Cities are increasingly confronted with the impacts of climate change, yet the burdens of these impacts are not shared equally. Neighbourhoods with fewer resources, higher levels of precarity, and weaker institutional support are often the most exposed while having the least influence in shaping adaptation measures. This thesis explores how design can contribute to advancing climate justice in such contexts, with Rotterdam’s Oude Noorden serving as the case study.
The project was guided by the question: How can systemic design contribute to making climate justice tangible at the neighbourhood scale? The work builds on a literature review of climate justice, systemic design, and resilience, combined with extensive field research in Oude Noorden, including interviews, participatory workshops, and stakeholder mapping. Together, these insights highlighted persistent dynamics of power imbalance, procedural injustice, and constrained community capacity that limit just adaptation.
From these findings, the project focused on designing a modest but intentional intervention: De KlimaatKalender. Developed as a low-barrier, analog resource, the calendar translates abstract ideas of climate adaptation into weekly, locally relevant actions. It incorporates stories and practices from residents, connecting them with neighbourhood green spaces and seasonal rhythms. The design choices were deliberate: using an analog format to lower barriers for participation, valuing lived experience to support recognition justice, and fostering collective ownership through co-created content.
Testing of the KlimaatKalender revealed that while it cannot on its own overcome structural barriers or shift institutional priorities, it plays a valuable role in making climate action tangible, accessible, and rooted in daily life. Residents appreciated its simplicity and local relevance, and it showed potential for strengthening community identity, building trust, and creating entry points for broader coalitions of change. At the same time, limitations were observed: engagement could have been more diverse, the evaluation period was short, and long-term sustainability requires stronger partnerships without undermining local ownership.
The thesis concludes that modest, communityrooted interventions like the KlimaatKalender can serve as prefigurative steps toward climate justice. They do not solve systemic problems, but they can seed recognition, foster participation, and build momentum for wider transitions. Pathways forward include deepening community co-creation, embedding interventions in co-governance structures, and exploring networked adaptation across Rotterdam neighbourhoods. These directions align with municipal strategies such as Resilient Rotterdam 2022–2027, Rotterdams WeerWoord 2030, and Klimaatrechtvaardig Rotterdam, while contributing to the broader literature on systemic design and justice.
Ultimately, the project demonstrates that design’s contribution lies not in grand solutions but in opening spaces where residents and institutions can meet, experiment, and imagine together. By translating abstract climate challenges into everyday practices, tools like the KlimaatKalender help bridge the gap between justice as a principle and justice as lived experience.