With the ongoing impact of climate change on inhabitation patterns in the Netherlands, the region of Gelderland will play a crucial role in accommodating a growing population while facing ecological and socio-economic pressures. Proper planning and design practices that prioritize long-term resilience are necessary to prevent the loss of opportunities and qualities in Gelderland. This design project aims to offer an alternative pathway for the future by identifying opportunities outside of the highly vulnerable Randstad region and envisioning potential developments in safer areas. Through the study of urban form across different scales, time frames, and scenarios, the project combines the concepts of resilience and densification, benefiting both Gelderland and the Netherlands as a whole.

The project centres around the shared framework of space in response to the uncertainties that we are faced with. Though these uncertainties impact various processes and elements within complex systems, the spatial conditions of a location play a crucial role in determining the functioning of the systems that are embedded within it. Recognizing the significance of (the alteration of) space offers an opportunity to address processes on different layers and promote resilience in a holistic manner.

By categorizing areas based on potentials and vulnerabilities, and employing different scenarios, the research identifies suitable locations for densification and develops strategies for improving connectivity, efficiency, modularity, redundancy, and diversity in urban environments. The multiscalar approach involves diverse and phased developments to answer to the pressure on space. By designing with higher densities with resilience as a starting point, urban environments can benefit from the transformation and the negative effects of climate change and densification can be mitigated.

While attempting to find an answer to the question of how we could become sustainable and circular by 2050, we discovered that it was quite difficult to even imagine what South Holland, the Netherlands or the world, for that matter, would look like. The questions that arose quite quickly were, among others: how many people will live here then? How will we have dealt and continue to deal with the challenge of sustainability? How will the climate have changed? This resulted in the question that guided the rest of the research: will we still be able to live here? The process starts with the acknowledgment that climate change is a serious threat to us and the way we live. Then there is the realization that it does not make sense to imagine a future in which the economic structures have changed, but the landscape and the way we deal with this threat has not. From this, we continue to envision South Holland in 2100, to see what the landscape could look like and how the circular economy and its activities could exist within it. While drawing up this image, the answers to the questions of flood risk and circularity are not found separately, but sought in the creation of synergies between different sectors and layers. The idea is that the transforming landscape can be a generator of change within the agricultural sector and energy production as well. If the environment changes, the ways in which we use, inhabit or move through it will shift, too. The resulting strategy is about protecting what is crucial, using what is possible and letting go of what we can. This is all striven for in order to reach our goals of having South Holland protected from floods and sea level rise, a circular and sustainable agri-food sector, 100% clean and renewable energy and increased environmental health, all while taking into account the (societal) challenges of the century.