Webinar | Future of Cities:Possibilities of Sustainability

SONA Newsletter | Vol-3 

On 20th August 2021, SONA committee on Green and sustainable architecture organized a webinar titled “Future of Cities: Possibilities of Sustainability” with Architect-Professor Dr. Zebun Nasreen Ahmed as the speaker for the session. The session was viwed on zoom as well as live-telecasted on the official page of SONA. 

Architect-Professor Dr. Zebun Nasreen Ahmed has been teaching at the Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, in Dhaka, since 1988, from where she got her B.Arch. degree. She completed her M.Phil. in 1987 from Sheffield City Polytechnic, UK, and her PhD in 1994 from De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Her area of specialization for both these degrees was on aspects of building-climate interactions, particularly focusing on the thermal and luminous environments. She has numerous publications in reputed journals and proceedings around the World, and has presented her work in several countries. Dr. Ahmed is a core member of the Green Architecture Cell at the Department of Architecture, BUET, and also teaches in post graduate architecture program. She is currently chairing the Green Architecture and Sustainability Committee of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh. She has made contributions in ten books and was one of the authors of the revised Bangladesh National Building Code, that has recently been adopted as code for all building activities in Bangladesh, by the Government. As an Architect, Dr. Ahmed is also involved in the practice of Architecture in Bangladesh and has designed several residential and commercial buildings. She was also the Lead Architect for the National Liberation War Memorial at Mujibnagar, Bangladesh commemorating the site of the first swearing in of the Government of Bangladesh.

The webinar “Future of Cities: Possibilities of Sustainability” revolved around the idea of way forward for any cities mainly discussing about what should be the form and nature of cities of the future. Interesting topics like cities Vs environmental issues, climate change, changed lifestyle, problems caused by urbanization were discussed during the webinar. Similarly, the session also included brief statistics about exponential urbanization along with changed paradigms in smart cities in volving IoT – Internet of Things – Core technology of Smart City.

IoT involves an AI integrated system to solving and managing problems from a different radical perspective. The changed paradigm in smart cities include intelligent, interconnected cities that uses technology to improve the life of citizen. The webinar also focused on certain problems like: Sustainability issues (urban agriculture, clean energy etc), housing problems, IoT needs, Crime management, traffic management, changed population structure, collaboration between stakeholders, that needs to be addressed to before achieving a sustainable city.

The session also discussed about urban influx where the good news of exponential urban growth was highlighted. The positive side being: living standard/styles of a poverty stricken populace is not usually high, they already belong to a culture of recycling and maintaining horizontal balance with the nature among others. The presentation ended on a note that “New and Advanced technology” can help the journey towards sustainability that involves environmental and policy change as the challenges of development.

The later part of session, involved a question answer session, where discussion was mostly based on whether IT or technology should be given the upper hand in our livelihood or not. The speaker delivered her thought as it should only be a medium of upliftment of the society but should not be considered as a factor for doing so. Lastly, the session ended with an appreciation speech by the chair of Green and sustainable architecture committee, Dr. Sanjay Upreti.