Kick-start 2019 with a Circular Cities Masterclass

Published on the 22nd of November 2018

‘Designing the Circular Cities of the Future’ features case studies from Amsterdam, other cities and regions across the Netherlands, and international best practices.

Organizations across the Netherlands will once again kick off the new year with the ‘Week of the Circular Economy’ running 14-18 January 2019. As part of the agenda Metabolic is running a masterclass on ‘Designing the Circular Cities of the Future’ which will feature pioneering case studies from Amsterdam, other cities and regions across the Netherlands, and international best practices.

The Week of the Circular Economy is an opportunity for businesses and citizens across the Netherlands – a country recognized as leading the transition to a circular economy – to connect and share knowledge. The transition from our current linear ‘take-make-dispose’ economy to a circular model relies on input and action from organizations at every level and scale. From large corporations whose collective impacts and influence are key to accelerating wide-scale systemic change, to start-ups whose new and innovative business models have the power to disrupt – a range of organizations will be opening their doors for events during this week of circular economy collaboration.

Masterclass: Designing the Circular Cities of the Future

Core to our mission at Metabolic is sharing the insights and knowledge generated through our work with both leaders and new starters in the circular economy field. Our Masterclass Designing the Circular Cities of the Future focuses specifically on how the circular economy relates to urban environments. With cities as rapidly-growing, resource-intensive hubs, it explores how we can plan urban environments with regenerative design as the priority.

About the class

While cities occupy only 3% of the Earth’s surface area, they house more than half of the world’s population, consume over 75% of the global resources and are responsible for up to 80% of greenhouse emissions. Understanding these statistics, we can see that cities are one of the most critical intervention points for reducing human impact on the environment, creating sustainable local economies, and increasing the average quality of human life.

This 3.5 hour Masterclass provides the skills and theory on how to design, develop and implement circular cities of the future. We provide a crash course on the principles and theory of urban metabolisms and circular city development, analyzing relevant case studies such as De Ceuvel, Schoonschip and Circular Buiksloterham – projects that Metabolic has helped pioneer – as well as international examples like Rotterdam and the City of Charlotte, to explore these design principles in practice.

What you’ll leave with

Insider information about the common pitfalls, benefits, and barriers to transitioning cities to perform at high circularity, with lessons from relevant and practical case studies.
A clear understanding of the nuances of local stakeholder management necessary for making progress on a local circular economy.
Reliable strategies to identify low-hanging fruit and design pilots that educate, build support, and accelerate the transition.

Instructors

Gerard Roemers leads the Metabolic Cities team. He has a background in spatial planning as well as industrial ecology, and specializes in urban and regional metabolism analysis, developing strategies to transition cities and regions towards a circular and sustainable state. Gerard has worked with dozens of cities and regions across the Netherlands and Europe. He is involved in academic research with the AMS Institute, and organizes an international Summer School with the University of Amsterdam on ‘The Circular City‘.

Tamara Streefland is Metabolic’s Cities Program Lead. Over the past five years Tamara has worked across a wide range of projects relating to sustainable cities, focusing on topics such as water ecology, the freight sector, waste systems and renewable energy – in Amsterdam, New York City and other urban hubs across the world. In these projects, she conducted comprehensive systems analyses, in-depth research, and collaborative design as a basis for creative and feasible strategies towards a more sustainable and circular state.