Towards sustainable cities ?
Prof. Emmanuel Rey from the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) opened the 6th edition of the Forum Ecoparc, which brought together nearly 170 people at the University of Neuchâtel. His talk allowed to set the scene of the event detailing the impacts of urban sprawl and outlying various tracks for which solutions are the outcome of recent research projects.
In the perspective of sustainable cities, numerous actors of the built environment focus their actions, their projects and research in the optic of the densification of already built sectors. This return to the urban is not limited and by far only to quantitative aspects. If density is an unavoidable issue, it is to be considered as a necessary but not sufficient condition. In view of optimizing environmental, sociocultural and economical aspects, this evolution also raises many qualitative questions.
"The development of sustainable neighborhoods close to public transport, which are at the same time dense, mixed and attractive, is a major challenge in terms of urban form and building types. On the scale of the building, a reduced consumption of nonrenewable resources and a significant reduction of environmental impacts require further integration into the architectural design of bioclimatic strategies and the development of innovative construction methods" underlined Prof. Emmanuel Rey in his speech.