#39 - Lucas Gobatti: Spinoza, science, spirituality - confronting ‘displacements’ in planning urban nature, climate and heat

Lucas Gobatti, PhD research at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) goes deep into how Albert Einstein, Benedictus de Spinoza and Karl Marx have shaped his worldview and connection to cities and nature. As a trained architect, civil engineer and urban planner, we discuss how he balances science and spirituality in his research on urban heat and stormwater management and how we can improve the liveability of cities in the global north and south, particularly in Switzerland and Brazil.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Books
6:38 Einstein, Spinoza, Spirituality and the Laws of Nature
13:20 Karl Marx, spatial inequalities and cities
17:28 Late Marx, Kohei Saito and the three displacements
21:19 Microsimulation and agents as Lucas' entry point
24:17 From Altruism to Green Roofs and Stormwater
27:23 Brazil's Nature-based solutions Trajectory
30:13 Shedding light on a different planning landscape
35:08 Lucas' Urban Heat Research - Cooling establishment time
39:48 Lucas' Urban Heat Research - Role of water and irrigation
43:31 Experimenting with microclimate models
46:03 The Brasilandia District Project
50:10 Next steps in Lucas' Research
52:10 Q&A Start
52:26 What do you define as innovation?
54:46 Key event, book, person
59:49 Time Management
1:07:54 Favourite childhood memory
1:09:49 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:13:14 Advice for young professionals
1:15:37 What would you like to be remembered for?
1:23:35 Where can people find you?
1:24:35 Final Message
1:25:31 Outro

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