Cities That Sweat: Living Systems for Arid Urbanism - Mohammad Motallebi

Mohammad Motallebi expands on this theme and the concept of Living Systems for Arid Urbanism that draws on the way urban environments regulate temperature through living systems such as vegetation, water cycles, permeable soils, and blue-green infrastructure. As climate change intensifies heat stress in arid regions, cities must move beyond energy-intensive cooling systems toward ecological and climate-responsive urbanism. The video pulls together concepts from contemporary landscape urbanism and traditional climatic wisdom found in historic desert settlements and examines how urban landscapes can function as active environmental infrastructure rather than passive decoration. Mohammad argues that future arid cities must behave more like ecosystems —adaptive, breathable, and capable of cooling themselves through living processes. Mohammad Motallebi is the co-founder and former president of IFLA-Middle East and former member of Executive Committee of IFLA. Mohammad is an Iranian Landscape designer and researcher with 23 years of experience as a project manager, designer and planner. He has been a member of the jury of several regional and international awards in the field of landscape architecture and urbanism. Ecological-responsible design and planning, landscape urbanism and multidisciplinary teamwork projects has been Mohammad's core focus throughout his career. His projects range from master planning of parks, public and cultural spaces, streetscapes to resort and tourism complex planning and environmental design.