The paper discusses the necessary integrated approaches and design actions aimed at fostering a future-proof built environment through the (re)design, retrofitting, and transformation of public spaces into sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and attractive areas for inhabitants and visitors. It emphasizes the importance of adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change, as well as addressing spatial advantage and quality, social well-being, and ecological balance. Can we leverage climate adaptation and the urge for the energy and mobility transition as catalysts for spatial transformation to benefit inhabitants? Can this lead to improving attractiveness and use of public space within their neighbourhood? Can design thinking, with a focus on societal values, overcome governance’s preoccupation with costs? The City x Space design study demonstrate that an integrated design approach from different perspectives and disciplines can tackle the multitude of transitions in diverse urban settings, with public space -including its subsurface- playing a pivotal role in improvement or even transformation. Six design cases in different Dutch and Flemish cities, spanning historical, post-war reconstruction, and post-industrial contexts, showcase tailored solutions that contribute significantly to creating a more attractive and inviting future-proof built environment. The combination of a more formal setup, a clear Research-by-Design approach with included assessment criteria, and the involvement of multidisciplinary design teams from practice provides both directions from a policy perspective and freedom from a design viewpoint to explore and envision plausible futures for selected locations. The main conclusion is that policy makers, architects, urban designers, and landscape architects must deal with new and shifting conditions with a focus on societal, spatial, and ecological values. For policy makers, it is relevant to translate insights from designs produced by Research-by-Design into their policy processes for developing a prospect for action. Both professional practices and education need to foster innovative and interdisciplinary design strategies in a more holistic and integrative approach within their cultural-historical architectural and urban contexts. For both current and future spatial designers, the task -but above all the opportunity- is to position themselves more as integrators and agents of change contributing to a paradigm shift that can drive tangible adaptation and improvement in our living environment at the local scale.@en

This contribution examines the current challenges faced by 20th-century Dutch housing neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods were developed based on modern urbanistic and architectural principles, emphasizing functionality, simplicity, and the use of innovative construction materials. They were primarily established as social housing projects outside historical centers, aiming to provide residents with improved living conditions compared to existing overcrowded and substandard housing. Today, due to subsequent developments and expansions of cities, these neighborhoods often find themselves situated close to pivotal infrastructural connections and play crucial roles in urban transformation strategies. However, despite the Netherlands' reputation for innovative solutions, several Dutch cities encounter significant difficulties in integrating climate adaptation and energy transition measures with the socio-economic issues affecting residents of these urban areas. The most prevalent challenges relate to socio-economic disparities and different cultural backgrounds of the inhabitants, leading to social exclusion, lower educational attainment, limited opportunities, unemployment, and higher levels of poverty. Additionally, the lack of affordable housing, rising property values and rents also pose gentrification risks, threatening established communities. Integration and diversity present further challenges, necessitating strategies for social cohesion and intercultural communication. Safety concerns and inadequate public spaces further impact residents' quality of life, requiring urban design approaches that strengthen social programs, affordable housing, and public services. Simultaneously, addressing these issues must align with climate adaptation and energy transition measures. Implementing heat-resilient urban design, such as green spaces and reflective surfaces, can mitigate the urban heat island effect, improve air quality, and provide recreational areas. Sustainable water management techniques, including permeable pavements and retention ponds, reduce flood risks. Infrastructure upgrades, like retrofitting existing systems to meet new climate standards, are essential. Finally, community engagement is crucial; residents must be encouraged to participate in discussions to increase awareness and willingness to adopt climateresilient behaviors. To comprehensively address these challenges, a holistic, design-driven research approach is necessary. Designers, local authorities, stakeholders, community organizations, and residents must collaborate to develop and implement strategies that enhance the overall quality of life in neighborhoods, fostering more equitable and sustainable communities. Following this line of thought, this contribution seeks to elaborate on the roles of design and designers by examining relevant projects, practices, and experiences in Dutch cities. The study leverages the principles of the New European Bauhaus (NEB), aiming to bring together sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusivity as fundamental pillars for promoting the green transition throughout Europe.@en

Changing outdoor conditions, i.e. higher outdoor air temperature, higher occurrence of heatwaves and outdoor air pollution, increase the risk of overheating and accumulation of air pollution in homes. Previous studies showed that high indoor air temperatures and air pollution affect occupants’ health, resulting in cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases, eyes and skin symptoms, and mortality. Measures to increase energy efficiency of renovated and newly built homes can further increase health risks during extreme weather events and can increase the outdoor temperature. Moreover, the rise of the outdoor air temperature in Europe is higher than the global average.

Therefore, understanding of the extent of current overheating and indoor air pollution and of the contributing factors is necessary to identify the required adaptability of dwellings in Europe to changing outdoor conditions. The objective of this study is to systematically review consequences of changing outdoor conditions, building characteristics, and technology on the indoor environment and occupants’ health in homes in European countries during summer.

This review focuses on empirical studies, as these enable to capture real world interactions of occupants and buildings in relation to outdoor conditions. Varying outdoor conditions, building-, and occupant-related aspects in different European climate zones are discussed. Main findings are that overheating already occurs in normal summers in temperate and northern European countries, while variation in overheating is related to occupants’ adaptative behaviour and building-related aspects. Based on the review, it is suggested to investigate adaptability of dwellings to changing occupants’ needs, new energy efficient technologies, and changing outdoor conditions.@en

In 2017 Prof Kate Raworth from Oxford University and Amsterdam University published the book 'Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist'. The Doughnut, the core concept at the heart of Doughnut Economics (DE), is a tool for human prosperity in the 21st century to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. It consists of two concentric rings, a social foundation and an ecological ceiling, and in between lies a doughnut-shaped space, the safe and just space where humanity can thrive. @en

In 2017, Professor Kate Raworth from Oxford University and Amsterdam University published the book “Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist”. The Doughnut, the core concept at the heart of Doughnut Economics (DE), is a tool for human prosperity in the 21st century to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. It consists of two concentric rings, a social foundation and an ecological ceiling, and in between lies a doughnut-shaped space, the safe and just spacewhere humanity can thrive.@en

This research focuses on the architecture of degrowth with regard to the Circular Economy (CE) in the built environment and the role of the architect. Today, to achieve a sound CE, the challenge related to the global decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation has to be addressed. The impossibility of pursuing economic growth in a planet with limited physical resources forces us to face the necessity of limiting growth, especially in wealthy regions. Furthermore, to incentivise sustainable growth in more deprived areas is key, particularly in places providing shelters and better health conditions is mandatory. Several high-density newly built neighbourhoods, even if positioned as sustainable and circular, often have a negative socio-economic and environmental impact on local communities and less developed world regions from where materials and energy are extracted(Nelson & Schneider, 2018) (Lehtinen, 2018). Economic growth and national GDPs are considered among the essential values in a world with limited energy and material resources, where the population and production of goods are constantly growing. The only possibility to reverse this trend is introducing a global shift in knowledge and culture (Calisto Friant et al., 2020) (Nelson & Schneider, 2018). Both the 1970s and recent years saw architects taking different roles in practice, for instance, increasing social cooperation and decreasing energy and material consumption, contributing thus to degrowth. Against this background, this research aims to elaborate an architectural perspective on the question of growth, exploring emerging practices and reflecting upon the limits and the potentials of their approaches. The outcome will provide insights into how best practices in architecture regarding CE and degrowth can generate alternative roles for architects. This research will analyze and elaborate upon relevant case studies such as De Ceuvel, Amsterdam by Space&Matter; R-Urban, Paris by Atelier Architecture Autog r e (Calisto Friant et al., 2020); the Heckenbeck village, Germany (Grewer & Keck, 2019) and other examples from the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale entitled 'Enough: The Architecture of Degrowth (OAT, 2019).'@en