Despite the increasing demand for women’s participation in the growing economy, the persisting gender inequality in current societies has a significant spatial factor contributing to inhibiting women from accessing various facilities and economic opportunities, further undermining them from enhancing their social mobility and decreasing gender inequality. The spatial structure of public spaces, including the mobility networks, functional distribution, and presence of appropriable spaces and co-creative processes emerge as critical dimensions within which women’s needs must be met in order to achieve a state of social resilience in these systems, and promote women’s spatial and social mobility across the city. While urban planners and designers highlight ecological and economic resilience, social resilience is vital to establish, in order to achieve a balanced system of resilience. This research proposes an evolutionary approach to addressing and mitigating gender inequality in cities through urban planning and design practice using a strategic planning framework. This is proposed with the goal of increasing women’s capacity for participation through the strategic shaping of their local contexts according to their spatio-temporal needs. By redefining the parameters through which urban planning and design decisions are made, and addressing who is needed to make these decisions, the research proposes a guide to decision-makers on enhancing the socio-spatial integration of city residents. Through the comparison of the three distinct cultural contexts of Cairo, The Hague, and Seoul, across the dimensions of society, economy and space, the unique needs and variables contributing to women’s inhibition are pinpointed, and actions can then be proposed, using the local conditions, to tackle the spatial issues. This allows the framework to be implementable across cultural specificities, and provides a guide for urban planning practice holistically. The strategic framework proposed is therefore a tool that utilises local stakeholders and conditions to co-create and anchor urban transformations in the local context, and does not provide a definite spatial plan. Through addressing the role of urban planners and designers in creating conditions for gender equality, the research aims to provide a frame of reference for actor dynamics in co-creation processes, empowering women to appropriate public spaces as they see fit to reach their needs.

With the development of the social economy, the traditional urban work and rest pattern of working during the day and resting at night has gradually changed. The night-time economy has become a new engine for urban regeneration, economic growth and cultural creation.The growth of tourism in Amsterdam has also benefited from its inclusive and prosperous night-time economy. However, the agglomeration of the nightlife industry in Amsterdam's city center results in a rise in noise, crime, and antisocial behavior, which triggers a backlash from residents. As a current countermeasure adopted by the municipality, state-led gentrification has mitigated the night-time economy's negative externalities to an extent, but caused massive closures of nightlife venues.

This research aims to solve the dilemma of Amsterdam's night-time economy through planning instruments that optimize the urban polycentricity. The research explores integrated strategies and multi-scale spatial interventions to stimulate the development of peripheral night-time industry clusters while minimizing the nuisance, in order to improve the livability of the city center and contribute to a diverse and balanced night-time economy in Amsterdam.

Modern urban road systems often bring environmental problems and affect the quality of life of residents. The main roads in the south of Rotterdam face problems with lack of greenery, heat island effect and flash flooding. These problems have had a negative impact on the well-being of residents, and have also caused the road ecosystem to fail to provide better ecological benefits for the city.

This thesis aims to explore the potential of main roads in improving ecological benefits and quality of life through the concept of ecosystem services. The purpose of the research is to use the arterial network to create urban ecological corridors, support for healthy living, and climate-adaptive infrastructure.

Through the determination of the ecological value of the arterial network and its spatial quality, this thesis clarifies the goals of supporting and habitat services, cultural services and regulating services provided by roads, and proposes spatial intervention strategies. The spatial intervention strategies are applied to the three streets and become different landscape schemes.

The research process of this thesis shows the value and importance of the city's arterial network in improving the ecological integrity of the city and the well-being of residents.

The dilemma of race and space is deep entwined in the history of United States. From the slave quarters of plantations in the South to redlining and housing projects, the unjust distribution of space between diff erent ethnic groups has demarcated “otherness” until recent days. Perhaps the most vocal witnesses of the spatial injustice and the socio-economic decay of the marginalized neighborhoods have been the emcees, the spoken word artists - the rappers. Often obscene and violent in content, gangsta rap was “developed out of a desire to relate incidents and experiences with a more specific sense of place and, subsequently, greater significance to local youths who could recognize the sites and activities described in the lyrics” (Forman, 2000). From Ice Cube’s ‘reality rap’ to modern day bards like Kendrick Lamar, Los Angeles rappers have lyrically documented their surroundings. While the homicide rate in the county has come down from the golden era of “gangsta” rap, with homicide numbers peaking in 1992 (2,589), and LA is now dubbed one of the safest metropolises in the United States (Carroll, 2016), in places like Compton gangs are still an issue, and violent crime is on the rise (Crime is down in los angeles for the first time in 5 years.2018). Although so called “anti-gang” programmes and various community eff orts have been succesful in combating crime and violence, segregation, youth violence and drug abuse is still rampant. My thesis is focusing on uncovering the socio-spatial phenomena behind the issues related to unjust distribution of space, violence and ghettoization in Los Angeles. The main question is, how to establish a methodology for utilizing works of art to study the urban fabric and life in a way that would generate change in socially, economically and spatially challenged areas.

The general problem of the thesis project is the issue of declining liveability of old neighbourhood area and the lost place identity of Shao City. To be more specific, the problem focus is the fractured social-spatial network between the old neighbourhood and the area for new social class like Kuanzhai Alley & gated communities with declining third place for local residents. The abandoned historical buildings,crowed courtyard space occupied by the informal constructions & car park and Kuanzhai Alley full of tourists and commercial activities reduce the third place of the neighbourhood and decrease its liveability and identity. The spatial gaps in Shao City have been formed. Meanwhile, the social condition in the neighbourhood is degrading. The social class is lowering in the old neighbourhood due to the rise of Kuanzhai Alley as many original residents could not stand the tourists. The upgrading of the social class in gated communities and the inaccessible public space in the new social class area caused the social segregation between the old social class and higher social in this area. From the heritage perspective, it is crucial to reconnect the social-spatial network with rich third place in Shao City for new identity. From residents’ perspective, the complete social-spatial network with good third place is important for improving the liveability.

Amsterdam Centrum has been suffering from the spatial competition between overcrowded pedestrian visitors and busy vehicular flows. Application of automated vehicles is a historic opportunity to reclaim the streets for people and change the predicament of the downtown. The thesis focuses on the relationship between walkability and traffic efficiency in Amsterdam Centrum, aiming to maximize the viability and vitality of the city center in the automated era.

The whole project, from research to design, is an urban experiment on walkable and efficient-functional city centers. Scenario building is the core approach that has linked research with design. Also, it is a bridge to connect the existing reality with future reality. First, the theoretical study of walkability and traffic efficiency provides the objects for analytical research of Amsterdam. It also helps to select the driving forces for scenario building. Second, theories about viability and vitality provide the evaluation materials for scenario assessment. And the urban design is the continuation of selected scenarios. The key idea of the final design is the movable programme, which means urban functions/human activities can travel in the city like automated vehicles. In the final, the project presents a dynamic urban system and flexible streetscape. It reshapes the relationship between walkability and traffic efficiency by redefining the meaning of city centers and public street with emphasizing on time dimension

Women inequality is a common practice in today’s world which is global in nature. Focusing on a developing country like India, violence against women, needless to say, is a grave concern. Crime in the form of rapes, molestation, and eve-teasing, has made public spaces fearful, and women have developed the fear of being a part of these places. The aim of this project is to redesign and reinvent the public spaces in New Delhi, India to reclaim the women’s right to the city in public spaces and make them gender inclusive and safe through the participation of stakeholders and community building.

The methodology adopted for this research includes “research by literature” and “research by best practices” which helps in evaluating the theoretical framework. The theoretical framework is used to relate spatial and social qualities of the site and recognize main issues by “research by design.” The site for this project is a neighborhood in Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, India. Womenspatialactivism is an urbanism approach devised in this project aiming towards re-appropriation of spaces by women in New Delhi, India. The concept of #WomenSpatialActivism is the re-appropriation of the front door by an old woman, the street by a working girl and the public park by mothers. It aims to spread in the city through digital media.

The women spatial activism is an urban designer’s approach which has three main components. These are the physical charter and physical interventions into space, a social stakeholder structure that connects the stakeholders (knowledge, financial and implementation partners) to implement the project and record the feedback of the interventions for its further scope and the third component is the digital structure which includes a mobile application “SHE-CONNECT” that allows women to travel together from the same source to the same destination. The physical structure works on a street and public park to make it more safe, lively and women-centric. The key projects taken up in the research are revitalizing streets (community building and cleanliness through guerrilla gardening), light your lantern (a fund-raising project for lighting the streets), the pink carpet (a wayfinding strip for a safer street), spatial activism headquarters (engaging citizens for temporary urbanism to achieve re-appropriation for women) and reclaiming the park (re-appropriation by women in the public parks with basic amenities). All these projects are a composition of small spatial activism physical interventions which are generic in nature and can be implemented in other areas. The implications have been tested with “Space Syntax” which proves the vitality and viability of the research.

Through these interventions, a gender sensitive neighborhood can be achieved which sets an example in the city of New Delhi and thereafter seeking attention globally. The research topic is socially relevant in terms of the problematics of gender inequalities and freedom of women in public spaces, especially in a country like India.

Complex urban planning problems comprise socio-spatial conditions, human behaviour and external factors (e.g. technological developments). The perspective of urban planners and designers is crucial to comprehend these problems from a holistic point of view but does not possess the skills to grapple the full problem. Cities bear characteristics of complex systems in which the interaction between decision makers is an important factor in the manifestation of urban change. Quantitative and computational methods are becoming increasingly capable at evaluating this aspect of urban planning problems. Computational models, although a simplification of reality, can help to evaluate many data and therefore extend the thinking capacity. Design thinking can interpret model outcomes in the broader socio-spatial context. But integration between these engineering-based methods on the one hand and the conventional urban planning and design methods proves challenging. This research investigates how an integrated methodology can lead to better understanding of urban planning problems. Models that comprehend built environment dynamics, can be used as design evaluation tool. The uncertainty around the spatial impacts of automated driving is used as case study for a complex urban planning problem. How automated driving will affect cities depends on the development and the deployment of the technology but also on how human agents adapt their behaviour. Mobility aspects (and therefore automated driving) relate to the built environment through the concept of accessibility and by the integration of the transportation system in space. An important condition to employ computational models within a research process is to explicitly define the system one evaluates. This research narrows down to households and their location choice behaviour as important behavioural aspect in urban development. The residential location choice depends on characteristics of the households itself and on dwelling, environment and location attributes. Automated vehicles are propagated to be more efficient in terms of infrastructure demands and travel efficiency compared to conventional vehicles. Therefore, this technology relates to the decision factors of households through spatial quality and accessibility effects. A scenario approach is employed to grapple the uncertainty around automated driving. In four scenarios, different development paths of automated driving are assumed. The province of Utrecht in the Netherlands is used as case study to provide for context and data. This research employs a residential location choice model to examine the changes in moving behaviour of households in space caused by the development of automated driving. The accessibility effects are studied with a transport model and the spatial quality effects are obtained by research and design. The residential location choice model evaluates these factors. The result is a change in urban development pattern. The results are interpreted in an urban strategy where the results of previous research steps are synthesised and assessed, to provide for interpretation of the research outcome from a holistic socio-spatial perspective. Computational models ask for explicit data which complicates the compatibility between various research steps. This research shows that it is possible to implement qualitative design methods within the data collection process. Design-based research methods are easier to apply and therefore relate directly towards the context of the problem. For using a computational model, this requires often for an operational model before one can comprehend the context. This makes for a more complicated research process. Therefore, employing an integrated methodology in urban planning research proves challenging but helps to approach the urban planning problem from a holistic perspective. An integrated approach broadens both perspectives to consider and combine the most important variables. By explicitly defining the problem, core principles reveal and computational models help to explain the dynamics between these core principles. Interpretation of the results in the socio-spatial context allows to account for the values that are inherent to urban planning problems. The method is labour intensive and does not guarantee more inspiring and detailed plans or designs. But the outcomes for proposed actions relate better to the factors that are significant to the system and elaborate more accurately on the uncertainty and dynamics the urban planning problem encompass. This research, is in which this report is established, is part of the graduation process for both the master of Urbanism at the faculty of Architecture and the master of Transport & Planning at the faculty of Civil Engineering. This report is submitted for the partial fulfilment of the Urbanism exam. The Transport & Planning report can be found here: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5e88d71c-3878-4c4e-967b-0b5727bd0d8f