Societal problems related to climate change include increasing climate extremes, flood risk and environmental degradation of cities. It is important to address these problems in order to improve urban resilience, reduce flood damage, and promote quality of life. This thesis addresses these problems by focusing on increasing the ecosystem resilience in the urban environment. It seeks to address current shortcomings in cities’ approaches towards urban development; the potential of nature-based solutions as an alternative to grey solutions; and the integration of climate sensitive urban design in the built environment. The main research question is “How can an ecosystem resilient approach guide the built environment in order to integrate climate sensitivity in human-oriented urban design?” The development of a detailed urban design follows from a literature study on ecological urbanism, climate resilience, and nature based solutions, which is supplemented with an in-depth site analysis that focuses on spatial and technical aspects of the built environment in relation to heavy floods, spatial quality, and urbanized landscapes. The study draws on theories of persuasive visual storytelling and research by design. The interdisciplinary approach taken in this project culminates in an urban design proposal for the Buffalo Bayou Downtown corridor in Houston, Texas. The design proposal introduces new nature-based and water-based features into the urban environment. By reintroducing elements of the lost ecoregions of the East Texan coast (including wetlands and prairies) the design proposal not only contributes to improvements in quality of life, but also to greater urban resilience to pluvial floods. ... Read more

Chennai, a historical seaside city on the southern coast of India, has undergone extensive urbanisation ever since the postcolonial economic reform of the nineties. Mismanaged urban growth that predominantly prioritises economic development has led to a situation of congestion, lack of public space and forgotten ecological networks in the city. These issues, over time, have amounted to a living environment that is negligent of the pedestrian, and lacks many opportunities for social interactions, opportunities to sit, walk or just wander in the city. The recently redefined building codes stand to further exacerbate the situation, due to the lack of an integrated perspective of densification in the city. This project aims to find potentials in the ever changing and densifying city, to facilitate liveable and vibrant environments for those who inhabit it. The process of densification and urban growth is redefined in Chennai, through the evaluation of its synergies and conflicts with the mobility network and the ecological systems in the city. This results in a trans-scalar design and planning strategy that facilitates urban transformation in a holistic manner, taking into account ecological impacts, mobility patterns and local daily use patterns of public space by the people in the city. ... Read more

As a foreseeable trend, the automated mobility is believed to change our city in many aspects. It draws out a question to urbanists: is the application of the new technological innovation an urgency in our agenda, or the utilization of it for other urban issues should be. This project is based on the latter one.

Like many other mega cities over the world, Amsterdam is also facing to the explosive of urban population.The following socio-economic and spatial pressures on the built environment like densification and concerns of livability are all the urgencies that we should put in the agenda of future urban development. Especially the present common forms of urban block are at the point of collapse due to its limited spatial capacity and performance on livability. What automated mobility can do? This thesis mainly focuses on the spatial form of urban blocks in Amsterdam, and their performance on spatial capacity and livability, aiming at creating future blocks that meet the demands of densification and quality of life in the coming era of automated mobility. How to understand and measure the relationship between urban form, density and livability based on contexts is the core of this thesis. The design proposals is more like the conceptual models that shows the possibilities of how the automated mobility can be utilized in the processes of formation and transformation of urban blocks when considering densification and livability. ... Read more

The issue of suburban sprawl in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTA) has been increasing the pressures of land consumption, infrastructure development, resource consumption, and population growth over the past 50 years. The same can be said for many peripheral regions of Canada’s urban areas. In 2011, two thirds of the population of Canada lived in some form of suburban neighbourhood, and for the GTA a larger percentage of 86%. Though this growth continues, the vast expansions of automobile-dependent neighbourhoods have shown to have prolonged effects on resource consumption, carbon emissions, ecosystem devastation, declining health rates, social segregation, and the destruction of available agricultural land in Ontario. Yet these problems are not new. Neither are the solutions. Suburbs have been the centre of angst for many contemporary urban planners in North America for over thirty years. This has been the motivation for theories such as New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Sustainable Development, three ideologies which have already been integrated into Provincial and Municipal Policies in Ontario. Most of which are focused on general themes of traditional aesthetics and densities of suburban development and most of which have failed to change the form of suburban development in Ontario. In order to explore these issues, this project looked at the current consumption data through ecological footprint analysis. The largest contributors to consumption included housing (energy), mobility, food, and threats to ecosystem services. In order to explore sustainability in the region, these themes were broken down into indicators which would analyse the growth patterns of the city. In order to compare these findings to current and future growth, growth typologies were created and ranked on performance through the process. Based on the performance conclusions, strategies, scenarios, and future recommendations were developed for future growth planning in the region. ... Read more

In Europe there is a growing concern about the development of future urban form, especially deconcentrating of urban land use in the form of urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is synonymous with unplanned incremental urban development, characterized by a low density mix of land uses on the urban fringe. On 7th Environment Action Programme to 2020 ‘Living well, within the limits of our planet’ and to 2050 ‘no net land take’ has become a European mission. To have sustainable urban growth, counties should focus on redevelopment and design for a compact city. The automated vehicles (AVs) will give us the opportunity to do so. The project will research the potential impact of automated vehicles on built environment. By parking revolution, a new AV parking system will be designed and contribute to urban redevelopment. Finally, project will test the result in Almere center area and achieve a compact future. ... Read more

The motivation for this project, comes through personal experience of being raised in the city of Delhi. The city which ones was known for its plush gardens, old markets and famous public squares. The economic liberation of 1992 and unprecedented growth made Delhi victim of its own success. The lack of vision on part of understanding migration to the city, transit system neglecting the public transport, promoting cars as the central way of commute and through pressure of becoming a global city has manifested in major urban issues. The brutal systematic expulsion of the urban poor from right to being a part of the city through re-allocation, to heavy infrastructural investment, congested roads and polluted environment, political polarisation, promises to bring the city to its knees and rob the way of life of its citizens. The often reactionary transport strategies focussing on how to move traffic from point A to B rather than people, often neglected the integration of mobility and urban fabric.
Introduction of Delhi Metro, shows promise to shift the commuting model towards public transit; however it faces an uphill struggle as the last mile connectivity and future technology such as sharing, electrification and automation are not taken on board that promise to make moving in the city efficient, clean and pleasant. This graduation project, Delhi/ Great City…..Terrible Place…. would like to focus on shifting the current paradigm and oversee a transition for a more inclusive future mobility system projecting for a newer vision, which promises to formulate a path for a cohesive and an accessible urban realm that could bring the city back to its liveable condition, where people could, socially, economically and environmentally thrive. ... Read more

The European climate and energy goals towards 2050 ask for drastic systematic
changes in the current European energy system to increase the share of
renewable energies and to reduce carbon emissions – from 1990 to 2050 by 90%.
The project Everything Remains Transformed intends to highlight how farreaching the transformative process from fossil energy sources, like crude oil
and gas coal, to renewable energies sources actually are. In the marine zone,
we will have to decommission platforms and pipelines at immense costs and
the coastline will eventually turn into a patchwork of abandoned harbours and
refineries. In the terrestrial zone, we will have to pull the plug from coal power
plants, while fossil-energy reliant businesses are running down, and citizens will
lose their current high-living standards.
The current energy system adds in this respect to the high ecological footprints of each country in the North Sea territory and requires drastic change in the light of resource management and estimated enormous population growth, according to Eurostat, among the nation states.
Everything Remains Transformed relies on parts of the remaining energy legacy
and the potential to transform its components. The project represents a new,
energetic system in the North Sea that aims to create one big territory with one
low footprint among all adjacent countries through collaboration. It demonstrates on the big scale, that a joint strategy will produce renewable energy to cover the territorial supply, reduces carbon efficiently and brings additional benefits beyond energy production.
A macro-regional strategy for the North Sea builds the overall framework for the
strategy. The aim of the European Union’s instrument is to jointly target common challenges with actors of various fields. On the small scale, in Aberdeen as a case study, I will showcase what influence big scale principles and spatial guidelines eventually have on the space and the societal and economic structure. ... Read more

The aim of this research is to investigate how a strategic vision can be achieved within a time plan, in this case by 2050, and investigate the Swedish administrative division, to understand who does what and when. The objective of this project is to set up a detailed time plan and develop several strategies which will work as guidelines for the development of the region, in order to achieve the goals to become a connected, an accessible and a sustainable metropolitan region by 2050.

Throughout the project the focus will be on three aspects and these three has one common ground: the growing population.
Densification: To prevent urban sprawl, densification of the region is needed, in order to ensure housing, jobs and services to the people.
Mobility: The public transport is reaching its maximum capacity and many infrastructural investments are needed to ensure people access to the region.
Environment: Measurements are needed to protect the environment and at the same time it has to be accessible to the people.

These three aspects will be translated into three goals that the region needs to achieve by 2050 in order to become a resilient metropolitan region.
An Accessible City: Each citizen of the region should have access to affordable housing, commercial and public services and other services for their daily needs.
A Connected City: The region should be well connected and public transport should be the main mean of transportation
A Sustainable City: The region should be able to develop and expand and protect its unique environment, without increasing the carbon footprint caused by the growing population. ... Read more