LOOK INSIDE: The Metabolism of Settlement Coexistences

01 Introduction

This book is about a method for describing and assessing the metabolic contributions of various kinds of settlement coexistences, or basic manners in which humankind assembles itself into urban and quasi-urban constructed circumstances. In what follows there is a brief account of the book’s scope, relation to Anthropogenic Era policy-making initiatives, and the organization of the remainder of the book itself.

A. Scope.

With the onset of the Anthropocene Era, concern for the metabolism of various kinds of urban settlement has risen appreciably. As will be discussed, it has expanded well beyond earlier physiological accounts of humankind into the multitude of activities and settings of modern life. Of particular concern in the study of architecture and urban design is the metabolic contributions of flows of stocks that go into the building and operation of settlement collectives of one kind or another. What is involved here and dealt with in this volume is an approach to rewriting, as it were, urban settlement patterns in terms of their water, energy, and material flows in order to use the resulting depictions as bases for proposing technological and design proposals for ameliorating and diminishing adverse effects and impacts, as well as related outcomes such as embodied energy and carbon concentrations so deleterious to climate change, as well as proliferation of other hyperobjects. Accordingly, hyperobjects are those that are so massively distributed in time and space as to transcend spatiotemporal specificity (Morton, 2010; and Morton, 2013). They include such processes as ‘global

Annual Global Surface Temperature Change for Land and Ocean

warming’ and object accumulations like ‘Styrofoam’ and others like ‘radioactive plutonium.’ Thinking along these lines has also given rise to ‘object-oriented-ontology’ with its rejection of the anthropomorphism that privileges humans as subjects against others as objects and is defined by the likes of Gregory Harman, the American speculative philosopher (Harman, 2011).

B. Policy-Making Initiatives.

International policy-making initiatives, largely within the purview of the United Nations, began as early as 1972 with the Stockholm ‘United Nations Conference on the Human Environment’ and on the heels of ‘Earth Day’ organized by Denis Hayes in 1970 and the birth of the modern environmental movement, particularly in the United States (Waxman, 2019). However, it wasn’t until some 20 years later that more concerted action began to take place under the United Nations at the Rio Earth Summit of 1992. Shortly before that, groundwork was laid in 1987 with the socalled ‘Brundtland Report,’ published in recognition of Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Norwegian Prime Minister and chairperson of the World Commission on Environment and Development (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The Rio Summit was followed in 1997 by high-level meetings at the UN General Assembly in New York and, later, in 2002 by the Johannesburg ‘World Summit on Sustainable Development’ with follow-up reviews, again in New York in 2005, 2008, and 2010. A second Rio Conference was held in 2012 on sustainable development, followed again by follow-ups in New York in 2015 establishing the 2030 sustainability targets alongside the Paris Agreement also in 2015. Finally, in 2022 Stockholm again hosted a conference, also addressed to the 2030 targets. Over the years the matter of ‘Climate Change’ emerged and influenced policymaking in particular with increasing strength. Scientific data and various temperature benchmarks began to be established in conjunction with this world-wide threat, with the U.S. Global Change Research Program estimating longer-term rises as much as 2.7°C to 5.6°C above 1901 or pre-industrial averages, and as shown in Figure 2 (Wuebbles, Fahey, Hibbard, et al., 2017). While the topic of climate change remains controversial, politically anyway, recent comments by Professor Jim Skea,

Higher Scenario (RCP8.5)

Mid-high Scenario (RCP6.0)

Higher Scenario (RCP8.5)

Lower Scenario (RCP4.5)

Mid-high Scenario (RCP6.0)

Even Lower Scenario (RCP2.6)

Lower Scenario (RCP4.5)

Even Lower Scenario (RCP2.6)

the Scot elected to head the ‘UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,’ have also been directed towards a certain sense of realism regarding the potential existential threat of climate change, referring instead to the specter of a soon-to-be-reached 1.5°C rise above pre-industrial levels as more of a warning than an outright threat (Sommerville, 2023). Nevertheless, evidence of the persistence of climate change, largely due to carbon emissions into the atmosphere, has led to rises of 1°C since the late 18th century, to oceans getting warmer in the top 100 meters of water, and to ice sheets melting and sea levels rising at around 20 centimeters over the past century or so. Moreover, consumption of natural resources more generally has accelerated and contributed to dire accounts of the Anthropogenic Era, alongside of the need for higher awareness of the rates of consumption and the metabolic contributions of various forms of human settlement (Turvey and Crees, 2019).

C. Organization of the Book.

What follows is a brief historical account of metabolic depictions, beginning in the 16th through 18th centuries, with the work of Santorio and Lavoisier, and moving through the principles of mass and energy conservation into the Anthropocene Era and concepts of the metabolism of cities. This is followed by discussion of stock-flow modeling of water, energy, and materials in conjunction with various kinds of settlement coexistence from extraction from natural domains like the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere; through construction and operation of settlement developments; and on into end-of-life scenarios involving refurbishing, reuse, and mining from demolition activities. Case studies follow, each associated with a particular form of settlement coexistence. Here, compact and central city areas are represented by the special zone (ZAC) of Clichy-Batignolles in Paris, France. The dispersed city and peripheral urban development are represented by the Westwood community on the outskirts of metropolitan Boston in the United States. Organic and informal settlement is taken up for the Colonia La Campana in Monterrey, Mexico, and desakota development by the township-village enterprise of Chenchun in

roughly the same population size of around 7,000 inhabitants, also allowing for some comparative analysis. These case studies are augmented by the study of a specific commercial district on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and typical housing types among the four domains of settlement coexistence, as well as a proposed project in Victorias in the Philippines. Throughout, an emphasis is placed on methodological aspects of metabolic stock-flow modeling and comparative analyses if results were appropriate.

turn, are then made into constructed components during the ‘constructed environments phase’ such as buildings, elements of infrastructure, and varieties of non-built spaces, which are then grouped in the ‘land-use phase.’ Generally, among these uses are residential, commercial, and public uses; industrial and agricultural uses; as well as infrastructure and managed alongside natural green uses. Then the stock-flow process enters something of a steady state referred to here as the ‘stock phase,’ consisting of the uses that remain longer through time and before entry into the ‘end-of-life phase’ in which there are at least four consistent and often simultaneous outcomes, ranging through ‘repair,’ ‘refurbishing,’ and ‘reuse,’ which extend the life of constructed elements, and finally ‘demolition.’ Demolition, in turn, is further subdivided into a the ‘waste management phase’ with at least two outcomes. They are ‘waste handling’ including recycling, sorting, and composting, followed by ‘waste disposal’ including mining, landfilling, and incineration. Of these, mining is becoming more crucial as municipalities and other responsible institutions are attempting to actively increase levels of reusable material resources (Diehl and Smith, 2003). As will be discussed later on, the flow rates in units per time and largely embracing obsolescence rates are applied throughout.

D. Stocks.

Strictly speaking, material stocks are holdings or commodities that result from the production of core or primary materials used by other industries or modes of production. They are largely involved in processing or discovering raw materials like oil, stone, or chemicals. In fact, the materials sector is one of 11 major sectors of the stock market. Anthropogenic stocks, of the kind accounted for in this volume, can be reused and are essential components of other made-materials like plastics, fertilizer, paper, concrete, and metal products. For the most part, anthropogenic stocks are deployed in settlement construction and to support lifestyle activities. As such they are described as they emerge from extraction within natural domains to be manufactured or otherwise produced into products like building materials and then combined to produce buildings and elements of infrastructure and then on to form categories of land use. Throughout the modeling exercises

FIG.3: Three Kinds of Data Sources.

04 Case Studies

The following chapter is comprised of representative case studies from the four domains of settlement coexistence, as well as several specific urban projects. The aim is to present results with regard to water flows, energy flows, and material flows, as well as to contextualize each case study area more fully with regard to spatial and population characteristics, locations within cities, and the physical character of settlement, including building and landuse types, infrastructure, and open space.

A. Specific Domains of Settlement Co-existence.

i. Compact City.

The representative site for the ‘compact city’ category is located in the Batignolles neighborhood, within the 17th Arrondissement of Paris in the north-west on the edge of the Boulevard Périphérique that circumscribes the city. Batignolles has about 100 or so Haussmann perimeter block buildings, around six stories in height and containing a mixture of uses, though mainly residential apartments on the order of 70 square meters in size with commercial and retail functions located on lower floors. The overall area is also generally well served by the Paris metro system and is relatively high in residential density and commercial intensity as depicted in Figure 1, more or less centered on the Boulevard Périphérique. The actual study area in this volume is the Clichy-Batignolles ZAC or ‘Zone d’Aménagement Concerté,’ or Special Development Zone, that was set aside around 2002 as a site for innovation in environmental, affordable, and mixeduse development (Smurak, 2018). It is comprised of around 54

ZAC CLICHY-BATIGNOLLES

WESTWOOD WATER MODEL

Usage: 2,955,954 m3/year Population: 7448

FIG.16: Westwood Water Sankey Diagram.

WESTWOOD

EFFICIENT

2,262,565 m3/year Population: 7448

WATER MODEL

Westwood Water Efficiency Sankey Diagram.

‘Ya no estoy aqui’ (‘I am no longer here’) filmed in 2011 depicting the life of a young gang member with a love for cumbia, the local Kolombian music and dance, depicted in Figure 26. La Campana was also the subject of sustained community activity with the ‘Colosal’ painting project that transformed some 300 houses into a multi-colored urban mural project as shown in Figure 27. Also, in 2015 ‘Barrio Esperanza’ was formed to foster community-based improvements, particularly in the sectors of social infrastructure, education, and employment and health (Zapata, 2019). More specifically, within the sector of social infrastructure, efforts are being made to create ‘pocket parks’ to secure and augment areas especially for children’s play, as well as a waste management program focused on recycling. These small and localized efforts have the advantage of being well scaled to local circumstances, stimulating wide community participation and helping to reduce the threat of social displacement (Dovey, 2012).

a. Water Model

The defining characteristics of the water stock-flow model depicted in Figure 28 for the ‘organic settlement’ at La Campana, Monterrey, Mexico, in cubic meters per year are as follows. The percentage distribution of sources are about 62 percent for surface water and 38 percent for groundwater. This is more or less the same as the rest of the city as it is one of the few services provided directly to the informal settlement. The percentage distribution by use is around 83 percent residential, 11 percent commercial-public, and 6 percent on green space. The percentage distribution in output by type is 91 percent to wastewater treatment, 6 percent in leakage, 1 percent in evaporation, and 2 percent in infiltration. These low figures for these last two types are largely because of the absence of open space within the settlement. The total volume for La Campana was 621,000 cubic meters per year. With the use of waterefficient appliances, a reduction of around 42 percent on overall demand could be obtained as shown in Figure 29. Also, as La Campana is fully dependent for water supply and treatment on the surrounding municipality, other potential forms of recycling are outside its jurisdiction as is stormwater harvesting.

b. Energy Model

The defining characteristics of the energy stock-flow model for the ‘informal settlement’ of La Campana in Monterrey, Mexico, in KWh/year are as follows and are shown on Figure 30. The percentage distribution by source is around 13 percent in renewables, 2 percent nuclear, 85 percent fossil fuels including coal, and 1 percent other. Electricity is really the only other municipal service that is supplied to La Campana along with water. The percentage distribution by use is about 43 percent residential, 12 percent commercial-public, and 45 percent in transportation, reflecting the high dependency on private vehicles within the settlement, essentially to commute outside. The percentage distribution by output is 66 percent lost and 34 percent consumed. For the improved or more efficient energy flow model as shown in Figure 31, the overall amount was potentially reduced by 41 percent. This came about through reduced cooling, heating, and lighting loads by 50, 30, and 70 percent respectively, and the use of ceiling fans, heating devices, and LED lighting. With regard to sources, the potential use of renewables increased to 16.3 percent with solar arrays. Transportation and particularly fossil fuel petroleum use remained high and— same as any energy-saving program—would likely need to be implemented city-wide, such as through an electric bus fleet. The implementation of an energy-reduction program within the informal settlement would likely take the form of self-organization much like the ‘pocket park,’ colossal painting, and muted waste management programs described earlier.

c. Materials Model

The defining characteristics of the materials stock-flow model in metric tons per year and as shown on Figure 32 for the ‘informal settlement’ of La Campana in Monterrey, Mexico, are as follows. A full 81.5 percent is drawn from the geosphere reflecting the relatively basic form of development, 2.5 percent is from the biosphere, and 16 percent from the hydrosphere. With regard to land uses, around 67 percent is for residential, 21 percent is in infrastructure, 11 percent in commercial-public, and 1 percent in transportation. With regard to waste management about 93

FIG.71:Standard Floor Plan at 1 Boulevard de Sebastopol, Paris.

FIG.72:Aerial View of the Block at 1 Boulevard de Sebastopol, Paris.

FIG.73:Limestone – Facades at 1 Boulevard de Sebastopol, Paris.

12 Author Profiles

Peter G. Rowe is the Founding Chairman of SURBA – The Studio for Urban Analyses in Brooklyn New York. He is also the Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. as well as a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. He served for twelve years as Dean of the Faculty of Design at Harvard and prior to that as Chairman of the Urban Planning and Design Department and Director of the Urban Design Department. Before joining the Harvard faculty, Rowe was the Director of the School of Architecture at Rice University and Vice-President and Research Director of the Rice Center and Environmental Program Director of the Southwest Center for Urban Research. He is also the holder of several honorary professorships in East Asia and was Education Director of the Aga Kahn Center for Culture as well as the author, co-author and editor of numerous articles and some thirty-one books. Including recently Design Thinking band Story Telling in Architecture, Architectural Territories in East Asia and When Urban Design Comes to Ground, also with Carlos Arnaiz. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Melbourne University and his Mater of Architecture urban Design from Rice University.

Claire Doussard is a landscape engineer, urban planner and urban researcher specializing in sustainable urban planning. environmental and technological urban innovations and research development strategies. She has an active consulting practice and is the author and co-author of several books and numerous scientific articles, as well as communications for the general

public. Doussard also holds an appointment as Assistant Professor at the École Spéciale d’Architecture from 2020 to present, as well as serving as a researcher at the University of Lausanne from 2022-2023 and a lecturer at the University of Cergy-Pontoise from 2017-2020. She was also President of Scago SAS in Paris from 2015-2018. Doussard earned a PhD in Planning from the University of Paris, Sorbonne in 2017, a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2014 and a degree in the Management and Landscape Engineering from Agrocampus Ouest in 2012.

Carlos Arnaiz is an architect, educator, writer and urban design consultant. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of SURBA – the Studio for Urban Analyses in Brooklyn New York and the Founder and Principal of CAZA a Brooklyn-based architectural firm. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design at Pratt Institute where he has taught courses on the history of ideas about the city, modular construction technologies and design studios on a variety of topics including urban housing. His professional experience ranges from the design and construction of large-scale mixeduse complexes to strategic sustainability plans for new urban developments in various parts of the world, in addition to numerous single buildings for public and private sector clients. Arnaiz is the recipient of numerous design awards and holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with honors and a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Williams College.