Prof. Rafi Segal

Research Topics in Architecture and Urbanism:

Current research explores the role of collective programs and spaces in addressing contemporary urban issues. Whether at the building scale -- through hybrid multi-program buildings, the neighborhood/settlement scale -- the resilient district approach, or on the regional scale in the form of urban agglomerations -- rural-urban networks. These efforts combine different disciplines and fields of study, utilizing methods and tools of urban thinking onto the different scales of operation.

(1) Building Scale
Hybrid multi-program buildings: In response to the changing social, technological and ecological conditions of urban environments, the individual building also becomes a site of intervention, an opportunity to develop new typologies and models of multi-program spatial organization that engage the urban context and offer something greater than a collection of interior spaces.

Models that often incorporate a housing component (permanent or temporary), attempt to reduce construction costs, allow for both personalized and shared spaces, and minimize the risks of speculative real estate transactions. Questions raised includes: How can these new building typologies help shape and promote a different attitude towards the environment? How can we design buildings to take advantage of and better fit current digital technologies and networks? And can this approach help promote a greater societal change?

(2) Neighborhood/Settlement/District Scale
Collective Settlements: The collective settlement is a productive entity comprised of a defined community, sharing activities and programs, and a common set of values. Restructuring the settlement can become key in controlling sprawl and defining productive and sustainable environments that would not only survive by themselves but alleviate the issues of the contemporary city. Forms and structures of such settlement types, both physical and organizational-programmatic, are yet to be explored and defined, and specifically in relation to particular geographies and contexts. Questions raised include: How can current technologies/digital networks and sharing platforms guide the shaping of such spaces? How can design aid people and institutions to establish visions and platforms for a collective seeking a healthier environment and better quality of life?

(3) Regional Scale
Regional Urbanism: Historically many regions across the world have developed ad-hoc without comprehensive planning nor the need to function collectively as a single entity across a large territory. Today, as climate change and environmental degradation take their toll on the planet, we discover more and more that the impact is on the region as a whole, in terms of energy, infrastructure, environment, and economic standing. Similarly, as technological systems expand their influence onto everyday life, new modes of live-work are emerging that rely less on the traditional city.

The architecture and urbanism of the regional is a research theme that investigates and explores the application of urban design & planning strategies on the regional scale. In doing so it seeks to allow regions – agglomerations of diverse settlement types and populations - to function more efficiently and collectively, and as such to enable them to be better prepared in addressing environmental, economic and social challenges. The region is thus approached as a form of dispersed urbanism, a condition that combines productive lands with positive urban traits, leading often to what can be termed a rural-urban network.

Regional research themes include post-industrial transformation, environmental reclamation combined with social and economic restructuring, dispersed patterns of urbanization, and planning for change without relying on population growth. Thinking about the agglomerations and rural –urban networks thus calls for unique interventions that reject traditional city center-periphery hierarchies and requires creative narratives, strategies and designs that support the future viability and prospects for regions across the globe.