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1.4. Quarter Schedule
2.1.1 LOCATION
The region at the focus of the 2020-2021 round of the Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis studio is 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 are asked to consider both, the highly urbanized and peri-urban parts of the region. Highly urbanized areas are densely populated, intensely built-up and used. Peri-urban areas lie in-between these cores and are characterized by a low population density, an intermingling of built and unbuilt features and not clearly articulated, not intense and/or obsolete uses. Students are also asked to pay particular attention to the port of Rotterdam. Its core industrial complex comprises roughly 125 km2, stretching from the historical centre of the city of Rotterdam to the shores of the North Sea. Via physical relations, everyday practices, and representations, it reaches much deeper into the adjacent region though.
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30 km
Indication of urbanized areas in 2005 in Southern Holland. Source: Atelier Zuidvleugel.
The thematic focus of the 2020-2021 Spatial Strategies for the Global Metropolis studio is informed by an ambitious policy agenda that the Province of South Holland has set out: aligned with objectives of the Dutch national government (Ministerie van I&M, 2016), it intends to host a 100% circular economy by 2050 (Provincie ZuidHolland, 2019b, Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2019a). Students will formulate spatial visions and strategy proposals that support this intended transition towards circularity. They will engage in the redesign of material fl ows that produce grave negative environmental externalities and that have therefore been identifi ed to be in particular need of reform (see section ‘Thematic focus: Spatial strategies for a circular economy’ below). In order to properly position their regional designs, students are encouraged to consider a range of contextual spatial and institutional development trends. These are briefl y indicated below.
The port of Rotterdam – The port of Rotterdam - with a freight throughput of about 470 million tonnes among the world’s largest ports - is currently specialised in the distribution, storage, and processing of fossil raw materials, including crude oil, coal and liquid gas (Port of Rotterdam, 2019a). As evidenced by national and international agreements concerning the mitigation of climate change eff ects (United Nations, 2016, European Commission, 2019, Ministerie van EZK, 2019), a pressing need to transform such activities has become obvious over recent years. The port’s authority, a corporation between the municipality of Rotterdam and the Dutch national government, has developed a series of strategic approaches towards a carbon-neutral port consequently. Opportunities for change are seen to emerge from in particular synergetic eff ects between the simultaneously ongoing transitions in the realms of digitalisation, logistics, energy, and circular economy (Port of Rotterdam et al., 2019). The port’s position at a crossroad of raw material and residual fl ows is associated with a future international position as a ‘waste-to-value port’ (Port of Rotterdam, 2019b). Measures to foster this position concern the treatment and distribution of bio-based raw materials, recycling, and the digitalisation of logistic infrastructures and services, for instance through the ‘internet of things’, material tracking and block chain technologies. The Port of Rotterdam Authority also envisions a staged approach towards a renewable energy system, drawing on hydrogen, solar, geothermal, and biomass sources. A more effi cient use of energy (e.g. residual heat) and carbon capturing and storage form early milestones in this strategy. At later stages, sustainable energy production and a circular use of materials are to enhance each other in order to form one symbiotic system.
Makers industries - While the Port of Rotterdam Authority foresees the transitional change of economic sectors that operate from within its territory, national, regional, and local governments, including the Province of South Holland, employ a wider and more multi-layered imagination of a future circular economy. Building upon observations of how activities in niche markets trigger transitions, the province seeks to support not only large but also small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that profi t from linking and managing material fl ows in innovative and smart ways (Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2019a, Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2020b). These so-called ‘makers industries’ are productive in terms of material output while carefully considering emerging scarcities of material resources (triggered by in particular emerging renewable energy systems). They are not necessarily located within large inSPATIAL STRATEGIES FOR THE GLOBAL METROPOLIS 19
Rotterdam Source: Pedro Maia
dustrial complexes. Depending on a multitude of various criteria – such as the proximity to consumers, material fl ows, infrastructures, and social activity – they also settle in dense urban areas, underused peri-urban city fringes, or rural environments (for an analysis of businesses in South Holland, see Cities of Making, 2018). Their common denominator is in their contribution to environmental, economic, and social sustainability during transitions, and in their production of synergies between transitions in diff erent realms. They also commonly consider scarcity of land via an appreciation of spatial qualities, re-use strategies and combinations of land-uses.
The port, the city, and the region – The above described development trends demonstrate the complexities of simultaneously ongoing transitions. Observations of these intricacies have led to the recognition that the port of Rotterdam is not an isolated global system but - via fi negrained, decentral spatial and socio-economic relations - deeply linked to its surrounding cities and regions. Authorities and governments in Southern Holland call for approaches that enhance links within a ‘maritime region’, in particular through improved proximity, accessibility, and interconnectedness between relevant economic clusters and cities (Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2021, Gemeente Rotterdam, 2018). Scholars note that links are not just composed of economic and infrastructural relations, but have historicallygrown political, social, and cultural dimensions too (Hein, 2018). These latter dimensions fi nd spatial expressions. They are refl ected in traditionalized spatial practices, building and landscape typologies, and representational spaces. They are also refl ected in planning systems and cultures, for instance in the distribution of statutory power, fi nancial fl ows, participation in governance and decision-making, and dominant political discourses. Scholars argue that strategies aiming at a transitional change of what they call ‘petroleumscapes’, require the consideration and re-design of all these dimensions (see also PortCityFures, https://www.portcityfutures.nl/ home).
Urbanisation and the development of delta
landscapes – The above described contextual spatial and institutional development trends are intimately related to the emergence of a circular economy in the province of South Holland. Other trends are more generic but require consideration nevertheless.
After a period of stagnation, urbanisation dynamics have picked up in the Netherlands recently again. The Dutch Ministry of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations assumes a demand for one million new homes until 2030 (Ministerie van BZK, 2018); the Province of South Holland estimates that 230,000 of these new homes will need to be built within its territory. To guarantee that related urbanisation evolves in a sustainable way, the province has formulated an urbanisation strategy (Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2020a). This aims at the strengthening of the province’s polycentric structure, an increased use of sustainable transport and energy, and the active preservation of the province’s natural delta landscapes. The province’s ambition to only build within existing urban areas causes dilemmas and confl icts. High housing demands present strong fi nancial incentives for developers and cities to prioritize the implementation of high-standard housing programmes wherever possible; accessible and aff ordable working and living environments are pushed out of cities in this way. Above it was noted that the province seeks to stimulate the emergence of a resilient economic ecosystem of SME’s in sustainable and future-proof businesses (Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2020c, Provincie Zuid-Holland, 2020b). Promising ‘breeding grounds’ for such a system are threatened by rushed housing development too.
The natural green and blue landscapes of South Holland are shaped by their low altitude: the majority of the provincial territory consists of polder landscapes that lie up to 8m below sea level. To preserve biodiversity and at the same time maintain agricultural land uses under these conditions presents increasingly intricate dilemmas too. Water management has for instance led to the subsidence of peat meadows which exposes them to oxygen and leads to the release of vast amounts of CO2 (Stuurgroep Nationaal Landschap Groene Hart, 2017). While there is agreement that such natural processes – some of them accelerated by climate change – require counter-action urgently, there is debate on how action should touch upon the traditional outlook and use of the delta landscapes.
