This thesis project studies the possibilities of designing a new space for migrants to construct their diasporic identity in a post-colonial language. The thesis is situated in the context of the mass migration from Hong Kong from 2019, specifically looking at Reading in the UK as a key arrival location. The thesis explores the design hypothesis of the alimentary-spatio-identity triangle and proposes an "open kitchen" based on intervening into an abandoned English pub in Reading to afford a new space for strange encounters for the HK migrants to construct their new belonging.

The history of Germany in the 20th century was marked by the destruction of war, separation and reunification. This eventful past also ensured that this history was repeatedly revised by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) - true to the motto "History is written by victors". This revision can be an expression of rediscovered histories and newfound knowledge, but also has the potential to marginalise and ignore the unwelcome. Particularly in the initial phase of their existence, both states were highly selective in their respective historiographies, and symbolically significant buildings of the system's rival were partially erased. Other peculiarities result from the planning mechanisms that both forms of state applied, which can be discussed on the basis of the respective ideological standpoint. During the cold war, architecture became an important way to shape and express collective and national identities. As a result, the politics of the GDR, especially in the form of the Unity Party, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), intervened in many cases to express socialism also in architecture and urban planning, which resulted in an urbicide of identity-forming buildings of the political and ideological competitors were systematically removed from the cityscape. Similar actions, but with reversed prefixes, were taken by the Federal Republic of Germany, which reunited the formerly separated parts of east and west Germany in 1990. Since this reunification, measures taken by the GDR are being reversed, a process that is driven by private supporters who fund the revival of a lost homogeneity in the cityscape. Thus, on one hand, GDR architecture is gradually disappearing, while on the other hand, buildings from the pre-war period are often reconstructed in their place. A process that continues to this day, and gradually documents the rapid change of ideologies and the perception of history in successive political frameworks. The paper therefore examines the development of Potsdam in both successive German states and case studies of the Stadtschloss and Garnisonkirche on the basis of a literature study, as both buildings are reflecting the eventful history of Germany and the changing ideologies in the built environment as they have been razed during the period of the GDR and were reconstructed after the reunification.

Publicly accessible urban spaces in New York City are subject to different ownership models. Some are privately owned by corporations, which are called POPs. Others are publicly accessible urban spaces publicly owned by the Department of Parks and Recreation. Because there is little research about how the ownership structures of these two different ownership structures affect the accessibility and use of their different publicly accessible urban spaces, in regards to the organisation of political events. I hypothesise that there is a difference in accessibility and use, for different ownership structures, regarding political events. Political events was chosen as the main use due to the change within the political climate in the United States of America, during Donald J, Trump’s presidency. The main research question is: Is there a difference in the accessibility and use of publicly accessibly urban spaces in New York City for political events depending on their ownership structure? For each of the different ownership structures three case studies’ urban design features and rules and regulations were introduced and analysed. Following this chapter, different types of political events are introduced by including events that took place within the case studies. From which, certain urban design requirements were identified that were necessary to host different political events. After comparing the case studies’ urban design elements and rules and regulations with the identified requirements of different types of political events, it was concluded that there is indeed a difference in accessibility and use of publicly accessible urban spaces in New York City for political events. Publicly owned public spaces are more accessible and useful for hosting political events regarding the urban design elements within the case studies. However, POPs are more accessible and useful for hosting political events regarding the rules and regulation of the case studies.

Throughout history the built environment has mostly been designed from an able-bodied perspective, which causes a set of challenges for people with disabilities. In the 20th century however, a growing attention for disability in architecture took place that resulted in a shift in architecture. This thesis focusses on DeafSpace design and how architecture has historically responded to the need to design for people with disabilities. This leads to the research question of this thesis: What makes design for DeafSpace so special compared to other architectural adaptations for other disabilities? By analysing three buildings that follow the DeafSpace design principles, this thesis shows what makes DeafSpace special compared to other architectural adaptations for other disabilities. DeafSpace concerns design principles that go beyond the mere application of a ramp for wheelchairs. DeafSpace creates spaces that benefit ‘every-body’, it refuses the ‘normalisation’ and ‘standardisation’ of the able-bodied perspective. It is about creating awareness and it seeks to design and improve spaces to be functional for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In saying so, it is to be concluded that, in contrast with its name, DeafSpace and its five design principles—Space and Proximity, Mobility and Proximity, Sensory Reach, Light and Colour, and Acoustics—are beneficial to ‘every-body’.

The Netherlands is facing a housing shortage and adequate housing provision is lacking. Citizens are eager to act on their own through bottom-up initiatives. However, bottom-up initiatives (such as cooperative housing) do not thrive within the current housing market and therefore significant development of cooperative housing in the Netherlands stays off. This research aims to support the development of cooperative housing in the Netherlands. This is being achieved through constructing an alternative reality of the housing market through composing a play script. The script is being informed by interviews, literature review and analysing case study projects. The interviews were conducted among the present stakeholders (the academic, the advocate, the architect, the bank, the cooperative, the developer, the dweller, the municipality). All together, the research hopes to transfer these thoughts and findings on cooperative housing to continue this collective process.

“The city should be for everyone”. According to Paulo Mendes da Rocha, “the city has to address the issues of coexistence, inclusion and the transformation of its own fabric”. This is the “battle” the Brazilian institution SESC is facing from its birth in 1946. As a non-profit private institution kept by trade businessmen, SESC primary aim is the welfare of workers and their family. However, the institution is also open to the general community. It was created with the purpose of providing to the society education, health, leisure, cultural and medical facilities. This approach to an inclusive architecture is reflected in the units that SESC has built across Sao Paulo; most famously the SESC 24 de Maio, by da Rocha, and the Sesc Pompeia, by Lina Bo Bardi. This two interventions have a fundamental role in the redevelopment of social functions within the tumultuous Brazilian community. In fact, “this cultural and recreational facilities have been part of political operations in the transformation of historic centres”, where architecture is the responsible for the existing urban and social environment rebirth, as the facilities are developed in abandoned transformed buildings, to give back to the city its own fabric. This was very unconventional for the 2nd postwar period, as the government was pushing for a massive construction of new buildings, also influenced by the advent of modernism in Brazil. The idea of an industrial architectural heritage din’t exist at the time. These interventions, especially Bo Bardi’s Sesc Pompeia, are revolutionary: they were meant for the preservation of the form, the structure and the idea of that place, working places where the work was hard becoming places for workers’ leisure. The architectural heritage meet the social, historical and political background. Therefore, this thesis will deepen the combination of means like businessmen’s fundings, collaboration between architects and users and the redevelopment of the industrial heritage, that allowed this institution to be powerful enough to express itself against hard existing social, political and economical conditions, thanks to a revolutionary architectural translation.
 This institution is considered a worldwide recognised model. In fact, some European recreational and cultural centres which have references (or similarities) in the SESC projects will be used as examples of how the city can be redeveloped starting from its existing fabric. However, the contemporary city is disputed between those architects looking for a multifunctional architecture redeveloping the existing environment, and those who are focused on architecture as a performance, asking for “mono-functional signature” architectural work by a famous architect”. This debate is the second and conclusive part of the thesis, an analysis of these examples of the SESC-influenced buildings, both developing and facing challenges within the contemporary western cities, being preferred the construction and spreading of new ‘icons’. This landmarks’ construction with the aim of attracting tourism is making forget the importance of the development of an architecture based on the social sustainability, thanks to infrastructure containing various programs for the local citizens. The example of SESC in São Paulo—“quite a vertical and densely populated city, a city of great resources and also tremendous poverty, a city with a high crime rate, a city with severe traffic issues, and a city with public health problems”—it’s an evidence of the key role of architecture’s contribution in the urban development, currently threatened by interventions that do not better respond to modern cities requirements.

This thesis examines urban agriculture as a tool in city planning to overcome a different form of urban crises, such as urban poverty, war, and climate crisis. By examining those specific crises based on historical events, I define agriculture integration strategies in urban planning and their effectiveness to restructure the urban fabric to overcome the different forms of urban crises. The city of London is a case study that is investigated at three specific moments; the early 1900s, during the First and Second World War, and from 1970 to the present. The first part of the research analyses the concept of ‘Garden Cities’ (1902) created by urban planner E. Howard to overcome urban poverty. The second part investigates ‘Victory Gardens’ and the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaigns that were introduced to cope with the food shortage during both World Wars. The last part of the thesis explores sustainable cities concepts created in the 70s and the theory of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (2004) to overcome climate crises. In addition to this, I am mapping London’s agriculture fields, community gardens, and allotments at each section of the research that monitors the changes of physical connection between food cultivation and urban areas. The analysis defines three main strategies of agriculture integration into urban planning: zoning line; integrated into the urban areas; intermixed with the urban fabrics. Those urban planning strategies have qualities to restructure the physical environment, the ecological, socio-cultural, and economic structure of the city.

Terrorism is something the United States of America has had to deal with since 1789. Near the end of the 20th century such attacks had become more frequent and devastating with the most casualties caused by a single individual with the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. This has led to a nationwide uncertainty if more buildings were at risk to be damaged and how could this be prevented in the future. This thesis will analyze what changes are made in designing after a terrorist attack to determine how we approach structural and safety design differently. For this analysis The World Trade Center bombing (1993), The Oklahoma City bombing (1995) and The September 11 attacks (2001) will be discussed. In all 3 cases most changes were made in order to either improve structures to isolate damage at the location of the blast or to improve the safety of people in the building at the moment of an attack or during the evacuation.

In this thesis we study the influence Metabolism had on Superdutch and its architects. After analysing the two movements we learn that Superdutch is more diverse than expected, and is not specifically a movement, but more so a group of different architects with different beliefs that are labelled as a group. The two movements did however have a lot in common in the way they were created and the beliefs they had. Both consist of a group of younger architects that try to tackle problems in their countries like the lack of space and the stagnation of architecture. After this we came to the conclusion that Metabolism did not specifically have any influence on Superdutch but more so on the individual architects within this group. Take MVRDV for example, this architectural firm has a lot of overlap with Metabolism in its beliefs and standpoints, and their architecture therefore also tries to tackle some of the same problems. This overlap can also be seen in their architecture, which often has a lot in common with Metabolist architecture. But not all Superdutch architects have taken this inspiration and influence from Metabolism.

This history thesis tries to study the designing and building process of the Great Hall of the People, the place for the highest political meetings of the People’s Republic of China, also an important symbol of the 10th Anniversary of the National Day, and its relationship with the General Road for socialist construction (the main ideology in the early stage of the Second Five-Year Plan). It hopes to explore how this building could be influenced by the individual ideologies of the General Road as "more, faster, better and cheaper", to make an evaluation of these influences and their heritage.With the detailed memories of designers and officials involved, relevant architectural criticism and historical background, research methodology of literature review, and architectural analysis, this paper attempts to study the contemporary background of China’s domestic ideological practices and international environment, so as to achieve a clear understanding of the relationship between the Great Hall and ideology of the General Road.As the main argument, although it is a relatively successful project with a different ending from the Great Leap Forward in the latter part of the Second Five-Year Plan, the Great Hall still only meets the three requirements of the General Road. It fully embodies "more" and is an extreme case under the influence of "faster". It interacts with "better" but does not achieve "cheaper" eventually. The study of its relationship with ideology explains some puzzling aspects of the Great Hall and reveals the General Road as an idealistic but defective way at the same time.

Positions in Practice Graduation Studio (MSc 3 | MSc 4), Bogotá, Colombia, Fall 2015 - Spring 2016

Curators of the exhibition at the Flemish Architecture Institute, DeSingel International Arts Campus, Antwerp, Belgium, 26 April – 11 June 2017.@en

Curators of the exhibition at the Flemish Architecture Institute, DeSingel International Arts Campus, Antwerp, Belgium, 26 April – 11 June 2017.@en