Degrees of Encounter

Densification Strategies to Alleviate Urban Loneliness in Post-War Neighbourhoods

Master Thesis (2024)
Authors

A.E.D.I. Hendi (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)

Supervisors

Harald Mooij (TU Delft - Public Building and Housing Design)

R.S. Guis (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / A)

H.F. Eckardt (Architectural Technology)

Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment, Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright
© 2024 Alaa Hendi
More Info
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Publication Year
2024
Language
English
Copyright
© 2024 Alaa Hendi
Coordinates
51.8800169, 4.5490452
Graduation Date
17-01-2024
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Programme
Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Advanced Housing Design
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment, Architecture and the Built Environment
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Abstract

The growing concern about a mental health crisis and a looming threat of the loneliness epidemic worldwide that was further escalated by the COVID-19 pandemic forced people into isolation and created a new form of ‘work from home’ lifestyle. Nonetheless, the loneliness epidemic can be traced back to the 19th-century design principles that designed our current cities with reference to industrial tools such as the car instead of the ‘human scale’. Many of these modernist ideals had negative implications on the mental health of the residents in post-war districts. Moreover, with the need to build more homes, the current housing market values densification strategies that are primarily for profit and not for the needs of the people, which continues the pattern of ‘living together apart’. Consequently, there is an urgency to tackle isolation among the inhabitants of Groot-IJsselmonde, specifically Thamerdijk and post-war neighbourhoods being primarily targeted for future densification schemes. Interventions are therefore required to encourage degrees of social encounter. A research-based approach explored within five different lenses, sociological, historical, urban, building and dwelling scale is translated into a design project that could potentially allow for more positive densification for both current and future residents.

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