Redesigning Urban

Life in Healthy Soils

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Dust to Dust is a research-led urban design challenge Team
to take inspiration from basic principles of urban life as
practiced by the ancient Maya to inform proposals for
sustainable urban futures. Maya archaeology highlights
that there is an enhanced relationship between soil
management and urban life. The exhibited development
schemes aim to give this relationship centre stage in
contemporary urban settings to improve the long-term
sustainability of cities worldwide.
The proposed acupuncture park “Paseo de la Cruz” in Monte Albán,
Oaxaca, Mexico

This exhibition contributes to achieving a selection of Improving Water and Soils in Urban Space by
the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals:
Engaging Local People and their Heritage
We explore solutions to reduce soil erosion and restore water flow across
the landscape of Monte Albán in Oaxaca City, Mexico.
More than two thousand years ago, the Zapotec people modified the
summit and slopes of one hill in Oaxaca. They built a large ceremonial
plaza and hundreds of residences which lasted for more than one
thousand years, having nearly 30,000 inhabitants in its heyday. They
controlled rainwater by building terraces, canals, dams, and wells. Water
and earth were keystones of their world view and ritual.
Today, rapid and unregulated urbanisation is damaging the environment
Curating Team Delivery and threatening archaeological remains. In response, we organise
Benjamin Vis, workshops in which local people, authorities, and experts come together
University of Kent to discuss these issues. We propose “acupuncture parks” as a cost-
Dan Evans, effective strategy of small-scale projects that modify and rearrange
Lancaster University Dust to Dust urban space and redevelop ancient hydrological features in an attempt
dusttodustcompetition.org to improve water quality and protect soils.
Christian Isendahl,
University of Gothenburg
Pre-Columbian Tropical
Elizabeth Graham, Urban Life (TruLife)
University College London blogs.kent.ac.uk/trulife

Supporting Organisations Partner Organisations

Team Members Collaborators

Araceli Rojas
Martínez Gracida
Nahuel Beccan Dávila
Endorsed by RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) South/Southeast
Patricia Martínez Lira
Fabián Vázquez Martínez
Bas van de Pas
Edmundo Morales
Adrián Puentes
Victor Rojas Ramírez

Front cover image – Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license by Andresnavarroforever beccandavila.nl
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Team Team

A neighbourhood of urban greenhouses encouraging stronger View from a downtown apartment of the proposed Eco Boulevard in Concepción
ecological relationships in urban life

How Everyday Choices Can Nurture Our
Urban Lives
The countless seemingly insignificant choices in our everyday lives have
a very big effect on the world. Change what you choose and you will
eventually live in a different world. In our busy urban lives, the solutions
to the daunting sustainability issues we all face are far less out of reach
than we think.
People are social animals. We love exchanging stories. Most of these
stories are about everyday experiences. We learn from them and pass
the useful ones on. For a long time now, we have been transforming
our landscapes to live in cities. Our project tells a personal story about
the impact of everyday choices on our lives in the city. In each choice we
make there is an opportunity to change our urban ecosystem for the
better. When moving house, our persona embarks on a journey that
improves well-being and, slowly, a different kind of urban life emerges.
Can you imagine what your neighbourhood might look like if you made
different choices about the basic things in life?
Small to Large Methods that Enable Participation
in Making a Sustainable Urban Community
We present a framework for making Concepción, Chile, a sustainable
city that improves residents’ quality of life and wellbeing. Restoring soil
health and generating a local food supply system can reduce living costs
in a circular economy and promote a positive impact on the ecosystem.
In Concepción, informal urban sprawl and current farming practices are
primary drivers for ecological degradation. Reverting these practices
requires transforming local socio-economic issues into opportunities.
Compacting the built environment, facilitating cooperative food
production, and introducing land-efficient polyculture and agricultural
techniques could be effective solutions. The key is to finance and enable
these changes in an inclusive and ecologically responsible manner.
Dense cities become more desirable and affordable than sprawling
development when an innovative and comprehensive, socially vibrant
design approach is applied. Our plans for Concepción can generate
sustainable urban communities through participation and community
ownership. Our proposal results in restoring and maintaining soil health,
generating circular local food supplies, and developing more affordable,
attractive and resilient urban life.

Team Members Affiliations

Giancarlo Mangone 1,2 1 Symbiosis: Sustainable

Team Members Rob Cooke 2 Design + Consulting

Gerald Lindner 2 BuroHappold Engineering
Laurens Dominicus 2
Malgorzata Mader 3 Evolution Engineering,
Michael Maks Davis 3
Jessica Bardella Janina Sanchez 3 Design, and Energy Systems
Peter Heideman Andrea Cristina Cordova 3
Danny van Kessel
symbiosisarchitecture.com
cc-studio.nl burohappold.com
kasco.cc evolutionecoengine.com embracing complexity
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Team Team

Placing soil health first in a redesign of a typical Dutch 1950s neighbourhood The proposed ‘open space’ in our design takes cues from Maya agro-urban
landscapes and the indigenous architecture of the Amazonian Yanomami people

Making Healthy Soils a Public Asset in Offering Amazonian Communities Economic

Urban Form
Placing the management of soil health first in urban design leads to
innovative redesigns of public space. This is an opportunity to respond
to global challenges like urbanisation, climate change, and energy
transition. We explore how a circular use of soil can improve three urban
designs in history of Dutch urban planning.
Half of each of our cities is underground. This is a hybrid space where
the natural ecosystem of soil and water intertwines with human-made
constructions like foundations, tunnels, cables, pipes, and cellars.
This ‘engine room’ of the city has a crucial role in facing issues such as
flooding, drought, the transition to renewable energy, and local food
production.
Soil quality is critical to making cities healthy. Polluted and degraded
soils should be rehabilitated and the space available for self-sustaining
natural processes increased. In this project we test four methods: gentle
remediation (cleaning with plants), fertilisation maintenance, restoring
the original Dutch peat landscape, and using a Maya-inspired soil and
water rehabilitation concept.
Team Members Affiliations
Fransje Hooimeijer 1 1 TU Delft
Francesca Rizzetto 2 2 UN Lab
Kees de Vette 3 3 Municipality Rotterdam
Alternatives to Urban Migration
The Amazon region in Brazil is being severely affected by forced
migration to cities and deforestation. Our proposal responds to these
issues by generating local and sustainable economic opportunities within
rural communities.
The lack of opportunities in small communities within the Amazon forest
plays a key role in the growth of favelas in the region’s capital cities.
Simultaneously, urban encroachment increases the deforestation of
the rainforest with the inherent loss of its fragile fertile soils. We aim to
reverse this situation with a proposal that mobilises local groups with
the purpose of stimulating entrepreneurship and generating sustainable
economic opportunities. The project is located in Mapia where there is
an ongoing collaboration with the local people and mutual interest in
further developing their sustainable timber extraction based economy.
The proposed design takes cues from Maya agro-urban landscapes and
the indigenous architecture of the Amazonian Yanomami people. This
proposal integrates the built environment with agricultural fields and
uses local construction techniques and materials to promote a sense of
identity and ownership. The intention is to minimise the environmental
impact by incorporating sustainable technologies such as natural
ventilation, rainwater harvesting and organic waste bio-digesters to
produce soil for sustainable and self-sufficient agricultural ecosystems,
known as permaculture.

Loretta von der Tann 4 4 University College London

Wouter ter Heijden 1 Team Members Collaborators

Leyden Durand Lopéz 2 Noelia Monteiro de Ribeiro Victoria Baggio
Ian Acheilas 1,4 Christian Teshirogi Dante Rimondino
German Nieva Mesas Mariana Orrico
Felipe Bannitz Fernanda Caldeira
unlab.eu
Karen Doho
tudelft.nl/staff/f.l.hooimeijer
tudelft.nl/en/infrastructures/research/special-projects/ estudioflume.com
subsurface-infrastructure ISES.org.br
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Regenerative and ecological urban redevelopment is proposed along Fort Bragg’s
Coastline (Photo: Saul Pichardo)

Redesigning the City for Regenerative Relationships

between Soil, Land, Water, and People
We re-envision Fort Bragg, California, using design principles based on the
theory of ‘morphogenesis’ by Christopher Alexander. This likens the city to
biological things, which are created continuously and given form progressively
as processes of growth and adaptation take place. The design principles help
improve relationships with soil, land, water, and the people of the city.
The deindustrialisation of Fort Bragg leaves the city economically
disadvantaged, but offers some large urban development opportunities. We
attempt to create the beginnings of a ‘Morphogenetic City’ using generative
and regenerative processes, including patterns and pattern language. These
concepts are formulated as design principles that address the domains of
sustainability through soil, water, and waste management, food security,
urban agriculture, and socio-ecological practice and architecture. Key to this
challenge is how the Pomo Indians in Northern California can rehabilitate by
forming part of the revitalised city allowing them to continue deeply rooted
traditions in a new way. This combination of factors invites interdependent
cultural and urban experimentation. How can each regenerative building
project help to restore, remodel, replace, and reuse decaying urban fabric? How
will each development heal the existing land and start to establish a beautiful
emerging city that facilitates new relationships to the Pacific waters and
managing soil quality?

Team Members Affiliations

Hajo Neis 1, 2, 5 1 Center for Environmental Structure (CES),

Susan Ingham 1, 3 University of California, Berkeley

2 Portland Urban Architecture Research
Sual Pichardo 4
Pamanee Chaiwat 2 Laboratory (PUARL), University of Oregon
3 KASA Architecture
4 The Art of Building
5 Hajo Neis and Associates

patternlanguage.com
blogs.uoregon.edu/puarl2018
livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/bln-exp.htm