In December 2023 Mathias published an article on the website of the Dutch National Association of Landscape Architects NVTL, member of IFLA Europe. The text addressed the advantages of spatial planning based upon the very long term. The main idea of this approach is to look ahead for the very long term of hundred years. Design and policy decisions are subsequently based on that perspective by deducting decisions for today from the expected or desired scenario’s for the future. Within his teaching he learned that this approach gave both trust and empowerment to the students, and resulted in unexpected and innovative design solutions; in his role as strategic advisor for Zaanstad Municipality he had previously commissioned a research with a comparable approach in order to determine if urban development should take place in an area currently used for agriculture.
The article was published on the homepage of the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam within a few days, too.