Designing for sustainable mobility in suburban expansion areas
A.T.E. Blonk (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
R.J. Dijkstra – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Martijn Lugten – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
The Netherlands faces its largest development challenge in decades: over one million new houses must be built by 2030, with a substantial share in suburban expansion areas. These areas are currently designed around the car, locking in car-dependent mobility patterns for decades to come. At the same time, a transition towards sustainable mobility is both necessary and widely desired. Spatial design remains underexplored in this transition.
This thesis investigates how spatial design can stimulate sustainable mobility in suburban expansion areas. It uses STOMP (walking, cycling, public transport, shared mobility, private car) as an analytical framework to identify which spatial instruments are decisive in shifting travel behaviour. Through a research-by-design methodology combining quantitative analysis and schematic spatial exploration, four instruments emerged: high residential density around public transport stops, parking garages at distance, filtered permeability, and shared cars on street. Together, these instruments operate through two spatial principles: proximity and accessibility. They reduce the convenience of the private car while increasing the convenience of sustainable alternatives.
The resulting spatial structure is tested and applied to Rijnenburg, a large-scale greenfield expansion area on the southern edge of Utrecht, planned for approximately 25,000 houses. The application confirms that the spatial logic holds across different site conditions, while also revealing that the structure's success depends on strong connections beyond the neighbourhood boundary.
The thesis concludes that stimulating sustainable mobility in suburban expansion areas requires a fundamentally different planning approach: one that starts with mobility and lets it organise everything else.