Wind turbines, widened rivers, data centres. All kinds of transitions are undeniably influencing Dutch cities and landscapes. For some, they are symbols of a new sustainable future; for others, they are annoying disruptions to a familiar environment. It is up to spatial planning to organise these transitions spatially. They come on top of the traditional, but equally urgent, urbanisation and protection tasks.
In the 20th century, the Netherlands built up a distinguished tradition of spatial planning. Iconic plans ensured that employment, infastructure and amenities kept pace with the growth of housing construction. They kept natural beauty and agricultural areas free from urban development. But how sustainable is the instrument of the fully integrated spatial plan, now that the challenges are piling up and their course is highly unpredictable?
This research addresses the question what can be the scope and focus of fully integrated spatial plans in modern-day Netherlands, and how they relate to other spatial steering tools. It links planning theory to the theory of social practices, the activities through which people connect with society. This is where social changes first enter and take shape. What might spatial planning look like that follows the rhythms of these practices? That conditions them where deemed necessary?
In the “responsive planning” the research describes, fully integrated spatial plans have a particular function in terms of agenda setting, operationalisation, vision formation or generic guidelines. But for strategic spatial policy, another kind of plan appears to be more suitable – an ´integrative´ plan that´s limited to a single challenge or closely related cluster of challenges, seeking linkages with area qualities and other challenges. ... Read more

Classical music oftenly is associated as boring, muddy; as an activity for the older people. Eventually this older generation will be gone for good, leaving even less pubic than it now has. As this problem grows the relationship between classical music and the public shifts. The lack of connection becomes more obvious, making it more and more distant. Through the case study of the concert building De Doelen in Rotterdam, a design study with the concept of the "promenade architecturale" is held to explore the insights on how to revitalize this subculture by making connection with the public on many different levels. In order to also design an acoustic well-functioning concert hall, a research paper is written about the architectural interventions in optimizing the acoustic aspects of a concert hall. ... Read more

This research aims to evaluate the policies and strategies that cities can deploy to facilitate the transition to clean shared mobility. The literature review supports the research through providing insights into the direction of the shared mobility market, charging infrastructure, electric vehicle development, charging behavior, as well as existing government and policy instruments and spatial considerations for charging infrastructure. Using metrics, such as uptake in electric vehicles and deployment rate of shared mobility services, a baseline analysis is conducted to establish recent trends in this field for the case study of Amsterdam. Next, the development of the system dynamics model provides insights into the interactions between the various aspects of the personal and shared mobility system that can be used to evaluate potential policy scenarios. Amsterdam’s (2019a) Clean Air Action Plan and similar goalsetting plans provide targets to which policies must be steered; therefore, the policies or policy packages to achieve the goals set can be developed via backcasting. Leveraging the four scenarios from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), four potential policy packages are developed in accordance with the governance, sustainability, and technological directions prescribed (PBL, 2019). These policy packages are then used in the system dynamics model, which accounts for stakeholder behavior, to evaluate the packages’ effects on the carsharing market, electric vehicle market share, parking and spatial considerations, and charging infrastructure demands. Based on the case study considered for the City of Amsterdam, the resulting trends show that the policy packages evaluated facilitate carsharing as a conduit to drastically reduce the market share of personal vehicles and are critical to the shift towards electric vehicle market dominance. The results can then be compared to inform the relative effectiveness of the policy packages considered. While there are limitations to the study, the model provides a beneficial tool for governments to evaluate effectiveness, side-effects, and constraints of transitioning the personal vehicle market towards a more sustainable future. ... Read more

Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country. The economy and morphology of the city has been shaped by the physical infrastructure but has neglected the ecological and social aspects in planning. This has led to the extreme vulnerability of the region to ecological and social negative externalities. The region experiences urban flooding every year disrupting the daily lives and inflicting loss to both the life and livelihood of many. Also, the state of emergency due to climate change that the planet deals with fighting sustenance for humankind is a severe challenge. Especially Mumbai, one of the largest cities in the world, is at risk of being wiped out. It is built from an archipelago of islands, the city’s historic downtown core-the island city is particularly vulnerable along with most of the suburban districts. This leads to an urgent need for providing resilience to the socio-ecological system in the region by providing climate adaptive capacity against floods. ... Read more

Climate changes, sixths mass extinction, use of naturalenvironment and extreme landscape transformation have beenbringing question of long, sustainable future. Broadly accepted‘growth paradigm’ has been reaching ecological limits on theplanetary level (Steffen et al., 2015). On the local level Szczecincity, with its rural region, localized in West Pomerania Voivodeship(Poland), has been already facing the ecological challenges.More than that, through ‘growth paradigm’ also the internalpermineralization and social exclusion. Broadly accepted strategy,based on neoliberal model of economy, focusing on developingregion on its economical level, what has no direct translation intoquality of living of its citizens. Dependence, lack of resilience andso called developing ‘undevelopment’ (Sowa, 2011) addressingneed of search for strategies ‘beyond growth’ (Ciesiółka, Motek,Kołsut, Stryjakiewicz, & Kudłak, 2017). Focusing on landscapeadaptation and strengthening the regional community, thebioregionalism as a framework, has been opening alternativevision for spatial planning, as field responsible for developmentconcepts. Following project, has been focusing on the explorationof the bioregional approach and its possibilities as the spatialplanning framework. Using the ‘research by design’ methodology,the spatial strategy for Szczecin functional area give a possibilityto answer cross-scale problematic (Carr, 2004): ecological (climateadaptation with biodiversity lost) and social (low social capital,exclusion and lack of social services). ... Read more

The Alps, also called the ‘water tower’ of Europe, are one of the biggest freshwater reserves of the continent, extending over seven countries. However, due to climate change, resulting in melting glaciers and more frequent dry periods, the availability of fresh water is seasonally changing and overall, decreasing in the future. This conflicts not only with the growing demand provoked by ongoing urbanization processes in and around the Alpine Arc, but also a rising interest in economic sectors like tourism and hydro power. This project proposes a new interplay between pre- and inner-alpine areas by giving particular consideration to the natural environment. It seeks to coordinate the use for water as a resource under the framework of institutional thickness. Thereby it explores national planning cultures, existing cooperation programmes and the added value of a macro-regional strategy for the integral management of hydraulic resources in the alpine context. Finally, a seasonal development strategy in a case study region is designed as a possible translation of a macro-regional strategy into space. ... Read more

This thesis proposes the development of a new centrality outside of Central London in order to combat the increasingly evident problems generated by London’s mono-centric model of development. In doing so, special attention is paid to understanding the region of Greater London as a networked urban system. Following a diagnosis of the current condition and the processes that have led to its existence, this thesis generates, optimizes and evaluates several options for a new centrality and the transit links needed to support them. In this process, a network analysis carried out in Python forms a central element to concretely understand the complexity of London’s system of station areas. Subsequently Woolwich, the most fitting of the options reviewed, is further elaborated through a development strategy comprising the local, regional and governance actions needed to create the conditions for, and providing guidance of, its development into a new centrality. ... Read more

This thesis contributes to a detailed understanding of the urbanisation of Tehran, and offers a new perspective on its complexities and specificities. This perspective builds on the work of urban scholars who have critically questioned the Eurocentric understanding of cities and have moved beyond an artificial hierarchy of cities that pushes for ‘backward/underdeveloped’ cities to become like ‘advanced/developed’ cities, even if that is inappropriate to their specific material and cultural condition. The thesis considers the urbanisation of Tehran over the course of the whole 20th century and argues that urban change and development process of Tehran is a multi-scalar process and despite its particularities and differences, have been connected to wider global development processes. In doing so this research examines the historic trajectory of Tehran’s urbanisation and development through the lens of international development discourse (such as state-led industrialisation or long-term economic development planning and privatisation) and shows how the interconnection between Iranian city making practices and international development ideas have shaped Tehran urban spaces and social structure. Throughout the last century, many international perspectives on Iran diagnosed the country and its capital city as being ‘backward’, ‘Third World’, and ‘undeveloped’. Thus, the pressure to ‘catch up’ with developed and economically powerful nations has been crucial in the ways in which Iranian government regimes, political elites, experts, and citizens have dealt with the ‘problem of underdevelopment’. In this thesis, the discourse of development refers not only to how development is defined or described, but also to how it is measured and practiced. Since the beginning of the 20th century, shifts in the global political economy have caused new discourses, institutions, and actors of development to emerge – bringing important implications for the formulation of national development polices and urban planning practices in cities across the Global South, including Tehran. Therefore, this study seeks to reveal how the interplay between the global discourse on development and Iran’s development policies has resulted in particular urban plans and development projects for Tehran, whose outcomes have had long lasting effects on trajectories of urbanisation and urban transformation in Iran. This research provides a historic perspective which first interrogates the relationship between urbanisation and development discourses and problematizes their perceived positive relationship in studies of cities in the Global South. Then a series of theoretical debates on history of urbanisation in non-Western cities, and shifts in international development discourse and its implications for the formulation of national development polices and urban planning practices in cities across the global south are presented. These theoretical discussions have offered conceptual lenses and an analytical framework that have helped to create a multi-scalar approach which frames the history of Tehran’s urbanisation as an intertwined local and global process. It is particularly through the application of this analytical framework that this thesis provides a novel understanding of Tehran urban development and the role of urban planning and design. The multi-scalar analysis of Tehran’s urbanisation is divided into three major periods over the last century. The beginning and end of each of these chronological periods is defined by crucial socio-political changes in Iran, each of which were motivated by the ambition to develop a modern and independent Iran that resists Western hegemony. Moreover, each period has been structured around the key shifts in international development discourses, as well as key national development policies, urban plans and projects for Tehran, their political and economic purposes, and the experts and institutions involved in making them. The empirical analysis of each period unpacks the differing agendas for the construction of nation-statehood and traces the conflict and alliances between state and non-state actors and agencies in the process of negotiating and implementing national development policies and urban plans for Tehran. Finally, the role of local and Western urban planners and experts, and the ideas and principles that guided their work, were examined through tracing the institutionalisation of expertise and the plan-making processes. By revealing the pathway of Tehran’s urbanisation and its specific historical trajectory, this study finds that the development of Tehran as a capital city during the 20th century has been one of the key mechanisms with which the Iranian state has constructed itself, and fortified its role as a builder and engineer of new ‘modern’ urban spaces. In each of the different periods, extensive powers to organise the territory were in the hands of the state, which can be seen as a way of maintaining and extending its authority and legitimacy.
The case of Tehran’s urbanisation uncovers a mutual relationship between national development plans and urban change. The historical study of a series of key national development plans shows how Iranian ruling elites and chosen experts responded to dominant international development discourses and attempted to nurture a locally interpreted version of the ‘developed’ city. These efforts had direct implication for planning procedures and city making practices. As such, the case of Tehran deepens knowledge about the role of state and nation-building processes in shaping urban planning practices and urbanisation of southern cities, and also offers a counter-narrative to the common views in urban studies which suggest that large cities are bypassing their nation-states in driving economic growth and becoming strategic actors in the global economy.
Ultimately by interrogating state power in producing Tehran urbanism, we highlight the importance of and need for more research on the role of state (formal) and non-state (informal) actors in shaping Tehran’s urban development trajectory and the politics of city-making practices. This is particularly pertinent to the careful investigation of the role of revolutionary charitable foundations in planning development as these foundations cannot be defined simply as public or private sector. In more general terms, it is important to further research the role of the religious-political groups (as non-state actors) or any other developmental organisation with ideological orientations in shaping urban spaces and spatial practices of Middle Eastern cities. In fact, it will be impossible to do any planning reform without considering the crucial role these ideological groups and organisations play in socio-economic development of these cities. ... Read more

Despite its small size Luxembourg has made a name for itself, even on a global level. This has to do with the importance of its financial centre, and, above all, with the country’s morally questionable tax principles. Which makes Luxembourg hit the headlines regularly. Renowned for its growing economy, stable political situation and a general high standard of living, to many Luxembourg might seem to be the ideal country. This is also reflected by Luxembourg’s continuous and rapid population growth, caused almost exclusively by immigration. In addition, massive commuter flows, and the related rising resource consumption cause major problems in the national territory (e.g. traffic jams, air pollution, excessive resource consumption). Due to these challenging conditions and the specific geography, Luxembourg constitutes an exceptional case study. In search of innovative solutions, this design and research project shows the possibilities for resource efficient planning by exploring the concept of transit-oriented development. With my thesis, I aim to analyse how resource efficiency can be achieved on a regional scale through important changes in current spatial development strategies. And thus, turn Luxembourg into ’smart Luxembourg’, a productive economic space, an ecologically sustainable society and a role model in resource management for other European countries. In particular, Luxembourg’s spatial configuration and its population adaptability can be advantageous in the process of becoming a laboratory for regional innovation. ... Read more

Gated communities exist in most urbanized contexts around the world and San José, Costa Rica is not the exception. Following the discourse of insecurity and the claim of building community with-in the confinement of the gates, new developments are constructed with a peripheral wall. As gated communities diversify to all available markets they have self-segregated from the city.
The result is a city composed by clusters of enclaves separated by functions thus, car dependent and in detriment of the public space. Under this condition this thesis research will focus on possible spatial strategies to modify public spaces with the aim to allow for and facilitate social interactions in areas that are dominated by gated communities. Using as a starting point the understanding that public spaces mediate between the private spaces, thus having an important role in the confronting process of socio-spatial fragmentation and that the promotion of public spaces can address the imbalance manifested by the privatization of public spaces (Madanipour, 1999).
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Historically, the regional landscape of Lambayeque has mainly been natural, agricultural, rural and lastly, urban. However, economic development, demographic growth and urban expansion have overpowered the more natural domain creating non–dynamic flows within the system, compressing all functions at the city scale, specially in Chiclayo as the capital of the region. Furthermore, due to climate change, natural disasters are getting more acute leaving behind devastated productive land, infrastructure and small rural towns, affecting mostly vulnerable population. Given that almost half of the region is cover by un–built areas with mixed ecological value, this broader –currently disconnected– landscape holds great opportunity as a linking element with the urban tissue, putting forwards the idea for creating symbiotic relations through green and blue multifunctional infrastructure and, at the same time reinforcing the regional identity. From the aforementioned context, the urgency for an integrative planning comprising urban, rural and natural landscapes arise. Due to the importance of agriculture not just in the economic dimension, but in the regional idiosyncrasy, productive lots hold the capacity to be integrated into the proposed green and blue initiative re–drawing the inherent connection between wilderness and, man–made landscapes focusing in gathering spaces, which are mainly non–existent within city boundaries. Furthermore, the territorial understanding is comprised by three natures, the first one refers to wilderness landscapes, the second one to man–made landscapes and the third one to ‘highly designed’ landscapes, where the third nature is understood as a complex intertwining of ecological elements, communities, cultural services and flows through processes of space & time. ... Read more

“Anyone who only thinks of technology, has not yet recognized that autonomous driving will change our society.” says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG, and indicates to what the future of mobility will look like. Autonomous and shared mobility is the most talked about topic in the world of transport today. Self-driving shared vehicles will have a huge impact on urban life as they will begin to question the distinction between private and public transportation modes. This mobility trend will help in reducing time of travel with almost 80 percent fewer cars. The reduction in the number of cars on road will lead to changes in environment, traffic, congestion issues, efficiency, cost of road building and maintaining, urban sprawl and parking. With fewer cars, vast amount of land under parking, which is observed quite often in most cities today, could be freed for other public uses, thus changing the urban form of the city as we know it. Therefore, it is time for Transport Planners and Urban Designers to concentrate on this field of development and investigate the possible impact of Autonomous mobility on the city and space to reap maximum benefits in future. This project will explore the consequences of this mobility trend through scenario based studies with a thorough analysis of the possibilities for the city of Amsterdam and speculate how this will transform the city in future. ... Read more

Chinese cities are going through an intense transformation of urbanization, which the world haven't experienced before. Beijing, as the capital, is the first to be affected by both developments and problems through this transformation. The flow of people from rural to urban, and from small cities to large cities is dramatic. The phenomenon of Drifters, migrants in Beijing, started to draw the attention of the whole society since the 1980s. Economic and political restrictions made the life adventures of Drifters hard enough.

This project aims to find alternative solutions towards overcrowding densities and housing shortage crisis in Paradise Gateway, Beijing. Although my appeal is not as strong and influential as the Red political specialists, whose lifelong pursue is to prove how our people live in rejoicing based on imagination. I found it is my duty, as an urban planner, to work on a better future for citizens, instead of benumbing people with slogans.

Born in Beijing, the author personally experienced the poor traffic condition of the city. Congestion can easily happen anywhere, especially at the peripheral of the city center, which is a clear sign of the overcrowding. Various measures towards congestion have been carried out, from the license-plate lottery to odd-and-even license plate control rule. There are rumors about tolls on ring road are going to be charged in the coming 2017. 'The song for the fifth ring' gains huge popularity among Citizens in Beijing, expressing the mixed feelings about the city's infrastructure. Another part of the motivation of this project is the attempt to reveal the primary cause of congestion in Beijing.

In conclusion, the project will aim toward counteracting the quality effects of the mega-residential communities in Beijing. These communities are playing an important role in the settlement of immigrants, where living condition and traffic condition is bad. As density rises, living quality of local citizens goes down. Is there any possibility of revitalizing the giant communities? ... Read more

Flooding due to extreme rainfall occurs more often the last years and causes high costs of property damage and economic loss due to blocked roads. Climate change is expected to increase the intensity of extreme rainfall with 12% per degree Celsius increase (KNMI, 2015). Especially cities are vulnerable to flooding due to extreme rainfall because of the high urban density and paved surfaces (van Herk et al., 2011). Hence, municipalities face the challenge of developing a climate-proof urban area. However, due to decentralization municipalities face more responsibilities without enough spending capacity. For example rainwater, the municipality has a legal duty to take care of rainwater discharge but has to cooperate with water boards, citizens and other actors. Moreover, cooperation with other actors increases because of high costs for rainwater discharge through the sewage system (RIONED Foundation, 2016). This demands municipalities to look for smarter solutions. However, municipalities are still trying to find a way of coordinating and facilitating cooperation within their network of actors which could lead to shared climate-proof developments. The question remains how municipalities could deal with this challenge and coordinate the network of actors to ensure shared execution of measures. In literature this gap is indicated as the lack of knowledge on the governance role of municipalities to develop a climate-proof urban area (Crowe et al., 2016; Francesch-Huidobro et al. 2016; Marchand & Ludwig, 2014). The research question is as follows: “To what extent is the current governance role of municipalities able to provide, direct and indirect, enough measures in both quality and quantity to ensure a climate-proof public area in dealing with extreme rainfall and how can it be improved?” By means of a literature study the role of municipalities in developing a climate-proof urban area is identified from a scientific perspective. Then, a practical perspective is presented on the position of the municipality of Delft within its network of actors, because Delft is a comparable mid-sized municipality. Furthermore, an additional in-depth case study of Delft is performed. This case study provides empirical evidence on a finished project coordinated by the municipality of Delft to develop a climate-proof public area. Subsequently the three analyses are presented in the synthesis to propose improvements for the municipality of Delft. Next, this synthesis is reviewed by experts. The results from the analyses show that the municipality of Delft is to some extend able to provide a climate-proof urban area. The analysed project was the first of its kind and thus more projects could be initiated to cover the whole municipality. The municipality ensured shared decision making and execution of measures by coordinating and facilitating the project as a meta-governor. Hence, this approach provides good potential to apply more often and ensure a climate-proof urban area. Furthermore, analysis show the municipality of Delft executes some climate-proof measures but this is not yet on a larger scale or in cooperation with other municipal departments or network actors. Lastly, maps with information on bottlenecks, opportunities or other climate related aspects are not up-to-date or lacking which could hamper effective climate-proof developments according to experts. To improve the ability of the municipality of Delft to develop a climate-proof urban area a proposal was presented. The recommendations were confirmed by experts to improve the ability of Delft. The use of area managers is valuable in Eindhoven, The Hague and Rotterdam in gathering local information to improve decision making and communicating the municipal message to the different 5 actors within an area. Also the municipality of Delft could invest more in data gathering and map making of bottlenecks and opportunities. If there is one overview from different municipal disciplines, synergies of plans can emerge, roads, sewage, park maintenance and private initiatives can be executed in one go. This lowers the costs for a plan but needs coordination and availability of data. Furthermore, the time horizon for maintenance of public space or projects could be extended to 1-10 years in order to identify opportunities and synergies earlier. Additionally, the organizational structure or way of working observed in other municipalities is a contributing aspect to be able to develop a climate proof urban area. Disciplines are incentivised to cooperate and develop integral plans because of the organizational structure and way of working. However, without a systems approach these recommendations could only have limited effect. As an example: when the maintenance of weeds in the streets is lacking behind one storm with extreme rainfall will still cause flooding. Which is an important aspect mentioned by experts that often the maintenance is often neglected. Further research should focus on more case studies and the application of meta-governance in the Netherlands. Also different kinds of projects could be valuable to analyse since the analysed project was a municipal project. The provincial or water board projects could have different outcomes. This could increase the body of knowledge and the applicability of meta-governance on different government levels. It is noted that meta-governance is a way of externally coordinate and facilitate developments. However, it is not yet studied what the internal structure has as an effect on the effectiveness of meta-governance. Also, more research should be focused on how the meta-governor can determine clear conditions and boundaries for urban development. These are needed for the new environmental act to clearly indicate how to comply private initiatives with the rules and regulations. Especially since the new act focuses more on private initiatives. Lastly, it is observed that the municipality as the meta-governor used a mixture of meta-governance techniques two, three and four. As most literature focusses on one technique it is recommended to research the effectiveness of the meta-governance techniques when these are combined including who will take this specific role or use a technique. Depending on the situation the roles can be taken up by different municipal actors and not necessarily the city-planner. ... Read more