Join us on Friday, 26 May, 2023 for the book release of "Reconstructing the Future: Cities as Carbon Sinks".

Ocean Space hosts the book breakfast, where contributing authors Wael Al Awar, Francesca Bria, Sheela Patel, Edgar Pieterse, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Xu Tiantian will discuss "Reconstructing the Future: Cities as Carbon Sinks".

The built environment is crucial to the climate equation. Approximately 40 percent of global emissions derive from the construction, operation, and demolition of human settlements. The 21st century must be the century of re-entanglement, where quintessential functions (housing, work, culture, recreation, etc.) are reintegrated within urban spaces; where socioeconomic and ecological systems form a mutually supportive network of networks; and where past, present, and future are perceived as interwoven currents in an ocean of time.

This volume compiles the papers presented by world-renowned scientists, architects, spatial planners, activists, and policy makers at the Reconstructing the Future for People and Planet conference, held at the Vatican in June 2022.

With contributions by Wael Al Awar, Rocío Armillas Tiseyra, Shigeru Ban, Francesca Bria, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Ana María Durán Calisto, Andrea Gebhard, Andreja Kutnar, Elspeth MacRae, Giovanna Melandri, Klaus Mindrup, Fredric Mosley, Marc Palahí, Sheela Patel, Edgar Pieterse, Carlo Ratti, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Joachim von Braun, Ursula von der Leyen, Olena Vozniak, Venla Wallius, Geoffrey West, and Xu Tiantian.

Part of the cycle “Waves of Words”, encompassing conversations with artists, researchers, and writers interweaving poetry, science, and situated ecology in collaboration with local institutions and national initiatives. Spoken words will become waves to drift with and carry our thoughts, while we consider climate and cultural change with diverse voices from the Mediterranean shores.