Urbanization and construction are primary drivers of environmental and ecological degradation, leading to climate change, biodiversity loss, and negative impact on human health and well-being. At the same time existing sustainable planning and design approaches are too reductive in scope, aiming mainly at reducing negative impact. In this context, it is indispensable to fundamentally advance the understanding of anthropogenic transformations of environments and the critical zone, which is the planetary layer that sustains life and provides its required resources. At the same time the current fundamental digital transformation can provide novel workflows, methods, and tools to support a profoundly advanced approach to planning greener cities and architectures. In this lecture Prof. Michael Hensel will present three interrelated conceptual pillars that provide the basis for an urgently needed advancement of sustainable planning and design [Urban Landform, Embedded Architectures, Geomorphic Tectonics], as well as the computational workflows, methods and tools that enable planning and design approaches at higher levels of complexity.