The Bundestag is the German federal parliament and with its 736 representatives it is the biggest freely elected parliament in the world (Mayer, 2021). The size of the Bundestag fluctuates every election term because the German voting system works with overhang and levelling representatives (Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, N.D.).

The range of possible mandates varies from 598 to over 1,000 members, highlighting the considerable variability and uncertainty in the system (Vehrkamp, 2021). With more than 7 employees per representative (Bundestag, 2022)., the Bundestag can fluctuate with over 3.000 employees per election term.

This gives the obvious problem that it is very difficult for the Bundestag administration, to know how many facilities are needed. In the Bundestag, there is a forced use of home office, wooden container offices, and temporarily built offices, to try to facilitate the Bundestag (Ismar, 2021). This is also a problem on the sustainable side because temporary facilities are not sustainable and energy inefficient.

These problems are also true for any proposed designs for a new parliament building for the Bundestag. So, to counter these problems, a new Bundestag parliament building should be able to adapt to the change of users per election term.

Some questions that arise when looking at the possible solution of adaptability are: how are architectural elements related to this and how can the program best be used? How can digitalisation play a role and is it may be possible to have programmable and adaptable floorplans or room uses? How will the cyber security be accommodated for possible digital meetings? And how can all this adaptability help in sustainability?

The research and design question that follows out of these questions: How to design the adaptable Bundestag parliament of the future to sustainable facilitate the fluctuating number of members?

To answer the research question and come to a conclusion/final design, the research into the client will be done by gathering information through internet, interviews, and written questions. For the site the main research methods will be mapping information and site visits. And for the program the research will be done by case studies on other federal parliamentary lower house buildings. Because the Bundestag is idiosyncratic in its fluctuating size, the comparisons will be in square meter per employee.

The final goal is to design a new sustainable Bundestag parliament building that is adaptable in use and program, and not negatively affected by the fluctuating number of members of the Bundestag.

The following research focuses on "The Human Body Shop", an institute for human body augmentation. It is a hospital-oriented project based on the following research question: “How will human body augmentation reflect change in the hospital typology in the future?” Hospitals are some of the most critical buildings in society, but they are only part of it during times of necessity. The highly complex programs and dominant circulation systems of the traditional "healing machine" have created a labyrinth environment that society tends to avoid rather than engage with, discover, or feel connected to.

Innovation in the field of human body augmentation has initiated a shift from buildings functioning as healing machines to the human body itself as the locus of healing. This shift not only alters the human body but also transforms the hospital typology as we know it today. Future hospitals will specialize exclusively; in this case in the customized procedures involved in augmenting human bodies. These institutions will also engage in research and educate the next generation of professionals, as well as the broader society.

The continuous advancement of technology will necessitate a flexible program, which in turn will require a modular structure. This flexibility opens the possibility of reimagining the hospital as a more open and integrated environment, redefining its relationship with public spaces. These spaces will not only provide an escape but will also create opportunities for the public to gather for various activities and engage as a community within the scale of the neighbourhood; within the larger context of Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany.

The future modular hospital typology will be seamlessly interwoven with everyday life, transforming its image from that of an isolated institution to a subtle collection of buildings integrated into the urban fabric. Introducing "the Human Body Shop" - a new hospital typology that is not only part of society in times of need but also an integral part of daily life.

For several decades, architectural theorists have argued that there is a loss of meaning in architecture, caused by an over-emphasis on scientific thinking and the devaluing of poetic practices. Some theorists have presented ways to return meaning to architecture: Juhani Pallasmaa has called for empathic imagination and Alberto Perez-Gomez for attuned architecture. However, neither has offered methods for how to achieve those ends.

This research aims to bridge theory and practice by developing methods for attuning to a location and its inhabitants. It focuses on ways to become attuned to a place and people, in order to imagine spaces empathically and tailor architecture to the affective qualities of a place.

To best develop methods that identify these qualities, this research looks at familiar places, that is, places we assume to know well and therefore may overlook distinctive features. Accordingly, I have focussed on Brigflatts, my childhood neighbourhood in rural England.

I develop methods for attuning in two ways. First, by drawing upon three fields and their related methods: cognitive science and sensory mapping; anthropology and collaborative design ethnography; and architecture and reflections on atmospheres. Second, by creating physical objects that translate qualities and experiences of place into an interactive form.

My exploration of Brigflatts culminates in four large-format paintings that express what I became attuned to. I deconstruct and analyse these paintings to indicate how the on-site activities provided insights into the affective qualities of the location.

While this research looked at a familiar, rural location, I show how the methods elaborated at Brigflatts can be adapted to less familiar and urban environments. I discuss their broader application through a set of guiding principles for methods of attunement.

The research findings feed into a design project set at Brigflatts. “The Quaker Project at Brigflatts” seeks to re-activate a historically and spiritually significant site while balancing the needs of the faith group, the national park planning authority, and the locals living nearby.

Through this project, I explore how architecture can be attuned to a place and a people – how social behaviours, material bodies, and affective qualities can inform the design of new spaces and new experiences of the site and the protected landscape. I ground this project in a real-life scenario, responding to the Quaker testimonies and the National Park’s development requirements. In doing so, I envision a future of development in the Yorkshire Dales that protects cultural heritage, progresses building techniques, and offers a contemporary architecture attuned to its locality.

This project focuses on the discrimination against child justice and proposes the solution of creating a seperate specialized juvenile courthouse for youth offendors. Children are after all our future and should be properly taken care of.

This project focuses on two problems: the low publicness of architecture of district parliament, and the ongoing growth of distrust between citizens and representatives.

With the theme of digitalisation, this project responds to the problems by proposing a new parliamentary workflow with the use of hybrid communication, which involves the basic parliament programs to prepare for debate, a people’s voices gallery that broadcast opinions of the public, and a data hall that collect and coordinate massive digital information from the public.

This project stems from a critical reflection on the urban processes of growth that trigger the construction of new cities in Egypt, in particular the development of the New Administrative Capital (NAC) that sits 45 km to the East of Cairo.

Over the last 50 years, Cairo’s built environment has exploded onto its agricultural land, both formally and informally, within its urban fabric, and into the desert around it, in the shape of desert archipelagoes. This is clearly visible when comparing satellite imagery from 1985 and 2020. Egypt’s government promotes the new capital as the key to reducing Cairo’s urban load as a result of its explosive metropolitan population, currently at 21.3 million projected to over 40 million by 2050. The NAC is well underway with ongoing construction clearly visible on site and from neighboring cities such as New Cairo.

What is striking about the NAC, besides the scale of the development, is its architectural and urban narrative. The narrative here entails not only the discourse through which the government presents the project to the public, but also the spatial experience, architectural expression and organization of space. The city from scratch departs from its predecessor taking seemingly little to no reference from it. The government seems to have been eager to move away from Cairo altogether and start with a blank canvas in the desert, focusing on grand gestures of power reflecting notions of modernity and progress and not the needs and everyday lives of the people.

The aim of the research is to observe, analyze and reflect on the social, cultural, economic, urban, architectural, (in)-formal, and political layers of Cairo to examine the need to return to the vernacular in search for a local identity. It asks the question, how can vernacular architecture be redefined to reflect and regenerate the built environment and spatial practices of Cairo and its future urban development? The city offers an opportunity to dig deeper into its fabric and extract narratives of how people live their everyday lives and adapt their built environment to their needs. It focuses on the relationship between people, spatial practices and the built environment, from its urban core and historic centers to its desert cities and extensions.

The design proposal lends itself as an experimental and incremental process that reimagines the process of production of space as a series of vernacular spatial practices. It offers a counter program that challenges the notion of architecture that is fixed in space and time that allows for multiple possibilities within its lifetime responding to people’s changing needs allowing for a process of growth and appropriation. This approach constantly questioned the role of the architect, local materials, spatial configurations and architectural language and expression, in a forum ensuring the design stays true to the redefined vernacular architecture to find the balance between design and appropriation. The project is left open-ended, signaling a sense of incompleteness and a challenge to further pursue vernacular architecture as spatial practices in the search for Cairo’s urban identity.