Open Fields Lunch: Landscape Habitats 2024 - Cultural Landscapes / HRC

Offering opportunities for interdisciplinary discussions around urbanization, the Open Fields Lunches aim to foster new collaborations within the EPFL scientific community.
Each meeting will be moderated by a member of the HRC or its affiliated laboratories, and will consist of a presentation by an international expert in the field, followed by presentations by two EPFL researchers interested in sharing and discussing their research. The seminar will conclude with a debate open to all the lunch participants.

Cultural Landscapes

In the ongoing socio-ecological transition occurring globally, it is vital to consider the social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of a place. Currently, territories worldwide are experiencing a significant phase of urbanization, which brings the study of human-climate interactions within cultural landscapes to the forefront as a critical area of research. During this seminar, an additional area of interest is understanding how cities, in different contexts, are integrating the cultural and aesthetic elements of landscapes, and creating impactful infrastructures across broad areas while transforming the nature of the city’s landscape and its territorial extent.

Moreover, foregrounding this dynamic relationship between humans, land, urban fabric, and climate while examining cultural landscapes, can provide a unique and valuable perspective. This approach could facilitate a comprehensive investigation of how planning can enhance the resilience and self-sufficiency of cities in relation to their territories and their cultural heritage. Part of this exploration involves examining the evolution of aesthetic norms in response to changes in climate, societal dynamics, and the usage of these cultural landscapes.


Program