World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education  2014 WIETE Vol.12, No.3, 2014 INTRODUCTION The city as a global phenomenon originated from one universal idea. The concentration of human activities - be they trade, production, safety, education, etc - has followed the increase in their efficiency. As a unifying principle (using Mumford’s term urban implosion) the city has diversified over time. The efficiency of a city has gradually surpassed its own boundaries while repeatedly seeking new approaches. Like a liger (a hybrid cross between a lioness and a tiger, a product capable of living only in captivity because of its size) that makes an about-face of its effectiveness, the contemporary city collides with the barriers of its own sustainability. In his biological research Geoffrey West observed certain regularities, e.g. that the lifespan of an organism is determined by its size - larger life forms live longer matching exact mathematical relations. In this crucial sense cities are completely different from biological organisms, which slow down with size; their relative metabolism, growth rates, heart rates, and even rates of innovation - their evolutionary rates - systematically - and predictably - decrease with size. (…) People actually do walk on average faster in larger cities whereas heart rates decrease as animal size increase, said West [1]. According to the urban scaling laws defined by West, just by knowing the number of inhabitants, numerous parameters can be predicted, including the number of patients, crime rate, citizens’ average walking pace and many other properties of the city, such as cases of AIDS, infrastructure efficiency or income of inhabitants. Understanding these correlations humanity bears more and more responsibility for the survival of its own creation - the city. Traps, challenges and responsibilities in relation to the city can be seen, for example, in Lewis Mumford’s definition: From its origins onward, indeed, the city may be described as a structure specially equipped to store and transmit the goods of civilization, sufficiently condensed to afford the maximum amount of facilities in a minimum space, but also capable of structural enlargement to enable it to find a place for the changing needs and the more complex forms of a growing society and its cumulative social heritage [2]. CITY - CULTURE VERSUS SUSTAINABILITY Today’s polemics consist of two apparent platforms. Authors discuss the sustainability of a city with respect to its physical/material functioning and the dichotomy cultural identity - global generic. These two platforms need to be integrated or at least, the series of vertical interconnections need to be explored. The discussion cannot be based on the necessity of choice between energetic and economic and sociocultural sustainability, because the surrender of either of these aspects results in an atrophying city. Final solutions must come from a win-win principle. On the one hand, Sustainable solar urban design: education linked with research Ján Legény, Peter Morgenstein & Robert Špaček Slovak University of Technology Bratislava, Slovakia ABSTRACT: One of the most important tasks of mankind is to take responsibility for a sustainable life for future generations. Education along with research plays a key role in the reduction of energy demands and spreading of utilisation of renewables. An energy revolution has to take place at the level of urban planning. This article deals with sustainable urban design, and it presents two solar strategies based on the energy efficient urban structures generating and on the principle of synergic energy cooperation among urban structures within a city district. New energy-related urban indicators have been defined and verified on a typological variety of urban structures. The article presents doctoral research of volumetric optimisation of urban blocks using IT script written in Grasshopper software. The authors’ examination is based on information technologies and software simulations. CAD-technologies are gaining importance in the holistic architectural and urban design process. All these aspects have to be implemented in education, what will positively affect the future urban development in a sustainable way. 344