“The Wasted City” Available Online

On May 22, “The Wasted City. Approaches to Circular City Making” was published by Trancity in collaboration with Valiz and is now available to order online. There are several Dutch authors that have contributed to the book: Maarten Hajer, Barbara Koole and Joost Beunderman. 

Cities of the global north are traditionally dominated by linear ‘take-make-waste’ habits. This is the Wasted City: an urban settlement in which it is difficult to develop circular systems on a mainstream basis. We currently see urban hot spots of circularity proliferating across the world, where reducing, recycling and reusing meet progressive policymaking and economic innovation. But the truly circular city remains utopian.

The Wasted City makes us rethink our urban habits, asking how we can approach systemic circularity in our cities. Looking at the city as an ecosystem, urban planning, design and architecture practices adapt the built environment in which people and materials interact within a complex system. This book explores how different approaches to circularity connect and what is needed to make circular urban development the new sustainable standard. It is designed as a toolkit to kick-start new dialogue and action around circular city making. It can be used to inform, advance, integrate and establish support for circular approaches. The conclusion provides a series of statements that help citizens, designers, architects, city makers, politicians, and academics ignite and instill circularity as the undeniable common denominator for systemic change.