The design agencies Architecture Workroom Brussels, LOLA Landscape Architects and Floris Alkemade Architect spent eighteen months performing research by design into the strengths of the Brabant carpet metropolis. North Brabant is facing serious ecological and socio-economic challenges. Until now, spatial planning in North Brabant has always been used to boost and improve the urban environment, the natural structures and agricultural area as three completely separate worlds. As a result, there is a lack of spatial as well as economic cohesion, and contact between the city and the countryside has been eroded. The aim of this project was to resolve the issues within the city from outside, and vice versa. To do so it is necessary to look beyond the city boundaries and focus on the connection between the city, nature and farming, rather than reinforcing the three individually. Therefore, there is a need for a regional spatial vision.

BrabantStad is a network of cities with lots of developments in between. The connecting element between the city, nature and farming is water. North Brabant is a wet province by nature, but nowadays the water is drained away so quickly that there is a shortage of freshwater. The main water challenge in North Brabant is thus safeguarding the supply of freshwater. The expansion of the water system is a continuous investment in which challenges related to quality housing, farming, recreation and innovative entrepreneurship must be connected. The IABR-Project Atelier BrabantStad proposes six development models that examine where the water issues exist, and how their solution could be linked to other challenges. The results of the study were documented in the publication Reweaving the urban carpet.