In the current era of global warming and urbanisation, it has become imperative to change the urban rhythm. Our current mobility habits make human and nature unhappy and unhealthy. This problem is apparent in sub-urban neighbourhoods, that often experience low connectivity and low local vitality. The 15-minute city is a model that puts focus on vicinity in the city. In the 15-Minute city, all urban facilities needed to live, learn and thrive are within a 15-minute reach by foot or bicycle from home.
In my graduation project, I research how the neighbourhoods in the periphery of Rotterdam could be designed for slow traffic and local activity. I do this by implementing a certain concept, the 15-Minute City, in a multitude of environments, the peripheral neighbourhoods of Rotterdam, which results in an understanding of the stretch of the concept and the meaning for the city. Key themes are accessibility, density and diversity. Through scenario construction, two future 15-minute cities are explored, resulting in a design strategy for the future urban rhythm of peri-urban areas.

Human driven pollution is causing irreversible damage to the habitability of our planet. Due to these environmental concerns, it has become imperative to move away from petrochemical dependency as this industry contributes significant greenhouse gases causing air, soil and water pollution. About 85% of the petrochemical industry that travels through the port of Rotterdam goes towards fuels for mobility, this is a critical bottleneck that requires careful consideration. To ensure a sustainable province in terms of both a liveable province as well as economic prosperity policy is set up by means of communicative rationality between all actors (commercial stakeholders, residents, consumers, etc.). In 2060 all our vehicles will run on electricity from sustainable production sources, such as solar and wind. We will travel less and more efficiently in part by improving spatial proximity to (social) functions. To aid this mobility transition, biofuel potentials will be optimized to phase out the existing infrastructural dependencies by 2040. After which a complete build down from all polluting mobility fuels will be put into action. This phase allows different actors to cultivate and experiment with sustainable waste–to– value connections between stakeholders by optimizing biofuel potentials from regional waste. To make this transition succeed, the mobility and fuel transition is brought on through the three pillars: 1. sustainable connections, 2. waste to value and 3. consumer patterns. Allowing for an integrative transition in line with the global move towards a circular economy and a more healthy and liveable environment. As a result of this transition the petroleum–industry leaves waste spaces that require transformation. By creating a toolkit to assess different typological waste spaces, petrol stations, terminals and refineries will be transformed into residential, office, cultural, green and other functions after the soil is properly remediated.