Shanghai has experienced rapid urbanization over the past 30 years, with a large number of rural areas being transformed into semi-urbanized areas with mixed functions. The main drivers were top-down state-led development, market forces, and bottom-up rural industrialization. The scale and speed of this process have far exceeded expectations, leading to a series of socio-ecological problems such as population loss, industrial decline, and environmental pollution. Based on the analysis, this dissertation identifies two development directions: industrial restructuring and ecological protection, to cope with the uncertainty of population growth, a scenario-building approach is used to explore the optimal strategies under different circumstances. Design strategies are extracted through scenario evaluation and applied to strategic planning.

Guangzhou is one of the most typical metropolitan cities in the Great Bay Area (GBA). The fast development contributes to massive urban construction in a relatively short time. However, the development prosperity comes at the expense of green space. The problems of green space lead to lower resilient capacity, which means higher flooding risks and more environmental problems. Under this condition, making the city more resilient, livable, eco-friendly, and sustainable becomes a public concern and a big challenge in Guangzhou.
This project proposes to design a landscape-nature network in Guangzhou, which takes into account green, blue, recreation, historical remains, and slow traffic systems. The design will use landscape approaches to strengthen urban resilience against climate change. First, the research will interpret the site from the perspective of time and space, with an understanding of historical development and the current landscape system. Then, learning from the case study of Boston Metropolitan Park and the historical wisdom of managing water and green could help to conclude principles and strategies for designing a Guangzhou Metropolitan Park. The design exploration will apply different strategies and principles on regional, meso, and local scales. The green patches inside the city will be preserved and more connections will be created. Moreover, nature and landscape areas, including green space and blue system, historical areas, recreation spots, and urban networks will be managed to co-exist with each other coherently.
The creation of a landscape-nature network will provide more benefits for the city through landscape design. It aims to create a social-ecological inclusive and futureproof Guangzhou and also has the potential to become an inspiration for other metropolitan cities.

This graduation project searches for a framework for regeneration that integrates several core themes to bring about more social interaction in a post-war neighborhood like Moerwijk while at the same time densifying it. The result of the research is a constructed pattern language. The pattern language forms the basis of the framework for regeneration. These different research methods aim at finding spatial conditions for strengthening social interaction at the neighborhood level. The practical implications of the pattern language are ultimately tested in local design.

The world around us is developing constantly. In terms of architecture and urban development, China is unprecedented. In a way, the sheer speed and volume of construction is a phenomenon, becoming characteristic for Chinese developments. Like all matter, this in itself is neither necessarily positive of negative. However, such dialogue becomes relevant when interest of parties differ. Arguments can be made for it being a necessity economically, socially, politically. At the same time, it can be perceived as destructive. This becomes especially apparent in the face of the heterogeneity of border conditions.
An exploration of exactly this juxtaposition is the base of the thesis, wherein architecture plays a particular role. Architecture is not merely a collection of built production within context of the urban environment, it is also intrinsically interwoven with the individual and how it is perceived in value. In such way, architecture as its object, while its widely recognized in form as a building, is a mediator in defining life in its cultural-historical, socio-economical, political values. In perceiving architecture not merely as an object, we can explore and understand the values of the existing urban fabric. This understanding is essential for future developments. Proceeding the urban expansion, in this sense, can also mean the continuity of history. It is all a matter of perspectives.
To write about this juxtaposition, the scope has to be defined. Topics such as the heterogeneity of border conditions, the political influence, destructive urbanism and the cultural-historical context are far too large to address in the thesis. As such, the focal point of the thesis is not about the tension of politcal dissonance around border conditions, rather it is about the issues or chances of rapid and overwhelming planned urban developments, mainly the aforementioned phenomenon in regards of the existing urban fabric. However, the notion of politics is inevitable and should be touched upon, as it is an aspect playing an important role and evidently can not be taken out of the dialogue. This aspect is viewed not to create friction, but as an actor that is providing the urban context. Furthermore, it is about understanding and defining the border conditions on the specifically chosen site. The project is situated on the border of China and Hong Kong, therefore is in need for emphasis and understanding on the socio-cultural aspect. The context will be divided in themes of past, present and future perspectives. Additionally, it is not merely looking to what is, but rather, what can
become. When a region is threatend to become absorbed by the larger development surrounding it, what are the values of such place? What are the necessities of maintaining these? These are the themes that play an imminent role as the border condition of China and Hong Kong.
The border is endowed in a duality. It is, in times, non-physical, yet present. It reflects exclusiveness, yet is universal. It is between inside and outside. In this way, the thesis will take the phenomenon of the Chinese development as an inevitable and take the position in favour of co-existence, rather than restrictiveness. In a way, it is easier to resist something that cannot be grasped, yet having an open approach is encouraged for the sake of new perspectives, activities and understanding. The thesis therefore, is not trying to be a ‘toolbox’ for urban developments or architectural design.
The thesis, as a base, and the design intervention try to explore and transcend the political aspect of development and uncover the values of a region that is prone to losing its identity and characteristic. A step further, in the relation of Hong Kong and China, the border conditions where the two regions collide, create an intricate dynamic in which co-existence is the norm and an integral part of the area. Frankly, this dynamic is not one politically, rather it is socio-economic and cultural-historical. This dynamic itself is ultimately a notion that transcends the border itself. It is one that creates the communal and one that is embraced.

Over the years, the pace at which data is generated keeps on increasing. As a consequence, the data itself no longer holds the highest value, but rather the information and context the data captures are. This principle also holds in the 3D environment modelling scene, as accurately depicting an environment holds more value than the number of models there are of it.

One of the major problems in 3D environments, especially when the environment represents a building, is the presence of glass. A lot of the data captured to model these 3D environments is captured using LiDAR laser scanning. This is where glass becomes a problem as glass is almost completely transparent to laser beams at the typical wavelengths used when using LiDAR laser scanning. As a consequence, glass can lead to problems with navigational routes as it is invisible in the environment but still blocks the path. It can also create false spaces in the captured environment as it can also partially act as a mirror reflecting the laser beam and showing these reflections in space as if they were captured in a straight line.

Alternative manners for capturing and identifying glass in environments captured with laser have been created over the years, but they often need a dedicated set-up, expensive equipment or a lot of data. These solutions are not always feasible for users of point cloud data.

Therefore, in this thesis a focus is put on how can a low entry solution be created for this problem, which leads to the main research question: How can the location of glass be deduced using only information acquired from 3D point clouds and a reference position?

To answer this question, this thesis focuses on the deduction of the locations of glass windows in the provided input. To find these a projection from 3D data to 2D is performed. In 2D image space, contours are then detected that match the criteria of window frames. These contours are then used to segregate parts of the 3D point cloud that should contain the window detected in the projection. After clustering these parts and the best matching cluster is deduced to be a window.

In this thesis, it is shown that using the proposed methodology it is possible to deduce the location of glass in a LiDAR point cloud using only an additional reference position, but there are some flaws with the simplified input of the method.

In history, Shunde is famous for its water village culture with dense water networks and a beautiful fish-pond system. After the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, the manufacturing industry is rapidly developed in Shunde. Followed by that, the water village culture is gradually declining. Instead, a large number of factories are scattered in the whole district, which results in severe water problems. Now it is the phase of industrial transformation. This project proposes water resilience strategies and industrial transformation strategies to guide future development in Shunde. It starts from the analysis of existing water management, the relationship between the industrial area and water problem points and the existing condition of the industrial area. Then by doing design exploration, it explores possibilities for water resilient industrial transformation. This project not only provides the possibility of regenerating the industrial area, keeping industrial memory but also improves the water capacity and reshapes the relationship between people and nature.

The graduation project is about exploring an alternative development strategy for Beijing. The project reflects on the grand blueprint of Beijing planning and the original way for urban renewal. It discusses the death of the arrival cities in this planning context and a series of social problems caused thereby.
Taking the mitigation of such Beijing planning problems as the goal of the project, this project builds a new development framework for Beijing’s urban renewal based on the theory of the Open Cities: taking the arrival city as an effective open system, and using the arrival city’s renewal as a means of opening the urban space in Beijing. This project reverses Beijing's planning logic and looks forward to finding new development value in the weak space in Beijing's current planning, giving formal planning models a suggestion from informal development forces.

This graduation project has the goal to improve the living conditions of rural African communities by showing them how to construct off-grid, self-sufficient, and what is most important affordable clean water, energy, and sanitation system. I believe it can be easily adapted by communities of poor regions. Those communities struggle with poor quality water for living which is the cause of many deaths. To change it, a solar-based system is proposed to purify any kind of input water. Widely known simple solar stills are typically designed as single units serving only individuals, moreover, its efficiency is usually low. Therefore, an improved solar still concept is adapted in this research, and its principles are used in the roof system to produce water for the basic living needs of 50 people daily. Providing clean water to rural communities without access to the national grid is crucial and the most important aspect of this project. Based on the research elaborated in Phase I of this report, the most adequate to both climate and the economic-social situation prevailing in Beira, way to provide water is to purify raw water on-site using the energy of the sun. This solution not only does not require the construction of additional infrastructure outside the site but has a chance to be developed and multiplied in the least urbanized areas - often inhabited by a significant part of the region’s population. Due to the situation in the region, the use of only low-tech solutions and very cheap materials for the entire project is very important. This report aims to draw attention to two faces of disaster in Mozambique: consequences of climate change and poor living conditions.

The report will review the co-relation between rapid urbanization in Bandung with the city’s health issues in the informal areas of Bandung. Rapid urbanization is becoming a worldwide phenomena that leads to the realization of informal neighborhoods. Informal urbanization is a phenomena that will only keep on growing in the upcoming years. By 2030, it is expected that almost one in seven people will be living in an informal settlement, better known as a slum.

These informal settlements are characterized by overcrowding, poor-quality housing, lack of basic infrastructure and poverty. The informal ‘Kampung’- neighborhoods in Bandung are lacking basic hygiene because of overcrowding and insuf cient infrastructure. Because of the rapid growth, the pressure of the city will heavily increase in the near future, which will worsen the unhealthy environments most of the new migrants will have to live in.

After understanding the informal urbanization, the paper will focus on the current health issues, as a result of rapid urbanization, in the kampung of Tamansari. By doing this the research seeks to answer the question:

How can we re-interpret the old ‘Healthy City’ identity of the 1920’s, in order to improve the public health, and therefore the livability, whilst meeting the densi cation requirements of kampung Tamansari in Bandung?

This report will gradually work towards a new design proposal for a improved healthy, livable, green, sustainable, affordable and feasible development model for the slum-neighborhoods of Indonesia. The design itself has been conducted on the location of kampung Tamansari.

This report will inform urban planners and other practitioners on the growing challenges and threats of the Kampung-neighborhoods, and give an alternative development model for Indonesia’s slum neighborhoods.

Taiwan is located in the Circum-Pacific Seismic Zone; therefore, this island nation is destined to encounter recurrent cataclysmic earthquakes as what has been witnessed in the previous centuries. Taipei City, which is recognized as the most populous and densest city of Taiwan, has a series of push factors which lead herself standing with massive quakes. Besides, with old buildings, disordered urban pattern and lack of open space not only makes the city expose in an extremely dangerous situation but an uncomfortable living environment. Based on the descriptions above, the research objective of this thesis is focused on the following main question: “What are the landscape interventions that can create a safe and livable city?” As a result, in this thesis, it is mainly developed into two layers, emergency and living quality layers, and then combine them as a complete landscape design in Taipei for a safer and better living quality environment.

The essence of this project is actually the explanation and application of CSC approach. CSC approach is an integrative approach taking technical, social, cultural perspectives into account when developing sustainable water management, and because of the consideration of stakeholders, money is also one factor in this approach. The approach is raised under the climate change background and the emergency and trend of developing sustainable water management worldwide. The objective of using this approach is to make cities more resilient by technical solutions, simultaneously take advantage of social and cultural value of the city. Therefore, the diversity of cities can be maintained and sustainable water management will be more feasible and acceptable when regenerating a region. As result of the research, criteria, indicators, and design principles of CSC approach are summarized, and the application of CSC approach is shown through plan and design on system level and site level.