The Subsurface as a Collective Geography

Abstract

Urban areas project high demand for urban spaces to accommodate a wider range of functions associated with social, economic, and physical development, given the rising rate of urbanization and over two-thirds of the human population projected to be urban dwellers by the year 2050. Consequently, cities are rapidly developing into complex and sprawling infrastructure reservoirs, limiting the capacity of vital natural ecosystem services. Development projects face several time-based constraints to find space for public access. In recent decades, brownfield development has directed its focus towards the subsurface, with the onset of initiatives like “net zero land take by 2050” set by the European Union. Expanding the public realm in cities through brownfield underground development can help close the gap between demand and supply of habitable land within cities, especially in urban areas housing contextual heritage.

There are various socio-cultural agents to be accounted for, which influence the experience of the subsurface. With appropriate structuring of documentation and design methods, underground built environments can potentially link diverse uses like transit, work, recreation, and more. The lack of development strategy inclusive of underground spaces poses risk of exploitation by private sector eventually resulting in super-basements that are value-centric. Underground spaces need a strategic spatial vision where the subsurface ecology is considered and developed in coherence with public life, integrating it with existing infrastructure networks.

The Thesis explores the subsurface uses and their potential to supplement demand of public/mobility space from surface in the city of Amsterdam. The applicability of urban underground functions in a delicate Dutch Landscape presents an opportunity to test and benchmark the suitability of subsurface realm for a range of functions. This is done by generating a guiding methodology for context-specific design interventions, followed by their integration with existing underground resources to form a holistic subsurface network that supplements the surface. The research considers the current technological and urban transitions to utilize them tools for developing underground spaces as collective, feasible, and transformative spaces. Research-by-design approach is used to investigate essential parameters of subsurface design at different scales to contextualize prototypical interventions for Amsterdam.