Softening the harder ground

Researching the potential of new street profiles to include a 50% green surface.

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

I.M. van den Brink Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

R.J. Dijkstra Urban Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (mentor)
E.A.J. Luiten Landscape Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment, Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2021 Ilse van den Brink
More Info
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Published Date

05-11-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

The Netherlands is facing urbanisation and densification, and the domination of car use in our mobility system. Both challenges result in built structures and hard surfaces claiming the public space and leaving less space for green and other functions, resulting in the imbalance in public space demand. Within public spaces the green has a low ecological value and climate change challenges, such as Urban Heat Island Effect and water infiltrattion problems, are not addressed. Yet, we see a call for a mobility transition that is oriented to dominantly soft and shared modes of transport.

This thesis investigates how the mobility transition can be used to create green structures within movement spaces that cater to the urban ecological demand, using the region of Haaglanden as a case study. The urban ecological demand concerns three themes: ecology, social activities, and climate. Each of these themes are represented in the ecosystem services (such as water infiltration or food provision) that natural green and blue structures provide and from which we, as humans, derive direct and indirect benefits.

A strong regional green structure can be created through urban environments by making use of the existing mobility network. By moving the focus away from transportation by car to slow and shared transport and by creating linear green structures, the street is used to connect larger green patches within and around the urban fabric. To realise a regional green structure the street profiles need to change; more soft surfaces are to be applied by minimising the space reserved for car use. A Green Street Toolbox is developed as an instrument to obtain an integrated design where all urban ecological demands are considered by applying a systematic approach to the various considerations. Linking the tools of the instrument to the services they provide to the public space allows for this systematic approach.

By applying the toolbox in combination with new street profiles to the chosen design locations in The Hague, this thesis shows that an average result of softening almost 50% of the street surface is a reachable goal. All these softened surfaces provide ecosystem services to our urban environment, leaving us with healthier and higher quality public spaces.