ECOLOPES TALKS
ECOLOPES TALKS are taking place every first Tuesday each month at 17:00 CET.
Speakers will be renowned representatives of the disciplines relevant for the ECOLOPES approach, spanning from architecture to ecology, computer sciences and beyond. Click here to register for upcoming TALKS.
#UPCOMING TALK 11: 7th of November, 17:00
Monika Egerer researches the ecology and management of ecosystems in and around cities. She takes an interdisciplinary research approach, analyzing the relationships among biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing. A particular focus is on the role of insects and plant biodiversity in urban agricultural systems, especially in the context of habitat management, urbanization and climate change. She holds a PhD in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. In 2020, she was appointed to the professorship of Urban Productive Ecosystems at the TUM School of Life Sciences.
Increasing urban densification can negatively impact urban biodiversity, but the diversity of urban green spaces also offers new opportunities to promote biodiversity conservation. Urban community gardens are social-ecological systems that support biodiversity, ecosystem services, and interactions between people and nature. Community gardens, in turn, can be an ideal living laboratory to work with gardener to develop, test, and implement biodiversity conservation strategies that can be transferred and disseminated to other urban ecosystems. However, the impact of biodiversity-friendly garden strategies has not yet been systematically researched, nor how this knowledge can be transferred to other urban ecosystems. Monika Egerer will talk about the research they are developing, to implement and test insect conservation measures with community gardeners in Munich and Berlin as well as with city residents. They work at the interface between civil society (gardeners, residents, ecologically oriented organizations) and relevant urban stakeholders (city council, district committees, city administration, business, academia) to anchor civil society participation in the ecological transformation of the city. She will present their transdisciplinary research concept and participatory methods and will report on their experience to date in translating research into practice and supporting the role of urban gardeners and residents in implementing biodiversity measures beyond the garden.
#TALK 10: 5th of September, 17:00
#TALK 9: 6th of June, 17:00
Svenja Keune is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, in Sweden and at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. She will talk about her approach towards multispecies co-habitation which is based on autoethnography, creating artefacts as event spaces for e.g. insects, and the work with textiles as framework for thinking, making, and relating.
#TALK 8: 2nd of May, 17:00
Professor Sarah Bekessy leads the ICON Science research group at RMIT University which uses interdisciplinary approaches to solve complex biodiversity conservation problems. She co-developed the Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design (BSUD) protocol that has now been used by numerous developers, governments and non-government organisations. Sarah will present several case studies of BSUD and discuss its potential for achieving nature-positive cities.
We’re more than happy to welcome here also in person at our Landscape Faculty in Freising next Tuesday, 2nd of May, 17:00.
#TALK 7:
Andrea Balestrini is a landscape planner with experience in nature-based solutions, public space design and landscape governance within international R&I projects and consultancies. Since 2014 he works at LAND, where he leads the LAND Research Lab®, thinktank for applied research and innovation in landscape and territorial transformation processes. Since 2023 he is Ecological Consultant for the City of Meran within JustNature project.
He talks about the role of ecosystem services within the process of sustainability certifications and decision-making. Ecosystem services can be quantified and contribute to the process of sustainability certifications and decision-making. Several R&I projects have been financed by the European Commission – such as UNaLab – to define and assess how ecological and climate solutions are able to impact on societal challenges. Combining this knowledge with data-driven planning procedures, LAND developed its own methodology to quantify and communicate performances of ecosystems services from soil and vegetation, thus contributing to natural capital accounting procedures.
#TALK 6:
Leo Stuckardt, Senior Project Leader at MVRDV and co-founder of MVRDV NEXT, talks about the role of NEXT within MVRDV’s global practice and illustrate on-going research on data-driven design through applied, speculative and academic case studies.
What’s MVRDV NEXT?
The increasing role of standardized, digital tools has placed data-driven design exploration and performance quantification at the core of architectural decision-making processes. Recognizing the need for design tools that are specific to MVRDV’s methodology and building on the practice’s heritage of visionary tools, the computational Research & Development unit MVRDV NEXT was established.
#TALK 5:
In the fifth ECOLOPES TALK, Chiara Catalano spoke about the habitat template approach which considers nature as a model for the designing of Urban Green Infrastructure. The ecological understanding of natural habitats is essential to mimic them in cities and to design niches providing refugia and alternative habitats to certain plant and animal species. The monitoring of urban habitats gives insights on their adaptive dynamics over time and provide for guidelines for new projects and retrofitting of existing greened areas. The design for nature, having a net-positive impact on biodiversity, requires multidisciplinary teams and thinking driven by the analysis of spatially explicit ecological data and supported by integrative and modelling tools.
#TALK 4:
William Myers – BIODESIGN
We are pleased to present William Myers at the 4th ECOLOPES TALK on September 6th, 5PM CET.
William Myers is a curator, author, and teacher based in Amsterdam. His book Biodesign (2012 and 2018 editions) identifies the emerging practice of integrating biological processes into design and architecture. It is published by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and Thames & Hudson worldwide. Biodesign is the next step beyond biology-inspired approaches to design and fabrication. It refers to the incorporation of living organisms as essential components in design, enhancing the function of the finished work. The depicted structure is made by David Benjamin and consists out of Mycelium bricks grown from agricultural waste and fungi, reflective plastic molds, repurposed scaffolding boards.
#TALK 3:
ChartierDalix – ARCHITECTURE AS ECOSYSTEM
The french architects ChartierDalix aim to bring architecture and ecosystems to harmonious coexistence. They presented their visionary research and designs in the ECOLOPES July Talk.
#TALK 2:
John Marzluff – WELCOME TO SUBIRDIA
Watch our Livestream from our Talk with John Marzluff – Professor of Wildlife Science at University of Washington.He spoke about his book “Welcome to Subirdia” in which he reveals findings from his long-term research on birds along urban gradients and gives insights how species are adapting in the face of urban development. We also got some surprising perspectives about the role of semi-urban environments in keeping common birds common.
#TALK 1:
We are pleased to present Helga Fassbinder as our first speaker. Helga is the founder of the journal and the concept “Biotope City”. The Biotope City concept is based on the realization that we and our cities do not form an antagonism to nature, but that our cities are nothing else but one other of the many forms that constitute nature. Helga presented and discussed the concept as well its implementation in the “Biotope City Wienerberg” in Vienna.
Find out more about the Biotope City Wienerberg here:
