This research investigates the relationship between vacant/abandoned properties and the unhoused community in Paramaribo, Suriname, examining how architectural interventions can transform urban challenges into opportunities for community integration and social capital development. The study employs a mixed-methods approach that combines literature analysis through Urban Decline Theory, Broken Windows Theory, and Social Capital Theory with stakeholder communications and spatial documentation of Paramaribo's urban context.
The findings reveal that Suriname's economic instability has created severe poverty conditions affecting vulnerable populations who experience housing instability and social disconnection. Paramaribo simultaneously faces increasing urban voids that accelerate neighborhood deterioration, with these abandoned spaces frequently occupied by unhoused individuals, thereby creating a self-reinforcing cycle of urban decline.
In response to these interconnected challenges, the research proposes an integrated approach that addresses both physical and social dimensions of the problem. The physical dimension employs spatial analysis to halt neighborhood decline and provide housing solutions, while the social dimension draws on Social Capital Theory to develop community-based interventions that foster meaningful connections and rebuild social networks.
Ultimately, this research demonstrates how architectural design can serve as a catalyst for breaking cycles of urban deterioration while simultaneously building social capital for vulnerable communities. By addressing the dual nature of urban decline—both its physical manifestations and social consequences—the study provides a framework for transforming abandoned urban spaces into assets that strengthen community resilience and promote social integration.

This thesis explores the role of public architecture in the post-war reconstruction of Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world, which has suffered great destruction during the war in Syria. The research focuses on how to preserve Aleppo’s urban identity, which is a combination of architecture, spatial organization, materiality, and cultural memory, while addressing the social, economic, and political challenges that the post-war city is facing.

Through a combination of literature review, spatial analysis, and other used methods, the thesis first identifies the elements that define the city, such as the courtyard typology, souks, limestone material, and craftsmanship traditions. It then looks into how the war impacted the city. And it tries to identify what role public architecture can play in preserving Aleppo’s cultural memory and supporting community recovery during times of political instability. The research ends with a design proposal titled Bayt al Madina (“House of the City”), situated on the former place of the Grand Serail, directly south of the Citadel. Once with an authoritive function, the site is reimagined as a hub dedicated to learning, craftsmanship, and community gathering. By translating research insights into design, the project demonstrates how public spaces can serve not only as physical interventions but as tools for cultural and historical continuity, social healing, and urban revitalization.

This research investigates the ongoing land subsidence crisis in Jakarta, revealing it as not merely an environmental issue but a product of deep-rooted social, historical, and infrastructural inequalities. Drawing from theoretical frameworks of speculative urbanism, urban resilience, and environmental justice, the study traces the origins of Jakarta’s vulnerability to colonial water systems, unregulated urbanization, and inequitable access to piped water. Through a comprehensive literature review and case study analysis, the paper evaluates current and global strategies, highlighting both top-down interventions and community-led innovations. A key outcome of this research is the development of an architectural design proposal for a resilient coastal community in Muara Baru, integrating local knowledge, decentralized water systems, and nature-based solutions. The study argues that meaningful adaptation must be inclusive, context-sensitive, and grounded in lived experience. Jakarta’s future resilience depends not only on technical solutions but also on just governance and community empowerment.

During the summer months, Madrid endures extreme heat. These high temperatures strain both the infrastructure supporting the city and the well-being of its inhabitants, disproportionately impacting marginalized populations. Marginalized populations such as the homeless population and inhabitants of “Poblados dirigidos” face heightened risks due to inadequate shelter and limited access to cooling infrastructure. While previous research has addressed the technical dimensions of urban heat mitigation, there is a lack of focus on the socio-spatial inequalities of vulnerable populations regarding urban heat. To address this, the research combines quantitative analysis with qualitative fieldwork. San Cristóbal de los Ángeles was selected as the intervention site due to its socio-economic challenges, historical context, and observed urban heat vulnerabilities. The findings show that the impacts of urban heat are rooted in existing social, historical, and spatial inequalities. Responses include the development of climate shelters that offer relief from extreme heat, as well as its establishment in a broader network that ensures spatial distribution, accessibility, and integration within the city’s existing infrastructure. This study highlights the need to rethink the role of shelter in responding to overheating cities. Addressing Madrid’s urban heat is not solely about reducing temperatures, it is about rethinking the socio-spatial systems that shape its city, ensuring they are inclusive, resilient, and just.

This research and design project investigates heat inequality in Madrid, focusing on how architectural and planning decisions shape urban microclimates and impact vulnerable communities. Through a combination of analysis on current methodologies in heat studies and on-site research—including field observations and a questionnaire—the study identifies critical gaps between scientific data and lived experiences of heat.

The design intervention reimagines a social housing complex in La Ventilla to enhance thermal resilience while maintaining affordability. Key strategies include passive cooling techniques such as balcony extensions for shading, improved cross-ventilation, and the integration of green infrastructure. Additionally, the project revitalizes underutilized spaces, improves accessibility, and fosters community engagement through co-living arrangements and shared public areas.

Rather than imposing a large-scale solution, the design leverages existing site conditions to create a climate-responsive, low-impact transformation. By bridging research and architectural intervention, this project advocates for a more adaptive, equitable, and sustainable approach to urban housing in the face of rising temperatures.

Within the framework of this paper, spatial practices between the built and the un-built in the context of urban regeneration of neighbourhoods at city fringes are explored. The proposed spatial practice, called spatial nuancing refers to the reconsideration and redefinition of public space. Spatial nuancing is applied in the context of existing spatial and social dynamics as a means for initiating regeneration through new approaches. It can be applied at various scales and contexts. In this work, the focus lies in the context of post-war modernist developments, that are widely characterized by large-scale and under-managed public spaces. This work challenges the perception and considerations of those kinds of under-managed public spaces and follows along the main research question: What if under-management is considered as a quality in public space?
By proposing a strategy that includes the punctual implementation of places of common the public space can be reactivated, not by increasing management but by connecting the main actors of the public space: the people. It argues that spatial nuancing with the example of the creation of places of common binds together and reinforces social and spatial qualities. This has a catalysing effect on the development and quality of life in a neighbourhood.

The foodscape of a city is a complex set of systems and actors that is directly linked with the city through the acts of producing, processing and consuming food. These acts shape not only the surrounding hinterland but also the environment, infrastructure and social make-up of a city. The relationship between the city and this hinterland has almost completely disappeared over the last century. This has negatively impacted the way food is valued which has caused negative consequences such as environmental degradation, disappearance of relationships and knowledge, and a worsening of both human and animal welfare.

The focus of this project is to reestablish this lost relationship through an architectural project that reintroduces historic conditions and practices and combines them with contemporary flows and actors to form a program that fits the 21st century. This will result in a pilot project which will demonstrate how architecture can have a central role in reestablishing the relationship between consumer and the food they consume, and thus the creation of a sustainable foodscape, resulting in healthier and happier cities.

At the heart of diverse, thriving inner-city areas are the community gardens, impromptu skate parks and self-managed community centres where residents can build intercultural connections, and achieve a sense of belonging. This thesis defines these as ‘Open Third Places’: public areas whose disorder generates spontaneous encounters and unexpected vibrancy.
Open Third Place can be found in the El Laboratorio squatted social centres of inner-city Madrid. The gentrifying, inner-city neighbourhood of Lavapies has historically hosted a diverse variety of outsiders, ranging from international immigrants to Spanish activist groups. Where their needs were not met by costly governmental regeneration efforts, El Laboratorio group used the act of occupation to explore the creation of low-budget, user-led social centres, free from bureaucratic constraints. These spaces became valuable hubs for coexistence in an otherwise fragmented community, despite financial and legal constraints.
Therefore, this paper examines how El Laboratorio diverged from mainstream building conventions, to demonstrate where such disorder is crucial in the formation of Open Third Places. This analysis is structured by three divisions, or ‘thresholds’, which exist in the formally planned city, but were blurred within El Laboratorio centres: ‘spatial thresholds’, ‘designer-user thresholds’ and ‘temporal thresholds’. Using archival visual and written material from the social centres, the paper suggests a connection between the conviviality of El Laboratorio and their bridging of these thresholds.
In this way, the thesis reveals possibilities for architects to similarly work with these thresholds, when designing for the community of Lavapies. Despite this, it concludes by foreseeing difficulties of translating ideas from the ‘disorder’ of a squat, to the ‘order’ of a more formal design scheme, outlining potential conflicts in the application of these ideas.

Understanding the societal construction and utilisation of space is paramount today, especially as urban centres face escalating space scarcity, intensifying societal disparities. The intertwining of architecture and politics is undeniable, given architecture’s power to shape spaces and influence social dynamics, necessitating architects’ acknowledgement of political implications.

This research delves into how sociopolitical factors impact urban spaces and in what ways architects could critically counteract them, using neoliberalism as a case study. Neoliberal policies in London, particularly under Thatcher’s leadership, significantly affected social strata and urban landscapes.

Neoliberal ideologies created disparities, unfettered markets, commodified public spaces, and exacerbated social divides, leading to spatial segregation and gentrification waves. They emphasised on the need for alternative approaches focusing on fairness, sustainability, and community welfare. Examining evolving neighbourhoods highlighted spatial segregation patterns due to neoliberalism’s aftereffects, manifesting as urban loopholes and boundaries.

This study recognises cities as arenas reflecting and challenging neoliberal ideologies. It identifies the root causes of urban disparities in social stratification, globalisation, and gentrification and calls for a shift towards long-term social sustainability in urban planning.

This research takes an approach by integrating social engagement into urban planning, acknowledging that city development is influenced by multifaceted factors beyond architectural planning. Drawing from diverse fields, it proposes strategies embedding social engagement within spatial contexts. These strategies aim to combat societal disconnection by promoting meaningful social interaction through spatial design.

At the heart of this exploration are eight spatial agencies or design principles aiming to revitalise social engagement within urban spaces. These principles advocate constructing situations over objects, fostering diverse social interactions, bridging social stratification, and restoring the existing character. The research strongly urges architects to adopt socially conscious approaches and open their spectrum to cross-disciplinarity. The main goal is to underline architecture’s integral role in societal wellbeing and emphasise its potential to create inclusive and equitable spaces.

In a society where food poverty is affecting more and more people. The presence of social food initiatives, such as community kitchens, is of growing importance. This paper investigates London’s high streets in search of tools to achieve the acknowledgement of social food provision in the everyday life of society. Something which is still not widely accepted but necessary. The high street is the chosen vibrant multicultural context that can assist and make use of this necessary transition. To provide transition is to consider transition and there the transitional moments of the high street social experience are investigated. After setting out the different meanings and scales of transition and thresholds, a socio-spatial urban and microanalysis of several London high streets is performed. The changing daily activities and rhythms of the high street experience point out that it is important to consider the high street as a social space which holds a great variety of social transitional factors but could benefit from a broader reservoir of possibilities. I further conclude that the material and sensory experience influences the degree of intimacy of the lived experience. The possibility to choose from different intimacies grants people the opportunity to control their degree of anonymity and inclusivity. After years of underinvestment, the high streets could consider a reciprocating program such as a community kitchen among other possibilities. A place which gives to society and the society that gives back to the high street.

An analytical collection of theoretical, psychological, and methodological research applied
to spatial appropriation. Understanding our innate need to modify existing conditions to
satisfy personal needs begins with understanding user perception and action to uncover
the user’s needs and motives. This research is explored on the balcony and applies its
history and multi-programmatic character to understand the residents of the Lavapies
Neighborhood in Madrid. Site visit research and interviews reveal how locals reflect,
project, and respond to the current situations of their personal and communal needs
through balcony and gallery appropriations. Utilizing the Catalogue of Balcony
Appropriations, the main visual supportive source of my field research and site
understanding, revealed seven reasons for spatial appropriation. The analysis of these
seven derived four general conclusions that can be applied to learn from the amateurs of
other locations.

In social quandaries is an analysis of three council housing estates dating back to the 1960s, all situated within the Greater London area. The analytical framework was informed by the book “Paris Haussmann: A Model’s Relevance,” which extensively examines the Haussmann plan in Paris, employing various mediums such as writing, drawing, and photography to explain its characteristics across different dimensions.
Drawing upon the research, my study concludes in several recommendations that form the foundational basis of my research-based design. These principles have been derived from a qualitative analysis of the estates, incorporating insights from two books that cover various factors that are crucial in establishing architectural and urban spatial quality. The principles are: facilitating interaction and vegetation, the incorporation of pedways and walkways, densification, mixed typologies, a multifunctional plinth, and the inclusion of courtyards.
Consequently, the design process that has been undertaken centers around these guiding principles, using them as primary elements to create architectural and spatial quality within the redevelopment of a London council estate.
By doing this I try to complete my design objective, which is to demonstrate the value present in the social housing stock of 1960s London, emphasizing the importance of preserving or redeveloping these buildings rather than resorting to demolition.

Being an Artist is or can be an unthankful, often not even officially recognized profession. Although they entertain and sustain the cultural scene and the livelihood of our cities, they suffer to make a living and are placed at the bottom line of the Art Network.

The paper starts with a short time travel through the art world with focus on London, drawing light on the evolution and developments that have brought the cultural and artistic scene to where it is today. The research specifically enhances the role of the human figure, the ‚everyday artist’, within this urban and artistic discourse. It ends with a potential forecast that incorporates current changes, developments and technologies that impact artistic spaces, the artists as well as the public and the way we experience, perceive, sell, buy, produce and display art.
The aim was to unravel and showcase the potential the artistic practice and especially the human actor, the everyday artists, can have on the urban fabric and the social realm if only incorporated and empowered more in our daily lives.

The insights obtained through the research form the programmatic framework. They allowed to define a new model that reacts to these aspects and eventually built the foundation for the design project.

Water and the relationship we have with it are disloca- ted in the contemporary context of the city. Present-day structures of society represent water as a human made commodity, whilst it will always be an elusive element of nature, the human body and the environment. How can we redesign city water into practices that reconnect us to the element and its natural and social qualities?
A litterature study sets out the extent of meanings and underlaying structures of water in the city. The typo- logy of the 19th century bathhouse is used to elaborate on the way architecture has shaped use and culture.
Three contemporary case studies expand on architecture that supports a richer relationship with water.
Water moves through a multitude of spheres, we have physical, emotional and imaginative interactions with it. The idea of a sublime nature or a nature we have control over is a lie, in the context of the city water is more a product of culture than it is of nature. A more hybrid mentality that encorporates the differnt spheres would lead to a more sustainable view of city water. Wa- ter in the city is a common good, it’s part of society and the individual and should therefore be accessible and understandable. Architecture is not the solution to the disconnect, but has the responsibility to touch upon the different spheres and is in the first instance about trans- parency and accesibility.

Nowadays with the continuous development of the metropolitan cities, the city is getting more and more packed. The land of cities like London is very precious, land is scarce, every inch counts. Therefore, the decision of what to do with space is crucial, the highest bidder often gets the land. However, how to deal with space that is wasted, like residual space and disused spaces? The research started with this fascination of residual spaces and the lack of space in London. In the search for lost spaces in London, it is discovered that there is plenty of disused infrastructure. From these structures new groundscapes were born; on the ground, above, under and the in-between. These spaces are rarely translated into productive and meaningful spaces, even in the context of London where every square metre counts. The result of new groundspaces created by layering infrastructure would be the main topic of my research, because of the potentials it contains to revive space in London.

When the British arrived in the colonial countries, they had the opportunity to adapt the architecture of the local culture to their needs, but centuries later, when the ethnic groups arrived in “postcolonial” London, they did not have the opportunity to have a manifest effect on the built environment and neither the development of the city consider this situation as a problem to tackle. Today, years into the process of decolonization, the situation is still not much different. This occidental acceptance of people separated from their way of living, their culture reflected in the urban structure, creates the hybrid urban environment that hides the existence of different cultures. This oxymoronic thinking concerning diversity creates the complex mechanism of merging cultures, backgrounds, and customs and hides everything different or other. As a result of this situation, it is possible to point toward placeless cultures in the city of London. People or locations that are culturally significant without any material or immaterial connection to their urban surroundings. They maybe are located in the cartesian urban space of London, but they are placeless in the imaginary and mental view of the city. We need to abandon the occidental approach in architecture as we develop our neighborhoods to create a city that belongs to everybody and nobody, to create a city where everything is placeless and placeness.

The design is composed of 3 connected layers of togetherness with different levels of publicness which I categorize as communality, commensality, and conviviality. While communality of the project is completely public, the publicness of the building decreases with commensality and conviviality but still keeps the aspect of togetherness. They are not completely separated, on the contrary, they feed on each other. The layers of the project bridge with each other in different ways. This connection happens, either by the literal circulation of people and goods or by other means such as the visual connection or change in temporality. Hence the design pushes people to gather not only through planned encounters with the program it offers but also through incidental encounters that happen along the connections of different functions.

Marketplaces are one of the most lively and magnetic spaces in the cityscape. They play a significant role in the history of the development of London, especially in the ‘long’ 18th century. Marketplaces have passed the test of time, reflecting on the socio-economic and urban changes and are still in use nowadays, to quote Ken Jones “we are what we consume, and our consumption priorities describe our society”. What makes them so successful is their inclusivity and the ability to accommodate the changes in the fast-paced urban environment.
The changes the 21st-century cities are facing need urgent response. They have to densify in order to accommodate the growing urban population, the new developments bring an additional layer of the threat of the homogenisation and detachment of the new inhabitants from the public realm, as well as gentrification and connected with that relocation of locally established communities. The research analyses the inherent qualities and the essence of marketplaces and searches for similar characteristics in other places in the city, and theoretical works to propose an overview of possibilities to create public spaces that are responsive and inclusive towards their current and new inhabitants.
Firstly, the paper analyses the past and present state of retail in London with a concentration on retail markets, learning how they operate, what traits they represent, and what role they play in the city. Further investigation looks at the importance of those places for local communities and the ways it is manifested, as well as examples of both successful and failed regenerations of the public realm concerned with community values. Understanding them showcases the ways of possibility to go against the current of changes
proposed by the new developments. Lastly, theoretical references showcase how did the designers previously approach the topics and unique, combined characteristics of the marketplaces that came to light during the previous analyses. This comprehensive analysis creates an overview of the possibilities in the designer’s vocabulary to respond to the fast-paced changes in the urban environment.
The research serves as a base for a design project for a neighbourhood public space in the borough of Tower Hamlets. The proposal highlights the values of the existing community and looks into ways to combine them with the new developments in the neighbourhood. The design combines the reuse of existing buildings in a post-industrial context as well as proposing a new development for the neighbourhood.

This research aims to develop en apply a new approach towards dealing with heritage in the built environment. By taking the Royal London Hospital area and the Former Outpatient Department within this domain as a case study, tools to connect to specific layers of the context that were found in the research are implied. This is in contrast to the regular approaches to look at heritage from the object itself. In the end, the building and area are connected through all levels of context to the layers of the palimpsest, which is mostly visible in the interventions in the main atrium and the additional roof structure. The building and area become an integrated part of the urban fabric and in this way their existence is prolonged.

Material culture plays a significant role in our daily lives, however the value placed on processes involved in the creation of physical objects, manual skills and knowledge sharing has diminished due to the increasing reliance on large-scale infrastructure, standardization, and mass production. Additionally, the disposal of worn and abundant objects contributes to waste production. The thesis project aims to address these issues by exploring ways to regenerate disrupted areas in the diverse urban fabric of London through urban manufacturing and craftsmanship. The project investigates the potential for transitioning from a linear textile production process to a circular and localized production and reuse chain through adaptive reuse at the Truman's Brewery. The goal is to create a more sustainable and circular economy by localizing production networks, fostering synergies within industry and community, and efficiently using available resources. ‘Weaving the city’ means connecting loose ends, adding new threads, and repairing disruptions in the urban fabric.