Thün and Velikov Publish Research on Megaregional Energy Systems and ‘Shed Cartographies’ in New Edited Volume
Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün and Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov have published recent research work examining the relationships between renewable energy systems, mobility infrastructure and projected urban patterns in a chapter entitled “Conduit Urbanism: Rethinking Infrastructural Ecologies in the Great Lakes Megaregion” in Sustainable Energy Landscapes: Design Planning and Development edited by Sven Stremke and Andy van den Dobbelsteen (CRC Taylor Francis).
The book project is a joint effort supported by Wageningen University and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to assemble leading edge perspectives on analytical methodologies and metrics, combinatory design case studies and pedagogic models integrating interdisciplinary perspectives on the incorporation of renewable energy systems into regional, urban and landscape planning, policy and design practice.
Thün and Velikov’s contribution is situated as part of a series of Case Studies presented alongside author teams led by Raoul Bunschoten, Greg Keeffe, Olaf Schroth, Marianne Karpernstein-Machan, Gernod Stoeglehner, Sven Jergensen and Riccardo Pulselli presenting applied research from Taiwan, the UK, Canada, the USA, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Italy. Central to their contribution is the presentation of a model of regional analysis combining perspectives from industrial ecology with GIS based techniques to produce thematically differentiated “Shed Ecologies” that track sector-themed systemic interrelations and flows at the scale of the megaregion. The case study presents models for infrastructural bundling, related frameworks for binding energy and transportation logistic in structuring development patterns and projections on how such systems might catalyze new formats of governance and social equity within megaregional constructs.
Thün and Velikov are currently assembling work comprised in part by the research published in this volume for its first international solo exhibition in Montreal in Februrary 2013 at the Centre de Design at UQAM.
The multi-year research project has been generously supported across its various phases of development through a 2009-2012 Research Creation Grant from the SSHRC in Canada, The Canada Council for the Arts, Taubman College and the University of Michigan OVPR.
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