The Exodus of rural settlers to urban centers with greater attractiveness of quality of life, has brought serious consequences to the rural environments all over the world. An example of this phenomenon is Spain, that has around 3,000 abandoned villages, half of them in Galicia. These settlements have …

Increasingly, adding trees to the city is a new goal on the urban agenda in order to fight climate change. There is an interesting contrast when looking at the average lifespan of trees in the city: 30 years. The reason is that trees are still being seen from a utilitarian perspective and as urban furniture …

Designers of the Anthropocene era have to work with and for nature in order to reintroduce its beauty and functionality into our everyday life. As humans, we are colonising every single spot on earth. According to the United Nations, 55% of the human population is currently living in cities and by 2050 …

#archtivism is a movement that strives for a world where the building industry positively impacts our society, economy and environment. To tackle the main challenges of this globalisation era, homogeneity and the climate crisis in particular, #archtivism introduces the Place Responsive Design Method, …

This book discusses the way that a nature-driven approach to urbanism can be applied at each of the urban scales; architectural design, urban design of neighborhoods, city planning and landscape architecture, and at the city and regional scales. At all levels nature-driven approaches to design and planning …

Over the next 10 years, the City of Amsterdam plans to develop major housing schemes provide 90,000 new homes within the existing urban fabric. At the same time, an urban renewal program is being launched to revitalize the most deprived neighbourhoods. Together, these challenges call for more evidence …

According to myth, Rome was created more than 2,500 years ago on two hills. Romulus climbed the Palantine Hill and Remus took up position on a nearby hill, the Aventine Hill. From here, the city grew over seven hills into an unprecedented metropolis. Two millennia later, its inhabitants have barely …

Urban planners and several stakeholders in public and private sector are in need of (quickscan) tools that can assess the vulnerability to floods and thermal stress. Urban flooding and thermal stress have become key issues for many cities around the world. With the continuing effects of climate change, …

Cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and there is an urgent need to become more resilient. This research involves the development of the City Climate Scan methodology to measure, map, scan and assess different parameters that provide insight into the vulnerability of urban areas …

Autonomous driving in public roads requires precise localization within the range of few centimeters. Even the best localization systems based on GNSS cannot always reach this level of precision, especially in an urban environment, where the signal is disturbed by surrounding buildings and artifacts. …