Within the framework of the initiative of the first “City Lab Science” in South America to be held in Concepción, the Faculty of Architecture and Art of the Universidad del Desarrollo together with the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC) and the Cities Corporation carried out the keynote talk: “City and science: a new form of urban planning”, by Luis Alonso, principal investigator of the City Science Group, belonging to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Communications UDD.- It should be noted that the project called “City Lab Bío-Bío” will last four years, in which it seeks to evaluate and validate the main urban planning challenges together with the various actors involved in the city. In this way, Concepción and the neighboring communes join the world network of the MIT laboratory of cities, which is made up of Andorra, Guadalajara, Hamburg, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Taipei and Toronto.
The rector of the UDD, Federico Valdés, was in charge of giving the welcoming words, highlighting that this initiative “will allow us to share good practices and build new collaboration bridges between academia and the public and private sectors, so that from theory to action and from ideas to the effective transformation of the great Concepción and the region”.
During the activity, Luis Alonso explained the main tools that will be used to achieve innovation, the first of which is the “CityScope” that was developed by MIT to model neighborhoods using information that arises from the territories themselves. Subsequently, he referred to the “mobility lines” that will serve to rethink the use of the car in the city and thus obtain “micromobility”. Finally, he spoke about “robotic architecture”, which will allow the creation of transformable and affordable spaces to achieve diversity in urban centers. “Hand in hand with this technology, we seek to help urban authorities make informed decisions on how to improve communities and offer better solutions to citizens,” he commented.
After his intervention, a discussion panel was held that was moderated by Pablo Allard and with the participation of Rodrigo Díaz, regional governor of Bío-Bío; Marcela Martínez, director of the City Lab Bío-Bío; Helen Martín, president of the CChC of Concepción; and Luis Alonso. During this space, they discussed regulation plans, regional development and sustainable mobility.
The talk was also attended by Óscar Ferrel, representative of the Bío-Bío Regional Government; Kent Larson, director of the MIT Media Lab’s City Science; and Raimundo Cruzat, president of the Urban Planning GT of the CChC, among other people related to the world of research.
