In recent decades, gender inequality has been discussed increasingly in different fields of society. Since long ago, aspects like power dynamics in traditional households, or studies on the human anatomy, have influenced men and women’s place in society. This gender inequality has also impacted how cities have been designed by and for men, although the existing hypothesis is that the needs of men and women in a city differ. Evidence already shows that women feel more unsafe in cities then men, which can be caused by design of urban environments not being fit for women. This leaves the questions what this relation between gender and the built environment actually entails, whether cities are currently gender inclusive, and if not, how urban design can contribute to make them to do so. This research has found that men and women have different user patterns and perceptions when it comes to their presence in urban environments. This impacts the way they use and perceive the city. In this study, these differences have been translated into design principles that can positively impact women’s use and perception of the urban environment. These design principles were used to analyse the current state of gender inclusivity in urban environments, through the locations of Hillesluis and Zuidwijk, a pre- and post-war neighbourhood in Rotterdam Zuid with a high cultural diversity and a low socio-economic status. The analysis generated a set of spatial elements that either negatively or positively influence a woman’s perception of space. After testing these spatial elements through a survey, the findings were combined with the design principles, to design a proposal on how the current urban environments could be improved to be more gender inclusive. Guided by these end products, a universal framework was created, that can test all urban environments in their gender-inclusivity.

The province of South Holland has many important stakeholders and drivers that impact the economy of the whole of The Netherlands. This, together with the increasing global need for circularity, is why the province has an important task in the near future to take steps towards a circular economy. To address this task, this report has chosen to look into the agri-food sector, because of their high economical significance in South Holland, and the construction sector, because of the current and future high demand for housing. Both sectors also create large residual material flows. Minimizing the high amount of waste from both sectors is essential in order to reach a circular region. The existing approach in creating a circular economy is to often look at individual sectors and their material flows. This is logical, but adverse with the idea of circularity, where all chains are closed. We believe, however, that these problems don’t have to be solved within ‘their’ sector. Our vision to solve this problem is as follows: “In 2050, the material flow of the agri-food sector will be closed. All before-known waste is now used as a resource for the construction sector. Because of this, the waste of the construction sector is reduced. Because of the collaborative sector chains, they could now be seen as one interlinked sector. The South Holland agriculture sector is now a leading example for a symbiotic and self sufficient interlinked chain.” Our ambition is to create a new movement within the circular economy. Bottom-up initiatives show that it is possible to create interlinked sectors. This project will be a pilot in upscaling this idea, and proving this is possible and has greatly beneficial outcomes. The pilot focuses on using agri-food residual flows as a resource for the construction industry of South Holland, but can be an inspiration to interlinking other sectors. To approach the interlinking of sectors, we envision a few strategies. We will be bringing the pieces of different policies together, use education and knowledge as glue between the sectors, and use transport and infrastructure to support the connection. Spatially, this results in four types of transition areas, a new living environment where the two sectors come together, also impacting the surrounding areas. This also impacts citizens from a socio-economic perspective, because more cross-sector jobs will be created and competition between businesses will be stimulated, which drives them to become more circular.