SUMMARY

Development of housing in rural areas, some years ago concerned as undesirable, is recently getting more and more attention. Areas in the Netherlands which could provide the best opportunities for such a development are 'rural-urban' fringes. This research propose the re-use of parts of agricultural land in urban fringes for the building of houses combined with nature development. The new type of housing is referred to as "new estates". The case study of this research was the area of West-Brabant, which has been analysed by means of the Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to find the most suitable locations for the "new estates". The result of these analyses proved that about 6.000 hectares were the most suitable locations for "new estates". Three locations were chosen for example design, using the two typologies especially developed for this purpose: the typologies of plant communities and of housing. The example designs were meant to achieve a harmonised relationship through careful integration of contradictory functions. Environmental effects of one of the designs were evaluated by expert judgement in the final stage of the research. The methodology applied has been especially developed in view of obtaining a transparent design instrument which gives step by step insight in the design process.