Abstract Introduction Nowadays, urban metabolism (UM) is believed to provide new insights for more sustainable resource management in cities and their hinterlands. UM studies, however, focalize chiefly on quantitative resource input and output (e.g. energy, materials) and tend to neglect the element of space and the qualitative characteristics of the urban landscape. This paper explores the use of UM as a basis for planning and design, focusing on the design process and on landscape configuration, in an attempt to bridge the gap between such an approach and the perceptions of urban inhabitants. Case description Two case studies on the metropolitan scale based on UM quantification which aim to develop projects that can improve urban sustainability are analyzed: the International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam and the Amsterdam Urban Pulse project. Subsequently, De Ceuvel is explored, an experimental neighborhood in Amsterdam that deployed the UM approach to develop a participatory design and implementation process. Discussion and Evaluation The method consists in a case study analysis centered on field work, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with the designers involved, while the inhabitants’ points of view are also polled on the neighborhood scale. Conclusions The key results highlight how the UM approach can be integrated with spatial design in two different ways, according to the scales implicated. On the metropolitan scale, UM provides a means of identifying key locations and proposing interventions that can improve a city’s global metabolism. On the scale of the neighborhood, however, the UM approach aims to close the energy and material cycles on the design plot, though without necessarily connecting the neighborhood to the city network.