Water and the City. A Call for Climate Action through Water Saving Behaviors.

Water – the petroleum of the 21st century. It is the well of life and after air, the most important element to survive. During the current stage of planetary crisis, water has become increasingly valuable to the city as climate models predict that both water scarcity and abundance will be putting urban ecosystems at risk in the decades to come. Given the systems scale of environmental problems humankind faces collectively, architecture must be understood as a systems component, integrated into natural, cultural, and built systems that leave the object scale behind and approach the city holistically. In developing solutions to climate change, the built environment plays a crucial role in actual design and understanding its users’ behavior. This paper investigates water as a driver of spatial transformation and the circular-systemic role architecture and its users could play in decarbonizing the built environment through water saving strategies as a concrete call for climate action. It summarizes an interdisciplinary and cross-university research and teaching initiative conducted through a global campus framework between the University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington) and the University of Innsbruck (LFU Innsbruck). A seminar course offered at both institutions serves as a framework to bring faculty and students from climatically different zones together to investigate water pathways from alps to coast. Methodologically, the research study is built on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A detailed questionnaire has been developed and deployed with over 350 responses, aiming to understand water-saving behaviors among students at the respective campuses. Furthermore, students have been actively involved in drawing, visualizing, and diagramming the complex nature of water systems as they relate to the architecture of the city on various scales. The project concludes by emphasizing the significance of interdisciplinary and cross-university initiatives as ways to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. These initiatives establish connections between research and classroom activities, fostering a comprehensive approach to tackle environmental challenges.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2023.3

Volume Editors
Massimo Santanicchia

ISBN
978-1-944214-44-9