CRUNCH, or Climate- Resilient - Urban- Ne xus - CHoices, is a three-year project led by a research team from Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States and Taiwan. Its goal is to forecast opportunities for innovative use of resources such as water, energy and food so that they can be managed as efficiently as possible in the future. The results of the interdisciplinary team of researchers are being presented at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.
urban innovation
One of the key words making up the project's name is Nexus, or, as the initiative's website reads, a central point that connects a network of links, such as an urban infrastructure system. Alongside Climate, Resilience, Urbanity and Choice, Nexus thus co-creates the CRUNCH project, building an integrated approach to facilitate decision-making and mutual learning among cities. The goals of the project include strengthening efficiency in the use of resources by participating centers (Gdansk, Uppsala, Eindhoven, Glasgow, Miami, Taipei and Southend-on-Sea), creating a state-of-the-art IDSS platform that gathers innovative ideas from around the world, and using tools to support decision-making for future urban development.
© Olivia Business Center
laboratories of change
The international research team includes scientists from the Gdansk University of Technology, and the City of Gdansk and the Olivia Business Centre are also involved in the course of the project. This cooperation allows the theory to be put into practice - the creation of laboratories that allow actual testing of proposed solutions has allowed work to begin on, among other things, a non-invasive measurement system that allows analysis of urban traffic, a model of a self-sustaining neighborhood and a co-modal neighborhood node, developed with the participation of students.
The project involves analyzing the changes that have taken place in the daily lifestyles of Gdansk residents during the pandemic period and managing available resources accordingly to the changing needs of urban residents, explains Joanna Bach-Glowinska, PhD, from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Gdansk University of Technology. - In the CRUNCH project, thanks to the involvement and cooperation of the urban, scientific and business communities, we were able to develop a number of innovative solutions, she adds.
Currently, as part of the project, studies are being conducted on one of the interchanges in Gdansk's Oliwa district. The result of these activities is to be a friendly, green space planned for the streetcar loop after consultations with residents. Studies of the flow of transportation users through interchanges will help create a model for prototyping urban spaces, which in turn will allow for ecological management of resources, as well as sustainable city planning.
Here we are dealing not only with the search for innovative theoretical solutions, but first of all with testing and implementing them in the context of specific urban spaces," explains the CRUNCH project by Professor Piotr Lorens, Architect of the City of Gdansk.
CRUNCH TIME
The CRUNCH TIME exhibition can be seen in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The opening of the exhibition was hybridized on September 24 this year.
