This thesis explores how “age-friendly” urban climates can be achieved sustainably in challenging environments, such as the heat-vulnerable neighborhoods of Rotterdam South.
Strategies beyond reducing exposure in the built environment are formed using literature reviews, sociological observations, mapping, and interviews with stakeholders.
The research findings highlight that physical measures to cool outdoor environments are essential, but strengthening social resilience and adaptive capacity is equally important. Mobility barriers, decentralised everyday services, and limited opportunities for intergenerational interaction can heighten heat vulnerability among elderly residents. The response is a set of multi-scalar design guidelines that integrate climate-adaptive architecture with socially inclusive spaces, in the shape of cooling centers, ensuring accessibility, familiarity, and community participation within the neighborhood.
This holistic approach addresses different dimensions of heat vulnerability and creates neighborhoods that are not only cooler but also foster health, autonomy, and social connection across all ages. ... Read more

In the Netherlands, socio-economic inequality remains a pressing issue, with urban areas experiencing the most significant challenges. Economic disparities between regions and within cities contribute to unequal access to opportunities and services. This inequality affects low-income households, leading to persistent cycles of poverty. Major cities, including Rotterdam, reflect the negative consewuences of this phenomenonwith some neighborhoods particularly affected by poverty and isolation. In the south of Rotterdam, a significant proportion of residents face socio-economic challenges, with many households living below the poverty line. This economic burden affects their well-being in a number of ways, including reduced access to basic services, limited social opportunities and a lack of supportive resources in the community. This can lead to social isolation, increased stress and reduced quality of life. It is important to understand the nature of relative poverty before considering how the built environment can serve this target group. This research aims to investigate how the built environment in Rotterdam South can actively contribute to improving the well-being of low-income households by incorporating shared resources, practices, collective living structures and communal spaces. ... Read more

This thesis explores strategies to address environmental injustice and enhance human wellbeing in minority-concentrated neighborhoods in Charlotte, North Carolina, impacted by rapid urbanization and limited access to greenspaces. Through a multi-scalar approach combining ecological restoration, sustainable urban design, and community-led placemaking, the project proposes integrated interventions such as expanding green corridors, restoring waterways, and promoting accessible transit to improve environmental quality and social equity. Central to the research is the Green Village of Charlotte, a nature-based educational and community hub designed to empower residents through environmental education and participatory initiatives focused on food sovereignty, biodiversity, and climate resilience. By combining scenario planning, design frameworks, softGIS surveys and community engagement, the project demonstrates how holistic, adaptive, and inclusive planning can foster healthier, more equitable urban environments while minimizing displacement risks. The findings contribute to advancing urban sustainability and environmental justice in growing metropolitan areas. ... Read more

Heijplaat village, completely encircled by the Waal/Eemhaven in Rotterdam South, is categorized by the municipality as a “very safe neighbourhood.” This graduation project problematizes such evaluation under the same safety index as all other neighbourhoods in Rotterdam, despite its one and only geographical specificity.

Safety is a complex yet crucial aspect in the discussion of building social sustainability. Notably, the Rotterdam municipality launched a new safety initiative (“Veiligheidkoers”) in 2022 to make the whole city, including the port, more resilient. Traditionally, the port and the neighbourhood have been approached as separate entities with distinct natures and expertise. However, as the leading contributor to the delta and the water-related dialogues globally, discussion of the port-city interface is critical and immediate in the Netherlands, especially because the impact of what the port brings to the city, and even more significantly, what the port brings to the people, is transboundary. In this sense, the case of Heijplaat-Waal/Eemhaven presents a unique classification of “port-nested-village,” calling for a specialized and nuanced approach to reframe the notion of safety in the port-city interface. ... Read more

Low literacy remains a persistent societal challenge, particularly in disadvantaged urban areas like Feijenoord, Rotterdam, where 36% of adults struggle with basic reading and writing. This research explores the potential role of architecture and the built environment in enabling literacy development. Through a combination of literature review, demographic analysis, interviews, and observations, this research aims to investigate if built facilities in Rotterdam-Zuid can promote and enable the development of literacy among residents to contribute to a more inclusive and destigmatizing society.

The findings reveal that existing literacy-promoting amenities in Feijenoord, such as community centers and libraries, face challenges related to visibility, accessibility, and stigma. Insights from interviews with low-literate individuals highlight the importance of multifunctional, inviting, and destigmatizing environments. Transparent entrances, clear signage, and a welcoming atmosphere can significantly reduce psychological barriers and encourage participation. The study also emphasizes the potential of multifunctional accommodations (MFAs) and camouflage learning, where literacy development is seamlessly integrated into everyday activities such as sports, cooking, and social interactions.

This research concludes that architecture, when thoughtfully designed, can contribute to enabling literacy by creating engaging, accessible spaces that support informal and formal learning. By leveraging spatial design strategies that prioritize inclusion, cities can empower low-literate individuals and foster more just urban environments. ... Read more

Addressing the pressing need for a shift to circularity in the construction sector, this project explores the potential of regenerative floating architecture in transforming urban waterfronts. It investigates how bio-based materials sourced from local aquatic environments, such as reed, willow, eelgrass and seaweed, can be used to construct floating buildings.

The design of a culture hub for Amsterdam’s Haven-Stad addresses ecological degradation in the industrial harbour by integrating the cultivation and harvesting into a productive floating ecosystem landscape. A double-loop system links plant growth cycles with the lifespan of building components, rethinking the temporal dimension of architecture. To apply this systemic approach, a parametric framework was developed. It assesses the cultivation area required to meet material demands for construction and replacement.

The architectural system is based on modularity, disassembly and adaptability: every part of the building is designed for ease of construction, maintenance and replacement. The cultivation of plants on floating ecosystems is at the start of the community-based building process, followed by material harvesting, storage and transformation into prefabricated building elements. Alongside the cultural use, this cultivation process contributes to fostering communities but also regenerates biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems.

By aligning regenerative design with community-building and long-term adaptability, the project proposes a flexible and evolving architecture typology rooted in local ecological cycles. Framed within Haven-Stad’s development timeline, this approach offers a transferable methodology for the sustainable urbanisation of transforming industrial waterfronts. ... Read more

Rapid urbanisation in sub-Saharan Africa is placing increasing pressure on ecologically sensitive regions. In Nakuru, Kenya, situated between the Menengai Crater and Lake Nakuru, this growth threatens water systems, biodiversity and overall resilience. Unregulated development, combined with limited green infrastructure and inadequate water management, has intensified urban sprawl, deforestation, flooding and habitat loss.
At the same time, Nakuru’s unique ecological and cultural landscape offers the potential for a regenerative design approach that connects people and nature through multifunctional green-blue systems.

This thesis explores how regenerative urban landscape design can foster a more resilient future in Nakuru, balancing water management and biodiversity restoration. The goal is to develop a systemic approach connecting ecological infrastructure with the water network.

Using a research-by-design methodology, this project analyses the socio-ecological impacts of urban growth, through layered spatial analysis, precedent studies, stakeholder engagement and site-specific observations. The findings are translated to a spatial strategies.
These insights are translated into spatial strategies that structure the city around three hydrological zones: upland (control), midstream (store) and downstream (use).
Grounded in systems thinking and landscape-based urbanism, informed by theoretical framework, the resulting regenerative framework proposes design interventions such as water retention parks, green-blue corridors and multifunctional landscapes including urban agriculture and reforested catchment zones.
These strategies simultaneously address ecological goals (biodiversity, water quality), social goals (health, education, participation), and infrastructural goals (flood control, runoff management).

The proposed framework is site-specific but grounded in transferable principles such as systems thinking, multifunctionality and community-driven stewardship. Ultimately, the project repositions nature from a passive backdrop to an active urban agent; essential for both human and ecological well-being. ... Read more

In the context of population growth and economic development, dense cities can generate significant environmental and social benefits. Although this paradigm provides an essential strategy to confront urban population growth and housing demands, it directly and indirectly affects the well-being of urban life systems. The reduction of trees and urban green spaces that accompanies densification exacerbates the health risks to residents from heat island and urban flooding. At the same time, dense settlements fail to meet the basic needs of human contact with nature, raising issues of spatial justice. On the other hand, habitat degradation of flora and fauna leads to threats to the biodiversity in urban environments. This study provides a spatial intervention from an urban ecological design perspective to improve socio-ecological well-being in dense city contect by enhancing ecosystem services in order to achieve the goal of ecopolis.

Urban space types are classified first to help identify and better utilize the potential green space within dense cities. Then the Green in Dense pattern language is generated, which aims to improve socio-ecological well-being by complementing, enhancing, and maintaining green space. The pattern language provides strategies that can be applied to private and public spaces at four different scales and analyzes their adaptability to different urban space types. Also, in order to explore the process of practical application of the pattern language, the roles of human and non-human stakeholders are analyzed.

The pattern language are applied specifically to the inner city of Bruges. First, a future-oriented overall vision was established, applying large-scale patterns to supplement green spaces and build ecological and spatial networks from multiple layers, while proposing corresponding governance and management recommendations. The overall strategy was divided into four phases, with clear implementation sequences and priorities for projects within each phase. Specific roles and responsibilities were also defined for different types of stakeholders in each phase, forming an operational multi-stakeholder collaboration framework.

At the implementation level, the Eekhoutstraat–Garenmarkt street was selected as the pilot project for the first phase, applying the pattern language in a spatial context. In subsequent phases, three representative projects of different types were selected, each proposing targeted spatial design solutions, demonstrating the method's adaptability and replicability in diverse urban contexts.

This thesis presented a possibility to enhance socio-ecological well-being in dense urban areas by developing a replicable spatial strategy. It also integrates the needs and roles of both human and non-human stakeholders which emphasizes multispecies collaboration. Overall, it offers a useful reference for other historic, dense cities to develop green space strategies. ... Read more

Contemporary social housing development in the Netherlands often prioritises standardisation over progressive and imaginative design, resulting in an undesirable dullness of the urban environment. However, there are also advantages to standardisation in the built environment, like reduced design costs, quicker construction times, higher technical quality, and potential for circularity/sustainability. In short, there is an unwanted lack of architectural diversity and individual living style and freedom, caused by a strong focus on standardisation and its benefits. To change this current state, other forms of social housing complexes have to be explored. Buildings that support diverse living conditions for diverse inhabitants, that favour equitable housing over equal housing, with architectural emphasis on the unicity of its users. Housing that invites people to explore their style of living, that evokes a feeling of freedom of style. ... Read more

We need a new way of designing when it comes to large-scale residential buildings. A way that reflects a high-density urban environment; complex, dynamic, vibrant, and lively. We must design for urban flow.

Current densification efforts often produce closed-off structures, disconnecting inhabitants from the urban flow of the city they live in. Large glass plinths, empty barren public space, and entrances that are meant to facilitate many homes, but are hidden away, create a streetscape that is illegible for people and doesn’t function well on a human scale.

In large-scale urban housing, the link between the city and the home is the residential building itself. The building must function as a transition zone between public space and the private domain of the home, facilitating a continuation of space, scale and movement from city to dwelling and vice versa.
... Read more

Informal settlements in Greater Cairo house a large portion of the population, who face increasing social inequality and environmental vulnerabilities. Manshiet Nasser, a desert settlement east of Islamic Cairo, is one such area struggling with challenges like environmental hazards and limited infrastructure. The Zabbaleen community plays a vital role in Cairo’s waste management by recycling approximately 80% of the city’s waste, yet their contributions often go unrecognised. This research explores how urban design can achieve environmental justice for the Zabbaleen, focusing on creating a safe, healthy, and clean environment while positioning the community as drivers of change.

The study examines Manshiet Nasser’s connections to Cairo’s broader context, the daily routines of the Zabbaleen, and the perspectives of various stakeholders on the community’s living and working conditions. Findings reveal significant risks from environmental hazards, marginalisation, and conflicting priorities among stakeholders. A pattern language approach was used to design interventions that adapt the urban fabric, support community development, and optimise the recycling chain. These patterns connect findings from analysis and literature to participatory and context-based design strategies.

The proposed urban design addresses key challenges by cooling the urban environment, diversifying waste business opportunities, and reducing health hazards. Stakeholder involvement is essential for translating aspirations into interventions and negotiating conflicts. While achieving environmental justice requires physical upgrades and mindset changes, this research highlights the potential of informal communities to lead change. The project aims to inspire designers and policymakers to envision alternative development pathways for more equitable urban futures. ... Read more

Berlin, a city characterized by its diversity, creativity, and resilience, stands as a vibrant hub with a rich history, influential club culture, with a prominent global position. The city’s identity has been shaped by a series of transformative events, from its growth along the Spree in 1724 and the cities expansion with characteristic blocks in 1862, up to the significant impacts of World War II and the division imposed by the Berlin Wall in 1961. The subsequent reunification process led to redevelopment, urban planning, and the evolution of Berlin’s dynamic, multicultural identity.

Aligned with this historical narrative, the city’s spatial structure, public transportation network, and urban development have undergone continuous evolution. The Berlin railway network, dating back to 1846, has expanded and adapted to the city’s growing needs, as evidenced by the i2030 expansion plans for railways (Start - i2030, 2023).

However, the evolution of train stations, integral to the city’s transportation infrastructure, has taken a distinct turn. Once serving as waiting shelters, stations have transformed into commercial entities prioritizing profit and efficiency often at the expense of inclusivity. While the program focuses on becoming a symbolic gateway to the city, there is a growing sense of exclusion despite train stations being the daily crossroads for diverse populations.

In the spirit of Berlin’s anarchistic character, which advocates a bottom-up approach to city-making, this thesis proposes a radical departure from the conventional model of train stations. Instead of admitting to the profit-driven agenda of the state-owned railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, the thesis advocates for a user-centric architectural approach which will make it inclusive. By delving into the essential needs of Berlin’s community, passengers, and commuters, the aim is to establish a harmonious balance between profit-driven objectives and the diverse requirements of the local population.
The thesis seeks inspiration from anarchism, a philosophy advocating for the absence of top-down authority. This departure from conventional architecture involves challenging the prevailing paradigm of “hostile architecture,” marked by exclusionary designs, towards a more inclusive and versatile approach focused on liveability. Through the lens of anarchistic principles, the proposal aims to redefine the S-Bahn stations along the Berlin ring, offering a compelling vision for a more user-friendly, community-oriented, and progressive environment as prototype station.

This thesis proposes a prototype station for the current S-Bahn station at Frankfurter Allee, where the seamless integration of functionality and user experience becomes the focal point. The “Frankfurter Allee Locals Foundation”, consisting of rotating local residents, jointly owns the rentable units added to the station’s program. Its former identity as containerbahnhof has been repurposed for the rentable units at this particular station.

Some recommendations on how to design a prototype station for the S-Bahn ring in Berlin combining all flows with local identities are the outcome of the research through design. ... Read more

The global housing affordability crisis sees European countries searching for solutions, paving the way for transnational knowledge exchange. The efforts to fulfill this potential within the housing sector and transnationally are, however, unexplored in relation to the affordable housing crisis. The goal of this thesis is to deliver lessons-learned for transdisciplinary and transnational knowledge exchange with specifically affordable housing provision in Europe. A case study will be performed on 'cost rental housing', a current measure to improve housing affordability which benefited from transnational knowledge exchange, in Ireland. Stakeholders are interviewed about practical insights, the barriers and enablers of knowledge exchange, their incentives and the methods used to facilitate it. With insights from
both practice and literature, lessons-learned are established from both the introduction of cost rental housing itself and the transdisciplinary and transnational knowledge exchange efforts.
Combined, the research ultimately delivers seven key lessons for transdisciplinary and transnational knowledge exchange with providing affordable housing in Europe. ... Read more

In Europe Christianity faces steady decline, causing dwindling attendance at
churches. As a result congregations are no longer able to afford the upkeep for their churches, forcing them to end services in these buildings. This caused many grand and historic church buildings to become vacant, and means that many will follow in the near future. Because many of these churches have deep ties to the local community and historically served a very public role, fitting new functions are needed to keep these building sustainable and part of their community. To find an answer to this question, specifically relating to 19th century neogothic churches of the catholic counter reform, the following paper will research the basic principles of (Neo)Gothicism and the methods and process behind the creation of such a church and its furnishings. The aim of the research is to establish the relation between the interior, the symbols and the architecture itself to understand how they together conveyed the story of Christianity, and how this could possibly be adapted for a use after Christianity or how this can be used to establish a fitting new purpose for these churches. As part of a graduation project this research will put the main focus on the RK Barbarakerk, a church going vacant in Culemborg in the Netherlands. By diving in to the construction history and theory of the time the main principles of Gothicism will be established and an understanding of the relation between the architecture, furnishings and symbols will be gained. Then by observing the features of the Barbarakerk, these principles can be contextualized. Finally by comparing existing converted churches to see how they reacted to existing history, symbolism and iconography, illustrate their methods of storytelling through architecture. Finally showing the integral narrative nature of the (Neo)Gothic architecture being able to indicate their own most fitting future. ... Read more

Social inequility is still part of the current world, not only in the poorer countries but also in the wealthiest once. With the use of gentrification it was tried to hide the poverty by improving the quality of neighbourhoods. Although this improved the liveability and wealthiness of a neighbourhood, it did not improve the lifes of the former citizens as they were forced out. This shows the wrong focus of the regeneration that is often used in deprived neighbourhoods, improving the liveability instead of improving the lives of the citizens. To be able to improve the life of the citizens, it is important to find out what their wishes and needs are, so an urbanist can implement these in the design. Therefore, this thesis researches how an urbanist can establish citizens’ participation as a design method to be able to design life improving neighbourhoods for its citizens. This will be done by answering the main question of: “how can the use of citizens’ participation in the urban design process of the regeneration of deprived neighbourhood improve the liveability?”. To answer this question, research on citizens’ participation, happiness and liveability will be combined with analyses on a case studie to create a new design method for urbanists that is focused on participation as the main way of designing. The manual will show how participation can be used as a design method and how an urbanist should approach this way of designing. The main focus is on the way the urbanist should communicate with the citizens so they will both understand each other.
... Read more

As freshwater scarcity has become one of the most important environmental and social issues of the 21st century, the way the built environment interacts with water must be reconsidered. Today’s urban water cycle in Curaçao is characterized by linear, centralized, polluting, costly, time and energy consuming and does not contribute to cultural value. Architecture can play part in creating a more efficient and sustainable urban water system, while increasing the public awareness of issues related to the freshwater cycle. Heritage of water typologies and systems like water plantations, cisterns and wells give example of how Curaçao used decentralized micro water catchment systems (MWCS), in the pre-desalination period, to provide freshwater for the communities inhabiting it. In addition to the concept of these heritage inspired designs solutions (HIDS) the concept of current nature-based solutions (NBS), referring to ecosystem-based and biomimetic approaches, are analysed as alternatives. The integration of HIDS and NBS is a much-needed step forward towards an integrated and holistic approach of spatial planning and design in general and water related design and management in particular.

‘Regenerative Ruins’ focuses on the neighbourhood Otrobanda, centrally located in the capital Willemstad of the island Curaçao. The island has a rich history of urbanization in which the natural freshwater cycles have been neglected. As a result, the island is dependent to obtain its freshwater from a centralized desalination plant. The trend to live in the peri-urban area of Willemstad also led to an exodus of the formerly renowned labour district of Otrobanda, resulting in a cityscape dominated by decaying monuments. The project provides a solution to both problems by transforming a dilapidated monument into a regenerative decentralized freshwater production space, whereby the existing envelope becomes a central freshwater harvesting courtyard.
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The protagonist of this work is the rightless, displaced person - a population of individuals in transition, hidden like a shadow in the contemporary city. Departing from the active oppression of this considerable group from the fabric of the city and the ways in which architecture contributes to enclosing or dividing populations, this work proposes a reconsideration of the role of the architect in civil society. After all, what is the current role of the architect when we talk about the socio-political tensions in the context of a marginalised existence in the contemporary city? The work proposes critical, nonmodernist and empathetic ways of thinking about the communication between the individuals at stake and their spaces of transition. The design suggests how a situated, highly visible and appropriable building in the city of Amsterdam could contribute to give meaning to the ongoing debate on Dutch immigration policy and the position of a marginalised population in society. ... Read more

This research focuses on how to improve levels of inclusivity through spatial design in hyper-diverse and socio-spatial segregated neighbourhoods in order to improve the liveability in urban areas and is conducted in the neighbourhood Tarwewijk in Rotterdam-Zuid. The research has according to theory identified three design values which became key pillars of this thesis and has derived design strategies and design principles from that which would contribute to social cohesion in an urban area. The final outcome of this thesis is a public space design proposal for Tarwewijk that has integrated these design principles to enhance levels of social cohesion and inclusivity within the neighbourhood. ... Read more

The last decades in the spatial development of the cities in Eastern Europe can be described as a complex outcome of the institutional and societal changes after the era change in 1989. During this time the economy of these countries was transformed from a central-planning-controlled system based on state ownership to a neoliberal one, where capitalist principles rule. Besides, the political structure also changed entirely because the socialist regimes were transformed into democracies. Through these complex transitions, everybody’s life was affected because regulations, employment and services were reorganised. These processes also had a great effect on the urban fabric and continue to affect the current development of these cities. In my thesis, I collect the post-socialist consequences of the era change to specifically address them through creativity-led regeneration. This type of regeneration can be a catalyst to achieve an integrated design process to positively affect local communities and to reach a larger social impact through which the social and spatial consequences of the post-socialist transition can be addressed at the same time. This is demonstrated through a detailed creativity-led regeneration process in the XXIst district of Budapest, in the underused industrial area of the Csepel Works. ... Read more

In recent years, lots of papers are fast reacting to overtourism, making it open for discussion and finding the solutions. Specifically, in the European context, cultural tourism is the fastest-growing sector in the tourism industry, which is the leading cause of overtourism. Furthermore, globalization makes cultural tourism gradually become mass tourism, result in even worst situations. There is a global trend indicates that the urgent need for change from cultural tourism to creative tourism, to achieve a better-integrated tourism system within a city. The project aims to choose one of the historical tourist cities in Europe as the experimental site for researching and solving overtourism problems by the development of creative tourism. Hungary’s capital city-Budapest is the only international city within the country, almost 75% of the country’s tourism revenue is generated here by the development of cultural tourism which can be reflected on its highly centralize cultural facilities and accommodation within the inner city, resulting in the concentration of the tourist bubbles. The project explores how to implement transitional zone(brownfield) as the place to develop creative tourism as the strategy to affect the tourist movement patterns, in order to reduce the pressure of tourist bubbles concentrating in the inner city. Eventually, the development of creative tourism in the transitional zone can relieve the pressure on the historic inner city of Budapest while regenerating the brownfield within the city, increasing both the quality of life in the historic inner city and the neighborhood in the transitional zone, leading to socio-economic growth for the city. ... Read more