As Dutch cities are increasingly looking to transform inner city industrial waterfronts into mixed-use neighbourhoods, the need for good participation processes with existing businesses increases. Although municipalities are aware of this, current participation processes often do not lead to the desired results. Therefore, a structured process approach is recommended to improve the participation process with existing businesses in industrial urban waterfront regenerations.

The Haagse Beemden in Breda is a neighbourhood that is designed towards the concept of the ‘’inverse town planning’’. In this concept, the underlying landscape structures the layout of the neighbourhood, resulting in an urban area with the landscape at its core. In the case of the Haagse Beemden this means that the neighbourhood was built around an old ‘’estate zone’’ and old green structures and waterways are still present in the design of the area, making the neighbourhood very green. The green character of the Haagse Beemden together with the used ‘’bloemkoolwijk’’ structure are focussed upon creating a neighbourhood with good social values and liveability. However, times have passed since the creation of the neighbourhood and nowadays its liveability and social values are under pressure. This thesis focuses on analysing what spatial aspects and characteristics could possibly cause these problems and how the green structure of the neighbourhood could be improved to stimulate a better nature connectedness, as nature connectedness can act as a catalyst for better social cohesion. The result is a design proposal for an ‘’estate park’’ that connects the neighbourhood to its core identity. This design is based on four created typologies (Central Green, Selective Collective, Connecting Green and Semi-Collective) that are funded by the findings in the theory and analysis phases.

Complex Projects Studio Beirut - Graduation Design of an urban sports centre in the dense area of Solidere (Downtown Beirut)

This master thesis discusses to what extend a productive open space system can increase the accessibility to local income generation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The rapid urbanising capitol of a mainly rural country cannot keep up with providing employment, housing and transportation for its current and future residents. The result is high travel costs in terms of money and time and poor access to income generation for a large share of the urban population. The aim of this thesis to investigate whether a more local approach can contribute to increasing accessibility. By designing current unused open spaces to be productive, for social activity, commercial activity and for producing (such as agriculture) activity, the accessibility to local income generation increases. The thesis discusses the Weyira sefer, a neighbourhood located in the west of Addis Ababa.

After the global financial crisis in 2008, new developments in the Dutch housing market halted, causing a deficit of available dwellings in the owner-occupied housing market. This in turn has increased the demand for rental housing, resulting in shortages in both the regulated as well as the unregulated rental housing segments. These shortages are most noticeable for lower and middle income households. The lack of supply for low income households sparked societal debate concerning skewed tenants, resulting changes in national housing policy. However, these regulations caused a further decrease in housing options for the middle income households. As a result, regional residential visions established by municipalities active in Dudok Wonen’s working area have since then had a strong focus on stimulating filtering processes: middle income households residing regulated rental dwellings should move, to make room for low-income households. To stimulate these filtering processes, housing association Dudok Wonen started to offer an intermediate rental segment (consisting out of ex-regulated rental dwellings) exclusively to middle income households, stating that the largest obstacle for the desired filtering processes is the lack of supply available to middle income households. Dudok Wonen assigned this intermediate rental segment ’50-50’ to starting and filtering middle income households. To examine the effect of this measure the following research question arose, to be answered in this thesis: ‘How do the intermediate rental segment and associated housing allocation procedures which Dudok Wonen offers contribute to the desired filtering processes in the municipalities Gooise Meren and Hilversum?’. To answer this research question, the residential visions in Dudok Wonen’s working area have been reviewed, and literature concerning the topic of residential mobility has been consulted. The selected research methods can be described as a mixed methods research, and involved a quantitative analysis of the available rental segments Dudok Wonen’s working area, a structured web-survey distributed amongst and answered by 806 tenants in Dudok Wonen’s regulated rental segment dwellings and 9 semi-structured interviews conducted with tenants of dwellings offered in Dudok Wonen’s intermediate rental segment. The quantitative analysis of rental segments was performed to examine whether the characteristics of intermediate rental segments intended for filtering households complied to the characteristics that Dudok Wonen had envisioned to trigger filtering. The intermediate rental segment dwellings were found to be larger than the regulated rental segment dwellings and to have a more beneficial price/quality ratio than unregulated rental segment dwellings, thereby complying to the goals set by Dudok Wonen. This research has also revealed that a majority of the middle income households residing in the regulated rental segment do desire to move, but that only a minority of these households is interested in the intermediate rental segment. The largest contributor to this lack of interest is the lack of knowledge concerning the segment, but the increase in price (compared to the regulated rental segment) and the lack of diversity in quality aspects in which the segment outranks the regulated rental segment are also culprits. The intermediate rental segment as offered by Dudok Wonen predominantly supplies moving triggers to households that are interested in larger dwellings. It is unlikely that households looking for other quality characteristics will be triggered to move by the addition of the intermediate rental segment. Households that did move to the intermediate rental segment did so in order to have the option to realise (prospective) life-cycle related goals, like starting a family. Although these households were looking for rental dwellings, this preference is a substitute of their actual desire for owner-occupied housing. This substitution behaviour can be attributed to the contemporary housing market situation and regulations. Despite this substitution behaviour, the intermediate rental segment, as it is currently being offered by Dudok Wonen, is contributing fairly well to stimulating the desired filtering processes in the municipalities Gooise Meren and Hilversum, as it supplies a portion of the middle income households residing in regulated rental dwellings with triggers to move. With the addition of the intermediate rental segment in the regional housing market, Dudok Wonen is stimulating the desired filtering processes not by pushing households to move, but by lowering the thresholds these households need to overcome in order to move. However, although the addition of the intermediate rental segment is beneficial for the desired filtering processes and the options middle income households have in the regional housing market, the associated housing allocation procedures negatively impact the supply available in the regulated rental segment. This report concludes by posing several recommendations for Dudok Wonen to consider, as well a point of critique towards contemporary Dutch housing policy.

In December 2017, the municipality of Amsterdam announced the development of a new city in its port: Haven-Stad. The plan comprises a redevelopment strategy to transform port lands towards a mixed use urban area with up to 70.000 dwellings. This announcement caused a conflict between port users and the city. This integration of various stakeholders and interests is key for successful urban area redevelopment, especially in the complex port-city interface. Goal of this thesis is to understand and learn from the presumed conflict between port and city in the case of Amsterdam. Therefore, an actor-centered institutional analysis was conducted of the strategic governance and planning around Haven-Stad. The level of integration between scales, sectors and agencies per outcome of each planning phase was measured and then set against the analysed institutional setting. This research identified various socio-cultural, legal-economic and governance factors in the institutional setting that affect plan making in the port-city interface. Various subjects, such as relaxed environmental regulations, decentralized urban planning and change of the political landscape have contributed to unintegrated planning and conflicts. The municipality has a culture of blueprint strategic urban planning and is focused on integrating different departments and solving an ongoing housing crisis. On the other hand, the fact that the port is fossil fuel based and corporatized -but municipally owned- limited its ability to prevent urban takeover. This thesis recommends the development of a true and joint port-urban vision, the enhancement of cooperation between local, regional and national stakeholders and the involvement of private parties and port users in plan making. In an outlook towards the introduction of the new Environment and Planning Act, this research indicates that decentralized and flexible planning instruments may increase the chance for potential conflicts in industrial and waterfront redevelopment areas.

Public transportation is on the rise due to increasing ecological concerns, a more efficient use of space and an improved city-planning featuring transport oriented development (TOD). As a result, new modalities emerge and stations are getting busier which can lead to a narrow design focus on the nodal function of the station, neglecting other aspects of the station. " Due to the fact that many stations are located at central locations within cities, they have a strong influence on the quality of city life around them. Traditionally, the station has been seen solely as a node (connecting all the different modalities efficiently; moving people). Nowadays paradoxically, the station is seen increasingly as a place in its own right as well (by being an active part of the city; inviting people to stay). By diminishing the station’s barrier-effect and by implementing public functions within the station’s realm, the station can be integrated better within its surrounding city, creating an urban station that enhances city life. The evolving role of the station has been the subject of many recent studies. However, the research mostly remains to be theoretical. More practical design principles and requirements may help in achieving the ambitions regarding creating an integrated urban station. Literary research was performed into the multiple facets of station design, which led to the formulation of six design principles for contemporary urban station design. The main research question is as follows: “Are the six design principles: multimodality, functional mix, connectivity, spatial quality, visibility & flexibility apt contributors to the integration of an urban multimodal station within its surrounding cityscape?” In recent years, many stations have been redesigned with special attention to this node-versus-place-paradox, focusing more on the station as a place. This research aims to analyse seven important international multimodal railway stations in The Netherlands and Belgium to see how these stations handle their complexity and aim to integrate within their surrounding city. The aim is to test the proposed design principles via the analyses of these seven chosen stations: Amsterdam Centraal, Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam Centraal, Antwerpen Centraal, Utrecht Centraal, Arnhem Centraal and Amsterdam Zuid. The analyses are drawn on Nolli maps, in order to gain insight into the public realm surrounding the station and the connections between the two. As the results point out, the chosen design principles appear to be fitting for creating a well-integrated urban station. However, six design spaces have been formulated in addition to the design principles, each accompanying respectively one principle. The spaces act as an addition to the programme of requirement as provided by the commissioner, embodying the different design principles into explicitly formulated spaces. Further research is advisable. Especially multimodal station from France, Germany or England can give crucial new insights as the stations are generally larger and their urban surroundings are often more densely populated. Further research into the airport city concept can also prove worthy, as the development in airports is a few years ahead on the developments around urban stations, airports can provide valuable examples and case studies.

In an era when rising threats put increasing pressure on security demands in state office buildings, the public trust in these same governmental institutions is on the decline, owing to a sense of detachment and lack of transparency. This detachment partially stems from the functional and physical separation of people’s civic and political lives, leaving public officials as uncountable, a separated class unresponsive to the everyday people, who in turn can glance little of the everyday working of their government. In other words: it is easier to pass unfavourable legislation when you never interact with the common people and sit in your fortress hidden from protests. For these reasons, the future must see the creation of new governmental spaces that are public in nature, but also safeguarded from new dynamic threads. New design approaches in established typologies need to be sought to answer these relationship questions that stem from new state, societal, and technological developments. The Graduation Project ‘Fortress Without Barriers‘ seek to explore these issues of security and accessibility by using a scenario involving the design of a new Federal Ministry of Defence headquarters in Berlin. At first glance this typology might be perceived as ill suited to the integration of public life, even agitative. But rather the project places it as the ultimate test for whether these values can be effectively expressed in an urban context. Defence Ministry being the most prime domain of security, on the scale of city within a city, and placing the most private and secured programme imaginable alongside the proposed public functions.

What relationship can a cemetery have with the city? Since the first garden cemetery was built in the early nineteenth century, this concept spread rapidly throughout Europe. Until now garden cemetery is still the common form of cemeteries in European cities. With the concept of garden cemetery, cemeteries exist in the urban fabric as a public space represented by nature and landscape attributes. The emergence of this relationship is closely related to the demand for burialbased burial forms. For a long time, this relationship has given the cemetery a natural and green identity, which is also the common perception of the cemetery among citizens. Has this relationship changed? In the context of the Complex Project, Building Body Berlin course, this research design will focus specifically on Berlin, Germany. The existence of the German cemetery law, known as “Der Friedhofszwang“, makes cemetery burial mandatory in Germany. Along with this law of compulsory burials, the demand for cemeteries has a huge quantitative basis in Germany. However, according to the research of cemetery development plan of Berlin in 2006, since the end of the 20th century, the cemeteries (mainly garden cemetery) in Berlin have roduced a large amount of vacancy. These idle cemeteries consume a lot of operating and maintenance costs. This phenomenon does not mean that the demand for cemeteries has declined. On the contrary, the demand for cemeteries in Berlin is still increasing. Moreover, with the aging of the population in Germany, the death rate and the number of deaths have risen, and Berliners’ demand for cemeteries will continue to increase in the future. The increase in demand for cemeteries does not appear to coincide with the reduction in cemetery size. It is this inconsistency that helps us see the problem for what it is. The reason for this lies in the transformation of the form of burials. As cremation has grown in popularity, people have increasingly turned to other forms of burial, such as burial of ashes and placement in columbariums. According to statistics, the proportion of cremation in Germany has reached more than 75%. Compared with the traditional form of burying coffins, the land area required for the new burial form represented by cremation is greatly reduced. Statistics show that compared with the average area of 12 square meters in traditional burial coffins, the average area of urns placed in columbariums is only 0.5 square meters. This huge change has also led to a continuous reduction in the core space actually used in the cemetery. Therefore, more and more cemeteries can no longer assume the role of urban public green space due to the reduction of the core use area. Although this phenomenon of quantitative change has not accumulated to produce qualitative change, we can still see the urgent need for the transformation of the cemetery. So how can the cemetery provide a new value as an urban public space? This research design process will ask questions around this question and offer a possible solution.

People make mistakes. But how does society treat them when they do? For archi- tecture to be involved in this process, is to be at least called arbitrary, as it frames the spaces in which we punish and reform. For architects to design prisons is a paradoxical task because of the conflicting interest and changing goals of its design. Spaces of imprisonment deprive people of freedom, whilst at the same try to create a healthy humane environment that is helpful for the detainee to rehabilitation. So how should architects intervene in such spaces? In what way should view spaces of punishment? How could we approach prison design in such a way, that it creates humane spaces of confinement? This project tries to answer this question in the form of a humane prison design that focusses on interaction. Framing the everyday within in a confined space, the prison forms a the platform in which prisoners can act and display they action. Giving them a place in society where they ability able to show their ability to be good.

This research concerns the economics of energy-efficient buildings: by merging auction theory and hedonic regression analyses, the price premium paid in the Netherlands for energy-efficient office buildings is investigated. The importance of the transition to an energy-efficient built environment is underlined by the increasing Dutch and European regulations regarding energy efficiency within the real estate market. As a result, the market for energy-efficient buildings has grown considerably in recent years. Therefore, office buildings increasingly have various voluntary and mandatory energy certificates. Since 2008, the energy label has been the measure of the energy performance of a building in the Netherlands and is therefore included as a test unit in this study.Problem analysis Most studies in this field have been conducted in the United States, primarily because CoStar has an extensive database of commercial real estate. As the Netherlands does not have such a centrally organized database, research into this subject is made more complex. Over the last couple of years, there has been growing interest in the financial performance of energy efficient buildings. However, the relatively large deviation and sometimes improbable contradictions of the identified price premiums in the various hedonic price studies might indicate that in some cases the models suffer from misspecification. It is possible that this results in an over- or underestimation of the rental price premium of energy efficiency in the Netherlands. This research presents a refined model to better isolate the effect of energy efficiency on the willingness-to-pay from the overall building quality, and therewith to determine the realistic rental premium for energy efficiency in the Dutch office market. Aim of the study This study aimed to determine the rental premium for energy efficient office buildings at the level of an office unit in the Randstad. An office unit is the office space that is included in a lease contract. In addition to the economic factors, location, and building characteristics, it was particularly important to include building and facade aesthetic features in the analysis, because such a control was missing in most comparable studies. It was expected that by controlling for aesthetic building and facade features, the rental premium for energy-efficient office buildings would be lower because the effect of energy efficiency on the rental price would be better isolated. Relevance Previous research in this field has shown that tenants are prepared to pay for energy-efficient office buildings. However, that research rarely controls for aesthetic building and facade features, which VII creates a gap in academic knowledge. By operationalizing and quantifying building and facade features, it is possible to control for these features. Therefore, the added academic value of this research is the more in-depth control of the aesthetic building and facade features. This research into the rental premium of energy-efficient office buildings in the Randstad contributes to the knowledge of stakeholders such as investors, developers, researchers, real estate agents, urban planners and policymakers. They need insight in the dynamics and influence of the energy efficiency of office buildings on the various office markets. This research offers the possibility of a practical application for the price characteristic as a benchmark within the valuation process. Methodology The aim of this research is to determine the rental premium of energy-efficient office buildings. The research wanted to give an accurate description of the actions that must be taken to achieve the goal of the research (Figure 2). Step 1 describes the reason and defines the problem statement by analysing the current context of the research field. Step 2 relates to the theoretical basis for regression analysis. Significant rental determinants within previous research have been identified to create a theoretical basis for the regression model. In step 3, data is collected for the multiple regression analysis and the mathematical specifications of the model are formulated. In step 4, the collected data is analysed and the regression model is formulated and designed. Different models are constructed and investigated. Step 5 concerns the interpretation of the model results. The re-evaluation and improvement of the content in an earlier phase resulted in an integrated design process in which the definitive regression model of this research was constructed. Results and conclusions The Research shows a positive rental premium for energy-efficient office buildings. The estimates of the predictive model indicate a rent price premium of 8.4% for energy efficient office buildings (label A-C) versus energy inefficient office buildings (label D-G). The research has also shown that different rental premiums are paid for different energy labels. The regression shows that when controlling for all other variables related to the macro, meso and micro levels, tenants are willing to pay substantially higher rents for office buildings with a B and or C label than for buildings with energy label A. Furthermore, tenants pay substantially lower rents for buildings with energy label E than for those with label A. No substantial differences have been demonstrated in the rent for the other energy labels. Perhaps, the lack of significance for buildings with a D, F or G label is the result of the small samples size in this research, so significant results are more difficult to achieve. In addition to the usual control of economic, location and building factors in rental premium research, this research has added a control level of building and facade aesthetic features. This control was missing in almost all comparable studies. If the control for aesthetic building and facade features is left out of consideration, the rental premium for energy-efficient office building would have been 13.5%, about 5% higher than the proven rent price premium of 8.4%. The addition of the level of control with regard to aesthetic building and facades features therefore has a significant effect on the rental price premium. This result was expected. The effect of energy efficiency on the rental price of office buildings is positive, but this is weaker than in previous studies because the effect of energy efficiency is better isolated through the extensive control of aesthetic building and facade features and was therefore determined more precisely.

The massive blast of August 2020 severely damaged Beirut’s architectural heritage. It is in the very city centre that most of this asset is concentrated, but since the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War citizens have been denied access to this area. Here stands the former Grand Theatre, which will be the epicentre of a new artistic quarter that will allow all Beirutis to re-establish a cultural presence in their city centre. Two layers are analysed during this process. First, the Lebanese theatrical scene, which must rely on the flourishing film industry and tourism to recover. Second, the globalised mainstream of Culture 3.0, that has broadened the basin of culture producers and made casual public space act as a proper theatrical stage.

Research and design about the use of bicycles in and around the building. By stimulating cycling it can provide a solution for congestion in dense cities, be an alternative for the car and have 0 emissions but above all positively influence the health and well-being of people. The research and design show how to stimulate movement and how to use the bicycle in the building.

The project 'House of Textiles' investigates the extent to which an architectural intervention is capable of giving hope, inspiration and encouraging innovation to a challenged place like Beirut. The project explores different ways of representing these assets through its architectural language and expression. Its significance for Lebanon’s textile production, the country’s waste crisis, as well as social and economic prospects is asking for an iconic landmark, which represents the building’s identity. The formulation of these aspects in an architectural way is explored through spatial concepts that support their requirements. Strong visibility, accessibility, representation and adaptability are being tested in different layers. These aspects form the most important ingredients of the project. The question of how a building can represent the same level of innovation and development, as the proposed change in Lebanon’s textile industry has been guiding the design process.

Amsterdam has to deal with housing shortages, there is a need for smaller and affordable houses, especially for people working in the city: keyworkers. Simultaneously, the co-living building I designed, stimulates social interaction and sharing of spaces and other utensils for its residents.

In the summer of 2021, an exceptional number of 270 wildfires took place among the entire Turkish coast. Multiple villages have been destroyed. Villagers lost their loved ones, houses and income sources. According to climate scientists, the wildfires will occur more often due to hotter summers. This emerges the question on how destroyed villages in wildfire risk areas will be rebuilt in a new wildfire resilient way, involving local building skills and knowledge in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Kalemler village is chosen as the research and design area, because it is one of the most damaged villages and representative for other burned villages in the Mediterranean region. The current rebuilding plans do not involve wildfire resiliency and there is no worldwide research on how to rebuild villages in a wildfire resilient way. Looking at Turkish villages on the national scale, Turks always historically provided themselves with self-built dwellings made of earth, stone or wood. This shows the opportunity to reintroduce earth as a building material in an innovative way, since earth is a directly available and non-combustible building material. Also, it is free when excavated on site, endlessly recyclable and has many other building benefits. Rammed earth is implemented as the new earth construction method for the village. It contributes on the scales of community and building construction as the research outcome on how innovation of vernacular façade earth construction methods could contribute to a wildfire resilient rebuilding strategy for burned down villages in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. This project results in Kalemler as the wildfire resilient village of the future, tackled on five scales from the wildfire resilient rebuilding strategy: community, village, building typology, construction and landscape. This translates into a wildfire resilient village rebuilding plan, including a community centre, an independently working water and energy collection and distribution system. This system consist of a water tower, infrastructure points and walkable village walls. Furthermore, it translates into a growing wildfire resilient village house design and building guidelines for local self-builders. The growing village house typologies take the regional earthquake risk into account as well. All in all, this project involves the locals, respects local culture, harvests local materials, innovates local skills and knowledge on self-building with earth, and combines earth construction with innovative wildfire resilient solutions. Kalemler becomes a fusion village, where tradition meets innovation.

Germany has a rich history in classical music. Berlin, in this regard, has been key in the development of concert hall architecture, most notably through the Berlin Philharmonic. With an increasing decline in visitors and structural financial support of concerts, together with developments in music culture, the building type once more is challenged to reinvent itself, leading to the following question: What spatial qualities could invite the broader audience to concert halls? Within the specificity of concert hall architecture, the project explores the potential of the foyer as a space to be utilized beyond classical music concerts.