Shopping Passage The Molenpoort in Nijmegen is an indoor shopping centre that in current times is struggling with decreasing visitor numbers and rapidly growing shop vacancies. The municipality of Nijmegen has plans to demolish the building completely, and create an outdoor -generic- shopping street with apartments on top. Research points out that there is no need for more chain stores in the city centre of Nijmegen, instead people want more specialized shops with local products. A new urban plan for the area is designed, in which parts of the original building are demolished, but most of it is kept to house new programs. Focus of the urban plan was chosen to be the public Music & Arts School, which is created in the existing concrete structure located in between the busy Molenstraat and the new green courtyard. A detailed investigation of the existing structure of the building pointed out some systematic characteristics of the construction, and on the other hand some unique particularities. The leading concept of the design became to articulate, show and appreciate these characteristics and particularities of the existing structure. The Music & Arts School has a variety of rooms, all with different acoustic requirements. The final design is a result of experimentation with the goal of finding the sweet spot between the poetics that came from the structure and the functional requirements for the interior spaces.

Bonaire is a Caribbean Island that is part of the Dutch Kingdom. The island is currently facing serious challenges. One of the defined issues is the lack of local food production which leads to expensive fruit and vegetables in the supermarket. This results in unhealthy diets of the citizens which leads to 60% of overweighted inhabitants in Bonaire (Verweij et al., 2020). To fight this problem, the local government of Bonaire is starting agricultural projects such as community gardens. However, there is a need for examples and knowledge on how to set up successful agricultural projects. This information is currently missing in Bonaire, which makes providing guidance in such projects the main aim of this thesis. To achieve this goal, I in my role as a researcher, became a member of an ongoing communal food initiative project in the agricultural department of Bonaire called “Nos mes por”. My integration into the community created a unique opportunity to gain real-world experiences by using participatory action research (PAR) as a methodology. In short, there are two objectives namely (1) implementing actions for “Nos mes por” (gaining action) while also (2) generating information for the process and product design of community gardens in Bonaire (gaining knowledge). This research methodology in this dissertation is compiled by using interviews, observations, and focus groups as research methods. This study resulted in both real-world actions which are applied in “Nos mes por” and specific guide-lines defined by the members of the community garden to make the project successful. Moreover, strategies to set up and design communal urban agriculture initiatives in Bonaire specifically and SIDS generally are developed. However, future research in Bonaire and SIDS should test the guidelines to see how they work in practice.

Heritage landscape as a dynamic system that bridges the past and the future, on the one hand tells the history of an area and contributes to the identity of local people, and on the other hand need to meet the contemporary demand and deal with future challenges. In that case, apart from traditional strategy of isolating cultural heritages from urbanisation for protection, is there a new perspective to view heritage landscapes and a new approach to tackle them? Hof te Dieren is an estate located in Gelderland province. With rich cultural-historical value lying in the land not fully recognised by people, it is simultaneously facing a series of challenges that are common in other Gelderland estates. This thesis studies Hof te Dieren as a case and uses palimpsest as an approach to read the historical traces in the site and to design new development.

The Netherlands has a long and fascinating history with water to keep its land safe and dry. Recently, when the country is exposed to a changing climate, it is at the turning point to shift from defensive water control to adaptive and integrated management. Landscape design has a role to play in endowing water and water management with new values and enabling the water as well as its related natures are adapted to be more resilient for the future. The study area Baakse beek has a rich context in which the prominence of water greatly decides the water management and the landscape and also exposes the area to the challenge of climate change. Hence, one aim of this study is to review the local historical water management approach and take values from them to bring back wetness conditions and water balance. The long history with water also means there are many opportunities (ecology, aesthetic, and cultural heritage) in the area, but the difficulty is how to weave together ecological function and spatial experience in landscape design. So, the second aim of this study is to find ways to communicate ecological function through spatial design. Through exploring the history with water over time, three categories of local historical water management approaches are summarized and they are adjusted to different water retention and ecological principles to formulate design strategies involving stream re-naturalisation, water retention, and water purification. For design, the core is to provide human with pleasure from the landscape appearance that involves beneficial ecological functions. landscape design needs to communicate ecological function and to conform to our cultural expectations of naturalness. This is achieved through two approaches, spatial modification, which gives an overall framework of landscape experience and cue to care, which gives hints of maintenance and neatness. The design explorations take place on various scales and locations. Selected design principles are assigned to the most suitable locations in the Baakse beek catchment area to preserve and strengthen the landscape characteristics of each sub-area. Two landscape ecology models and two design options for spatial experience are built in the Medler-Wiersse cluster, estate landscape, to test various ways to bridge the gap between the environment and spatial experience. Combinations provide design possible options towards alignment between landscape ecology and spatial experience.

The intended research and design exploration for resilient heritage landscapes of the future, looks at the heritage estate not just as a composition of a historic building and its garden ensemble but as a centrally organized economic system and a spatial assemblage of living, leisure and production. In the Achterhoek region from the Province of Gelderland, Netherlands, the agricultural lands and the forestry were lifelines of the living and leisure functions of the estates even in the early 20th century. In the production history of Achterhoek, two major events took place that largely determine today’s landscape character of the area. These events were respectively, the ‘Marken division’ in 1820’s initiated by the powerful estate owners and the ‘post-World War 2 land consolidation’ after 1950's mostly taken up by the farmers. Most of the forestry and the characteristic ‘backstage landscape’ of the estate area, were developed at the time of the Marken division. During the land consolidation after World War 2, the East Achterhoek landscape accommodated intensification of agriculture. Thus, the forestry and the characteristic landscape along with its diversity were somewhat lost into a more homogenized open landscape in the East Achterhoek. On the contrary, the estate owners protected the cultural landscape of the estate area for the appreciation of its experiential qualities, its nature value and the leisure opportunities it provided them. But over time, the productive hinterland lost its value and strong connection with the estates as it was not enough as an economy generator anymore. As a consequence, most of the estates were taken up by conservation organizations in the 1970’s for their maintenance and protection. Today, the richly protected heritage estate zones only cover the estate building and the garden, but the hinterland is not equally seen as an important part of the heritage. Once, the hinterland was an invaluable part of the estate and even during the post WW2 crisis, the estate owners ensured the protection of their hinterlands along with the characteristic features of the cultural landscape of Achterhoek. That is why, there is a need for re-exploring its value and finding new functional and experiential links between the hinterland and the estates. In the current scenario, the severe scarcity of water in the estate grounds can be seen rather as a possibility for new links. Going back in history of water management, it is found that the productive landscape and its processes have influenced and altered the ‘Baakse Beek’ (brook system) and the wetness storage capacity of the region especially the East Achterhoek area. Here, a lack of awareness of its impact on the adjacent estate area is noticed. Thus, we find another missing link between the estates and the the broader cultural landscape as well. If suitable measures are taken in the productive landscape, this situation might improve. This, in turn, generates new possibilities of re-purposing and revaluing the productive hinterland and restore its link to the heritage estates through different scales.

This graduation project focuses on how architecture and the built environment can provide a child-friendly and future-proof childhood in the inner city. In the Netherlands we have got the phrase huisje, boompje, beestje. This symbolizes the phase of young couples who are going to settle and are having a nice, quiet and standard family life. For many of those the social succes image includes a single-family home with a garden. Apartment living is widely seen as inappropriate for children and therefore they think that this is the best place to have their huisje, boompje, beestje. This project will show that this can be done differently and can change into a new culture: appartementje, boompje, beestje.

Report of the MSc Landscape Architecture 2019 - 2020, Graduation Lab Resilient Heritage Landscapes. In this graduation lab landscape architecture students from TU Delft explored the landscape assets of private and dispersed heritage properties and developed design strategies to engage them in future-proof landscape development. The focus of the lab is on the landscape system of castles and historic country estates in Gelderland, a region in the East of the Netherlands, also known as the ‘Garden of Gelderland’. Strategically chosen learning cases are elaborated via research-through-design to explore landscape architecture principles for context-sensitive water management, landscape coherence, ecological development and recreation at multiple scales, as well as their spatial implications.@en