The architecture and construction sector is struggling with a number of major problems. These problems are linked to global crises concerning: ecology, social themes, economy, and the individual. This accumulation of problems can be, when looking to the architecture sector, summarized as the housing crisis, which is widely recognized nationally. This report provides an analysis of these problems and links them to available solutions. According to several experts, part of the solution to the housing crisis appears to lie in transforming existing homes by splitting them and, where necessary, expanding them.

This report specifically investigates how existing rowhouses in the Netherlands can be transformed through splitting and, where necessary, expansion. The aim is to explore the potential for this solution to the housing crisis. Through interviews with experts, the requirements and themes important for this type of project are examined at a practical level. Furthermore, design research into spatial possibilities is conducted through experimentation.

As a result, a design has been created based on a developed concept. This concept can be used as a tool to tackle a project in which existing rowhouses will be transformed. Advice and recommendations are also provided for future projects. ... Read more

This graduation project examines the gap between the contemporary capabilities of timber construction and its limited visibility in dense urban architecture. Despite advances in engineered timber products and durability strategies, timber is rarely used in exposed, public-facing applications in cities such as Amsterdam. This absence is shaped by historical experiences, regulatory frameworks, construction practices, and public perception, which together sustain persistent misconceptions about timber’s durability and suitability at an urban scale.
The project explores how a Timber Knowledge Platform, positioned above an existing mixed-use building ensemble, can reintroduce visible timber into the urban fabric. By focusing on durability-driven architectural strategies and public-scale spatial conditions, the project investigates how timber can remain visibly present while performing reliably over time. ... Read more

In response to increasing urban densification and changing programmatic requirements, this graduation project explores topping-up of existing buildings as a strategy to enable growth, change, and reconfiguration of a Building over time. The project aims to develop a modular timber construction system informed by the analysis of existing adaptive structural systems. It focuses on embedding adaptability not only within secondary building layers, but also at the level of the primary structure. The proposed system is tested within a site-specific context to evaluate its suitability for long-term transformation, selective renovation, and architectural resilience. ... Read more

As cities continue to densify, the opportunity for silence and sensory recovery within the urban environment becomes increasingly urgent. Traditional interior public spaces that historically allowed for quiet, unstructured presence are disappearing, while the constant demand for attention from noise, movement, and digital stimulation continues to grow. This project argues that the contemporary city is missing a typology: a space designed not for program or spectacle, but for the restoration of the body and mind.
Urban Retreat proposes a public sensory recovery space as a timber top-up on the roof of Hotel Krasnapolsky on Dam Square in Amsterdam, the busiest location in the country, and therefore the place where the need is greatest. Six spaces across two routes gradually reintroduce the senses after a period of deliberate stillness, moving from a dark acoustically absorbed decompression room through spaces of increasing sensory complexity toward a rooftop garden open to weather and sky. Timber operates as the primary structural and atmospheric material throughout, informed by evidence-based research into the physiological effects of natural materiality, color, sound, and scent on the human nervous system. The project demonstrates that sensory experience should drive architectural and technical decisions from the outset, and that spaces of sensory recovery deserve to be understood as necessary urban infrastructure. ... Read more

This graduation project investigates how timber topping-up and bridge interventions can revitalise the Stadstimmertuin in Amsterdam, using the city’s historical timber construction tradition as an active design driver. From 1662 until 1899, the Stadstimmertuin served as Amsterdam’s principal timber storage and processing yard. Over time, the open courtyard was gradually filled with buildings of varied origin, leaving the site fragmented, largely inactive outside office hours, and disconnected from the public realm. Despite this condition, the block retains the latent potential of a rare, large-scale enclosed courtyard in Amsterdam’s historic inner city.

The research is structured around the Double Diamond framework: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. Through which design and research continuously inform one another. The inquiry addresses five interrelated sub-questions spanning site analysis, the structural and spatial logic of Amsterdam’s historical timber building tradition, the typology of historical Dutch timber bridges, a revitalisation strategy for the courtyard block and the translation of historical precedent into a contemporary timber building.

Site analysis reveals the Stadstimmertuin as a palimpsest: a layered urban condition in which different periods of transformation coexist without forming a resolved whole. Rather than treating this fragmentation as a deficit, the research proposes it as a generative starting point. The analysis of Amsterdam’s timber tradition reveals it as a deeply integrated system in which corbels, bracing elements, and portal frames are not merely structural components, but part of a combined structural and architectural logic, where elements may appear ornamental while simultaneously performing a structural role. This systems-based reading extends into historical Dutch timber bridge typologies, where structural necessity and spatial richness are consistently intertwined. A relationship directly applicable to elevated connections within a dense urban courtyard.

The architectural proposal operates at three levels. Programmatically, the Timber Institute of Amsterdam is introduced as the central anchor: an institution dedicated to timber knowledge and craftsmanship that re-establishes the site’s historical identity and sustains activity across the day. Spatially, the topping-up of existing buildings and the introduction of elevated timber bridge connections transform the courtyard from a two-dimensional enclosure into a three-dimensional network of spaces, creating new circulation routes and spatial relationships between previously disconnected buildings. Tectonically, the design reinterprets the historical tradition through glulam structural systems, hardwood connection details derived from Dutch joinery\ and selective steel reinforcement at high-stress nodes maintaining structural clarity and material honesty without formal reproduction.

The enclosed site presents several constraints, including limited crane access, restricted vehicular entry, and close proximity to Amsterdam’s waterways. These conditions can be understood as continuities of the historical circumstances that originally shaped the timber-building tradition itself. Water-based transport and prefabricated construction are integrated into the assembly strategy accordingly.

The research concludes that Amsterdam’s historical timber tradition gains value when approached as a critical and constructive system rather than as a superficial reference. Providing not only a material and formal vocabulary, but also a disciplined way of thinking about the relationship between structure, space, and place. The result is a hybrid timber architecture that is neither a nostalgic reconstruction nor an abstraction, but a grounded reinterpretation of a specific and locally rooted building culture. ... Read more

As urban housing demand increases and available land becomes increasingly scarce, vertical densification offers an important strategy for adding dwellings within the existing city. This research investigates how the reduction of building mass can redefine architectural expression in residential timber top-ups, using the Kalverpassage in Amsterdam as a case study.
The project explores lightweighting as both a technical and architectural design method. Through comparative material studies, parametric structural evaluation, building-physics research, and iterative dwelling design, the study examines how mass can be minimized while maintaining spatial, structural, and environmental quality. The research focuses on four interrelated dimensions: load-bearing structure, building physics, dwelling allocation, and interior floor plan optimization.
The design proposes a lightweight timber top-up that responds to the existing structural grid, using optimized floors, columns, beams, and transfer trusses to reduce added load. Collective and private dwelling types are allocated according to structural capacity, while compact floor plans use vertical stacking, multifunctional space, integrated storage, and long sightlines to reduce required floor area. Building-physics performance is achieved through layered façade systems, acoustic decoupling, fire protection, solar shading, ventilation, and localized material mass.
The thesis concludes that lightweight architecture is not defined by thinness alone, but by the strategic organization of structure, space, climate, and detail. ... Read more

Amsterdam’s housing shortage, combined with spatial, ecological, and heritage constraints, has increased interest in timber topping-up as a strategy for urban densification without demolition. While technically promising, most topping-up projects prioritise efficiency and market logic, often neglecting resident agency and long-term social resilience. This graduation project investigates how timber topping-up can function not only as a construction strategy, but as a socio-material framework for collective learning, participation, and adaptation.
Using a research-by-design approach, the project combines site analysis, policy review, precedent studies, and community input. Case studies are critically analysed to examine relationships between resident agency, adaptability, reversibility, and construction accessibility. These insights inform a design framework grounded in participatory timber construction.
Applied to a case study in Kattenburg, Amsterdam, the project proposes a 50% topping-up intervention that integrates new housing with shared and productive spaces. Through a modular, legible timber system that supports incremental change, the design demonstrates how topping-up can contribute to socially and climate-resilient urban transformation. ... Read more

The Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA) is currently working on two pressing issues: A gradual transition towards a circular economy and a pressing housing crisis. This graduation project explores the potential to expand the local Mass timber industry while embedding circular building principles in order to alleviate the pressing housing crisis. Developing an on site pre-fabrication and refurbishing facility for post and beam construction and circular building strategies. Nurturing the local timber material culture and preparing for the future recirculation of Mass timber elements from the Built environment. The project includes designs for the development of a multistorey mass timber mixed use building in the Havenstad project.
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This graduation project explores how timber facades can be designed to last longer in a sustainable, environmentally responsible manner. Focusing on European wood species, the research addresses the challenges of using untreated timber in exterior applications without relying on harmful chemical treatments. Through a combination of material studies, environmental analysis, and architectural detailing, the project identifies strategies to enhance durability—including the use of naturally durable species, smart overhang design, and selective cladding systems.

The findings were applied in the architectural design of a residential extension atop an existing low-rise structure—an urban densification method known as optoppen. By reusing existing materials and optimizing new timber components, the design reflects a commitment to circularity and material efficiency. Overhangs vary according to orientation and climate exposure, while demountable cladding elements allow for selective replacement, reducing waste over the building’s lifespan.

This project positions untreated timber as a viable material for contemporary facade design by demonstrating how thoughtful architectural strategies can extend its lifespan. It contributes to the discourse on sustainable material use, climate-adaptive architecture, and circular construction within the context of urban transformation. ... Read more

As urban areas face increasing densification and a rise in individual living amid the Dutch housing crisis, traditional housing models often fail to support the adaptability needed across changing mobility, care, and changing family strucutres over a lifetime. This research positions timber construction as a strategy for incremental and continuous change in intergenerational living, leveraging its high strength to weight ratio, user approachability, its associations with craftsmanship and self-build culture to empower residents with greater agency over their living spaces. Focusing on systems that allow modification, disassembly, and reuse, the study categorizes adaptation strategies across short-, medium-, and long-term timeframes, each with distinct requirements for materials, components, and construction methods. An assessment matrix then relates timber connection types and biogenic material assemblies to these temporal layers and scales. This research results in a playbook: a practical guide for architects and self-building residents to design for future adaptation opportunities. Based on these findings, this playbook aims to guide architects and self building residents through the strategies used to design the building for future adaptation opportunities, identifying the possibilities for adaptation, and the criteria and methods to achieve them. This playbook will include performance-based criteria and strategies for permissible development, promoting wider use of biogenic materials, with the goal of creating living environments that can evolve over time, and respond accordingly to the needs of residents and the changing urban environment. ... Read more

Cities are facing a growing housing shortage while available space is becoming increasingly limited. At the same time, many industrial areas within cities are underused and disconnected from daily urban life. This graduation project explores how industrial sites can be transformed into socially sustainable, multifunctional neighborhoods without using additional land.

The research investigates how living, working, public and retail functions can be integrated within an industrial context to foster social cohesion and create a thriving community. Particular attention is given to the role of timber and biophilic design principles, not only as sustainable construction strategies but also as tools to enhance spatial experience, material tactility and human well-being.

Through a combination of literature research, case study analysis and research-through-design, a design strategy is developed for the Houtveemloods in the Minervahaven area of Amsterdam. The proposal introduces a public social hub within the existing industrial structure, combined with residential units positioned above and closely connected to the communal spaces below. The housing is conceived as modular, timber-based “treehouse-like” dwellings that maintain a strong relationship with greenery, shared outdoor spaces and the social life of the neighborhood.

The project demonstrates that the transformation of industrial areas into mixed-use environments can address housing shortages while simultaneously strengthening community life, improving environmental quality and preserving the industrial identity of the site.
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From a global perspective, the building industry is one of the significant factors of environmental impact on the planet. Related activities in this industry refer to 40% of total carbon emissions; 28% of this value accounts for building operations, while the remaining 12% represents the manufacturing of new construction materials. Studies have revealed that 90% of construction waste comes from demolition (Ahn et al., 2022). Wood as a construction material is an uprising in the building practice due to its carbon storage capabilities and prefabricated possibilities (Gong, 2021). Prefabricated timber constructions can benefit rural Colombia's social reconstruction with the help of digital fabrication technologies. Likewise, this method could bring better performance of materials and its End of Life (EOL) (Ahn et al., 2022). Nevertheless, research has identified wood-to-wood timber connections as a gap in the academia to tackle better design, manufacture, assembly, and deconstruction (DfMA + D) in the field (Mehra et al., 2021). The following study aims to investigate the application of CNC technologies to fabricate novel and affordable wood joinery connection solutions for the construction of rural housing in Colombia. This research emphasizes the cooperation of the wood material to moisture fluctuation, with the aim of introducing a more sustainable and efficient assembly method. ... Read more