Biospheric Urbanism - Changing Climates - Athens Greece
The Option Studio ‘Biospheric Urbanism’ explores how to make the built environment more resilient in the face of the climate crisis. It focusses on the transformation of the open space to better deal with heat islands, drought and floods. Biospheric Urbanism is the study of the built environment as the interface between meteorology and geology. It aims at transforming the critical zone to better cope with ongoing changes in climate, while better using its underground capacities. The studio’s ambition is to be pragmatic and visionary at the same time, predicting different scenarios for the future, while proposing concrete solutions that can be implemented immediately.Methodology
Each studio focusses on one city as its object of study, and becomes part of a cumulative series of case studies, producing a growing set of solutions for different climatic conditions. New York City was the first in Spring 2023, followed by Paris in Fall 2023. In Fall 2024 the studio will center on Athens, Greece. Students from the former studios will present their work to students from the new studio to create a laboratory where each new studio learns from the previous ones.