FireCity: Towards Regenerative Urbanism (Student Essay Book)
Across the globe, 21st-century cities face a growing number of technological, social, and environmental challenges. The increased intensity of global risk establishes an urgency to define new strategies for designing buildings, cities, and environments. Various efforts by many entities have taken place to address this issue. One such effort is ArcDR3 (Initiative for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Initiative), an international collaborative project led by the UCLA xLAB and the International Research Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University in collaboration with the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and involving 14 studios at 11 universities in the region. This project investigates a methodology,
named “Regenerative Urbanism,” for building disaster-resilient environments through design studios linked to research on disasters in various regions by each university.
In adopting and modifying the global ArcDR3 Grand Syllabus to the Los Angeles regional context, the FireCity research studio focuses on the fire-risk reduction and fire-resilience, both at Wildlife Urban Interfaces (WUIs) and within interstitial multi-hazard zones within California. This studio engages with relevant authorities and experts within the UCLA community and beyond. It will operate as a combined think tank whose culminating projects will contribute a vital array of design visions and knowledge to the ArcDR3 initiative.
This collection of essays presents a series of perspectives by the students on Regenerative Urbanism, an updated paradigm of resilience in urban design. Its strategies are conceived as mitigatory and anticipatory, with ideas of adaptability, flexibility, mutation, and symbiosis embedded in their methods and techniques to ensure the unfolding of more robust, balanced, and just societies.
The publication FireCity: Towards Regenerative Urbanism (Student Essay Book) examines several case studies that address a particular aspect of urban environments existing amidst disaster. It was created by the one-year research-design studio FireCity during the 2021-22 academic year. In this publication, students compile research, observations, and opinions in several essays.