De aanpak van stedelijke transformatieopgaven gaat op de schop. Er is immers onvoldoende ruimte om de grote uitdagingen van vandaag – op het vlak van klimaat, energie, circulaire economie, mobiliteit en huisvesting – een plek te geven. Hoog tijd dat we met een driedimensionale bril naar onze steden leren kijken en de openbare ruimte en gebouwen in samenhang bekijken met de ondergrond. Door opgaven aan te pakken vanuit de doorsnede (in plaats van de plattegrond) komen nieuwe en verrassende oplossingen op tafel, die niet alleen leiden tot een verbetering van de leefomgeving, maar ook multifunctioneel ruimtegebruik in de hand werken. Multidisciplinaire ontwerpteams gingen aan de slag in Amsterdam, Leuven, Maastricht, Mechelen, Oostende en Rotterdam. Gerenommeerde experts nemen het ontwerpend onderzoek onder de loep en reflecteren over het belang van de ondergrond en het ontwerpen vanuit de doorsnede. Deze publicatie is het resultaat van een samenwerking tussen de TU Delft, het Centrum voor Ondergronds Bouwen, het Departement Omgeving en de Vereniging Deltametropool. ––– The approach to urban transformation tasks is undergoing a major overhaul. After all, there is insufficient space to accommodate today's major challenges—in the areas of climate, energy, circular economy, mobility, and housing. It is time we learn to look at our cities through three-dimensional glasses and to view the public space and buildings in relation to the subsurface. By tackling tasks from the cross-section (instead of the floor plan), new and surprising solutions are brought to the table, which not only lead to an improvement of the living environment but also encourage multifunctional use of space. Multidisciplinary design teams set to work in Amsterdam, Leuven, Maastricht, Mechelen, Ostend, and Rotterdam. Renowned experts scrutinize design research and reflect on the importance of the subsurface and designing from the cross section. This publication is the result of a collaboration between TU Delft,Centrum voor Ondergronds Bouwen, the Departement Omgeving, and the Vereniging Deltametropool

The ecological, climate and urban crisis globally takes place in anthropocene landscapes. Human settlement interacts with the landscape in creating a new topography and draw on resources. This explorative research looked into four landscapes of extraction, drink water, geothermal water, wood and iron, in which different forms of critical relationship between nature (biotic/abiotic) and culture exist. By reading and mapping ongoing trends and projecting future change, the research engaged with a main research question which has the purpose to turn the negative effects of extreme ecologies around:How can ecosystem participation perform as a design catalyst for healthy and climate proof urban extraction landscapes? The research projects show how to move from considering ecosystems as a service towards going back into the system as a participant. Next result is then how does this affect the living in these landscapes. By working on different situations there is a methodological understanding of how this affects the field of urban design.

The ecological, climate and urban crisis globally takes place in extreme landscapes. Events like tsunamis, hurricanes, extreme drought and cold, or extreme urbanizations even the Netherlands as extreme is taken as starting point for explorative research. The research looked into a wide spectrum of six cases of extreme landscapes: drought, hurricane, tsunami and temperature which gives an overview of the different forms of critical relationship between nature (biotic/abiotic) and culture. By reading and mapping ongoing trends and projecting future change, the research engaged with a main research question which has the purpose to turn the negative effects of extreme ecologies around: How can ecosystem participation work as catalyst for healthy, climate proof extreme urban environments? The research guides the quest into how to move from considering ecosystems as a service towards going back into the system as participant and how does this affect the living in extreme situations. By comparing different extreme situations, there is an methodological understanding of how this affects the field of urban design.

Professional water managers, due to a rise in population, have taken over authority of the living water systems (circular water system) in which there is a self-evident exchange between the natural system and the (human) water chain.

The hydrological cycle crosses three environments: the geosphere, the biosphere, and the technosphere. The geosphere is the collective name for lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. The technosphere is the part of environment composed by wide variety of technological artefacts and the biosphere is composed of all ecosystems. These spheres can’t be analyzed and described separately but need to be understood as one hybrid space. Hybridity is defined as a system that is composed out of several separated systems drinking and sewer water is connected to the natural system because it also discharges rainwater. In order to be able to intervene in this system it needs to be described and analyzed to be understood. Moreover, it needs to be linked to urban space and quality to be able to harmonize urban development and water management. The urgency at the core of this study is the contemporary issue of climate change and consequently the changing hydrological cycle. To deal with pluvial flooding in cities, reduce energy use by introducing decentralized sewer systems, improve water quality by separated sewer systems and introducing blue-green infrastructure this study aims to give proper understanding and means to improve the water system, the water chain and urban quality simultaneously. One of the concepts to deal with water excess and energy use reduction is the application of a decentralized water circulation system called "Closed City", which was presented in 2005. Closed City is defined as “a city that does not have adverse effects on its surroundings, such as water depletion or emission of pollution”. This proposal is to improve the water storage and water purification capacity of cities, to store and recycle rainwater and sewage. This is believed possible by creating a self-sustaining water circulation system that responds to water shortages and floods.