Risk, Resettlement, & Renewal: Mitigating the displacement of vulnerable São Paulo residents from areas of ecological risk without proper infrastructure

As the Global South continues to rapidly urbanize, finding affordable and sustainable housing solutions is paramount. The Global Housing Graduation studio provides the opportunity to design new housing typologies through environmental and social lenses. São Paulo’s challenges with rapid urbanization and social inequality has left more than a...

Re-structured: Transformation strategy for mass-housing blocks on the example of ERA buildings in Buitenhof, Delft

The omnipresence of the aging mass-housing estates in Europe has created a new frontier for innovative approaches in architecture, particularly in the architecture of renovation. This new movement has the capacity to address two major aspects of contemporary architecture: the role of architects in catering for sustainable development (ecological...

Transforming Danwei housing: How can the old residential courts from the 1980s to 1990s in Guangzhou respond to diversified demands in urban renewal?

Danwei housing is a typical and common residential type in Chinese cities. The radical social structure changing and urban development after the Economic Reform have influenced these old neighborhoods and even restructured them from all aspects. This thesis has looked into the current social, economic, and spatial transformation surrounding...

Evolving Danwei housing: An alternative way to develop former public housing in Shenzhen, China

Nowadays, many Chinese cities like Shenzhen are experiencing intense spatial transformation. Downgrading neighbourhoods are being replaced by high-end housing, shopping malls and office in order to promote economic growth. The former socialist public housing is one of the redevelopment hot spots. However, such land-based development focuses on...

The renewal of what was tomorrow's idealistic city: Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer high-rise

One of the finest and best-known examples of a CIAM-planned area is the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam, one of Europe’s leading examples of high-rise estates. Over the years, the Bijlmermeer has been a shining example of the high expectations and ideas of CIAM-planning, the disappointment, problems and stigma of numerous improvement trials and...

Can two countries help each other? Urban renewal strategies in Sweden and the Netherlands compared

International comparison between the approach in urban renewal in Sweden and the Netherlands.

The integrated renewal of Amsterdam’s Bijlmermeer high-rise

In recent years, there has been a growing interest all over the world in improving the large housing estates of the 1960s and 1970s. Highrise estates are associated with problematic living conditions, deprived areas, isolated locations, a poor population, a negative image, social isolation, pollution and crime. In short: they are not the most...

Towards sustainable urban renewal in the Netherlands

Cities and the neighbourhoods within are dynamic and change continuously. Vital neighbourhoods can cope with changing circumstances like outdated use, changing household compositions, consumer preferences and fashions, political turnovers, global trends and economic cycles. Sustainable areas are vital and flexible to changes. Sustainable urban...

Key players in urban renewal in the Netherlands, Chapter 12

The social housing sector in the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. Social housing dominates in many urban neighbourhoods, and contemporary urban renewal in the Netherlands focuses on areas where housing associations own the majority of the stock. At the same time, urban renewal means more than just renewal of housing; rather, it is...

Urban regeneration in European social housing areas, Chapter 11

Many European countries have policies to renew cities and neighbourhoods. This paper examines the policies of France, the Netherlands and Germany. In these, as in most Western European countries, the social housing sector forms an important part of regeneration schemes. Social housing is both actor and subject to urban renewal. Housing...

Restructuring South Arch, Rotterdam" - Waterfront regeneration: Combating segregation in cities by urban renewal

The Core concern of this Research and Design Project is, to understand the current scenario of Socio-Spatial Segregation in cities, the problems rising due to it , general deterioration of living conditions in poor urban neighbourhoods, and how a good Waterfront can act as a CATALYST for the future growth and improvement of quality of life in...

Energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies in urban renewal

Large social housing estates: From stigma to demolition?

It is curious that the most frequently reviewed and well thought-out large housing estates are now the areas with the worst image. Image is an important factor of a neighbourhood’s popularity, affecting its position in the local or regional neighbourhood hierarchy. Many studies and reports about problematic areas indicate that a negative image,...

Renewing stigmatised estates in the Netherlands: A framework for image renewal strategies

Like in so many other European countries, the large housing estates of the post-World War II generation in the Netherlands did not fulfil the great and often Utopian expectations. Nowadays they are confronted with the effects of a negative image, a stigma. Images differ according to the persons asked for an opinion. Internal images, elicited...