It was clear from the discussions that engineers and urbanists work from very different methodological assumptions. Engineers map and design a metabolism, urbanists design with a metabolism. The guiding heuristics of industrial ecologists are quite clear – ‘efficiency’ and ‘economic value’ – while designers tend to see the city as unruly, inefficient and a matrix for quality of life. It is not clear how these divergent professional visions can be aligned. Read all the key learnings in the summary report or watch Philippe Vandenbroeck’s full reflection.
The series of masterclasses was a step towards a Circular Metabolic Agenda, but it did not provide a formal, ready-made agenda. The debate definitely set in motion some serious, rather serendipitous outcomes and learning spillovers.