IABR

^{IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam}

The IABR–2014–PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM: THE URBAN METABOLISM, researched and tested a new approach. Urban Metabolism is an as-yet largely unexplored methodology for spatial design and planning, and by implementing it the Atelier has helped to uncover a new field of work for urbanists. The method is an innovative interface between different policy areas, such as environmental and spatial development, and it productively connects agendas for local economic development and greater sustainability.

Results
The great interest shown in the results of the Atelier by a wide range of policy departments of the Municipality of Rotterdam and by the Port Authority of Rotterdam, emphasizes the value of this innovative approach to spatial development. On the national level, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment is now investigating how the results of Project Atelier Rotterdam can be integrated in its policies. And the IABR has decided to further explore the viability of the methodology in its partnership with the government of Albania; Atelier Albania is doing research on the metabolism of the country as part of its flagship project Towards a Resilient Albania.

The Municipality of Rotterdam makes use of the results of the Atelier in working towards a sustainable and circular economy, and they will be essential input for the next IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam, developed as part of IABR–2016.

Sustainable development models
The IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam – a collaboration between the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam – was set up as part of IABR–2014 with the aim to develop more sustainable development models for the city by means of a large-scale research by design trajectory on the urban metabolism of Rotterdam. Active partners were the Port Authority of Rotterdam, the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, TNO and other stakeholders.

The metabolism approach assumes that every city is a complex, sprawling and active system that is unceasingly working to provide for the needs of its occupants. We can describe this system not just in technical or purely physical terms, but also in organic terms. Just as a human body breathes, drinks, eats, uses its senses, and excretes waste, so vital material flows can be identified and analysed in the "body" of the city, its metabolism.

What happens when we project this ‘naturalistic’ view on the city of Rotterdam? Where better to research, analyse and test the upgrade of the urban metabolism as a tool for its future sustainable development than in Rotterdam, one of the largest port cities and centrally located in the Rhine-Meuse Delta, one of the most bustling in the world?

The design offices .FABRIC and JCFO have mapped the material flows moving into and out of the city of Rotterdam and the Delta, analysed how these flows interact with the territory and space and explored how they can, individually and as system, have a positive impact on the (environmental) performance of the city. Based on this extensive research by design, specific proposals for pilot projects have been developed.

Nine short animation films were made to visualize the material flows; they can be watched from our website.

The results of the Project Atelier Rotterdam were not only presented in the main exhibition of IABR–2014–, they were also discussed in the symposium Tinkering with the Material Flows which took place on June 25, 2014.

The workings and outcomes of the Atelier were also published. Urban Metabolism Rotterdam can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

Project Atelier Rotterdam is a partnership of the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam. The design by research was executed by James Corner Field Operations (JCFO, New York) and .FABRICations (Amsterdam). Actively contributing to the Atelier were the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the Port Authority of Rotterdam, the Rotterdam Climate Initiative and TNO.

The IABR initiates and produces the Project Ateliers as a lead partner for the Regional and Local Design Dialogue Program, within the framework of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment’s Action Agenda for Architecture and Spatial Design 2013–2016.

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The IABR–2014– PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM was another step towards Rotterdam’s goal to become a sustainable city and region.

The results are now in: the research by design, the developed strategies, and the concrete project proposals provide a solid starting point for sustainable urban development in Rotterdam, based on an extensive analysis of its metabolism and that of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Delta in which the port city is a node.
On 25 June, the city of Rotterdam in collaboration with the IABR and AIR organized an event, "Tinkering with the Material Flows", to explore the connections and synergies between the different proposals, and the major Rotterdam players and the local small-scale initiatives that are the building blocks of a successful circular economy.

At the event the book URBAN METABOLISM ROTTERDAM was presented, an overview of the results of the PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM. Published by the City of Rotterdam, the IABR, .FABRIC, JCFO and TNO, it can be downloaded as a PDF at the bottom of this page.

Downloads

One of the main challenges that the IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam faced was how the design offices .FABRIC and James Corner Field Operations were to visualize the material flows that together constitute the urban landscape’s metabolism.

After a thorough analysis of all available data and information an impressive series of maps was produced, in fact the first visualization of Rotterdam’s metabolism. But flows do flow, and therefore it was decided to produce a series of animation films that shows how air, water, biota, food, energy, waste, humans, cargo, and sand and clay "flow" through the urban landscape of Rotterdam, and how the city can make smarter and better use of these flows.
Together with the elaboration of four integrated development strategies and four models that present concrete project proposals for these strategies, these flow animations make up the presentation of the results of the IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam at the exhibition IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–, open to the public from 29 May to 23 August in the Kunsthal and the Natural History Museum Rotterdam.

credits
conceived by .FABRIC and JCFO for IABR–2014–PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM
animation by Submarine
© IABR, 2014

More on Flow animations ▸▸▸

Ten flows

^{FABRIC/JCFO - IABR PROJECT ATELIER ROTTERDAM}

IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE– promotes a new perspective on the city: why not analyze and understand it as an organism with its own metabolism constituted by its different material flows, such as cargo, people, data, energy, water and waste?

EVERYTHING FLOWS
The potential of this new approach to making city was the main focus of the public event on Wednesday November 6th. Dirk Sijmons, curator of the IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–, introduced his fascination for the analysis of the metabolism of the city as a tool for spatial design and planning. Sijmons holds that city and nature are one and the same system. The city has become our natural habitat and like the human body, it has its own metabolism. It is on the scale of the metropolis, of the big urban landscape, in which we in fact now live, that this system can best be understood and that possible solutions for sustainable development may be found. The question remains how architects, landscape architects and urban planners can use the analysis of such an urban metabolism in their day-to-day practice. Sijmons identifies at least three scales on which they can. One is the particular infrastructure of each material flow, which is a design task in itself. Secondly, either shortening or closing the cycles of the flows can improve the environmental performance of a city. And finally, when the material flow is taken as a starting point, the metabolism itself can become a formative tool for urban development.

Commissioned by the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam, the design offices JCFO (New York) and .FABRICations (Amsterdam) developa vision and strategy for a sustainable Rotterdam based on the analysis of the metabolism of the city. In the context of IABR–Projectatelier Rotterdam they analyse the material flows in the city and the wider delta in which it is located, and they will propose concrete pilot projects for interventions on the larger and smaller scale level.

Eric Frijters

^{picture: Michelle Muus}

At the Urban Meeting Richard Kennedy (JCFO) and Eric Frijters (.FABRIC) presented the first results of their specific research. Already, an impressive series of maps has been created based on an in-depth analysis of all collected data (provided by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the municipal services of Rotterdam, the Rotterdam Port Authority and other stakeholders) in which Rotterdam is taken as the central node in a large delta. These maps are the point of departure for the ensuing design work when the offices will further investigate how smarter design of the material flows can benefit Rotterdam.
By combining the analysis of the (local) challenges of Rotterdam with international trends, the possibilities for new perspectives surface.

During the Q&A Isabelle Vries, strategist at the Port of Rotterdam, agreed that when working on individual material flows such as a Rotterdam heat-network, for which JCFO and .Fabric presented a first outline, design is important, but always in conjunction with other, technical expertise.
This is not yet the standard way of thinking though. Dirk Sijmons mentioned that: "All my life as a designer I've been told that I shouldn’t be working on water infrastructure, forests or greenhouses." But of course he, and other designers do. And this reflects the core argument of the IABR–2014–, that design by research, by exploring what it is that might and can be done, provides insight into how the analysis of all the material flows, individually and in coherence, can be put to work to make more resilient and livable cities.

Speakers: Dirk Sijmons (Curator IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE–), James Corner Field Operations (NY), .FABRICations (NL)

Panel: Lisa Diedrich (Professor of Landscape Architecture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), Isabelle Vries (Program Manager Port Vision 2030, Rotterdam Port Authority), Astrid Sanson (Director Inner City and Urban Quality, Municipality of Rotterdam)
Moderator: Joost Schrijnen

IABR Project Atelier Rotterdam is a collaboration of the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam. Commissioned by the national government, the IABR Project Ateliers use design driven research to shed a new light on local and regional spatial challenges. The design research of Project Atelier Rotterdam is executed by James Corner Field Operations (New York) and. FABRICations (Amsterdam). The results are presented on the platform of the Biennale, which opens its doors on 29 May 2014, and the Municipality of Rotterdam will subsequently deploy them.

In collaboration with the IABR and the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Dutch national associations for Architects (BNA), Landscape Architects (NVTL) and Urban Planners (BNSP), organize a competition on how to design with flows. The competition is open to architects, landscape architects and urban planners who are registered in the Dutch Architects Register.

Starting from the ‘flows’ that move into and out of the city (in this case Rotterdam) and the interaction between all the different flows, design proposals will be made on a concrete and existing urban challenge in the city of Rotterdam: how to increase the liveability of the area ‘Baak/Westblaak’. Flows such as mobility, food, water, air, people and energy have to be designed so that this urban area becomes more resilient, liveable and sustainable.

IABR-

IABR–Atelier Rotterdam

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Rotterdam and the Circular Economy

Downloads

Flow animations

Urban Meeting Rotterdam

everything flows

04.11.2013

Competition

designing with flows