Textile Landscape

Abstract

One of the largest productive and economic chains in the world is the textile area. Not only providing the highest level of employment around the world but also making this one of the most polluting activities (Provin et al., 2020). There is a growing awareness among the Dutch government that something should change. To take responsibility for contributing to solving this global problem, the Dutch government has formulated the goal to have a fully circular textile industry in 2050. Although the formulation of this goal is a valuable step current initiatives and policymakers are missing a sense of direction and different scholars have pointed out that the current state of affairs is not enough to reach the goals that are formulated.

The current textile industry is facing a global lock-in leakage, which is forcing businesses to make unsustainable choices with as leading motive for economic growth.

This pattern seems difficult to break. As the current value chain is spread all over the world and production and consumption have become geographically and socially far removed from each other. Dutch circular initiatives focus on end-of-pipe solutions or technical improvements to their own value chain. These solutions can be seen as incremental changes to the system instead of more radical change and deep cultural change that is needed to break the lock-in leakage. This thesis aims to understand the spatial implications of this more radical change and therefore it focuses on answering the following question:

How should the urban landscape of Noord-Brabant be configurated to overcome the metabolic imbalance with spatial circularity in the textile industry, while achieving its own sustainability?

Answering this question, the research first formulates preconditions, dimensions, and circular ground rules for local textile production. This is done with a diachronic analysis. This allows understanding of how the system changed and through time is influenced by the dynamics of the context. The next step of the research is to create an understanding of how circular solutions translate to spatial and design interventions. This is done with research by design that is shaped by the systemic design approach. An important conclusion of the research by design is the insight into how different design solutions are related throughout scales, this results in the realization that systemic changes lead to programmatic changes and eventually cause land-use and alternative settlement patterns.

Apart from this theoretical understanding of what a systemic change entails the research by design chapter focused the research on wool production as this material flow closely relates to both the historical and the contemporary context and metabolic imbalances. The different principles and design solutions are translated into a design tool that emphasizes the relation between the solutions. This tool is a pattern language. It breaks down a complex system into easily understandable blocks of knowledge (Ben Croxford et al., 2020). The last part of the research focused on finding a certain hierarchy in the formulated pattern language. This hierarchy is important as it values the relationship between the different patterns. To find the value of the links a structure map was established. The structure map showed how the context both facilities the implementation of the patterns but also how the patterns help to achieve the goals that the region has set. The answer to the main question is the structure map that shows the spatial framework that is needed to both help Noord-Brabant achieve its sustainability goals and help with the establishment of a local circular textile ecosystem.