Researching on Water Cities. Rome, Hangzhou, Karthoum, Miami a further research proposal for the Consortium of Hydrogenerated Urbanism UF

Abstract

In every culture, many major cities were founded in close vicinity to one or more waterways. As celebrated historian Carl Smith affirms: “water is all things to all people. It is a universal necessity, whether for drinking, cooking, sanitation, transportation, manufacturing, or fighting fire. It is the primary component of the human body and of the earth’s surface, so that life is inconceivable without it. Water is a bearer of aesthetic, symbolic, and sacramental meaning in every culture, central to so many rites, from baptism of newborns, to cleansing of the dead.†The research and didactic work of the Consortium for Hydro-generated Urbanism lies on the fertile edge connecting the strong American tradition on the culture of the cities and the recent attention of educators on issues concerning environmental change. I had been informed about the American Schools of Architecture interests in the Climate Change issues through the a conference held in Rome by Richard Plunz published in 2010 as Urban Climate Change Crossroads – soon after a joint research held in Rome on Corviale, an extreme public housing case study. Plunz recalls in his book that “New York City was very much affected by the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and is aware of the probability of some similar event happening in New York in the futureâ€. So I learned about the competition “What if....†organized by OEM (Office for Emergency Management) of New York City and the scenarios that it produced. Plunz continues: “What if... competition was the positive example whereby New York City gave public acknowledgment of the possibility of an extreme climate event and began to talk responsibly about what to do […] Public Knowledge is crucial in building toward public engagementâ€. And I also had been informed about several initiatives organized in the last decade in United States by governative organization or researches and design competitions supported also by several important institutions such as the Van Alen Institute. But also through the recent research activity at Columbia University, CURE Center Urban Real Estate, in particular the Climate Adaptive Development approach and the research of Jesse M. Keenan2 and the one for Lower-Lower Manhattan (LoLo) Plan for Coastal Adaptation. This is why for the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Quality and Urban Culture it is significant to stress the importance of the work of the Consortium of Hydro-generated Urbanism of the University of Florida – Profs. Martha Kohen and Nancy Clark – by this publication and to build up awareness, responsibility and public engagement in water city issues through comparative international research experiences and cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary themes as Nancy Clark discusses in her introduction