Preliminary to this design, a careful research was done on the proportional theory of Dom Hans van der Laan. Based on how we perceive space and measure things this system offers a way to create harmonious architecture. What can we learn from this theory for today's architecture and what is the relevance? Starting from the ideas of Dom Hans van der Laan concerning proportion and perception, this design for a modern monastery in Rotterdam is a statement towards our mental health and the importance of careful design in relation to that.

Housing affordability is a topic of all times, however, on the current Dutch housing market it is an increasing urgency and thus increasingly harder to find to many Dutch households. The housing shortage, combined with the booming economy, are causing housing prices to rise relatively fast. Although the housing market is pressured in many different regions and is affecting many households, especially middle income groups seem to suffer from the situation. These households generally earn too much to be eligible for social housing, but too little to obtain a regular mortgage. They are therefore located between the social rented sector and full-price homeownership, and increasingly have to rely on private rented housing (in Dutch also referred to as middeldure huur), where rent prices are often disproportionate to their income. A solution to bridge this ‘affordability gap’ are intermediate housing tenures, however, they are no longer applied on a larger scale due to the change of the Housing Act in 2015, as housing associations since then have to focus on their core activity (providing social housing). However, especially when housing affordability is becoming an increasing urgency to a growing group of households, it is remarkable that the main type of providers are being limited in their possibilities to do so. The main aim of this research therefore is to explore the potential enhancement of the Dutch intermediate housing sector, so that the provision of these tenures could be stimulated again. To be able to come up with measures that could be taken, an understanding of intermediate housing tenures in general, and the context in which Dutch intermediate tenures are operated, must be gained. The research therefore also aims to gain more insights in the concept of intermediate housing tenures and its characteristics and to understand the context in which intermediate tenures are and could be developed. In this research, literature study is carried out first, in which intermediate tenures have been defined and categorized, and a timeline of the development of Dutch intermediate housing tenures has been created with contextual factors that have shaped this development. The literature study has been complemented with an empirical study, in which interviews have been conducted to identify additional factors that (could) hinder or enable the development and provision of such tenures. Based on these findings, recommendations have been formulated that include measures that could be taken to enhance the context of intermediate housing tenures nowadays. These recommendations have been validated by housing professionals by means of an expert panel. The main measures include a more active role of the municipality to facilitate and stimulate the provision of such tenures in their municipality (varying in different levels of ‘activeness’), a national housing policy including intermediate housing tenures or other affordable housing solutions and demanding action from municipalities, setting up an advocacy group that unites all users of intermediate tenures and represents their interests and keeps track records of applied intermediate tenures to provide tangible proof of success, and focussing on developing potential new intermediate tenures that combine renting with capital accumulation or eventual homeownership.

Over the past decades the act of play has taken on an ever-decreasing form of importance in society. This not only leads to the absence of its accompanying architecture, but also to more boring, uniform and hollow spaces. With the ambition of designing for the homo ludens of today, research was first carried out into the characteristics of places where play arises, after which these findings could be translated in architectural objects provoking introspective play through a deep experience of place, to be found at De Hoge Veluwe National Park.

Architecture communicates. Through its appearance it can communicate a function, time or place, or some kind of ideal. However, architecture does not communicate with words like humans do: instead, it communicates through a four- dimensional, non-verbal language consisting of forms, spatial organisation and materialisation. The problem is, architecture is usually not designed to communicate but to function and architects are often unaware of the message their design can communicate. In other words: they do not design from a communication perspective. It can, however, be interesting to elaborate on this subject in order to gain a better understanding of communicative meaning in architecture and to design architecture from a communication perspective. This research connects the fields of architectural and communication inquiry in order to find out what and how architecture can communicate. The outcomes of this research are translated into the design of a multi-interpretational market and event space in Haarlem.

The title of the research, and consequently the guiding principle behind the design, making is thinking, stemmed from a frustration with the often-held view that the latter is of greater importance than the former. That thinking, as our intellect of the mind, is of a superior motive to the things we do or make with our hands, and this is a condition which belongs to both society and the individual’s psychology. However, I believe this is not the case. I have the view that making is fundamental to our being and complements our thinking as its equal. Part of the research was a search through history, to explore whether this distinction had always been made, and if not, why and how it had happened. The history of our intellectual developments is a long and very rich one, and it is the reason why we practice architecture the way we do today. It is essentially a question of representation: what architecture, and the other things of our making, represent, but also how those things are representative of the tools we use to make them. Yet the idea that the thing in question represents a larger, intellectual or philosophical field might not have always been the case. A contemporary art historian, makes an extraordinary case for an origin of architecture in the Archaic Greek temple which had to first exist before man could have the necessary perception of things to theorise about them. Like Heidegger before her, she reasons that it is in the beautifully made art work, through the human perception of depth, which belongs to all of our senses, that human beings can take the outlook upon themselves. In her argument, making is what allowed man to think. But really, the most fundamental conclusion from the research, and essential to the project, was that things, and architecture most definitely is a thing—philosophically speaking—are defined by the matter from which they are made. Yet this is often a mistrusted truth. Our history has made us doubt this truth. That same history has given us the practice to which we adhere today, but for those of us who believe in the importance of things, and their importance as our frame of reference for a sense of being in the world, or as Heidegger would call it, a sense of dwelling, then how those things are made is an ethical and extremely important question. However, to accept only our origin is to deny the rest of the human condition which belongs to the entirety of human history. Therefore, the scientific and political realm to which architecture now rightfully belongs, through our intellectual developments in representation, cannot be dismissed. Design then is about the mediation between the two—between our poetic, communicative origins, and our intellectual, instrumental present condition. In practice it is about the balance between thinking and making—our heads and our hands. Along side the philosophical undertaking of the research a series of making exercises were undertaken. These four cubes were made with only two rules. Firstly, the shape, the cube. And secondly, the knowledge and potential of the material itself. These cubes were specifically about the making of things bound to their inherent material properties. They were made by the material guiding me, and not the other way around. This is the definition of making, thought of by its philosophical and etymological definition. In Greek poiesis means to make, but furthermore, and as Heidegger defined it, it means to bring something into being that did not exist before. It is the mimesis of nature. And so, the poet takes from the things that surround him and he makes them his own. This is how the architect acts ethically too—by making things appropriate to the place and for the people who they provide space. And this was the very objective of the design thesis, Moments for Repose; Making Along the Pennine Way, to explore, through making, how one can act poetically.

Architectural theory has illuminated the inherently connected relationship between fashion and architecture. Both disciplines shelter the body, react to spatial volume, rely on a process, and take a work of creativity from its two-dimensional concept into a three-dimensional reality. But the end result does not come out of the blue. It is the design process that leads to a building or fashion collection. And even though designing is just one verb, it actually is a chaotic sequence of activities; a complex, personal, creative and open-ended skill as described by Van Dooren et al. (2014). Is the framework of generic design elements that is developed for explicating the design process helpful to compare the design approaches in fashion with the architectural design process? The results of interviewing three fashion designers show similarities, differences and unique design tools and opportunities used in fashion. These can then be reflected on the architectural design process, and approaches of applying fashion tools in architecture can be considered.

We all refer to it in our daily lives; we talk about a concert as having a good vibe, we talk about a social situation as being ‘gezellig’, we talk about the impression of a part of town as being gloomy and we even talk about the mood of a day as having a sense of anticipation. Atmosphere is a familiar conversational subject, but at the same time it is remarkably undefinable. We return to the use of the term constantly despite its ambiguous quality, or maybe even because of it. And this atmospheric description that seems to be applicable to every situation always concern a spatial sense of ambience. Remarkably, the notion of atmosphere remains largely unaddressed in architectural education and practice. The appreciation for the art of building is still largely dependent upon the supremacy of it’s functional, aesthetic and conceptual value. The essential task of architecture to support human life by engaging with human experiential reality has been frequently overshadowed by these formal inclinations. Atmosphere could be defined as the very initial and immediate experience of space, and thus can be understood as a notion that addresses architectural quality. Fortunately, there has been a development in which architectural practices are showing a renewed interest in atmospheric quality in the built environment. Leading advocates of the value of the atmospheric dimension in architectural design include architect Peter Zumthor, architectural theorist Juhani Pallasmaa, philosopher Gernot Böhme and environmental sociologist Jean-Paul Thibaud. Despite the fast-growing research field, the discussion on architectural atmosphere does entail a certain ambiguity. After all, the atmospheric experience is something personal, ephemeral and vague, but above all it is hard to conceptualise. We seem to be able to immediately sense the atmosphere of a place, but it seems to be very difficult to capture in text or design. We are able to intuitively recognise atmosphere, like when we recognise the essence of the weather in a glance, but we are not able to define, analyse or understand its phenomenological origin. The Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges captures this difference between intuitive and analytical identification as follows: ‘We might say that we know something only when we are unable to define it…This is what we know what poetry is. We know it so well that we cannot define it.’. Despite the elusive character of atmospheres, is it suggested by the intuitive recognition and appreciation of the atmospheric dimension that we are able to share this intuitive sense with a larger community. The atmospheric experience seems to have a collective quality about it. Therewith the atmospheric experience has the inherent quality to be as much the realm of the layman and daily use, as it is the realm of the expert and professional discourse. I believe that non-architects primarily sense the atmosphere of a place or building, opposed to appreciating distinct visible and formal concepts. Therewith non-architects have the advantage of approaching places and atmosphere more intuitively, whereas architects to often assume an intellectual and theoretical approach. Layman may not have the vocabulary to verbalise their sensitivities for the atmospheric dimension that is acquired through an architectural or artistic education, but the notion that the sensitivity for the atmospheric dimension is largely intuitive indicates that the actual sensitivity does not necessarily differ between layman and expert. And this exceptional transcending quality is why atmosphere may be the ultimate intermediary between architectural quality as perceived by the architects who design the architectural plan and architectural quality as perceived by the inhabitants of the architectural environment. I believe that architectural atmospheres are more effective than the architectural discourse has been willing to rationally admit. I would even argue that the atmospheric dimension of a constructed environment is the key to architectural quality. Therefore in this research I would like to explore how the atmospheric dimension may attain its proper place in architectural design. The main question of the research considers: How can an architect integrate atmospheric quality in the design of architecture and the built environment? Dissecting this question into four parts, we will consecutively explore the phenomenon, the perception, the process and the plan. The research thesis will start with an introductory chapter in which we will look into what the perception of atmosphere entails. In chapter one we will look into the conditions under which atmosphere may be perceived. Subsequently we will look into the atmospheric dimension in relation to the design process, and finally we will explore its relation to the architectural realm. Atmosphere by definition, seems to lack definition. This inherent paradox will echo throughout this research on how to construct atmosphere. The very act of analysing and defining the atmospheric phenomenon may result in the dissolution of its very quality. Therefore the research approach is built around the duality between an analytic and an intuitive approach. Even though the main body of this research considers a theoretical exploration of the atmospheric dimension in architectural design, I have sincerely attempted to protect the ambiguous quality and integrity of the atmospheric phenomenon. However in order to counteract this theoretical and analytical approach and to appreciate the personal, ephemeral and ambiguous qualities of an atmospheric experience I simultaneously kept a so-called atmospheric journal. This highly personal document, called Encountering Atmosphere - a personal account of the atmospheric dimension, contains memories, observations and encounters of atmospheric experiences. A multiplicity of sketches, images and words illustrate the way matter, light, rhythm, age, imperfection, fragility and life move me to evoke a rich emotive response to space and matter that seems to be the essence of atmosphere. Furthermore, I aim to integrate the acquired knowledge on the integration of atmospheric quality in the design of the built environment in the subsequent design project of my graduation. I aim to have absorbed the acquired theoretical knowledge on this topic in a way that makes it part of the subconscious dimension of the design process, ultimately allowing me to intuitively integrate atmospheric quality in my own architectural design. My search for the integration of atmospheric quality in the design of architecture and the built environment will not end at the closing of this document, but will continue as I explore its application during my own design process. I aspire both the research project and the design project to accumulate the knowledge and experience to provide me, and hopefully others, to find the essence of the atmospheric dimension in architectural design.

The greatest of all arts, music, can evoke deep emotions and memories. It has the power to transfer the listener to a different world. The first few notes of Brahms allegro amabile (op.120) instantly brings one in a state of presence, whereas Mahler’s fifth symphony’s adagietto or Wagner’s Lohengrin prelude slowly invites the audience in a trance of reverie. It’s something that touches and engulfs the soul each time it enters the inner ear. Pieces that are an assemblage of rhythms, tensions and proportions form a certain expression. To listen to and be embossed by such expressions of life is something that we do every day. We listen to music, read books, watch movies, go to museums and immerse ourselves with culture from all over the world. All of these things combined make us who and what we are. They serve as incubators for new ideas. When you work in the creative field, everything you do is connected to who you are, therefore making you a part of the past. A thread of cultural life populated by objects, things or human activities that explain us where we came from and how we can move forward. Culture is thinking about the world, looking closely, asking questions, listening and comprehending. From a personal fascination that grounded itself during a working period in Switzerland in 20’-21’ the idea arose to observe the villages in the valley of the Lower Engadine in Switzerland. A specific fascination and deep love for these organic but simultaneously traditional places manifested itself focussing on the perspectives of craft, material and an overall attitude towards life. This research intends to identify which values are embedded in these rural Alpine settlements, understand how they were formed and fathom how the local architectural typology works in order to find out why the presence embedded in these places is so strong. My personal experiences with these places made me realise that architecture has the power to arouse deep emotions and feelings. It might not be on the same level as music can be, but by investigating and describing the qualities of these place I believe that it can give us an insight into the hidden poetical side of these places. This physical journey accompanied by personal anecdotes, drawings and models allows one to travel into a physical place hidden away deep within the Swiss Alps to introduce new feelings and emotions to our personal world. This work is a translation of a fascination throughout new experiences, personal conversations, insights and knowledge that formed the basis for my graduation design.

How can we design a low-energy house in the post-industrial context with the use of environment and technology and still keep heritage and expression of the past or machine architecture?

A self-organised community within the polish countryside - Alongside the fast development of cities, digitalisation, threats of an unstable political situation and a wish for a simpler life, more and more citizens are migrating towards rural areas. The absence of agriculture is not a problem for them - the countryside is not a place for making a living, it has become a place for living. These modern nomads tend to organise themselves in communities occupying the countryside while still being connected to the city. During the last two years, people of various backgrounds gathered at the Silent Lake in order to celebrate the experience of “untouched” nature and exchange about alternative ways of viewing the world. These Gatherings initiated a participatory thinking process pointed towards understanding the potentials and future development of the site, taking into account the current context and successive urbanisation of the countryside. Nevertheless, the principal question remained, being: how should one approach the development of such a site? In fact, the complexities and potentials of the rural area in which the Silent Lake is embedded seemed hard to grasp during the numerous group discussions that took place during the summer visits. On these grounds I decided to focus my research on the country surrounding the Silent Lake in order to develop a methodological framework that would allow a better understanding of the landscape composing this site which would possibly result in a more sensitive development of the Silent Lake community as well as constitute an approach that could be extrapolated into similar scenarios in different sites.

This master’s thesis investigates the concepts of biophilic design, a concept that believes that the build environment can bring people and nature closer together, positively influencing both. After investigating the architectural expression of biophilic design, they are implemented in a design. The design of a library and theater brings back nature into an abandoned site, and provides a building for that serves the community on multiple levels.

The city of Puntarenas in Costa Rica is one of the many examples along the country’s pacific coast, where settlements have developed and survived by the extraction/exploitation of marine resources and the chain of industries that follow. Currently, these coastal communities are being affected by an amount of socio-economical issues, some examples being the significant percentage of unemployment, pollution, ecological degradation and flooding, which on communities of the pacific coast happen on average 42 times a year. Puntarenas has a particular condition of being a territory generated by sedimentation, not only allowing for human settlement and economic activities but also manifested in the ecological processes surrounding it. The sand stretch is a result of recent sedimentation patterns, a simultaneous dynamic of littoral and sea currents which over the years resulted in a series of morphological transformations, though becoming less strong once human settlement happened. Another consequence of this morphological process is the generation of a mangrove ecosystem which for years has benefited from the sedimentation and its spatial relation with the sand stretch barrier. Now these natural dynamics have been strengthened by climate change and anthropogenic activity, increasingly threatening the future of the landscape and the life within. Under this conditions flooding will evolve from what the residents of Puntarenas have perceived so far as a temporary phenomenon to becoming a permanent event. The combination of the structural, ecological and social vulnerabilities of the site highlights the need for a more systematic approach, where the ongoing natural processes are not only making room for ecology but also enriching human life and providing resilient and adaptive measures towards the future conditions.

From a biological perspective, I have researched how our bodies have evolved in the biosphere for millions of years and therefore we are wired to have an incredibly rich diet of sensory stimuli. I have distinguished some of our intrinsic needs, and accompanied them with the latest design tools from the field of environmental psychology and neuro-aesthetics.

My thesis explores on how to reproduce life inherent in the musical form with architectural composition. The beauty of music attributes to its high degree of life inherent in its holistic form, which is affective, adaptive and generative. In my research paper I approach the quote "I call architecture frozen music "by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe in a metaphysical way. Relationship between form, composition and phenomenal experience are explained in terms of “flow” and “Bodies”. Space and time are understood in terms of virtual flowing force acting on bodies, that they are actualized as sounds in music and “frozen” as materialistic objects in architecture, affording our sensational experience. Composition, is understood as synthesizing of individual bodies with order into a holistic body, in which tensions are created by the differential relationship of its constituent bodies. Music, is the transitional interactions between our human bodies and the musical body actualized. While in architecture, “audiences” set their bodies into actions, empathizing with the frozen transitional form through time, synchronizing the physical body experience with the inner mental experience. My thesis design reflects on the shift of architecture experience from existentially plastic and spatial experience, to mere time-compressed striking visual image, with the loss of experiential depth, under the information age. As an inverted version of “allegory of the cave”, my building functions as an immersive labyrinth with ambiguity and mystery hidden beneath ground, affording a retreating experience to urban wildscape explorers. It fulfilled the timeless task of architecture as stated by Pallasmaa – “understand and remember the shapeless flow of reality and, ultimately, to recognize and remember who we are.” The building situates itself in Paris, at the intersection of the abandoned La Petite Ceinture, an urban wildscape experiencing the transition from ruin to regeneration, and the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, where the histories of underground mining hidden beneath. The memories of two places intertwined at this counterpoint and synthesize into a frozen melody, as the body of the labyrinth. Though her body the labyrinth brings collective memories to present individual explorers. The spatial variations embodied promotes sequences of scenarios and potentials. Me as a composer, imagines different scenarios and interactions involving individual urban explorers as “audiences” or

Nature inclusive is a large topic that is still in its pioneering phase. There is a need for clear elaboration and ways of incorporating this new way of thinking into design. In order to have a functional nature inclusive design one must fist know the existing ecosystem to contribute to this. The research question: how can a designer analyze a Dutch city to find the existing ecological structure and nature inclusive potential? Will be answered by making an analysis method. This analysis method will use insights of literature and ecological knowledge in combination with already broadly known analysis methods. By combining the way of analyzing of designers with the knowledge of nature inclusivity, a method is formed that will help create an nature inclusive design vision. The method can also be used as a tool to talk to city ecologist in order to make a well balanced ecological plan. This research limits itself to the animals of the Dutch city. Use of the method will apply best to cities comparable to the city of Rotterdam, which is used as example city in the research. The outcome of the analysis method is a clear vision on the nature inclusive potential of a site. Using visual aids and a list of recommendations this vision can be used in the start of the designing phase.

Architecture is a creative craft within certain limitations of program, technical requirements, environmental aspects, etc. and every project comes with a vast number of challenges that have to be tackled, giving the designer endless possibilities for solutions. A design tool used by many architects throughout the centuries to explore these possibilities has been painting. What is essential to consider is that architectural paintings can help architects stimulate their creativity and imagination. Despite this, the ways in which architectural paintings can be used in the design process and the process of making an architectural painting is rarely explicitly investigated. Therefore, the aim of this research is to understand the implicit creative process of architects who use painting as a design tool. The project "Elbetitsa" is an example of how architectural paintings can be used as a tool during the design process to stimulate creativity and create meaningful projects by addressing the multidimensional character of architecture.

This project focuses on the architect’s attitude performing in non-urban landscapes. As a case study the landscape of the Reitdiep river in Groningen (NL) has been intensely researched. Here, a strong interaction between myself and the physical landscape has been informing the design process. Through defining characteristics of the landscapes by iterative visits with observations, interviews and archival research sensory information and more factual based information of the landscape formed the understanding of this landscape. Altogether, the definition of a set of characteristics creates a thorough and balanced understanding of a place stored in memory. This memory can be expressed in personal, communal and historical lenses. The characteristics are always present in physical and mental constructs. The design project intends to allow these to enter, to live and to harass the structure. In the contemporary Ommelanderhuis sensory presence can be found between abstract and detailed scale levels. For exam¬ple, in entering the building one will be confronted by the subtle relief of the landscape, confronted by seasonal change of drought and intense showers. This example of sensory presence is something in which rituals are leading factors. The Ommelanderhuis is a political place where citizens, politicians, policy makers, environmental experts, farmers and creatives come together to speculate about the future landscape.

Current discourses within the built environment increasingly underline the need for a shift in perception, thinking and values as a prerequisite to moving from sustainability to regeneration. Within architecture, regeneration is defined as an act of building with an active contribution toward the local ecosystem rather than simply minimizing environmental impact. While the theory of regenerative design offers a precise understanding of what architecture should achieve within the ecologies of a place to be regenerative, it does not provide an understanding of how this different perspective can be applied to the design process, nor how precisely the building can enter an active partnership with an ecosystem. To explore the complexity of this question, this joined master thesis draws upon two bodies of research as a prerequisite to the design question. The first one explores how biodiversity can be addressed through architecture and the building itself, while the second one investigates how the relationship between people and a local ecosystem shapes their architecture and determines its potential for regeneration. The following design project explores the role of ecology in the design process by experimenting with design decision-making focused on architecture’s impacts and potential to interact with the local ecosystem, ultimately fostering the co-evolution of both. Finally, this thesis stresses the importance of seeking contradictions, dynamic balance and contextual innovation as a way to foster an active architecture-ecosystems relationship. A thorough understanding of the ecologies of a place and so building from a more-than-human perspective opens the potential of architecture to move beyond sustainability on the way to regeneration.

Living in Rotterdam, we make eagerly use of all cultural attractions the city has to offer. We visit a museum on a free weekend, go to the library to study, spend an evening at the cinema or theatre and go out for dinner with friends and family. Without much awareness, using the cultural infrastructure of the city engages us in informal learning processes; triggering new interests, expanding our personal skills and strenghtening our social network. But for many residents of Rotterdam, using cultural facilities as leisure is less presumable: a limited cultural offer in Zuid marginalizes the opportunity of using the city structure as learning environment. That is the premiss of this thesis: the city of Rotterdam is dealing with an unequality in tangible and intangible cultural network between the city centre and Zuid, which has a great impact on the quality of life in the entire city. It is time to plan a future in which Zuid can take a stand in the cultural offer and become an equally appreciated part of Rotterdam. This graduation project unravels the importance of the relationship between city structure, the cultural network and education for the talent development of the youth. Because making space for the youth, means making space for the future. The outcome of this project is an exploration of a new experience-based learning environment, translated into the Talent Lab, a place where children can learn in the direct network of the city.

In an ongoing movement of urbanization, life seems to mostly happen in planned environments while the untouched part of the world sometimes seems to be disconnected from people’s lives. These landscapes can only be fully understood and valued by a physical, sensory experience of it, not by looking at 2D representations. What defines a person’s relationship to the landscape they live in? And what role can (landscape) architecture play in this? Norway is characterized a self-evident relationship to its natural landscapes through its cabin tradition. By looking at this phenomenon, where living in natural landscapes and the city is combined as quite an extreme contrast, the relation between landscape, architecture, and way of living can be explored. Literature study is used to explore the historical and cultural background of this specific way of living. A theoretical concept of the process of valuing a landscape through getaway architecture is formed by comparing existing theories. Through qualitative interviews with young Norwegians residing both in Oslo (urban environment) and in their cabin (getaway architecture: focussed on landscape experience/way of living), accompanied by visual techniques, their valuation of landscape through architecture is analysed. The sensory experiences present in their cabin life are analysed using architectural scores, where these are related to physical elements in the process of valuing a landscape. The outcome of these analyses is translated into a generic set of tools and strategies for designing a type of ‘getaway architecture’. The transition to a contrasting situation, that of the Netherlands, is made to test these tools and strategies. The design goal is set: a revaluation of a currently undervalued landscape, the cultural polder landscape that is so typical for the delta country. In order to shape a good transition, two steps need to be taken in between the research and the design part. The first step is an investigation into the Dutch way of living, in a similar way to the literary exploration of the Norwegian way of living. The logical next step is using this information to choose a design location and analyse it. As the landscape design develops a sensory and physical experience of the polder through routes in order to achieve an understanding and valuation of it, building sites are designated within this open landscape, reacting on the historical mill structures. One of these locations, the most private one being the holiday home is chosen to elaborate upon. The layering of the – at first sight – flat landscape is unfolded through (landscape) architectural elements and the sensory experience is designed with the element of time (day/night and seasons) as a guiding theme. The new place on the dike refers to the historical mill biotope which is inherent to the understanding and thus valuation of the landscape by the visitors.