Integration by design: exploring circularity in planning education

Although material and energy flow analyses are increasingly recognised as tools for urban sustainability audits (e.g. benchmarking) and environmental policy guidance, few planning exercises go beyond research to design resource-efficient circular urban metabolisms. We proposed a strongly integrated inter-disciplinary and scalar approach for transferring evidence-based data at the smaller scale of design intervention within the framework of an urban planning and design studio on circularity. The results show the difficulty for students to handle complex data such as environmental statistics and sustainability indicators, as well as the limitation of their direct transferability in constructing territorial visions of transformation. The challenge remains connecting formal analysis with a qualitative and critical understanding of the plurality of stakeholders and conditions underpinning the recirculation of urban flows.