On Tuesday, 20.10.2020, the virtual exchange between researchers of the iCity partnership and an interested professional audience with a focus on urban planning and urban development and building and neighbourhood development entered the second round.
The expert speakers were Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christina Simon-Philipp, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development at the Institute for Applied Research at the HFT Stuttgart, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Cremers, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at HFT Stuttgart.
The approximately 35 participants, who were also connected from outside the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region, were first welcomed by Ms. Stefanie Rau, Technology Transfer Manager of the Stuttgart Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Afterwards, Dr. Dirk Pietruschka, Head of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technology and Research Department at the HFT Stuttgart, presented the research project iCity in his function as Managing Director.
The LIN city - liveable, intelligent and sustainable - is the central theme in iCity, a growing transdisciplinary research network with partners from HFT research, industry, NGOs and local authorities. "How can cities continue to develop intelligently in line with the needs of their citizens?" is the key question here. Together, the project is developing the vision of the liveable, intelligent and sustainable city of the future, which the HFT researchers playfully call the LIN city.
Mrs. Simon-Philipp introduced the rest of the event with the first technical lecture of the evening. The field of tension between urban planning and urban development in the context of growing challenges posed by climate change, land scarcity and the desire for participatory and social urban development was vividly outlined.
On the basis of the iCity sub-project in the Zuffenhausen Celtic settlement, she, her team and the SWSG developed an integrated neighbourhood energy master plan that combines energy and ecological goals with social, design and economic requirements.
In a further project, various supply options for an exemplary new development were trans- and interdisciplinary examined for economic efficiency, climate friendliness and social compatibility in the course of a land conversion on the site of Mannheim's Spinelli-Baracks. Mrs. Simon-Philipp presented an interdisciplinary developed tool of a decision matrix, which supports planners and responsible persons from the municipal administration and real estate industry in the search for suitable concepts for an ecologically and economically sustainable supply.
This was followed by the transition to the second technical lecture of the evening. Professor Jan Cremers provided insights into research into application-oriented solutions in the field of innovative building structures, technologies and innovative neighbourhood development. In the iCity subprojects, Jan Cremers and his team are dedicated to the development of intelligent, motor-driven windows (imaF) and the challenge of making the ventilation of interiors compatible with the protection against noise immissions.
In addition, Mr. Cremers provided insights into research in the field of building with membrane materials, which promise enormous material and weight savings. The research work presented on an innovative special form of courtyard house - compact courtyard houses - which were typologically developed and investigated in an interdisciplinary manner, also provided a view beyond the horizon. The question of sustainable high-density urbanity is being pursued with studies of the microclimate, acoustics and sound insulation in the courtyard rooms. You can look forward to a publication on this topic in February 2021!
Jan Cremers also briefly presented the developments in the context of the student research competition Solar Decathlon Europe 2021, in the course of which he will work on real challenges of the urban landscape together with an interdisciplinary team of students from the HFT Stuttgart.
On the basis of the suggestions and questions of the interested participants a strong interest in topics of the livable, intelligent and sustainable city can be seen. What also became very clear - especially the factor livable becomes more and more in focus. The iCity research network continues to work on the fact that this is not a contradiction in the context of the increasing mechanization and digitalization of our cities and is pleased about the constant exchange with civil society, administration and the economy.
iCity and the IHK Region Stuttgart are already looking forward to the upcoming webinar and hope to welcome you there as well, in order to enter into a mutual exchange.