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Designing for a Flow

Co-creative Approach to Adaptable and Resilient Housing

Doctoral Thesis (2026)
Author(s)

A.M. Kuś (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)

Contributor(s)

N.J. Amorim Mota – Promotor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)

E.M. van Bueren – Promotor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)

Research Group
Public Building and Housing Design
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.71690/abe.2026.15 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Defense Date
06-07-2026
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Research Group
Public Building and Housing Design
Bibliographical Note
Aga Kuś is an architect and researcher at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), where she also completed her PhD. Her work brings together engineering and social science to address challenges in the built environment, with a focus on climate adaptation, disaster risk, and housing inequality. Working across disciplines, she combines collaborative research methods, circular economy principles, and resilient design strategies to create solutions that are technically informed while remaining closely connected to the realities of the communities they are meant to support.
ISBN (electronic)
978-94-6518-364-0
Downloads counter
3
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Abstract

This research investigates how adaptability and decision-making in self-organized housing can be supported in hazard-prone Caribbean contexts, with a focus on St. Martin. Where low-income households face barriers to formal housing, self-organized housing becomes a primary means of shelter access. While offering flexibility, such housing often develops under constraints that compromise structural safety, climate comfort, and long-term functionality — challenges intensified by climate change. Assisted self-organized housing approaches offer a way to improve these conditions, yet typically focus on initial construction, providing limited guidance for long-term adaptation. This research addresses this gap by developing Designing for a Flow — a structured guidance integrating circular design principles and co-creative methods to enhance adaptability and resilience in incremental housing processes. Conceptualizing housing as a dynamic process, the approach facilitates "flows" through three interrelated dimensions. Development flow addresses incremental construction and adaptation; material flow supports easy repair and replacement of building elements; and knowledge flow enables collaborative decision-making between residents and professionals. The study adopts a transdisciplinary Participatory Action Research approach within a single-case study in St. Martin, through which collaborative tools — including the Housing Flows Cards and the Designing for a Flow co-design tool — were developed and tested. The findings advance assisted self-organized housing by strengthening adaptability and collaborative decision-making, offering transferable insights for resilient housing development in other climate-affected contexts.