The world is facing global challenges that are dramatically changing the social and physical environments, resulting in cultural confrontation. Rapid urban growth, and gentrification increase urban pressure while jeopardizing social cohesion, multicultural values and local economies. Moreover, environmental factors associated with climate change challenge the way cities respond
and adapt, as their assets have to be re-designed to meet the current and future generation needs.

One response to these challenges is adaptive reuse, the transformation of the function of an underused structure into a new use. This process turns the cities’ elements in decline into development catalysers. The adaptation to these changes is often a source of conflict, as urban policies lack citizen engagement in the redefinition of public space, resulting in more disagreement. This is particularly acute when addressing contested communities, as their continuous evolution directly influence the adaptation of cultural heritage.

Considering these aspects, this research question is responded: ‘How can socio-spatial conflicts that result from contested identities be mitigated through the adaptive reuse of urban heritage?’.

The relations between Adaptive Reuse, Urban Heritage and Contested Identities are studied, resulting in the research’s objective: to develop an integrative methodology to evaluate urban heritage adaptive reuse alternatives in contested urban contexts, using the case of Acre (Israel).

This final outcome is proposed as a tool for decision-makers and urban planners that provides information-based results to be applied in urban design practice, aiming to translate the theory into practice, and to bridge the gap between global goals and local issues.

Bangkok, the primary mega-city of Thailand, had once been driven by water-based development until car mobility was introduced. Since then, the development has been gradually shifted to land-based. The dispersed roads and highways stimulated the urban sprawl where suburban gated communities are built in the outskirts, inaccessible by public transportation, and encourage private motorization. To cope with the congestion, the government is developing public rail transport throughout the metropolitan area. However, the current market-driven development triggers the proliferation of urban gated communities around the emerging stations, resulting in transit-induced gentrification and leaving insufficient spaces for the public. Social segregation and unlivable environments posed by these unplanned phenomena need to be responded. Simultaneously, the water network is disregarded and home to the impoverished citizens, which hinders the performance of stormwater management in this flood-prone metropolis. Regardless of how extensive the network is, only a few
waterways are used for public transport. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is readjusting the land-use plan to align with the expansion of mobility networks, considering the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and Compact City. Since the concepts have been predominantly applied in the Global North, they need to be comprehensively studied to be adapted to Bangkok properly. This project investigates
Bangkok’s current spatial, social, and institutional conditions on multiple scales to seek the development potentialities. On the macro-scale, it proposes potential canals to be utilized for waterborne transport and prospective TOD locations. Ramkhamhaeng is selected
as the pilot project to apply patterns translated from the metropolitan-scale vision and strategy in four layers; enhancing collective and public space, integrated urban mobility, density configuration, and revitalizing water systems. On the micro-scale, design intervention showcases the contextualization of the principles and explores the built forms compromising to the surroundings. Lastly, to realize the project, it suggests the planning systems that engage all stakeholders to ensure the inclusive and efficient operation and implementation, which resulting in the aimed livable and socially diverse environments.

Netherlands is a coastal country with a typical maritime climate such as mild summers and cold winters but the intensity, duration and frequency of heat waves has been observed increasing since 21st century. The elderly, as one of the vulnerable groups of continuous hot weathers, are the first to be affected by the heat waves with regard to increasing mortality and morbidity while the aging population combined with uneven distribution of the urban heat risks is exacerbating the situation and placing challenge to the public. Public health interventions have been applied in the past few years which have been proved to be effective but the overall effect for the future scenario is questionable. Strategies from urban planning have been focusing on the mitigation of urban heat island and adaption to extreme weather conditions but the effect should be expected in a long term. Since the urban heat island and the uneven distribution of heat risks have strong interaction with physical environments in the urbanized areas, the thesis is seeking for the solutions to intervene within existing urban settings to reduce heat stress for the Dutch elderly through urban design approach to fill in the gap between public health and urban planning interventions. The thesis, by analyzing and researching in The Hague as the test field, introduced an approach to uncovered the causation of the uneven distribution of urban heat risks among the public and evaluate the heat risks level among the elderly from large scale to small scale. The further research on the courtyard block dwellings in the study areas reveals the potential heat risks from the perspective of building configuration and several interventions have been applied within the blocks to reduce the heat stress for the residents.
The design outcomes consist of strategies and temporal spatial interventions, ‘Cooling sheds’, and urban microclimate design following the instruction of strategies has been applied in the study areas to the test effectiveness of the strategies. The combination of the application of strategies through urban microclimate design process and the placing of cooling sheds on neighborhood streets could work as a network on various scales to reduce the heat stress for not only the citizens and healthy elderly but also the elderly with restriction of movements in different times in The Hague. The ideas behind the research and strategies could also be applied broadly in the urban renewal process from the microclimate perspectives in the Netherlands to reduce the heat stress among the public.

The graduation project starts from the attention and research to the dynamic water level change in coastal area in North Sea, and by analysising the potential flooding risks, climate-sensitive mudflat, and the relationship between regional ecosystem and local people, the observation to changing coastal landscape are emphasised, to rethink how to reuse the leftover human space to reflect the changing ecological environment, emphasing people's bioregionalism awareness. By Redefining the meanings of the fortification heritage, the meanings of the Grain tower, defencing not only the national territory but defence for the territory defined by the whole nature; not only record the history, but measure the changing nature through time. Key words: Soft edge between sea and land , fortificaton heritage architecture, tidal mudflat, changing horizon, bioregionalism, changing ecological environment

Broken glass from a bus stop, litter on the ground, a broken lamppost, and more things like this can be encountered in a municipality. To improve the process of mapping the issues and fixing them Fixi is developed by Decos. Fixi is an application in which citizens can report issues in public space. A citizen can report the issue he or she encounters in Fixi and the handlers of the municipality will use this inventory to improve the quality of the municipality. The issues are mapped using GNSS or pin-pointing it out on the map, but these options are not always available. This thesis research explores object identification based on the description of neighbouring elements. By providing a method to identify the object by a description, an additional option for reporting issues is made available in Fixi. The neighbouring elements which are described by the user will function as reference points for the method. By combining the information, a suggestion of one or more objects can be presented to the user which should include the described object. The flow from description to output consists of five different elements: data input, preprocessing of the data, user input, processing, and output. Three versions of input and processing are developed and tested in this thesis research. (1) With spatial relationships and distances indicated by the user, (2) with spatial relationships, and (3) with distances indicated by the user. The type of elements that can be described by the user are based on the theory of Lynch [1960] and can be categorised in five different types: path, edge, district, node, and landmark. To test the method, the selectivity of the elements is tested and the output of the process is evaluated. This last test is done based on six criteria: (1) number of questions, (2) presence of object, (3) amount of suggested objects, (4) average distance to elements, (5) covered area of suggested objects, and (6) completion time of description. The tests have been executed on thirty scenarios spread over three municipalities: Westervoort, Amsterdam, and Joure. All scenarios presented the described object as one of the suggested objects, which means the object has been identified. In general scored version 3 with the distances indicated by the user the best results in the tested cases. Improvements are possible in elements like number of questions, average distance, and completion time.

The biggest city of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, faces increasing flood
risk, causing frequent sickness, loss of life, and widespread damage
to property. Dar es Salaam is one of the fastest growing cities in the
world. More than 70% of the residents live in informal settlements.
Many of them are located in flood prone areas like river valleys and
floodplains, which flood annually. Because of their limited coping capacity,
residents are not able to recover from the impacts of this flooding.
Due to the change of precipitation patterns, the flood risk is
likely to increase in the future, putting even more people and assets at
risk during more frequent and intense floods. This graduation project
seeks to answer the main research question: How can urban form
and landscape help to mitigate the effects of floods on citizens in Dar
es Salaam, Tanzania?
For areas with a high density of buildings, multifunctional courtyards
are proposed. The existing building structure is strategically densified,
and filled with new buildings to shape courtyards. Inside, a variety of
interventions reduce the water run-off into the river valley, treat waste
water and generate income via urban agriculture and aquaponic
systems. For the river valley the construction of “chinampas” is being
proposed, which creates a high retention capacity for storm water
while enabling agricultural activities and connectivity across the river
valley throughout the wet and dry seasons. At the edges of the valley,
different interventions are located in order to reduce and clean
run-off water before entering the valley. The combination of spatial
interventions to reduce the flood risk with urban agriculture reduces
the impacts and increases the ability of residents to deal with future
hazards.
The design proposals are supported by a implementation strategy
and complimenting policies which reduce pollution, steer future urban
development and introduce new renting models to host a higher diversity
of lifestyles with different economic abilities.

For refugees that are fleeing is access to reliable information of great importance in order to allow them to seek for what they need and avoid dangers. On their
journey they experience moments of immobility and in these periods useful information is in need leading to economic, social or knowledge resources. These resources gives them access to mobility of the following trajectory. The purpose of this study is to investigate information processes used by refugees approaching economic, social and knowledge resources while being in immobility fleeing to Europe and redesigning in information flows in order to
ease resource collecting. This research made progress through documentary and literature study, empirical analysis in an exploratory in-depth case study by mapping that draws upon field work, and proposes design principles in information provision. The way interventions provide communication for information needs vary in different settings of urban and rural areas. In a urban spread complex information network, provision focuses on filtering and
linking to the surroundings. That is other than in rural areas with limited clustered network, where providers have the role of introducing and connect to a wider existing network.

A corridor towards sustainable urban development is a reflection about the current planning techniques and how to apply them in the African context, specifically in Mozambique. It aims to raise awareness about the necessity of an understanding and adapting of European urban theories to the context conditionants and strong cultural identity of the African location.

The main aim is to explore a shift in the metropolitan planning approaches in developing countries via a contextualized vision and strategy for Maputo Metropolitan Area 2040 that translates the expected growth of the area into a sustainable urban development introducing principles of adaptive governance and ‘non conventional’ housing policies.

This project proposes a shift in perspective to approach the danger of the fast growing trend happening in the Metropolitan Area of Mozambique, which is currently leading to high rates of informality and precarious living conditions in 70% of its extension, The Maputo Metropolitan Area (MMA). The project reflects towards the research question: How can contextualized planning strategies structure metropolitan growth in a fast urbanization context as the back bone of mobility based sustainable spatial urbanization? How can adaptive governance support the decision making in this strategy?. It presents a detailed analysis and diagnosis of the area, the study of diff erent growing scenarios and the proposal
of a vision and strategy for Maputo Metropolitan Area 2040. This final strategy is just a pilot of new approaches to orientate the urban development considering the diff erent aspects that condition the current situation of MMA: the spatial strategies and the policies to structure them. It introduce the proposition of changing certain principles of how to approach the context complexity, it does not aim to be a final solution.

The integrated strategy is divided in three multi-scale strategies: The Corridors, Moamba airport and New Katembe that, based on non conventional housing policies and adaptive governance theoretical framework, will
propose a suistainable framework for the urban development of MMA 2040

Nowadays, cities are quickly growing and therefore infrastructure is a very important element in the urban environment. Large scale infrastructure like highways and railways connect the cities from distant places to each other in an efficient manner. The hard and dominant structure only provides for connection on top of it, but acts as a barrier for the perpendicular connections, which can even lead to separation of the two sides entirely. Large scale infrastructures were built from the perspective of the traffic on it and took little consideration of its surroundings and lead to the creation of the undefined spaces around it. The spaces that are created around large scale infrastructure usually only function as buffer zones. These are needed to keep a certain amount of distance between the highway and its surroundings. This distance can vary depending on the type of surrounding. While these spaces are used as buffer zones, the presence of the highway also causes certain limitations on the functionality and other usages of these spaces. This then often results in the spaces not being used or even being abandoned and neglected all together. This phenomenon occurs all over the world in large cities where highways go through urban areas. Especially in such a small country as The Netherlands, the space we have is limited. Nowadays we always stress the fact that we should be making multifunctional spaces, but these spaces around the highway usually only have the function of buffering between highway and its surrounding. However, these spaces have the potential to become something much more than just the leftover spaces of a highway. In my graduation project I want to address this issue, especially when considering that in the near future, most of the cars will be using electricity instead of fossil fuel, which will decrease the air pollution and noise from the engine. With this, the view on the spaces around the highway will change for the better and will allow for more different uses of these spaces. The main research question of this project will be: “How to transform the leftover spaces created by large scale infrastructure into places that can incorporate new functions that can solve the local or urban issues, while at the same time stays coherent?” Rotterdam was chosen as my location, because it is the longest orbital highway of the Randstad cities, it has many different types of areas it goes through and highway itself is also tightly encased by the city for most part. For the analysis I separated it into different layers, representing the leftover spaces and infrastructure, the potentials on large scale networks and the triggers for development. When overlapping these layers, we can see which potential is best suited for which area. The ring road is strongly divided into two halves. And within the halves, it breaks up into smaller pieces. So it is important to start with strong relevant ones. One of these important spots is the area near Kralingse Zoom. This area has the potential to improve the blue-green connections. As a conclusion of the local analysis, there is a wish to connect the city center with the green areas in the north, but the infrastructure form a strong barrier in between. And the forest itself is also only facing towards the south, making the connection to the north harder. By looking at the different heights and environments of the infrastructure, different zones are marked. And with the main goal in mind, each of these zones can contribute to by reacting in their own way. By utilizing the different spatial qualities that the area already has, the area around the large scale infrastructure can be divided into different parts, that each can react according to what that specific area needs. For instance by lowering the ground to increase the height of the structures, so both sides can be united.

Hong Kong is an immigrant city. Over 30% of population nowadays are immigrant from mainly China mainland, Malaysia, Philippine and UK (CSD, 2017). Sham Shui po is a typical arrival city that had successfully accommodated several generations of immigrants and help them rising to the local city middle class. Sham Shui Po is developed in 1920s. Its small housing, density and streetscape help them to frame a social supporting network and create more low-skill job opportunity. However, these urban renewal projects are damaging the existing immigrant community’s social mechanism that helps them to move upward to better income social status. What’s more, with the growing awareness of property right and community movement, the counterviews from neighborhood residents, including migrant tenant, property owners and other stakeholders, were getting stronger and lead to radical rise on financial and administrative cost of redevelopment process. This research is aiming to use participatory planning and design to fulfill urban renewal’s economic and social goals while maintain, as well as improve, the supportive mechanism of immigrant neighborhood, in terms of better affordable living, accessible job opportunity, sense of community and cultural identity in Hong Kong. It is based on the theory of migrants’ city, which addresses on migrants’ life and spatial need. Another theoretical column is participatory planning and design, which claims to include users and stakeholders voice in design and planning process. With research on participation practices in Asian cities, a participatory are proposed as a tool for planer to engage and intervene on participatory planning. It is constituted by a strategy plan, community engagement and neighborhood design toolkit.

Urban highway, as a product of modern city, is one of the most important influencing factors that shape the contemporary urban landscape. It was built to ease the urban traffic pressure. However, the negative impacts on the urban space and the surrounding environment cannot be ignored. In the most cases, highway is widely regarded and treated as an only functional infrastructure. In my point of view, it also has potentials to be a public facility instead of strictly utilitarian by being contextualized, integrated and interacted with urban environment and urban life. Therefore, I have developed a concept of ‘hybrid highway landscape’ as a new phase of urban highway. In order to explore the potential of hybrid highway landscape, highway A40 in the centre of Duisburg, a highly urban context, and its right-of-way is regarded as an interesting experimental field for the research project.

The aim of this project is to bring the forgotten land of the RingA10 back to the city, by transforming the one purpose space into a multifunctional place of its own identity. The project Kunstwerk Ring A10 aims to connect the highway, the city and the human creating the layer of “In the ring” between “the inside” and “the outside”
on the map of Amsterdam. This will be done using the participatory methods of
research and design with a specific focus on redefining identity and creating perception of place.

In response to greater demand for transparency, technology advancements and the disintermediation by startups are gradually making some of the information public. As a result, property-related information is increasingly available in digital and paper form. However, a significant portion of the digitized information is hosted on disparate systems, which results in a lack of transparency and efficiency, and a higher incidence of inaccuracies that creates a greater potential for fraud. Blockchain technology could enable the commercial real estate industry to address these inefficiencies and inaccuracies.

This research focusses on exploring the different possibilities for integrating blockchain technology in the real estate management process. By analyzing the current real estate management process and gaining knowledge about the implementation of blockchain technology, the objective of this research is exploring in which phases of the real estate management process the process can benefit from the use of blockchain technology.

The research findings contribute to the knowledge of opportunities for broad implementation of blockchain technology in the real estate management process by providing a scientific based research document. It provides a broad overview of different opportunities and constraints for using blockchain technology in the process. It increases awareness for the disruption this technology might bring. This research provides scientific arguments for possibilities of implementing blockchain technology in the real estate management process and will function as a trigger for continuation of research into this topic.

This dissertation reports a PhD research on mathematical-computational models, methods, and techniques for analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of spatial configurations in architecture and urban design. Spatial configuration is a technical term that refers to the particular way in which a set of spaces are connected to one another as a network. Spatial configuration affects safety, security, and efficiency of functioning of complex buildings by facilitating certain patterns of movement and/or impeding other patterns. In cities and suburban built environments, spatialconfiguration affects accessibilities and influences travel behavioural patterns, e.g. choosing walking and cycling for short trips instead of travelling by cars. As such, spatial configuration effectively influences the social, economic, and environmental functioning of cities and complex buildings, by conducting human movement patterns. In this research, graph theory is used to mathematically model spatial configurations
in order to provide intuitive ways of studying and designing spatial arrangements for architects and urban designers. The methods and tools presented in this dissertation are applicable in:
–– arranging spatial layouts based on configuration graphs, e.g. by using bubble diagrams to ensure certain spatial requirements and qualities in complex buildings; and
–– analysing the potential effects of decisions on the likely spatial performance of buildings and on mobility patterns in built environments for systematic comparison of designs or plans, e.g. as to their aptitude for pedestrians and cyclists. The dissertation reports two parallel tracks of work on architectural and urban configurations. The core concept of the architectural configuration track is the ‘bubble diagram’ and the core concept of the urban configuration track is the ‘easiest paths’ for walking and cycling. Walking and cycling have been chosen as the foci of this theme as they involve active physical, cognitive, and social encounter of people with built environments, all of which are influenced by spatial configuration. The methodologies presented in this dissertation have been implemented in design toolkits and made publicly available as freeware applications.