Center for Sustainable Cities

The objective of the research is to analyze, evaluate and implement urban regulations that promotes a sustainable urbanization.

The design, construction, use and maintenance of urbanization is approached from environmental, social and economic factors.

Our goal is to set guidelines and recommendations for sustainable urbanization.

Client: Serviland.

The following work delves into the complex issue of informal settlements in Italy and Spain, revealing significant findings and drawing key conclusions. 

The research indicates that these settlements, far from being confined to low-income countries, are also prevalent in high-income nations, with the conditions of inhabitants exacerbated by recent global events.

This project initiates the exploration into the design and operational guidelines for a senior home and intergenerational rehabilitation project in Cyprus. It delves into extensive multi-dimensional research, including analyzing public data sets, case studies, comparative analysis, and academic research.

Practical field visits and collaborative sessions with the project development team complemented our endeavor.

Client: Zimmin Foundation and Skikeme Ltd.

The identity and sense of belonging of a neighborhood is a complex system of relationships, which is conditioned by multiple factors, among which time plays an essential role. Our approach to the visual identity of the Fuencarral neighborhood is based on the analysis of its physical structure, and the perception that the neighbors have of it.

This relationship between the analysis of physical structure from a technical, historical and artistic point of view, and its feedback with the opinions of neighbors, has allowed a result that enhances the integration of the built with the social.

Client: CreaMNN.

The objective of the investigation is to build and manage a network of Local Producers to provide services and products for the development of Madrid Nuevo Norte.

The Local Producers are analyzed and evaluated along the Life Cycle of Madrid Nuevo Norte, and classified according to multiple parameters as proximity, industrialization, innovation, sustainable and socioeconomic impacts, among others.

Client: CreaMNN.

The objective of the present research is to analyze and evaluate the impact of last-mile logistics in cities, and to propose specific strategies, actions, and planning policies to achieve a positive impact in the urban environment while maintaining the efficiency and functionality of the logistics network.

Thus, this report is structured sequentially from analysis and evaluation to proposals and recommendations.

Client: Prologis.

To evaluate the impact of the Last-Mile logistic network in the urban environment, the Center for Sustainable Cities has developed the Last-Mile Logistic Impact Index (LM-LII).

This tool provides a quantitative measurement of the impact of logistics, based on environmental, functional, socioeconomic, urban, and information factors.

These factors are overlayed with the stakeholders, logistic facilities, delivery vehicles, and the urban fabric to evaluate the impacts.

Client: Prologis.

This paper is the result of a collaboration between Engie, GAD3 and the Center for Sustainable Cities, to evaluate the sustainable habits of Spanish citizens.

The conclusions show that, although Spanish citizens are ready to change their habits, and they have the knowledge to do it, they consider that individual behavior has a very short impact in global warming.

Client: Engie.

City-making is based on strategies and technological innovation. One cannot exist without the other. Technology without strategy is a useless tool. The three panel seminar is structured in the relationship between both, on how technological innovation and urban strategy can shape our urban future.

While the first panel is focused on the strategies that foster a sustainable urban future, the second panel is focused on the role of technology for making more vibrant and livable cities. And finally, the last panel will discuss the collaboration between the academia and the private and public sector to promote research and innovation for new urban solutions.

Manuel Pérez Romero has an interdisciplinary background as an architect, urban designer, lecturer and inventor. Perez Romero interests focus on two different but complementary areas: evolutionary urbanism and technique. Co-evolutionary urbanism is an interdisciplinary approach to city-making based on time, co-evolution and ecology. In terms of technique, he has patented and developed several construction systems and structures.

Pérez Romero holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and he is the Chair of the Center for Sustainable Cities, at IE University. Since 2000, he has been a professor at several universities as IE University, Alcalá de Henares School of Architecture and Madrid School of Architecture.

Pérez Romero is founding member of nodo17 group, a Madrid based group of architects, urban designers and ecologists operating within the fields of urbanism, landscape, architecture, engineering, information and ecology. Projects undertaken by nodo17 group have received more than 20 awards in national and international competitions.

His work has been published in journals and monographs, such as “nodo17 version 2.08” (Damdi Publishing Co, South Korea, 2009) and he is author of “Timetecture” (Diseño, 2017).

Ruxandra Iancu-Bratosin is an urban strategist and researcher with a focus on the urban environment, currently acting as Lead Researcher at IE Center for Sustainable Cities and an adjunct professor at IE University.

She is also the founder of 50(Super(Real)), a studio focused on multi-scalar spatial strategies, driven by the harmonious marriage of human values with technological innovation.

At the core, her work explores ecology, social impact and the process of design and it has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale of 2016, Rotterdam Design Biennale of 2017, London Design Biennale of 2021 and published in several books with a digital ecology focus.

Her tangent focus explores digital humanism, algorithmic driven decisions and the impact of digital technology on the social fabric and human behaviour.

Ruxandra´s work is driven by the quest of expanding the notion of collaborating with technology in order to address contemporary social or sustainability issues. She is also an active member of the Urban Regeneration Council inside the Urban Land Institute.

Designed by IE School of Architecture and Design’s Center for Sustainable Cities in collaboration with Prologis, the tool analyzes urban management challenges and proposes sustainable solutions.

Early in the morning, before dawn, a group of vans is waiting in a warehouse in the outskirts of Madrid. They are waiting to load their trunks with the packages for delivery that arrived at the warehouse the night before. Meanwhile, inside somebody is distributing the according to delivery areas for the drivers. Once the vans are filled with the goods to deliver, the race starts.

A study commissioned by ENGIE Spain and conducted by GAD3, in collaboration with the Center for Sustainable Cities, shows that over 90% of Spaniards say they are willing to change their habits in order to combat climate change. The Center at IE University has prepared a White Paper interpreting this data.

The City Prosperity Index, CPI, evaluates urban prosperity according to five parameters.

Finance and equity within urban infrastructures—is this an irreparable tension or a constructive partnership? How do we refine our urban systems and models? How do we mobilize data in meaningful ways?

¿Qué medidas estamos viendo a este respecto en distintas ciudades, ahora que estamos planteando el regreso a una nueva normalidad? ¿Cómo varían las propuestas alrededor del planeta?

From a vertical forest rising in a busy metropolis to a power plant that doubles as a ski slope, Dean Martha Thorne selects some of the most influential buildings.

Our habits have evolved, generating new needs in relation to the environments where we live our lives.

Our cities are increasingly being used as laboratories for countless innovations.

RENAZCA, a consortium of companies that own buildings in the superblock area of Madrid known as AZCA, has selected a design team to spearhead the transformation and revitalization of this central, but dilapidated, area of the city.

In this conversation, Carlo Ratti , Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, and Dean Martha Thorne, discuss how this new configuration is being generated as a result of the current health crisis.

There is a major source of hidden value in construction, related to energy and therefore not visible, which is being wasted: green equity.