In this first chapter of the Book “Regenerative Territories. Dimensions of Circularity for Healthy Metabolisms”, the relation between circularity and space is explored. The main focus is the development over time, and in particular the way how spatial planning and strategies respond to new unpredictable urgencies and opportunities related with territorial metabolisms. In relation to space and time, 5 grand rules are explored as necessary to implement the transition towards Circularity: (1) The Circular Economy paradigm shift requires a socio-ecological perspective and looking beyond boundaries; (2) Circular Economy is based on systems thinking and territorial metabolism; (3) a Circular Economy calls for a renewed approach to the public domain and stakeholder involvement; (4) amplifying the definition of Circular Economy with the inclusion of wastescapes; and (5) Planning the Circular Economy as an open collaborative system. The paradigm shift of contemporary planning towards circularity is aimed to facilitate the capacity of cities to be adaptive and flexible to the speeding up of the biggest changes in the present-day society. Therefore, the relation between the various spatial scales is strictly interlinked to the time scales, as well as to the metabolic processes and Life Cycles of Territories. In this perspective, the “existing city” is a non-negotiable common heritage, the result of a “selective accumulation” of material and immaterial traces produced by the slow and progressive anthropic work in the territory. Contemporary spatial planning looks beyond boundaries. This concerns both the physical boundaries between areas or countries, both the boundaries of the various scale levels of solutions, of the interrelated networks, of the public space and, particularly, of their reciprocity. It induces the scrutinization of the underlying social needs and the finding of instruments that allow the spatial planning and renewed infrastructure to fit the changing social objectives such as sustainability and liveability. The territory of the Circular Economy is the city, as a complex and multidimensional organism. However, the most problematic field for experimenting with “circular planning” is the peri-urban territory consisting of urbanized areas, crossed by differentiated phenomena of settlement expansion beyond the limits of the countryside, which identifies rural and open space, traditionally coinciding with the limits of the city. A circular planning for the regeneration of the peri-urban identifies the waste spaces, the decay of the territory, the obsolescence and end of life of buildings, functions and urban parts now inadequate, namely wasted landscapes (wastescapes). The latter are both the result of metabolic transformations of the territory and generator of prospects and potential for rebalancing the material welfare of the city.

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This open access book provides new perspectives on circular economy and space, explored towards the definition of regenerative territories characterised by healthy metabolisms. Going beyond the mere reuse/recycle of material waste as resources, this work aims to understand how to apply circularity principles to, among others, the regeneration of wastescapes. The main focus is the development over time, and in particular the way how spatial planning and strategies respond to new unpredictable urgencies and opportunities related with territorial metabolisms. The book specifically focuses on living labs environments, where it is possible to tackle complex problems through a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach - including the use of digital spatial decision support environment – which could be able to include all the involved stakeholders. Through a spatial scope of circularity, this book describes several examples including among others ideas from different contexts such as Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Vietnam. Through including reflections on methodology and representation, as well as on solutions for circular and healthy metabolisms, the book provides an excellent resource to researchers and students.@en

Port cities and metropolitan port territories are experiencing a profound transition as a consequence of radical spatial and governance changes mainly led by logistics’ dynamics. Contemporary spaces between ports and cities have often become a collage of wastescapes: marginal territories resulting from the current uneven growth of port cities. This contribution developes a new methodological approach by stating that neglected spaces represent a precious resource to initiate circular and resilient regenerations of port cities through metabolic transformation processes. The article points out the wastescapes of the port of Naples as network of resources that allows decision-makers and urban planners to combine the logistical strategies and the enhancement of the port cultural heritage through synergistic interventions@en

Resource consumption and related waste production are still rapidly increasing all over the world, leading to social and environmental challenges and to the production of the so-called ‘wastescapes’. Peri-urban areas—in-between urban and rural territories—are particularly vulnerable and prone to develop into wastescapes because they are generally characterised by mixed functions and/or monofunctional settlements, as well as by fragmentation in a low-density territory that is often crossed by large infrastructure networks. Moreover, peri-urban areas are generally the selected locations for the development of plants for waste management. In this way, they are crossed by waste flows of a different nature, in a landscape of operational infrastructures and wasted landscapes. Implementing Circular Economy (CE) principles, interpreting waste and wastescapes as resources, is a way to significantly reduce raw material and (soil) resource consumption, improving cities’ metabolism. A circular approach can positively affect the spatial, social and environmental performances of peri-urban areas. However, the transition towards a CE presents many challenges. This article outlines an approach to address these challenges, presenting a co-creation process among researchers, experts and stakeholders within Living Labs (LLs) processes. LLs are physical and virtual spaces, aiming at the co-creation of site-specific eco-innovative solutions (EIS) and strategies. In the LLs, public–private–people partnerships are developed by applying an iterative methodology consisting of five phases: Co-Exploring, Co-Design, Co-Production, Co-Decision, and Co-Governance. This article presents a case study approach, analysing the co-creation methodology applied in two peri-urban living labs, located in the Metropolitan Areas of Naples (Italy) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands), within REPAiR Horizon2020 research project.
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Cities and landscapes around the world are the result of many centuries of human interventions. They are a spatial palimpsest of events and processes that have modified the formation of landscapes and cities and, in some cases, even erased what others had previously done (Corboz, 1998). The insertion of spaces of oil into the existing territory used existing patterns and created new ones, giving rise to a palimpsestic global petroleumscape that links production and management of industrial flows through a particular configuration of space (C. Hein, 2013, 2018). Throughout the twentieth century, as oil became a key player in the transformation of space, it helped the emergence of diverse spaces, ranging from industrial sites to headquarters and cultural facilities. In the network of oil spaces, port cities have taken on a particular role. The petroleum industry used the ports to access the hinterland. They built oil related structures, such as oil tanks, pipelines and industrial and sometimes administrative buildings nearby, often in the vicinity of dense urban environments (C. Hein, 2013). These landscapes are characterized by fragmentation, a term proposed by the urbanist Bernardo Secchi (B. Secchi, 2000) to describe a spatial condition that belongs to the contemporary cities. Here, left-over of contaminated industrial landscapes form a set of fragments with a high potential for change. In this situation, utopian scenarios designed to present possibilities of change can help envisioning a reality better than the current one (B. Secchi & Viganò, 2009). Previous design experiences have been carried out for the cities of Rotterdam and Dunkirk (C. Hein, 2017, 2019; C. Hein & De Martino, 2018). In 2018, the studio built upon an ongoing collaboration with Michelangelo Russo from the Department of Architecture of Federico II in Naples. The students from TU Delft took their analysis notably to the eastern part of Naples. Historical choices, urban activities and socio-economic relationships characterize a strategic area in Eastern Naples, where the city becomes landscape (Russo, 2014, 2016). In this area, the port faces a problem of relationship with the city, resulting in discontinuity and fragmentation for the waterfront areas. East Naples, and specifically the area of oil storage of Q8 called “Ambito 13”, is a critical area as it covers a huge space in between the city and the peripheral residential areas of Ponticelli and Barra (previous image). The oil refinery and oil tanks in this area separate the city center from the rest of the Eastern city. Here, commercial and oil flows intertwine with heavily urbanized areas. However, this mosaic of different landscapes and relations also has great potentiality for redevelopment (next image). Both the Naples Municipality and the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System [1] are vying for this site. Their competing interests present an opportunity to rethink the port-city relationship, to redevelop the abandoned oil-related industrial areas, and to re-launch East Naples as a new place for urban living. The studio therefore asked the following question: How can port and city use the container port extension – beyond the presence of the oil sites – as an opportunity for an era beyond oil? @en

Petroleum flows have shaped landscapes, cities and buildings around the world in tangible and intangible ways. Industrial structures such as refineries and oil depots, as well as headquarters of oil companies, gas stations, and road infrastructures, are the tangible result of petroleum power. Their emergence has created new landscapes. Analysing them it will provide new insights to think about a post petroleumscape. Petroleumscape is an interesting concept from a design perspective, used to explain the relationship between production and management of industrial flows, and their impact on the urban settlement and the configuration of the space. Understanding the relation between production and space will allow to evaluate the state of the territory, its transformative potential, and finally, to identify strategies for the regeneration of the city, infrastructure, the environment, and landscape as a whole. At the beginning of the 20th century, the national government opted to make Naples into one of the most important industrial cities. East Naples, located at the edge of the city and on the only urban expansion axis toward a wider metropolitan area, has historically assumed the character of an industrial urban periphery. East Naples, part of a Region in the past defined as “felix”, is nowadays a place of waste, a brownfield. It is a place in transition, sad result of an obsolete economic and land use model that needs to be changed. The coexistence of industrial spaces and one of Europe’s densest urban settlement system gives rise to a landscape in which, nowadays, the interstitial spaces become available to the definition of new hybridisms and possibilities of interconnections. @en