This project is situated within the context of Groningen and Drenthe, regions in the Netherlands with a long history of extractive economic processes that have left deep scars on both the landscape and the daily lives of residents. In response to these long-term impacts, the Dutch government introduced Nij Begun, a 30-year plan aimed at building a better future for Groningen and North Drenthe. The plan focuses on areas affected by decades of gas extraction and recurring earthquakes, which have caused severe damage to buildings as well as economic and mental harm to local communities.

Within this context, the project addresses the village of Ter Apel in southeast Groningen, where the assignment is to develop a new tourism hub aligned with the ambitions of Nij Begun. Ter Apel is nationally known for its asylum seeker centre and the challenges associated with overcrowding, resulting in social tension and unsafe conditions for both asylum seekers and the local community.

At the centre of the village stands the only surviving rural monastery in northwestern Europe. Historically, the monastery functioned as a place of sanctuary, contemplation, and community, embodying a long tradition of hospitality and refuge. In its current role as a museum, however, it largely functions as a static representation of the past.

This project explores how Ter Apel’s monastic heritage can be reinterpreted to redefine the meaning of refuge in a contemporary context. By moving beyond the monastery’s current museum function and integrating tourism with social hospitality, the project proposes a new tourism hub that responds to both local challenges and regional ambitions.
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This master’s thesis explores how a mobility hub in a rural context can become more than an efficient transport interchange by creating a place for staying, meeting, and experiencing its surroundings. While contemporary mobility infrastructure is primarily designed for speed, efficiency, and transfer, this research investigates how architecture can also support different experiences of time and strengthen regional identity. The project is developed for the rural setting of Ter Apel, where the mobility hub serves as the starting point for exploring these ideas.

The research follows a research-by-design approach, combining literature review, precedent studies, and iterative design. The theoretical framework is based on Henri Bergson’s distinction between measured time and lived duration (la durée). These ideas are translated into architectural design principles that shape the mobility hub through different layers of time and use. The result is the concept of Slow Grounds, in which movement, waiting, and staying are integrated into a layered spatial experience.

The project demonstrates that mobility infrastructure can become more than a functional transport hub. By designing for different rhythms of movement and duration, the proposal creates a stronger relationship between people, place, and the local community. In this way, Slow Grounds presents a design strategy that balances efficient travel with meaningful experiences of place, contributing to both regional identity and slow tourism. ... Read more

Contemporary public buildings are increasingly required to mediate between competing spatial demands rather than to serve a single fixed programme. Ter Apel, a small Dutch village that functions simultaneously as the national asylum-registration hub and as a Cittaslow heritage-tourism destination, presents this challenge at exceptional intensity: permanent residents, transient asylum seekers, and prospective slow tourists generate triadic spatial friction at a documented scale. This graduation project, The Spatial Mediator, proposes a hybrid public building at the future Nedersaksenlijn station node that mediates these conflicting flows. The design is grounded in primary, data-driven research: a participatory workshop conducted with twenty-four asylum-centre residents across five language groups, supported by a purpose-built digital tool that allows the resulting programme-preference data to be filtered and compared by country of origin. The building applies Habraken's Open Building support-infill principle through a permanent steel cruciform structural grid serviced by an overhead crane, within which infill modules are reconfigured across a five-phase transformation spanning 2027 to 2075. A parametric roof of pyramidal photovoltaic modules drives the building toward a carbon-negative hundred-year lifecycle. The project demonstrates a transferable methodology for designing adaptable civic buildings in high-friction spatial contexts. ... Read more

Following decades of socio-economic neglect and seismic damage from the Groningen gas fields, the Nijbegun recovery agenda and the upcoming Nedersaksen railway line present a historic opportunity to revitalize the northern Dutch provinces. Historically treated as an extraction resource rather than a destination, the border village of Ter Apel currently faces severe energy poverty and below-average household incomes. Simultaneously, the green energy transition demands massive infrastructure expansion; yet, conventional hydrogen plants are traditionally built as closed-off and inaccessible industrial boxes.

The H2 Hub radically challenges this industrial paradigm by reimagining hydrogen production as an open, educational tourism destination. The core of the architectural design is a reproducible prototype shaped by strict technical safety distances. Utilizing fire- and blast-resistant glass, it achieves complete spatial transparency, placing an exposed 5.0 MW electrolyser showcase at the heart of a public courtyard and reflection pool. This central core is wrapped by an educational exhibition path, allowing visitors to safely experience and understand the entire production sequence firsthand.

To anchor the prototype locally, the project integrates three site-specific "plug-ins": a new train station, an auditorium with a restaurant, and a wellness center. The hub utilizes the local peaty subsoil to restore a historical marsh landscape, serving as both a recreational zone and a natural water source for electrolysis. The facility generates 2,200 kg of clean hydrogen daily for regional transport, while capturing 36,000 kWh of residual daily heat to power the public baths and warm 350 local homes, saving 1.3 million m³ of natural gas annually. Enclosed in a kinetic facade crafted from upcycled gas industry scrap metal, the building stands as a living monument transforming heavy industry into a celebrated civic landmark.
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Tourist destinations all around the world are affected by the negative impacts of mass tourism and overcrowding, leading to environmental degradation and the overall loss of meaningful visitor experiences. In response, slow tourism has emerged as an alternative approach where tourists engage with their destination in a more conscious and responsible way. This graduation project explores how architectural design can support slow tourism by encouraging tourists to slow down and engage more deeply with the local identity. With the village of Ter Apel as the research context, the project responds to the ambitions of the Nij Begun agenda to promote tourism as a driver for regional economic development. Using research by design as the primary research method, the project is structured around three recurring themes identified in slow tourism literature: pace and movement, sensory experiences and local identity. Based on these themes, the project proposes a design for a slow tourism hub combined with a train station, reimagining transit architecture not as a place for just fast arrival and departure, but as the starting point of a slow tourism journey. The final design consists of a ring-shaped public building surrounding a collection of eight accommodation units organised as a small village. The ring generates a continuous journey through a sequence of sensory spaces, encouraging visitors to slow down and linger. The village of accommodations reflect both the scale and local character of Ter Apel while supporting longer stays. Overall, the project demonstrates how architecture can contribute to a more responsible and meaningful approach to tourism. ... Read more

Ter Apel faces a crisis of identity, deeply divided between a tranquil village and a stigmatized asylum center. This thesis proposes a “Social Collider”—a hybrid typology merging a transit hub with Community-Based Agritourism. Situated at the critical threshold between the town, the agricultural landscape, and the asylum center, the design strategically orchestrates the convergence of residents, refugees, and tourists. By transforming a security-heavy border into a platform for shared production and dialogue, the project aims to deconstruct negative stereotypes and trigger a social and economic rebirth for the region. ... Read more

This graduation project looks into the friction between regional tourism plans and ecological preservation in Ter Apel, an area that forms a vulnerable link in the Dutch National Ecological Network (NNN). Instead of sticking to typical tourism designs that completely separate people from wildlife habitats, this project designs a public building that acts as a physical mediator between human and more-than-human systems.
Using a research-by-design approach, the project starts with an ecology-first layout, where the building lines are directly drawn from the natural shapes and constraints of the landscape. The architecture transitions from a heavy concrete and steel multi-modal station linked to the regional Nedersaksenlijn rail vision, into a continuous, lightweight timber superstructure. This structural grid is wrapped in an adaptable panel system where micro-scale biological needs (like nesting spaces for birds, shadow areas for bats, and wood blocks for pollinators) are used as the actual parameters to solve macro-scale building needs like sun shading and visitor privacy. By exploding the program across different gradients, the design changes the role of the visitor from a passive consumer of nature into an active participant in a shared ecosystem. ... Read more

Ter Apel is a small Dutch village that faces high social tension because it hosts 24,000 asylum seekers every year. Due to long waiting times and a lack of activities, many newcomers face extreme boredom, leading to loitering in public spaces. At the same time, highways and fences physically separate the asylum center from the village, preventing positive contact. This graduation project proposes 'De Smeltheuvel', a shared community building that brings residents and newcomers together. Based on the concept of 'Solidarity Tourism', the design creates a neutral place for meaningful exchange. The building's architecture represents time—past, present, and future—to stay neutral and welcome everyone. Programmatically, it includes a community garden, a museum, a theater, and a restaurant. Through a volunteer system, asylum seekers can get professional training while helping the local economy. Ultimately, this project turns a zone of friction into a safe space that restores social cohesion. ... Read more

This master’s thesis investigates how public architecture can promote cultural tourism through the organization of heritage, the reinterpretation of dispersed landmarks, and the construction of spatial narratives that strengthen place identity. The project departs from the context of the “Nij Begun” programme, which is a Dutch governmental initiative aimed at revitalizing the Groningen province in response to gas extraction–induced earthquakes, with a particular focus on stimulating the leisure and tourism economy.

Focusing on the village of Ter Apel, the research addresses key challenges, including its fragmented identity, underrecognized historical assets, and persistent misrepresentation in national media discourse. In response, the design proposes a hybrid public building that operates simultaneously as a transport hub and a cultural catalyst. The project positions architecture as an active agent capable of reframing and amplifying local identity.

Central to the design approach is the orchestration of movement as both a spatial and experiential sequence. The building’s central hall, conceived as an interior plaza, initiates a curated journey through Ter Apel’s cultural and natural landscape. Through the integration of a “journey room" and the visual exposure of the exhibited landmarks, the building reenvisions initial touristic transit as an immersive introduction to the region. Architecture thus facilitates a ritual of arrival, orientation, and discovery, aligning tourism with culturally meaningful engagement.

The project also functions simultaneously as both a protective and a celebratory structure. The architectural appearance, which is derived from agricultural plot patterns and regional farm roof typologies, references the building within its rural context while reinterpreting it at an infrastructural scale. This establishes a dialogue between past and present, reinforcing local identity without resorting to literal historicism.

Ultimately, the thesis demonstrates that public architecture can play a significant role in reshaping tourism dynamics and local identity. By synthesizing infrastructure, culture, history and tourism the project proposes the key to the problem of Ter Apel and the marginalization of its civic values. It constitutes a system from fragmented and segmented landmarks and rethinks them into a system, making a network of monuments of immense significance for tourists to begin their journey, and putting a spotlight on them. ... Read more

The province of Groningen faces structural socio-economic contraction, a challenge that the national recovery program Nij Begun aims to address within a generation. While the regional economy shrinks, the agricultural sector remains a stable foundation. This design research leverages this strength by deploying agritourism as a catalyst for regional growth and identity restoration. The project focuses on Ter Apel, a village whose rich agricultural qualities are currently overshadowed by a negative national reputation as the epicenter of the Dutch asylum crisis.

An integrated architectural and landscape design has been developed for the 'Agrohub': a hybrid public building of 2,000–2,500 m² that combines a future train station on the Nedersaksenlijn with a theater, hospitality, and local business spaces. Based on the theory of Genius Loci and traditional Groningen barn typologies, the project activates bio-based materials and the surrounding peat landscape as an educational extension. By balancing publicness, the hub connects local farmers, residents, asylum seekers, and tourists. The final result demonstrates how architecture can dissolve rigid boundaries between infrastructure and agriculture, transform a one-sided national narrative, and sustainably restore local socio-economic capital and pride. ... Read more

Global mobility is increasing, diverse temporary populations, like tourists and asylum seekers often create friction with local communities. This thesis explores how architecture and infrastructure can actively mediate global flows. The Nedersaksenlijn transit hub in Ter Apel is used as a primary case study. By analyzing flows, data and user perspectives, the research uses spatial strategies to create coexistence among locals, tourists, and refugees. The findings showcase that integrating daily activities and scattering tourist functions throughout locally owned public spaces creates benefits and negates negative effects of global mobility. Crucially, the project unveils that prioritizing locals creates strong public spaces and strategically designing infrastructure humanizes refugees, prevents over-tourism and shifts the image from crisis to coexistence. Finally, this project argues that global flows are inevitable, and clashes between populations cannot be avoided. However, infrastructure can direct these movements to mitigate their negative impacts, transforming mobilities into opportunities for spatial equality. ... Read more

An architect should deal with social and political problems. Nowadays, politicians have the power to "solve" common problems. However, how reliable is a politician, or a journalist in the society? The choice of this Studio consists in exploring how a "Public Building" functions differently from how we are used to seeing it. An alternative model, which may become an example for the current society we live in. ... Read more

This architectural project focused on designing a public building that challenges societal norms surrounding sex, desire, and gender. The goal is to create a space for open dialogue and exploration of diverse sexualities and boundaries, fostering understanding and respect. By acting as mediators between different perspectives, public buildings can drive social change and improve social life.

The project is situated in Berlin's Friedrichshain district, known for its contrasting attitudes towards sexuality. The Public Condenser aims to bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and sexual preferences, creating an inclusive environment for discussion. The multifunctional design accommodates various needs, promoting dialogue and addressing the importance of these topics.

Internally, the Public Condenser includes spaces that facilitate the exploration of sexuality on three levels: the body, the brain, and relationships. These spaces encompass a bathhouse, a dance/sports hall, an interactive gallery, an auditorium, a library, rooms for therapy, and workshop areas. The design emphasizes sensory experiences to create transformative encounters.

The design process involved extensive research, utilizing the "research by design" methodology. Case studies, interviews with residents and professionals, and visits to sex-positive clubs and cultural events informed the project. The design proposals integrate feedback and insights from potential user-groups and sexuality professionals.

By establishing a physical space for open dialogue and exploration of sexuality, the Public Condenser project aims to disrupt normative coding of sex, desire, and gender. It seeks to drive social change and foster an inclusive society. The study highlights the crucial role of architecture in shaping experiences and challenging societal perceptions. The project in Friedrichshain serves as a model for future architectural interventions promoting sexual education and understanding in contemporary societies.
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Society is getting more inclusive by the day. Both in terms of race as well as gender, sexuality, religion and so on. This trend of inclusion should find physical correspondence in the design of public spaces that are more accessible to a wider audience with different lifestyles and cultures. The studio of Public Building offered a platform to dive deeper into this subject and to create a prototype to facilitate this important trend. By designing a public condenser people will be brought together that may normally not have crossed paths with each other.
These public buildings are important to the neighborhood and even the whole city as they can become the heart of communities. A safe space where people of all ages can go to and meet each other, learn from each other, and play with each other. A building that will regenerate its neighborhood and the social life of its inhabitants. Without such buildings these interactions between citizens would be greatly inhibited.

The building uses a form of Commons as a way of creating a building that is more inclusive for people, moments, and cultures. It will be a way to lower social thresholds and bring the private and the urban closer to each other.

The problem of the scale gap between private space and the urban surroundings is not one specifically bound to Friedrichshain or even Berlin. In almost every big city you can find the same problem. With this graduation project a solution has emerged that can either solve or soften this problem with the use of a public building. In this way the project could be used as either a baseline or a reference to projects in other cities dealing with the same problem. ... Read more

The need for adaptable buildings as a response to climate change is known. Repurposing existing structures and building materials are significant means of reducing the environmental impact of space making. This process of users appropriating and adapting the built environment, overwriting past functions and meanings with new ones, is prevalent within the urban fabric of Berlin and has become part of the identity of the city. Two terms which shaped the early explorations were loose fit architecture and hackable buildings. This research proposes a typology between these terms which provides the scaffolding to allow and encourage users to alter the space to suit the changing needs placed upon the building. The primary aim of this typology is to reduce the initial resource input into buildings, increase the longevity and resiliency of the structures, and help form more meaningful relationships between people and spaces they inhabit.
Berlin, like many cities, is experiencing the effects of gentrification as property prices continue to rise. The area of Friedrichshain currently boasts the second highest housing expenses in Berlin, despite an average income under the city average. Segments of the population heavily affected by these changes are young families and those in creative fields, many of whom require shop spaces and studios in order to do their craft. In many urban areas the trend of coworking spaces, collaborative workshops, and makerspaces can be observed in response to this. These spaces leverage the increased density and shared resources to make creative spaces more accessible. Such a function would allow residents who may otherwise have been forced to move to other parts of the city to stay in their neighborhood and social networks.
The prototype that is the subject of this graduation project would also provide a platform for the exploration of hackability and selfbuilding as tools for developing more local and self-reliant communities. ... Read more

All places change over time; however, the extent and availability of alternatives are essential. Friedrichshain is an example of a neighbourhood where the transition to a high-income society can have significant consequences for low-income and elderly, who have fewer choices and fewer opportunities to travel for recreation and socialising.

The design of a public condenser in Friedrichshain will form a new heart between the existing and upcoming neighbourhood and their society. The public condenser will blur the division between neighbourhoods and enhance inclusivity and diversity.

A public function that facilitates different generations' recreational and intellectual needs is a library. Today's libraries already have a social function in addition to the intellectual purpose. Adding social functions to current services ensures that the existing and new cultures and societies reinforce each other. Moreover, bringing different socioeconomic groups together reduces conflicts and disorder and enhances collective security.

This design expands the standard library with other media forms to anticipate the future. So there are printed books in the building and devices on which users can read digital books, listen to audiobooks and communicate via multimedia. In addition, the media library will contain extra functions that activate the brain's left (intellectual) and right (creative) hemispheres.

The different media types connect the thinking and doing activities in the building through a guiding routing. The guiding routing serves as an extension of the public street and is designed for stocking books and other media types, the media library.

Finally, there will also be space for leisure and gathering in addition to activities for thinking and doing. Traditional formal functions associated with a library are transformed into more informal spaces with room for the individual and the collective. ... Read more

The building aims to use water to address issues on two levels. Firstly, on a local level, it is a public condenser aiming to provide family resources and water recreation activities that are lacking in the neighbourhood of Friedrichshain, Berlin. Single child families make up for the majority of households in Berlin which leaves the bulk of peer-to-peer socialisation of children outside of the home. On a wider level, the building addresses water as a public right and a threatened resource. Public consciousness of water issues in Germany may not be prevalent as Germany enjoys high-quality drinking water all year round but with the recent droughts and effects of climate change, this is projected to change in the coming future. Furthermore, my fascination with using water as a design device lies with how water has always been a gathering point, a place to meet, socialise and relax. The dynamic state of water presents numerous opportunities for it to be used as a spatial tool both indoors and outdoors. ... Read more

The turmoil history of Berlin is a history of clashes between ideologies. This created a divided city not only from an architectural point of view but also from a socio-political background. The initial fieldwork research in Friedrichshain (and in Berlin as a whole) has shown diverse people with different and sometimes extremely opposing ideologies congregating in the same public space. The ideological background presented by the inhabitance is the result of the combination of share beliefs regarding religious, cultural, and societal self-identification. This difference plays a crucial role in the formation of each individual’s worldview, which forms their ideologies. The various social groups observed in the analyzed area show almost no interaction, with each group discussing their ideology and social problems internally. This leads to polarization in the local society. ... Read more

This design is a graduation project of the public buildings studio called "Music Marvel". It deals with designing a public space within an area, Binckhorst, that is switching from an industrial to a residential district. The increase in density has consequences on the existing buildings resulting in demolition and thus a loss of identity. According to Aldo Rossi the evolution of a building is the user experience. But what happens with the demolished parts of the evolving process? Could they be re-used and relocated while transferring part of its former identity? This project explores the re-using of parts of the hidden beautiful concrete structures found in the former auto halls in Binckhorst. These parts are relocated to a new area near the only green space in Binckhorst, the cemetery zone. This area feels isolated and the design aims to open up this park. The new music venue aims to make this public space more accessible. And by giving the historic artifacts space in the new music venues, they will contribute in the musical experience of visitors. Each venue will have demolished pieces of the auto hall organized in a different way to create a different experience for each venue. ... Read more