City, Climate, and Architecture – The Climate Adaptation Lab

The Climate Adaptation Lab aims at rethinking climate control – a key concern of the discipline of architecture – through the lens of city climate and climate change phenomena. Architecture’s one-sided obsession with controlling the indoor climate of individual buildings is questioned and the (thermal) dialectics between inside and outside examined instead.

Due to its man-made character, the city climate differs fundamentally from the natural climate. By looking at the historical emergence of this concept since the beginning of the 20th century (as urban climatology) and the complex adaptation in the field of architecture and urban design, a robust architectural knowledge for today’s discussions on the “climate adaptation and mitigation” was provided. After an introduction into the history of modern architecture and urban planning striving for new “climate cities,” case studies and methods with particular relevance for today’s architects were addressed.

Relying on these theoretical approaches, the city of Vienna served as a main case study for the students. The city of Vienna is projected to change its climatic zone from the humid-continental to the humid-subtropical by 2050. This climatic shift of cities can also be described by defining city analogues (Bastin et al.). This method holds interesting implications for architectural research: What (implicit) knowledge can we derive from the study of analogue cities for the climate adaptation of Vienna? The seminar therefore looked closely at the similarities and differences of the public realm in the humid-subtropical city of Milan, analyzing the preconditions that constitute its urban thermal landscape and developed ways of transferring this knowledge to Vienna.

Guest Speakers:
Federico Bertagna (ETH Zürich)
Giulio Bettini (Penzis Bettini Architekten, Zürich)
Giulio Galasso (ETH Zürich)
Dr. Lidia Gasperoni (TU Berlin)
Dr. Lorenzo Stieger (USI)
Natalia Voroshilova (Master Student ETH)
Dr. Noa Levin (USI)
Prof. Dr. Rainer Hehl (TU Berlin)
Sibil Sträuli (Pini & Sträuli architects, Milan)

Field Trip
Milan, April 2nd 2023

Group Members:
Cipolla Emanuele
Contini Massimo
Frigerio Edoardo Gabriele
Monaco Gabriele
Robatto Elena

Group Members:
Carnal Robin
Heleno Oliveira Monica
Jeannerat Louise
Moser Nadja

Group Members:
Jacopo Gioanina
Simone Mirabella
Matteo Miretta
Nora Soldati