Crossing the line for Nature: Cross-border planning collaboration for effective Ecosystem-based adaptation

Climate change is creating alterations and increasing risks to both nature and our built environment. One of the most evident risks is sea level rise. We need to reconsider the way we have been preparing cities to face the climate change related issues. The hard infrastructure that has been used in the past to deal with these issues requires...

City without Sand: A material conscious approach for the urban construction metabolism of sand and gravel in the Rijnmond-Drechtsteden region

Urban development in the Rijnmond-Drechsteden requires large quantities of sand and gravel for its application in e.g. concrete in buildings or fill sand for subsidence maintenance. The graduation project focuses on how urban design can reduce this consumption within the sand and gravel metabolism in the construction ecosystem. Based on a...

Inter-relational territories: A new interplay between pre- and inner-alpine areas for future water use

The Alps, also called the ‘water tower’ of Europe, are one of the biggest freshwater reserves of the continent, extending over seven countries. However, due to climate change, resulting in melting glaciers and more frequent dry periods, the availability of fresh water is seasonally changing and overall, decreasing in the future. This conflicts...

Accommodating the Displaced: An inclusive regional preparedness strategy for the circular environmental migration in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta

Climate change is the defining crisis of the 21st century. While increasingly there are efforts being made globally to spread awareness about the impact of human activities on the natural environment, the talks on the direct impact of the change on the human are still nascent. There are an increasing number of people who are losing their land,...

Healthy Neighbourhoods: A research and design project investigating the impact of automated mobility on urban health in residential neighbourhoods in Almere

Since the introduction of the car, our use of mobility is continuously growing (Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteitsbeleid, 2018). Which leads to highly polluted areas, affecting urban health. Besides, the growing mobility results in a higher number of traffic accidents on the main road network (NU.nl, 2017). And not only growing mobility, but also...

[UN]WAR: Spatial Planning and Strategies for Social Cohesion in the Kashmir Valley, India

Planning in a conflict region is considered as one of the challenging discourses of urbanism due to extreme geopolitical and societal conditions. This research-design project addresses spatial planning, policies, and design in the contested areas, through the case of Kashmir which is a disputed geopolitical region between India and Pakistan. Due...

In transition towards a circular future in north-east section of Nairobi river: An exploration of potential (re)implementation of circular resource management in Dandora, Kenya

This graduation project addresses the problem of waste management in Nairobi, Kenya. The current inadequate waste management throughout Nairobi remains a spatial challenge as it contributes to health concerns, threatens local ecologies, and degrades public space. Analyzing waste flows, the social construct and in particular communitybased...

Integrated Mitigation: Flood Risk mitigation fostering Social Integration

Guayaquil is the 2nd Largest city of Ecuador, located in one of the largest estuary ecosystems of the pacific coast in South-America (Delgado, 2011). Since 1960’s the city has gone through a rapid process of urbanization and informal settlements. This has caused severe spatial segregation and a development model that ignores the existing...

I am de-n-city: Reallocation of space: transforming urban environment into a circular system

The Amsterdam Metropolitan area, and especially Amsterdam city, attracts large amounts of people due to the diverse economy opportunities, cultural and recreational activities, and the strong connection of the region by public transport and road network. The need for space, resources, and mobility are increasing and will keep increasing due to...

Food Island: Creating a Resilient Food System for the AMA

Governments and private and non-profit organisations from international to local levels have acknowledged the idea that more sustainable systems are required to reduce our ecological footprint (WWF, 2016, Jonkhoff, 2012). The food system is a very important aspect within our lives, socially as well as economically but it is also one of the most...

Designing healthy environments: An integral approach for the design of human health supporting environments in the Hague

The origins of urban planning were developed in the late nineteenth century mainly due to health concerns. Nowadays, human health and urban design are separate academic fields and their relationship is often disregarded. The main challenge for urban planning is dealing with the pressure on the available space affected by urbanization and climate...

Float to Circularity: Connecting human needs with the material flow in the AMA

<br/>The Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (AMA) has proposed a transition from its current linear economic model to a circular one (Sustainable Amsterdam, 2015). However, the proposed strategy is based mainly on the participation of actors from the world of business and industry, relegating social actors to a peripheral level of its...

Automated Driving: Driving Urban Development?: An integrated research-by-design computational modelling approach in urban planning problems

Complex urban planning problems comprise socio-spatial conditions, human behaviour and external factors (e.g. technological developments). The perspective of urban planners and designers is crucial to comprehend these problems from a holistic point of view but does not possess the skills to grapple the full problem. Cities bear characteristics...

Idea Generation in University Cities: Reflection on the integration of research and design and its application in the urban context

New ideas and innovation are the fuel to the modern knowledge economy. The university has for centuries been part of the innovation system responsible for the development of new ideas. Today, the interdisciplinary character and complexity of societal issues makes that there is a need for new methods to support innovation development at...

VRbanism: Assessing Virtual Reality as an Urban Design Tool

During the last few years, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has evolved at an impressive pace. The newest VR systems offer a high level of visual realism and accurate interaction with the virtual environment through spatially tracked controllers. This technology is increasingly being applied in many professions, but in architecture and urbanism...

Amsterdam-Noord: The development of and the liveability in the north side of Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a popular city which creates problems on the housing market and in the overcrowded inner city. Amsterdam-Noord has been, to a large extend, a problem area for a long time. Now that the city needs to develop this thesis explores how Noord can contribute to the goals of the municipality. The so called transformation zone at the...

Stockholm 2050 - A resilient metropolitan region

The aim of this research is to investigate how a strategic vision can be achieved within a time plan, in this case by 2050, and investigate the Swedish administrative division, to understand who does what and when. The objective of this project is to set up a detailed time plan and develop several strategies which will work as guidelines for the...

Space and Place in Urban Design: Revitalize Social Values in the Context of Shanghai Transportation Hub

In general, people and environment are two main properties in today’s strategy plans of urban development, which are also essential elements of urban design (Carmona et al, 2010). Designers promote more on human dimension design that reflects spatial dimension of environment such as the eye level city in their urban design topics. Gehl (2010)...