In the last century, biodiversity has come under increasing pressure, and this is also the case in the urban context. The preservation of biodiversity is an important issue. Research shows that part of this biodiversity is largely dependent on the buildings and vegetation in the city and to help this biodiversity we need to build as nature-inclusive as possible.

There is a wide range of nature-inclusive options that can be applied to make a building and its surroundings more nature-inclusive. The application of nature-inclusive aspects in the design of new buildings is easy and relatively inexpensive due to the blank canvas. However, the aspects are more difficult to integrate into existing buildings. Especially in the case of monumental buildings, where several parameters have to be taken into account. For monumental buildings, it is currently unclear whether, and if so, what needs to be taken into account to make them more nature-inclusive.

The study seeks to answer the following question: ''How can Dutch monumental buildings in an urban context be redesigned to be more nature-inclusive?'' This research is validated with a design. This results in the following
How can the monumental building Koudenhorn in the urban context of Haarlem be redesigned to be more nature-inclusive while retaining its heritage value?
The monumental Koudenhorn building is situated in the urban context of Haarlem. It was built in 1768 as a deacon's house and is currently used by the police. It is a building with a story and many values. At present, the building and the plot show a limited degree of nature inclusiveness.

The research question is answered with a toolbox and three decision trees divided into the categories: flora, water, and fauna. The decision trees provide insight into which nature-inclusive options could be applied to a case and which aspects would need to be adapted to enable implementation. To fill in the decision trees, certain case analyses were carried out. The decision trees were filled in for the monumental part of the Koudenhorn building. This showed which nature-inclusive options are applicable and on which specific elements. Eventually, 17 of these options were applied in the design. The toolbox contains a clear description of what the nature-inclusive option entails, the extra points of interest and an optional design. This toolbox was then used to integrate the application in the redesign of the Koudenhorn building.
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This thesis examines which materials are most used in memorials and what is the spectator’s expected emotional response to their material properties? First, is researched which materials are frequently used in memorials and what functional reasons lie behind them. The literature will be obtained from websites and internet articles. The observational research will be done online by studying the most famous Western contemporary memorials. After this, online books and scientific articles will be consulted to explain the functioning of the perception of materials. This will be done for the material properties colour, texture, transparency & reflectivity and perceived mass. Following this, the findings will be examined in the case studies. For this purpose, the material sused in the case studies will be analysed and compared by means of self-made drawings, analytic sketches, and photographs. To do this, we will look into three different public historical and trauma-related memorials where different materials have been used. Research shows that granite, marble, sandstone,limestone, iron, weathering steel, bronze, concrete, and glass proved to be the most used materials in current memorials. It also shows that the different material properties influence the emotional response of the viewer in different ways. The analyses show the expected emotional response to the materials and how they could have better matched the ideology of the designed memorial to achieve the desired emotional effect. ... Read more