Rebuild By Design Munich: Symposium and Exhibition

Rebuild By Design Munich approaches the topic of a knowledge-based approach to planning and designing resilient cities and architecture in an interdisciplinary way by presenting and discussing core aims, facts, and terms. The aims of the exhibition and symposium are:

• to present current planning and design initiatives that deal with rebuilding after disaster, adaptation, and "building back better";
• to illustrate international case studies that indicate why "context matters";
• and to discuss the core themes of risk reduction, climate adaptation, resilience and vulnerability.

Planners and designers need to better understand the interdisciplinary challenge of this topic in order to propose and develop projects that are sustainable and just. Peers and researchers in related disciplines as well as the general public need to know more on how planners and designers envision risk reduction and climate adaptation.

Rationale

Disasters triggered by environmental hazards impact urbanized areas worldwide to increasing degrees. There is an urgent need to deal not only with disaster, but climate change as well. The challenge is to ensure the sustainability of the built environment and the communities that inhabit it. This comprises an emerging field of inquiry and research within the planning and design disciplines. A knowledge-based approach to planning and designing resilient cities and architecture is the key. Recent efforts such as the "Rebuild By Design" competition, initiated after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the USA in 2012, offer the opportunity to discuss this topic, its societal character, and its relevance for planning and design disciplines. However, a broad awareness and understanding of the underlying causes of disaster and their influence on resilience in the built environment is still at a nascent stage.

The Exhibition

Open from 17 June until 11 July 2015 at the Architekturgalerie München.