To every rise and fall of nations, crowds were vital. They could appear in the form of armies defending their motherlands or revolutionaries rewriting the courses of history, but they are also vital to political baiting beloved by every ‘big guy’. Crowds also bring in life to the masses; it is the various social spectacles that we (occasionally) attend to feel recharged and alive, connected by the warmth human relationship provides and the sense of belonging manifested therein. A politicised crowd likewise need not have a political agenda to address nor does it always entail a revolutionary goal; both dominance and resistance can too be accidental by-products of such accumulation. The question of crowding being truly democratic and its capacity to remain as a simple social event is, however, still open to debate. To what extent can architecture embrace the transformative qualities of crowding and crowd flow? I therefore aim to intervene at Porte d’Aix and return the life the various masses once embraced, ergo the title The Revolution of the Roundabout: The Arch as the Spectacle between Function and Deactivation. I intend to investigate the tension between endorsing and harnessing crowd formation on the one hand and crowd control on the other for I concluded that it is the focal dilemma of modern architecture and planning. It is in this propensity of the mass to crowd and tendency of (state) authorities to encourage crowd formation where there appears to be a tacit acknowledgement of the transformative nature of collective experience.

On June 14 in 2017, 72 people lost their lives and hundreds of families were left homeless as the Grenfell tower block caught fire in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea within the inner-city of London. The tragedy has shaken the society, highlighting the conflict between privileged and unprivileged within the city’s society, as most of the victims were ethnic minorities living below the poverty line. The research aims to analyze and unfold the underlaying issues relating to the fire, looking at the social as well as spatial condition of the Grenfell Tower’s surrounding area. The research draws upon Charles Booth’s poverty maps from over a century ago as well as current Deprivation maps and Space Syntax theories, intending to understand the geometry of poverty in the city. Through the specific case of the Tower fire, the relationship between social and spatial tension will be addressed. Eventually, this paper also suggests an architectural intervention, in the form of a memorial on the authentic site of the fire. The design solution could hopefully bring justice to the people affected by the fire and point the society towards hope again.

The thesis challenges conventional notions of the social and explores the intricate relationship between humans and the imminent commons. It confronts the consequences of neglecting the imminent commons (water, earth, air) in urban environments, urging a re-evaluation of design principles. The research reveals ecological risks from prioritizing human desires in land use and proposes innovative solutions in the agri-food system to bridge rural-urban divides with the main research question how can architectural intervention through productive landscapes bridge the gap between city and land, people and food? Advocating for sustainable cities, it highlights the reliance of London on an unsustainable global food network. The project reimagines the Newham city farm, which happens to be a part of the Beckton Park redevelopment Plan. By challenging commodity-driven perspectives, the design explores the intrinsic eco-social value of land and the detrimental impact of unsustainable agriculture and food miles as it focuses on the interplay of material and immaterial flows in our daily lives, with design shaping our interactions with the environment. The design aims to reconnect the social and ecological aspects through productive landscapes as it establishes three pillars: productive landscapes as social spaces, restoring the experiential connection to land, and fostering eco-social production, paving the way for a sustainable future.

The graduation project ‘London Deviations’ aims to understand the ever-changing historic city with its multiple identities and experiences offered. With this it tries to find a way how one can design an idiosyncratic architecture that still fits in appropriately in the complexity of the contemporary metropolis. The city that was the case for this study is London. In its historical parts two identities and experiences were discovered: the 'obvious image' of the city, called the front (hotspots, main streets, etc.) and the backsides (alleys, backstreets, mews, hidden courts, etc.), the latter deviating from the former. These deviations were researched on their own and in relation to their fronts. This was done by studying their history, materiality (where noted if they are recurring or deviating), morphology, how they are experienced by moving through them, by their ‘rhythm’, and through sections. Underlying Themes as continuation, scale, sequence, stimulation, use of greenery, surprise effect and hidden in plain sight were discovered and recognized as ‘typically London’. They were then integrated in the architectural project. Not just by translating the urban research into the design of the building itself, but also by incorporating the surroundings into the project, in particular by creating a new deviation.

The term interface is commonly known as a device or program enabling man to use machine, and mainly associated with relationship between users and computer. Generally it means a point where two systems, subjects, organization, etc. meet and interact. A good interface would effectively raise efficiency and improve experience of the users. In concepts it also helps to interpret museum as interface, related with question: what an art experience should be in the future? Firstly, museum should interface spectators with arts. We need to think from spectators, that they are varied from different cultural and educational contexts considering the international immigrant background of South Rotterdam. Art is abstract and sophisticated for non-professionals, who would be the major group among visitors. Thus, museum should take responsibility to interface people with different levels of knowledge in order to improve their experience when encountering art. Why is their experience so important here? Here I would refer to Rosalind Krauss’s “Late Capitalist Museum” theory. Better art experience is the demand in this consumer society, take example as MoMA. In terms of spectators’ experience, Nanette Snoep’s curating theory also helps to support my position. To improve experience, the method is to create an immersive environment, which means let spectators participate into artwork during visit. The suitable art collections here would focus on interactive art, performative art, installation art, process art and folk art. Secondly, museum should interface physical space with virtual space. It is a bilateral relationship. On one hand, the aura of contemporary artworks is descending, while their interrelation with space is enhancing. Virtuality is the basis of Minimalism’s hyperspace theory, or “the fourth dimension”, also the new demand of museum space in the digital future. What museum should do in the future is to interface spectators with this “fourth dimension” space. On the other hand, people’s life is virtualizing by new technique. Majority of communication and social interaction are happening on the Internet through smart phone and PC. Although it frees human from restriction of physical condition, it also locks human in his or her own limited space. The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating this problem. Disconnection of social bonds would impair mental health, causing loneliness, anxiety, inferiority, alienation and so on (Mendelsohn, 2020). In this sense, museum should turn from a cultural institution into a social infrastructure, dragging people from virtual world into physical interaction, like Gaillard’s installation work the recovery of Discovery.

Following the ideologies of club cultural communities, which finds abandoned space throughout the city and gives it new meaning by transforming it into spaces which hosts different activities for creative communities, this projects attempts to design a building with no meaning in the first place which in turn allows for multiple interpretations of the space. For this project, I interpret the space as a nightclub and fit in a daytime program which supports communities within club culture. However, the building also intends to be interpreted in different ways giving the possibility to evolve it's meaning over time along with the evolving needs of society.

The Public Building studio studies the importance of the public domain within the built environment and the atmospheres formed around the relations between individuals and/or groups and the designed building. The task is to design architecture for music, and these atmospheres will now include a very important cultural factor in the determination of their value. Architects will assume the position that is defined by participation in the revitalization of culture for all users of the space. Individuals’ understandings of culture will be detached from their biological nature and patterns of emotional behavior through the use of virtual technologies that will help each person explore their own external consciousness. One that is independent of previous knowledge and experience and reacting only to a manifestation of isolated synesthetic experiences. This design is embodied through the ephemeral architectural form that challenges subjectivity in design by including all users of the space in the never-ending process that provides this building with an ever-changing appearance. The architect stops acting as a sculptor of that which is built. Instead he creates a mechanism that shapes the building based on the data collected from all users. The users are participants in architectural expression and the public building is now made by the public.

Marseille as a port city that is in constant flux carries out a vast array of qualities and experiences that creates a dynamic collection in which heterogenous conventions, orders, and routines interrelate and collide. It is a complex urban network of places and fragments that come together in this context of ‘otherness’. Analysing Marseille through a heterotopic lens in our collective preliminary research has led me to the exploration of additional characteristics of the city as forms of ‘other’. I do not consider heterotopias essentially as spaces of resistance - as has been interpreted by many scholars - but as sites that colligate and connect different logics and norms. This thesis looks at the ‘Absurd’ as a form of ‘otherness’ that emerges out of non-conventional that challenges common relationships and orders. In philosophical terms, the absurd refers to the constant conflict between the human tendency to find meaning and purpose in life and their inability to find these certain values. Absurd does not provide a resolution, even though it is not an anti-resolution. It essentially operates by consistently colliding and juxtaposing different orders, norms, and conventions to dismantle customary relationships. The absurd does not bring forward any point since it points to the pointlessness. In the absurd, there is no greater question, no moral lesson, no essence, and no story. There might be the appearance of a tale… only the wait for Godot; the story never consummates, but the space for it latently exists. As paradoxical as the absurd is, the setting produced out of absurdity is indeed elusive.

The municipality of The Hague is currently redeveloping Binckhorst from industrial area to a high-rise mixed function area. The drastic redevelopment of this area is causing the loss of numerous reuseable materials and buildings. This is worrisome, given the need to improve the sustainability of the building sector. To prevent the destruction in Binckhorst from repeating in future, a strategy is needed that allows easier transformation of the area and buildings to meet the demands of future stakeholders. In addition, there ought to be dynamic and diverse functions to make the area more lively to attract more attention and care. Applying the flexible building strategy offers a possible solution, as it aims to extend the life of a building through its adaptability, and adding a public performance space in Binckhorst will broaden the dynamics of the area, by introducing entertainment as a function. However, the use of this strategy in music halls has been limited, as there are special requirements for structure, space and materials in order for these spaces to perform well. Moreover, the overarching characteristic of today’s flexible buildings is that they are nondescript in their architectural appearance and usage. This poses a challenge, as a building must have a certain appeal, to prevent future demolition. Therefore the question is posed: “How to design a music venue that is flexible and has a unique identity?” This project will research the current implementation of the strategy and its flaws, from this a toolbox will be created. Research from different fields of science is conducted to understand the design principles of an iconic building. Last, flexibility of the music function is analysed through case studies. These three researches combined will form the parameters to design an iconic and tuneable performance venue, demonstrating that the flexible building strategy can perform with a demanding function, and still have character.

The “traditional” high street that was once a distinctive element in the city’s historic urban fabric, is now slowly declining. This decline is further intensified by the insensitive development of its nearby leftover lands and the lack of investment in the public realm. This research is meant to support a new interpretation for the contemporary high street in the basis of urban interstices and it aims to emphasize the importance of considering the high street and its community in the future city planning. For that reason, a number of urban and architectural placemaking interventions are studied, using a precedent analysis in order to explore possible urban regeneration strategies as an attempt to reconnect the high street to its surrounding urban fabric and functions. Eventually, through specific case of Shoreditch district, this paper seeks to establish the development capacity for the high street, in terms of the available development sites and their potential relationship with the existing infrastructure and services.

This research aims to uncover the hidden/overlooked potential of high streets, which will contribute to enhancing their quality and highlighting the significant role these streets play in the formation and creation of community spaces in the city. The design aims to use the opportunities of different spots along the shopping streets that are important places for communities as a catalyst for change in the streets themselves. By identifying and connecting "hot spots," where a prominent presence of people is observed, and introducing new places, an interconnected system is formed, strengthening the overall fabric of the high street. Furthermore, through the strategic placement of a diverse range of functions within the existing building of the former shopping center and a newly designed structure, the project seeks to attract various actors and activate the new hot spots inside out. This research and design endeavor strives to unlock the latent potential of high streets, fostering vibrant and inclusive community spaces that promote engagement, interaction, and a sense of belonging.

In London street art is still formally perceived as an act of anti-social behaviour while it gains more and more acceptance and admiration by people. The fact that it remains illegal means a great wasted potential of inhabitants’ creativity and will to participate in creating public spaces. While street art may mark places that are neglected or struggling with some socio-spatial issues, it points also those where locally there is a lack of space for individuals’ self-expression. Being informal and spontaneous rearrangement of urban scape, it is a manifestation of tension between public and private in the street. It might be perceived as an argument in claiming for more democratic public spaces. The goal of the research is to learn how the socio-philosophical space is being produced and what position in the process of creating and rearranging urban places street art takes. To achieve that there were analysis conducted to gained knowledge about street art – to find places where it appears, to determine crucial material and immaterial parts of public spaces that are essential for the phenomenon, to establish relations between artworks and with other elements of the street, and finally, to recognise what are the features and individual characteristics of street art. The conclusions made during the research would be a backbone for the process of designing the architectural space in the spirit of street art. Having developed transposition of the gained knowledge into the code of architecture, there would be a proper site chosen and an architectural programme developed to fully exploit social potential represented by street art. The design might initiate re-defining the term of gentrification and make a contribution in the process of democratisation public space.

Starting from a port, Marseille was born as the result of improvisation and spontaneous architectures rather than urban planning. Same things happened in the architecture scale. architects are not the only doers of architecture. Long after the building has been made the non-architects continuously do architecture. When non-architects occupy space, they start to ‘do-it-themselves’. In most cases, they do this in an already occupied territory, where the activity of doing architecture has been classified and claimed by architects - the rules have already been established. But there are also some space occupations that are out of the rules, such as squatting, vendors, graffiti, protest. They, like “pet architecture”, do not necessarily create appealing spaces, and some are even illegal, but they can highlight people’s demands and show people’s bottom-up determination to shape the city. When people do the practice, they mainly based on their own current needs and what material they have instead of considering the building or city as a whole. These practices are spontaneous, unplanned makeshift and ad hoc. They can be seen as improvisational practice. Seen architecture as paintings, in these cases, their improvisational activities are more like a collage rather than fully considered composition. But as Jencks explains, it involves using an available system in a new way to solve a problem quickly and efficiently. By doing so, it offers a way for everyone to shape and discuss the city they live in. And for the public, there should be nothing preventing them, in an agonistic and participatory manner, from devising and debating forms of their shelter and space for daily life. The improvisational practice has itself taken inspiration: Another world is possible.

London’s ambiguous edges have turned into an area of negligence as they are simply not considered anyone’s responsibility. Its final ends are places where allocated amenities considered as burdens can no longer be pushed further outwards. However, simultaneously, it is where Londoners take advantage of this negligence and escape the city to answer their own alternative needs and desires themselves. Together these actions result in an edge condition where we no longer recognize the city, but yet, it is the only place that confronts us with what the city really is. It is a place of both belonging and estrangement. This project explores an alternative approach to the current undirected piecemeal development that is taking place, by objectifying the conflict with London’s ambiguous edges. Thereby, the architecture of the edge becomes the physical encounter of the psycho- geographic condition, and aims to activate the heterogeneous zone through a more responsible way of building. It does not question the condition, nor takes a position in the ongoing debate about the future of it, but addresses its articulation through a series of fragmented interventions as part of an open-ended strategy.

In the face of the prevailing norms and practices in contemporary architecture, there is a growing need to find alternative ways of making architecture that prioritize human experiences, social interactions, and a deeper connection with the built environment. The examination of empowered play as a revolutionary approach to design is the focus of this thesis, "Retreat the Line," which offers a break from conventional paradigms. It emphasizes the importance of challenging the prevailing urban planning trends that prioritize financial gain and rigid quantification, often leading to the commodification of public spaces. Instead, the argument for a qualitative approach put out by suggested moments of architecture embraces wastefulness, unexpected moments, and the co-creation of spaces that encourage serendipity and delight. "Retreat the Line" is an appeal for architects to adopt a more all-encompassing and human-centered approach to design. In order to build lively, inclusive, and meaningful built environments that improve quality of life and develop a feeling of community and belonging, it urges practitioners to investigate the potential of the architectural agency.

By bringing landscapes inside, this project is opening up nature to the people of Berlin, with a multi climate approach in the city. This prototype for condensed public green, is the starting point for creating a new modular building type with integrated urban gardening. Other Berlin neighbourhoods already have temporary communal gardens and commons as a central meeting place. With a permanent building as a centre, a neighbourhood garden’s position can be guaranteed for a long period of time. In this indoor green condenser a combination of multiple green related functions and gardens can be enjoyed all year round. To make that possible, the site gets divided into acres through a grid of 10m by 10m. This grid is both suitable for landscape architecture as for open plan buildings with a column-structure. Every segment of the grid is then programmed with building functions or as part of the landscape around those functions. To every function one or more indoor green typologies are applied. These are then modified to fit in the grid. That way a patchwork of gardens and modules starts to take shape. A great variety of landscaping and functions will give the users an experience that exceeds the lack of green in the city. The components of this prototype can be applied to a location where there is active demand for an expansion and condensation of greenspace in densifying cities, specifically in post-war neighbourhoods. It can be tailored to the proportions and the climate zones of the locations where the concept is applied. Thereby, Landscape Inside outlines an answer to the reality we all face in the unstoppable urbanisation of the future.

The ultimate aim of this research is to create a theoretical framework for the design of a multifunctional cultural waterfront on the edge of the Tarwewijk in Rotterdam South. From this follows the main research question: How can the regeneration of a waterfront into a cultural area add social and cultural value to the Tarwewijk and Rotterdam South? There is a strong cultural division between the North and South of Rotterdam what leads into the fewer access to culture and lower demand for culture in the South of Rotterdam. Knowing this, the redevelopment of an underused unconnected waterfront in the South of Rotterdam into a cultural area can lead to unwanted social effects, like no social and cultural connection to the neighbourhood and by this it could lead to gentrification. It is important to develop a cultural area that adds social and cultural value to the neighbourhood and that this area is part of the neighbourhood (tangible and intangible). This can narrow the (cultural) gap between the North and South of Rotterdam. This happens because both culture becomes more inclusive and approachable for the local people and the population of Rotterdam South become culturally richer. In order to investigate this, The research that follows focusses on three hypothetic parts of the solution. The first one is multifunctionality. This subject will be researched through the questions: What does multifunctionality entail? How can multifunctionality benefit the cultural area? How can multifunctionality be beneficial to the neighbourhood? And how do multifunctionality and multiculturality relate to each other? The second subject is identity. The sub questions for this are: What creates this identity? How can identity benefit the museum? How can identity be beneficial the neighbourhood? The last subject is connection. In this part there will be focus on how can tangible and intangible connections can be established between the site and the neighbourhood with as main goal to integrate the museum with the neighbourhood. For every of the three subjects firstly there will be done a literature research to theorize the subject and get a grip on the main principles of the subject matter. I will research what others have done in the field of multifunctionality, identity and connection and from there I will try to come up with my own hypothesis about these subjects. After that case studies will be conducted where the aspects of multifunctionality, identity and connection will be analysed. After that site specific research will be done to form a conclusion about the information that is gained from the literature and the case studies. In this research and design I want to redefine the way cultural area’s and museums are looked upon to make them more attractive to a wider audience that normally wouldn’t visit a cultural area or museum. It aims to create an alternative to the classic typology of the museum. The research and design try to show that a museum or cultural area can also function in a more social and inclusive way. This case can then be an example for future projects.

Urban densification is essential to keep the green spaces surrounding Dutch cities, especially in the Randstad. The current Dutch housing stock, of which a significant portion was built during the 1960's and 1970's, lacks a flexible layer in which people in urgent need of housing can find (temporary) affordable housing. Short-stay housing, which encompasses people living somewhere for a day, up to a couple of years, could provide this flexible layer. Target groups for short-stay housing fare well by social interaction, stimulating integration into Dutch society and opening up new possibilities in their life. This social interaction can be partially provided by introducing the sharing economy into an existing neighborhood, providing sustainable options regarding ownership or mobility. The project 'Between a Day and a Lifetime' therefore proposes an urban densification strategy in which a short-stay housing concept, based on principles of co-housing and the sharing economy, creates densification in a way that it enriches the lives of the current ánd future inhabitants.

This research paper focuses on the phenomenon of social and urban morphological contrasts within community boundaries caused by socioeconomic inequality and the process of urban development. This paper also discusses the reason and the spatial needs for social integration. This topic is becoming increasingly relevant in London because of the gentrification process in multiple urban edges around central areas of the city. However, it is also relevant in cities around the world where gentrification has caused social segregation problems. Hence there is an urgent need for an urban development strategy that provides spatial opportunities for interactions and innovations.

Coinciding with the decline of post-war neighborhoods and the housing shortage in the Netherlands the trend towards individualism and one-person households has emerged since the 1950s. This report investigates the densification and reinvigoration strategies of these post-war neighborhoods by using co-housing as a strategy. In the past co-hous- ing has been tried as a solution for social injustice and vulnerable groups within a society. To develop these strategies, case studies of postwar renovation projects have been analyzed as well as co-housing spatial principles and fundamentals to combine into a design strategy for the renovation plan of IJssel- monde. The results are a design approach for densification of a postwar neighborhood that takes into account the current resi- dents while providing suitable housing for new residents and connecting them through co-housing.