Drawing the subsurface: Integrated Infrastructure and Environment Design

Abstract

The subsurface is the technical space, the engine room of a city, housing the vital functions of water, electricity, sewers and drainage, but also housing the natural system that is crucial for a stable, green, healthy and livable city. Especially the effects of climate change, the boosts for an energy transition and the fact that there are less financial mean makes the intelligent use of the subsurface more important.
Situated in the DIMI theme safe, sustainable deltas and metropolises with the connecting theme of resilient, durable infrastructure this project focuses on the urban renewal of (delta) metropolises. The main question is how to design resilient, durable (subsurface) infrastructure in urban renewal projects using parameters of the natural system – linking in an efficient way (a) water cycle, (b) soil and subsurface conditions, (c) soil improvement technology, and (d) opportunities in urban renewal (e.g. urban growth or shrinkage)
By understanding and re-designing the engine room we aim for a more efficient overall system (starting from the subsurface and reflecting on the surface level). Moreover, the subsurface is a crowded place and without planning it there is no room to make use of novel solutions that the subsurface can offer cities for managing water, heat and renewable energy or underground space more efficiently.
The project was developed in two phases, the first phase concentrated on synchronization of the connected disciplines: water management, geo engineering and urbanism. The second phase was focused on the architectural representation of the subsurface in cooperation with the municipality of Rotterdam and Leiden.