My graduation project is about renovation and splitting the low quality walk-up flats into multiple and ’responsive’ housing that allows one person households to live in smaller spaces that have a higher functionality, so we can respond to the population growth into the cities. A number of amenities in a home can be shared in the current forms of living. As a result, there is a smaller space requirement, which in turn benefits the affordability of the home. This graduation project is also about a sharing economy that can have an impact on our society in such a way that it can provide an answer to social developments and the effects in the field of housing.

There is a rich history of mankind’s relation with nature which is still used as a framework in today’s architecture. The framework is built on the fact modern structures are still able to awaken emotions from the past. In ancient times survival has been different compared to modern times. Man survived with whatever it could gather in the direct environment to create shelter, causing structures to be built on different principles. Modern technology allows to create structures with new techniques and mimic structures of the past. Combining these techniques with techniques to make pop-up structures adds an extra dimension to the design objective.

This thesis explores the potential to use factories as sources of water and energy for peri-urban industrian contexts in developing countries. The project is situated in Bandung, Indonesia, on the border wall of a large textile factory surrounded by informal settlements. The project transforms the wall of the factory into a public facility that consists of a public toilet, food market, and factory worker housing. The facility produces energy in the form of biogas, and filters waste water from the toilet for it to be reused by the factory.

‘Marineterrein’ is located on Kattenburg in Amsterdam. The Navy settle at Kattenburg for a long time until they came to the conclusion to relocate to the north of the Netherlands, and will leave at the end of 2018. The redesign of the Marineterrein is in hands of ‘Rijksvastgoedbedrijf’ and the municipality of Amsterdam. Therefore many companies and inhabitants are interested in the area. Economical, historical, leisure and living are important factors for the different entities. For the inhabitants of Amsterdam the area is close to the city, which can be perfect for dwelling and to connect with people. This is also economically interesting for the investors. For the municipality the area has also great potential for trial and error and everything is possible with regards to design. On the other hand, it’s an unknown and very desirable place. These leads to a paradox conflict of the development of the site. To get control on the area and not to be fixed on one master plan, the municipality developed guidelines which are focused on vision and ambition. I took these different vision and ambition guidelines into account that resulted into my vision: redeveloping, activating, innovating and connecting the building 25 on the Marineterrein, it becomes an attractive and futuristic neighborhood. This resulted in my graduation project” An adaptive Vision”.

Indonesia is one of the 5 countries in the world that contribute to around 60% of all the ocean plastics in the world. This thesis project is based in the kampungs of Cigondewah, in Bandung, Indonesia. This project tries to deal with the local economies of waste recycling and the informal housing industry. The kampungs are situated next to a major textile factory PT Kahatex that provide jobs to most of the people in the Kampungs. The informal recycling industry also heavily depends on the waste produced from these factories. The idea is to create a decentral circular economy with a collaboration of the building and recycling industry, to develop building materials out of waste plastic. Wastes that are sourced locally can be upcycled into simple and long lasting elements that can provide for affordable and sustainable housing for the low-income population of the kampungs.

The main focus of this graduation project is on the transformation of the building industry within the self-built environment of slums towards a local, circular economy. To do this, it influences the building process, as well as the building materials and its production cycle. The currently highly polluting building industry has an influence on the living environment of everybody, but the industry has a very direct impact on the inhabitants of slums as they are often situated on less advantageous sites. Transforming the linear building industry of Indonesia into a sustainable and circular industry using wood, bamboo and agricultural waste streams to produce building materials has the potential to provide better quality of living, both on neighbourhood scale as well as on dwelling scale. Besides, a circular building material industry does less harm to the living environment, gives an economic boost to the self-built environment, creates jobs and it promotes a consciousness for sustainability. Useful local agricultural waste streams in Indonesia include wood chips and sawdust, cassava waste, rice husks, corncobs, coconut fibres, bagasse and palm oil waste.¬

Over the last couple of decades, climate change and energy crises have led to an increased interest in reducing the building energy consumption. To reduce the energy consumption buildings are designed airtight. This leads to the accumulation of indoor air pollutants, which are associated with multiple health and discomfort problems. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to a number of health symptoms, like headache, nausea, dizziness, irritation of eyes and breathing problems, also known as the Sick Building Syndrome. In some metropolitan areas, indoor air has been found up to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air. The negative effects of indoor air pollution are major, also given that people in industrialized nations spend an average of 80-90% of their time indoors. Air pollution is also causing an increase in the number of lung patients. Research even shows that in Europe 99,000 premature deaths were attributed to household air pollution.
The negative health effects of the indoor environment have contributed to a renewed interest in green building practices. A couple of decades ago, NASA conducted a research where they found that plants could reduce indoor air pollution and have a positive effect on the indoor environment. More recent research has shown that plants also have a positive mental effect. The objective of the project is to create a healthy indoor environment for a Lung Rehabilitation Center, with the use of an active living wall.

Earthquakes, as a result of commercial extraction of natural gas out of deep soil, has become a frequently recurring phenomenon in the province of Groningen. Historically earthquakes have never been an issue in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is not prepared for this phenomenon. A lot of buildings in Groningen are damaged as a result of earthquakes. Excising buildings lose their value because of these damages. Several, mostly wooden, auxiliary constructions are placed to support the walls. Currently there are solutions, but most of them are temporary instead of permanent.

Most of the Groninger buildings are made out of brickwork. But masonry is the worst you can have during an earthquake. It looks like an easy solution to think about new materials. But how do we keep the existing stock, with a tradition in brickwork, in its monumental quality, while on the other hand we have to think about an earthquake-resistant solution? My goal is to look for a solution to retain the identity of the Groninger brickwork and look for a way to make this brickwork earthquake-resistant as well.

A lightweight structural expansion that supports a by earthquakes threatened building and simultaneously adds new living and working space in the seismic area of Groningen.

The graduation started from the seismic studio of architecture engineering and designing a earthquake proof architecture. The context of the design in located in the historical garden of Uithuizen in Groningen, which is a potential seismic area. The research focuses on the three different aspects which are seismic principles, biomimetic structure and biomimic climate. The final design is attempting to responding to the environmental, historical, social and seismic context with the method which I researched in the first part. The program of my design is a botanical education center for young children in uithuizen. As for technology part, I chose the solar-tracking panels and intelligent light diffusion glass to achieve my final goal: communicating with nature in the ways of architecture and human experience.

This study is about the impact of early design decisions on the heat demand of a small residential building. Heat demand is a significant part of the energy use of residential buildings in the Netherlands. Reducing this demand will reduce the strain on national energy resources and even allow buildings to become energy neutral or independant with the addition of energy supply and storage systems.

Based on a case study building of 8 appartments, the simulation study explores the impact of several individual design aspects: insulation, orientation of glass facades and building shape. Furthermore the balcony facade of the case study building is compared to a plain facade and a sunspaces (balconies with a glass facade) in terms of heat demand and comfortable use (operative temperature).

Based on these studies the case study building is completely re-designed with the goal of reaching a minimal level of heat demand. Based on these studies and the re-design a final set of design guidelines is developed for designers interested in designing small residential buildings with low heat demand.

To reduce the environmental impact of built environment, a circular approach needs to be implemented on all levels. Resources often travel great distances to their consumers, which leads to an inefficient and wasteful supply chain. Thus, by moving to localized production of all resources needed to sustain a small
village can be greatly reduced. This research intends to explore the possibilities of a self-sufficient village applying known technologies to all energy and material flows. Achieving full autarky is therefore a key aspect of the plan. The demands of water, food and energy will be researched and from this a quantified
plan will emerge that can serve as design guidelines. The village will be placed in the Dutch sub-urban context of Parkstad, which is known for population decline and changing demographics. This region will be presented by IBA as a regional incubator of sustainable innovations by the year 2020. It is therefore essential to attract people of all age groups to seize this opportunity and collaborate for a sustainable and diverse living environment.

This thesis explores the topic of Craft in an information society, the redefinition of craft that follows is developed through the design of a 3D bio printing laboratory in Nijmegen Netherlands.

The project is the transforming earthquake damaged buildings into new public complexity, integrate separate buildings together, provide more public space, improves existing architecture quality and structural performance through extra construction system. Through the design and research, a more architectural solution to retrofit seismic damage of brick buildings is provided, not only focus on the structure challenge, but also aims to improve the architecture performance of existing buildings.

The Design as Politics theme for this year is migration, which was the starting point for this project. I took this to mean, in general, ‘movement’ - rather than migration across countries for economic reasons or from danger zones as refugees. Instead, I decided to focus more on how the daily migration of people affects the spaces in which we live, and how this may negatively impact those places where people migrate in and out on a regular basis.

This led me to choosing my site, Slough, based on a daily migration of people in and out of the town for work, resulting in a daily turnover of inhabitants. This will soon be reinforced with the building of Crossrail - a high speed railway line crossing London, bringing central London much closer. In addition, access to Heathrow Airport will be improved, encouraging migration to further afield. The project, as it stands, combines these two aspects of migration as it links the Slough Trading Estate (where much of the daily migration happens), to Heathrow Airport and thus the world.

My case study is about Slough and Heathrow, and in particular what will happen to Slough if Heathrow is to expand, as planned, with a third runway. As something very unpredictable, the project became about how to create a shock absorber in Slough that could take any changes that might happen at Heathrow, which would greatly affect the town of Slough. The daily migration of people in Slough relies on the presence of Heathrow.

The approach of Design as Politics is generally to focus on research about both the project itself, but also a much wider social context. The parameters set by the studio are incredibly wide, which meant that it took a long time for this project to reach a point from which it could be developed. I undertook research into policy surrounding the Heathrow expansion and what this meant in real terms and political terms, as well as looking at plans for Slough and the area I am focusing on - the Trading Estate. This was an interesting approach as it really began from a much bigger picture, from which I had to distill the project down to something specific to the site, but still with the larger intentions.

In a wider social context, the project is not only a hub for Heathrow and the Trading Estate, but acts as a shock absorber for Slough. In uncertain times, where it is unknown whether the airport will decline or expand, the project aims to use architecture to take the shock of any eventuality, ultimately fortifying Slough in terms of economy and liveability through strengthening a partnership with Heathrow. In terms of migration, the scheme aims to balance the difference between those who commute into Slough and those who commute out - a difference which is based on education and skills.

Problems are overcome by transforming the dwellings and giving the option to add modules to the dwellings. This ensures many different target groups can live in the community. People don’t seek a suitable dwelling, but instead find a community in which they can live and the dwellings is adapted to them. Moreover, users can implement a personalised part of the dwelling to ensure their demands are fully met.

This paper reports on the exploration of the architectural design process involving both the expression of the intuitive and tacit as well as the rational and explicit. The purpose is finding out the role and influence of design approaches and design methods within the design process regarding these opposites by reflecting on my own process in two design experiments. Results show that, although very differently perceived, design approaches and methods are of significant importance functioning as the overarching structure. It is the dialogue between the tacit and explicit, the intuitive and rational, that shapes the design process. The acknowledgement and awareness of this fact can help communication between teachers and students but also architects and clients about the content of the design process, which too often is perceived as an unexplainable and mystique process.