In the face of climate change, water challenges and rapid urbanisation in the area of Delfland, we stand at a pivotal moment where the way we design our cities will have a significant impact on how we will live in the future. As the Water and soil system is reaching its limits in trying to fulfil our human centric needs. A shift towards a water-oriented urban development is needed to safeguard a sustainable future. Therefore the following research question is defined: “How to envision a balanced water cycle for new neighbourhoods in Delfland while establishing a synergy between water, ecology and humans?’’

The maximisation method has been used to find solutions for the four challenges of Water and soil, Green and landscape, Human and water and Livability. While exploring scenarios of an open and temporal water system through the Purifying vein and the Urban sponge. The methodology, when combined with the established pattern language, creates a transferable approach for upcoming Dutch developments. With overarching recommendations such as: Integrated approach, Water as metabolism, Design with temporality and be a Team player. In addition, with specific advice to use a temporal water system as a starting point, but consider an open water system when subsidence is problematic, water treatment is required, when there is regular rainfall and sufficient space obtainable. Regarding Fortunapark as a case study, it is recommended that the Urban sponge (temporal water system) forms the fundamental basis that embodies a Water friendly future-proof neighbourhood.


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For the last decades, technologies, new agricultural trade policies, environmental restrictions, high pressure through economic competition in combination with a sharp competition of land lead to the development of intensive farming. As a result, patchy landscapes have been replaced by monofunctional, homogeneous agricultural landscapes that fragment natural landscapes and take away natural and cultural diversity. The consequences of the processes of fragmentation and homogenization are both socio-economic and landscape-ecological and cause biodiversity loss and social injustice among farmers.
Through changing existing paradigms about nature conservation, this project suggests an alternative approach for understanding possible interrelations between nature and agricultural practices. By reintroducing concepts about commons, a synergy can be found that compliments natural connectivity and agricultural landscapes through the establishment of a regenerative agro-ecological network that connects biotopes in a multi-functional way using current agricultural parcels and natural zones. This newly introduced Common Ground network produces a new farming method in which agricultural practice has a temporal character and is a continuous modifiable process. In this way, the vision makes use of the dual crisis as a solution rather than seeing it as the source of the problems.
The Commons also resemble a new way of practising agriculture, in which land, knowledge, resources and financial risks are shared among farmers in a socially just way. In addition, these shared landscapes reflect on the social context in which farmers are considered as environmental stewards who share some of the responsibility for an ecologically balanced system.
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