This research explores the concept of a climbing-based lunar habitat as an alternative to conventional static environments, focusing on human body interaction in reduced gravity. Inspired by the natural formations of lunar lava tubes, the project investigates how irregular, vertical, and multi-directional surfaces can redefine movements and spatial engagement in extraterrestrial architecture. By studying the ergonomics of movement in low gravity, including climbing, hopping, and other dynamic body coordination, the research challenges the sedentary work-life paradigm commonly found in on-Earth architecture. A key aspect of the study is the relationship between human movement and architectural form, informed by both computational design and material exploration. Comparative analysis of terrestrial lava tubes and human adaptability in extreme environments provides insights into spatial design strategies for lunar habitation. Additionally, fabrication method such as 3D printing is explored to develop construction techniques suited for lunar materials.

Ultimately, this project aims to create a playscape-inspired habitat that not only supports basic functions of survival, but also enhances physical and psychological well-being through active engagement with the built environment. ... Read more

As humanity prepares for long-term lunar habitation, the design of extraterrestrial habitats must evolve beyond functional efficiency to prioritize human well-being. The bulk of existing space architecture research focuses on optimization and safety, resulting in rigid, standardized environments that overlook consideration for psychosocial needs. This research explores how user-defined spaces based on human-centric design principles can create a heterogeneous lunar habitat that balances social interaction and private boundaries, to foster the psychosocial well-being of long-term living in an isolated environment.

The project departs from examining human behaviour living in an isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environment, drawing insights from analogue missions, space station precedents, lunar surface expeditions, and related experiences – through which one of the leading causes of frustration is found: lack of variation in privacy. By extrapolating the research into personas and activity-based design, this project set design parameters to support social integration while preserving personal space. A key objective is to create distinct transitions between functional spaces, allowing different social interactions to occur, thereby catering to the inhabitants’ personal preferences and social dynamics.

The research employs computational design methods to explore possible spatial configurations, integrating In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and component-based construction for scalability and adaptability. A bottom-up design approach ensures that user needs, activities, and interactions drive spatial organization, with activity-based design shaping program distribution and form optimization. The project also speculates on future construction methods, combining robotic assembly and mass customization for efficient yet personalized environments.

By shifting the focus from purely functional to humanized lunar habitation, this research contributes a novel architectural approach that enhances astronaut well-being. The findings offer valuable insights not only for lunar bases but also for terrestrial architecture in extreme environments, redefining how spatial design can support interaction and individuality within isolated habitats.
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With the start of the Artemis project, the creation of a permanent Lunar base has been set as a goal, which has made it relevant to explore and consider all aspects of this new form of architecture, which will require a whole new set of criteria adapted to this unfamiliar Lunar landscape. Due to the dangerous conditions out on the surface, any long-term settlers will be mostly confined to the Moon base, with only their fellow crew members to interact with. This will have a great impact on their mental wellness. Research has identified nearly 70 stressors created by space travel, ranging from the real possibility of dying to boredom and from crew tension to isolation. Even looking out the window will not show the varying blue and green views we are used to, but a colourless, rocky landscape similar to a black and white photograph. Solace will need to be found within the habitat itself. MoonSane will investigate how human spatial perception can be used in the design of Lunar habitats, to mitigate the negative mental health effects of living long-term on the moon.
Through various studies, it has already been established that architectural spaces can influence human emotion and mental wellbeing. On the Moon, these psychological aspects of architecture will be even more important and must be utilised. Various spatial interventions, that have been proven to positively impact the mental health of inhabitants/users, are combined into a fully functional Lunar habitat. The interventions include dynamic lighting, spatial geometry and permeability as well as internal and external views. They will be implemented into a small scale Lunar base for a crew of 6 people. A meditation space is added to the general program of requirement, that utilises a phenomenon called the Overview Effect; viewing the Earth from space can have a positive emotional impact. All the architectural interventions are integrated with the safety requirements of a Lunar base, considering radiation, a life support system and adequate construction strategies, based on a stacked component system with in-situ resource utilisation principles. ... Read more

As the word ‘campus’ literally translates to ‘field’, its traditional spatial model follows the construction of a series of standalone buildings surrounding an open rectangular field. Such campuses often are enclaves outside of the city, characterized by isolation and a lack of interplay between the city and the academic world. This project rethinks the interplay between these two worlds, prioritising a two-sided connection where both parties contribute to and benefit from each other.
The project answers the question how a public vertical campus contributes to and enriches the city of The Hague, fostering social, cultural and economic vitality. This is done by creating an organization of spaces that aim to provide connection, collaboration and performance between various user groups coming from both the city and academic world. Social and cultural vitality is provided through spaces that foster connection and collaboration, for example public temporary exhibitions and group workshops, located on the (semi-)public lower and middle levels. Economic vitality is provided through spaces that foster performance, for example offices and research spaces, located on the semi-private upper levels, occasionally interrupted by levels that offer in-between breakout spaces to collaborate. With this design, all users with different backgrounds become cosmopolitans, belonging to one community. ... Read more

This thesis explores and analyses the usage of modular architecture and mixed buildings and their role in solving the Dutch housing crisis. The Dutch housing market is in a crisis due to various reasons that can be solved partially in the design process and partially by regulation changes. The mixing of production and living has become more accessible due to new innovative manufacturing methods like 3D printing. The mixing of 3D printing and residential functions is relatively new, and there is a need to understand this manufacturing process to ensure a successful mix with residential functions. This paper uses Habitat 67, Nakagin Capsule Towers and Bremer Punkt as case studies to better understand modular architecture and its benefit. Modular Architecture brings multiple benefits, which are explored in this thesis. One of the architectural benefits is that it allows a building to be adaptable, flexible and affordable compared to traditionally built buildings. ... Read more

Standardisation in dwelling architecture has led to mass housing projects to be built within a short period of time. With increasing standardisation, the needs of the actual user of the building have been lost. Adaptable housing is a way of creating a more useroriented approach within the architecture of buildings. This research paper explores the concept of adaptable architecture design which all started with theories of Habraken and Brand. These were picked up by other theorists Schmidt III and Austin, and Schneider and Till who searched into implementations of adaptable architecture design with the actual benefits to the user. Four contemporary residential building projects are analysed of which are two greatly adaptable in dwelling plans and the other two are adaptable in matters of use. This research gives guidelines for the implementation of adaptable architecture to design with a user-oriented approach for a design project of working and living in the Merwevierhaven in Rotterdam. ... Read more

From Mine to Mine is a research and design project that confronts the concept of the house and the domestic with its emerging context of data transmission and resource extraction. In the middle of the Atacama desert in Chile, the house of the miner is confronted with the physical outgrowth of our global data industry: Copper, the material underlying any kind of digital connection, is extracted in the world‘s biggest open-pit mine, while the mining industry is destructing and contaminating a whole territory.

Thinking towards a time of copper depletion, From Mine to Mine, envisions in three chapters transitions for these copper landscapes - turning them from destructive into productive ones while giving agency to the house of the miner itself. From there, the miner of the future enters remotely through screens the three chapters - “The Toxic Forest“, “The Baquedano Oasis“ and “The London Mine“ - all mines in their on right, that materially and programmatically feed into the house. This way, the house becomes both consumer and constructor of a context in trans-ition, a context that is being “mined“ trans-territorially, trans-temporally and trans-disciplinarily. ... Read more

More and more people in the Netherlands want to live in the so-called Randstad. This results in a need for densification in Dutch cities. One of the solutions for this is building more high-rise residential buildings. High-rise buildings provide amazing views and house many people on a small plot of land. They do however, have some downsides. According to their residents, the circulation space can be impersonal and the use of the elevator can be experienced as annoying. Even though this is the place to see and meet your neighbours. It has also been proven that there is a relationship between living in a high-rise and poor mental health of children. And lastly, high-rise dwellings are often seen as a home to eventually move on from, to an owner-occupied home, which results in a lack of connection between the residents and the building.

This graduation project aims to rethink the current way of living in high-rise buildings to make it more suitable for families with young children by answering the following research question: How can a high-rise residential building contribute to improving the living environment of children in cities while stimulating a sense of belonging to a high-rise community in Rotterdam? As a result of the research a set of design tools and guidelines is developed to form the base for the design process.

The final result is a high-rise residential building in the centre of Rotterdam that is suitable for children of different ages and encourages social interaction to increase the sense of belonging to a high-rise community.
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Globally, societies are seeing a long-term rise in the older adult population; by 2050 one in every four persons will be 60 years old or older. For the first time in human history, there will be more senior people than children in the population (WHO, 2018). In the Netherlands, the grey pressure was 34% in 2021. According to population predictions, this will rise to over 50% in the next thirty years (CBS, 2021). The numbers of solo dwellers; solo-dwelling elderly; and people living in cities, especially cities with populations under five million, will also increase (WHO, 2018). However, most city neighbourhoods do not suit contemporary lifespan demands, since they were largely constructed for youthful, typically abled individuals (BHSc, 2021).

With age segregation, social isolation, and loneliness being identified as major social issues, how can architects adapt and improve cities to combat these challenges? How can environments be created that are more ‘age-inclusive’? And is there a design proposal that would be more sensitive to the changing population's demands? Meaningful intergenerational relationships are fundamental social structures that benefit people of all ages (BHSc, 2021). Therefore, I propose a study for intergenerational housing that serves as one of the potential solutions in the context of these changing demographics.

To create a residential neighbourhood where one may live throughout many life stages while being valued as an individual, I have created research and design questions to take the first steps toward developing a ‘caring place’.

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Synanthropic Habitats originates from the interdisciplinary quest on ‘how will we live together’ and the personal fascination to critically question the deeply-rooted anthropocentric binary of human (us) and nature (them). The thesis aims to establish an innovative domestic environment that deals with the heterogeneity of people of different backgrounds while reflecting upon the global urgency of the Anthropocene by interacting with nature in a blended game of cohabitation.

The project forms its wider problématique from an amalgam of constituent problems deriving from Rotterdam and specifically Blijdorp as the site under investigation. The high traffic lane that dichotomizes the site, the noise and pollution of the nearby railway station, the large undefined spaces in tandem with the prevailing social degradation, and the need for affordable housing provision are a few of the identified issues of the project’s location. As a response, the Synanthropic Habitats attempts to develop a new paradigm for Dutch housing design, based on the triptych of hofjes as a type, thresholds as interfaces, and cooperatives as nomos.

The project draws from the long tradition of Dutch hofjes as an archetypical sustainable domestic milieu, the epistemologies and multiscalarity of threshold as a key tool to create zones of encounter, and the non-speculative forward-thinking model of cooperatives to shape a framework within which a multi-storey building with integrated nature, a variety of households and common spaces will flourish. Towards that direction, literature research on the topics, typo-morphological analyses of relevant precedents as well as in-situ observations are employed as methodological tools to conclude in spatial and theoretical aspects contributing to an ecology of inclusion in the design.

Utilizing and revisiting the pre-existing type of the hofje, inflected with the threshold character of commons creation and the pragmatic scenario of devising cooperative tenure generate an evidenced-based dwelling design that is as much of a site-specific architectonic product as a universal proposition to be adopted across contexts.
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A financialized housing market entails systemic shortage of affordable housing. Rotterdam’s continuous increase of real estate prices is a case in point: despite its high share of social housing, today Rotterdam faces a shortage of affordable dwellings for lower income groups. How can collective housing design promote social inclusion and reduce the ecological footprint of its residents? To answer these challenges, the TU Delft master level housing design studio operates under the “what if” scenario of a cooperative economy for a neighborhood in Blijdorp. Inspired by the cooperative housing designs in Zurich, such Kalkbreite (2014), the studio conceives of housing laboratories that offer shared spaces to the surrounding neighborhoods and the entire city. Its overarching goal is to relate design, non-speculative housing models and participatory governance. How can a housing project function as a socially inclusive, ecologically sustainable, and economically viable neighborhood operating under the premise of long-term non-speculation? How does this approach impact on the understanding of design knowledge? This graduation project transforms an existing building, the Emmahuis, into a neighborhood center and housing complex that combines owner-occupied maisonettes with a housing cooperative for intergenerational co-living. Besides a collective roof terrace for the residents, the ground floor offers a multitude of shared and collective facilities such as community workshops, open office areas, a public library, and commercial shops. These facilities provide a meeting point for the residents and a micro-centrality for the Blijdorp neighborhood, aiming to amplify a sense of collectiveness among different income and interest groups. ... Read more

In the Advanced Housing Design Studio we explored how housing design can successfully address the challenge of reducing the ecological footprint of its residents and assure social inclusion. In this studio an emphasis was put on the housing concept of collective living. A cooperative housing concept that offers the opportunity to create a living environment that meets the needs and wishes of the future dwellers and encourages the use of shared and collective spaces.

My experiment in this studio was finding an equilibrium, a balance between different household types with different habitational needs in an existing monotonous block. For my research I looked into a way of placing the different household types or one can say social groups together without causing an unpleasant living environment. Whilst on the contrary bolster a close-knit and sustainable community. ... Read more

"Blijkeuken" is a housing project that establishes a community-based caring system by challenging the kitchen's status as a place for domestic chores and therefore the existing construct of housing typology in Dutch society. It pushes the role of meal-preparing spaces in our living environment to become a place where social-making happens. By inserting cooking facilities at the intersection of spaces with different degrees of publicities, the kitchens themselves become bridges for communications and interactions and thus facilitate a communal, bottom-up welfare network. ... Read more

The current project represents the creation of space for a new paradigm in Olympic sports: the introduction of virtual cycling, enabled through the latest technologies in indoor cycling and offering the capacity to connect athletes from all over the world. On an architectural level, it challenges the white elephant phenomena, concept used to coin large Olympic stadiums that remain unused post-event due to lack of repurposing or difficulty of re-scaling. Through a small intervention on the side of the river Seine, well integrated in the Olympic Masterplan and the urban fabric of Paris, the venue will continue to be a training hub for cyclists around the city also post-Olympics.

Similar to the way an athlete trains for a competition, improving gradually each aspects of their performance, "A cyclist’s reinterpretation of movement at the Olympic Games" aims at the gradual optimization of a computational design process when confronted with the architectural program, through continuous feedback loops. The final configuration with its specific formal language, based on Voronoi diagrams, is the result of trainings, or iterations in computational design terms. ... Read more

Ageing of the population is one of the most significant changes taking place in the population of the Netherlands, that will affect the dwelling design in the coming decades. This is also reflected by other phenomenon: together with the higher life expectancy, the quality of the lifetime deteriorates, of which the leading cause are chronic diseases.

One way to stop the negative trend is to change focus from curing the effects of the disease to the prevention of the unhealthy lifestyle, that contributes to it, by implementing changes in the living environment. In the last decades we observed the rise of architecture, that values comfort, efficiency, and entertainment supported by passive technologies, which contributed to decreased human energy expenditure. One of the design strategies, that presents an approach countering this problem is active design, the goal of which is to increase the amount of daily physical activity on all levels of urban scale. These methods are best to be implemented in a vulnerable age of 45-60 (middle-aged phase), when many of the health issues manifest - introducing particular dwelling solutions for this target group could minimize health problems they face in later life. The dwelling-scale design is crucial, as it is where people spend most of their daily time. From these reflections arises my mission for the project – to find spatial characteristics of a dwelling that can improve the physical and psychological health of middle-aged inhabitants. ... Read more

An investigation into the disconnection between humans and nature. And a search for meaningfull architectural interventions to improve the human nature relationship. ... Read more

The design of BIND BY WATER promotes a new way of living in which we rethink the integration of living and bathing into one building. By reimagining the bath as a shared space, the unique timbre of the project offers a space of synthesis, vulnerability, and reconciliation, where the armor of everyday life is abandoned together with one’s clothes.

The project offers a wide variety of dwelling typologies for the heterogeneous group of solo dwellers (the project's target group). With the typologies containing no, limited, or an "extravagant" bathroom. The communal bathing facility on the ground floor provides a stimulating environment for spontaneous and improvisational communal exchange. Fostering community building amongst the ever-growing group of solo dwellers in which communal space becomes an imperative part of their daily routine.

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The number of elderly citizens in the Netherlands is growing, but there is a lack of suitable housing for this population group. Because of this, they occupy larger homes that are more suitable for families with children. Since the average age of no longer having children at home is 55 years in the Netherlands, that is the starting age for this project. A design for an elderly specific housing project in the Merwehavens in Rotterdam tries to provide a possible solution. Since there are different social and economical backgrounds there are several different types of dwellings in the building, ranging from small care units to larger multi-bedroom apartments. To still offer the smaller apartments a space for (grand)children to visit, there are also lodging rooms on each floor. The dwellings themselves are all wheelchair proof. This means that the residents do not need to move again if their physical capabilities decline with age, therefore providing a future proof dwelling for the elderly in the Netherlands. This is the next step in the housing career for the modern elderlies of the Netherlands. ... Read more

The Netherlands is currently facing an overloaded housing market. This has the consequence that many people cannot find a suitable dwelling. To solve this issue the government made the plan to build one million houses between 2020 and 2030. Apart from the quantitative problem of too little houses what is even more important is to figure out what type of houses to build. Where should the houses be build? For whom should they be build? How do these people want to live? These questions need to be answered to make certain the houses that will be build have the potential to solve the housing shortage.

Demographic data of The Netherlands and the design location the city of Rotterdam shows that most household growth in the coming years will occur among families with children and singles of all age categories with the largest increase in the 65+ age category. Looking at the current housing situation of families and elderly people living in the city it seems like there is already a shortage of suitable housing. With the prognosis pointing out that there will be a growth in these households the shortage will only get worse unless action is taken.

Living environment plays a crucial role in people’s lives especially in the most vulnerable parts when growing up as kids or when nearing the last stage of life. This is because when we are young but also when we grow old we are dependent on caregivers and on what our direct environment can offer to meet our needs.

This thesis therefore looks into an intergenerational housing approach based on the thought that by creating buildings in such a way that they help with bringing people together and by creating inclusive communities many issues concerning families and elderly people living in the city can be alleviated. The building design serves as an example for the many opportunities there are to improve life in the city by keeping people in mind instead of only focusing on creating more houses to solve the housing crisis. By taking this approach it is possible to get to a much more long term sustainable solution for the housing crisis benefitting all the participants and leaving a much larger positive impact on the whole of society.
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