Climate-sensitive Urban Growth

Estefania Tapias Pedraza

Cities will face considerable inter-linked future challenges such as urban population growth and climate-change. In the next 30 years almost all of the urban population growth will occur in developing countries, where emerging cities will take on most of the upcoming challenges. Urban climate conditions also affect how cities will develop in the future, not only because of the impact on human comfort or on the environment, but also on the energy consumption of buildings.

The aim of this research is to develop and validate generative methods that integrate urban climate studies in the creation of new urban forms in order to achieve a climate-sensitive urban growth for emerging cities.

These methods are based on generative and parametric modelling techniques that allow the systematic exploration and evaluation of different geometric alternatives so as to find ‘optimal’ urban forms for a specific urban climate.

 tapias@arch.ethz.ch | +41 44 633 72 15 | HIT H 32.3