Smart City Expo World Congress | Barcelona
ZAA takes part of the world’s top experts to debate their visions of sustainable and efficient city development.
Rethinking the present and future of urban growth. Smart City World Expo Congress the key meeting point for experts and leaders of the world’s most innovative cities, companies, research centres, universities and international organisations.
Repenser le présent et le future du développement urbain. Le congrès international Smart City est le rendez-vous des experts et dirigeants des villes les plus innovantes du monde, entreprises, centres de recherches, universités et organisations internationales.
Smart City Expo World Congress | Barcelona
Sustainable City – SC 07 – Urban environmental technology
November 20th 2014
What are smart cities doing to improve the way in which they manage waste, reduce clean water consumption, improve water treatment, reduce emissions and reduce energy consumption? This session will review new developments and strategies that will help our cities to reduce their environmental impact.
SPEAKERS
Nora Galparsoro – Councillor for Infrastructures and Urban Services – City of Donostia – Donostia – Spain
Morten Riis – Business Development Manager – Grundfos Holding A/S – Bjerringbro – Denmark
Zoubeir Azouz – Architect – ZAA – architects – Montreal – Canada
Martino Tran – Senior Research Fellow in Energy & Environment – Oxford University Centre for Environment – Oxford – UK
Alfonso García García – Director of Technical Services and Innovation at FCC Environment – FCC Environment – Madrid -Spain
Eduardo Fernández Giménez – I+D+i and Urban Sustainability Director – Urbaser – Madrid – Spain
MODERATOR
Veronica Kuchinow – Resources Specialist and General Manager – Simbiosy, industrial symbiosis – Barcelona – Spain
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Epidermal Cities: revitalizing the urban roofscape
Learning from Chicago, Montreal, and Paris
Zoubeir Azouz, architect
Keywords: roofscape, ecological footprint, digital simulation
Abstract
This paper is part of the interdisciplinary research program IgnisMutat Res, regarding environmental issues, energy consumption, and their impacts on the quality of life of citizens. It aims to inform the world of the potential of rooftop architecture to provide innovative solutions in dense urban environments. While urban environments experience an increase in their energy consumption needs, architecture and urbanism researchers are also becoming more and more eager to reduce the city’s ecological footprint through new architectural and urban development. However, the reduction of this footprint has proven to be very difficult to quantify economically using a general approach. In this instance, the lack of standardized methodology is the main cause of the approach’s stagnation at an exploratory phase. Here, the development of a digital device to evaluate and simulate rooftop potential can serve as a decision-making tool in urban settings. This research has gathered the exploratory studies from the rooftops of three cities: Chicago, Montreal and Paris. In all three, the roof is approached as an area for investigations that would work towards solving urban issues, specifically, reducing the commonplace of urban heat islands, and managing rainwater. Overall, the strategies found would empower cities and help to reduce their fossil sources dependency.
Learn more about the conference paper by following this link.
