The concepts of metabolism, ecosystem, and DESIGNING Barcelona,

DESIGNING TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
circular economy are currently challenging the TERRITORIAL Brussels,
discipline of urbanism. As the shift from linear METABOLISM and Venice
to circular production-consumption patterns
seems to be ultimate for reducing the exter-
nalities of our urban environments and to meet
stricter environmental targets, the search for
sustainable territorial metabolism has become
imperative for our metropolitan areas.
This publication questions the discipline of ur-
banism in relation to the challenge of territorial
metabolism and combines theoretical contri-
butions with cutting edge design proposals for
European metropolitan regions. It synthetizes
two years of intensive research by design on

GEOFFREY GRULOIS, MARIA CHIARA TOSI, CARLES CROSAS [EDS.]

Barcelona, Brussels, and Venice Metropolitan
areas conducted jointly by the Laboratory on
Urbanism, Infrastructure and Ecologies of the
Faculty of Architecture of Université libre de
Bruxelles (ULB), the Università IUAV di Venezia
and the Laboratori d’Urbanisme de Barcelona
(ETSAB–UPC) in the framework of an Erasmus+
Strategic Partnership.

GEOFFREY GRULOIS
MARIA CHIARA TOSI
CARLES CROSAS
[EDS.]
DESIGNING
TERRITORIAL
METABOLISM
DESIGNING
TERRITORIAL
METABOLISM

Barcelona,
Brussels,
and Venice

GEOFFREY GRULOIS
MARIA CHIARA TOSI
CARLES CROSAS
[EDS.]


TABLE OF CONTENTS

7 PREFACE PART 2—RESEARCH BY DESIGN

Designing Territorial Metabolism at the Crossroads of Urbanism, Ecol-
ogy, and Ecosystem Thinking 105 INTRODUCTION
Geoffrey Grulois, Carles Crosas, and Maria Chiara Tosi Atlas and Design as Instruments of Knowledge
Maria Chiara Tosi, Carles Crosas, and Geoffrey Grulois
PART 1—ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
112 METROPOLITAN ATLAS OF BARCELONA, BRUSSELS,
15 INTRODUCTION AND VENICE
On Territorial Metabolism Alvise Moretti, Andrea Fantin, Joan Marti, and Adrien Laught
Marco Ranzato and Geoffrey Grulois
143 SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT AND CO2-BASED
21 TOWARDS A FAIR TRANSITION IN HEYVAERT (BRUSSELS) URBAN PLANNING FOR MOLINS DE REI
Ideas for Urban Renewal from a Circular Economy Perspective Miguel Rami, Elisabeth Terrisse, and Roberta Sinestesio
Nadia Casabella and Elsa Bouillot Studio Carles Crosas and Jorge Perea (ETSAB)

41 ON THE CIRCULARIZATION OF TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 165 PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE AS A NEW PUBLIC SPACE FOR
Stephan Kampelmann RESIDENTIAL SUBURBS IN HALLE
Florentine Sieux, Margot Thérond, and Thibault Wéry
55 FROM ECOLOGY TO URBANISM Studio Geoffrey Grulois, Nadia Casabella, and Gery Leloutre (ULB)
Urban Metabolism Genealogies and Perspectives
in Urbanism Theory and Practice 185 REGENERATION SCENARIOS FOR THE MARZENEGO RIVER
Andrea Bortolotti, Geoffrey Grulois, and Marco Ranzato AND THE CITTÀ DIFFUSA
Andrea Fantin and Alvise Moretti
71 GENEALOGIES OF THE ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE ITALIAN Studio Maria Chiara Tosi and Luca Nicoletto (IUAV)
DISCOURSE ON CITTÀ DIFFUSA
Territories and Debates 207 ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES IN POST-OIL SCENARIOS IN
Cristina Renzoni and Maria Chiara Tosi TARRAGONA PORT
Nils Fischer and Lars Wüstemann (Heating and Cooling District) / Asier Ovejas (Coldport)
87 BARCELONA METROPOLIS Studio Carles Crosas and Jorge Perea (ETSAB)
Interplay between Urban Project and Urban Metabolism
Carles Crosas and Jorge Perea 235 CAR (RE)CYCLE IN BUDA
Davide Cauciello, Studio Geoffrey Grulois, and Nadia Casabella (ULB)

259 ENI PARK, CHANGING PORTO MARGHERA

Alberto Dal Bo’, Alessio Milan, Thomas Pesce, and Leandro Varillas Sànchez
Studio Maria Chiara Tosi and Luca Nicoletto (IUAV)

281 IMAGE CREDITS

282 BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS

288 IMPRINT
7

PREFACE
D ES I G N I N G T E R R I TO R I AL
M E TAB O L I S M AT T HE C R O S S R OAD S
O F UR BAN I S M , EC O LO GY, AN D
EC O SYST E M T HI N K I N G
Geoffrey Grulois, Carles Crosas, and Maria Chiara Tosi

What is urbanism in the age of the Anthropocene? How

should we bridge the discipline of urbanism and the emerg-
ing question of urban ecology, urban metabolism, and eco-
system thinking? What is the future of European metropoli-
tan regions? These are some of the questions our team of
professors from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura
de Barcelona of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the
Faculty of Architecture of Université libre de Bruxelles, and
the Università Iuav di Venezia shared around 2013.
To address such complex questions, we needed to go
beyond our routine educational agenda and develop an ur-
ban design practice that was, for each of us, well-grounded
in our respective local contexts (Barcelona, Brussels, and
Venice). We had to build a network of shared experimen-
tation at the crossroads of urbanism and ecology. Over
the last decade, a number of research studies have been
conducted at this intersection (Farr, 2008; Van Bueren et
al., 2012; Pickett et al., 2013)—all pointing toward a recon-
figuration of the discipline. However, our assumption was
that the practices of learning by describing, designing, and
projecting the territory that are common in our respective
schools of urbanism could become one key holistic tool for
tackling the complex social, economic, and ecological prob-
8 
lems raised by our contemporary European environment.1
Beyond academic research, new methodologies of de-
scription and design embedded in ecosystem thinking are
needed in order for students, teachers, and practitioners to
tackle our contemporary environmental challenges.
These descriptive and design explorations combining
urbanism with ecology needed to be conducted within a
transdisciplinary and intercultural network of educational
institutions. By sharing and discussing descriptive and
design experiments in our three metropolitan regions—
Barcelona, Brussels, and Venice—we were able to offer our
explorations as potential responses to the questions posed
to us by European environmental and territorial issues.
The organization of the Erasmus Intensive Program
entitled Cogenerative Design Strategies for a Sustain-
able Urban Metabolism in 2014 was a preliminary step
toward integrating descriptive urbanism as a design ap-
proach with ecology and ecosystems thinking. During this
two-week workshop in Barcelona, which was supported
by funding from the European Commission, we experi-
mented with a new methodology of territorial description
and design based on material cycle analysis and, more
widely, on urban metabolism.2 In collaboration with Barce-
lona Regional – Urban Development Agency in Zona Franca
and other local stakeholders, we explored the recycling of
large-scale economic and logistic zoning with the contri-
bution of local ecologists, economists, and transportation
engineers. This experimental workshop borrowed from the
methods of industrial ecology and urban metabolism by
focusing descriptive and design practices on the cycles of
water, material, energy, and transportation. The theoretical
reflection and design proposals that formed the basis of
the workshop were documented in the publication Upcycle
Barcelona (Grulois et al., 2015).
This workshop revealed the potential of new project-
oriented methodologies for answering the spatial chal-
lenges that face metropolitan regions today. The 2015–2017
9 Preface
Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Integrated Urban Design
E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Re-
gions offered us the possibility to unfold the potential of
these new descriptive and design methodologies at the
crossroads of urbanism and ecology.
In order to sustain this transnational and cross-cul-
tural educational experiment, we developed a web platform
with the collaboration of Variable, a web design agency in
Brussels. From 2016 onwards, Metropolitan-estudio.eu
became our virtual studio. This web platform allowed the
instructors and students from our three studios—located
in Barcelona, Brussels, and Venice—to exchange work in
progress on a weekly basis. While the communication of
descriptive and design experiments in urbanism studios is
usually restricted to the physical space of the studio, this
interactive web platform is an opportunity to share knowl-
edge in an open horizontal network. Metropolitan-estudio.
eu is also meant to connect urbanism studios in European
universities with a network of experts and professionals
located in the three metropolitan regions. In this way, re-
gional agencies in the fields of urbanism (Brussels Bouw-
meester, Barcelona Metropolitan Area), ecology (Brussels
Environnements), strategic planning agencies (Barcelona
Regional, Port Marghera), and municipalities (Noale) were
able to interact with students and instructors. This Euro-
pean network of knowledge at the crossroads of urbanism
and ecology is still in its early days, and it is our hope that it
will grow in the future.
The present publication has been conceived as a syn-
thetic product of the open-ended exploration by our joint
metropolitan studio. It gathers a selection of theoretical
reflections, territorial description, and design experimen-
tations by instructors, experts, and students pointing to-
ward the integration of urbanism, ecology, and ecosystem
thinking.
In the first part of the publication, professors, experts,
and former students involved in the strategic partnership
10  11
reflect on the challenge of bridging urbanism, ecosystem
thinking, and urban metabolism in relation to the three
metropolitan contexts of Barcelona, Brussels, and Venice.
In the second part of the publication, students involved
in the strategic partnership present an atlas of the three
metropolitan regions and the related design explorations.
Going beyond more conventional maps of land use and land
coverage, the atlas is an attempt to represent the territo-
rial metabolism of these three metropolitan regions. This is
followed by a selection of descriptive and design explora-
tions (two per metropolitan region) presented in relation to
two themes.
The first three design investigations explore the re-
generation of settlements located alongside the respective
rivers of the three metropolitan regions: the Marzenego
River in the metropolitan area of Venice, the Llobregat River
in Barcelona, and the Senne River around Brussels. The last
three design experimentations address the recycling of
industrial landscapes in the three metropolitan regions: the
Buda area in Brussels, Marghera next to Venice, and Tarra-
gona Region in the south of Barcelona.
In order to stress the aim of exploring these regions
as examples of European metropolitan territories beyond
the boundaries of compact cities, we have emphasized the
term territorial metabolism. While calculations of material
inflows and outflows of urban metabolism usually stop at
the city limits, territorial metabolism suggests that we take
into account all kinds of external factors in metropolitan
landscapes.3 Finally, the title of this publication, Designing
Territorial Metabolism, embodies the goal of our strategic
partnership: to develop a synthetic and projective method-
ology that empowers future practitioners to act upon Euro-
pean territories in order to regenerate their metabolism.
Preface
ENDNOTES
1  See the introduction to the atlas, “Atlas and Design as
Instruments of Knowledge.” On the territorial description
and project as instrument of knowledge see also Viganò,
2012.
2  See the introduction to the atlas “Atlas and Design as
Instruments of Knowledge.”
3  See the paper “On the Circularization of Territorial
Metabolism” in the first part of this book.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
STEFFEN, W.; GRINEVALD, J.; CRUTZEN, P.; MCNEILL,
J. 2011. “The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical
Perspectives,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society A, n° 369, p. 842-867 Retrieved from: http://rsta.
royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1938/842 [avail-
able on 20 January 2017].
FABIAN, L.; GIANNOTTI, E.; VIGANÒ, P. 2012. Recycling City.
Lifecycles, Embodied Energy, Inclusion, Venice, Giavedoni
editore.
FARR, D. 2008. Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with
Nature, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons.
GRULOIS, G.; CASABELLA, N.; CROSAS, C.; PEREA, J.
2015, UpCycle Barcelona: Cogenerative Design Strate-
gies for a Sustainable Urban Metabolism, Brussels,
Barcelona, LoUIsE & ETSAB. Retrieved from: http://
difusion.ulb.ac.be/vufind/Record/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.
ulb.ac.be:2013/205878/Holdings [available on 15 March
2017].
PICKETT, S.T.A.; CADENASSO, M.L.; MCGRATH. B. (eds),
2013. Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design: Linking
Theory and Practice for Sustainable Cities, Dordrecht,
Heidelberg, London, New York, Springer.
VAN BUEREN, E.; VAN BOHEMEN, H.; ITARD, L.; VISS-
CHER, H. (eds), 2012. Sustainable Urban Environments:
An Ecosystem Approach, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London,
New York, Springer.
VIGANÒ, P. 2012. Les territoires de l’urbanisme: le projet
comme producteur de connaissance, Genève, Métis
presses.
 PART 1

ON
TERRITORIAL
METABOLISM
15

INTRODUCTION

O N T E R R I TO R I AL M E TAB O L I S M
Marco Ranzato and Geoffrey Grulois

The concepts of urban metabolism are today challenging

urbanism practice and theory (e.g., Kennedy et al., 2011;
van Bueren et al., 2012; Ibanez and Katsikis, 2014; Sijmons,
2014). Urban plans and design research from metabolic and
ecosystem perspectives are promoted by administrations
both national (for instance, the Ministry of Urban Develop-
ment and the Strategic Office of the Prime Minister of Alba-
nia, the UK government’s Foresight Future of Cities Project)
and urban (see, for example, Geneva, Antwerp). As the shift
from linear to circular production-consumption patterns
seems to be decisive for reducing the external influences
on our urban environments and for meeting stricter environ-
mental targets (see, for instance, Europe 2020 targets), the
search for circular urban metabolism and efficient resource
use has become imperative for our metropolitan areas.
This section of the book takes this as its starting point
and discusses the concept of urban metabolism in relation
to urbanism. We call into question the role of urbanism in the
search for a more circular urban metabolism and resource-
efficient metropolitan regions. We propose to expand on
this issue by looking at the relation between design, urban
metabolism, and an ecosystem approach through five origi-
nal contributions from instructors and experts involved in
the strategic partnership between Metropolitan E-studio
and Related Design Studios (2015–2017). These essays offer
diverse considerations supporting our intention to propose
three different standpoints on these issues.
16 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
First, looking behind the design experiences that have
until now appeared on the urban metabolism scene, it is
possible to retrace a specific understanding of urban me-
tabolism as a design approach. Recently realized design ex-
plorations such as those supported by the IABR in the cases
of Rotterdam, Brussels, and Albania, for instance, com-
prehend urban metabolism mainly as the adoption of the
Material Flow Analysis (MFA) used in industrial ecology (for
example, Baccini and Brunner, 1991; Girardet, 1992), but this
is only one of the possible understandings of the concept.
Wachsmuth (2012) has pointed out that multiple approach-
es of urban metabolism have been used in research and
that these differences build upon opposing interpretations
of the dichotomies society-nature and city-countryside.
Wachsmuth identifies three ecologies: the human ecology
of social sciences—that is, the Chicago School; industrial
ecology, which is closely related to the applied sciences;
and the urban political ecology that critical geographers
articulated in the late 1990s.
Accordingly, human ecology focuses on the adapta-
tion of humans to the city environment while nature and
countryside remain in the background; industrial ecol-
ogy—which led to the development of MFA—conceptu-
alizes nature as an external entity and the city as “the
geographical area where the society that metabolizes
this nature is located” (Wachsmuth, 2012: 514); and ur-
ban political ecology claims the oneness of humans and
nature, but views the countryside as something inert.
Landscape ecology, which we define as the fourth ecology,
focuses specifically on ecosystems and treats the effects
of urbanization processes on the environment/territory.
Accordingly, it equally considers the city and the country-
side. Hence, this first standpoint is a theoretical one. This
stems from the fact that urbanism should go beyond a
dual interpretation of ecology—for example, “industrial”
vs. “political”—to bridge the differences between the ma-
terial and quantitative approaches of the applied sciences
17 Introduction
and the qualitative and political approaches of the social
sciences.
In his essay “On the Circularization of Territorial Me-
tabolism,” Stephan Kampelmann tackles the question of
moving from a linear to a circular approach of material
flows. He stresses the importance of the territorial scale of
metabolism and circularity beyond the boundaries of the
supposedly consolidated city. It is for this reason that ur-
banism must engage with territorial metabolism and there-
by embrace the processes that unfold on different scales
within the metropolitan region and beyond. Urban theory
(see Brenner, 2014) and urbanism (see Secchi and Viganò,
2012; Viganò, 2012) increasingly look at the territory beyond
the traditional city borders in order to further understand
production processes and the use of resources. The explo-
sion of living and production-consumption patterns forces
us to understand the ecosystems of territories on multiple
scales and to look to remote sites of resource extractions,
industrial production, and waste disposal. In line with the
arguments raised by Kampelmann, we introduce here the
concept of designing territorial metabolism, a stance for
thinking and acting upon the ecology and metabolic pro-
cesses of contemporary living and productive territories
beyond the traditional dichotomy of city-countryside. It
follows that what is called for are studies and projects that
overcome the narrow understanding of the “urban” associ-
ated with the form of metabolism that often reproduces a
material flow analysis of cities as if it were disconnected
from their territories.1 However, the stress on the territorial
scale does not mean overlooking the other scales, and the
local scale in particular. The contribution by Casabella and
Bouillot stresses that the territorial understanding of me-
tabolism should also address the local scale. The authors
reflect on the key role of the local level in the shift from a
linear to a circular economy in a popular industrial neigh-
borhood of Brussels where a number of small interventions
foster urban innovation.
18 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Our second standpoint stems from the fact that ur-
ban metabolism is not new, and that it has been differ-
ently embedded in a number of approaches to urbanism
over time. Urban metabolism was introduced in the 1960s
by Wolman (1965) and, in the decades that followed, has
been endorsed by industrial ecology. Although it was mainly
chemical engineers, ecologists, and civil engineers who
conducted the first research in the field of industrial ecol-
ogy, the interdisciplinary nature of the concept has since
come to be recognized (Kennedy et al., 2011; Warschmuth,
2011). In addition, as the work of researchers (see, for in-
stance, Barles, 2007; Kohlbrenner, 2014) has shown, a city
structure and its transformations in a given time can today
be understood through the lens of urban metabolism. Simi-
larly, even before the advent of urban metabolism, design-
ers and planners could have taken a metabolic approach
without defining it as such. Therefore, this second stand-
point is a historical one. More specifically, we attempt to
retrace cross-disciplinary pathways between the concept
of urban metabolism and the ecological perspective on the
one hand, and urban planning, urbanism, and landscape ar-
chitecture on the other. The contributions we present here
are not comprehensive, but they do span diverse cultures of
the project of urbanism that indicate how the matter of me-
tabolism has been raised—or not. The contribution by Bor-
tolotti, Grulois and Ranzato on Brussels, and that by Tosi
and Renzoni on the Veneto area, show how the ecological
and environmental issues are, in part, related to a spatial
approach and the tradition of urbanism. Similarly, the paper
by Crosas and Perea on Barcelona discusses contemporary
urban projects that are already tackling metabolic perspec-
tives. These contributions show how the schools of urban-
ism expressed in the metropolitan contexts of Barcelona,
Brussels, and Venice—the privileged contexts tackled by
this book and the strategic partnership it emerged from—
interweave the discipline of urbanism with ecology and
metabolism in very different ways.
19 Introduction
Thirdly, urbanism and planning are making an effort to
set up the design tools and approaches required to address
circular urban metabolism arrangements. For example, the
design-based research whose common denominator is the
MFA—implying flow identification—has developed remark-
able tools.2 The majority of these tools, however, have been
directly taken from industrial ecology (see, for example, the
Sankey Diagram) or other influential ecological studies (see,
for instance, the “Cross Section Flow Diagram”). Perhaps ur-
ban design is yet to make an original contribution. Thus, the
third standpoint is a methodological one. We aim to present
a range of approaches and tools available to urban design
and planning in order to deal with urban metabolism beyond
the MFA that has been borrowed from industrial ecology. We
propose to look at tools and approaches while also recall-
ing that they directly reflect specific understandings of the
concept of urban metabolism and the ecologies mentioned
above. In other words, we propose to look at tools and ap-
proaches that are also the result of the interpretation of
the dichotomies society-nature and city-countryside. Four
of these five essays present design approaches and tools
that enable us to deal with metabolic issues in different
ways. Many of these methodological apparatuses were
initially developed in academia. In the framework of design
studios and design-oriented workshops, it is often possible
to update design tools and approaches that allow us to go
beyond the mere question of the urban form.3
Following these three main lines of reasoning, this
section of the book is ultimately intended to position ur-
banism with respect to territorial metabolism. What is
the contribution of project-oriented methodology? Why is
research by design relevant for answering contemporary
environmental challenges and tackling urban metabolism?
How can urbanists address the complex environmental
and socio-economic problems of European metropolitan
regions? These are among the open questions that we try to
address in the following pages.
20 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
ENDNOTES
1  Former investigations of the ecology of the città
diffusa (for example, Fabian et al., 2010; Fabian et al.,
2012) and the metabolism of planetary urbanization and
operational landscape (for instance, Ibanez et Katsikis,
2014) are important foundations.
2  See for example the “flow map,” a spatial integra-
tion of the Sankey Diagram (Kornaropoulou and Wilbers,
2016).
3  Several current examples of collaboration between
universities and experts are provided by the workshop
Upcycle Barcelona organized by ETSAB-LUB with ULB in
2014, the workshop for Albania metabolism organized
by KULeuven and IABR in 2015, and the joint research of
ULB and Fabric for Productive Brussels in 2016.
21
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BACCINI, P.; BRUNNER, P.H. 1991. Metabolism of the
Anthroposphere, Berlin, Springer Verlag.
BARLES, S., 2007. “Feeding the City: Food Consumption
and Flow of Nitrogen, Paris, 1801–1914,” Science of the
TOWARDS A FAIR TRANSITION
Total Environment, n° 375 (1e3), p. 48–58.

BRENNER, N. (ed.), 2014. Implosions / Explosions:
Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization, Berlin, Jovis
IN HEY VAERT (BRUSSELS)
Verlag.
I D E AS FO R U R BAN R E N E WAL
FABIAN, L.; VIGANÒ, P. (eds.) 2010. Extreme City: Climate
Change and the Transformation of the Waterscape,
Venice, IUAV.
FABIAN, L.; GIANNOTTI, E.; VIGANÒ, P. 2012. Recycling
City. Lifecycles, Embodied Energy, Inclusion, Venice,
F R O M A C I R C UL AR EC O N O M Y
Giavedoni editore.
GIRARDET, H. 1992. The Gaia Atlas of Cities, London, Gaia
PE R S PECT I V E
Books Limited.

IBANEZ, D.; KATZIKIS, N. (eds.) 2014. New Geographies Nadia Casabella and Elsa Bouillot
n° 6: Grounding Metabolism, Boston, Harvard Graduate
School of Design.
KENNEDY, C.; PINCETL, S.; PUNJE, P. 2011. “The Study
of Urban Metabolism and Its Applications to Urban
Planning and Design,” Environmental Pollution, n° 159,
p. 1965–1973.
KOHLBRENNER, A. 2014. “De l’engrais au déchet, des KEYWORDS
campagnes à la rivière: une histoire de Bruxelles et de
ses excréments (Fertilizer to waste, campaigns to the CE (circular economy), diverse economies, urban metabo-
river: a history of Brussels and its excrement),” Brussels
Studies, n° 78. Retrieved from: http://www.brusselsstud-
lism, transition, inclusive development, more-than-human
ies.be/medias/publications/BruS78FR.pdf. [available on world, Brussels Canal Zone.
8 March 2017].
KORNAROPOULPOU, S.; WILBERS, J. 2016. “Reflection on
the Results of the Research”. In: G. Brugmans, M. Francke,
F. Persyn, The Metabolism of Albania, Rotterdam, Iabr/UP. ABSTRACT
SECCHI, B.; VIGANÒ, P. 2012. La ville poreuse: Un projet
pour le Grand Paris et la métropole de l’après-Kyoto,
Most often than not urban renewal replaces derelict build-
Genève, Métis presses. ings with shiny new ones, but it does little to address urban
SIJMONS, D. 2014. “The Urban Metabolism,” In: Aa.Vv.,
IABR -2014- Urban by Nature, Rotterdam, International economic transition. Cities are not to be confused with the
Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.
VAN BUEREN, E.; VAN BOHEMEN, H.; ITARD, L. et al. buildings they contain. Investing in new buildings will not
2012. Sustainable Urban Environments: An Ecosystem
Approach, Dordrecht, Springer.
pave the way to economic change and eventual success.
VIGANÒ, P. 2012. Les territoires de l’urbanisme: Le projet The Brussels Region has historically relegated the task of
comme producteur de connaissance, Genève, Métis
presses. urban renewal to urban design, which is often ill-equipped
WASHSMUTH, D. 2012. “Three Ecologies: Urban Metabo-
lism and the Society-Nature Opposition,” The Sociological to understand the many transactions that happen in cities,
Quarterly, n° 53, p.506–523.
WOLMAN, A., 1965. “The Metabolism of Cities,” Scientific
let alone to intervene upon them. The recently approved
American, n° 213 (3), p. 179–190. Program of Circular Economy (Bruxelles Environnement,
2016) seems to bring fresh breath of air to the question by
obliging all major renewal and urban plans to incorporate
a local economic development strategy that meets some
of the circular ambitions it sets out. This is particularly
the case for Heyvaert: a popular district located within the
nineteenth-century industrial axis that developed along
the canal and the railway corridor in Brussels. The district
22 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
has recently become the testing site for very different and
sometimes contradictory regional ambitions, with a clear
focus on preserving economic activity in the city by en-
hancing its urban integration. Here we will review some
proposals the authors made for this area, taking inspiration
from the insight offered by CE and based on the diverse
economies framework (Gibson-Graham, 2008).
23 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )
INTRODUCTION
“Cities are magnificently entangled. Every tree, person, building, neighborhood,
and business is entwined with every other.” Rose (2016)
The world we inhabit is a living and cohesive system, a “lumpy” world where
absolutely everything matters. In order to change our relation to it, we need to leave
our linear way of thinking and replace it with a cyclic one that sees entanglement as
a necessary condition of life, as Rose so eloquently puts it. We need to move from
a mechanistic to a complex approach (Jacobs, 1961), from a one-dimensional to a
multi-dimensional way of thinking and doing, thus embracing surprise and unpre-
dictability (Holling, 2001) in trying to understand processes that happen across
time and scale. We also need to incorporate the economy in this social-ecological
assemblage (Daly, 2009).
In this text, we review the research-by-design proposals Nadia Casabella pur-
sued for Heyvaert, a popular district located within the nineteenth-century indus-
trial axis that developed along the canal and the railway corridor in Brussels. Many
companies dedicated to secondhand car trading settle nowadays in the old and
partly derelict warehouses, which have been converted into depots for used cars
that arrive from all over Europe before being dispatched to Western Africa (Rosen-
feld, 2013). These research-by-design proposals were performed at two different
times (summer 2015 and spring 2016) and within two different contexts. The first
was linked to the unsolicited work her office—1010 architecture urbanism, based in
Brussels—occasionally carries out. The second was realized in her role as an aca-
demic at the ULB Faculty of La Cambre Horta with the support of Elsa Bouillot, who
is co-author of this paper and was at that time a student at the same faculty.
First, the work that we developed for Heyvaert aims to cast light on the
contradictions that possibly result from the voluntarist discourse of the Brussels
regional planning authorities. While their ambition is to keep productive facilities
in situ, they rely on concrete plans that seem ill-equipped to support the complex
social-economic transformations at work and that might rather fuel an orchestrated
gentrification of the district. Second, inspired by circular economy (CE) ideas and
relying on the diverse economies framework (DEF), we developed scenarios and
design proposals to explore the potential of alternative local economic paths for a
more sustainable and inclusive urban renewal process in Heyvaert.
While many entities and policy makers might look at the concept of CE as a
quick fix for the way companies, and by extension cities, are organized, for us it con-
stitutes a chance to think and act differently. We need to move beyond the modern-
ist urban planning paradigm and start thinking of cities as a complex phenomenon
made of ever-mutating interdependencies in the material world (Melosi, 2010; Allen
et al., 2014; Folke, 2016)—and to such a degree that we might have difficulties fully
grasping them. On the other hand, the DEF (Gibson and Graham, 2008) seems par-
ticularly relevant to understanding what constitutes the economy in the Heyvaert
district, as it pays particular attention to transactions, forms of labor, and enterpris-
es that fall outside formalized markets but are key to the survival and socialization
of the many immigrants that arrive and settle there.
THE EMERGENCE OF CE
CE was originally introduced as a new industrial model aimed at optimizing the
use of resources and reducing or eliminating waste (particularly the part of waste
most harmful for the environment) and as an alternative to the current “take, make,
24 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
dispose” linear style characteristic of our industrial societies. Its potential for tech-
nological, organizational, or social innovation in the urban context remains vague.
On one hand, CE is used as an umbrella category that includes a wide variety of ap-
proaches and activities: reuse economy, performance economy or functional service
economy, industrial ecology or industrial symbiosis, natural capitalism, territorial
ecology, eco-design, regenerative design, short supply chains, etc. (Ellen MacArthur
Foundation, 2017). On the other hand, CE objectives are often defined by specific
companies or sectors and oriented to include interaction loops among actors, which
makes it easier to define the gains to be obtained and consequently makes it sim-
pler to achieve engagement by stakeholders. The territorial analysis of the concrete
impact of CE on the development of particular places is still in its infancy (Gallaud
and Laperche, 2016), even if some studies and experiments have been undertaken
within these analyses (Gibs and Deutz, 2005; Hodson et al., 2012; Le Labo de l’ESS,
2014; Balle, 2017). What kind of incentive structures and institutional rules favor
transition towards more “circular” patterns of production and consumption? How
are stakeholders engaged in initiatives that support this transition? And ultimately
how sustainable and inclusive is such a development?
Here, we push up against the very limits of sustainable development theory. As
Matutinovic writes, sustainability is largely a cultural and political issue, “inextrica-
bly tied to prevailing values and beliefs in a society” that shape the extent of change
a society is willing to undergo in order to meet global environmental challenges and
preserve life-supporting properties like natural sources and sinks. Since these life-
supporting properties are finite, “the material growth of the world economy must be
finite too” (Matutinovic, 2007: 113). How compatible, in fact, is a circular transition
with the maintenance of a growth-based theory of economic development? Even
before we run out of resources, we are already running out of a planet, as McKibben
likes to proclaim (2010). Since the planet is a materially closed system, any single
economy and the world economic system as a whole must reach a stage when
growth no longer happens (Daly, 2013). Furthermore, the environmental problems
with which we are confronted are largely a function of the increasing scale of the
economy relative to the biosphere (Gibson-Graham, 2011), which means that even if
some environmental benefits are achieved locally, final consumption patterns may
negate environmental gains on a broader scale (Gibs et al., 2005).
A position that has recently been gaining support (Rose, 2016; Thomson
and Newman, 2017) is that cities and their functional regions might be a relevant
place and scale to start acting and initiate a circular economic transition, both in
the direction (i) of reducing throughput between cities and their hinterlands and
(ii) of rethinking (the style of) growth. In this sense, academic writing has evolved
from considering cities as the cause of the problem—mainly because of their high
concentration of people and industry, of their resource-based economies and the
sheer volume of waste they dispose of into the biosphere (Campbell, 1996; Dunn and
Steinmann, 1998)—to discovering that cities might hold part of the solution (Tarr,
1984; Melosi, 2010). This is mainly due to a growing environmental awareness that
is taking place in cities—both among governmental entities and residents—of the
harmful environmental impact caused by cities themselves, which forces us all to
think in terms of recycling and conservation. But this shift is equally due to initia-
tives taken by inhabitants, local industries, and organizations who are determined
to modify the current metabolism of some cities through the implementation of
concrete actions and pilot projects (e.g. Cities in Transition, 2017).
25 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )
APPROPRIATION OF CE IN BRUSSELS
Like many other European cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris, or London),
the Brussels Capital-Region has made CE one of its tools for making the me-
tabolism of incoming and outgoing flows more sustainable, i.e., more circular.
After a series of thorough studies of the current regional metabolism (Bruxelles
Environnement, 2015a) that made it possible to identify which sectors and/or
flows could be made more efficient, actual policy changes were put in place. A
first measure limited atmospheric emissions and forced a transition towards
renewable energy sources. This was followed by the approval of the Program of
Circular Economy 2016–20 (Bruxelles Environnement, 2016), which will soon be
supplemented by a new “Waste and Resources Management Plan” (Bruxelles
Environnement, 2016: 15) that incorporates some innovative measures. Among
them is the goal of re-valuing some forms of waste—such as organic waste, e-
waste, and some parts of solid waste—in a future ensemble of buildings called
the “Recypark” where it can be easily upgraded or even up-cycled close to its
disposal point (Bruxelles Environnement, 2016: 37-43).
More specifically, the Brussels Region is supporting the “Good Food Strategy,”
which was launched by Bruxelles Environnement to promote a more sustainable
way of consuming food in Brussels by highlighting the importance of shorter food
supply chains. The objective for 2035 is to produce locally 30% of the food con-
sumed in the region. One intention of the measure is to change the overall manner
of consumption and distribution in the city, to reduce waste, to reuse unsold food, to
pass on this knowledge to the next generations, and to develop new research (Brux-
elles Environnement, 2015b). In the construction and demolition sector, the sector
that generates the biggest fraction of regional waste, the “Network Re-Use” has just
been put into place, and a new Urban Distribution Center exclusively dedicated to
handle construction materials is about to be completed in the Vergote basin in the
maritime harbor.
A peculiarity of the Brussels context is that many of the measures that ulti-
mately became policy were pushed by grass-roots organizations, non-profits, and
companies—from the bottom up, so to speak. This dimension is rarely emphasized
by those who voice critical concerns about the popularity of CE in regional policy
(Etopia, 2016), but the complicity between providers of technical services, political
advisers, and actors in the field seems rather exceptional and worth valuing.
It is against this backdrop that the LoUIsE lab of ULB Faculty of Architecture
joined the consortium FABRICations and Circular Economy to prepare a bid on urban
metabolism in the Brussels metropolitan region. The bid originated at the Atelier
Brussels – The Productive Metropolis, one of the design-by-research experiments
that the International Architecture Biennial of Rotterdam (IABR) sponsors every two
years, in specific cities of their choice, to exhibit original applications of the bian-
nual topic that articulate the exhibition’s themes. The Atelier itself was led by Archi-
tecture Workroom Brussels and Mark Brearley and sponsored by the Flanders and
Brussels Regional Planning Agencies, the chief architect of the Brussels Region, and
the Flemish Waste Management Agency. Olv Klijn of FABRICations coordinated the
overall research, and Nadia Casabella was appointed project leader at the faculty,
with the collaboration of Dimitri Panayotopoulos and Aristide Athanassiadis, who
later took the lead in disseminating the research results.
Time was short and means scarce to complete a thorough study of the type
that FABRICations had produced previously for Rotterdam (Brugmans and Strien,
2014; Municipality of Rotterdam et al., 2014) or Amsterdam (Municipality of Amster-
26 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 27 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )

Timeline of planning documents

dam, 2016). This is why we decided to reduce the scope of the research and work and decisions taken by Regional
with its limitations from the outset, restricting the analysis of flows to particular and local instances about
Heyvaert
places and specific companies/actors. The sites selected were Buda, Masui, and
Under the direction of the Region

CANAL MOLENBEEK
Birmingham. Two criteria determined their selection:

ELABORATION OF
THE VISIONS FOR
BRUSSELS 2040
MASTERPLAN
2010
Under the direction of the Communes

Private projects
- their relevance for other policy experiments realized in the Brussels Region,
Critical voices
such as the Plan Canal (SAU-MSI, 2017), and the institutional support of mixed
use in the region;

COMPETITION
PLAN CANAL
2011
- the feed-looping possibilities within the Atelier Productive Brussels, namely
with the research-by-design work developed in parallel by four architects’ of-
fices to shape several mixed-use typologies on specific locations; in fact, our

PPAS MONS-BIRMINGHAM
PPAS PORTE DE NINOVE
idea was to nourish their design work with our metabolic insight, which is why

PLAN CANAL
DRAFTING
2012
we chose to work on the same sites.

The companies that were approached are major metabolic engines in their

ABATAN MASTERPLAN

REGIONAL PLAN FOR

SCHEME FOR PORTE

“BRUXELLES-COTONOU, UNE

PLAN GUIDE FOR

NEIGHBORHOOD
DEVELOPMENT

SUSTAINABLE
SUSTAINABLE

SUSTAINABLE
MASTERPLAN

ORIENTATION
RENOVATION

DE NINOVE
CUREGHEM
ANTHROPOLOGIE ÉCONOMIQUE DE LA FILIÈRE

CONTRACT
respective locations: Aquiris (a waste water treatment plant), MABRU (Brussels

COMPAS
2013
EURO-AFRICAINE D’EXPORTATION DE

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PLAN DIRECTEUR IN

VÉHICULES D’OCCASION”, MARTIN
morning market), a metal recycling company and a ready-mixed concrete sup- ROSENFELD, DECEMBER 17th 2013

plier (both Vergote Bassin), Abattoirs (a slaughterhouse and weekend market), and
the secondhand car trade cluster. These last two establishments are located in “PORTE DE NINOVE: SCHÉMA D’ORIENTATION

CONTRACT PETITE
THE CANAL AREA

NEIGHBORHOOD
OU OUTIL DE LÉGITIMISATION”, ARAU,

SUSTAINABLE
DECEMBER 18th 2013
Heyvaert—the district whose economic transition had already been the subject

SENNE
2014
of several unsolicited ideas formulated by 1010 architecture urbanism. A student “HEYVAERT VERS UNE
TRANSFORMATION”, IEB,
workshop was organized by Nadia Casabella and Dimitri Panayotopoulos at the ULB OCTOBER 2014

Faculty of Architecture in close collaboration with FABRICations: ‘Circular Brussels’.

The goal was to conduct a short survey about these companies, map the findings,

2014
and speculate about their spatial transformation and metabolic efficiency.

THE HEYVAERT CASE “BIENVENUE À

2015
Heyvaert is a district some fifteen hectares in size located between three HEYVAERT”,
UZANCE, VOLUME

economic poles: textile wholesaling around Ropsy-Chaudron, the slaughterhouse 4, 2015

at Abattoirs, and the secondhand car trading along Heyvaert street (Claudel and

URBAN RENOVATION

PAD BIRMINGHAM
PAD HEYVAERT
HEYVAERT -
Scohier, 2014). The region has recently put forward a plan that would involve evicting

CONTRACT

POINCARÉ
2016
all car-dealing activities and displacing them to a new location at Buda, north of
Brussels’ territory, where a new Roll-on Roll-off (RO-RO) facility will be built to ac-
commodate them. From a planning perspective, the transfer of the secondhand car

COMPETITION FOR A

ALONG THE CANAL

VISION AROUND
PUBLIC SPACES
trade to Buda comes as no surprise: many previous plans have advocated for moving

2017
OPENING OF THE ROLL-ON ROLL-OFF TERMINAL

this economic cluster elsewhere (Buur and Idea Consult, 2010; Chemetoff Ass. et al.,
2014; pta, 2015; Bruxelles Perspective, 2017), mainly due to its negative impact on
mobility and the quality of public space in the neighborhood.
The question of how to reorient the economic development of the district once
the secondhand car trade moves to Buda remains unanswered, however. Some
voices argue for conserving the existing activities in Heyvaert (Rosenfeld and Van
Criekingen, 2015) and wonder about the advantages of displacing a thriving urban
economic cluster to a no-man’s-land that would leave the neighborhood prey to
merciless gentrification (Sacco, 2010). Others voice their concern about the mainte-
nance and creation of harbor-related economic zones such as the RO-RO in a met-
ropolitan context that lacks much industry and has only a relatively small logistics
sector (Mayneris, 2014). Yet others, such as the federation of car traders (FBEV), see Fig. 1: Timeline of planning documents and decisions taken by regional and local entities about Heyvaert. Only in 2010
does the Masterplan Canal (BUUR, IDEA CONSULT, 2010) unveil the plan of modifying the land use from workshops
the many advantages of a better location in terms of accessibility and maneuver-
into housing, using arguments about the low added value and job density of the car-related economic activities that
ability, while nevertheless criticizing the lack of “urban amenities” that these sites were already established here. Since then, a multitude of planning documents have been created, in which the Urban
can offer. The car traders also see a lucrative opportunity in Heyvaert’s housing infill Renewal Contract and the PAD or Comprehensive Plan are considered to play a direct role.
28 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 29 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )

Watteau

Delacroix

LIBELCO

Rue Rops
Wauters
Porte de Ninove

y-chaudron
street
Slaughterhouse Heyvaert

Caves de Cureghem Euclides

Clemenceau

Inventory of activities in Heyvaert according to sector

Recycling and Transit Retail Education Open air weekly market 2nd hand car trading

Wholesalers HORECA Culture Food wholesaler Other cars related

companies
Metals trading Services Food retail

Manufacturing Retails and multicultural Other food related

services companies
100m 500m

0m 200m

Fig. 2: Tentative mapping of economic activities in Heyvaert. The dominance of car-related activities is limited by the
sheer diversity of economic sectors present in the area, 1010 architecture urbanism, 2017.
30 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 31 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )

plans, since they own 80% of the land that they currently occupy and see (i) that on GARAGE OWNERS CONSIGNEES
the supply side, the real estate business might be less volatile than car trading, and Buying and selling cars Storing and transporting cars

(ii) that on the demand side, the volume of business is decreasing and regulations in EUROPE HEYVAERT ANTWERP HABOUR AFRICA

countries that receive these secondhand vehicles are becoming more strict. Car wash

In the end, the discrepancies between the arguments of the Region advocating GARAGE
OWNERS CONSIGNEES
Selling admin.
the need to keep productive facilities, and the concrete plans that have resulted, 2nd hand
home
garage
substantiate the critique of an orchestrated gentrification of the district. Moreover, appliance

the type of physical changes being pushed by planning authorities happens very IMPORT storing EXPORT

slowly—a symptom of a profound ignorance of the processes that take place and
ultimately govern this district. travel hotel
agency COMMISSIONAIRES
Facing those controversies, 1010’s unsolicited scenario study simply asked: restaurant

What if the secondhand car-trading cluster were indeed to be dismantled from

Heyvaert and displaced to Buda? One likely option is that only part of it would move, IMPORTERS

but which part? And could the remaining part sustain the development of a some-
what alternative economic pole? Some economic activities are deeply entangled
with other economic sectors in the area through important dependent relationships, NEW RO-RO AT BUDA
e.g., the showrooms and repair and administrative services. Other activities in the
reuse and food sectors could perhaps generate interesting synergies with existing Admin. Garage
economic activities, e.g., the pole of Abattoirs, the metallurgy at WAUTERS, the cool-
export
ing services at FRI-AGRA, the textile wholesalers, or Syrian restaurants and catering
services around Ropsy-Chaudron. Ro-Ro Terminal

import
A related question concerns the demolition of the built heritage: should we
COMMISSIONAIRES IMPORTERS
not envisage an integral renovation or retrofitting plan based on intensive reuse

selling
admin.

storing
of existing materials? What would we need to start this—for example, a bank of Car wash

HEYVAERT
material to support local reuse, new training programs, or the involvement of local
2nd hand
home appliances

garage

associations already active in the district (i.e., ULAC, Bruxelles Fabriques, Casa- Admin.
800E 1400E 1000E

selling
Blanco, IEB)? Which land uses would be allocated therein—housing, manufacturing, hotel 800E 1400E 1000E
Travel agency

amenities … ? And in what temporal order—transient lodging and cheap space for selling

start-ups first? Should all built heritage be kept, including the underground culvert Admin.
travel
inside which the old Senne River flows? And how should we deal with inherited
800E 1400E 1000E

agency selling
hotel
industrial sinks such as soil pollution that have resulted from previous dying activi- 2nd hand
home appliances garage
Car wash

restaurant
ties? Indeed, the major challenge confronting this district is not simply the shift in
New programs
land use but rather orchestrating transformation through time. What if the RO-RO
project takes too long to get off the ground? Should we envisage mitigation strate-
Housing Offices Services
gies before evicting all the businesses from the area? What about transition, what
about the path to get there?
If the present trajectory is not disrupted, gentrification will happen, bringing 800E 1400E 1000E

garage car wash travel hotel restaurant 2nd hand

with it rising rents and unaffordable services that will exclude part of the existing storage administration selling
agency home appliances
housing offices services

population. Concurrence between housing and other land uses will start, expelling
the remaining manufacturing as this activity is eventually bought out or displaced
by NIMBY protests by new residents. Moreover, the lack of commitment to consider-
ing how these changes affect all parties that the planning authorities have until now
displayed slows down and ultimately hinders the elaboration and implementation
of innovative strategies. The practical absence of dialog erodes the trust between
stakeholders and the regional and local authorities, and between these parties
and the inhabitants, whose voice is practically unheard in the entire controversy.
It further hinders the learning process by which future options should be jointly
explored. The exact opposite should be happening: new development should include
the actual social actors who will be affected by future change and suffer its conse- Fig. 3: Scheme representing the economic cluster around the secondhand car trade in Heyvaert, before and after its dis-
quences, since they (companies, inhabitants, employees … ) can be considered the placement towards the Buda Roll-On and Roll-Off terminal , 1010 architecture urbanism (based on Rosenfeld, 2013), 2017.
32 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 33 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )

most important drivers of any inclusive change that might happen. Unless they are In the car trading sector
of youth unemployment
(18-24 years old)
55%
empowered, they are ill-fated to become the victims of urban development deci- In the household appliance sector
of population is of
In the food and market sector foreign origin
sions that happen beyond their reach. In the construction sector
48%
of single parent
In urban redevelopment processes on this scale (fifteen hectares of existing In human ressources sector household
13%
industries, containing nine hectares devoted to the car trade industry), in which a During the week-end
%)
89
gap will exist between the functions of actors who are leaving and those who will Ma
rke
ex
oli
tio
n

nd
Fo tl em

yi
occupy the newly vacated spaces, the design of the transition becomes decisive for od ef gd

ilit
in
ild

to

ob
ve
a successful transformation. And this is true regardless of the reasons for the gap

le (m
es

bu
Metal co
itur

rs
mpo
urn

om
nen
df

Peop

l fr
ts
between the new and old uses (e.g., real estate cycles, mismatch between offer and s an

s
eria
e

Car
Car components - Garage owners nc

Mat
demand, filtering processes, disinvestment … ). Transition is about creating the tools ts..
.)

a
Animal

pli
ski 4 000 Tons/year of Animal waste and skins rpe

ap
n (ca
to help move fundamental change in a more sustainable direction, with the aim of s

me
e
Non food market leftovers til

Ho
Bus to schools

x
Te
making it less disruptive than it would otherwise be and thus involving multiple M
metal recycling
Food- Shopping
Garage owners
actors, domains, and levels of scale (Folke, 2016). And a fair transition is one that M

makes it possible for most of the actual actors (companies, inhabitants, policy mak-
ers, and the more-than-human world we inhabit) to participate in both the costs
metro station STIB deposit metro station Erasmus school Market Heyveart neighborhood Porte Ninove
and the benefits involved in such change. This enables actual residents to climb Gare de l’ouest for metal parts
Recy K
Delacroix Fab lab hosting 37 car related companies,
creating 500indirect jobs
Industrial
the economic ladder and to adapt to the rising rents and services that will come to buildings
waste recycling and 400 direct jobs
150 000 Car Slaughterhouse
characterize the transformed neighborhood. The principal way to achieve this is to exported/year
(Filled up with
generate new products that will result in new markets and labor opportunities other home appliance)

than wage labor (Callon, 2016). The introduction of new products will possibly re-
spond to patterns of production and consumption that reflect the values and beliefs
of a holistic, progressive, and sustainable world view, thus preventing prices from
mediating our relation to the biosphere and encouraging local development through
“de-manufacturing” and reuse or recycling (Gibbs et al., 2005).
This is as far as we got in the study prepared by our office, 1010. At that time,
the pressing issue was how to manage such a transition: Who would take the lead?
Who would facilitate and monitor the process of change? Who would actually attend
to the transformation of Heyvaert? With what means (financial, human, etc.)? And
within which governance settings?

ATELIER BRUSSELS – THE PRODUCTIVE METROPOLIS

Because the research conducted by the consortium .FABRIC – Circle Economy
– LoUIse Lab ULB Faculty of Architecture relied on a one-to-one dialogue with actors
busy on the field (companies, industries, organizations …), it helped to open new per-
spectives. It made it possible (1) to gain first-hand knowledge about flows and their
management by specific industries and actors/entrepreneurs; and (2) to get to know
the diversity of economic approaches within cities other than the capital-centric
models we are used to.
As for the Heyvaert area in particular, the key findings pointed towards the
fact that:

- supply chains between producers and consumers are normally “long” for
every product with the exception of some specific forms of (food) waste;
- most remainders from local production and consumption processes are
hardly ever reused or recycled within the Brussels region, with Flanders being
one of its important recipients (and users).
While surveying the streets of Heyvaert and during our field interviews, we ad-
ditionally witnessed that many goods and services were exchanged in non-typical
or alternative markets (e.g., informal markets on the street, co-op exchanges, with
Fig. 4: Simplified section of Heyvaert with an indication of major flows and stocks. In addition to shipping these second-
hand cars for reuse in the global South (Claudel & Scohier, 2014), it is common practice to fill them with secondhand
mattresses, refrigerators, and other electronic equipment such as TV screens and mobile phones (Rosenfeld, 2013).
Regarding the slaughterhouse, the data on waste is based on Destrycker (2015) and on our own research. From all ani-
mal waste, including blood, fat, bones, etc. (4,000 tons/year), 80% is sold to RENDAC, a brand of DARLING INGREDIENTS
INC. that converts inedible animal leftovers into usable and specialty ingredients that are sold to the pharmaceutical,
food, feed, fuel, biomass, and fertilizer industries worldwide. Animal skin is processed separately by GEEROMS CUIRS,
a local enterprise that exports the cattle and sheep hides and pig and goat skin to Italy and Turkey, where they are
turned into leather and re-imported. Market leftovers (around 1,000 tons of organic waste/year) are partly transported
to Quevy for waste2energy, while most of it is normally collected by the market itself and donated to individuals or non-
profit organizations, 1010 architecture urbanism (based on .FABRIC, ULB, Circle Economy), 2017.
34 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 35 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )

Freight transport

Storage

Housing units for homeless

people

CULTURAL RECONVERSION
BANK OF MATERIALS
Projection room
EXISTING SITUATION

Soil remediation

Restaurant

Exhibition
area

Ateliers/Workshops

Public space

Fig. 5: Fragment of the design proposal by Bouillot et al. (2016). On the left-hand side, the existing warehouse where the
second hand car trading activities are located today. In the middle, the reconversion of part of it for a bank of materials
where the construction materials and elements resulting from the demolition of neighboring structures could be (me-
chanically and chemically) tested and adapted for repurposing. On the right-hand side, the better-lit and most acces-
sible parts of the warehouse could be reconverted into lodging by easily placing prefabricated units or by constructing
new units with the salvaged materials coming from the bank of materials next door. The less well-lit parts could either
be reclaimed for the cultural or educational facilities the district actually lacks or for accommodating small companies
looking for cheap space, adopting the same construction techniques used in the lodging facilities.

alternative credit, etc.), or outside of markets (for example in food sharing, child care action: (i) the food waste from the slaughterhouse and the market at the Abattoirs
sharing, charity, food donations, fundraising initiatives commonly associated either site, (ii) the built heritage, and (iii) the inherited sink of polluted soil. The mod-
with Muslim or Evangelical religious beliefs, gifts, thefts, etc.). This set of informal est and necessarily partial proposal addresses the creation of new networks of
activities, which are rooted in their local contexts and were able to mobilize local production that are locally rooted and socially cohesive. These networks could use,
(material and social) resources and know-how, are little known and continuously if only temporarily, the gradually vacant warehouses after parts of the secondhand
downplayed in discussions of policy (Touzri, 2010). They nevertheless constitute a car trade cluster move away. The reconstruction and partial appropriation of those
way of generating income that not only provides for survival or subsistence but also warehouses for new activities could set into motion a dynamic of local material
creates a real market—such as traditional home bread baked by women of immi- reuse aimed at reducing renovation costs. Materials coming from the demolition of
grant origins that is then sold to local traders, or the marketing and packaging of (run-down) buildings could be stored and tested nearby in a bank of materials of
other food and crafted products. sorts—a project that some local associations now intend to put into place. People
An obvious challenge thus consisted of transforming some of the “long” supply could be trained to dismantle those buildings and learn to reuse their components,
chains into shorter ones, which are associated with both traditional and more in- as is already happening in the enterprise center Euclides in Heyvaert itself. And
novative forms of commercialization. As some previous studies have demonstrated, no less importantly, nearby companies specialized in the construction sector (e.g.,
social innovation happens more often than not in connection with short supply WAUTERS for metal, WATTEAU for wood, CasaBlanco and CRC for the renovation
chains, in sectors including food, energy, and recycling (Gallaud and Laperche, 2016). techniques) could provide the necessarily material and know-how support to pro-
Large consumption areas like metropolitan regions are particularly well-suited ceed with renovation.
places for short supply chains to become established. The size of the market, the Part of the yards that are located in between those same warehouses at
physical proximity between producers and consumers (which reduces transaction Heyvaert should be kept empty to start the remediation and regeneration of the
costs), and the existence of niche markets (e.g., publics belonging to particular historical pollution that was caused by the previously dying industry and is leaching
ethnic groups) that fulfill the demand for specialized products and services seem to into the surrounding soil and groundwater. Phytoremediation could start on secured
be the reasons behind such success. sites. Some of those sites could eventually be open to the public with the goal of
The work that the consortium .FABRIC – Circle Economy – LoUIse Lab ULB raising awareness of the importance of soil quality.
Faculty of Architecture developed for Heyvaert attempted to bring in new innova- The same new production networks could salvage a percentage of the food
tive strategies based on some CE principles. It identified three possible fronts of waste disposed from the weekend market to be processed locally. Soup could be
36 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
made from unused vegetables and fruit juices (We Made That, 2014). Waste vegeta-
ble oil could be reused for bio fuel, following the example of reusing ground coffee
leftovers as substrate for growing mushrooms in the Cureghem Caves, underneath
the slaughterhouse on the Abattoirs site. Furthermore, our Western culture disposes
of a relatively large part of the slaughtered animals: for chicken, this amounts to
32%, and in the case of sheep it rises to 50%. A fraction of this animal waste could
be used locally for diversifying the local economy (Destrycker, 2015). The range of
possibilities seems pretty endless: from soap-making to ink, to Hallal or Kosher
gelatin, to traditional leather dying, to ethnic snacks made of fried pigs’ noses or
skin. Food workshops could trigger the promotion of the multicultural resources and
capabilities of the local inhabitants: from tricks to deal with climate change or food
shortages (Roelvink, 2016) to gastronomic specialties.
In fact, closer cycles and waste recycling methods were frequent in Western
cities before WWII, such as pig farms where garbage was fed to hogs (Tarr, 1984:
18) or extensive paper recycling (Jacobs, 1969). These disappeared because they
required costly source separation or because of new sanitary regulations, but they
are making a comeback. Since 2014, a group of citizens in Ghent—“het spilvarken”
(the city pigs)—has maintained a series of small farms in vacant sites across the
city where pigs and chickens are fed with domestic organic waste. And since 2013,
a cooperative—“The Brussels Beer Project”—has been brewing beer with unsold
bread from local supermarkets. Or an artists’ collective bakes bread and cooks su-
permarket leftovers in Liverpool under the nickname “2Up2Down / Homebaked.”
Short and proximity supply chains, which are ideas that come from the
paradigm of CE, can surely have a positive impact even if they do not solve any of
the issues we have identified here (such as pollution sinks, unemployment, social
and economic disparities, global dependence, resource throughput, etc.). Further-
more, shorter cycles are more efficient for energy and resources consumption.
Notably, proximity supply chains trigger localized initiatives by increasing the
involvement of inhabitants in their own neighborhood. Indeed, producing and con-
suming products locally generates new jobs and helps reconnect locals with each
other and with the territory they inhabit. This stronger feeling of belonging paves
the way for new virtuous circles such as the creation of new initiatives among dif-
ferent social and ethnic groups (Touzri, 2010). Most importantly, such initiatives
demonstrate, simply by being performed, that there are alternatives to the prevail-
ing economic model, which is hardly compatible with a sustainable worldview
based on sustainable development in a more-than-human-world (Matutinovic,
2007; Daly, 2013; Roelvink, 2016).
CONCLUSION
Urban economies are complex and fragile: we need to understand them before
we attempt to change them (Jacobs, 1969). Heyvaert can be seen as an exemplary
case of exactly the opposite: simplistic hypotheses coupled with a strong institu-
tional support are on the brink of transforming an industrious district (based on
trade in food and secondhand cars) into an inert residential development. Even
those well-meaning initiatives to regenerate the existing (social and built) fabric by
offering venues to reinvent the local economy are failing in their approach. The most
prominent of these might be the car warehouse LIBELCO right next to the canal,
which has been recently expropriated to develop a “new heart” for the neighbor-
hood. The underlying idea (pta, 2014) was that craftsmen could move in and new
jobs could be created. But other than the expropriation budget, no additional means
37 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )
have been allocated to get the project off the ground, while in the meantime the car
trading has been evicted without offering the owners any relocation alternative.
The strategic framework drafted by 1010 and the design proposals developed
within the consortium .FABRIC – Circle Economy – LoUIsE Lab ULB Faculty of Ar-
chitecture address the creation of new production networks that could sustain the
creation of a new economic pole to replace the secondhand car trade. It does so by
focusing on three assets that can be locally valued in a circular economy perspec-
tive: (i) the food waste from the slaughterhouse and the market at the Abattoirs
site, (ii) the built heritage, and (iii) the inherited sink of polluted soil. New theories
connected with CE, such as short and proximity supply chains, can offer a valuable
perspective for gaining a better understanding of what already exists and further
nurturing it in a productive sense. And this is true despite all the shortcuts that CE
makes in order to become easily appropriated in the policy world (similar to past
policy blockbusters, for example the cluster theory in Gordon and MacCann, 2000)
and the obvious lack of thought it puts into the socio-political implications and pos-
sibilities for shifting current production-consumption practices (Hobson, 2016).
No doubt, it will be difficult to implement the ideas we have developed to-
gether. How can those innovative production networks be started? How can public
authorities intervene in order to exemplify the desired changes? Which governance
setting will provide the framework for them? Which sources of financing can they
rely on? Which resources will be preserved, and to what extent? Which activities
will settle or be stabilized in these areas? And above all, how should we organize
the learning process that is bound to accompany any transition toward a more
sustainable and inclusive urban renewal process in Heyvaert? Examples do exist
elsewhere in Europe, even if they are in early, unsteady phases: “Gent in transitie,”
“Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie” in Rotterdam, “Hackney Wick – Fish Island” in London,
etc. However, as many social theorists have argued, discourse is also performative
and thinking contributes to the making of new worlds (Gibson-Graham, 2008). The
effort made in this text is rather orientated toward creating alternative discourses
or stories that will help people perform new worlds (Callon, 2016) by showing the
economy as a site of economic diversity—a diversity that necessitates, in turn, the
active contribution of multiple roles, forms of transaction, styles of labor and enter-
prise, modes of property and finance, such as the ones we discovered on site.
In this sense, we see that these ideas start to have a life of their own, gaining
reality as time passes by. The direct link that we built with the actors during our
research process appears to have begun yielding some fruits: social actors and re-
gional authorities have become gradually aware of the need to find a new economic
orientation for the area and to think of change over time instead of intervening into
the physical layout of the district. The activities that the non-profit association
Cultureghem organizes in the district, which are supported by the Abattoirs, or the
reformulation of the new Heyvaert Director Plan’s objectives in the hands of the
regional planning authorities are evidence of a clear re-orientation. This height-
ened attention to time is crucial for learning to live with change and make use of
it (Folke, 2016) and for shifting development along more sustainable and inclusive
pathways that are possibly inspired by CE insights and rely on the diverse econo-
mies framework (Gibson-Graham, 2008). We need to stop looking away: Heyvaert is
bound to change and the sooner we recognize the large transactions we make with
the biosphere and within the human world and the underlying opportunities these
represent for local, contextualized development that can work for all, the better it
will be.
38 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
A WORD OF THANKS
Special thanks to Claire Scohier, who shared with us her expertise about Hey-
vaert, to Camille Gardien, who collaborated with 1010 and managed to synthesize
complex data on magnificent schemes, to Martin Rosenfeld for his generous feed-
back on this paper, and to Orit Kruglanski for her critical comments on the aims and
methods of contemporary urban planning. Also thanks to the students of the ULB
Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta, who participated in the workshop Circular
Brussels, for their commitment and imagination, and to Dimitri Panayotopoulos for
his dedication and inspiring insights during the same workshop.
39 Towards a Fair Transition in H eyvaert ( Brussels )
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42 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
INTRODUCTION
City administrations from Beijing, Amsterdam, Paris, and Brussels have in com-
mon that they claim to use the principles of “circular economy” as their compass for
navigating through economic and environmental challenges. The policy roadmaps
they produce in this context often describe the circularization of urban systems in
terms of their “metabolism.” The two central concepts underpinning these poli-
cies—the urban “metabolism” and its “circularization”—are, however, often very
poorly characterized.
Regarding the notion of “metabolism,” the metabolic overviews that have been
commissioned by metropolises are largely confined to discussing flows to, from,
and within a given urban agglomeration (Ecores et al., 2015). In most cases, this is
achieved through quantitative accounts in the form of Material and Energy Flow
Analysis (MEFA) or Sankey diagrams. The intensity of flows is, however, not the only
dimension of a city’s metabolism. The first objective of this article is to discuss the
implications of two other dimensions of urban metabolism: the spatial structure in
which these flows are organized and the socio-technical agents that govern them.
However, current uses of the notion of “circularization” are also questionable.
Arnsperger and Bourg (2017) recently pointed out that many of the policies and
promises churned out by governments, consultancies, and corporations are, in fact,
not “authentically” circular. Although they are steeped in the language and ideology
of economic growth, these circular economy initiatives may eventually fall short of
expectations. As an extension to the critical stance of Arnsperger and Bourg, our
second objective is to ask about the theoretical implications of circularization for
the intensity, spatial structure, and socio-technical agents of urban metabolism.
A better understanding of the different dimensions of urban metabolism and
their circularization is not only of theoretical interest; we argue that issues of inten-
sity, spatial structure, and socio-technical agents are also relevant in the practical
context of making plans and strategies aimed at improving metabolic flows in the
urban landscape. To be sure, previous research on planning for circular economy,
and in particular contributions based on research by design (Grulois et al., 2015),
have already touched upon all three of the dimensions of urban metabolism that
we highlight in this paper. However, a critical approach that frontally and explicitly
addresses the multidimensional character of (circular) urban metabolism is still
lacking in the literature. The concluding section will return to the practical relevance
of the theoretical considerations developed in this paper by assessing their implica-
tions for planning and design.
INTENSITY
The intensity of stocks and flows of water, construction materials, nitrogen,
food, fuel, final products, municipal waste, etc. is arguably the most explored aspect
of urban metabolism in industrial ecology and neighboring fields (Weisz and Stein-
berger, 2010). The analysis of metabolic intensity relies on quantitative indicators
such as the primary and final consumption within a given territory. The literature has
also developed tools that bring several quantitative indicators of metabolic inten-
sity together, such as Material and Energy Flow Analysis (MEFA), Life Cycle Analy-
sis (LFA), or Sankey diagrams. These approaches have the merit of allowing more
systemic analyses of the relationships between different flows (Haberl et al., 2004).
Following quantitative indicators over time has led to the observation that the flows
of many substances have intensified in most cities over the XIXth and XXth centuries
(Barles, 2015; McNeill, 2001).
43 O n the C ircularization of Territorial Metabolism
How might circularization affect the intensity of urban metabolism? Few
advocates of circular economy have addressed this question directly. To be sure,
many would agree that the intensity of dangerous or otherwise clearly undesirable
flows should be reduced. McDonough and Braungart (2002), for instance, propose
to phase out all toxic materials, i.e., substances that pose a more or less immedi-
ate threat to living organisms. But what about the intensity of all other flows, say,
the urban throughput of aluminum, polyethylene, or timber? Does the possibility of
recycling or reusing these materials mean that we should not be concerned with the
intensity of these flows?
The answer to this question marks a clear divide between, on the one hand,
those who see circular economy as a “Third Industrial Revolution” harboring the
prospect of renewed economic growth and those, on the other hand, who argue that
the circularization of material flows necessarily entails a drastic reduction of their
intensity. The biggest and loudest driver among the former group has been the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation, a lobbying organization that misses no opportunity to tell
the world’s largest corporations that they can grow bigger and faster by embrac-
ing the principles of circular economy. Among the leading voices taking a more
critical stance are Christian Arnsperger and Dominique Bourg, whose recent work
summarizes convincing arguments to then conclude that an “authentically circular
economy” is incompatible with strong economic growth (2017).
Indeed, even the most well-designed system of circular flows will inevitably
give rise to losses and waste. Some of these can be traced back to unsurmountable
constraints such as the second law of thermodynamics that heterodox economists
and system thinkers have identified as ultimate limits to unrestricted economic
growth (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971; Daly, 1996). In a context of growing throughput,
even small increases in entropy will ultimately lead to the complete depletion of raw
materials. The seminal analysis by Grosse (2010) provides clear examples of this
phenomenon. Take, for instance, the case of steel, which is one of the materials with
the highest recycling rate in the world (currently around 62% globally according to
Grosse). Even the systematic, widespread, and relatively cheap recycling of steel by
no means precludes the depletion of iron ore. First, as much as 38% of steel produc-
tion is not recycled and lost due to some form of entropy. And second, even if the
entire production of steel could be recycled, this would not suffice to keep up with
the rising demand for steel, which in turn is due to economic growth. The combined
effect of entropy and growth sheds a rather pessimistic light on the efficacy of re-
cycling efforts. In the case of steel, the calculations by Grosse—assuming that the
global production of steel continues to grow at an average of 3.5%—suggest that
the overall cumulative effect of steel recycling postpones the depletion of iron ore
by only twelve years. In other words, if the world completely stopped recycling steel
today, the stock of iron ore would be in 2050 at the level it would have reached in
2062 with recycling. What is more, the benefits of circular business practices could
be more than offset if they were to free up materials for other uses (“rebounding ef-
fects”), or allow materials to be exploited over a longer but nevertheless finite time
period (“reporting effects”).
To the extent that economic growth and material throughput continue to be
highly correlated, at least on larger scales, the critical stance developed by Arns-
perger, Bourg, and others offers a sobering message: the circularization of the urban
metabolism not only implies purging toxic materials but also a general reduction of
throughput intensity of all other substances whose reproduction cannot keep up
with the pace of economic growth. This calls for reducing the throughput of virtually
44 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
all resources whose global use exceeds a growth rate of 1%, and therefore also ma-
terials with an already very high recycling rate, such as metal or paper.
Circular economy might stand at a crossroads: either it will become en-
tirely subsumed under the promise—and illusion—that economic expansion and
resource circularity are compatible objectives; or it will embark on a more critical
program seeking out paths toward circularization that do not depend on economic
growth. We think that the critical program cannot succeed if it is only confined
to issues of material and energy intensity. A pro-growth interpretation of circular
economy is hardly concerned with political-economic issues: the same agents of
the business-as-usual are also supposed to be the agents underpinning circular
resource flows.1 By contrast, a post-growth interpretation of circular economy is
a heterodox undertaking that needs to explain how economic systems such as
urban economies can operate within certain limits. These limits are biophysical in
nature but need to be negotiated socially. This negotiation could give rise to a new
social (and social-ecological) contract defining viable throughput intensities, but
also to spatial structure and socio-technical agents of circular flows. Planners and
designers could greatly assist this negotiation by providing concepts and represen-
tations for circular urban landscapes in which economic actors (including for-profit
and non-profit organizations) operate consistently within the physical limits of the
ecosystems that sustain them. Thus far, the physical and spatial implications of a
post-growth economy have, for instance, hardly been explored at all.
SPATIAL STRUCTURE
The intensification of throughput that characterizes the historical evolution of
most cities has been accompanied by spatial externalization (McNeill, 2001; Barles,
2007, 2015). This means that urban agglomeration source materials and energy from
outside of the urban core form ever larger and more distant ecosystems. Not only
the provision of materials and energy has been externalized: since the second half
of the XIXth century, cities also depend on external ecosystems to absorb growing
quantities of waste.
Geographers and ecologists have documented the spatial externalization of
urban metabolism through a series of indicators such as “ecological footprints”
(Wackernagel and Rees, 1996), “food miles” (Weber and Matthews, 2008), or “food-
prints” (Billen et al, 2009). Applying the latter to the case of the Ile-de-France region,
Billen et al. show that the spatial structure of the food metabolism includes various
provisioning areas on different scales, ranging from the traditional and relatively
nearby agricultural regions around Paris to vast stretches of South America. Since
the waste management system of Paris does not (yet) collect and treat organic ma-
terial separately, the food metabolism described by Billen et al. is mostly linear.
What does the objective of circularization imply for the spatial structure of a
city’s provisioning and disposal areas? First of all, it should be clear that the circu-
larization of flows cannot be envisaged on the scale of the urban form. To go back
to the biological origins of the metaphor, the metabolism of, say, a tree cell is not
circular if we look at it on the scale of the cell. Moreover, the entire organism, i.e.,
the whole tree, is not in itself circular as it is mostly engaged in biochemical interac-
tions with its environment. Only if we zoom out and view the entire forest ecosystem
can we perceive natural cycles of nitrogen or carbon that have been described by
scientific ecology. Metabolic exchanges are also mostly linear if we confine the
analysis to urbanized areas. In fact, with the exception of acute crises, it seems to
be a historical constant of the urban form to behave as a “parasite” (Odum, 1989),
45 O n the C ircularization of Territorial Metabolism
in the sense that urban areas depend on non-urbanized areas for their survival
(Barthel and Isendahl, 2013). This implies that restricting circular economy policies
to flows within urban agglomerations can only provide relatively anecdotal leverage.
Even urban agriculture, which is arguably one of the most emblematic efforts to or-
ganize circular flows within city boundaries, will hardly reduce the need for access
to arable land outside of the city (Ore, 2016). Indeed, early contributions on urban
metabolism by Wolman (1965) and others were not confined to the limits of the city
but rather used the concept to “characterize the city as an ecosystem embedded in
a larger system” (Broto et al, 2012: 852). As a consequence, authentic circularization
implies identifying potential circularities across urban and rural areas. Such a ter-
ritorial metabolism can only be circular if provisioning and disposal spaces overlap.
Imagine, for example, tomatoes produced in the region of Malaga in Spain and
consumed in the city of Brussels in Belgium. It can be argued that both territories
can seek ecologically sound and circular practices. For instance, the Spanish region
could try to replace chemical fertilizers with locally available nutrients, such as
compost produced from organic household waste. Similarly, the city of Brussels
could also put in place a circular system of nutrient extraction from kitchen waste.
But unless the nutrients imported from Malaga return to Malaga, neither of the two
spatially disconnected circularization efforts will be authentically circular in the
long term. If the nutrients contained in the tomatoes consumed in Brussels do not
find their way back to the agricultural land around Malaga, Brussels effectively acts
as a nutrient sink whose concentration of basic minerals will increase over time at
the expense of the depletion of the soil around Malaga. Fertilizing the tomato plants
in Malaga with compost from the city’s own kitchen waste only shifts the problem
of resource depletion to other regions from which Malaga sources its food, without
returning to them the mineral nutrients that the food contains. While this interpre-
tation of “authentic circularity” is admittedly rather radical, we think it has the merit
of distinguishing between circularization practices that can indeed be likened to the
circular flows in ideal-typical natural ecosystems and those that cannot be sus-
tained over time due to some form of depletion.
The spatial structure of a circular territorial metabolism is, however, as much a
social as an ecological problem. To take the example of nutrient flows, the ecologi-
cal problem of their circularization includes managing cultivated ecosystems in a
way that returns nutrients in sufficient quantities to maintain the fertility of the soil.
This restitution can take the form of composting the solid organic waste that the
city produces, but it also requires extracting the nutrients contained in human urine
and excrement in order to reintroduce them into cultivated ecosystems. Since mov-
ing food in and waste out of the city gives rise to environmental and economic costs,
a circular organization of nutrient flows can only be envisioned on relatively modest
scales and depends greatly on the morphology of the landscape, the size of the city,
and many other variables.
In addition to ecological parameters, the contours of a circular territorial
metabolism will also depend on social and technical factors. For example, return-
ing nutrients to cultivated ecosystems implies designing, financing, and operating
technical infrastructures that are fit for this purpose. It also means that actors from
both urban and rural areas will have to cooperate in order to coordinate the flows
of organic resources, which in turn necessitates a system of governance that goes
beyond the boundaries of the city and is able to attenuate the inevitable conflicts of
interests and power imbalances between city and hinterland. Another issue relevant
for the design of circular metabolism emerges if we consider the urban landscape
46 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
as a multifunctional whole. From this perspective, sustaining the city not only re-
quires a certain space or territory from which resources are sourced but also raises
questions about how the spatial diversity and the different functions of the territory
can be designed in order to be circular.
One way to frame the complexity of a circular territorial metabolism is by
looking at it as a social-ecological system—an ensemble in which biophysical and
anthropogenic elements interact (Holling, 2006). Since the vast number of social
and ecological factors cannot be expressed in a commensurate metric, the design of
a circular social-ecological system is also a qualitative exercise that needs to define
new social, economic, or political institutions underpinning these flows. An example
of designing new and circular social-ecological systems is the idea of “bioregional-
ism” proposed by David Brunckhorst (2012). This approach combines the definition
of ecosystems on a regional scale with the problem of social institutions capable
of sustaining them through perennial forms of extractions and resource renewal. A
“bioregion” is therefore not only an ecological system with regional scope but also a
political entity.
While certainly attractive for the circularization of flows that can be organized
on a regional scale (like food or certain building materials), bioregionalism needs
to be complemented with social-ecological institutions on a wider scale—maybe a
“Europe of Bioregions,” to borrow from the political vision proposed by Jean-Fran-
çois Gravier in 1965. For no matter where one draws the borders between different
bioregions and how far one pushes the circularization of flows within each biore-
gion, there will always be ecological and economic movements between them: the
former due to the connectivity of ecosystems through larger cycles (including water
and carbon cycles on continental or even planetary scales) and the latter due to
trade between bioregions. Rather than a panacea for the sustainability of social-
ecological systems, bioregionalism can be seen as emphasizing regional ecosys-
tems as the most relevant scale for organizing circular movements within a territo-
rial metabolism that is, like a forest, tightly connected to other systems through
resource loops that transcend its boundaries.
To sum up, the implications of circular economy for the spatial structure of ter-
ritorial metabolism are both extremely simple and almost infinitely complex. Simple
because their physical organization can be expressed in a concise formula: provi-
sioning spaces need to overlap with disposal spaces so as to allow for closed loops
of resource production, use, disposal, and renewal. Complex because the scale on
which these loops can occur will vary depending on the flow and geomorphologi-
cal context at hand and require designing not only technical infrastructures but
also institutions that are capable of organizing the social, political, and economic
ramifications of circular flows. The next section uses the lens of socio-technical
agents to look in more detail into these non-physical aspects of circular territorial
metabolism.
DIFFERENT FORMS OF SOCIO-TECHNICAL AGENCY
The literature on circular economy, and more specifically on the circularization
of urban metabolism, still offers an extremely rudimentary understanding of agency.
Wachsmuth (2012) noticed the absence of “the social and the historical” in early
theories on circular and linear urban metabolism in the tradition of industrial ecol-
ogy. But issues of agency are even less topical in the more recent discourse on cir-
cular economy à la Ellen MacArthur Foundation—arguably because the great tran-
sition towards circularity that this discourse advocates leaves the distribution of
47 O n the C ircularization of Territorial Metabolism
economic and political power within the linear economy almost untouched: citizens
continue to be passive consumers of goods and services, even if these products are
redefined to allow for more efficient resource circulation; public administrations are
supposed to play a role in the transition towards a circular economy, but only within
the neoliberal tradition of supporting and facilitating agents that leave most of the
initiative to the market; and corporations like Total and H&M can simply switch from
linear to circular business models without giving up their habitus of profit maximi-
zation, capital accumulation, shareholder satisfaction, and economic expansion.
How could a critical interpretation of circular economy principles reintroduce
questions of agency? We argue that a pivotal aspect of agency should turn on the
relationships between different social groups and technology. To be sure, techno-
logical configuration plays a central, if not overriding role in how materials and en-
ergy flow through territorial social-ecological systems. In most cities, these flows
are organized in centralized networks such as underground sewage systems. His-
toriographical accounts of the emergence of these centralized networks suggest
that they have been conditioned and shaped by a specific social group: engineers
and technicians (McNeill, 2001; Barles 2015; Deligne 2016). For the problem of
circularization, we can add that this group also plays a dominant role for the pos-
sibility of reforming current technological configurations. Engineers are, to use the
terminology of the multi-level perspective on social-ecological transitions (Fischer-
Kowalski and Rotman, 2009), part and parcel of the “hardness”—in a literal and
metaphorical sense—of socio-technical landscapes, which “include the material
aspect of society, e.g. the material and spatial arrangements of cities, factories,
highways, and electricity infrastructures” (Geels, 2004: 913). The flipside of the
central position of engineers and other technical experts in territorial metabolism
is the relative powerlessness and passivity of the large group of individuals who
use the technical infrastructures on a daily basis, but also a relative dependence of
captive decision-makers.
Similar to the opposition between pro-growth and post-growth stances
toward circular urban metabolism, different types of socio-technical agents can
also give rise to contrasting pathways towards circularization. On the one hand,
circularization initiatives can be as technocratic as the linear arrangements that
they aim to replace. Indeed, if the circularization of metabolic flows will be driven
by large corporations and market-oriented public administrations, it is not unlikely
that the infrastructure that will underpin the circular flows will resemble current
infrastructure in its capital-intensity and centralized nature, thereby maintaining
both the centrality of experts, the passivity of users, and the dependence of politi-
cal decision-makers. On the other hand, there are circularization initiatives that
challenge the current technocratic set-up and propose to organize circular flows
in which users have a much more proactive role. This type of initiative tends to rely
on less capital-intensive and more decentralized technical infrastructure (Coutard
and Rutherford, 2009). To the extent that the latter can often be understood, modi-
fied, or even replaced by the users themselves, they allow for a degree of technical
emancipation.
These two alternative forms of socio-technical agency can be illustrated with
initiatives aiming at the circularization of nutrients in the Catalonia region in Spain,
which we studied during field research in April 2017.2 These initiatives have in com-
mon that they aim to divert solid organic matter contained in municipal waste from
landfill or incineration and to restitute carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, and other
substances to regional agriculture.
48 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 1: Pretreatment line in the biogas plant of Granollers, Catalonya, 2017. Industrial-scale biogas plants are a central-
ized approach to biowaste that requires capital-intensive pretreatment to filter out impurities from the collected
biowaste. The pretreatment is a technical solution to the essentially social problem of sorting behavior, Swen Ore, 2017.
The first, technocratic initiative is an industrial plant situated in Granol-
lers, around twenty kilometers outside of Barcelona [Fig. 1].3 The site was initially
designed as a composting facility and constructed in 2000 through an investment
of seven million euros. In 2009, the site was remodeled to include a biogas plant for
an additional investment of twenty-four million euros. A substantial amount of the
investment and maintenance costs of the biogas plant is due to a pre-treatment line
in which a series of sophisticated machines eliminate impurities (non-organic sub-
stances such as plastic bags or metal cans) from the input. According to officials
from the Waste Agency of Catalonia that we interviewed, as much as 40% of the
volume that is carried to the Granovillers plant is rejected during pre-treatment and
never enters the anaerobic digestion unit. The treatment capacity of the Granollers
complex is around 45,000 t/y. The plant makes it possible to circulate nutrients: the
final output of the treatment process is a relatively low-quality compost that is sold
to farmers. The samples that we observed contained small bits of polyethylene that
the pre-treatment failed to reject.
The second initiative is a community compost situated in Espai Garneyes
urban gardening project in the Jardins d’Oriol Martorell in central Barcelona [Fig. 2].4
This project comprises four wooden boxes with movable covers, each measuring
around one square meter, that members of the community have built themselves
following the instructions of an agronomist who lives in the neighborhood. The costs
for building the composters are below one hundred euros; their operation requires
neither pre-treatment nor any other machinery. On our field visit, we observed users
with extensive knowledge about the composting process who repeatedly modified
details of the instructions and treatment process to optimize its performance. The
throughput of composters of this type does generally not exceed 2 t/y, whereas the
49 O n the C ircularization of Territorial Metabolism
Fig. 2: Community compost in the Jardins d’Oriol Martorell, Barcelona, 2017. Community composting is a decentral-
ized form of circularity that produces high-quality compost thanks to the participation of users, but it can only treat
small volumes and not all types of biowaste. The compost typically remains in the urban core and is not returned to
agriculture, Swen Ore, 2017.
final compost that is produced by these devices is about 45% of the input volume
(Bortolotti et al., 2017). Community compost is generally of very high biological,
chemical, and physical quality and is used in the adjacent community garden as
well as on private balconies or terraces in the neighborhood (Kampelmann, 2016).
These two examples deliberately contrast technocratic and emancipatory
pathways towards the circularization of nutrients. We argue that the missing
involvement of users in technocratic and capital-intensive solutions such as the
Granollers plant can be directly linked to some of its weaknesses: the cost and size
of the pre-treatment line, as well as the high proportion of rejected material and
the poor quality of the final output, are all ultimately due to sorting errors—citizens
who do not understand the sorting rules or simply cannot be bothered to follow
them. This is a common feature of approaches to urban environmental problems
that fail to involve citizens “in the management of their daily environment” (Tjangilii,
1995). In fact, the entire pre-treatment line can be seen as a rather unsuccessful
technical solution to what is essentially a social problem. This marks a striking con-
trast to the community compost, where social rules are so effective that sorting er-
rors are negligible. But the technocratic approach also has advantages: the volumes
it can process are large enough to allow for the compost to be transported back to
agricultural land, whereas the compost from the community initiative remains in the
city; another important advantage of industrial plants is consistent pasteurization,
which means that these plants can treat all types of organic material (whereas Eu-
ropean Directives hinder small-scale community composts from processing animal
by-products).
Different types of agency—technocratic or emancipatory—and different sca­­les
of action—centralized or decentralized—all have advantages and disadvantages.
50 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Rather than pitting them against each other, future research could follow a promis-
ing avenue by exploring ways to combine the advantages of technocratic approaches
with technical emancipation. This is similar to the “sandwich strategy” proposed
by Tjallingii (1995), in which authorities at a higher level provide favorable techni-
cal, economical, and organizational conditions to incite ecologically sound behavior
by individual citizens and companies. One way to achieve this could be to employ
technologies on intermediate scales so as to strike a balance between technological
efficiency and maintaining geographic and cognitive proximity with users.
In Catalonia, two initiatives currently experiment with such semi-central strat-
egies. The first is a project called Revolta coordinated by an agricultural cooperative
that collects organic waste from a restaurant and a school in Barcelona in order
to produce compost that is used to fertilize periurban farmland.5 The decentral-
ized technology employed in this initiative is a dehydration machine that allows all
animal by-products to be retained in the composting process but which also has
the advantage of substantially reducing the volume of the organic matter that is
transported from the city to the periurban composting facility. Crucially, the physical
presence of the dehydration unit in the school and restaurant allows for direct in-
teractions with users, which our interviewees associated with the high quality of the
organic matter that is treated in this system. The second initiative—the DECISIVE
project, which is still in a very early phase—takes place within a research project on
decentralized treatment of biowaste financed by the European Commission under
the Horizon 2020 program.6 Within this project, the Waste Agency of Catalonia will
test the viability of microbiomethanization technology—biogas plants with a ca-
pacity of less than 100 t/y, which is a tiny fraction of the Granollers plant—to treat
organic waste closer to and in tight collaboration with residential communities.
CONCLUSIONS
If the recent surge in policy interest for circular economy can be combined with
scholarship on urban metabolism from industrial ecology, ecological economics,
political economy, and related disciplines, we might be looking at a rare window of
opportunity to transpose theoretical knowledge into practice. We started this article
with the caveat that seizing this opportunity requires a characterization of circular
urban metabolism that goes beyond the circularity of material and energy flows
and should also question the intensity, spaces, and agents that underpin metabolic
exchanges.
The picture that emerges from our discussion is strikingly different from the
can-do discourse on circular economy that has emerged outside of academia (Eu-
ropean Commission, 2014). Instead of providing clear instructions, our results raise
intricate problems: How can the intensity of resource flows be reduced in a socio-
political context that clings to the objective of economic growth? How can meta-
bolic flows be coordinated across political entities, and on what scale should this
coordination be situated? For which types of flows are “bioregions” the appropriate
territorial scale, and what are the flows that should be circulated on lower or higher
scales? How can the respective advantages of both technocratic and emancipatory
agents be harnessed for the circularization of flows?
By broadening the scope of issues that need to be addressed for rendering the
urban metabolism “authentically” circular, our discussion can be seen as a con-
tribution to a more accurate understanding of the complexity that characterizes
metabolic flows. This increase in complexity comes, however, at a cost. The above-
mentioned questions defy clear-cut answers and resemble a rather vast transdis-
51 O n the C ircularization of Territorial Metabolism
ciplinary research program of open-ended questions. Pursuing this program could
perhaps spur some fascinating research, but it would move us further away from
seizing the current political momentum.
Instead of formulating open-ended research programs, what other ways are
there to strike “a balance between reflecting urban complexity accurately and
developing ideas that can be made operative in policy making, planning, and design
processes” (Broto et al., 2012: 859)? Many of the implications of critical circular
economy are highly idiosyncratic to each flow and each place: not all flows need
to be reduced, only toxic flows and those whose reproduction rate is inferior to
its use; the adequate scale of circularization will depend on the flow at hand, but
also on the morphology of the city-hinterland system and the possibility of creat-
ing efficient governance mechanisms, a problem that will present itself differently
in Zurich, Tokyo, or Johannesburg. The possibility of harnessing the advantages of
technical emancipation also differs greatly depending on the type of resource, the
healthiness of civil society initiatives, the size of socioeconomic inequality, and the
dominance of technocratic institutions in a given city at a given time. If we do not
want to give up most of the complexity of social-ecological interactions, research on
circular urban metabolism therefore stands to gain from more case-specific studies
on circularization initiatives at the level of city-hinterland systems.
Fortunately, the quantification of flows through MEFA and similar accounting
tools has made immense progress since the 1990s, as more and more cities have
been the object of quantitative metabolic studies. There is also an expanding litera-
ture on local bottom-up initiatives that is growing into a rich body of empirical and
theoretical insight into the qualitative aspects of reconfiguring complex social-eco-
logical systems (Fischer-Kowalski and Rotman 2009). But to be able to “reimagine
relations between social, technical, economic, and ecological forces in urban areas”
(Broto et al., 2012: 858), future research has to find ways to combine the (mostly
quantitative) knowledge about biophysical flows with the (predominantly qualita-
tive) insight into socio-economic transitions towards circular metabolism.
The research-by-design approach (Grulois et al., 2015) to metabolic planning is
a promising venue in this regard, as it is both intrinsically case-specific and open to
transdisciplinary collaborations. Moreover, the discussion surrounding the REVOLTA
and DECISIVE projects suggests that at this point circular metabolism still requires
innovation and experiments, such as pilot projects and other processes that make it
possible to learn from actual experiences on the ground. But having emerged in the
fields of architecture, urbanism, and related fields, this approach has so far focused
on the design of the physical and spatial dimensions of metabolism. The rather fun-
damental questions raised by the multidimensional character of circular urban me-
tabolisms clearly call for plans that pay more attention to the socio-political context
in which metabolic flows are embedded, as well as to the agents that operate in this
context. One of the most pressing questions for further design-based research is
to find formal languages and efficient means of expression in which both spatial/
physical elements and socio-political elements of metabolism can be designed
conjointly. In other words, it would appear that a first step for designing better urban
metabolisms is to start with designing the tools and means of expression that are
necessary for this exercise.
52 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
ENDNOTES
1  See, for example, the list of corporations endorsed by
the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for their circular busi-
ness practices: Total, Renault, H&M, Unilever, etc.
2  In the period from 2–5 April 2017, we carried out
qualitative field research to study the organic waste
management system in the city of Barcelona and on
other sites in the Catalonia region, including a site visit to
the Granovillers biogas plant, the industrial composting
plant in Torrelles de Llobregat, the community gardens
Jardins d’Oriol Martorell, the Mercat del Ninon, and the
Waste Agency of Catalonia. We conducted sixteen semi-
structured interviews with experts and stakeholders of
the organic waste management system (a list of inter-
viewees and affiliations is available on request).
3  See the following link: http://www.cresidusvo.info/
conres/apartats/index.php?apartat=196
4  See the following link: http://www.espaigardenyes.
cat/
5  See the following link: http://residus.gencat.cat/web/.
content/home/actualitat/2016/07-26_projecte_revolta/
CARTELL-REVOLTA-ALTA.pdf
6  See the following link: http://cordis.europa.eu/proj-
ect/rcn/203386_en.html
53
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55

FROM ECOLOGY TO URBANISM

UR BAN M E TAB O L I S M G E N E ALO G I ES
AN D PE R S PECT I V ES I N UR BAN I S M
T HEO RY AN D PR ACT I C E
Andrea Bortolotti, Geoffrey Grulois, and Marco Ranzato

KEYWORDS
ecosystem ecology, urban metabolism, urbanism, Brussels

ABSTRACT
As early as the 1970s, the Belgian ecologist Paul Duvi-
gneaud studied Brussels as an ecosystem. His original
work combined ecosystem ecology with regionalist and
urban planning traditions and is considered one of the
first metabolism studies of real cities. Later, more special-
ized studies on urban metabolism—both in Brussels and
abroad—contributed to industrial ecology, which focuses
on urban energy and material flows and thus narrowed the
study interest to urban space and its environment. Driven
by the debate on sustainability, there has been a more
recent revival of the concept of urban metabolism in both
urbanism theory and practice in Brussels. Nevertheless,
the task remains to better understand how and to what
extent the discipline of urbanism can in fact draw on and b ­y
contribute to ecology and urban metabolism studies.
This essay first explores the origin, contributions,
and legacy of the urban ecosystem and urban metabolism
studies by Duvigneaud and the Brussels School. It then
examines the current resurgence of the concept in recent
urbanism debates and highlights some current outstand-
ing issues in discussions happening in Brussels. Finally, it
56 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
proposes a comparison with the academic research from
North America, in particular about the discourse of “land-
scape urbanism.” We conclude that the latter seems to
build on the original contribution of ecology to urbanism—
namely, the overcoming of traditional dichotomies such as
urban and rural, city and landscape, etc. And yet current
attempts in work being done in Brussels to apply concepts
of urban metabolism largely focuses on urban flows and
impacts and so falls short of providing a conceptual leap
forward for understanding the spatial organization and
ecology of these phenomena; it thus also overlooks the
heritage of Duvigneaud and the Brussels School.
57 F rom Ecology to Urbanism
INTRODUCTION: FROM ECOLOGY TO URBANISM
Since its definition as a discipline, ecology has inspired urbanists with innova-
tive spatial conceptualizations, models, and design tools for understanding and
planning cities.1 Since ecology studies the relationships between living organisms
and their environment, it inevitably touches upon space and context. This influ-
ence still seems significant today, as a number of design studies are flourishing
that integrate the ecological perspective while investigating the concept of urban
metabolism (e.g., Kennedy et al., 2011; Tillie et al., 2014). Urban metabolism is
defined as the sum total of material and energy exchange between the city and its
biosphere, the countryside, and ultimately the planet (Wolman, 1965; Duvigneaud,
1974; Baccini and Brunner, 1991; Oswald and Baccini, 2003; Kennedy et al., 2007).
Studying urban metabolism is thus a promising way to attune urban development
to natural processes, anticipate natural dynamics, and achieve a sustainable use of
the landscape (Ndubisi, 2014).
In this contribution, we look at the longstanding relationship between ecology
and urbanism from the standpoint of urban metabolism studies and their exploi-
tation in the field of urbanism. We focus on the case of Brussels, given both the
pioneering works by the Belgian ecologist Paul Duvigneaud and the current revival
of the debate on urban metabolism concerning the city. Duvigneaud’s study on
the metabolism of Brussels is one of the first to provide empirical evidence of the
metabolism of a city for urban planning purposes. Concurrently, the metabolism of
the Brussels Capital Region is today the subject of multiple considerations involving
both academics and design offices.
In the first section of this essay, we situate the contribution of Duvigneaud and
the Brussels School in the context of urban metabolism studies. In the second, we
then analyze the ecological background and thinking behind the resurgence of the
concept of urban metabolism in the Brussels urbanism scene. In the third, we briefly
retrace the influence of studies on ecology in urbanism in a North American context
and of “landscape urbanism” in particular. And in the conclusion, we discuss how
both these cases of North America and Brussels contribute to and reveal shortcom-
ings in ecological discourse in urban theory and practice.
THE BRUSSELS SCHOOL: GENEALOGY AND LEGACY
The work by Duvigneaud and his colleagues on the city of Brussels stands as a
milestone among early urban metabolism studies (Gandy, 2015). Today, these stud-
ies still represent a main point of reference for urbanists and planners. Focusing on
“plant sociology” and the spatial dimension of the distribution of plants within the
city, Duvigneaud proposed a meaningful transfer of ecological principles from biol-
ogy into planning.
After graduating as a biologist and chemist in 1937, Duvigneaud worked for
many years as a botanist at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Only after dis-
covering the work of the biologist Eugène Odum on ecosystem ecology (1953) did
Duvigneaud begin a more comprehensive study of ecology (Duvigneaud and Tanghe,
1962). Duvigneaud began by studying natural ecosystems in addition to Odum (Duvi-
gneaud and Tanghe, 1962; Duvigneaud and Denayer-De Smet 1964) to then progres-
sively shift his focus towards man-made ecosystems (Duvigneaud and Denayer-De
Smet, 1977). At the Faculty of Science of the ULB, within the framework of concerns
about the global environmental concerns of the time, Duvigneaud set up the center
for the study of the urban environment.2 In 1977, with the support of the Brussels
Agglomeration Environmental Department, this group published the results of their
58 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 1: Ecological map of land cover and land use of the Brussels Agglomeration (Duvigenaud and Denayer-De Smet,
1977). Based on green cover ratio, it defines the main sub-systems of the Brussels ecosystem.
work on Brussels: a detailed cartography and report emphasizing the role of green
and open spaces for the quality of the urban environment at large (Agglomération de
Bruxelles, 1977).
The work by the Brussels School was one of the first attempts to perform a
visualization of the exchanges between the city and the biosphere with both ana-
lytical and communicative purposes. For this reason, the studies on the Brussels
ecosystem were enriched by iconic sections of Brussels on a territorial scale [Fig. 2].
The representation of the material and energy exchanges on the east-west section
of Brussels substantially merges the flow analysis chart with the valley section that
belongs to the regional planning movement, building on the insight of Patrick Ged-
des (1913). In his arguments, Duvigneaud combined the regionalist and urban plan-
ning approaches with those of ecosystem ecology and system-based engineering by
Odum and Abel Wolman (1965). Speaking of the city as an ecosystem, Duvigneaud
refers to the one hand to its different components or “subsystems” such as the cli-
59 F rom Ecology to Urbanism
Fig. 2: Brussels’ urban ecosystem. This figure represents the energy and material input and output on an ideal territorial
section along the main Brussels valley (Duvigenaud and Denayer-De Smet, 1977).
mate, soil, or human and non-human communities. And on the other hand, speaking
of the city as an organism, he refers to its process of growth and to the flows that
sustain it (e.g., food, energy, water, and waste).
One of the main contributions of the Brussels School is to have coupled the
analysis of comprehensive urban material and energy flows with a detailed investi-
gation of urban ecosystems. Duvigneaud and his colleagues pioneered the study of
urban ecosystems’ biological indicators such as the urban flora (Tanghe et al., 1974).
Urban blocks and industrial areas, high-rise building complexes and single-house
neighborhoods, parks and wastelands were catalogued with respect to their vegeta-
tion cover and related capacity in term of C2 absorption and O2 release. The inven-
tory was meant to highlight the ecological role of these open spaces and make them
a real asset for balancing the urban metabolism of the growing city. At the end of
1970s, in fact, the population of the Brussels agglomeration had grown by a factor of
three relative to its size at the beginning of the century (Aron, 1978), while the pro-
cess of transforming into the capital of Europe had brought the introduction in the
central neighborhoods of new mobility infrastructure and high-rise buildings with
little concern for the urban and environmental quality (so-called “Brusselization”).
Claiming the need for fundamental research on urban ecosystems, the work
of Duvigneaud provided a remarkable contribution to the development of ecologi-
cal planning.3 Nevertheless, in the years that followed, in line with the dominant
reaction of social activists against Brusselization, the position of Duvigneaud also
proved inadequate inasmuch as it became a political opposition that employed
“ecology” more for conservational purposes than for fostering the integration of
60 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 61 F rom Ecology to Urbanism

MÉTABOLISME URBAIN, RÉGION DE BRUXELLES CAPITALE

“nature” into the city.4 As a result, under the pressure of modernist urban develop-
MATIERES MATIERES
ment, the built and open spaces—or more simply, city and “nature”—were sepa- Parts et flux entrants (kt)
FLUX entrants BRUXELLES FLUX sortants Parts et flux sortants (kt)

rated again. Discourse and practice within urbanism narrowed the focus of these Autres Agriculture et
alimentation
Agriculture et
alimentation
1 767 Autres

concepts to the protection of historical neighborhoods. Research and practice in 2 039 1 376
1 758

Minéraux 8 932 kt 6 770 kt Combustibles

726

regional geography and urban ecology disappeared in favor of social geography and
2 239
Combustibles
2 215 Minéraux et Métallurgie
2 422 488

human ecology that focused on urban social conflicts (Grulois, 2015). Métallurgie
673
75 kt
déchets 1 730 kt
448 kt
At the same time, despite the comprehensive attention that the Brussels STOCK MATERIEL
Autres Bois Métaux Plastiques
Evapotranspiration
school paid to urban metabolism, additional remarkable works on the metabolism Précipitations
ns 143 1 147 3 517 1 420

57 000 000 m3
131 000 000 00 m
of Brussels influenced industrial ecology and the study of energy and material
flows (Erkman, 2004), thus narrowing the scope of these investigations to urban 184 921 kt
space and environment. As an example, the collective work L’Ecosystéme Belgique,
Non métaux
178695
Gaz naturel
Cours d'eau
Co
Essai d’écologie industrielle (Billen et al., 1983) extended the ecosystem study ap- ENERGIE 272 000 000 m3
GES
Parts et flux sortants (kt eq.CO2)
Parts et flux entrants (GWh)
proach to the whole national industrial system by collecting data on material and Industrie Cours d'eau Autres Gaz fluorés
118 214
596 120 000 000 m3 Incinération

energy input and output on the national scale of Belgium. The study questioned the 20 838 GWh 223 Transport routier
Transport 2 100 000 m3 130 000 000 m3 1 061
5 472 Tertiaire
efficiency of material circulation in six main production chains (iron, glass, plastic, 6 843
Fioul*
Résidentiel (énergie)
Industries (énergie)
63
1 150 GWh 3 693 kt eq. CO 1 353

lead, wood, and food), and the results showed the predominant linearity and secto-
Tertiaire (énergie)
Logement 2
663
7 734 Eaux de distribution + chaleur et autres émissions
66 000 000 m3
rialization of industrial production, implicitly arguing that a more integrated policy
Eaux usées
was needed. Even though one of the co-authors, Gilles Billen, was a former student Electricité
Eaux usées (RF) 40 000 000 m3
32 000 000 m3
of Duvigneaud, outputs were not spatialized on a geographical scale and thus not Produits pétroliers
ENR**
related to natural ecosystem but rather illustrated through abstract schemes of Charbon * Fioul léger, ** biodiesel, bioethanol, bois, autre biocarburant inclus
Source : ICEDD – ECORES – BATir, pour le compte de la Région de Bruxelles Capitale, bilan provisoire avril 2014

material and energy flows. The spatial connotation of metabolism was no longer in
the picture.
THE RESURGENCE OF URBAN METABOLISM DISCOURSE IN BRUSSELS:
CURRENT PERSPECTIVES AND DILEMMAS
Recently, there has been a strong return to the debate on urban metabolism in
Brussels. In 2012, the Etopia think tank of the Belgian green political party—Ecolo—
organized a symposium on the subject in which Suren Erkman was invited to partici-
pate in a discussion with former Duvigneaud students (Etopia, 2012).5 Following the
symposium, Ecolo supported a first study on the application of the concept of urban
metabolism—and industrial ecology—to support sustainable development of the
Brussels Region (Calay, 2013). Although the work of Duvigneaud stands as a histori-
cal point of reference, the study examines more recent accounting methods such as
the Eurostat method, the Baccini method, and the Climatecon method (Calay, 2013).
Since the 1990s, those methods had been applied in various ways to European cities
such as Geneva (Faist Emmengger, 2003) and Paris (Barles, 2007).
Following these trends, regional programs and policies of the 2010s have fully
embraced the urban metabolism discourse as a tool to boost local economic and
social development and to meet regional environmental targets. The Sustainable
Regional Development Plan project (PRDD, 2014) integrates the issue and deploys
the term “urban metabolism” when addressing environmental and resource efficien-
cy issues within a regional perspective (PRDD, 2014: 14). Similarly, the term “ecol-
ogy” is explicitly used, albeit to refer specifically to “industrial ecology” (PRDD, 2014:
156) in addressing strategies of economic development through principles such as
clustering productive zones. In the PRDD project, apart from the use of these two
terms, there is no specification concerning what is meant by ecology or about the
terms into which urbanism should actually integrate an ecological perspective. The
ecological questions posed by the PRDD simply remain vague, as do those provided
by European and national policies and guidelines (such as the EU 2020 strategy for
smart, inclusive, and green development).
Fig. 3: Metabolism of the Brussels Capital-Region. Diagram taken from research that investigates the functioning of
urban systems in terms of direct and indirect resource requirements and the resulting environmental impact. EcoRes,
ICEDD, and BATir, 2015.
Meanwhile, the study of urban metabolism has not been widely applied in
other cities in Europe and abroad, e.g., for tracking greenhouse gas emissions,
measuring urban resource efficiency, or for sustainable design and planning (Clift et
al. 2015).
In line with those applications, three recent studies might provide some inter-
esting insight into the state of the art of research and practice around the concepts
of ecology and urban metabolism in Brussels. The first is the study Métabolisme de
la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale developed by a consortium of consultants including
the ULB (EcoRes et al., 2015) within the framework of the new Regional Program for
a Circular Economy (PREC 2015). In order to assess resource efficiency and pollution
emissions in Brussels, the study again draws on industrial ecology (EcoRes et al,.
2015).6 The final report collects an exhaustive database of material and energy input
and output flows at the level of the Brussels Region and is intended as a tool for
achieving an optimal planning of its resources.
The second, Metropolitan Landscapes, is a strategic design study launched by
Brussels and Flemish authorities in 2014 that focused on building new visions for
the landscape and open spaces that lay in between the two regions. It takes those
open spaces as potential areas for urban expansion but also as rich and important
natural reservoirs for the city of Brussels [Fig. 4]. Inspired by the work of Reyner
Banham on Los Angeles (1973), the preliminary study identified four “ecologies” that
comprise those spaces: the “valley of infrastructure,” the “constructed landscapes,”
the “system of parks,” and the “wet landscapes.” In this case, the term “ecology” de-
fines a “territorial figure”: a key rhetorical tool widely used by urbanists (­ e.g., ­Gerber
62 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 63 F rom Ecology to Urbanism

and B. Patterson, 2013) to bring together multiple elements on the map within a
single system and build a common vision.
The third group of works focuses more on the geographical characterization
of the metabolism of Brussels. The first of these studies, Metabolism of Brussels,
consists of research funded by the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) and
recently completed by the design office .FABRIC in collaboration with the Faculty
of Architecture of the ULB, among others. In line with previous work carried out by a
consortium including .FABRIC on Albania (2014) and Rotterdam (2014), the study’s
main objective was to translate existing knowledge about the metabolism of Brus-
sels into spatial images and thus identify circular economic opportunities for local
stakeholders. Another ongoing research study led by the Faculty of Architecture
of the Université libre de Bruxelles (Bortolotti et al., 2017) follows a similar track
but focuses just on municipal waste. This research has worked out a detailed GIS
cartography on the distribution and intensity of organic waste produced in Brussels
in order to support further design explorations on waste collection and treatment.
Different scenarios have been worked out, built, and are being discussed with
both main actors, the regional waste management and the public. Another recent
study titled Wet City Elements, also conducted by this same faculty, focuses on the
integration of decentralized water management at the regional level (Ranzato, 2017;
Ranzato et al., 2017). This last work is strongly explorative and includes a geographi-
cal understanding of decentralized water flow management while integrating quan-
titative speculations and considerations about the actors who will be mobilized.
These interesting experiences unpack some outstanding issues about the ap-
plication of urban metabolism, ecology metaphors, and study methods in the field
of urbanism in the context of Brussels. Unlike the seminal work by Duvigneaud, the
first study—Métabolisme de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale—narrows the consid-
eration of urban metabolism to the level of industrial ecology, accounting for the in-
put and output flows, without taking into consideration either the underlying urban
structure or the role of the green spaces in the urban ecosystem. On the contrary,
even though the second study—Metropolitan Landscapes—looks at the ecological
interaction between the city of Brussels and its territory at large, it lacks insight
into flow patterns that might contribute to the debate on urban metabolism. Mixing
qualitative and quantitative information on a map was supposedly the objective
of the third study—Metabolism of Brussels. Nevertheless, this study only partially
manages to spatialize complex data on material and energy flows on the urban car-
tography it develops. The last two examples, then, concern single flows of the urban
metabolism of Brussels, and their conceptual leap forward into the design phase
risks failing to achieve changes in actual policies on waste and water, respectively.
Moreover, in all cases except the second, inquiries are confined within the borders
of the Brussels Region, thus detaching their scope from the surrounding metropoli-
tan hinterland and limiting their vision to the actual administrative fragmentation of
the region.

FROM ECOLOGY TO URBANISM: A COMPARISON WITH THE NORTH

AMERICAN CONTEXT
As we mentioned previously, the interest in ecology in urbanism theory and
practice has a long tradition leading to many bifurcations and sub-disciplines. One
of the most interesting is certainly that of “landscape urbanism,” a discourse devel-
oped over the last three decades by a group of scholars in landscape architecture Fig. 4: Four ecologies of the Brussels metropolitan area. The river of infrastructure systems (blue), system of parks (red),
in North America. In this chapter, we briefly take a detour to retrace the evolution of forest and agriculture (green), tributary valleys (black). Bureau Bas Smet and LIST, 2015.
64 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 65 F rom Ecology to Urbanism

ecological discourse in urbanism, looking in particular at landscape urbanism as it

emerged in the academic context of the East Coast in North America. The common
theoretical background—Odum’s ecosystem ecology—and the long evolution of this
ecology into the current academic debate on urbanism provide interesting elements
for a reading of the Brussels case.
Research on modern ecology acquired great impetus in the United States
from the nineteen-fifties onward with the work of the Odum brothers, Eugène and
Howard Thomas (Odum, 1953). Beginning in the 1960s, Eugène Odum focused on
the system of relations between communities of living organisms and their envi-
ronment (1963; 1975; 1983; 1993; 1998). Moreover, he investigated the difference
between solar-powered natural ecosystems and man-made fossil-fuel-powered
ecosystems. Through his well-known comparison between a lake and a modern
city of the same scale, he demonstrated the massive amount of fossil fuel used to
run a city and the resulting negative consequences such as water and air pollution,
waste generation, and heat dispersion (Odum, 1975). Furthermore, Odum (1975)
highlighted the territorial footprint of the modern city’s “watershed,” “foodshed,”
and “fuelshed.” Odum did not explicitly discuss urban metabolism in these studies,
but his work nevertheless marks an important step in the development of research
on the topic.
The work of Ian McHarg at the department of Landscape Architecture of Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania represents a major contribution to the transfer of ecologi-
cal concepts into the discipline of urbanism in North America. McHarg was trained
during the 1940s as a landscape architect and city planner at the Harvard Graduate
School of Design (McHarg, 1969). After being appointed to teach at the University
of Pennsylvania in the late 1950s, he developed a transdisciplinary planning and
design method in which he actively involved botanists and ecologists in studios
dedicated to landscape design and urban planning (Whiston Spirn, 2000). With his
method based on the mapping technique of overlays, land use inventorying, and
regional transects, McHarg managed to bring together the regionalist approach of
Patrick Geddes (1915) and the emerging science of ecosystem ecology.
When McHarg retired in the 1980s, his work was taken over by the following
generation of landscape architects at the University of Pennsylvania. James Corner,
who took over McHarg’s landscape design studio after Corner graduated in the
mid-1980s, reformulated the question of ecology and landscape design by empha-
sizing subjectivity and creativity in contrast to McHarg’s positivist planning method
(Corner, 2006; Shane, 2006; Weller, 2006). In 1997, Corner joined the landscape ur-
banism conference and exhibition at the Graham Foundation together with several
former students of the University of Pennsylvania including Charles Waldheim and
Alan Berger (Shane, 2006). The event marks the theoretical foundation of landscape
urbanism, described by these protagonists as an opportunity to extend the practice
of ecological design towards territories and infrastructures of decentralized Post-
Fordist economies and planetary urbanization (Waldheim, 2006; Waldheim, 2016).
The focus of landscape urbanism on the transformation of large-scale anthro-
pogenic territories embraces the question of ecology and ecosystems. The work of
Odum on ecosystem ecology is often cited as source of inspiration, and the ecologi-
cal design and planning of McHarg is seen as a precursor whose methodological
positivism and city-country divide has been rejected (Waldheim, 2006b: 38; Weller,
2006: 75-76). Although landscape urbanism did not initially refer to urban metabo-
Fig. 5: Amount of potential food waste generation in the Brussels Capital-Region: a) Schools and Universities; b) Offices
lism, today it clearly appears to embrace the question of material flow. According to and enterprises; c) Health care facilities; d) Households (Source: UrbIs/SITEX; Enquête Budget des Ménages, 2010;
Pierre Bélanger (2016: 450), one of the primary concerns of landscape architecture ADEME, 2013; ABP 2015). LoUIsE Lab, 2017.
66 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 67 F rom Ecology to Urbanism

is considering the “global contextualism of capital flow while exploiting the techno- larger territories. Some recent academic reflections on single flows seem to repre-
spatial capacity of twenty-first-century civil engineering in order to deploy ecology sent an exception, but their feasibility has yet to be proved.
as the agent of urban renewal and expansion.” Critics of the industrial ecological approach have pointed out the gap between
Landscape urbanism is also strongly inspired by landscape ecology, which analytical frameworks and policy tools (Calderon and Keirstead, 2012). The imple-
started to develop in the 1970s thanks to the new digital technologies of remote mentation of a circular metabolism that exclusively considers industrial flows while
sensing and mapping (Forman, 1986). Since 2010, Charles Waldheim has been ignoring the underlying urban infrastructure remains fixed at the modernist stage
actively trying to consolidate the discipline of landscape urbanism at the Graduate of discrete separation of functions and land uses (Karakiewicz, 2011). Although
School of Design of Harvard University with the collaboration of a new generation of landscape studies recognize “nature” as a key element for the concept of what is
landscape architects such as Chris Reed and Pierre Bélanger, whose practice and “urban,” there is still much to do, especially in finding a more reflexive perspective
research is rooted both in the ecosystem ecology of Odum and in trying to overcome on the ways urban space and biophysical processes are mutually produced.
the urban-rural divide inherent in the ecological planning and design of McHarg Urbanism and ecology can capitalize on the significant body of knowledge
(Reed and Lister, 2014; Waldheim, 2016: 14; Belanger, 2016). According to Chris Reed regarding the urban metabolism of Brussels. However, it seems clear that a further
and Nina-Marie Lister (2014: 38), who co-direct the landscape architecture program, understanding of what constitutes ecology is still needed. This has to do with the
the project is “leading the sciences, humanities, and design culture toward a more urge to view “nature”—or, better, the biophysical space—as an integral part of our
rigorous, robust, and relevant engagement across the domains of ecology and de- societies, as landscape urbanism and urban political ecology in fact claim (Wachs-
sign.” In this way, landscape urbanism has been recently reformulated by one of its muth, 2012). The key role of planning and of urbanism for the organization of the
founders—Mohsen Mostafavi—as “ecological urbanism” in order to better match city and its circulatory dynamics needs to be acknowledged in practice (Gandy et
with the environmental agenda of contemporary planning and design practice al., 2014). In turn, planning and urbanism must further undertake the challenge of
(Waldheim 2016: 179). contributing to the development of more transdisciplinary tools and design investi-
gations for the implementation of socio-natural patterns of urban development.
CONCLUSION
In this essay, we looked at the most relevant studies on the urban metabolism
of Brussels, while focusing on how the interrelation between ecology and urbanism
theory and practice has operated on a case-by-case basis. We then retraced the
emergence of landscape urbanism, a discourse developed in the North American
academic context at the intersection of ecology and landscape design. By compar-
ing these experiences, we see that if in the United States academic context, the
discipline of urbanism and landscape design seems to have retained the original
contribution of “ecology”—namely, the systemic thinking and its capacity to over-
come cultural barriers and dichotomies such as those of rural vs. urban, natural vs.
anthropogenic, landscape vs. city—then current debates in Brussels, following a
period of specialization and institutionalization, seem to have narrowed this disci-
pline’s focus. The resulting studies seemingly fail to grasp the heritage of Duvigne-
aud and the Brussels School on urban ecology.
Drawing a line from ecosystem ecology to ecological design and landscape
urbanism in the American tradition, it becomes clear that ecological thinking has
contributed and still contributes—at least theoretically—to engaging scholars and
practitioners with concepts of space and with the biophysical context of design.
Nevertheless, as highlighted by Thompson (2012: 24), landscape urbanism might
remain an academic discussion filled with “dubious philosophy, unhelpful imagery
and obscurantist language,” but without practical applications. In the case of Brus-
sels, the work of Duvigneaud elaborated in the 1970s was promising both in terms
of conceptualization of the urban metabolism and its prospective implementation.
However, after the pioneering studies of the 1970s of Duvigneaud and the Brussels
School, which considered both urban space and “nature,” later work has taken a
much more technical turn. In the numerous applied studies and technical docu-
ments produced since the 1970s on urban metabolism that also try to integrate the
concept of metabolism into urbanism practice, the industrial ecological perspec-
tive has taken over and urban metabolism has been narrowed to the quantitative
characterization of industrial flows and stocks excluding the question of nature and
68 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
ENDNOTES
1  See for instance Geddes (1915) in Europe, or Mumford
(1938) and McHarg (1969) in North America.
2  At the time, the emerging environmentalist movement
was supported by initiatives such as the Mab—Man
and Biosphere—study program promoted by UNESCO
(launched in 1971) and the study “The Limit of Growth”
(Meadows et al., 1972) by the Club of Rome.
3  “[…] la planification du développement de la ville,
qui doit régler les rapports futurs entre la ville et les
campagnes environnantes et entre les divers sous-
système urbains nécessite l’étude approfondie de ces
phénomènes de croissance” (Duvigneaud, 1974: 7).
4  Beginning in the 1970s, a process of transforma-
tion of the city in the capital of Europe brought the
introduction in the central neighborhoods of new mobility
infrastructure and high-rise buildings with little concern
for urban and environmental quality. This process, known
as “Brussellization,” is commonly considered to comprise
a rejection of modern urban planning and a lack of con-
cern for community value and urban heritages. Explicit
reaction to Brussellization include the creation of the
Atelier de Recherche et d’Action Urbaines (ARAU) in 1969
and Inter-environnement Bruxelles. The former was an
association of architects and urban designers engaged
to promote a non-modern urban renovation based on
traditional community values and urban fabric. The latter
was a confederation of citizens’ committees gathered to
raise their voice against the lack of citizen representation
in urban planning and management.
5  Etopia, Centre d’animation et de recherche en écolo-
gie politique see http://www.etopia.be
6  The study reviews the Baccini method, the Eurostat
method, and the Climatecon method as three main meth-
ods that refer to industrial ecology. The method employed
by the study results from the adaptation of the Eurostat
method, but the study also partly integrates the Baccini
method (EcoRes et al., 2015).
69
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on this topic. It will look mainly at some specific territories
with a focus on the Veneto Region.
After presenting an overview and a periodization of
the complex consolidation processes of Italian dispersed
settlements, the paper will discuss a selected number of
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courses of dispersed settlements that has developed only
in the last few years.
72 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 73 G enealogies of the Ecological Issues in the Italian D iscourse on città diffusa

INTRODUCTION
This paper aims to outline a genealogy of the emergence of the ecological is-
sues in the theoretical debate about and the operative practice of the Italian città
diffusa (diffused city) since the 1970s, looking both at the main paths of spatial
transformations of dispersed settlements, and at the prevailing discourses and
rhetoric that have developed on this topic. It will look mainly at some specific terri-
tories (mostly located in different parts of northern Italy) with a focus on the Veneto
Region: this represents both a unique and paradigmatic case study in comparison to
similar European urbanized contexts (Sieverts, 1997; De Geyter, 2002; De Meulder et
al., 2002; AAVV 2004; Grosjean, 2010).
After presenting an overview and a periodization of the complex consolida-
tion processes of Italian dispersed settlements (part 1), the paper will discuss a
selected number of surveys of the città diffusa, trying to highlight their (more or less
implicit) attention to the environmental dimension of Italian urban sprawl (part 2). In
so doing, the paper will outline a sort of chronology, articulated through keywords,
research paradigms, and prevailing territorial representations, that have guided
theoretical interpretations as well as operative interventions. The choice of compar-
ing the transformation of discourses and keywords on the one hand, and spatial
modifications and place-making practices on the other, is related to the necessity of
understanding the important correlation between the emergence of new topics and
sensibilities and to the effective modification of these territories. These two points
make it possible to follow a continuous link to ecological and environmental issues
embedded in the main processes and discourses of dispersed settlements that has
developed only in the last few years.

PHASES, PLAYERS, FORMS, AND PROCESSES OF DIFFUSION

The expression città diffusa was consolidated in the late 1980s in order to de-
scribe the polycentric network of small and medium-sized cities that characterized
wide areas of the Italian urban structure (Indovina 1990). Such a form of urbaniza-
tion did not meet the traditional distinctions between city and country, center and
periphery, industry and agriculture. Even if the expression was not entirely new, it
gained a different meaning in the context of the Venetian school of urbanism. As
a result of this analysis, these territories gained new legitimation and became the
object of strong interest.
Looking back at the evolution of the città diffusa, we can recognize at least
three different phases linked to more general cultural and political changes, the
evolution of urban culture, and the role played by the process of building construc-
tion: the phases of “diffuse urbanization,” “polarization,” and “recapitalization.”
These three main transformation paths of the diffuse city through time refer both
to spatial modification of dispersal territories and to ways of seeing and interpret-
ing these mutations. The three phases are strictly connected with the elaboration
of urban planning instruments and, finally, with specific analytical categories, key
words, and glossaries.

Diffuse Industrialization/Diffuse City: Territory as a Passive Support

Looking back at the last half century, it is evident that at the beginning of the
sixties a “great transformation” affected the territory of città diffusa. This was not
a transformation made up of great movements, of astonishing differences between
the past and the present, but rather a transformation articulated through count-
less, continuous, and pervasive variations that extended through time and space Fig. 1.a: Metamorphosis of the città diffusa (Munarin and Tosi, 2001).
74 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 1.b: Diffuse urbanization, Paolo de Stefano.
[Fig. 1.a, 1.b]. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, this dispersed process of modi-
fication added and juxtaposed a new mixed—urban and industrial—fabric to old
rural houses and to a preeminently agricultural landscape. It was both a “soft and
radical” metamorphosis not only for physical spaces, but also for social practices
and everyday life. This metamorphosis strongly affected the agricultural landscape,
converting it into a specialized and fragmented production that increasingly caused
the loss of traditional cultures and characters (Ferrario, 2016); and at the same time,
against the background of the transformations happening “outside” of the city, the
medium-sized cities1 experienced a deep economic and social crisis with urban
decline and processes of marginalization.
This process was strictly related to the formation of industrial districts and to
the strengthening of a “light industrialization” in which family-based agricultural
and artisanal activities had coexisted for a long time, and in which a relevant role
was played by endogenous and sociocultural factors (Cacciari, 1977; Bagnasco,
1977; Bagnasco and Trigilia, 1984; Becattini 2004).
The diffusion of detached houses was one of the most visible aspects of this
process: along the streets, new houses expanded the linear settlements, or filled
the empty spaces within old settlements, thus forming a more dense fabric. The
single-family house grew and changed together with its inhabitants, incrementally
adding parts and pieces to adapt to the needs of a family in continuous movement.
The house itself thus became a sort of “workshop” in constant motion.
This process of modification consisted of innumerable repetitions of tiny altera-
tions rather than a few abrupt leaps in time and space, and it has been mainly based
75 G enealogies of the Ecological Issues in the Italian D iscourse on città diffusa
on interventions promoted by individuals who mobilized limited resources and acted
through non-coordinated decisions (sometimes in unauthorized or informal interven-
tions, mostly regulated by urban planning laws and instruments) (Sartore, 1989).
Such a metamorphosis took advantage of the existing fixed capital deposited
in the territory throughout the past centuries rather than reproducing it, thus rede-
fining and adapting it to the changed circumstances of the inhabitants and of the
activities: it is in this sense that it can be said that this “great transformation” used
the territory as a passive support and was partly an act of land consumption (Sec-
chi, 1996). The effect of this process was that the structure of a formerly poor rural
landscape was adapted to support an affluent industrialized and urban landscape,
with the consequences of an ecological and morphological simplification that im-
poverished the environment (Ranzato, 2011; Ranzato and Zaccariotto, 2017)
Polarization
From the late 1970s up to the mid-1990s, a different phase began, tied to new
planning assumptions and legislative references, that led directly to the realization
of new industrial areas, residential neighborhoods, and districts of services and
facilities. These new settlements often introduced a significant change in scale and
were presented as “different” from their surroundings.
Looking at these years, it is possible to discern a process of polarization that
has led to the selective aggregation of the new residential districts, thus manufac-
turing areas and citadels of commerce or entertainment, reconfiguring the Veneto
as a mosaic in which dissimilar but internally homogeneous pieces colonize the ter-
ritory, and introducing a blend that is different from the past and characterized by a
more marked grain [Fig. 2.a, 2.b].
Those transformations of the dispersed territories no longer occurred only
through the repetition of singular objects like the house, the factory, and the shop;
more and more frequently, the process of transformation of the territory happened
through the addition of a new piece of built urban fabric: the residential lot, the
industrial area, the shopping mall, the sport center, and education complexes; i.e.,
by “closed” pieces and in ways that were in any case formally defined.
No longer did single buildings mix together (as the outcome of individual and
uncoordinated choices, separated one from the other) but rather as uniform pieces/
fragments as the outcome of processes that required more comprehensive strate-
gies of localization, greater investments, and the coordination of different decision-
makers. This opened the door to problems of compatibility very different from those
characterizing the previous situation (Boeri et al., 1993; Munarin and Tosi, 2001;
Robiglio 2001).
These new mono-functional fragments were like enclosures containing only
houses, industries, schools, sports facilities, or health services buildings poorly re-
lated to their surroundings. They paid very little attention to pedestrian accessibility
systems and bicycle paths, and mainly gave prominence to spaces for cars (streets,
parking, and maneuvering areas), as the only device for connection with other urban
areas. As urbanization grows and land use activities intensify, the environment also
changes, resulting in the loss of environmentally fragile lands, reduced regional
open space, greater air pollution, higher energy consumption, loss of farmland,
reduced diversity of species, increased runoff of storm water, increased risk of
flooding, and ecosystem fragmentation.
76 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 2.a: Polarization of industrial areas (Munarin and Tosi, 2001).
Recapitalization of the Territory: An Emerging Phenomenon
Most recently, during the last decade, the città diffusa has been facing a new
phase of transformations dealing with re-use and recycling of abandoned or under-
used buildings as well as open spaces.
Nowadays housing, as well as industrial buildings and several parts of the
industrial areas, are involved in processes of abandonment, due to the global eco-
nomic crisis and the delocalization of segments of the production chain.
Housing stock in urban sprawl territories faces shrinking families, character-
ized by a strong aversion to multiple generations living together, each of which, old
or young, considers the renunciation of the freedom and independence they have
achieved too high a price to pay for returning to the old model. If one also considers
the gradual technological obsolescence of these buildings, with heating and air-
conditioning systems that are costly to operate and maintain, which require large
77 G enealogies of the Ecological Issues in the Italian D iscourse on città diffusa
Fig. 2.b: Industrial area in the città diffusa, Paolo de Stefano.
investments to adapt and make viable (both environmentally and economically), and
whose operating costs exceed the savings capacity of households, which are today
often composed of couples or single elderly people living on their pension, it is only
natural that one main result of these changes would be the increasingly frequent
abandonment (or partial abandonment, involving parts of the house) of a heritage
that is also difficult to put back on the market (Munarin and Tosi, 2012; Merlini and
Zanfi, 2014).
At the same time, we are witnessing an accelerated process of withdrawal,
under-use, and abandonment of industrial buildings in crisis due to the effects of
market readjustments and globalization processes. This process leaves more and
more empty buildings on the ground to be reused or demolished (Lanzani et al.,
2016).
Furthermore, the emergence of spontaneous practices of collective uses in
abandoned spaces, along riverbanks, in disused quarries, on agrarian roads, or in
springs, forests, former military forts, and many other natural spaces, which has
been pushed most recently by several local administrations to promote a new era
of projects and policies for collective services and equipment, differ from practices
in the past both in their procedures and in the territorial areas involved. Often these
interventions affected agrarian territories or the territories outside urban centers,
involved more local bodies (municipalities, provinces, land reclamation authorities,
the ministry of defense, etc.), and in fact “took advantage” of existing spaces, mak-
ing them accessible through pedestrian and bicycle paths and other small function-
al improvements: they reinvented such places with few changes and used relatively
limited resources (Munarin et al., 2011; Munarin et al., 2014).
78 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Beside these processes, several actions shed light on a different attitude re-
lated to the past: new retention basins in urban areas, as well as in the rural settle-
ments, the transformation of paved surfaces into permeable ground, the modifica-
tion of rural waterlines into a phytoremediation system, and the increasing use of
small-scale solar photovoltaic systems, typically on rooftops in private buildings, as
well as public facilities, etc.
All these interventions, using either public or private investments, point to a
new era for the città diffusa.
DISCOURSES AND DEBATES
Studies on città diffusa published before the term città diffusa was coined
(Indovina, 1990) followed the main Italian research on metropolitan areas that was
deeply rooted in a strong tradition of socio-economic approaches to territorial anal-
ysis. Seminal works—both theoretical and operative—elaborated by professionals
and intellectuals including the planner Giuseppe Samonà (Samonà, 1978; PTRC
provincia di Trento, 1968), the architect Giancarlo De Carlo (De Carlo 1962), or the
sociologist Achille Ardigò (Ardigò, 1967), together with the emergence of regional
sciences in Italy between the end of the 1950s and during the 1960s (Secchi, 1984),
contributed to promoting a more nuanced approach to the understanding of spatial
phenomena.
During the 1960s, spatial and economic research, promoted by public institu-
tions at national and regional level, gave rise to a new phase of studies on metro-
politan Italy. From this point of view, we can look at the end of the 1960s as a sort of
turning point that is particularly visible in the Progetto ’80 (1969), a national ten-year
plan for economic development that proposed a different interpretation of Italy’s
urban structure and recognized its role for the future development of the country
(Renzoni, 2012). The recognition of linear and reticular urban structures, in addition
to large-scale cities, started to play a role: these were seen as embodying a new po-
tential for the economic and spatial development of Italy, thus acknowledging and
somehow re-addressing the importance of the polycentric network of Italian cities.
In particular Veneto became an area of focus for investigating the relationship be-
tween industrial districts and diffused settlements, the role of the family and of sin-
gle-family houses, warehouses, and productive plants in the economy of small and
medium enterprises. In this respect, this kind of research partly anticipated work
such as that done by Bagnasco and Fuà/Zacchia (Bagnasco, 1977; Fuà et al., 1983).
This research later showed the economic importance of some parts of Italy that had
been neglected by analyses of regional imbalances, mostly focusing on the north/
south divide, while recognizing the emergence of a “Third Italy” and of a third kind
of territory, differing from the main models of interpretation of Italian economic
and regional development build on the dichotomy between the modern and indus-
trialized north-west, and the underdeveloped and mostly agricultural Mezzogiorno
(Southern Italy).
Even if the expression città diffusa, as we noted, was not entirely new, it gained
a different meaning in the context of Venetian studies during the late 1980s and the
beginning of the 1990s.
We propose here three main thematic nodes around which the majority of the
studies on the città diffusa have revolved: minimal rationalities, patterns, and envi-
ronmental risk. These highlight three different phases of research on urban disper-
sion in Italy that often overlap with one another and share points of observation and
focus.
79 G enealogies of the Ecological Issues in the Italian D iscourse on città diffusa
Minimal Rationalities
The first thematic node deals with the role of individual choices in collectively
shaping the territory. This is a topic that has been very well covered by suburban
studies (Jackson, Hayden, etc.) and that, in Italy, is deeply rooted in economic
research on peripheral economies. Keeping with this approach, the detached house
has been a privileged object of study and is a symbol of the problems dealt with
by this interpretation. Urban dispersion—as the result of a process of self-con-
struction of well-being—was the object of a very close look at the long sequence
of micro-interventions that cumulatively have been transforming the territory. The
minimal rationalities (Secchi, 1994) that guided the construction and consolidation
of città diffusa consist of a series of incremental actions and strategies, carried
out each time that a new need seems to emerge, either related to the activities
of the household or to the changes in its composition (expansions and additions
to a house, construction on adjacent plots, etc.). These rationalities revealed the
multi-functional character of the detached single-family house in which mixed uses
integrated productive activities (be they agricultural or industrial—mainly related
to manufacturing). A “house +”, or a “workshop” as we stated above, represented
the spatial translation of an economy that is strongly rooted in family structure
(Munarin et al., 2001; Robiglio, 2001). This has helped to analyze the dispersione
insediativa as a largely endogenous process: a movement that emerges from the
very territories that are touched by change, rather than an over-expansion of previ-
ous urban nuclei [Fig. 3].
The late 1980s and early 1990s marked a phase of change in these patterns of
territorial change (the process of “polarization”). Self-promoted and occasionally
self-built interventions started to give way to different types of interventions that
saw different actors emerge, with a divide or a misalignment between the demand
for spaces and the production of spaces.
The last two decades have witnessed the construction of new productive zones
and residential clusters, many of which have been the result of initiatives coming
from real estate promoters. These interventions have faced many difficulties in
matching the demands of new potential users.
Patterns
Nevertheless, other work produced in the subsequent years on the città dif-
fusa also charted quite different territories. The strong interest in description again
represents one of the main characteristics of this path of research that has been
focusing on the physical change affecting the territories, and specifically on the
spatial and morphological aspects of the transformation (Boeri et al., 1993; Clem-
enti et al., 1996).
This work incorporated many aspects of the socio-economic approach champi-
oned by Italian metropolitan research. However, it was also influenced by typologi-
cal studies.2
A quest for description emerged strongly during the 1990s, giving rise to a
plurality of narratives, lexica, and images. This helped generate new interpretations
and keywords that attempted to recognize regular patterns and structural elements
in what was observed. This kind of work made it possible to recognize the previously
described patterns in specific settings [Fig. 4].
This research attempted to combine different kinds of description. First,
it highlighted the importance of fieldwork: of observing transformations on the
ground, “planning on foot.” Second, it highlighted the relevance of the visual
80 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 3: Minimal rationalities: the evolution of a detached house (Munarin and Tosi, 2001).
analysis, in which mapping and the collaboration with photographers became a sort
of “open modus operandi.” It experimented with a method based on fieldwork (direct
observation) and on visual representation that Bernardo Secchi later labelled as
“thick description.”3
Environmental Risk
Together with the emergence of a new awareness of common goods, changes
in climate, and environmental fragility, we can recognize a third thematic core char-
acterizing work from the most recent years: a line of research that partly stems from
the other lines we have just described, and which combines the long debate on land
81 G enealogies of the Ecological Issues in the Italian D iscourse on città diffusa
Fig. 4: Patterns: a “market road” (Boeri et al., 1993).
consumption and hydrogeological risk with ecological issues (Fabian and Viganò,
2010; Giannotti and Viganò, 2012).
We can find some analogies in this work’s premises and occasionally in its
conclusions; but the approach differs from its antecedents and is characterized by
an effort to describe other aspects of the phenomenon. Of course, the emergence
of environmental topics such as climate change, water management, etc., had a
relevant impact, not only on decision-making processes but also on professional
practices and, above all, on public debate. The focus of this third research line is
not mainly on houses and settlements but on water and hydrogeological networks
and on energy systems seen as crucial aspects of territorial change, recognizing
that water and energy systems and ecological networks have a great potential for a
sustainable development of these territories in which urban and rural areas coexist
in this peculiar way [Fig. 5]. An assumption is that these territories have an impor-
tant heritage of environmental common goods that need to be preserved but also
developed.
Città diffusa is based upon water, street infrastructure, a network of collective
facilities, and agriculture. These assets may serve to support new actions and a new
phase of development in which risk management, integration of competences, and
multifunctionality could become a new design-oriented perspective for the future
(Renzoni and Tosi, 2016).
82 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 83 G enealogies of the Ecological Issues in the Italian D iscourse on città diffusa

It could become an attempt to understand the ways through which these water
and infrastructure networks could be recycled, with a special emphasis on recycling
existing urban materials (Fabian and Munarin, 2017).
We can say that this new phase represents a return to forms of description. It
dry plain
is less important to create a new vocabulary (as had been the case in the previous
phase of studies): recall, for instance, the metaphorical opposition between tubes

Liv
and sponges, hierarchy, and isotropy (Viganò et al., 2016). The focus here is on tech-

enz
a
springs area
nical competence, even on engineering, and on the potential hybridization of these

rive
r
very specific fields of knowledge and the field of urban design.

CONCLUSIONS
low wet plain
dry plain Pia
ve
This contribution seeks to articulate the urbanization processes as well as the
riv
er discourses that have developed regarding Italian urban dispersal into several main
phases in which specific physical or thematic features prevailed over others. This
springs area interpretation highlights two different chronologies, where processes and themes
interweave through time, sometimes coinciding, sometimes overlapping with each
low wet plain
other, sometimes shifting and diverging.
It seems interesting to point out the convergence, in the last decade, of trans-
formations and practices on the one hand, and some issues at stake on the other.
Both are strictly related to a new attention to environmental and ecological aspects,
to lifecycles and sustainability.
On the one hand, we can recognize some uses and practices promoted by
individuals and/or communities dealing with a new awareness and responsibility to-
venice’s lagoon
wards the production and consumption of land, water, environment, etc. The instal-
lation of micro-stations for the production of renewable energy (both for industrial
and residential purposes), the diffusion of reuse and regeneration interventions
into abandoned fields and buildings, the renewed care given to water management,
together with the process of recapitalization of the territory could be seen as a pro-
cess of self-empowerment that is experienced by inhabitants and communities.
On the other hand, academic research (both theoretic and operative) as well
as professional practices (planning and urban design) have been consolidating an
WATER SYSTEM AND PERMEABILITY
expert and competent discussion on (not entirely) new topics related to climate
Map elaborated by the authors. change issues and ecological values, which have produced a relevant change in the
Source of data:
- Provincial Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia Ctr general approaches to territorial questions.
(regional maps)
- PTCR 2009 (regional territorial coordination plan) Even if the debate on land consumption represented a sort of continuous
very hight permeability

of the Regione Veneto; leitmotiv in the Italian discussion since the 1980s (Astengo and Nucci, 1990), and
medium permeability
watercourse surface
lakes and reservoirs

- PTA 2006 (water protection plan) of ARPAV (Vene-

hight permeability

also in relation to the città diffusa, only in recent years has it became part of a wider
transitional water

low permeability

to environmental protection agency).

coastal water
groundwater

discourse on territorial and urban lifecycles involving the complexity of dimensions

of environment, infrastructure, and landscape.
It is possible to point out several trends in the institutionalization processes
of some discourses related to these kinds of issues. This also makes it possible to
1
2

4
5
3

168
recognize a few guidelines and shared tools for proposing new languages and ap-
proaches within the main framework of a process of research by design. From this
point of view, the città diffusa have represented and still represent a privileged field
of research in which the thematic shift through time towards ecological and envi-
ronmental issues contributed to the reworking of design tools and devices.

Fig. 5: Environmental risk: Water System and Permeability (Fabian and Viganò, 2010).
84 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
ENDNOTES
1   In the Veneto region, for instance, these are Padova,
Verona, Vicenza, and Treviso.
2  Championed in Venice by Rossi and Aymonino, and
also influenced by the morphogenetic studies of authors
such as Trincanato or Caniggia.
3  An expression borrowed from anthropologist Clifford
Geertz but with a different meaning, involving the prac-
tice of cartography, photography, and the integration of
different scales of analysis.
85
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87

BARCELONA METROPOLIS
I N T E R PL AY B E T W E E N UR BAN
PR O J ECT AN D UR BAN M E TAB O L I S M
Carles Crosas and Jorge Perea

KEYWORDS
Barcelona, urban project, urban metabolism, ecology

ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, Barcelona led the urban debate on the so-
called “urban project” as a design strategy focusing on the
mutual proximity of architecture, public space, and infra-
structure. These developments were supported, on the one
hand, by the outstanding theories of Professor Manuel de
Solà-Morales (UR-Revista) and, on the other, by a number of
successful mid-scale urban transformations illustrating ur-
ban design practices that became internationally renowned
in the period around 1992, when Barcelona hosted the sum-
mer Olympics. Since then, the development of the city has
continued to build on this solid foundation by integrating
new approaches and paradigms. After the 2000s, a new gen-
eration of projects has produced developments, such as the
Forum Area transformation and the 22@-Poblenou rede-
velopment, that have brought to the table new components
related to ecology and metabolism as motors for urban de-
sign. Precisely these topics have recently become bywords
dominating discussions in the city, establishing a discourse
about renovation that has aimed to definitively overcome
the most traditional approaches to urban design.
This paper links this substantial tradition of urban
projects with new paradigms of urban science from the
88 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
beginning of this new century. Through a historical review,
we point out the key aspects and main strategies of this
change in Barcelona’s urban tradition, focusing on and
evaluating what is new, what remains, and what must still
be reviewed.
89 Barcelona Metropolis
INTRODUCTION
In the last four decades, Barcelona has actively contributed to furthering urban
debates about the growth and transformation of compact mid-sized metropolises
in Europe. Since 2011, the new City Council Governments have aimed to elaborate a
new “urban agenda” stressing the importance of variables relevant to contemporary
urban spaces such as sustainability, resilience, and urban metabolism as well as
access to housing and genre urbanism. New guidelines focusing on particular issues
intend to advance the city and take a step forward in relation to the most recognized
tradition of Barcelona urbanism, which was defined in the context of the Olympics
and is usually simplified as the “Barcelona Model.”1
If we look further back to the 1970s, we can clearly recognize the beginnings of
contemporary urbanism of Barcelona, in 1976, when the city woke up from the deep
lethargy of the Franco dictatorship and began to draw up urban policies that would
substantially change the city and raise it into international prominence.
Indeed, in 1976 the Metropolitan Master Plan (PGM) was approved, establish-
ing a general framework and new planning tools for the urban transformation of the
coming years. Paradoxically, the PGM still remains current today, forty years later,
despite having been progressively updated with more than one thousand specific
amendments.2 This is a relevant issue that reflects the decision made by the city in
the 1980s to discuss its future urban growth not necessarily from the holistic view-
point of general planning, but rather to allow progressive development and continu-
ous upgrades throughout the “intermediate scale” plans that were implemented as
the so-called “urban project” (Busquets, 2005). The urbanism of the “Plan” versus
the urbanism of the “Projects” was an in vogue theoretical debate over many years
in Europe, in which Barcelona clearly took an active part.
URBAN PROJECT
Within the framework of the General Masterplan, the city started to develop
several main urban strategies of varying natures and scales. The wise, ambitious
decision to reserve a substantial number of neglected or misused plots for green
spaces and facilities gave rise to a plethora of projects spread around the city. This
was the seed of future policies on public space that have been internationally recog-
nized for their successful implementation through successful designs. Sites that de-
mand attention within the city include large sections with structural value that can
often become more complex because of the specific urban requirements of the site,
in addition to areas of public space that have been infilled in the dense urban tissue.
In this context, the redefinition of El Moll de la Fusta (Wooden Yard) on the
waterfront of the Old City became the paradigm for the way Manuel de Solà-
Morales’s project was able to masterfully combine, in immediate proximity to the
seafront, extensive mobility requirements with the invention of a new collective
space. This project, considered a pioneering example of opening up Barcelona to
the Mediterranean Sea, gave birth to a new landscape of long sandy beaches where
railway tracks, industrial buildings, and shantytowns once stood. The project was
also forward-thinking, inaugurating a new relationship between infrastructure and
public space as two concepts that should not be disassociated but merged together
to create more complex designs and more sustainable solutions.
At this same time, Manuel de Solà-Morales—the most distinguished Barce-
lona architect-urbanist, theorist, and practitioner—defined the concept of “urban
project” as the fruit of “complexity and superimposition” that is “born and shows
itself to be the most suitable, rich, varied and effective opportunity for the planning
90 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 1.: Cross section of El Moll de la Fusta, Manuel de Solà-Morales, 1981. Interpretation by Arranz and Pulido, 2017.
of modern city” (De Solà-Morales, 1986). De Solà-Morales enumerated five points to
define the nature of an “urban project”:
1. Territorial effects outside their area of intervention;
2. Complex and interdependent character of the contents: superseding of
monofunctionality (park, road, typology, etc.); mixture of uses, users, temporal
rates, and visual orientations;
3. Intermediate scale, to be completed within a limited time frame of a few years;
4. Voluntarily assumed commitment to adopt an urban architecture, indepen-
dently of the architecture of the buildings;
5. A significant public component in investments and in collective uses of the
program.
Written in 1987, the text mixes a strong theoretical approach with an examina-
tion of several international projects and was concurrent with an important urban
initiative in Barcelona that illustrated a coordinated approach to these mid-scale
projects in the Areas of New Centrality Plan (ANC, 1987). Covering a wide range of
situations, this document brings together twelve sites for urban transformation that
were placed in peripheral spaces for ideological reasons, and many of which were
linked to the new ring road that was also planned and approved for the Olympics. It
would be imprecise to consider all these areas as incubators for urban projects, and
their design solutions have not always literally included the five “canonical” urban
project characteristics. Taken together, however, they are representative of a certain
scale and approach in between urban planning and urban design.
Several non-consolidated areas varying in size between six and eighty hect-
ares aimed to disperse the centrality of the plan around the core metropolis. The
particulars and specific goals differed, but in every area the disciplinary exercise
91 Barcelona Metropolis
Fig. 2.: New downtowns in Barcelona, 01-Illa Diagonal-Sarrià; 02-Tarragona; 03-Renfe Meridiana; 04-Plaça Cerdà;
05-Vila Olímpica; 06-Port Urbà; 07-Glòries; 08-Vall d’Hebrón; 09-Sagrera; 10-Fòrum 2004, 11-Diagonal-Esplugues;
12-Anella Olímpica. Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1987.
of combining planning and architectural decisions was mandatory. Besides the
general overview, each plan had to face specific on-site challenges with different
discourses and design materials. Infrastructure and mobility played a decisive role,
defining new infrastructural hubs (Sagrera and Glòries, both still works in progress)
or reconverting huge infrastructural landscapes on more civic sites (Plaça Cerdà,
Renfe-Meridiana and Moll de la Fusta itself).
The presence of the parks with amenities is also remarkable in Vall D’Hebron,
South-Diagonal, Montjuïc Olympic Ring, and around the aforementioned hubs. Of
particular note is how, at this time, the idea of the park was closely related to the
concept of centrality, something that can end up being rather controversial, as
green spaces have never been the liveliest spots in local urban culture. Indeed, this
remains an ongoing theoretical discussion, as ecological principles and green con-
nectivity are major guidelines for the design of future central places.
In other cases, the focus was on laying out buildings and on organizing activi-
ties. With more innovative or more conventional proposals, new design layouts
in Tarragona Street (tower blocks), L’Illa Diagonal (horizontal skyscraper), and
the Olympic Village (Cerdà’s open blocks) established strategic areas of the city,
combining new dwellings, offices, retail premises, amenities, and open spaces that
represented the varied nature of the “urban project.”
Beyond these dispersed areas, in the city center the renewal of Ciutat Vella
has also attracted a number of smaller-scale urban projects inserted into its dense
92 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
fabric. After more than twenty years of transformation, we can recognize here
some linked interventions both in the Raval area (from CCCB and Macba to Rambla
del Raval-Filmothèque) and in the Gothic Quarter (Mercat de Santa Caterina and
surroundings). In these paradigmatic sites, the new public facilities became social
catalysts for a radical improvement of the formerly neglected districts.
NEW METABOLISM AS A SPATIAL PARADIGM AT THE TURN OF THE
CENTURY
At the turn of the century, two different urban projects clearly shifted the focus
of the urban transformation to a new rhetoric: the Forum 2004 project and the 22@
District. Both urban transformations originated from overcoming infrastructural
barriers, especially railway infrastructure, as part of the transformation undertaken
during the Olympic period (1992), which revealed the possibility of discussing the
urban relationship between the central core of Barcelona’s Eixample district and its
eastern districts (Rowe, 2006; Masboungi, 2012).
This part of the city was characterized by varying elements: the accumulation
of industrial settlements in the Poblenou quarter, the “Catalan Manchester”; the
presence of the functional 1960s massive housing districts (La Mina and south-
east of Besòs); and, finally, an unusual accumulation of huge pieces of infrastruc-
ture—a garbage incineration plant, a wastewater treatment plant, and a power
plant—that are necessary to sustain the city metabolism and were placed tradi-
tionally in peripheral sites at the limits of the city’s administrative domain.
The “Reconquest of the East” would allow the urbanity of the central city and
its benefits for the quality of life to be expanded across more than two hundred
of Cerda’s blocks, which were historically disconnected from the surrounding city,
thus stimulating new operations of a distinctive character. The strategy, already
envisioned in the 1990s by the rearrangement of the Glories’ traffic junction and
the opening of the Diagonal to the sea, was based on the Forum 2004 event and
the 22@ renewal as two long-term city projects to extend the central city towards
Poblenou’s eastern quarters.
While the early 1990s urban projects focused on the urban structuring capac-
ity, both the Forum project (1996–2004) and the 22@ Innovation district (since
1999) introduced new perspectives for reconsidering the role of urban metabolism
and its civic expression, both as large-scale interventions and as urban fabric
reinvention.
URBAN METABOLISM AS CIVIC EXPRESSION: THE FORUM PROJECT
Imagined by Major Pasqual Maragall after the Olympics in 1996 as a major
cultural event to be hosted in one of the envisioned “areas of new centrality,” the op-
eration of the Forum rearranged the end of the Diagonal Avenue, widening the scope
of the city to the full extent of its administrative limits. At this geographic position,
the social problems posed by the existing mass housing quarters came into contact
with the accumulation of metabolic infrastructure related to mobility, the coastal
ring road; water systems, a wastewater treatment plan; a power station and a waste
incineration plant.
The operation settled in a huge, socially neutral space oriented towards city
mass events and a number of iconic buildings (exhibition and conference centers,
hotels, etc.). From that moment on, the Forum area became a central reference point
at the end of the Diagonal Avenue, adding new programs on a metropolitan scale:
the new marina, the eastern UPC campus, tertiary buildings, an initially planned
93 Barcelona Metropolis
Fig. 3: Aerial view of Forum area: huge metabolic artefacts merged with civic amenities, Area Metropolitana
de Barcelona.
maritime zoo, etc. Benefitting from its contiguity, the neighboring mass housing
quarters became incorporated into city dynamics, thus renewing their basic or ne-
glected urban conditions (Clos, 2008).
Despite certain criticism of the project that understood it as a departure from
the traditional Barcelona urbanism approach, it is worth focusing on the project’s
relevance from our point of view. The former infrastructural conditions of this area
were turned into an advantage by reversing the conventional planning approach of
removing the huge artefacts and making the ecosystemic city infrastructure an ex-
pressive principle. The Diagonal Avenue was extended through a perforated platform
on top of the Barcelona ring road as far as the sea, incorporating in its design the
existing water treatment plant that serves around three million inhabitants.
Nearby, the ecoparc incineration plant was refurbished together with the
power plant as part of a new public landscape. A sculptural photovoltaic pergola is
connected with to the huge thermal chimneys from the power plant of Sant Adrià
del Besòs, adding a symbolic reference to Barcelona’s cityscape. In both cases,
energy efficiency was at the base of these new projects, making the most of garbage
incineration to provide heating and cooling services to the relatively closed 22@
district by building up a culture of collaboration in energy use between companies.
At street level, the resulting public space became a composition of the espla-
nades’ continuous asphalt and the side parks’ green areas. Besides the specific de-
sign of each project, the resulting neutrality was achieved through the contiguity of
several different pieces that configured a new common ground where the valuable
corporate and iconic buildings abutted the former huge pieces of infrastructure.
This innovative spatial configuration inverted the perception of the huge ele-
ments of the urban metabolism, which are often hidden from public perception, and
gave them a collective sense, thus incorporating a social dimension into the public
debate. These changes became new urban objects of the city, with incredible expo-
sure due to the public space and its design.
In sum, urban metabolism is understood at the Forum area not only as a city
demand but also as a culturally valuable and expressive component inherent to the
new urban project. This switch in perception significantly contributed to advancing
94 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM 95 Barcelona Metropolis

several changes in the relationship between public space design and city metabo-
lism that decisively occurred after 2010, when the expression of the metabolic func-
tion gained presence not only at a functional but also iconic level.

URBAN METABOLISM AS CITY SUPPORT: THE 22@ INNOVATION DISTRICT

At the end of 1990s, in tandem with the construction of the Forum but with a
completely different timing and vision, the city started to rethink the urban poten-
tial of the Poblenou District. Expanding on an area between the Seafront strip and
Gran Via, and crossed by Diagonal Avenue, it defined a new area of transformation
that included the blocks that followed the pattern of Cerdà’s grid but contained
industrial activities. The renewal of more than 200 hectares, or around 115 blocks,
promised to introduce an overall area of 4,000,000 square meters of new productive
and tertiary programs into an industrial urban fabric that had become progressively
obsolete. This was to be articulated by two major documents: the first, urbanistic
document was a specific amendment to the General Plan for the renewal of the in-
dustrial areas at Poblenou that set up the rules for the new activities that 22@ was
to insert into the existing urban fabric; the second was the Special Infrastructures
Plan, which focused strongly on the reorganization and improvement of the infra-
structure to support this transformation (P.E.I. 22@, 2000).
The urban transformation process was structured as a combination of plans
and interventions of varying size, guided by planning regulations that were intended
to enable an open and flexible process of transformation. On one hand, six prede-
termined plans—urban projects—set up specific city ideas driven by the public
administration. And on the other hand, these plans were combined with a handful of Fig. 4.: Conceptual cross section model illustrating the upgrade of urban infrastructure and services and showing the
mid-size sectors that were to be developed through detailed plans. The change from complex metabolism at the base of human activities, JPAM Architecture and Urban design, 2015.
22a zoning (industrial activities) to 22@ zoning ensured the economic feasibility of
the plan by allowing new private added-value activities to enter into the Poblenou
quarter, increasing the built footage (from a built/ground ratio of 2 to 3.2) and imple-
menting new infrastructure, public spaces, and social housing that would be paid
for by the private sector (22@ Barcelona, 2011). This kind of transformation focused attention on support as a metabolic fea-
The development of 22@ activities (laboratories, light non-polluting industry, ture on a city scale, in a completely renewed form compared to the traditional way in
offices, hotels) and the introduction of new components from former city projects in which streets are built up. The relationship between the potential of the urban form
a flexible urban tissue required the improvement of urban networks. It was neces- in terms of use, footage, and intensity came to be organized by the metabolic capac-
sary to progressively “technify” the street as the traditional foundation of urban de- ity of the support and materialized in a tangible way.
velopment by introducing new services to support more demanding activities. This
prompted discussion about the relevance of supportive sites in the city metabolism METABOLISM AS METROPOLITAN DISCOURSE: 2011–2015
(quality, capacity to interrelate building and management of services) to the core of Both Forum and 22@ Innovation district drew attention to the condition of me-
the production of this space. tabolism as both city support and civic image, thus setting the foundation for urban
The introduction of heating and cooling services with new telecommunica- reflection in Barcelona until today. The progressive introduction of metabolism as a
tions systems, a pneumatic system for conveying waste that was integrated into key element in urban projects took a long course that reached its peak at the time
buildings, and traditional city services—water, gas, electricity—meant not only a when Barcelona Urban Projects Department came to be named as Urban Habitat
huge and expensive construction effort but also new forms of urban management (2011–2015) under the motto: “Barcelona will be a self-sufficient city with produc-
to ensure the cooperation between supply companies, city companies, and private tive neighborhoods at human speed, within a hyper-connected and zero-emissions
owners in order to optimize the sustainability of the transformation. metropolis” (Guallart et al., 2015). Following these principles, a new department of
On a city scale, the Special Infrastructures Plan implied the new urbanization “Urban Resilience’” was also created for monitoring and observing the urban devel-
of thirty-five kilometers of streets—almost one-fifth of the Eixample district—and opment of the city from this new perspective.
introduced control substations, new galleries for services, the connection of the Following these intentions, the urban metabolism was broadened in scope
parking garages of new buildings and implementation on the underground levels, and themes from a local to a metropolitan scale, encompassing not only network
spaces, stations, and galleries to transfer services from one urban transformation systems but also other elements ranging from re-naturalization of the city and pub-
sector to the other. lic transportation to community structuring and social innovation. These changes
96 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
Fig. 5.: New balances between modes of traffic (cars, pedestrians, bicycles, public transportation) and permeable
ground in the renewal of the Passeig de Sant Joan thoroughfare, Lola Domènech Architect, 2009-2011.
represented a switch in city policy-making and have had an explicit impact in both
the conceptualization and formalization of many city projects (LLop, 2015).
The redesign of Passeig de Sant Joan, one of Barcelona’s major inner boule-
vards, best illustrates this change in the city’s material skin with its incorporation
of a set of permeable surfaces to feed the phreatic level and the redesign’s changes
to the structural concept of the promenade—oriented towards the commercial
facades—for a spatial arrangement made of micro-social spaces. Despite the high
profile of the project, it was not possible even in this case to broaden the project’s
ambitions for water cycle efficiency, i.e., to include rooftop water collection and a
separated sewage system as advanced strategies for separating wastewater from
rainwater. The main goal of the project was accordingly to increase the permeable
surface within the acutely artificialized ground of Barcelona, following models that
were previously tested in other peripheral projects and intensively discussed in the
ideas-competition projects for Glòries’ Square. In this last example, the paradigmat-
ic infrastructural intersection seemed to be subordinated to green continuities and
to the design of re-naturalized spaces in response to popular demand.
More recently, the ideas competition for the efficient Eixample district block
can be regarded as the kick-off point for decisive policies that favor implementing
sustainable design strategies on the existing built fabric. Going beyond the exten-
sive practice of incorporating technological assets on the scale of the individual
building, this project explores the opportunities on the collective scale of a central
block in the Eixample district that includes around 300 dwellings as well as offices,
hotels, amenities, and services. Within this framework, façades, roofs, and interior
courtyards become the main factors for making the urban fabric more efficient (en-
ergy production, water collection, etc.), while simultaneously strengthening social
collectiveness.
At the same time, a new awareness of the importance of urban metabolism on
the metropolitan scale has also emerged that looks into the optimization of mobility,
energy, water, and material cycles. The systemic vision has spread to many aspects
of the public, private and freight transport, in search of progressive improvement
to the quality of life for citizens with greater air quality and time efficiency. For in-
stance, urban metabolism guided the transformation of structural territorial spaces
97 Barcelona Metropolis
Fig. 6.: General scheme for the “gates of Collserola,” with sixteen green corridors located in varying districts in order to
strengthen the connection to the city park. Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2012.
such as the Besòs and Llobregat riverbeds, in which the idea of new linear parks
has been coordinated with a number of decisions regarding the optimization of the
water cycle.
In 2012, the remarkable ideas competition for the Collserola Gates (Naturbà,
2015) exemplified the incorporation of eco-systemic processes in which urban qual-
ity improvement and social welfare come together as the major factors involved. A
vision of city development that is arranged by traditional urban systems is replaced
by a more experiential, re-naturalized, and hybrid project. Systemic coherence
between the urban and natural environment of Collserola and natural enjoyment is
pursued here as a major asset.
From a complementary viewpoint, public transportation mobility patterns were
systemically transformed by being oriented towards the bus reticular network. This
entailed potentially establishing pedestrian super blocks—pedestrian areas in 3x3
Cerdà block clusters—and crafting narratives that included citizen participation,
community micro-structures, the improvement of city ecology, and the reduction of
pollution in the city.
Furthermore, the ecosystemic approach has also provided a few examples
on a smaller scale: for instance, new machines for energy production such as the
tri-generation plant in Zona Franca or, for waste matter cycles, the restoration of the
Garraf landfill in a new ecological park that produces energy. Beyond the architec-
tural, engineering, or landscape artefacts we have described here, many opportu-
nities undoubtedly remain to be identified and explored on an intermediate scale,
which are a keen focus in our research-by-design studios at ETSAB.
CONCLUSIONS
Urban metabolism and ecology have become dominant topics in the urban
agenda of Barcelona over the last two decades. The awareness of their relevance
has been particularly explicit since 2011, with a new comprehensive urban dis-
course formulated by the new City Council. Ecological principles have been guiding
some of the recent and ongoing flagship projects, setting up green continuities,
providing the dense city with new parks, and generally planning friendlier and more
varied interactions between city and nature. The paradigms of the urban projects
98 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
of the 1990s—the desire for collective, interdependent, mixed, and multi-scaled
projects—have thus been complemented by the logics of metabolism and ecology
(Grulois et al., 2015).
Besides its apparent newness, the ecosystemic approach was already present
at the foundation of the best urban projects in Barcelona and also in the local eco-
logical bibliography (Terrades, 1999). El Moll de la Fusta was a pioneering example
of the combination of global thinking on urban metabolism issues approached
specifically on site. The key topics were neither extending the permeability of the
old city through new public spaces nor combining traffic flows, but rather organizing
the water cycle along the waterfront. Here, the structuring of new ground levels lay
at the core of the project: finding an adequate relationship between the water level
in the harbor and the large rain and wastewater management manifolds serving the
compact city center.
The discovery of the waterfront, traditionally explained through the leisure
spaces (beaches, promenades) and the new residential layouts, hides the delicate
metabolic water cycle balance through a very precise manipulation of the topog-
raphy. In such a precise profile, the urban section ensures the continuity of the
perpendicular streets, integrating the coastal ring road while ensuring the efficient
evacuation of superficial and subterranean water. Notwithstanding the internation-
ally praised public space design, consciousness of urban metabolism predominated
even before it was popularly invented as a concept.
It would be useful for further research on such study cases to highlight how
ecological principles guided the best practices of urban projects in Barcelona and
in many other cities long before the “codification” of the ecological approach. Now,
with the prevalence of ecology stimulating a new genealogy of eco-districts, carbon-
zero projects and green pedestrian neighborhoods, it is time to prevent ecological
consciousness from stagnating as a new fashion of the moment.
The enormous scope of the challenges we face should not be understood
in terms of a self-sufficient autonomous paradigm, but rather as integrated into
the complex and hybrid nature of the urban project. Urban metabolism will gain
relevance progressively as an element for building new sets of relationships and
stimulating the rise of new urban forms that contribute to consolidating a new step
in the urban evolution of Barcelona.
99 Barcelona Metropolis
ENDNOTES
1  “Modelo Barcelona” is an expression for defining the
approach and results of Barcelona Urbanism during the
mid 1980s to mid-1990s, with the controversial aim of
becoming a “model” to be exported to other cities. The
international recognition of the city was sealed with the
Gold Medal of Royal Institute of British Architects-RIBA
in 1999: “Both the process and results of Barcelona’s re-
birth are exemplary. Though always with city-wide goals
in mind, initial interventions were local and low budget,
yet big in impact.”
2  An updated and detailed vision of this can be seen in
recent works for the Barcelona Urbanistic Metropolitan
Plan that have been compiled in a recent exhibition and
catalogue with contributions from many professionals
and scholars (Busquets, J., Crosas C. [ed.], 2015).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AJUNTAMENT DE BARCELONA, LÓPEZ, A. (dir.) 2011.
22@ Barcelona: 10 years of Urban Renewal [direcció de
l’edició: Aurora López Corduente], Barcelona, Ajuntament
de Barcelona.
AAVV 2015. Urban Innovation, Mobility and Metropolitan
Metabolism, Quaderns PDU Metropolità, n.8, Area Metro-
politana de Barcelona.
ACEBILLO, J. A. 2013. New Urban Metabolism: Barcelona/
Lugano – Case Studies, Barcelona, ACTAR.
AJUNTAMENT DE BARCELONA, SERVEIS DE PLANEJA-
MENT; BUSQUETS, J. (dir) 1987. Àrees de nova centralitat:
New Downtowns in Barcelona, Barcelona, Ajuntament de
Barcelona, Àrea d’Urbanisme i Obres Públiques, Àrea de
Relacions Ciutadanes.
BARCELONA REGIONAL; AJUNTAMENT DE BARCELONA.
2000. Special Infrastructure Plan of Poblenou - Pla Espe-
cial d’Infraestructures de Poblenou [22@] Retrieved from:
http://www.22barcelona.com/component/option,com_
remository/Itemid,750/func,select/id,24/orderby,1/
lang,en [available on 15 November 2016].
BUSQUETS, J. 2005. Barcelona: The Urban Evolution
of a Compact City, Cambridge, MA, Rovereto: Nicolodi,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
BUSQUETS, J.; CROSAS C. (eds.) 2015. Metropolis
Barcelona. 3 volumes, Barcelona, Area Metropolitana
de Barcelona. [v1. Metropolitan Urban Planning Today.
v2. Metropolitan Transformations. v3. Atlas Barcelona
Metropolis: Contemporary Maps]
CLOS, O. 2008. “Barcelona, Transformation strategies”
in Ajuntament de Barcelona; Barcelona, transformació:
Plans I Projectes, Barcelona.
FONT, A. 2015. “Barcellona: dalla pianificazione della
‘città compacta’ al progetto urbanistica dei ‘territori
metropolitan,’” in Urbanistica, n° 155, 2015, p. 43-57
GRAHAM, S; MARVIN, S. 2001. Splintering Urbanism:
Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and
the Urban Condition, New York, Routledge.
GRULOIS, G.; CASABELLA, N.; CROSAS, C.; PEREA, J.;
(eds.) 2015. Upcycle Barcelona: Cogenerative Design
Strategies for a Sustainable Urban Metabolism, Brussels,
LoUIsE-ULB and LUB-UPC, Brussels, Université libre de
Bruxelles,
GRULOIS, G.; CROSAS, C. 2015. “Urban project revisited
from urban metabolism principles: reflections from the
UpCycle workshop in Barcelona,” in Proceedings of the
8th International Conference of the International Forum
on Urbanism (IFoU), 2-24 June 2015, Incheon, Republic of
Korea, p. 708-716.
GUALLART, V.; BÁRCENA, C.; GRATACÓS, R. (eds.) 2015.
Plans and Projects for Barcelona, 2011–2015, Barcelona,
Ajuntament de Barcelona and Actar.
LLOP, C. 2015. “Il progetto urbanistico di Barcellona 2011-
2015: in cerca di un nuovo modello di città?” Urbanistica,
n° 155, p. 30-42
MASBOUNGI, A. (dir.) 2010. Barcelone: La ville innovante,
Paris, Le Moniteur.
MASBOUNGI, A. (dir.). 2012. Projets urbains durables:
Strategies, París, Editions le Moniteur.
MOSTAFAVI, M.; DOHERTY, G. (eds.). 2010. Ecological Ur-
banism, Cambridge, Harvard University, Graduate School
of Design, Baden, Lars Müller.
PARCERISA, J.; CROSAS, C. (eds.). 2013. Barcelona Links,
Barcelona, AMB-COAC-ETSAB-LUB.
100 ON TERRITORIAL METABOLISM

ROWE, P. G. 2006. Building Barcelona: A Second Renaix-

enca, Barcelona, Barcelona Regional, Actar.
SIJMONS, D.; HUGTENBURG, J.; VAN HOORN, A.; FEDDES,
F. 2014. Landscape and Energy. Designing Transition, Rot-
terdam, Nai 010 Publishers.
AAVV; SOTOCA, A.; CARRACEDO, O. (eds.) 2015. Naturbà:
Barcelona Collserola, una relació retrobada, Barcelona,
Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya.
RUEDA, S.; DOMENECH, X.; CLOSES, D.; REALES, L. 1998.
The Sustainable City, Exhibition Catalogue, Center de
Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Institut d’Edicions
de la Diputació de Barcelona, Barcelona.
SOLÀ-MORALES, M. DE. 1987. “La segunda historia del
proyecto urbano,” UR: urbanismo revista, n° 5, p.21-27.
Published in English as SOLÀ-MORALES, M. DE. 1989.
“Another modern tradition / An’altra tradizione moderna,”
Lotus international, n° 64, p. 6-32.
SOLÀ-MORALES, M. DE. 2008. Ten Lessons on Barcelona:
Urbanistic Episodes That Have Made the Modern City,
Barcelona, COAC.
SOLÀ-MORALES, M. DE. 2008. A Matter of Things, Rot-
terdam, NAI.
TERRADAS, J. 1999. L’ecosistema urbà, in A. Garcia, A.
Rueda, R. (eds.) La ciutat sostenible, Barcelona, Center de
Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, p. 75-84.
 PART 2

RESEARCH
BY DESIGN
105

INTRODUCTION

AT L AS AN D D ES I G N AS
I N ST R U M E N TS O F K N OW L E D G E
Maria Chiara Tosi, Carles Crosas, and Geoffrey Grulois

The difficulty of understanding a territory has often led

researchers to experience it through tools and research
practices based on direct observation.
In Western culture, it is in fact not uncommon to feel,
in the face of major changes and transformations in the sur-
rounding world, a need to step outside of libraries in order
to experience forms of knowledge that lie not in books but
elsewhere (Blumemberg, 1989). Among these, experiencing
places directly, describing and measuring them, comparing
their essential characteristics, and designing their future
are perhaps the main ways of acquiring this knowledge, by
drawing heavily on the language and analytic categories
that arise from physical experience (Zumthor, 1993).
Dense/sparse, near/far, big/small, empty/full—these
are just some of dichotomous pairs derived from the expe-
rience of a physical body in space that enable us to recount
and discover a territory’s characteristics. Using these and
other categories to draw maps of the area can reveal sur-
prising connections and also dispel false images or com-
mon rhetoric. And in this sense, this kind of mapping can
produce new knowledge for formulating interpretative
hypotheses and for defining strategies of intervention.
Since obtaining specific and precise knowledge of
the three metropolitan areas we examine in this book—
Barcelona, Brussels, and Venice—seemed as urgent as
106 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
­ roducing maps for exploring and recognizing similarities
p a fundamental reflection on how territorial metabolism can
and differences between these territories, we have de-
veloped two complementary forms of description as part
of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Integrated Urban
Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan
Regions. These are a “thin” and abstract description that
we use to highlight what these areas have in common (Wal-
zer, 1994), and a “thick” description that uses the project as
a tool of knowledge capable of illustrating the weaknesses,
threats, and opportunities that exist for each territory
(Geertz, 1973).
On the one hand, then, comparing territories through
mapmaking—juxtaposing and examining them side by
side—has proved useful for considering their differences
or similarities and for establishing a mutual relationship
between territories that allows for them to be evaluated. It
has offered us a tool for placing specific situations within
wider and more general horizons.
And on the other hand, we deemed it important to
deepen our investigation of each territory in order to under-
stand how the specificity of each metropolitan area reacts
to a metabolic approach. This has offered us a tool for
acquiring knowledge that goes beyond a generic reflection
on territorial metabolism, and that we judged—through a
research-by-design approach—as able to show how each
territorial situation may react to similar challenges.
Despite the specificity of each of these cognitive
instruments, we have employed research by design and
comparison in close conjunction with each other. We thus
tasked a small group of students from the three univer-
sities involved in this project with developing, through a
detailed exploration of each individual location, the range
of general interpretations of metropolitan areas that we
considered possible to formulate.
Taken jointly, these two in-depth investigations and
comparative studies represent an important step towards
107 Introduction
suggest new design methodologies and project approaches
for the sustainable transformations of metropolitan areas
in Europe.
It is worth a reminder that all the maps and design
studies presented here were produced by groups of stu-
dents with the guidance of instructors from Escuela Tèc-
nica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, the Università
Iuav di Venezia, and the Faculty of Architecture of Univer-
sité libre de Brussels. During the two-year project of the
Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership, these students were able
to develop new skills in mapping and design at the cross-
roads of urbanism, ecosystem thinking, and territorial
metabolism.
THE BARCELONA, BRUSSELS, AND VENICE METROPOLITAN AREAS
Metropolitan areas are dynamic systems in which
decreasing natural resources interact with high population
density and significant production potential. These areas
of confluence between human capital, natural resources,
and economical flows are among the most active and inno-
vative areas on the planet. However, the conflicts between
the needs of the land, the inhabitants, and their economic
activities have dramatically reduced the resilience of met-
ropolitan regions in recent decades.
The climate changes affecting the entire planet are
radicalized in these regions. Air pollution, the loss of natural
potential, the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, the re-
duction in the size of green areas, and the increasing risk of
flooding, leading to inundation of settlements, all reveal the
increasing fragility of these environments and reduce their
livability and capability to sustain productive activities. In a
time of economic crisis and strong environmental pressure,
metropolitan regions are key factors for a sustainable fu-
ture: they now account for most of the world’s energy con-
sumption and carbon emissions. In Europe, despite the fact
108 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
that industries are being taken out of urban areas, cities
and metropolitan regions continue to generate most of the
negative externalities of the global economy by concentrat-
ing water and air pollution and waste production.
In order to reduce the dependence of metropolitan re-
gions on external resources of water, energy, and materials,
and to reduce negative externalities, an ecosystemic and
metabolic approach is needed—an approach that consid-
ers urban territories as global cycles of energy, materials,
and water, and that tries to efficiently grasp and manage
resource consumption, waste disposal, and related exter-
nalities.
The three metropolitan areas selected in this research
are representative of the variety of metropolitan regions
in Europe. Barcelona embodies the Mediterranean me-
tropolis, with a relatively dense urban fabric and an urban
morphology strongly related to its geographical features.
Its mountains, coastline, and two rivers not only charac-
terize its general form but are also fundamental elements
for understanding its metropolitan metabolism. Barcelona
Metropolitan Area—an administrative body comprising
thirty-six municipalities—has a population of around 3.5
million inhabitants and extends over an area of more that
300 square kilometers.
Located in the north of Europe, Brussels is the capital
of Belgium, where it lies in the central part of the Senne
River Basin. The Brussels Capital Region territory is only
161 square kilometers in area with a population of around
1.2 million inhabitants organized into nineteen municipali-
ties. However, the metropolitan area of Brussels extends
over 135 municipalities with a population of 2.9 million
inhabitants. This territory of low density, which extends
over three valleys (containing the Senne, Dendre, and Dyle
Rivers), goes well beyond the frame of the map of the Brus-
sels region presented in this atlas. This territory is covered
by a horizontal patchwork of historical villages, small-scale
109 Introduction
farms, residential allotments for the middle class, and a
mesh of transportation infrastructure. Brussels is also the
capital of Europe and a central part of the European North
Western Metropolitan Area.
Finally, Venice and its metropolitan area represent the
concept of città diffusa, a paradigmatic example of how the
dispersed configuration of a territory can comprise not only
an urban form but also a low-density metropolitan model
(2,472 square kilometers, 850,000 inhabitants). The histori-
cal settlements grew up based on a reticular form of orga-
nization that spread over the territory in a patchwork made
up of roads, crops, channels, and isolated houses. The en-
semble creates a modern urbanity with a particularly thin
infrastructural porosity together with isotropic scattered
settlements, colonizing a flat territory that has historically
been enlightened by its capital.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BLUMEMBERG, H. 1989. La leggibilità del mondo, Bolo-
gna, Il mulino Bologna.
ZUMTHOR, P. 1993, La mesure du monde, Paris, Éditions
du Seuil.
GEERTZ, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures, New
York, Basic Books.
WALZER, M. 1994. Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at
Home and Abroad, Indiana, University of Notre Dame
Press.
112 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 113 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

METROPOLITAN ATLAS OF
BARCELONA , BRUSSELS,
AND VENICE
Alvise Moretti, Andrea Fantin, Joan Marti, and Adrien Laught

Grid
Grid 21 km

BARCELONA METROPOLITAN AREA—LLOBREGAT RIVER

Length: 170 km

Average flow rate: 19 m3/s

Basin: 4 948 km2

Origin elevation: 1 295 m a.s.l.

Mouth type: canal to the sea

114 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 115 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

Grid Grid
Grid 21 km Grid 21 km

VENICE METROPOLITAN AREA—MARZENEGO RIVER

BRUSSELS METROPOLITAN AREA—SENNE RIVER

Length: 44 km
Length: 103 km
Average flow rate: 4 m3/s
Average flow rate: 5.5 m /s
3

Basin: 63 km2
Basin: 1 164 km2
Origin elevation: 31 m a.s.l.
Origin elevation: 123 m a.s.l.
Mouth type: Artificial canal with two openings to
Mouth type: Natural mouth to the Dyle river the lagoon
116 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 117 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

BAR CELONA—
LLO B REG AT RIVER

Isolines intervals: 10 m (0 to 50) 50 m 100 m Peak Topic river 5 km grid

118 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 119 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

B R US SELS—
S EN N E RIVER

Isolines intervals: 10 m (0 to 50) 50 m 100 m Peak Topic river 5 km grid

120 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 121 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

VEN I CE—
MAR ZENEG O RIVER

Isolines intervals: 10 m (0 to 50) 50 m 100 m Peak Topic river 5 km grid

122 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 123 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

L I VI N G A ND WELFA RE
Brussels—
Senne River

Urban
low residential density high

Other structures

Welfare
Indoor

Outdoor

Hydrography
Topic River
Other water bodies

Grid
Grid 5 km
Barcelona— Venice—
Llobregat River Marzenego River
124 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 125 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

ECO N OMY
Brussels—
Senne River

Urban
Industrial and commercial areas

low residential density high

Main Infrastructures
Highway

Primary road
Railway
Airport

Hydrography

Topic River

Other water bodies

Grid
Grid 5 km

Barcelona— Venice—
Llobregat River Marzenego River
126 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 127 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

T R AN SPORT
Brussels—
Senne River

Road Infrastructures
Highway
Primary road
Secondary road Other transportation infrastructures

Tertiary road Airport

Residential road Sea port

Sea route

Rail Infrastructures
Railway

Subway Hydrography
Tramway Topic River

Train / subway station Other water bodies

Grid
Grid 5 km

Barcelona— Venice—
Llobregat River Marzenego River
128 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 129 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

GR EEN
Brussels—
Senne River

Natural and agricultural vegetation

Wetlands
Arboreal vegetation
Shrubby vegetation

Herbaceous vegetation
Permanent crops
Seasonal crops

Urban vegetation
Parks and gardens
Abandoned urban land

Hydrography
Topic River

Other water bodies

Protected areas
Natura 2000

Grid
Grid 5 km
Barcelona— Venice—
Llobregat River Marzenego River
130 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 131 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

BAR CELONA—
LLO B REG AT RIVER

Energy and water sources: Waste and pollution:

Energy supplies Waste
Energy consumption per capita [toe/yr]: 3.72 Municipal waste per capita [t/yr]: 0.44
Electric power 40% Recycled waste: 21%
Coal and waste power plant Waste sorting center
Solar power plant Itinerant waste sorting center
Hydroelectric power plant Landfill / disposal: 3.1%
Main power lines network Landfill
Electric substation Incineration / energy recovery: 4.2%
Thermal energy 36% Waste-to-energy plant
Natural gas national pipeline Composting and digestion: 71.8%
Natural gas regional pipeline
Biomass cogenerator Soil pollution
Firewood sources Potentially polluted soil
Oil derivatives 24% Polluted soil and/or aquifer
Refinery Secured perimeter of polluted areas
Gas station Remediation activities completed
Remediation activities ongoing
Industries at potential ambiental threat
Water supplies
Public water supplies
Population connected 100% Air pollution: PM10
Water consumption per capita [l/day]: 125 Urban and suburban stations
Water well Annual mean [µg/m3]
Superficial water harvest 0 10 20 30 40 50
Other water supply structure Exceeded threshold of 50 µg/m3 [d/Y]
Desalination plant 20 40 60 80 100
Private water supplies Background interpolated values
Private water well 0 Annual mean [µg/m ] 3
50
Superficial waters harvest

Water and pollution: Water bodies:

Sewerage system General water management system
Population connected to treatment plants Linear water body
Areal water body
Combined sewer Upper karst springs line
Sanitary sewer Ditch drainage system
Individual sewage disposal system Mechanic drenage area
No data Pumping plants
Sewage treatment plant Flooding events
Point of discharge Topic river morphology
Industrial point of discharge Almost natural
Higly modified
Artificial
Nutrients in agriculture: Nitrogen
Underground
Total input to agro-ecosystems [q/ha/yr]
<0..5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.5-2 >2
Topic river basin
Sub-river basins
Tributaries rivers
Superficial waters quality
Macro-descriptors Pollution Level ( LIM )
Soil permeability
1 2 3 4 5
Low (0,036 - 0,36 mm/h)
Moderately low (0,36 - 3,6 mm/h)
Aquifer waters quality
Moderately high (3,6 - 36 mm/h)
Groundwater chemical status
High (36 - 360 mm/h)
Positive Negative
Very high ( > 360 mm/h)

Elevation data:
-2 0 10 50 100 200 500 800
132 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 133 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

B R US SELS—
S EN N E RIVER

Energy and water sources: Waste and pollution:

Energy supplies Waste
Energy consumption per capita [toe/yr]: 1.6 Municipal wastte per capita [t/yr]: 0.38
Electric power 27 % Recycled waste: 30%
Coal and waste power plant Waste sorting center
Solar power plant compost
Hydroelectric power plant Landfill / disposal: 2%
Main power lines network Landfill
Electric substation Incineration / energy recovery: 55%
Thermal energy 43 % Waste-to-energy plant
Natural gas national pipeline Composting and digestion: 13%
Natural gas regional pipeline
Biomass cogenerator Soil pollution
Firewood sources Potentially polluted soil
Oil derivatives 27 % Polluted soil and/or aquifer
Refinery Secured perimeter of polluted areas
Fuel station Remediation activities completed
Remediation activities ongoing
Industries at potential ambiental threat

Water supplies
Public water suplies Air pollution: PM10
Population connected Urban and suburban stations
Water consumption per capita [l/day]: 96 Annual mean [µg/m3]
Water well 0 10 20 30 40 50
Superficial waters harvest Exceeded threshold of 50 µg/m3 [d/Y]
Other water supply structure 20 40 60 80 100
Private water suplies Background interpolated values
Private water well 0 Annual mean [µg/m3] 50
Superficial waters harvest

Water and pollution: Water bodies:

Sewerage system General water management system
Population connected to treatment plants Linear water body
Areal water body
Combined sewer Upper karst springs line
Sanitary sewer Ditch drainage system
Individual sewage disposal system Mechanic drenage area
No data Pumping plants
Sewage treatment plant Flooding events
Point of discharge
Topic river morphology
Industrial point of discharge
Almost natural
Higly modified
Artificial
Nutrients in agricolture: Nitrogen
Underground
Total input to agroculture [q/ha/yr]
<0.5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.5-2 >2
Topic river basin
Sub-river basins
Tributaries rivers
Superficial waters quality
Macro-descriptors Pollution Level ( LIM )
1 2 3 4 5 Soil permeability
Low (0,036 - 0,36 mm/h)
Aquifer waters quality Moderately low (0,36 - 3,6 mm/h)
Groundwater chemical status Moderately high (3,6 - 36 mm/h)
Positive Negative High (36 - 360 mm/h)
Very high ( > 360 mm/h)

Elevation data:
-2 0 10 50 100 200 500 800
134 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 135 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

VEN I CE—
MAR ZENEG O RIVER

Energy and water sources: Waste and pollution:

Energy supplies Waste
Energy consumption per capita [toe/yr]: 2,1 Municipal waste per capita [t/yr]: 0,45
Electric power 27% Recycled waste: 42%
Coal and waste power plant Waste sorting center
Solar power plant Itinerant waste sorting center
Hydroelectric power plant Landfill / disposal: 9%
Main power lines network Landfill
Electric substation Incineration / energy recovery: 16%
Thermal energy 44% Waste-to-energy plant
Natural gas national pipeline Composting and digestion: 33%
Natural gas regional pipeline
Biomass cogenerator Soil pollution
Firewood sources Potentially polluted soil
Oil derivatives 29% Polluted soil and/or aquifer
Refinery Secured perimeter of polluted areas
Gas station Remediation activities completed
Remediation activities ongoing
Industries at potential ambiental threat

Water supplies
Public water supplies Air pollution: PM10
Population connected 98% Urban and suburban stations
Water consumption per capita [l/day]: 233 Annual mean [μg/m3]
Water well 0 10 20 30 40 50
Superficial waters harvest Exceeded threshold of 50 μg/m3 [d/Y]
Other water supply structure 20 40 60 80 100
Private water supplies Background interpolated values
Private water well 0 Annual mean [μg/m3] 50
Superficial water harvest

Water and pollution: Water bodies:

Sewerage system General water management system
Population connected to treatment plants Linear water body
yes 73% no 27% Areal water body
Combined sewer Upper karst springs line
Sanitary sewer Ditch drainage system
Individual sewage disposal system Mechanic drenage area
No data Pumping plants
Sewage treatment plant Flooding events
Point of discharge
Topic river morphology
Industrial point of discharge
Almost natural
Higly modified
Artificial
Nutrients in agriculture: Nitrogen
Underground
Total input to agro-ecosystems [q/ha/yr]
<0.5 0.5-1 1-1.5 1.5-2 >2
Topic river basin
Sub-river basins
Tributaries rivers
Superficial water quality
Macro-descriptors Pollution Level ( LIM )
1 2 3 4 5

Aquifer water quality

Groundwater chemical status
Positive Negative

Elevation data:
-2 0 10 50 100 200 500 800
136 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 137 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

LLO B REG AT RIVER A ND

TAR R AG ONA REG ION—
P R O J ECT LOCATIONS

Molins de Rei

Tarragona
Grid
Grid 21 km
138 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 139 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

S EN N E RIVER—
P R O J ECT LOCATIONS

Buda

Halle

Grid
Grid 21 km
140 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 141 Metropolitan Atlas of Barcelona , Brussels, and V enice

MAR ZENEG O RIVER—

P R O J ECT LOCATIONS

Marzenego

Porto Marghera

Grid
Grid 21 km
143

SUSTAINABLE WASTE
MANAGEMENT AND CO 2 -
BASED URBAN PLANNING FOR
MOLINS DE REI
Miguel Rami, Elisabeth Terrisse, and Roberta Sinestesio
Studio Carles Crosas and Jorge Perea (ETSAB)

IN-BETWEEN
Molins de Rei is a place where a lot of people pass through but very few arrive.
Its geographic location within the framework of the Barcelona metropolitan area
has forced it to deal with the massive fluxes between Barcelona City and all the
territory that is connected to it through this channel. Train lines, highways, and elec-
trical towers have been set up in this area along the river, framing it and separating
it from the natural surroundings and from the adjacent population nodes. All this
infrastructure has come to define the landscape and is not expected to move or dis-
appear but to keep growing. Molins de Rei has to confront the same challenges that
big metropolises will face, albeit with fewer inhabitants and therefore with fewer
economic resources. So what is the path to follow for the future of Molins de Rei?
What a metropolitan-scale analysis of Molins de Rei reveals is its importance
as the southwest portal of Barcelona for goods and energy and its nodal importance
in the waste management network. Our proposal is faced with a double objective.
On one hand, our task is to reconcile this town with its great natural surroundings—
the nearby mountains of Collserola and Garraf, the Llobregat River—and also to
strengthen its historical bonds with the neighboring communities, thus improving
accessibility. And on the other hand, our task is put to use residual management
infrastructure existing in the area to meet one of the biggest challenges for the me-
tropolis of the future: an environmentally sustainable waste management of urban
territories.

WASTE MANAGEMENT PROCESS: W2E, W2M, 3R

Today, we find ourselves in the Anthropocene geological epoch. Its main
characteristic is that human behavior directly, and in ways that we can perceive,
affects all the ecosystems in which our activities take place. Desertification, ris-
ing temperatures, or the pollution of the seas with plastic are some of the global
effects directly related to waste management. The most complex aspect of these
problems is not so much finding a technical and organizational solution, but the
fact that a complete, profound revision of the way in which we conceive of, identify,
and understand waste is necessary, and of how our way of life affects it. Nowadays,
Spain recycles 30% of the waste that it generates. According to the statistics, we
are only half as successful as Germans when it comes to recycling and considerably
144 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
behind in comparison to most other European countries. Every day, cities receive
large amounts of energy and material, more than is used. The rest remains here in
the form of urban growth or of pollution and waste. That means that no matter what,
the waste cycle is always circular. The waste that is not recycled or reused contami-
nates our environment in several ways, whether by polluting the air and rain through
combustion processes or by contaminating the soil in landfills. If leftover materials
and surplus energy recirculate within the system, the city becomes less dependent,
increases its efficiency and productivity, and reduces the pressure it puts on the
environment.
In the particular case of Barcelona, it is estimated that the municipal area pro-
duces around 700,000 tons of waste annually, or 1.3 kg of waste per person per day.
Fifteen percent of this waste is transformed into energy and 30% is recuperated as
prime matter. The key to improving these percentages is involving the population
through active participation. One way to do this is through education and sharing
clear information about the recycling processes, but it is also very important to
stimulate those initiatives that make those processes accessible to everyone and
that offer financial incentives to those who recycle.
Our vision for Molins de Rei 2040 aims to boost circular energy flow dynamics,
in which the surplus of one agent is the combustible for another. We want to ensure
an efficient use of these energies and minimize the generation of waste. To do this,
we have identified a hierarchy in terms of energy use, function, and metropolitan
relevance regarding waste management. Reading the urban fabric of Molins de Rei
through these parameters, it is above all a cement plant that stands out: Cement
Molins. Founded in 1943, this cement plant has been manufacturing traditional
cement nationally and internationally and has reached 1.4 million tons of clinker
production per year. The process requires high quantities of fuel: 60% is based on
coal coke, totaling 287,500 kg. The remaining 40% consists of 12,000 tons of sewage
sludge, 20,000 tons of wood, 63,000 tons of waste-derived fuels, and 20,000 tons
of waste tires. The extraordinary amount of material consumed requires maximum
efficiency in the management of waste generated. A large amount of heat energy is
generated during the combustion of limestone (CaCO3) to obtain calcium dioxide. We
propose to pipe-channel this surplus energy to heat the railway station of Quatre
camins and obtain a collective benefit, and even to extend it further to conduct it to
surrounding neighborhoods for the same purpose. Considering that one ton of CO2 is
released for every ton of clinker obtained, we find that a much more ambitious solu-
tion is to progressively shift the cement production towards low CO2 cement. The
key is to produce the cement from magnesium silicates. The temperature needed
in the process, about 650 °C, is approximately half of that needed to produce the
traditional cement. In addition, finished magnesium silicate cement absorbs CO2
over its useful life, yielding a negative balance in CO2 emissions. This would be a
radical change for the construction industry, which is today the leading industry in
CO2 emissions with 6% of global emissions.
When combined with accessible metropolitan transportation infrastructure,
the multiple production activities that come together at Molins de Rei—agricul-
tural farming fields, industrial areas, and local neighborhoods—make it an optimal
location for a recycling center. There would be three main groups of activities in the
recycling plant of Molins de Rei. The first group would include classifying the waste
in order to obtain raw materials, making finished products, and producing biomass
through various processes. The second would include DIY (do-it-yourself) workshops
to teach people to repair and fabricate goods from recycled materials. And the third
145 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei
would include post-processing the organic matter from the farming activity to de-
velop both biofuels and biomass energy. These neighborhood-sized facilities should
expand in the following years in order to make recycling accessible to everyone and
increase recycling levels.
Additionally, we propose to improve local accessibility—to improve biking
and walking connections to the river, to Collserola and the Ordal mountains, and
within surrounding neighborhoods on both sides of the river, which is a cultural
bond today disrupted by the existing infrastructure. Obtaining more value from the
Llobregat natural strip and the surrounding environment could enhance the experi-
ence of the local communities and help to establish a better mind-set for address-
ing larger environmental challenges within these communities.
CO2-BASED URBAN PLANNING
Regarding CO2, we have found a tool that we can use to measure transversely
across physical waste generation, contamination through large combustion pro-
cesses, mobility contamination, and absorption through natural processes. We are
facing the challenge of sustainable urbanism by being rigorously self-aware of the
energy requirements of urban territories. Rather than reading the city as a superpo-
sition of layers, we understand these layers as agents that relate within themselves
and to the natural environment through processes. Agents and processes can be
classified by their CO2 consumption, and urban design can therefore be expressed
with a CO2 equation. When a CO2 equation is balanced within two or more agents or
processes, we have a CO2 stable unit. To lead the way towards a self-sufficient city
that respects the environment and its resources for future generations, we must
approach urban design by equilibrating these CO2 equations on all scales, reducing
or progressively transforming the emissive agents, and prioritizing and protecting
those who absorb them. What is most interesting is how this opens up a new sce-
nario in which priorities have shifted. New typologies will arise and new bonds will
unite us, across local and global scales, for a better future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACTAR, 2015. Plans and projects for Barcelona 2011–2015,
Ajuntament de Barcelona.
QUADERNS PDU METROPOLITÀ, 2014. Cities and Urban
Plans in the 21st Century: Understanding the New Dy-
namic and Urban Planning Instruments. AMB.
PAISEA, 2013. Llobregat Park River.
http://www.amb.cat/es/web/medi-ambient/residus
http://arboliza.es/compensar-co2/calculo-co2.html
146 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 147 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

Transportation network showing existing and future proposals for Tram, FGC, Ave,
and AMB Subway over the territorial scope of the present studio. Inorganic infrastructure that is part of in the Llobregat corridor, highlighting the productive territories.
148 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 149 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

MOLINS DE REI

BARCELONA

RIVER AREA TODAY

SANT VICENS DELS HORTS MOLINS DE REI

RIVER AREA 1956

(Top) (Top)
Geographical characteristics of Molins de Rei, located in a strategic position as the southwest portal of the Barcelona The starting point for the site analysis was the overlap between infrastructure and nature. The aggressive imposition of
metropolis. the transportation lines over the natural corridor has come to fragment and disconnect the corridor. The remaining land
between the new boundaries appears as terrain vague.
(Bottom)
Molins de Rei appears to be at the natural corridor between Collserola and the Ordal mountains, but nowadays it func- (Bottom)
tions as a portal to the metropolitan area in which the infrastructure network has become the priority. Diagram that shows how the river section has narrowed from 1956 until today due to infrastructural impositions.
150 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 151 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

(Top)
What seems like a blind wall enclosing the river flow can be understood as a wall with a system of holes, hence as a
wall with some porosity. There is an opportunity for our proposal in trying to convert such ostensibly negative charac-
teristics of the site into virtues, such as using the lack of accessibility as an opportunity for privacy.

This drawing shows the overlap of the infrastructure layers (motorways, trains, etc.) and the natural flows of the Llo- (Bottom)
bregat River and the creeks. Through this mapping, we discovered that the result of this overlapping of these two layers Historical pictures found in Paisea Extra 1 Río Llobregat 2013 that show the historical bonds that united the communi-
was that some paths and tunnels connect the gap of the Llobregat with the city in a casual way. ties on both sides of the Llobregat River.
152 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 153 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

SWEDEN FINLAND
NORWAY 32,5

42,2 49,9
ESTONIA
Tricalcic silicates 50%
31,3 CLINKER
1.400.000 CO2
DENMARK 8,0 LATVIA t/year
UNITED
KINGDOM 44,3 30,5 LITHUANIA

43,7 HOLLAND
50,9 32,3 POLAND
GERMANY
BELGIUM
63,8 CZECH REPUBLIC
55,1 LUX.
25,4
46,6
10,3 SLOVAKIA
FRANCE AUSTRIA
SWITZ. 56,3 30,5 HUNGARY
53,5
39,2
SLOVENIA 36,0

CROATIA 16,5
SPAIN 23,1 BULGARIA
PORTUGAL

32,6
30,4
ITALY
42,5 CYPRUS
Bicalcic silicats 30% Raw matter
17,7
MALTA 10,9

Tricalcic Aluminate 14%

Tetracalcic
ferritumaluminate 6%

carbon coke 60%

Fuel

+ SURPLUS
CALORIFIC
waste deliv. fuels 22%
ENERGY
Waste valorization
wood 7%
tires 7%
Calorific power valorization
sewage sludge 4%

waste managment nodes interacting with Molins de Rei waste management nodes.
(Top)
Recycling percentages around Europe show that Spain has to double the current levels of recycling to catch up with
Central Europe.

(Bottom)
The network between the waste treatment points of the metropolitan area interacting with the treatments points
located in Molins de Rei. This map highlights Molins de Rei as an important hub for waste management within the
metropolitan network. Sankey diagram of the Cement Molins factory explaining inputs and outputs of material, waste, and energy.
154 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 155 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

non-recyclable
acid rain

IKEA
organic blast furnace
tomeu crops

glass
big company local shop
landfill

-
ECOPARC aquiferus

wood
goods

plastic

TRASH
-
metal

human

elements

products
manufacturers/dealers/wholesalers

Trash cycle in urban areas. This cycle is characterized by the fact that, without exception, it is always circular. Recycling
and changing our perception of waste can come to be understood as having new economic importance for urban areas if
we manage to boost processes of recycling, repairing, reusing, W2M, and W2E.
156 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 157 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

hot water
hot water

Llobregat’s
Llobregat’s park
park green energy
green energy

photovoltaic bicyle
photovoltaic bicycle pathpath

recycle industry
recycle industry

crops

community garden new recycle products

new recycle products

crops
green areas
green areas community garden

compost
compost
organic
organic

Molins de rey markets and shops

Molins de Rei markets and shops

ecopark Zona Franca

biomass green energy

green energy no recycle trash
no recycle trash combustible
combustible cementer
industry biomass industry
cementer

hot water hot water

hot water hot water

cementer building recycle highway highway building biomass

crops bicycle garden bicycle crops garden

path path

(Top)
Strategy diagram. The surplus of one agent becomes energy for another. This scheme responds to a stabilized dynamic
circular energy flow. This diagram sets up a hierarchy regarding the function and the relevance of the agents involved in
waste management.

(Bottom)
Specific proposals for waste management and improved accessibility in Molins de Rei: Bank of materials, W2E and Schematic river section. At the opposite points, two big producers of energy, an urban plot, a highway, and a vegetable
W2M market, pedestrian bridges and cycling lines along and across the river. filter that separate all this construction from the river and its banks.
158 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 159 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

Circular economy within the main energy suppliers of Molins de Rei.

160 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 161 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

1,100,000 Tons of CO2

1.100.000
Tons of CO2 Quatre Camins Nus Viari
Station Quatre Camins
NUS VIARI
QUATRE
CAMINS
QUATRE CAMINS
AA-- 22 B - 23
STATION B - 23

PARK&RIDE
RECYCLING HUB MATERIALS BANK

Park & Ride Recyling Hub Materials Bank LLOBREGAT RIVER

660.000
Tons of CO2 Llobgregat River

0 Kg CO2
C02 CONSUMPTION DRAWING

park and ride and meet

328,5 kg CO2/year
just breathing

Beltitic cements

Quatre Camins Station

with
Go
Be magnesium silicats BCN 37º

ltit
37°

100 Kg CO2/pack
ic
cement pack
100 kg

not tesla: 5 years to ban

not tesla: 3 years to ban
ACTORS

31.000 KW/h

TESLA
37° 37° 37° 37°

250 ºC

not tesla: 3 years to ban

not tesla: 3 years to ban

TESLA
TESLA
180 ºC 180 ºC 180 ºC
TESLA

TESLA

TESLA

TESLA
TESLA

21 ºC
180 ºC 180 ºC

3500 kg CO2/year just MUUU

ETHANOL
ORGANIC WASTE TO
TO
ETHANOL E-85
180 ºC

200 ºC

BURNING ENERGY RELEASED DURING SOLAR PANELS PRODUCE 31.000 kw/YEAR

CEMENTER PROCESSES IS USED TO HEAT ELECTRICAL POWER.
QUATRE CAMINS STATION.

ESTIMATED 300.000 kw/YEAR ELECTRICAL

ENERGY REQUIREMENTS

C02 consumption drawing paralleled with the C02 equation.

 162 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 163 S ustainable Waste Management and C O 2- Based Urban Planning for Molins de Rei

37° BCN 37º

BCN 37º 37°

SOLAR PANELS
not tesla: 5 years to ban
not tesla: 3 years to ban

h2o

reparation workshop bank of materials

not tesla: 5 years to ban

16 ºC

not tesla: 3 years to ban

H2o 30 ºC
+10 years old: not allowed in buidings
TESLA

not elec.: 5 years to ban

TESLA

TESLA
TESLA

electr.

electrical
TESLA

TESLA

TESLA
ETHANOL
TO
E-85 ETHANOL
TO
E-85
ORGANIC WASTE
TO
ETHANOL

0.000 kw/YEAR ELECTRICAL

GY REQUIREMENTS
165

PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE AS
A NEW PUBLIC SPACE
FOR RESIDENTIAL
SUBURBS IN HALLE
Florentine Sieux, Margot Thérond, and Thibault Wéry
Studio Geoffrey Grulois, Nadia Casabella, and Gery Leloutre (ULB)

THE COMPOSITION OF THE LANDSCAPE OF HALLE, A TYPICAL BELGIAN

TERRITORY
The municipality of Halle is characterized by a fragmented and heterogeneous
landscape that is typical of peripheral Belgian territory and covered by dispersed
fragments of individual houses, subdivisions, and ribbon developments along the
roads. This structure makes it unclear where the boundaries between the city and
the countryside lie.
In order to understand the layout of this landscape, we focused on the diver-
sity of the Belgian road and railway networks and their typical components. Those
infrastructures are the result of multiple political decisions from different periods
of time. The road and railway networks are a juxtaposition of several networks: the
national roads, the national railway, the European roads, and the TGV (high-speed
trains). These infrastructures are considered not only as paths of communication
but also as important development tools. On both sides of these paths, a range of
buildings face each other—housing and industry.
The phenomenon of urban sprawl cuts large open spaces through what was
once the open green space of the countryside. Those open spaces are hidden behind
infrastructure and next to industries. The result is a feeling that the open spaces are
not really attractive, not easily accessible, and that the inhabitants cannot benefit
from them, even though people often settled in the suburbs with the idea of enjoy-
ing the landscape.
In Europe around the 1990s, urban planning—especially as influenced by the
notion of a diffuse city (città diffusa)—became a new concern.1 These scattered
territories played an important role in the development of discourse about the
contemporary city by offering a new object for research and project development.
The understanding of such dispersed territory implies a redefinition of the notion of
urbanity (Vigano, 2012). In taking up the notion of the “diffuse city,” Bernardo Secchi
transformed the concept into a question of project development. Because it is not
enough to analyze the characteristics of the contemporary city, so he argues, it is
also necessary to reflect on its future. In his view, the use of the term “city” implies
the existence of spatial dynamics capable of reinforcing the characteristics of den-
sity, centrality, and urbanity (Secchi, 2006). Michiel Dehaene suggests in a discus-
sion of Belgian suburban territories that “if the dispersedly built Flemish territory is
166 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
ever to become truly urban, this will not occur by simply annexing the territory to the
existing city centers, but by the consolidation of the existing patterns of urbaniza-
tion in situ, by intensifying the relations within the dispersedly developed territory”
(Dehaene, 2013: 96).
PROJECT: A CULTURAL AND PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE
In this in-between peripheral space, there are two issues at stake. The first
issue is the lack of interchange or benefits between the existing activities in the
territory: industries, distribution centers, and the residential settlements. The
continuous growth of industries and distribution centers is a major concern for the
inhabitants living in the area. This growth is maintained by an economical system
on a national or international scale with few connections to the city of Halle.2 The
attractiveness of this location for industrial activities lies in the availability of inex-
pensive land that is well-connected to the national highway system. However, the
industrial activities create negative externalities for the local inhabitants such as
CO2 emissions, waste, truck traffic, and noise pollution.
The second issue is the lack of space for social encounters in the sprawl-
ing territories around Halle. Furthermore, the large infrastructure networks (water
transport, rail network, and highways) cannot easily be crossed. The pedestrian
paths are fragmented and do not allow a continuity of public space along the terri-
tory.
The question raised by the project is how to reintroduce spaces for social
encounters?
The project focuses on the potential of the intermediate scale in the in-be-
tween space of the sprawling city.
The analysis reveals the potential for large open green spaces for socialization
that are enclosed in between the elements of infrastructure (highway, waterway,
railway, distribution centers) and that act as barriers. These could be both produc-
tive spaces and spaces for social interaction for the local community.
The project aims to consolidate a cultural and productive landscape in order
to enhance social relations within the local community. The project proposes a
pedestrian network as a link between leisure activities and the territory’s agricul-
tural production.
The network crosses various zones composed of open green spaces to which
pedestrians do not currently have access. The network is placed strategically. It runs
alongside the different facilities that exist today: sport facilities, collective ware-
houses, and a cemetery. It is linked to existing pedestrian and bicycle networks that
lead to the center of Halle and the metropolitan region.
The project of the pedestrian network crosses through a variety of regener-
ated areas:
- The parking lot belonging to the Colruyt Company is made accessible to pe-
destrians in order to encourage employees to use other means of transporta-
tion to reach their offices.
- An agricultural zone located next to private gardens is transformed in order
to be accessible to the inhabitants. The zone can host collective productive
gardens to enhance social interactions.
- A new public space for leisure is located around existing sports facilities,
a cemetery and car resellers’ showrooms.
- A new agro-cooperative is put in place to enable products from the local
167 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle
­ gricultural gardens to be sold. This zone crosses through the N6 road, requir-
a
ing the creation of a 30 km/h zone to limit traffic.
- In a large green open space, we propose a waste management zone con-
nected to an educational center: this “house of nature” becomes an extension
of the school.
- A pocket of nature that needs to be preserved. This space is currently occu-
pied by the Papyrus Company. The project enables pedestrians to bypass this
zone while also ensuring the privacy of the company.
- A wetland is built to act as a floodable area for the Senne River. Furthermore,
the wetland treats the water flow of the Senne River through phytopurification.
This intervention aims to decrease the risk of flooding, to improve the microcli-
mate, and to enhance the natural biotope. The inhabitants can cross the zone
to reach the current walking path along the canal.
The overall project is designed as a metabolic loop. It is composed of three
projects that approach the work on two different scales: Thibault Wéry focuses on
the landscape aspect of the entire pedestrian network, Florentine Sieux on housing
located along the border of the agriculture fields, and Margot Thérond on the new
agro-cooperative.
The main function of Thibault Wéry’s project is to create multiple atmospheres
structured in different sequences. The sequences aim to invite pedestrians to en-
gage in a visual and sensorial experience of perceiving the space like a narration of
the landscape.
The project follows the main axis of the global project and goes through green
spaces from east to west.
This main visual experience is divided into five intermediary sequences that
focus on different landscapes. The idea is to deal with each one of them from a
specific location. This location is handled as a component of the landscape—an
intervention intended to reveal the landscape.
Florentine Sieux’s project focuses on housing located along the border of the
agricultural fields, where the gap between the productive system and the inhabit-
ants is the most visible. In Halle, many houses have barriers such as hedges or fenc-
es to enclose the propriety. This makes them unreachable: there are few visual links
with the backyard and physical links are rare. The project proposes two additional
housing typologies beyond the existing typology of individual four-facade hous-
ing. The main objectives of the project are to extend roads towards the agricultural
fields and to create collective spaces with a productive function. These interven-
tions will facilitate the transition between public collective zones and private zones.
Margot Thérond investigates the possibility of providing food resources for the
entire population of Lembeek. The system is based on an intensive production on
the municipal agricultural land and a distribution in short circuits.
This project proposes the rehabilitation of three warehouses and the con-
struction of a new building to accommodate a local market, a community center, an
agricultural cooperative, a canteen, and a repair shop. The agro-cooperative will be
located only one hundred meters from the productive gardens.
168 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
ENDNOTES
1  The starting point for the expression città difusa (“dif-
fuse city” in Italian) is a research study produced in 1990
by Francesco Indovina in Veneto. Bernardo Secchi and
Paola Vigano, in particular, studied this theme of the
città difusa more closely, helping the concept to become
widely disseminated.
2  Colruyt, one of the biggest Belgian large-distribution
companies, now also delivers in France.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GROSJEAN, B. 2010. Urbanisation sans urbanisme: Une
histoire de la “ville diffuse,” Bruxelles, Mardaga.
DE MEULDER, B.; SCHEURS, J.; COCK, A.; NOTTEBOOM, B.
1999. “Patching up the Belgian Urban Landscape,” OASE,
n° 52, p. 78-113.
THEUNIS, K. 2006. “La loi De Taeye,” A+, n° 202, p. 100.
VIGANO, P. 2012. Les territoires de l’urbanisme: Le projet
comme producteur de connaissance, Genève, Métis-
Presses.
SECCHI, B. 2006. Première leçon d’urbanisme, Marseille,
Editions Parenthèse.
DEHAENE, M. 2013. Tuinieren in het Stedelijk Veld. Gar-
dening in the Urban Field, Ghent, A&S/Books.
170 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 171 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle

Halle - Satelite view (1971)

Halle - Ferraris map (1771-1778)
Circa 1700, the Flemish landscape includes two entities: Halle and Lembeek. Two major national roads (N6 and N7) run
through the two cities and connect small and larger cities. They stimulate commerce and the industry. This is why we
find several agricultural plants on both sides of those roads. (geopunt.be)
Halle - Vandermaelen map (1846-1854)
Around 1900, the railways and the canal become a serious alternative to roads because they are faster and cheaper.
Railways follow the road network. The sides of the axes become strategic points. Industrial plants settle near to those
roads. (geopunt.be)
At the same time as these changes after the Second World War, reconstruction became the center of attention. De
Taeye’s political program also questioned this reconstruction. It allowed grants to households enabling them to move
into the countryside. The countryside is progressively settled without any major scheme to develop the axes (National
Roads 6 and 7). (geopunt.be)
Halle - Satelite view (2015)
In the 1950s, a European-wide road network was built: highways and TGV networks. In 2000, the E429/A8 was built. That
road connects Belgium to France. It also plays a major role in industrial growth, and in particular in the important logis-
tical sector that exists in that region. This is the reason the Colruyt Group, a large-scale Belgian distribution company,
and many other players choose to base themselves in this specific area. (geopunt.be)
172 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 173 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle

Typologies of public spaces in the dispersed city

There are mainly five different typologies of public spaces: the town square, the esplanade, the parking lot, the playing
area for kids in a small park, and paths for pedestrians or cyclists alongside the Canal and football fields. These public
spaces are totally isolated and not very well-connected. They are not easy to reach for people living in residential neigh-
borhoods. They are not easy to use, and there are very few of them. They permit nothing more than leisure activities.
Those spaces are related to urban context. Because they are isolated, they have no connection with the territory.
174 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 175 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle

1 1 2

3 4
4

7
5 6 7

Axonometric view of studied area and zoomed-in views of different project areas
176 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 177 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle

Reflecting wall Fictive copse Unbielt plot Symbolic barrier Walkway

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
CONTRAST DEPENDENCE OPENING RECOVERING TRANSITION

1. CONTRASTING LANDSCAPES

Colruyt’s distribution
center
Reflecting wall

Reflecting wall

Colruyt
A metabolic loop (Top)
Organic waste and compost of inhabitants and public areas are centralized in a local compost center. The fertilizer A8

produced in the local compost and animal manure are directly spread in the fields and public areas. In addition to the Pajottenland
waste system, the productive zone is divided into two systems: extensive agriculture on the farmers’ land and intensive
agriculture on inhabitants’ land. An agricultural cooperative allows the exchange of knowledge as well as the sale of
products cultivated both by the farmers and the inhabitants.

Five spots of landscape sequences (Right, and following pages)

Five locations have specific characteristics:
- They differ in their morphology and dimensions but also mainly in their history and their topography. The topography is
shaped by the location, offering totally different sights, interests, and atmospheres, even some which are totally absurd
in current times. Front vieuw
- They thus represent five meaningful moments of the territory.
178 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 179 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle

2. DEPENDING LANDSCAPES
2. DEPENDENT LANDSCAPES 4. RECOVERING NATURE

Fictive copse
Remainder of ancestral
agricultural concepts Symbolic
barrier

Intensive Symbolic barrier

agriculture Observation shelters
Fictive
copse

Left behind
landscape

City
Papyrus
industry

Clear visual vieuw

Close-up view

3. OPENING BUILDING LANDSCAPE 5. TRANSITION LANDSCAPES

Unbuilt plot Walkway

Witness landbouwing

N6 Walkway

Canal

Meadows

Zenne

Plunging vieuw
Overview
180 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
0 3,5 10,5m
A housing typology for the dispersed city
The project aims to add a mixture of housing: there will be social housing, social apartments, larger apartments, etc.
All of these are double-aspect apartments. Some patios or gardens are private, but the majority are collective. In the
center, there is a wash-house. This typology allows encounters between inhabitants, which is currently difficult to do
in Hal. Visitors or inhabitants pass through flower beds, a playground, and a chicken coop to reach the pedestrian net-
works. A row of trees separates private housing and public space. The accompanying bicycle shelters isolate the paths
from the parking. Housing does not exceed rez+2 so as to be integrated into the landscape.
181 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle
A new agro-cooperative for Lembeek
In the project, this new public space is divided into four different zones all related to the urban context: there is a green
zone connected to the market and the community center, an urban playground, an educational farm (which already
exists but will be improved), and an outdoor cafeteria. Moreover, the surrounding houses have open gardens connected
to this new public space.
182 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 183 Productive Landscape as a N ew Public S pace for Residential S uburbs in H alle

PRODUCERS LOCAL CONSUMPTION EATERS

35 HA: BIO EXTENSIVE

5 HA: BIO INTENSIVE

5 HA: BIO INTENSIVE

A local food system for inhabitants of Lembeek

Regarding the actors, the producers constitute the community: farmers, inhabitants, and schools. Together they
produce 6.5 tons of food per week. This food is collected, sorted, cleaned, and sold directly at the agro-cooperative or
through home delivery in a basket (fifty baskets per week are delivered) and used to feed the twenty-four primary and
secondary schools (with 1,200 lunches per day). Five hectares of land are needed to produce that amount of food.
185

REGENERATION SCENARIOS
FOR THE MARZENEGO RIVER
AND THE CIT TÀ DIFFUSA
Andrea Fantin and Alvise Moretti
Studio Maria Chiara Tosi and Luca Nicoletto (IUAV)

TOUGH CHALLENGES IN A DISJOINTED LANDSCAPE

The Marzenego River is located in an area of the Veneto plain characterized
by the so-called città diffusa—a seamless urban-rural continuum with different
gradients of density that has completely lost the ability to relate and interact with
the surrounding environment.
The unplanned or inadequately planned developments of the area have result-
ed in numerous problems that are now escalating, either because of the increase
in severe weather phenomena or because of limited political action with regard to
climate change. The water management of the plain was heavily affected by urban
development: many drainage ditches were removed and embankments were built
directly at the rivers’ edges to gain the maximum space for urban and agricultural
activities. Furthermore, some segments of the rivers and canals were highly altered
through the rectification of the watercourses, the realization of concrete banks, and
the transformation of the river through culverts. Meanwhile, cementification has
caused a reduction of the permeable soil, producing major water runoff.
Since the plain has minimal slopes and the altitude is close to or lower than
sea level, the drainage system is complex and delicate and also requires mechani-
cal drainage in order to keep the soil dry. The consequences of urban growth have
resulted in numerous drainage system failures, causing flooding events.
In the mobility sector, due to the low urban density and the polycentric situa-
tion of the diffuse city, private cars have always been the main means of transporta-
tion; the public transportation services struggle to be effective, while the network of
bicycle paths is poorly developed and underused.
On the rural side, modernity has swept away most of the traditional manage-
ment of the fields that used to characterize the landscape; in order to maximize
the harvest and to reduce maintenance, several tree hedges along the fields were
removed and many drainage ditches were minimized or abandoned.
Nevertheless, the agricultural sector is impoverished, since the land is divided
into several small sections owned by different proprietors; in addition, the diffuse
urbanization has further fragmented the agricultural fields. Cultivation is then
entrusted to contractors who manage the land for several proprietors, while signifi-
cantly smaller sections are left uncultivated.
The actual agricultural production is mainly based on seasonal monocultural
crops, and the intense use of fertilizers raises the risk of eutrophication on the riv-
ers and on the Venice Lagoon. Furthermore, the use of pesticides and the excessive
186 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
mowing of the grass along the fields and the watercourses contributes to the loss of
biodiversity.
The fragmentation of the environment caused by the diffuse urban develop-
ment leads to an overall scenario of congestion and spatial disarticulation of the
landscape; the overall biodiversity is very poor, and although some protected
areas are established as core zones, green infrastructure is mainly missing or
discontinuous.
The scarcity of economic resources and the predominance of private space
are the main obstacles preventing intervention in such a complex situation. Public
authorities with different roles should cooperate to realize multi-purpose projects
in order to optimize their resources and reach their respective goals. The involve-
ment of private stakeholders should be encouraged in order to raise awareness and
spread knowledge about local specificity and furthermore to develop public-private
synergies.
The River Contract, carried out by the local authorities and several private
stakeholders along the Marzenego River basin, is a melting pot for aspirations about
the local territory and is the starting point for this project.
THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE COMMITMENT TO GENERATING NEW KINDS OF
SPACES
The project explores the possibilities of tackling critical issues and achieving
its goals through a mutual collaboration between public and private stakeholders.
Since public authorities face a lack of funds, private commitment to the social and
spatial regeneration of the territory seems to an opportunity worth pursuing.
The proposed interventions are based on a simple linear design that acts as
“multifunctional integrated device”; its main purposes are to improve the network of
bicycle/pedestrian paths, to manage water runoff, to mitigate climate and pollution,
and to create green networks.
The analysis of the spatial configuration, of the goals to be achieved, and of
the stakeholders operating in the diffuse city territory lead to the identification of
four main intervention patterns: rural, peri-urban, urban, and riparian zones. For
each of these zones, we developed a different configuration of the “multifunctional
integrated devices” in order to maximize the project’s goals and to obtain the best
public-private synergies available. The private stakeholders’ commitment thus pro-
duces positive side effects for the local economy and local well-being in addition to
the project’s main purposes.
Policies of mutual benefits are developed offering benefits and opportunities
to the private stakeholders who agree with the deals. The strips of land needed for
the “multifunctional integrated devices” could be bought by the public authority
through coupons to be spent on agriculture improvements for the farmers, or invest-
ed in improvements of building energy efficiency for the buildings’ owners. Although
this trade does not prevent public expenditure, it directs that money to other goals
such as supporting the local economy and saving energy.
In addition, the management of the “multifunctional integrated devices” could
be assigned to the private stakeholders: discounts on local taxation could be of-
fered to the residents in exchange for maintaining the interventions, or this manage-
ment could also be entrusted to the farmers who could get revenue from using the
leftover materials to produce energy from biomass.
Furthermore, other synergies could be harnessed by assigning free conces-
sions of abandoned public spaces and buildings to companies and associations that
187 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa
perform agriculture or energy production activities based on short-chain delivery
systems. Similarly, synergies can also be applied to those companies performing
public services related to co-working, leisure, and tourism. Local tax discounts
could be applied to the same kind of activities developed on private abandoned land
or buildings.
All these policies thus generate new kinds of spaces in which the regeneration
of the territory is carried out by public and private commitments. The “multifunc-
tional integrated devices” weave a new fabric that builds new connections on many
levels: from the transportation system to the green services, from new economic op-
portunities to the spread of knowledge about the local ecology among the popula-
tion. These new activities act like hot spots that catalyze these connections to build
a new set of ecologies, economies, emergent dynamics, and relationships that could
be governed by a set of new policies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PROMINSKI, M.; STOKMAN, A.; ZELLER, S.; STIMBERG,
BATTISTI, C.; ROMANO B. 2007. Frammentazione e D.; VOERMANEK H. 2012. River.Space.Design. Planning
connettività. Dall’analisi ecologica alla pianificazione Strategies, Methods and Projects for Urban Rivers, Basel,
ambientale, Torino, CittàStudi. Birkhäuser.
CECCON, P.; ZAMPIERI, L. 2012. Paesaggi in produzione, RENZONI C.; TOSI, M.C. (eds.) 2016. Marzenego fiume
Macerata, Quodlibet. metropolitano. Scenari di riciclo per i territori della disper-
HAJER, M.; VAN ’T KLOOSTER, S.; GRIJZEN, J. 2013. Strong sione insediativa, Roma, Aracne.
Stories. How the Dutch are Reinventing Spatial Planning, ROSSI, M. (ed.) 2005. Kriegskarte, 1798–1805. Il Ducato
Rotterdam, 2010. di Venezia nella carta di Anton von Zach. Das Herzogtum
MALCEVSCHI, S. 2010. Reti Ecologiche Polivalenti. Venedig auf der Karte Antons von Zach, Treviso-Pieve di
Infrastrutture e servizi ecosistemici per il governo del ter- Soligo, Treviso, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche-
ritorio, Milano, Il Verde Editoriale. Grafiche V. Bernardi.
MINISTERO DELL’AMBIENTE E DELLA TUTELA DEL TER- ROVERSI MONACO, M. 2015. “Alcune questioni giuridiche
RITORIO E DEL MARE. (s.d.) Studio di settore: Modelli in tema di paesaggio,” in ROVERSI MONACO, M.; FER-
e strumenti di gestione e conservazione delle risorse RARIO, V. (eds.) Nella ricerca. Paesaggio e trasformazioni
idriche: Sistemi naturali di ritenzione idrica, ricarica del territorio, Venezia, Dipartimento di Culture del
artificiale delle falde e processi partecipativi. Progetto, Università Iuav di Venezia
MUNARIN, S.; TOSI, M.C. 2001. Tracce di città. Esplorazioni ZAMPIERI, L. 2013. Per un progetto nel paesaggio,
di un territorio abitato: l’area veneta, Milan, Franco Angeli. Macerata, Quodlibet.
188 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 189 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Marzenego River basin site challenges, analysis, and historical evolution

190 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 191 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Marzenego River Contract Public–private synergies

192 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 193 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Agricultural pattern Riparian pattern

194 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 195 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Peri-urban pattern Urban pattern

196 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 197 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Rural scenario
198 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 199 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Rural metabolism Potential energy production

200 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 201 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Urban scenario
202 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 203 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

Urban Metabolism Vision of Mestre city center

204 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 205 Regeneration S cenarios for the Marzenego River and the città diffusa

The Marzenego River basin scenario

207

ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES
IN POST-OIL SCENARIOS IN
TARRAGONA PORT
Nils Fischer and Lars Wüstemann (Heating and Cooling District) / Asier Ovejas (Coldport)
Studio Carles Crosas and Jorge Perea (ETSAB)

The urban area Tarragona-Reus is an emerging small metropolis one hundred

kilometers outside of Barcelona, with remarkable economic and urban attributes.
One rather exceptional characteristic of the area is the accumulation of large ele-
ments of infrastructure: one of the five most important ports in Spain, a high-speed
train connection, the third Catalan airport, and the highways of the Mediterranean
Corridor that cross the area. The territory is further characterized by a double bipo-
larization: two towns—Tarragona and Reus—with more than 100,000 inhabitants
spread over a traditional network of smaller settlements; and two major distinct
economies—the petrochemical industry and tourism—overlapping on a historically
agriculture-based economy. The mixture of all these elements creates very special
conditions for a an unconventional urbanity.
The nature of this metropolitan territory offers an enormous scope of opportu-
nity from the perspective of urban metabolism. Flows of energy and goods around
the port, specialized industry, and logistics areas invite us to understand current
dynamics and explore new options for making the systems more efficient. In spite
of the fact that the petrochemical industry is the most characteristic activity in
the area, there is also a wide range of uses from automotive logistics to agro-food-
transportation, industrial material processing, logistics, etc.
Nowadays, the port authorities intend to achieve a greater economic diversifi-
cation in the years to come, as they are conscious of the unknowns that come with
post-oil scenarios. At this point, an updated reflection on the economy of the port
and the petrochemical area should also be linked to social and geographical issues,
in order to improve interaction between the city and the territory. Regarding the
infrastructure, the more connected the port and city become, the more likely it will
be possible to achieve a situation in which both city and port can benefit from each
other to a greater extent.
Furthermore, the Francolí River—which touches the historical city of Tar-
ragona, with the port placed just in the mouth of the river—will also be one of the
main actors on this new stage. The river, with its typical Mediterranean torrential
water flow, has historically acted as a border between the central residential city
and a peripheral area for industrial and logistic uses. As a city with dynamic growth,
it’s time for Tarragona to reimagine how to sew the city around the river and to
explore new programs to take advantage of this excellently located area with strong
national and international connections.
208 RESEARCH BY DESIGN
DISTRICT HEATING AND COOLING BY THE LOW COURSE OF THE
FRANCOLÍ RIVER
The starting point of the project is the energy potential related to the artifacts
and processes based in the territory and the possible integrated synergies they
might possess. Specifically, a detailed analysis of the existing components leads
us to consider a high amount of energy that could be made useful instead of being
thermic waste or remaining in a potential state.
We can estimate a loss of around 246 GWh/year from the incineration plant,
approximately 464 GWh/year from the regasification process of the liquefied natural
gas at the port, and around 574 GWh/year of potential energy just stored in the sea.
The challenge is then to find a way to make all these metabolic processes more
efficient and to find a way to reintegrate the excess and potential energy, thus cre-
ating an urban metabolism that more resembles a cyclical process than an input-
output system. The main goal is to address all these advantages to develop an urban
intervention that would also connect both sides of the river and rehabilitate the
isolated area, thus creating new opportunities for the economic growth that the city
demands in other sectors.
The proposal for a District Heating and Cooling System (DHCC) aims to maxi-
mize the system’s efficiency and minimize the cost of elaboration and construction.
Its structure and design has been planned as a dialog between technical aspects
and the morphology and characteristics of the site. The DHCC is based on a central
axis (river course) with ramifications that reach and feed different areas. The central
trunk is connected to the thermic-centrals on each side, which makes it possible for
the system to undergo numerous expansions following possible urbanistic interven-
tions and economic development. The comparison with other examples of heating
and cooling districts such as 22@ (Barcelona), Zona Franca (Barcelona), and the port
of Rotterdam has been useful for understanding the models and elements of these
innovative systems.
The District Heating and Cooling System is composed of three subsystems
comprising conventional heating, conventional cooling, and cryogenic cooling. The
conventional heating system consists of using the excess/waste energy from the
incineration plant, which is located north of the port and pumps water at a supply
temperature of 90 °C and a return temperature of 60 °C. Usually around 60% of the
energy present in the incineration plant process is wasted, and 40% is turned into
electricity. With the implementation of a district heating system it is highly possible
to achieve only 10% energy waste. This would elevate the incineration plant’s energy
efficiency rate from 40% to 90%.
By contrast, the conventional cooling system consists of pumped deep-cold
seawater, with a supply temperature of 5.5 °C and a return temperature of 14 °C.
Both systems contain a water storage system to maximize their efficiency and
reduce energy waste, thus resolving issues such as energy peak demand and energy
price variations for the heating and cooling sector.
Finally, the cryogenic cooling system consists of using the stored energy inside
liquefied natural gas. The system basically aims to extract and use 30% of the
energy input used for the condensation process of the natural gas, with a supply
temperature of -40 °C. As is explained in the next section, this system is particularly
outstanding in its direct potential for the port.
The DHCC is designed as an evolving infrastructure that can easily undergo ex-
pansion and maintenance due to the fact that most of it is concealed within public
infrastructure—a wooden walkway along and across the riverside—instead of being
209 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port
buried underground. Besides providing opportunities for economic clusters and
social improvement, it represents by itself a riverside intervention that will connect
both sides of the river and revitalize the area by creating a more direct contact with
the natural/urban ecosystem.
FRUITPORT AND COLDPORT: POST-OIL SCENARIOS
In defining post-oil scenarios, it is useful to explore what kind of activities
could be placed in the most privileged areas of the port, specifically in the cen-
tral area on the left shore of Francolí River, where the adjacent docks of Moll de la
Química and Moll de Castella up to Moll de Reus offer enormous possibilities in a
section of land that is presently being used for the storage of solids and liquids—in
many cases derivatives from petrol.
By taking advantage of the remarkable agriculture production of the region on
the one hand, and of the hypothetical implementation of a cryogenic cooling system
on the other, it would be possible to create a regional exchange node similar to
Mercabarna in Barcelona. The proximity to and good connection with Zaragoza, an
important inland capital, would make the proposal feasible.
Rotterdam port is a paradigm for this case in the way the excess energy in the
regasification process is used as a cold energy supply for the Fruitport and the cold
container storage units. In the Multimodal Terminal Coldport, a continuous cold
route from boats to customers will be possible without breaking the temperature
chain. This will save 100% of the capital that would be intended for the energy sup-
ply, as well as implement infrastructure that is driven by sustainable principles, and
will thus make the system more sustainable and energy-efficient.
The transformation of the port will also include other types of logistics and
added value activities and a more complex scheme regarding accessibility and
interconnection of different modes, from trucks to pedestrians. In the central dock,
we can imagine that a huge logistic central distribution center (like Amazon) could
benefit from the excellent connections and, at the same time, could contribute to
infrastructure upgrades. Finally, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, which is based in this
territory, could also be an important actor and some research amenities could be
placed in one of the bridgeheads to enhance the fundamental relation between city
and port.
BIBLIOGRAPHY or y Frio Existentes. Retrieved from: https://www.fener-
com.com/pages/pdf/formacion/13-10-16_Redes%20
LUB, SOLÀ-MORALES, M. et al. 2009. Camp. Monographic de%20calefaccion%20urbana/06_Analisis-a-posteriori-
issue AT#19, Tarragona, COAC, 2009. de-Redes%20de-calor-y-frio-existentes_Maria-Eguaras
DPTOP-Generalitat Catalunya. 2005. Pla Director [Available on 10 March 2017].
Urbanístic de Les Activitats Industrials i Turístiques del PORT DE TARRAGONA, 2015. Memoria de Sostenibili-
Camp de Tarragona, Arch. Coord. Joan Llort. tat 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.porttarragona.
DPTOP-Generalitat Catalunya, 2010. Pla Director Ur- cat/es/descargas/cat_view/154-apt/156-port-de-
banístic de l’Àmbit Central del Camp de Tarragona, Arch. tarragona/244-memoria-del-port/1156-memoria-
Coord. Antonio Font. apt-2015.html [Available on 27 March 2017].
IVANCIC, A. 2017. Waste Cold Recovery from the Regasifi- SERRANO GARCIA, D. 2011. Una Solucion inteligente
cation Process of Liquefied Natural Gas. Retrieved from: para un future sostenible: un DHC Consolidado. Retrieved
http://www.lsta.lt/files/events/170514_Glasgow/36_ from: http://www.adhac.es/priv/clientsimages/noti-
Aleksandar_IVANCIC.pdf [Available on 15 March 2017]. cia18_1305622129.pdf [Available on 5 April 2017].
MADSEN, A. 2014. District Heating & Cooling in Rot- VAN TIMMEREN. A., ZWETSLOOT, J., BREZET, H., SILVES-
terdam. Gemeente Rotterdam. Retrieved from: http:// TER, S., 2012, “Sustainable Urban Regeneration Based on
stratego-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ Energy Balance,” Sustainability 2012, 4, 1488-1509; Re-
STRATEGO-Madsen.pdf [Available on 12 March 2017]. trieved from: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/7/1488
MARTINEZ, M. 2013. Analisis a Posteriori de Redes de Cal- [available on 1 April 2017].
210 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 211 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Main road connections 30km to nuclear Chemical risks

power station

Chemical alert Flood risk

Train tracks
area

Territorial approach. Accumulation of infrastructure between the two capitals: Tarragona and Reus. The triangle be- Territory of risk: water (streams and topography), chemical industry (radius of risk), and nuclear risk (at a distance of 30
tween Tarragona, Vilaseca, and the port is the main focus of the research. km from the Vandellós power plant).
212 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 213 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Flood Risk Geomorphological Return period High Ins. Seveso Transportation risks 30km to nuclear
floodable area 100yrs power station

Flood High Risk Return period Return period Low Ins. Seveso External limit
500yrs 50yrs

The flat condition of the territory determines the high flood risk in extensive parts of the industrial area as well as the The Seveso Safety Standards deal specifically with the control of onshore major accident hazards involving dangerous
lower part of the city of Tarragona. Despite work that has been carried out to control the Francolí River, there are still substances. The features of different plots’ OK installations create an area of protection and define the external limit of
areas at remarkably high risk of flooding alongside the river, though not in the port area. the petrochemical industrial estate.
214 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 215 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Services

Housing Chemical Industry

Industry Harbor

Land use map showing the segregated distribution of industry and town, and of the industrial area and the port.
216 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 217 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

The bus map underlines the border condition of the Francolí River and the radial structure from Tarragona.
218 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 219 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Water supply Electricity Gas

Irrigation
Sewage Sewage treatment

Energy map illustrates a major connection between different segregated areas with different mesh and treelike struc-
tures adapted to the existing settlements.
220 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 221 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Water supply Electricity Gas

Irrigation
Sewage Sewage treatment

Water distribution map illustrates a major connection between different segregated areas with different mesh and
treelike structures adapted to the existing settlements.
222 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 223 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Incineration
≈ 246 GWh / year lost

Cryogenic
≈ 424 GWh / year lost

Sea Water
≈ 574 GWh / year lost

Heating 6km

+ Cooling 7km

- Cooling 4km

(Top)
Area of intervention with port-river site marked in a yellow square (literally square: geometrical figure that is drawn in
yellow). Data illustrating energy potential of the urban metabolic processes of the area.

(Right)
Energy and water distribution system maps illustrate a major connection between different segregated areas with dif-
ferent mesh and treelike structures adapted to the existing settlements.
224 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 225 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Incineration Plant

Industrial estate

Business
Cluster

Industrial estate
Relevant data of DHCC system and site

CONVENTIONAL COOLING CONVENTIONAL HEATING

FORUM 68,5 MW Port restaurants

FORUM 40 MW

TARRAGONA 70-80 MW TARRAGONA 30-35 MW

Thermic-Central
Thermic center Fishing port

CRIOGENIC COOLING
Regasification Fruport
Fruit
Condensation process 50-100 kg / s
2900 kJ / kgt natural gas liquid gas
2000 kJ / kg used energy 800-900 kJ / kg stored energy 180.000 - 360.000 kg / h
Cool storage
container Cruise terminal
Recuperable Potential 0,23 kWh / kg of gas TOTAL POTENTIAL 53,8 MW Food storage
warehouse

Existing projects with access possibility to the DHCC net

FORUM INVESTMENT TARRAGONA INVESTMENT

Potential projects with access possibility to the DHCC net
47m € Extension: 13,2km Tubes: € 3500 / m 34m € Extension: 15km Tubes: € 2250/ m

General diagram DHCC overlapping the three systems that compose the DHCC network, as well as the supply and
Summarized results of the research regarding the infrastructure needs and capabilities. Analysis of the existing infra- demand. It can be easily observed how the demand concentrates on the port-river site, as well as in the industrial site
structure and its potential and comparison with other existing DHCC systems. and port site at the end of the central axis.
226 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 227 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

The backbone materialization can be illustrated through the riverbed cross section, in which the new infrastructure The infrastructure is not only supposed to connect metabolic processes in the area but also to develop a new urban
merges with leisure components. The pipelines will be integrated into a wooden walkway alongside the left shore of the panorama for the city, integrating the port and both sides of the city with one another and thus creating new opportuni-
Francolí River. ties for future developments.
228 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 229 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Phase 4

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 1

University

CITY

“Coldport” FRUITPORT

Private
Business
Cruise
Ships Cruise
Ships

New railway viaduct

New railway viaduct

(Top) (Top)
Fruitport Phases: 1. Coldport and exchange node container terminal, 2. Distribution center, 3. Innovative “cold” pro- Emblematic university building as a bridgehead.
grams terminal, 4. University research center.
(Bottom)
(Bottom) Transformation of the infrastructure on the river shore: new viaduct toimprove permeability at ground level and recover
Accessibility and interconnection improvement alongside the Francolí River and bridge reinforcement the riverside for civic use.
230 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 231 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

5. Reception and Delivery

3. Cooled containers

4. Electric Station

1 9

13
2 5 7

6
10 11 15
3

12 14
4 8

3. Storage

2. Horizontal Transportation

1. Loading and Unloading Cargo

15. Consumers

9. Food Industry

11. Market Wholesaler

7. Fish market

14. Fishmonger/restaurants

ing
h Fish 10. Wholesaler
ig
1. H g
ishin g
re F hin
sho e Fis
5. Off s hor
6. In

13. Supermarket
r
carrie
2. Bulk CONTAINER TERMINALS

3. Oil

ers
ain
ont
4. C 12. Import/Export

Holistic diagram of the Coldport and transportation products. Above, components and movements of the container
terminal. Below, multi-option chains of frozen products, from cargo ships to domestic homes
232 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 233 E nergy O pportunities in Post- O il S cenarios in Tarragona Port

Axonometric views with the main pieces and programs with scheme of accessibility following the course of the Francolí
River. Multimodal coldport terminal in the forefront, with extensive land/room for 7,000 containers.
235

CAR (RE)CYCLE IN BUDA

Davide Cauciello, Studio Geoffrey Grulois, and Nadia Casabella (ULB)

BUDA AREA—GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

The old industrial territory of Buda is undergoing an important process of
regeneration. The economic importance of Buda derives from its situation at the
juncture between Brussels and Vilvoorde and next to large-scale transportation in-
frastructure—the canal to Antwerp and the highway. Buda is an exchange platform
between Flanders and Brussels and, on a bigger scale, between Europe and Bel-
gium. The territory is clearly delimitated by transportation lines: railways, roadways
and waterways give Buda clear boundaries but also set many limits. In terms of land
use, the old industrial urban fabric has given way to several controversial large-
scale projects: UPlace Mall, Bpost Mass Center, and Roll-On/Roll-Off Terminal along
the canal. The industrial mono-functionalism of Buda has led to a lack of pu­blic
spaces and programmatic diversity.

URBANITY THROUGH THE VOID

“If a place can be defined as relational, historical, and concerned with identity,
then a space that cannot be defined as relational, or histo­rical, or concerned with
identity will be a non-place” (Augé, 1992).
Within the industrial urban fabric of Buda, the main function of the streets
is to connect companies. The space between these companies allows functional
requirements to be met but generates functional tensions and a lack of interfaces
for the public.
These lines of tension between public and private are not currently generat-
ing urbanity or interactions. They are mostly materialized by a fence that defines
the limit between the public space—the street—and a huge empty private space
dedicated to storage and to loading trucks.
Furthermore, some vacant buildings offer serious opportunities to diversify
activities into a generic industrial urban fabric.

VISION FOR URBAN REGENERATION

Our main intention is to decrease territorial mono-functionalism and to
diversify activities. The lack of public space and public facilities in this “market
economy” (Johnson, 2005) model of a “city” generates a lack of urbanity typical of an
industrial territory in transition. The proposal to upgrade the former industrial urban
fabric suggests that activities be diversified and integrated into several strategic
installations and facilities. Manufacturing industries, sport facilities, cultural instal-
lations, and public spaces are some examples of uses we can think of. By bringing
these activities together, we could develop a new urban complexity and supersede
the mono-functional land use.
Workers and residents of Buda, two opposite but still complementary flows,
could converge into these integrated facilities.
236 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 237 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

METABOLISM—CAR RECYCLING The project design composition avoids the typical industrial typology (centered
The territory of Buda is the location for different industrial activities, most of warehouse and peripheral void) and reintegrates the classical commercial typol-
them linked to the automotive industry. Spare parts resellers, second-hand car re- ogy of the courtyard with peripheral activities, such as the old caravanserai in the
marketers, car rental agencies, and mechanics occupy various plots and buildings in eastern regions or the fondouks of North of Africa. The verticalization seems to be
Buda through a dispersive system. The linear organization—metaphorical but also an alternative to the horizontal organization of activities, in terms of storage as well
territorial—of these entities generates a one-to-one relationship between clients as in terms of public activities and ground-floor open space.
and industries, which is focused on material inputs and outputs from and into the In our project for Fobrux, the integration of two opposite uses (domestic and
territory, in order to provide services at low cost. Furthermore, in terms of land use productive) is a starting point towards a mixed-use complexity that will be useful for
and territorial organization, the two main watercourses (Canal and Senne) deter- the long-term urban regeneration of Buda.
mine the direction of the main street, Vilvoorde Avenue.
The horizontal coexistence of factories in Buda is characterized by tem­porary
and long-term industrial storage that creates numerous technical and logistic
spaces.
Our vision suggests veering towards a circular model in which, as a first step,
the delivery system is no longer managed on public road spaces so that negative
externalities (environment, public space, costs) can be reduced. The reinstatement
of delivery by water (the future Roll-On/Roll-Off terminal for transporting second-
hand cars to Antwerp) and by railway would help reduce the pressure of truck traffic
on the road network.
The second important point is preparing land surfaces for more di­verse urban
activities. Nowadays, the verticalization of car parts storage seems to be possible
as a result of technological innovation.
Furthermore, P2P car sharing, which reintroduces cars into the city through car
sharing services, is one example of collaborative solutions that try to avoid this kind
of one-to-one organization.
Because the automobile market is still consolidated but in constant evolu-
tion, we propose to create a synergy between the main car-related activities in
order to reduce flows and indirect energy. These negative externalities are in fact
not only due to the automobile itself but also to the global(ized) system that man-
ages the market.
In alignment with the car cycle process and considering the fact that the
production of cars is handled by manufacturing companies, our inten­tion is to act
on the economic interstices between producer and consumer to include new actors
and services. In this way, a larger number of economic participants can act on the
lifecycle of cars to create a circular dynamic.
The potential synergies include the sharing of knowledge, the domestic scale
of recycling, the creation of employment, and the diversification of activities. BIBLIOGRAPHY WEBSITES

KRIER, L. 1996. Architecture: Choix ou fatalité, Paris, www.urbanmetabolism.org

FOBRUX—HUB FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY Norma. www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
The project aims to establish a new urban facility by rehabilitating an un- AUGE, M. 1992. Non-lieux. Introduction à une anthropolo-
gie de la surmodernité, Paris, Seuil.
used industrial building. Fobrux Haren was a metal foundry in the southern part of
ROSSI, A. 2011. L’Architettura della città, s.l., Quodlibet.
Vilvoorde, near to the border with Brussels. The foundry was founded in 1920 on the FERRÃO, P.; FERNÁNDEZ, J. 2013. Sustainable Urban
Harensesteenweg. During World War II, the buildings were heavily damaged, causing Metabolism, Cambridge, MIT Press.
production to be stopped for a few years. Repairs were only completed in 1948 and BRUGMANS, G.; FRANCKE, M.; PERSYN, F. 2015. The
Metabolism of Albania, Rotterdam, IABR/UP.
production was again stopped in 1970. JOHNSON, P. 2005. A Glossary of Political Economy Terms,
At the juncture between the Buda railway station and the canal, Fobrux can, Market Economy. Auburn University.
potentially, interact with several points of interest. The future Roll-On/Roll-Off ter- BORGHESE, E.; HACIOGLU, ç. 2015. Life in Buda, An Inter-
active Site Survey, Brussels, Ruimte Vlandereen.
minal for transporting second-hand cars to Antwerp, the Scharbeek formation rail-
KUO, J. 2015. Space of Production. Projects and Essays on
way yard, and collection points for car materials are examples of potential economic Rationality, Atmosphere, and Expression in the Industrial
interaction of infrastructure. Building, Zurich, Park Books.
238 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 239 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

Sensitive analysis inspired by Larisa Fassler’s drawings.

240 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 241 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

- main limits - - intermediary limits - - public/private limits -

(Top)
The outside empty space is dedicated to temporary storage and to logistic space.

(Bottom)
The main limits (railways, roadways, waterways) give BUDA clear boundaries separating it from its larger territory. 11% of warehouses in BUDA are no longer in use and present an opportunity to possibly be repurposed as potential
Public and private limits generate many voids between public and private space. incubators for urban regeneration.
242 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 243 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

0 0,5 1

The vision for urban regeneration considers rehabilitating empty spaces in order to create a new urbanity out of the
void and to generate a diversification of activities into a transitional generic industrial territory
244 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 245 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

Possible diversification of uses that consider the void as an opportunity for temporary occupation as public space. Possible integration of public facilities into the generic industrial urban fabric.
246 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 247 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

Used cars remarketing

SELL 6000 cars/year
Belgium & Central
Europe
15 900 cars
employees

21000 m2 RECEPTION 7000 cars/year

EXPEDITION
Belgium
Ending Leasing

Spare parts marketing

6
employees

1600 m2
small truck or container
delivery 1x/week

4/5
employees

1400 m2

PRIVATE
APARTMENT small truck
delivery 2x/day
(day & night)

2
employees
900 m2

return at the same point

or to another agency

Car rental

4300 m2

Garage

2/4
employees
200 m2
(Top)
The reinstatement of the delivery by water (future Ro-Ro) and by railway must be considered in order to reduce negative
Car recycling externalities caused by the roadway delivery system, environment, public space, or costs). The preservation of the soil
is another important issue for establishing greater diversity/urbanity.
O Inputs & outputs outside of the territory
O No or low relations between entities (Left)
O Horizontal sprawl of temporary stocks (parkings, warehouses)
The linear organization—metaphorical but also territorial—of the main (car market) warehouses generates a one-to-
O One-to-one relation between client & server
one relationship between clients and service providers, which are focused on material inputs and outputs from and into
the territory, in order to provide services at low costs. An important horizontal sprawl is symptomatic of the needs of
temporary and long-term storage.
248 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 249 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

demolishers
vehicles out of order
elements reuse

body - paint
repairers

life of vehicle storage - sorting of waste NDW*

DW**

collection
company
vehicle
manufacturer
sorting &

fabrication regeneration

equipment
manufacturers
o semi-finished
o recycling recycling & recovery
products
o recovery companies
o car body elements

o landfill
recovery companies
o storage
thermal energy
o burying

*
Non-hazardous waste **
Hazardous waste

In alignment with the car cycle process and considering the fact that the production of cars is handled by manufactur-
ing companies, our intention is to act on the economic interstices between producer and consumer in order to include
new actors. (Based on Gavalda, 2005) The project aims to establish a new urbanity by rehabilitating an industrial building that is no longer being used.
250 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 251 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

0 750 1500 2250 3000 3750 4500 5250 6000 6750 7500 8250 9000

FOBRUX
0 SUEZ Neder-Over-Heembeek
Waste Management & Recycling Service
Recycled materials - PMD - silt -
non-bituminous asphalt - non-bitu-
minous roofing - batteries - chemical
household waste other - animal and
750 vegetable oils and fats - preserved
wood - Paper and cardboard - Glass -
Plastics - Construction and demoli-
tion wastes - Textiles - Wood - Earth -
Vehicle tires - Metals, scrap - Mixed
municipal waste - Bulky waste -
Market waste, street cleaning waste,
waste from sewer cleaning, etc. -
Green waste, garden waste, biodegra-
1500 dable kitchen and canteen waste -
Used oil - Waste containing asbestos
- Waste containing tar - Waste electri-
cal and electronic equipment

Bruxelles Recycling Metal

Waste Management
2250
Underground cables - Batteries -
Metals, scrap metal - Waste electrical
and electronic equipment

COMET BRUXELLES
3000 GEORGE ET COMPAGNIE
Waste Management & Collection Point

Battery - catalytic converter -

sawdust containing hazardous
substances - Paper and cardboard -
Plastics - Vehicle tires - Metals, scrap
metal - Used oil - Waste electrical and
3750 electronic equipment
Camera - Used vehicle - Metals, scrap
metal - Waste electrical and electro-
nic equipment

Roll ON - Roll OFF Terminal

Project 2020
4500

RAILWAY - BUDA Station

Antwerpen - Nivelles

5250 RAILWAY - Schaarbeek Formation

MAIN ROADS - Ring

MAIN ROADS

6000
SECONDARY ROADS

SCHAARBEEK FORMATION
Delivery - Transit of Goods & People

VS
(Top)
At the hinge between the BUDA railway station and the canal, Fobrux can, potentially, interact with few points of
VS
interest. The future Ro-Ro terminal, Scharbeek Formation and collecting points of cars materials can be examples of centered peripherical horizontal vertical
interactions.

(Bottom)
The commercial typology is inspired by ancient foundouks and caravanserais, in which a central commercial space is
the point of convergence of the main peripheral activities.
252 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 253 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

Situation of FOBRUX in the industrial territory of BUDA. Ground Floor. Garage—spare parts—public activities—offices
1. Collaborative Garage 2. Car Wash 3. Spare Parts Management 4. Entrance—Distribution 5. Offices 6. Parking
Strategy—Composition. 7. Bicycle Repair 8. Sport Facilities 9. Nursery 10. Cafeteria.
254 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 255 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

Situation of FOBRUX in the industrial territory of BUDA.

256 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 257 Car ( Re ) cycle in Buda

business incubator & storage

fab-lab & storage

auditorium & storage

12 housing units

parking

spare parts management

bicycle repair

offices

car wash

sports - fitness

nursery

cafeteria

collaborative garage

(Top)
Court. Public space vs. productive space.

(Bottom)
FOBRUX—Exploded axonometry. Spare parts management. Production, storage, and conveyor belt.
259

ENI PARK , CHANGING

PORTO MARGHERA
Alberto Dal Bo’, Alessio Milan, Thomas Pesce, and Leandro Varillas Sànchez
Studio Maria Chiara Tosi and Luca Nicoletto (IUAV)

SOME FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS

The area we investigated is located in the Venetian Lagoon near the historical
center of Venice and includes the industrial areas of Porto Marghera and the city of
Mestre.
The initial phase of the design process involves the understanding and repre-
sentation of this complex territory considered as a metabolic system. The analysis
themes have been grouped into four main research areas: the water system, the soil
layers, the flow networks, and the urban heritage.
Porto Marghera, one of the largest industrial hubs in Europe, covers an area of
more than 2,000 hectares, of which approximately 1,400 are occupied by industrial,
commercial, and tertiary activities and about 350 are occupied by canals and water
basins. Because of its industrial character, it has few green areas. It is a grey zone,
an enclave inside the lagoon territory, and most parts of the area have been inacces-
sible and unsuited for public use for decades.
There is a significant presence of water in the territory. Over the years, several
canals have been excavated to service harbor activities, but now these are only oc-
casionally used. The hydrographic network mixes natural and artificial arteries.
Impermeable soils are located throughout the industrial zone, while in the
north there are seventy-four reclaimed hectares of Park San Giuliano. Over the
years, industrial activities have left many traces of pollutants in the soil and in the
water. The high number of chemical activities in the area have contaminated the
soil, leaving measureable amounts of zinc, cadmium, lead, arsenic, copper, xylene,
benzene, hydrocarbons, dioxins, and furans.
The analysis of flows has focused on the Regional Road 11 linking the mainland
with Venice. Accessibility and crossing sites are difficult for users who get around by
both public and private transportation. This condition is caused by the many flows
that cross the Liberty Bridge, the only road and rail link connecting the historic cen-
ter of Venice to the mainland. In addition, the difficulty of crossing this barrier also
has implications for slower forms of mobility: bicycle-pedestrian paths are frag-
mented, isolated, and lacking in connections to the transportation network. These
issues make the paths unworkable and increase the constant risk of accidents.
Cyclists and pedestrians are forced to travel along trails of busy roads and without
protected paths. Subway crossings are insecure and often become places of social
degradation because of their isolation and inadequate lighting.
Furthermore, over the years industrial production in the area has declined,
leaving numerous abandoned areas and artefacts of industrial archaeology to be
preserved.
260 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 261 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

The initial analysis highlighted a very complex picture in which multiple criti- 95,000 mc) after passing through a depuration treatment. The purpose is to purify
cal issues trigger mutually interfering mechanisms and involve the entire resident the water that flows into the lagoon and lower the salinity of the lagoon’s water. In
population. We can say that the issues that need more careful reflection today and the final scenario, it is planned to drill into the impermeable clay base for a greater
in the future are the pollution of the soil caused by chemical companies during the development of the lagoon vegetation.
industrial sprawl from many decades ago; the infrastructural barrier that causes A slow mobility system will embrace the forest and connect Marghera with
marginalization, disconnection, degradation, and insecurity in the area; and, finally, Via Torino in Mestre, crossing the railway infrastructure along an elevated bicycle-
the hydrological risk resulting from soil impermeability. pedestrian gangway.
The project offers an urban transformation that makes it possible to reform,
POST-INDUSTRIAL PARK rebuild, and change the current image of Porto Marghera.
“Eni Park” is the project proposal we developed to provide a possible scenario
in response to these issues. We focused on Refineries Island, a site that has always
been an area of oil interchange and refining, and which is currently owned by the
energy company Eni Ltd.
The planned strategy is to link the active poles through the design of the public
space. The aim is to act on boundaries to redefine the site: we propose a project in
which the development is incremental, starting first by acting on the boundaries of
the site and then proceeding progressively to its core. We seek to improve the expe-
rience of the site by extending the surrounding path and implementing soft mobil-
ity, creating green spaces on land, encouraging water-related activities, and finally
giving the site a new meaning.
The architectural devices we used to achieve our targets are the upgrading
of the west quay, the reforestation of the central area with a lowland forest, and a
phytoremediation system near the lagoon edge. Every space is conceived without
architectural barriers thanks to the design of ramp systems.
Our intention is to involve public and private actors. It is expected that these
processes can be managed through agreements between the public administration
and the private company Eni, with a gradual shrinking and relocation of the refinery
activities that is already happening nowadays. The project involves the conversion
of traditional refinery activities to sustainable energy research and the insertion of a
multi-activity park.
In the northern area, the quay will host a large research center. The existing
buildings will be refurbished in response to the new functional program. New build-
ings in the project will house the research ateliers—work spaces on pilotis standing
on the concrete foundations of the old silos. A further project artifact is the elevated
linear structure along the edge of the quay, designed to host multifunctional activi-
ties. This is a flexible and versatile structure that can accommodate a wide range of
activities that allow civic participation. Every space is conceived without architec-
tural barriers thanks to the design of a system of ramps. Public space will extend to
the new sports center, which will develop linearly from north to south. The quay and
the sports strip will form a ring system linking the various project episodes of the
island. The proposal shows how to activate the waterfront.
The forest will cover an area of forty-three hectares (65,000 plants divided
between native trees and shrubs). Within the forest, three different ecosystems will
interact: the vegetation, the wetlands, and the meadow. It will be realized according BIBLIOGRAPHY

to the specification of the Querco Carpineto Planiziale, the typical woodland of the
Venetian valley. The many existing silos will be used as storage for the most polluted
soil, and a series of refurbished and elevated catwalks will encourage the crossing
of the forest.
On the east side, in contact with the lagoon, the hydraulic system will take ad-
vantage of the slope of the ground and end in the phytoremediation area (total flow
TOSI, M.C.; MUNARIN, S. 2014. Welfare Space: On the
Role of Welfare State Policies in the Construction of the
Contemporary City, Trento-Barcelona, Listlab.
CECCON, P.; ZAMPIERI, L. 2012. Paesaggi in produzione,
Macerata, Quodlibet.
SALOTTOBUONO, 2010. The Manual of Decolonization,
MiIlan, A&M bookstore.
262 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 263 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

analysis area

factories

Porto Marghera industrial area 0,5 km 1,0 km

The area we investigated is located in the Venetian Lagoon near the historical center of Venice and includes the indus- Because of its industrial character, the area has few green spaces. It is a grey zone, an enclave inside the lagoon terri-
trial areas of Porto Marghera and the city of Mestre. tory, and most parts of the area have been inaccessible and unsuited for public use for decades.
264 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 265 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

permeable soil

heritage

barren

abandoned

river

lagoon
factory

hydrogeological risk

pollutants
attraction point

cycle path

There is a significant presence of water in the territory. Over the years, several canals have been excavated to service Over the years, industrial production in the area has declined, leaving numerous abandoned areas and artefacts of
harbor activities, but now these are only occasionally used. Furthermore, industrial activities have left many traces of industrial archaeology to be preserved. The discontinuity of bicycle-pedestrian paths makes accessing work activities
pollutants in the soil and in water. quite difficult.
266 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 267 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

barrier regeneration grafts

points

* design area

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 km

The planned strategy is to link the active poles through the design of the public space. The aim is to act on boundar-
ies to redefine the site: we propose a project in which the development is incremental, starting first by acting on the The project aims to refurbish the Isle of Refinery currently owned by the energy company EniLtd. The project involves
boundaries of the site and then proceeding progressively to its core. the conversion of traditional refinery activities to sustainable energy research and the insertionof a sports park.
268 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 269 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

west port

cycle-pedestrian route

01 demolished

west quayside est quayside

cycle-pedestrian route cycle-pedestrian embankment

02 ecology

west point

south quayside
east point

south port 03 public soil

research
Research strip Sports strip
04 and sport

pedestrian high line - - arena events

atelier of research - - services
service industry - - rugby fields
laboratory - - olympic track
exhibition pavilions - - skate park
luna park - - football
temporary residences - - tennis
- basket 05 mobility
- silos-climbing
- surf club

The program involves the reconversion of some existing buildings and the construction of new artefacts for research
activities. The design of public space and the ground floor is the fundamental element of the project: the continuity of Project layers overlay, divided by themes: demolition and reuse (1), ecology (2), public land (3), research and sport (4),
public areas allows citizens to use the newly created recreational spaces. and mobility (5).
270 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 271 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

before after

University

Forte Marghera
Vega - Aquae
phase 0
(2017) north river quay (1)
San Giuliano quay

lagoon riverside

(2)

phase 1
(2025) footbridge

research center
cycle-pedestrian path (3)
new passenger terminal
sport strip
phytoremediation system

(4)

phase 2
(2050)
new public quay

new water limit

forest
(5)

The program consists of two main phases: the first is related to the accessibility of the area, which will be achieved by Construction of the ateliers on the foundations of the old silos (1), transformation of the dismantled tracks (2), excava-
renewing abandoned buildings and setting up the water treatment system; in the second, the project will be completed tion of the soil for the creation of wetlands (3), planting of trees with a progressive “natural demolition” of the imperme-
with the new buildings and reforestation. able soil (4), and re-use of structures such as lifted pedestrian crossings (5).
272 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 273 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

West quay

Forest

directional
directional / reserch
research / recreational
/ recreational

public
public soilsoil

Lagoon edge

raised
raised pathpath

The three main focus areas of the project are the west quay, the large forest area in the central part, The quay of the industrial canal is the generative element of the public space. An elevated linear structure along the
and the lagoon edge. edge of the quay represents an additional level of public space.
274 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 275 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

rows of trees

wet zone

phytoremediation plants

water

water flow
embankment
pre-existent treated water
cleaner
lagoon

The forest will cover an area of forty-three hectares. It will be realized according to the characteristics of the typical In the east side, in contact with the lagoon, the hydraulic system will take advantage of the slope of the ground and will
woodland form of the Venetian valley. The many existing silos will be used as storage for the most polluted soil, and a end in the phytoremediation area after passing through a depuration treatment. The purpose is to purify the water that
series of refurbished and elevated catwalks will encourage the crossing of the forest. flows into the lagoon and to decrease the salinity of the lagoon’s water.
276 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 277 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

(1)

(2)

(3)

Three significant sections: the west quay (1), the forest (2), and the lagoon edge (3). We are seeking to improve the
experience of the site by extending the surrounding path and implementing soft mobility, by creating green spaces on
land, and by encouraging water-related activities, thus giving the site a new meaning.
278 RESEARCH BY DESIGN 279 E ni Park , C hanging Porto Marghera

-reuse-
services

-reuse-
services

-reuse-
laboratory

-reuse-
laboratory

-new-
atelier 01

-new-
atelier 02

-new-
atelier 03

-new-
hightline

The quay will host a large research center in the northern area. The existing buildings will be refurbished in response
to the new functional program. A further project artefact is the elevated linear structure along the edge of the quay,
designed to host multifunctional activities.
280
IMAGE CREDITS
TOWARDS A FAIR TRANSITION IN HEYVAERT (BRUSSELS)
pp. 27, 29, 31, 33, 34: Courtesy of 1010
ON THE CIRCULARIZATION OF TERRITORIAL METABOLISM
pp. 48, 49: Courtesy of Swen Ore
FROM ECOLOGY TO URBANISM
p. 61: Courtesy of EcoRes and BATir
p. 63: Courtesy of Bureau Bas Smet and List
p. 65: Courtesy of LoUIsE
GENEALOGIES OF THE ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE ITALIAN DISCOURSE ON CITTÀ
DIFFUSA
pp. 74, 77: Courtesy of Paolo de Stefano
pp. 73, 76, 80: Courtesy of Stefano Munarin and Maria Chiara Tosi
p. 81: Courtesy of Stefano Boeri
p. 82: Courtesy of Lorenzo Fabian and Paola Viganò
BARCELONA METROPOLIS
p. 90: Courtesy of Arranz, K. y Pulido, E
p. 91: Courtesy of the Ajuntament de Barcelona
p. 93: Courtesy of Area Metropolitana de Barcelona
p. 95: Courtesy of JPAM
p. 96: Courtesy of Lola Domènech Architect
p. 97: Courtesy of the Ajuntament de Barcelona
281 Image credits
RESEARCH BY DESIGN
p. 110–129: Cartography by Alvise Moretti and Andrea Fantin based on data from
COPERNICUS Land Monitoring Service, CORINE Land Cover European Environment
Agency (EEA), OpenStreetMap.
p. 130–131: Cartography by Joan Marti, Alvise Moretti and Andrea Fantin based on
data from Agència Catalana de l’Aigua, Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB), CO-
RINE Land Cover European Environment Agency (EEA), Eurostat, OpenStreetMaps,
Xarxa Natura 2000.
p. 132–133: Cartography by Adrien Laught, Alvise Moretti and Andrea Fantin based
on data from BruGIS, Bruxelles Environnement (IBGE), Cellule Interrégionale de
l’Environnement, CORINE Land Cover European Environment Agency (EEA), Eurostat,
Geopunt Vlaanderen, Géoportail de la Wallonie, Institut Géographique National,
Natura 2000, OpenStreetMap, Société Bruxelloise de Gestion des Eaux.
p. 134–135: Cartography by Alvise Moretti and Andrea Fantin based on data from
Agenzia Regionale per la Prevenzione e Protezione Ambientale del Veneto (ARPAV),
Consiglio di bacino laguna di Venezia, Contarina, Alto Trevigiano Servizi, CORINE
Land Cover European Environment Agency (EEA), Energia Territorio Risorse Ambien-
tali (ETRA), Eurostat , Gruppo Veritas, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT), Open-
StreetMaps, Regione del Veneto, Rete civica del Comne di Padova, SNAM Rete Gas.
p. 177–179: Project and drawings by Thibault Wéry
p. 180: Project and drawing by Florentine Sieux (ULB)
p. 181–182: Project and drawings by Margot Thérond
p. 142–279: All pictures and drawings by the groups of students except when
mentioned above.
282
BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS
Geoffrey Grulois, co-editor, is Professor of Urbanism and coordinator of LoUIsE
– Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructure and Ecologies at the Faculty of Architec-
ture of Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). His teaching and research explores the
intersections of urbanism, ecology, and metabolism. In 2014, he co-edited UpCycle
Barcelona: Cogenerative Design Strategies for a Sustainable Urban Metabolism
(Erasmus Intensive Program). He is the general coordinator of the Erasmus+ Stra-
tegic Partnership Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable
Metropolitan Regions (metropolitan-estudio.eu), which resulted in this publication.
He is currently the coordinator of the new specialized master’s degree in transition
urbanism at the ULB.
Carles Crosas, co-editor, is PhD Architect and Lecturer at Barcelona School
of Architecture (ETSAB—UPC). He has taught Urbanism at DUOT-UPC since 2001,
and is a former collaborator with and teaching assistant for Professor Manuel de
Solà-Morales. Now a researcher at the Barcelona Laboratory of Urbanism, he is
UPC National Coordinator in various international projects on urban design teach-
ing, collective urban spaces, urban ecology, and metabolism, and co-organizes the
activities in the framework of Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century
Sustainable Metropolitan Regions, which has been developing various scale urban
designs in its professional portfolio since 2004.
Maria Chiara Tosi, co-editor, is Professor of Urbanism and a member of the
Board of the PhD School at IUAV University of Venice. She is an expert for the panel
W&T9 at FWO-Research Foundation Flanders and member of URBES, a Sino-Italian
research center. Recently, her teaching and research have explored the relationship
between urban space and welfare policies. Her recent books include Welfare Spaces
(2014) and Towards an Atlas of European Delta Landscapes (2014). She is co-coordi-
nator of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Integrated Urban Design E-studio for
XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions, which resulted in this publication.
Andrea Bortolotti is an architect and currently a PhD candidate at the Faculty
of Architecture La Cambre-Horta in Brussels (ULB). His main research interests
concern urban metabolism, ecology, and their relation to urban design theory and
practice. Currently, he works within the Metrolab Brussels ERDF project (ULB/UCL)
and for the Brussels Environmental Agency (IBGE) on the issue of urban waste and
waste management in the Brussels Region.
Elsa Bouillot is a French architect who graduated from the Faculty of Architec-
ture of Université libre de Bruxelles. Passionate about architecture and urban plan-
ning on all scales, she has participated in the Erasmus Intensive Program UpCycle
283 BIO G RAPH IES O F AUTH O RS
Barcelona (2014), the workshop Public Space for Kigali in Rwanda (2015), the IABR—
The Next Economy Workshop (2016), and the micro-project Water Consumption and
Potentialities in Ankober, Ethiopia. She currently works at the office 1010 architec-
ture urbanism Ltd.
Nadia Casabella is founding partner of 1010 architecture urbanism Ltd.,
adjunct professor at ULB Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta, and a research
fellow at LoUIsE – Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructures and Ecologies. Her
interest in infrastructural and ecological linkages and their socio-technical embed-
dedness has resulted in spatial planning schemes such as The Shared Valley (T.OP
Noordrand) and The Coastal Line (Ostend GSRP), as well as in active participation
in many international research by design collaborations such as the masterclasses
Rework (2012), End of Line (2013), UpCycle Barcelona (2014), the Atelier Brussels
– Productive Metropolis (curated by AWB for the IABR 2016), the lectures series
Designing with Flows (ULB, 2015), or the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Integrated
Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions, which
resulted in this publication.
Davide Cauciello is a master’s student at the Faculty of Architecture La
Cambre-Horta (Brussels). He completed one year as an Erasmus exchange student
at the ETSAB School of Architecture in Barcelona. Following an internship at the
Studio Paola Viganò in Milano and Brussels, he is now at 51N4E in Brussels and is
currently working on a master’s thesis about segregated territories in the Brussels
urban region.
Alberto Dal Bo’ is a master’s student of architecture and urbanism at the Uni-
vesistà IUAV di Venezia. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and is currently
working on his master’s thesis. He participated in the Integrated Urban Design E-
studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions in 2017 with a research-
by-design project Eni Park in Porto Marghera, Veneto.
Andrea Fantin applied to study architecture on the master’s degree program
in architecture and urban design at Università IUAV di Venezia after an education in
humanistic and sociology studies at Ca’ Foscari University. He is currently working
on his master’s thesis and working at Lin-a office in Berlin pursuing his research
about the relationship between human beings and the surrounding environment. He
participated in the Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable
Metropolitan Regions as co-author of the Atlas of Metropolitan Regions and of the
essay “The Marzenego River and the Diffuse City: Regeneration Scenarios.”
Nils Fischer is an architecture student in the seventh semester of his bach-
elor’s degree at the Technical University of Munich. During fall of 2016 and summer
of 2017, he spent two semesters at the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de
Barcelona (ETSAB) with an international scholarship as part of the Erasmus Pro-
gram. During this exchange, he participated in the course Ecosystemic Urbanism in
relation to the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Integrated Urban Design E-studio
for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions. He also participated in the
22@: innovative urban spaces workshop.
284
Stephan Kampelmann is a researcher at LoUIsE – Laboratory on Urbanism,
Infrastructure and Ecologies at the Faculty of Architecture of Université libre de
Bruxelles. He is co-founder and director of the Urban Ecology Centre Brussels and
the academic spin-off Osmos. His work on sustainability, co-design, circular econo-
my, and social-ecological systems has been published in journals such as Ecological
Economics, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, International Journal
of Urban Sustainable Development, and Environmental Innovation and Societal
Transitions. Stephan participated in the Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth
Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions workshop and juries in Barcelona and
Brussels.
Adrien Laügt studied philosophy and architecture in Brussels (ULB) and par-
ticipated in the Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable
Metropolitan Regions in 2016 as a master’s student. He has worked as a draftsman
and collaborated with interdisciplinary research teams Micm’Arc and Metrolab
Brussels. His personal investigations range across the fields of sustainable plan-
ning, ecology, cartography, epistemology, and political philosophy.
Joan Martí is an architect who graduated from ETSAB. Since 2015, he has been
an assistant researcher at the Barcelona Laboratory of Urbanism (LUB), where he
has participated in various academic projects dealing with cogenerative design
and in the organization of the First European Prize MSM 2017, among others. During
2016, he collaborated as an assistant in the Integrated Urban Design E-studio for
XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions seminar in ETSAB. Since 2015, he
has developed works and competitions in urbanism at various scales as a team
member of the studio Carles Enrich.
Alessio Milan is a master’s student of architecture and urbanism at the Uni-
vesità IUAV di Venezia. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and is currently
working on his master’s thesis. He participated in the Integrated Urban Design
E-studio for XXI Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions during 2017 with a re-
search by design project “Eni Park” in Porto Marghera, Veneto.
Alvise Moretti is finishing his master’s degree in architecture and urban design
at Università IUAV di Venezia with a thesis on urban and rural regeneration. During
his studies, he attended a semester at the Manchester School of Architecture as
part of the Erasmus program; he also has experience in several architecture and
urban design offices in Italy and abroad. He participated in the Integrated Urban
Design E-studio for XXI Century Sustainable Metropolitan Region in the role of co-
author of the Atlas of Metropolitan Regions and of the essay “The Marzenego River
and the Diffuse City: Regeneration Scenarios.”
Asier Ovejas Aketxe is a 24-year-old student from Bilbao studying at Barcelona
School of Architecture (ETSAB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). He
is interested in large-scale social projects addressing efficiency and sustainability.
Besides his participation in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership relating to this
publication, he has also participated in an International Workshop in Beijing dealing
with pollution and obsolete industry.
285 BIO G RAPH IES O F AUTH O RS
Jorge Perea is an associated Professor of Urban Design at the School of
Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB) and active member at the Barcelona Laboratory
of Urbanism. Together with Professor Carles Crosas, he directs the Ecosystemic
Urbanism course and has been involved in the preparation and development of
international research studios with urban metabolism as major topic. Profession-
ally, he is principal at JPAM, Agency of Architecture and Urban Design, has received
international awards in architecture and urban design competitions, and is cur-
rently developing projects involving urban metabolism in the metropolitan region of
Barcelona.
Thomas Pesce is a student of architecture and urbanism at the Università IUAV
di Venezia. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and is currently working on
his master’s thesis. He participated in the Integrated Urban Design E-studio for
XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions during 2017 with a research-by-
design project Eni Park in Porto Marghera, Veneto.
Eftalia Proios has contributed to the research in strategies for urban metabo-
lism led by the Barcelona Laboratory of Urbanism since 2014. Approaching this
research from a design standpoint during the workshop UpCycle Barcelona: Cogen-
erative Design Strategies for a Sustainable Urban Metabolism in Zona Franca, she
has continued to pursue the potential alignment of ecology and urbanism through a
broader territorial framework for the ETSAB course Ecosystemic Urbanism, as well
as interaction with other EU collaborators of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership in
the digital platform metropolitan-estudio.eu.
Miguel Rami, 26 years old, was born in Mallorca, Spain. He graduated from the
ETSA Barcelona after also studying as an exchange student at UT Sydney. During his
final project year, he participated in the ETSAB course Ecosystemic Urbanism that
was connected with the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership as well as the workshop
Integrated Urban Design for Sustainable Metropolitan Regions in Venice. He is cur-
rently working as a freelance architect in Morera Studio.
Marco Ranzato is a researcher at the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre
Horta of the Université libre de Bruxelles and co-director of Latitude Platform. His
research focuses on an expanded understanding of ecological design and processes
of horizontal urbanization, as well as on the co-production of water, energy, and
waste services and co-design. He recently edited the book Water vs. Urban Scape:
Exploring Integrated Water-Urban Arrangements. During the Erasmus+ Strategic
Partnership Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metro-
politan Regions, Marco assisted the academic team of the three universities in the
organization and progress of design studios, workshops, and juries.
Cristina Renzoni is Assistant Professor of Urbanism at Politecnico di Milano.
She has been a post-doc fellow at Università Iuav di Venezia (2009–10 and 2012–16)
and at Università Roma Tre (2011–12). Her research activities deal with urban facili-
ties, social demands, and planning history. She has been part of the teaching staff
of the Erasmus Intensive Program Upcycle: Cogenerative Design Strategies for a
Sustainable Urban Metabolism and the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Integrated
Urban Design E-studio for XXI Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions. Her books
include Bernardo Secchi (Officina 2017, with M.C. Tosi), Explorations in the Middle-
286 287 BIO G RAPH IES O F AUTH O RS

Class City (Lettera22 2015, with G. Caramellino and F. De Pieri), and Il Progetto
’80 (Alinea 2012).
Florentine Sieux is a researcher at LoUIsE – Laboratory on Urbanism, In-
frastructure and Ecologies at the Faculty of Architecture of Université libre de
Bruxelles. Her research by design focuses on workers’ sustainable mobility in the
typical Belgian context. She participated in Integrated Urban Design E-studio for
XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions in 2016 as a master’s student from
ULB and contributed to the project Productive Landscape as a New Public Space
for Residential Suburb. She is interested in urban metabolism and the relationship
between urban design and ecology, and in particular in peri-urban situations, which
are the main subject of her master’s thesis.
Roberta Sinesi is an Italian architect born in Catania, Sicily. After graduating
from the Università la Sapienza in Rome in 2016, she participated in the Integrated
Urban Design Studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions during her
exchange year in ETSAB. She has just finished a master’s degree in urban interior
design at the Politécnico di Milano.
the Flemish region. The relationship between culture, architecture, and urbanism is
at the center of his interests and his master’s thesis. After exploring those topics, he
is now working on projects at several levels of scale in Flanders.
Lars Wüstemann was born and raised until the age of seventeen in Venezu-
ela and comes from a German-Italian family. After graduating from high school,
he moved to Germany to study architecture at the Technical University of Munich.
Following the second year of his bachelor’s degree he moved to the city of Barce-
lona to study at ETSAB as an Erasmus exchange student. He dedicates most of his
exchange time to his personal interest in architecture and has participated in the
course Ecosystemic Urbanism, where he also participated in the Erasmus+ Stra-
tegic Partnership Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable
Metropolitan Regions. He is currently finishing his bachelor’s degree in Munich.

Elisabeth Terrisse de Botton is an architect who graduated from ETSAB in 2017.

During her studies, she was strongly interested in field of urbanism, specifically at
the design level and in both theoretical and conceptual approaches. For this reason,
she participated in several workshops on these topics around Europe, including
workshops with Raumlaborberlin, Lebanon University, and the German University
in Cairo, and in the Integrated Urban Design E-Studio for XXIth Century Sustainable
Metropolitan Region. She currently works as an architect in Lausanne, Switzerland
while contributing to several publications.

Margot Therond is a French architect who graduated from the Faculty of

Architecture of Université libre de Bruxelles. She participated in the Integrated
Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions in 2016
as master’s students from ULB, where she contributed to the project of Produc-
tive Landscape as a New Public Space for Residential Suburb with Florentine Sieux
and Thibault Wery. In 2015, she completed an exchange program at Chulalongkorn
University of Bangkok, and an internship in Office of Bangkok Architects (OBA),
where she was a team member of the project of the Thai Expo Pavilion Milan. She is
interested in urbanism and the typology of suburbs and big cities and completed a
research thesis on the urban networks and typology of the city of Jakarta (Indone-
sia).

Leandro Varillas Sànchez is a student of architecture and urbanism at the

Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Valladolid. He studied for a year on an
Erasmus grant in Italy at Univesistà IUAV di Venezia. He participated in the Inte-
grated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable Metropolitan Regions in
2017 with a research-by-design project Eni Park in Porto Marghera, Veneto.

Thibault Wéry is an architect who graduated in 2016 from the Faculty of

Architecture of Université libre de Bruxelles. During the last semester of 2016, he
participated in the Integrated Urban Design E-studio for XXIth Century Sustainable
Metropolitan Regions in ULB, focusing his research by design on the city of Halle in
The contributions in the first part of this
book—On territorial Metabolism—went
through a blind peer review process by mem-
bers of the scientific committee.
Scientific Committee
Sybrand Tjallinglii (TU Delft, NL-EMU)
Fabio Vanin (VUB)
Bruno Notteboom (KUL)
Thorsten Schütze (SKKU)
This publication synthesizes the result of the
Strategic Partnership Integrated Urban De-
sign E-studio for XXIst Century Metropolitan
Regions (2015-1-BE01-KA203-013200) con-
ducted jointly by the Laboratory on Urbanism,
Infrastructure and Ecologies of the Faculty of
Architecture of Université libre de Bruxelles
(ULB), the Università IUAV di Venezia and
the Laboratori d’Urbanisme de Barcelona of
Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de
Barcelona of Universitat Politècnica de Cata-
lunya (ETSAB–UPC) between 2015 and 2017.
The complete results of the strategic part-
nership are accessible on the webplatform
metropolitan-estudio.eu. The publication is
made possible with the financial support of
the Erasmus+ programme of the European
Commission. The publication reflects the view
of the authors and the European Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which
may be made of the information therein.
© 2018 by jovis Verlag GmbH
Texts by kind permission of the author.
Pictures by kind permission of the photogra-
phers/holders of the picture rights.
All rights reserved.
Cover: jovis: Susanne Rösler;
Davide Cauciello (ULB)
Design and setting: jovis: Susanne Rösler,
Heiko Niebur
Lithography: Bild1Druck, Berlin
Printed in the European Union
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publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio-
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able on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de
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