The relationship between the challenge to design towards improved sustainability for today\u2019s cities with lost urban traditions in human history is not obvious. TruLife views the long history of urbanisation as a major research resource of evidence on urban developmental trajectories. Today\u2019s sustainability concerns may inform our investigations of past urban traditions to generate better usable knowledge, while better knowledge of past trajectories may inform how we can intervene in urban development processes. We see great benefit in studying just how different and diverse cities have been. Over two millennia of city building by the ancient Maya in the tropics of Central America demonstrated just that. To identify the challenges and opportunities of learning from rigorous comparisons throughout urban history, TruLife asks: \u201cCan studying the diversity of long-term urban traditions effectively inform designing for sustainable urban futures?\u201d<\/p>\n
TruLife aims to formulate concrete suggestions and ideas for collaborative research related to urban design. We focus on the case of pre-Columbian Maya tropical urbanism through three interconnected lenses:<\/p>\n
These are the themes of three academic workshops, which will be followed by a programme of public engagement structured around an Urban Design Ideas Competition and an exhibition of shortlisted contributions, organised by Dr Benjamin Vis in collaboration with the\u00a0Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.\u00a0\u00a0The exhibition entitled,\u00a0\u2018Dust to Dust: Redesigning Urban Life in Healthy Soils<\/a>\u2018, took place at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich from 30 November 2018 \u2013 17 February 2019.<\/p>\n