The Graduation Studio of Interiors Buildings Cities (2021-2022) investigates the possible future of the National Bank of Belgium, located in the city of Brussels. The bank as a collective system has been recently scrutinized due to persistent climate change. As Brussels is working towards a Doughnut Economy Model, the National Bank of Belgium investing in climate destructing companies is contradictory. This Graduation Project re-grounds the institution of The National Bank of Belgium to represent the environmental responsibilities that the bank caries towards society today. The co-existence of species, human and non-human, within the social and physical context of the Future Bank is investigated in this Graduation Project.

The outcome of constantly striving for economic growth and making a profit has led to a city in which every building is seen as a product. Power, ownership, and mass tourism are taking over the city, exacerbating the housing shortage and making the housing prices rise to an unprecedented height. As a result, inhabitants are being pushed out of the city, while the discussion of housing as a human right is being ignored and wellbeing and equality are undermined. Alongside this housing crisis, tourism has developed into an economy with negative impacts on the city. Being a product for the almost 17 million visitors has been very overwhelming for the only 830.000 inhabitants of Amsterdam, which becomes visible through anti-hotel protests. This raises the question of the right to the city. The main objective of this project is to design a hotel that does not see tourism as a thread for the locals, but instead, as a resource. Considering different ways in which tourism can still take place in harmony with the wellbeing of Amsterdam’s inhabitants, I started to think of an architectural model in which tourists and residents live in the same building, benefitting from each other. The idea is a model where residents have a guest room in their home. The money that the guest room generates enables them to live in the city. The City Hotel will consist of multiple of these units, all housing a guest room. Together, they will form a collective house, sharing multiple facilities like gardens, a big kitchen, a dining room, working spaces and a laundry space. Thereby shifting the almost parasitic relationship between tourists and residents into a symbiotic one.

The Graduation Studio of Interiors Buildings Cities (2021-2022) examines the possible future of the National Bank of Belgium, located in the city of Brussels. The Bank as a collective system has recently come under scrutiny because of the ongoing climate change and the switch from physical to digital payments. The municipality of Brussels is working on improving the city through a slow traffic mobility plan, creating green connections and changing the economic shape in Brussels. Meanwhile, the National Bank of Belgium stands like a closed fortress at a critical point in Brussels. In this graduation project, the National Bank of Brussels as an institution offers new terrain through the creation of a radical opening to create a connection from the lower part of Brussels to the upper part of the city and creating a new connection that contributes to a better mobility in the city.

This thesis is a qualitative thesis depicting the way a design strategy can be constructed for a nature inclusive building by giving an example case. By first doing a set of case studies of projects describing themselves as nature inclusive and looking into their design strategy, then applying this to a case location together with the help of literature and an urban ecologist to test if this is a reliable way of designing. The main findings of this paper are that to set up a design strategy that is actually nature inclusive, the location needs to be thoroughly studied with the help of experts in the field of ecology to translate natures requirements to design elements.

Dutch cities are both expanding and densifying, corresponding to a global trend in which people increasingly tend to live in cities. Urban densification implicates the development of new buildings and redevelopment of part of the existing building stock, to meet the aims of future cities and their populations. These alterations to intensively used urban spaces will evoke resistance from involved stakeholders. As such, this research aims to identify strategies to design buildings without resistance, by studying resistance throughout all phases of a building process and determining the power of architects in coping with these resistances. These strategies enable architects to design and develop buildings of non-resistance. Firstly, the most recurring definition of resistance is that it is an action that is executed against an opposition. The effect of resistance, in the degree of intention, visibility and recognition, varies. This study distinguishes between overt resistance, in which intention and recognition are clearly delineated, and everyday resistance, which cannot be clearly defined, which is often invisible, and not well articulated. The elaboration of resistance in the built environment is shaped by means of a focus group and several expert interviews. Outcomes are that resistance is inseparably linked to the built environment and shapes projects. The interviewee faced both overt resistance and everyday resistance. The strategy that interviewee applied, in response to resistance, can be divided into two categories. Intended strategy, where certain emerging resistances are solved from experience, protocols and premeditation and Emergent strategy, where mostly from an ad-hoc situation is responded to. Intended strategies for an architect to deal with resistance is mainly focused on existing, overt resistances. Where everyday resistance is often forgotten. Where a solution is often sought reactively. This research makes a proposal to deal with this everyday resistance. Whereby the strategy goes from mostly emergent to intended. And thus can be anticipated in advance. The proposed strategy looks for needs and values in the neighborhood. This is done by making an inventory of specific values of individuals and turning them into general values. These values are then a starting point to base design decisions on. It is up to the designer to give his own interpretation. When these values are adhered to, people may disagree about the elaboration of these values, but (if all goes well) the result will be in line with the original value of the environment.The goal with this strategy is to design a building that has as little resistance as possible. Also called a building of ‘non-resistance’. The proposed strategy is explored, further defined and used in a case study of Rotterdam.

The graduation studio ‘Spaces of Collection’ seeks to explore the relationship an institution has with the host city. The central question in research during the process is how to make the university’s physical return by a building with ‘spaces of collection’ for the accommodation and display of artifacts in various university collections. The design proposal could be seen as a treasure box of collections with its urban context.

Noise pollution is a contemporary problem that developed through urbanisation and industrialization. The consequences of this issue directly influence the health of human beings, as their perception of noise leads to certain behavioural responses. By addressing this issue in a strategic way, residential housing can still be created in noise-polluted areas in response to the housing shortage in the Netherlands. By masking noise with pleasurable and healthy sounds, residents' (mental) health can be stimulated in an eco-friendly living environment. This can be done through the placement of noise-free courtyards, selecting a dense and noise-reflecting facade, and creating healthy soundscapes in the courtyards through the integration of vegetation, water and biodiversity. These courtyards function as frames in which nature lets its freedom be heard.

A new administrative building is planned for the city of Brussels, one of 19 municipalities that together form the Brussel Hoofdstedelijk Gewest. The administrative centre will provide city offices for 1600 employees and a public space for the receipt and processing of applications from citizens. The winning competition project, known as Brucity, lacks any description of a truly public space and doesn’t engage with the citizens of Brussels on a political level. It is appearing as an anonymous office building, showing that the municipality has reduced themselves to their mere administrative task. This project is intended to be a critique on the competition project. The main objective is to design a building that allows for more direct contact and collaboration between the municipality and its citizens.

Crossing Bridges is a design proposal located in Luxembourg city. The project deals deals with the city's specific urban territorial condition, as a clear physical and social issue. The distinctive topography of the city divides the city into plateaus and valleys with almost opposite identities. This dichotomy between the urban setting on the plateaus and nature the valley, together with the infrastructural issues caused by the valley, is the starting point for the creation of a new infrastructural hub. Not only will this become a new physical connection between the plateaus and valleys, it will also become a new cultural center that serves as an incubator for the people to explore the valley en escape the hectic city life.

As a result of global warming sea levels have recently started to rise and pose threatening scenarios to increasingly densifying urban areas worldwide. As the low-lying Netherlands will be one of the first to witness the consequenses of rising sea levelsa and increasing river water discharge, alternatives for its built environment will have to be explored in order to be able to adapt in time. As the Netherlands has been successfully holding off the water for decades, the country is globally seen as a pioneer in water management solutions. Therefore the Dutch are in the position to lead by example. However, the phenomenon of rapidly accellerating sea level rise is something Dutch water management has never dealt with before. Uncertainty and rapidly changing predictions make it difficult to decide on drastic and costly measures in time. In order to facilitate a transition from the established defensive landscape towards living with water instead, a new flood resilient building type can facilitate in adapting to near future predictions, while also raising awareness for the urgency of rising water levels and contributing to the current housing shortage. In order to achieve this it is necessary to step away from the defensive landscape and outdated water management strategies. This research will elaborate on predictions regarding sea level rise and changing weather conditions in the densifying outer dike area of the urban center of Rotterdam. Contemporary approaches towards building dikes, the importance of engaging private parties in generating flood resilient solutions and the possibility to utilize water and flood defence barriers as a flexible building ground in densifying urban areas will be discussed. Ultimately leading to a novel mixed-use housing typology with the overarching goal to reduce the flood risk in densifying outer dike areas and contribute to a changing mindset towards living with the increasing risk of flooding.

For my graduation project, I aimed to explore the way in which the new economy of reusing existing building materials or complete structures can be used in a large building project such as the new town hall in Brussels and how it can serve as an exemplar to its surroundings. The project entails the appropriation of an existing corporate office building along the Boulevard de Anspach in Brussels. This building stems from 1969 and was part of the 'Brusselization'. This modernization resulted in many unattractive and rather outdated buildings. Since the office tower was built amid these innovations, this graduation project is a manifesto on how to deal with the inheritance of this modernization. Moreover, what should a municipality embody or represent to its citizens and passers-by? While elaborating on the theme of 'a political space' I focussed on exposing existing qualities/structures by claiming and appropriating a piece of urban space for its proximity.

A community for young people to settle down in the city, where they can meet friends and enjoy a happy balanced life. It provides living facilities with quality as well as possibilities for social life. A natural controllable indoor climate and a flexible structure system are integrated within the design which achieves good integration of the architectural elements and the energy-efficient system. It advocates natural ventilation and using natural resources. The concrete megastructure acts as the first layer to support the building while the infilling wooden elements create different spaces based on the function, and they can be moved to a new position if the future function changed. So that the flexible structure system provides small spaces for living as well as big spaces for social events and working.

Biodiversity is declining, urbanization is increasing, and the pressure on urban greenery is rising. Nature inclusive design can provide a solution. The research paper investigates the current trend of nature inclusive design, the architectural interventions that can be used in nature inclusive design and urban ecology in the Netherlands, to be able to answer the main research question: How does the integration of nature inclusive design interventions into the building envelope support local biodiversity in an urban environment? Connecting species to architectural interventions, the research provides parameters to guide the design of a mixed-use development in Sloterdijk. Creating private and public green spaces, with a selection of vegetation based on orientation and their value to the natural environment, Humboldt strives to be a natural hotspot that functions within new and improved green network of Amsterdam.

As climate change, housing shortage and prices in the Netherlands are getting out of control, the building industry needs to find new ways of designing high quality neighbourhoods that manage to tackle these issues. This project focusses on developing an energy neutral, high quality, affordable neighbourhood by implementing a modular strategy and a climate strategy at the urban and architectural level. Solarpolis is a proposed new neighbourhood situated in the Merwedeterrein, Arnhem (NL), where both the urban and architectural situations are influenced by a passive climate design strategy. The proposed modular strategy has the advantage to be resilient enough to cope with future climate changes or changes of layout/destination of the living environments; it employs state of the art sustainable technologies to ensure circular energy exploitation/recovery to the maximum possible extent.

The housing shortage in the Netherlands and the high contribution of the construction sector towards climate change demands a different approach towards affordable housing. A combination of the concept of a 'housing cooperative' and the implementation of 'low-tech principles' on all scales of the design tries to bring back affordable housing back to the people in a sustainable way, where the pillars 'People', 'Planet' and 'Profit' are in balance. A pure light timber frame system with universal, interchangeable elements forms the basis for standardised housing units. By arranging the units in different ways and by giving the users freedom in infill and finishing, the housing cooperative is able to choose how they want to shape their living environment. Overarching aspects throughout the design are 'simplicity', 'rationality', 'locality' and 'human scale'.

Food has played an important role in shaping our metropolitan regions, such as Westland in South Holland, The Netherlands. The industrialisation and globalisation of agriculture in Westland has prioritised economy and efficiency, creating issues of liveability and sustainability. The market-driven expansion of the agri-food industry has contributed to spatial competition in Westland and has created many spatial consequences, one of the most serious being the fact that according to surveys, areas around agri-food business parks have the lowest liveability scores in the region. These food-related issues are multi-faceted spatial matters that architects can address. The aim of this research is to better understand how the synergistic integration of food system processes with urban functions through architecture can create a more liveable and sustainable development of agri-food business parks in Westland. First, key strategies towards integrating food systems with urban areas are identified through a theoretical exploration of case-study projects of past architects and planners. Following this exploration, the matters that architects can have an impact on in the food system are determined. Next, a spatial analysis of the selected agri-food business park is carried out to determine spatial factors that are contributing to low-liveability in the area. Missing spatial qualities that can restore liveability are then identified. Based on the result of the theoretical exploration and spatial analysis, a design framework is devised and synthesised in a set of spatial design tools that can be used to create an architectural intervention that can act as a catalyst and disrupt the problematic urban development around agri-food business parks in Westland. The spatial design tools are then interpreted in a design of a master plan and architectural proposal that reimagines a more liveable and sustainable future of Westland’s Honderdland agri-food business park in the town of Maasdijk.

With the current energy transition in full effect smart ways to integrate sustainable systems are a must. Instead of looking at individual solutions per household or building, this thesis explores the possibilities of a neighbourhood energy system and how it can benefit the community. The social impact of large sustainable measures are often neglected, while if they are taken into account during the development, a mutual benefit can be achieved. The architect plays a key role in this integration process and can be the bridge between often separated developments. This thesis is one example of a concept which can be applied everywhere, but is still able to produce unique and exiting architecture for each individual project. By looking at the possibilities of a context, integrated with the necessities of the energy transition and combined with solutions for social challenges, architecture can provide the symbiosis among these topics to create a mutual benefit on a local, but also on a broader scale.

The project is a rethinking of the political building. It presents itself as an public infrastructure open to the city and citizens, in terms of its form, facade and relationship to the surroundings. Collective public life and democracy of the space are more addressed in the project.

How can the design of a physical space be adaptive? Especially now that we are in a time in which our environments get less and less permanent and more changeable, as a result of the digital era. (How) Can the design of a physical space adapt to this phenomenon? How can we create a space that is less permanent and able to adapt to different times, trends, activities or events? We as human beings have been extremely adaptive to the changes that the digitalization has brought to our way of life; so why not the built environment? Why should the physical environment and architecture remain so permanent, in a time so changeable and a time which is characterized by temporality? These are questions that triggered me during my graduation work and resulted in a design that elaborates through multiple scales on the theme of ‘adaptability’ and more specific on the ‘movability’ of physical spatial settings; an 'urban machine' that is able to adapt, respond and adjust to different times, events or activities.

The project "Celebration as Revolution - Transformation of Copenhagen's First Waterworks to Public Bath" investigates how the celebration of worker's movement in the 1970s has developed into Copenhagen's largest annual festival "Distortion". An industrial heritage site, the Waterworks plant, is proposed to be reappropriate for cultural and celebrative purposes in relation to water and pleasure.