Alessandro Melis – författare

Informality through Sustainability explores the phenomenon of informality within urban settlements and aims to unravel the subtle links between informal settlements and sustainability.

Penetrating its global profile and considering urban informality through an understanding of local implications, the authors collectively reveal specific correlations between sites and their local inhabitants. The book opposes simplistic calls to legalise informal settlements or to view them as ‘problems’ to be solved. It comes at a time when common notions of ‘informality’ are being increasingly challenged.

In 25 chapters, the book presents contributions from well-known scholars and practitioners whose theoretical or practical work addresses informality and sustainability at various levels, from city planning and urban design to public space and architectural education. Whilst previous studies on informal settlements have mainly focused on cases in developing countries, approaching the topic through social, cultural and material dimensions, the book explores the concept across a range of contexts, including former Communist countries and those in the so-called Global North. Contributions also explore understandings of informality at various scalar levels – region, precinct, neighbourhood and individual building. Thus, this work helps reposition informality as a relational concept at various scales of urbanisation.

This book will be of great benefit to planners, architects, researchers and policymakers interested in the interplay between informality and sustainability.

Informality through Sustainability explores the phenomenon of informality within urban settlements and aims to unravel the subtle links between informal settlements and sustainability.

Penetrating its global profile and considering urban informality through an understanding of local implications, the authors collectively reveal specific correlations between sites and their local inhabitants. The book opposes simplistic calls to legalise informal settlements or to view them as ‘problems’ to be solved. It comes at a time when common notions of ‘informality’ are being increasingly challenged.

In 25 chapters, the book presents contributions from well-known scholars and practitioners whose theoretical or practical work addresses informality and sustainability at various levels, from city planning and urban design to public space and architectural education. Whilst previous studies on informal settlements have mainly focused on cases in developing countries, approaching the topic through social, cultural and material dimensions, the book explores the concept across a range of contexts, including former Communist countries and those in the so-called Global North. Contributions also explore understandings of informality at various scalar levels – region, precinct, neighbourhood and individual building. Thus, this work helps reposition informality as a relational concept at various scales of urbanisation.

This book will be of great benefit to planners, architects, researchers and policymakers interested in the interplay between informality and sustainability.

This book explores the link between the Food-Water-Energy nexus and sustainability, and the extraordinary value that small tweaks to this nexus can achieve for more resilient cities and communities. Using data from Urban Living Labs in six participating cities (Eindhoven, Gdańsk, Miami, Southend-on-Sea, Taipei, and Uppsala) to co-define context-specific challenges, the results from each city are collated into an Integrated Decision Support System to guide and improve robust decision-making on future urban development.

The book presents contributions from CRUNCH, a transdisciplinary team of scholars and practitioners whose expertise spans urban climate modelling; food, water, and energy management; the design of resilient public space; collecting better urban data; and the development of smart city technology. Whilst previous works on the Food-Water-Energy nexus have focused on large, transnational cases, this book explores local ways to use the Food-Water-Energy nexus to improve urban resilience. It suggests tangible ways in which the cities and communities around us can become both more efficient and more climate resilient through small changes to their existing infrastructure.

Over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. We urgently need to make our cities more resilient. This book provides a planning tool for decision-making and concludes with policy recommendations, making it relevant to a range of audiences including urbanists, environmentalists, architects, urban designers, and city planners, as well as students and scholars interested in alternative approaches to sustainability and resilience.

Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book explores the link between the Food-Water-Energy nexus and sustainability, and the extraordinary value that small tweaks to this nexus can achieve for more resilient cities and communities. Using data from Urban Living Labs in six participating cities (Eindhoven, Gdańsk, Miami, Southend-on-Sea, Taipei, and Uppsala) to co-define context-specific challenges, the results from each city are collated into an Integrated Decision Support System to guide and improve robust decision-making on future urban development.

The book presents contributions from CRUNCH, a transdisciplinary team of scholars and practitioners whose expertise spans urban climate modelling; food, water, and energy management; the design of resilient public space; collecting better urban data; and the development of smart city technology. Whilst previous works on the Food-Water-Energy nexus have focused on large, transnational cases, this book explores local ways to use the Food-Water-Energy nexus to improve urban resilience. It suggests tangible ways in which the cities and communities around us can become both more efficient and more climate resilient through small changes to their existing infrastructure.

Over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. We urgently need to make our cities more resilient. This book provides a planning tool for decision-making and concludes with policy recommendations, making it relevant to a range of audiences including urbanists, environmentalists, architects, urban designers, and city planners, as well as students and scholars interested in alternative approaches to sustainability and resilience.

Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Architectural Exaptation: When Function Follows Form focuses on the significance and the originality of the study of exaptation. It presents exaptation as an opportunity to extend architectural design towards more sustainable approaches aimed at enforcing urban resilience.

The use of exaptation’s definition in architecture supports the heuristic value of cross-disciplinary studies on biology and architecture, which seem even more relevant in times of global environmental crises. This book aims to make a critique of the pre-existing and extensive paternalistic literature. Exaptation will be described as a functional shift of a structure that already had a prior, but different, function. In architecture, a functional shift of a structure that already had a function may apply to forms of decorative elements embedded in architectural components, and to both change of function of tectonic elements and the change of use of an architectural space. The book is illustrated with examples from around the globe, including China, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, the USA and the UK, and looks at different civilizations and diverse historical periods, ranging from the urban to the architectural scale. Such examples highlight the potential and latent human creative capacity to change the use and functions, something that cities and buildings could consider when facing disturbances. Exaptation is shown as an alternative narrative to the simplifications of evolutionary puritanism. It also offers an innovative perspective and presents an opportunity to re-think the manner in which we design and redesign our cities.

This book will be of interest to architecture, planning, urban design and biology researchers and students.

Winner of the ‘Gerd Albers Award 2024’. This award is for the best book contribution in the field of Urban Planning and is awarded by International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).

Architectural Exaptation: When Function Follows Form focuses on the significance and the originality of the study of exaptation. It presents exaptation as an opportunity to extend architectural design towards more sustainable approaches aimed at enforcing urban resilience.

The use of exaptation’s definition in architecture supports the heuristic value of cross-disciplinary studies on biology and architecture, which seem even more relevant in times of global environmental crises. This book aims to make a critique of the pre-existing and extensive paternalistic literature. Exaptation will be described as a functional shift of a structure that already had a prior, but different, function. In architecture, a functional shift of a structure that already had a function may apply to forms of decorative elements embedded in architectural components, and to both change of function of tectonic elements and the change of use of an architectural space. The book is illustrated with examples from around the globe, including China, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, the USA and the UK, and looks at different civilizations and diverse historical periods, ranging from the urban to the architectural scale. Such examples highlight the potential and latent human creative capacity to change the use and functions, something that cities and buildings could consider when facing disturbances. Exaptation is shown as an alternative narrative to the simplifications of evolutionary puritanism. It also offers an innovative perspective and presents an opportunity to re-think the manner in which we design and redesign our cities.

This book will be of interest to architecture, planning, urban design and biology researchers and students.

Winner of the ‘Gerd Albers Award 2024’. This award is for the best book contribution in the field of Urban Planning and is awarded by International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).

The Architecture of Exhibitions embarks on a comprehensive exploration of creativity and design innovation within exhibition spaces. It describes the fundamental principles of exhibition design, tracing the origins of creativity and considering its evolutionary significance.

The book challenges conventional boundaries imposed by rigid classifications, drawing on heuristic studies in biology and the transformative concept of exaptation. It questions the traditional separations between art, science and technology, which often hinder innovation. By advocating for an interdisciplinary approach, it reimagines creativity that transcends conventional limits. Through practice-based research, multidisciplinary case studies and technological innovations, with a focus on generative AI, the book illustrates how modern exhibition spaces actively engage with their audiences, highlighting their profound impact beyond academic discourse.

This book is designed for curators, designers and scholars who are passionate about the future of exhibition spaces. It offers a comprehensive understanding through its four-part structure, making it an essential read for anyone interested in the dynamic interplay between art, technology and society. The book is also designed as an instrument for the education of architecture, design and art students.

The Architecture of Exhibitions embarks on a comprehensive exploration of creativity and design innovation within exhibition spaces. It describes the fundamental principles of exhibition design, tracing the origins of creativity and considering its evolutionary significance.

The book challenges conventional boundaries imposed by rigid classifications, drawing on heuristic studies in biology and the transformative concept of exaptation. It questions the traditional separations between art, science and technology, which often hinder innovation. By advocating for an interdisciplinary approach, it reimagines creativity that transcends conventional limits. Through practice-based research, multidisciplinary case studies and technological innovations, with a focus on generative AI, the book illustrates how modern exhibition spaces actively engage with their audiences, highlighting their profound impact beyond academic discourse.

This book is designed for curators, designers and scholars who are passionate about the future of exhibition spaces. It offers a comprehensive understanding through its four-part structure, making it an essential read for anyone interested in the dynamic interplay between art, technology and society. The book is also designed as an instrument for the education of architecture, design and art students.

This book conceptualises and illustrates temporary appropriation as an urban phenomenon, exploring its contributions to citizenship, urban social sustainability and urban health. It explains how some forms of appropriation can be subversive, existing in a grey area between legal and illegal activities in the city.

The book explores the complex and the multi-scalar nature of temporary appropriation, and touches on its relationship to issues such as:

Since urban populations are certain to grow further, this is a key topic for understanding urban dynamics, and this book will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

The Dusk of Design explores the intersection of evolutionary theories and architectural design. Drawing inspiration from the concept of exaptation in biology, the book argues that natural selection, as the most successful designer on our planet, thrives on the diversity, variability, and redundancy of creative structures. By transferring these mechanisms to architectural design, the book contends that we can cultivate more resilient and sustainable architecture and cities in the face of environmental crises.

This book seeks to illuminate the profound potential of multidisciplinarity by examining case studies from architecture worldwide. By exploring how evolutionary theories can explain various architectural phenomena, it aims to inspire architects, designers, researchers, and students to adopt a holistic and transdisciplinary approach to their work.

The book provides a clear and concise overview of evolutionary principles, demonstrating their relevance to architecture.It will showcase a range of case studies that highlight the application of evolutionary theories in solving architectural challenges, such as adaptive reuse, sustainable urban planning, and resilient design in the face of climate change.

Ultimately, "The Dusk of Design" aims to bridge the gap between biology and architecture, presenting a fresh perspective on how we can create more innovative, sustainable, and resilient built environments.