How would it be if collective appropriation was an essential part of a spatial strategy? Playgrounds of commons refer to a mix of top – down and bottomup spatial strategies and design interventions taking as a starting point that Rotterdam South can be seen, and (re)designed as an heterotopia, where as Shane (2003) underlines some armatures should be designed top – down, whereas leaving freedom for others to occur in a more spontaneous way. The spatial strategy is based upon the empowerment of collective appropriation through leisure, food and crafts. More specifically, it discusses an alternative way of approaching urban renewal in deprived areas of Rotterdam South establishing an alternative accord. What is important to highlight is that this project does not only focus on upgrading housing stock in order to attract newcomers and empower the concept of “mixed neighbourhoods”. On the other hand, it does not emphasise the need of creating connecting infrastructures between the North and the South so as to connect unemployed people from the South to the North labour market and available vacancies. On the contrary, the project aims at reinforcing not only North – South connection, but most importantly East- West and creating opportunities for local employment in the South. In that sense, design intervention and strategies aim at making South a service area and a productive hub, by reinventing underused lands or areas under transformation, such as the riverfront. That signifies a transition to more integrative design and decision making processes. A key element of this project is that starting from the theoretical framework, moving to the site analysis and the development of a neighbourhood game, it puts forward a dual strategy: hacking institutions – hacking space, acknowledging the power of space as a software and finally concludes with the design of four key projects and a matrix of recommendations regarding appropriation and urban

Uganda’s capital Kampala, is grappling with the effects of rapid urbanisation fueled by the population explosion that has transpired over the recent years. Due to the continued futility of urban planning efforts, the city’s growth has proceeded with minimal planning intervention, resulting in multiple urban development challenges. Kampala’s urbanisation is therefore largely informal, a trend that manifests most prominently in the housing sector. The perennial housing shortage has left most urbanites fighting for space within the city’s ever-growing informal settlements, which are typically situated in wetlands and are characterized by a lack of basic services and an absence of social and economic infrastructure. In addition to wetland encroachment, poor waste management and unsustainable settlement patterns, the increased downpour due to climate change has further exacerbated the flooding risk faced by the city. This research posits that urban flooding, along with other challenges is merely a consequence of unsustainable spatial planning practices. A critical review of Kampala’s planning history traces the underlying issue as that of spatial segregation; a problem with the outcomes of planning, and non-implementation; a problem with the planning processes. Although inherited from colonial times, these issues create and further propel the conflict between formal and informal practices which, more often than not, run parallel to each other. Thus, the research explores how a new strategic framework that combines both the formal and informal practices can guide towards the successful implementation of future spatial plans. The proposal set forth is to test the Pattern Language (PL) methodology as a tool that can be used to combine the practices. In line with the PL methodology, the research documents, communicates and translates the practices. The outcome is a pattern language of flood resilience practices in the Nakivubo Wetland area, which patterns are then communicated to the relevant stakeholders through a workshop held between the local residents of the wetland communities and representatives from the formal institutions. This results into the pattern field, which is also the framework that combines the formal and informal practices. Lastly, the patterns are translated into design principles that are used to develop a spatial vision for the Nakivubo Wetland area and, through the framework, guide towards its successful implementation.

Kampala is the heartbeat of Uganda’s economy and has driven rural-urban migration over the years as people travel in search of better opportunities (Namwanje, 2022). This has led to rapid urbanisation and unprecedented growth of the informal sector that extends beyond the geographical confines of the city. Rural areas, acting as spatial extensions of the city, have served as productive landscapes, supporting Kampala’s bustling informal economy and the livelihoods of city dwellers. Over the years, large expanses of uncultivated land in rural areas and natural forests in some cases, have been replaced with monocultural commercial forests causing socio-ecological degradation in Kampala’s city region. While studying past and current trends in Uganda’s forest governance, as well as the socio-cultural relations between people and forests, the study brings to light the social and epistemic injustices of past and current exclusionary forestry policies and practices. Storytelling is used not only as an investigative tool to understand the lives of the Batwa indigenous forest peoples, but also as an approach to document local knowledges and envision an alternative future outside the realm of western technocratic approaches. Counter-storytelling operates as activism, transcending oppression while fostering emanicipation and transformation of the Batwa people. In so doing, the project seeks to achieve self-determination for a just forest economy in Kampala’s city region.

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology progressively integrates into daily life and domestic environments, it instigates a pressing inquiry: What new spatial implications can arise from the integration of artificially intelligent technologies within homes, and what role can these AI technologies play in reinforcing social interaction among humans and between humans and machines? This paper does not predict the future but instead imagines a fictitious trajectory of the possible development of selected technologies and their spatial impacts on domestic environments through design. The aim is to incite a discussion that tests and explores core values that can be adopted or avoided in the future. This process allows for the contemplation and discourse around these novel technologies, thereby increasing the chances of their positive societal impact. The paper further expands on the underutilised potential of technology within the architectural field compared to other disciplines more adeptly adjusted to the digital age. Utilising the 'Futurecraft' method, it frames a vision of potential futures, thereby encouraging robust discussion about the role of technology, who should design them, and the ideal ways of implementation. Amid the second wave of AI development, the urgency of examining the human-machine relationship is emphasized, especially given the rise and impact of Large Language Models (LLMs), including models like Chat GPT. The paper posits the need for a 'Living Lab' - a controlled environment where new technologies can be deployed and tested to understand their broader societal impact. It addresses the ethical dilemmas tied to AI's rapid development and the potential adverse effects of these technologies, shedding light on the possible disconnect between humans and their environments brought about by automation. The discussion aims to develop narratives and spaces where individuals can explore their relationship with technology while ensuring safe and ethical implementation. The study ultimately aspires to create a stronger narrative that will bring about democratic architecture and consider the rise of LLMs within the field of architecture, underscoring their potential impact and significance.

This thesis explores the possibility of circularity to regenerate the degraded agricultural systems of the Foodvalley region. The Foodvalley is a regional network organization, consisting of eight municipalities situated partly in the province of Utrecht and partly the province of Gelderland. Circularity is used to describe a way in which resource consumption, distribution, and production are managed. It is focused on cycling and regeneration of resources to make sure they are used more efficiently, as well as reducing the use of finite resources. At the same time it will tackle environmental degradation and interrelated socio-economic problems. Adopting a circular approach makes sure society can live and thrive within planetary boundaries. Regenerative circular development in the agricultural sector is needed because currently most of the area’s development is on hold due to the region’s struggle with the effects of the nitrogen crisis. The interaction between the current, linear and monocultural, agricultural system and climate externalities are causing problems related to resource depletion and scarcity, overexploitation of land, and fragmentation and degradation of ecosystems. This thesis explores the question: How to reconfigure the territory of the Foodvalley region, to facilitate regenerative circular developments, using a co - creation method? A territorial approach regarding circular resource management is promoted. In which agri-food flows are considered in their social, ecological and spatial context and managed according to participatory transition management. Incorporating the territory in circular development is especially important. The territory can be used to connect circular development strategies to ecosystem, landscape or territorial assets and it allows different international, national, regional and local goals to be linked in spatial organization (Forster et al., 2021). Stakeholders influence the territory, through addressing key challenges, by pursuing different interest, exploring new opportunities, and by identifying appropriate policies and actions (Forster et al., 2021). Therefore, this thesis has developed a method which enables reconfiguration of the territory in a co – creative way. The outcome is a circular agriculture pattern language which translates solution, that increase the regenerative capacity of the current socio-ecological metabolism, into easily understood blocks of knowledge. In this way, the complexity of a circular agri-food chain can be rendered more accessible and manageable. The pattern language can be used in design workshops to foster effective solution oriented dialogue between stakeholders. The results of the co-creation process can be used to create context-specific designs illustrating the spatial implications of a circular agricultural sector.

Since 2020, when remote working became standard practice worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries, including the Caribbean Island Curaçao, have introduced remote working visas targeting digital nomads to boost their local economy. As a result, the phenomenon of digital nomadism has seen a rapid increase in the last few years. Digital nomads are mobile professionals who use digital technologies and leverage workplace flexibility to perform their work remotely, while travelling on a (semi-)permanent basis living a nomadic life. Two years after the introduction of these visas, local communities of popular digital nomad destinations are protesting the negative consequences in the socio-spatial context resulting from the unrestricted access given to digital nomads. Since the economy of Curaçao is partly dependent on tourism, this thesis aims to investigate what spatial interventions in Curaçao can facilitate mutually beneficial co-existence between digital nomads and local communities beyond the potential economic benefits. Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad theory was used to systematically investigate the social, economic, and spatial practices of digital nomads in juxtaposition with the social and material infrastructures of Curaçao. The analysis followed the structure of the model for planetary-scale computation The Stack by Benjamin Bratton. The results include an overview of the full spectrum of spatial externalities of digital nomadism as well as an evaluation of the affordances of the island’s infrastructures to support a multiplicity of mobilities. Furthermore, the juxtaposition uncovered ‘pursuit of knowledge’ as common ground between digital nomad and settled communities. The material expression of this common ground was then imagined as a civil (knowledge) campus. The civil campus as a concept is a vision for the conscious and active involvement of all citizens and visitors to adaptively shape social spaces together based on shared values of collaboration, purpose, and a mindset of continuous learning. As a material place, the civil campus is an inclusive and porous knowledge-focused hub. It is formed through bottom-up adaptive processes that serve both the locals and the digital nomads, thereby enabling local communities to benefit from knowledge exchange with this global community. The public library acts as central knowledge node and meeting place, and spatial interventions in the public realm on the micro (furniture), mezzo (architecture), and macro (neighbourhood) level activate and support social interaction and active knowledge exchange between digital nomads and settled locals.

Economies, society, and organizations are operating on borrowed time (Lacy & Rutqvist, 2015). As a response to urgent planetary and societal needs, a critical shift is required on every aspect of how organizations in the construction sector, one of the most resource intensive and pollutant industries, propose, create, and capture value (Bocken & Antikainen, 2019). The circular economy (CE) has been embraced in the architectural discourse as one of the most powerful, innovative, and viable business strategies to achieve sustainability in the built environment. However, architectural firms are still struggling to translate the concept into their business models (BMs) (Urbinati et al., 2017; Accenture, 2014; Khan et al., 2020). Scholars argue that in order for firms to reorganize their strategies, resources, and structures to those that are free from linear constraints, new dynamic organizational capabilities (particular kills, processes, and organizational activities) are required (Lacy & Rutqvist, 2015; Khan et al., 2020; Bauwens et al., 2020). However, most research on the subject has been developed from a practice-oriented perspective and/or has been primarily focused on large profit-driven organizations, rather than smaller creative firms driven by strategic goals beyond financial revenues (Lu & Sexton, 2006; Bos-de Vos et al., 2017). Through semi-structured interviews and qualitative data collection with stakeholders in four architectural firms operating in the Netherlands; the research addresses the limited academical research on this field by exploring the Dynamic Capability Approach of the firm as a BM transformation know-how strategy in favor of CE. The findings indicate that the dynamic capabilities approach is undeniably beneficial for CE implementation among architectural firms. In this regard, the research identifies 15 microfoundations of sense, seize, and reconfigure dynamic capabilities that architects and entrepreneurs can implement to transform the way they create, deliver and capture value. Furthermore, this thesis concludes that architectural firms operate on the basis of a BM portfolio with CE embedded at the project-based level. Finally, the findings suggest that CE has had limited impact in the value proposition of architects but has increased the complexity of their value creations and delivery components, ultimately leading to trade-offs and creative strategies to capture value and ensure the firms survival in still transitionary markets.

‘Machinic Utopias, Automated Futures’ speculates on the role of designers as active agents addressing the potential implications of automated technologies on urban space in the specific context of the horticultural production center in the Westland. Successive expansions of greenhouses and their typological and technological transformations have resulted in an unprecedented productive cluster that conditions both the spatial character and structure of Westland and its social dynamics. Shortages of high-skilled labor, international competition, and pressures to reduce production costs have prompted growers to invest in automated technologies and machinery. While mostly concealed inside greenhouses and overlooked by municipal visions, this project portrays how these technologies have spatial implications on the surrounding social and built environment, and on the future of work, that need to be addressed by designers in order to conduce the Westland to sustainable modes of urbanization. The project shifts from the socio-economic debate on automation to highlight the spatial implications of this phenomenon. In this regard, it documents emergent technologies and production processes in the horticulture productive cluster and depicts successive accretions in greenhouse sizes that are analogous to radical technological shifts and changes in production patterns. With the help of scenarios, the project formulated possible futures for Westland. An overall strategy consisted of shifting productive premises from one part of the cluster to another. Productive premises were merged with existing urban components to create mixed-use sustainable urban typologies afforded by automated technologies. The project culminated in a design for two pilot projects - Maasdijk and Honderland- and assumed automation as a platform that forced new spatial conditions. It engaged with the emergent phenomenon of automation to stir development in Westland and conduce the area to sustainable modes of urbanization.

Modernist urbanism under automated mobility scenarios, develops a method to intervene and enhance the quality of public spaces in modernist areas, based on a possible automated mobility scenario that triggers new relationships between car infrastructure, public space and the rest of the urban fabric. New uses for mobility landscapes in transformation are proposed, the new interventions stimulate an optimized use of the space, and upgrade the overall quality of the existing urban environment. In this project, the modern model is, on the one hand, used as an historical / conceptual reference, in which vehicular technology have been used as a determining factor in the development and transformation of cities contributed to the creation of an urban model considered unsuccessful (Aquilué & Ardura, 2017). On the other hand, is also used as a contextual reference, that has produced patterns of open block structure, separation of traffic and functions and the elimination of the street as a ‘social space’ at a global scale. In order to use Automated mobility as a trigger to generate upgrading opportunities for these areas, we try to identify typical patterns of value related to the model, to generate design proposals that can be transferable to different contexts. To this aim, this project develops a Toolbox, where a database combines information from the literature framework, and a system of pattern language is used to combine all the elements, and a possible scenario of automated mobility, to create design proposals that are tested in the Slotermeer area in Amsterdam.Finally, possibilities for future developments as an Online tool are outlined, envisioning the possibilities of application and knowledge transferability, allowing for different scales of implementation and interaction with users; increasing the flexibility of the system, allowing user interaction, the integration of knowledge, and its use as a basis for the development of participatory processes and interventions in diverse contextual situations.

With a new scale of operating and constructing large offshore wind farms, harbours and adjacent cities are facing a transition. This transition will include an increase of work migration and temporary citizens within the area. The construction of a wind farm from the port of Vlissingen-Oost will result in a comings and goings of all kind of high- and low-skilled migrant workers and expats within the next five years. This raises new questions about the role of the city of Vlissingen and the adjacent port. The design is an attempt to make the global factors of energy and migrant workers comprehensible and visible, while using this as a catalyst for local urban change. This book shows the idea that services for the temporary needs of migrant workers can be combined with long term improvements for the local population. The temporary citizens are seen as a window of opportunity for the transformation of the urban area, as well as the industrial port area.

The rapid upsurge of the platform economy is producing profound changes to the way in which urban areas are functioning. With digital technology putting roots down in the fields of public transport, hospitality and the service industry, it opened up possibilities for new platform economy companies to nest themselves within the activities of these traditional public services. In some occasions serious disruptions of existing systems occur, while in other cases it may unveil opportunities to improve the functionality of public life in cities. Where (local) governmental organizations seem to grapple with policy making to effectively balance the interests of corporate platform organizations and the public good, it is important to critically explore the implications of inadequate regulation vis-a-vis the novel platform economy and the commodification of public space and services. This thesis is an extensive multi-facetted analysis, providing insight in the externalities of flash delivery platforms, as they claim their place in cities and influence urban planning practice. Furthermore, it shall offer design-based interventions to generate synergies between platform services and the traditional functionality of public services to provide creative solutions where policy instruments will fall short. As a result, a more thorough understanding of platform urbanism is acquired and new ways of using platform economies to enhance the lived experience in cities are being presented.

Due to climate change, the built environment will have to deal with rising surface water levels in the future. We could cope with this situation by making our buildings adaptable to changing water levels and develop floating urbanisation. Although quite a few floating projects have been realised in the Netherlands they are mostly of the smaller scale (1-20 buildings). To serve as a robust solution the floating urbanisation projects need to scale up. The aim of this research is to understand the preconditions that are needed to do so. The method used is mixed and combines literature research, case studies and a validation panel. The results have been grouped in seven themes: knowledge & skills, regulation & legislation, exploitation & economy, infrastructure & planning, technology & scale, environment & ecology and public perception. Topics within these themes that play an important role in the success of a project are developing parties with the required knowledge and skills, the presence of suitable legislation, an appropriate location and a bank willing to provide mortgages. The preconditions as they are now make the development of floating urbanisation in the Netherlands possible. Improving these conditions will make it easier to develop more floating urbanisation projects. If these improvements are needed on the short term or the long term depends on the context of that time.

There is a need to broaden discussions on sustainable mobility beyond electric cars and address the challenges faced by border regions and marginalised groups dependent on public and soft transport. This thesis explores how a transition strategy can support the creation a just and sustainable multi-modal network in a cross-border context. The provinces of Limburg and the mining district are used as a case study. Valuable insights are derived from comprehensive analyses, contributing to a holistic strategy for the region. Key findings emphasise the role of garden cities in shaping the strategy, connecting neighborhoods and promoting mobility alternatives. Improving public transport connections within the mining region is crucial for reducing car dependency and generating positive impacts. Collaboration among stakeholders is essential due to the lack of cross-border connections and administrative barriers. Repurposing the old mine infrastructure offers a transformative opportunity to establish a sustainable transport system. The envisioned future sees opportunities for the old mining infrastructure to act as a multi-modal transport backbone, integrated with multiple garden cities for enhanced connectivity and community. A pattern language approach guides the strategy-making process, tested through a workshop simulation. Policy recommendations stress cross-border collaboration, flexibility, co-creation, and data sharing. By following these recommendations, the region can achieve a just and sustainable multi-modal network, fostering regional integration, equal opportunities, and access to resources.

The main object of this study is the migrant laneway, which refers to the old community in the city center that attracts migrant workers because of its low rent and good location. This kind of community in urgent need of renewal contains three aspects: spatial, social and the process of renewal. This study regards these three aspects as the main line running through the whole research, and studies the current space situation, residents' life and the problems in the existing renewal process of migrant laneways. Pattern language is the main analysis method and design tool of this research. By sorting out the patterns in the migrant laneway, these messy spaces are standardized. In addition, pattern language can be used to increase public engagement. This study introduces a new co-design toolkit: pattern buffet. This toolkit helps residents and designers co-design their communities. Work efficiency and program feasibility can be increased while public engagement is being added. More importantly, the result of this design with public engagement is more sustainable and inclusive. At the social level, this study also proposes a soft strategy to help migrant workers better integrate into the city. The authors reskill these residents towards the opportunities found in a social trend: the senior care industry. While vacancies in the industry are being filled, migrant workers can get longer careers and higher wages to integrate into the city. Therefore, this thesis develops an approach which enables the urban dilapidated areas to be regenerated in a co-design way. This regeneration framework is very new in the Chinese context. Pattern language, as the most important tool in this study, has been examined for its role and function. However, due to the epidemic, the pattern buffet part lacks practical operation, so the author cannot get feedback from the actual situation, which is also an aspect that this thesis can be further expanded.

Out of all the countries in the world, the Netherlands has the most ‘autonomous vehicle’-ready road network (KPMG, 2019). It is the result of years of investing in state-of-the-art technologies and putting in place the needed policies, and it seems to pay off: our country is likely to be amongst the early adapters as soon as these vehicles enter the market. Claiming this desired role of a frontrunner comes with many large challenges and responsibility, however. Being one of the first to be able to put autonomous vehicles on the roads, means that we should be one of the first also to have the right policies in place - there is no luxury of waiting and learning from good examples, or mistakes, made elsewhere. But what are these ‘right’ policies then? And what other kind of – perhaps unexpected - moments of choice might appear? What happens after we have made the decision to allow private autonomous vehicles full access to our inner-cities. Or what are the consequences of leaving a large role for the market to experiment freely, whilst staying passive as a public sector? There is a need for forecasting studies that help to expose these kind of potential choices - projects that try to speculate about the future from diverse perspectives. Amsterdam 2049 is such a project that aims to generate insights into these required actions, through constructing and providing future scenarios that give an idea of the potential implications of autonomous vehicles on the city of the future. By doing so, it establishes a sense of urgency amongst policy-makers and planners, as well as providing them with recommendations, from policies to spatial interventions, on how to act. Structural behind these future scenarios is the development of a unique storytelling-scenario method, which will in its own way combine several useful theories and urbanism insights to produce informative, imaginative and compelling stories about Amsterdam and autonomous vehicles. The stories thus end up as a unique combination of urbanism - with maps, sections and impressions -, ‘complex system theory’ – giving insight into ‘system transitions’ that provides a structure and timeline – and the visual language of the graphic novel – with personal perspectives, dialogues and imaginative visualizations – which altogether lead to accessible, forecasts that can inspire and inform those involved in decision-making.

Currently, there is a growing gap between theory and practice in urban and architecture fields, that requires dialogue on multiple fronts, scales, and new perspectives. Bridging this gap and achieving a successful transition to a new era. In which theory and practice must work together cohesively creating new methods, models, new points of interest, new forms of professional practice and a new vision. The concept of Open Society is chosen due to the similarities of the situation between today and then (1960s), such as: housing shortage, polarization of discourse and reduction of plurality, increase in social inequality and large global migrations. For this reason, it was decided to study this concept and its projects as the starting point and symbolic break of this long investigation of the modernist project and its attempt to bridge theory and practice. The concept of Open Society appeared in the field of urbanism between the 50-60s, the Welfare State, as an attempt to improve living conditions in the city so that society would prosper. These good intentions did not translate into many success stories and the consequences of these operations continue to cause problems today, as can be seen from the current multiple crises (social, economic, environmental, etc.). Today there are new approaches to the built environment, which allow or offer us new possibilities to reinterpret the concept of Open Society, something of great importance still in contemporary urban discourse. For this reason, this study proposes to carry out a double investigation on the concept of Open Society (both empirical and conceptual) that will provide knowledge about this concept in two Western European countries. This will help to build a network of knowledge around topics of interest in urban matters. This research aims to investigate and analyze the discursive and projective validity of the concept of Open Society today, the relation between concepts-realities (places), and a critical methodology (open framework) that engages between theory and practice in a continuous dialogue as follows: -Critically review the concept in the theoretical framework and contemporary global policy frameworks (new urban agenda, theoretical critiques, technical code, etc.). -Empirically review two case studies that illustrate the implementation of this concept, the phenomena and patterns that have arisen in the friction between the place, the ideals (concept) and the resistance generated by the users. This research uses a mixed methods approach to examine these two case studies and draw conclusions, and also reflect on the principles and possible unlocking mechanisms. In this way, we generate a discursive break towards a new vision of this concept, which advocates a diverse, inclusive, fair and cohesive ecological societies.

The urban environment in general needs to be renewed in light of the shifting demographics in the Netherlands in order to address future challenges. The majority of the Dutch urban environment is made up of low-density, post-war suburban neighbourhoods that are aimed towards a particular socioeconomic group. This is called the Row House Paradigm. Numerous sources claim that these neighbourhoods have a promising chance of addressing the future challenges. In the 1960s, Almere was planned as an Amsterdam "flowover" city, with the Row House paradigm predominating. In order for Almere to reach its objective of becoming the fifth city in the Netherlands, the study will examine our current living standards and provide proof that densification can be achieved while keeping existing (sub)urban qualities.

The intersection of effects of climate change, urbanism and communal action provides an opportunity for architects and planners to reinforce the complex system of cities by challenging current norms and empowering residents with tools to influence spatial form that they interact with. Going forward solutions that demand a conservative use of current resources while pushing consumers to change their habits are needed for our civilization to sustain. Urbanism is a pivotal point in this journey as it represents both a conservation strategy as well as a lifestyle change. Through urban form analysis, the project explores designing for resilience and diversity in our cities so that we are better equipped to deal unforeseeable changes in the future. An interpretation of corridors as an adaptive framework in cities is explored within the context of Tilburg, Netherlands.

We are at the beginning of the most significant societal change since the internet. We are transitioning from a 2-dimensional browser-based interaction to immersive 3-dimensional experiences. The metaverse is not a place or a destination but a state where technology and ecosystem are symbiotic. Digital Twins, interactive toolkits, tokenization and urban platfomization, are the bedrock of the future cities and the metaverse. Today, we see the metaverse as cartoonish meeting rooms, yet on a granular level, the metaverse systems focus on user-centric governance and new decentralized economic models. De Filippi and Wright (2018) have described this as "a structural shift of power from legal rules and regulations administered by government authorities to code-based rules and protocols governed by decentralized blockchain-based networks." ... deployed to citizens. With a nickname as Europe's Capital of vacant buildings, Riga suffers from excessive urban negligence and diaspora. Such a location provides a unique opportunity in the tokenization economy, where each urban void can become an asset (an NFT) or social crypto coin that individuals can purchase or 'invest' in, exchanging money for equity (fiat to crypto). By buying into the urban void metaverse, individuals establish a digital identity and can become active citizens of the duality. With a token, one automatically becomes part of the DAO protocols and proposes alternative solutions to the urban void of Riga through its city dashboard. The architectural project acts as a jugendstil-inspired expression of art, history and local struggles. As part of the Next Generation EU, the project proposes a Metaverse Research Academy, where locals can play, imagine and shape their neighbourhood through serendipitous learning. The project can be viewed as a public space where the architecture seamlessly adapts the context into an icon to attract local and international talent while transforming an agglomerate of urban voids into a social, age-inclusive, permeable pocket. Please do not share or reproduce without the written permission of Rihards Dzelme.

This research explores the potential of urban design to fulfill the role of integrating the domains of ecology, food, and climate change to achieve long-term restorative goals. Also, the potential of urban design to be the operator of a dynamic coexistence with nature by acting upon the diverse layers of landscape infrastructure and embedded socioenvironmental systems. After establishing the theoretical foundations on the domain intersections, this research adopts a research-by-design methodology that aims to answer the question of how can urban design simultaneously operationalize the intersection of ecological restoration, climate adaptation, and food production through spatial possibilities in an exploratory case study. Divided in three steps, the case study exercise starts by a pre-design step, that aims to achieve a contextual problem definition; subsequently, the design step focuses on developing a program, proposals, and evaluation of the proposals; and finally, the post-design step establishes a synthesis of the projections and discusses the wider knowledge acquired during the process. Through a contextual analysis of the case study of urban expansion in the Netherlands (Almere-Pampus), it is revealed that territorial dynamics, the trade-offs between current land use, and also the political context of the site are intertwined with its landscape infrastructure, that is vulnerable to sea-level rise. Furthermore, by adopting local references of “building with nature” approaches, it establishes a projective design exercise to investigate the potential of answering the research question through the proposition of a renaturalization process grounded on an agroecosystem that functions on base of local habitats. The results of the research indicate the potential of endogenous forms of production and land use to coexist with natural dynamics and guide the spatial design of multifunctional backbones. Also, it reveals the possible agency of a reformed countryside to be part of a decentralized water infrastructure that guides renaturalization efforts, integrating local actors and agenda demands.