Utrechtse Heuvelrug: Designing a Future Forest Metropolis
Q. Xu (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
J.R.T. van der Velde – Mentor (TU Delft - Landscape Architecture)
L.P.J. van den Burg – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Design)
E. Mann Kanowitz – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Building Knowledge)
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Abstract
The Dutch history of deforestation and reforestation, especially in the recent two hundred years, challenges us to rethink about the relationship between humans and forests. From a feared wilderness, to a productive asset, from a romantic retreat to a managed public green space, as an important cultural landscape, the forest reflects evolving human relationships with nature. In today’s Netherlands, where afforestation and sustainability are actively promoted, a culturally informed vision of future forests and cities can foster a new model of co-development that enhances the forest’s positive impact on well-being and cultural identity.
In this graduation project, the study area is the Utrechtse Heuvelrug region: its forests, nearby cities, towns and villages, and the transitional areas. The challenges it faces go beyond internal issues like forest fragmentation and a weak forest culture identity. They also include external pressures such as recreation, housing, agriculture, and extreme climate. Therefore, forest urbanism serves as an integrated approach that links forest expansion with urban development. By redesigning the transitional landscapes, this project aims to integrate complex functions, spatial experiences, and cultural identities in the new forests.
The result is a new forest metropolis in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug region. Eight types of forests are embedded within the transitional landscape under specific spatial principles. The outcome ranges from territorial-scale planning to local-scale urban-forest interface design. This project shifts perspectives between “seeing the forest from the city” and “seeing the city from the forest,” challenging conventional boundaries between the city and nature, the functional roles of forests, and the potential contributions of landscape architecture to future urban development.