Transformative Research on Future Cities - Sharjah Learning Event
Creators: name: von Richthofen, Aurel
Publisher: name: ETH Zurich
Year: 2018
Subjects: urban design
future cities
eco city
engaging mobility
high-density mixed-use
dense &amp; green
urban energy systems
education research

description: Overview
The Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) at the Singapore ETH Centre (SEC) offer Learning Events developed by the Education Research Programme. The programme defines education research topics arising from research projects and scenarios at FCL. It develops teaching methods to deliver communicable, teachable and applicable outcomes. Over the past years the programme developed courses for Singaporean universities, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the World Bank involving theoretical knowledge impairment, technical skill development and sustainable urban design. 

The Learning Event offers specialist urban design knowledge, skills and understanding in the topics outlined below as a means to integrate the diverse disciplinary skills that participants have, such as architectural design, landscape design, and social and environmental analysis.The programme draws from the excellent research body of FCL and its affiliated partners in Singapore to deliver state of the art input lectures. The inter-disciplinary teaching team has a track-record of teaching professionals and is attune to cultural sensitivities. The learning event will be hosted at FCL on October 15-16 2018. 

Target Audience
The target audience are post professional engineers with 2-5 years of working experience, accompanied by high ranking individuals in the organization, such as the Director General of Town Planning. The learning event assumes participants have an undergraduate background in architecture, landscape architecture or related field. The group size for effective learning shall not exceed 20 individuals. Alternatively, the learning event can be repeated for additional groups or tailored to specific needs. 

Learning structure
The two day Learning Event will adopt an interactive seminar style with input lectures and workshops delivered by FCL researchers and the core teaching team in the morning from 9:00-12:00 and early afternoon 13:00-15:00 on day 1 and 2. Each lecture section of 90 minutes is divided into three parts: A presentation by the lecturer on the topic, discussion based on a text distributed ahead and transfer of knowledge to the Sharjah context, and a collective SWOT analysis for the topic in the Sharjah context. This material will be compiled in the final report. This will be followed by site visits in the later afternoon from 15:00-17:00 and a debrief / recap of relevant learning items. Days 3,4&5 are dedicated to visits to Singaporean Authorities including Housing & Development Board (HDB), JTC CleanTech Park, Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) , Public Utilities Board (PUB) and Lopelab. 

Programme outline
The Learning Event addresses Smart City development strategies by examining projects and the concept of Smart Nation in Singapore and China. Transportation and Energy are seen as integral parts to a smart / sustainable development. It examines the case-studies of Tianjin Eco-City to draw on planning structure and urban development. The Learning Event closes with lectures on dense and green architecture.