A living lab: a closed-loop system for social and ecological transformation
Marina Chang1, Louise Gates2, Rokiah Yaman3, Mila Campoy2
1. Centre for Agroecology, Water, and Resilience, Coventry University
2. The Calthorpe Project
3. Community by Design
Very few communities and individuals have been able to withstand the changes brought about
by the economic crisis begun in 2007 and 2008. Major financial institutions deceived us and
we are still paying the price as austerity measures target the most vulnerable members of
society. As the poor get poorer, the government tells us to be resilient and sustainable.
Community organisations that have traditionally provided grassroots support to the vulnerable
are in crisis and, as the numbers seeking support increases, the funds to provide it are drying
up. These organisations are now realising that they must transform themselves into
entrepreneurial pioneers and risk takers, and they must seek out like-minded pioneers to have
any chance of surviving.
One such coalition is our initiative at the Calthorpe Project, a community garden and centre
near Kings Cross, in the heart of London. Together we have devised a living lab revolving
around a closed-loop waste-energy-food system, an experiment for social and ecological
transformation (see figure 1). This model aims to demonstrate an alternative, shifting from the
dominant linear paradigm to a circular system. The creation of a closed-loop system is in line
with a new farming paradigm in an urban-specific context. Since the crisis in 2008, from both
civil society and the official body of Food and Agriculture Organisation under the United
Nations, there has been recognition that we need to move back to a more natural and organic
mode of operation.
The concept of urban metabolism, referring to the exchange processes and circulation of both
material and energy as well as socio-economic relations, that produce the urban environment,
has inspired new ways of thinking about how cities can be made sustainable. Two natural
principles are of particular relevance to sustainable urban ecosystems. The first is that natural
systems are based on cycles; and the second is that there is no waste in natural systems. The
‘waste’ from one species is food for another, or is converted into a useful form by natural
processes and cycles. Underlying this model is a new understanding of living systems that
mirrors life’s complexity, adaptability, diversity, and creativity.
This is a particular kind of a journey, one made amid the ebbs and flows of people,
disciplines, communities and ideas in a local community garden located in a globalised world.
It tells a story of how we came together to share a passion for food and all that it means, and
how that passion was translated into action. These were experiences of embodied engagement
in a concrete reality through a series of ongoing dialogues, surveys, meetings, focus groups
and workshops between academics and non-academics such as community members, small
and medium enterprise practitioners, technology developers, local authorities and social
movement activists.
However, when we say this is our initiative, we specifically refer to a core group of four
women, the co-authors of this chapter. While Louise (originally from New Zealand) has been
director of the Calthorpe Project overseeing the strategy and operation of the site, Mila
(originally from Spain) has worked both as an experienced urban food grower and a
community chef with different groups at the Calthorpe Project and elsewhere. Rokiah
(originally from Malaysia) spanned the arts, health and permaculture before setting up a
community-based social enterprise, Community by Design, dedicated to the development of
micro anaerobic digestion and closed-loop waste-energy-food systems in London. Finally,
Marina (originally from Taiwan) is a researcher focusing on food and the city at the
university but also a local resident who has been volunteering at the Calthorpe Project ever
since she moved to the neighbourhood.
The key insight is that greater synergy can be obtained when different approaches can be
integrated and developed simultaneously. It is like Arnheim’s description, “the centre of a
field of forces, a focus from which forces issue and toward which forces converge”. Specific
reasons for us to choose The Calthorpe Project as the site for this living lab are as follows.
 Long-term relationships and mutual trust among existing multi-stakeholders;
 Diverse urban agricultural practices such as communal gardens, individual allotments,
wild urban forest, orchards, urban bee hives;
 Simple model of localised food network – production, distribution (e.g. veg box scheme),
consumption (e.g. community kitchen) and waste composting;
 A prototype linking waste, energy and food systems with installation of a micro-scale
anaerobic digester;
 An inclusive communal space, especially for more excluded populations such as children,
disabled people, mental health patients, migrant women and elders, etc.;
 A well established learning centre for adult education and volunteering programmes;
 King’s Cross itself is a site of connections under rapid and radical urban transformation.
However, how can we create our living lab to incorporate community development, education
and research, guided by principles such as social justice and ecological integrity with
financial autonomy? At the heart of our vision is an integrated package that brings to the fore
a self-organising, collective and co-operative dimension of social entrepreneurial practices in
the context of austerity and financial instability. The idea of transforming the existing
community kitchen into a closed-loop café appears to be a logical step in providing a focal
point for the closed-loop model. More organised, intensive food growing, closely linked with
the café menu, would provide a strong focus and good outcomes for volunteers and trainees at
the Calthorpe Project. The community café will use biogas for cooking and food (veg, fruits,
herbs, flowers) grown in the gardens, serving healthy food and introducing people to the
closed-loop ethos. Biogas will be used in the winter to extend the growing season in the new
polytunnels.
The uniqueness of this closed-loop café has attracted a number of individuals and other
enterprises to participate in this initiative. Not only can their participation optimise enterprise
potential of the living lab, it will also help develop the living lab into a so-called circular
economy, completing the entire closed-loop system and transforming the perception of
‘waste’ into ‘resource’. For example, in addition to food waste collections and recycling
credits, food-growing space will be expanded with more vertical growing along walls,
rooftops, and a new growing space on the old playground area may be created. In order to
make good use of surplus of organic liquid fertiliser generated from the digester, a new
intensive, low-cost hydroponic is currently being developed. Mushrooms could be grown in
darker and shadowy areas. Surplus harvested produce (after meeting café needs) could be sold
at the local farmers markets. Pizzas sourcing heritage flour in support of regional small wheat
and grain farmers could be made in the pizza ovens. A catering service would be offered to all
group bookings at the Calthorpe Project and potentially to local offices and organisations.
Among these enterprising activities, a series of citizen science research projects and activitybased educational programmes has been co-evolved and will be co-conducted at the
Calthorpe Project by the multi-stakeholders involved and integrated with the curriculums of
colleges and universities. These include, learning firsthand about the organic circular
economy, identifying crops and growing methods suitable for digestate; determining digestate
quality/quantity and processing requirements to achieve growing objectives; infrastructure
requirements and regulatory issues to facilitate low-cost intensive urban food production;
carrying out food growing trials informed by the research findings; and engaging with
communities, schools, universities and local authorities with closed-loop waste-energy-food
cycles. Unlike most research projects in universities where researchers raise the research
questions and ‘control’ the processes and methods of research, we describe these projects as
citizen science projects because there is a renewed mutual interest and respect among
academics and non-academics in sharing knowledge and skills to resolve the presenting
problems. In this sense, the closed waste-energy-food system also closes knowledge loops
between theory and practice, and between academics and non-academics based on the
problems we aim to resolve.
Figure 1: A living lab: a closed loop system at the Calthorpe Project, King’s Cross, London
Here is one example to illustrate the processes of how we identify our problems and therefore
our priority.
“Is our problem along the lines of massive industrial farming techniques ruining the
environment? Do we produce too much waste that we can't get rid of? Or is it that the means of
production and therefore the wealth does not penetrate to a local level because local communities
never have any input into how food is grown and distributed? For me, I need to understand right
from the off, what the problem is and how the Calthorpe closed loop system will help to solve it.”
(Louise)
“For me, the closed-loop system is a demonstration model. Unlike a model presented in a
science/technology fair or science museum, it is a real model that is functioning on site, which
contributes to organic waste reduction/collection, producing energy and fertiliser. Of course we
won't produce sufficient food to cover all the ingredients required by the cafe menu, let alone
being able to feed local communities. Of course we can't change the massive industrial farming
techniques overnight but we still hope modest changes can impact on people's values and
behaviours. With regards to waste, I was challenged by whether the anaerobic digester would
distract attention from a more fundamental problem; that we should reduce waste much more in
the first place.” (Marina)
“I don’t think single, small-scale systems will solve big problems but once they’re up and running
they can be optimised and attract interest, in time they could be come widespread enough to make
a difference. Look at computers, mobile phones etc. Over time, they become smaller, more
compact, easier to use. That’s the hope with our idea to establish an open source platform –
engage more people and harness skills at the community, university and business level to find
better, more replicable solutions for future cities. We’ve found there is definitely an appetite out
there across all sectors to do things more sustainably and almost no one likes waste. On top of
that we have pressing climate and economic pressures so now is the time! I also agree that
technology can distract unless it’s seen as part of an overall vision. Food waste reduction must
come first. AD and composting are options for unavoidable food waste only. On the other hand,
the technology can add a bit of excitement and novelty so can be used as another engagement tool
– it makes technology more human.” (Rokiah)
“We don't have to have all the answers to these issues but that's precisely why it is important this
living lab helps create the space for people to participate, to learn and to debate these questions.
We should allow people to find their own interest at their own pace. The concepts of agroecology,
food sovereignty and land grabbing are just far too remote from people’s everyday life and
therefore off-putting We don’t have to promote radical issues, but, instead, we try to find ways
that helped those issues become more accessible to more people. Perhaps we will soon realise
that due to our limited ability and capacity we are not able to resolve most of the problems, but
we know the gaps and why the gaps exist. While artists make complicated things in a simple way,
I think academics seem to make simple things much more complicated than necessary.” (Mila)
This is a normal Friday with a Friday ritual at the Calthorpe Project. A group of senior
people, mostly from Latin America, is working in the garden, harvesting vegetables and herbs
from the plots, cooking, and then sharing the lunch together around a long big table.
Something is different today. Other user groups, including refugee groups, migrant women,
unemployed, young mothers and university students, are also present. They have been
cultivating crops and cook recipes that weave visions and memories of their cultural identity
and heritage into the landscape of the communal garden, even in its modest scale. They are
making place; they are making home there. They are passing their knowledge to the next
generation in memories of plant stories, their nutritional and medicinal properties, and
spiritual connection to people, history and nature.
They are attentively listening to the new plan of this closed-loop café. An important decision
is made in the course of this meal that different user groups would help shape the menus and
therefore inform the growers what to grow in a more coherent and organised way. The closedloop café will gradually become a space where people can take direct control of the diets of
their own and of the community, and practice self-nourishing lifestyles. There is a growing
recognition among these existing user groups at the Calthorpe Project as well as a wider range
of stakeholders that this living lab should become more open to society and vice versa. In this
context, the process of creating the living lab itself is creating a stronger, more resilient and
self-reliant community through a participatory and collaborative approach in planning and
decision-making.
Finally, what we, the four of us – co-authors of this chapter, have learnt the most is the value
of really talking to people living here and investing time and energy to build trust and
relationships, and understand people’s needs and aspirations. We should always focus our
mind on our own neighbourhood in order to understand the global issues through embodied
practices. Let us close this chapter by sharing two short quotes, the first one from an ancient
Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu and the second one from a modern German poet, Bertolt
Brecht.
A tree as big as a man’s embrace springs from a tiny sprout.
A tower nine stories begins with a heap of earth.
A journey of a thousand leagues starts from where your feet stand.
It takes a lot of things to change the world:
Anger and tenacity. Science and indignation,
The quick initiative, the long reflection,
The cold patience and the infinite perseverance,
The understanding of the particular case and the understanding of the ensemble:
Only the lessons of reality can teach us to transform reality.