Productive Bay – A Vision of Circular Metabolism for Experimental Industrial Urbanism in the Haifa Bay.

Cities rely on huge, imported flows of energy and matter. However, urban flow patterns are essentially linear – imported resources and goods are being consumed in the city and later discarded as waste or emissions, resulting in resource depletion and environmental stress. The growing estrangement between the urban environment and supporting natural resources is a consequence of the unbalanced flows of energy and matter through human society, with industrial production being pushed away, out of sight, and out of mind. 

To facilitate sustainable resource management and environmental equity, the project proposes reimagining the city as a productive space. The project focuses on the heavily industrialized area of Haifa Bay, a classic case study of the dichotomic, disrupted environment of the current industrial order. By altering the urban metabolism, a symbiotic environment of urban life and sustainable industrial production is created, enhancing the circularity of energy and matter while suggesting new forms of an experimental and resilient urbanism that strives to heal both – the metabolic and the urban rift.