IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York
Abstract
The construction industry is one of the most resource-intensive of all industries, and construction-related waste and CO2 emissions should be significantly reduced. The shift from the conventional Take-Make-Waste construction industry to a Circular Built Environment (CBE) is a solution to this problem, and related government policies have been implemented across the world. At the same time, many cities are shifting towards becoming Smart Cities (SC), and have been introducing digital technology to help solve various urban problems, including the transition towards a CBE, which inherently relies on digitalisation. Both shifts are also strongly tied to the liveability of cities. However, it appears cities often do not explicitly link SC and CBE concepts. To better understand the ‘Smart Circular City’ (SCC), in which CBE is enhanced using digital technology, we developed a high-level evaluation framework to screen evidence found in city governance documentation and categorise it in three ways: a thematic categorisation of CBE initiatives, a labelling of digital or non-digital initiatives, and a distinction between present or future initiatives. We applied this framework to analyse the Smart Circularity of 12 cities in Europe and South-East Asia. Our analysis confirms there is little correlation between a city’s level of SC and CBE policy implementation. Our evaluation framework also brings to light some interesting patterns, such as the precedence of agent-network policies over design-and-construction policies, the slow emergence of SCC policy , or the unconventional patterns of emerging regenerative CBE initiatives.
Genki Unno is a visiting researcher at the Singapore-ETH Centre’s Future Cities Laboratory and an employee of Takenaka corporation, a major Japanese and international design and construction company. He received a bachelor’s degree in architectural design and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Waseda University in Japan. His main area of research interest is urban planning, especially related to smart cities in Europe and Asia from the perspective of mobility, culture, environment, and governance.
Dr Aurel von Richthofen leads the Integrated Cities Planning team at Arup Germany. The architect and urban planner focus on data-driven digital methods to tackle complex urban topics at the intersection of sustainability and digital solutions. His team develops digital urban twins and digital urban resilience monitoring tools. Aurel is an affiliated researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory of the Singapore-ETH Centre at CREATE, Singapore. Aurel von Richthofen studied architecture at ETH Zurich and Princeton University and earned his doctorate at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He is a member of the Berlin Chamber of Architects.
Pieter Herthogs is a Senior Researcher and Investigator at the Singapore-ETH Centre’s Future Cities Laboratory. His research focuses on developing Design Evaluation and Knowledge Representation approaches that bridge disciplines and domains. He applies these approaches to three main areas: computational city planning, building adaptation & circular economy in construction, and public space quality. He holds a Doctorate in Engineering Sciences and a Master in Architectural Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
3:15 pm - 4:45 pm
Thursday 15th June, 2023