The Netherlands has a strong tradition of draining peatlands, often for agricultural purposes, resulting in CO₂ emissions, soil subsidence, and biodiversity loss. A higher groundwater level is often presented to combat these issues as it offers benefits for ecosystem restoration, reducing land subsidence, and achieving climate adaptation. However, implementation remains limited due to conflicts with conventional agricultural practices, possible methane emissions, water quality concerns, and policy contradictions. This study examines how spatial planning in the peatland region of Midden-Delfland can support climate adaptation through strategic groundwater elevation, while balancing environmental sustainability, infrastructure resilience, and agricultural viability.
Using a spatial Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) combined with expert insights, the research identifies areas where groundwater level adjustments are most necessary, feasible, and desirable. It proposes a spatial transition strategy that strengthens the region’s landscape identity while enhancing resilience to climate change. Wet crop cultivation (paludiculture), such as reed, cattail, cranberries, or peat moss, is explored as a viable alternative in areas with thick peat layers and high greenhouse gas emission potential. Strategies such as water retention and multifunctional land use should form the foundation of climate-adaptive planning.
For this transition to succeed, several conditions must be met. First, freshwater availability is essential, as scarcity poses a significant risk to the effectiveness of groundwater elevation. Second, contradictory policies, such as subsidies promoting opposing objectives, must be resolved and clear, consistent sustainability frameworks for the agricultural sector are needed to take the lead in driving this transition forward. Third, economic uncertainty due to changing political priorities underscores the need for fair compensation for when transitioning to paludiculture and for providing ecosystem services. Lastly, a cultural shift is needed in how landscapes are valued. Provincial policies focused on preserving open views may unintentionally block transitioning to paludicultures. Whether heritage protection should limit climate adaptation remains a key question for further research. This study presents a planning framework that incorporates ecological, spatial, and socio-economic perspectives for making peat landscapes climate-resilient, applicable not only in the Netherlands but also beyond.

This paper studies the feasibility of building with locally grown materials from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region (AMR). Materials choices are based on the use of paludiculture in the peat meadows and agroforestry in the clay landscapes. A diverse range of construction products can be manufactured from these raw materials and are able to form modular elements. Research by design has been conducted to detail a building which uses alder, poplar, typha and reed. The resulting landscape use and growing times give insight into the broader impact in the AMR of locally grown construction materials. This research continued into a design project which consisted of a manufacturing centre for locally grown building elements and a residential top up in which they are used.

In response to the growing challenges of sustainability, liveability, and accessibility in peri-urban regions, this thesis aims to understand how the principles of the 15-minute city model can be implemented to peri-urban contexts through the lens of public values. While the 15-minute city, originally conceptualised for urban areas, aims to localise all daily needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, translating it to car-dependent peri-urban areas is neither straightforward not possible within the current confinements of the concept. This research bridges that gap by exploring how a human-centric, value-based approach can inform the spatial adaptation of proximity-based planning principles in peri-urban regions, specifically focusing on the Dutch municipality of Ede.
Peri-urban areas have been overlooked in urban planning for a prolonged period of time. Characterised by highly dynamic spatial and social conditions, these areas suffer from relevant urban challenges such as car dependency, reduced access to amenities, population growth, and political distrust. All highlighting the urgent need for renewed attention towards this landscape.
To implement the relevant planning principles behind the 15-minute city in the peri-urban landscape through the lens of public values, two key frameworks are integrated together. The Public Value Sphere framework (Herzog, 2021) and the Human Needs framework (Cardoso et al., 2022) bridge the gap between the planning principles and public values, which have been specifically defined in this context. The former provides five public value sphere for the peri-urban context; economic opportunity, ecological quality, social equity, liveability, and health/safety. Each sphere encapsulated spatial public values that relate to the built environment.
The latter, rooted in Max-Neef’s theory of Human Scale Development, distinguishes between ‘needs’ and context-specific ‘satisfiers’. Be identifying diversity, proximity and accessibility as the core 15-minute city principles their five ‘needs’ are distinguished as Inclusiveness, mixed-land use, sustainability, walkability, and connectivity. By relating the concept of public values to the ‘satisfiers, this thesis constructs a conceptual framework that allows public values to spatially translate 15-minute city principles.
Empirical data extracted from focus-groups, organised for the InPUT project, a co-creation workshop with a specially developed pattern language, and a final round of digital feedback from participants formed the participatory process that enabled the specification, operationalisation and translation of public values into a spatial strategy. This pattern language serves as a tool for the designer to communicate with citizens and let them articulate their desires.
By mapping the (mis)alignment between perceived values and desired spatial outcomes, this thesis offers insights into how humans act, think, and communicate desires. The result is a set of context-specific spatial interventions that guide the implementation of 15-minute city principles through five main identified public values. It demonstrates how spatial interventions based on public values can contribute to a just and sustainable transition of the peri-urban landscape.
Ultimately, this research calls for a shift in the urban planning from time-based planning to value-based planning approach that priorities the human perspective through meaningful participation. In this approach, it is the role of the designer to understand the meaning people associate with spatial interventions and thereby understand underlying public values of stakeholders through identifying the ‘why’ behind peoples choices.
In doing so, the role of the designer becomes one of a translator, capable of identifying, articulating, and translating the public values that often remain implicit in spatial discussions. It starts with a simple question: “Why?” A question that reframes the urban planning process not as a search for the most desired solutions, but as a practice of finding values.

The Northern Campine is experiencing depletion. Various forms of this phenomenon are already evident; natural areas are suffering due to intensive agriculture, resulting in a loss of biodiversity. Coupled with climate change, this depletion will worsen. Villages are experiencing a drain on services and a shift in population. This study seeks to develop a regional strategy centred on regenerative sustainability. Rather than focusing on a single aspect, the multiple dimensions of soil, production, society, and history are taken into account. Through spatial and policy analysis, as well as spatial and institutional imagination, the main research question, “How could regenerative sustainability counter ecological and social depletion resulting from intensive land uses and rural shrinkage in the Northern Campine region?” is addressed. Building on the regional strategy, a simulation is conducted across three stages of implementation. This simulation illustrates the various levels at which choices are made, the effects these might have on policy and design, and includes a potential framework for participation. The most significant finding concerns the implementation of regenerative sustainability. The spatial choices made in alignment with it primarily resolve spatial issues. While policy and governance matters can be addressed through spatial design and analysis, they are not entirely resolved. Nevertheless, this study investigates the possibilities arising from a focus on soil as a foundation and regenerative sustainability.

Amsterdam used to house large timber industries. These have declined with the industry moving abroad to the forests themselves. This despite growing interest in building with timber. This thesis explores the viability of reintroducing this industry by creating local forest industries as well, to reduce reliance on imports and the environmental costs of the transport.
The research consists of literature research into the history of timber industries in Amsterdam, mapping local forestry potential, interviews with local existing sawmills, and case studies. This all to evaluate the capacity for sustainable timber industries. Results of this indicate that transforming farmland into biodiverse production forest can double current timber yields. That is combined with promotion of chain recognition and public education which is essential to kickstart such industries. It also indicates that there is lots of efficiency to be gained by educating the public about timber usage and already using what is grown currently, lots of which is wasted at the moment. The results indicate a possibility for such industries in the city. Starting with a knowledge gap which then would start the demand. Visibility which could hold forest owners accountable for their usage and a growth of almost 2x of the current forest supply would allow the old timber industries from yesteryear to return.

The goal to reach carbon zero by 2050 is pushing the Port of Rotterdam rapidly replace fossil fuel with hydrogen. The transition entails many spatial, environmental and economic changes that impact some neighborhoods more than others; in particular five neighborhoods (Rozenburg, Pernis, Heijplaat, Hoogvliet North and Old Charlois) in and surrounding the port. These already disadvantaged neighborhoods will face more burdens than benefits if the transition, and the gentrification that will follow, is left without intervention.

This study investigates how the energy transition towards hydrogen can be guided to ensure a just socio-economic and spatial transformation for these existing harbor neighborhoods. Through a research-by-design study, a vision is created from the perspective of the selected transition community (harbor neighborhoods), supported by qualitative and quantitative research methods. Subsequently, a strategy is developed that takes into account the
relevant stakeholders and policies necessary to implement the vision. The vision is explained in more detail in the latter part of the report, substantiated by a timeline and its related spatial strategies comprised of four key projects.

The vision of Port Archipelago construed on four guiding themes (energy, housing, connectivity and amenities) successfully accommodates the needs of existing communities and helps them adapt to the social and spatial changes triggered by the hydrogen transition. Urban metabolism and spatial justice are weaved into the vision to fairly distribute the benefits and burdens of the gentrification that is likely to occur in the port. Spatially, the vision will enable the transition community to sustain their identities and everyday lives while at the same time embracing the spatial and environmental transformations of the port. Lastly, the Port Archipelago vision will lead to successful community regeneration by providing opportunities for the harbor neighborhoods to build the capacity to act as active stakeholders in new settings and interact with newcomers of the port.

Zeeland’s landscape is currently dominated by fossil fuel-based industries. Four big companies emit huge amounts of greenhouse gasses. As the energy transition progresses and stricter limitations to these polluters are set, they will have to drastically change their processes or phase out. Though necessary, this threatens the livelihood of these practically educated employees. To come to solutions that fit within a just transition, this research explores how spatial transformations can empower these workers.
The study uses spatial analysis, policy and plan review and stakeholder research to come to a vision of diversification of the labor market spaces and voices. This vision is worked out according to three spatial design principles: smart land use, multifunctionality, and evolving place identity. Smart land use prioritizes the redevelopment of brownfields and salinized farmland over using more unused land to develop. Multifunctionality means the use of large open spaces for more than one type of industry. An evolving place identity means that the future is built upon a past that is seen as a vital stepping stone instead of something to be ashamed of.
The results include the conclusion that for a just transition to take place, there is a need for worker-centered policies, retraining initiatives, and spatial strategies that allow individuals to choose their own pathway through the energy transition. This report presents a multisectoral and integrated strategy, working out the sectors of tourism, food production, and clean and green energy production. An expanded mobility network ties these changes together, allowing for better accessibility within and into Zeeland.
By positioning workers at the core of the transition, Zeeland can serve as an example for industrial regions navigating similar structural changes. A more diverse future will make Zeeland more resilient to both the current energy transition as well as other uncertainties and changes.

The Port of Rotterdam is currently undergoing a crucial energy transition, promoting the production of sustainable energy in the port to provide the Netherlands with clean energy. In current approaches, though, non-human species are severely underrepresented in the spatial design of the port. This makes the port inherently unsustainable because this approach destroys current ecosystems that are beneficial for the well-being of the space and the well-being of humans living and working in these spaces. (Jørgensen, 2009; Latour, 2012). This research builds on the Post-Anthropocene philosophy and expands on this concept by integrating spatial justice and an ecosystem approach into it. In this approach, we aim to create a design that considers humans and seagulls as inhabitants of one ecosystem. Based on spatial data about seagulls and humans, we create an analysis of the spatial needs of the two species. In the analysis, we also investigate differences in energy production sources and discuss which sources are spatially and ethically just. These analyses combined form the base of a just vision of the Port of Rotterdam during the energy transition. After this, we visualize the feasibility of the new vision for the port by creating a potential strategy to achieve the created vision. This strategy visualizes the timeline in which future policies and spatial interventions are represented. We zoomed in on three key projects, which we based on key principles our strategy aims to represent spatially. The report concludes with a discussion on how the research has impacted current energy transition approaches and reflects on the conceptual foundation this research builds upon. The reflection will additionally cover ethical constraints, this research’s impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, n.d.), its relevance to science and society, the incorporation of public goods, and recommendations for further research.

This thesis explores the potential of sustainable cruise tourism to inspire regional and urban strategies aimed at maximizing benefits for secondary port cities. In recent years, there has been a growing concern about the impact of tourism on urban environments, especially on the effects of cruise ship tourism. This form of tourism brings immediate mass impact and minimal contributions to local economies. As a result, it causes spatial disruptions, alterations to public spaces, and protests in cities such as Venice and Barcelona. To face these challenges, some ports have implemented bans and restrictions. However, despite these measures, the cruise industry has continued to expand. This disparity will increase the number of cruise ship visits to secondary ports.

By using literature reviews, stakeholder analysis, and scenario building, this research explores how a change in the cruise industry in terms of the use of smaller vessels and regional cooperation, can impact an entire region. The study highlights that maintaining a solid connection between the sea and land is important for sustaining a maritime mindset, boosting the economy, and preserving local culture, thereby fostering residents’ stewardship.

Additionally, secondary cities can benefit economically from cooperation with larger urban centres, as outlined in the Agglomeration Shadow/Borrowed Size theory. Despite the potential benefits, the implementation of sustainable cruise tourism faces challenges, including resistance from established cruise companies and the need for significant public support. Empowering local governments to lead the transition is crucial, particularly in overcoming the dominance of major cruise operators. Cooperation among regions is also essential to ensure equitable distribution of tourism and economic benefits.

In Greece, the prevailing growth-paradigm has been manifested in the commodification of rural areas through tourism, and the continuous neglect and abandonment of the non-touristic territories. This has resulted in their societal and environmental degradation, exemplified through the recent devastating floods and wildfires, that also stem from the pressures of climate change. Within a context of intense political corruption and tardy governmental response, the nuanced topic of rurality is failing to be addressed adequately. We cannot continue business-as-usual, but should aim instead towards transitioning to a post-growth society. However, there are significant barriers present, like the limited societal acceptance, lack of alternative spatial imaginaries and intense bureaucracy. To bypass such hurdles, bioregionalism proposes the formation of a place-based administrative body - researched here through the case-study of the Spercheios river basin. Considering the overwhelming and ambitious nature of the post-growth agenda, in combination with the lack of adequate communication tools to engage disinterested stakeholders that are locked-in-growth, traditional planning approaches would not suffice. Alternatively, after the exploration of the site-specific conditions and a tracing of growth in the landscape itself, a contextual spatial imaginary is formed, conducted through a combination of fiction writing, speculative design interventions and physical artefacts. This narrative is explored through the perspective of a rural dweller of the bioregion of Spercheios, who meanders along the region in the scope of one day. They explore the adaptation to energy and water sufficiency from the scale of one individual house, to the neighbourhood, to the village, and reckon with food production through extensive agroforestry practices. They engage with bioregional decision-making processes in a weekly meeting, and observe nature-based solutions along the river as they commute towards the coast. There, they explore the restoration of the wetlands and the adaptation towards living with more water in the lowlands. Finally, they end their day back at the square of the village, reflecting, sharing stories and bonding with others. Through this narrative, implications, opportunities and limitations of the post-growth approach are investigated, while also exploring experimental methods of communication and engagement - ultimately attempting to imagine the post-growth future tangible, within grasp.

The Netherlands faces a growing challenge: the escalation of nitrogen pollution, closely tied to the expansive dairy and animal husbandry industry in the country. As a predominantly dairy-based culture, the dairy industry plays a significant role in the economy, contributing to an 8% trade surplus. Dairy farms occupy 30% of the Dutch land surface, producing 14 billion kilograms of milk per year, resulting in a highly efficient industry. However, at the expense of a degraded landscape and the escalating nitrogen crisis.

This project aims to explore the future of the dairy industry by creating a shift from the current monoculture and centralized dairy chain to a more local and self-restoring model. Recognizing the polder as a crucial spatial element of grasslands in the Netherlands, we view it as a fundamental unit for enhancing dairy industrial efficiency.

Our goal is to instill stewardship of the exhausted landscape, transforming polder typologies into regenerative ecosystems. Our focus is on the regions of SW Friesland, where the concentration of cows and nitrogen issues intersects with Natura-2000 areas. Our methodology aligns with the Netherlands’ aspirations to foster a more biodiverse and multifunctional landscape by proposing a strategic plan for implementation of a green network and polyculture polders keeping in mind the social as well as physical transformations of the landscape. Cooperative systems organized around polder typologies serve as a framework for comprehending new social and economic configurations. A larger organizational structure in which polders co-operate is implemented to redistribute trade and production.

Ultimately, our project aims to establish a new localized, decentral dairy system alongside a toolbox of multifunctional polder-cooperation mosaics. These steps are designed to reduce nitrogen emission and loss, contributing to the overall sustainability and resilience of the dairy industry in the Netherlands.

The EU Green Deal aims to ensure a socially just energy transition, but the shift towards renewable energies often replicates the centralized, top-down approach of traditional fossil fuel systems, negatively impacting rural areas. This report reimagines this paradigm by advocating for decentralized energy communities, particularly in regions experiencing the neglect often seen in ‘shadow agglomerations.’ It argues for a shift where decentralized energy production empowers both cities and rural areas, enabling them to attain energy self-sufficiency and ownership. The research uses a multicriteria analysis to explore the Eurodelta and Zeeland regions, forming a vision that supports the strategic development of energy communities in Zeeland and Rotterdam. This approach aims to facilitate a more spatially equitable and just energy transition, enabling regions overshadowed by major urban centers to become essential in achieving sustainable energy production, thereby reshaping the energy landscape towards a more distributed and participatory model.

The current Dutch housing domain is characterised by injustices on multiple scales, such as a shortage of housing, disparities in well-being across regions, and unaffordable housing. This situation can partially be attributed to spatial planning practices focused on promoting growth-oriented economic thinking. These contemporary planning practices can be argued to be socially and spatially selective and to have a short time horizon. While some injustices remain unresolved, others are exacerbated by contemporary planning practices. The aim of this research has been to develop a justice framework which helps spatial planners address, instead of perpetuate injustices. This is approached through the question: To what extent can a framework based on justice values help spatial planners design for justice in the housing domain in Dutch regions?

This has led to the development of a justice framework constructed from three core justice values: Sufficiency, Limitation and Opportunity. These are made more concrete to the housing domain through two applied values each: (I) Availability and (II) Acceptability for the quantitative and qualitative aspects of Sufficiency; (III) Sustainability and (IV) Moderation dealing with intergenerational justice and intragenerational justice for Limitation; and (V) Influence and (VI) Diversity related to opportunities to assert influence on the living environment and to choose a living environment. These applied values are further specified using housing dimensions and strategy directions in two consecutive rings.

The first advantage for spatial planners is that the justice framework summarises and combines several abstract justice theories into digestible values relevant to the Dutch context. To test and demonstrate the justice framework it has been applied to the case study area of the Regio Stedendriehoek, which enabled answering the research question. First the justice framework helps to structure regional spatial analysis and policy analysis on a wide range of justice values, which can bring to light different types of injustices. Second, based on the analyses, clusters can be made of areas with similar problems regarding the applied values, which helps determine which type of strategies require priority in different areas. Then, based on these priorities, strategies can be developed using the outer ring of the justice framework. The justice framework helps to structure strategy development per applied value, but the justice framework can also be used as a tool to assess whether strategies can contribute to solving injustices for different applied values. In this way fruitful strategies can be prioritised and interventions that cause conflicts between different justice values can be avoided or mitigated.

Due to global social and economic developments and the intensifying urbanization process, China's urban development is displaying a novel phenomenon of expansion and shrinkage oscillations. Cities dependent on natural resources are among those worst affected by China's urban shrinkage. Resource-based cities, which are essential to China's economic development, are facing the prominent challenge of urban shrinkage as a result of China's slowing economic growth, its homogenous industrial structure, and the industrial cycle of "boom and bust" brought on by resource depletion. In these cities, the gradual lack of urban dynamism results in the disadvantage in urban competition and attractiveness. The main challenge in these cities is figuring out how to achieve better sustainability and transformation.
The concept of "smart shrinkage" is a viable alternative to the conventional growth-oriented planning paradigm, which seeks to reverse the anticipated decline in the future. Smart shrinkage entails accepting the reality of shrinkage, developing policies in anticipation of urban population reduction, and investigating new models of urban intensive development under non-growth conditions. The potentials and transition based on the smart shrinkage idea are investigated in this thesis using Hegang as the study location. Hegang, a city on the border of northeast China, is on the list of resource-exhausted cities. Its population is declining, the city's mineral resources are nearly completely depleted, there is an excess of land and structures, and the quality of space is deteriorating. Does the idea of "smart shrinkage" make sense in the context of a municipality that is losing population with Chinese characteristics? Is local operationalization of shrinkage possible? In response to the long-term shrinking trend in the context of Hegang, this research develops a theoretical framework for smart shrinkage, suggests a strategic framework for urban recovery and resilience building, reconstructs Hegang's socio-economic and spatial dimensions, and recovers it to a resilient urban system. The results of a thorough investigation may serve as a point of reference for this particular group of cities' transformation and excellent development.

Many western European countries have undergone the process of deindustrialisation. The has resulted in a changed economy focused on knowledge. This went hand in hand with urbanisation, resulting in explosive population growth in many cities. In combination with the rise of neoliberal planning made cities an attractive investment object. All three of these trends have caused many industrial areas to be transformed in often glamorous projects
to revamp cities images. While aesthetically improving cities, it has also often started or intensified processes of gentrification. The canal zone of Brussels however seems to be very stable in this regard, and has not undergone
any big transformation. My hypothesis is that this could be attributed to strong path dependencies within the area, which expresses itself in three ways: the segregated social profile, the industrial land use and its governance fragmentation. Often neoliberal planning treats these types of path dependent location as a sort of ‘tabula rasa’ that can be used to maximise profits and thus deals with these path dependencies by path breaking: demolishing urban fabric and displacing people and/or economic functions. Due to the fact that these path dependencies seem quite strong in Brussels and have not yet undergone such a transformation, makes it a unique opportunity to look at a different approach of urban development. Approaching these path dependencies from the perspective of path renewal, these could be starting points for a just, productive and place-based development. How can a just, productive and place-based development be achieved in the Canal zone of Brussels, utilizing the area’s path dependencies
through path renewal? First the past, present and future for the canal zone will be analysed to see how these dependencies have and possibly will develop. After that a synthesis will be made from which values are derived. Based on these values a vision and strategic framework will be constructed, which will be tested on case study sites. This strategy is underpinned by a pattern language which is used to explore pathways to path renewal. Ultimately this strategy aims to intensify the local economy, empower local communities and preserve spatial identity.

Globalized universities located in small cities are expanding at a rate beyond the spatial capacity of its host city. The resulting presence of student housing in these cities known as ‘studentification’, have cascading social, cultural, economic, and spatial impacts that lead to, in particular, a lack of co-existence and tolerance between the university community and the local community. Existing research have primarily focused on how studentification has materialized in cities through negative consequences. As the influx of students continue to increase in an unprecedented rate in Delft, a need to understand fundamental conditions that contribute to negative consequences arise in order to propose strategic interventions for their mitigation and transformation. This research aimed to thoroughly understand the studentification process in Delft and recommend a long-term strategic plan towards co-existence. The methods used in this research involved delimiting or expanding on practices of other European cities experiencing studentification through the political, spatial, and socio-cultural lens of Delft. Through this research, the urgency and complexity of studentification were clarified and called for a comprehensive approach that transcended conventional practices.

For the last decades, technologies, new agricultural trade policies, environmental restrictions, high pressure through economic competition in combination with a sharp competition of land lead to the development of intensive farming. As a result, patchy landscapes have been replaced by monofunctional, homogeneous agricultural landscapes that fragment natural landscapes and take away natural and cultural diversity. The consequences of the processes of fragmentation and homogenization are both socio-economic and landscape-ecological and cause biodiversity loss and social injustice among farmers.
Through changing existing paradigms about nature conservation, this project suggests an alternative approach for understanding possible interrelations between nature and agricultural practices. By reintroducing concepts about commons, a synergy can be found that compliments natural connectivity and agricultural landscapes through the establishment of a regenerative agro-ecological network that connects biotopes in a multi-functional way using current agricultural parcels and natural zones. This newly introduced Common Ground network produces a new farming method in which agricultural practice has a temporal character and is a continuous modifiable process. In this way, the vision makes use of the dual crisis as a solution rather than seeing it as the source of the problems.
The Commons also resemble a new way of practising agriculture, in which land, knowledge, resources and financial risks are shared among farmers in a socially just way. In addition, these shared landscapes reflect on the social context in which farmers are considered as environmental stewards who share some of the responsibility for an ecologically balanced system.

Plastic is one of the most visibly polluting elements in our environment. From big plastic accumulation zones at sea to microplastic entering our everyday drinking water, plastic is becoming a more evident pollutant every day, which is damaging ecosystems, marine life and human health.
This paper will envision a possible solution for plastic pollution in North West Europe, through the retrieval and recycling of plastic, and by proposing an alternative for plastics in the current textile industry; algae. The strategy of this project aims to create a more circular and local economy by envisioning how substituting bio-plastics in a specific industry can be a solution towards minimising overall plastic pollution.
Drawing on climate change as an environmental impactor; algae bloom, which is seen as a negative climate change product, will in this project become a catalyst for a change within the textile industry by making bioplastics.
Through introducing a new perspective on how the relationship between consumer hubs and production hubs could be adjusted to become more sustainable, this project aims to showcase a solution that could be implemented in other areas with plastic pollution, by taking North-West Europe as a test case. Simultaneously, the project aims to pinpoint how crisis can become an opportunity in times like these.

“Hybrid Working, Quality Living” seizes the opportunity of the surging hybrid remote working trend to promote work style and lifestyle changes in office districts and beyond. Remote working has been developing but has never been applied on such a global scale before. Since the end of 2019, it has brought our attention back to several long-discussed urban problems, for instance, the housing crisis, commuting behaviors, urban life quality, and so on, by shedding light on neglected connections among them.

The project takes the Randstad as the research area to analyze and explain how the problems interrelate with each other. Looking fifty years into the future, “Hybrid Working, Quality Living” applies the urban foresight method to respond to the urban challenges, exploring a radical future with flexible schedules, all-day-round inhabited neighborhoods, closely collaborative communities, increased housing affordability, and greater gender equality, all through the transformation of office districts. Starting from understanding the future residents’ lives, a set of aspirations and design options are listed out and then applied to the design of Beukenhorst, a concentrated office district in Hoofddorp, Haarlemmermeer.

Based on foresight methods, “Hybrid Working, Quality Living” tests the design with a set of scenarios to explore its responses to the changing conditions and summarize the influential factors under different circumstances. Driven by each of the major drivers of change, the scenarios and the tests identify the possible futures as well as emphasize the importance of dynamically monitoring and adjusting the design strategies.