Reading urban form as a studio teaching method: case study in Siberia

Quite often heritage monument is perceived as a separate domain in Russian conservation theory and practice. Teaching practice demonstrates the situation clearly: quite commonly studio regeneration projects are conducted in isolation from the context, or lacking the methodology for preliminary analysis. However, many international concepts attempt to avoid isolation of buildings as physical objects from a cultural environment with its multi-layered history of significances (Waterton & Watson, 2015). The paper presents a case study of the application of urban morphology as a research tool and a teaching method (Caniggia & Maffei, 2001), to the Siberian context. Research group of Siberian Federal University (SFU) organized the experiment, in which students worked on the two stages of a regeneration project for the old Military camp in Krasnoyarsk. Between the two stages, the workshop was organized for students of Sapienza University and SFU to conduct a methodological study. Then the research group continued the second stage of the experiment in which examined the applicability of morphological analysis in Siberia. The qualitative difference of regeneration proposals before and after the application of morphological analysis, as well as the level of subsequent students’ proficiency, proved the potential applicability of the method in Siberian academy and practice, and effectiveness of the workshop as the tool for its introduction

A pan-Arctic initiative on the spatial and temporal dynamics of Arctic coasts

Permafrost coasts make up roughly one third of all coasts worldwide. Their erosion leads to the release of previously locked organic carbon, changes in ecosystems and the destruction of cultural heritage, infrastructure and whole communities. Since rapid environmental changes lead to an intensification of Arctic coastal dynamics, it is of great importance to adequately quantify current and future coastal changes. However, the remoteness of the Arctic and scarcity of data limit our understanding of coastal dynamics at a pan-Arctic scale and prohibit us from getting a complete picture of the diversity of impacts on the human and natural environment. In a joint effort of the EU project NUNATARYUK and the NSF project PerCS-Net, we seek to close this knowledge gap by collecting and analyzing all accessible high-resolution shoreline position data for the Arctic coastline. These datasets include geographical coordinates combined with coastal positions derived from archived data, surveying data, air and space born remote sensing products, or LiDAR products. The compilation of this unique dataset will enable us to reach unprecedented data coverage and will allow us a first insight into the magnitude and trends of shoreline changes on a pan-Arctic scale with locally highly resolved temporal and spatial changes in shoreline dynamics. By comparing consistently derived shoreline change data from all over the Arctic we expect that the trajectory of coastal change in the Arctic becomes evident. A synthesis of some initial results will be presented in the 2020 Arctic Report Card on Arctic Coastal Dynamics. This initiative is an ongoing effort – new data contributions are welcome