OUR FOCUS

We focus on the consequences of the future climate and on a transition of urban and landscape planning practices that will allow us to accommodate changes over time. This involves data and forecasts ‘encountering’ the place-specific, the sensuous, and the aesthetic, with a focus on:

• Water being a central issue for the climate of the future – as a valuable resource in terms of both drought and flood. We investigate the potential of renovating and transforming, integrating existing urban structures and rural areas with a holistic and multiscalar approach to waterscapes as a foundational and vital premise. This includes studies into existing and future settlement patterns and access to clean drinking water. The aim is to facilitate a paradigm shift in how we perceive the role of landscapes and water when we transform and develop our urban landscapes.
• The accelerating biodiversity crisis is investigated through the concept of urban nature, afforestation, new design practices, administrative approaches, multi-faceted land use, and opportunities for urban recreational activities. The aim is to facilitate a deeper integration of biodiversity in urban landscapes and in our collective understanding of the place. Our approach to this involves full-scale experiments in landscape laboratories, where what is challenging to understand is made comprehensible, spatial, and sensory.
• The climate of the future increases the demands on our physical planning when this planning involves reducing carbon emissions, improving the quality of life, and a wide range of other sustainability parameters. We apply an ecological perspective to explore and test the potential of and the obstacles to future planning and the transition of communities. The goal is to explore and create insights into how, through planning, we can integrate a more place-specific and ecological understanding and planning.