The increasing densification in cities in the Netherlands has led to a growing competition for space, which places significant pressure on urban public and green spaces. Evident in Amsterdam, this raises questions concerning the city’s ability to sustain the wide range of benefits public green spaces can provide. However, with limited horizontal space still available, the city should explore innovative solutions to create new space in the urban landscape. In this context, retrofitting existing rooftops has sparked significant interest and the concept of rooftop parks has emerged as the ultimate solution. This study explores the suitability of the existing roof stock in Amsterdam for retrofit into rooftop parks, as an elevated layer of public urban green space. Employing a mixed-method approach, it defines the concept of rooftop parks within the city’s context, establishes guiding principles for rooftop parks, presents a holistic framework to assess roof suitability based on 11 key building and urban contextual criteria and analyses the application of this framework. In this way, an answer is ultimately provided as to the extent to which roofs in Amsterdam are suitable for rooftop park retrofitting. Adding to existing rooftop development perspectives, findings support informed future decision-making, ultimately contributing to Amsterdam’s commitment to creating a more sustainable, liveable and climate-resilient city for all residents.

This study examines the practice of electronics repair within Circular Craft Centres (CCCs), identifying barriers, enablers, and opportunities to support the adoption and scaling of repair practices. The current throwaway consumer society has led to increased waste and e-waste production. This is leading to considerable environmental and human health risks because E-waste is inadequately managed. To counter the problematic developments of the throwaway culture, we need to transition to a circular economy (CE) where resources are reused through strategies such as repair and recycling. Currently there are systematic barriers that prevent the uptake of repair practices in society. Creating a need to gain insights into the complex dynamics of repair practices and what is needed to stimulate their uptake in various forms in society (Yuan, 2023).
CCCs are collaborations between second-hand shops and recycling points, focused on increasing circular practices through repair and reuse. Despite increased interest in CCCs and their potential role in the CE and the efforts of implanting them nationwide, CCCs remain largely understudied. This thesis thus aims to explore the current practices of repair in CCCs and the influences of their embeddedness in the CCC and the broader repair system. CCCs face a lot of practical barriers for the repair and reuse of electronics. This research seeks to address this by examining how CCCs can optimize and upscale electronics repair practices and work towards CE objectives. Therefore, this research aims to answer the following question: What are the current practices of e-repair in Circular Craft Centres (CCCs) in the Netherlands, and how can the growth and scaling of these practices be supported? To address this, the study first seeks to understand the current e-repair practices in CCCs. It then examines the barriers and enablers that influence the potential for scaling these practices. Finally, the findings are used to design tools and services that support CCCs in expanding their e-repair efforts and strengthening their role in a circular economy.
Social practice theory (SPT) was used as framework to analyse the practice of e-repair within CCCs and identify barriers, enablers and opportunities of the adoption and upscaling of the practice. Data was collected through interviews with CCCs and a co-creation session. The results were analysed using SPT concepts such as material, meaning and competences. The findings reveal significant barriers to e-repair in CCCs such as regulatory restrictions, access to spare parts, poor-quality electronics, and low profitability of repaired electronics. These barriers originate in broader systemic regulatory, economic, and cultural contexts. Addressing these barriers requires reforms to align regulations with CE goals, and cultural changes through awareness campaigns and increased accessibility to repair facilities.
A practice-based design approach was employed to design services based on the barriers, enablers and opportunities that were observed. The co-creation session was used to initiate ideas for how to improve e-repair and reuse in CCCs. The barriers, enablers and opportunities were translated into design guidelines. These were used to brainstorm ideas for services and tools. Throughout the process various design tools, such as mind mapping, reverse brainstorming and a decision matrix, were used to develop the final idea. The final idea is the repair hub plan, which outlined services and tools that CCCs can provide to citizens. These services and tools are aimed at stimulating citizens to engage in e-repair by providing free access to tools and knowledge. The plan contains several services, namely a free workspace where citizens can try repair and a tools and electronics rental service for free or low prices. The CCC can also give e-repair workshops and collaborate with educational facilities to exchange resources. CCCs can also hive out repair yourself kits, which challenge customers to repair a broken second-hand electronic product and win a small price. The designed services aim at using the CCCs social and collaborative nature and goals to create a repair hub through which a community of e-repair can emerge, stimulating the upscaling of the e-repair practice.

This research provides a framework to evaluate participation processes and their contribution to citizen support for top-ups. The findings have illustrated how participation processes contribute to the support for top-ups by using a context-specific approach, adjusting the level of participation to the needs of both current and future residents, and combining both issue- and action-based activities. Additionally, it presents an overview of key social factors for top-ups, that moderate the influence of the participation process on the support for top-ups.

By acknowledging the social domain in the decision-making of top-ups, it can guide future participation processes to be more inclusive and effective, accelerating the implementation of successful top-ups.

Purpose: The construction industry is responsible for great amounts of resource consumption, waste generation and both carbon and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. The currently still predominant linear mindset of take-make-consume-dispose must shift to reduce the industry’s environmental impact and enable the transition towards a circular construction industry. Circular material hubs facilitate more circularity by collecting, processing, and redistributing secondary building components to make them available for another life cycle. In literature, little can be found about the system circular material hubs are embedded in and their connection to architects. This study investigates the system of circular material hubs in the Netherlands, its challenges, opportunities, and potential future developments in the transition towards a circular construction industry. A special focus is placed on the role of architects within this system, as a circular construction industry also needs designers to include secondary building components in designs. The Netherlands is one of the top nations in the reuse of secondary raw materials and therefore provides as an exemplary setting for this exploratory research.
Methodology: An exploratory, qualitative research approach was chosen. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from circular material hubs, architects, as well as experts in the fields of circular economy, circular construction industry and construction logistics. Practitioner interviews aimed at identifying practices performed within the system of circular material hubs, and detecting challenges, opportunities and potential future developments as perceived by practitioners in the field. Expert interviews were conducted to validate the information gathered through literature review and practitioner interviews.
Findings: The research found four practice bundles which are important for the system of circular material hubs. These practice bundles are acquisition practice, processing practices, sales practices, and material harvesting practices. Within these practice bundles, different practices and performances of these practices were identified. The practices influence each other. Which building components are acquired influences which processing practices need to be performed. The type of building component also influences the sales practice as different building components target different groups of clients and are sold through different communication channels. It is also crucial whether the building components are sold offline or online. The online marketplace of Insert was found to be particularly helpful, as it is specifically designed for the construction industry and used by circular material hubs as well as architects. This shows the influence of the choice of communication channel on a circular design practice and scouting practices. By providing as much information as possible about the secondary building component at hand, circular material hubs also facilitate a circular design practice. Additionally, challenges, opportunities, and potential future developments of the system of circular material hubs were identified. Challenges the system faces are related to uncertainty and irregular assortment, guidelines, costs, and the provision of guarantees, while opportunities are governmental decisions, the provision of information and the use of shared online marketplaces. Missing collaborations are both a challenge and an opportunity. Future developments are primarily related to changes in the provision of secondary building components.
Research limitations: The limitations of this study are that social practice theory was not applied to the entire research as it is not suitable for the assessment of challenges, opportunities, and potential future developments. A greater variety of circular material hubs, not in number but in their field of activity, could present a different view on the system. Semi-structured interviews also always have certain limitations. Identifying the practices while they are being performed could also have led to more in-depth results.
Originality/value: By providing a comprehensive view on the system of circular material hubs in the Netherlands, this research helps to understand the dynamics within the system and allows the identification of potential interventions based on the practices that constitute the system.

This thesis addresses the problem of light pollution in cities, caused by public lighting. Currently, 99% of American and European citizens live under light-polluted skies (Falchi et al, 2016). Light pollution has measurable negative effects, as it increases energy consumption, disrupts ecosystems and wildlife and harms human health (IDA, 2013).

This research aims to reduce the amount of light pollution in Amsterdam Noord, a district in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the form of a case study. A Design for Darkness strategy, that helps reintroducing darkness into our urban nightscapes (Stone, 2019), is applied to structure this thesis. With the help of a literature review, interviews and observations of the research area, a short term Design for Darkness strategy for Amsterdam Noord can be developed.

The outcomes of this research suggest that the lighting in the green structure in Noord can be turned off, that experiments with lower light levels in residential areas should be conducted, that light nuisance in the form of glare and light trespass should be diminished, and that more lighting plans should focus on a qualitative, perception-based lighting approach, instead of only designing with a quantitative basis. Furthermore, the results indicate that dimming the lighting would be beneficial for the reduction of light pollution, but the lighting system in Amsterdam Noord is currently not fit to apply dimming regimes, and more budget is needed before this system can be applied.

Based on the insights from the Design for Darkness strategy, a list of policy recommendations for Amsterdam Noord is drawn up, and these measures express the need to set up regulations to minimize the causes of light pollution, and to educate people in the public and private sector about ways to preserve darkness.

In order to overcome the existential threat of climate change the energy transition is needed. The energy transition has multiple challenges, one of them being that it risks increasing inequality. This challenge also occurs in Amsterdam Zuidoost. In Amsterdam Zuidoost almost one out of five households lives already in energy poverty, which risks to increase due to the energy transition. The LIFE project, located in Amsterdam Zuidoost, aims to reduce energy poverty and contribute to the transition towards clean energy. LIFE is an acronym for Local Inclusive Future Energy. The aim of the project is to stimulate smart energy use which enables flexibility of the local energy system. To ensure meaningful interaction between future users and the design of the project, this research aims to develop a framework that presents the conditions for interventions that contribute to a more inclusive energy transition in Amsterdam Zuidoost. For this research, inclusivity is conceptualised as the active involvement of citizens in the energy transition. This means that an open door policy is not enough, inclusion is a reflexive process in which the competences and desires of the excluded are put at the centre. The data collection method consisted of an exploration of the literature, ethnographic research in Amsterdam Zuidoost and an analysis of transcripts of interviews with key-informants. This led to a framework consisting of nine conditions for interventions for an inclusive energy transition. The established conditions are the following agency, identification of the community, skill development, multi-objectivity, the need for safety, communication methods, practical examples, lightheartedness and youth. These conditions were found to emphasise, ensure or stimulate the inclusivity of the interventions for the energy transition. The different conditions are heavily interlinked and are able to stimulate each other. Intentional participatory observations led to the suggestion of interventions that align with the found conditions. Some suggested interventions are a pop-up park, energy desk, training on how to save energy, heat photos, smart meters and energy classes at schools. These suggested interventions meet some of the conditions of the established framework, and therefore aim to contribute to a more inclusive energy transition in Amsterdam Zuidoost. Finally it is recommended to evaluate the outcome of the different intervention and compare those for further steps. Also investigating if the framework is applicable to other neighbourhoods or other types of transition might be of value.