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.

Namibia has been home to some of the world’s oldest ethnic groups since the dawn of civilization. One of these cultures is the Himba, often referred to as ‘the last true pastoral nomads’ of Africa. They are known for inhabiting the water scarce desert region of Kunene in Namibia for centuries. Now, various factors, including climate change and the absence of governmental support, are forcing the Himba population to decide which aspects of ‘modern’ culture to incorporate into their everyday lives.

After decades of declining rainfall and rising temperatures, drought and omakururukiro yokuti (over-utilized land and vegetation) are the reality. The Himba is therefore forced to rely on their nomadic origins for survival, and to travel southwards, ‘following the water’, to Windhoek which is the capital of Namibia. On arrival, they are confronted with inequality apparent in the African urban built environment and take part in the rapid urbanization of Windhoek. They settle in townships, in shacks, located on the outskirts of the city, where access to water and sanitation is limited. Due to landscape topology, climate change and other factors, the high possibility of flooding poses a new risk. Indeed a life-threatening choice: surviving drought in Kunene or surviving floods in Windhoek.

Mumbai is one of India’s most heavily populated cities, ranking as the biggest metropolitan region in the country. As a result, a design for a new city called Navi Mumbai was presented in 1964. It was originally planned to further extend the urbanization of Mumbai to the mainland instead of any further northwards. This satellite town needed to decongest the population, absorb the migration from the countryside, reduce the concentration of economic activity on Bombay Island and lower the traffic congestions. Navi Mumbai was a city planned for the common man; with jobs and housing in different sectors.
But instead of becoming a city for the common man, Navi-Mumbai today is, as many cities of the so-called Global South, a place where social inequality is growing and housing becomes a commodity.
Housing is a primary human right, but for the urban poor it is a prerequisite of political and social citizenship. For them a house is not only for life alone, but a house is also a production and marketplace. So the project focuses on a better integration of the people from the lower income groups into the city’s urban fabric. So they have fuller access to wider social networks, a more dignified social role and a deeper source for accumulating information, credibility and dignity for the urban poor in public life as well.
Two World Merge is about two different scales. One being the unit scale, by combining economic and domestic activities within one housing unit to create healthier working and living conditions. The other is at the scale of the neighbourhood or city, by integrating the lower income groups with their home-based enterprises and businesses into the city. This economic integration of the lower-income groups will lead to an empowerment of their livelihood.

The world is increasingly urbanised. Especially in those countries that are in rapid development, the migration to the city is extreme. This is the case for Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. Its population growth exceeds the number of newly built housing, and the housing that exists is unfit for a majority of the urban population. People create their own solution and move to informal neighbourhoods: neighbourhoods where they build their own houses and earn their money on the streets.

While the conditions in the informal settlements are far from optimal, people can live their life and create their own opportunities. Somehow, they make a living that they cannot make in formal housing units: either due to the rent they cannot afford to pay, or due to the inability to earn an income in the way they do in the informal neighbourhood. In this way of living the life in the informal neighbourhoods, temporality plays an important role. People are versitale, can adapt to different situations, different circumstances. They can build up a process, starting something from scratch with the resilience to improve it, one step at the time. The streets are vital: pedestrian flows are economic opportunities. Converting any moment, any place into an opportunity that fits the situation the best: from a kitchen to a shop through the window, from a outdoor stall to an outdoor cooking spot, from a place of moving and travelling, to a place for gathering and meeting. Spaces can transform, dwellings can transform, adapt to circumstances, adapt to serve the opportunity that seems most succesful. It is this temporal element that makes them resilient.

But these people are also vulnerable. With the current neighbourhood conditions, a lack of good quality housing, a lack of a well patterned street-network, a lack of services and hygiene, a lack of legal ownership, the dangers are clearly visible: fire, flooding, eviction and disease are potential enemies, created by their living situation. These people, of which there are so many in a city like Addis Ababa, deserve a home that caters their needs, actively engages them to use their abilities to improve their neighbourhood with the right acces to services, streets, economic opportunties. How can we use the theme of temporality to create such dwellings?

In this project, a built environment is envisioned that combines the informal way of living (earning an income, having social relations), with a good quality of dwelling. It provides a framework in which people can built their dwellings tehmselves, keeping them affodable, and being able to constantly adapt the home to what they need most. It generates outside space as well as people flows on lower as well as higher levels to increase the economic opportunities for all of the people living in the area.

With almost 110 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the largest and most populous
country in the Horn of Africa. In the current trend of global urbanization, Ethiopia’s cities are rapidly growing. A tripling of the urban population is to be expected in 2050, putting a big pressure on the housing stock and employment opportunities. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital is growing at 3.8% per year, as more and more people from smaller villages or rural areas search for a better life standard. Statistics show that among the relatively young migrants, 6 out of 10 is female, coming from different social and cultural backgrounds. Women in Ethiopia, and to a larger extent those living in rural areas, suffer from a lower social status in the patriarchal society. They struggle more to find appropriate housing and supporting networks. This thesis invests the opportunities to create gender sensitive housing to pave the way for these new urban women. Furthermore, it proposes an alternative to the current mass housing strategy.

Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, is challenged by the phenomenon of rapidly growing urbanization. The city is targeted at the risk that fast-tracked urbanization will cause loss of existing habitats and socioeconomic qualities (Tesfaye, 2012). The initiated condominiums have caused a mismatch between the Architectural approach and the anthropological features, lifestyle and aspirations of the inhabitants themselves. This highly influences the quality of life in the urban context of Addis Ababa. The objective of this design project is to redress this mismatch and reflect on striking findings of the research that have been made throughout Ethiopia. By following the striking needs of Ethiopians, the goal of this design project is to realize a well-integrated design, which allows Ethiopian variety and differences of their lifestyle, aspirations, and needs. The report will communicate my vision for this project. A combination of sketches, short writings, flashes of Ethiopian inspiration and common interests argue the choices that have been made. It will lead you through the rural- and urban living all the way until the new proposed urban design project for Addis Ababa, a systematic approach that can adapt to cultural and lifestyle differences on various scales.

The following design hypothesis addresses the spatial dilemma between city development and lack of tenure security of informal housing dwellers with a special emphasis on improving the economy of both of the individual households as well as supporting the development of the city.

The goal of the research and the main goal for the design was to create a new urban paradigm of city development proving that resettlement of the informal households can be avoided and that maintaining the bond with the center is crucial for the livelihood of the communities.

The main challenge was to spatially combine both functions keeping in mind the inherent differences between them and exploring all the social implications, challenges and opportunities of the resulting mix. Important for the project was maintaining current income-generating activities (especially the close relation to the ground) and maintaining the social bonds between the slum dwellers.

The area of intervention is located in the Kazanchis area around the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa, which in recent years has gone through rapid urban development resulting in resettling 730 households outside the city center to make space for expensive multi-story offices and mixed buildings. Because of its prime location and direct proximity to informal settlements, further development is predicted to ensue.