The Urban Microclimate Regime: How Elemental Forces Shape Urban Climate Adaptation Policies.

This project investigates the refiguration of urban spaces in the context of the implementation of climate adaptation measures, in particular through so-called nature-based solutions. The focus lies on a genealogical and qualitative analysis of how material elements such as air, water, and solar radiation are captured, mobilized, and politicized. The aim is to critically interrogate current debates on nature-based solutions and to elaborate the specificity of what has been termed “elemental urbanism” (Farías & Kemmer, 2024).
In the previous funding phase, two case studies – Stuttgart and Fukuoka – were used to explore historical and contemporary forms of the convective management of heat. The research examined how wind, fresh air, and ventilation are organized at the urban scale (e.g. cold-air corridors in Stuttgart) and at the scale of the body (e.g. high-tech textiles in Japan). In the final funding phase, this perspective will be extended to two further forms of elemental urbanism: climate adaptation through shade infrastructures and through the construction of a so-called sponge city. These policy assemblages will be studied in cities that have historically and currently been central sites for their development.
Data collection will be carried out through semi-structured interviews with actors, especially from the environmental sciences, planning, and architecture, as well as through comprehensive document analysis. The research questions structuring the final funding phase are: (i) How are elemental forces mobilized in current urban design approaches and techniques of climate adaptation and integrated into urban infrastructures? (ii) How do “elemental solutions” refigure urban spaces, both conceptually and materially, by problematizing and transforming existing spatial configurations? (iii) Which genealogical orders and translocal circulations are associated with these “elemental solutions”, particularly with regard to interactions between environmental sciences and urban politics?
The expected outcomes of the subproject include a nuanced analysis of the urban microclimate regime. By comparatively investigating the elements of air, water, and shade, the project critically expands the discourse on nature-based solutions by examining in greater depth the specificity of the mobilized elements and the associated spatial figures. The project seeks close collaboration with urban policy actors – especially in planning and architecture – in order to enhance the relevance and applicability of the findings for the practice of urban climate adaptation and to provide practice-oriented impulses for future planning.