HUNGRY CITY WORKSHOP

The city has historically served to gather and leverage what the hinterland has produced: urban crafts guilds added value to raw materials, crops and piecework were monetized, knowledge was assembled and disseminated in cities. Within sustainability studies, cities are often cited for the efficiency of their transportation, housing and supply or refuse infrastructures, but the nature of their relationship to their hinterlands in a globalized world may be underplayed. Nothing – whether a living creature or a settlement – can have a metabolic rate of zero. This course will look to the knowledge base of urban metabolism to ask questions about how cities supply and off-load their metabolic processes. We will also engage with experts in food supply, public health, water, energy and other basic components of urban metabolism.