René van der Velde is landscape architect and urban forester with the chair of Landscape Architecture, at the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment, TU Delft. His research and teaching focusses on developing climate-proof, healthy and resilient cities via fundamental and applied research in and around urban forestry and green infrastructure. He is initiator of the Urban Climate Arboreta project, on the relationship between tree architecture(s) and heat stress mitigation, the Atlas of Tree City Holland, which maps the cultural-historical, socio-spatial and physical-ecological dimensions of the urban forest in lowland cities, and with European partners on the BioCity of the Future initiative, where the concept of Forest Urbanism plays a central role. He is currently also project leader of the i-Tree 2.0-NL project which aims to quantify cooling performances and growth curves of street trees in CfB climate-zone cities. He advises government, industry and societal partners on and around urban forestry and green infrastructure and is research programme leader of the section Landscape Architecture at the TU Delft.
As graduation mentor, René is interested in projects that integrate forestry, landscape architecture and urban design and engaging with the BioCity concept. BioCities are resilient, circular socio-ecological systems, building on the best traits of forest ecosystems where many different species coexist in sustainable environments. In this way BioCity projects explore the different ways neighbourhoods, cities and urban regions might be re-shaped as novel and sustainable form of ‘forest urbanism’.
A graduation project should comprise both research and design. Possible graduation topics should be related to the BioCities and Forest Urbanism and can include:
– Design strategies and elaborations at the object or neighbourhood scale;
– Planning strategies and masterplans at the city scale;
– Systemic visions for regional territories;
Selection of graduates supervised in the past years:
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
– Hartmeyer, L. (2022). THE FOREST FORMERLY KNOWN AS: Reimagining forest infrastructure as an agent of care
– Kannekens, E. (2020). URBAN FOREST MOVEMENT(S): Movement as method for experiencing nature and its effects in the city of Den Haag.
– Costantini, G. (2017) INTERMEDIATE LANDSCAPES: Public spaces of experimentation.
URBANISM
– Thomas, L. (2021) BORDERSCAPES: On the Activation of Border Space to Enable Interaction and Accommodate Inclusive Mobility
– Arnold, J. (2015) DESIGN FOR CO-CREATION: Neighborhood Regeneration via Private Initiatives
– Hooijdonk, D. (2014) WATER NO GET ENEMY: Contemporary Nomadism as an Alternative for the Dutch Polder Lodel