Urban Circular Metabolism as a Generator of Value and Resilient Communities. Creative Recycling of Industrial Architecture: The Case of Nordkraft (Aalborg, DK)

Abstract

Aalborg has modified its urban metabolism to overcome the economic-industrial crisis and tackle climate change. The city, however, has not changed its DNA. Without distorting its identity as an industrial city, it has been able to respond to new and unpredictable needs through a process of architectural and urban exaptation. Nordktraft is a significant part of this regeneration process based on sustainability, both from an environmental and socio-cultural point of view, with a vision that is particularly focused on physical health and the growth of the relational life of the population. The vision that inspired the Nordkraft project is that diversity is the most powerful factor fueling resilience. Diversity is essential: it is in nature (biodiversity) as it is from a human point of view (relational, functional, generational, cultural, physical). The refurbishment project of the disused power plant was born from the intention of creating a public space capable of generating communities of resilient residents, a place of common goods, a catalyst for community identification and creativity. More than ten years after the opening of the center, work is still being done constantly to expand the circle of stakeholders who want to set up and manage further activities of collective interest. The engine of creativity and the value of diversity mean that the Nordkraft project will never be completed: Nordkraft is in a state of continuous exaptation, it is conceived and designed to continually renew itself through a circular urban metabolism.