Forum des transitions urbaines 2025
Parc Matin Luther King, Paris © Martin Argyroglo
Entitled "Towards bioclimatic cities ?", the Forum des transitions urbaines will be held on September 5, 2025 in the Auditorium of Microcity, an EPFL branch in Neuchâtel (Switzerland). Organized jointly by the Ecoparc Association and the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) of the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in partnership with the journal Tracés, the biennial event will approach this crucial theme for our built environment from different angles.
The Forum des transitions urbaines addresses various urban planning, landscape, architectural, and systemic issues with the aim of offering participants an overview of key parameters, innovative approaches and pioneering experiences. Thanks to the diversity of the examples presented, this meeting is aimed at researchers, practitioners, political decision-makers and public service managers interested in the transition and, more broadly, in the qualitative evolution of urban territories.
Despite all the efforts made since the beginning of the century to limit greenhouse gas emissions, we are unfortunately still waiting for a global turnaround. In addition to the challenge of protecting the climate, we now also face the challenge of adapting our living environments to the consequences of climate change. As home to the majority of the world's inhabitants and jobs, towns and cities are at the forefront of this transformation. All the more so as they are warming up more than the surrounding countryside, due to the urban heat island effect.
Analysis of today's cities shows that they are not really adapted to the expected global warming. Without a series of rapid, significant and convergent actions, their habitability could be partially called into question in the medium term. In the face of this uncertain trend, some adaptation measures have already been clearly identified to act favorably on built-up areas, public spaces and landscapes. Low-tech acclimatization of buildings, de-sealing of urban soils, reinforcement of biodiversity-rich linkages, preservation of fresh-air corridors, tree planting in public spaces and a significant increase in the urban canopy are just some of the concrete ways in which we can ambitiously and creatively anticipate these now inescapable challenges.