Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis exhibition

This exhibition presents results of the Research & Design studio Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis, part of the MSc Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences/ Track Urbanism programme at Delft University of Technology. The thematic focus of the 2020-2021 round of the studio was informed by an ambitious policy agenda that the Province of South Holland has set out: aligned with objectives of the Dutch national government, it intends to host a 100% circular economy by 2050. 19 groups of students have analysed spatial and institutional development in Southern Holland and have designed visions and development strategies that lead towards a circular construction- and demolition sector, a circular agri-food sector, and a circular bio-based chemical sector in the region. In conjunction the projects presented in this exhibition explore the spatiality of a circular economy and seek to inspire spatial planning in this way. The responsible chair of Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis is Spatial Planning & Strategy. The 2020-2021 edition of the studio was prepared in collaboration with Province of South Holland (Provincie Zuid-Holland). It built up upon expertise acquired during the research project Resource Management in Peri-urban Areas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism (REPAiR), funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 framework, and by PortCityFutures, an initiative of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) collaboration.

Urbanism is concerned with understanding the spatial organisation and dynamics of the built environment and with inventing new ways to maintain spatial quality and equality. The MSc Urbanism education at the TU Delft develops core knowledge and skills as a basis for innovative practical and theoretical applications. It provides students with typological knowledge and insights into urbanism tools and techniques. MSc Urbanism is a scientific design education, characterized by interaction between thinking (analysis and reflection) and doing (the speculative/ intuitive imagination of spatial interventions).

Regional design is the core theme of the third quarter of the MSc Urbanism curriculum. This is urbanism at a high level of scale. The way global economic powers and planetary natural change influence social, cultural and environmental development is best sensible at this level. These influences result in the inability to fully control spatial development. Regional design is about steering development in the right direction. Regional design - as the exploration of plausible futures - promotes and debates solutions to problems in a given context. It is a reflection on prevailing spatial conditions, political agendas and planning regimes, meant to improve good (democratic) decision-making and to inform long-term strategic planning approaches to desirable spatial change.

Province of South Holland - The region at the focus of the 2020-2021 round of the Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis studio was the province of South Holland. The province is part of the Rhine, Meuse and Schelde delta, covers roughly 3,400 km2 (including 600 km2 of water), and has a population of about 3.7 million. It encompasses the large cities of The Hague and Rotterdam, several medium-sized cities, and a great number of small cities and villages. Students considered both, the highly urbanized and peri-urban parts of the region.

Circular economy - The thematic focus of the 2020-2021 round of the studio was informed by an ambitious policy agenda that the Province of South Holland has set out: aligned with objectives of the Dutch national government, it intends to host a 100% circular economy by 2050. A circular economy enables resources to flow through human-made and natural systems in renewable ways. Flows create or retain value through slowed, closed or narrowed loops, rather than rapidly destructing value through the creation of waste. This value can manifest itself in monetary, social, ecological and economic principles. Important in this notion is the establishment of production-consumption-use systems built on restorative resources in optimal flows. Optimal flows imply that cycles are closed and connected at spatially and temporally favourable conditions, i.e. where and when most appropriate. Moreover, changes in one part of the system should not incite negative externalities in other parts. Of particular interest for this studio were impacts on spatial quality. In this perspective the notion of ‘wastescapes’ forms an important part of consideration.

A vision and strategy - Responding to their assignment, students formulated spatial visions and strategy proposals that support a transition towards circularity in Southern Holland. Their designs - presented in this exhibition - imagine the redesign of material flows that currently produce grave negative environmental externalities in the region and that have therefore been identified to be in particular need of reform. Designs concern a more circular construction- and demolition sector, a more circular agri-food sector, and a circular bio-based chemical sector. In order to properly position their proposals, students paid particular attention to a range of contextual spatial and institutional development trends, notably the development of the port of Rotterdam (including its socio-economic and cultural relations to surrounding cities and regions), the increasing importance of small and medium-sized makers industries, urbanisation that is in particular triggered by a large demand for new houses in the region, and the decay of delta landscapes. Buidling upon knowledge gained during the supportive course Research & Design Methodology for Urbanism students also paid particular attention to ethical issues involved in the activity of planning and designing, in particular sociospatial justice.