Contemporary metropolitan regions are increasingly confronted with overlapping spatial claims related to climate change, ecological restoration, energy transition, agriculture, and urban development. Within the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA), these developments place growing pressure on peri-urban landscapes, which function as critical interfaces between urban and rural territories. This research argues that these territories should not be understood as spaces between systems, but as active components of the metropolitan system itself.

The aim of this thesis is to explore how urban design can contribute to transforming peri-urban landscapes into climate-resilient territories. To address this objective, the research combines historical and spatial analysis, peri-urban typology construction, climate risk assessment, and scenario-based exploration. Research by Design is applied as the central methodological approach, allowing analytical knowledge and spatial design investigations to continuously inform one another. Design is thereby used not only as a means of producing spatial proposals, but also as a tool for generating, testing, visualising, and negotiating future spatial conditions.

The research identifies peri-urban landscapes as strategic territories where multiple metropolitan functions can be integrated to strengthen long-term metropolitan resilience. Through the translation of climate resilience theory into urban design practice, five resilience principles—diversity, connectivity, redundancy, modularity, and efficiency—are transformed into spatial design principles and tested through a series of metropolitan and local design explorations. These explorations include alternative future scenarios for the MRA and a detailed design investigation for Almere, one of the metropolitan region’s most dynamic peri-urban territories.

The findings demonstrate that peri-urban landscapes offer unique opportunities to accommodate and integrate multiple spatial claims. Through the spatial coordination of ecological, hydrological, agricultural, energy, and urban systems, these territories can help address the growing pressures placed upon metropolitan regions.

The thesis concludes that peri-urban landscapes are not merely transitional zones between city and countryside, but strategic metropolitan territories capable of supporting long-term climate resilience and future spatial development. ... Read more

Over the last years, the energy transition has caused a series of challenges that affect low-income households in The Netherlands, such as grid congestion and increased energy poverty. These challenges are particularly detrimental for low-income households which currently rely on gas for heating and cooking. With the inevitability of the energy transition and its financial incentives for the phasing-out of gas, it is of utmost urgency to investigate ways to avoid widespread energy poverty in gas-dependent households. This study investigated ways and options for doing so on a local level before being scaled up to the regional level of North-Holland.

Previous research has attempted to solve this challenge largely through top-down policymaking and solely objective analyses, however lacking incentive for local residents to partake and manage in the proposed solutions. This raises the question: How can a spatial planning strategy enable a just energy transition in Noord-Holland in which the energy grid is optimized for the empowerment and welfare of low-income communities? A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods was used, mainly GIS mappings and informal interviews. Research by design method was applied to form the strategies and to develop a regional vision for North-Holland, based on communal values partially through a qualitative media analysis. The analysis showed great potential for locally driven energy- and heating systems. Investigations into energy projects and opportunities in Den Helder, Egmond aan Zee, Hoorn and Middenmeer all showed the high importance of locally scaled approaches to larger challenges. The cases signified the crucialness of including not only residents but also businesses and other cross sectoral stakeholders. Values such as accessibility, inclusivity, and autonomy were synthesized from communal desires across all four cases, in combination with the media analysis. In conclusion, these four community values, alongside intersectoral cooperation, are critical to achieve realizable energy projects on scales that low-income households can partake in. The effect these projects could have in the long term, as for example with a changed socio-economic situation, could be explored in further research.
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