Designing Cities with Animals: The Promise and Challenges of Animal-Aided Design

This is an in-person event. Cities are home to many wild animals, yet their needs rarely shape decisions about buildings and open spaces. Animal-Aided Design offers a way to include particular species in planning from the outset: their life cycles and habitat requirements become part of the design brief. Drawing on projects in urban landscapes, this lecture by Thomas E. Hauck introduces the method and asks what changes when animals are treated as stakeholders in spatial design. It also considers the practical and ethical questions that follow: Which animals are selected, whose interests might conflict, and how can a designed habitat continue to support animal life as a place changes over time?