Is C2C really the concept to successfully balance ecology and economy? Although it promises to do away with the problem of scarcity, one likely consequence is a severe restriction of the use of raw materials, as well as of the knowledge necessary to make C2C work. For these reasons an open source approach to ecology is urgently needed.

Steef Buijs’ training as an urban planner was back in the sixties, so world food problems were not part of his original ‘mindset’ as a planning professional. During his work however he encountered these problems increasingly often and achieved growing insight into how these relate to urban development all over the world. What follows is an account of these experiences, resulting in his present view on how ongoing urbanization might help solve the food crisis.

The research on the 'Post Capitalist City' goes on, with a series of lectures at the Dutch Art Institute. Friday 12th Mireille Roddier (University of Michigan) will address DAI students with a lecture on Three forms of contemporary practices: Puppets, Vanguardistas & Guerillas - on various modes of creative operations in the city, and the various forms of occupation they attempt to resist. Next workshops will include public lectures by Marjetica Potrc, and Design 99. Further Reading Urban Resistance 101 - By Mireille Roddier [via: Detroit Unreal Estates Agency]

As announced, here are some notes on the Food and The City expert meeting held at the Amsterdam's Academy of Architecture. Our purpose was to collect ideas and data on the impact of food production on the environment and society, and to provide possible strategies to overcome the ongoing food crisis for VOLUME's issue on Sustainability. Three different models and ways of thinking the present and the future of agriculture were confronted, but some initial points were shared among our guests: The era of the Green Revolution has come to an end: our agricultural model - as it is based on massive use of fossil fuel, - is today economically inefficient, and noxious for the environment For this reason, the Green Revolution food system is no longer able to feed a growing world population and to deal with poverty and social inequalities New models of food production, processing, retail and consumption are needed to overcome the present crisis All the possible new models must get food production back to the urban environment

A statement* VOLUME has decided not to bring a positive contribution to the Sustainability debate. VOLUME believes that too many matters, and essential ones, are not voiced in this debate, as regards the social and political status of Design, as regards the ideological functions and the mythology of environment. In these circumstances, any participation could not but reinforce the ambiguity and the complicity of silence which hangs over this debate. So we prefer to present a text expressing our positions. The burning question of Sustainability has neither suddenly fallen from the heavens nor spontaneously risen from the collective consciousness: It has its own history. In the Seventies, Reyner Banham has clearly shown the moral and technical limits and the illusions of sustainability practice. He didn’t approach the social and political definition of this practice. It is not by accident that all the Western governments have now launched this new crusade, and try to mobilize people’s conscience by shouting apocalypse.

VOLUME’s research on sustainability for VOLUME 18, perspectives beyond issues of CO2 emission and carbon fossil fuel consumption, inspired collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum. On October 4 its ‘Heartland’ exhibition opened. Ideologically there are clear links between these projects. The institutes share an interdisciplinary research approach and both teams attempt to understand social, cultural and environmental sustainability in a manner, which is disconnected from development discourse and market driven practice. To exchange and discuss positions and findings an expert meeting was staged at the Van Abbemuseum. Two positions initiated the debate. These will be presented more extensively in VOLUME 18, here we present some core ideas.

Environmental regulations are generally based on compensation principles: you're allowed to pollute the air or the water, but not beyond a certain level set by the regulation. If you want to pollute more, you can always buy extra pollution quotas. Environmental protection came always after 'human development' priorities. But in places like Ecuador, as in the rest of Latin America, human development has always shown its dark sides The country, which contains every South American ecosystem within its borders, which include the Galapagos Islands, has had disastrous collisions with multi-national companies. Many, from banana companies to natural gas extractors, have exploited its natural resources and left little but pollution and poverty in their wake.

The Dutch Pavilion site has published tons of data on the results of the working sessions held during the Biennale's opening days. Check the videos of the Round Table Discussions and the Speed Date Marathon. Also pdf versions of The Book are available (alas, only printer friendly versions)

Nature doesn't exist, and it's a product of our thought. Or, our thought is shaped by nature, as we are embedded in it. In each case, ecology is not anymore an ecology of nature, but it is an ecology of everything: environment, mind, society. Human activities can be described with ecological models, and human activities have ecological consequences. If there is no "nature", no original "equilibrium" to be restored then GMOs, nuclear power, Geo Engineering, etc, are not intrinsically wrong. Paradoxically, they're also functional to lowering CO2 emissions. The wrong fact is that GMOs, nuclear power, Geo Engineering, etc, are a product of a not ecological vision of the world. The laws of Market are inherently anti-ecological

Expert meeting Nr. 2 - VOLUME i.c.w. VAN ABBEMUSEUM Since a sustainable city is often understood as a society of zero emission or carbon neutrality, we decided to ask ourselves: What happens AFTER ZERO, when this ideal stage is reached? What are the theoretical guidelines and interesting practices for designing a sustainable city? We think that the experiences of those who work in shrinking cities or cities in ‘crisis’ are in the process of finding answers to these questions. As these places offer a radically different case study on what a normal urban condition is, namely a condition which is not only determined by capitalist development incentives, but rather a kind of post-capitalist condition with a different logic to produce and a different set of ethics.

Did you know? Cities have always been shaped by food. Different systems of food production, storage, distribution, and consumption patterns affected the form of cities in history, from the first cities of Mesopotamia, to the proto-hydroponic terraces of Machu Picchu, from the post-war Western cities to the Southern Megalopolis. Our food system is the product of the so-called Green Revolution, begun in the Fourties. But today the Green Revolution shows its limits. Of course, it is criticized by ecologists and anti-globalization activists for the damages it causes to the environment and for its negative consequences for the poor in developing countries. But also, seems that the Green Revolution techniques are no longer profitable for the agriculture business. Therefore, a new, Greener Revolution is about to come.

Yesterday, the Italian newspaper il manifesto published two very different opinions on the Venice Biennale. The first is an enthusiastic article by Lucia Tozzi, pointing out the freshness of the young architects involved in the exhibition ... the architects selected by Emiliano Gandolfi [the curator of the Italian Pavilion exhibition] question security policies, land property, comunication systems, the established cycles of building industry, public space and energy resources management. On the other side, the editorial by Maurizio Giufré shows a completely different mood. What does it mean to be 'experimental' nowadays, when as "Zygmunt Bauman pointed out, there can be no innovation, neither eresy, for there is no orthodoxy"? Computer graphics is meant to represent an architecture which can resist consumption culture. On the contrary, architects are not aware that they are participating to it, and reproducing it at any time Can architecture go beyond the 'society of the spectacle'?