WINTER SEMESTER 2007-2008
SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
(7th Semester)
OPEN SPACES AND NATURE IN SETTLEMENTS AND CITY
Teaching Team: Polyxeni Kosmaki, NTUA Professor, Kostas Serraos, NTUA Assistant Professor, Sonia Mavrommati, NTUA Lecturer (PD 407/80)
Teaching assistant: Georgia Goumopoulou, NTUA PhD candidate – Foundationer ELE
Invited speakers: Nikos Pangas, Forester - NTUA researcher, Helias Gianniris, Architect- NTUA researcher, Dimitris Polychronopoulos, Assistant Professor DUTh., George Sarigiannis, NTUA Professor
- CONTENT AND SCOPE OF THE LESSON
The lesson looks at theunits of natural, semi-natural and manmade open spaces and landscapes and of their relation with the environment of settlements and cities.
Public open spaces of the city accomplish two different but complementary to each other roles: Firstly, they are spaces open to the elements of natural environment (sun, wind, water, greenery), they allow namely the presence and – up to a certain point – the function of nature on the built environment. That means they have a regulating function, concerning microclimate and the quality of the environment in the city. They also offer the opportunity to the people who live and move in the urban space to come to direct contact with natural elements.
Furthermore, they are public urban spaces and that means social places, they bear namely a big part of city’s social life. As such they have a connective function in the network of activities, of buildings, of points and flows of the built environment. They also represent places of citizen’s gathering, where cultural, recreational, commercial and athletic activities often take place.
The scope of the course is to help students familiarize with various planning approaches which forces their interest in the re-establishment of natural environmentand the improvement of microclimate in the built environment of settlements and cities. Within this framework we are also interested in the impact of nature destructions – such as forest fires, floods, etc.- to the man made environment of human settlements in general.
The world climatic change, that emanates from the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as well as the pressures for big scale changes in the uses of ground, make the units of open spaces and landscapes, that are immediatelyconnected with the manmade settlements particularly corruptible.
During this semester a big part of theory and exercise of the course will be focused in the subject of impacts from the natural destructions that are connected with the climatic changes and more specifically those that are caused by the forest fires in the environment of settlements and cities.
- THEORY -LESSONS’ SCHEDULE
The courses of theory include the following units:
1.Natural and landscaped units of open spaces: the role and their function in the environment of settlements and cities. The effects of natural destructions in the elements of natural environment and in the microclimate of city.
(4 courses: P. Kosmaki, Invited speaker: G. Sarigiannis)
2.Natural disasters - Ecological and social aspects, impact management - Effects from the settlement related uses and activities.
(3 courses: G. Gkoumopoulou, Invited speakers: N. Pangas, Hel. Gianniris)
3.Basic principles and examples of environmental planning of units and networks of open spaces in the built-up space from Greece and other countries
(6 courses: K. Serraos, S. Mavrommati, Invited speaker: D. Polychronopoulos)
Concerning theory, students are given notes as well as the book«Υπαίθριοιχώροιστηνπόλη» by A. Aravantinos & P. Kosmaki:
Other information related to the lesson can be found at the address:
3. EXERCISE
The exercise’s subject and target is the close examination of issues concerning planning units of open spaces in settlements and cities, which refer to the appraisal and improvement of urban environment conditions (i.e. issues of planting, soil, water, protection from noise and climatic conditions, air circulation/ventilation safeguarding).
The particularity in the exercise of this year's course is the focalisation on issues of natural destructions or changes of land uses and their effects in the environment of settlements and cities - more specifically in the topical subject of fires of summertime 2007.
Nowadays and afterwards the big destructions of summertime 2007, the subjects of reconstruction of regions that were affected by the fire are placed imperative. Issues like maintenance of forests and landscape, viability of rural space and re-establishment of social cohesion must be reapproached.
The students’ teams can choose between three categories of case studies:
- Investigation of cases concerning environmental management of settlements and cities in European countries (eg Portugal, Spain, Italy) after destructions that are caused either by natural hazards or urban land uses.
- The close examination of issues concerning replanning the natural and built environment in rural regions regarding:
- the rescue of landscape
- the viability of rural space
- the redefinition of the settlement tisue
- the re-establishment of social cohesion
These subjects will be studied in two stages as follows:
1. Documentation and analysis of the selected area in order to note the natural, environmental, social elements of settlements’ structure.
2. Principles and proposals for replanning the natural and built-up environment of selected regions.
C.Study and evaluation of a specific natural formation (forest, stream), in the city or in the edges of it, that has been seriously damaged by natural hazards or by land uses alterations (i.e. Parnitha ‘s Forest, Pendeli, Ymittos, AsoposRiver).
Students are expected to work out some of the elements that constitute the research, either individually or in groups, in order to propose axes of replanning the selected areas, from the whole of the course.
After the selection of elements, that would be worked out from each group, the students should initially point out, with sketches, rough drafts, diagrams and photographs the characteristics of the areas under research, in such a way that would be pointed out the “positive” and the “negative data” of the environment and the reconstitution of “life” in the area.
Afterwards, the characteristics will be examined and interpretedthrough the overall examination of their environmental and social function, the organization of rural space and its relations with the new residential fabric Projects should be submitted in issues of 8-15 pages, A3 size respectively, which should include text with sketches, diagrams, draft drawings, maps and photographs.
Students’ evaluation will be based by 2/3 at the process and the final submission of their exercises and by 1/3 at their documented presentation.
OPEN SPACES AND NATURE IN SETTLEMENTS AND CITY - SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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