Zurich and Singapore are exploring big cities
ETH Zurich and three universities in Singapore are jointly researching sustainable development strategies for cities and their surrounding areas. The current projects include green building, new recycling technologies and food production in metropolitan regions.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ( ETH ) and three Singapore-based universities – the National University of Singapore , the Nanyang Technological University and the Singapore University of Technology and Design – want to jointly research how the global growth of cities can be made more sustainable. To this end, according to a press release on December 1, they launched the Future Cities Lab Global research program. It is an extension of the Future Cities Laboratory of the Singapore-ETH Center , which was successfully completed after ten years.
This program deals with the major global challenges of increasing urbanization caused by the expansion of existing cities and the emergence of new ones. This against the background that, according to the United Nations, two thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2050.
“The ecological and economic advantages of densely populated cities that do not take up much space are being wiped out by the urban sprawl in the hinterland,” explains Professor Stephen Cairns, co-director of the research program and ETH architecture professor in Singapore. "The extent to which we can curb climate change in the next hundred years depends on how well these contrasting city forms are planned."
Numerous projects are being planned, according to ETH Zurich. Those that have already started dealt with compacted green buildings and quarters, the materials for them and new technologies for the recycling of building materials. In addition, solutions for polluted and flood-prone cities and surrounding regions are sought. Possibilities for sustainable food production in cities and their surrounding areas are also being explored.