The deprivation and loss of biodiversity is one of the most alarming environmental problems of today’s, threatening precious ecosystem services, animal, and plant existence, as well as human welfare. This project attempts to create a win win situation between human and city animals. Ethical farms like guano, feather, worm, and insect farm are introduced to the laboratory building, where building reliant animals can nest and in return they give back to the university. At the same time real time experiments can take place as the faculty of ecology and biodiversity are in the building. A special root with experimental walls is placed on the façade of the building to provide a space for material innovation regarding among other nesting boxes. As designing for nature can be unpredictable the new intervention is fully modular and flexible for future upgrade and change, thus making the building future proof.
The new added façade is made almost exclusively of timber modular components and local ecofriendly materials. It serves as a place for discussion, interaction and testing new materials and ecological processes. As the first seen building of the campus, it should mediate the profile of the whole campus. Biodiversity and ecofriendly design are some of the most important priorities of Utrecht University. This nature inclusive façade can act as a biodiversity hub for animals and humans. The building gives nesting, breeding and foraging opportunities for birds, bats, and insects. These spaces are transformed into labs and farms to create a healthy circle of life with 0 waste. The nest is used by the animals and in return they provide guano for fertilization of the trees of the campus, feathers for insulation and most importantly pollinate the local plants. These open labs and farms can be accessed by scientist, entrepreneurs, students, and visitors.

Refugee camps’ design raises unique challenges. The populations that move to exile, are exposed, and often traumatized. The period of an emergency can not be defined most of the times, as well as the funds are likely to be deficient, and the design must also operate under constraints of both an institutional and pragmatic nature. This imposes the camp itself not to be permanent, and that both the materials that are being used for construction nor the morphology of the camp should display any aspirations for permanency. The purpose of my history thesis is to investigate some of the different types of large refugee camps built in Africa between 1964 and 2015, and focus on how they perform. The case studies comprise the Kyangwali camp, located in Southwest Uganda, which was established in 1964, the Kyaka II camp, located in Southwest Uganda, which was established in 1983, the Kakuma camp located in Kenya, which was established in 1991, and the Jewi camp located in Gambella, Ethiopia, which was established in 2015. The performance of the case studies will be based on the observations and work of Alex Tzonis in his book “Towards a non-oppressive environment”. This thesis will try to provide a typological analysis of the existing settlements and on the way these refugee camps are being designed and contracted. Also the way their design affects every day living in different camps of different decades.