Using Stratford as a case study, this research aims to address the lack of consideration for creating affordances of coexistence between local and global communities within areas subject to large scale regeneration projects. This process of chance in favour of attracting more affluent residents can lead to the complete displacement of local communities to less favourable neighbourhoods, differentially affecting segregation levels of vulnerable local residents. Stratford is an area in East London, which has primarily been shaped by the forces of the first industrial revolution, but is ongoing major structural transformations that are accelerating the processes of deindustrialization, economic restructuring to a tertiary economy and gentrification; as a result traditional working class groups are driven out the area. Simultaneously, there is little comprehensive national design guidance; as a consequence the local government struggles to develop a design framework that can mitigate challenges related to these issues. Therefore, the aim of the research is to explore reconfiguration scenarios of a neighbourhood in Stratford with regards to creating affordances that both can integrate local and global communities. In doing so, the research explores and tries to understand the role of design as well. Before exploring the reconfiguration scenarios, the research starts with a dma (density, mix and access) analysis of Stratford area in order to understand its socio-spatial structure. Based on the analysis, three key areas were identified: the detached high street, the combined high street and the connected high street. Each high street typology has completely different dma values and therefore have difference performances and capacity for change. The analysis concludes with the fact that the detached high street has the most potential for development. Therefore, the design analysis reflects on how different strategies can create the affordance of coexistence located on the detached high street and its surroundings. The following three scenarios were developed: soft strategy, high street strategy and the super strategy. Each strategy will be reflected on how they change the dma values as well as their capacity to implement different development schemes and qualities. By means of design exploration, it became clear that choosing more obvious solutions such as soft strategies and corridor development completely neglects the social infrastructure surrounding the detached high street, as well as lack the capacity to allow the implementation of different development schemes (especially schemes that work as a buffer against gentrification). As a result, these strategies can have unwanted consequences such as the exclusion of local people in certain areas. The super mix strategy, however, has the potential to create an environment affording the coexistence of the global and local, but will be difficult to implement because it requires the development of more extensive types of schemes, thus requiring both inducements and regulation, partnerships with government and non-profit actors. Notwithstanding the thesis has showed there is great potential for development that includes both the local and the global, and therefore hopes to inspire London’s governmental and private actors to invest their time and effort in creating a regulatory environment that could allow strategies such as the super strategy.

Guangzhou is one of the most typical metropolitan cities in the Great Bay Area (GBA). The fast development contributes to massive urban construction in a relatively short time. However, the development prosperity comes at the expense of green space. The problems of green space lead to lower resilient capacity, which means higher flooding risks and more environmental problems. Under this condition, making the city more resilient, livable, eco-friendly, and sustainable becomes a public concern and a big challenge in Guangzhou. This project proposes to design a landscape-nature network in Guangzhou, which takes into account green, blue, recreation, historical remains, and slow traffic systems. The design will use landscape approaches to strengthen urban resilience against climate change. First, the research will interpret the site from the perspective of time and space, with an understanding of historical development and the current landscape system. Then, learning from the case study of Boston Metropolitan Park and the historical wisdom of managing water and green could help to conclude principles and strategies for designing a Guangzhou Metropolitan Park. The design exploration will apply different strategies and principles on regional, meso, and local scales. The green patches inside the city will be preserved and more connections will be created. Moreover, nature and landscape areas, including green space and blue system, historical areas, recreation spots, and urban networks will be managed to co-exist with each other coherently. The creation of a landscape-nature network will provide more benefits for the city through landscape design. It aims to create a social-ecological inclusive and futureproof Guangzhou and also has the potential to become an inspiration for other metropolitan cities.

After 2020, the vendor economy has become a hot topic in China. Based on the background of the Chinese government's intention to support the vendor economy, its importance is gradually being emphasized. As an essential component of the informal economy, the vendor economy enhances urban employment and helps the urban poor groups and is an important part of China's urban life and traditional culture. At the same time, it poses increasingly apparent conflicts and problems, such as space abuse and hygiene issues. This project analyzes the advantages of the vendor economy and the deep reasons for conflict. It proposes a strategy that preserves the benefits and addresses the disadvantages of the vendor economy. The design provides a better business environment for the participants, improves the quality of urban public space, and increases urban vitality while helping low-income people in the city. The research methodology and strategy development process will also provide the basis and inspiration for developing a good vendor economy in Chinese cities.

What is the future of urban industrial land? This is a challenge urban design and planning field has only just started to undertake. Currently, the differentiation between the urban core as the front stage zone for human residence and entertainment versus the rural periphery as the backstage zone for production, logistics and energy harvesting is becoming more distinct. The restructuring of urban economies away from manufacturing and toward services has resulted in divided labour markets that generate few moderate income jobs and has generated new demand for urban living. This is putting pressure on the diversity and the social inclusiveness of cities. Even though industries have become cleaner and safer due to new technological developments, for many cities and planners adopting compact city strategies and urban revitalisation is associated with mixed-use of commercial and residential redevelopment only. By not including industries, current development is contributing to industrial suburban sprawl. Often, the housing demand is met by the transformation of former industrial land into residential areas or mixed-use environments. As increasing housing demands in cities drive up land prices, businesses have difficulty finding affordable work spaces. This way suitable industrial land in cities remains unaddressed and becomes increasingly scarce. Finding out what roles industries should have in the city is a new challenge relevant in many metropolitan areas. Manufacturing and services are interrelated and for each to thrive, both need to be present. At present, there is not enough knowledge on how to incorporate industries in dense urban environments in a socially acceptable, liveable and sustainable way. The perception of industry needs to change in the minds of people, especially of those involved in urban development, for it to regain its role as a good productive member of the city. As the Zaantreek is the oldest industrial region in the World, it has a long tradition of living in close proximity to industries. It has even become part of the identity of the region. As a result there is a strong cultural and societal acceptance of industries. At the same time the municipality of Zaanstad has no expansion options left because of the surrounding natural reserves and nuisance contours of Schiphol and the Western Harbour of Amsterdam. Therefore, it is an ideal location to investigate how urban industrial integration in cities can be combined with other functions to achieve densification and create qualitative live work environments. In this thesis, spatial qualities or patterns of live work environments are explored and developed. Scenarios are developed for Zaanstad in terms of future economic trends and densification possibilities to eventually assess the adaptive capacity of the design. The designs are developed by applying the patterns on location in the framework of the scenarios. In this way, patterns are developed that contribute to better spatial organisation and transitions of functions and create qualitative live work environments. All together, the use of patterns to steer urban design and as a strategic planning method is reflected upon.

The story of this project starts with the bad relationship between resident, tourists and the heritage sites. Firstly, local residents’ existence is not being acknowledged as part of the heritage. Secondly, tourists cannot find open heritage site easily because of excessive commercialization and unreadable space. Thirdly, there is a bad social interaction between the social group because tourists see residents’ living space as tourism spot. Based on this, the research question was put forward: “How to maximize the potential of heritage in South Luogu lane area through the participation of residents, the design of legible urban space and active social interaction?”The final output of this research design in an new urban regeneration approach that can balance the relationship between residents, tourists and heritage, forming a harmonious coexistence for this old district under today’s new context. The specific guideline that this approach put forward is not universal for all historical district. But the main idea of visiting route, which is separation & controlled mixture provides a new way of thinking for the coexistence of tourist and resident in over-developed tourism city in China.

The research context is based on the problematic situations of urban riparian area (Miami River & Canal). With research by design as the main method, the research aims to retransform the riparian area from an isolated line into a closely connected urban zone through designing the river & canal as urban landscape infrastructure and improving urban ecosystem services. By relieving the flooding pressure and improving water quality, it provides a healthier water system and new systematic green public space in the condition of complex riparian land use. The research supplies a framework transforming the waterline from an object into a system by organizing participation of diverse stakeholders, which has significant practical and academic relevance.

Danwei housing is a typical and common residential type in Chinese cities. The radical social structure changing and urban development after the Economic Reform have influenced these old neighborhoods and even restructured them from all aspects. This thesis has looked into the current social, economic, and spatial transformation surrounding Danwei housing in Guangzhou, analyzed what has been happening, and revealed what driven forces have been embedded in this process. Finally, strategies including institutional suggestions, design principles and test designs are raised.

Chengdu, is a megacity in the west of China with a long history and a population of almost 20 million. It is one of the largest cities in China where the socio-cultural identity stands out with a unique local lifestyle. Also, it is a city facing overall urban regeneration since 2020, when the establishment of an urban regeneration system at the city level was just started. In the past decade, the TOD redevelopment including the fast construction of metro lines and stations has been one of the core strategies taken in this city. Soon, this will cause a possible rush of urban regeneration in terms of demolishing and rebuilding around the metro stations in the inner city of Chengdu. The local public lifestyle could be threatened not only because of the absence of tools to maintain it in the incomplete urban regeneration system but also because the values of socio-cultural identity can be always easily compromised in the decision-making process for its “less urgent” position. This project aims to build an integrated strategic framework for extending and flourishing the local public lifestyle in future urban regeneration in Chengdu in the long term, strengthening the socio-cultural sustainability of the city. In this project, the research consists of four sessions. Firstly, the research about understanding the local public lifestyle, including representative scenes and the supporting factors, has been done. Secondly, the research about the possible influence on the scenes of lifestyle from the business as usual of demolishing and rebuilding has been conducted. Thirdly, the exploration about strategy development to extend and flourish the local public lifestyle in the selected site has been done. At last, the research about how to make those strategies feasible by institutional planning has been done. It was found that there can be three groups of supporting factors categorized by “people”, “space” and “service” for the local public lifestyle, and eighteen representative scenes have been concluded. Also, the business as usual can generate much more threats than opportunities on the existing scenes identified in the design testing. To avoid the threats and fully use the opportunities, in urban design, to identify the scenes in status quo, analyze how to extend and flourish the scenes and assess the performance of design strategies are important. This can help to inform what needs to be done in demolishing and rebuilding projects. However, to really make sure the intention of extending and flourishing the local public lifestyle can be integrated into the realistic project process, planning tools are also demanded. Therefore, a toolbox containing eight tools has been carried out. At last, institutionalization is demanded to regulate the project process and plug the tools developed into the conventional project process. To provide better and more practical support in the decision-making process of demolishing and rebuilding projects, further research about the lifestyle model is needed both at the theoretical level and in practice.

Shanghai has experienced rapid urbanization over the past 30 years, with a large number of rural areas being transformed into semi-urbanized areas with mixed functions. The main drivers were top-down state-led development, market forces, and bottom-up rural industrialization. The scale and speed of this process have far exceeded expectations, leading to a series of socio-ecological problems such as population loss, industrial decline, and environmental pollution. Based on the analysis, this dissertation identifies two development directions: industrial restructuring and ecological protection, to cope with the uncertainty of population growth, a scenario-building approach is used to explore the optimal strategies under different circumstances. Design strategies are extracted through scenario evaluation and applied to strategic planning.

The report will review the co-relation between rapid urbanization in Bandung with the city’s health issues in the informal areas of Bandung. Rapid urbanization is becoming a worldwide phenomena that leads to the realization of informal neighborhoods. Informal urbanization is a phenomena that will only keep on growing in the upcoming years. By 2030, it is expected that almost one in seven people will be living in an informal settlement, better known as a slum. These informal settlements are characterized by overcrowding, poor-quality housing, lack of basic infrastructure and poverty. The informal ‘Kampung’- neighborhoods in Bandung are lacking basic hygiene because of overcrowding and insuf cient infrastructure. Because of the rapid growth, the pressure of the city will heavily increase in the near future, which will worsen the unhealthy environments most of the new migrants will have to live in. After understanding the informal urbanization, the paper will focus on the current health issues, as a result of rapid urbanization, in the kampung of Tamansari. By doing this the research seeks to answer the question: How can we re-interpret the old ‘Healthy City’ identity of the 1920’s, in order to improve the public health, and therefore the livability, whilst meeting the densi cation requirements of kampung Tamansari in Bandung? This report will gradually work towards a new design proposal for a improved healthy, livable, green, sustainable, affordable and feasible development model for the slum-neighborhoods of Indonesia. The design itself has been conducted on the location of kampung Tamansari. This report will inform urban planners and other practitioners on the growing challenges and threats of the Kampung-neighborhoods, and give an alternative development model for Indonesia’s slum neighborhoods.

The rapid urbanisation process in China has caused the emergence of much idle rural land, especially homestead land, which constitutes a huge waste of land resource and brings about several social problems. Nowadays, Chinese government has realised this problem and has put forward institutional intervention to rural land, and encourage to use rural leisure development mode to vitalize it. However, spatial planning strategies and design principles are not linked well with on-going institutional adjustment, and relative research is lacking and lagging. From the perspective of rural leisure industry, based on the idle homestead land phenomenon, this project intends to introduce 'long stay rural leisure' new development direction, and offer an adapted layers approach methodology, with sustainable nature-rural-urban integrated strategy that connects urban system, natural system and rural system. This project is aimed to vitalise Chinese idle homestead land in the future, furtherly, to discuss a development path for tomorrow rural land.

This project proposed a resilient landscape framework that provides urban transformation and ecological restoration conditions while improving flooding capacity and biodiversity in the Tonghu area. The design exploration focuses on three scales- regional, local and detailed scales, addressing different problems. Principles and strategies from this project can be learned, optimized, and applied to other sites.

China’s rapid urbanisation and industrialisation seriously impacted rural areas, which is reflected significantly in the Greater Bay Area. With globalisation and digitalisation, the emergence of Taobao villages has become a new model for rural development in China. However, socio-economic activities entering in Taobao villages with digital technology were unguided and lacked spatial planning. Consequently, the pursuit of economic growth has resulted in the sacrifice of agricultural resources, degradation of the ecological environment, and terrible spatial quality. With the regionalisation and integration of the Greater Bay Area, the need for sustainable rural revitalisation has become urgent. To envision future possibilities for rural development, this project introduces the concept of Smart Villages, aiming to enhance agricultural productivity and improve rural liveability. With the Dutch layer approach as the main methodology, the project understands the essential resources that support smart village development and evaluates the spatial conditions of rural areas at regional, district, and local scales. To conclude, the key design elements for Smart Villages development include agricultural agglomeration, accessible networks, and rural liveability. Based on these findings, the project proposes a potential Smart Villages development framework that serves as a guide for rural areas. A series of spatial design strategies are also presented and applied to two design cases, Xingtan in Foshan and Chikan in Jiangmen. They represent rural areas at different levels of development, showcasing scenarios of agro-industrial and eco-agricultural development respectively. It demonstrates how rural areas make use of local resources to spontaneously develop into Smart Villages, thereby reducing dependence on urban centres and contributing to the development of metropolitan regions. The project highlights the need for a flexible approach to rural revitalisation in the digital future. By embracing the concept of Smart Villages, it advocates for sustainable agricultural practices, improving infrastructures, and enhancing the quality of life for rural communities. The proposed framework and design strategies offer valuable insights for planners, policymakers, and stakeholders seeking to foster the sustainable development of Smart Villages in a spatial perspective.

This graduation project has the goal to improve the living conditions of rural African communities by showing them how to construct off-grid, self-sufficient, and what is most important affordable clean water, energy, and sanitation system. I believe it can be easily adapted by communities of poor regions. Those communities struggle with poor quality water for living which is the cause of many deaths. To change it, a solar-based system is proposed to purify any kind of input water. Widely known simple solar stills are typically designed as single units serving only individuals, moreover, its efficiency is usually low. Therefore, an improved solar still concept is adapted in this research, and its principles are used in the roof system to produce water for the basic living needs of 50 people daily. Providing clean water to rural communities without access to the national grid is crucial and the most important aspect of this project. Based on the research elaborated in Phase I of this report, the most adequate to both climate and the economic-social situation prevailing in Beira, way to provide water is to purify raw water on-site using the energy of the sun. This solution not only does not require the construction of additional infrastructure outside the site but has a chance to be developed and multiplied in the least urbanized areas - often inhabited by a significant part of the region’s population. Due to the situation in the region, the use of only low-tech solutions and very cheap materials for the entire project is very important. This report aims to draw attention to two faces of disaster in Mozambique: consequences of climate change and poor living conditions.

This thesis explores possible transformations of peri-urban areas in the Jing-Jin-Ji megaregion (China) in order to improve the region’s performance in terms of environmental and social sustainability. Peri-urbanity in East-Asia - or Desakota, a term coined by Terry McGee in the 1990s - can be conceptualized as a combination of easing urban agglomerations and different forms of rural transformation. Being bypassed by economic metropolitan structures, it forms a diffuse mix of agricultural, industrial, and residential patches. Dramatic levels of air pollution and the loss of agricultural land threaten environmental and social structures. What was once called the hinterland has lost its original function. The shortcomings of spatial planning practices and regional governance should be counteracted by readjusted principles of urbanism. It is hypothesized that integration and compactness can be suitable tools to contribute to the sustainable development of megaregions, if they adapt to the complexities and scales posed by mega-regionalization. This hypothesis is explored through in-depth analyses on multiple scales and their translation into (design) strategies. European case studies help to make transitions between well-known icons of regional planning and design, and the unknowns of the Chinese megaregion. The methodology lays out an agenda that leads to three concrete outcomes. Firstly, the “Desakota Dilemmas” clarify the difficulties of balancing environmental and social concerns. Secondly, the “Desakota Strategies” present proposals for alternative forms of peri-urbanization that are based on the diversity of village communities and the detailed analysis of spatial pre-conditions. Thirdly, the “Jing-Jin-Ji Planning Framework” synthesizes the outcomes of analysis and design, and presents recommendations that advocate for a type of regional planning that is based on collective action, multi-scalar cooperation, and the recognition of uncertainty.

In the south of China, there is a city called Shenzhen who develop so fast that use more than 40 years from a fish village to a metropolitan. Behind this rapidly growing, there used to be one strict boundary for separating the downtown and the other district in Shenzhen. The barrier line is 84km long consisted with fences and 16 checkpoints. Due to disorder planning and utterly spontaneous development, the boundary line left behind scattered and depleted landscape structures and closed vacant space to the city. Therefore, facing the potential but chaotic environment both brought about by the boundary, the creation of a landscape system that can suture the urban gap until the ‘urban wound’ could be healed. A question has to be answered: How can city and nature be linked in urban landscape gaps in the boundary area using regional and local landscape design? The research has four steps corresponding to three scales. 1 Starting from regional scale to define the most problematic place which enjoys the highest natural potential. 2 Purposing a nature-based framework which explores the potential the best in the gap scale. 3 Connecting with current situation and strategies, to realise the sustainable development in local scale. 4 The last step is to go back to see how research results can be applied to the regional scale.

Immigration a process of all times. This is certainly visible a city such as Rotterdam. Nowadays, Rotterdam is one of the largest harbour cities in Europe, with a strong and prosperous harbor industry. On the other hand the city is also a place of contrasts. A key characteristic of port cities is the wide range of nationalities and cultures. People whose families once arrived in the city hoping to build a future for generations after them regard their living environment as an area with poor living quality and poor perspectives. Previous research has pointed out that it is hard for non-native inhabitants in Rotterdam to feel connected to their living environment. The aim of this thesis was to develop a toolbox on how to transform the existing immigrant neighbourhoods into places in which these groups of people feel home, welcome, and able to take their position in the city (thus increasing place attachment). It includes the work of Doug Saunders ‘The Arrival City‘(Saunders, 2018), which elabourates on possible scenarios for areas in order to create perspective, attraction, and a vibrant living place for its existing and new inhabitants with a migration background. The ‘Arrival City‘ is a book written by an American journalist, and is written from a more sociological point of view. In this thesis, this phenomenon is connected with the current challenges of place attachment, and the actual wishes and needs of people in Rotterdam South. By doing so, the outcome of the thesis is a toolbox on how to transform an immigrant neighbourhood into an Arrival City neighbourhood in a Dutch context, at the same time increasing place attachment among people with a migration background. This thesis describes an approach on how to translate the sociological ideas into a toolbox for urban designers. Because of the challenges European cities face nowadays with regard to immigration, this toolbox is also useful for other, international, Arrival cities.

The graduation project is about exploring an alternative development strategy for Beijing. The project reflects on the grand blueprint of Beijing planning and the original way for urban renewal. It discusses the death of the arrival cities in this planning context and a series of social problems caused thereby. Taking the mitigation of such Beijing planning problems as the goal of the project, this project builds a new development framework for Beijing’s urban renewal based on the theory of the Open Cities: taking the arrival city as an effective open system, and using the arrival city’s renewal as a means of opening the urban space in Beijing. This project reverses Beijing's planning logic and looks forward to finding new development value in the weak space in Beijing's current planning, giving formal planning models a suggestion from informal development forces.

This research project, based on the hot issues of escaping from mega cities in China, focuses on young graduates and intends to improve their livability and make Shenzhen a more migrant-friendly city to them. Livability, including affordability and good accessibility to services and jobs, is the main topic and final goal of this thesis. To reach this goal, urban form study, which is the study of urban environments through the physical form, is put forward. Through the understanding of the context of livability, urban form and the relationship between livability and urban form, this thesis explores the current urban forms in Shenzhen and the possible ways to transform it by the change of function and density to improve livability and get jobs-housing balance.

The estuarine river landscape between Shenzhen and Hong Kong is a typical case where the landscape lost its value and characteristics due to the border policy. The two megacities Shenzhen (a city in mainland China) and Hong Kong (a special administrative region), are located in the southeast of the Pearl River Delta, one of the world's largest and rapidly developing delta regions. The Shenzhen River in the middle of the two cities has been a border river since 1898. Coupled with the green buffer zone on the HK side that was once a restricted border area, the bay, the estuary, the river, and the land together form a uniquely polarized landscape, with urbanization and nature across the river. Whether to protect the natural environment or develop the land; and whether to preserve the ecological value or restore the aquaculture productivity become urgent arguments regarding future development in this border area. This thesis aims to explore the development of a resilient landscape corridor across the Shen-Kong border to achieve the co-development of the environment and society. Viewing the landscape as a multifunctional and operative field with its own spatial, ecological and socio-cultural qualities (Nijhuis & Jauslin, 2015) can be a way to respond to the aforementioned phenomenon. The thesis focuses on applying the theory of landscape infrastructure as a method in research and design to generate a resilient landscape framework that is considered armature for urban and rural development to facilitate interactions between natural and human systems (Nijhuis & Jauslin, 2015), projecting natural processes and performing multiple functions. Moreover, a methodology for designing towards a landscape framework is given in this thesis. Examples are provided to show the application of landscape infrastructure services and the assessment.