MEGAPROJECT: THE CIRCULAR REGION
FOCUS AREA: CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN PRACTICE
CHALLENGE: THE FOOD-WATER-ENERGY NEXUS OF CIRCULAR LIVING
CHALLENGE DESCRIPTION:
This challenge builds on current, ongoing urban transformation and brown-field development projects taking place in the region, e.g. Spritten/Cloud City in Aalborg, and Stigsborg in Nørresundby. The challenge aims to address concrete changes needed for realizing a functional Circular Food-Water-Energy Nexus at the neighbourhood scale.
One aspect of the circularity relates to building with a circular mindset, e.g. with use of recycled material, or through a design for recyclability (closing loops), prolonged material life (slowing loops), less materials but higher quality (narrowing loops).
Another, and equally important, aspect then relates to living with circularity in mind. How can new or refurbished apartments and houses as well as the services and functions available on site encourage closing, narrowing and slowing material and resource loops? How may, for example, on-site re-use of grey water be implemented; biomass be collected for (on-site) nutrient and/or energy recovery; local or on-site food production and consumption be enabled; and energy efficiency and use of renewable sources be realised?
Lessons from the project can be contrasted and compared with pilots taking place elsewhere, and the potential for scaling up (in Aalborg), and/or transferring to other cities and towns in Denmark and beyond can be discussed.
IMPACTED SDGS:
PROPOSED PROJECT PROBLEMS:
- Masterplans for retrofit for circular living
- How can Vertical Farms be realized in dense urban settings?
- How can multifunctional urban spaces be designed to encourage circular living?
- Can serious gaming, virtual and augmented reality, and (big) data assist in Nexus transformations and if so, how?
- What are the environmental and socio-economic benefits and costs of decentral, onsite vis-à-vis central, offsite waste and resource sourcing and treatment?
CHALLENGE PROPOSER:
Martin Lehmann
Planning
martinl@plan.aau.dk
CO-PROPOSERS:
Niels Thomas Eriksen
Chemistry and bioscience
nte@bio.aau.dk
Rasmus Lund Jensen
Build
rlj@civil.aau.dk
Jan H. Mikkelsen
Electronic systems
hmi@es.aau.dk
Lone Stub Petersen
Planning
lonep@plan.aau.dk