DAAD PhD Grant for Christian Corral
Christian Corral (Ecuador) has been awarded with a DAAD Research Grant for Doctoral Studies at Leibniz University Hannover. His thesis project, supervised by Prof. Jörg Schröder, aims at “Future Scenarios for Guayaquil” as a new urban-environmental articulation for the city Guayaquil, its river, and the coastal lagoon and develops innovation for urban design and planning in digital and material dimensions. Based on an investigation into the interdependencies between the city and the river addressing climate change and sea-level rise, the thesis targets the capacity to evolve to a more sustainable urban model is crucial for urban resilience. Guayaquil is Ecuador’s second-biggest city, situated in one of America’s largest lagoon ecosystems. The city has seen a rapid expansion of formal and informal structures since the economic boom of the 60s. This process has resulted in a deteriorated urban model regarding socioeconomics, geographical segregation, and isolation between the city and its surrounding ecosystems.
