Architecture Matters 2022

Dense City
19–20 May 2022
Munich Urban Colab

Dense, mixed cities are a basic prerequisite for achieving climate neutrality by the middle of this century, and for living in harmony with the Earth’s resources. What does this mean for building in Germany and beyond ?

The construction sector is responsible for up to 60 percent of global resource consumption. Globally, we are currently using 170 percent of the earth’s resources; in Germany with our high standard of living, the figure is 270 percent. However, the most densely populated cities in the world today are in China, India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh – emerging countries where most people are still denied our Western standard of living, yet where emissions are steadily rising. How can the dense city function in our industrialized nations? How much do we need to live a good life? How can we find new answers to these questions  together, for the future, without living at the expense of others? How much are we prepared to give up? What alternatives are there to radical renunciation?

This conference hone in on the dense city by looking at three main topics: structural density (including inner-city redensification, preservation of existing structures, high-rise buildings); digitalization (smart city, big data, data centres, energy consumption); and mobility (individual mobility, infrastructure, networking).

Munich Urban Colab
Freddie-Mercury-Straße 5
80797 München