A Series of Tubes
The lunchtime lecture on October 10 at the Chicago Architecture Foundation presented the idea of a ecologically sustainable urban city being explored in Sweden called SymbioCity. Phil Thompson and David Cordel representing the Swedish Trade Council described the projects built and in planning near Stockholm.
One idea they talked about is to build dense new urban developments with integrated waste disposal systems. Instead of garbage trucks using fuel to haul away waste items, each house will be connected by disposal pipes in the same way that water waste is removed from modern households. The talk did not explain the exact mechanism which carries the waste from each house, and the presenters seemed most excited about a game on the Symbiocity website that helps explain the idea more than any specifics. The housing project pictured above is designed to recycle storm runoff water, and increase walkability through dense development.
CAF has a recorded archive of the talk.