The renovation project of St. Elisabeth in Zutphen is guided by the concept of "sustainable city". Meanwhile as a graduation project in the studio of heritage and architecture, how to deal with the relation between historic relics and modern architectures is important. During the whole process of my project, I started my design assignment with previous analysis and research. ... Read more

This project is part of the Heritage & Architecture studio “Sustainable Zutphen”. Within this studio the aim was to revitalize Nieuwstad; a medieval city extension of Zutphen. The Baudartius Centre for Visual Arts is a proposal for the redevelopment of the post-war school buildings of the Baudartius college, which is situated on top of the former fortifications of Nieuwstad. The aim of this redevelopment proposal is to strengthen the (architectural) characteristics of the existing 1950’s buildings and to reintroduce this part of the city again as an urban node and gateway to the city. ... Read more

The report before you is a documentation of the graduation studio Harbour heritage of the Master of science Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences at the Technical Unversity in Delft, the Netherlands. Inside the master course a specialisation within this field is chosen. Herritage & Architectural Design is a study direction that is focused on handling existing buildings within their technical, cultural and historic context. The current architecture climate in the world is increasingly confronted with an expanding number of jobs with a ‘renovational’ character. Also the definition of valuable heritage is broadening and the view on cultural-, historical- and architectural-herritage is continiouslychanging. This rapidly growing field requires specialized knowledge and skills to cope with these ‘one of a kind’ assignments wich require a ‘tailored made’ approach. It touches upon specific fields like historical research, architectural theories, building technology, the field of conservation and architecture. Not only to be able to conserve and honor the historic remnants that brought us to this point in time but also to give it new meaning by letting it contribute to the architectural discourse of today. The goal of this graduation project is to get well-prepared for this exiting future. This will be done by simulating a currently existing design assignment so it takes place in a realistic setting in regards to the proposed design’s financial-, structural-, ergonomical-, climatologic- and durability aspects and so on. This assignment will be analysed from a large urban scale to ultimatly the scope of a detail. Because this assignment is done inside the master course of Heritage& Design also layers of time will be analysed by assessing the history of the building and area. Chosen for this assignment is the nationally listed warehouse of ‘Santos’(fig 1.21) wich is one of the remaining vacant historical/cultural/ architectural valuable buildings in the harbour area’s of Rotterdam. Located on ‘the pols of Katendrecht’ (fig1.11) it resides in an area on the brink of a large re-development plan led by the municipality. This creates a complex design assignment to develop a proposition to prolongate the warehouse life-span within a rapidly changing context. The goal is to nderstand the value and meaning the building represents to be able to preserve its historical function and use it to enrich the future plans of the municipality of Rotterdam. The reason for choosing ‘Santos’ amongst other warehouses available for this graduation course is multi-faceted: During my student years I lived in Rotterdam and I know how little historic fabric is left compared to other big cities in the Netherlands. Especially rare are historic building assignments wich were designed in ‘classical’ style. Because of this rarity and placement in a modern metropolis I find this an interesting architectural challenge in wich I would like to develop a possible solution. Next to my architectureal interest, ‘Santos’ also appealed to my love for history and technology. These two topics combined tell me stories of the evolution of human endeavours. These are entertaining stories but they also give our current time a context in wich it can be understood better. The warehouse of Santos has a rich history and was build technologically advanced during the time it was built. For this reason i find the ‘Santos’ assignment a great challenge in the preservation of this history wich i would like to find a suitable answer for. ... Read more

Zutphen, one of the oldest city in the Netherlands that started as a Germanic settlement, then a trading city and now a medium-sized city is currently dealing with vacancy, dejuvenation and an aging population . Vacancy, though not as high as other cities in the Netherlands, affects neighbourhoods next to the old city centre. The city centre ‘has it all’ meanwhile the neighbourhoods act as access roads to it. Densification of the city centre can be expected . The main focus of the heritage studio is the neighbourhood Nieuwstad where opportunities lie to improve its current connection to the old city centre and the urban situation with an architectural intervention.This graduation project is about the Baudartius complex which is currently a high school. Due to the growth of students and lack of space, they plan to move out which will result in a vacant building. The assignment for this project is to fill in another function and introducing own interventions. ... Read more

Within the heritage and architecture studio, the aim of the project is to find the position regarding to the values of the existing building, possible transformation, and re-introduce the correct programs under current city context.

Fenix II is the witness of Rotterdam active industrial harbour transformation over time.
Who is Fenix II?
She represents the growth of Rotterdam industrial harbor.
She was once the longest warehouse in Europe.
She shows the modernity of applying cutting edge building technology by using reinforced concrete.
She is a strong survivor from both WWII and on-site fire damage.

Fenix II states important valuable layers: historical, cultural, technical, non-intentional commemorative, and rarity aspects. Even though Fenix II is not yet listed on Rotterdam municipality monuments, the characters and facts found in the building prove the importance of Fenix II.

Fenix II, she continues her journey to the new phase of Rotterdam industrial harbor.

Rotterdam harbor once hosted vibrant industrial activities. However, these activities have been shifted away from current city context. Circular economy can be seen as a new phase of industrial activity and bring back the liveliness of production atmosphere. The current programs as Tropicana and RTM Campus in Rotterdam establish a good foundation of circular economy topic. However, the network is not completed. Fexix II has great potential due to its location and the nature of the building quality to enhance this urban network.

The starting point of the project is entirety and continuity, emphasizing the transformation phases and the historical layers of the building.

Fenix II consists of 3 parts: Central Green, exhibition, and research labs along with workshops. Central Green creates the new identity of the building as the main entrance to gather all activities inside; the most visible interventions can be seen here, entirely open and double height ceiling showing the existing traces along with the newly adding layers. On one side of Fenix II reflects on the great attention of historical layers: exhibition space of Fenix II and Rotterdam industrial harbor, and also current urban issues. On the other side of the building addresses the emerging topic as circular economy network: research labs, harvest hubs, and explore labs. Moreover, the green way, buffer zone, is introduced and plays an important role of the project, in order to preserve high existing values of Fenix II and at the same time to achieve high building performance. The green way is integrated with natural elements as plants and water, not only functioning to control intake air temperature and humidity with minimal energy consumption, but also form a semi-outdoor space for temporary exhibition and resting points.

In order to emphasize the historical layers that San Francisco warehouse was once an entirety, light poles have been designed in Light Plaza, indicating the original structure location, as well as along the north façade where one span was taken out due to the fire damage. With minimal architectural elements, this intervention shows the reconnection of Fenix I and Fenix II and creates a new phase of continuation.
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The monument ‘Katoenveem’ used to be part of the industrial harbour of Rotterdam as warehouse. It was specifically constructed for the operational purpose of loading and storing goods: bales of cotton. Strategically situated along the water, it translated itself to an early 20th century functional architecture with advanced mechanics. The cotton trade bloomed, however, the building erected in concrete remained vacant after the decrease of the conducted trade due to the development of synthetic fibers.

Nowadays the harbour of Rotterdam still exists, although its manifestation is shifting. The harbour industry moves away and the Merwe Vierhaven area where ‘Katoenveem’ is situated starts breathing the atmosphere of a ‘Makerscity’. Research, innovation and design are key. These developments in the close surrounding of the ‘Rotterdam Harbour Heritage’ are incorporated as opportunity to activate 'Katoenveem'. Investigation of the activity, during both historic setting and present situation leads as transformation strategy to continuation of 'Katoenveem' - ‘Innoveem’.

It becomes a multicrafting center through the combination of different disciplines of crafting processes. Thus contributing to making innovation, the interplay between constant making and reflection is hosted. Developments will be embraced by the achieved flexibility within the repetitive monumental architecture and functional purpose. With 'Innoveem' we are moving towards making innovation.
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The historical warehouse SANTOS in Rotterdam's district of Katendrecht is transformed into a House of Jazz. During WWII, Jazz was banned in the entire city after the bombing of Dolle Dinsdag. Only the Belvedere Verhalenhuis in Katendrecht survived and remained as a symbol of hope that Jazz would not die, and that people could go there and play Jazz amidst the terror of the war.
Today, the Belvedere does not function as a Jazz club any more, but houses a restaurant and space for events. This nostalgic revelation turns Santos into the new heart of Jazz in Katendrecht and revives a piece of history that is currently not commemorated. It poses a great opportunity to bring back something to the community that was taken away from it - a place of togetherness and collective culture as the Belvedere Verhalenhuis embodied exactly that during WWII. ... Read more

The Heritage and Architecture graduation studio 2016-2017 explores the possibilities of industrial heritage in the harbour of Rotterdam. This involves dealing with large scale buildings that have been abandoned due to the movement of the industrial activity from the harbour of Rotterdam to the Tweede Maasvlakte. This thesis entails a redesign for the Maassilo, a massive concrete building that was formerly used for the storage and transport of grain. Since this building is built for such a specific function, interventions to its sturdy structure are difficult. Around 70 percent of the building volume consists of concrete silos. These spaces are hardly usable, but they have a strong spatial potential if cutouts were made.
As a new program for the redesign of the Maassilo, a similar function as the current occupancy is chosen: a night club. The night club, as a very volatile function with a life span of mostly five to ten years stands in sharp contrast to the Maassilo, a nearly indestructable structure that has existed for more than a hundred years. However, when still in use as a grain silo, the Maassilo has always been part of a very dynamic environment. The questions arises if the Maassilo could provide a structural place for a new dynamic.

This thesis explores questions about informality, temporary/permanent design, spatial expression, controlled demolition and acoustics. ... Read more

St. Elisabeth complex is located at the edge of Nieuwstad. The site includes valuable heritages such as Berkelpoort, city wall and tower from the 14th century. However St. Elisabeth building has separated these monuments from the public since 1993, and these cultural assets are not being properly maintained.

Is cultural property justified by means of private use?
Heritages are a national asset. Everyone has the right to learn history through heritage. Therefore, when the circumstances allow it, heritage must be shared in public. The historical elements in this complex can provide great future opportunities to Nieuwstad. In this project, I suggest a ‘Heritage garden’ as a cultural hub of the Nieuwstad.

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By investigating the High Speed Railway in Hong Kong , (HKXRL), the device described by Steve Graham as a "Glocal Bypass", this project aimed to use the nostagic local elements to reimagine the possibility of "sharing" Highspeed tunnel as an infrastructural connection to revitalise HK Industry - with the support of the global supply of electronic waste. ... Read more

The post-war mass housings in the Netherlands were built under the modern principle of Light, Air and Space, but the passion for establishing the ideal society has been eclipsed by the individualistic ideology of contemporary world. Intervam housing in Overvecht area is a typical example that shows the conflict of old and new context. The dilemmas were taken into account in the design process to bridge the gap between two different time periods. ... Read more

The Dutch west Caribbean company is a modest proposal. The company was created as an architectural response to an ongoing geopolitical and geoeconomic process (the development of the offshore economy). A process, whereby not only unusual goods such as artworks, battles of wine and stolen antiquities (that were in times past, part of the collective goods) were turned into commodities, but also basic human rights such as the right to asylum, freedom of speech, right to health and more are being turned into commodities. The Dutch west Caribbean company is focused on tax havens and the Freeport as a withdrawal facility, one that seeps through the cracks of national sovereignty and establishes its own logistics network.

The offshore world has been gaining enormous popularity since the 1980’s and despite increasingly defining the operations of the globalized economy and the spaces it generates, it is a spatial phenomenon that is mostly ignored by the architectural and urban discourse. Manifested by the forms of tax havens, freeports and special economic zones, the offshore world offers an exterritorial space where people, objects, and capital can operate beyond the burdens of national sovereignty, and remain in an unregulated limbo, in theory, forever. ... Read more

The project is a catalogue for renovating Intervam flats. The major focus of this proposal is different possible floor plans that can be applied to Intervm flats, and the renovation and transformation can be done in apartment scale. ... Read more

The phenomenon of migration is a fundamental concept to evolutionary biology, population studies, and life sciences. It is almost uncontestable common knowledge that migration is an indispensable factor to propel difference and change, thus ensuring genetic variation, and ultimately evolution for all life forms. For most species migration is the rule, not the exception. Yet, when referring to human migration, the discussions suddenly turn highly controversial. Underpinning the expected arguments that tie these discussions to human exceptionalism and speciesism, one encounters the deeply rooted links of sedentarism to diverse projects of State formation, the construction of society and its cultural and territorial arrangements into bounded, legible schemes and models.
Arguably, a narrowing vision, which simultaneously claims to capture and organize an otherwise complex and messy reality, is a necessary and effective frame to focus on particular forms of knowledge over and against others. Nevertheless, as is increasingly evident, such narrow frames not only simplify, but also reduce reality, offering static, fixed and schematic falsifications of it, removed as it were, from the actual phenomena to which they allude. Human migration is especially prone to the effects of such simplification, leading to a reduced understanding of the migration phenomenon itself, the multiple agents which emerge from it and that shape it, and their relationality as constitutive of a milieu, or metabolism. For migration, this has a paralyzing effect, as it limits and compartamentalizes the capacity to act in relation to it.
Other discursive schemes (of subject formation) that allow us to think and act differently, creatively and critically in relation to migration are paramount, especially if the intentionality is to physically intervene within it. In other words, migration and migrant agents, when liberated from the grasp of conventionally reductive and simplifying frames, reveal their intricate participation in an ecology that not only engenders the becoming of form, space, matter and subjectivity, but which also shapes specifically human practices and relations. In short, understanding migration as a complex assemblage driven by desire and other, previously unseen forces is to regard it as a process of becoming. Seen from this angle, concepts conventionally associated to human migration –from migrating subjects, territories, borders, to structures and systems-, become fields of latent potentiality and productive possibilities. It is at this juncture when –perhaps appropriately so- we may begin exercising different forms of nomadic thought when dealing with migration.
The proposal departs from the premise that different theoretical and discursive frameworks are necessary to rethink and act upon the very urgent problem of human migration from a metabolic, relational and systemic point of view. It will do so by introducing and explaining an unconventional approach in which three different ‘logics’ will encounter each other in an attempt to recalibrate the reach of the spatial disciplines and material practices, in particular architecture, within the phenomenon of contemporary human migration: population thinking, intensive thinking and topological thinking. ... Read more