· · · Institutional Repository

This project is about the neighborhood revitalization of Shanghai Cannes, which is a problematic suburban high-density neighborhood in Shanghai. The research itself is a spatial analysis on different scales and mapping of current social networks. The future strategy and design will mainly focus on how to regenerate neighborhood living environment that facilitate social interaction on different scale in order to strengthen the sense of community in Shanghai Cannes.

This graduate project is called “Freedom VIC for Urban VIC Team”, which is dealing with the Village in the City (VIC) transformation in Shenzhen China, focusing on the transformation of VIC (the “ghetto” area), in Shenzhen’s current society. This project derives from the current situation that there are 251 VICs in the inner city of Shenzhen, and those areas are always be regarded as a negative place, “ghetto” place from official perspective. As a result, government always make “Top-down” transformation in VIC area which aims to improve the physical qualities in VIC but erase all the values of VIC. Therefore, the project is aiming to find out better approach for VIC transformation by finding both the negative and positive values of VIC from social, physical and cultural aspects.

This graduate project is called “Freedom VIC for Urban VIC Team”, which is dealing with the Village in the City (VIC) transformation in Shenzhen China, focusing on the transformation of VIC (the “ghetto” area), in Shenzhen’s current society. This project derives from the current situation that there are 251 VICs in the inner city of Shenzhen, and those areas are always be regarded as a negative place, “ghetto” place from official perspective. As a result, government always make “Top-down” transformation in VIC area which aims to improve the physical qualities in VIC but erase all the values of VIC. Therefore, the project is aiming to find out better approach for VIC transformation by finding both the negative and positive values of VIC from social, physical and cultural aspects.

The graduation project aims to lessen the social tension between the well-off and authoritarian and the poor and powerless, its frontier being Brussels Midi station area where a decline in authenticity and openness can be observed. Theses issues are addressed by acknowledging the effects immigrant cultural identities have on urban environments - running opposite the threatening tendency to exclude marginal societal groups and the increasing nationalism in the politics of numerous European countries.

Detroit is a city in decline. Through strategic withdrawal into a linear city its main artery -Woodward Avenue- becomes an assembly line that holds different quarters of the city together. Strategic withdrawal also entails that parts of the city that have been demolished are rebuilt in a new context.

The bowling community has changed and specially for Detroit. The change of the bowling community can be compared with the change of social capital. A new 21st century bowling typology can help Detroit to be the bowling Capital of the World again.

The garden of delights and a panopticon prison are very similar actually: being inside walls, being protected, is central. Many archaic ideas of happiness are depicted in enclosed safe spaces. That idea presupposes that the outside is a place of danger and corruption and the inside is safe and good, also morally good, where virtue resides and vice is left outside. The typology of a panopticon implies the creation of a new world in which it is assumed that human nature can be engineered, perfected or corrupted. The panopticon, as a building, is an instrument of reformation. A piece of architecture with such claims is unique and too good for an architect not to have a peak into a scary reality, a peak at what it would be like if it was in his hands to transform human beings with such disciplinary mechanisms. How to tune the prison so that it becomes its opposite, a space of selfgovernance and responsibility, of freedom, by tweaking the architecture of a panopticon? If a prison can have people bound, and under permanent surveillance and oppressed, can we design a building with sovereign users? From being under control to being in control. The new building excavates under the center of the main tower, thereby literally blinding the all-seeing eye of the panopticon. It brings light in and darkness out by inserting light wells in the digged out spaces. It introduces an omnipresent thin column grid which breaks the binary system of controllers versus controlled to introduce homogeneity, autonomy and, eventually, responsibility. That is achieved with the program, an academy of builders who work interdisciplinary towards a rational industry.

De wijk Tanthof-West in Delft-Zuid kent een bijzondere geboorte. Eerst zou het een hoogbouwwijk worden naar een ontwerp van Bakema, daarna een tuinstadwijk van net afgestudeerde ontwerpers. Uiteindelijk werd het door omstandigheden een grijs compromis tussen beide plannen. Vanuit de theorieën achter deze plannen (van respectievelijk Le Corbusier en Ebenezer Howard) kom ik met een transformatieplan; van grijs compromis naar kansrijke combinatie. Van grootschalige sloop in het centrum tot het plaatsen van heggetjes in de omliggende buurten. Daarbij speelt het historische slagenlandschap een belangrijke rol als verbindende structuur. Het verhaal wordt afgesloten met een reflectie op Utopia.

A new sustainable strategy for shrinking city Detroit.

Post-Exodus or the involuntary prisoners of Architecture, is a project about corrupt well intended top-down pretentions. A project about when utopia becomes dystopia. About when the built environment becomes out of tune with experienced and desired reality. Accumulating to the point of large scale vacancy and crisis. The focus of the project will be the case of the Kleiburg flat, the last untouched piece of Bijlmer ideology. The project was done in the graduation lab 'Design as Politics' with the underlying theme 'In the Ghetto', in which a personal view on the definition of a ghetto was encouraged. In this project the ghetto is described as an urban area that resonates with negative associations, as a segregated area often associated with the social-economic-weaker section. Due to the unpopularity of the urban area, real-estate values drop, investors and project-developers stay away. Conditions deteriorate. For those who want to leave the ghetto but can not afford to do so, the ghetto becomes an urban prison. The title of the project plays with the idea of architecture's ability to manifest dreams and desires. As the exodus took place and people moved towards the better, they left behind the old. The exodus was for those who could afford to leave; those unable to escape the undesired urban conditions where left behind. Post-Exodus focuses on these deprived areas, on these places of undesired architecture. It searches how to become a desired place once again, even when the means are limited. The research investigates a South-American Prison situated in Bolivia, in the capital city of La Paz. In the old city center, on the old colonial spanish grid the prison of San Pedro stands. Hidden behind the stucco walls, upon passing the guarded gate, a unexpected vivid community is revealed; the self-regulating inmate population of San Pedro. The prison was inspired by the panopticon model (Pentonville, London) of Jeremy Bentham. Built around the nineteen hundreds, this ideological prison model proved to be one of unrealistic utopia. The penitentiary system could not live up to the build expectations. The conditions of the inmate population deteriorated inside the prison walls. Without a welfare state or governmental subsidies the prisoners where appointed to their own ability to take matters into their own hands. Escape was not an option, the solution had to come from within... The do-it-yourself attitude of the prisoners resulted in an unique bottom-up transformation of the old prison model. Over time the prisoners slowly adapted the building to fit their basic needs, constantly fighting for their rights and defending every square inch. They held no nostalgia of the past, adapting to the new reality of their needs, adapting the build environment at best to survive. Over time San Pedro Prison developed its own logic, a mini-society with its own micro-economy, micro-policies, democratic elections, a prison real-estate market, cafes, restaurants, fitness area, sauna's, pool halls, tv corners, shops, dentist, churches, ceremony square, football competitions, tourism, workplaces, jobs and even more.. The San Pedro Prison inspires to look in a different way at the built environment we inhabit. It inspires to think in a different way about our attitude towards buildings. It inspires to think in a different way about architecture. It inspires to see how in the worst conceivable conditions, the prisoners of San Pedro where able to transform their built environment into a more favorable condition, to suit their lives and needs better. Transformation as a continues process, attuning to the ever changing times. Kleiburg is dead, it's ideology faded in the face of reality. Time has changed, Kleiburg stood still. If Kleiburg is not to parish in irrelevance it must once more become a part of our dreams and desires. Emergent societal trends and changes must then form the basis of its transformation. In times of financial crisis, unpredictability and uncertainty the means are limited. The answers must not be sought in the top-down financial power of big project developers but in the power of the ordinary people; the power of the people dwelling and working in and around Kleiburg. The design investigates a bottom-up approach, a do-it-yourself attitude, a gradual growth towards a new future. To clarify such a development a scenario was written in which the existing local social and urban fabric where extrapolated into the Kleiburg building. The initial conditions are dictated by the structural possibilities of the Kleiburg flat itself. The installation of the 'Gate' marks the presence of an underlying democratic process. Spatial hierarchy determines the relationship of space and influence of individuals/collectives on the built environment. In a set of projects possibilities are designed, each design telling a different story, each story exploring a new theme, each theme adding to a bigger scale. By the time we look back at all the different designs we will witness the emergence of museum. A Bottom-Up-Museum symbolizing the deconstruction of the prestigious 'starchitect' object, reconstructed by ordinary people.

How to deal with shrinking cities? The case of Detroit During this graduation project I proposed a strategy for the municipality of Detroit to create a sustainable environment by focusing on an adapted education system.

This research wants to show how by the historical overlapping of two thoroughly planned paradigms – ‘city’ and ‘highway’ – an unplanned mismatch could come into existence at the intersection of ring roads and city streets. Through a physical analysis of this mismatch and the planned and unplanned reactions in the cases of Amsterdam A10 West and São Paulo Southeast this study discusses possible lessons that can be learned for improving the future interweaving of urban tissue and large scale infrastructure. In a broader sense the research aims to reflect on the interaction between ‘planned’ and ‘unplanned’ and by doing so on how our everyday environment is a continuous – and sometimes very successful – mismatch between past plans and future projections. Triggered by the historical overlapping of prewar plans and postwar visions this study uses Amsterdam and São Paulo to illustrate how the autonomous planning of city and infrastructure - and the conflict that this resulted in - still causes problems today. By using the method of ‘mirror cities’ Amsterdam and São Paulo are used to distill on the one hand general problems that arose from a clash of paradigms and on the other hand to research specific alternative solutions for new design initiatives. Working on three scale levels it first points out how – on the scale of the city – the highway plays different roles depending on its planning history: the highway as border, as center, as buffer zone or as entity squeezed into the city tissue. The knowledge of these atmospheres might proof useful in the re-designing of the old ring and in the future planning of new ‘super rings’ such as the Rodoanel. Secondly, by zooming in on the ‘informal’ parts of the ring and looking at the long lines of the city streets crossing it, this study examines how – and if - the ring functions as a border. This is done by using ‘streetview elevations’ that show how the urban profile changes from inside to outside the ring road. Here the type of intersections proofed crucial. Categorizing these types of intersections at Amsterdam A10 West and São Paulo Southeast and looking at the different ways they combined the city- and infrastructure paradigm show us the different effects of planning decisions. Some types work on the scale of highway and city but have a negative impact on the surrounding neighborhood, others manage to combine the city and highway paradigm in a way that both profit. Here, for example, the São Paulo-case produced an interesting solution with its ‘multiple connected’-type (an informal combination of elevated crossings and a direct highway access of secondary roads) that could be very fruitful in Amsterdam. The findings of the research and in particular the analysis of the junctions between ring road and city streets should be further explored in the architectural design of a museum at one particular intersection in Amsterdam Bos en Lommer.

The number of enclosed residential domains (ERDs) in the Netherlands has seen a remarkable increase over the past twenty years. Roughly half of these projects are located in urban areas. This raises the question what the impact of large scale privatisation is on the city. Knowledge regarding the Dutch case is scarce. In particular, the relation between spatial aspects of ERDs and their effect on Dutch cities is a key aspect missing in the body of knowledge. In order to assemble and add relevant knowledge on this subject, this graduation project aims at answering the following question: How can the spatial design of private residential domains enhance the living quality in Dutch urban areas for both residents aswell as the public? The project focuses on the scenario of an increase of private residential domains in urban areas. The project is roughly divided into three phases. In the research part the problem is analysed and tools for analysis and design are developed. This is followed by the design phase in which the tools are applied and a privatised neighbourhood is designed. A large scale scenario featuring multiple ERDs in an urban area is simulated since there is a lack of such cases in reality to study. In order to define the properties of ERDs affecting the city a vision tool is developed considering the juridical, social and spatial properties. An ERD can be seen as a combination of different layers of segregation on top of the built environment, namely the accessibility of the area (spatial and social), the communities (social), the liabilities for the area (social and juridical) and the rights of ownership (juridical). To relate social, juridical and spatial properties of ERDs to future urban design, a literature research regarding the possible effects of an increase of ERDs on the Dutch public realm has been made. This research resulted in three recommendations for designing an ERD area. First, maintain a dense network accessible to the public. Second, the addition of expression of identity in space can have a positive influence on the role of public space. Third, homogeneity of a neighbourhood should be prevented. The quality of ERDs for the dwellers is defined by research on the reasons to live in a Dutch ERD, abstracted from literature research and media analysis of real estate agent advertisements of Dutch urban ERDs. For each layer different choices can be made, each affecting the others. Which properties form the starting point for an urban plan depends on the approach of the ERD project. An urban designer’s approach starts with the built environment, the accessibility and the right of ownership. The liabilities and the community are a consequence of the choices made in the urban plan. In contrast, an urban strategy approach starts with focussing on the social and juridical part. As a result, the built environment and accessibility are a consequence thereof. In order to focus on the effects of the spatial properties the urban designer’s approach is chosen. The design process was a test case of large scale privatisation for residential purposes in an urban area. The location chosen is Rivierenbuurt Noord in the Hague. The first assumption is that in the coming years the municipality will hand over this area to private actors. After that the desired level of accessibility and density in the area is determined with respect to the influences of the surrounding city scape. For further design, the accessibility in the area is set to meet the recommendation of having a dense urban network in private space. The next step is to test the possibilities for the built environment based on the density and the diversity of the neighbourhood. This includes a supply of different living environments, the diversity of resident groups and their possibilities to express identity and a diversity in accessible spaces for the public. The design process is a continuous process whereby choices for one property affected decisions made on other properties. The application of developed tools is a side product of this process. A ‘quality monitor tool’ developed during the research phase is used to compare the design with existing ERDs. The conclusion of this research is: ERDs can be of an added value for both the public and the public in a Dutch city in one urban plan by integrating the qualities for both. New types of living environments created by private residential domains provide new demands on the housing market, without necessarily having a negative impact on Dutch cites. But in order to design ERDs in Dutch urban areas, it is of high importance to decide first what the accessibility plan of the area would be on both publicly and privately ownded space, considering the value of the spaces for the public domain of the city. Living quality in private domains are supported by the input initiators of projects add and the role municipalities have as inspirators and projectmanagers of the privatisation projects. It is also possible to transform current publicly owned space into collectively owned space while adding value for all users. A remark is that the current juridical ownership structures in Dutch law are insufficient to provide large scale longterm privatisation processes at the moment.