The Stockholm City Library, designed by Erik Gunnar Asplund and completed around 1928, sits just outside the bustling center of Stockholm. The design task was to adapt or add to the existing building, in a way that it’s to meet the needs of a modern public library in Sweden. My design proposal emphasizes the relationship with the surroundings, as the building is nestled between a park and the city. I carefully consider what’s already there, what works well, and what needs adaptation. While the current building holds significant historical value, it presents a somewhat monumental, static appearance. To accommodate modern library functions, such as maker spaces and lecture spaces, I propose an additional building next to the Stockholm City Library. This addition would allow for a more flexible and modern design while respecting the historical and architectural significance of existing buildings on the site, such as the three annex buildings and the bazaar. The new design functions primarily as a
separate building, contrasting with the existing Stockholm City Library. While the current library, with its high-placed windows and monumental appearance, creates a separation from its surroundings, my building aims to be open and welcoming. It sees the library as an integral
part of the city and local community, blurring the boundary between where the library starts and ends. These contrasting buildings will complement each other, with one representing the traditional library, and the other emphasizing the role and needs of the modern library. I drew inspiration from Asplund’s earlier design proposals and the existing bazaar which connects the library with the city. I also borrowed some features from the existing library. In my design, I repeated the visual motif of the Stockholm City Library’s base (bazaar). However, my building is intended to be less imposing than the monumentality of the original Stockholm City Library. Hereby, the monumentality of the existing building is kept or even strengthened, while it keeps
functioning as an institute of knowledge for the city. The new addition enhances the connection between the park and the city, while also providing a sense of belonging, focusing on the importance of the library for the local community.

This project reimagines the interaction and connectivity between public buildings and the urban networks. Central to the design is an internal street that adapts to the terrain, tying Asplund’s library, the park, the observation hill, the lamella, and new event spaces together, and ensuring access from all directions. Inspired by Scandinavian commercial passages, this new linear-structured complex allows visitors to linger and enjoy the space in any season.

The "exoskeleton" expansion brings extra capacity and versatility to the existing buildings and substitutes as the main part of this new social and cultural destination. It provides the Asplund building with the possibility to be restored as a repository for books and studies. The devolution and reconstruction within the new hierarchy embrace a diverse and hybrid spatial aesthetic and transform the temple of books into a contemporary complex of reading, making, and sharing.

The project redefines the essence of library spaces, maintaining traditional reading rooms while introducing areas that prioritize freedom and spatial experience. Timber frames on tamped concrete plinths create distinct rooms, each integrated with its surroundings: a street connecting the bazaar and the park, a loggia fronting the hill, a pavilion by the pond… Guided by the belief that a well-configured space invites natural use, the ambition of this project is to create a welcoming and adaptable public interior that transcends the constraints of function or programme, starting a poetic dialogue with the ground we inhabit, and the world as a whole.

Land administration is the organized and systematic process of establishing and maintaining information about land. The efficient practice of land administration is anticipated to organize land registers for the provision of cross-sector and cross-border land administration services. Such a system should provide fundamental information regarding land administration without requiring access to land registers or geoportals. Due to disaggregated land administration systems in the Netherlands, land administration information related to the Dutch territory must be accessed through various geoportals. These geoportals include PDOK, Ruimtelijkeplan nen, Wozwaardeloket, Bagviewer, and Kaartenvannederland. These geoportals utilize different approaches to information delivery, processing and retrieval. The basic assumption for the functionality of land administration is the interoperability of data from different registers and geoportals containing land administration information. Therefore, there appears to be a need for an integrated land administration information system. The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) as a conceptual model is a way to integrate land administration information into the organized environment of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for efficient data organization and accessibility. The second edition of LADM consists of five parts about the generic conceptual model, land registration, marine georegulation, valuation information and spatial plan information. This study examines the benefits and drawbacks of the implementation of the LADM Edition II for data dissemination in the Netherlands with a linked data portal.

An analysis has been conducted on the current state of LADM Edition II. Two use cases were identified and modelled to assess the implementation of LADM. Country profiles of the Netherlands were developed to adapt the model to country-specific needs. Linked data, a technique based on standardized web technologies, can enhance the capabilities of an SDI. To enable the implementation of the model with linked data, the country profiles were converted into an OWL ontology model, and datasets based on the Dutch registers were created in accordance with the ontology. Finally, a data story was developed using SPARQL queries to query and present the data for the use cases. A data story is a narrative that makes data comprehensible to a wider audience.

The assessment shows that the implementation of LADM Edition II for data dissemination in the Netherlands with a linked data portal has the potential to offer benefits in terms of time efficiency, resource efficiency and usability. This is the result of linking multiple registers from different domains of land administration, which enables the consultation of a single geoportal, the data story. However, this requires significant investment. The country profile has to be validated, datasets have to be created according to the ontology by matching the attributes in the Dutch registers with the attributes in LADM, and SPARQL queries have to be written to retrieve the data. These last two steps require a thorough understanding of the Dutch land administration systems and the ontology, and can be a time-consuming task. It remains to be seen whether the benefits of LADM in the Dutch context are worth the investment required for implementation.

The building permit process in the Netherlands is mostly digitalized, however, there are still some issues. A downsize of information, the manual checking from the municipality, and the duration of the process are some of these issues. To overcome these issues information between 3D building design models, so-called Building Information Modeling (BIM)s, and 3D city models must be exchanged. To exchange interoperable information between BIMs and 3D city models is called integration. In this research, automatic rule checking is performed after the BIM encoded in Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is converted to a 3D city model encoded in CityJSON. Integration, however, is not as straightforward as it seems. Other researches have been carried out to perform a full integration from 3D city models encoded in CityGML to BIMs encoded in IFC. This is rather complex and so use cases are utilized. In most other researches using the building permit process as a use case, the automatic rule checking is performed in the BIM domain. In this research, a conversion is performed from a BIM encoded in IFC to a 3D city model encoded in CityJSON. The first step in this research is to analyze land use plans and select the most often used rules. These rules are further analyzed on required information to check the rules. For both IFC and CityJSON, the required information for the rules representing the same information as entities in the standards are selected. In the next step, the input models are analyzed on the presence of the entities from the standards. Before the conversion is performed, it is determined which entity will be converted from which input model and whether or not additional information is needed. Finally, the conversion is performed. The 3D city model can be used for rule checking and satisfies the selected rules. The implications of this research are described for the digital building permit process as well as for the integration of the two domains. Guidelines to model correct BIMs for the digital building permit process and further integration are drafted. In conclusion, the tool created in this research works successfully. Automatic rule checking on all the rules in land use plans is technically possible. In practice, automatic rule checking will most likely not take over soon, since rules are still written ambiguously, builders work with 2D drawings mostly, and the Environmental and Planning Act is soon to be established.

This graduation study examined in an exploratory way how the ‘intangible’ aspects of architectural [built] heritage could be made ‘tangible’ by means of an innovative and strategic collaborative or ‘counter-mapping’-based methodology, in order to give the socio-cultural or intangible aspects of architectural heritage a more prominent place in both the evaluation and the design process. The aim of this study was to come up with an innovative and strategic mapping-based toolbox or methodology that will function as a new addition to the existing valuation guidelines. In this way, an attempt was made to contribute to the development of knowledge for a more inclusive, people-centred and participatory way of dealing with heritage (in line with the current societal shift).

This study showed a step-by-step method whereby the Plague house in Leiden (a 17th century national monument in the Netherlands) was used as a canvas. The first step of this method consisted of counter-mapping the social meaning of the past by means of a ‘newspaper counter-map’ focusing on the 20th century, and a ‘crossed-history counter-map’ combining archival information from different time layers. The next step of this method consisted of counter-mapping the social meaning of the present. This was done in four (slightly) different ways and by means of four different target groups, namely through:

•The combination of a short anonymous and analogue survey and individual counter-mapping assignment with target group 1 (fifteen residents of the nearby ‘Vondellaan’ and ‘Van Baerlestraat’ in Leiden) and target group 3 (three employees of the Naturalis museum, the former function of the Plague house).
•A low-key, interactive and participatory stand with anonymous survey questions on pin boards and two collective counter-mapping assignments with target group 2 (about twenty different visitors during the ‘De Buurt’-festival event, held in the Plague house).
•A joint and face-to-face dialogue (‘oral history’) about the survey questions and collective counter-mapping assignment with target group 4 (two residents of the Plague house complex).

The last step of this method consisted of subsequently ‘linking back’ the data obtained through the counter-mapping of the present to the spatial (physical) elements of the building. This was done on the basis of three different themes:
1. Memory / spirit of the place
2. Place attachment / spatial qualities
3. Possible changes / suggestions

The results seemed to imply that this categorisation provided not only a more visual and therefore more practical ‘tangible’ translation, but also an important structure in terms of what the participants would like to see preserved, strengthened or changed.

All in all, the results seemed to imply that each of these separate methodological steps could offer the possibility of making the ‘intangible’ aspects of architectural heritage more ‘tangible’. More importantly, however, the results also seemed to indicate that the combination of (the various concluding results from) each of these methodological steps of both the past and the present, due to the merging of these partly corresponding and partly different perspectives, can provide a more comprehensive, inclusive, and in-depth insight into the socio-cultural or ‘intangible’ aspects that can potentially be used as a design narrative or guiding theme.

How can we design a low-energy house in the
post-industrial context with the use of environment and
technology and still keep heritage and expression of the past
or machine architecture?

Due to climate change, the built environment will have to deal with rising surface
water levels in the future. We could cope with this situation by making our buildings adaptable to changing water levels and develop floating urbanisation. Although quite a few floating projects have been realised in the Netherlands they are mostly of the smaller scale (1-20 buildings). To serve as a robust solution the floating urbanisation projects need to scale up. The aim of this research is to understand the preconditions that are needed to do so. The method used is mixed and combines literature research, case studies and a validation panel. The results have been grouped in seven themes: knowledge & skills, regulation & legislation, exploitation & economy, infrastructure & planning, technology & scale, environment & ecology and public perception. Topics within these themes that play an important role in the success of a project are developing parties with the required knowledge and skills, the presence of suitable legislation, an appropriate location and a bank willing to provide mortgages. The preconditions as they are now make the development of floating urbanisation in the Netherlands possible. Improving these conditions will make it easier to develop more floating urbanisation projects. If these improvements are needed on the short term or the long term depends on the context of that time.

The topic of the studio, “city hotel”, concerns sustainability and hospitality at the same time, aiming to provide a temporary living space within the doughnut model. Since the location of the project is the historical center of Amsterdam which has been largely affected by tourism and become less livable in recent years, the project aims to design for the community and especially for vulnerable groups including the elderly and children.
The project is a respite care hotel locating next to Nieuwmarkt square. It weaves into the context by collaborating with its surroundings to improve the well-being of the whole community. On the one hand, the project provides short-term stays for people in need of care to release the stress of informal caregivers. On the other hand, the project benefits the community by reclaiming the existing infrastructural space as a playful urban space.

In 2017, 1610 million kg of waste wood was collected in the Netherlands. The building and demolition industry was, and still is, the most significant contributor. The estimation is made that in 2017 23% of this wood, 370 million kg, consisted of solid waste wood. This solid waste wood has the potential to be reused as a building material without having to shred it. The current commonly used timber frame construction methods in the Netherlands are not suitable for construction with waste wood. Waste wood has certain characteristics that differ from regular wood for construction on a larger scale. It is possible to create an exterior wall element from waste wood, but this is a time-consuming process. Manual labor is expensive in the Netherlands. Therefore, it will probably not be an economically feasible solution to construct the wall element. A carpenter that needs to modify every piece by hand to get everything in the correct dimensions will probably be more expensive than buying new wood. Using digital fabrication combined with a parametric model can offer a solution to the challenges of constructing an exterior wall element with waste wood. The characteristics of the waste wood are obtained and digitally stored in a database. This database can communicate with a parametric model and generate all the separate 3dm files required for digital manufacturing. The final design was made parametric so that it could communicate with the database. Using Rhino, Grasshopper and Python, a prototype of the exterior wall element tool was made that bridged the parametric model with a waste wood database and gave the user some insight into the waste wood statistics of the design. Python scripts were used for an efficient selection procedure whereby additional material waste could be minimized in the exterior wall element. With the exterior wall element tool, it is possible to create a national database with waste wood. The sellers of waste wood can be the demolishing companies but also the waste wood processors. A contractor can use the exterior wall element tool online to create an exterior wall element from waste wood. Here the user, in this case the contractor, gives the desired dimensions of the wall, and the tool generates a design of an exterior wall element. Additional information is given about the cost, the amount of wood required and where the wood is located. The contractor can adjust the parameters of the model and choose, for example, the cheapest option or the option where all the wood is closest to the building side. In the end the tool generates a list with 3dm files for every piece of wood that has to be modified. These 3dm files can be used for digital fabrication.

The Bank of Maas is a project which explores the changes in the urban fabric of Rotterdam, occurring as a result of technological developments. The project reflects on these developments, and utilizes them in order to create a condition for urban production to take place. The Bank of Maas is a project which provides Rotterdam with the productive resources necessary to the functioning of a modern-day city. It does that by creating spaces for production and storage, supported by smart production tools and an innovative storage technology. The project explores the relationship between the industry 4.0. ( production based on automation and smart technologies) and dense urban environments. By bringing production back into the inner city, the Bank aims to consolidate industry 4.0 with local skilled labor and local raw materials. The project of the Bank of Maas is an experiment, imagining a future in which cities exist as productive, well connected bodies in itself, facilitated with a network of productive resource banks.

According to the World Migration Report 2015, published by the International Organisation for Migration, 62% of the people of Brussels are foreign-born or of foreign descent. That makes Brussels the second most diverse city in the world. The heterogeneity of the city of Brussels can be witnessed on the different levels such as class, culture, income, voluntary and enforced migrations. This diversity defines the nature of the city and it is often a reason for the tensions between authorities and identities. The city of Brussels, one of 19 municipalities that together form the Brussel Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, sponsored a developer-led competition for a city administrative building. The winning proposal was taken by the studio as a provocation, the beginning of the discussion about the place where the citizens can contact administration and governance, a place which represents the citizens and their concerns, a political space.
A starting point of the idea for the graduation project was the complexity and the heterogeneity of the city of Brussels, demonstrated on its streets and the communal life. The main objective of the proposal was to create a building which contributes to the public realm of Brussels, to extend the existing public space instead of creating a new one, to connect the new building with an existing dynamic of the surroundings.

In this thesis, a proof of concept is developed that describes a complete data processing chain for registering new apartment rights in 3D. This chain starts by defining and adding legal space to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) Building Information Model (BIM) models. Once the IFC BIMs are enriched with legal space, the 3D parcels are automatically extracted. The legal space is checked and validated, and stored in a Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) compliant database. Finally, the legal space is visualised on a desktop and browser-based client. Currently, there is no functional 3D Cadastral system functional in the Netherlands. A pilot study has been conducted to register 3D rights on the railway station in the city of Delft. This complex area contained many stacked objects such as a tunnel, offices, shops, etc. [Stoter et al., 2017]. However, the 3D drawings of the area were stored in a PDF document, which only serves as a visualisation tool in a separate document in the Public Registers. As a result, it is not possible to check for overlap with other 3D Cadastral objects. This research focuses on registering apartment rights for a 3D cadastre by using IFC BIM models as source data. Apartment rights are one of the most common rights found in apartment complexes. The IFC file format is chosen because it is the most widely used open data format for the exchange of BIM. In the Netherlands, submitting a IFC BIM file is mandatory for obtaining a construction permit for buildings with a value of 10 million euro or higher. IFC BIM files contain a lot of information, including 3D geometries of the indoor spaces, constructions and building infrastructure. However, there is no explicit information defining the individual apartments (property units). Therefore, the IFC is enriched with legal space in order to enable fully automatic extraction of the 3D spaces that belong to one apartment. This enrichment is based on analysing the current way of registering apartment rights using annotated 2D floorplans as part of a notarial deed [Kadaster, 2014, 2019c], analysing the Dutch legal system related to apartment rights, and based on this knowledge make a proposal for enriched IFC IFC files. To reach practical suggestions for the IFC enrichment, that can be used in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, stakeholders such as notaries, the Dutch cadastre, BIM experts and other parties are involved. Also, current guidelines and practices in the Netherlands on IFC usage have been taken carefully into consideration, such as specification documents of the National Government and the National BIM Platform. The conclusions of this research are that it is possible to enrich IFC BIM model with legal space in such a way that it fits current IFC BIM practices and legal system as much as possible. This is demonstrated with two use cases that describe the registration process of a (fictional) new apartment building, and sub splitting apartment rights of a (fictional) existing building. It is also concluded that there is still many future work to be done, such as improving the definition of legal space in IFC, further researching cadastral administration systems, and the changes to the current in the legal system that are required to facilitate 3D registration of property units.

The graduation project is about the design of a new concert hall in the City of London, called the House of Music. The concert hall has been conceived as an extension of the landscape of lakes, gardens, terraces and ruins which develop in the heart of the Barbican.

The graduation project “ House of Music” elaborates on the notion of designing a major new concert hall and music school in the City of London. The new concert hall will be situated at Museum of London which is located at the edge of the modernist Barbican complex. The project proposal is to redefine the relationship between the Barbican Complex and its surrounding city and accommodate its citizen in the contemporary culture.

With the shift towards a digital economy, the demand for ICT-capacity is growing fast. The fundamental node of this infrastructure is the datacenter. With the idea of the ´smart city´ as a future perspective, the question rises how the physical manifestation of the data center should be in the built environment. But, as important, how it could work together in energetic synergy with other functions or buildings. This thesis explores a synergy between a datacenter and hotspring. By combining two functions that seemingly have nothing in common, a new typology is created with added value. The data center is cooled by the hotspring and the hotspring is heated by the datacenter. The hotspring replaces the cooling tower, residual heat is utilized and a unique place for recreation is created within the cooling system of the datacenter.