Informal settlements in Greater Cairo house a large portion of the population, who face increasing social inequality and environmental vulnerabilities. Manshiet Nasser, a desert settlement east of Islamic Cairo, is one such area struggling with challenges like environmental hazards and limited infrastructure. The Zabbaleen community plays a vital role in Cairo’s waste management by recycling approximately 80% of the city’s waste, yet their contributions often go unrecognised. This research explores how urban design can achieve environmental justice for the Zabbaleen, focusing on creating a safe, healthy, and clean environment while positioning the community as drivers of change.

The study examines Manshiet Nasser’s connections to Cairo’s broader context, the daily routines of the Zabbaleen, and the perspectives of various stakeholders on the community’s living and working conditions. Findings reveal significant risks from environmental hazards, marginalisation, and conflicting priorities among stakeholders. A pattern language approach was used to design interventions that adapt the urban fabric, support community development, and optimise the recycling chain. These patterns connect findings from analysis and literature to participatory and context-based design strategies.

The proposed urban design addresses key challenges by cooling the urban environment, diversifying waste business opportunities, and reducing health hazards. Stakeholder involvement is essential for translating aspirations into interventions and negotiating conflicts. While achieving environmental justice requires physical upgrades and mindset changes, this research highlights the potential of informal communities to lead change. The project aims to inspire designers and policymakers to envision alternative development pathways for more equitable urban futures.

Berlin, a city characterized by its diversity, creativity, and resilience, stands as a vibrant hub with a rich history, influential club culture, with a prominent global position. The city’s identity has been shaped by a series of transformative events, from its growth along the Spree in 1724 and the cities expansion with characteristic blocks in 1862, up to the significant impacts of World War II and the division imposed by the Berlin Wall in 1961. The subsequent reunification process led to redevelopment, urban planning, and the evolution of Berlin’s dynamic, multicultural identity.

Aligned with this historical narrative, the city’s spatial structure, public transportation network, and urban development have undergone continuous evolution. The Berlin railway network, dating back to 1846, has expanded and adapted to the city’s growing needs, as evidenced by the i2030 expansion plans for railways (Start - i2030, 2023).

However, the evolution of train stations, integral to the city’s transportation infrastructure, has taken a distinct turn. Once serving as waiting shelters, stations have transformed into commercial entities prioritizing profit and efficiency often at the expense of inclusivity. While the program focuses on becoming a symbolic gateway to the city, there is a growing sense of exclusion despite train stations being the daily crossroads for diverse populations.

In the spirit of Berlin’s anarchistic character, which advocates a bottom-up approach to city-making, this thesis proposes a radical departure from the conventional model of train stations. Instead of admitting to the profit-driven agenda of the state-owned railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, the thesis advocates for a user-centric architectural approach which will make it inclusive. By delving into the essential needs of Berlin’s community, passengers, and commuters, the aim is to establish a harmonious balance between profit-driven objectives and the diverse requirements of the local population.
The thesis seeks inspiration from anarchism, a philosophy advocating for the absence of top-down authority. This departure from conventional architecture involves challenging the prevailing paradigm of “hostile architecture,” marked by exclusionary designs, towards a more inclusive and versatile approach focused on liveability. Through the lens of anarchistic principles, the proposal aims to redefine the S-Bahn stations along the Berlin ring, offering a compelling vision for a more user-friendly, community-oriented, and progressive environment as prototype station.

This thesis proposes a prototype station for the current S-Bahn station at Frankfurter Allee, where the seamless integration of functionality and user experience becomes the focal point. The “Frankfurter Allee Locals Foundation”, consisting of rotating local residents, jointly owns the rentable units added to the station’s program. Its former identity as containerbahnhof has been repurposed for the rentable units at this particular station.

Some recommendations on how to design a prototype station for the S-Bahn ring in Berlin combining all flows with local identities are the outcome of the research through design.

The global housing affordability crisis sees European countries searching for solutions, paving the way for transnational knowledge exchange. The efforts to fulfill this potential within the housing sector and transnationally are, however, unexplored in relation to the affordable housing crisis. The goal of this thesis is to deliver lessons-learned for transdisciplinary and transnational knowledge exchange with specifically affordable housing provision in Europe. A case study will be performed on 'cost rental housing', a current measure to improve housing affordability which benefited from transnational knowledge exchange, in Ireland. Stakeholders are interviewed about practical insights, the barriers and enablers of knowledge exchange, their incentives and the methods used to facilitate it. With insights from
both practice and literature, lessons-learned are established from both the introduction of cost rental housing itself and the transdisciplinary and transnational knowledge exchange efforts.
Combined, the research ultimately delivers seven key lessons for transdisciplinary and transnational knowledge exchange with providing affordable housing in Europe.

In Europe Christianity faces steady decline, causing dwindling attendance at
churches. As a result congregations are no longer able to afford the upkeep for their churches, forcing them to end services in these buildings. This caused many grand and historic church buildings to become vacant, and means that many will follow in the near future. Because many of these churches have deep ties to the local community and historically served a very public role, fitting new functions are needed to keep these building sustainable and part of their community. To find an answer to this question, specifically relating to 19th century neogothic churches of the catholic counter reform, the following paper will research the basic principles of (Neo)Gothicism and the methods and process behind the creation of such a church and its furnishings. The aim of the research is to establish the relation between the interior, the symbols and the architecture itself to understand how they together conveyed the story of Christianity, and how this could possibly be adapted for a use after Christianity or how this can be used to establish a fitting new purpose for these churches. As part of a graduation project this research will put the main focus on the RK Barbarakerk, a church going vacant in Culemborg in the Netherlands. By diving in to the construction history and theory of the time the main principles of Gothicism will be established and an understanding of the relation between the architecture, furnishings and symbols will be gained. Then by observing the features of the Barbarakerk, these principles can be contextualized. Finally by comparing existing converted churches to see how they reacted to existing history, symbolism and iconography, illustrate their methods of storytelling through architecture. Finally showing the integral narrative nature of the (Neo)Gothic architecture being able to indicate their own most fitting future.

Social inequility is still part of the current world, not only in the poorer countries but also in the wealthiest once. With the use of gentrification it was tried to hide the poverty by improving the quality of neighbourhoods. Although this improved the liveability and wealthiness of a neighbourhood, it did not improve the lifes of the former citizens as they were forced out. This shows the wrong focus of the regeneration that is often used in deprived neighbourhoods, improving the liveability instead of improving the lives of the citizens. To be able to improve the life of the citizens, it is important to find out what their wishes and needs are, so an urbanist can implement these in the design. Therefore, this thesis researches how an urbanist can establish citizens’ participation as a design method to be able to design life improving neighbourhoods for its citizens. This will be done by answering the main question of: “how can the use of citizens’ participation in the urban design process of the regeneration of deprived neighbourhood improve the liveability?”. To answer this question, research on citizens’ participation, happiness and liveability will be combined with analyses on a case studie to create a new design method for urbanists that is focused on participation as the main way of designing. The manual will show how participation can be used as a design method and how an urbanist should approach this way of designing. The main focus is on the way the urbanist should communicate with the citizens so they will both understand each other.

As freshwater scarcity has become one of the most important environmental and social issues of the 21st century, the way the built environment interacts with water must be reconsidered. Today’s urban water cycle in Curaçao is characterized by linear, centralized, polluting, costly, time and energy consuming and does not contribute to cultural value. Architecture can play part in creating a more efficient and sustainable urban water system, while increasing the public awareness of issues related to the freshwater cycle. Heritage of water typologies and systems like water plantations, cisterns and wells give example of how Curaçao used decentralized micro water catchment systems (MWCS), in the pre-desalination period, to provide freshwater for the communities inhabiting it. In addition to the concept of these heritage inspired designs solutions (HIDS) the concept of current nature-based solutions (NBS), referring to ecosystem-based and biomimetic approaches, are analysed as alternatives. The integration of HIDS and NBS is a much-needed step forward towards an integrated and holistic approach of spatial planning and design in general and water related design and management in particular.

‘Regenerative Ruins’ focuses on the neighbourhood Otrobanda, centrally located in the capital Willemstad of the island Curaçao. The island has a rich history of urbanization in which the natural freshwater cycles have been neglected. As a result, the island is dependent to obtain its freshwater from a centralized desalination plant. The trend to live in the peri-urban area of Willemstad also led to an exodus of the formerly renowned labour district of Otrobanda, resulting in a cityscape dominated by decaying monuments. The project provides a solution to both problems by transforming a dilapidated monument into a regenerative decentralized freshwater production space, whereby the existing envelope becomes a central freshwater harvesting courtyard.

The protagonist of this work is the rightless, displaced person - a population of individuals in transition, hidden like a shadow in the contemporary city. Departing from the active oppression of this considerable group from the fabric of the city and the ways in which architecture contributes to enclosing or dividing populations, this work proposes a reconsideration of the role of the architect in civil society. After all, what is the current role of the architect when we talk about the socio-political tensions in the context of a marginalised existence in the contemporary city? The work proposes critical, nonmodernist and empathetic ways of thinking about the communication between the individuals at stake and their spaces of transition. The design suggests how a situated, highly visible and appropriable building in the city of Amsterdam could contribute to give meaning to the ongoing debate on Dutch immigration policy and the position of a marginalised population in society.

This research focuses on how to improve levels of inclusivity through spatial design in hyper-diverse and socio-spatial segregated neighbourhoods in order to improve the liveability in urban areas and is conducted in the neighbourhood Tarwewijk in Rotterdam-Zuid. The research has according to theory identified three design values which became key pillars of this thesis and has derived design strategies and design principles from that which would contribute to social cohesion in an urban area. The final outcome of this thesis is a public space design proposal for Tarwewijk that has integrated these design principles to enhance levels of social cohesion and inclusivity within the neighbourhood.

The last decades in the spatial development of the cities in Eastern Europe can be described as a complex outcome of the institutional and societal changes after the era change in 1989. During this time the economy of these countries was transformed from a central-planning-controlled system based on state ownership to a neoliberal one, where capitalist principles rule. Besides, the political structure also changed entirely because the socialist regimes were transformed into democracies. Through these complex transitions, everybody’s life was affected because regulations, employment and services were reorganised. These processes also had a great effect on the urban fabric and continue to affect the current development of these cities. In my thesis, I collect the post-socialist consequences of the era change to specifically address them through creativity-led regeneration. This type of regeneration can be a catalyst to achieve an integrated design process to positively affect local communities and to reach a larger social impact through which the social and spatial consequences of the post-socialist transition can be addressed at the same time. This is demonstrated through a detailed creativity-led regeneration process in the XXIst district of Budapest, in the underused industrial area of the Csepel Works.

In recent years, lots of papers are fast reacting to overtourism, making it open for discussion and finding the solutions. Specifically, in the European context, cultural tourism is the fastest-growing sector in the tourism industry, which is the leading cause of overtourism. Furthermore, globalization makes cultural tourism gradually become mass tourism, result in even worst situations. There is a global trend indicates that the urgent need for change from cultural tourism to creative tourism, to achieve a better-integrated tourism system within a city. The project aims to choose one of the historical tourist cities in Europe as the experimental site for researching and solving overtourism problems by the development of creative tourism. Hungary’s capital city-Budapest is the only international city within the country, almost 75% of the country’s tourism revenue is generated here by the development of cultural tourism which can be reflected on its highly centralize cultural facilities and accommodation within the inner city, resulting in the concentration of the tourist bubbles. The project explores how to implement transitional zone(brownfield) as the place to develop creative tourism as the strategy to affect the tourist movement patterns, in order to reduce the pressure of tourist bubbles concentrating in the inner city. Eventually, the development of creative tourism in the transitional zone can relieve the pressure on the historic inner city of Budapest while regenerating the brownfield within the city, increasing both the quality of life in the historic inner city and the neighborhood in the transitional zone, leading to socio-economic growth for the city.

Designing a public condenser in the district of Vesterbro in Copenhagen. As the theme of the project 'movement' increases the group of various people of different ages and cultures. Bringing back sport facilities and greenery improves both healthy living and reducing gentrification.

Sub-Saharan Africa is often regarded as the world’s fasted urbanizing region. This implies the high demand for urban housing, infrastructure developments and services. In many cases, because the government is unable to provide solutions, it shifts the approach from “providing to enabling”, encouraging the private sector to invest in the built environment. This results in developing New Towns which tend to envision of “Africa Rising” Narrative - driven by rapid economic growth. Ideologically, New Towns should be the solution for economic and population growth, however, influenced strongly by private sector’s ambitions, governments’ visions and emerging middle-class’s desires, they tend to become an exclusive and luxurious development, excluding the majority of the population who simply cannot afford living there. This approach may lead to socio-spatial exclusion, resulting in socio-spatial segregation. This research discusses this phenomenon in the case study of Tatu City – a private New Town in Kenya that is partly built, partly under construction and partly in the design process. This research discusses the socio-spatial and governance challenges of Tatu City that have a direct and indirect impact on socio-spatial exclusion. It shows the variety of different perspectives on this issue – public sector’s, private sector’s, NGOs’ and civil society’s. Furthermore, based on theoretical and empirical research it presents the concept of Inclusive New Town and the concept of Inclusive Space In-Between as a response identifies challenges. The outcome of this research is a planning and design framework with a toolkit that was implemented in making the final design
- an Alternative Vision for Tatu city.

How to improve the residents living quality while developing tourism in a historical inner city neighbourhood? With its profound historical development and events, Paris has been shaped as a super glorious political centre, the most attractive tourist destination and the most beautiful city in the world. The tourism industry promised the preservation and gentrification of such neighbourhoods, such as Le Marais (Djirikian, 2004), while the over development of the tourism industry has become a problem for resident living quality in these neighbourhoods. The project conducts research into the problems caused by tourism development in an historical inner city neighbourhood in Paris. The aim of this study is to exterminate the coherence and incoherence of residents and tourists’ spatial demands, thus identify the essential spatial qualities related to the needs and behaviours of tourists and residents, at the end provide design proposals which improve the living quality of residents while developing tourism properly on the site. It is a guideline for design interventions in a historical and tourist neighbourhood in the inner city of Paris, moreover for the neighbourhoods that are confronting similar issue.

Last two decades, the creative city theory has been the main source of inspiration for urban regeneration approaches (Krätke in Brenner et a. (eds.), 2012). Researchers like Landry, Hall and Florida stated creativity as the new engine of economic growth and urban development (Florida, 2002; Hall, 2000; Landry, 1996). However, urban regeneration approaches based on the creative city concept have negative side-effects such as gentrification and segregation, and are not able to provide an answer to the current trends of an increasing underclass and mass migration. This asks for the development of a new urban regeneration approach wherein these side-effects and trends are taken into account: a more sustainable social urban regeneration approach. Creative events might contribute to sustainable social urban regeneration by increasing social inclusion, social cohesion, social justice and spatial justice. It is not scientifically proven whether creative events could contribute to sustainable social urban regeneration, since the creative events concept is not exhaustively described in literature yet. As a result, the meaning and implications of creative events — especially their short-term and long-term effects on urban regeneration — are not known. This research proposal describes the setup of a study that aims to overcome this by meeting the following objectives: examining whether creative events could contribute to sustainable social urban regeneration, and examining what role the actors involved in creative events could take regarding creative events to contribute to sustainable social urban regeneration.

In the past four decades, China’s reform and opening up has made the country increasingly connected to the process of globalization. And as globalization continues to evolve, more and more people and other elements are beginning to participate in this process. Therefore, a large number of foreigners, especially some individuals and small merchants (Fig.1), come to this once closed country to find job and business opportunities (Fang & Liang, 2010). Due to the needs of work and business characteristics, many of them choose to long or short live in some Chinese cities. Some foreigners-inhabited areas have begun to appear in Chinese cities like Korea town in Beijing and African enclaves in Guangzhou in the recent 20 years which lead to a certain degree of ethnic residential differentiation and social segregation (Zhao & An, 2017). In addition, their settlement and informal business are also facing the challenges from the process of urbanization. Therefore, the author will conduct a theoretical research of this phenomenon in the graduation project, and meanwhile select the African enclaves in Guangzhou as a case for empirical research. What are their living conditions and what specific challenges are they facing? How should cities protect them and improve the quality of their living environment? Therefore, the focus of this study will be exploring how to make these foreigners better stay, live and participate in local social life that based on understanding the status quo and the needs of stakeholders. Using the community and urban space they live in and emerge as the carrier, it will have a specific spatial implementation design for these urban spaces from the perspective of urban regeneration. In the end, a series of plans and designs will put together to make a new urban regeneration method that could be applied to other Chinese cities with the same problems for attracting more foreigners to settle in China and integrate well into the local social environment.

Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered a lot from the civil war, and among all the cities, Mostar is the longest and most tragic place. It is also a divided city today in both physical and mental aspects. Along with the reduction of public space and the decline in quality, people lost their places of public life, consequently, causing the mental division between people and the loss of city collective memory.This project would focus on the city of Mostar as a post-conflict area and aims to mitigate the mental division of the city and bring back people and collective memory by redesigning and improving public spaces. The historical and current condition in the city would be analysised to provide a comprehensive understanding of the working site. Memoryscape and placemaking for peace making would then work as the method to lead the intervension of this project, mainly focus on:1)Traditiional and new activities that keep attracting people; 2)Public landscape that involves the history elements reflecting to the city history and collective memory; 3)In a long run, the continual public space network would gather and lead people to step over the mental border line.

Metropoles around the world are projected to keep growing in the coming years. Their population is increasing and with it the size and density of the city. Amsterdam is no exception to this projected growth with a population estimated to be larger than one million around 2050. As a consequence, we can see the housing and land prices skyrocket and the demand for new buildable space increase. ‘Green-House’ proposes to combine green recreation (allotment gardening) with the possibility for housing and hyper functional urban farming in a new architectural typology. With accessible green, it can sustain biodiversity in the city whilst embracing the densification and increasing the quality of life of the inhabitants with local food production.

The project started with the fascination of vanishing traditional living space in Shanghai, the Lilong and shantytown. The traditional living neighbourhoods reflect the historic socio-spatial network of the first spaces (Lilong, shantytown), the second places ( modern textile factories) and the third places ( streets, commercial streets, workers' club, etc.). With the urban transformation, the historic socio-spatial network is vanishing and new social structure threats the future of the historic network.
By utilising the concept of third places from sociology, third places, as the main objects in the project are used to reconnect the historic socio-spatial network and create new spaces to unite all the social groups in the future. Based on the research, third places with multiple space qualities will offer an inclusion, accessible spaces while the space narrative telling the memory of the historic network.