Abstract Body

Territories in-between (TiB) have gained increased attention over the past decade. These territories are identified as territories somewhere in-between the urban and rural and manifest themselves at the urban fringes of the city. Typical land uses in the TiB are warehouses, sport complexes, allotment gardens and small-scale industrial activities. Because of their unique spatial characteristics, they have great potential for the provisioning of ecosystem services. These places are often considered to be underused, lack spatial quality (sense of place) and are under mounting pressure of urban densification. Therefore, the question arises how we can redevelop these territories in an integrated way that acknowledges and strengthens the social-ecological potentials of these territories.

From an ecological and social perspective there is plenty of reason to soften the boundary between the urban and rural and allow the edges of the city to be a place of ambiguity where man, the built environment and nature can interact. Softening the urban-rural boundary facilitates species movement and interaction between urban and rural biotopes. This accounts for both human and non-human species. On top of that, the rich diversity of land uses and abundance of semi open spaces in the TiB provides unique habitats different from exclusively urban and rural landscapes. Therefore we, as urban planners and designers, should reconsider conventional planning and design approaches towards these territories, instead of merely densifying the TiB in a monofunctional manner and enforcing the urban – rural divide, which is currently main practice.

The aim of the paper is to present an urban design strategy that makes space for the territory in-between and embraces its true unorganized and multifunctional nature as a potential for social and ecological development. The proposed strategy is presented in a design assignment for the city of Rotterdam.