WISSENSSCHAFTSTAG Built and Lived Environment

Built and Lived Environment – a Growth Area of RWTH Aachen University 

Research Collaboration between the Faculties of Architecture, Civil Engineering, Georesources and Materials Engineering, Arts and Humanities, Medicine, as well as the School of Business and Economics 

The Science Day 2022 for the growth area ‘Built and Lived Environment’ aims to foster inter- und transdisciplinary exchange in relation to urgently needed solutions for a livable future of cities and human settlements. In times of multiple and accelerating trends that are aggravated by drivers such as climate change, individualization, digitalization as well as energy or mobility transitions, the built and lived environment must adapt, reorient and profoundly restructure to enhance sustainability and resilience. The current ‘full world’ of existing settlements and infrastructures such as in Western Europe requires transition processes for which solutions are context-specific, ‘error-friendly’ or even self-repairing. Simultaneously, these solutions need to be sensitive to the shifts as well as interrelations of different spatial scales – from the component to the construction site, and up to the district, city, or regional scales. Meanwhile, the scarcity of material resources as well as habitable and productive land are, to some extent, driving innovation. More specifically, this scarcity inspires and stimulates close interplay between spatial, technological, and social innovation. The potential and interwoven innovation can generate possible solutions that cannot be envisaged as one-time responses. Rather, these solutions are better conceived as a set of interventions intended to carefully anticipate change that is specific and systemic. Setting forth in developing these solutions is both an opportunity and challenge in identifying and improving factors that build and enhance capacities to be ‘mutual adaptive’. In other words, these are solutions with which users might interact; these are solutions that might reflexively (re)acting over time. Whether these solutions are anchored with orientations towards urban health, carbon neutrality, climate resiliency, resource efficiency and value, permeating flexibility, BLE is a moment for us to come together and frame how we solve.

BLE focuses on five ‘mutual adaptive solutions’: 

Urban Health Solutions | Carbon Sink Solutions & Materials | Built-as-Resource |
Climate Change Adaptation | Agile Infrastructure Solutions

BLE invites researchers from a broad range of disciplines within RWTH as well as collaborators from different institutions and fields of action to share their knowledge and to further discuss research perspectives in each of the five solutions. In particular, BLE addresses young researchers, Doctoral and Post-Doc candidates, to join the diverse solutions and research groups through insightful and short presentations on original work! 

The event will be an occasion to experience the unique atmosphere of the BBSR Pop-up Campus – an excellent demonstrator for a ‘built-as-resource’ solution in the city of Aachen and a place to share R&D outputs and outcomes regarding sustainable building with colleagues from all over Germany. 

The Science Day event is open to interested public in the city and region of Aachen. From 4 pm on the event will focus on the inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue and hence actively involve external partners in the scientific debate. A public lecture will conclude the event before guests are invited to informally mingle at the roof-top bar. 

Program:

9:30    Get-together

10:00  Introduction

Welcome – Rector Ulrich Rüdiger

Introducing BLE – Prof. Dr. Frank Lohrberg & Prof. Dr. Tobias Kuhnimhof

The Program of the Day – Prof. Dr. Agnes Förster

11:00  Parallel Sessions I 

Urban Health

Carbon Sink Solutions & Materials

Built-as-Resource

Climate Change Adaption

12:30 Lunch & get-together 

13:30 Presentation and Workshop on DFG application / Division 4.2

14:00 Parallel Sessions II

Urban Health

Carbon Sink Solutions & Materials

Build-as-Resource

Climate Change

Agile Infrastructure

15:45 Break

16:15 Plenary

Presentation of the reflections and findings from the parallel sessions

Discussion on connections and synergies between the solutions

17:30 Break

18:00 Public Lecture – Uta Pottgiesser

Professor of Heritage & Technology, TU Delft

Professor für Baukonstruktion und Baustoffe, TH OWL

Chair DOCOMOMO International

19:00 Reception and Get-Together at there Roof-Top Bar