Vernacular urbanism

As Sennett states, vernacular urbanism is looking for ways in which new forms can emerge from the old ones but still being related to them. in the same way this thesis work tries to combine today's necessities of an expanding city like Addis Ababa with the identity and the historical values of its historical city center.

A New Watery Balance: Redefine The Scenic and Circular Waterscape in The Villages In Wuyuan, China

Wuyuan is located in Jiangxi province, south-east China, which is famous for its unique ancient village identity. The long-existing villages in the Wuyuan area have been running in a balance that people living and working with the water. This identity of living and working with water attracts millions of tourists. However, these vulnerable...

Re-connecting with water: Creating spatial solutions for water collection and storage in rural areas of Morocco which suffer from water scarcity and loss of social and environmental cohesion

It is widely known that by 2050 the average temperature is going to increase by 2-3 °C while the precipitation is going to decrease 10-20 % in the North African region. The countries in this area have always been experiencing drought periods but due to the climatic changes, but, these periods are becoming more extreme leaving the population...

Breathe: Redefining a zone of informal settlements for Ho Chi Minh City

The project has been created from a strong fascination of the author who came from the developing country in South East Asia. A rapid change of a city from urbanization and over-growing population have somehow eradicated the traditional way of living. One of the best examples is in Ho Chi Minh City, in the South of Vietnam. The city is located...

Redefining Bangkok’s Inclusive Water-Based Society: Flood Resilience Planning of Adaptive and Performative Hybrid Infrastructure Network

Perception and relation of people towards water in Bangkok have changed through time, from a way of living to threat of lives. Growth of urbanization from adaptive water-based society to land-based mega-polis has led to a major shift of urban infrastructures changing lifestyle and perception of people. Water is currently perceived in form of...

Death in the city: Integrating funerary places in the urban fabric

While our cities are continuously getting denser and denser, and our methods of bodily disposal are getting more and more technical, the link between death and the landscape is radically changing. In this thesis I develop a concept for a commemoration garden that can take over part of the roles of cemeteries, while being more space efficient and...

From input to output: Urban Agriculture as a method to Eco-efficient Urban landscape

Minimal Intervention: An Attempt Reading the Ultimate

Norway is mostly known for its natural beauty, fjords and mountains, the amazing Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun - a great intimacy with nature. However, this impression we have of Norway, does not describe the real situation in Oslo.<br/>A total length of approximately 3,400 kilometres of Oslo’s coastline is mostly covered with paved...

Rising out of the Wrath: The Post-Disaster Religious Landscape of Kedarnath valley, Uttarakhand, India

In June 2013, Uttarakhand (Northern India) faced unusual heavy rainfall, series of cloud bursts and glacial lake outbursts all within 4 days leaving the sacred valley of Kedarnath completely ravaged. The flooded holy river ‘Ganges’ swept with it pilgrims, inhabitants, houses and flora/fauna creating a havoc in the valley transforming the valley...

A new integrated N-S (north-south) system: Renaturing the lower Thames Estuary

Estuarine area, as a transition area between land and sea, is the most dynamic and complicated area, due to its unique location and diverse ecosystem, but yet it is also the most vulnerable and fragile area, as it may be plagued with flooding risk, erosion, subsidence and etc. As the diagram show below, estuary area is influenced by three...

The Honduran Production Valleys: Finding Balance Between People and Environment

This thesis initiated from a project worked on in conjunction with the PBL, the Environmental Agency of the Netherlands. The project, with PBL, follows three case studies of landscapes to research the implementation of the landscape approach for reaching the new framework of sustainable development goals, developed at the 2015 climate change...

Incremental Pixlation landscape: sea change/see change, Richmond shipyard Redevelpment project

In the face of rising waters and increased stormrelated flooding, communities will have to decide what to do with their flood-prone areas. Continually repairing storm damages and providing services to these vulnerable neighborhoods demands significant government resources. For these areas, cities have three major options to consider: keep water...

San Francisco Space Fiction: Notions of nature in a Dataism age

This project envisioned three futures of San Francisco dominated by three notions of nature in the upcoming Data-ism age. Nature has always been the authority to justify landscape architecture design, and its definition changes all the time. When we are dealing with long-term issues, like climate change, our actions should be justified by the...

Rivierbakens: Post-Industrieel Rivierlandschap: Steenfabrieken in de uiterwaarden van de Waal

Steenfabrieken en uiterwaarden, ze zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Op zoek naar klei paradeerden ze langs de rivier, waardoor het landschap gevormd werd voor de rivier. Door een samengaan van natuurlijke processen en menselijk handelen bleef bijzondere flora en fauna achter, maar ook ovenlichamen en hoge schoorsteen die herinneren aan...