How is your city’s soil life doing?

Joyce van den Berg, the Chief Landscape Architect of the City of Amsterdam believes soil life is a prerequisite for urban life. She wants you to look closer at the health of our soil beneath and how we coordinate our underground spaces for a more systemic approach to orchestrating change in cities.

Writer: Serene Tng

Tell us more about your experience and journey in becoming a Chief Landscape Architect.

Joyce: It was sometime in 2017 when I started thinking about how we can better address our larger urban challenges more systematically. As designers, how can we tackle our often-interconnected challenges to build a more sustainable future?

Amsterdam is faced with the intersecting challenges of climate adaptation, sustainable energy, heating, circular economy and changing mobility. Our sewage systems require maintenance which is overdue. There is pressure on our underground space with more cables and pipes, while green spaces and trees – requiring root space and healthy soil – take on new urgency with climate change to reduce heat island effect, absorb rainwater, and boost biodiversity.

The Integral Design Method Public Space has been published and well received internationally, advocating for a more systemic approach to planning for physical spaces above and below ground. © City of Amsterdam

The common denominator for all these challenges is the management of our physical spaces, which includes both above ground and below ground. Because of these larger questions, I worked with two other colleagues to explore a more systematic approach to see how we can better plan and coordinate our physical spaces above and below ground.

An aerial view of Amstel-Stad in Amsterdam. © City of Amsterdam

We piloted this new integrated approach for Amstel-Stad, a large redevelopment area in Amsterdam, building 30,000 new homes and the necessary infrastructure. The area was chosen as it had many different urban challenges to address and was in critical need of redevelopment. The multidisciplinary and collaborative approach helped us to detect potential conflicts early, be more effective and productive in the use of our resources and prevent major disruptions downstream. It was this pilot effort that led me to my current role.

You developed the Integral Design Method Public Space (Dutch abbreviation: IOOR). Tell us more about this.

Joyce: The Integral Design Method Public Space is a new way of programming, designing and detailing public spaces, focused on early interdisciplinary collaboration, science-based design analysis, and facilitating decision-making with thematically arranged performance goals and a library of parametrically optimised measures, which considers underground spaces. It proposes a shift in public space planning in looking at our physical spaces more holistically, from below to above and from above to below.

The Integral Design Method Public Space suggests a more integrated approach in addressing multiple issues and city layers strategically in managing the city’s spaces. © City of Amsterdam

The new design method prioritises integrating below-ground infrastructure and public space design for a more sustainable and liveable environment. It involves public-private partnerships from an early stage to address issues like heat, precipitation, energy systems, circularity, and nature-inclusive design.

It is about tackling multiple, interconnected challenges with a more systemic way of working. We applied this approach to the Amstel-Stad area.

What has been the interest in this new methodology?

Joyce: We are happy to see that this methodology has been scaled up and adapted in other municipalities in Netherlands. We have published the case study on Amstel-Stad and shared this globally. There is also a workbook published where designers can use this resource to adapt the methodology for different contexts.

A simulation of the various uses and layers above and below ground in Amstel-Stad in Amsterdam. © City of Amsterdam

We have received a lot of interest from many cities on this approach. The Integral Design Method Public Space publication is even translated to Bahasa Indonesian as the Indonesians were interested to learn from this in using the material in many of their local universities and educational programmes.

What is one fundamental aspect about the integrated approach that cities should take notice?

Joyce: The essence of the integrated design methodology is being able to look at all your key infrastructural assets and make strategic moves at the right time. When you need to maintain or upgrade your cables and pipes, you may be changing the streets while doing so and this may destroy the trees in the process.

We need to look at all our infrastructural assets and their life cycle in a more systemic way and be able to coordinate and orchestrate the maintenance, upgrading and building of key infrastructures considering their impact and relationship with other aspects of the city, including how these affect the growth of our trees.

You have advocated that we need to pay closer attention to the soil in our urban areas. Why do we need to do so?

Joyce: Did you know that one teaspoon of soil has more life in it than people on earth? Our soil is the source of life for our cities, not just in ensuring our trees and plants grow well to provide shade and comfort for us, but it directly contributes to our cities’ liveability.

Mapping out the detailed soil conditions in Amsterdam. © City of Amsterdam

Our scientists in collaboration with researchers did DNA research to understand why the trees in Amstel-Stad were not growing well and found that it had to do with the poor soil condition. We learnt that the soil is like the “black box” in urban planning. We need to pay closer attention to how we treat our soil. Our underground space is quickly getting filled up with cables and pipes and there may not be enough space for trees to grow well. We need to find new solutions and ways in how we can organise and coordinate our underground spaces to ensure we have sufficient open spaces for trees to grow.

Understanding the many living organisms in the soil underneath the city. © City of Amsterdam

Beyond just caring for our soil under our ground, we also need to ensure our soils’ rich biodiversity. Why is this important?

Joyce: Without life in our soil, we lose the natural engineers—worms, fungi, roots—that create tiny channels and structures that help water infiltrate, be retained, and move gradually through the ground. These living systems are essential for preventing surface flooding, enhancing water resilience, and keeping our cities liveable. Healthy, biodiverse soils act like a sponge and a filter at the same time—they slow down water, purify it, and store it. Without them, we face more extreme droughts and floods. Biodiversity below ground is just as crucial as above.

A soil with rich biodiversity is also essential for helping to transport sufficient nutrients to plants and trees on our roads and streets for them to flourish, to give us shade, comfort and contribute to our wellbeing. When we think about infrastructure, we also must think about infra-nature in soil. Trees also need connection to one another to exchange nutrients and this is the same with soil.

What are some important priorities landscape architects should focus on?

Joyce: There is an increasing need for landscape architects to work on the larger strategy and systemic levels in shaping our physical environments. I believe the landscape architect has the potential and ability to look at sustainability in more holistic ways and can help to bring together all the key elements.

There must be strong leadership and vision to lead and drive the larger systemic strategies and combine this with more technical expertise, bringing in the financial perspective as well.

Joyce’s book, BiodiverCITY, presents strategies and initiatives on how cities can maintain healthy soil as the key to urban life. © City of Amsterdam

Joyce can den Berg is an experienced landscape architect and passionate systems innovator. With the development and publication of the Integral Design Method Public Space (2020) and the follow-up research, BiodiverCITY_A Matter of Vital Soil! (2021), Joyce has introduced a new methodology for public space design on the national and international map. She has worked on many comprehensive and complex sustainable projects before joining the City of Amsterdam as the Chief Landscape Architect.