The Future is Yesterday
Regenerating Amsterdam’s city center through traditional urban design principles & human experience
N. Samuels (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
L.P.J. van den Burg – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M.G.A.D. Harteveld – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
The Future is Yesterday explores how traditional urban design principles can guide the regeneration of Amsterdam’s city center through the lens of human experience. Focusing on the Stopera block, the project reimagines a place where urban identity was once lost, transforming it through spatial diversity, adaptability, and local engagement.
By bridging design and experience, the research shows that sustainable cities are not only built but felt. Drawing from environmental psychology and the voices of local users, the design creates a flexible framework where public and private life intertwine, and where identity evolves through the city’s existing morphology.
Ultimately, the thesis reflects on how the past can inform the future of urban form — not through nostalgia, but through continuity, experience, and the quiet resilience of timeless design.