This thesis examines the use of toxic tours as a method to research waste, tourism, and toxicity in Amsterdam’s Red-Light District. The research incorpo- rates perspectives from Discard Studies, Degrowth, and Critical Design to frame waste as a relational, cultural, and political phenomenon rather than an ‘issue’ to be solved. Toxic tours, or guided critical walks, positioned participants as co-researchers, engaging them in structured, hands-on process such as observ- ing, photographing, collecting, and reflecting on discarded items.
The study identified five recurring patterns of learning: (1) connection with others creates understanding, (2) playfulness and creativity unlock insights, (3) real-time reflection deepens awareness, (4) small acts of care ground learning in practice, (5) iterative design enables deeper learning. These experiences revealed hidden infrastructures, moral hierarchies, and socio-economic inequalities. They also helped participants develop emotional, ethical, and big-picture understand- ings that traditional tourism or research rarely offer. Participants shifted from seeing waste as an individual responsibility to understanding it as a shared sys- temic responsibility, demonstrating how tourism can function as a medium for learning, reflection, and collective action..
Methodologically, the research shows how hands-on, critical approaches can shift power, challenge dominant stories, and imagine new ways of living in the city, aligning with Escobar’s (2018) idea of the pluriverse. Although participants experienced strong emotional and perceptual shifts, lasting behavior change was limited. This suggests a need for ongoing or supported forms of engage- ment. Toxic tours turn extractive forms of tourism into opportunities for care, ethical awareness, and regeneration by framing travel as a space for reflection, learning, and shared action. This approach offers a practical model for research- ers, policymakers, and practitioners working toward more sustainable and partic- ipatory urban futures.

The Netherlands has experienced a decline in active school travel over the last decade. This is concerning, considering that active school travel is essential to support children’s health and independence. Parents’ perceived traffic safety is often linked to children’s mobility choices, but there is little knowledge on what factors inform parents’ perceived safety in a bike-oriented context. This research employed a combination of literature reviews and interviews with mental maps, to understand what factors influenced parents’ perceived traffic safety in a bike-oriented context, like the Netherlands. Overall, this research established a multitude of factors that informed parents’ perceived traffic safety. These factors included, but were not limited to, complex crossings, high speed, high traffic volume, type of bike path, type of crossing, and accidents along the route. This research also highlighted that children’s characteristics and parents’ approach to risk mitigated parents’ perception of traffic safety. The results further showed that parents’ perception of traffic safety did not solely depend on the factors found along the route, but also on the interplay between factors at any specific location. These findings largely overlapped with the literature, with some important additions, which can be attributed to the bike-oriented context and use of interviews in this study. A key supposition from the study was that parents focused on minimizing the uncertainty along their travel route to feel safe. Hence, they preferred routes where their expectations matched the resulting behavior and where infrastructure elements minimized the consequences of any mistakes their children made. The conclusions in this research should be reconfirmed with a larger sample.

The world needs reliable, sustainable, and longer duration energy storage solutions as the share of intermittent renewable energy increases in energy systems. Carnot batteries are a promising, emerging technological class of energy storage that store electricity in the form of thermal exergy. They can be made from abundant materials and existing technology, are durable, have a low specific cost, store energy for medium-to-long periods, and cogenerate heat and power. Previous studies have simulated thermodynamic components, optimized system design and control, and investigated application potential of Carnot batteries at different scales and environments with promising findings that suggest the energy storage can be competitive and even outperform mature energy storage technologies on the market.
Carnot battery potential in the metropolitan environment is still being explored and specific case- studies are needed to further validate the functional utility of the technology. The aim of this research is to investigate Carnot battery potential for a practical use-case with an existing building through a research-for-design approach. Data is gathered through literature, commercial sources, and interviews with experts informed the design and application of the energy storage system in an urban context in the Netherlands. With the goal of net-positive energy building performance, an analysis based on energy balance, hypothetical onsite renewable energy potential, spatial considerations, and two different scenarios was conducted on an existing building using real energy data.
The implementation of Carnot batteries to existing buildings can manage electricity and heat services, provide a cost-competitive energy storage option, and reduce carbon emissions released into the environment when coupled to renewable energy systems over the lifetime of the technology. The findings indicate massive potential for Carnot batteries to contribute to urban energy storage needs.