St. Maarten is one of the islands in the Caribbean, situated within the hurricane belt of the Atlantic Ocean. In september 2017, it was hit directly by a hurricane called Irma, causing widespread damage to the island. As many other Caribbean islands, St. Maarten is highly depending on tourism as an income, which with drawled in the aftermath of the hurricane. Since the 1960s, its nature, better known as ‘sea, sand & sun’, created a high economic value. Old plantations, salt winning, fishing and cattle slowly disappeared to maximize the tourism. Additionally, the island has become one of the most dense islands of the world. The development of the mass tourism has caused destruction of habitats, intense use of land, decreasing biodiversity and the pollution, forming huge threats for the ecosystems. We could say that St. Maarten’s biggest product is in danger. However, the natural environment of the island has already shown that it’s highly resilient and could solve many sustainable challenges for the mankind. Aware of the economical dependency on tourism, I studied how this form of recreation could be used to enhance the natural environment, instead of influencing it in a destructive way. The chosen site is a place where nature, development and history come together. The area of Red Pond/Gibbs bay comprise a pond with mangroves, the coastal area, ruins of a plantation and a concrete structure of an unfinished resort. All of these layers together form a complex project of several levels through time, community and nature. Minimal interventions taken on the existing buildings, modern ruins, should enhance the relationship between human activity and the ecology. It supports movement by collectives planned on a strategic location - not only used by humans. These interventions consist not only of addition of architectural elements, but certain grades of demolition as well. At some places the built objects support the ecosystem, other places they facilitate human actions within the ecosystem.

Bethlehem - from exploitation to ecosystem service, is a project based on Sint Maarten in the Caribbean. The lower social classes of Sint Maarten experience trouble with their building culture, especially in combination with the reoccurring hurricanes and earthquakes. Vulnerable communities mostly rely on self or communal building, since both expertise and building materials currently need to be imported onto the island, which cannot be afforded by everyone. Research conducted into vernacular architectural principles provided strategies for creating a more sustainable domestic (self-)building culture. Main principles are defined as a building culture that embodies material appropriateness, climate responsiveness and socio-economic advantages. In combination with the interesting plantocracy heritage of Sint Maarten, the project results in the revitalization of an abandoned sugarcane plantation (Bethlehem) into a public park that cultivates natural building materials - mainly bamboos and grasses, similar to sugarcane part of the poaceae family. The plantations ruins are reactivated by assigning new functions to them related to the park. The main architectural focus is a building that provides education to the local communities on how to build with the materials now available from the park. The architecture showcases climate responsiveness, and can be build communally in a low tech way. This holistic project transforms a terrain that once exploited both people and land, into an ecosystem providing socio-economic diversification, building education and -materials to the surrounding neighbourhood. In doing so, the project aims to stimulate a transition towards a more sustainable (self)building culture on a neighbourhood scale.

The primary objective of the project is to not only manifest the gigantic challenges of recovering after hurricane Irma which took place in 2017 but also to point out the socioeconomic disarray in the island before the hurricane itself.
Irma clearly had a tremendous influence on numerous issues. However, the island had been struggling with many problems far beforehand. Consequently, the recovery program is still extremely difficult as the rebuilding/construction issue is not the only problem calling for resolution. Destroyed buildings and people struggling with rebuilding their houses are only the tip of the iceberg.
Sint Maarten’s history is strongly interconnected with natural disasters and - simultaneously - lack of proper governance and preparedness plans against more and more frequent hurricanes in the region. The above context triggered my interest in disaster relief methods and post-disaster projects which, later on, formed the base of my design. Researching into the best possible contemporary disaster relief frameworks, showed effective ways of tackling natural disaster related problems. This also helped with designing a solution that results in effective community based relief. Thus the outcome of my research is directly translated into the design by creating ‘a building learning centre’, an institution which promotes hurricane-proof building knowledge among communities on Sint Maarten. The centre helps to create an optimised and self-sufficient disaster relief on the island and - hopefully - even beyond. The long-term goal is to enable gaining knowledge around building methods which would be held by skilled construction workers. These people would gradually improve building environment over the years. This will eventually contribute to minimising damages with every hurricane to come. The school's program and specific knowledge of 'hurricane-proof craftsmanship' could help in creating communities that actively participate in strengthening and speeding up the recovery time after possible future disasters. The design would not only bring potential relief programme but also a way for diverse income generating solution for local communities. The programme of the school includes also traineeship which enables locals to combine employment and training in order to gain a nationally recognised qualification. In this way many people, who struggle economically, could gain new opportunities. These contribute to creating financial stability and help with rebuilding homes faster after hurricane.
The centre’s design and program are both based on the effective disaster relief elements. They bring knowledge, contains co-planning and co-designing aspects, which - as a consequence - create trust within the community and other actors. All the above can be accomplished by creating an on-spot fixed building, which hosts facility working on the resilience and at the same time building itself being a community facility as an asset-based design.
The relief method (i.e. building learning centre), merged with economic diversification program, would hopefully provide people with knowledge and experience in order to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on outside help. The inspiration of hurricane preparedness and post-disaster projects not only aims to deal with the ‘tip of the iceberg’ problems but also to create a long term strategy.

The thesis projects seeks to renew the relationship between the Royal Dutch Marine Camp and the city of Amsterdam. With the Royal Dutch Marines breaking an administrative agreement in July 2018 and deciding to continue occupy about 50% of the area on Marineterrein, the visions and ambitions for the development of a future-proof district had been compromised. The presence of the Navy Base in the city centre and the border that currently separates civilians from marines contradicts the character of the new development and is an anachronism that needs drastic changes. At the same time, mass-tourism and the expansion of NEMO museum onto Marineterrein poses a threat for the distraction of the tranquil character of Marineterrein with possible new touristic related attractions replacing local amenities as precedented already all around Amsterdam. The thesis project focuses on all these issues and tries to create an in-between space, offering facilities for both the civilians and the marines while retaining a peaceful character by redirecting the touristic crowds. The projects tries to diminish the use of high walls and fences and decrease the need for intensifying security, intelligent surveillance systems and defensive mechanisms by putting in place crime prevention strategies through environmental design. The border on Marineterrein is now transformed into a buffer zone, a safe and inclusive district for civilians and marines that offers opportunities for interaction, while renewing the relationship and integration of such institution onto the urban fabric.

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.

In a contemporary society, where new living and working habits emerge, this project will attempt to find ways to serve these new living conditions in a way that will also have a positive societal impact as well as high levels of human satisfaction. A shift towards the formation of co-working, co-living environment is proposed as the answer to the above problems with ultimate goal the formation of a shared public environment where social presence and social interaction are essential resulting the establishment of a sense of community within Marineterrein. This community, which by definition is a group of people that are living in the same place or sharing the same interests, will only take place if people will actually inhabit the site. This project will provide a set of live/work spaces for the constantly increasing number of young populations in Amsterdam. It could be described as a poly-functional spatial experiment for young professionals and students that will set the foundation towards a new, shared, collective way of living. Simultaneously, this project investigates an alternative framework on the production of space. Within this framework architecture is no more concerned with the building as a final product but with the social and collective processes that the production of space is based upon. Following the principles of participatory architecture, the project proposes an alternative model of architecture in which levels of participation vary; a model which is referred as ‘compromised participation’. In this model, an ordering structure will be provided by the architect while the infill will be individualised designed and self-built by the people themselves. The users will be able to decide upon the production of space; a process which becomes a shared enterprise that involves ‘dialogue and always seeks the other’. Within this process people would be able to shape the environments they want to live in resulting the possibility for an architectural creation with the capacity to regenerate social relationships within a contemporary urban environment. Participatory architecture introduces the possibilities of new ways of working and behaving within the built environment and enables us to move away from the limits of the term architecture, ‘with its implications that is the sole domain of the architect, and to move to the wider possibilities of space.

The thesis tries to find solutions about increasing space efficiency in architecture nowadays. The research define space efficiency in detailed aspects, each aspect is explained by special analyze, illustrations and case studies. The thesis chooses work and lives as two main themes in a building for they are normally complementary in time. All kinds of work and live space are defined and classified by a list of characters (which includes use time during a day, publicity, stuffs in space, etc.) After space analyzes and functions analyze the paper combine these two aspects together and provide a series of special layouts to adapt different needs. All these researches are done in typological way to make sure the result can be used in other place rather than just the context. Designing a new type of construction that can be used during whole day is then possible, based on the output of the paper and the situation of the context and environment.

Offices consume a lot of energy in the Netherland. In addition to the low energy efficiency, the office environment, and working style cause health problems. This research focuses on the farming-integrate office system and the flows in it, involving food, air, water, electricity, and heat. Taking Marineterrein as the site and use environmental database of Amsterdam, this paper proposed a suitable farming integrated office in Marineterrein and could act as a guideline for other offices to integrate farming in other cities.

‘Phytoremediation is the use of plants and their associated microbes for environmental clean-up’(Pilon-Smits, 2005). It is a natural, passive and efficient way of cleaning contaminated soil, water, and air. Every year, there are reports of contamination of swimmers due to the contaminated canal water round the Marineterrein in Amsterdam. The goal of this research paper is to investigate the different technics of water phytoremediation susceptible to be used to passively and actively purify the Amsterdam canal water and determine their applicability on and around a building. The founding of this research will be used to develop a new type of green façade that can remedy to the major problem of water pollution around the MarineTerrein in Amsterdam.

Over the last couple of decades, climate change and energy crises have led to an increased interest in reducing the building energy consumption. To reduce the energy consumption buildings are designed airtight. This leads to the accumulation of indoor air pollutants, which are associated with multiple health and discomfort problems. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to a number of health symptoms, like headache, nausea, dizziness, irritation of eyes and breathing problems, also known as the Sick Building Syndrome. In some metropolitan areas, indoor air has been found up to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air. The negative effects of indoor air pollution are major, also given that people in industrialized nations spend an average of 80-90% of their time indoors. Air pollution is also causing an increase in the number of lung patients. Research even shows that in Europe 99,000 premature deaths were attributed to household air pollution.
The negative health effects of the indoor environment have contributed to a renewed interest in green building practices. A couple of decades ago, NASA conducted a research where they found that plants could reduce indoor air pollution and have a positive effect on the indoor environment. More recent research has shown that plants also have a positive mental effect. The objective of the project is to create a healthy indoor environment for a Lung Rehabilitation Center, with the use of an active living wall.

The purpose of this research is to provide a set of guidelines for systemized façade retrofitting in mixed-use buildings to become nearly energy neutral. Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) are parts of the major energy consumption in buildings. Nevertheless, until recent times, all efforts and attentions have mainly been focused on increasing and optimizing the thermal insulation of the envelope components. The development of dynamic building envelope technologies, which are capable of adapting to changing outdoor and indoor environments, is considered to contribute to achieving nearly energy neutral buildings.

During the Paris climate conference in December 2015, 195 different countries recognized the dangers of climate change. One of the key points on which the participants of this conference agreed on was that cities should built resilience against the effects of climate change. The changing climate has amongst others major consequences for water systems. In a country such as the Netherlands – which is extremely vulnerable to the consequences of flooding – water should be treated and used differently according to J.M. de Vries, former Secretary of State for Transport, Public Works and Water Management, in order to keep the Netherlands safe and livable. The climate will change considerably in the coming decades. Cities and their buildings will be affected. My graduation focuses on how water can be treated differently within the built environment related to climate change resilience. As project location, I have chosen 'Het Marineterrein' in Amsterdam. This area belongs to the Royal Navy until 2018. In this year, the Navy will leave and the area will be open for redevelopment from then on. My research on how water and its natural cycles can be integrated into a hotel building leads to a design of a bio hotel for 'Het Marineterrein', in Amsterdam. Within the hotel building and its surroundings water is purified, recycled and harvested. The hotel is an inspirational place for hotel guests, visitors and locals, where people can learn about water treatment related to climate change and where they can share their ideas and thoughts about the subject.

Durability of buildings, the capacity to provide functional usable space for a certain time, as a concept of sustainable architecture forms the starting point and motivation for this project. As part of this main approach, the future function strategy should be introduced. This strategy contains an existing building which will be redesigned in a way that it can serve multiple functions during time and at the same time, with minimal interventions needed to accomplish a function change. The future function strategy is intent to be independent from a location to be widely usable. However, in the end the location will demand the desirable functions. At this project, the choice of the selected functions is determined by the particular case of the marine terrain, where various buildings will need a new function after the marine establishment has left in 2018. Specific for the marine terrain, residential and commercial space are the two functions which the building minimally should be able to accommodate. Designing a building applicable for multiple functions means that it should be able to meet the requirements of these different functions. 

The Netherlands has a high percentage of post-war walk-up apartments, in Dutch 'portiekflats' which do not rise up to the current sustainability standards anymore. These neighborhoods are often monotone and have many social problems. By example of mother nature and her ecosystems we can redesign these places in a more diverse and local way to make them more resilient towards future changes. The walk-up apartments that will be addressed in this graduation project are situated in Carnisse, Rotterdam, designed by Jo van den Broek. This project takes the renovation of these apartments a step further than just renovating them. What is the status of the local flows (water, energy, waste, material, nutrients) in Carnisse, how can we create locally closed loops of these flows and what interventions are needed to be able to connect the walk-up apartments to these flows? The design is based on four principles that arose from the research of the questions mentioned before; close local flows, improve the public space, diversify and upgrade the walk-up. A new construction was designed that enabled greenhouses to be built on top of the existing buildings, but also creates the possibility to extend the dwellings or the option to make them life cycle proof, creating a more diverse neighborhood that is less dependent on external resources, making it more resilient and ready for the future.

‘Marineterrein’ is located on Kattenburg in Amsterdam. The Navy settle at Kattenburg for a long time until they came to the conclusion to relocate to the north of the Netherlands, and will leave at the end of 2018. The redesign of the Marineterrein is in hands of ‘Rijksvastgoedbedrijf’ and the municipality of Amsterdam. Therefore many companies and inhabitants are interested in the area. Economical, historical, leisure and living are important factors for the different entities. For the inhabitants of Amsterdam the area is close to the city, which can be perfect for dwelling and to connect with people. This is also economically interesting for the investors. For the municipality the area has also great potential for trial and error and everything is possible with regards to design. On the other hand, it’s an unknown and very desirable place. These leads to a paradox conflict of the development of the site. To get control on the area and not to be fixed on one master plan, the municipality developed guidelines which are focused on vision and ambition. I took these different vision and ambition guidelines into account that resulted into my vision: redeveloping, activating, innovating and connecting the building 25 on the Marineterrein, it becomes an attractive and futuristic neighborhood. This resulted in my graduation project” An adaptive Vision”.

My graduation project is about renovation and splitting the low quality walk-up flats into multiple and ’responsive’ housing that allows one person households to live in smaller spaces that have a higher functionality, so we can respond to the population growth into the cities. A number of amenities in a home can be shared in the current forms of living. As a result, there is a smaller space requirement, which in turn benefits the affordability of the home. This graduation project is also about a sharing economy that can have an impact on our society in such a way that it can provide an answer to social developments and the effects in the field of housing.