The Braillard Architects Foundation, Metrolab Brussels (KUL/ULB) and the Laboratory of Urban Sociology of EPFL LaSUR are organising for the third consecutive year the international scientific seminar Design the transition III, having as general topic the ecological transition of cities through architectural, urban and landscaping projects with the help of a body of knowledge and operational concepts.
The two previous seasons have taken up an introductory approach to food, mobility, work, governance, recycling and even transitional occupations. This third season, called Economies and forms of the transition, will further explore certain economic parameters of dynamics linked to the ecological transition with concrete impact on urban spaces. Indeed, if designing the transition focuses on exploring mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consuming fewer resources, it is also a matter of examining the major stumbling blocks of the modernity regime related to the economic “software” that governs the production-consumption cycles of the planet, in particular the internal contradictions in terms of soil, work, local systems and responsability, between reality and the horizon of the carbon-free city.
The conferences take place simultaneously between Brussels and Geneva by video streaming, in the presence of our guests and the public. By participating in this conference, guests authorise the Braillard Architects Foundation to use the photos and videos from this session, on which they may appear.
This year’s schedule has been changed due to the pandemic crisis. Design the Transition, now! was created in order to respond to the numerous questions surrounding the transition of cities in the face of pandemics and the climate emergency, in real time through videoconferences.
2020 PROGRAMME
(Programme modified due to health measures taken in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The video debates are announced by newsletter about a week beforehand.)
- January 23rd
“Two degrees: societies facing climate change”
Edwin ZACCAÏ, Full professor, Free University of Brussels
- February 27th
“The ground and its values”
Guillaume FABUREL, Professor, University Lumière Lyon 2, UMR Triangle
March 26thConference canceled due to sanitary measures.
“The spatial production of local economic systems”
Fabienne LELOUP, Full professor, CULouvain
- March 26th Exceptional video debate
Design the transition, now! “Pandemic and transition: a logical development?”
Dominique Bourg, Paola Viganò, Edwin Zaccai and Fabio Merlini.
- April 23rd Video debate
Design the transition, now!
“Ecosystems, density, mobility, sociability: what changes in our lifestyles does the pandemic crisis suggest?”
Albert Lévy and Sylvain Ferretti
April 30thConference canceled
“The spatial economy of work”
Dominique MEDA, Professor, Director of the IRISSO (Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Social Sciences) – UMR CNRS 7170 University Paris Dauphine
- May 28th To be confirmed
“Territorial and corporate responsibility”
Marthe NYSSENS, Full professor, CULouvain, CUL Transition and Society Prorector
- June 18th
“Imagination in transition” (conference in English)
Rob HOPKINS, Author, Co-founder of Transition Towns Totnes and Transition Network