From their base in Rotterdam, Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners operate with a distinctly global outlook — engaging in projects and dialogues that connect spatial design to climate policy and systemic change. Their work, from the Catalogue for Nature-Based Solutions launched at COP26 to strategic urban climate planning in cities around the world, positions landscape architecture not just as a design discipline, but as a driving force in shaping environmental, social, and economic transformation.

In this conversation, Michiel Van Driessche reflects on scaling up the natural agenda, the role of landscape architects in global policymaking, and what it means to translate climate goals into tangible strategies — from the Amazon to Groningen.

Your office, based in Rotterdam, aims globally and recognises the necessity for landscape architecture to be at the forefront of making changes we are performing, not just in design, but also, and especially, in policymaking. Among other things, you developed a catalogue for NBS that was launched at the COP26, with typologies and scalable strategies for urban and rural environments. This is significant – the document was supported by the World Bank Group, which consists of 189 member countries, whose representatives are finance ministers or ministers for development, meeting annually at the IMF. This means you bring discussions that many of us would shriek in terror from, to the “right table”.

We believe it is crucial to elevate the conversation to the right level. The systemic projects and policy initiatives aimed at addressing current global crises often operate at a broader scale than the assignments design agencies usually take on. Our first step has been to connect these larger ambitions to our common projects – to persuade developers and governmental organisations to adopt and integrate them. This also means linking these strategies to other interests, whether commercial or societal. This is essential, because meaningful change happens only when environmental strategies become part of broader economic and social agendas.

At the same time, we see that new political levels and organisations are putting climate change at the core of their programmes, creating the conditions for new policies and global frameworks. We must play a role there too. We need to link the natural agenda to our common landscape architecture projects, making it a driving force behind design and planning. Simultaneously, we must demonstrate the relevance of landscape architects to the new institutions and organisations now stepping up to work on the natural climate agenda — scientific institutes, international policymakers, banks and financiers. These are not our traditional clients, yet their main agenda is now fully aligned with ours.

Today, the UN’s COP30 starts, commencing in Brazil – at the moment of full realisation of the importance of the mature Amazonian forests for global ecological benefit, where, on the other hand, we find ourselves in the wake of “financialisation of forests” and other green assets and natural resources. What can landscape architects contribute to such an event? Why is it important to be there? Do you have an example? What would/do you aim for further?

It is a positive development that forests are gaining financial value — a necessary step to allow them to compete with the economic power that drives their destruction. Yet, this shift should not absolve cities and urban regions of their own responsibility to enhance natural systems. The Amazonian forests are vital to the planet’s ecological balance, and we must protect them. But protection is not the same as repair. Alongside preserving what remains intact, we must confront and heal the vast environmental damage already done elsewhere. This dual responsibility — to protect and to restore — defines the true scope of the climate agenda.

Our experience in Nakuru illustrates why the financialisation of forests must be approached with care. As Kenya explores carbon markets and other mechanisms to monetise ecosystem services, local communities have voiced legitimate concerns: forests are not merely carbon sinks but cultural landscapes deeply intertwined with collective identity and biodiversity. In Nakuru and elsewhere, sacred groves, riparian corridors, and forest patches serve as vital ecological and spiritual spaces for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LCs). Design and landscape architecture can bridge these dimensions — ensuring that new financial mechanisms enhance, rather than erode, local values. By embedding traditional knowledge, community-led stewardship, and local biodiversity priorities into the design of Nature-Based Solutions, we can align economic instruments with socio-ecological regeneration. This approach transforms forests from abstract financial assets into living infrastructures of cultural continuity, equity, and resilience.

Global ecological health depends on the Amazon and other large ecosystems that serve as planetary lungs, but it equally depends on the networks of local ecologies where people live. Nature must exist not only in the remote wilderness, but also in our streets, neighbourhoods and public spaces. People need to see, feel and experience nature daily to understand its value and to cultivate a sense of care. While protecting rainforests that many will never visit is essential, we must ensure that nature does not become an abstract, remote “eco-machine” managed by experts and investors. If nature becomes something we merely preserve elsewhere, it loses its meaning in everyday life.

This is why urban nature strategies are so critical. They reconnect people with the living systems that sustain them, turning ecological awareness into social and political support for broader change. By realising and experiencing nature in our cities, we strengthen the foundation for a global understanding of ecology. The local and the global are not opposing scales — they are mutually reinforcing. Protecting the Amazon is essential, but it must go hand in hand with rewilding, repairing and redesigning the landscapes where most people live.

Landscape architects play a decisive role in bridging these scales. We operate between the global and the local, between ambition and implementation. Our work connects environmental agendas to societal transformation, using design to make abstract goals spatially and socially tangible. Design enables us to imagine different futures, to visualise the spatial consequences of single-issue agendas, and to reveal synergies that can serve both nature and people.

For example, through our participation in World Water Week in Stockholm and our work on two Water as Leverage projects in Kenya and Colombia, we explored how the water agenda can become a catalyst for urban transformation and social inclusion. These experiences illustrate how environmental challenges can drive positive change when approached through design — when they are not just seen as constraints, but as opportunities for new forms of development.

Our profession has long been connected to urban development agendas, where we brought the natural dimension into planning. Today, the climate agenda has become our central agenda. That is why it is crucial for landscape architects to be present at events like COP30 — not only to contribute ideas but to shape the spatial frameworks through which global ambitions are implemented locally. The design discipline can, and must, translate climate policies into spatial action — giving form to the transition that lies ahead.

On a more local level, you were appointed as city architects for Groningen. Can you tell us about your experience?

We are working on numerous climate adaptation policies and strategies in various cities. What we observe is that developing these visions requires not only a shift in mindset, but also profound organisational change. It demands new forms of municipal organisation, collaboration, and alignment with the city council. Being a city architect means not only supporting the administration with technical expertise, but also convincing political leaders to endorse and champion these strategies.

This makes the role an exciting and meaningful challenge – it allows us to experience firsthand what it takes to move from vision to realisation. We are currently developing Groningen’s strategic plan towards 2050, linking urban growth to the transition towards climate neutrality. The goal is not only to build the city in a climate-neutral way, but to structure it so that citizens are empowered to live climate-neutral lives.

For me, this position embodies what we strive for with Felixx: to create fertile ground and societal support for climate neutrality, to turn these ambitions into policies and strategies, and to implement them through public and collective action.