The municipality of Amsterdam has come forth with a request for architecture students of the Technical University of Delft within the studio of Complex Projects to investigate the future challenges of Amsterdam through scenario-research and hence come up with proposed spatial and/or architectural configurations for the year 2050. This all with the objective to develop a sustainable city. This project answers this question on an integrative level tackling multiple seemingly conflicting developments within the urban realm of Amsterdam Zuid-Oost; the energy-transition, urbanization and water-protection. Since Amsterdam is facing an increasing urbanization, the directly related resulting increase of hardened area and waste-water will require an increase of water storage and hence an intelligent water network in order to tackle the simultaneously increasing flood risk caused by multiple factors such as climate change and soil subsidence. Simultaneously, an increasing demand for energy storage as a result of a transition towards renewable energy sources (since renewable energy sources imply an imbalance between the energy demand and the energy generation) require flood-proof energy-batteries. Since water and its energy storage capacity has currently been introduced by multiple scientific sources as a sustainable (flood-proof etc.) alternative for the ion-based battery the idea of integrating a water-battery within the urban fabric where water storage will be highly needed has hence been introduced as an answer to the problem in this report. Hence, allowing water to flow through the highly urbanized urban fabric of Amsterdam Zuid-Oost in 2050 and using both its kinetic and chemical energy capacity (salinized ground-water; blue energy) to store energy. The height difference caused by the introduction of an elevated park near the area around Bullewijk station could hence be used in order for the water to flow down and extract its gravitational energy. The resulting architectural composition which incorporates a water-battery system, sport-, cultural- and educational facilities hence embodies a calming atmosphere in a vibrant city allowing currently segregated socio-economic groups to meet and hence inspire one another.

The borderlands between the U.S.A. and Mexico are usually associated with problems of immigration, violence and illegal trades. As a reaction, the architecture of the border and its crossings is one of aggression, control and exposure creating an identity and spatial experience that undermines and damages the binational communities, socially, politically and culturally. The binational border, by its nature, is the place where differences in culture, language and politics meet. A balance between its resistance and permeability potentially creates an environment that attracts and stimulates authenticity and diversity.
At the heart of the twin-cities of El Paso, U.S.A. and Juarez, Mexico, lies the second busiest crossing along the U.S.-Mexican border for which I made a new design. The design has to deal with over 50.000 people crossing every day both on foot and by car. In the design I enlarged the space between the border check points creating a political free zone in which I tried to oppose the current architectural trend by focussing on, freedom and ambiguity in movement and use and on spaces that offer shelter and privacy. The border is materialized as a 25 meter tall wall that encloses a contextual vacuum in which the people, the current border and the existing crossing can be seen in a new light, and can act free from contextual connotations and expectations.