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.

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.

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.

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.