November Talk 2025 – Joyce van den Berg

The city of the future requires a fundamentally different way of seeing and designing. This lecture unveils the hidden layers of public space – from soil and water to energy and ecology – and shows how they hold the key to resilient urban infrastructures. Integration means more than bringing disciplines together: it is about designing interdependent systems that reinforce one another and adapt to change.Through examples, the lecture explores how soil quality, water management, and underground networks shape the visible city, which design strategies are essential, and what new competencies are required. Alongside systems thinking, ecological literacy, and the ability to orchestrate complex collaborations, resilience and steadfastness are crucial: qualities designers need to stay on course amid uncertainty, societal pressure, and major transitions.

Joyce van den Berg is a landscape architect, systems innovator and international speaker. With the Integral Design Method for Public Space (2020) and the research project BiodiverCITY (2021), she placed soil at the center of design. Her work was shown at the Seoul and Venice Biennales and received multiple awards. After 20 years at the City of Amsterdam, she resumed her independent work in 2025 with landscape projects.