November Talks 2024

Landscape-based Urbanism
A design approach for sustainable urban landscapes.

Urbanization is one of the biggest challenges of this century. Urban development comes at the expense of fragile ecosystems that protect and provide us with food and water, not to mention the associated increasing vulnerability to flooding, drought, and social inequality. We therefore need a landscape approach to urbanism that considers the biosphere as the context for social and economic development. Landscape-based Urbanism utilizes the understanding of the landscape system and its ecological and social-cultural processes and relationships – landscape logic – as the foundation for designing sustainable urban environments across scales. Design with nature, people, and history are at the approach’s core. 

Prof. Dr. Steffen Nijhuis is Full Professor of Landscape-based Urbanism and Head of the Section Landscape Architecture at Delft University of Technology at the Faculty of Architecture and The Built Environment, The Netherlands. www.steffennijhuis.nl