About the Young Cities project

The Young Cities project investigates the possibilities of planning and building energy efficient New Towns in urban agglomerations of the Global South based on a case study of Hashtgerd, Iran. Apart from exploring possible technical innovations, the research project identifies ways of adapting existing urban planning and management tools and optimizing the current construction practice in order to save energy and resources without significantly increasing costs.

The following sectors are responsible for the greatest amount of urban energy consumption and are therefore the focus of research in the Young Cities project:

• Urban planning practice
• Buildings and construction
• Transport sector
• Energy and water infrastructure systems
• Urban development policy structures and implementation mechanisms
• Individual behavior

Five pilot projects in Hashtgerd New Town lie at the heart of the research design. The pilot projects include a housing area for approx. 8000 inhabitants as well as four pilot buildings with other uses, all of which serve as demonstration objects for saving energy and resources through systematic planning, intelligent architectural design, smart technological adaptation and efficient construction (see Pilot projects).

The Young Cities project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the program “Research for Sustainable Development of the Megacities of Tomorrow”. It is one of 10 projects that are being funded under this program world wide. For more information see www.emerging-megacities.de.