LC
L.M. Calabrese
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1
Otherness
Emerging Counter-Norm Spatial Languages for Gender Equity in La Città Diffusa
In the 1999 book Gender Trouble, feminist philosopher Judith Butler first introduced the term “gender performativity.” While the popular feminist belief is that the categories “male” and “female” have biological foundations (sex) but are also socially and culturally constructed (gender), they argued differently. According to Butler, even sex is discursively constructed, and these categories are cultural interpretations of the body. This interpretation is carried forward by continuously repeating various acts—such as dressing, speaking, interacting, and taking on roles—thus creating a natural appearance, as in a performance.
This performance is not completely free, however, but is profoundly influenced by social norms, politics, society, culture, and, in part, the built environment. Even the public spaces we pass through and inhabit every day deeply influence how we act, how we position ourselves in the world, and how our subjectivity is shaped, both internally and externally. From German philosopher Walter Benjamin, who saw the arcades of 19th-century Paris as the physical representation of capitalism shaping the new character of “the consumer,” and the Haussmannian boulevards as symbols of governmental imperial ambitions, to French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted citizens’ right to reappropriate the city from capitalist control, the city has never been a neutral and blank playground, but rather a battleground of interests.
If, as French philosopher Michel Foucault argues, every human relation is shaped by dynamics of power and control, and space is also a product of forces, then the questions of how space is gendered, how the spatial connotations of our cities influence gender performance, and who is marginalized in this process are rightfully asked.
Our cities are still profoundly organized according to an outdated view of gender roles. Women and queer people are disproportionately more at risk of harassment and sexual violence due to gender discrimination, poor lighting conditions, and unsafe areas. Transport systems prioritize commuting patterns associated with male workers, and gender-binary spaces continue to separate people, physically and beyond.
In this context, the Northern Italian region of Veneto represents an interesting case with strong potential. Presenting a typical example of la città diffusa (the diffuse city) landscape, where medium-sized service-oriented cities are separated by strongly agricultural and industrial conservative small centres, gender norms can still be clearly read in the urban fabric.
Therefore, this thesis argues that, in the context of a deeply political and gendered public space, facilitating—through time- and space-aware urban design—a freer and safer performance of gender for those who do not fit the current normed status quo would would implement the aforementioned would “right to the city” theory by Lefebvre.
“right to the city” theory by Lefebvre. ...
This performance is not completely free, however, but is profoundly influenced by social norms, politics, society, culture, and, in part, the built environment. Even the public spaces we pass through and inhabit every day deeply influence how we act, how we position ourselves in the world, and how our subjectivity is shaped, both internally and externally. From German philosopher Walter Benjamin, who saw the arcades of 19th-century Paris as the physical representation of capitalism shaping the new character of “the consumer,” and the Haussmannian boulevards as symbols of governmental imperial ambitions, to French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted citizens’ right to reappropriate the city from capitalist control, the city has never been a neutral and blank playground, but rather a battleground of interests.
If, as French philosopher Michel Foucault argues, every human relation is shaped by dynamics of power and control, and space is also a product of forces, then the questions of how space is gendered, how the spatial connotations of our cities influence gender performance, and who is marginalized in this process are rightfully asked.
Our cities are still profoundly organized according to an outdated view of gender roles. Women and queer people are disproportionately more at risk of harassment and sexual violence due to gender discrimination, poor lighting conditions, and unsafe areas. Transport systems prioritize commuting patterns associated with male workers, and gender-binary spaces continue to separate people, physically and beyond.
In this context, the Northern Italian region of Veneto represents an interesting case with strong potential. Presenting a typical example of la città diffusa (the diffuse city) landscape, where medium-sized service-oriented cities are separated by strongly agricultural and industrial conservative small centres, gender norms can still be clearly read in the urban fabric.
Therefore, this thesis argues that, in the context of a deeply political and gendered public space, facilitating—through time- and space-aware urban design—a freer and safer performance of gender for those who do not fit the current normed status quo would would implement the aforementioned would “right to the city” theory by Lefebvre.
“right to the city” theory by Lefebvre. ...
In the 1999 book Gender Trouble, feminist philosopher Judith Butler first introduced the term “gender performativity.” While the popular feminist belief is that the categories “male” and “female” have biological foundations (sex) but are also socially and culturally constructed (gender), they argued differently. According to Butler, even sex is discursively constructed, and these categories are cultural interpretations of the body. This interpretation is carried forward by continuously repeating various acts—such as dressing, speaking, interacting, and taking on roles—thus creating a natural appearance, as in a performance.
This performance is not completely free, however, but is profoundly influenced by social norms, politics, society, culture, and, in part, the built environment. Even the public spaces we pass through and inhabit every day deeply influence how we act, how we position ourselves in the world, and how our subjectivity is shaped, both internally and externally. From German philosopher Walter Benjamin, who saw the arcades of 19th-century Paris as the physical representation of capitalism shaping the new character of “the consumer,” and the Haussmannian boulevards as symbols of governmental imperial ambitions, to French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted citizens’ right to reappropriate the city from capitalist control, the city has never been a neutral and blank playground, but rather a battleground of interests.
If, as French philosopher Michel Foucault argues, every human relation is shaped by dynamics of power and control, and space is also a product of forces, then the questions of how space is gendered, how the spatial connotations of our cities influence gender performance, and who is marginalized in this process are rightfully asked.
Our cities are still profoundly organized according to an outdated view of gender roles. Women and queer people are disproportionately more at risk of harassment and sexual violence due to gender discrimination, poor lighting conditions, and unsafe areas. Transport systems prioritize commuting patterns associated with male workers, and gender-binary spaces continue to separate people, physically and beyond.
In this context, the Northern Italian region of Veneto represents an interesting case with strong potential. Presenting a typical example of la città diffusa (the diffuse city) landscape, where medium-sized service-oriented cities are separated by strongly agricultural and industrial conservative small centres, gender norms can still be clearly read in the urban fabric.
Therefore, this thesis argues that, in the context of a deeply political and gendered public space, facilitating—through time- and space-aware urban design—a freer and safer performance of gender for those who do not fit the current normed status quo would would implement the aforementioned would “right to the city” theory by Lefebvre.
“right to the city” theory by Lefebvre.
This performance is not completely free, however, but is profoundly influenced by social norms, politics, society, culture, and, in part, the built environment. Even the public spaces we pass through and inhabit every day deeply influence how we act, how we position ourselves in the world, and how our subjectivity is shaped, both internally and externally. From German philosopher Walter Benjamin, who saw the arcades of 19th-century Paris as the physical representation of capitalism shaping the new character of “the consumer,” and the Haussmannian boulevards as symbols of governmental imperial ambitions, to French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted citizens’ right to reappropriate the city from capitalist control, the city has never been a neutral and blank playground, but rather a battleground of interests.
If, as French philosopher Michel Foucault argues, every human relation is shaped by dynamics of power and control, and space is also a product of forces, then the questions of how space is gendered, how the spatial connotations of our cities influence gender performance, and who is marginalized in this process are rightfully asked.
Our cities are still profoundly organized according to an outdated view of gender roles. Women and queer people are disproportionately more at risk of harassment and sexual violence due to gender discrimination, poor lighting conditions, and unsafe areas. Transport systems prioritize commuting patterns associated with male workers, and gender-binary spaces continue to separate people, physically and beyond.
In this context, the Northern Italian region of Veneto represents an interesting case with strong potential. Presenting a typical example of la città diffusa (the diffuse city) landscape, where medium-sized service-oriented cities are separated by strongly agricultural and industrial conservative small centres, gender norms can still be clearly read in the urban fabric.
Therefore, this thesis argues that, in the context of a deeply political and gendered public space, facilitating—through time- and space-aware urban design—a freer and safer performance of gender for those who do not fit the current normed status quo would would implement the aforementioned would “right to the city” theory by Lefebvre.
“right to the city” theory by Lefebvre.
Darkness as Territory
A spatio-temporal understanding of light in the Arctic
Arctic darkness is increasingly disrupted by expanding infrastructure and artificial light at night (ALAN). Along the Norwegian Arctic coastline, climate change, shipping, resource extraction, and coastal development are extending human activity into spaces and periods historically defined by prolonged winter darkness. While these transformations are often understood through their environmental and economic impacts, less attention has been given to the ecological role of darkness itself. Yet many Arctic species, both human and non-human, rely on seasonal cycles of light and darkness to regulate and structure biological rhythms, biophysical behaviour, and ecological interaction.
This thesis investigates darkness as a critical ecological and temporal infrastructure rather than the mere absence of light. It asks how design can mediate the recognition of darkness as a right of nature, to support ecological regeneration along the Norwegian Arctic coastline.
To address this question, the research develops a multi-scalar framework that combines ecological, spatial, and infrastructural analysis. It examines how terrestrial, aerial, and marine species - including reindeer, little auk, and zooplankton - depend on darkness as a biophysical regulator, and analyses how ALAN generated by shipping, industry, and coastal infrastructure disrupts these relationships. Through a case study of Tromsø, Norway, the thesis develops methods to visualise light and darkness as territorial conditions. Natural darkness is mapped through landscape characteristics such as topography, enclosure, and sky visibility, while artificial illumination is modelled through a designed method visualising coastal light pressure. These layers are combined into an atlas that allows to reinterpret the territory through the lens of light and dark.
The thesis argues that darkness constitutes an ecological condition with intrinsic value that can be identified, mapped, and incorporated into spatial design and planning. By reframing darkness as a subject of environmental protection rather than a residual condition awaiting illumination, it advances a spatial framework for recognising darkness as a right of nature.
...
This thesis investigates darkness as a critical ecological and temporal infrastructure rather than the mere absence of light. It asks how design can mediate the recognition of darkness as a right of nature, to support ecological regeneration along the Norwegian Arctic coastline.
To address this question, the research develops a multi-scalar framework that combines ecological, spatial, and infrastructural analysis. It examines how terrestrial, aerial, and marine species - including reindeer, little auk, and zooplankton - depend on darkness as a biophysical regulator, and analyses how ALAN generated by shipping, industry, and coastal infrastructure disrupts these relationships. Through a case study of Tromsø, Norway, the thesis develops methods to visualise light and darkness as territorial conditions. Natural darkness is mapped through landscape characteristics such as topography, enclosure, and sky visibility, while artificial illumination is modelled through a designed method visualising coastal light pressure. These layers are combined into an atlas that allows to reinterpret the territory through the lens of light and dark.
The thesis argues that darkness constitutes an ecological condition with intrinsic value that can be identified, mapped, and incorporated into spatial design and planning. By reframing darkness as a subject of environmental protection rather than a residual condition awaiting illumination, it advances a spatial framework for recognising darkness as a right of nature.
...
Arctic darkness is increasingly disrupted by expanding infrastructure and artificial light at night (ALAN). Along the Norwegian Arctic coastline, climate change, shipping, resource extraction, and coastal development are extending human activity into spaces and periods historically defined by prolonged winter darkness. While these transformations are often understood through their environmental and economic impacts, less attention has been given to the ecological role of darkness itself. Yet many Arctic species, both human and non-human, rely on seasonal cycles of light and darkness to regulate and structure biological rhythms, biophysical behaviour, and ecological interaction.
This thesis investigates darkness as a critical ecological and temporal infrastructure rather than the mere absence of light. It asks how design can mediate the recognition of darkness as a right of nature, to support ecological regeneration along the Norwegian Arctic coastline.
To address this question, the research develops a multi-scalar framework that combines ecological, spatial, and infrastructural analysis. It examines how terrestrial, aerial, and marine species - including reindeer, little auk, and zooplankton - depend on darkness as a biophysical regulator, and analyses how ALAN generated by shipping, industry, and coastal infrastructure disrupts these relationships. Through a case study of Tromsø, Norway, the thesis develops methods to visualise light and darkness as territorial conditions. Natural darkness is mapped through landscape characteristics such as topography, enclosure, and sky visibility, while artificial illumination is modelled through a designed method visualising coastal light pressure. These layers are combined into an atlas that allows to reinterpret the territory through the lens of light and dark.
The thesis argues that darkness constitutes an ecological condition with intrinsic value that can be identified, mapped, and incorporated into spatial design and planning. By reframing darkness as a subject of environmental protection rather than a residual condition awaiting illumination, it advances a spatial framework for recognising darkness as a right of nature.
This thesis investigates darkness as a critical ecological and temporal infrastructure rather than the mere absence of light. It asks how design can mediate the recognition of darkness as a right of nature, to support ecological regeneration along the Norwegian Arctic coastline.
To address this question, the research develops a multi-scalar framework that combines ecological, spatial, and infrastructural analysis. It examines how terrestrial, aerial, and marine species - including reindeer, little auk, and zooplankton - depend on darkness as a biophysical regulator, and analyses how ALAN generated by shipping, industry, and coastal infrastructure disrupts these relationships. Through a case study of Tromsø, Norway, the thesis develops methods to visualise light and darkness as territorial conditions. Natural darkness is mapped through landscape characteristics such as topography, enclosure, and sky visibility, while artificial illumination is modelled through a designed method visualising coastal light pressure. These layers are combined into an atlas that allows to reinterpret the territory through the lens of light and dark.
The thesis argues that darkness constitutes an ecological condition with intrinsic value that can be identified, mapped, and incorporated into spatial design and planning. By reframing darkness as a subject of environmental protection rather than a residual condition awaiting illumination, it advances a spatial framework for recognising darkness as a right of nature.
The Malacca Strait, a system to be tended to
Landing in Contested Waters
The Strait of Malacca is a maritime strait of global importance, yet its role as a living natural system is not recognised within current planning frameworks. Further amplified by growing uncertainty, driven by climate change, this calls into question how conventional practices of spatial planning deal with socio-environmental justice.
The Strait of Malacca is one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, resulting in conflicting perspectives, with on the one hand a critical global infrastructure, and on the other a complex natural system that sustains life for both human and more-than-human inhabitants of the Strait.
This conflict of values, of global socio-technical and economic perspectives versus ecological and social significance are seen throughout the scales. With the dominant approach imposing more and more on the socio-environmental realities that recognise and depend on the Strait as a dynamic intertwined system, shaped by interdependent ecological, cultural and social relations.
Projected increasing shipping traffic heightens the further risks of marine pollution, erosion, and marine ecosystem decay, while land-based sources of pollution driven by urban and infrastructural development constitute a major cause of environmental deterioration (Rusli, 2011). This intensification will not only increase spatial affectations but also further drive the dichotomy of perspectives and values on a global stage (Meer, 1999). Resulting in coastal and wetland areas within the Strait to be at increased risk.
This disruption and degradation of the natural systems expose the limitations of current short-term adaptive planning practices, remaining reactive and unable to address the complexity of conditions, further driving degradation and inequality.
Rather than proposing adaptive planning practices, this thesis proposes to transform the way of managing these issues, going towards a new balance which is robust, to respond to future conditions and recognise the complexity of natural systems and human dependency within the Strait of Malacca. Drawing on the concepts of critical proximity, critical zones, river basin governance and Rights of Nature, this research investigates how local reality can become operational within governance structures, that is able to respond through time and scales. This is enabled through the implementation of a new governance scale of the river basin, relating better to ecological processes shaped by water, enabling situated practices of care to inform the management of the place.
Driving recognition of the networks that have and currently shape it, to go towards a long-term transformative future which is socially equitable and robust. It is not about “fixing” an issue but about finding a new balance that tends to the Strait as a natural system where both users and inhabitants are recognised. ...
The Strait of Malacca is one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, resulting in conflicting perspectives, with on the one hand a critical global infrastructure, and on the other a complex natural system that sustains life for both human and more-than-human inhabitants of the Strait.
This conflict of values, of global socio-technical and economic perspectives versus ecological and social significance are seen throughout the scales. With the dominant approach imposing more and more on the socio-environmental realities that recognise and depend on the Strait as a dynamic intertwined system, shaped by interdependent ecological, cultural and social relations.
Projected increasing shipping traffic heightens the further risks of marine pollution, erosion, and marine ecosystem decay, while land-based sources of pollution driven by urban and infrastructural development constitute a major cause of environmental deterioration (Rusli, 2011). This intensification will not only increase spatial affectations but also further drive the dichotomy of perspectives and values on a global stage (Meer, 1999). Resulting in coastal and wetland areas within the Strait to be at increased risk.
This disruption and degradation of the natural systems expose the limitations of current short-term adaptive planning practices, remaining reactive and unable to address the complexity of conditions, further driving degradation and inequality.
Rather than proposing adaptive planning practices, this thesis proposes to transform the way of managing these issues, going towards a new balance which is robust, to respond to future conditions and recognise the complexity of natural systems and human dependency within the Strait of Malacca. Drawing on the concepts of critical proximity, critical zones, river basin governance and Rights of Nature, this research investigates how local reality can become operational within governance structures, that is able to respond through time and scales. This is enabled through the implementation of a new governance scale of the river basin, relating better to ecological processes shaped by water, enabling situated practices of care to inform the management of the place.
Driving recognition of the networks that have and currently shape it, to go towards a long-term transformative future which is socially equitable and robust. It is not about “fixing” an issue but about finding a new balance that tends to the Strait as a natural system where both users and inhabitants are recognised. ...
The Strait of Malacca is a maritime strait of global importance, yet its role as a living natural system is not recognised within current planning frameworks. Further amplified by growing uncertainty, driven by climate change, this calls into question how conventional practices of spatial planning deal with socio-environmental justice.
The Strait of Malacca is one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, resulting in conflicting perspectives, with on the one hand a critical global infrastructure, and on the other a complex natural system that sustains life for both human and more-than-human inhabitants of the Strait.
This conflict of values, of global socio-technical and economic perspectives versus ecological and social significance are seen throughout the scales. With the dominant approach imposing more and more on the socio-environmental realities that recognise and depend on the Strait as a dynamic intertwined system, shaped by interdependent ecological, cultural and social relations.
Projected increasing shipping traffic heightens the further risks of marine pollution, erosion, and marine ecosystem decay, while land-based sources of pollution driven by urban and infrastructural development constitute a major cause of environmental deterioration (Rusli, 2011). This intensification will not only increase spatial affectations but also further drive the dichotomy of perspectives and values on a global stage (Meer, 1999). Resulting in coastal and wetland areas within the Strait to be at increased risk.
This disruption and degradation of the natural systems expose the limitations of current short-term adaptive planning practices, remaining reactive and unable to address the complexity of conditions, further driving degradation and inequality.
Rather than proposing adaptive planning practices, this thesis proposes to transform the way of managing these issues, going towards a new balance which is robust, to respond to future conditions and recognise the complexity of natural systems and human dependency within the Strait of Malacca. Drawing on the concepts of critical proximity, critical zones, river basin governance and Rights of Nature, this research investigates how local reality can become operational within governance structures, that is able to respond through time and scales. This is enabled through the implementation of a new governance scale of the river basin, relating better to ecological processes shaped by water, enabling situated practices of care to inform the management of the place.
Driving recognition of the networks that have and currently shape it, to go towards a long-term transformative future which is socially equitable and robust. It is not about “fixing” an issue but about finding a new balance that tends to the Strait as a natural system where both users and inhabitants are recognised.
The Strait of Malacca is one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors, resulting in conflicting perspectives, with on the one hand a critical global infrastructure, and on the other a complex natural system that sustains life for both human and more-than-human inhabitants of the Strait.
This conflict of values, of global socio-technical and economic perspectives versus ecological and social significance are seen throughout the scales. With the dominant approach imposing more and more on the socio-environmental realities that recognise and depend on the Strait as a dynamic intertwined system, shaped by interdependent ecological, cultural and social relations.
Projected increasing shipping traffic heightens the further risks of marine pollution, erosion, and marine ecosystem decay, while land-based sources of pollution driven by urban and infrastructural development constitute a major cause of environmental deterioration (Rusli, 2011). This intensification will not only increase spatial affectations but also further drive the dichotomy of perspectives and values on a global stage (Meer, 1999). Resulting in coastal and wetland areas within the Strait to be at increased risk.
This disruption and degradation of the natural systems expose the limitations of current short-term adaptive planning practices, remaining reactive and unable to address the complexity of conditions, further driving degradation and inequality.
Rather than proposing adaptive planning practices, this thesis proposes to transform the way of managing these issues, going towards a new balance which is robust, to respond to future conditions and recognise the complexity of natural systems and human dependency within the Strait of Malacca. Drawing on the concepts of critical proximity, critical zones, river basin governance and Rights of Nature, this research investigates how local reality can become operational within governance structures, that is able to respond through time and scales. This is enabled through the implementation of a new governance scale of the river basin, relating better to ecological processes shaped by water, enabling situated practices of care to inform the management of the place.
Driving recognition of the networks that have and currently shape it, to go towards a long-term transformative future which is socially equitable and robust. It is not about “fixing” an issue but about finding a new balance that tends to the Strait as a natural system where both users and inhabitants are recognised.
Between the Wings
A bioregional landscape mosaic within a changing Randstad
The model of the Randstad as a delta metropole with the Green Heart inside the urban ring is outdated, and a new spatial model and form can be seen emerging nowadays. A model with a North and South Wing. However, authorial decision-making still recognise the initial Randstad model as it was described a century ago.
The misuse of the actual unrecognised model, together with climate change, hydro-geomorphological alterations and unaligned sectoral approaches, have resulted in that nature and its regeneration capacity has started to decay in the Randstad, accelerating the diverse risk and posing complex conditions for its current development.
The thesis explored a renewed identity for the Randstad / Green Heart region that fosters socio-environmental fellowship, through a spatial planning approach from a bioregional perspective. The project steps away from the Green Heart paradigm and identifies three bioregions; the Coastline, Rijnmond–Drechtsteden and Central Holland, that require unique planning measures based on their hydrogeomorphological and ecological conditions. Using scenario-based planning, the project examined alternative spatial futures for the Randstad towards 2100. Furthermore, the project looks into the framework of European territorial governance, which needs reconsideration from a bioregional perspective.
...
The misuse of the actual unrecognised model, together with climate change, hydro-geomorphological alterations and unaligned sectoral approaches, have resulted in that nature and its regeneration capacity has started to decay in the Randstad, accelerating the diverse risk and posing complex conditions for its current development.
The thesis explored a renewed identity for the Randstad / Green Heart region that fosters socio-environmental fellowship, through a spatial planning approach from a bioregional perspective. The project steps away from the Green Heart paradigm and identifies three bioregions; the Coastline, Rijnmond–Drechtsteden and Central Holland, that require unique planning measures based on their hydrogeomorphological and ecological conditions. Using scenario-based planning, the project examined alternative spatial futures for the Randstad towards 2100. Furthermore, the project looks into the framework of European territorial governance, which needs reconsideration from a bioregional perspective.
...
The model of the Randstad as a delta metropole with the Green Heart inside the urban ring is outdated, and a new spatial model and form can be seen emerging nowadays. A model with a North and South Wing. However, authorial decision-making still recognise the initial Randstad model as it was described a century ago.
The misuse of the actual unrecognised model, together with climate change, hydro-geomorphological alterations and unaligned sectoral approaches, have resulted in that nature and its regeneration capacity has started to decay in the Randstad, accelerating the diverse risk and posing complex conditions for its current development.
The thesis explored a renewed identity for the Randstad / Green Heart region that fosters socio-environmental fellowship, through a spatial planning approach from a bioregional perspective. The project steps away from the Green Heart paradigm and identifies three bioregions; the Coastline, Rijnmond–Drechtsteden and Central Holland, that require unique planning measures based on their hydrogeomorphological and ecological conditions. Using scenario-based planning, the project examined alternative spatial futures for the Randstad towards 2100. Furthermore, the project looks into the framework of European territorial governance, which needs reconsideration from a bioregional perspective.
The misuse of the actual unrecognised model, together with climate change, hydro-geomorphological alterations and unaligned sectoral approaches, have resulted in that nature and its regeneration capacity has started to decay in the Randstad, accelerating the diverse risk and posing complex conditions for its current development.
The thesis explored a renewed identity for the Randstad / Green Heart region that fosters socio-environmental fellowship, through a spatial planning approach from a bioregional perspective. The project steps away from the Green Heart paradigm and identifies three bioregions; the Coastline, Rijnmond–Drechtsteden and Central Holland, that require unique planning measures based on their hydrogeomorphological and ecological conditions. Using scenario-based planning, the project examined alternative spatial futures for the Randstad towards 2100. Furthermore, the project looks into the framework of European territorial governance, which needs reconsideration from a bioregional perspective.
Schie Strategy
Care as Infrastructure in De Schie
Care as Infrastructure in De Schie investigates how everyday practices of coexistence along the Schie canal in Delft depend on spatial, ecological, and temporal conditions that are rarely recognised in planning frameworks. Starting from rowing as an embodied way of reading the canal, the thesis maps relations between human and more-than-human actors, including rowers, coaches, fishers, recreational users, coots, geese, vegetation, water, edges, bridges, and maintenance regimes. Rather than proposing a total redesign of the Schie, the project develops an atlas of care capacities and critical conditions through which existing practices can be understood, protected, and gently amplified. The thesis argues that care is not simply a moral attitude or a service, but an infrastructural and spatial condition: a distributed capacity to maintain, negotiate, and repair the relationships that allow a shared landscape to remain alive. The final strategy proposes a spatial co-existence framework that works with existing rhythms, conflicts, and attachments, showing how design and maintenance adjustments can support a more democratic, multi-species public realm.
...
Care as Infrastructure in De Schie investigates how everyday practices of coexistence along the Schie canal in Delft depend on spatial, ecological, and temporal conditions that are rarely recognised in planning frameworks. Starting from rowing as an embodied way of reading the canal, the thesis maps relations between human and more-than-human actors, including rowers, coaches, fishers, recreational users, coots, geese, vegetation, water, edges, bridges, and maintenance regimes. Rather than proposing a total redesign of the Schie, the project develops an atlas of care capacities and critical conditions through which existing practices can be understood, protected, and gently amplified. The thesis argues that care is not simply a moral attitude or a service, but an infrastructural and spatial condition: a distributed capacity to maintain, negotiate, and repair the relationships that allow a shared landscape to remain alive. The final strategy proposes a spatial co-existence framework that works with existing rhythms, conflicts, and attachments, showing how design and maintenance adjustments can support a more democratic, multi-species public realm.
Mediterranean Bastards
A Biopolitical Project for a Tropicalising Sea
Climate change is transforming the Mediterranean Sea, pushing it toward increasingly tropical conditions. This process entails challenges and risks whose intrinsic complexity spans natural and cultural dimensions, as well as the lives of human and more-than-human inhabitants. It raises questions about forms of cooperation and inclusive politics that have yet to be established.
Starting from a working hypothesis that recognises Mediterranean eco-regions as biopolitical subjects, this thesis first seeks to understand the Adriatic eco-region as an entity - mapping its body through the combined lens of its biophysical and cultural dimensions, identifying five operative transects, the Bastards, and understanding the risks brought by tropicalisation to them.
Using the Adriatic eco-region and the Po/North Adriatic transect as a laboratory, the research proposes Padania Tropicale - a transformative framework that envisions pathways of co-evolutionary transformation alongside the new conditions brought by climate change, rather than the protection of a "natural" order oriented exclusively toward human productive activities.
The thesis concludes with a methodological reflection on the biopolitical dimension of spatial planning, exploring how eco-regions and transects can operate as devices for spatialising the Rights of Nature and for building governance frameworks grounded in a co-evolutionary stewardship between humans and nature. A reflection that is still open by necessity, but sincere in its ambition to seed further research and design at the scale of the Mediterranean basin. ...
Starting from a working hypothesis that recognises Mediterranean eco-regions as biopolitical subjects, this thesis first seeks to understand the Adriatic eco-region as an entity - mapping its body through the combined lens of its biophysical and cultural dimensions, identifying five operative transects, the Bastards, and understanding the risks brought by tropicalisation to them.
Using the Adriatic eco-region and the Po/North Adriatic transect as a laboratory, the research proposes Padania Tropicale - a transformative framework that envisions pathways of co-evolutionary transformation alongside the new conditions brought by climate change, rather than the protection of a "natural" order oriented exclusively toward human productive activities.
The thesis concludes with a methodological reflection on the biopolitical dimension of spatial planning, exploring how eco-regions and transects can operate as devices for spatialising the Rights of Nature and for building governance frameworks grounded in a co-evolutionary stewardship between humans and nature. A reflection that is still open by necessity, but sincere in its ambition to seed further research and design at the scale of the Mediterranean basin. ...
Climate change is transforming the Mediterranean Sea, pushing it toward increasingly tropical conditions. This process entails challenges and risks whose intrinsic complexity spans natural and cultural dimensions, as well as the lives of human and more-than-human inhabitants. It raises questions about forms of cooperation and inclusive politics that have yet to be established.
Starting from a working hypothesis that recognises Mediterranean eco-regions as biopolitical subjects, this thesis first seeks to understand the Adriatic eco-region as an entity - mapping its body through the combined lens of its biophysical and cultural dimensions, identifying five operative transects, the Bastards, and understanding the risks brought by tropicalisation to them.
Using the Adriatic eco-region and the Po/North Adriatic transect as a laboratory, the research proposes Padania Tropicale - a transformative framework that envisions pathways of co-evolutionary transformation alongside the new conditions brought by climate change, rather than the protection of a "natural" order oriented exclusively toward human productive activities.
The thesis concludes with a methodological reflection on the biopolitical dimension of spatial planning, exploring how eco-regions and transects can operate as devices for spatialising the Rights of Nature and for building governance frameworks grounded in a co-evolutionary stewardship between humans and nature. A reflection that is still open by necessity, but sincere in its ambition to seed further research and design at the scale of the Mediterranean basin.
Starting from a working hypothesis that recognises Mediterranean eco-regions as biopolitical subjects, this thesis first seeks to understand the Adriatic eco-region as an entity - mapping its body through the combined lens of its biophysical and cultural dimensions, identifying five operative transects, the Bastards, and understanding the risks brought by tropicalisation to them.
Using the Adriatic eco-region and the Po/North Adriatic transect as a laboratory, the research proposes Padania Tropicale - a transformative framework that envisions pathways of co-evolutionary transformation alongside the new conditions brought by climate change, rather than the protection of a "natural" order oriented exclusively toward human productive activities.
The thesis concludes with a methodological reflection on the biopolitical dimension of spatial planning, exploring how eco-regions and transects can operate as devices for spatialising the Rights of Nature and for building governance frameworks grounded in a co-evolutionary stewardship between humans and nature. A reflection that is still open by necessity, but sincere in its ambition to seed further research and design at the scale of the Mediterranean basin.
The cloud is not in the sky, but in Groningen
Democratic management of energy, resources, land, and technology through the AI revolution
Student report
(2026)
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L.L. Brouwer, E.M. Cocu, Y.T. Feijen, C.E. Knight, D.A. Sepulveda Carmona, L.M. Calabrese
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly expanding industry and an increasingly significant consumer of energy. Its growing electricity demand poses challenges to Dutch and European Union ambitions for a renewable energy transition. In Groningen, plans to develop an AI supercomputer present both opportunities and risks. This paper examines how such a project can be implemented in ways that avoid extractivist practices while fostering socio-ecological accountability and stewardship. The report explores how democratic procedures and participatory processes can involve urban and rural communities, as well as more-than-human actors, in the just development of AI data centres in Groningen. Drawing on the work of Latour and Haraway, we investigate how technological systems might be designed to remain accountable to Gaia. The political dimensions of AI are further analysed through the perspectives of Morozov, Hao, and Suleyman, while their spatial implications are considered with reference to Otero-Verzier. To understand the regional context, we combine media analysis with situated fieldwork and interviews. Scientific literature is used to assess the energy demands of AI, while its broader political implications are examined through Winner’s work on technological systems. Based on this analysis, we propose a decentralised model for data centre development, alongside the establishment of energy communities along a corridor between Eemshaven and Groningen. In this model, the data centre acts as a catalyst for regional development in energy infrastructure, mobility, and spatial densification. Technological operations are aligned with the temporal variability of renewable energy generation, while decisions regarding energy use and job prioritisation are made democratically within these communities. Rather than pursuing artificial general intelligence, this approach emphasises the development of specialised AI for the public good, in collaboration with industry experts based in Groningen’s excellence centre. Given the rapid pace of AI development and its substantial resource demands, this paper argues for governance models and spatial designs that prioritise stewardship of both technology and the landscape.
...
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly expanding industry and an increasingly significant consumer of energy. Its growing electricity demand poses challenges to Dutch and European Union ambitions for a renewable energy transition. In Groningen, plans to develop an AI supercomputer present both opportunities and risks. This paper examines how such a project can be implemented in ways that avoid extractivist practices while fostering socio-ecological accountability and stewardship. The report explores how democratic procedures and participatory processes can involve urban and rural communities, as well as more-than-human actors, in the just development of AI data centres in Groningen. Drawing on the work of Latour and Haraway, we investigate how technological systems might be designed to remain accountable to Gaia. The political dimensions of AI are further analysed through the perspectives of Morozov, Hao, and Suleyman, while their spatial implications are considered with reference to Otero-Verzier. To understand the regional context, we combine media analysis with situated fieldwork and interviews. Scientific literature is used to assess the energy demands of AI, while its broader political implications are examined through Winner’s work on technological systems. Based on this analysis, we propose a decentralised model for data centre development, alongside the establishment of energy communities along a corridor between Eemshaven and Groningen. In this model, the data centre acts as a catalyst for regional development in energy infrastructure, mobility, and spatial densification. Technological operations are aligned with the temporal variability of renewable energy generation, while decisions regarding energy use and job prioritisation are made democratically within these communities. Rather than pursuing artificial general intelligence, this approach emphasises the development of specialised AI for the public good, in collaboration with industry experts based in Groningen’s excellence centre. Given the rapid pace of AI development and its substantial resource demands, this paper argues for governance models and spatial designs that prioritise stewardship of both technology and the landscape.
Connected Futures
A People-Centred Vision for Energy and Mobility Transition in Zeeland
Student report
(2026)
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W.M. Thomas, L. Boerkamp, A.G. Wilson, M.A. Karagkouni, A.I. Toen, L.M. Calabrese, D.A. Sepulveda Carmona
Zeeland offers significant opportunities for a sustainable energy transition. However, Zeeland is often treated as “the battery” of the Netherlands, supplying energy to more populated regions while receiving fewer resources in return. The province is also physically and socially disconnected, both from the rest of the country and internally, which results in a strong dependence on car-based mobility. This makes for the main spatial tensions of Zeeland’s future: accessibility, industrial activity, and its fragmented energy landscape.
This strategy addresses the question: How can endogenous renewable energy production in Zeeland be spatially structured to support sustainable industry and mobility transition across its communities? Our theoretical framework is grounded in socio-environmental spatial justice, with a focus on distributional, recognitional, and operational dimensions.
The proposed vision organizes renewable energy into clustered landscapes located near industrial sites, supported by an expansion of offshore wind to minimize landscape disruption. To improve accessibility and local energy production, an integrated hub system is introduced, combining shared mobility and public transport to connect dispersed villages with larger cities while embedding energy systems within mobility infrastructure. New forms of renewable energy, such as tidal and kinetic energy, are incorporated in existing infrastructure, and industries are encouraged to adopt more sustainable practices.
It is important to understand how landscapes, like the one in Zeeland, can adjust and contribute to the energy transition, without overpowering the landscape and respecting its communities. It teaches us how to not only view the energy transition as a technical challenge, but also a social one. The energy transition can contribute to increasing the accessibility of a disconnected area. This strategy can help designers understand how to include the voices of communities and stakeholders in designs.
...
This strategy addresses the question: How can endogenous renewable energy production in Zeeland be spatially structured to support sustainable industry and mobility transition across its communities? Our theoretical framework is grounded in socio-environmental spatial justice, with a focus on distributional, recognitional, and operational dimensions.
The proposed vision organizes renewable energy into clustered landscapes located near industrial sites, supported by an expansion of offshore wind to minimize landscape disruption. To improve accessibility and local energy production, an integrated hub system is introduced, combining shared mobility and public transport to connect dispersed villages with larger cities while embedding energy systems within mobility infrastructure. New forms of renewable energy, such as tidal and kinetic energy, are incorporated in existing infrastructure, and industries are encouraged to adopt more sustainable practices.
It is important to understand how landscapes, like the one in Zeeland, can adjust and contribute to the energy transition, without overpowering the landscape and respecting its communities. It teaches us how to not only view the energy transition as a technical challenge, but also a social one. The energy transition can contribute to increasing the accessibility of a disconnected area. This strategy can help designers understand how to include the voices of communities and stakeholders in designs.
...
Zeeland offers significant opportunities for a sustainable energy transition. However, Zeeland is often treated as “the battery” of the Netherlands, supplying energy to more populated regions while receiving fewer resources in return. The province is also physically and socially disconnected, both from the rest of the country and internally, which results in a strong dependence on car-based mobility. This makes for the main spatial tensions of Zeeland’s future: accessibility, industrial activity, and its fragmented energy landscape.
This strategy addresses the question: How can endogenous renewable energy production in Zeeland be spatially structured to support sustainable industry and mobility transition across its communities? Our theoretical framework is grounded in socio-environmental spatial justice, with a focus on distributional, recognitional, and operational dimensions.
The proposed vision organizes renewable energy into clustered landscapes located near industrial sites, supported by an expansion of offshore wind to minimize landscape disruption. To improve accessibility and local energy production, an integrated hub system is introduced, combining shared mobility and public transport to connect dispersed villages with larger cities while embedding energy systems within mobility infrastructure. New forms of renewable energy, such as tidal and kinetic energy, are incorporated in existing infrastructure, and industries are encouraged to adopt more sustainable practices.
It is important to understand how landscapes, like the one in Zeeland, can adjust and contribute to the energy transition, without overpowering the landscape and respecting its communities. It teaches us how to not only view the energy transition as a technical challenge, but also a social one. The energy transition can contribute to increasing the accessibility of a disconnected area. This strategy can help designers understand how to include the voices of communities and stakeholders in designs.
This strategy addresses the question: How can endogenous renewable energy production in Zeeland be spatially structured to support sustainable industry and mobility transition across its communities? Our theoretical framework is grounded in socio-environmental spatial justice, with a focus on distributional, recognitional, and operational dimensions.
The proposed vision organizes renewable energy into clustered landscapes located near industrial sites, supported by an expansion of offshore wind to minimize landscape disruption. To improve accessibility and local energy production, an integrated hub system is introduced, combining shared mobility and public transport to connect dispersed villages with larger cities while embedding energy systems within mobility infrastructure. New forms of renewable energy, such as tidal and kinetic energy, are incorporated in existing infrastructure, and industries are encouraged to adopt more sustainable practices.
It is important to understand how landscapes, like the one in Zeeland, can adjust and contribute to the energy transition, without overpowering the landscape and respecting its communities. It teaches us how to not only view the energy transition as a technical challenge, but also a social one. The energy transition can contribute to increasing the accessibility of a disconnected area. This strategy can help designers understand how to include the voices of communities and stakeholders in designs.
The Art of Resilience
A climate-aware street concept focusing on art in public space
Cities are pressured by the impacts of climate change (Nijs et al., 2019). Rising temperatures, wetter winters, drier summers and more extreme weather events demand a fundamental transformation of public space (KNMI, 2023). In the Netherlands, both national and municipal governments aim to achieve climate resilient cities by 2050, however, this ambition cannot be realised without the active involvement of citizens (Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat, 2023). Unfortunately, there is a lack of climate awareness and visibility of climate resilient solutions (Lenzholzer et al., 2020).
This thesis addresses this gap by connecting the concepts of climate resilience, climate awareness and art and redesigning public space to create climate-aware streets. The research develops a toolbox of visible climate resilient interventions, analysed according to spatial scale, street typologies, microclimatic processes and climate extremes. To assess how awareness can be created, the study adopts and operationalises the three awareness mechanisms, experience, engagement and knowledge, derived from Iturriza et al. (2020). These mechanisms are applied to both the climate interventions and a curated set of fifteen art installations that engage with climate related themes.
The findings are combined in a climate-aware street concept, which integrates climate resilient interventions, awareness creating strategies, and art in public space. Illustrated through an archetypical street layout, the concept demonstrates how public space can be redesigned to make climate processes visible, tangible, and collectively understood. The street design concept can be implemented on various spatial contexts by a range of stakeholders, including the municipality, artists, designers and citizens, to collaboratively advance climate-resilient urban environments. ...
This thesis addresses this gap by connecting the concepts of climate resilience, climate awareness and art and redesigning public space to create climate-aware streets. The research develops a toolbox of visible climate resilient interventions, analysed according to spatial scale, street typologies, microclimatic processes and climate extremes. To assess how awareness can be created, the study adopts and operationalises the three awareness mechanisms, experience, engagement and knowledge, derived from Iturriza et al. (2020). These mechanisms are applied to both the climate interventions and a curated set of fifteen art installations that engage with climate related themes.
The findings are combined in a climate-aware street concept, which integrates climate resilient interventions, awareness creating strategies, and art in public space. Illustrated through an archetypical street layout, the concept demonstrates how public space can be redesigned to make climate processes visible, tangible, and collectively understood. The street design concept can be implemented on various spatial contexts by a range of stakeholders, including the municipality, artists, designers and citizens, to collaboratively advance climate-resilient urban environments. ...
Cities are pressured by the impacts of climate change (Nijs et al., 2019). Rising temperatures, wetter winters, drier summers and more extreme weather events demand a fundamental transformation of public space (KNMI, 2023). In the Netherlands, both national and municipal governments aim to achieve climate resilient cities by 2050, however, this ambition cannot be realised without the active involvement of citizens (Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat, 2023). Unfortunately, there is a lack of climate awareness and visibility of climate resilient solutions (Lenzholzer et al., 2020).
This thesis addresses this gap by connecting the concepts of climate resilience, climate awareness and art and redesigning public space to create climate-aware streets. The research develops a toolbox of visible climate resilient interventions, analysed according to spatial scale, street typologies, microclimatic processes and climate extremes. To assess how awareness can be created, the study adopts and operationalises the three awareness mechanisms, experience, engagement and knowledge, derived from Iturriza et al. (2020). These mechanisms are applied to both the climate interventions and a curated set of fifteen art installations that engage with climate related themes.
The findings are combined in a climate-aware street concept, which integrates climate resilient interventions, awareness creating strategies, and art in public space. Illustrated through an archetypical street layout, the concept demonstrates how public space can be redesigned to make climate processes visible, tangible, and collectively understood. The street design concept can be implemented on various spatial contexts by a range of stakeholders, including the municipality, artists, designers and citizens, to collaboratively advance climate-resilient urban environments.
This thesis addresses this gap by connecting the concepts of climate resilience, climate awareness and art and redesigning public space to create climate-aware streets. The research develops a toolbox of visible climate resilient interventions, analysed according to spatial scale, street typologies, microclimatic processes and climate extremes. To assess how awareness can be created, the study adopts and operationalises the three awareness mechanisms, experience, engagement and knowledge, derived from Iturriza et al. (2020). These mechanisms are applied to both the climate interventions and a curated set of fifteen art installations that engage with climate related themes.
The findings are combined in a climate-aware street concept, which integrates climate resilient interventions, awareness creating strategies, and art in public space. Illustrated through an archetypical street layout, the concept demonstrates how public space can be redesigned to make climate processes visible, tangible, and collectively understood. The street design concept can be implemented on various spatial contexts by a range of stakeholders, including the municipality, artists, designers and citizens, to collaboratively advance climate-resilient urban environments.
Being Meuse
A Spatial Practice for River Rights
This thesis investigates how posthuman and new materialist theories can inform urban design practices that cultivate ongoing care for more-than-human actors, with a particular focus on the Meuse River. Challenging dominant anthropocentric and extractive planning paradigms, the research reimagines the river as an agential being embedded within a web of human and nonhuman relations. Through methods grounded in situated knowledge, critical cartography, and relational thinking, the project explores how designers might listen to, interpret, and translate the language of the river into the urban practice.
The project consists of three interrelated components: (1) an open-source digital Atlas for the Meuse that collects a variety of translations of the river’s agency and entanglements; (2) a physical Cabinet for Counter Narratives, a mobile table for discussion enabling collaborative reinterpretations of the Meuse territory; and (3) a Nomadic School for Designers that hosts site-specific workshops where participants co-create alternative cartographies. The three elements are designed to work together as the Cabinet travels across the river basin to facilitate workshops on-site, producing collaborative Cartographies of Dialogue that are subsequently integrated into the digital Atlas.
Together, these components translate theory into an ongoing practice of engaging-with and caring-for the places one designs with. By encouraging slow, attentive design processes and interdisciplinary inquiry, the project repositions the urban designer from master of space to mediator of complex ecologies. As the atlas expands, it gathers situated evidence that supports recognition of the river’s intrinsic rights and cultivates a sense of guardianship among those living along its basin. In doing so, the project contributes to the Rights of Nature movement from an urban design perspective, amplifying the voice of the river within the discipline and beyond.
Explore the set-up of the Alternative Atlas for the Meuse, an open-source website that is both tool and method for co-designing with the river, http://www.meuse-atlas.nl ...
The project consists of three interrelated components: (1) an open-source digital Atlas for the Meuse that collects a variety of translations of the river’s agency and entanglements; (2) a physical Cabinet for Counter Narratives, a mobile table for discussion enabling collaborative reinterpretations of the Meuse territory; and (3) a Nomadic School for Designers that hosts site-specific workshops where participants co-create alternative cartographies. The three elements are designed to work together as the Cabinet travels across the river basin to facilitate workshops on-site, producing collaborative Cartographies of Dialogue that are subsequently integrated into the digital Atlas.
Together, these components translate theory into an ongoing practice of engaging-with and caring-for the places one designs with. By encouraging slow, attentive design processes and interdisciplinary inquiry, the project repositions the urban designer from master of space to mediator of complex ecologies. As the atlas expands, it gathers situated evidence that supports recognition of the river’s intrinsic rights and cultivates a sense of guardianship among those living along its basin. In doing so, the project contributes to the Rights of Nature movement from an urban design perspective, amplifying the voice of the river within the discipline and beyond.
Explore the set-up of the Alternative Atlas for the Meuse, an open-source website that is both tool and method for co-designing with the river, http://www.meuse-atlas.nl ...
This thesis investigates how posthuman and new materialist theories can inform urban design practices that cultivate ongoing care for more-than-human actors, with a particular focus on the Meuse River. Challenging dominant anthropocentric and extractive planning paradigms, the research reimagines the river as an agential being embedded within a web of human and nonhuman relations. Through methods grounded in situated knowledge, critical cartography, and relational thinking, the project explores how designers might listen to, interpret, and translate the language of the river into the urban practice.
The project consists of three interrelated components: (1) an open-source digital Atlas for the Meuse that collects a variety of translations of the river’s agency and entanglements; (2) a physical Cabinet for Counter Narratives, a mobile table for discussion enabling collaborative reinterpretations of the Meuse territory; and (3) a Nomadic School for Designers that hosts site-specific workshops where participants co-create alternative cartographies. The three elements are designed to work together as the Cabinet travels across the river basin to facilitate workshops on-site, producing collaborative Cartographies of Dialogue that are subsequently integrated into the digital Atlas.
Together, these components translate theory into an ongoing practice of engaging-with and caring-for the places one designs with. By encouraging slow, attentive design processes and interdisciplinary inquiry, the project repositions the urban designer from master of space to mediator of complex ecologies. As the atlas expands, it gathers situated evidence that supports recognition of the river’s intrinsic rights and cultivates a sense of guardianship among those living along its basin. In doing so, the project contributes to the Rights of Nature movement from an urban design perspective, amplifying the voice of the river within the discipline and beyond.
Explore the set-up of the Alternative Atlas for the Meuse, an open-source website that is both tool and method for co-designing with the river, http://www.meuse-atlas.nl
The project consists of three interrelated components: (1) an open-source digital Atlas for the Meuse that collects a variety of translations of the river’s agency and entanglements; (2) a physical Cabinet for Counter Narratives, a mobile table for discussion enabling collaborative reinterpretations of the Meuse territory; and (3) a Nomadic School for Designers that hosts site-specific workshops where participants co-create alternative cartographies. The three elements are designed to work together as the Cabinet travels across the river basin to facilitate workshops on-site, producing collaborative Cartographies of Dialogue that are subsequently integrated into the digital Atlas.
Together, these components translate theory into an ongoing practice of engaging-with and caring-for the places one designs with. By encouraging slow, attentive design processes and interdisciplinary inquiry, the project repositions the urban designer from master of space to mediator of complex ecologies. As the atlas expands, it gathers situated evidence that supports recognition of the river’s intrinsic rights and cultivates a sense of guardianship among those living along its basin. In doing so, the project contributes to the Rights of Nature movement from an urban design perspective, amplifying the voice of the river within the discipline and beyond.
Explore the set-up of the Alternative Atlas for the Meuse, an open-source website that is both tool and method for co-designing with the river, http://www.meuse-atlas.nl
Lagoon, islands. The countryside of Venice
An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Rights of Nature as a Spatial Practice
The context of Venice is so unique that even in this first sentence a mistake is already being made. In fact, Venice should never be considered separate from its Lagoon and islands, which together once formed an interdependent ecological, social, and economic system, vital to the city’s survival. They still do, but the way this system functions has changed profoundly. Historically, the Lagoon provided essential resources, including livelihoods, and hosted critical public functions. This close relationship fostered stewardship of the territory, which resulted in the Lagoon being cared for and maintained as a vital resource.
However, modernity has profoundly altered this dynamic. The progressive loss of functions in the Lagoon and islands has undermined the central role they once played in sustaining the city and are therefore no longer seen as valuable. As a result, they are often neglected by both communities and institutions. The most problematic consequence of this lack of consideration is that it facilitates the spread of destructive practices, leading to processes of environmental degradation and socio-cultural erosion. A territory deprived of its historical, economic, and social roles becomes increasingly vulnerable to dynamics of exploitation and abandonment.
If this trajectory is not reversed, Venice, its Lagoon and its islands risk undergoing a definitive transformation: an emptied place, devoid of identity and life, increasingly losing its active population and facing irreversible ecological decline.
In the past, active human presence, through traditional Lagoon-based livelihoods and functions, provided a natural form of protection. Today, a different approach is needed.
This research explores how recognizing the Venice Lagoon as a subject of rights can open new paths for its protection. Through an interdisciplinary and spatially grounded approach, it investigates how a rights of nature framework can inform new legal imaginaries and spatial strategies, reactivating social and productive practices that contribute to a more livable and resilient future for Venice and its Lagoon. ...
However, modernity has profoundly altered this dynamic. The progressive loss of functions in the Lagoon and islands has undermined the central role they once played in sustaining the city and are therefore no longer seen as valuable. As a result, they are often neglected by both communities and institutions. The most problematic consequence of this lack of consideration is that it facilitates the spread of destructive practices, leading to processes of environmental degradation and socio-cultural erosion. A territory deprived of its historical, economic, and social roles becomes increasingly vulnerable to dynamics of exploitation and abandonment.
If this trajectory is not reversed, Venice, its Lagoon and its islands risk undergoing a definitive transformation: an emptied place, devoid of identity and life, increasingly losing its active population and facing irreversible ecological decline.
In the past, active human presence, through traditional Lagoon-based livelihoods and functions, provided a natural form of protection. Today, a different approach is needed.
This research explores how recognizing the Venice Lagoon as a subject of rights can open new paths for its protection. Through an interdisciplinary and spatially grounded approach, it investigates how a rights of nature framework can inform new legal imaginaries and spatial strategies, reactivating social and productive practices that contribute to a more livable and resilient future for Venice and its Lagoon. ...
The context of Venice is so unique that even in this first sentence a mistake is already being made. In fact, Venice should never be considered separate from its Lagoon and islands, which together once formed an interdependent ecological, social, and economic system, vital to the city’s survival. They still do, but the way this system functions has changed profoundly. Historically, the Lagoon provided essential resources, including livelihoods, and hosted critical public functions. This close relationship fostered stewardship of the territory, which resulted in the Lagoon being cared for and maintained as a vital resource.
However, modernity has profoundly altered this dynamic. The progressive loss of functions in the Lagoon and islands has undermined the central role they once played in sustaining the city and are therefore no longer seen as valuable. As a result, they are often neglected by both communities and institutions. The most problematic consequence of this lack of consideration is that it facilitates the spread of destructive practices, leading to processes of environmental degradation and socio-cultural erosion. A territory deprived of its historical, economic, and social roles becomes increasingly vulnerable to dynamics of exploitation and abandonment.
If this trajectory is not reversed, Venice, its Lagoon and its islands risk undergoing a definitive transformation: an emptied place, devoid of identity and life, increasingly losing its active population and facing irreversible ecological decline.
In the past, active human presence, through traditional Lagoon-based livelihoods and functions, provided a natural form of protection. Today, a different approach is needed.
This research explores how recognizing the Venice Lagoon as a subject of rights can open new paths for its protection. Through an interdisciplinary and spatially grounded approach, it investigates how a rights of nature framework can inform new legal imaginaries and spatial strategies, reactivating social and productive practices that contribute to a more livable and resilient future for Venice and its Lagoon.
However, modernity has profoundly altered this dynamic. The progressive loss of functions in the Lagoon and islands has undermined the central role they once played in sustaining the city and are therefore no longer seen as valuable. As a result, they are often neglected by both communities and institutions. The most problematic consequence of this lack of consideration is that it facilitates the spread of destructive practices, leading to processes of environmental degradation and socio-cultural erosion. A territory deprived of its historical, economic, and social roles becomes increasingly vulnerable to dynamics of exploitation and abandonment.
If this trajectory is not reversed, Venice, its Lagoon and its islands risk undergoing a definitive transformation: an emptied place, devoid of identity and life, increasingly losing its active population and facing irreversible ecological decline.
In the past, active human presence, through traditional Lagoon-based livelihoods and functions, provided a natural form of protection. Today, a different approach is needed.
This research explores how recognizing the Venice Lagoon as a subject of rights can open new paths for its protection. Through an interdisciplinary and spatially grounded approach, it investigates how a rights of nature framework can inform new legal imaginaries and spatial strategies, reactivating social and productive practices that contribute to a more livable and resilient future for Venice and its Lagoon.
Water Culture Landscapes in the Alps
Toward more-than-human Futures in the Lumnezia Valley
The Alpine territory faces converging anthropogenic urgencies: climate change, biodiversity loss, intensified agriculture, and tourism development. Together, these forces drive processes of defuturing, deterritorialization, and extended urbanization, eroding the socio-ecological resilience of Alpine culture landscapes. This thesis investigates how more-than-human communities in the Alps can reclaim agency under shifting climatic and hydrological regimes, by embracing water as a territorial, ecological, and symbolic actor within the culture landscape.
Set in the Lumnezia Valley (Switzerland), the research adopts a research-by-design methodology. Conceptually framed by Latour’s Parliament of Things, Nature is reconceptualized from a resource to a partner. Through mapping major and minor stories, and a systemic analysis of actors and processes, the work reveals the Alpine landscape as co-constructed by human and non-human agencies.
The core design proposal - the Water Garden - is a multi-scalar, adaptive system that positions water as a structuring medium of care, maintenance, and culture. Paired with a refuturing framework based on ontologies of care, multispecies commons, and alternative modes of exchange, the Water Garden becomes a prototype of the planetary garden: a model for
situated, relational co-existence.
The main finding of the thesis is that agency in Alpine territories is already distributed, but largely unrecognized. Through relational, water-attuned design, urbanists can contribute not by imposing futures, but by scaffolding frameworks of care and emergence, enabling more-than-human communities to actively participate in shaping their own shared, situated, and plural futures. ...
Set in the Lumnezia Valley (Switzerland), the research adopts a research-by-design methodology. Conceptually framed by Latour’s Parliament of Things, Nature is reconceptualized from a resource to a partner. Through mapping major and minor stories, and a systemic analysis of actors and processes, the work reveals the Alpine landscape as co-constructed by human and non-human agencies.
The core design proposal - the Water Garden - is a multi-scalar, adaptive system that positions water as a structuring medium of care, maintenance, and culture. Paired with a refuturing framework based on ontologies of care, multispecies commons, and alternative modes of exchange, the Water Garden becomes a prototype of the planetary garden: a model for
situated, relational co-existence.
The main finding of the thesis is that agency in Alpine territories is already distributed, but largely unrecognized. Through relational, water-attuned design, urbanists can contribute not by imposing futures, but by scaffolding frameworks of care and emergence, enabling more-than-human communities to actively participate in shaping their own shared, situated, and plural futures. ...
The Alpine territory faces converging anthropogenic urgencies: climate change, biodiversity loss, intensified agriculture, and tourism development. Together, these forces drive processes of defuturing, deterritorialization, and extended urbanization, eroding the socio-ecological resilience of Alpine culture landscapes. This thesis investigates how more-than-human communities in the Alps can reclaim agency under shifting climatic and hydrological regimes, by embracing water as a territorial, ecological, and symbolic actor within the culture landscape.
Set in the Lumnezia Valley (Switzerland), the research adopts a research-by-design methodology. Conceptually framed by Latour’s Parliament of Things, Nature is reconceptualized from a resource to a partner. Through mapping major and minor stories, and a systemic analysis of actors and processes, the work reveals the Alpine landscape as co-constructed by human and non-human agencies.
The core design proposal - the Water Garden - is a multi-scalar, adaptive system that positions water as a structuring medium of care, maintenance, and culture. Paired with a refuturing framework based on ontologies of care, multispecies commons, and alternative modes of exchange, the Water Garden becomes a prototype of the planetary garden: a model for
situated, relational co-existence.
The main finding of the thesis is that agency in Alpine territories is already distributed, but largely unrecognized. Through relational, water-attuned design, urbanists can contribute not by imposing futures, but by scaffolding frameworks of care and emergence, enabling more-than-human communities to actively participate in shaping their own shared, situated, and plural futures.
Set in the Lumnezia Valley (Switzerland), the research adopts a research-by-design methodology. Conceptually framed by Latour’s Parliament of Things, Nature is reconceptualized from a resource to a partner. Through mapping major and minor stories, and a systemic analysis of actors and processes, the work reveals the Alpine landscape as co-constructed by human and non-human agencies.
The core design proposal - the Water Garden - is a multi-scalar, adaptive system that positions water as a structuring medium of care, maintenance, and culture. Paired with a refuturing framework based on ontologies of care, multispecies commons, and alternative modes of exchange, the Water Garden becomes a prototype of the planetary garden: a model for
situated, relational co-existence.
The main finding of the thesis is that agency in Alpine territories is already distributed, but largely unrecognized. Through relational, water-attuned design, urbanists can contribute not by imposing futures, but by scaffolding frameworks of care and emergence, enabling more-than-human communities to actively participate in shaping their own shared, situated, and plural futures.
Inclusive Placemaking for Ageing in Place
Rethinking Participation in a Superdiverse City
This thesis explores how elderly residents of The Hague Southwest, particularly those with migration backgrounds, limited Dutch proficiency, and intersecting social identities, can be meaningfully engaged in placemaking processes that support their ability to age in place. In a neighbourhood shaped by spatial segregation, political framing of newcomers, and participation models that often exclude the most marginalised, autonomy in later life is far from guaranteed.
Grounded in an intersectional theoretical framework, the study investigates how urban actors can create more inclusive engagement strategies. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at four apartment buildings along Lozerlaan, where workshops, informal conversations, and observations revealed key barriers and facilitators to participatory inclusion. These included language and literacy gaps, mistrust, internalised disempowerment, and the need for culturally sensitive, low-threshold engagement.
The research produced four actor-specific communication products: booklets for Haag Wonen, architects, municipal planners, and residents. Rather than offering generic guidelines, these booklets function as invitations to reflect on roles, responsibilities, and the meaning of “residents” in a superdiverse city. A spatial design proposal for the Cirkelflat illustrates how fieldwork insights can be translated into architectural interventions that promote ownership, pride, and social connection.
This thesis ultimately argues that placemaking should be understood not as an aesthetic exercise, but as a relational and political process rooted in care. In times of growing polarisation, inclusive placemaking offers an opportunity to centre everyday experiences, redefine institutional roles, and design urban futures from the perspective of those most often left out. ...
Grounded in an intersectional theoretical framework, the study investigates how urban actors can create more inclusive engagement strategies. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at four apartment buildings along Lozerlaan, where workshops, informal conversations, and observations revealed key barriers and facilitators to participatory inclusion. These included language and literacy gaps, mistrust, internalised disempowerment, and the need for culturally sensitive, low-threshold engagement.
The research produced four actor-specific communication products: booklets for Haag Wonen, architects, municipal planners, and residents. Rather than offering generic guidelines, these booklets function as invitations to reflect on roles, responsibilities, and the meaning of “residents” in a superdiverse city. A spatial design proposal for the Cirkelflat illustrates how fieldwork insights can be translated into architectural interventions that promote ownership, pride, and social connection.
This thesis ultimately argues that placemaking should be understood not as an aesthetic exercise, but as a relational and political process rooted in care. In times of growing polarisation, inclusive placemaking offers an opportunity to centre everyday experiences, redefine institutional roles, and design urban futures from the perspective of those most often left out. ...
This thesis explores how elderly residents of The Hague Southwest, particularly those with migration backgrounds, limited Dutch proficiency, and intersecting social identities, can be meaningfully engaged in placemaking processes that support their ability to age in place. In a neighbourhood shaped by spatial segregation, political framing of newcomers, and participation models that often exclude the most marginalised, autonomy in later life is far from guaranteed.
Grounded in an intersectional theoretical framework, the study investigates how urban actors can create more inclusive engagement strategies. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at four apartment buildings along Lozerlaan, where workshops, informal conversations, and observations revealed key barriers and facilitators to participatory inclusion. These included language and literacy gaps, mistrust, internalised disempowerment, and the need for culturally sensitive, low-threshold engagement.
The research produced four actor-specific communication products: booklets for Haag Wonen, architects, municipal planners, and residents. Rather than offering generic guidelines, these booklets function as invitations to reflect on roles, responsibilities, and the meaning of “residents” in a superdiverse city. A spatial design proposal for the Cirkelflat illustrates how fieldwork insights can be translated into architectural interventions that promote ownership, pride, and social connection.
This thesis ultimately argues that placemaking should be understood not as an aesthetic exercise, but as a relational and political process rooted in care. In times of growing polarisation, inclusive placemaking offers an opportunity to centre everyday experiences, redefine institutional roles, and design urban futures from the perspective of those most often left out.
Grounded in an intersectional theoretical framework, the study investigates how urban actors can create more inclusive engagement strategies. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at four apartment buildings along Lozerlaan, where workshops, informal conversations, and observations revealed key barriers and facilitators to participatory inclusion. These included language and literacy gaps, mistrust, internalised disempowerment, and the need for culturally sensitive, low-threshold engagement.
The research produced four actor-specific communication products: booklets for Haag Wonen, architects, municipal planners, and residents. Rather than offering generic guidelines, these booklets function as invitations to reflect on roles, responsibilities, and the meaning of “residents” in a superdiverse city. A spatial design proposal for the Cirkelflat illustrates how fieldwork insights can be translated into architectural interventions that promote ownership, pride, and social connection.
This thesis ultimately argues that placemaking should be understood not as an aesthetic exercise, but as a relational and political process rooted in care. In times of growing polarisation, inclusive placemaking offers an opportunity to centre everyday experiences, redefine institutional roles, and design urban futures from the perspective of those most often left out.
Port Archipelago
From isolation living to inclusive living alongside hydrogen energy in the port of Rotterdam
Student report
(2025)
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A.T.E. Blonk, J.J. de Rooij, M.R. Jerez Nova, Y.J. Kim, Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso, L.M. Calabrese
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. ...
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. ...
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.
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.
Student report
(2025)
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Milou Overdevest, Viola Ebermannová, Grant Simons, Soroush Saffarzadeh, Chiel Roelofs, L.M. Calabrese, Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso, J. Subendran
Working the Shift
Regional Diversification for Community Resilience in Post-Fossil Zeeland
Student report
(2025)
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T.P. de Kort, G.A. Cappa, R.A.Q. Kuijt, F. Daalderop, M. Sahu, L.M. Calabrese, Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso, J. Subendran
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 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.
...
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 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.
Feathers and Fuel
Merging Perspectives
Student report
(2025)
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J.S.M. van Bunningen, A.C. van 't Schip, D.P.G. Hermans, L. Peled, J.T. de Vries, L.M. Calabrese, Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso, J. Subendran
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.
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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.
Cosmogonia of Crete: Critical zones as a continuous altered nature and the transition to the future
Major and minor Stories of places from the past to the future
This thesis investigates the urgent concerns of water scarcity and excess on the island of Crete, identifying their implications for the island's future in the face of climate change. It recognizes the interconnectedness of geological, ecological, and human systems, using water scarcity and excess as a lens to understand these relationships and improve planning and design methods.
The thesis critically examines current planning instruments used by the government and planners and argues that they often fail to capture the dynamic nature of elements like water and soil. It advocates for a more sensitive, climate-resilient approach, encouraging local communities to actively manage their environment with care. The research embraces diverse methodologies, including critical cartography, to analyze the island's complex systems, particularly water and soil processes. Fieldwork, involving observation, photography, and research, supports an understanding of Crete's physical, cultural, and environmental systems.
The research analyzes Crete's past and present through a multi-scalar approach, investigating its geological formation, topography, materiality, and cultural heritage. The project focuses on the eastern part of the island as a case study, highlighting its vulnerabilities, such as flooding, drought, and desertification due to human activities and climate change. Later, it proposes strategic interventions like water retention landscapes, natural water flow restoration, riparian buffer zones, and temporarily flooded agriculture. It also promotes soil restoration through reforestation, agroforestry, and regenerative agricultural practices.
By repositioning the relationship between landscape, water, and humans, the aim is to foster a climate-resilient future for Crete, offering insights that could serve as a paradigm for other islands facing similar challenges globally. Finally, it emphasizes the need for a shift in planning and design approaches, encouraging decision-makers to recognize the interconnectedness of human and natural systems. ...
The thesis critically examines current planning instruments used by the government and planners and argues that they often fail to capture the dynamic nature of elements like water and soil. It advocates for a more sensitive, climate-resilient approach, encouraging local communities to actively manage their environment with care. The research embraces diverse methodologies, including critical cartography, to analyze the island's complex systems, particularly water and soil processes. Fieldwork, involving observation, photography, and research, supports an understanding of Crete's physical, cultural, and environmental systems.
The research analyzes Crete's past and present through a multi-scalar approach, investigating its geological formation, topography, materiality, and cultural heritage. The project focuses on the eastern part of the island as a case study, highlighting its vulnerabilities, such as flooding, drought, and desertification due to human activities and climate change. Later, it proposes strategic interventions like water retention landscapes, natural water flow restoration, riparian buffer zones, and temporarily flooded agriculture. It also promotes soil restoration through reforestation, agroforestry, and regenerative agricultural practices.
By repositioning the relationship between landscape, water, and humans, the aim is to foster a climate-resilient future for Crete, offering insights that could serve as a paradigm for other islands facing similar challenges globally. Finally, it emphasizes the need for a shift in planning and design approaches, encouraging decision-makers to recognize the interconnectedness of human and natural systems. ...
This thesis investigates the urgent concerns of water scarcity and excess on the island of Crete, identifying their implications for the island's future in the face of climate change. It recognizes the interconnectedness of geological, ecological, and human systems, using water scarcity and excess as a lens to understand these relationships and improve planning and design methods.
The thesis critically examines current planning instruments used by the government and planners and argues that they often fail to capture the dynamic nature of elements like water and soil. It advocates for a more sensitive, climate-resilient approach, encouraging local communities to actively manage their environment with care. The research embraces diverse methodologies, including critical cartography, to analyze the island's complex systems, particularly water and soil processes. Fieldwork, involving observation, photography, and research, supports an understanding of Crete's physical, cultural, and environmental systems.
The research analyzes Crete's past and present through a multi-scalar approach, investigating its geological formation, topography, materiality, and cultural heritage. The project focuses on the eastern part of the island as a case study, highlighting its vulnerabilities, such as flooding, drought, and desertification due to human activities and climate change. Later, it proposes strategic interventions like water retention landscapes, natural water flow restoration, riparian buffer zones, and temporarily flooded agriculture. It also promotes soil restoration through reforestation, agroforestry, and regenerative agricultural practices.
By repositioning the relationship between landscape, water, and humans, the aim is to foster a climate-resilient future for Crete, offering insights that could serve as a paradigm for other islands facing similar challenges globally. Finally, it emphasizes the need for a shift in planning and design approaches, encouraging decision-makers to recognize the interconnectedness of human and natural systems.
The thesis critically examines current planning instruments used by the government and planners and argues that they often fail to capture the dynamic nature of elements like water and soil. It advocates for a more sensitive, climate-resilient approach, encouraging local communities to actively manage their environment with care. The research embraces diverse methodologies, including critical cartography, to analyze the island's complex systems, particularly water and soil processes. Fieldwork, involving observation, photography, and research, supports an understanding of Crete's physical, cultural, and environmental systems.
The research analyzes Crete's past and present through a multi-scalar approach, investigating its geological formation, topography, materiality, and cultural heritage. The project focuses on the eastern part of the island as a case study, highlighting its vulnerabilities, such as flooding, drought, and desertification due to human activities and climate change. Later, it proposes strategic interventions like water retention landscapes, natural water flow restoration, riparian buffer zones, and temporarily flooded agriculture. It also promotes soil restoration through reforestation, agroforestry, and regenerative agricultural practices.
By repositioning the relationship between landscape, water, and humans, the aim is to foster a climate-resilient future for Crete, offering insights that could serve as a paradigm for other islands facing similar challenges globally. Finally, it emphasizes the need for a shift in planning and design approaches, encouraging decision-makers to recognize the interconnectedness of human and natural systems.
Narrating the Landscape
A disclosure of marginal stories shaping the land and soul of Western Liguria
This thesis undertakes an extensive examination of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps region, deeply intertwined with its distinctive landscape features and closely tied to its identity. Its objective is to illuminate critical aspects of this territory through meticulous observation.
Drawing from a solid theoretical foundation grounded in local literature, the study aims to outline ongoing processes while identifying key territorial characteristics. Advancing from conventional research methods, the thesis incorporates poetry and local literature to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the region.Four primary territorial subjects undergo in-depth investigation: terraced landscapes, river catchments, flora, and horticultural structures. Commencing with an acknowledgment of cultural impoverishment and the corrosion of local identity, the thesis seeks to explore the emerging sense of displacement, tracing its origins and attempting to narrate marginalized stories at risk of being forgotten. Furthermore, by analyzing the current state of the region, the investigation aims to portray the environmental degradation occurring within the examined milieu.
The proposed project builds upon the concept of caring practices, showcasing the diverse array of existing and extinguished caring practices within the region. Drawing from a defined novel methodology, the design encompasses both a tangible and intangible component.
The tangible aspect illustrates how simple, locally sensitive actions can lead to precise interventions in the area, sparking new territorial processes aimed at revitalizing a “way of life” deeply intertwined with the land, environment, and human experience, a way of life currently under threat. The expected interventions lean towards conservative and philological restoration, with the objective of mitigating the ecological drift while concurrently healing the lost identity of the landscape under examination. Conversely, the intangible aspect highlights existing practices of "mattering" and "caring" within the region, offering examples of current good practices and suggesting new ones. Ultimately, this project on matters of care seeks to underscore the need to expand conventional design methods to include the intangible aspect, laying the groundwork for a shared methodology applicable to further development and research.
...
Drawing from a solid theoretical foundation grounded in local literature, the study aims to outline ongoing processes while identifying key territorial characteristics. Advancing from conventional research methods, the thesis incorporates poetry and local literature to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the region.Four primary territorial subjects undergo in-depth investigation: terraced landscapes, river catchments, flora, and horticultural structures. Commencing with an acknowledgment of cultural impoverishment and the corrosion of local identity, the thesis seeks to explore the emerging sense of displacement, tracing its origins and attempting to narrate marginalized stories at risk of being forgotten. Furthermore, by analyzing the current state of the region, the investigation aims to portray the environmental degradation occurring within the examined milieu.
The proposed project builds upon the concept of caring practices, showcasing the diverse array of existing and extinguished caring practices within the region. Drawing from a defined novel methodology, the design encompasses both a tangible and intangible component.
The tangible aspect illustrates how simple, locally sensitive actions can lead to precise interventions in the area, sparking new territorial processes aimed at revitalizing a “way of life” deeply intertwined with the land, environment, and human experience, a way of life currently under threat. The expected interventions lean towards conservative and philological restoration, with the objective of mitigating the ecological drift while concurrently healing the lost identity of the landscape under examination. Conversely, the intangible aspect highlights existing practices of "mattering" and "caring" within the region, offering examples of current good practices and suggesting new ones. Ultimately, this project on matters of care seeks to underscore the need to expand conventional design methods to include the intangible aspect, laying the groundwork for a shared methodology applicable to further development and research.
...
This thesis undertakes an extensive examination of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps region, deeply intertwined with its distinctive landscape features and closely tied to its identity. Its objective is to illuminate critical aspects of this territory through meticulous observation.
Drawing from a solid theoretical foundation grounded in local literature, the study aims to outline ongoing processes while identifying key territorial characteristics. Advancing from conventional research methods, the thesis incorporates poetry and local literature to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the region.Four primary territorial subjects undergo in-depth investigation: terraced landscapes, river catchments, flora, and horticultural structures. Commencing with an acknowledgment of cultural impoverishment and the corrosion of local identity, the thesis seeks to explore the emerging sense of displacement, tracing its origins and attempting to narrate marginalized stories at risk of being forgotten. Furthermore, by analyzing the current state of the region, the investigation aims to portray the environmental degradation occurring within the examined milieu.
The proposed project builds upon the concept of caring practices, showcasing the diverse array of existing and extinguished caring practices within the region. Drawing from a defined novel methodology, the design encompasses both a tangible and intangible component.
The tangible aspect illustrates how simple, locally sensitive actions can lead to precise interventions in the area, sparking new territorial processes aimed at revitalizing a “way of life” deeply intertwined with the land, environment, and human experience, a way of life currently under threat. The expected interventions lean towards conservative and philological restoration, with the objective of mitigating the ecological drift while concurrently healing the lost identity of the landscape under examination. Conversely, the intangible aspect highlights existing practices of "mattering" and "caring" within the region, offering examples of current good practices and suggesting new ones. Ultimately, this project on matters of care seeks to underscore the need to expand conventional design methods to include the intangible aspect, laying the groundwork for a shared methodology applicable to further development and research.
Drawing from a solid theoretical foundation grounded in local literature, the study aims to outline ongoing processes while identifying key territorial characteristics. Advancing from conventional research methods, the thesis incorporates poetry and local literature to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the region.Four primary territorial subjects undergo in-depth investigation: terraced landscapes, river catchments, flora, and horticultural structures. Commencing with an acknowledgment of cultural impoverishment and the corrosion of local identity, the thesis seeks to explore the emerging sense of displacement, tracing its origins and attempting to narrate marginalized stories at risk of being forgotten. Furthermore, by analyzing the current state of the region, the investigation aims to portray the environmental degradation occurring within the examined milieu.
The proposed project builds upon the concept of caring practices, showcasing the diverse array of existing and extinguished caring practices within the region. Drawing from a defined novel methodology, the design encompasses both a tangible and intangible component.
The tangible aspect illustrates how simple, locally sensitive actions can lead to precise interventions in the area, sparking new territorial processes aimed at revitalizing a “way of life” deeply intertwined with the land, environment, and human experience, a way of life currently under threat. The expected interventions lean towards conservative and philological restoration, with the objective of mitigating the ecological drift while concurrently healing the lost identity of the landscape under examination. Conversely, the intangible aspect highlights existing practices of "mattering" and "caring" within the region, offering examples of current good practices and suggesting new ones. Ultimately, this project on matters of care seeks to underscore the need to expand conventional design methods to include the intangible aspect, laying the groundwork for a shared methodology applicable to further development and research.
A Littoral Dissonance
Alteration of the Croatian Adriatic as a Consequence of Tourism Practices
This thesis interrogates the transformation of the Croatian coast, focusing on its identity beyond a touristic destination and examining the social and ecological impacts of tourism. The research poses crucial questions about the true character of the Croatian coast, the spatial elements introduced by tourism, and the resultant dissonances, as well as the role of urbanism and policy in these processes. Employing the proposed “tracing threads” method, this project traces and harmonizes dynamic processes across diverse systems and timescales, revealing interactions between more-than-human, human, and tourist perspectives. It emphasizes the ecological roles of elements like Posidonia oceanica meadows and the socio-economic importance of traditional practices. Conducted in Njivice on Krk island, the study proposes three main mechanisms for harmonisation: Protocols of Care and Repair, Regulative Actions, and Spatial Transformations. Care and Repair protocols derive from interdisciplinary research, informing stakeholders and guiding policy. Regulative Actions transform these protocols into planning and legislative measures, while Spatial Transformations apply these principles to physical spaces. This culminates in the sympoiesis of attraction, addressing the paradox where tourism’s allure simultaneously threatens its foundation, aiming to realign and harmonize the coast’s multifaceted landscape.
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This thesis interrogates the transformation of the Croatian coast, focusing on its identity beyond a touristic destination and examining the social and ecological impacts of tourism. The research poses crucial questions about the true character of the Croatian coast, the spatial elements introduced by tourism, and the resultant dissonances, as well as the role of urbanism and policy in these processes. Employing the proposed “tracing threads” method, this project traces and harmonizes dynamic processes across diverse systems and timescales, revealing interactions between more-than-human, human, and tourist perspectives. It emphasizes the ecological roles of elements like Posidonia oceanica meadows and the socio-economic importance of traditional practices. Conducted in Njivice on Krk island, the study proposes three main mechanisms for harmonisation: Protocols of Care and Repair, Regulative Actions, and Spatial Transformations. Care and Repair protocols derive from interdisciplinary research, informing stakeholders and guiding policy. Regulative Actions transform these protocols into planning and legislative measures, while Spatial Transformations apply these principles to physical spaces. This culminates in the sympoiesis of attraction, addressing the paradox where tourism’s allure simultaneously threatens its foundation, aiming to realign and harmonize the coast’s multifaceted landscape.