Drought resilience poses a significant challenge for the Mediterranean in today’s climate crisis, given its already semi-arid conditions. The Tagus Basin in the Iberian Peninsula is a vital water source for agricultural activities and hydropower. Despite agreements under the Albufeira Convention to share transboundary river outputs between Spain and Portugal, the accelerating impact of global climate change has intensified water source depletion during dry seasons. This strain has pushed communities to overextend resources to meet water demands. In 2022, Spain declared it would no longer fully honor its responsibilities, prioritizing its citizens’ needs due to severe water scarcity. From local community scales, to regional and territorial scales, there was a lack of understanding and collaboration between the systems of the environment, society and governance. This has led to an exacerbation of these socio-ecological issues, leaving many communities in the agricultural industry struggling to make ends meet.
This thesis explores the concept of water-landscape commons as a collaborative medium for the environment, communities, and governance, a junction where these three intersect. The design of the commons will be represented, similarly, in three layers: systems of the environment, systems of society and systems of governance. The environmental systems will define the spatial boundaries and elements of the commons, while societal systems will explore community roles in maintaining and benefiting from the commons. Finally, governance systems will outline the responsibilities of different administrative layers and the processes essential for supporting the commons’ maintenance.

This thesis explores the revitalization of Philippi Park, an area of immense cultural and natural heritage in Greece, through landscape architectural interventions. By addressing the complex environmental challenges faced by the Philippi Peatland, such as soil subsidence, flooding, and biodiversity loss, the thesis proposes sustainable solutions to transform this significant agro-cultural environment into a resilient Green-Blue system. The study employs comprehensive data collection, field visits, and advanced spatial analysis techniques to develop a framework that integrates natural and cultural processes. The proposed landscape architectonic designs aim to enhance ecological and social values, fostering a symbiotic relationship between human activities and the unique landscape of Philippi Park. By introducing innovative water management strategies and promoting biodiversity, this thesis endeavors to create a sustainable and adaptive landscape infrastructure. The interventions are designed to improve the quality of life for local communities while preserving the natural and cultural heritage, ensuring the long-term sustainability and resilience of Philippi Park.

"Arctic Symphony" is an exploration into the intersection of architecture, music, dance, and the temporal dimensions of the Arctic landscape. This project, originally started as a graduation project, transcends traditional architecture by embracing the ever-changing dynamics of the Arctic environment and human interaction.

At the core of the project is the concept of 'time', investigated through physics, poetry, and neuroscience. Based on this research a series of 'graphic scores' was made as a visual representation of the seasonal rhythms of the Arctic landscape. These scores further inspire the design of the architecture later referred to as a 'living structure, an architectural entity that evolves in with the natural elements, accommodating human interaction while simultaneously undergoing a cycle of deterioration and rejuvenation.

The graduation was complemented by a performance, brought to life by dance, music, and a narrative that echoes the architecture's journey through the Arctic seasons. The performance is an interpretation of the scores and offers an experience of the Arctic's temporal reality. This part of the project has gotten its own legs and is accessible through the 'Arctic Symphony' YouTube channel.

The essence of 'Arctic Symphony'-project lies in the temporal aspect of the architecture. Just as music and dance is not static, frozen in time, neither should architecture be. Architecture should be dynamic and ever-changing, echoing the ebbs and flows of the Arctic landscape itself. The project signifies a dance with time, where the architecture, the landscape, and human activity are all performers on the stage of the Arctic Symphony.

As one of the most important ecosystems on the planet, the coastal zone accommodates a denser population than the hinterland and faces faster urbanization and higher population growth. Meanwhile, the coastal zone is exposed to several climate change disasters in the context of a sensitive environment dominated by water. It is considered with limited resources and capacities to respond to stress, thus the coastal zone is also one of the most vulnerable ecosystems. This master thesis in Landscape Architecture focuses on the Northern Java island, specifically Pekalongan city, Indonesia. The local see a dilemma between natural resources and batik development, for this dominant industry is highly reliant on water. Pekalongan people actively fight against natural disasters and try to boom the cultural significance. But, without understanding the natural process and resilience thinking, the interventions are slightly ineffective, and even could be counterproductive from a long-term perspective. Therefore the objective of the thesis is to create a resilient landscape framework to facilitate water safety and batik development in Pekalongan city by focusing on the three dominant water-related design assignments, known as water circulation, discharge capacity, and coastal protection. Moreover, the project aims to consolidate and enhance the cultural significance of batik and raise awareness of landscape potentials. Under the resilient landscape theoretical framework, with the guidance of landscape- based solutions, the project seeks to build a new relationship between people and nature to mitigate the threats of climate change disasters and batik development from a long term and sustainable perspective. Design research and research by design provide the methods to conduct the investigations. The design work is conducted in three different scales, proposing strategies on a regional scale; detailed elaboration on selected sites; infrastructure design. Besides, a toolbox is also included to provide inspirations and glues for coastal zones which face similar threats and dilemmas as Pekalongan city.

In urban landscape, heritage is often a complex element. They are the signs of urban colonization, the evidence of transformation of historical social rights, the witness of urbanization process and sometimes even the manifestation of the urban topographical features. The relationship between urban heritage with new-developed urban area –the discussion between past and future, is always an interesting and exciting topic for me. The location, position, attention and many other characters of the urban heritage changes with the urbanization process, which usually cause disconnection, paradox and chaos. There are counter-examples in these cases, but no matter what, they are usually not built to adapt to the current urban environment. However, the urban heritage usually has great potentials for the city development. For example, heritage tourism is seen as a way to bolster struggling urban economies and redevelop municipal spaces (Chang.T.C, Milne.S, Fallon.D, Pohlmann.C, 1996). Therefore, how to turn contradictions into opportunities is what we need to focus on. The initial assignment of this project comes from the recreational and co-using demands of the historical country estates owners in Arnhem, Gelderland. But is this the true issue of these estates? What is hiding behind this demand? What makes the owners felt wrong? Do these estates integrate well with the newly developed urban environment? What are the positions of these estates in Arnhem city today? Since most of the country estates were located outside the city but had now surrounded by the urban area, what kind of contradictions and problems will be produced? And most importantly, what can I do for them?

Port-city interfaces have grown apart over the last few decades, resulting in a disbalance between ports and cities. This thesis focuses on finding an approach to reuse and remediate unused industrial sites in sensitive port locations while making them ready for a post-carbon era. The project uses phytotechnologies for remediation of polluted soil on an old refinery site and the construction of a series of laboratories that are made from reused materials and productive phytoremediation landscape around the old refinery installations and are hosted by the old refinery installations,.

The project takes the increasingly polluted and flood prone coast line of the Scheldt estuary as the basis for a new coastal condition, centred on the re-composition of the sediment of the river. As a third option between dike raising and depoldering the coastline of Zeeland, a design for a new line of defence is
developed which controls the inflow of storm water, and collects sand, silt and clay. The collected clay is processed in a ceramics factory capturing heavy metal pollutants and preventing them from the reaching the polder system. The primacy of material transformation through landscape is the key concern of the project, where the daily flows of sediment and water of the Scheldt are performed as architectural rhythms, cuts and insertions in a new boundary edge. Through this research, the existing design parameters of the coastline are questioned and expanded to include multiple actors, varying future conditions and an aesthetic and atmospheric dimension.

The North Sea region’s energy transition has begun. The prospect of how it will happen and what it will look like, however, is still shrouded in uncertainty. What is clear is that this is a mammoth project of unprecedented scale. The sheer quantity of renewables we need to integrate into our energy infrastructures will transform our peri-urban and rural landscapes as we know them. A new spatial order will arise: one of energy landscapes. This thesis has investigated this infrastructural and morphological transition through a transcalar ‘research by design’ approach. It has endeavoured to re-establish the role of architecture as an infrastructural enabler in a projected (extreme flooding and drought) scenario, developing a transcalar spatial order in the Scottish Highlands region of Brora. The project’s agency culminates in striving to achieve symbiosis between the infrastructural design of a proposed hydro-electric energy network, the receiving landscape and the habitable space needed for existing local life. The design focuses on water and electricity delivery to an existing distillery in the area, while also reinterpreting the typological arrangement of the distillery to be as energy efficient as possible. Ultimately, it seeks to break down the cultural divide between ‘urban’ and ‘landscape’.

We are living in the Anthropocene; a period of time shaped by, and for, dominance of the human race. Barely a place or species sharing this earth remains unaffected by our activity. Humans treat other animals as commodities, objects available to be exploited. They are used for our gain and pleasure, at great cost to those individuals involved and indeed to entire species. The North Sea, surrounded by many of the world’s most powerful nations is suffering from catastrophic overfishing. Trillions of fish are killed each year, a scale of extraction so huge it is leaving ecosystems on the brink of collapse. A disconnect in our empathy for other species is further widened by the border between land and sea, the familiar and the unknown, between us and them. Scalloway is a small town in the Shetland Isles, 260 miles North East of Scotland. It sits in a wild, beautiful and romanticised landscape, surely the epitome of nature. Yet the islands are dominated by intense and ever growing salmon farms, highly destructive both to the fish who are farmed and the environment the industry dominates. As demand continues to grow, consumers typically have very little connection to the producers or the impacts felt by production. Scalloway is left in a state of constant adaptation, intensification and increasing dependency. Alternatives to animal-based foods exist and the arguments for their adoption, from nutrient profile to sustainability to animal welfare is compelling, so why haven’t we changed our approach to production? Food, despite playing an essential, daily part of each and every of our lives, appears to be the last aspect we are willing to adapt or change. It is embedded within our social, cultural and emotional connections: a change to our eating can bring so much more. Taking Scalloway as a precedent, a new approach to food production is envisaged, using spatial design as a tool to challenge, inspire and shift patterns in our daily lives. It harnesses the technical capability of architecture, providing the physical infrastructure for a new system of production, yet combines this with the aesthetic qualities it imbues to inspire, attract and reinforce the positivity of new possibilities. Finally, it breaks down barriers and thresholds to provide spatial connections, bringing together producer and consumer and creating habitats not only for humans but for all species to thrive. Understanding the process of change as a series of provocations, reminders and inspirations, cultural (ex)change invites the visitor on a journey. A series of moments mark the gradual transition from the comfort and familiarity of the land, to the sublime, unknown of the sea; defamiliarising, reorienting, sharing and expanding. Food production anchors habitat and livelihoods for other species in a mutually beneficial, productive relationship, bringing together human and non-human needs in places of co-existence. Consumption is reunited with production to create a place of experiential education, of discovery and exploration. A place that reconsiders, how we live and who we live alongside, bringing awareness and responsibility back into the public realm, back to the scale of the individual.

Guayaquil is the 2nd Largest city of Ecuador, located in one of the largest estuary ecosystems of the pacific coast in South-America (Delgado, 2011). Since 1960’s the city has gone through a rapid process of urbanization and informal settlements. This has caused severe spatial segregation and a development model that ignores the existing biophysical characteristics of its land and water. With increasing global environmental threats, Guayaquil faces big challenges related to future flooding vulnerability that can eventually have consequences nation-wide. Characteristics of the developing world are also present in Guayaquil, evidencing the need for an approach aiming to solve more than one issue at the time. In this context, Flood Risk and Spatial Segregation are the core problems considered for an integrated strategy. Neighbourhoods that show evidence of spatial segregation are better bridged by establishing a green and blue infrastructure which improves the geometrical configuration of the street network. This enhances the flow of non-locals (according to Legeby people leaving further than 1000m) through the previously fragmented areas. Along this network spaces for mitigating flood risk and fostering social integration are implemented. Schools appear as key elements in the city offering big potential for creating areas for interaction and space for water storage.

The North Sea has played an important role in European urbanization. Coastal cities thrive on the basis of port economy; but also shrink significantly once the dominated industry recessed. Today, under the threat of climate change, port-dominated homogenous development becomes rather vulnerable to disturbances. Den Helder is the Wadden port-city encountering severest shrinking rate. It is particularly sensitive to environmental change and economic shift, regarding to coexistence of tidal ecosystem protection, maritime activities and rising flood risk. To facilitate reciprocal collaboration between ecosystem and economy, the project explores ‘Nature-Based Solutions’ as an integrated coastal zone management approach for interdisciplinary risk adaptation. In design fiction workshop, a catastrophic 2053 flood is fabricated to facilitate local imaginations on a more nature-based future. Qualitative narratives were structured into a prospective Building-with-Nature scenario, challenging the Business-as-Usual projective scenario. Through backcasting, an adaptive pathway for current shrinking Den Helder is proposed, comprising three strategic phases: utilize, guide and oppose according to risk index. The spatial design employs these strategies in two transformation cores: port-front residential and suburban agricultural polders. By reusing existing canal system to deliver tidal ecosystem services, this backbone synergizes a holistic regeneration that aligns to conserve-release-reorganize natural adaptive cycle. An integrated package is proposed, combining technical renovation of houses, de-polders and a PPP insurance model to incentivize participation and to share the risk. The project is concluded with an open-ended scheme in which shrinking is addressed as part of natural secession. Sequence of actions are suggested based on economic vitality and capacity of ecosystem services.

This project is set in the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Currently spanning 1189 sq. km, the region forms a unique delta with three rivers, namely, the Koshashtalaiyar, Coovum and Adyar, which eventually drain into the Bay of Bengal. With an estimated population of 10 million and a population density of 9900 per sq. Km, the CMA is the fourth largest metropolitan region in India and forms the country’s fourth largest economy (Statistics, 2017). The region has undergone substantial industrial growth in the last two decades and is still rapidly urbanizing, often in conflict with the natural hydrological patterns. Meanwhile, due to its deltaic nature, the CMA is naturally prone to floods from mainly extreme rainfall and cyclonic activities. As a result, Chennai has faced an aggravated risk of flooding and in 2015 was devastated by a 100-year flood event. The frequency and intensity of these events are projected to increase due to climate change. Set in this context, this project addresses local adaptation strategies by building socio-ecological resilience at the neighbourhood level. Rapid urbanisation has led to the rupture of the traditional drainage network which was once the flat terrain region’s flood defence mechanism. The main problem recognised is hence understood as a conflict between human and nature and attempts a shift towards socio-ecological harmonies. For this purpose, the relevance of social capital was identified as a crucial link to design for local resilience. Hence, social and cultural networks were used as leverage to link economic aspirations and environmental restoration. This was set within a theoretical framework comprising of the works of Davoudi (2012) and Wilson (2012). To recognise the spatial manifestation of this conflict and to tap into social capital, the edges and community infrastructure were identified respectively. The water edges which are the transition zones from the human to the natural environment were mismanaged and left untreated, in turn influencing perception and its subsequent neglect from regional functionalities. To tackle this neglect and reintegrate these hydrological elements with daily life, community infrastructure was used as the tangible medium to bring people together, engage them and in turn create a sense of ownership and responsibility. Hence the strategies used were that of first designing an integrated water network across multiple scales, second, identifying community infrastructure and open spaces that can support the functioning of the system and third, designing interactions between people and the environmental to motivate them to engage and maintain the network. Together the project made a strong case for using socio-cultural networks and contextually grounded strategies to bring about a collective community based restoration process.