Green, sustainable, climate-neutral: making the city fit for the future
- TU News
What actually makes a green city? What answers do various German cities give to questions of climate protection and sustainability in architecture and urban development? What projects are being planned and implemented there? Architecture students at TU Dortmund University asked themselves these and other questions in the winter semester of 2022/23. The results are gradually being published in the scientifically based podcast "The Green City". The first five episodes on Dortmund, Essen, Berlin, Regensburg and Munich can already be heard.
Fewer cars and more bike and pedestrian paths instead. This is a strategy of the city of Dortmund to be climate neutral by 2035. In the fourth episode of "The Green City," students Christine Kvitko and Jana Rundholz explain to what extent this is even possible and what other strategies there are for a green and sustainable city. In the podcast, they talk with, among others, architect Prof. Eckhard Gerber, historic preservationist Hendrik Gödecker, Dortmund urban planner Stefan Thabe, and Prof. Wolfgang Sonne, professor of the history and theory of architecture at TU Dortmund University.
The podcast episodes are the results of a seminar offered by research assistants Marianne Kaiser and Gina von den Driesch at the Chair of History and Theory of Architecture. In the first season, the students examined 13 German cities with regard to the topic of sustainability in architecture and urban development: How are the topics of mobility, renewable energies and green in the city dealt with? How do you build in an environmentally friendly way and how do you deal with existing buildings? What will the cities of the future look like?
The bachelor's and master's students from the "Architecture and Urban Planning" course first worked out a scientific basis. They looked at the respective urban development as well as projects that deal with green and sustainable ideas. They then interviewed more than 50 experts, among them Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz. The podcast episodes are available on various platforms and have appeared there successively since the beginning of April 2023. The series will be continued in the coming semesters.