Arthur van der Laaken

RE-Industriële Stad

Scenario for a post-fossil industrial society

The relationship between heavy industry and the living environment in the Netherlands is problematic. The future of the industry is under increasing pressure here due to growing societal concerns about health and climate. However, we cannot do without industry either; the essential goods and jobs are an integral part of our society.  

In my research project, I researched how industry in the Netherlands can play a fully-fledged role. I based this on a post-fossil future where we will have less energy and raw materials available than now. In the plan, employment, economic activity, wellbeing and ecology are not competing forces, but rather collaborative forces that reinforce each other. Existing industrial complexes often provide unique and attractive opportunities to reunite the city and industry. In my plan, a post-fossil industrial city has its own logic and yields a totally new urban typology and morphology: the RE-Industrial City.  

This post-fossil industrial city forms a local biotope of collaborative processes. There are less direct relationships with the other side of the world, but there is greater interconnectedness within the region. In the RE-Industrial City, distances are restricted to a minimum, within which the envisaged objects are accessible on foot or by bike.  Goods are moved within the city by microtransit. Existing building structures will be used as the basis as much as possible in order to save raw materials and strengthen the identity. Moreover, original ecological and landscape structures will be restored as much as possible and adopted as a starting point.  

The RE-Industrial City is not based on economic growth, but the circulation of goods and services. I have translated the principles of a circular economy to 4 spatial building blocks for the city: Creative, Service, Construct and Material (raw materials and energy). Using the building blocks and guiding principles for a RE-Industrial City, I have made an urban plan for Tata Steel and Velsen-Noord. In this plan, the recycling of steel gives rise to the development of a vibrant industrial city where work, living and recreation take place in a new cohesion. 

Graduation date: 19 February 2024
Graduation committee: Martin Probst  (mentor), Tess Broekmans, Merten Nefs
Additional members for the exam: Pieter Jannink, Andreas Mulder