Historically, water has defined urban settlements and transformed the built environment. Our dependence on water has fostered the development of cultural and technical ties between urbanism and water management through spontaneous and organised practices. Furthermore, culture and technology have spatial expressions that have historically shaped the complex dynamics of urban life.

However, we are witnessing today an accelerated loss of connection between the city and water, its most fundamental element. The approach to water in urban planning and design has shifted towards a utilitarian, rigidly controlled technical system. This vision has severed most spatial and cultural links to water and fostered disruptive conditions for the multiple ecological crises we are experiencing.

Urban surface waters and their infrastructures - rivers, canals, and aqueducts, among others – can be seen as the centre of the cultural, social and ecological crisis embedded in urban space and the practices of its multiple actors. Therefore, reflecting on urban water infrastructures calls for a multidimensional and cross-scalar lens to understand the multifaceted conditions that have historically contributed to urban transformation.

The unit frames urban waters as elements combining heritage and environmental value, where layers of the city’s development lay and different conditions of history, ecology, social practices, power and technology converge. It critically engages the perspective of heritage, in its tangible and intangible aspects, to further understand the dimension of time that ties together the different relations.