ecotopedia - walk the talk

Prior to the UN Climate Change Conference, COP15, to be held in Copenhagen in 2009, the Danish Architecture Centre and CEBRA architects have created the exhibition ecotopedia - walk the talk, the official Danish contribution to the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2008, a platform for debate and the exchange of knowledge within sustainable planning. WALK THE TALK - towards the way to a sustainable future With the theme ‘Out There: Architecture Beyond Building’, this years curator of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, Aaron Betsky expands the global field of architecture by posing the question: "How can architecture, in the 21st Century, play a significant role in making ourselves truly feel at home in this world?" ecotopedia - walk the talk reflects the overall theme and poses the question: “How can we inhabit this world in a dignified and sustainable way?” It is an invitation to the international community to debate and exchange knowledge about how cities can contribute to adapting to and dealing with global climate challenges. ecotopedia focuses on the fact that future urban living poses both one of the greatest challenges to the global environment and holds the potential to become the only sustainable inhabitation on the planet. The exhibition is an invitation to the international community to debate and exchange knowledge about how cities can contribute to adapting to and dealing with global climate challenges - to walk the talk. Climate change is a global problem and it affects us all. Cities play a particular role as they are responsible for more than half the combined CO2 emission and for the first time in history, the majority of the world population lives in cities. One of the greatest challenges we are faced with is the development of sustainable urban planning. Paradoxically, it is also cities that possess the potential to create a global framework for the 21st Century’s most sustainable lifestyles. The exhibition presents a wide range of initiatives from businesses, projects and experts on how to do so. ecotopedia calls for the empowerment of individuals and of communities, to walk the talk by creating initiatives, strategies and communities that promote ‘architecture beyond building’. What is ecotopedia? ecotopedia is a combination of three words. ’eco’ is the english abbreviation for ecological and also refers to economy. ’topedia’ refers both to place (topos) and knowledge (pedia). Walk the talk expresses the exhibition’s call for active participation. ecotopedia - walk the talk shows how words can be converted into actions; how ’talk the talk’ becomes ’walk the talk’. Danish Architecture Center