Revitalizing Philipsburg: Towards a sustainable, densified, and vibrant neighbourhood.

In 2017 the island Sint Maarten was hit by hurricane Irma. Approximately ninety-one per cent of the build environment was damaged. This made the existing housing shortage, caused by a growing population, even more significant. Now, three years later, the residential area of Philipsburg is mostly deserted. With the departure of its residents, the...

‘A Relief to be relieved’ by relieved Community - A building learning center: Promoting hurricane-proof building knowledge among communities on Sint Maarten. A way to optimised and self-sufficient disaster relief on Sint Maarten (and beyond).

The primary objective of the project is to not only manifest the gigantic challenges of recovering after hurricane Irma which took place in 2017 but also to point out the socioeconomic disarray in the island before the hurricane itself. <br/>Irma clearly had a tremendous influence on numerous issues. However, the island had been struggling with...

Bethlehem: from exploitation to ecosystem service

Bethlehem - from exploitation to ecosystem service, is a project based on Sint Maarten in the Caribbean. The lower social classes of Sint Maarten experience trouble with their building culture, especially in combination with the reoccurring hurricanes and earthquakes. Vulnerable communities mostly rely on self or communal building, since both...

DISTRIK MELINGKAR: Circular housing in Indonesia

Indonesia is currently facing a housing deficit of 15 million units. In order to try and resolve this problem, 800.000 units of formal housing are being build every year and the most popular typology in this fast growing housing market is the Indonesian housing cluster. The goal within this project is to do a redesign of the housing cluster...