March 15, 2022 | 02:00 PM CET
Online Event

Traditionally, cities around the world have used these spaces to lay down service lines—for water, sanitation, electricity—or for parking and transport. However, the multifaceted value of underground spaces is often overlooked in traditional planning processes—focussing on the horizontal and vertical expansion of urban areas above the surface. This neglect of underground spaces is linked to a limited understanding of the value of underground spaces and the importance of spatial planning to effectively utilise these spaces.

The purpose of the Cyber Agora is to expand urbanism to think beyond the “above ground”, and amplify the future of cities, which is impossible without integrating the subsurface into the urban fabric. Moreover, this event aims to highlight the value of underground spaces in the development, planning and management of a resilient and sustainable urban future, and therein role of public policies and governance.

The idea to plan and manage the use of the underground has been around for a long time. The use of the subsurface has evolved below many modern cities. It has evolved to focus on the use of subsurface as a spatial relief valve—freeing up vital space on the surface for alternate use. In the foreseeable future, planning the use of underground spaces for a sustainable, resilient, liveable and inclusive city will become inevitable—to avoid future chaos and limitations on city development. It will require cross-disciplinary integrated urban planning and government policies where public policies and urban planning acknowledge the existence of underground space and plan its use with the development of the surface.

For ITACUS and ISOCARP, underground urbanism is a domain that not only needs to be addressed but offers ample opportunity for further development in the planning community.

The event is open to urban planners, designers, urban decision-makers, engineers, placemakers, urban explorers.

Matthias Vollmer is an architect and research associate at the Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. After completing his degree in film studies at the Zurich University of Arts (ZHdK), he pursued a master’s degree in architecture at the ETH. In his work as a research associate at the Institute of Landscape Architecture, he examines the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and landscape through visual media, including film, analogue photography and laser scan technology. His current research project and doctoral study question the relationship between urban landscape and its underground through geodata visualization. Matthias is also co-founder and co-director of SCANVISION, an ETH spin-off in the field of 3D surveying and visualization that uses point clouds to convey complex space and form.
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Keivan Rafie is the Deputy Tunnel Practice Regional Director for Western Canada and has over 20 years of design and construction experience in tunnelling projects. He has been involved in projects in Canada, the UK, the Middle East, Australia and the United States, using tunnelling methods such as Drill and Blast, SEM (sequential excavation method), TBM (tunnel boring machine), and a range of trenchless methods (Microtunneling, Auger Boring, Horizontal Directional Drilling). Keivan has a BS in Mining Engineering, a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, and professional certification in project management, construction management and sustainability. He is an author/contributor of tunnelling trade journals and routinely presents technical papers at tunnelling conferences.
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Don Del Nero, PE, CDT is Vice President and US Tunnel Director for Hatch Associates Consultants, Inc. He holds a minor in geology, BS in Civil Engineering, MS in Geotechnical Engineering, and has 33 years of experience in the tunnel and trenchless design and construction. Along with being an instructor for the NASTT New Installation Course, he is an instructor for the Breakthroughs in Tunneling Short-course, Microtunnelling Short-course, and Risk Management in Underground Construction short-course. He had the honour of Chairing the 2018 No-Dig Show, has authored over 40 industry papers and a subchapter on means and methods in the book, “Trenchless Technology: Planning, Equipment, and Methods” by Mohammad Najafi.
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Joyce van den Berg graduated with distinction as a landscape architect from both Larenstein College and the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. She works at the Amsterdam municipality as Chief Designer, and she is one of the co-authors of the publications: Integral design method public space and biodiversity. Van den Berg gives lectures regularly and is active as a guest lecturer for the Academy of Architecture, Amsterdam and Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar.
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Raf Ilsbroekx is an urbanist and currently a PhD-candidate at the Research Group for Urban Development at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He holds a Master of Urbanism and Spatial Planning and a Master of Civil Engineering Technology. His doctoral research (2018-2022) focuses on the analysis and the reintegration of ‘Automotive Urban Landscapes’. In 2018 he was awarded the BWMSTR Label by the Flemish Government Architect, for his research proposal ‘Adaptive Reuse of Underground Car Parks’.
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Han Admiraal trained as a Civil Engineer (University of Applied Science, Rotterdam) and is co-chair of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association’s Committee on Underground Space (ITACUS) and a past member of the Urban Planning Advisory Group of United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), advising the Special Representative. As President of the Dutch-Flemish Pipeline Industry Guild, he promotes underground freight transport as a sustainable and economically efficient model.

Over the course of his career, Han worked for the National Department of Public Works and Water Management, acting amongst other positions as Project Manager for the first machine excavated (TBM driven) tunnel in soft soil in the Netherlands. Later, as Executive Director of the COB, the Netherlands Centre for Underground Construction, he implemented visionary concepts on underground construction and was a part-time professor of Underground Space at the Zeeland University of Applied Science. Since 2008, he is the Owner and Managing Director of Enprodes Management Consultancy in Delft, consulting in the fields of underground space and road tunnel safety.

He is passionate about urban planning and interdisciplinary dialogue between various stakeholders and professional disciplines dealing with urban and underground development. Having published numerous articles on this topic, he published his first book, written together with Antonia Cornaro, in 2018.

Antonia Cornaro, MA Urban Planning (1996), studied at New York University and then gained valuable experience working for the City of New York’s Planning Department (DCP) in their Transportation Division on bicycle and pedestrian schemes.

She has 25 years of working experience as an urban and transport planner from the public and private sector from New York City, London, Vienna, and Zurich, having worked for NYC Department of City Planning, Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB now WSP), the Austrian Institute of Regional Planning (ÖIR), and the Zurich based multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firm EBP.

In her current work as Expert Underground Space for Amberg Engineering, an internationally active Swiss firm specializing in underground infrastructure design and management, she focuses on Urban Underground Space with the aim to increase mobility, livability, and resilience of urban areas (since 2010 until today).

This is also central to her work as Co-Chair of ITACUS (the International Tunnel and Underground Space Association’s Committee on Underground Space. Antonia is passionate about cities, global and sustainable development, and has presented and published extensively on this subject, often jointly with Han Admiraal. Together with Han, she authored the book “Underground spaces unveiled: planning and creating the cities of the future” (more info: www.thinkdeep.net) which was published in 2018 and has received the ISOCARP Gerd Albers award on best book.

She also teaches part time at the Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. The course is a Semester lecture Planning of Underground Space and is taught to Master students in architecture, spatial development and civil engineering.

Mahak Agrawal is an urban planner and a former United Nations fellow. As a Shardashish Scholar and Environmental Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Mahak earned her second master in public administration. She earned her first master’s degree in urban planning from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. Mahak currently works at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy and leads urban adaptability efforts with International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association’s Committee on Underground Spaces (ITACUS).

Recognized for her achievements accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals in India through public health initiatives, Mahak was nominated for the Gates Foundation’s 2021 Goalkeepers Global Goals Award. In various capacities, she has worked with OECD; the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India; and the Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo. Mahak was an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, has authored numerous publications on sustainable development and has presented her works globally, including at the United Nations. In 2021, she advocated for mining value from waste via TEDx.