In today’s world, the transport system is essential in helping people reach the activities they want or need to attend. However, like in many other fields, inequality can exist in access to various opportunities based on personal characteristics. Little is known about how gender and intersectional factors impact people's perceived accessibility. This thesis aims to fill this knowledge gap using a mixed methods approach. First, desk research shows that perceived accessibility can be influenced by a large variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the primary mode used, perceived safety in transport and socio-demographic factors. Second, Structural Equation Modelling is used to investigate the strength of relationships between the various found factors and gender intersectional factors. This analysis shows that being a woman has a negative effect on perceived accessibility, which can for a part be explained by women feeling less safe in transport at night. Additionally, the analysis shows that for women having young children negatively impacts perceived accessibility, but not for men, while for men income positively relates to access to a car and in turn to perceived accessibility, an effect which is not found for women. Finally, the subsequent qualitative analysis, using workshops, shows that little attention has been paid in the past to (social) safety issues in transport and to differences in needs between different kinds of travellers. In the future, more cooperation between transport institutions and integrated intersectional policymaking in transport would be of significant value.

Cities around the world constitute complex systems, as sets of sub-components that are connected and interact with each other. Due to this inherent complexity, there are numerous emerging challenges that need to be tackled. In those complex environments, various-interest groups collaborate and compete to achieve their goals and interests, constituting a vital part of urban planning. The advancement of technology and ICT, and the abiding need to keep citizens engaged, marked a critical shift in the way that urban planning confronts the increasingly contemporary complex issues. This advancement has offered citizens a way to digitally participate in urban planning procedures, overcoming certain limitations, while posing, also, challenges related to the level of its effectiveness. While many methods and tools have been developed over the years, for enhancing citizen engagement and the effectiveness of public participation, there seems to be an evident gap in substantial and two-way collaboration among the (relevant) urban stakeholders. This thesis project aims to hark the perspectives and needs of the urban stakeholders, translating them into a conceptual design of a digital public participation platform. Next to that, except for the importance of the platform itself, as a tool, the focus was also given to participation, as a process, considering that such a platform could and should act as a promoter of effective public participation rather than a stand-alone solution. Consequently, the main research question of this study is: Which characteristics need to be included in designing a public participation platform so that it can enhance citizen engagement and facilitate more effective public participation in urban planning? For this research, a design science research approach was chosen. A theoretical background was developed on existing theories, methods and frameworks related to public participation and digital platforms. Data collection was conducted using multiple methods, including workshops, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires, while data analysis was conducted inductively, to identify all the emerging patterns and their interrelations. From the data analysis, five core themes emerged: General findings; (De)Motivational factors for public participation; Characteristics; Technical requirements; Technological features. Retaining these themes, the analyzed results were then critically synthesized, both in qualitative and quantitative terms, to provide a holistic overview. Combing the obtained results, the main research outputs were developed, providing an overall answer to the main research question. First, a trifold validation of the results, related to the past, present, and future, was conducted, fulfilling the rigor and design cycle of the design science research, and attaining a continuous assessment. Building upon the evaluation results, for the platform as a tool, a conceptual design was developed, based on the different views of the urban stakeholders. For the process of public participation in general, a set of guidelines was developed, providing recommendations on how to enhance citizen engagement and the effectiveness of public participation, based on the different views of the urban stakeholders. This thesis concludes with some important final remarks, including limitations, recommendations for future research, research relevance, and the author’s final reflections on the research.

Urban areas often experience temperature imbalances, resulting in higher temperatures than their rural surroundings, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This effect has adverse consequences such as heightened heat-related morbidity and mortality, amplified energy demands, aggravated water scarcity, and diminished urban living comfort. These effects are expected to intensify due to urbanization, making cities more susceptible to heat-related problems and increasing the number of inhabitants subjected to them, and climate change, increasing the frequency and Intensity of heatwaves occurring. As more than half of the world population lives in these urban areas, the imperative for effective mitigation strategies becomes paramount. Addressing the complexity of the urban environment necessitates the collaboration of various disciplines to create effective UHI mitigation strategies. However, the integration and dissemination of multidisciplinary knowledge in this context are currently inadequate. This study bridges this gap by introducing a multidisciplinary typology-based framework employing a concurrent mixed-method approach, encompassing systematic literature reviews, semi-structured expert interviews, and multidisciplinary workshops in four distinct phases. These phases are specifically designed to identify, collect, integrate, and disseminate knowledge in this field, with applicability across diverse disciplines and contexts. While the framework was first designed for the technologies at "Heat Square" of "The Green Village" in Delft, Netherlands, it is highly adaptable and can accommodate the inclusion of different technologies to enhance its impact. Given the increasing importance of addressing UHI challenges, this framework contributes to integrating and disseminating knowledge, supporting the creation of mitigation strategies and, therefore, contributing to creating livable and resilient urban environments in response to a changing climate.

Forced migration has been a significant struggle in the Netherlands, politically, socially, spatially and culturally. The costs of this struggle are paid by asylum seekers and status holders, living in uncertainty and isolation. This thesis discusses the position of Syrian status holders in the Netherlands, refugees who have obtained a residency permit to stay in the Netherlands. The aim of this thesis is to explore which role small towns play in the integration of Syrian status holders. A hypothesis was formulated that formed the basis for the fieldwork. The fieldwork consisted of site visits to two towns: Hardenberg and Dalfsen and interviews with Syrian status holders. The fieldwork provided opportunities and lessons that informed the final results. The result of this thesis is a roadmap to belonging: an overview of the factors: places, identifications, policies and collaborations, that influence the sense of belonging of Syrian status holders. A sense of belonging is defined by three dimensions: economic integration, social integration and the expression of cultural identity. Three catalysts are proposed to showcase how combining different factors results in complicated but effective strategies to improve the sense of belonging of Syrian status holders, while also offering opportunities to the host community. The catalysts concern employment, entrepreneurship, social interaction and leisure activities. This thesis provides a new view on the accommodation of newcomers, where benefits for the local society are synergized with a welcoming home for Syrian status holders.

In the wake of tackling energy poverty by its roots and protecting vulnerable groups, the European Commission introduced the so-called Renovation Wave, aiming to renovate 35 million inefficient buildings by 2050. However, even though the Renovation Wave was aimed to tackle energy poverty, recent studies have shown that renovation policies have failed to address energy poverty as renovation and social policies lack intersectoral integration resulting in the exclusion of vulnerable groups and an increased risk of social inequity. Moreover, various scholars have tried to identify vulnerability indicators that give rise to energy poverty; however, these have only focused on identifying socio- economic and energy indicators. Consequently, scholars have called to include justice in renovation policies and explore how vulnerable groups can be identified. To address this knowledge gap, the following main research question was formulated: Using a Case-Study Mixed Methods (CS-MM) approach, how can justice be included in renovation policies considering the socio-spatial vulnerability to energy poverty? The results showed that by identifying vulnerable groups based on a locally developed index of the socio-spatial vulnerability to energy poverty and acknowledging their vulnerability, recognitional justice can be included in renovation policies. Besides, identifying tailored policy strategies in a multi-stakeholder environment that, on the one hand, focus on the distribution of renovation resources based on the needs and characteristics of the identified vulnerable groups and, on the other hand, on how the vulnerable groups can be included in the decision-making, distributional and procedural justice can be included in renovation policies. Thus, it can be concluded that by deploying the current CS-MM approach, justice can be included.  The outcomes of the present study are twofold. Firstly, from a scientific perspective, the present study contributes to the current body of scientific knowledge on: (1) how vulnerable groups in need of renovation can be identified, (2) how justice can be included in renovation policies to address energy poverty and (3) how a CS-MM approach can be deployed to research how justice can be included in renovation policies considering the socio-spatial vulnerability to energy poverty. Secondly, from a societal perspective, this study provides insights to improve policy strategies that enable local decision-makers to identify vulnerable groups and include justice in renovation, considering the socio-spatial vulnerability to energy poverty.

Transport decision-making determines people’s level of accessibility and deeply influences an individual’s access to social and economic opportunities and the quality of life. Socially vulnerable populations are highly dependent on yet often more likely to have less access to transport services and experience lower accessibility. This creates and reinforces social and spatial inequalities by trapping people in disconnected neighborhoods and segregated areas that continue to be deprived of access to opportunities. This research aims to develop a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) to explore how re-purposing existing streets for walking and biking could influence the accessibility of vulnerable neighborhoods to support decision-making in enhancing equity of accessibility. In the SDSS, equity of accessibility is formulated as a generative design (GD) problem, named the Street Allocation Decision Problem (SADP), a single-objective optimization problem that searches for generated designs with the maximum weighted improvement in accessibility per unit of its cost. A GD model is built to solve SADP. Lastly, an operational framework is developed to guide prospective users in tuning and operating the SDSS for their specific context, problem, and objective. The SDSS is tested on a toy problem, a 0.09km2 area in The Hague, The Netherlands. The toy problem is small in scale, easy and fast to implement and useful for initial testing of the model. Preliminary results have demonstrated the feasibility of the model. This is the first and humble attempt at developing an SDSS for enhancing equity of accessibility with a GD model. However, there are shortcomings in methodology and result quality, which compromise the practicality of the model and the interpretability of results. Although, only a proof of concept at the moment, the SDSS is a valuable starting point due to its advantages, such as transparency, modularity, humane-ness, and flexibility. This SDSS is built to involve decision-makers in the design process, which could serve as a useful learning experience for questioning and understanding what is the problem, what is considered equitable, and what are possible solutions. The SDSS has the potential to facilitate learning during transport decision-making in experimental settings or as explorative aids in early design stages.

As the urban population grows worldwide and cities are becoming increasingly unequal and segregated, Urban Commons emerge as a potential driver of inclusion and resilience for city dwellers. According to Feinberg et al. (2021), Urban Commons can promote social, environmental, and economic resilience, and Park et al. (2020) suggest they can act as a haven for the excluded. Commons could, therefore, become a policy alternative to address the grand urban challenges of the 21st Century. However, it is still unclear whether the benefits of Urban Commons are ultimately accessible to the culturally and socioeconomically vulnerable. For instance, in a literature review study, Huron (2017) found significant uncertainties in how Urban Commons relate to feminism, race, gender, and ethnicity – factors that could constitute immaterial barriers of access, following Vrasti & Dayal’s (2017) terminology. In fact, while several studies have investigated the commons’ role in promoting urban justice, explorations of whether access to the commons itself is just have been neglected. This master’s thesis explores what constitutes material and immaterial barriers to accessing Urban Commons to understand whether these initiatives can work, policy-wise, as a driver of social inclusion. 29 Urban Commons in Amsterdam were selected as a case study. A quantitative geo-spatial analysis was conducted to evaluate the material accessibility to each initiative. In parallel, commoners were surveyed about their perception of immaterial barriers and benefits of commoning. Finally, a representative of the municipality of Amsterdam was interviewed to assess the potential challenges and benefits of policies involving Urban Commons. Concurring with Park et al. (2020), the case study findings suggest commons could indeed promote social inclusion. Moreover, it was also found that the excluded could face, in addition to the initially proposed material and immaterial walls, an ecosystem barrier to access commons. Yet this could be addressed from a policy standpoint with the development of a commons ecosystem that is capable of scaling the benefits of commoning across an entire city. The results have academic and societal relevance. This study provides a new theoretical framework to research the factors influencing access to commons and also contributes to literature with a unique city-wide case study. It can also function as a reference for policy-makers who wish to learn about the commons landscape in Amsterdam and who interested in understanding the factors that contribute to participation in a commons.

Accessibility is a fundamental concept concerning urban and transport planning as it is the elementary basis for socio-economic development in cities. It can be described as the potential to reach spatially distributed opportunities. Recent research has identified that excluding person-based features from this analysis might cause inaccurate measurement of accessibility. Age, gender, and income, for instance, are responsible for varying accessibility levels drastically. In addition, studies worldwide have shown that women face different challenges in reaching locations and spatially distributed opportunities. Despite the findings, this research identifies a gap in understanding how a person-based perspective, mainly gender, and other personal characteristics, affect accessibility levels, considering various travel purposes and transport modes. Thus, this research aims to answer the question, ”How do person-based characteristics, mainly gender, can impact accessibility levels?”. The primary objective is to explore how these characteristics influence accessibility metrics, identify the urban groups most affected by the absence of this perspective, and determine the key personal characteristics that significantly impact accessibility levels. To address these objectives, this study considers a combination of quantitative and case-study research approaches. It investigates the Metropolitan Region Rotterdam- The Hague in The Netherlands by applying surveys to obtain perceived accessibility data. In the same region, spatial analysis is conducted by mapping transport networks and points of interest. Then, this study compares spatially calculated accessibility with self-reported accessibility and the presence of mismatches. In addition, cluster analysis identifies the urban profiles most vulnerable to mismatches and their main characteristics. A Binary logistic regression is conducted to determine the variables’ importance in the mismatch occurrence. From the survey answers, it is identified that women have less access to cars than men. In addition, the comparison between perceived accessibility and spatial accessibility uncovers that women present the most critical mismatches to reach activities by car. In other words, several women perceive the car as an impractical option to access points of interest that are spatially considered reachable by car. It raises the hypothesis that the lack of car access highly impacts their accessibility perception. Furthermore, the clustering analysis reveals that foreign women exhibit a higher prevalence of car-related mismatches when compared to other urban groups. Moreover, this research identifies that fathers of young children also encounter greater disparities across all transportation modes. Additionally, the binary logistic regression underscores the importance of safety as a critical factor influencing women’s perception of walking as a viable mode of transportation. This safety importance is also identified from the survey answers. The findings raise new hypotheses that warrant investigation in transport engineering, urban planning, and social sciences. Consequently, this research can contribute to developing more inclusive transport policies and establishing a more equitable transport system.

The scarcity of resources is increasing, resulting in the transformation of entire regions. People take a lot of the resources on Earth for granted. This calls for a transition from the current ‘throw-away’-economy to a ‘circular’ economy. The constant circulation of materials and products in this type of system preserves the value of materials. Academics and practitioners are addressing this transition, but they frequently ignore its social and spatial aspects. A socio-spatial framework for reorganizing a district towards a circular system is proposed in this thesis. The solution presented is fundamentally utopian, aiming to challenge established ideas about the current system. In this thesis, the public space’s redesign serves as an entry point to the private and communal spaces. The design location for this thesis is the Indische Buurt. This district is located in east of Amsterdam. With a large proportion of social housing, the area’s primary use is residential. Additionally, there are a few shopping streets nearby. The approach used in this thesis was context-specific. The three main approaches used were literature reviews, field research, and ‘research by design’. According to the analysis, residents are crucial in deciding whether and how to dispose of things. But at the moment, the area doesn’t have many resources supporting circular behavior. The issue of waste disposal in public areas is one of the effects. In addition, the district has a high proportion of minima-households, little greenery, and roadways that are mostly occupied by parked cars. The primary observation about governance analysis is the lack of emphasis on the spatial implications necessary for the shift to a circular system. The district is reorganized using a spatial framework that was constructed using the R-ladder. The R-ladder is a circularity model made up of ten R-strategies for reducing the amount of materials and resources used in product chains. The higher up the strategy is on the ladder, the more value is retained. Following that, a spatial design for a square and its surrounding streets is proposed. The visibility of circularity is prioritized in this design to enhance public awareness. Furthermore, the design aims to maximize the value retention of materials or products by selecting the solution that best retains value. In addition to the design, recommendations will be made to the governance of the Netherlands and Amsterdam. This will improve the existing circular strategy and policy.

Tolerance is an essential tool of peaceful coexistence that allows diversity to flourish and a multicultural pluralist society to function. In times of globalisation, digitalisation, and polarization, it is becoming more critical than ever. Nevertheless, tolerance faces multiple issues. As a concept, it is being washed up, belittled, and critiqued either for its extensiveness or narrowness. Consequently, it became a vague notion, posing the question of what it means in contemporary society. Is it emotion, feeling, or attitude? How does it relate to other concepts of inclusivity and justice? In addition, even with an increasing amount of studies, there is still a gap in knowledge about the relationship between tolerance and space. It is still largely unknown how one associate with the other, what forces are affecting this link and how to use it to facilitate tolerance. Moreover, Kaunas, my hometown and choice as a case-study area, has very explicit issues regarding discriminatory but also changing attitudes, making it an optimal location to investigate (in)tolerance and conditions for it. Therefore in this paper I embark on a journey to study this concept, following the main research question: how can spatial and policy planning be used to foster more tolerant attitudes towards difference in everyday Kaunas? Tolerance is subjective, partly non-representational, and unconscious. For this reason, I chose to use a mixed-methods explorative approach, combining comprehensive theoretical and empirical analyses. I consolidated spatial observations, institutional research, in-depth unstructured interviews, extensive literature and media review, and poetic investigation of artistic mediums. Through these methods, I integrated knowledge from a diverse range of disciplines, from psychology and philosophy to urban planning and architecture. The fusion of multiple methods and disciplines allowed me to conclude on conceptual and spatial aspects of tolerance. By integrating tolerance into the affect theory, I argue that it is a process which, through encounter, transforms one state of being into another, meaning that tolerant attitudes are in constant flux. I transferred this new definition into the theoretical framework, which guided my empirical investigation in Kaunas. Based on unstructured interviews and an analysis of multiple cases, I uncovered a force affecting people’s attitudes in Lithuania – the Tolerance Event. It is a very active form of encounter that ruptures the passive status quo while at the same time addressing severe socio-cultural issues and allowing people to get to know diversity. Building on this theory, I propose multiple strategies as an example of how to use the Tolerance Event in Kaunas. They involve funding, policy, institutions, design, and planning proposals and are covered by one central vision – to become the Brave Tolerance City, Kaunas needs More Tolerance Events.

As the effects of climate change are more and more materializing around the globe it is ever more important to reduce our reliance on a fossil fuel based energy system. When coupling this to an ongoing trend of urbanization in many places across the world, the energy systems of our cities become of particular interest. However, the transition away from a fossil fuel based system towards a renewable energy based system is a complex sociotechnical process that in part relies on the extent to which households are able to adopt energy efficient technologies. Not all households are equally capable of investing in these technologies, causing some households to have better access to participate in the renewable energy transition. This unequal access to the renewable energy transition causes an unequitable distribution of energy efficient technologies and could potentially lock-in or perpetuate current injustices. To prevent this from happening there is a need for energy policy that supports socioeconomic groups across society, that have inadequate access to the renewable energy transition. In order to design such policy it is essential to first of all identify who these groups are, and secondly where they are located. As the renewable energy transition is still in its early stages, these insights are currently lacking in literature. Considering the fact that solar PV is a major driver of the renewable energy transition, this thesis in part addresses this knowledge gap by spatially analyzing which socioeconomic groups in the urban environment lack access to solar PV and where these groups are located. Access to solar PV in this context is defined as: the freedom of individuals or households to decide whether or not to adopt residential solar PV energy resources, dependent on the existence of one or more barriers. Secondly, does the research assess how access to solar PV resources spatially intersects with the ability to generate solar energy through these resources. The location that is selected as the area of study for this research is the city of The Hague, Netherlands. A framework is constructed to assess access to solar PV using the Theory of Planned Behavior originating from social sciences, which is frequently used to model adoption behavior of novel energy technologies. To evaluate the technical PV potential of the case-area the ArcGIS Solar Analyst Tool is applied. A K-means clustering analysis is performed to find any meaningful patterns in the distribution of access to solar PV across the area of study. The key findings of this study are: •Access to solar PV resources is unequally distributed across the Hague. Large parts of The Hague have unfavorable characteristics for solar PV adoption. •The highest levels of technical PV potential are found in areas that are considered to have poor access to solar PV. As a consequence, currently the majority of technical PV potential within the case area is likely to remain unexploited due to poor access to solar PV within these areas. •There is a need for energy policy that focuses on the groups that have poor access to solar PV and are unserved by current energy policy focused on stimulating adoption of solar PV. These groups are non-home owners in the private rental sector, home-owners that share ownership of the roof of a shared building and households that are provided housing by social housing corporations. Further research could focus on exploring and evaluating policy design that is aimed at supporting socioeconomic groups that currently lack access to the renewable energy transition. This is important in order to ensure that the renewable energy transition makes its way throughout all layers of society.

The built environment of the future should move with the changes the weather brings as well as evolve with slower and larger trends in our society like climate change, demographic changes, and technical advancements. By planning for the future now we can reduce obstacles for future generations of planners, designers, and governing bodies. The built environment should be able to function well whether water is in high or low flux. Water is fluid. It is shaped by and shapes its surroundings. Cities can learn a lot from this fluidity. By increasing the flexibility of urban design, we can anticipate and move with the changes the future brings instead of being in a continuous cycle of trying to catch up. The built environment should follow the current of the future and adapt to the changes in our climate and weather. Creating a city that adapts to new circumstances and moves with water.

The world is facing an escalating environmental crisis marked by major socio-ecological losses. Human-induced environmental threats, like biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution, underscore the onset of the Earth's sixth mass extinction, recently termed ‘ecocide’. Despite the urgent warnings from the scientific community and growing public awareness, inadequate and insufficient action has been taken to address the environmental crisis. In addition, recent research has shown that people are increasingly experiencing anxiety and feelings of hopelessness concerning these environmental issues, which prevents meaningful engagement with these topics. Yet, the role of emotions is often neglected in the Western discourse, impeding public acknowledgement of ecological grief (eco-grief). This study recognises eco-grief as a legitimate response and the process of eco-grief as a catalyst for true engagement and pro-environmental attitudes, demonstrating how this alternative approach can inform the governance and planning of eco-centric cities. A conceptual framework based on Latour’s cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic virtues, the process of eco-grief and the X-curve for societal transitions is used to understand how people perceive the ongoing crisis. Rotterdam Noord is taken as a case study, and a survey is used to gather citizens’ perceptions of nature, their experiences of ecological loss and grief, and their attachments to their local environment. In combination with a spatial and a governance analysis, a governance strategy is designed to create both physical and mental space for eco-grief to exist and be acknowledged in the urban context in order to contribute to a societal change towards eco-centric values. The strategy involves three elements focussed on building the relationship with our environment, revealing environmental losses and coping with the corresponding feelings. This research contributes to debates around eco-grief by providing empirical insights from an urban setting while addressing urban-specific challenges like the “anti-urban bias” and the “shifting baseline syndrome”.

This research delves into the intersection of collective trauma and urban design within the micro-districts of Alytus, Lithuania. It aims to understand how participatory urban design can facilitate the healing of collective trauma while enhancing public spaces. The research focuses on the long-term renovation of buildings constructed during the Soviet occupation, a process impacting 60% of Lithuania's population. Alytus, our case study, has an urban fabric that was marked by the stamp of modernistic prefabricated blocks, that presents a unique challenge and opportunity for addressing collective memory and trauma. Employing a multi-method approach, this research integrates literature reviews, case studies, spatial analysis, and participatory design exercises to explore the spatial dynamics of trauma recovery. Central to the study is the development of an engagement strategy based on trauma research, and the design of a participatory tool and process to test the initial phase of this new strategy. This strategy emphasizes the need for trust-building, safety, inclusivity, and community connectivity in micro-districts. Key findings suggest that examining the process of building and public space renovation through the lens of trauma necessitates rethinking and challenging the existing tools and methods used in participatory design sessions involving public, private, and civic stakeholders. The project proposes a new three-step participatory strategy for designing public spaces in micro-districts. In addition to identifying the urban and social issues of the Vidzgiris micro-district, the research presents a vision for transforming public spaces. This transformation proposes a new hierarchy and identity for various public spaces, aiming to facilitate both individual and collective trauma recovery. The research proposes that reshaping the existing participatory process can aid in acknowledging and recovering from collective trauma caused by the soviet occupation. This participatory process fosters learning, exploring and transforming together, and aims to enhance shared spaces to promote social cohesion among residents. The focus is on three distinct public spaces: the courtyards, the green corridors, and the railway park. These areas are examined for potential spatial interventions aimed at promoting both individual and collective trauma recovery, while also enhancing the spaces through the lens of climate mitigation. Contributing to the broader discourse on urban resilience, this study offers insights into how cities can address historical traumas through thoughtful urban planning and design. It underscores the potential of urban design as a tool for recovery and community rebuilding, providing a framework adaptable to other post-traumatic urban contexts globally.

This research is about designing for people with dementia. The Dutch population is aging and double aging, causing an increase of people with dementia. This also causes a growing imbalance between people who need care and people who can provide care. Adding to this are the current living arrangements for people with dementia not sufficient. Therefore the central question in this research is: what living environment features can contribute to the quality of life of people with dementia, and provide them with the care they need. The aim of this research is to define design guidelines that provide people with dementia with sufficient housing and a qualitative living environment through all stages of dementia. And to see if this can contribute to the efficiency in care, so that people with dementia can still get the care they need. This research obtains information through literature study, case studies and a fieldwork in an elderly care home to provide an answer to the main question. This research defines four main topics that contribute to the quality of life of people with dementia: distinctiveness, familiarity, independence and biophilic. This research investigates these topics on different scales. First the scale of the dwelling, than the building, and at last the near surroundings. Finally, this research has a chapter from the perspective of the caregiver on the living environment for people with dementia. This results in design guidelines. It can be concluded from this research that by bringing together the fields of dementia, dementia care and architecture, a qualitative living environment can be created for people with dementia with a high quality of life. A higher quality of life will contribute to the efficiency of care and a decrease in the demand for care.