Urban Metabolism and Spontaneous Architectural Growth: A Sustainable Strategy Featuring Participatory Co-Construction by Multiple Stakeholders

Several studies have linked urban metabolism with sustainable development goals, but few studies have addressed how architectural design could contribute to the linkage. Japanese Architectural Metabolism promotes the empowering of individuals and encourages spontaneous growth through urban metabolism. However, Architectural Metabolism has lacked (1) links with sustainable urban development goals, (2) realistic and powerful strategies, and (3) the ability to keep up with information technology. Whether and how architectural design can contribute to sustainable and spontaneous urban growth remains unclear. This paper presents case studies of the growth and renewal of formal and informal urban organisms in East Asia. The cases reveal that sustainable spontaneous urban growth should be linked with a strong governance system as well as adaptive architectural and construction technology that is easy to master by users. This paper argues that the conditional basis of contemporary Chinese urban development can support the spontaneous growth of architecture. Finally, a design strategy is proposed that reconstructs participatory co-construction among the government, social investors, and users with information and adaptive construction technology. Its purpose is to realize the orderly metabolism and spontaneous growth of buildings and achieve economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable development.