Vicent Callebaut meets François-Michel Lambert
By Monica Lafon
If there is one man who has conceived cities as self-sustaining organisms, it is Vicent Callebaut. The following project illustrates this idea perfectly:
He said it last week, at the UP Conference ‘Smart Cities- la nouvelle révolution urbaine?’. Click here to read a recount written by Kim.
If there is one word to remember, it is ecopolis.
Kim sums it up quite nicely: “His futurist view of the city pictures an ‘ecopolis’: he recouples nature and culture, creates the foundations for social relations based on social inclusion, increased importance of neighbourhoods, collective spaces and rejects binary (either/or) thinking.”
In fact, this is as if each city becomes Gaia! Lovelock would love his idea I think. ( On a further note, read this recent interview with Lovelock on the relationship between science and religion).
Surfing for definitions, I found a quote written by The Ecologist that allowed me to make a great connection to another idea. When it comes to understanding what this floating ecopolis represents, it seems as if “the cities themselves become self-sustaining organisms in symbiosis with their populations.”
Today, I attended a conference where François-Michel Lambert spoke about circular economy. When the Q&A session began, he admitted that actually, the original idea was to call it symbiotic economy.
Flashback to the conference. Callebaut said it himself :
“Mon architecture est importante pour repenser le modèle communautaire, pour vivre ensemble et quitter le modèle individualiste.”
This is how ecopolis meets ecocircular (a term I just made up). In other words, this symbiotic relationship between nature and mankind is architectural and also economic.
This is how Vicent Callebaut meets François-Michel Lambert.
As President of the Institut de l’économie circulaire, Lambert said that nowadays we live under a linear economy, which is a throw-away model that cannot go on. It basically includes the production of goods by depleting our natural resources, consuming those products, and producing trash.
On the other hand, circular economy works like this:
This basically means that we reduce, reuse and recycle. Especially, in terms of energy use.
How is this done? Imagine industry A that produces waste can give that to industry B and they can use it as energy or raw materials, and the waste they produce can be passed on to industry C. (The ABC of circular economy).
The idea is that material and energy flows in a closed cycle so that the final waste produced is at its minimum.
Reading a book on the subject, which I recommend,
Here is a nice quote for you:
Translation: This model reproduces ecosystems reducing the exploitation of natural resources and creates new activities which creates employment.
An example of an organization that is doing exactly this in France is Eqosphere.
Taking this a step further, related to circular economy is the concept of using as little as possible money and exchanging.
Some examples of this “économie de don” can be found in the following links:
This week-end, we will be going to Lyon to see the city for ourselves. Is it a smart city? Is it a green city? A slow city? An Ecodistrict? An ecocircular ecopolis?
Follow us on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 of april @granlyon2020
