The project focuses on the natural conditions, the industrial and housing situation in the haor region of Sylhet, Bangladesh. The aim is to create a new housing system suitable for rural areas, combining local industry and housing. This will increase employment opportunities, improve local living conditions and alleviate the problem of over-migration from rural to urban areas. At the same time, the new housing system is flexible, adjustable and adaptable, and is able to respond to seasonal variations in natural conditions and changes in local industries.

This thesis takes the ancient Chinese village of Hongcun as the main object of study, focusing on the specific functions and modes of operation of the water treatment system in Hongcun as well as the cultural and social context behind it. And the role of different water treatment methods used in Hongcun is analysed in terms of both sustainable and aesthetic values. This thesis also links the water treatment system of Hongcun with the modern concept of the sponge city, explaining the similarities between the two and using Hongcun as a prototype to provide guidance for the construction of modern sponge cities.

The book is the result of the course 'City of Innovations Project' at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, led by the group of Complex Projects at the Department of Architecture. 'Transit stations: sub-centres in Rotterdam Zuid' is the theme of the course running in spring 2022. It is connected to the research project Walk-In (acronym of Widening sustAinable mobiLity networKs: Impact on Nodes) financed by NWO and part of the KIEM GoCi program. Students presented their research and design scenarios to the project partners in April 2022 and they learned from their expertise throughout the course. Those are the City of Rotterdam, Delta Metropool Association, De Zwarte Hond, PosadMaxwan, Mecanoo, Bureau Spoorbouwmeester, I&M, Prorail with the collaboration of the University of Gustave Eiffel. By doing so, students contributed to the objective of Walk-In: to investigate the potential of suburban stations in transition in the context of the low car inner city of Rotterdam and to develop generic guidelines and spatial solutions for the integration of sustainable mobility with public space and mixed urban functions and services.

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