MetaboliCity

MetaboliCity is a vision of a city that metabolizes its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need and more.

This is a unique experimental and participatory design project that explores low cost solutions to integrate both traditional and hi-tech agricultural techniques into the fabric of the built environment, whilst being rooted in an ethical systems thinking.

MetaboliCity is about empowering people to grow food in the most challenging of urban spaces, be it indoor window farms or vertical green cladding that clings to the buildings. Design studio Loop.pH has been developing lightweight, architectural structures together with soilless growing techniques for the project. The rigid 3D lace provides support for plants and irrigation and can be retro-fitted to buildings or become free standing vertical gardens for indoor or out.

The agenda is driven by how design can be used to bring about positive change. Recognizing that it is social innovation and open collaboration that is needed to address some of the most pressing problems of today. Rather than favoring single solutions for diverse and complex problems the outcome of MetaboliCity is a diverse portfolio of solutions to empower city-dwellers to create sustainable human habitats.

The project explores how designers can work in multiple ways, taking on different roles within an interdisciplinary context, mediating between experts and amateurs in the field of urban agriculture and regeneration.
The initial case study, based at Central Saint Martins, School of Art and Design, is to test the feasibility of urban agri-tecture kits with a broad spectrum of participants that covers four main city activities for small-scale amateur growing; Restaurants, Community and public spaces, Workplaces such as offices and schools and Housing both social and private.

The role of the designer in this project is that of a facilitator, mediator and co-researcher working alongside the participants, offering designerly ways of thinking, documenting and crafting within each case. A new collective imagination of the city is cultivated through workshops and the weaving and planting of temporary grow spaces within each of these local contexts. The participants of MetaboliCity share their experiences via a collaborative online platform to create a live journal for the project and knowledge ecology. This is a dynamic space to document activities, create a library of resources and support discussions.

MetaboliCity is based at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design and funded by the Audi Design Foundation from October 2008 until September 2009. The design interventions and architectural structures are by London based design studio Loop.pH.

The project is led by CSM Research Fellow Rachel Wingfield together with academic partner Hannah Jones of Goldsmiths, University of London.

A MetaboliCity map will be published during the London Design Festival for the following East London growing sites.

St Lukes Community Centre
Haberdasher Housing Estate
Fifteen Restaurant
NFP Synergy Office

Project Website:
http://www.metabolicity.com/

Flickr set showing all project developments:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loopph/collections/72157612793199452/

MetaboliCity Map on Google:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=1110876837765531...