The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study

Population growth and urbanization are straining the limited space in the built environment. The business districts take up a great portion of this built space. These districts face climate change hazards and spatial emptiness due to their profit-driven foundation. Sustainable ambitions and strategi...

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Main Authors: Rosa de Wolf, Rob Roggema, Steffen Nijhuis, Nico Tillie
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Land
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/5/1072
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author Rosa de Wolf
Rob Roggema
Steffen Nijhuis
Nico Tillie
author_facet Rosa de Wolf
Rob Roggema
Steffen Nijhuis
Nico Tillie
author_sort Rosa de Wolf
collection DOAJ
description Population growth and urbanization are straining the limited space in the built environment. The business districts take up a great portion of this built space. These districts face climate change hazards and spatial emptiness due to their profit-driven foundation. Sustainable ambitions and strategic locations offer the potential to rethink business districts and integrate them into the living environment. Understanding business districts as potential workscapes, more socio-ecological inclusive business districts, is a new perspective. This research formulates a method to define the spatial quality of business districts through literature review and spatial analysis. A spatial analysis of forty cases in the Netherlands presents a higher spatial quality on more diverse landscapes. This indicates that diversification of the business districts’ landscape from monotone to multitone is needed to enable workscape development. Landscape-driven urbanism is needed to generate this desired level of quality. The research highlights the strategic location of edge-city business districts, situated between urban and rural areas, showing the potential to strengthen the urban-rural relationship. Further research on and by design is needed to enable workscape development.
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spelling doaj-art-58f243cd7e65452790a5ed7bd0b1df5d2025-08-20T03:14:31ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2025-05-01145107210.3390/land14051072The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping StudyRosa de Wolf0Rob Roggema1Steffen Nijhuis2Nico Tillie3Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 134, 2628BL Delft, The NetherlandsTecnológico de Monterrey, School of Architecture, Art and Design, Campus Monterrey, Monterrey 64700, MexicoDepartment of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 134, 2628BL Delft, The NetherlandsDepartment of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 134, 2628BL Delft, The NetherlandsPopulation growth and urbanization are straining the limited space in the built environment. The business districts take up a great portion of this built space. These districts face climate change hazards and spatial emptiness due to their profit-driven foundation. Sustainable ambitions and strategic locations offer the potential to rethink business districts and integrate them into the living environment. Understanding business districts as potential workscapes, more socio-ecological inclusive business districts, is a new perspective. This research formulates a method to define the spatial quality of business districts through literature review and spatial analysis. A spatial analysis of forty cases in the Netherlands presents a higher spatial quality on more diverse landscapes. This indicates that diversification of the business districts’ landscape from monotone to multitone is needed to enable workscape development. Landscape-driven urbanism is needed to generate this desired level of quality. The research highlights the strategic location of edge-city business districts, situated between urban and rural areas, showing the potential to strengthen the urban-rural relationship. Further research on and by design is needed to enable workscape development.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/5/1072business districtsspatial qualityworkscapeslandscape-driven urbanismmultitoneedge-city districts
spellingShingle Rosa de Wolf
Rob Roggema
Steffen Nijhuis
Nico Tillie
The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study
Land
business districts
spatial quality
workscapes
landscape-driven urbanism
multitone
edge-city districts
title The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study
title_full The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study
title_fullStr The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study
title_full_unstemmed The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study
title_short The Design of Workscapes: A Scoping Study
title_sort design of workscapes a scoping study
topic business districts
spatial quality
workscapes
landscape-driven urbanism
multitone
edge-city districts
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/5/1072
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