Europe has a long and rich history of theatre development, closely linked to the growth of cities and urban conditions. The shape of the theatre and the behaviour of the audience changed over time. Still, the interaction between the city and the stage in most theatres has remained virtually unchanged since the 19^th century. The theatre serves only as a place for performance, catering to a specific audience. This often means the theatre building remains closed to the public for most of the day, opening only a few hours before the performance. Today, there is a desire to make theatre more accessible and an important part of the city's daily public life. 

The site for the new theatre in Delft is in a complex, layered environment. Urban redevelopment of large apartment blocks began in the 1970s but never fully filled the demolished granular urban tissue of the old city. The new theatre bridges the difference in scale between new construction in the west and traditional, undemolished houses in the east by cascading and reducing its height from west to east. By aligning the stage tower to the axis of the existing street, the building creates a new and recognisable landmark for the city. By lifting the main auditorium to the first floor, a big public area is created on the ground floor. This space can be used throughout the day as a public meeting place, for leisure activities, independently from the theatre. 

The result is a big urban gesture solving existing urban problems while also creating valuable indoor public space that can accommodate different events and activities.

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This graduation project examines how a contemporary theatre in Delft can operate not only as a place for performance, but also as part of the city’s public and social fabric. Situated between the ideas of the “town square” and the “monastery,” this proposal investigates how theatre architecture can combine openness and public inclusion with more enclosed and atmospheric qualities needed for performance and production.
The project responds to Theater de Veste’s ambitions for a larger, more publicly embedded institution, while questioning the tendency of contemporary cultural buildings to become generic multi-purpose buildings.

The proposal focuses on the transformation of the urban block around the former HEMA in Delft’s southern city center into a theatre complex that combines both receiving and producing theatre. The project works through selective interventions, retaining most of the current building fabric and compromising the existing main structure only where required by the program. It addresses a current environmental discourse to design and transform buildings to suit current and future programs.
The methodology is based on precedent analysis, theatre visits, model studies, and the research focuses on thresholds and sequences of spaces. The final design is organized around a public “theatre alley,” which serves simultaneously as a circulation route, an infrastructural spine, and a performative public space. ... Read more

This master thesis shows a design for the theatre of the future within the city of Delft, which is called The Passage. The passage shows an open and inclusive theatre building which not only functions as space for performance, but also as culture hub within the city of Delft. ... Read more

The Theatre, an urban figure with a long-standing history in the context of European cities. From Dionysian festivals in the large amphitheatres of ancient Greece. To the street performances in the loud, dirty, chaotic streets of medieval Northern Europe. To the gilded theatres of the bourgeoisie, where theatre became a tool of social status and class division. After WWI and WWII theatres arose that attempted to break with tradition by becoming places for political expression and experimentation. Which brings us to our current moment in time. In the Netherlands theatres are largely subsidized by the government or hyper commercialized to stay afloat. The relevance and function of theatre in our society is being questioned. What is the future of theatre?

It is within this uncertainty about the role of theatre that Theatre de Veste positions its ambition for the future. They imagine the theatre as a public space where all parts of society are welcome and can engage in a meaningful way. Currently, Theatre de Veste is located on the south-west side of the historic city centre of Delft in a building dating from 1995. The organisation feels that its ambitions have outgrown its current situation and are looking to relocate.

The site chosen for this project is located at the South-West side of the historic city centre of Delft. Currently it functions as an urban back land. It contains a temporary parking structure, the back gardens of houses with their small sheds, a garage and a car rental, and a charity shop. The challenge of the project lies in manoeuvring a large building such as a contemporary theatre into the small-grain urban fabric of Delft.

The ambitions of Theatre de Veste pose interesting questions: what is the future of theatre, and in turn, the theatre of the future? To find answers to these questions, this project positions itself as an exploration of public space, with theatre as its core function. It asks how such a space can be balanced with the technical, organisational, and commercial realities of a fully operative contemporary theatre. How can a space be created that the people of Delft can use and inhabit in a meaningful way, and what if theatre alone is no longer sufficient as a reason to gather?
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Theater architecture is often torn between two extremes: functioning as an isolated, ultra-flexible, neutral box, or reverting to the gesture-heavy monumentality of traditional theaters. This thesis challenges this dichotomy through the design of Theater de Baaierd at the Gasthuisplaats in Delft. Rejecting both the passive container model and exclusionary traditional grandeur, the project explores how a civic building can achieve an enduring, monumental presence while remaining contextual in its architecture and accessible to all types of public. Driven by the belief that true sustainability comes from tectonic permanence and the longevity of architecture, the design utilizes robust, honest materiality. Ultimately, Theater de Baaierd demonstrates how grand, permanent architecture can successfully democratize theater within a fine-grained historic city. ... Read more

Carel Weeber is an architect who makes architecture where colour plays an important role. When his projects are compared, it looks like Weeber made a lot of choices in the beginning of his career by himself. He made these choices intuitively; he did use good reasoning to make the actual decisions. As his career progressed. He made room for decoration, like in De Schie, he made room for Struycken in the hallways to make different artworks. De Struyck is the example where Weeber makes a clear distinction between decoration and architecture; he also reserves space for art in his design, but this space is now the whole façade and parts of the interior. Weeber does not interrupt the artist; he makes the conditions for the artist in which he has to work. Regardless his position, Weeber is still in control. ... Read more

This study investigates how the Groninger Museum (1994, under the direction of Alessandro Mendini) organizes fragmentation and cohesion through its plan and circulation. Although the museum is often discussed as an iconic example of postmodern architecture, the relationship between fragmentation and spatial organization, with regard to the architectural discourse of the 1990s and the present, has been little studied.

The comparison with the Kunsthal Rotterdam (1992, Rem Koolhaas / OMA) shows how
architectural fragmentation can be integrated into a coherent spatial system. The Groninger Museum organizes fragmentation through autonomous pavilions and authorship; the Kunsthal creates cohesion through a continuous system of circulation and infrastructure.

In both buildings, circulation functions as an organizing principle that structures fragmentation while simultaneously facilitating the relationship between the building and its context. The comparison reveals two strategies for transforming fragmentation into a coherent whole: collage versus continuum and authorship versus system.

By placing these two projects in dialogue, this study emphasizes how architects in the early 1990s explored new approaches to spatial organization beyond the modernist ideal of unity. ... Read more

This study investigates whether a prescribed urban colour plan can foster a sense of belonging among residents, using the Regenboogbuurt (Rainbow Neighbourhood) in Almere, the Netherlands, as a case study. Designed with a comprehensive colour scheme to prevent urban monotony, the neighbourhood draws inspiration from German architect Bruno Taut’s colourful social housing projects in Berlin.

The research evaluates the transition from ‘plan’ to ‘place,’ focusing on the interaction between urban guidelines and architectural execution, specifically through Liesbeth van der Pol’s ‘Rooie Donders’. Furthermore, the study combines written documentation about the design with interviews with residents and site visits to reveal the daily lived experience.

Findings suggest that residents subconsciously identify with the neighbourhood’s character, often mirroring its external façade colours in their home interiors. However, the study also identifies a growing threat to the area’s cohesive identity, due to unauthorised individual modifications and a lack of municipal supervision. The thesis concludes that a colour strategy can foster a sense of belonging, when is supported by active community engagement and formal legal protections, such as a protected townscape status. ... Read more

This thesis examines John Körmeling’s Starthuisje (1992), a utilitarian starting tower constructed for a Groningen rowing track. Contrasting with the data-driven adaptability typical of 1990s Dutch architecture, Körmeling grounded his design in strict mathematical proportion and tectonic contradiction. Following the track’s closure in 2015, the structure avoided demolition, ultimately transitioning into a protected heritage site within a new suburban development. This research demonstrates that the Starthuisje survived precisely due to its absolute geometrical indifference. By prioritizing civil scale and autonomous concrete mass over programmatic flexibility, the building retained its architectural authority long after its functional context was entirely erased.
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This thesis examines how the architectural design of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam (1993), by Jo Coenen, constructs a spatial choreography between public accessibility and institutional authority. Rather than treating the building as a neutral container, it approaches it as a sequence of spaces that organises movement, frames experience, and gives architecture cultural meaning.

Set within the Dutch 1990s—when architecture gained unusual public and political visibility—the NAi was tasked not only with housing exhibitions, research, and archives, but also with representing architecture itself. Through an analysis of plans, drawings, photographs, and spatial sequences, this thesis argues that Coenen responds to this challenge by carefully staging access. The building guides visitors from the city into a layered interior, moving from open public spaces toward more controlled domains, such as exhibition areas and the archive.

In this way, the NAi organises not only functions, but also importance. It presents architecture as a public cultural field while simultaneously framing it institutionally. The thesis shows that the building mediates between openness and authority not by removing hierarchy, but by deliberately designing it.
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This study examines how infill-projects in the so-called “open gaten” of the Amsterdam urban fabric engage with its historic urban environment. Political, social, and architectural consequences are addressed through literature research, historical theory and architectural analysis, focusing on façades, material use, scale, urban context, and spatial organization.

As a central case study, the HoLaTuKa housing project in Amsterdam by Claus & Kaan Architects (1994–1998) is analyzed. Developed within the context of the city’s “open gaten” and shaped by the Compact City policy, HoLaTuKa exemplifies broader design strategies in Dutch housing architecture of the late 1980s and 1990s and provides a suitable case for examining the spatial, aesthetic, and constructive challenges of infill development.

Whereas earlier infill projects often prioritized standardization and efficiency, resulting in relatively uniform architecture, HoLaTuKa represents a shift toward a more site-specific approach. Interventions along Hoogte and Laagte Kadijk respond to their immediate surroundings, producing distinct architectural translations. Rational principles and contextual considerations guide plans, structure, construction and inform architectural expression, enabling variation within a coherent design framework. By situating HoLaTuKa within the development of the “open gaten,” the study demonstrates a broader transition in Dutch housing architecture toward a more context-driven and differentiated approach. ... Read more

This booklet is a research of the role of colour as a design strategy in the Ronald McDonald House in Utrecht (1999), designed by Bosch & Haslett. This building is positioned next to the University Medical Center Utrecht and positions itself between the institutional environment, while creating a domestic atmosphere. The research into the broader developments of care architecture in the Netherlands after 1945 shows a shift from functional design principles to more humane environments. These are focused on the well-being of people and sensory experience. Ronald McDonald Houses are temporary homes for families of sick children. Here, light, materials, scale, and colour are very important for the well-being of the families.

A spatial analysis of the Ronald McDonald House Utrecht shows that colour is more than a decorative element and contributes to the spatial experience and domestic atmosphere. Colour defines volumes, connects the interior and exterior, and works together with light and materials. The landscape-like design of the building strengthens this effect by guiding movement and creating different spatial experiences. Finally, this research shows that colour plays a crucial role in creating a domestic feeling of a building. ... Read more

This thesis examines how the tectonic strategies employed in the design of the Amsterdam residential building Piraeus (1994) influenced architectural tendencies and design culture in large-scale Dutch residential buildings in the years following its completion. Although Piraeus is widely regarded as a key project within Dutch architectural discourse, its influence has predominantly been framed in stylistic or cultural terms. This research instead adopts a nuanced tectonic perspective, focusing on the relationship between construction, material articulation, and architectural expression.

By establishing a theoretical framework based on the writings of Kollhoff and Garritzmann, the study analyzes Piraeus as a building in which monolithic massing, material weight, and façade depth contribute to a coherent tectonic language. This framework is subsequently applied to a series of Dutch housing projects, enabling a comparative analysis of how these tectonic strategies were translated, adapted, or diluted in later designs.

The findings demonstrate that Piraeus did not generate a singular architectural model, but rather functioned as a reference point for a diverse range of interpretations. Its influence is most evident in the selective adoption of individual tectonic principles rather than in direct formal replication. By reframing the building’s impact through a tectonic lens, this thesis contributes to a more precise understanding of architectural influence and knowledge transfer within Dutch housing architecture. ... Read more

This thesis explores the transformation of Haus Strasser (1918/19) by Adolf Loos as a case study to understand the application and development of Raumplan principles in conversions. Based on an analysis of archival and contemporary architectural drawings, photographs, and literature, it aims to reveal how Loos restructured circulation, introduced layers, and used materials to define spatial hierarchies and enhance interior experience. The study highlights how movement and perception were carefully arranged through reconfigured staircases, axial views, and strategic use of mirrors, openings and materials. It argues that the transformation of Haus Strasser demonstrates how existing structures can be reinterpreted through Raumplan principles – not by imposing new forms, but by revealing the spatial potential within the original design to create a cohesive architectural whole. ... Read more

This thesis responds to the brief of the miscarried 2021 competition for a new architecture and archive center for the VAi (Vlaams Architectuurinstituut). Instead of placing the archive in an existing century old church in Berchem, as proposed in the competition, this project reuses existing infrastructures - both built and institutional. Now, the project is situated in deSingel, an international art campus located on the fringes of Antwerp, where the current offices and exhibition spaces of the VAi are situated.

The project proposes a “strategic reuse and densification” of DeSingel to clarify and intensify its spatial logic through two phases (phase 1: densification and phase 2: strategic reuse).

First, a new 5,500 m² volume is added at the southeast edge of the site, adjacent to the terraces. It houses the main archive depot along public-facing programs such as a new restaurant, a reading room, office spaces and a seminar room for the different publics of deSingel. The second phase consists of a series of smaller interventions that repair the existing circulation loops and enhance the continuity and legibility of the West-East axis. This renewed axis connects the new archive in the East to the West by distributing the functions of the VAi along that line. Accordingly, a new entrance is created on the western side. Further along the promenade toward the East, exhibition spaces are reintroduced in the southern corridors, leading to the newly added volume, which redefines the end of this promenade architecturale by transforming a former dead end into a new interior crossroad.

The project offers a dual benefit: it addresses circulation issues while defining a previously underused area. At the same time, it engages with the existing context by reusing elements of the deSingel program (Black Hall, Offices, Library, Exhibition Corridor).
In this way, the project becomes a dialogue between the new and the old.

Between modernity and the present stakes.

In the interiors, the materiality reinforces this conversation. The existing exposed aggregate concrete walls, designed by modernist architect Léon Stynen, are layered with a new rammed earth core for the depot storage. Both materials convey a sense of mass, but in the context of an archive, rammed earth offers additional benefits over concrete: providing thermal mass and natural humidity control.
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A matter of: Fact & Figure is a graduation project which has been developed within the Interiors Buildings Cities Studio. In short, this project tries to ask how contexts and compositions of facts – in this case specifically, artefacts – could be left behind in order for them to be interpreted as meaningful figures.
The project revolves around artefacts in particular, since its subject is The Flemish Architecture Institute in Antwerp, Belgium. This institute manages architectural artefacts within their archive in the centre of Antwerp, which the sensitize to the public within their institute in DE SINGEL, an International Arts Centre which is located along the fringe of Antwerp’s centre.
In 2021, an intention to bring the institute and its archive together under one roof was expressed through a competition for a new building for the institute. Such a project, however, has never been realized. This graduation project attempts to revive this intention and proposes a new architecture institute in Antwerp.
Before presenting the proposal, an understanding of knowledge will be will be provided, which formed as a basis from which problems regarding the institute could be defined. These problems and a failed attempt to solve them are then explained, after which an alternative design proposal will be presented. ... Read more

This graduation project is situated within the deSingel complex in Antwerp, originally designed by Léon Stynen in 1965 and progressively expanded over the decades, most notably with an addition by Stéphane Beel in 2010. Among its diverse cultural functions, deSingel accommodates the Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi), whose archival depot, however, is currently located elsewhere in the city. The central aim of the Interiors, Buildings, Cities graduation studio was to reimagine the integration of the VAi’s full program, including its archive, within the existing structure of deSingel.

A primary design challenge was to address the tension between introducing the depot function and remaining sensitive to the architectural principles established by both Stynen and Beel. While Stynen’s original complex was characterized by clarity of circulation and spatial hierarchy, Beel’s intervention introduced a fragmented and less coherent layout in relation to the original building. This proposal strategically activates the vacant plot to the west of the site, currently used for parking and logistical services, which directly connects to the VAi offices. By positioning the new intervention between these two architecturally disparate wings, the project attempts to reconcile the spatial and conceptual disjunctions inherent in the current condition.

The project is rooted in both theoretical and design-based research. At the outset of the academic year, communal seminars explored the architectural archive not merely as a repository, but as a spatial construct shaped by cultural, institutional, and narrative forces.

A central theme emerging from these discussions was the interdependence between archive and exhibition—how archiving stems from a fundamental human desire to leave a trace, and how exhibition practices inevitably shape what is remembered and what is omitted. This raised critical questions around curatorship, authorship, and institutional responsibility: What is selected for display, and by whom? What remains invisible, and why?
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