appendix 70 <strong>easa005.ch</strong> lectures
lecture marathon Introducing the topic: The lecture marathon Monday and Tuesday of the first week were reserved for an in-depth-introduction to the topic of easa005: trans - transit - transition. In a lecture marathon, a range of invited lecturers, with different backgro<strong>und</strong>s and professions, presented their views, information and research related to the topic. lecture marathon trans � transit � transition Lectures held on Monday, August 8th, 2005 Peter Baccini Peter Baccini is full Professor of Resource and Waste Manage� ment at the Department of Civil and Environmental Enginee� ring at the ETH Zurich. He leads the Swiss Federal Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control (EAWAG) re� search group based near Zurich. EAWAG is an interdisciplinary research team of engineers, environmental scientists, econo� mists and architects that examines resource management of heavily populated regions and the long�term behavior of an� thropogenic sediments. Josef Estermann Former mayor of Zurich As the former mayor of Zurich, Josef Estermann was invited to EASA to talk about his experience with the city�s �s s urban plan� plan� plan� ning. First of all, he described the warm economic growth of the eighties, followed by the economic recession which divided the politics in the nineties. In the eighties, Zurich was the very important center for in� dustries, but today, not much of the industrial sector is left and Zurich has become a service city. To explain this situation, he described the two main models of urban planning: the «core city» and the «urban sprawl». The core city is the classical structural model based on the hi� storical processes of concentration and decentralisation within urban areas and between urban and rural areas. According to the classical model, the most favourite locations and the best traffic conditions are in the core city. Ruedi Stauffer Metron architects, Brugg Metron can look back on a long and successful history. Sin� ce 1965, the company has made a name for itself with its progressive traffic plans, housing developments, area deve� lopment and public buildings. In 1974, ownership of Metron was taken over by the employees who have run the company themselves since then. Metron�s �s s main goal is the design of su� su� su� stainable human spaces and the continuous safeguard of life�s �s fo<strong>und</strong>ations. Markus Schaefer HosoyaSchaefer architects Zurich/Rotterdam Hosoya Schaefer is a Zurich and Rotterdam based architectu� ral design studio. Together with an international list of partner companies, the office is involved in a broad range of projects, from research and consulting to building design and realisa� tion, and is active on various scales, from master planning to architecture and from brand concepts to media installations. In his speech on the topic of sustainable energy concept, Pe� ter Baccini adressed a clear message to the young architects. Showing a global overview on energy consumption and pro� duction as well as on the existing resources (renewable or not), Baccini drew important conclusions for a new generation of architects and urban planners. They have to play a key role today in order to reduce our energy consumption, use renew� able energy and secondary resources that are to be fo<strong>und</strong> in the new mines (or stocks) constituted by the urban systems themselves. The «urban sprawl» is the complementary and counter exam� ple of the structural model. The «urban sprawl» model takes as a starting point that cities have lost their former advantages of being conveniently situated for public and private transport and therefore preferred for trade and production. Cities are no more the spider in the web but they are closely connected by an equal communication network. In Zurich, 40 years ago, 70% of the population lived in the core city; today they are less than 40%. The course of histo� ry shows that the city government failed in the attempt to keep the manufacturing industry in town. The city planning was unrealistic and therefore unrealisable. He argued that the strongest reason for this failure is neither the number of legal actions nor the government of the canton of Zurich who can� celled the city zoning, it was, in the first place, the economic development being unrelenting and irresistable — the so cal� led globalisation. Active advancement of social equality and a serious cultural commitment are major parts of the company`s culture. Met� ron has led the way in the architecture scene with regard to interdisciplinary and company organisation. In his lecture, Ruedi Stauffer mainly talked about the Metron activities in Tuzla, Bosnia. He explained the Bosnian�Swiss col� laboration in regard to the Tuzla Center for Ecology and Ener� gy project. During his EASA lecture, Schaefer presented the wide range of research activities of the HosoyaSchaefer agency. He drew an interesting picture of the global economics and the relati� onships of big companies with their corporate identity, design, and finally, architecture. His original position is to try out a critical intervention (through architecture) within the client� companies, cracking their strong corporate identity in order to make innovation possible again. documentation 71 appendix