481 research outputs found
Reverse Land Wasted Landscapes as a resource to re-cycle contemporary cities
No full textThis research presents REVERSE LAND as a way to add to the definition of 'waste' to include 'Wasted Landscapes' (WL). In contemporary territories, different kinds of WL are in evidence, such as brownfields, derelict lands, drosscapes, polluted industrial landscapes, terrain vague, vacant land, friches, interscapes, underutilised areas, 'in-between' surfaces left over by the dominant economic forces of urbanisation, abandoned and/or contaminated sites, degraded and interstitial entities. WL can be open spaces as well as constructed objects such as, buildings or infrastructures at the end of their life-cycle. WL are considered to be problematic but can also be viewed as a starting point with the potential for future re-cycling of contemporary European territories
The Circular Metabolic Urban Landscape
No full textThe study of the city as a living organism in constant transformation is especially linked to the investigation of its metabolic flows and their impacts on urban systems. The interplay of urban metabolic flows with the natural and anthropic landscape, including the built environment and its discarded parts, is connected in various ways. Urban Metabolism has been mainly studied by environmentalists and engineers so far, but it is recently acquiring growing significance also for urban planners, architects, and policymakers to determine and evaluate the impacts of human transformation on the human-natural ecosystem. Considering the urban landscape and the metabolism of its resources as an integrated system requires the recognition of which materials, methods, approaches, and general issues should be considered in planning and design for the transition toward a Circular Metabolic Urban Landscape. The process of transition to circular cities should necessarily involve actors from different research fields. Thus, this study aims at systematizing the recent and constantly evolving knowledge on this topic. This chapter presents a Systematic Review of the recent scientific literature by analyzing the production of the last 10 years on Urban Metabolism and Circular Economy in the context of spatial design and planning. The criteria set as a guide were made explicit through the coding of the selected papers by employing ATLAS.ti and grouping the subjects coded in five main clusters: theoretical issues, UM-specific topics, planning and design research, interdisciplinary studies and research and applications, and open issues. A semantic network links the cross-disciplinarity topics. The challenges and research topics to consider for a Circular Metabolic Urban Landscape are then considered as a set of links in the recent scientific literature selected
From Wastescapes Towards Regenerative Territories. A Structural Approach for Achieving Circularity
Get PDFIn this chapter, the understanding of circularity goes beyond material resource management, deepening the spatial implications of a more circular management and use of wastescapes, investigated at the urban and metropolitan scale. Besides the health (care) related challenges presented by the current outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional ones related to our living environment have been—and will continue to be—an urgent call for academic researchers, designers and policymakers to find (eco)innovative solutions and strategies for enhancing the quality of life of all and the availability of more and more safe public (open) spaces and facilities to sustain this. In this situation, the spaces most at risk of urban and peri-urban areas could be found in the unresolved places which are defined as wastescapes, since they are in general still poorly used and valued. Building on the European H2020 research project REPAiR, the definition of wastescapes, provided in this study, builds upon work for two main cases: the metropolitan areas of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Naples (Italy). Wastescapes are discarded territories, however, they can also be understood as opportunities to realize regenerative concepts and support strategies related to environmental, spatial and social challenges of the territories and their surroundings. Core is then to improve the socio-ecological values of such territories. Wastescapes are different case by case, being affected by site-specific challenges and characterized by high complexity. The research presented in this chapter shows that the route towards a Circular Economy requires the consideration of wastescapes as ‘spatial resources’ important to be included in strategies of transition. It represents a fundamental step to overcome problems related to both resource (and land) scarcity, land use in general and spatial fragmentation, while providing opportunities to include through eco-innovative services other values than just the monetary ones to society. The spatial regeneration of wastescapes in the built environment involves a re-thinking of the structure of these areas in a larger (metropolitan) context. Within such metropolitan settings, in particular peri-urban territories, also referred to as the areas in-between urban and rural landscapes, are most affected and characterized by this problem of wastescapes.Environmental Technology and Desig
Shifting paradigms. Metabolismi circolari per una città ‘healthy'
No full textLe urbanizzazioni degli ultimi 150 anni sono state prevalentemente caratterizzate da un modello di economia e di crescita lineari, basati sul principio uso-consumo-scarto. Tale modello ha mostrato numerose criticità e può essere considerato principalmente insostenibile, perché basato su una totale indifferenza verso l’ambiente e verso i limiti naturali dell’ecosistema, portando a un consumo eccessivo delle risorse vergini, sempre più scarse.
‘What’s next?’ considerato che il modello di crescita economica lineare non è più sostenibile? Quali sono i futuri scenari dell’economia del futuro, quella che gli autori della Biennale di Rotterdam IABR 2016’ definiscono ‘The Next Economy’?
Il paper ha inoltre l’obiettivo di studiare in che misura i fenomeni simultanei di urban dispersion, urban shrinkage e di abbandono dei territori contemporanei possono rappresentare un'opportunità da cui ripartire per migliorare la funzionalità del metabolismo urbano. Attraverso una selezione di diversi esempi nel caso studio olandese, questo contributo si pone l’obiettivo di identificare approcci innovativi alla ri-funzionalizzazione del metabolismo dei paesaggi contemporanei, lavorando sul riciclo dei Wasted Landscapes, specificamente al fine di migliorare la qualità degli spazi urbani e della vita degli abitanti, l’efficienza energetica degli edifici e il management dei rifiuti nelle aree urbane e periurbane
SPArTaCHus. Sustainable City-Port Areas Towards Circular Hubs
Get PDFSPArTaCHus interprets City-Port Areas as promoters of
circular and sustainable prosperity in equilibrium with
nature. Being transitional landscapes, City-Port Areas
both face ever-changing challenges from e.g., port
activities, and offer a rich socio-cultural environment.
Understanding the complex dynamics of City-Port Areas
informs a path toward circularity, that can reconnect
people, spaces, flows, economies, and ecologies.
Recently, in Europe and beyond, both research and
practice have been showing that wastescapes
understood as a system of underused or abandoned
territories crossed by resource flows have potentials for
the implementation of circular and sustainable growth.
SPArTaCHus aims to unravel these potentials, by
developing scenarios for a circular and sustainable
regeneration of City-Port Areas of the Metropolitan
Area of Naples (MAN), focusing on wastescapes,
progressively dismissed strips of industrial units and
infrastructures adjacent to harbors. By implementing a
‘research by design’ approach, SPArTaCHus develops
solutions and strategies for exploring new synergies
among energy production, waste reduction/elimination,
short supply chain of resources, spatial and
environmental recovery, to enhance the quality of life
for all. Further, it aims at posing the scientific bases for
arising awareness of the importance of regenerating
wastescapes in City-Port Areas for the circular
metabolism of the wider territory. By producing a
‘Circularity Catalogue’, this project offers a systematic
guide for inspiring private investors, designers, citizens,
and decision makers to implement pioneer circular hubs
and incubators of innovation for living and prospering
toward a holistic sustainability. Expected impacts of
SPArTaCHus would be to boost stronger communities’
abilities to understand and implement circularity. To this
aim, collaborative design activities, involving different
stakeholders, will be facilitated
beyond WASTESCAPES. Opportunities for sustainable urban and territorial regeneration
Get PDFResource consumption mostly overcomes the embedded capacity of global ecosystems, which are self-regenerating until they reach the point of the planet’s limits. Moreover, the consumption of virgin resources and raw materials is strictly related to a consequent production of waste, which is negatively affecting both human health and other various spatial conditions. Studies show that if this model of growth goes on, there will be the need of almost an additional planet Earth (in terms of resources) for us to be able to continue to survive. Scarcity also regards land itself, which is understood as a non-renewable resource. Issues regarding linear metabolism, unsustainable resource consumption, abandonment, vacancies, and also the depletion of fertile soil, are caused by various rapid urbanization processes that can generate wastescapes. The unsustainability of this linear model of growth is self-evident, because it represents a significant threat for environmental sustainability, human health, and happiness. Many initiatives around the world are currently in the process of moving towards circularity. However, the recycling of wastescapes is still an important knowledge gap in the current definition of a circular economy, with the latter mostly only focusing on the recycling of material resources in contemporary cities
REVERSE LAND | Wasted Landscapes as a resource to re-cycle contemporary cities. Rilettura della Tesi di Dottorato
No full textSix recommendations for a circular city. Pushing the sustainable urban transition forward
Get PDFThe paper makes six recommendations to address pressing urban challenges that arise from the turn towards circularity. It proposes an approach to bring derelict, vacant and underused land into reuse to drive a sustainable urban transition. It is a call for taking systemic action towards an inclusive and sustainable city. Proposals for identifying wastescapes in different urban and territorial critical contexts are highlighted. Wastescapes are discarded territories perceived as innovative resources for new public spaces and spatial justice. The paper is a practice review which provides a characterization of wastescapes in the Campania Region (South of Italy) which is potentially applicable in other contexts worldwide
Wastescapes in port cities. Naples and Rotterdam: a spatial and institutional comparison on the role of ports as promoters of circular economy
No full textPorts have historically followed a linear model of growth. Formation, expansion,reallocation, abandonment, and redevelopments are just some of the steps that are followed over time by ports from all over the world. Circularity – a goal that both ports and cities hope to achieve in the near future – is not a new topic anymore. Although the global pressures to achieve this goal are immense, it can be stated that most port cities still have not yet made serious steps towards new circular models of growth. On the contrary, ports are still expanding, and they still generate serious amounts of waste, while also leaving networks of left-over territories that lay in states of wastefulness: port-city wastescapes. Two cases regarding these wastescapes are discussed. Naples, which is used to show land in limbo, while Rotterdam is used to show a port in transition. This article argues that a circular regeneration of these wastescapes can play a crucial role in re-imagining a new form of integration between the port, the city, and the metropolitan territory.History, Form & AestheticsEnvironmental Technology and Desig
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