Architectural Design Crossover Graduation Studio final design project. Research paper and graduation design looking into Temporary Intensities and crowd machines in the city of London, resulting in the design of a live music venue with a capacity of 3000 visitors. This design project aims to design this 'crowd machine' as being part of a 'crowd generator' that is located on top of the former Shoreditch Goodsyard.

In the case of the 2017 Grenfell Tower, the fire affected those who were already socio-economically underprivileged. Many residents of the Grenfell tower did not just become homeless or lost personal belongings, approximately two-thirds suffer from post-traumatic stress. Such layered and systemic disparities in the built environment as well as their consequence are often obscure due to systems’ complexity and dependency on external influences. Disparities and potential effects remain largely hidden. Disparities have been found to be particularly present on six planes: sound, reflection, social, exchange, recreation, and accessibility. Together the disparities on the planes form an assemblage of disparity. The asymmetric condition of disparities depends on the degree of affluence and deprivation of the analysed territory or machine. Disparities express themselves as asymmetric membranes, which can be both material and immaterial. To a largely extent they determine the accessibility to the membrane’s territory – which may or may not perpetuate existing disparities. The intent of the design is to address the existing dichotomy and polarity between territories of affluence and deprivation, to challenge asymmetric membranes that perpetuate deep-rooted disparities. The middleground acts as its own agent, its own territory, that provides continuous impulses challenging existing disparities. The middleground itself, ironically, also consists of a sequence of asymmetric membranes. These membranes, however, intend to address and potentially disrupt the disparities found on the six planes. The middleground aims to challenge the trends of perpetual inequalities, fragmentation, and exclusivity. Designing the middleground as a multiplicity of membranes creates a sequence of spaces that mediate in varying degrees between public and private. This proof-of-concept intends to show how the middleground approach can promote inclusivity on the various planes considering the multiplicity and complexity of disparities.

This thesis redefines craft as a social action anchored in play that intervenes in existing material and immaterial flows. A circular and sustainable architecture follows naturally from this definition. The architectural project operationalizes this new definition to rewild the old industrial site of the Lea Bridge Waterworks in London. The project is a glass blowing workshop, greenhouses, and rewilding research facilities which act as a catalyst to transform the site to connect with a larger green structure, as well as support other craft activities in the valley.

The city of Lahore (Pakistan) is suffering from a severe environmental crisis. Water related issues such as droughts, floods and waterborne diseases have interrupted the accessibility of citizens to basic amenities. At the TU Delft, I have been approaching these issues in the Explore Lab Studio for my Master’s graduation. In my approach as a future architect, abandoned heritage – Bradlaugh Hall - will serve as an experimental laboratory for testing new ideas along with the reimplantation of local methods for climatization. In terms of programming, a common ground will be set up to narrate the existing boundaries to impede people from meeting fellow citizens out of their circle. Addressing the socio-economic segregation that has characterized Lahore since the colonial rule and has worsened in the last decades. The interaction and transgression among people will allow to learn, express and exchange ideas. Contributing to provoke awareness among citizens regarding their role in society. Along with an urban vision of reconnecting the city with the green structures as an mitigation strategy, the gardens culture will be reintegrated in the life of communities. Who have inherited the beautiful environment as part of their heritage.

As labor increasingly takes place solely in the confines of a laptop screen, the office as a building type seems almost redundant. At the same time the profitability of data collected of consumption puts conventional understandings of value production under question. How does information become valuable, and how should we think of value to begin with? The project employs an understanding of value as a qualitative, subjective excess effect of life that can only be quantified as profit through the production of metrics that make it compatible with the field of economy. Helsinki Central Station provides a case study of an intensely public site where original functions have been gradually replaced by opportunities for consumption that economize its life-value. The goal of the project is to counter these processes of capture and re-intensify the experience of moving through the terminal building. Focusing on the habit of voyeurism, the project speculates new constraints to put travellers into unexpectedly close relations to intensify the station’s singular quality as a composite of strangers in a certain rhythmic movement.

Urban foodscapes project addresses issues concerning the food supply chain in London. It aims to combat problems created by current agri-business practice such as long, complex logistical chains, food waste, carbon emissions, wasted water, energy, labour and land scarcity. Foodscape, being both global and local, lies on the intersection of multiple material and immaterial flows, therefore the problems it creates cannot be solved by one discipline alone. The research unfolds the most pressing issues concerning the food supply chain and proposed urban strategy attempts to find ways to improve the system by integrating social and technological aspects to close food-related material and immaterial loops by looking into urban synergies to limit the waste of resources and create new social opportunities that will constitute a framework for the future projects of this kind.

As an architect we experiment. Architectural experimentation is the process of generating design ideas and making design decisions. The traditional tools, drawing and modelling, have proven to be fruitful. However, when zooming in on the essence of experimentation, one may wonder if drawing and modelling are the only possible tools to support the process of exploring and deciding. By detaching drawing and modelling from the act of experimenting; the research tries to broaden the traditional laboratory and explore the meaning of experimentation within design education. Furthermore, the research provided knowledge in, and experience with, non-traditional experimentation tools. The latter two have been applied into the design project. In the design process, traditional tools have been combined with non-traditional tools, such as film, blogging, movement and writing poetry. These experiments allowed for a sensitive and reflective approach towards the design (location). Especially the non-traditional tools allowed for looking at the design (location) from multiple perspectives. This resulted in the discovery of existing and potential qualities, but also in design principles and a guiding theme. The design takes place in the Bossche Stadsdelta. The Bossche Stadsdelta is the name for an area in ‘s-Hertogenbosch that will be developed in the coming years. However, due to physical separation by water and the lack of a shared identity; the area is not yet experienceable as the Bossche Stadsdelta. Luckily, the experiments with traditional and non-traditional tools imply that the area has a lot of existing and potential qualities. Therefore, a folly route is introduced. Follies are ornaments of the Bossche Stadsdelta: born from what is already there. They amplify existing (potential) qualities and are open for human action. The follies are mutually connected by sightlines and a shared architectural language. Together it allows locals and visitors to consciously move and stop throughout the area: to experience the Bossche Stadsdelta as a whole.

Over the years, the Anthropocentric societies are to blame for the problematic urban environments they have created. Within the current paradigm, our destructive behavior towards the natural environment has caused a major decline in biodiversity. To restore the ecology in our contemporary urban environment, we require a turning strategy. This is where the Third Generation city framework emerges: a city aiming to learn from the mistakes made in the urban environment, followed by restoring them. Within the spectrum of restoration, it aims to restore the natural environment & creating ecocentric mindsets. Due to their post-anthropocentric characteristics, brownfields can be seen as the seeds for the Third generation city, as wildlife often returns to these sites due to the absence of human activity. Therefore this thesis introduces architecture as a regenerative act toward the socio-environmental context of these brownfields. In one of London's most socio-environmental deprived areas, the representative brownfield development aims to actively regenerate the deprived neighborhood, becoming a statement in the city as a learning center. Here, visitors & local communities can learn how to support London Ecosystem with the effect of stimulating Ecocentric mindsets, while the design & material conditions of the architecture simultaneously stimulate the ecological development of the brownfield site. Multiple of these ecological brownfield developments can influence the larger urban organism and become the driver toward an Ecocentric, Third generation London, restoring the balance with the Anthropocentric urban environment.

The departure from coal in Poland results in the process of decommissioning the underground coal mines. These, based in the region of Upper Silesia, recently undergo a paradigm shift ‘from mining coal to mining water’, as the discharge of the groundwaters is crucial for underground security. Rather than an obstacle, the discharged groundwaters, along with the post-mining infrastructure, can be treated as an asset for the systemic remediation of the post-mining territory. Thus, the preliminary research is structured around multiscalar remediation that considers the degraded environment, local society, and mindset. The subsequent design project entails a systemic intervention at the intersection of land- and built forms aimed at the multilayered remediation where water constitutes both the axis and the core of the unfinished terraforming laboratory.

The long-stretched shadow of my body touches the footprints in the sand in front of me. It is a cold winter afternoon and the sun is already setting. I hear the rhythm of water pulling back and passing under another wave of water. The beach is full of people many of whom presumably visit this place for the same reason as I: “uitwaaien”. While walking in the wind, I empty my mind of thoughts which have been floating around in my head that day. I find comfort in being together with the wind, the sand, the sea. “Uitwaaien” is a Dutch word that is not directly translatable to another language. It involves an activity, yet also a feeling, an experience, a change in mood. What intrigues me as an architect is that this shows that an environment has such strong influence on a person’s well-being. Architects are constructors of environments and therefore I believe that by researching and using the coastal environment as a laboratory, architects can learn to better understand how to design an environment that results in positively affecting its users. To explore the topic, the coastal environment around the harbour of Scheveningen becomes the laboratory. Around Scheveningen harbour, few buildings are left which remind me of the fishing industry which used to be the occupation for most of Scheveningen’s inhabitants. Fish is still one of the most important industries around the harbour, yet the labour has moved inside large box-like warehouses and factory-like ships. Now that the fishing industry is taking less space in the harbour, new offices, apartment blocks and warehouses are starting to appear. These new developments are a reflection of what is happening on a national level and global level. In the case of The Netherlands, the political and economic structures are creating a commercial environment in which housing developers start new building developments at a fast pace and with low budgets. The lack of action by the state in developing houses and the large housing shortage in most cities adds to this problem (Hulsman, 2021; Hulsman & de Voogt, 2020; Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties, 2020). Designs, therefore, are often reduced to the minimum standard of living as set by the building codes. The result is distanced and generalised architecture without thoughts on how these environments could positively affect the user’s well-being (Hannema, 2019) (Pallasmaa, 2012, p. 34,37). In words of Juhani Pallasmaa: “homogenisation of space weakens the experience of being, and wipes away the sense of place” (Pallasmaa, 2012, p. 50). So, the new buildings in the harbour stand in a strong contrast to the spatial characteristics of the coastal environment which provide many positive effects. How can architects make sure that also the buildings have a positive influence on people’s well-being? How can buildings, instead of weakening, enhance the characteristics of the area? How can a building be specific for the Scheveningen and reconnect people with the sense of place?

As London is expanding in population and emerging as a financial global city, the pace of the city is rising. Factors as temporality and the notion of time as an experiential dimension is getting lost. A more sensory approach to urban architecture has the potential to incite people to reside in other measures of time to contrast the dense intensive city of London. It has to be argued to what extent architecture cultivates these atmospheric moments in the urban conditions of the center Boroughs of London. The research stresses the notion of sensory and spatial experience formulated by architecture and its relation to urban conditions. A more sensory approach towards architecture is needed to balance out the reciprocity between space and time of the architectural fabric of the city. Through notions of smell, materiality, light/darkness, pace of movement and architectural configuration, the West India Dock is transformed to a public multifunctional food hub. The design bears defragmentation of the Isle of Dogs area and draws new potentials of contemplation and programmatic synergies as a quality to the ‘frontstage’ of this ever accelerating pace of city life in London.

In recent years, overtourism has become a big problem for many European cities. In Amsterdam, tourism is changing the experience of place of its city centre, which negatively affects resident’s quality of life by causing feelings of alienation. As a result, more and more residents seem to retreat or move away from Amsterdam’s city centre, jeopardizing the livability and residential function of the city. The aim of this research is to add architectural interventions in the city centre of Amsterdam, which will evoke new connections with the places overwhelmed by tourists, by mitigating feelings of alienation between residents and tourists. These connections must both be social, as well as to place, in order to introduce a new, more social, sustainable and liveable way of tourism. In this research, the embodied experiences of Amsterdam's overwelming places such as the Jordaan, the Canal Belt, the Oudezijdse Burgwallen and the Lastage have been studied by means of narratives. These narratives were created from both the resident’s and the tourist’s perspective, in order to find out which (spacial) qualities of place evoke a sense of identification, belonging or connection among the residents and tourists. Ultimately, from the collection of narratives the users, activity, experience of place, structure and architectural atmosphere of the overwelmed places are defined, and together form a concept for the architectural interventions that will mitigate the feelings of alienation.

A personal problem of dissociation has become the catalyst for a schizoanalysis on the levels of the corporeal, the clinical, and the collective, that uses a philosophical understanding of the unconscious to materialise a design for an urban psychiatric clinic for dissociative disorders.

At the TU Delft, 9% of the students officially have an impairment, however, estimates go up to 30% (Centrum Hoger Onderwijs Informatie, 2019). The TU Delft is building new spaces to accommodate its students but seems to do so for the median student. Little research has been conducted into the environmental needs of students in higher education with a neurological impairment which is why this thesis aims to answer the question: “In what way can the needs and wishes of neurodiverse students be combined with the needs and wishes of neurotypical students to create an inclusive study facility for the TU Delft?”. Six students, both neurotypical and neurodiverse, were interviewed online in a semi-structured interview. From this, it became clear that the neurodiverse students have more needs than the neurotypical students but it should be possible to combine most needs and wishes in the same building.

The project can be defined at the intersection of urban landscape, architecture and infrastructure as a resolution of not only social flows but also the systems and elements of the material flows, which once shaped London. It aims to formulate new social urban programs where the distinction between the site, the architectural edifice or the urban space blurs. The project is located in Abbey Mills, near River Lea in East London, which once an industrialized territory with the contaminated and neglected nature of interstices to supply central London. It aims to transform this contaminated space into a new public space, ecological land for Londoners. This required careful detection of the elements of artificially crafted land form, both evident and hidden, in order to weave continuity by the intervention of linear infrastructures as a new connective tissue between the contexts, and between its past and future for urban resilience. The 150-metre-long linear apparatus traverses the site from the underground to the river, resonating with subterranean and superterranean conditions, allowing people to enjoy nature. Therefore, this apparatus becomes an ecological corridor that induces various experiences from functional programs to education and leisure activities. For the material choices and materiality, materials such as soil, stones, and steel sheet piles are collected and reused for rammed earth, gabions, and retaining walls to ensure sustainability in the process of topographic transformation and phytoremediation for purification work. In this respect, the infrastructure lines become the life lines of the city, and the ambiguous conditions produced by the intersections, overlaps, juxtaposition become lines of urban life. Thus, it aims to formulate new formal and material language addressing the pressing issues in the new urban age.

The plan to construct the Federal Ministry of digital Affairs was conceived in response to the increased focus on the digitalisation of Germany and its government. Historically, a new German cabinet has often formed a new ministry in response to current issues. The new Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs aims to represent the aforementioned ambition to spark and represent digital innovation. The key ingredients to design this new building were primarily determined through site visits and online archival research. This was, the appropriate program, location and stakeholders were found. The program is based on existing ministries, with adjustment for digital processes occurring inside and overall a more transparent arrangement. The location is Schiffbauerdamm due to its contextual links and the stakeholders included government parties, the city and those in the immediate vicinity. The final design proved to be an extroverted building that angers with its surroundings and complements the existing context.

Courthouses are the very front face of the judicial system. It can also be referred to as a connecting link or the only link between the people and the fundamental rights to justice described under the Constitution. Situating in the city of Berlin, with a dynamic history of changing power and law, the new Judicial complex aims to open itself to the people of Berlin, bringing back the lost civic identity of the courthouse complex. The proposal finds itself in the beating heart of the city and along the future cultural spine - river Spree. The larger vision thrives towards designing a courthouse that forms the centre of public activities and blends into the daily dynamics of people’s life. Bringing the law back to the city centre would allow more people to be part of it and how their involvement would shape the decisions taken, and how people’s opinions could play a vital role in judicial systems. Looking at the future idea of a modern public space and the court being a part of it will reflect the needs of the dynamic group of Berliners and generate an atmosphere where the city and the law can share the space. Breaking the historic stereotypical barrier will help dilute the threshold that separates the city to participate in the law.

The 'Fluid space' project has demonstrated that the study of Finding Forms and the abandonment of assigned functions for buildings has led to a refinement of architectural design specific to the site. At the same time, the project raises questions about contemporary problems in architecture, such as sustainability and the dominant practice of function-based construction. The results of Finding Forms experiments - influence, grid and scale studies - resulted mainly in testing intuitions, which were then translated into design aftejavascript:void(0);r a reflection. Material and technical requirements influenced intuitive forms at a later stage. This posed the project’s greatest challenge: maintaining sight of the experiments despite the guidelines of material and technical requirements and keeping choices constantly reflecting with intuition.

Material culture plays a significant role in our daily lives, however the value placed on processes involved in the creation of physical objects, manual skills and knowledge sharing has diminished due to the increasing reliance on large-scale infrastructure, standardization, and mass production. Additionally, the disposal of worn and abundant objects contributes to waste production. The thesis project aims to address these issues by exploring ways to regenerate disrupted areas in the diverse urban fabric of London through urban manufacturing and craftsmanship. The project investigates the potential for transitioning from a linear textile production process to a circular and localized production and reuse chain through adaptive reuse at the Truman's Brewery. The goal is to create a more sustainable and circular economy by localizing production networks, fostering synergies within industry and community, and efficiently using available resources. ‘Weaving the city’ means connecting loose ends, adding new threads, and repairing disruptions in the urban fabric.

Exhaustion is the surfeit of modern society’s excess. Growth is an essential aspect of modern economies and our everyday life. We embark on journeys searching for the infinite, only to find ourselves in the middle of nowhere to realize that the infinite that we have been searching for is not a destination. The project designs an environment with and for play that stimulates people to engage in a playful way of long-term tourism in order to cure the exhaustion brought on them by society and to address their own exhaustiveness.