Abstract
Instead of the energy and ecological relocation, SYMBIONT City detects energy opportunities and possible urban folding to achieve thermodynamic benefits. Although some agendas have already fostered the concept of symbiotic planning, neither current infrastructural systems nor urban regulatory frameworks allow for its real implementation. SYMBIONT is a set of local laboratories designed to enable new synergies between waste, energy and information flows on existing urban waste transfer facilities. It pretends to raise the level of urban resilience in cities by acting on existing urban facilities and adjacent urban setting through the implementation of local laboratories able to monitor, process, and reconnect existing waste, energy and information flows while recovering the notion of infrastructure as public space through social engagement actions. These spatial facilities have a strategic value as nodal urban locations—with potential phase-change capacity—for neighbourhood waste and energy flows. These micro-infrastructural interventions will help in the aforementioned transition allowing for a turn from “grey” towards “green” infrastructures, with capacity to provide social, ecological and economic benefits to urban communities such as reduction of waste disposal, local energy generation and storage, improvement of air quality, reduction of energy costs and new opportunities to social cohesion and engagement.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Total municipal solid waste has decreased by 2% between 2004 and 2012, but in the same period, 18 of the 28 EU countries increased the amount of municipal waste generated per capita, rising fairly steadily in 6 of these countries.
- 2.
Only in the UK the Environment Agency estimates that 2000 new waste management facilities will be required to meet the EU Landfill Directive, and many more upgrades to separate and treat waste and to reprocess recyclates.
- 3.
However, figures from 2012 show that 72.9% of Madrid solid waste is not recycled.
- 4.
Eurostat Statistics from 2013 establishes that waste generated rates (in Kg/person year) are: Spain 449, UK 482 and Italy 491. Recycling + composting recovery rates are Spain 20 + 10%, UK 28 + 16% and Italy 26 + 15%.
- 5.
As they are Barcelona, Figueras, Viladecans, Manresa, Mataró, A Coruña, Mancomunidad de la Sierra de Barbanza, Ourense, Santiago de Compostela, Vitoria-Gasteiz. (San Sebastián, Usurbil, Leganés, Benicàssim, etc.). See results at http://www.bcnecologia.net/es/modelo-conceptual/simur.
- 6.
As they are Function Mixer, Cyclifier, or more technical tools as CYPE, Design Builder or Ecotech, Vensim, Stella, Ithink, Powersim, Dynamo.
- 7.
E.g. In Spain energy efficiency requirements as described by the Basic Document HE (Energy Saving) CTE, and its overlaps with Law 8/2013 on Rehabilitation, Regeneration and Urban Renewal.
Abbreviations
- CF:
-
Carbon footprint
- EPP:
-
Energy plant prothesis
- EU:
-
European Union
- MEU:
-
Mixed-use ecosystem entity
- MUD:
-
Mixed-use development
- MWF:
-
Municipal waste management facilities
- SLS:
-
Symbiont local laboratory
- SSP:
-
Social symbiont platform
- WMP/MWP:
-
Waste Municipal Plan
- WP:
-
Waste protocol
References
Bach, M., & Fudge, C. (2001). Towards more sustainable land use: Advice to the European Commission for policy and action. London: Expert Group on Urban Environment.
Evans, G., Foord, J., Porta, S., Thwaites, K., Romice, O., & Greaves, M. (2007). The generation of diversity: Mixed-use and urban sustainability. Urban sustainability through environmental design: Approaches to time people-place responsive urban spaces (pp. 95–101).
Goldsmith, E. (1996). The way: An ecological world view (Rev. and enlarged ed.). Devon: Themis Books.
Marsh, A., & Khan, A. (2011). Simulation and the future of design tools for ecological research. Architectural Design, 81(6), 82–91.
McDonough, W., & Braungart, M. (2002). Cradle to cradle. New York: North Point Press.
McHarg, I. L. (1969). Design with nature. Garden City: The Natural History Press.
Morton, T. (2010). The ecological thought. New York: Harvard University Press.
Odum, E. P. (1992). Ecología: Bases científicas para un nuevo paradigma. Barcelona: Vedrá.
Van den Dobbelsteen, A. (2010). Synergy, not Autarky. In U. Hackauf & P. Haikola (Eds.), Green dream: How cities can outsmart nature (pp. 266–270). Rotterdam: The Why Factory & Nai Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mestre, N., Rodrigues, L., Hurtado, E., Roig, E. (2017). From Grey Towards Green. About the Urban Energy Fold at Symbiont City. In: Álvarez Fernández, R., Zubelzu, S., Martínez, R. (eds) Carbon Footprint and the Industrial Life Cycle. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54984-2_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54984-2_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54983-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54984-2
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)