Guilherme Wisnik

Seeking to enrich discussions around urban ground floors, the MIT City Form Lab hosted the seminal Rez de Ville conference, an event that brought together practitioners and scholars from around the world to examine the complex and evolving landscapes of urban ground floors. The conference offered a multidimensional perspective, encompassing a broad range of topics that extended from theoretical concepts in architecture and urban design to pragmatic challenges like the impacts of the climate crisis and disruptions generated by technological innovations. Structured into four key sections—(1) Urban structure, networks and routes, (2) Built typologies, uses and accessibility, (3) Natural and social ecologies, and (4) Analytic techniques and representation—the event provided a comprehensive analysis of urban ground floors, tackling everything from design innovation to policy implications.