Responsive Cities 2025: Designing for Decarbonization

Discover the key insights from the IAAC-led symposium exploring how architecture, design and digital innovation can drive material circularity and climate action.

From February 25th to 26th, the Disseny Hub Barcelona hosted Responsive Cities 2025, the latest edition of the international symposium organised by IAAC’s Advanced Architecture Group. This year’s theme, Design Matter(s) for Decarbonization, brought together architects, researchers, educators and students to reimagine the role of materials in shaping sustainable, regenerative cities.

The symposium challenged the conventional narrative of scarcity and depletion by proposing a shift towards an abundance mindset. Instead of asking what resources we are running out of, the conversations focused on what we already have—and how we can transform, reclaim, or regenerate it. From reusing construction waste to developing digital material libraries, the event made one thing clear: designing for decarbonization is no longer optional—it’s essential.

Across two days of keynotes, round tables and project presentations, speakers demonstrated how materials can become agents of change. Sessions explored the reuse of existing building stock, the rise of biomaterials such as mycelium, algae, and bamboo, and new methods of upcycling waste streams through local and low-carbon strategies. Advanced computation, life cycle analysis, and carbon tracking tools were also presented as critical instruments in this transition, allowing designers to make more informed and impactful decisions.

But beyond innovation, Responsive Cities 2025 placed ethics at the centre. The final sessions focused on the need to design responsibly—not just for the environment, but also for the communities affected by material extraction and displacement. Ethical resource management, biodiversity protection, and social equity were addressed as inseparable from climate goals.

In the end, the symposium did more than present ideas—it mapped out a new architectural paradigm. One where buildings act as material banks, where cities metabolise their own waste, and where digital and physical systems work together to enable true circularity. Hosted by IAAC and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme through the CID Project, Responsive Cities 2025 confirmed that the future of urban design is circular, computational, regenerative—and already in motion.

Explore the full programme and speakers list at responsivecities.iaac.net
Learn more about the CID Project at cid-innovationalliance.eu