IN-PERSON London. Section B

Abstract

The subsurface is a crucial basis for sustainable urban planning. It provides opportunities for geo-energy, vital soils contribute to CO2-storage and water buffering, and healthy greening of cities is not possible without such a vital soil. On the other hand, pollution, compaction and fossil use threaten sustainable urban planning. Strengthened by new policies – such as the European Healthy Soil Mission – new attention is given to role of the subsurface in urban planning. And this is relatively new. This contribution focuses on the role of the subsurface in urban planning, and how this subsurface can play its important role in this planning. It identifies barriers which for long have hindered subsoil becoming an important part of urban and spatial planning. It addresses for example the differences in the communities of subsurface and spatial planning professionals. It analyses hick-up’s in planning processes concerning subsoils. From that it sketches concrete possibilities, from actual cases, which the subsurface has to offer to urban planners. Finally it aligns new strategies that can cash in these new possibilities in an urban planning process. This contribution is based on four years of design research in the Netherlands – lead by Saxion University of Applied Science – on (1) using mining activities for sustainable regional and urban development, (2) developing brownfields and (3) vitalizing urban soil for sustainable urbanization. It combines views from complexity and transition management with new concepts of planning and design. It will be illustrated by images of urban designs from students and professionals designers.