About

An online photo journal of the project can be viewed on Flickr:

MetaboliCity is a vision of a city that metabolizes its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need and more. London based studio Loop.pH started MetaboliCity in October 2009 as a design seeding process that included the participation of over 100 volunteers from eco-architects and hydroponic experts to chefs and residents of East London housing estates, working together to co-design a diverse portfolio of solutions for growing food in the city.

MetaboliCity is now a growing network of small-scale, distributed urban vegetation experiments that develop solutions to integrate both traditional and hi-tech agricultural techniques into the fabric of the built environment. Be it soilless, solar powered window farms, vertical green cladding that clings to facades or organically grown vegetables climbing up street lamps, innovative solutions emerged from multidisciplinary teams collaborating.

We believe design holds a potential to address some of today’s most urgent societal and ecological problems by facilitating creative visioning, encouraging action and promoting energy independence, human nutrition, and a metabolic thinking. We are looking for more people who want to start experimental grow-labs so please get in touch if you are interested!


For the first time in history, the majority of us live in cities and with world population steadily increasing there is a growing demand for resources such as land, energy and food. In most cases rapid urbanization displaces the natural environment and does not employ the ability of botanical life to regulate climate, water run off and pollution. Too often the outcome is an inefficient city environment with harsh living conditions.

The increased demand for food has resulted in global industrialized food production, which brings us out of touch with seasons, nutrient cycles and healthy nutrition. Few of us realize today the importance of plants for everything that keeps us alive from oxygen to water, energy and food.
We are heading into a serious food crisis, a present day situation in many of the less advantaged countries in the developing world. Wartime initiatives in the past - such as the Victory Gardens - have shown that self initiated and localized urban food production can relieve the pressure on agriculture and at the same time educate people about food and nutrition and strengthen local communities.

'How can we re-integrate nature into our cities to positively combat key issues ranging from community cohesion and pollution to obesity and sustainable food production?'

This question presents us with both a major design challenge and opportunity for the 21st century and provides the focus for MetaboliCity.

The project is by design studio Loop.pH, hosted by Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London and funded by the Audi Design Foundation from October 2008 - September 2009.

Hannah Jones of Goldsmiths, University of London is academic associate and introducing Metadesign principles to the design team referencing the two year (EPSRC/AHRC) funded research project ‘Benchmarking Synergy levels within Metadesign’ based in the department of design at Goldsmiths, University of London. The principle investigator was Professor John Wood.