25.01.2021 – Steven Velegrinis – Director of Urbanism+Planning in Aecom Middle East and Africa – Department of Visual Arts / University of California, San Diego – CoolCity_Univers-city – ZOOM Platform – Upending the Logic: Inverse Urban Heat Island Effects in Arabian Gulf Cities.
Most cities around the world suffer from heat islands, an outcome from the process of urbanization. In the Arabian Gulf, however, urbanization has led to an Inverse Urban Heat Island effect. Water and the cautious (re)use of water plays an essential albeit indirect role in this urban alchemy. Through the lens of a landscape manifesto for a new city in the Middle East, the lecture outlines how we can use the experience of cities such as Dubai and Singapore to address Urban Heat Island Effects.”
11.01.2021 – Alexander Valentino – Architect of community, social designer – Department of Visual Arts / University of California, San Diego – CoolCity_Univers-city – ZOOM Platform – The reinvention of urban spaces toward an organic and natural metropolis
Urban spaces in Naples are strongly characterized by the abundance of various natural elements that have defined and supported the life of its inhabitants. This balanced relationship between humans and nature remained almost unchanged for millennia. But strong urbanization of the last few hundred years, nature, and the water of Naples have given way to cement and other artificial materials, through modernization and developments, like so many other cities. As the result, the nature of Naples is relegated, confined, and hidden. This lecture will be about Naples’ attempt to return to symbiosis with its nature that has historically defined its culture and urban heritage.
18.01.2021 – Cristiano Luchetti – Architect, researcher, and educator. He is pursuing his Ph.D. at the Universita’ Politecnica Delle Marche, and adjunct professor of architecture at Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus. He regularly writes about the architecture and urban development – Department of Visual Arts / University of California, San Diego – CoolCity_Univers-city – ZOOM Platform – The Urban Regeneration of Al Nasserya
The Sharjah Department of Planning and Survey and Sharjah Urban Planning Council have recently started independent initiatives to explore and propose ways by which deteriorated neighborhoods can be enhanced. The mandate is to maintain the existing housing stock (structurally intact ones) and propose enhancements to the public realm and social infrastructure of those areas based on the needs and specificity of each neighborhood. One of the mandates is to find ways to attract Emirati families back to these neighborhoods without necessarily displacing the existing population. The Urban and Architectural Design Studio ARC501 Section 3 at the American University of Sharjah, first investigated through mapping, surveys, and fieldwork the existing conditions of Al Nasserya, thereafter proposed innovative solutions grounded on the findings of the research. Students looked for alternative means of intervention other than conventional approaches with a focus on sustainability. They had the freedom to identify the scale and brief of their proposals – whether it would be a block or the whole neighborhood, or a single building along with the surrounding affected public realm.
04.20 – Bruno Brillante – Site expertise, communities’ animator, rural scouting – CoolCity_Deep.ZOOM meetings – The Sebéto river, legends and history
Neapolitan water par excellence, stirs up great curiosity. The display describes the legendary / tragic Sebeto river. Its source is said to be in Volla and that the Maddalena bridge straddled its estuary. Paintings, stories and myths have left an indelible memory of what was once an important waterway. The first meeting on Easter Monday, was organized as an outdoor excursion, looking into the most famous river in the history of Naples, accompanied by a passionate expert in its history.
04.20 – Roberto Germano – Physicist – CoolCity_Deep.ZOOM meetings – Experiment studies into the internal dynamics of water in its liquid form and the consequences of its cooling capacity.
Regular fresh water contains much more within its structure than people often realize. In particular, very cooling unexpected thermal properties of volume water diffusion in very porous materials were experimentally evindenced and published in recent years.
COOMING SOON
– Nick DePace – expert in ancient infrastructural systems and subterranean water structures and a faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, about the spring.
– Maurizio Iaccarino – Biologist – How much water for the human race?
ROUND TABLES
09.20 – Oro Blu by Edoardo Borgomeo, Laterza Editor, 2020 Italy – Presentation of the book and Round Table with Paola Mercogliano(CMCC), Annamaria Zaccaria(Professor in Sociology UNINA), Clemente Esposito (director of the Neapolitan speleologist org.), Maurizio Montalto (free water national committee).
Saint Gennaro extra moenia basilica, Naples