Almeria is a geographical point of arrival and passage of African migrants on their migratory route to Europe. The region is home to thousands of migrants seeking work in the agricultural sector. The lack of affordable housing for these collective has led to the creation of several informal settlements around agricultural areas. This project is a proposal for social housing as an affordable housing offer for migrants, focusing on reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. For this, the design focuses on climate adaptation with low tech strategies and the implementation of materials from the context. As opposed to the dependence on mechanical installations for acclimatisation, the project is inspired by the vernacular architecture of the area to adapt to the arid desert climate of Almeria. As construction material, compressed earth blocks are proposed, extracted in areas with microplastic contamination, in order to reduce the impact of agricultural activity on the environment.

Guangzhou is one of the biggest cities in China, and it is located in Pearl River Delta, which has a vulnerable natural environment. In history, the development of Guangzhou city was inseparable from its canal system, which was developed from the natural dense river network. On the one hand, this system had played its role in water management very well. It could quickly discharge rainwater into the Pearl River during the rainy season to prevent floods, and it could also function in water storage during the dry season. On the other hand, the canals were also an important part of people's daily life. It carried most of the people's main activities, such as sailing, trade, and socializing. The historic canal system was the lifeline of Guangzhou. However, in the rapid development of the city in the past 100 years, due to the rise of the automobile road system and the improper planning of the drainage system, the historic canals in Guangzhou have gradually left only a single drainage function. Different kinds of industrial wastewater and domestic wastewater are discharged into the canals, causing the canals and the surrounding environment to become bad; at the same time, the river is narrowed and the drainage function has deteriorated. In the rainy season, the surrounding area of the river is often flooded. The historic canals have gradually become the backside of the city, the disease of the city. In recent years, the government has begun a series of restoration projects for historic canals. However, these projects just aimed to copy-paste the historic scenes to attract tourism and did not pay attention to the historic canal itself and the surrounding communities. As a landscape designer, how the historic canals worked with the city in history has greatly fascinated me, and I have concluded design principles from it, seeking their possibilities in the current situation. This project is not about restoring the canals, is about learning from the history, and designing the historic canal system of Guangzhou as urban landscape infrastructure.

After the global financial crisis in 2008, new developments in the Dutch housing market halted, causing a deficit of available dwellings in the owner-occupied housing market. This in turn has increased the demand for rental housing, resulting in shortages in both the regulated as well as the unregulated rental housing segments. These shortages are most noticeable for lower and middle income households. The lack of supply for low income households sparked societal debate concerning skewed tenants, resulting changes in national housing policy. However, these regulations caused a further decrease in housing options for the middle income households. As a result, regional residential visions established by municipalities active in Dudok Wonen’s working area have since then had a strong focus on stimulating filtering processes: middle income households residing regulated rental dwellings should move, to make room for low-income households. To stimulate these filtering processes, housing association Dudok Wonen started to offer an intermediate rental segment (consisting out of ex-regulated rental dwellings) exclusively to middle income households, stating that the largest obstacle for the desired filtering processes is the lack of supply available to middle income households. Dudok Wonen assigned this intermediate rental segment ’50-50’ to starting and filtering middle income households. To examine the effect of this measure the following research question arose, to be answered in this thesis: ‘How do the intermediate rental segment and associated housing allocation procedures which Dudok Wonen offers contribute to the desired filtering processes in the municipalities Gooise Meren and Hilversum?’. To answer this research question, the residential visions in Dudok Wonen’s working area have been reviewed, and literature concerning the topic of residential mobility has been consulted. The selected research methods can be described as a mixed methods research, and involved a quantitative analysis of the available rental segments Dudok Wonen’s working area, a structured web-survey distributed amongst and answered by 806 tenants in Dudok Wonen’s regulated rental segment dwellings and 9 semi-structured interviews conducted with tenants of dwellings offered in Dudok Wonen’s intermediate rental segment. The quantitative analysis of rental segments was performed to examine whether the characteristics of intermediate rental segments intended for filtering households complied to the characteristics that Dudok Wonen had envisioned to trigger filtering. The intermediate rental segment dwellings were found to be larger than the regulated rental segment dwellings and to have a more beneficial price/quality ratio than unregulated rental segment dwellings, thereby complying to the goals set by Dudok Wonen. This research has also revealed that a majority of the middle income households residing in the regulated rental segment do desire to move, but that only a minority of these households is interested in the intermediate rental segment. The largest contributor to this lack of interest is the lack of knowledge concerning the segment, but the increase in price (compared to the regulated rental segment) and the lack of diversity in quality aspects in which the segment outranks the regulated rental segment are also culprits. The intermediate rental segment as offered by Dudok Wonen predominantly supplies moving triggers to households that are interested in larger dwellings. It is unlikely that households looking for other quality characteristics will be triggered to move by the addition of the intermediate rental segment. Households that did move to the intermediate rental segment did so in order to have the option to realise (prospective) life-cycle related goals, like starting a family. Although these households were looking for rental dwellings, this preference is a substitute of their actual desire for owner-occupied housing. This substitution behaviour can be attributed to the contemporary housing market situation and regulations. Despite this substitution behaviour, the intermediate rental segment, as it is currently being offered by Dudok Wonen, is contributing fairly well to stimulating the desired filtering processes in the municipalities Gooise Meren and Hilversum, as it supplies a portion of the middle income households residing in regulated rental dwellings with triggers to move. With the addition of the intermediate rental segment in the regional housing market, Dudok Wonen is stimulating the desired filtering processes not by pushing households to move, but by lowering the thresholds these households need to overcome in order to move. However, although the addition of the intermediate rental segment is beneficial for the desired filtering processes and the options middle income households have in the regional housing market, the associated housing allocation procedures negatively impact the supply available in the regulated rental segment. This report concludes by posing several recommendations for Dudok Wonen to consider, as well a point of critique towards contemporary Dutch housing policy.

The Dutch government has set the goal for the Dutch housing stock to be independent of gas by 2050. The funding for the needed energy efficiency retrofits is a bottleneck in the process. Owner occupiers within condominium associations come across many barriers in the application process for funding. One of which is the lack of a well suited funding mechanism. If implemented right, building-bound financing may be the solution to the funding problems. Seeing as it is a non-existing type of funding. The following research question was used: What is needed for building-bound financing to be an operable funding for owner occupiers in Dutch condominium associations to support energy performance retrofits? With use of the Governance Assessment Tool and a stakeholder analysis, the current situation of condominium associations with respect to sustainability policy and funding are analysed. From there backcasting is used to depict what changes are needed for successful implementation of building-bound financing for owner occupiers in condominiums. A institutional structure along with a list of coordination problems is provided, to depict what is has to be arranged for building-bound financing. It was found that the problem entails more than a new funding mechanism is able to solve. Furthermore, it was found that an opt-out option for funding is also a possible solution for the problems found. Further research is needed into the operation of the structure and the societal support for it.

Recreation from the forest is a project from the graduation studio Architectural Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. This research and design project explores local energy potentials from the forest. The project is set in the context of IBA Parkstad, which is an area that was part of the former mine region in the province of Limburg. IBA stands for Internationale Bau Ausstellung and architects were invited to come up with innovative thoughts and projects to give this region an economic impulse. The project specifically focused on the Brunssummerheide. A nature area with a characteristic mining and extraction history. After the mines closed in the seventies different recreation places in the area disappeared and the forests lost their production function. This project demonstrates how local materials and the landscape could be used in a smart way to reintroduce a recreation place using a lowtech approach. The project proposes several spa pavilions made of local wood and powered by local biomass from the forest. Wood and biomass can be harvested locally to fill up the base for the pavilions. These bases function as wood compost heat exchangers, a principal from the French inventor and gardener Jean Pain. These can be used to heat the floor, baths and showers of the spa pavilions. That means a unique experience for visitors. Enjoy the forest spa with energy from the forest! The core of the pavilions is made of stacked pine wood, that was formerly used for the support of the mines. The core facilitates the program of the pavilions and refers to the old mining history of the area.

Purpose: This thesis is the result of a problem regarding the fairness of rent- and contract conditions in the entire Dutch rental housing segment. The Dutch housing market is under a lot of pressure due to scarcity, high demand in housing and rising prices and this has led to problems. One of these problems relates to the rental segment. Due to the current tensions in the rental segment the existence of so called ‘strange conditions’ within contracts lead to attention of lease conditions. These conditions have led to the topic of this thesis as to what are considered to be fair rent- and contract conditions and how to improve them. This is done for both landlords and tenants and aims to have an analysis from multiple angles. Main research question: How can fairness be improved for rent- and contract agreements for landlords and tenants in the Dutch rental housing market? Methodology: For this research a qualitative method is used. This is done through a combination of literature- and document studies in combination with semi-structured interviews. First explorative research is done to create a better understanding of the problem from multiple points of view through literature and document research. This has been translated into a hypothesis on what possible implications can be. The semi-structured interviews complement this hypothesis aiming to collect data from practice to test the feasibility of the hypothesis as well as welcoming and contributing new ideas. Conclusions: The definition of fairness in this thesis is considered to be within the range of the legal framework. This framework is derived from the legal documents that state the conditions within which must be remained to remain fair. The legal framework is presented through a categorisation of rent- and contract conditions that discuss each category separately and is supported by legal definitions and substantiations of what is and is not permitted by law. Contract- and conflict analysis point out that the fairness in the Dutch rental housing market is not in complete coherence with the legal framework. This is the case for the perspective of both tenants and landlords. In order to improve fairness different initiatives are already presented and those are taken into consideration in this research. The analysis of the problem, contracts, conflicts, initiatives and other documents in combination with interviews have led to the formulation of three instruments. The instruments that are considered are creating a New standard lease, using tools leading to a proactive government and introducing a landlord and lease register. These instruments have a specific objective to tackle a problem and are derived from the analysis throughout this thesis. Moreover, the instruments do point out that further actions are needed and suggest what those are. In addition, using the instruments separately impacts specific topics and is more vulnerable in their feasibility and impact. However, combining the different instruments and making their implications and tools work together strengthens the implications and impacts and mitigates their risks aiming at a more holistic approach to improve fairness of rent- and contract conditions.

Sports are moving away from the city centre. This is happening despite a growing need for sports, especially among young people. While sports can help create a healthy city through encouraging interaction with their surroundings and the city, they also positively affect the social cohesion of neighbourhoods. The need for sports is specifically focussed on sports in the public space and on multifunctional accommodations, allowing a more diverse and free use. As the Marineterrein in Amsterdam is a testing ground for new initiatives and architecture or use of space, it forms the ideal location for a sports infused area. The Maritime Mile embeds sports into the public space with a jogging route that runs along the edges but also through the centre of the area. A variety of sports places and functions lie adjacent to the one mile long route. A large sports building with swimming pool and a smaller 24/7 changing facility, a swimming dock with changing facilities, bathrooms and showers for prolonged stay, a diving tower with a viewing point, a small skate park, a football field with a viewing area and a parklike area with an interactive fountain together make up a diverse program, offering activities to many different users. Water is used throughout the plan to make the design more sustainable and create a more comfortable and pleasant experience.

Housing affordability is a growing problem in the Netherlands. Approximately 15% of all households has a housing cost overburden rate (i.e. spending more than 40% of the household’s disposable income on the total housing expenses). This research explores a new way to contribute to housing affordability. Dwelling-generated revenue is introduced as umbrella concept to catch all potential ideas that may lead to revenue generated by a dwelling or its affiliated services that can be used to reduce housing expenses. A taxonomy of dwelling-generated revenue options is presented. Revenue options can be either object (i.e.: dwelling) or subject (i.e.: resident) bound. Object related revenues are selling a surplus of energy, third party compensation and (sub)letting. Subject related revenues are the monetization of in-home generated data and monetization of recyclable household waste. Through a multi-criteria analysis, in which five housing and innovation experts judged the revenue options, the most promising options are determined. The implementation of those options in the social housing sector is discussed, since most households with payment risks are found within sector.

The Netherlands has been in a serious housing crisis for the past few years. The current housing shortage is estimated at 315.000 units and house prices have increased significantly. Especially first-time buyers experience a decrease in accessibility to the Dutch owner-occupied housing market, and their position on the housing market deteriorates. The government has implemented several regulations in attempt to increase this accessibility, and organizations have introduced alternative purchase instruments that are designed to increase the accessibility of first-time buyers to the market. Despite all these efforts, access to the housing market remains a serious challenge for first-time buyers. The accessibility of first-time buyers to the owner-occupied housing market is highly relevant to the functioning of the housing market as whole, since it stimulates the housing market flow. Additionally, the inaccessibility to the owner-occupied market results in households not being able to build equity through homeownership, stimulating a prosperity gap. Although studies have researched the position of first-time buyers on the housing market, as well as provided a comparison between several alternative purchase instruments, there is a lack of research on how these instruments enhance the accessibility of first-time buyers to the housing market and which factors form a barrier in this enhancement. Therefore, this research identifies the factors limiting the access of first-time buyers to the housing market, and establishes through a comparative study the enablers and barriers of four alternative purchase instruments in the Netherlands with regard to enhancing the increase in the accessibility. The identified barriers are transformed into suggestions for alterations of the alternative purchase instruments to increase the impact they have on enhancing the accessibility of first-time buyers to the market. Literature study on first-time buyers, their limitations, and alternative purchase instruments in the Netherlands was complemented with interviews, providing several perspectives on the alternative purchase instruments. The main limitation of first-time buyers in acquiring homeownership is their limited financing capacity. The group of first-time buyers with an income between €40.000 and €60.000 (equal to 1 –1,5 modal income) experience the greatest limitations since their income is too high to be eligible for social rent, but too low to get access to enough financial resources to purchase a property on the owner-occupied housing market. The analysis of the empirical data shows that on the small scale that the instruments are currently deployed in, they are successful in increasing the accessibility of first-time buyers to the housing market since they lower the necessary funding capacity. However, the deployment capacity of the instruments is being influenced by external factors, limiting the ability to increase the deployment capacity of the instruments and therefore the impact on the increase of accessibility of first-time buyers. By making a purchase instrument individual bound instead of property bound, the deployment capacity is no longer dependent on the supply side of the housing market. This also lowers the desire to apply an instrument to the same property for multiple households, allowing households to pay off the instrument’s rights and acquire the bare property rights. Finally, the division of financial benefits should be in equilibrium, meaning that the financial benefits should be high enough on the supplier’s side for the instrument to be viable, but also on the user’s side since financing capacity is the main problem these instruments try to tackle.

Due to several factors, under which the widespread flexibilization in the job market and the fact that it ended up becoming more difficult to take out a mortgage, middle-income households ended up not having access to owner-occupied housing in Dutch urban areas. Also, middle-income households’ incomes are too high to qualify for the social housing segment. Therefore, they depend on private rental housing in the Randstad. However, there is a shortage of private rental housing. Due to this lack of private rental housing, rental housing prices have increased tremendously. And this occurred while households’ incomes have not been rising to the same extent. Furthermore, organisations that rely on key workers have a more difficult time finding employees in urban areas. Middle-income households, including the households that can potentially fill up these vacancies, are often forced to move to other areas to find housing that fits their preferences. Therefore, it is essential to gain knowledge of how private rental housing for middle-income households can become affordable. Having knowledge of housing affordability in relation to housing preferences is vital to understand how the private rental housing supply for middle-income households can be increased and preserved in urban areas. Therefore, this research seeks to answer: “How can the rental housing supply in urban areas in the Netherlands, that is affordable for middle-income households, be increased following their preferences?” With this research question posed, the research aims to provide insight into middle-income households' housing affordability. It also aims to present the middle-income households’ rental housing preferences. To reach this aim, the methodology applied in this research is a mixed-method with an embedded design. This research made use of the WoON 2018 data and the semi-structured interview method. To conclude, the findings of this research were validated by an expert panel. The comprehensive quantitative research, regarding what middle-income’s housing preferences are, demonstrated that these preferences are not sufficiently affordably facilitated in Groot-Amsterdam. Delving into these results together with the qualitative research, this study determined what instruments could be used to increase and preserve the affordable rental housing supply for middle-income households following their housing preferences. This research evinced that in Groot-Amsterdam, housing with five rooms is not sufficiently facilitated in the mid-segment rental housing supply. Additionally, for the couple, couple-one-child, couple-two-children, couple-three-children, and one-parent-three-children households earning a gross annual income near €36,798, mid-segment rental housing is not affordable. In order to provide affordable housing for all middle-income households, the central government should assume a more active role in steering toward increasing the mid-segment rental housing supply. Thereby, they should enlarge the housing associations’ playing field. Furthermore, they should limit their role to spatial planning, providing infrastructure, and providing monetary means. Next to that, there should be a balance between municipal demands on development programmes and land prices. Together, the municipality and market actors should determine the demands of the development programme. An independent third party should calculate the residual land value.

Traditional neo-classical economic theories are failing to explain the current situation in the Dutch housing market. There is a high demand for newly built owner-occupied dwellings, but the production is not increasing as quickly as expected. New Institutional Economics is offering explanations for this situation. The institutions in the development sector changed during the real estate crisis, which caused a disruption of the governance structures. There are still thresholds, even in this favourable time, to form new development alliances. Those thresholds are caused by serval reasons, like financing issues, capacity problems and an increased risk awareness of all the involved parties. Relations should be reinvented, and incentives for market parties should be created to invest early in the development process.

This thesis examines the potential of small, low-carbon, (near) zero-energy dwellings as a solution that would both address sustainability challenges and answer to the growing housing shortage in North-West Europe. It adopts a multidimensional outlook that encompasses institutional, social and technical aspects surrounding the dwellings. The institutional aspect is addressed through an investigation of financial, legislative, technical and cultural barriers to the implementation and uptake of small, low-carbon, zero-energy dwellings. A context specific approach is adopted taking into account contextual peculiarities for the formulation of more refined policy suggestions. The social dimension is addressed first from the perspective of market supply through an investigation of the perceptions of housing professionals. The distinction between perceived versus actual barriers identified by housing professionals is made highlighting a potential desynchronization between policy developments and local practice. Accordingly the study calls for innovation in information dissemination between policy and local practice and between housing professionals themselves. The social dimension is then addressed from the perspective of market demand through an investigation of consumers’ current housing preferences. The assumption stating that, due to an increase in smaller, elderly, and lower-income households, current housing preferences are leaning towards smaller dwellings is refuted underlining the importance of distinguishing between smallest and smaller dwelling sizes. Lastly, the technical dimension is addressed through conducting a partial life cycle assessment that focuses on the embodied carbon of the dwellings. Both downsizing and the use of low-carbon materials such as timber are investigated as embodied carbon reduction strategies. Together, the three dimensions provide a holistic evaluation of the potential of small, low-carbon, zero-energy dwellings as a solution while addressing the complexity in reaching sustainable outcomes.@en