Working with the Flow. Urban Renewal in Riverside Locations.

Laurence Pattacini presents research on urban rivers and shares insights and guidance for urban planning and design in this lunchtime session.

The aim is to highlight the potential benefits and affordance of urban rivers and their adjacent urban floodplain to create better places to live. Innovative approaches are required to ensure resilience and adaptability to respond to the effects of climate change. The focus is on former industrial areas in riverside locations because these sites provide ideal test beds to explore new urban strategies. On one hand they provide opportunities for city densification, but they are also particularly vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis with increased risks of flood disasters. The study draws on previous publications concerned with the unique characteristics of riverside urbanity and the potential of riverside sites to propose a more sustainable living environment and reconnect urban dwellers with nature (Pattacini 2021b).

Laurence Pattacini is a senior University Teacher in the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield. She qualified as an architect in Versailles and completed her master’s in urban design at Oxford Brookes University. She has worked in several European countries and has extensive experience in landscape architecture practice. She has been teaching for the past twenty years and has been involved in several research projects in the UK. Her main research interests lie in sustainable urban environments and the role of the spaces between buildings to mitigate the impact of climate change. Her publications are concerned with a range of issues related to landscape, including urban forms and riverside urbanity.

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