MetaboliCities
Similar to living organisms, whose morphology and metabolism are studied in the laboratory, the unique patterns of urban systems can be viewed like on a petri dish. This acts as a lens to investigate the mass, vascular system, and metabolic rate of cities around the globe – as a visual metaphor for the our work on urban metabolism.
Credits: Alicia Crespo Montañes, EPFL URBES
Find out more in the study by Hendrick et al. (2025) and this EPFL News story – or listen to the interview to Gabriele Manoli on RSI (in Italian).
Article: Hendrick, M., Rinaldo, A., & Manoli, G. (2025). A stochastic theory of urban metabolism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(33), e2501224122.
Data visualization: Alicia Crespo Montañes, EPFL URBES
