This thesis explores how “age-friendly” urban climates can be achieved sustainably in challenging environments, such as the heat-vulnerable neighborhoods of Rotterdam South.
Strategies beyond reducing exposure in the built environment are formed using literature reviews, sociological observations, mapping, and interviews with stakeholders.
The research findings highlight that physical measures to cool outdoor environments are essential, but strengthening social resilience and adaptive capacity is equally important. Mobility barriers, decentralised everyday services, and limited opportunities for intergenerational interaction can heighten heat vulnerability among elderly residents. The response is a set of multi-scalar design guidelines that integrate climate-adaptive architecture with socially inclusive spaces, in the shape of cooling centers, ensuring accessibility, familiarity, and community participation within the neighborhood.
This holistic approach addresses different dimensions of heat vulnerability and creates neighborhoods that are not only cooler but also foster health, autonomy, and social connection across all ages.

In the Netherlands, socio-economic inequality remains a pressing issue, with urban areas experiencing the most significant challenges. Economic disparities between regions and within cities contribute to unequal access to opportunities and services. This inequality affects low-income households, leading to persistent cycles of poverty. Major cities, including Rotterdam, reflect the negative consewuences of this phenomenonwith some neighborhoods particularly affected by poverty and isolation. In the south of Rotterdam, a significant proportion of residents face socio-economic challenges, with many households living below the poverty line. This economic burden affects their well-being in a number of ways, including reduced access to basic services, limited social opportunities and a lack of supportive resources in the community. This can lead to social isolation, increased stress and reduced quality of life. It is important to understand the nature of relative poverty before considering how the built environment can serve this target group. This research aims to investigate how the built environment in Rotterdam South can actively contribute to improving the well-being of low-income households by incorporating shared resources, practices, collective living structures and communal spaces.

Heijplaat village, completely encircled by the Waal/Eemhaven in Rotterdam South, is categorized by the municipality as a “very safe neighbourhood.” This graduation project problematizes such evaluation under the same safety index as all other neighbourhoods in Rotterdam, despite its one and only geographical specificity.

Safety is a complex yet crucial aspect in the discussion of building social sustainability. Notably, the Rotterdam municipality launched a new safety initiative (“Veiligheidkoers”) in 2022 to make the whole city, including the port, more resilient. Traditionally, the port and the neighbourhood have been approached as separate entities with distinct natures and expertise. However, as the leading contributor to the delta and the water-related dialogues globally, discussion of the port-city interface is critical and immediate in the Netherlands, especially because the impact of what the port brings to the city, and even more significantly, what the port brings to the people, is transboundary. In this sense, the case of Heijplaat-Waal/Eemhaven presents a unique classification of “port-nested-village,” calling for a specialized and nuanced approach to reframe the notion of safety in the port-city interface.

This thesis addresses the growing issue of loneliness in urban areas—especially among the elderly, single parents, and children—by investigating how playful, sensory-integrated environments can foster social connection. Focusing on Pendrecht in Rotterdam Zuid, the study draws on Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens to explore play as a spontaneous, sensory experience that supports well-being. Using a holistic, multi-method approach—including ethnographic research and spatial analysis—the study finds that loneliness is linked not just to social factors, but also to physical and environmental conditions. Challenges vary across age groups, pointing to the need for inclusive, accessible, and stimulating public spaces. The thesis proposes “playful peripheries”—networks of sensory-rich, welcoming spaces around Pendrecht—as a design strategy to encourage curiosity, interaction, and environmental health. Ultimately, it argues that combating loneliness requires designing urban spaces that promote both human and environmental well-being through play, accessibility, and sensory engagement.

This research investigates the potential of co-living as a strategy to mitigate loneliness, with a specific focus on the Tarwewijk neighborhood in Rotterdam. The study aims to answer the question: What living environment principles can support the design of a cohousing community that fosters social cohesion on different scale levels in the Tarwewijk? By integrating insights from literature, site visits to collective housing projects, and interviews with experts, policymakers, and residents, the research identifies key spatial and social factors that contribute to successful co-living environments.
The analysis is structured across three spatial scales: the neighborhood, the street, and the building. Findings indicate that while the Tarwewijk has social cores with adequate public spaces, its walkability is compromised by physical barriers, leading to a fragmented social fabric. At the street level, issues such as narrow sidewalks, obstructive parking, and a lack of personal investment in the public realm diminish the sense of community. At the building level, diversity in housing typologies and well-designed communal spaces enhance inclusivity and social interaction. Flexibility in spatial arrangements also emerges as a crucial factor in maintaining long-term community engagement and adaptability. The research further explores the role of scale in co-living communities, emphasizing the balance between group size, spontaneity, and social cohesion. The cluster collective model is identified as a promising approach, combining scalability with diversity while addressing the challenges of isolation and fragmentation.
The study culminates in the formulation of 32 living environment principles, compiled as a pattern language, which serve as design guidelines for future co-living projects. These principles provide a framework to enhance social cohesion, adaptability, and sustainability in collective housing, ensuring that co-living developments effectively address urban loneliness while fostering resilient communities.

Access to arts and culture plays a crucial role in children’s talent development and social connection. This research focuses on how the physical living environment can contribute to this development, with a focus on Rotterdam-Zuid. Through literature research, case studies and workshops at a primary and secondary school, children’s needs and preferences were identified. The results show that younger children show more diversity in their creative preferences and are less influenced by peer pressure than older children. It also shows that physical living environment plays an important role in stimulating artistic expression. The insights from this research lead to design principles for cultural facilities that lower the threshold for arts participation and promote social interaction. This research contributes to the debate on the role of the built environment in relation to talent development of children and art facilities.

The Bloemhof neighbourhood in South Rotterdam faces a critical challenge due to severe soilubsidence, leading to the structural failure of many buildings. This thesis explores how addressing subsidence can serve as a catalyst for sustainable urban transformation while prioritising community continuity and resilience. Unlike conventional redevelopment approaches that often result in displacement, this study introduces the concept of "undisplacement", which seeks to replace housing while preserving the neighbourhood’s social fabric.

The Netherlands, in this case study, Rotterdam is dealing with a growing elderly population, a shortage of healthcare staff, and an increasing risk of dementia. These challenges are worsened by a housing shortage and the lack dementia-friendly housing and living environments. The municipality encourages elderly individuals to remain in their homes for as long as possible; however, current housing and living environment fails to meet the needs of those living with dementia. Moreover, policies such as “zorg en dwang” care and force, which is to protect people who are endangering themselves or others, is taking away the autonomy and freedom of movement of such a person. However, this clashes with the constitution policy that states that everyone is allowed to move freely.
This thesis explores the design of indoor and outdoor spaces that respect the autonomy and freedom of movement of people with dementia. The design vision seeks to integrate public, communal, and community functions with elderly housing, creating a seamless blend of private living spaces and shared environments. Enhancing nature to create a sense of freedom and autonomy. In the early stages of dementia, individuals can still maintain a level of independence but require assistance with daily tasks, which may be provided by family members or caregivers. During this phase, it is vital to support autonomy through well-designed spaces that facilitate social interaction and reduce confusion. As dementia progresses, the design must adapt to ensure environments remain familiar, safe, and accessible while avoiding elements that may cause distress. Personalized spaces, autonomy in decision-making (such as choosing where to eat), and the incorporation of social hubs, like cafes, help maintain identity and a sense of control.
Design guidelines emphasize safety, with wide entrances and corridoors, accessible outdoor spaces, and clear wayfinding to accommodate those with visual and mobility impairments. Community integration is important, with access to public transport, recreation, and services ensuring continued independence for as long as possible. Advocating for the autonomy of people with dementia, by shifting from traditional elderly homes and nursing homes to a design that allows individuals to have the perception of moving freely and remain part of a community while they still receive the care that they need. The importance when designing a building to include a view on nature and social interaction, creating spaces for community activities and social interaction to happen are crucial for autonomy and mobility freedom.

This research addresses the rising amount of homelessness in Rotterdam. Homelessness should be prevented in an early stage to avoid long term health issues. Home-seeking youth fall between the cracks of the system since there is a lack of social support for those between 18-23 years old with no official care indication. Because of this, It is hard for these youth to build a healthy future. The term “home-seeking youth” is used to reduce stigma on homelessness and emphasize their quest for stable housing.

The needs of home-seeking youth are explored in this study, which also considers ideas on how residential housing concepts can effectively address these needs. Research will be conducted through field research involving interviews with professionals, workshops with long-term homeless individuals, and workshops with vulnerable youth in Rotterdam to understand their housing needs and preferences.

The aim is to determine how a residential building can support the physical (socioeconomic security), mental (empowerment), and social (inclusion and cohesion) needs of youth seeking stable housing. Among these needs, social needs seem to play the most important role as they form a safety net for both mental and physical needs. The main need that home-seeking youth have is for a relationship with someone who can offer them unconditional support. Therefore, it is important that housing for youth includes access to an adult who can help them informally.

Pendrecht is characterized by a great richness in cultural diversity and local initiatives, but these different worlds are spatially separated from one another and invisible for the passerby. They are not articulated in the public domain but instead remain confined to private domains. Left without activity or liveliness, the streets and squares are degraded to meaningless transition zones. This anonymity stands in the way of social cohesion and any sense of belonging or attachment to the neighbourhood. In order to break this downward spiral, an impulse into the public domain is needed that facilitates social and cultural exchange.

Children are the future. Providing a fostering living environment for the next generation in the favelas of Sao Paulo might enable them to break negative patterns of behaviour, so energy towards crime an violence is redirected towards productive ends for them and their communities. Gaining insight from the field of developmental psychology, this project makes a material parallel to the distinct developmental stages of children, as described by Erik Erikson. The neighbourhood consists of clustered dwelling groups, starting small and protective, but while the development of the child goes on, the further clustering of the dwelling groups provide a more dynamic environment for the child to grow further. A balance between protection and engagement, between order and chaos, will help the child grow up and develop the virtues of; Hope, Will, Purpose, Competency and Fidelity.

Since the introduction of neoliberalism in the 1980s, housing has transformed from a social good to a market commodity, resulting in housing policies’ focus shifting from resilience to efficiency. The shift greatly affected the Global South, where an overwhelming amount of housing was, and still is, required (Syllabus Intro). Several initiatives aimed to counter the issue through approaches solely focused on resilience. These projects were, however, unable to produce the amount of housing needed. Subsequently, several housing experts recently argued that a trade-off between efficiency and resilience is required to challenge this global phenomenon.

The project investigates the balance between resilience and efficiency through a social housing development in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. Despite São Paulo not being a poor city, it has one of the world’s most inequitable distributions of wealth. One of the main symptoms of this inequality is a lack of sufficient housing. The project is in Grajau, one of the city’s periphery neighbourhoods. Heterogenous neighbourhoods, called favelas or irregular settlements, populate the district(Marques and Saraiva 2017, 21). Favelas often consist of dwellings that do not meet adequate housing standards according to Brazilian law. Still, these neighbourhoods provide an opportunity for impoverished families to have a house, presenting somewhat of a solution towards the Brazilian housing crisis.

The research concluded that Brazil’s large socio-economic gap and complicated political history are two of the primary catalyst for the country’s significant housing crisis. The Estatuto da Cidade (City Statute), developed after the fall of the dictatorship, acts as a legal framework to manage and improve the urban development of periphery neighbourhoods. The City Statute includes the Zones Especias de Interesse Social’ (ZEIS, Special Zones of Social Interest). ZEIS identifies areas where infrastructure and degraded properties can be improved, allocates space for public amenities and dedicates unused land for Social Interest Housing (HIS) and Low-Income Market Housing (HMP).

The central concern of the project is the lack of urban integration between Social Housing developments and their surrounding heterogeneous neighbourhoods (favelas and irregular settlements). A combination of fieldwork, theoretical research and comparative analysis, discussed throughout the report, was used to identify the problem. The project challenges the urban segregation between favelas and Social Housing through porous thresholds and careful boundaries. The approach is derived mainly from the work of German philosopher Walter Benjamin, Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck and Brazilian architect Hector Viglecca. The design applies porous thresholds and careful boundaries throughout all design scales, continuously considering the project’s socio-economic, managerial, and environmental impact.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the urbanization of workers without education or a steady income has caused a large demand for social housing, with 800,000 families forced to live in settlements and slums without a legal basis. At the same time, the crime rates of the past decades brought forth a standard of ‘enclavement’ of urban blocks, with fences protecting shared outdoor spaces. These add to the segregation of a city that already has immense inequality. Although many have written about creating a safe living environment with architecture in the Western world, applications in the global south are lagging behind. This thesis explores how architectural design can positively influence safety in the periphery of São Paulo, taking into account socioeconomic segregation, local building practices, and social equity. For this, a literature review, a comparative analysis of precedents, a contextual analysis, and research by design are used. The design is made for Parque Cocaía, a greenfield site with environmental restrictions on the outskirts of the city, in Grajaú. It shows how the design of building types that foster the creation of communities, public space that invites life into the streets, and dwelling types that allow watching over the public realm and shared spaces can all contribute to a safer living environment. The design combines lessons learned from Western theory, social housing precedents, and the local context and thereby offers an alternative to enclavement as a means to assure safe living. Future research and design can build on this to prevent further segregation of Brazilian society.

In the ever-evolving world of architecture and construction, there is a growing recognition of the urgent need to embrace sustainable and circular practices. As the challenges of climate change and resource depletion become increasingly apparent, architects and designers have a unique opportunity and responsibility to shape the future of our built environment. It is within this context that I followed the Urban Architecture Graduation Studio, leading to my project called "Re:Generation Liège", in wich I aim to reimagine local building culture as a showcase for a circular generation of architecture, while revitalizing an abandoned industrial site.
At its core, "Re:Generation Liège" seeks to challenge the prevailing linear model of resource consumption in our field of Architecture, while trying to create architecture that is culturally fitting, encouraging social life and in symbiosis with nature. By harnessing the principles of circularity and sustainability, this project strives to create a harmonious interplay between human habitation, natural resources, and the surrounding environment.
The city of Liège, with its rich architectural heritage and vibrant cultural identity, serves as the backdrop for this project. By leveraging the unique physical, economic and socio-cultural characteristics of the local context, "Re:Generation Liège" aims to demonstrate how a circular economy can be boosted in this specific context, through showcasing the potential of adaptive reuse, component reuse and reuse-focused public program.

The Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art is a proposition developed in response to the brief released by the board of MHKA in order to expand their institution’s scale and reach.

Located between the most historic part of the city and the newly developed New South it is in relation with both, just as it is in relation with the history of the institution and the unknown future of the world of art. Finding the balance between the publicness of such an institution and the necessity to protect valuable pieces of art was the driving point for multiple design decisions.

My proposition takes advantage of the existing building located on the site and the spatial qualities it offers. The smaller in-scale spaces are supplemented with larger galleries. The old and new parts are combined in a coherent way under a seamless façade. Its monolithic and shiny face stands out in the city becoming a new icon for art and knowledge.

Sao Paulo, Brazil, a megacity home to 22.4 million inhabitants as of 2022 has “one of the most inequitable distributions of wealth in the world” (Caldeira 1996, 303). In the various districts, the inequality either shouts or whispers its presence. An open city, where the street-scape is the backdrop for social convergence, segregates itself in Sao Paulo as a space of clear definition of the haves and have-nots. Within the urban condition “…the physical distances separating rich and poor have decreased at the same time that the mechanism to keep them apart have become more obvious and more complex” (Caldeira 1996, 304). As Brazil’s economic and political conditions exponentially shifted so did the reshaping of the built landscape – with that, the right to the city for the urban poor became intangible. Through the process of ‘autoconstruction’ even the poorest of citizens could gain access to the city. However, due to economic restructuring, new generations are even more at a disadvantage to precarious living conditions.

On the opposite spectrum, for the well-off, the current city skyline is arrayed with inward turned urban enclaves; congruently polarizing amenities once connected to the public street (i.e., parks, residential complexes, schools). These vertical communities retain all that is necessary within a private and autonomous space and can be positioned almost anywhere, independent of their context. In many cases, they are placed at the periphery directly neighboring auto-constructed settlements. As Caldeira coins it, “…Sao Paulo is today a city of walls” as the disparity between classes became something quite defined and accepted with the fear of crime fueling changes to all forms of public exchange (Caldeira 1996, 307). Within this, emerges a dynamic, one of codependence. The poor rely on the city for financial prosperity; the wealthy rely on the labor of the poor.

As the government begins to address housing for the city’s most marginalized through large-scale residential blocks – as a means to domesticate the transient realities of Sao Paulo’s contemporary urban condition - the notions of social segregation are still wide and apparent. As the favela is stigmatized with housing a certain social class, so is the governmental housing, and so is the urban enclave. Each environment has become categorical; of separate and unequal atmospheres devoid of connection. However, is there a way for these atmospheres to communicate? In his book, Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City, Richard Sennett refers to three types of repair: restoration, remediation, and reconfiguration. In the case of Grajau – a peripheral district of Sao Paulo constituting for a majority of the city’s urban poor – Sennett’s ideas of repair can be disseminated within its changing context. Restoration, looking to accept the exiting approaches to marginalized housing. The second, remediation, looking to build upon existing solutions, interchanging and exchanging certain elements for an improved whole. Lastly, reconfiguration giving space for new typologies with the use of existing forms. This brings into question:

How could a kit-of-parts approach marry the efficiency of a top-down approach & the resilience of a bottom-up approach to enable place-making in self-built settlements of Grajau?
a. How can participatory process be a part of the planning process for social housing?
b. What spatial structures help create/enable the development of social cohesion in self-built settlements?
c. How can a catalogue of dwelling types adapt and meet community needs over time?

Synanthropic Habitats originates from the interdisciplinary quest on ‘how will we live together’ and the personal fascination to critically question the deeply-rooted anthropocentric binary of human (us) and nature (them). The thesis aims to establish an innovative domestic environment that deals with the heterogeneity of people of different backgrounds while reflecting upon the global urgency of the Anthropocene by interacting with nature in a blended game of cohabitation.

The project forms its wider problématique from an amalgam of constituent problems deriving from Rotterdam and specifically Blijdorp as the site under investigation. The high traffic lane that dichotomizes the site, the noise and pollution of the nearby railway station, the large undefined spaces in tandem with the prevailing social degradation, and the need for affordable housing provision are a few of the identified issues of the project’s location. As a response, the Synanthropic Habitats attempts to develop a new paradigm for Dutch housing design, based on the triptych of hofjes as a type, thresholds as interfaces, and cooperatives as nomos.

The project draws from the long tradition of Dutch hofjes as an archetypical sustainable domestic milieu, the epistemologies and multiscalarity of threshold as a key tool to create zones of encounter, and the non-speculative forward-thinking model of cooperatives to shape a framework within which a multi-storey building with integrated nature, a variety of households and common spaces will flourish. Towards that direction, literature research on the topics, typo-morphological analyses of relevant precedents as well as in-situ observations are employed as methodological tools to conclude in spatial and theoretical aspects contributing to an ecology of inclusion in the design.

Utilizing and revisiting the pre-existing type of the hofje, inflected with the threshold character of commons creation and the pragmatic scenario of devising cooperative tenure generate an evidenced-based dwelling design that is as much of a site-specific architectonic product as a universal proposition to be adopted across contexts.

Ethiopia is a flourishing country with a rapidly growing economy and population. This is one of the reasons why the capital Addis Ababa is increasingly urbanizing. Due to the free market only providing housing for high incomes, many households live in poor conditions. In addition, these private developments are often built as gated communities out of fear of insecurity and resulting in segregation. This segregation is further enhanced by the government's Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP), which realizes subsidized housing for middle and low incomes, but by doing so it also segregates these groups. While Addis Ababa has traditionally been an integrated city with an inclusive society, which is still of great importance for the living standard of especially low-income people. This research offers an alternative design for the current scheme of the IHDP and proposes a mixed-income neighborhood whereby stimulating mutual trust between residents through the built environment is central to the project.

Neighbourhood, Community, Meantal Health and the Built Environment