ABSTRACT
At the World Design Conference in Tokyo in 1960, the Metabolist group emphasized mobility, growth, and change. Although these themes had been discussed in architectural circles before, they were given strong organic imagery and connotations by the Metabolists, who compared them to biological processes. This chapter discusses a selection of contemporary urban regeneration themes seen through the lens of Metabolist ideas, particularly when understood as enabling, directing, and caring infrastructural interventions. The organic analogies present in the writings and projects of the Metabolists form a background to the perception of the interconnectedness of concepts and proposals on the urban environment that addresses contemporary urban sustainability issues. In addition, two specific concepts used by the Metabolists are exposed, namely, those of artificial ground or artificial land and the capsule. These relate to the social and personal spheres, respectively. The agenda of care as a mode of interference between the economic, the environmental, and the social reveals the need for infrastructural architecture as an urban metabolic agent. Metabolist proposals for changeable, growing, responsive, and responsible building typologies and infrastructures offer tools to reflect on our contemporary conditions and can be regarded as an optimistic affirmation of architecture as a social catalyst.
