Trained as a landscape architect and gardener, I have been a Vista landscape and urban design project leader for several years. I was an advisor to the Dutch government, regional and municipal authorities and private parties there. I gained experience in urban planning and design combined with using GIS (geographic information systems) as a research instrument.
In 2006 I entered academia and obtained my PhD in landscape architecture from Delft University of Technology in 2015. In Delft, my work focuses on theories, methods and techniques, as well as their practical applications in the fields of landscape architecture, urban design and GIS in an international context, primarily related to GIS-based design research, regional design, history of cultural and designed landscapes, mapping, delta urbanism, and visual landscape assessment.
Now I am Head of the Section of Landscape Architecture and Full Professor of Landscape-based Urbanism that focuses on developing and strengthening landscape-based urbanism as an academic field and increasing awareness of its importance in society and academia. Landscape-based urbanism is an interdisciplinary design approach that uses landscape as the basis for sustainable urban development. The ambition is to embed and expand landscape-based urbanism as a way of thinking in the research and education programs at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. Further reading: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97023-9_11
I have edited and (co)authored several academic books such as: Composing landscapes (Munchen: Birkhauser, 2008), The Polder Atlas of the Netherlands (Bussum: Thoth, 2009), Delta Urbanism: The Netherlands (Chicago: American Planning Association, 2010), Exploring the visual landscape (Amsterdam: IOS press, 2011), Urbanized deltas in transition (Amsterdam: Techne Press, 2014), Flowscapes. Designing landscape as infrastructure (Delft: TU Delft publishers, 2015), GIS-based landscape design research. Stourhead landscape garden as a case study (Delft: A+BE, 2015). And I have published various peer-reviewed and indexed journal articles and book chapters.
Currently, I am the Research Leader of the Department of Urbanism (six Sections, about 100 FTE personnel) and project leader, as well as Editor-in-Chief of RiUS (Research in Urbanism Series, a peer-reviewed and indexed journal) and advisor to (inter)national NGO’s, and governmental and regional authorities. I am also a Board member of the Department of Urbanism at TU Delft, a member of the Board of Directors of the Chabot Museum Rotterdam and several scientific committees and review boards.
I am also a Visiting Professor and Guest Lecturer at Universities in Europe, Asia and North America. Furthermore, I supervise PhD, post-MSc and MSc projects and Coordinate MSc design studios and PhD methodology-courses.
s.nijhuis{at}tudelft.nl
