CTBUH Europe 2024 se lleva a cabo en Estambul

La Conferencia Europea 2024 del Consejo de Edificios Altos y Hábitat Urbano (CTBUH) tuvo lugar el 18 de abril en las Torres Ziraat del Centro Financiero de Estambul.

The flood disasters that have occurred in recent months in countries such as Kazakhstan, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates serve as concrete indicators of how global climate change will impact human life in urban areas. Following this hot agenda, CTBUH Europe organized an event in Istanbul with the theme "Future-Fit Cities: Safer, Adaptive Density in a Changing Era" to explore the steps and opportunities needed to address the global climate crisis amidst increasing urban density and vertical construction in Europe.

Las Torres Ziraat, diseñadas por el estudio internacional de arquitectura KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox), constan de dos altas torres, de 40 y 46 pisos de altura, inspiradas en el símbolo tughra, que muestran respeto por el patrimonio arquitectónico tradicional. Las Torres Ziraat, desarrolladas de acuerdo con los estándares de certificación LEED Gold, acogieron el evento CTBUH Europe en su magnífico auditorio revestido de piedra especialmente diseñado, junto con su área del atrio. La sala del auditorio, ubicada junto a la gran entrada del atrio, tiene capacidad para 495 personas y muestra un diseño arquitectónico que recuerda a la grava, cubierta en su totalidad con 2,786 secciones diferentes de piedra travertino natural. Asimismo, su extraordinario diseño interior cuenta con 1,102 paneles fabricados en madera de ayous resistente al fuego.

For guests arriving early before the main conference, a tour was organized on April 17 at the Çamlıca Tower, one of Istanbul's iconic structures.

The main conference took place on April 18 in the auditorium of the Ziraat Towers, hosting five different sessions with the world's most distinguished professionals in the field of sustainability, including architects, urban planners, project developers and vertical-transportation (VT) experts.

Para la segunda etapa del evento CTBUH Europe, que se celebró por primera vez en Frankfurt el año pasado, Turner International, Ziraat Bank y Kalyon proporcionaron patrocinio platino, mientras que KONE y TKE del sector de VT contribuyeron como patrocinadores Gold y Emlak Konut Asansör como un patrocinador Plata.

Ciudades preparadas para el futuro: densidad más segura y adaptable en una era cambiante

En la sesión de apertura, Mehmet Sami Kılıç e İlayda Öner de Turner, junto con Shonn Mills, director general de Whitby Wood, pronunciaron discursos de bienvenida. A continuación, Peyami Ömer Özdilek, director general de Ziraat GYO, subió al podio para compartir información general sobre las Torres Ziraat.

Después de los discursos de apertura, Mustafa Chehabeddine de KPF realizó una presentación detallada, completa con imágenes, sobre cómo la arquitectura de las Torres Ziraat, que albergaron el evento, se moldeó inspirándose en el emblema otomano Tughra.

La primera sesión: Panel sobre la incidencia ciudadana

The City Advocacy Program, recently launched by CTBUH, aims to identify and explore the fundamental issues, opportunities, and challenges faced by global cities today. These include density, climate resilience, social equity and accessibility. In this context, the first panel, moderated by Steve Watts, a Partner at Turner & Townsend Alinea, featured speakers from various global cities, including Anisa Mance from the Municipality of Tirana, urban planner and politician Mansoor Hussain from Norway, Peter Murray from NLA London and Özgür Bora Yaprak from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Moderator Watts emphasized the equal importance of buildings and infrastructure in creating sustainable cities, highlighting the need for a holistic approach, particularly in tall buildings. The speakers, who talked about various infrastructure and public transportation projects in their cities, also mentioned the measures taken in their respective cities against global climate change. Yaprak, speaking on behalf of the host city, mentioned the infrastructure projects carried out due to the immense size of Istanbul, including the pipeline laid from the Bulgarian border to meet the city's water needs, solar panels to be installed in water basins to reduce evaporation from dams and meet the city's renewable electricity needs, as well as projects for desalinating seawater.

La Segunda Sesión: “Prevención de Amenazas a Ciudades y Edificios”

After the coffee break, the second session titled "Preventing Threats to Cities and Buildings" began, moderated by Katrin Förster from ABB Germany. The first presentation, titled "Lessons learned from high-rise building fires: adaptation codes and wood construction specifications," was delivered by David den Boer from Peutz Netherlands. He shared information about fire safety engineering in the Netherlands, outlining the mandatory requirements for building design using various tables. Subsequently, Giulia Mancini from the Italian Studio Marco Piva explained in detail, with pictures and drawings, how the Torre Antonini building in Milan, the exterior façade of which was completely burned in the 2021 fire, was redesigned and implemented more functionally.

Following the Q&A session, Beyza Kasapoğlu from ALAN Architecture delivered a presentation titled "Digitalization of the Construction Sector as an Opportunity for Business and Sustainability." The final presentation of the second session was delivered by Syed Rehan from Amazon Web Services (AWS) UK. He elaborated on additional security measures developed by AWS to counter cyber attacks, providing vivid examples.

The Third Session: "Mobility"

The final session of the morning, focusing on the lift and escalator sector, was moderated by Manuela Belova from Belova Architecture in Bulgaria. The first presentation titled "Shaping Evolution Trends and Optimized People Flow for Better Buildings" was delivered by Sascha Brozek, KONE's head of Major Projects for Europe and Finland. Brozek stated that the way to accelerate the people flow in tall buildings is through Destination Control Systems, faster lifts and double-deck lifts.

The second presentation was given by Dalibor Savović from the British DeSimone Consultancy. In his presentation titled "Global Workplace Evolution: Impact on Elevator Design in a Tall Building," Savović first presented statistics showing the increasing prevalence of working from home or hybrid working models after COVID-19. He mentioned that due to the decrease in office usage, the amount of office space required per person has also decreased.

Lastly, Javier Sesma, the vice president of Global Business Development at TKE Germany, delivered a presentation titled "Redefining Mobility for Resilient Cities of the Future." Sesma stated, "With the United Nations forecasting that around 70% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, we aim to make cities better places to live in. Cities continue to grow in every corner of the planet, attracting talent and investment." He then explained how hyper-connected and user-centric lift rides can be personalized.

Additionally, in his presentation, he showcased an intriguing video demonstrating the exhilarating experience of riding in a lift car equipped with LED screens. This lift, located at the World Trade Center in New York, is known as North America's fastest.

La Cuarta Sesión: “Densidad Adaptativa a las Amenazas Naturales y al Cambio Climático”

Tras una pausa para el almuerzo, la cuarta sesión, moderada por Julia Köhler, comenzó con una presentación de Louise Clarke de la firma británica Buro Happold. Clarke brindó información sobre la planificación hídrica integrada, enfatizando detalles sobre el acceso a los recursos de agua dulce y su uso eficiente.

César Frías Enciso from the Spanish firm Morph discussed Spain's approach to water management and the future plans on the issue. Enciso discussed how climate change, changes in seasonal rainfall, and evaporation will collectively affect global water availability. He also talked about the solutions developed from the past to the present to mitigate this issue.

Bjarne van der Drift from Dutch company Dam&Partners highlighted that some areas of the Netherlands lie below sea level, making it a delta country highly vulnerable to climate change. He elaborated on past and present flood mitigation measures implemented in the country to address the risk of flooding. Following that presentation, İlayda Öner from Turner Türkiye delivered a presentation titled "Density Adaptation to Natural Threats and Climate Change: Seismic".

Patrick Coulombel, de la Fundación Francesa de Arquitectos de Emergencia, explicó sus soluciones para abordar las necesidades permanentes de vivienda de reconstrucción de emergencia que surgen después de los desastres, junto con sus implementaciones globales. En su presentación, Coulombel compartió información sorprendente de que 2.3 millones de personas en todo el mundo no tienen acceso a fuentes de agua dulce y que el 97% de los edificios construidos en todo el mundo no están diseñados por un arquitecto.

Finally, Atila Zekioğlu from Degenkolb Engineers gave a presentation titled "Earthquake Resilience of Our Cities: Current Perspective and Achieving Better Outcomes", where he presented issues at the regional, urban and building scales related to rising sea levels, droughts, extreme events and earthquakes, as well as the proposed solutions.

La quinta sesión: “Densidades urbanas crecientes en Europa”

The CEO of CTBUH, Javier Quintana de Uña, who moderated the last session, underscored the importance of exploring the future of vertical urban living together with international participants at the CTBUH 2024 Europe Conference in Istanbul. Uña stated, "In this dynamic meeting with industry experts, we had the opportunity to delve into ways to make our cities safer with pioneering designs and sustainable solutions. This event, which is a potential convergence point for innovation and inspiration, provided an opportunity to explore the evolution of urban density, from groundbreaking architecture to future-fit urban landscapes".

The first speaker of the last session was Oleksandra Azarkhina, Ukraine's Deputy Minister for Infrastructure. Connecting to the conference room online, Azarkhina first provided an overview of the current situation in the country due to the war and then discussed the measures taken for reconstruction. Additionally, she discussed the establishment and management of the transformative digital platform called the Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management (DREAM). This platform has overseen infrastructure projects in Ukraine with unprecedented efficiency and transparency.

A continuación, Anna Kamenets de Archimatika Architecture en Ucrania destacó los proyectos destacados que han llevado a cabo tanto en Ucrania como en todo el mundo.

La última presentación del día estuvo a cargo del arquitecto Stavros Gargaretas de Albania. En su presentación, Gargaretas habló sobre la restauración de edificios históricos que datan de la era soviética en la ciudad capital de Tirana, así como el diseño de nuevos proyectos como bulevares, el Centro de Comercio Europeo y lugares emblemáticos como el Ojo de Tirana.

Para la cena, los invitados de CTBUH Europe se reunieron en un barco para disfrutar de la vista única del Bósforo de Estambul. Durante el recorrido por el Bósforo, los invitados tuvieron la oportunidad de charlar y socializar mientras disfrutaban de los deliciosos platos de la cocina turca.

Al día siguiente, los invitados tuvieron la opción de participar en uno de los programas simultáneos, eligiendo entre la Torre Çamlıca, las Torres Ziraat o el Grupo de Trabajo Sísmico según sus preferencias.