'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.'
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 3)
In the context of a severe environmental crisis, where the number of disaster victims—whether from natural or anthropogenic causes—grows exponentially each year; where our protection systems reach their limits; where most of our coastal areas demand reorganisation; where the construction sector, primarily responsible for climate change and the vulnerability of our territories, must undergo a complete paradigm shift; and where the architect, a major actor in the transformation of our territories, also emerges as the guarantor of their resilience, this comprehensive seminar, offered in the master first year first semester (S7), aims to raise awareness about the importance of considering major risks in architectural projects, urban planning, and heritage preservation. It also provides a systemic analysis of the entire issue from physical, technological, social, cultural, environmental, political, and economic perspectives.
The seminar incorporates practical applications and avenues for research within the broad domain of project management applied to the mitigation of major risks. Its pedagogy is rooted in a transdisciplinary and international experience that spans from the Land of the Rising Sun to the harsh climate of the Sahara, including our own latitudes. It seeks to be a catalyst for an innovative, effective, and eco-responsible preventive and protective policy for our regions, in which the architect must be one of the key actors.
'Every architectural or urban project is an opportunity to reduce the vulnerability of a territory.'
The seminar will address the principal hazards that threaten our societies, for which architects can offer conceptual, pedagogical, functional, humanitarian, sustainable, economic, and/or technical solutions for prevention and mitigation. These hazards include earthquakes, wind, floods, rising water levels, undesirable soil effects, coastal erosion, tsunamis, technological accidents, pandemics, conflicts, climate change, and large-scale migrations, as well as so-called associated risks such as landslides, fire, pollution, health, security, and the loss of cultural memory.
The multidisciplinary instruction will be complemented by external contributions from various professional disciplines.
Each session comprises a theoretical lecture component and a practical tutorial component.
