Within the IABR 2024, Nature of Hope, Dérive starts a longer-term project around, on the one hand, taking inventory of previous design and realized efforts around the development of Rotterdam as a nature-inclusive city and, on the other hand, looking ahead to how these developments can be made more ‘effective’ and tangible and where we maybe have developed some blind spots – collectively as a city.  

Although there are many moments to feel hopeful about in Rotterdam in the steps and attention being given to nature – nature inclusive design is not yet mandatory in Rotterdam, unlike Amsterdam or Utrecht. One of the issues is that urban biodiversity is still often narrated from the perspective of the city, while it exists in the contact with the peripheral edge of the city, and in large volumes of quiet, dark spaces of the city. This research will help articulate and further the questions mentioned.