As the climate is changing, the need to mitigate and adapt to the climate is getting more urgent every day. One of the biggest causes of global warming is the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Simultaneously, we are destroying one of our biggest carbon sinks; our peat soil. Peat soil in the Netherlands is destroyed by the Dutch polder system and the way the Dutch are building on top of the peat layer. This results in oxidation, which results in a release of carbon dioxide. Fortunately, there is a solution to preserving the peat soil and even regrowth. By rewetting the peat layer, the anaerobic conditions needed to maintain the peat are created. This calls for a different type of built environment in order to prevent the loss of our carbon sink. The study location of this project is Westergouwe in Gouda, which is designated for the building of housing and the soil contains our beloved peat soil. To still gratify the big housing need, a design is made of the neighborhood Westergouwe combining the urban environment with the goals of preserving and growing peat, in an ecologically responsible way. This project answers questions through literature research like: How can carbon be stored in the soil, vegetation, and in the urban environment? How can you build on peat soil without destroying it? And what is the urban ecosystem? Also, an analysis using mapping, expert interviews, and literature research is done of the polder system surrounding Westergouwe, of other environmental problems, and of suitable biotopes within this vision. After the design, is looked at how this design could be implemented in phases and which stakeholders would be involved. This type of design requires long-term planning. Throughout the process, the involvement of local and national governments is key to realizing this design. To transfer the knowledge maintained in this project, a pattern language is made and a method is abstracted. This project is not only applicable to Westergouwe, it could be relevant for a lot of places where peat is present in the soil. But not only that, because of the finiteness of the polder system, this type of design could be relevant for the whole of the western Netherlands. The author hopes that more research is done to continue the project’s search for a landscape-based urban environment that mitigates and adapts to the climate and that this project is used as a framework for further research.

The province of South Holland has many important stakeholders and drivers that impact the economy of the whole of The Netherlands. This, together with the increasing global need for circularity, is why the province has an important task in the near future to take steps towards a circular economy. To address this task, this report has chosen to look into the agri-food sector, because of their high economical significance in South Holland, and the construction sector, because of the current and future high demand for housing. Both sectors also create large residual material flows. Minimizing the high amount of waste from both sectors is essential in order to reach a circular region. The existing approach in creating a circular economy is to often look at individual sectors and their material flows. This is logical, but adverse with the idea of circularity, where all chains are closed. We believe, however, that these problems don’t have to be solved within ‘their’ sector. Our vision to solve this problem is as follows: “In 2050, the material flow of the agri-food sector will be closed. All before-known waste is now used as a resource for the construction sector. Because of this, the waste of the construction sector is reduced. Because of the collaborative sector chains, they could now be seen as one interlinked sector. The South Holland agriculture sector is now a leading example for a symbiotic and self sufficient interlinked chain.” Our ambition is to create a new movement within the circular economy. Bottom-up initiatives show that it is possible to create interlinked sectors. This project will be a pilot in upscaling this idea, and proving this is possible and has greatly beneficial outcomes. The pilot focuses on using agri-food residual flows as a resource for the construction industry of South Holland, but can be an inspiration to interlinking other sectors. To approach the interlinking of sectors, we envision a few strategies. We will be bringing the pieces of different policies together, use education and knowledge as glue between the sectors, and use transport and infrastructure to support the connection. Spatially, this results in four types of transition areas, a new living environment where the two sectors come together, also impacting the surrounding areas. This also impacts citizens from a socio-economic perspective, because more cross-sector jobs will be created and competition between businesses will be stimulated, which drives them to become more circular.

This booklet shows the process and results of Ode aan de Hollandse Waterlinies, a project developed in the elective course Landscape Architecture ON site. Research, analysis and Sense of Place formed the base of this project. The central aim of this course was to express the given site in a project at the interface between landscape architecture, landscape art and theatrical performance. This year the focus is on inundation and the inundation fields. As part of research for the festival “Ode aan de Hollandse Waterlinies 2021” our team - consisting of fifteen Master students - has realised a temporary interactive architectural installation in a privately owned meadow landscape, where cows, meadow birds and farmers live and work.