Where Industry Meets the Tides
Anchoring Sustainable Spatial Circularity in the Wadden Sea Region
M. Theye (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
A. Wandl – Mentor (TU Delft - Environmental Technology and Design)
T. Bouma – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Design)
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Abstract
This thesis investigates how the industrial system of the Wadden Sea region can be spatially transformed towards Sustainable Circularity. As a semi-peripheral and ecologically fragile territory, the region operates as an operational hinterland for Europe where extractive industries intersect with vulnerable landscapes and dispersed communities.
Using the theoretical lenses of metabolism and territorialism, the research explores four key questions: (1) it maps the regional spatial-industrial history,
(2) examines how territorial and metabolic processes co-shape current regional dynamics,
(3) identifies leverage points and spatial pathways for systemic transition and
(4) proposes strategic design interventions on the regional and the local scale.
The methodology combines diachronic mapping, territorial capital analysis and spatial flow readings, not to quantify, but to reveal underlying spatial organisational principles and systemic logics. These are synthesised into three structuring motors: productive, protective and ecological. Based on these, the thesis formulates a vision for a sustainable, cross-border metabolism, that is explored through scenarios. The resulting findings are structured and made actionable through an adaptive strategic framework. A zoom-in on the city of Emden illustrates how baseline spatial interventions can anchor long-term transitions.
The work contributes to current discourse on circular economy, regional transformation and design-led planning by offering a spatially explicit and theoretically grounded approach. It situates industrial sustainability in policy, process and simultaneously in the fabric of the landscape and the design of territorial futures.