Urban development in the Rijnmond-Drechsteden requires large quantities of sand and gravel for its application in e.g. concrete in buildings or fill sand for subsidence maintenance. The graduation project focuses on how urban design can reduce this consumption within the sand and gravel metabolism in the construction ecosystem. Based on a material flow analysis, extended with a dynamic stock model and material intensity study, a business as usual scenario is made for the region. An exploration of solutions and a new developed method, called the ‘material conscious approach’, is used to reduce material consumption in four urban design examples. These examples represent different conditions in the sand and gravel metabolism which cause flows. The results are extrapolated to the regional metabolic impact. In order to reduce the material consumption of sand and gravel, a multi-scalar perspective within the material conscious approach is required.