This project deals with spaces for a historically neglected collective: sex workers. It aims to destigmatize the practice by representing the workers and the material conditions that determine their safety and well-being every day, of which architecture is part. Articulated from an intersectional feminist point of view, the research evaluates how the design of these spaces has been and continues to be a technology to control the workers. At the same time, it visualizes the workers and how they construct processes of emancipation within their (legally and spatially) subjugated position. The design offers a working space that houses these emancipatory practices, in the context of the recent decriminalisation of sex work in Belgium. In order to do so, it draws from feminist and queer theories to construct an understanding of space that materializes the emancipation from the scale of the neighbourhood and urban block, until the detailing and use of material.

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic is profound and enduring to the entire world. A ‘recovery’ to go back in time is unlikely to happen due to the lack of uncertainty in the future. The darkest time will eventually pass, whereas post-pandemic, the era in which the pandemic is perceived to have subsided, can still accelerate existing trends and bring up new uncertainties, such as hybrid working, activity-based working and smart building, to the office real estate sector. Corporate Real Estate (CRE), as real property, is owned and/or leased by organisations for their business activities. While office real estate is facing profound structural changes, the CRE department of organisations needs to evaluate their office status quo and reimagine their office of the future. Scenario planning can act as a valuable tool to help decision-makers evaluate strategies, and office space demand forecast is one of the important indexes that CRE takes into account. Forecasting office space demand by using scenario planning techniques is recommended when the predictability of the external strategic environment is low and the reliability of the organisation’s internal data required for forecasting is high as is the case in this post-pandemic era. This research aims to propose a scenario planning methodology that can be applied to develop scenarios with quantitative office space demands at a corporate level. Such methodology and detailed scenarios are valuable for CRE decision-makers to evaluate their strategy regarding post-pandemic office real estate. This study is developed by operations research. A proper methodology is proposed through the literature study. A pilot study is then taken to apply this methodology to a real-world example. The chosen pilot is the global headquarter of Philips: Philips Center in Amsterdam. In the pilot study, semi-structured interviews and data analytics of an existing survey are conducted, scenarios are developed by following the steps of the proposed methodology. An expert panel was held to help evaluate the replicability and validities of the findings. Embedded mixed methods research is used for this thesis. Qualitative and quantitative data are both analysed through literature study, semi-structured interviews, and an expert panel. A large chunk of quantitative data analysis including using the programming language approach is conducted during survey data analysis. The findings of this research provide CRE with a methodology to develop scenarios with quantitative office space demand. By applying this methodology, the output of post-pandemic office real estate scenarios with corresponding quantitative office space demand can be used by CRE decision-makers to evaluate their business strategies.

Inspired by the Existenzminimum movement of the early 20th century, the feasibility of historic efficient housing concepts is studied. The canvas for this is the renovation design of a post-65 housing complex in Amsterdam. Three concepts reinterpreted into a modern context and applied in the design. The first is a sharing concept with smaller individual homes and shared amenities and functions. The second is a flexible plan concept in which the home itself is made as efficient as possible. The final implemented concept is a institutionalized squatting concept with lowest rent possible. The feasibility is assessed through judging the design in 18 categories before and after the renovation.

Suitable housing and its availability: it seems to be a problem within almost every phase of the housing career in the Netherlands, as the housing market is stagnating. Our older generation is held responsible for this national problem, but why? Deliberate occupation of the ‘oversized’ family home would be the easiest conclusion, but puts a heavy weight on this part of society. If these empty-nesters are not relocating, as is apparently expected of them for having an abundance of living space, what does this say about their preferences of the living environment? Listening to this generation for the sake of letting this operation of flow in the housing market succeed, is of utmost importance and priority. Instead of creating living environments focused on one generation or target group, the task within this research is to find a way to design inclusive and accessible living environments. Thereby, stagnation could be avoided in the future by this particular cause. After all, a mixture of different generations in the living environment is preferred both by older residents as by the general population. Within this task for diversification of the living environment for the sake of inclusivity, lies a hidden gem: a catalyst for the renovation task. By 2030, insulation of existing dwellings becomes mandatory in Europe for the sake of a climate-neutral society by 2050. When revitalizing existing living environments by means of inclusivity and quality, the climate task could fit perfectly within this picture. Especially these existing living environments are a very important subject, as with this renovation task the Dutch built environment could and probably will visually change tremendously in the upcoming decades. Therefore, the valuation by stakeholders of the current appearance and functioning of living environments up for renovation, are important in the face of physical and emotional heritage. As a large percentage of the Dutch housing stock will be insulated in the upcoming 30 years, these values are of great importance to prevent any loss of potential heritage. Enlarging the lifespan of these living environments by diversification, inclusivity and a high quality of living can therefore be achieved, as is the case for the renovation design of Bijlmerplein, an urban, residential center in Amsterdam. It turns out that it does pay off to take into account stakeholder valuations instead of wrapping the building in a blanket, because renovation can be revitalization rather than insulation.

Due to both geographical and functional separation of port and city, urban planning of port cities has become a rather slow, costly and sometimes conflictual process. To work towards a more collaborative way of planning and to enhance the competitive edge of port cities, mixed-use developments that include both city -and industrial orientated functions could be an outcome. A comprehensive literature study into the mixed-use concept reveals, besides a positive view, also a more critical view on mixed-use ideas. While mixing uses knows many benefits, in realized mixed-use developments higher goals, as sustainability, synergy and diversity are not always reached and residential satisfaction appears to be rather low. Furthermore, the combination of industry and housing is typically avoided and when attempted, this mix usually doesn’t last long. It appears residential nuisance plays a pivotal role in this. Consequently, it is argued that when developing mixed-use areas, the potential incompatibilities between different uses should be acknowledged and residential nuisance should be managed. By coining the terms actual and perceived nuisance, a distinction is made between the objective level of nuisance, exposed to the receiver, and the subjective level of nuisance, as perceived by the receiver. Commonly used measures in urban planning are focused on mitigating the observation of nuisance (actual nuisance). However, theory suggests that also the annoyance levels attached to these observations may not be overlooked (perceived nuisance) and that the relation between actual and perceived nuisance might not be as straight-forward as it seems. In this study a deeper understanding of how residents perceive nuisance caused by industry is gained with help of a practical case: Hoek van Holland. This is a Dutch village located close to industry and part of the port city Rotterdam. Two focus groups with residents of Hoek van Holland are conducted and an urban planner who is involved with developments in the village is interviewed. The findings show that perceived nuisance is a very interrelated concept. It is influenced in several ways and depends on more than actual nuisance alone. It is theorized residential satisfaction has a mediating effect on feelings of annoyance and, therefore, urban planners should not underestimate the value of residential satisfaction for the (long-term) success of a mixed-use developments.

In the past decades many business parks and industrial areas haven been targeted for urban redevelopment. This is the result of the land intensification policy implemented in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam, see figure below. This redevelopment strategy has been pushing the port westward towards the sea, due to environmental challenges (Daamen, 2007). The business parks that used to be transformed in the past, where known to contain a high vacancy rate or by underperformance. This has changed, as nowadays well-performing business parks are being targeted for redevelopment. This has stirred the Chamber of Commerce to conduct a research on the economic and public value of these areas, establishing two facts: their overall good performance and their scarcity. Nevertheless, the heavy industrial port companies are still not included in the future vision of new urban redevelopment projects such as Haven-Stad. This raises many questions that, such as: Why are these companies treated as obstacles for the development? Are they still the source of environmental pollution, or is that based on old ideas? What value do these companies represent? And how can the city increase their retainment in future redevelopment plans? In order to provide answers to these questions, a value-based strategy has been developed. This will help to understand the port companies and will function as main source for the development of alternative mixed-use redevelopment strategies.

99.94% of scientists believe in the effect of CO2 emissions on climate change. To tackle this, many parts of society must become sustainable. In Dutch road projects this drive for a sustainable transition is noticed in the last few years. Currently, the actions for climate inclusive road projects have not been successful. Climate consideration are limitedly part of the scope of these projects. A lack of understanding on road planning system, and the existence of success and failure factors limits the sustainable transition in road projects. This research explores the existence and workings of critical success factors in Dutch road planning. The exploration and identification of factors is achieved by using a comparative case study approach. Three Dutch road infrastructure project were analysed. The research established three main findings (1) The lack of early (integral) inclusion of climate concerns impedes the success related to climate aspects of a project. (2) The existence of a project climate goal is essential in guaranteeing the constant inclusion of climate concerns and climate related consideration in the planning process. (3) The success of inclusion and translation of climate ambitions into goals depends on the sustainable mind-set of project organisations, political players, stakeholders and public. The findings of this research improve understanding of road planning processes and climate related transition processes. The research elaborates and corroborates critical success factors found in other disciplines. The main findings while only based on three case studies, correspond to the findings in other disciplines.

Cast glass is a promising structural material that has seen increasing use in the build environment over the last year. It offers a great freedom of shape for designers and engineers, beyond the two-dimensional float glass that is still primarily used. Despite this, cast glass in practice has only been used for solid bricks, mimicking traditional ceramic brickwork. Little exploration has been made on the complex shapes that can be achieved in cast glass. One of the largest challenges of cast glass is its slow and meticulous cooling process required after casting, to prevent the occurrence of internal stresses. This costly annealing process is the main limitations for producing large scale cast glass elements in an affordable way. Experience in large scale solid glass mirror castings performed for NASA show that annealing times can be reduced through smart design. Structural topology optimisation is a design tool for creating light-weight, material efficient elements. Its application has mostly been limited to industrial and aerospace design, though it is slowly being introduced in the built environment as the additive manufacturing required for these geometries becomes more advanced, and affordable. So far, topology optimisation of cast glass design has remained unexplored. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the potential of using topology optimisation as a design tool for complex structural cast-glass elements with a reduced annealing time. For this, a complex-shaped grid shell has been redesigned in glass, using optimised cast glass nodes. The entire fabrication process, from digital design, to physical fabrication using additive manufacturing has been explored.

In December 2017, the municipality of Amsterdam announced the development of a new city in its port: Haven-Stad. The plan comprises a redevelopment strategy to transform port lands towards a mixed use urban area with up to 70.000 dwellings. This announcement caused a conflict between port users and the city. This integration of various stakeholders and interests is key for successful urban area redevelopment, especially in the complex port-city interface. Goal of this thesis is to understand and learn from the presumed conflict between port and city in the case of Amsterdam. Therefore, an actor-centered institutional analysis was conducted of the strategic governance and planning around Haven-Stad. The level of integration between scales, sectors and agencies per outcome of each planning phase was measured and then set against the analysed institutional setting. This research identified various socio-cultural, legal-economic and governance factors in the institutional setting that affect plan making in the port-city interface. Various subjects, such as relaxed environmental regulations, decentralized urban planning and change of the political landscape have contributed to unintegrated planning and conflicts. The municipality has a culture of blueprint strategic urban planning and is focused on integrating different departments and solving an ongoing housing crisis. On the other hand, the fact that the port is fossil fuel based and corporatized -but municipally owned- limited its ability to prevent urban takeover. This thesis recommends the development of a true and joint port-urban vision, the enhancement of cooperation between local, regional and national stakeholders and the involvement of private parties and port users in plan making. In an outlook towards the introduction of the new Environment and Planning Act, this research indicates that decentralized and flexible planning instruments may increase the chance for potential conflicts in industrial and waterfront redevelopment areas.

The declining port/industrial activities near the urban structure of cities generate new challenges for contemporary societies. Among others, these challenges interest the desolation of urban districts and the creation of large urban voids, one of the major problems affecting, nowadays, the Greek cities. This phenomenon is witnessed in a larger extent during the last years of the strong socio-economic recession, particularly in coastal zone areas. Therefore, currently, there is a large amount of areas waiting for regeneration projects in order to be reconnected to the cities’ built environment and society. Despite the large amount of such undeveloped areas, there is a lack of formal knowledge and experience in implementing regeneration strategies in Greece. For that reason, this research is seeking to identify and understand the motives, in terms of drives and barriers, of opting for (re)development schemes by focusing on an exemplary brownfield waterfront area in the seaport city of Piraeus, called “Lipasmata”. The purpose of analysing this case is to illustrate the conflicts between the stakeholders committed to the area, and the plans made until now, in order to examine the opposing views for the area’s future. Additionally, based on the main case study’s findings and the knowledge from the international practice of waterfront development, it is explored the possibility of implementing alternative strategies as a solution for the (re)development of the area. In particular the solution is searched within the boundaries of the community-orientated development approach, which has flourished in challenging socio-economic context, as the one in Greece. The expectations of this research are to contribute to the academic knowledge and a policy debate regarding the management of waterfront developments in the country. This will help policy-makers and other stakeholders search for more effective solutions for managing and implementing waterfront development projects.

"What if the dikes were to break? How can we then live with the water in the most beautiful way?" The Netherlands has a long history of battling against the water. It is high time to embrace the water in a new vision for the Netherlands called "PLAN B: Future waterscapes." “PLAN B: Future waterscapes” is a utopian vision, building upon the agenda of LOLA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, where we expand the city beyond the dikes. A central tower is introduced, intended for use as both a water reservoir and for residential purposes, inspired by the Indus civilization. Thanks to the flexible and sustainable structure of this building, it can expand along the dike, adding a new urban fabric to the historical city of Delft.

Neighbourhood, Community, Meantal Health and the Built Environment

The presence of industry within the urban environment is gaining significant traction in a number of cities around the world. It’s growth and importance is fuelled by technology advancements that support both traditional local industry and advanced manufacturing. However, there is a lack of a vision and clear approach regarding industry in cities as well as competing interests for available space in urban environments. Since industry is typically considered as a weak land use, strategic efforts and strong interventions are required to ensure its presence in cities is retained and promoted within the urban fabric (Hill, 2020). This study focuses on examining the conditions that can influence the feasibility of integrating light industry when transforming industrial estates (bedrijventerreinen in Dutch) into new urban mixed-use districts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. NDSM-Werf, a former shipyard situated on the northern banks of the IJ, is the chosen case study site. In this research, the scope of light industry covers a broad range of industrial and supporting activities that in theory can be incorporated in an urban mixed-use setting. The research methodology includes an extensive literature review, followed by empirical research that is made up of three main components: the Planning & Policy Dimension, the Stakeholder Dimension and the Spatial Dimension. The data collection methods used include documentation analysis in which a range of governmental and non-governmental documents were reviewed; semi-structured interviews with public, private, and third party stakeholders as well as experts;  and additional desktop research where applicable. Outputs include the review of planning and policy processes, stakeholder mapping and a spatial analysis that involved the identification of City of Making (CoM) patterns derived from the Foundries of the Future book (Hill, 2020) using the case study site of NDSM-Werf. Main findings include the identification of six key conditions that were found critical to consider to integrating light industry in urban mixed-use developments of transformation areas in Amsterdam. Recommendations are provided at both the city level of Amsterdam and for the NDSM-Werf site in particular, directed at key stakeholders identified in the research. In addition, suggestions for further research into relevant topical areas are presented.  

With the introduction of High-Speed Rail, many transportation hubs have been redeveloped to include this transport. However, these stations are often neglecting important aspects related to the quality of the public space and the connection with the surrounding. To improve the quality of the space, the station needs to be adapted in several days. To start, the areas are to monotone and need to be more diverse. Furthermore, the stations are currently not integrated with the surrounded context. Integration can be split up into functional, spatial, visual, and mental integration. However, each of these aspects is currently lacking. All these aspects need to be addressed to prepare the stations for future expansion and transformation. These aspects and other lessons learned are then applied during a redesign of the most problematic areas of Brussels-South Railway Station

The world is urbanising rapidly, with the Global South as the part of the world with the most rapid urbanisation. The urban population of Ethiopia is predicted to nearly triple in 25 years. The swiftness of urbanisation is resulting in extreme challenges. It causes, reinforced by climate change, that Addis Ababa is increasingly affected by flooding. The urban poor are forced to settle in the least desirable areas, such as areas around rivers which are most vulnerable to flooding. The rivers of Addis Ababa are polluted with all kinds of waste because of inadequate services. Around half the population has no water supply, forcing people to purchase water in shops. The urban poor cannot afford this and use the unsafe water from the rivers as a consequent. The Ethiopian government launched in 2019 the Addis Ababa Riverside project, or the Sheger beautifying project. It follows a series of ongoing beautification projects in the Global South. The project aims to clean the rivers and create public spaces, bicycle paths and walkways along the rivers. The project is criticised because it is no certainty that the rivers will not continue flooding and there is no proposition for all the waste that is currently discharged into the rivers. Rapid urbanisation in combination with poverty and the inability of the state and the market to provide affordable housing, cause that over 1 billion people reside in informal settlements. Addis Ababa can be seen as an example of this inability. Historical grown, informal neighbourhoods called sefers are located in the city centre. Over the last decade, sefers are challenged by the swift urbanisation of Addis Ababa with a resettlement program aiming to replace these low-income neighbourhoods into denser urban schemes affecting the social, economic and political tissue. This program, the Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP), was introduced by the government in 2005. The inhabitants of former kebele houses claim their houses get demolished without any compensation or alternative accommodation. Piassa is chosen as a project site, being currently challenged by demolition of the existing kebele housing. Having researched the location and its inhabitants, a housing system is designed with a combination of tenure systems for different income groups. These groups will live together in an inclusive, mixed-income environment in the inner-city of Addis Ababa.

Campuses have recently drawn attention from governing organisations in the Netherlands and are identified as promising types of office- and university development on national, regional and company levels (Wiebes, 2019). Millions of dollars are invested in campuses by local and regional governments in order to attract businesses and jobs towards the respective regions and to stimulate innovation and Research & Design (Baggerman, 2020; Gruijthuijsen, 2020; Knop, 2020; Wiebes, 2019). However, the title ‘campus’ is not protected nor has an undisputed definition and therefore is subject to inflation (Magdaniel, De Jonge, & Den Heijer, 2018). This leads to the contradiction that public money is invested in initiatives that can differ in various ways and therefore remain unclear in how they should be managed successfully and what they deliver for their users. Researches state that clustering people and businesses leads to more innovation (Belso-Martínez, Mas-Verdu, & Chinchilla-Mira, 2020; Bolter & Robey, 2020; Glaeser, 2010; Guzman, 2019). Campus developments rest on the same principles. However, when approaching a campus from the demand side a campus should deliver the user preferences demanded by real estate users. This in order to attract them to the physical location and play a positive role in incubating and facilitating the respective real estate users (Ng, Junker, Appel-Meulenbroek, Cloodt, & Arentze, 2020; Remøy & van der Voordt, 2014). In order to reduce uncertainty surrounding campuses for policy makers, managers and users, these developments have to be redefined on what they are, what they intend to deliver and if that what is supplied matches the demand. Therefore the following main question will be answered; What are the perceived benefits campuses deliver for its real estate users? This will be answered by making use of literature study covering the definition and theoretical benefits. Secondly a case study towards four different campuses will be executed. This case study will consist of semi-structured interviews with both start-up and scale-up companies and the respective campus management teams in order to establish what benefits are delivered by locating on a campus. Followingly these results will be analysed and compared in order to build conclusions.

The project initially started out to be engaged with the sociocultural phenomenon around amateur production and its physical manifestation of the DIY store as an integral of everyday life in today's society. In order to gradually develop an architectural brief for the eventual design, a number of case studies has been examined in various forms: visual, logistic, social, cultural, economic. This original fascination based on the availability, aesthetics and intimacy of the public interior observed in the existing spaces opened up a wider field of literary research towards a profound understanding of the theoretical background of DIY in a historical context. The analysis of self-made creation– mainly related to domestic crafts and home improvement–has been directed to the relationship between consumption and production as the programmatic challenge for the architectural assignment. As per now, the processes around DIY are rather clearly separated and manifested in both urban and suburban conditions where public retail facilities offer materials and tools for the assembly in the private domain. Popular media and illustrative manuals have proven that the educational function of such activities is an essential part of its nature, a potential platform to show, explain, exhibit, inspire, share, help and collaborate. The digitalisation of knowledge in forms of instructions, ideas and models has isolated amateur practice as much as the exchange of immaterial information has established an own social space. The thesis takes these conclusions as a starting point to find a way of giving DIY a pyhsical platform to bring together interests, competences and cultures by creating an urban model where building materials can be purchased, collected, reused, processed and exhibited for the benefit of the chosen neighbourhood. The economic circulation of things and thus actions aim to contribute to an identity-establishing institution for, within and through the area. In parallel to the phenomenological investigation on the cultural conditions, a design brief has gradually been assembled to turn the personal fascination into a critical execution of an architectural programme. Being part of an open studio with a variety of themes, the choice of a legitimate site for the intervention has been a crucial part of the research. Since the means of production at hand demand an adaptive and yet framed context for its future use, the selected place offers a infrastructural foundation while being open for spatial transformation. After having tested scenarios in which the desired activities are directly inserted into an existing related typology, it has been logical to occupy a mostly vacant building in the city of Rotterdam that currently hosts workspaces for creative professionals, a social cooperative, a second hand material shop and an open event space. "Het Gebouw" is the focal point of the Zomerhofkwartier and works as an identity- establishing object for events, workshops and think-tanks for local transformations. The existing network of interests–consisting of a social housing company, active neighbours, social workers and schools–creates the ideal framework for the proposed agenda.

This graduation booklet shows the work that is done during the ‘Global Housing Graduation Studio: Addis Ababa Living Lab’. The goal of this project was to research and design housing solutions to improve the livelihood of Addis Ababa’s urban dwellers. Currently, Addis Ababa is facing the problems which are caused by the ongoing rapid urbanization. One of these problems, and the focus of my graduation project, is the degradation of the rivers and riverbanks. This project proposes a rehabilitation of the riverbank informal settlements of Addis Ababa, as well as implements a strategy to increase the density of the city which also takes into account the existing inhabitants of these riverbanks and offers them a dwelling type that fits their traditional way of life.

Simulation models are increasingly used to substantiate long-term planning policy decisions. The communication of model results from modellers to policy-makers has not received much attention by scholars. While, without correct interpretation and correct use of model results the quality of the model itself is irrelevant for the impact of the model on policy. This research analyses this gap in literature by looking at a system from model to policy, using the case of the 2017 office policy of Amsterdam.