The Thames Tideway, a £5 billion tunnel beneath the Thames to deal with sewage overflows has just been completed in London. This solution looks strikingly like one built over 150 years ago, by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. This thesis asks why the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT), a centralised, engineering-heavy solution was chosen over more sustainable and distributed alternatives. Why, in an age of climate urgency are we still building bigger pipes? The thesis argues that the answer lies not only in technical feasibility but in deeply embedded cultural narratives, institutional habits, and financial models.
The first part of the thesis explores how the legacy of Sir Joseph Bazalgette has been mythologised and invoked to legitimise the TTT today. The second part draws on the concepts of sociotechnical imaginaries and historical institutionalism, examining how professional values, government policy frameworks, and investment structures become entrenched and reinforce techno-optimistic views, taken as ‘common sense’.
The thesis brings together cultural analysis and a historical institutionalist approach to planning theory to show how the past constrains the future, not just through physical systems, but through stories we tell ourselves. By exposing these narratives, imaginaries, and structures, the thesis argues for a more just, reflective, and democratic planning of infrastructure. In the interest of ecological resilience, we must reimagine our cultural views of water, waste, and how we live with the environment, to avoid getting stuck in the past.

Tokyo’s waterways, once integral to the city’s cultural and urban life, have undergone significant changes over time. In the Edo period (1603–1868) and up to the Taisho period (1912–1926), rivers were a central feature of cultural activities, including swimming. However, as urbanization and industrialization progressed, these practices largely disappeared. This thesis aims to explore the historical evolution of swimming in Tokyo’s rivers, investigating its role in shaping urban life and cultural identity.

This thesis explores the Hanse’s legacy goes the exchange of goods, understanding how medieval trade networks also transported intangible practices, such as ideas, customs, and shared practices across Northern Europe. It discusses that such practices — from common legal frameworks and rituals for commerce to building techniques and a common language — were as important to the Hanse’s world as warehouses and ships. Such commonalties produced a cohesive identity across borders and diverse cities, leaving a mark on urban life and potentially a collective memory. By examining key trade outposts and the cultural ties that bound them, the research reveals a network held together not only by commerce but by a mutual understanding and governance that transcended borders. Further, the thesis assesses how this layered heritage is represented today, and how the existing taxonomy of the Water Museum Network could assist. It finds that the taxonomy could classify museums and archives which commemorate the Hanse’s history, they could further include heritage which represents this rich history.

This thesis examines the Margueriedok - Antwerp's last tidal dock still connected to the Scheldt - as a material site of fragmented memory, suspended infrastructure, and evolving urban-water relations. Using a method of partial reading that combines field observation, archival analysis, and critical theory, the project interprets three site fragments: a blue stone quay wall, a truncated railway line, and the Dutch Pilotage Building. Each chapter explores how these remnants embody past regimes of circulation, control, and resistance, revealing tensions between heritage and redevelopment, memory and erasure. Rather than reconstructing a linear history, the thesis foregrounds ambiguity, material latency, and spatial entanglement as crucial tools for rethinking post-industrial waterfronts. In doing so, it challenges dominant narratives of urban transformation that prioritise clarity, accessibility, and security over complexity, contradiction, and historical depth. The Margueriedok is presented not as a ruin, but as an active assemblage - one that resists easy erasure and invites alternative readings of how cities remember, forget, and relate to water.

This thesis investigates how energy infrastructure has shaped the urban and economic development of Vlissingen, a Dutch coastal town positioned along the Scheldt estuary. Through a mixed-methods approach combining historical analysis, archival research, and spatial investigation, the study traces Vlissingen’s transformation across three infrastructural epochs: coal (Centrale Zeeland), nuclear (Borssele nuclear plant), and renewable energy (Borssele wind farms). These phases are contextualized within broader national strategies for industrial decentralisation and the evolving use of the North Sea as an energy landscape. Particular attention is given to Zeeland’s infrastructural position - connected to the national grid by a singular transmission line - underscoring its historical energy independence and regional distinctiveness. The analysis demonstrates that energy infrastructures have not only supplied power but actively orchestrated urban growth, influenced planning decisions, and redefined the city’s economic role within the Netherlands. While the arrival of offshore wind has repositioned Vlissingen as a node in the national energy transition, its socio-spatial impacts remain uneven and gradual. By foregrounding the spatial agency of infrastructure, the thesis contributes to debates on infrastructural urbanism and offers a lens for understanding peripheral cities navigating energy transition and national spatial planning regimes.

This thesis explores the potential of seaweed cultivation as a nature-based solution (NbS) for achieving sustainability goals in the Port of Rotterdam. By integrating the ecosystem services framework and the Building with Nature (BwN) concept, the study investigates the enabling and constraining factors for implementing seaweed farming in an industrial port context. The Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, is striving to become climate-neutral by 2050, aligning with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, despite its ongoing sustainability initiatives, the port has yet to incorporate NbS into its strategy.

Through a combination of literature review and semi-structured interviews with experts, this research identifies the potential benefits of seaweed cultivation through ecosystem services, focusing on provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. The findings suggest that seaweed cultivation could contribute significantly to the port’s environmental and economic objectives by providing ecosystem services and supporting the port's transition towards a circular and sustainable economy. However, some challenges need to be addressed before implementing seaweed cultivation, such as regulatory and policy barriers, spatial constraints, and stakeholder conflicts.

The findings suggest that seaweed cultivation in the Port of Rotterdam should primarily be pursued for research purposes at this stage. Stakeholders should be encouraged to form innovation clusters, which could serve as the starting point for integrating seaweed cultivation into the port’s sustainability strategy and achieving broader SDGs. As knowledge and expertise in seaweed cultivation grow, these innovation clusters could help establish the necessary permits and frameworks and potentially identify a test site. By sharing knowledge on seaweed cultivation practices, the Port of Rotterdam can enhance its global position as a leader in sustainable port development.

The study concludes with recommendations for integrating seaweed cultivation into the Port of Rotterdam’s sustainability vision, highlighting the importance of collaboration between industry, government, and academia to overcome existing barriers and maximize the ecological and economic potential of seaweed as a sustainable resource.

In Februari of 2023, The south of Turkiye was struck by a devastating earthquake, taking the life of thousands and dispossessing the homes of millions. After having spent three months in Hatay in the wake of the earthquake I have seen how by means of their culture and getting together, the people are able to find comfort. The attention towards public spaces which could provide in this is however nihil, where the focus is mainly oriented towards housing. Moreover do many architects, NGOs and other aid organizations in similar postdisaster situations, offer solutions which do not meet the demand of the users. Lastly, is there in Türkiye a ‘Culture of forgetting’, which disables them from being shielded from future adversaries. All of these issues have led to the exploration on how Spaces of Gathering (S.o.G) can be produced, which offer relief on the short term but also generate more resilience on the long term. Within this research, this has been sought for through a combined methodology of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Research through Design (RtD). This took the shape of establishing a List of Requirements (L.o.R.), of which the ambiguous parts in that list have been defined through a Participatory Design (P.D.) strategy. This resulted in a preliminary attempt towards a checklist for the production of such Spaces of Gathering, in order for them to provide in providing relief and generating resilience. The final result is succoured with an advice for the improvement of the methodology and strategy to be adapted in future endeavours. The final checklist is furthermore provided. The idea however is that this will be revised and bettered continuously.

The project exmines the impacts of Water Culture in the Modern Period in Mexico City and aims to establish an alternate pathway in wake of socio-environmental pressures.

The thesis explores Ahwaz's transformation throughout the 20th century, emphasizing the profound impact of the oil industry on the city's architectural and urban development. From its emergence in obscurity to its prominence before the Iran-Iraq war, Ahwaz's journey mirrors the far-reaching influence of oil on urban modernity. The narrative weaves a complex tapestry of global dynamics and local distinctiveness, detailing how oil shaped not only the city's landscape but also its identity. The research underscores the intricate interplay between global forces and local characteristics, showcasing Ahwaz as a resilient blend of history, culture, and urban development. It highlights the city's defiance of simplistic categorizations, celebrating its diverse industries and the convergence of global influences. The study concludes by positioning Ahwaz as a living testament to the enduring legacy of the past, an ever-evolving urban canvas that reflects the complex interplay of architecture, culture, and power, perpetuated by the transformative force of petroleum.

As far as a historic city is concerned, a city is a dynamic complex which consists of many different interrelated and interactive elements. It is unreasonable to assess urban heritage by using a single value category. The evaluation of urban heritage values needs to develop a theoretical framework to represent the relationships between different elements. In view of the above issues, there is so far still a lack of systematic study on urban heritage values in Chinese academic circles. Therefore, it is necessary to construct the value system of urban heritage by adopting a scientific method.

This study aims to build up an integrated value system to facilitate the identification of urban heritage values, so that the complexity of urban heritage values is revealed through connections of different elements. The research work includes theoretical construction and a case study. First, the HUL is interpreted as a method of spatialtemporal scale by discussing the philosophical framework of HUL. Based on this finding, the gap between HUL at the operational level and the heritage value theories is filled. Second, as a case study, the analysis of the ancient city Suzhou is a verification of the value system of urban heritage in the practical sense. It also proves that the constructed value system is reasonable and achievable for urban conservation in the Chinese context.

The thesis explores the planning heritage created by the Chinese government’s industrial efforts in Daqing from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. It focuses on how petroleum infrastructure and residential developments reshaped the local environment. By examining Daqing’s planning history through the concept of “planning heritage”, as discussed by both international and Chinese scholars, this research argues that documenting planning practices—particularly by addressing planning failures—provides Chinese historians a path to preserve a planning heritage that may diverge from state-endorsed narratives.
Contrasting with the official, heroic portrayal of Daqing’s oilfield development, this work exposes the overlooked and suppressed aspects of mining area planning, construction, and local living conditions. Utilizing the Global Palimpsestic Petroleumscape (GPP) framework, designed initially for capitalist petroleum industries, the study assesses Daqing’s planning policy, rule, and directive path dependencies and the disruptions from political power shifts. By adapting the GPP framework to Daqing’s unique context, this research highlights how these dependencies and interruptions have shaped Daqing’s planning legacy within a state-led socialist system.
The thesis challenges dominant narratives and underscores the importance of a balanced historical perspective encompassing both achievements and failures. It aims to serve as a critical resource for scholars in architectural and urban history and planning studies, especially those exploring heritage within complex political frameworks.

Vernacular heritage sites encompass customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions, and values that are innate to a particular place and time. Climate knowledge of the particular place and time is embedded in vernacular settlements and lifestyles along with other environmental, cultural, and societal determinants of the place. Rebuilt, restored, and adapted, vernacular settlements evolved with changing climate, cultural practices, community aspirations, and
a gradual influx of modernization and urbanization. However, its legacy —as represented by traditional houses from the pre-industrial period that were built by laypeople— is challenged by climate and disaster risks, e.g., loss of lands, food sources, water resources, intangible values, and displacement. Although the impacts of climate change combined with anthropic influences have been recognized as a threat to cultural heritage by scholars, this underappreciated form
of cultural heritage has not been the focus of the integrated understanding risks of climate and disaster discussions. The aim of this dissertation, therefore, is to reveal the deteriorations caused by changing climate and anthropic interventions on vernacular heritage at both spatial planning decisions such as urban development projects and at local level practices such as maladaptation from the case of Fındıklı of Rize in Turkiye. The factors behind the deterioration of vernacular heritage sites under changing climate and the ways to achieve climate resilience are analysed through interviews with local people, the observations of on-site visits conducted in January and July 2019 in addition to mapping.

How can the Global North oriented and welfare state rooted Sustainability Transitions theories be enriched with the Chinese and communist state rooted Ecological Civilization thinking that has been included in the Chinese constitution since 2007, to make it able to evaluate the making of the direct-controlled municipality Shanghai into an institutional frontrunner of sustainable transitions in urban planning and design with its prime waterfront as exemplary ‘urban lab’? Around this central question, this dissertation examines how Shanghai's coastal and waterfront developments have changed over the past two decades under the influence of shifts in Chinese state capitalism towards what is called an Ecological Civilization. Two cases along the waterfronts of Shanghai – one on former docklands in Shanghai’s Central City, and one on peri-urban Chongming Island ¬– have been examined to test how both lines of thinking can enrich each other, and if a sustainable transition can be done more efficiently and convincingly in a centrally controlled society than in a non-autocratic (liberal) society. What lessons does the Chinese approach in Shanghai offer for elsewhere, and how can different approaches and practices reinforce each other in spatial planning and strategies for a sustainable transition? This dissertation emphasizes that ecological civilization thinking can offer hopeful starting points for sustainable transitions but can only work well if sufficient 'checks and balances’ are included. It gives suggestions to improve the accessibility, inclusivity, and vibrancy of Shanghai’s waterfronts, and to mitigate ecological degradation in the context of an urban delta.

The municipality of Stockholm is currently working on one of Stockholm’s most extensive and complex urban areas: The Stockholm Royal Seaport (se: Norra Djurgårdsstaden). The area is an example of how a former industrial port area is being transformed into a sustainable urban district. Because of the transformation of the area, the identity of the place is slowly changing to something different. Place identity is a two-way relationship in which a place influences people and where people tend to change and create the place in a way that represents them. This research wants to get insights on the place identities of the municipality of Stockholm and the residents of the Stockholm Royal Seaport, to see how synergies can be created between them. The four elements of Amundsen (2001) are used to assess and define the place identities and allow to understand what makes the areas distinctive compared to other places. With these insights, the aim of the research is to provide the municipality with recommendations for the further place branding and development of the Stockholm Royal Seaport, as many scholars argue that the identity of a place should be the base of a place branding strategy. This is important to consider as the place brand should be representative to all segments of the area, especially as it has the potential to affect the place identity over time.

The results of the interviews with the residents of the Stockholm Royal Seaport imply that they mainly define their place identities on spatial qualities that distinguish the place from others. Also, the characteristics or qualities of the inhabitants indicated to be important, as most responses were about the many children in the area. This element also raised awareness on the inclusivity of areas such as the Stockholm Royal Seaport. The comparison of the place identities of the municipality of Stockholm and the residents of the Stockholm Royal Seaport led to the insights that the social needs of residents without children should be considered, more efforts should be made on the socio-economic level of the area, there should be more attention to the unique location of the area and the knowledge on the sustainability of the residents needs to be improved. The element of culture and history is underrepresented in the place identities of the residents, but both the municipality and residents expect that the further development of the area might bring more awareness to this. This shows that it is important to keep monitoring and managing the place identities in transformative port-city areas. It also implies that the local unique elements are defining for the area and should be the driver of the place branding strategies of the municipality, especially as more cities are developing their former industrial port areas into urban districts.

Following an in-depth investigation into contemporary heritage practice, the project intervenes on the Parc Chanot which hosted Marseille’s two colonial exhibitions. The design seeks to resurface taboo histories to enable history to be learned from. Through this project, I have queried the role of architects as curators of history and sought to provoke a reflection on the hierarchies made between hegemonic and shady histories. The written research is provided in Act I- Investigation. In Act II- Translation, the research is made specific and tested in Marseille. In Act II- Generation, I make the research productive by proposing an alternative architecture to a site that has enforced forgetfulness until present.

The settlements along the Trans-Israel Highway illustrate the privatisation of the national settlement enterprise. To understand this process, this dissertation focuses on the settlement production mechanism, which consists of the reciprocal interests of the government and various private groups to develop and domesticate the border area between the State of Israel and the occupied West-Bank - the Green-Line. Centring on the spatial privileges the state granted to diverse spatial agents, this dissertation examines the manner in which different favoured groups were given the power to colonise, plan, develop and market space as a means to enhance the state’s power over it. Investigating the gradual transformation of this production mechanism, this dissertation explores the increasing privatisation of the local economy and culture, as well as how this was manifested in the built environment. Examining the modifications in the architectural and urban products this mechanism produced, this dissertation analyses the materialisation of the privatised national settlement project and how it transformed together with the changing political and economic interests.

This research and planning project explores the influence of spatial planning in facilitating the process of energy transition within the context of Dubai. Energy use within the built environment is closely related to the organization of urban form and functions. Spatial planning can influence diverse sectors in urban areas including the energy sector. The role of spatial planning in the energy transition is a crucial one since it can challenge fundamental norms that don’t promote energy efficiency. Planning processes and systems can pave the way for a collective investment in public goods that can help to promote long term environmental benefits. The results of this research illustrate the impact of spatial planning to change the relationship of space to energy. Energy strategies need to start having a stronger link with urban development plans to be able to effectively change the ‘decision rules’ that can lead to an improved energy performance. Through this research I want to contribute to this question and explore the parameters of planning that can impact energy use in Dubai. The intention of this research and design project is to begin a discussion about the role of spatial planning in the energy transition in cities. My assumed role in this project is of an urban planner to inform Dubai government on how to facilitate a process for developers, urban designers and architects to work within. This project has a strong research base which will guide the redesigning of the planning process in Dubai to better balance competing interests and engage with all stakeholders. This research attempts to bridge the gap between energy strategies and urban development policies.

Water scarcity and unequal distribution of water to different social groups is a problem around the world - mostly in arid and dry climatological conditions. In Israel and the Palestinian Territories water is used as a territorial tool in what I call 'spaces of conflict and opposition'. What could the role of e.g. an architect be in spaces of conflict and opposition through the spatial embodiment of water? This master thesis elaborates on the relevancy of the relation between water and architecture; the architectural embodiment of water systems in coherence with the creation of spaces for mixed flows of people from different social groups.
The building design - the Temple of Water - tries to find an architectural expression in the provision of sufficient water to the city of Hebron, while being a place for all different people to enter, meet, gather, and understand the importance of water as the source for life. The Temple of Water aims for the generation of curiosity and unpredictability in order to be a continuous source of fascination and mysteriousness. Water is the key element and is embodied in different ways, as it also expresses itself through different media e.g. sound and air humidity.
The Temple of water dresses the problems of territorial water management while providing the city of Hebron of water and being the platform for social cohesion and de-segragation through architecture of water.

The Italian fashion brand Fendi moved their headquarters to the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in the end of 2015. This iconic building, also known as the square Colosseum, is not only famous for its frequent appearance in movies, but also as one of the most important examples of architecture during the Italian fascist regime. The building was designed to host a museum during the World Expo of 1942, but was never used as such because of the Second World War. This original function and its recognizable design makes it contested heritage.
This graduation project aims to show an alternative approach to contested heritage by making a redesign for the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, for another, non-existing fashion brand.