The first decade of our millennium was marked by the shift of most humans into an urban environment. We have known this since the beginning of industrialisation: cities are becoming metropolises; metropolises are turning into mega-cities; city regions, city territories and city landscapes are multiplying. With each change of scale, complex political and socio-economic changes disrupt the lives of populations, accompanied by sometimes irrevocable environmental phenomena.
As a corollary to this socio-spatial phenomenon, there is a planetary ecological crisis, of which cities and their associated lifestyles are both the cause and the effect. Every week around the world, millions of people become city dwellers. However, the quality of our biosphere continues to deteriorate.
The city in all its forms thus turns out to be the scene of the drama that links the contemporary condition to environmental balance, but also the only possible place for the paradox to be resolved. The urban challenge of our time is to achieve a particularly difficult but fascinating mission: stimulate creativity so that human dignity can be associated with the demands of a respected Earth.
This will be the role of 21st century town planning, much more ambitious than that of the past. In other words, the evolution of metropolises, their extension, their densification and their changes call for new knowledge and visions.
In 2017, the Think Big conference series of the Braillard Architects Foundation was organised to contribute to a specific impetus on the urbanisation of our territories in the light of ecological and politico-social transitions.
PROGRAMME
- Thursday January 12th
GROSS-BERLIN UNLIMITED? FROM URBAN GROWTH TO NEW CITY-COUNTRYSIDE CONNECTIVITY
Celina KRESS - Thursday February 23rd
GREATER LONDON THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
Michael HEBBERT - Wednesday March 22nd
MEGAPOLIS ON A GRAND SCALE: PARIS-MOSCOW
Bertrand LEMOINE - Thursday April 27th
PLANNING THE HETEROGENEOUS CITY: CONTROVERSY ARENAS OF THE MUMBAI DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2014-34
Christine LUTRINGER and Lucas PATTARONI - Tuesday May 16th
THE NEW YORK METROPOLIS OR THE UNTRACEABLE REGION
Jean-Louis COHEN - Thursday May 15th
GENEVA DEBATE | METROPOLISES AND DENSITY: GENEVA ELEVATIONS THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE URBAN AGE
Anne VEUTHEY