PCF Talk #67 – Agenda Monthly Meeting – Hybrid
This is a hybrid event, please join in person, or via the zoom link below!
Deltaic Systems After the Age of Mastery
09:00 - 09:15
Introduction by Fransje Hooimeijer
09:15 - 09:25
This edition of PCF Talks presents two complementary projects that examine how climate change, infrastructure, and everyday life intersect in the Dutch delta. Together, they show how water is not an external threat to be controlled, but a structural condition that continuously reshapes space and society. By combining critical historiography and forward-looking design experimentation, today’s talks propose a shift from technological control toward situated, long-term coexistence with water in the Dutch delta.
Fransje Hooimeijer is an associate professor in Environmental technology and design from the department of Urbanism at TU Delft. Fransje specializes in system integration of technical conditions in urban design and interdisciplinary design. In her research and teaching, she takes the perspective of the city as a technical reconstruction of the natural landscape and investigates how these natural conditions can be utilized better, and how urban systems can adapt to new technologies, through urban design. The focus lies on design and planning processes and how, by representation of the city as a technical construction, it can be made climate-proof, energy-neutral, more biodiverse, and of better spatial quality.
Nieuw Roffa 2100 by Luca Iuorio
09:25 - 10:15
Nieuw Roffa 2100 focuses on existing Rotterdam neighborhoods from a design perspective. It explores alternatives to demolition by developing phased strategies to retrofit buildings and public space under projected sea-level rise and extreme rainfall. Working backward from 2100 scenarios, the project proposes an adaptive, interdisciplinary approach grounded in the paradigm of living with water.
The talk concludes with a 15-minute reflection on the topic.
Luca Iuorio graduated in architecture from IUAV University of Venice, where he also earned a doctorate in urbanism. He is currently assistant professor at TU Delft, working on the spatial design of future deltaic systems within the Environmental Technology and Design section and the Delta Urbanism research group. His research focuses on the interplay between engineering, society, and climate, examining how spatial transformations are shaped by human behavior, technology, and environmental forces. He approaches climate adaptation as both a spatial and social process, using qualitative methods to understand lived experiences of change. Luca explores water infrastructures not just as technical solutions but as drivers of urban transformation, bridging urbanism, engineering and environmental sciences to rethink how we design with uncertainty.
10:15 - 10:45
Break
Reporting the Delta by Sophia Arbara
10:45 - 11:00
Reporting the Delta - through an itinerant film club and a book - revisits archival documentaries produced around major hydraulic works to critically reflect on how engineering projects have historically transformed Dutch landscapes and collective life. By using film as an analytical instrument rather than mere illustration, the project re-reads past technological ambitions to better understand how current climate infrastructures may shape future urban realities.
Sophia Arbara is an architect and urban designer whose work spans from urban design, landscape architecture and cultural heritage studies. Her research addresses socio-ecological challenges through spatial strategies that reveal both known and hidden narratives. As a postdoctoral researcher in Delta Urbanism, TU Delft, she explores food systems as spatial agents in delta regions and the role of soil in spatial planning. She earned her PhD from Roma Tre University and has taught and conducted research at UC Berkeley and the Federal University of Santa Catarina. Sophia previously worked in the Netherlands, Greece, and Spain. She holds a master’s degrees in architecture from the National Technical University of Athens and in urban design from UC Berkeley.
Film screening with subsequent final reflection
11:00 - 11:45
PCF lighthouse projects and new opportunities
11:45 - 12:00