Symbiotic Urban Voids: A Resilient Ecological Framework for Rotterdam through its Urban Voids

The Rotterdam urban fabric is built in an area of amalgamation of very interesting landscape conditions surrounding it. Defined by the rich natural and cultural history, this structure has been home to different habitats for a variety of flora and fauna. However, the urban core disconnects these areas due to the lack of diverse ecological green and blue networks. The urban core of Rotterdam is abundant with characterless and unused spaces that can be termed as urban voids. The paved and stony surfaces, large infrastructure, abandoned structures, etc in these spaces heat up the unbuilt (or are they really ‘unbuilt’) spaces and create hotter environments. This, with the changing climate also poses a risk of disasters like flooding, heat islands, and habitat loss. These Urban voids are not designed for ecology and resilience to the changing climate. This project envisions creating an ecological spatial design framework through landscape architectural principles for the urban fabric of Rotterdam by making use of the urban voids, thereby also making it resilient to climate change. This is achieved by identifying the urban voids on a regional and local scale and intervening at the right degree with the desired toolbox of landscape architectural principles generated through case studies of different typologies. The voids are extended into the surrounding habitat conditions so that the ecological connections become stronger. Theories, mainly the patch-matrix-corridor theory, create the backbone of the framework strategy. Target species based on the relevance and location of intervention are identified and incorporated in design generation. Design elements tackling issues of heat islands and flooding are incorporated in site design based on the existing situation on site. These are combined with the local characteristics of cultural, ecological, and functional layers. This results in creating a landscape design framework for the Rotterdam urban area connecting the ecological biotopes around the region and catalyzing climate change resilience in the region, by making use of the urban voids. The design will look at creating a network through the urban area on a regional scale by studying the overall regional ecological composition. This is important to create a larger network for biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Rotterdam region that is home to different types of habitats, evolved through historical, natural, and cultural processes. This will be followed by detailed spatial design on local scales in the urban voids by taking into account the various characters native to these voids, like the morphological, socio-cultural and ecological values. This will result in the creation of a toolbox of different typologies that could be used to reanimate these voids ecologically as well as for climate resilience. These new spaces will bring identity to these spaces and use them to create new local flows respective to the area of design.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Landscape Architectur