The Urban Metabolism of Rotterdam

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Master Class in Rotterdam
Working on the transition to renewable energy is high on the agenda of many local, regional and national governments. Many municipalities and provinces have set the goal of ‘zero emissions’ in 2025. But how do you put such an ambitious goal into action? How can you work on energy transition based on an integrated sustainability agenda? This Master Class focuses on developing insights into the factors which shape and determine the energy transition.

IABR and Architectuur Lokaal organized a two day Master Class for public administrators on June 2 and 3 2016. The Master Class took place at the venue of the seventh edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam: IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY. The results will be available online soon.

Master Class Metabolism and Energy Transition

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Energy Transition and the Urban Metabolism
Cities are complex, sprawling and active systems that are 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. Flows such as food, water, energy, people and cargo. In order to work productively on the energy transition, we need to know more about not only the flow of energy , but of the urban metabolism as a whole.

The participants developed new input and answers for their specific case studies and reflected on each other’s challenges. Questions that will be discussed are: How does the regional energy system function? How can knowledge of the metabolism of the region as a whole contribute to the energy transition? Which data is needed? And how can design be positioned as an integrative tool?

Master is Dirk Sijmons (curator of IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE and Atelier Master of IABR–Project Atelier Rotterdam: Urban Metabolism). Alderman Ronald Schneider (Urban Development) will welcome the participants in Rotterdam. This Master Class builds on the results of the IABR–2014–Project Atelier Rotterdam: Urban Metabolism.

More information
For more information, please contact Indira van ’t Klooster (Architectuur Lokaal).

Planet Texel

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First Master Class: Texel
The first Master Class, Productive Stewardship: Tourism as an Instrument for Sustainable Development, focused on how to productively integrate the often seemingly contradictory agendas of ecological and economic development. How can these ambitions be interwoven in such a way that they strengthen instead of obstruct each other?

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This Master Class built directly on the results of the IABR–2014–Project Atelier Planet Texel. It took place on November 25-26 2015 on the island of Texel. Master was Dirk Sijmons (curator of IABR–2014–URBAN BY NATURE and Atelier Master of IABR–Project Atelier Planet Texel, Chair of Landscape Architecture at Delft University of Technology). Eric Hercules, the Alderman for Tourism, Environment and Spatial Planning who commissioned the IABR–2014–Atelier Planet Texel shared his experiences and conclusions.