? Does innovation come from the promotion of new technologies and home automation, positive-energy buildings (collective/individual) or is it induced by the renewal of an improved vernacular architecture?

How to promote the well-being in the city?

To what extents do new urban patterns of sustainability does re-examine the notion of well-being (healthy, walkable and livable communities for citizens…)? 

Are socio-environmental inequalities minimized or, on the contrary, are they strengthened by the discourses and actions enhancing the necessity of sustainability?

Urban utopias: what is the future of our cities?

In what ways do contemporary urban utopias better address the imperative demands of competition, attractiveness and international influence?

Is the sustainable city made through palimpsest or through heritage preservation?

What are the milestones, the points of disruption and the elements of continuity in the construction of sustainable cities in Asia?

What are the representations and the perceptions related to the sustainable city?