Future Cities Lab Global • Infrastructure & Ecologies

Research Modules of Infrastructure & Ecologies

Adaptive Mobility, Land Use and Infrastructure

This project aims to integrate mobility, land use and infrastructure into a resilient, adaptive system that responds to changing needs, through a three-pronged approach. Social network surveys will monitor and examine the activity chains that generate demand for mobility. Second, novel modelling techniques will be developed to handle the unique challenges posed by the fast-changing and dynamic nature of cities through adaptive systems, that can respond to disruptions almost in real-time. Finally, exploratory modelling, decision-making under uncertainty methods (e.g. real-options) and optimization methods will be employed to formulate adaptive plans that can response respond to long-term changes. Our research endeavours span the global scope, with a particular emphasis on contributing to the development of Singapore and Zurich. Our ultimate objective is to develop adaptive plans that can effectively navigate uncertainties and lead to long-term desirable outcomes aligned with carbon neutrality and/or the 45-Minute City targets by 2050.

SDG

Comparative Ecology of Cities

The inevitability of increasing urbanization and the attendant problems it creates place an urgent demand on our ability to shape current and future urban development using a science-based approach to urban planning. The project is centred on the proposition that urban pattern-process-function relationships provide valuable knowledge to advance the science of urban planning, but this has thus far remained relatively unexplored and under - utilized in practice.

SDG

The Sea-City Interface

This module focuses on mitigating climate impacts at the sea-city fringes in rapidly urbanising cities in tropical Asia. Firstly, it studies measures to mitigate climate change and its effects through urban design and planning (concept plan), environmental science, and biomimicry technology to capture, absorb, store and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Secondly, it develops practical and scalable nature-based approaches to mitigate the effects of climate change and rising seas through urban design and biophilic approaches for water-sensitive design. Thirdly, it studies the interplay between climate change, an ageing population, and emerging economic developments, promoting current and future liveability.

SDG

Other Clusters

Cycles & Districts

This cluster focuses on the improvement of material processes (digital fabrication, energy generation, building material reuse) involved in sustainable construction and habitation of high-density settlements at building and city-district scales.

Food & Territories

This cluster focuses on emergent edge-city and hinterland regions, to integrate food production, water management, ecosystem services, hybrid land uses and biodiversity in sustainable extended urbanisation.

Integration & Strategies

This cluster focuses on the development of innovative cyber-physical design processes (cognitive, collaborative, participatory, digitally-enhanced) by which the forms, patterns and functions of settlement systems may be arranged in sustainable ways.

Tools & Platforms

This cluster groups various software development efforts at FCL Global to create and maintain a suite of desktop applications, web services, software addons, plugins and processing pipelines. We aim to unify and merge the functionality of new and existing software into a universal frontend and standardized processing middleware to provide a complete, open-source platform.

Future Cities Laboratory Global

Welcome to FCL Global, an interdisciplinary research programme that seeks to address the worldwide circumstances of rapid urbanisation. Our ultimate goal is to promote more equitable and livable urban futures, by bringing together Science, Design, Engineering and Governance.

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