Living solo in Rotterdam

Living solo in Rotterdam: Improving the living quality of one person households by urban interventions

Van Rijen, E.M.

Bouma, T. (mentor)
Qu, L. (mentor)

Architecture and The Built Environment

Urbanism

2016-06-30

The amount of one person households is rapidly growing in the Netherlands. Unfortunately solo dwellers are still disadvantaged, stigmatised and forgotten in urban design since society expects them to be in a relationship. This is exemplified by the focus on families and couples in cities and housing developments. As a result there is a lack of suitable housing for solo dwellers and the living quality among one person households is low. Therefore this thesis investigates the needs of people living solo and uses this information to re-design the Pols on Katendrecht, a neighbourhood within Rotterdam. The living quality of one person households can be improved by considering social places, centralities and housing. Social places facilitate the need for social interaction among solo dwellers and therefore enhance their appreciation of the living environment. Social places should be present both in public space, like bars and restaurants, and in the residential environment by creating transition zones. Especially these transition zones create the opportunity to casually interact with others like neighbours. Centralities facilitate the social places in public space as well as other amenities. These amenities on one hand create a convenient living environment for solo dwellers with shops, takeaways and small enterprises. On the other side it also attracts other users resulting in an dynamic and lively environment. Special attention within the living environment should be given to developing suitable and affordable housing. Suitable housing results in a mixture of housing typologies to fit the needs of the multiplicity of solo dwellers. Affordability is needed to make sure one person households can afford a house despite their single salary. If these three themes are taken into account, as this graduation project exemplifies, a neighbourhood based on solo dwellers arises which is also attractive to other household types.

One person households
solo dwellers
Katendrecht
Rotterdam
Transition zone
social places
centralities
ViP model
public space
living quality
social interaction
lifestyle

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f7ecf8b-b75e-4687-b0c9-728376976b54

51.90233, 4.49166

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Van Rijen, E.M.