This research addresses the critical issue that superdiversity is often still treated as a threat to be managed, rather than an opportunity for improvement. To shift this perspective, this research asks: How can urban design interventions enhance public familiarity in a neighborhood with superdiversity? Through an iterative process of research by design, literature review, interviews, and site observation, this research explores how urban design can enhance the conditions to build public familiarity.

A framework of five principles is established: Mixed-Use, Routine Integration, Lifecycle-Proof, Inviting, and Sense of Ownership. First, integrating ‘mixed-use’, ‘routine integration’, and ‘lifecycle-proof’ design creates reasons to go outside, establishes intuitive pedestrian flows, and ensures a cross-generational human presence. Second, ‘inviting’ and ‘sense of ownership’ actively encourage people to linger. These principles build public familiarity by generating repeated encounters and encouraging prolonged stays.

These principles were translated into concrete spatial interventions within the specific context of the Schilderswijk, applied across three scales: the ensemble, the pocket, and the district. This research shows that all five spatial principles are essential by successfully balancing movement and lingering across the three scales. Certain spatial interventions influence multiple principles across different scales, while other interventions are strictly necessary to fulfill a principle at one specific scale. A fundamental catalyst for this transformation is reducing car dominance to free up public space, which must then be designed with a delicate balance of physical openness and programmatic clarity. In conclusion, this research demonstrates that by designing across three spatial scales using the five principles of public familiarity, the well-being of a superdiverse neighborhood like the Schilderswijk can be significantly improved.

In a political climate marked by budget constraints and a lack of political will for large-scale reconstruction, this research offers a strategy of small-scale, gradual interventions. Finally, this research demonstrates that by moving away from threat-based management, urban design can effectively utilize this framework to unlock the true social value of superdiverse communities. ... Read more

The graduation project seeks to investigate how activism driven reshaping of urbandesert imaginaries can help to restore environmental justice for human and morethanhuman entities in Iquique and Alto Hospicio, Chile, regarding clandestine landfills. It examines how urban-desert imaginaries, referring to the perceptions of desert landscapes in relation to urbanization and related activities, of the past and present enable the proliferation of clandestine landfills as well as how activist efforts are reshaping these imaginaries. Through fieldwork, expert interviews, policy review and secondary sources a pattern language to restore environmental justice damaged by textile waste accumulation in the desert has been developed outlining actions and strategies to be executed by different stakeholders from the civic, public and private domain. Finally, the patterns with spatial implications have been mapped onto the territory of Iquique and Alto Hospicio to demonstrate the application of the pattern language by example. ... Read more

In response to the growing challenges of sustainability, liveability, and accessibility in peri-urban regions, this thesis aims to understand how the principles of the 15-minute city model can be implemented to peri-urban contexts through the lens of public values. While the 15-minute city, originally conceptualised for urban areas, aims to localise all daily needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride, translating it to car-dependent peri-urban areas is neither straightforward not possible within the current confinements of the concept. This research bridges that gap by exploring how a human-centric, value-based approach can inform the spatial adaptation of proximity-based planning principles in peri-urban regions, specifically focusing on the Dutch municipality of Ede.
Peri-urban areas have been overlooked in urban planning for a prolonged period of time. Characterised by highly dynamic spatial and social conditions, these areas suffer from relevant urban challenges such as car dependency, reduced access to amenities, population growth, and political distrust. All highlighting the urgent need for renewed attention towards this landscape.
To implement the relevant planning principles behind the 15-minute city in the peri-urban landscape through the lens of public values, two key frameworks are integrated together. The Public Value Sphere framework (Herzog, 2021) and the Human Needs framework (Cardoso et al., 2022) bridge the gap between the planning principles and public values, which have been specifically defined in this context. The former provides five public value sphere for the peri-urban context; economic opportunity, ecological quality, social equity, liveability, and health/safety. Each sphere encapsulated spatial public values that relate to the built environment.
The latter, rooted in Max-Neef’s theory of Human Scale Development, distinguishes between ‘needs’ and context-specific ‘satisfiers’. Be identifying diversity, proximity and accessibility as the core 15-minute city principles their five ‘needs’ are distinguished as Inclusiveness, mixed-land use, sustainability, walkability, and connectivity. By relating the concept of public values to the ‘satisfiers, this thesis constructs a conceptual framework that allows public values to spatially translate 15-minute city principles.
Empirical data extracted from focus-groups, organised for the InPUT project, a co-creation workshop with a specially developed pattern language, and a final round of digital feedback from participants formed the participatory process that enabled the specification, operationalisation and translation of public values into a spatial strategy. This pattern language serves as a tool for the designer to communicate with citizens and let them articulate their desires.
By mapping the (mis)alignment between perceived values and desired spatial outcomes, this thesis offers insights into how humans act, think, and communicate desires. The result is a set of context-specific spatial interventions that guide the implementation of 15-minute city principles through five main identified public values. It demonstrates how spatial interventions based on public values can contribute to a just and sustainable transition of the peri-urban landscape.
Ultimately, this research calls for a shift in the urban planning from time-based planning to value-based planning approach that priorities the human perspective through meaningful participation. In this approach, it is the role of the designer to understand the meaning people associate with spatial interventions and thereby understand underlying public values of stakeholders through identifying the ‘why’ behind peoples choices.
In doing so, the role of the designer becomes one of a translator, capable of identifying, articulating, and translating the public values that often remain implicit in spatial discussions. It starts with a simple question: “Why?” A question that reframes the urban planning process not as a search for the most desired solutions, but as a practice of finding values.
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This thesis explores the role of spatial planning in improving both access to and the quality of pedagogical learning environments in socioeconomically segregated neighbourhoods in The Hague, with the overarching aim of promoting systemic equity. It starts from the recognition that children in The Hague face substantial disparities in educational opportunities due to persistent socioeconomic segregation. These divisions not only limit access to high-quality learning environments but also reinforce cycles of inequality from an early age. While the connection between neighbourhood context and educational outcomes is increasingly acknowledged, integrated research and policy responses remain limited.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the study combines theory, spatial analysis, and anecdotal evidence to examine how segregation shapes educational opportunity. It is structured around three phases: analyse, expose, and propose. The analyse phase develops a theoretical and spatial understanding of segregation in The Hague, tracing its origins and implications for children’s access to educational opportunities. The expose phase highlights lived experiences of growing up in segregated areas in The Hague, using theory, mapping, and socio-spatial analysis to bridge discourse and reality. The propose phase formulates a framework for intervention, outlining spatial and procedural objectives for improving learning environments. These objectives are synthesised into a structured set of strategic actions, intended as a practical and adaptable guide for evaluating and implementing improvements. The approach is inspired by the logic of a pattern language, though it does not follow it strictly.

To ground these strategies, the study includes neighbourhood zoom-ins of exemplary learning environments in The Hague that demonstrate the framework’s practical application. Together, the research reveals the systemic roots and spatial expressions of inequality in the urban landscape, offering planners and policymakers targeted strategies to mitigate segregation and foster more inclusive, enriching environments for all children.
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This thesis explores how elderly residents of The Hague Southwest, particularly those with migration backgrounds, limited Dutch proficiency, and intersecting social identities, can be meaningfully engaged in placemaking processes that support their ability to age in place. In a neighbourhood shaped by spatial segregation, political framing of newcomers, and participation models that often exclude the most marginalised, autonomy in later life is far from guaranteed.
Grounded in an intersectional theoretical framework, the study investigates how urban actors can create more inclusive engagement strategies. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted at four apartment buildings along Lozerlaan, where workshops, informal conversations, and observations revealed key barriers and facilitators to participatory inclusion. These included language and literacy gaps, mistrust, internalised disempowerment, and the need for culturally sensitive, low-threshold engagement.
The research produced four actor-specific communication products: booklets for Haag Wonen, architects, municipal planners, and residents. Rather than offering generic guidelines, these booklets function as invitations to reflect on roles, responsibilities, and the meaning of “residents” in a superdiverse city. A spatial design proposal for the Cirkelflat illustrates how fieldwork insights can be translated into architectural interventions that promote ownership, pride, and social connection.
This thesis ultimately argues that placemaking should be understood not as an aesthetic exercise, but as a relational and political process rooted in care. In times of growing polarisation, inclusive placemaking offers an opportunity to centre everyday experiences, redefine institutional roles, and design urban futures from the perspective of those most often left out. ... Read more

This thesis investigates the relationship between displacement and Rotterdam’s housing policies, focusing on their social mixing strategy, which has been integral to the city’s redevelopment of vulnerable neighborhoods. Through the lens of spatial justice, it addresses past displacement issues and evaluates the effectiveness of the new Housing Vision (2023) in counteracting these issues, amidst increasing national housing challenges. The primary aim is to provide practical and actionable design tools that can limit displacement in future redevelopment.

The research seeks to answer: How can Rotterdam’s new housing policy integrate spatial guidelines to address displacement more effectively in the future redevelopment of vulnerable neighborhoods?

Key findings indicate that government-enforced changes in the housing stock and social composition, central to the social mixing strategy, are primary drivers of displacement. Comparing these (direct, financial, social, and cultural) displacement issues to the new policy direction reveals that displacement is a persistent risk, as the new policy pressures the universal right to housing, includes a social mixing strategy that is unjust and insufficiently grounded in research, and lacks opportunities for a localized approach. In response, this thesis proposes objectives to ensure the provision of sufficient housing, develop a fair and inclusive social mixing strategy, and encourage policy adaptability based on local characteristics. Each objective has corresponding spatial guidelines, implemented in the Tweebosbuurt, illustrating how this strategy can help achieve Rotterdam’s broader development goals while mitigating displacement.

Policymakers can utilize these insights to revisit and adapt the new housing policy objectives. Moreover, the design guidelines developed through this study can assist urban planners and architects in structuring developments in a way that minimizes displacement, and ultimately, contribute to a more equitable and socially just resolution to Rotterdam’s housing challenges.
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This report will try to find answers to the complex question of how neighbourhood reputations can be improved. A negative neighbourhood reputation can harm residents’ health, well-being and opportunities. It can also be a catalyst for decay. Changing a reputation is complex, and governmental approaches often reinforce a negative image. This research will result in an analytical framework and pattern language that urban planners, designers, and policymakers can use to give them tools to tackle stigma. The basis for the research lies in the literature, often from social studies. An empirical case-study research on the Bijlmer and Woensel-West will test and enrich the theoretical research. Neighbourhood reputations take place in a symbolic, social and physical space, and changes should be made in all three spaces to tackle a negative image. This report explores and analyses different aspects which influence the symbolic, social and physical spaces and their interrelations. This will result in an analytical framework that gives a clear overview of what aspects should change to change the reputation. The pattern language will give easily digestible concrete solutions on how the reputation can be changed. The pattern language consists of discursive, physical and policy interventions to change the analytical framework’s different components. The aspects that influence the symbolic space are history, discourse, experiences and how the government represents itself towards the neighbourhood. The aspects which influence the social space are the socio-demographic characteristics, social problems, behaviour and culture. The aspects which influence the physical space are the location, accessibility and services, maintenance and quality and the diversity of types and types of the urban fabric. The governmental program influences what part which influence the neighbourhood’s reputation is worked on, contributing to the effectiveness of changing the image. Whilst the governmental organisation contributes to the efficiency of tackling the image. The most important factor influencing the neighbourhood’s reputation is the discourse about the neighbourhood. The discourse is often based on social problems the neighbourhood is dealing with. The basis of these social problems is often the socio-demographic characteristics of the neighbourhood, especially when there is an accumulation of low-income households. The diversity and types of dwellings can influence the socio-demographic characteristics. The other influences named do influence the neighbourhood’s reputation. Nevertheless, they are not the main influences which seem to be the basis of a negative reputation.

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What happens if we look at (public) space through the lens of gender? How would it be experienced differently? These are questions this thesis will look into. It aims to not only explore different types of gendered spaces but also to increase the understanding of designers and planners on how to make public space more gender inclusive. With the purpose of exploration, a case study is done with a neighborhood in Rotterdam, namely Beverwaard. The conclusions are translated into a strategic framework and an accompanying patternbook. The strategic framework proposes the improvement of the safety, accessibility and inclusivity of public space. ... Read more

This study investigates local activism in politically challenging contexts, focusing on Cairo. In such contexts, active resident groups strive for urban improvement, while governance arrangements often disregard citizen involvement in urban and public affairs. Cairo presents an exemplary case of local activism in a politically challenging and under-researched context. The study explores the characteristics, roles, and interrelations of active resident groups with local governance arrangements and their deviations from existing literature. It employs a qualitative methodology with observations and semi-structured interviews with local officials and active residents from nine different districts. The study uses Facebook to select, observe, and analyze the activities of multiple active resident groups and contributes to theoretical frameworks for analyzing local activism in complex contexts. It reveals the dominant and absent roles and the governance dimensions (un)attainable by active residents. It also traces the sources of limited local activism in the existing governance arrangements in Cairo, highlighting the importance and difficulty of changing governance arrangements in Egypt. The study broadens our understanding of local activism in the Global South beyond dominant forms of activism. ... Read more

More and more citizens are entering the public domain and taking over tasks that traditionally belong to the government. For example, citizens increasingly run a community centre themselves, maintain the greenery in their neighbourhood and manage the local playground. To some extent, governments also encourage this behaviour and are disposing of social real estate. Against this background, this study examines the rise of citizens' initiatives in the Netherlands and how this takes shape in the context of urban regeneration. The study pays attention to a specific type of citizens’ initiative, namely community enterprises. It applies qualitative research methods, such as semi-structured interviews with representatives of community enterprises and discourse analysis of policy documents. It examines the expectations governments have of active citizens and how this relates to the motivations and capacities of active citizens themselves. The study broadens our understanding of active citizens who utilizes their entrepreneurial skills and mindset to drive positive change, contribute to the well-being of their community, and address pressing societal challenges. ... Read more

Solutions to contemporary urban challenges are increasingly the outcome of the complex interactions between formal and informal actors that take part in a variety of networks. Resilience-thinking has become a global popular perspective for the governance of urban systems, concerning the ability of communities to deal with urban challenges, that requires the development of the self-organizing capacity of informal actors such as residents.
This study aims to determine how the extent to which formal and informal actors are resilient in interaction with one another can be determined. Therefore, a literature study was conducted that led to the development of the Institutional Resilience Analysis and Development (IRAD) framework, that is a modification of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework that is complemented with variables influencing decision-making processes that are extracted from the literature on social resilience and adaptive governance.
The IRAD framework is applied to an exploratory case study with the Resilient Bospolder Tussendijken 2028 programme in the neighbourhood Bospolder-Tussendijken in Rotterdam as the research context. Hereby, desk research and semi-structured interviews were held with formal and informal actors to study interactions resulting from a conflict concerning the management of societal real estate in the neighborhood.
The application of the developed IRAD framework thereby identified both enablers and barriers for resilient interactions between formal and informal actors. Access to social networks has been identified as an enabler for resilient actions, whereas the lack of trust of residents in the municipality, lack of communication between formal and informal actors and a lack of a political base for new insights have been identified as barriers to resilient actions.
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The inclusive city is explained through Henri Lefebvre's theories of the social space in "The production of space" and "The right to the city". Through his theories, it is thoroughly explained that the people are the essential component of the space and that they are the ones that create the space. This Master thesis, aims to look at the public space in a challenged social context in the deprived area of Carnisse in the South of Rotterdam, and examined how some of the problems faced by the people can be addressed through creating inclusive, public spaces. ... Read more

The inclusive living environment in Delft Tanthof brings together Elderly with other generations, offers places to interact with each other on different scales, provides flexible structures to create a future-proof neighbourhood and offers a large amount of variety and options to accomodate different residents. ... Read more

Neighborhoods represent a scale at which inequalities are reflected in the unequal spatial distribution of ethnic and income groups across urban space. However, neighborhoods are not static entities and spatial patterns of socioeconomic and ethnic inequality shift over time as a result of processes of neighborhood change. This dissertation has adopted a longitudinal approach to analyze patterns of neighborhood change on a relatively low spatial scale. This dissertation illustrates that neighborhoods remain relatively stable over time in their socioeconomic and ethnic status and that change takes several decades to take effect. This dissertation finds that neighborhoods exhibit a strong degree of path-dependency and demonstrates how the housing stock influences neighborhood trajectories. In addition, it shows how large-scale changes to the housing stock in the context of urban restructuring affect residential mobility and neighborhood upgrading. This dissertation also reveals the ways in which different population dynamics interact to inhibit or generate neighborhood change to reproduce socio-spatial inequalities. Moreover, the innovative methods that are explored in this dissertation contribute to broadening the scope of statistical methods for the longitudinal analysis of neighborhood change. ... Read more

The aim of this master thesis is to interrelate integration policies with self-organisation and to find ways for spatial planners to enlarge the role of self-organisation. The role of self-organisation for refugee integration is promising because it has a deep understanding of the spatial context and responds to the local needs. Research about integration policies on the one hand and self-organisation and spatial planning on the other hand puts forward the relevance of spatial planning to complement integration policies with self-organisation, because spatial planning is a way of planning that strives for policy integration and incorporation of the spatial context. Spatial planning has a competence to provide supportive organisational and spatial conditions, although literature research about those conditions for the role of self-organisation in integration policies in particular is hardly present yet. This research investigates organisational and spatial conditions in the context of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

First, this thesis gives a theoretical understanding of refugee integration, integration policies and spatial planning and self-organisation. Then, it explores the complementarities between integration policies and self-organisation by a case-study analysis for Rotterdam. The case-study analysis consists of an analysis of integration policies, of a thematic analysis that analyses common patterns and characteristics of eleven existing self-organised initiatives in Randstad municipalities and of an in-depth case analysis that goes more deeply into the development processes of three initiatives in Rotterdam. Finally, the thesis proposes general principles to enhance the interrelations between integration policies and self-organisation, which are illustrated by a spatial planning strategy for Rotterdam.

The results show that integration of refugees takes place in multiple domains simultaneously that require tailor-made support and distinct approaches per domain. The design principles propose that planners define either a policy or a self-organisation approach per domain of integration, in which planners play a collaborating role in the first and a facilitating role in the latter. Accordingly, the principles propose that municipalities coordinate the provision of tailor-made organisational support to self-organisation actors on multiple levels and in multiple domains. Furthermore, the principles propose to provide a network of buildings for self-organisation, consisting of three keystone buildings where initiatives cluster and typical buildings for self-organisation in all neighbourhoods. By deciding on strategic locations where integration is challenging or where relevant actors are located, planners can encourage the emergence and development of self-organisation at desired locations. ... Read more