In our chapter, we argue that urban soil should be understood and treated as a living, generative substrate. Drawing on interdisciplinary research of soil science, ecology, landscape architecture and urban planning, we explore how “vital soil” can and should become a foundational design parameter in urban environments. We discuss a practical framework, as originally proposed in a design-oriented "designing with and for vital soil" handbook. The chapter argues that only by re-centering the underground, can cities evolve in ways that are biodiverse and climate-resilient.

Cities are like “heterotrophic organisms” because they are dependent on inflows of air, water, food, matter, and energy. Unlike nature, they pollute their own habitat through the production of waste outflows and emissions, extending beyond their own footprint. Data on the ecological footprint of cities have quantified, emblematically, the imbalance between in- and outflows but also what remains: polluted air, water, and soil. The rapid growth of urbanization is a matter of serious concern, but as a part of new development, it can be turned around with an approach in which cities become an “autotrophic organism”. In 2012 Taranto, a coastal city in Southern Italy with an important commercial and military port, was declared as the city “with the highest risk of environmental crisis” in Italy due to a large industrial area developed in the proximity of a highly populated urban settlement. The cause of pollution, a steel production plant, directly employs approximately 12.000 people and another 8.000 contractors indirectly, making it Taranto’s main economic driver. The conflict between economy and environment in the city of Taranto, make it a peculiar case study to be approached with the concept of a Democratic Landscape. This concept reads the territory beyond the natural environment, also recognizing the wellbeing of the inhabitants. After the analysis of a Democratic Landscape in relation to the concept of an “autotrophic organism”, this contribution explores the transformation by regeneration of the ecosystem and the economic regime. In redeveloping a city like Taranto, changing its function from a heterotrophic organism to an autotroph organism, the approach of the so-called “linking open-loop system circularity” is more appropriate. It more adequately describes the system than what is commonly understood for circularity at the building scale of “reduce, reuse, recycle of resources”. Circularity as an attitude brings together many elements that can be considered generic for each project: it can be about recycling or reuse, cutting costs or time, and output of CO2 through reducing material inflow and the transport of materials. In the context of the Democratic Landscape and an autotropic organism, the approach of “linking open-loop system circularity” is tested on two scales in Taranto. One, on the large scale, proposing multiple reuses of agricultural crops after remediation and two, at the local scale, in rebuilding a portion of the city by reusing the demolished buildings materials. The need to rethink and redesign the flow of resources such as building materials, water, food, and energy is essential to the future sustainability of cities. It involves thinking about how to use existing resources rather than dispose of them as in the linear model. It also means establishing new economic models in order to make a sustainable city, flows of intelligent growth and the creation of an identity for a communal sense of belonging. Together, these create a democratic, autotrophic landscape that can sustain a future.

Het Beleidsplan Ruimte Vlaanderen (BRV) richt zich op het bijkomend ruimtebeslag stelselmatig terugdringen door het ruimtelijk rendement te verhogen of wel te verdichten. Dit kan met behulp van klassieke verdichtingsstrategieën zoals hoogbouw of multifunctioneel grondgebruik, maar ook de ondergrond kan als volwaardige ruimte tegemoetkomen aan de vraag naar ruimte. Dit voegt een geheel nieuwe dimensie toe aan het ruimtelijk rendement, maar is nog niet een vanzelfsprekend onderdeel van het ruimtelijke instrumentarium. Het beter integreren van de ondergrond aan het omgevingsbeleid is het doel van de beleidsverkenning van het Departement Omgeving: ‘Verrijking van het omgevingsbeleid met de ondergrondse dimensie’. Hiertoe is de vraag gesteld hoe het Vlaamse plansysteem, planinstrumentarium en planprocessen verrijkt zouden worden met de ondergrondse dimensie om kwalitatief een bijdrage te leveren aan de verdichting. Het departement zoekt antwoord op volgende beleidsvraag: ‘Hoe kan het Vlaams planinstrumentarium verrijkt worden met de diepte- dimensie’? Binnen deze opdracht is specifiek gefocust op het stedelijk ruimtelijk uitvoeringsplan (RUP) met als testlocatie industriezones Oosteroever in Oostende. Voor de case is een analyse van de ondergrond informatie uitgevoerd en via ontwerpend onderzoek is geëxperimenteerd met visualisatie technieken waarmee een ruimtelijk uitvoeringsplan en de onderliggende deelproducten kan worden verrijkt met de ondergrond. Het concrete resultaat van de studie en het experiment is een upgrade van een generiek RUP waarbij de ondergrond (visueel en inhoudelijk) is geïntegreerd in alle noodzakelijke deelproducten.

By jointly approaching the challenges we face – such as ongoing urbanization, climate change, energy transition and the introduction of new mobility such as automated and electric vehicles – urban areas can be made more resilient. The subsurface of the city can play a central role in this, for instance by using space made available by a different use of infrastructure for the ecological and functional improvement of the city. In order to combine ecosystem services, climate and urban systems in a single design that accounts for the dynamics of the subsurface, it must be seen as an integral element of spatial planning and design. Based on this idea this exploratory research was done into the effect of ‘soil first’ on three urban typologies. What is the design potential of these typologies, assuming a circular construction of the public space and a healthy soil? The result is a six step approach in which the city can become more healthy is regard to global challenges and respecting the soil as main carrier.