Engaging subjects towards global exchange

Abstract

It is an honor for the Consortium for Hydro-generated Urbanism CHU to develop a fruitful collaboration with the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Urban Quality and Culture, notably in Africa. Following the presence of both entities in the UIA 2014 World Congress, held in Durban, South Africa, with the massive participation of African Country’s architects and planners, we have found multiple instances of common interest, among them the involvement in the Durban Field Studio 2014, Reconnecting Warwick Junction with the water front, and the Carter Conference at the University of Florida, Schools of Architecture and Africa connecting disciplines in Design and Development. Researchers and doctoral students from the Chair’s home, Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, have joined us in research projects and grants at the School of Architecture, University of Florida, USA, where the CHU is based. This publication assembles selected work presented at the UIA 14 Congress on the four sessions chaired by CHU members and entitled Fluvial Urbanisms. It offers the opportunity of a broad look into the changing landscape of interventions, re-evaluations and proposals of cities on water across four continents, in the perspective of climate change and a renewed interest on environmentally integrated urban systems. The opportunity awarded by the UNESCO chair by this publication allows us to share with a global audience the proceeding from a disciplinary world scale gathering with a broader and more interdisciplinary audience. It is our hope that it will engage as well the Durban Congress participants and contributors in bilateral discussions, as well as generate cross disciplinary exchanges and developments in the future towards the Seoul 2017 UIA Conference. Through a publication that portrays the state of affairs, case studies and interests on the subject at a global scale, we hope to continue developing this engaging subject towards global exchanges.