My motivation to focus on hospitals is personal. My younger brother, Piet, is nineteen years old and has Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic condition that mainly affects the lungs and immune system, making patients particularly vulnerable to infections. Because of this, a hospital is not always experienced as a safe place. It is the place where care is provided, but also a place where exposure to infection can become dangerous.

This contradiction forms the starting point of my graduation project. The contemporary hospital is confronted with a renewed architectural challenge. Many hospital buildings were designed during the antibiotic era, when compactness, efficiency, shared waiting areas, and dense circulation systems became common. However, for patients who are vulnerable to infection, these environments can be problematic.

The main question of the project is: how can architectural design contribute to infection safety and overall well-being for immunocompromised patients within the hospital environment?

The project argues that infection prevention is not only a matter of medical protocols, ventilation systems, or personal protective equipment. It is also shaped by architecture. Routing, thresholds, room organization, outdoor space, material choices, visibility, distance, and atmosphere all influence how patients move, how care is organized, and how safe a hospital can feel.

The design responds by reorganizing the hospital around protection, clean air, and controlled interaction. Separate routes reduce unnecessary contact between patients. Positive pressure rooms create protected interiors. Outdoor circulation provides access to fresh air, while courtyard gardens bring daylight, greenery, and nature-inclusive healing into the care environment.

At the same time, the project avoids turning protection into isolation. Social spaces, outdoor meeting areas, daylight, greenery, and patient autonomy are included as essential parts of the design. The project searches for a balance between control and freedom, between medical safety and human comfort.

Architecture cannot remove medical risk completely, but it can define the spatial conditions in which care, movement, interaction, and protection take place. In this way, infection safety and well-being can support each other rather than compete.
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Thresholds of Power investigates how contemporary perceptions of justice are shaped by the architectural environments in which judicial processes unfold, focusing on the Palazzo di Giustizia in Milan as a critical case study. Once a monumental expression of centralized Fascist authority, the building continues to influence how institutional power, opacity, and control are experienced today. The project situates this legacy within broader transformations of the courthouse as a building type, addressing emerging challenges such as digitalization, AI integration, transparency, and civic accessibility.

Through the lens of thresholds; understood as physical, symbolic, and procedural mediators - the research explores how architecture structures power relations and produces institutional subjectivities. Combining theoretical inquiry with spatial analysis, including user-flow mapping and design iteration, the project examines the courthouse as a complex civic infrastructure accommodating diverse and often segregated user groups.

The design proposal reimagines the courthouse as a more open, accessible, and publicly engaged institution, while maintaining necessary levels of security and efficiency. By balancing monumentality with inclusivity, the project offers an architectural response that places citizens at the forefront, reframing the courthouse as both a symbol and a facilitator of democratic participation. ... Read more

‘Beyond the classroom’ explores the future role of university spaces within the specific context of the Bocconi University in Milan.

In an time where the exchange of knowledge can happen anywhere at any time, what role do university spaces still play? This research suggests that, in addition to their traditional role as knowledge centers, universities must embrace their civic role of social engagement.

The central research question asks: ‘How can university spaces adapt to the digital transformation of education while sustaining their civic role in fostering social engagement?’ To address this, a new faculty building was designed for Bocconi University. The design introduces the ‘university without walls’, a building that acts as a bridge between students and society. The project forms a layered learning landscape that supports innovation, social engagement, and personal initiative, connecting students both to each other and to the creative economy of Milan. Defined by core principles of continuity, connectivity, adaptability, transparency, and social circulation, the design ultimately establishes a student landmark.
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Pockets of Exchange investigates the contemporary library building as a laboratory for active participation. The building helps in exposing creative content to others, in this way inspiring and empowering different categories of users. Cross-fertilization is realize through the possibility of hosting a large palette in performative activities and start-ups. The design also provides in balance between collective action and concentration. ... Read more

Performance centres, once central to civic life, are increasingly perceived as formal and inward-looking institutions with limited relevance in contemporary society. Their monumental architectures often confine public engagement to enclosed interiors, leaving thresholds and transitional spaces underutilised and weakening the relationship between building and city. This research repositions architectural thresholds as active civic spaces that extend cultural life into the public realm. Using Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as a case study, the project explores how performance architecture can support continuous civic engagement by bridging public and private, formality and spontaneity, audience and passerby. ... Read more

‘Queer’ can be both an adjective and a verb: beyond identity, it is a force in motion dismantling systems of exclusion and challenging normativity. This thesis investigates how the queering of the architectural process can transform it from a site of oppression into one of empowerment. This is applied in the context of Istanbul, where urban renewal often serves as a tool of erasure, pushing marginalized communities to the edges of the city.

Accordingly, the project proposes an architecture that listens, brings together and resists fixity. Collaboration is engrained all throughout the project; during research, knowledge is not extracted from ‘subjects’ but constructed collectively: a process that’s messy, embodied and always in flux. By breaking down traditional research and design hierarchies, it shifts authority away from the architect and toward shared authorship, embracing transdisciplinarity and intersectionality as vital conditions, centralizing care and hospitality.

This approach unfolds through shared drawings, communal dinner nights, collective dreams and finally, a 1:1 scale spatial exploration in a queer nightclub in Istanbul. A space scavenged, assembled and transformed through improvisation and shared labor. The storyline reveals key anchor points for queering the architectural process: to value process over product, to embrace temporality, to reintroduce craft - through working hands-on, playfulness and solutions beyond cognition are invited. Very much an unfinished product, this is an inquiry of gathering and holding space, an act of resistance and care - architecture seen as part of a larger celebration. ... Read more

The world faces an increasing demand for humanitarian assistance. The amount of people in need has more than doubled in the past 5 years, totalling 339 million in 2023 (Development Initiatives, 2023). Airports have a vital importance in the immediate response during humanitarian relief operations. In order to comport such operations, airports are required to absorb a certain surge capacity. Nevertheless, the existing guidelines for the design of spaces dedicated to humanitarian relief operations in airports are still incipient, with an apparent lack of involvement of the participation of professionals related to the architectural field. The aim of this project is to explore space planning innovation that can enhance the efficiency of humanitarian relief operations drawing inspiration from design principles of crisis architecture. Moreover, the design strives to demonstrate how the industrial aesthetics characteristic of logistics architecture can be effectively applied beyond this specific typology. ... Read more

By 2030, healthcare is expected to shift its focus toward harnessing the human body’s regenerative abilities to cure and eradicate chronic and genetic diseases, while enabling total recovery from severe accidents. As science and the healthcare industry transition from a “treat and repair” model to a “regenerate and restore” paradigm, hospital architecture will evolve to support the advancements in regenerative medicine.

This project is a deep exploration into the intersection of regenerative medicine and hospital architecture. It envisions a highly specialized hospital designed to treat patients by eradicating genetic and chronic diseases. The overarching idea of regeneration plays a central role in shaping the hospital’s program, site, and architectural design. This approach ensures that the hospital is tailored to meet the specific needs of human regeneration, aligning with cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs. The project integrates the four fundamental components of healthcare and regeneration under one roof: care, production, administration, and diagnosis/analysis, along with long-term storage facilities. This collaborative model creates a cohesive environment optimized for the process of regeneration. Simultaneously, the design prioritizes creating a sanctuary for patients and staff, while reimagining hospitals as vibrant, open public spaces that integrate seamlessly with the urban fabric and natural environment.

Ultimately, this project serves as a vision for how hospitals of the future can become not only centers of medical excellence but also community hubs that foster connection, healing, and innovation. ... Read more

The night train hub Berlin is a station specifically designed for night train travel. This would be for a future scenario where long-distance travel throughout Europe is done by night trains. The design is located in the east of Berlin where Station Berlin Lichtenberg is now. Currently, it is an underutilized station. The main reason for this future of night train travel would be sustainability. To convince people to travel sustainable, comfort is an important theme. The design tries to balance comfort on one hand and sustainability on the other hand. Comfort is integrated in the design of the station, through the program of the building but also materialization and the architectural theme of light. The latter is in important since the design also deals with the time-specificness of night train travel. With trains always departing in the evening and arriving in the morning.

The new station design has three entrances and a square which covers the train tracks to add public space to the city of Berlin. Next to that the design contains a central station hall which houses a lounge and a capsule hotel. This will be the first impression people have of Berlin when they arrive by night train.
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Germany has a rich history in classical music. Berlin, in this regard, has been key in the development of concert hall architecture, most notably through the Berlin Philharmonic. With an increasing decline in visitors and structural financial support of concerts, together with developments in music culture, the building type once more is challenged to reinvent itself, leading to the following question: What spatial qualities could invite the broader audience to concert halls? Within the specificity of concert hall architecture, the project explores the potential of the foyer as a space to be utilized beyond classical music concerts. ... Read more

In an era when rising threats put increasing pressure on security demands in state office buildings, the public trust in these same governmental institutions is on the decline, owing to a sense of detachment and lack of transparency.
This detachment partially stems from the functional and physical separation of people’s civic and political lives, leaving public officials as uncountable, a separated class unresponsive to the everyday people, who in turn can glance little of the everyday working of their government.
In other words: it is easier to pass unfavourable legislation when you never interact with the common people and sit in your fortress hidden from protests. For these reasons, the future must see the creation of new governmental spaces that are public in nature, but also safeguarded from new dynamic threads. New design approaches in established typologies need to be sought to answer these relationship questions that stem from new state, societal, and technological developments.
The Graduation Project ‘Fortress Without Barriers‘ seek to explore these issues of security and accessibility by using a scenario involving the design of a new Federal Ministry of Defence headquarters in Berlin. At first glance this typology might be perceived as ill suited to the integration of public life, even agitative. But rather the project places it as the ultimate test for whether these values can be effectively expressed in an urban context. Defence Ministry being the most prime domain of security, on the scale of city within a city, and placing the most private and secured programme imaginable alongside the proposed public functions.
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What relationship can a cemetery have with the city?
Since the first garden cemetery was built in the early nineteenth century, this concept spread rapidly throughout Europe. Until now garden cemetery is still the common form of cemeteries in European cities. With the concept of garden cemetery, cemeteries exist in the urban fabric as a public space represented by nature and landscape attributes. The emergence of this relationship is closely related to the demand for burialbased burial forms. For a long time, this relationship has given the cemetery a natural and green identity, which is also the common perception of the cemetery among citizens.
Has this relationship changed?
In the context of the Complex Project, Building Body Berlin course, this research design will
focus specifically on Berlin, Germany. The existence of the German cemetery law, known as “Der Friedhofszwang“, makes cemetery burial mandatory in Germany. Along with this law of compulsory burials, the demand for cemeteries has a huge quantitative basis in Germany.
However, according to the research of cemetery development plan of Berlin in 2006, since the end of the 20th century, the cemeteries (mainly garden cemetery) in Berlin have roduced a large amount of vacancy. These idle cemeteries consume a lot of operating and maintenance costs. This phenomenon does not mean that the demand for cemeteries has declined. On the contrary, the demand for cemeteries in Berlin is still increasing. Moreover, with the aging of the population in Germany, the death rate and the number of deaths have risen, and Berliners’ demand for cemeteries will continue to increase in the future. The increase in demand for cemeteries does not appear to coincide with the reduction in cemetery size. It is this inconsistency that helps us see the problem for what it is. The reason for this lies in the transformation of the form of burials. As cremation has grown in popularity, people have increasingly turned to other forms of burial, such as burial of ashes and placement in columbariums. According to statistics, the proportion of cremation in Germany has reached more than 75%. Compared with the traditional form of burying coffins, the land area required for the new burial form represented by cremation is greatly reduced. Statistics show that compared with the average area of 12 square meters in traditional burial coffins, the average area of urns placed in columbariums is only 0.5 square meters. This huge change has also led to a continuous reduction in the core space actually used in the cemetery. Therefore, more and more cemeteries can no longer assume the role of urban public green space due to the reduction of the core use area.
Although this phenomenon of quantitative change has not accumulated to produce qualitative change, we can still see the urgent need for the transformation of the cemetery. So how can the cemetery provide a new value as an urban public space? This research design process will ask questions around this question and offer a possible solution.
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While migration is a megatrend and Germany is known as the top host country, the process of getting refuge in Germany is still a long, demanding, and overcomplicated process. By approaching the permanent but fluctuating influx of displaced people as a temporary problem, migration doesn’t have a recognizable face in Berlin’s cityscape, but is rather scattered and tucked away in several empty buildings throughout the city. Therefore, the multiple institutions in the process are collaborating inefficiently and the displaced have to move through the city to buildings that don’t answer their specific needs.

The project Architecture for the Displaced: One building representing the resettlement procedure in the arrival city of Berlin is about proposing a better building solution for both the institutions and the displaced. The project is a building bringing the resettlement procedure together, from arriving to going to court. The building is a pioneer in a more humanitarian approach towards getting refuge in Germany, by responding to the user's needs. The research question is: “How can a building treat displaced people in a societal inclusive way while maintaining institutional efficiency?” ... Read more

In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive global trade environment, cargo terminals have become crucial hubs for the transportation of goods. However, workers in these environments often face physically demanding tasks, such as heavy lifting, awkward body postures, harmful noise, and extreme temperatures. Besides, they also mentally face the mentally demanding working conditions, resulting from the time pressure, increasing complexity of logistics systems and the integration of advanced technologies. These factors have significant implications for employee health, well-being, and productivity, which in turn affect the overall efficiency of cargo operations.

The architectural design of cargo terminals has the potential to offset these demands and address the consequences by creating environments that actively support employee well-being. By exploring innovative design strategies that consider both functionally and mentally, architecture can play a crucial role in alleviating demanding working conditions,
promoting well-being, and boosting productivity within cargo terminals.
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Train stations are becoming an increasingly important part of urban life. They are the connection between different transport hubs, a social interaction platform, and part of a culture or daily routine. However, many train stations are designed to meet only the first demand, “transporting people and making the city accessible”. Many stations in Berlin are designed with these thoughts and are therefore unattractive to many passengers travelling to and from the city, leaving other modes of transportation dominant.

The design for a new train station in Berlin will primarily respond to creating a unique traveller experience to enhance the user experience. Digital media and automation technologies play an essential role in this, allowing the station user to configure their own experience at the station according to their needs. The station within which these technologies can serve the user will also have to change its character.

Adding features related to service and experience should ensure that a new platform is created that encourages travellers to use the public transport network. Moreover, adding these themes in a station reduces travel time and enhances the user experience.

The design extends the standard train station by integrating automation technologies that allow travellers to perform daily actions at the station faster. For instance, car and bicycle parking in the station is automated, eliminating parking operations. Moreover, the station will also feature service cores. Integrated into these cores are automated food and package services and digital media that can provide users with necessary travel information, daily news and weather, exhibition display and events.

Besides the addition of automation technologies, the building will also have various functions related to the traveller’s daily routine, facilitating social activities and providing work and study places. Through interactive screens in the station or the telephone, travellers can pre-select the desired functions they will use at the station. The station configures its layout using this data to make the required space available.

Finally, in addition to classifying their travel experience at the station, users can configure their space in terms of spaciousness and climate. By applying these new functions and techniques, the station will no longer be a monotonous building for the user but will be able to react to needs and adapt to current and future use. ... Read more

Would you feel relaxed in hospital? Would you choose to meet a friend there? Would you like to spend your free time there? The answer for most people is no. Hospitals have always been synonymous with fear and sadness. Although it relates to the fact that life and death is a heavy topic, the hospital’s factory-like model and oppressive space exacerbate the negative emotions.
This situation is even worse for elderly people. According to a CNN Health survey, the older you are, the worse the hospital is for you. But on the other hand, Germany is even entering a super-ageing society. According to the United Nations Health Organi-sation, 27.6% of the population in Germany is over 60 years old, the second highest population in the world after Japan.1 And in the German healthcare system, more than 60.5% of patients are older than 60. Geriatric medicine department’s average length of stay of 15.2 days is twice the average, ranking first among all departments.
All the facts prove that hospitals, which have remained unchanged for decades, need a revolution. The best future hospital is NOT hospital, at least not the way it is now. This article studies the body perspective to provide an excellent healthcare experi-ence for elderly patients. Filling the gap between society, hospital and home, ena-bling the revolution from hospital to house. ... Read more

The task of a courthouse is to facilitate the correct and fair execution of justice. Consequently, the building must not only meet all functional requirements, but also take the human impact on the court proceedings into account. Since conflicts, stress and concentration have a decisive influence on trials, this graduation project explores the question of what spatial qualities influence the user's experience in a manner that improves the efficiency of processes in a courthouse. The final design is a regional court for Berlin that exclusively handles criminal trials. ... Read more

The Berlin Open Depot complements the cultural heart of Kulturforum, the cultural center of Berlin, located on Potsdamer Straße in the Berlin-Tiergarten district, situated on one of the busiest transportation nodes of Berlin. It is a center for a wide range of exhibition types and stands among the global frontrunners in the field of innovative exhibition experience. The Berlin Open Depot transcends the typical structure of museum buildings, adopting a new approach in its design and layout. The design pushes the boundaries of exhibition and storage spaces, consequently forming a solid, yet flexible space that can facilitate unlimited forms of exhibition. Due to its multidimensional design, the Berlin Open Depot extends beyond the confines of display, exhibition or showcase. It can also serve as a space for events, lectures, or workshops and can be curated by artists as an ever changing canvas. ... Read more

The project attempts to address the types of spaces needed to guide the AI revolution constructively. Currently, an AI revolution is unfolding, as reported in newspapers, broadcasted on the news, and discussed on the radio. Socially, it’s a significant topic, as many users are unaware of what AI is and its functions. This underscores the importance of designing a building that illustrates to society how these AIs are implemented and who is behind them, while also fostering discussions and inquiries. ... Read more