Urban Futures: Intra/Inter ... Continued
The third charrette for Urban Futures: intra/inter will be focusing on climate change in the Quebec-Windsor corridor. Our final charrette poses a unique set of challenges, as it falls at a time where having all the participants together in person is not an option. For this reason, the decision was made to hold the final charrette online, through video-conferencing. One of the objectives of the charrettes was to investigate how to best manage and work in multidisciplinary groups, and the shift to a digital platform will provide valuable insight to this question. This structure for the final charrette will also be changed quite a bit from the past gatherings to fully explore the possibilities of hosting the charrette digitally. Three topics under the umbrella of climate change have been chosen as a focus for each breakout session: water, agriculture, and workplace. However, the sessions will be held over a four week period, with one digital breakout session per week, and a final conclusion in the last week. The sessions will begin with an introduction to the topic by a researcher in the field. Instead of providing a scenario for the groups to discuss, they will be given statistics and information about topic in the context of the Quebec-Windsor corridor, along with questions to begin conversations within the group. In the time between the digital conferences, participants will be encouraged to share thoughts and research in a chatroom style discussion.
To help support the research, events, and partners involved within Urban Futures: inter/intra, CIMS has developed branding and a website showcasing the related project material. Visitors to the website can learn more about the objectives surrounding Urban Futures: inter/intra and the work involved in developing a multidisciplinary research cluster, while viewing some of the interactive content that has been produced to present each of the design charrettes. A researcher directory with associated biographies and information regarding their individual research/faculties can also be explored by visitors. We encourage you to visit the website to see some of the amazing work that has gone into exploring the future of urbanism and technologies within the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor here.
So what does the future hold for Urban Futures?
To date the Urban Futures research team has not only been concerned with the aspect of the digital twin but also with reflecting upon their own research methods. This process will help us to have a better idea of what forms of workshops, meetings and brainstorming events work best in a multidisciplinary setting since we plan to continue hosting our design charrettes and workshops on other topics and will be putting together several funding applications based on the research findings. Recently, for example, we have submitted a proposal to put together a large multidisciplinary team to build a framework for Canada's Digital Twin. The research from Urban futures will also be used as a launchpad for future grant applications including the recent submission to the New Frontiers Exploration.
Considering the ongoing nature of the project, we are always looking for new academic, industry, and government partners, so if anyone has an idea to share or is interested in contributing in some form, please do not hesitate to contact us.