Wuyuan is located in Jiangxi province, south-east China, which is famous for its unique ancient village identity. The long-existing villages in the Wuyuan area have been running in a balance that people living and working with the water. This identity of living and working with water attracts millions of tourists. However, these vulnerable villages are not well prepared for the development of tourism. Driven by tourism, more and more villagers gave up their traditional way of living and working with water, people have less awareness of the essence and importance of these traditional treasures, they tried to embrace the tourists for earning for money for the families and better living quality. However, on the other way around, these tourists disrupt their reliable living environment... this vicious Circle turns this beautiful land to the brink. The water management imbalance caused by climate change even makes this situation worse. As a landscape designer, how to balance the circular and scenic waterscape in Wuyuan for inhabitants and tourists fascinates me. This project is to redefine the watery life in The Villages in Wuyuan to bring back inhabitants and visitors' relationship to the water. But more importantly to recall, remodel, and revitalize the watery life in the villages in the Wuyuan area. ... Read more

Connectivity within residential diversity is seen of high importance in current times of increasing polarization around economic and ethnic diversity. Due to an (1) erosion of institutions such as family and churches, (2) an increase of homogeneous networks, (3) a rise of urban places without clear links to each other, and (4) an upcoming tendency of high-income and high-educated residents to close themselves off within the built environment, the capacity of space to facilitate face-to-face interactions within residential diversity is questioned. Therefore, the project ‘Hier en Daar, a design-based research, explores the potential of urban design processes to foster the value of connectivity for a context with a high level of residential diversity. The research used multiple methods; literature, reflection, fieldwork, mapping and design. Results are illustrated for the case study area of Schiemond and surrounding areas in Rotterdam West. The research resulted in a roadmap for urban designers that explains four steps which could be taken to go for assignment to spatial intervention. The first step, named explore intention, involves a reflection on own motives and develops a definition of the value of connectivity. The second step is named adapt attitude and requires the development of an attitude towards residential diversity that does justice to its complexity. In the third step, analyse, urban conditions related to connectivity in residential diversity are explored. At last, during the fourth step, design, these findings can be translated into new type of connecting spaces by applying design principles, with help of design guidelines. All steps are supported by design mechanisms that can ease the urban design process, observed from author’s own value-sensitive design process.
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New ideas and innovation are the fuel to the modern knowledge economy. The university has for centuries been part of the innovation system responsible for the development of new ideas. Today, the interdisciplinary character and complexity of societal issues makes that there is a need for new methods to support innovation development at university. This thesis has sought for these methods from two different perspectives: that of the urban design of the university city (Section 1) and that of the learning process of its students (Section 2). Section 1 aims at developing an urban design approach for creating innovation space in the university city by conducting design-based research. Section 2 uses critical reflection as a method to give insight in the integration of design and research in Section 1. ... Read more