The Wasted City
Cities of the global north are dominated by linear 'take-make-waste' habits: by economic interactions and socio-spatial developments. This is the WASTED City: an urban settlement in which it is difficult to develop circular systems on a mainstream basis.
Currently we see the proliferation of urban niches of circularity, progressive policy making and economic innovation, but the truly CIRCULAR CITY remains Utopian. This book explores how these different approaches are connected and what is needed to make circular urban development the new sustainable standard. Looking at the city as an ecosystem, urban planning, design and architecture practices adapt the built environment in which people interact as organisms within a complex system. We see grand opportunity for planners to reinterpret the landscape and act in a more inclusive, cooperative fashion that propagates sustainable economic activity and vigorous cultural strength. Drawing upon the experiences of many case studies, this book takes us through bottlenecks and empowerment mechanisms to go beyond the WASTED City. Then it zooms out, asking experts how to bring circular urban development to a more accessible level, touring through conceptual frameworks, city-level approaches, ideas, criticisms and systemic change proposals.The Wasted City is a vivid odyssey into the contemporary derangement of circular cities, where ideas flourish but mainstream change remains distant from our urban environments.
