(Dis)Enchantment of the Interstitial Space

Abstract

This project focuses on the interstitial spaces in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, asking why they should be valued and how they can be meaningfully experienced. These left-over urban spaces are often overlooked, stigmatised, and framed as meaningless, unsafe, or in need of control. At the same time, they hold aesthetic, ecological, and experiential values that remain largely unrecognised within dominant urban narratives. These spaces offer alternative readings of urban nature and prevailing ideas about who and what is considered a legitimate neighbour in our city.

The project aims to give an alternative theory and design framework on how to look and deal with the left-over spaces of the city, one that reaches beyond dominating ideas on functionality, aesthetics or ecology. Central to this framework is the notion of access, understood not only in physical terms but also as a visual and mental condition. By addressing access on these three interconnected levels - physical, visual, and mental - the project seeks to enable engagement and care with interstitial spaces while preserving their openness, ambiguity, and self-evolving character.

The research aims to understand the existing qualities of these fringe spaces from social, ecological, and experiential perspectives. The theoretical research frames the language and existing social and ecological knowledge surrounding interstitial spaces, while critically questioning the role of design and its aesthetics. It sets apart a selection of values found in interstitial spaces as well as a set of ‘designerly approaches’ to work with and access the interstitial space.

An immersive site analysis is conducted across a selection of fringe spaces in north-east Rotterdam. This analysis is based on continuous wandering, reading informal uses and entrances, and developing speculative narratives rooted in long-term observation. Through this method, detailed portraits of users, plants, and spatial affordances are produced, revealing how human and non-human actors co-inhabit and shape these landscapes.

Building on this research, the design component addresses the question: How can interstitial spaces be accessed in ways that evoke wonder, care, and engagement, while maintaining their freedom of use and ecological autonomy? The project introduces a set of design guidelines, termed the Rules for Enchantment, which imposes actions and interventions to take in order to unlock the potentials of the in-between pockets of greenery, as well as restrains that prevent them from losing their freedom, their looseness, their Interstitiality.
the metropolitan city of Rotterdam that is able to exist through appreciation and care.

The project culminates in a city-wide vision for interstitial spaces in Rotterdam, supported by a context-specific design proposal at the neglected Spoordijk Spangen site. This intervention increases accessibility and engagement while safeguarding the site’s fragile social and ecological dynamics. Ultimately, the project reframes interstitial spaces as an unconventional form of green infrastructure, capable of fostering wonder, care, and long-term stewardship, and contributing to a more socially and ecologically inclusive public landscape for the city of Rotterdam.