'Urban Metabolic Growth' Published in Urban Flux Magazine

The Metabolic City Project has been published in the China based publication, 'Urban Flux'. The same issue featured a number of projects from the Architectural Association's Emtech program, as well as research conducted by our very own MSSM Associates!

Publication Excerpt:

"Metabolic systems have been extensively studied within a biological context throughout history; however, it is only recently that metabolic systems have been researched and related to different fields. The contribution that a metabolic system – as a model – has on urban development is to ensure that the flow of energy is continuous throughout the system, where all the components that make up the system are interdependent on one another. In other words, the backbone of the city heavily relies on allocating the natural resources that will sustain it from the onset. In modern day planning, there is a lack of consciousness in considering the availability of these natural resources and their significance in dictating the urban development and growth. Ancient cities on the other hand do not seem to have the flaws that modern day cities have; these “evolving” cities grew with respect to functionality and the location of resources. Despite the many paradigms that ancient/evolving cities offer, modern day planners seem to overlook these examples. This project aims to design two scenarios of metabolic urban development placed in two regions with different extreme climatic conditions, using planned cities and evolved cities as case studies to help govern the different elements that make up the cities’ fabric. Different tools and methodologies will also be utilized to help achieve two different scenarios that are based on the same metabolic model."

.