Europan 16 | LIVING CITIES Metabolic Vitalities – Inclusive Vitalities

In the conditions of the Anthropocene –a new bio-geological period where human activities on the worldwide scale have a destructive impact on life on earth– the way to face global climate change and inequalities? the way to imagine other possibilities to inhabit the earth Earth? The Europan 16 topic focuses on living cities as a replacement paradigm, during which new sorts of synergies are often considered between the environmental, biological, social, economic, cultural and political dimensions. This paradigm leads us to think in terms of co-evolution and interactions, and to figure with regenerative project dynamics, combining metabolic and inclusive vitalities.

METABOLIC VITALITIES

Metabolic vitalities should help re-evaluate the opposition between city and nature, allowing the Europan projects –mixing architecture, urban design and landscape architecture– to spot and to barter with an ensemble of transformations. These transformations take natural elements under consideration like water, material flows, energy… which are all a part of the life cycles. These new relations generate inhabited milieus. These milieus are considered as complex ecosystems creating flows (with entries and exits) and in constant evolution. Developing such cyclic processes (natural cycles, circular economy cycle) leads the planning process to attenuate the environmental footprint and therefore the consumption of non-renewable energy, and to market new sorts of dwelling. Metabolic vitalities encourage design processes on different scales. The recycling competence, the enhancement of organic or energy material, the difference to global climate change , the mixing of nature and biodiversity are as many metabolic vitalities that Europan 16 sites should trigger to permit their own transformation into ecosystems between nature and culture. To be rewarded, the projects should translate this metabolic dynamic in their proposals.

INCLUSIVE VITALITIES

Urban environments face increasing inequalities and conflicts produced by invisibility, exclusion, marginalization, and inaccessibility to housing, to work, to education and to public services. To fight against these social fractures, inhabited milieus should become places where new inclusive policies and practices are supported. Inclusive vitalities placed on the foreground modes of doing which will support territorial justice articulating social and ecological concerns. problems with accessibility to public infrastructures and to housing should get a predominant role, promoting conviviality. Taking care of living environments could promote inclusion by transforming marginalised spaces into places of exchange, co-learning and biodiversity. this might allow new inclusive narratives of inhabited environments across scales and generations, promoting new forms participatory democracy. When choosing the sites, when defining the programmatic frames that accompany their evolution, and when judging the participants’ proposals, Europan 16 will emphasise on the consideration of the inclusive dimension of the inhabited milieus.

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