The project “(Out of the) Ordinary: towards an intimate portrait of the city” investigates how we can build housing, to accommodate ordinary life, within an industrial site. It gleans and introduces domestic qualities into a large cellulose storage facility in an attempt to reintroduce the industrial site to Maastricht and provide the city with new heritage. The project tackles and questions different dialogues between: old and new, suburbs and industry, material and immaterial, public and private and facades and actors. The design proposal develops a new, more intimate community fostering strong social networks and face-to-face contact. The architecture encourages ordinary life to take place, stimulating: discovery, encounter, appropriation and daily rituals. The thesis becomes a case study for the regeneration of (inter)national industrial sites and is a proposal to the pressing housing shortage.

Green spaces are of great relevance today as climate change and the current pandemic highlight the need for more nature in the urban realm. The environmental, psychological and economical benefits of green space in rapid urban densification is clearly evident and increasingly, green is (re)introduced in cities. Private, public or collective green spaces are also strong enablers for civic engagement. The focus of extant research has mainly been on public or private green spaces while collective green spaces seem less investigated. This thesis endeavours to join different disciplines connecting collective green spaces, linking these to spaces in Amsterdam built in the late 19th, early 20th century, and investigates if use has changed over the last century. Three characteristics were identified used for the analysis of collective green spaces: ownership, accessibility and sociability. The case studies investigated are: Vondelpark, Bellamyplein and Zaanhof. The analysis shows that ownership has indeed changed over the last century, but that accessibility and sociability remained relatively similar, within the historical boundaries and zeitgeist of the different periods. Ownership changed from private to public as maintenance could not be afforded anymore and municipalities controlled urban planning. Collective green spaces were designed to bring residents together, providing play areas for children and to enjoy nature individually or together; this is still very accurate 100 years later. While this research has made a small contribution to the research canon, further research could investigate additional characteristics and expand the number of collective green spaces in Amsterdam, the Netherlands or internationally.