Almost every minute of the day, the individual has to deal with impulses / influences / triggers from society. Received through its sensory organs and processed by its personal perception based on its genotype and phenotype. As time progresses, events take place. Some are personal, small scale events while others have a wider impact and become part of the global collective memory. This results in a ‘library’ of partially personal and partially collective knowledge and experiences. By sharing narratives, Fashion design offers the individual the possibility to define its personal self and to take part in society. The expertise calls upon the individual’s ‘library of knowledge’ in order to communicate the specific narratives it wants to show. To deliver them as convincing and inspiring as possible, the expertise uses experiences for all senses. With the aim to learn from another field of design, this paper explores the relationship between the individual and society from a fashion design point of view, in order to discover mechanisms that could be translated into architectural design.

An archive is a repository of documents, usually of historical importance. Therefore, one could say that the National Archive of the Netherlands exists as a result of the documents it holds. In fact, its contents include: 137 km of documents, 15 million photographs, 300,000 historical maps and drawings, and 800 terabyte of digital files.

However, as our everyday life becomes more and more digital, the National Archive faces a distinctive upcoming change; transitioning from document-centredness to data-centredness. Within this framework, this project aims to answer the following question:

Do archival buildings have a future in the Digital Age? Can archives exist without documents? Or are they destined for obsolescence?

Through a qualitative research in the cultural value and societal role of archives the project seeks answers to the above questions. In continuation, new questions are brought up which aim to direct the project in an architectural conclusion. Whether the Archive remains as we know it or changes, one thing is sure; the purpose of the existing building has to be redefined. In this pursuit, several ingredients are put together which relate to social, contextual, structural, architectural and sustainability issues.

The project considers not only the re-design of the National Archive building but the wider re-design of the site, as an important piece of urban fabric to the city of the Hague.

All things considered, the National Archive is to be visualised as a more public place and a piece of public infrastructure that responds to a multiplicity of challenges.

The project shows the potential of the transition space, by mediating between the individual “the body” and their surroundings. A thesis critical of architecture based on perception and behaviour. The project is a case study located in the city centre of Rotterdam "Kruisplein area" to show the potential of a place in the city which is currently formalized by different forms, systems and relations. For this, a tapestry is introduced; "the ground undulation” to undo the static-ness and undulate the user. The project has the intention to create a more porous and paused environment by penetrating in the tapestry with architectural compositions, all having different objectives. This punctuations arise curiosity and trigger the body to make new relations with other bodies, the surroundings and its elements. The relation of the different scales in this project will contribute to the relation, experimentation and perception of the visitor, passenger and passer-by. – An architectural project of consciousness, unconsciousness, contingencies and perception

Loneliness has become a growing problem in the city of Amsterdam. It is
not a new phenomenon, but due to better understanding of the topic and therefore knowing it’s dangers better, the urge to do something about it grows. Nevertheless, loneliness is a complex issue. This is because feeling lonely is
a subjective feeling. In Amsterdam alone 300.000 people have the feeling of being lonely. 80.000 of them have the feeling of being severely lonely. That is 13% of the whole population in Amsterdam. In may of 2017 the municipality of Amsterdam presented a plan of action to reduce loneliness in the city, which underlines the necessity of taking action. The chief government architect Floris Alkemade also sees this as one of the challenges of the future. He says that
the fundamental changes on demographics, technology and care asks for
new spatial challenges and opportunities in the residential areas. The post-
war neighbourhoods do not fit in with the current society. Alkemade points to the increasing loneliness, the great reliance on informal care, which has limits, and the growing dichotomy in society. The number of single people living has increased, but many post-war homes are suitable for families. This requires other types of housing. The design of the public space also needs adaptation to promote social cohesion and to prevent or reduce loneliness.
The goal of this project is not to solve urban loneliness. First of all because loneliness isn’t something that can totally be solved. Loneliness is also something you don’t entirely want to get rid of because of the biological function it has as a warning system for our social needs. The fact that Loneliness becomes chronicle is something we can do something about. And one small piece of the puzzle is to design the built environment in a way that prevents chronicle loneliness to a certain extend. This building doesn’t have the intention to serve for a group of lonely people. This building isn’t build for lonely people where they are trying to get rid of their loneliness by the way the building functions. The purpose of this building is to minimize the probability of loneliness to manifest. Because buildings can be a catalysator of loneliness. The solo dweller is the perfect target group to start with. The building will function more in a preventive way in a problem solving way. Research showed that people who live alone are more likely to camp with loneliness issues. They have different demands when it comes to housing than other groups. There is currently a mismatch between this growing group and what the housing market is offering. This results is a declining living quality for the solo dweller group. The goal for this building therefore is to present a design proposal for a social residential building with dwelling types and living environment that suits the solo dweller needs due to the mismatch of current residential buildings and the demands of this target group.

The relations between us and food have become distorted, deviated from their origin and meaning in our daily lives. Where solutions are sought in consciousness, this research focuses on the subconscious level of our relation with food. By changing our perception of food, using architecture as a medium between us, the subject, and food, the object. By researching within a phenomenological framework, nine speculative scenarios have been made with the goal to understand how to influence the public by storytelling in writing, drawing and architecture. The question asked: How can speculative design help architecture enable a meaningful relation between us and food? Starting with understanding the distinction between object, subject, and how they are related, the search continues for architectural means to make a place that enables a change of perception. What changes this perception, is often a small trigger, a salient detail that can be highlighted in design, inviting a change in meaning of the object for the subject. An interplay of inside and outside, authenticity and inauthenticity, will allow for a change in perceiving and understanding both food and ourselves. That is how a fixed and frustrating relation with food can be abandoned, and how a meaningful relation is enabled.

Death is universal, but the way we deal with it is diverse and ever changing. For a period of time there was a taboo around death in the Netherlands. Nowadays we live in an accelerating individualistic society which means that there is no space/ time to reflect on loss. Gradually, specialists as well as nabestaanden discover that this can lead to mental health problems. Unprocessed sadness can have consequences. To break the taboo it is important that death becomes negotiable again. Het nabestaandenhuis is a place where nabestaanden/ relatives are helped, enabling them to develop the power to cope with loss. This research report examines the demand for the new function het nabestaandenhuis and the architectural wishes for het nabestaandenhuis. Through interviews with experienced people working in the mourn care, the demand for het nabestaandenhuis was confirmed. The case studies and the interviews together led to four architectural themes; transition, repetition, orientation and temptation that will be included in the design of het nabestaandenhuis. 

This paper gives an insight in strategies for implementing, processing and producing Miscanthus x Giganteus, or Elephant grass as it is mistakenly called, on a mid-large scale in the Parkstad Region. The area is rooted in agriculture because of fertile löss soil. There have always been a tight bond between the villages and surrounding land. This connection was distorted when mining started in the late nineteenth century. The miners coming from everywhere were housed around the mines. The region thrived, until the mining industry stopped in the 60’s-70’s. Massive unemployment followed. Now fifty years after the closing of the mines Parkstad is still dealing with the consequences of a monoculture. Parkstad has accepted the shrinking as status quo and is now looking for new perspectives with a diverse sustainable economy. Miscanthus x Giganteus, a so called C4 grass, has made a march in the Western world in the last few years. The high yields need little maintenance, while it feeds on the abundant CO2 coming from the fossil fuel industry. The plant, like the floating houses in Iraq, can be used as simple and effective building material. However the western world’s interest in lignocellulosic biomass lied until recently primarily in creating biofuels like bioethanol. Due to new insights in biorefinery, the potential for Miscanthus x Giganteus seems much larger. Lignin a substance of the Miscanthus x Giganteus is for instance likely to be a building block for carbon fiber and currently in R&D stage. Once this is sorted out, it could provide in the need for reducing CO2 emissions by making lightweight cars. Of the large area in Parkstad, grassland with 5000 Ha seems most appropriate for growing Miscanthus x Giganteus. Grassland has a low CO2 intake of only 3-4 tons per Ha and there is plenty unused grassland in and outside the urban area, like Industrial plots, empty urban plots or alongside highways. However the majority of grassland is dedicated for livestock. But it will become more and more available since livestock will shrink eventually do to emission legislation and farmers needing to find ways to make their land profitable. Via a grid, pixels of 1ha, just like on your screen, can be turned on and off to spread the impact of the Miscanthus x Giganteus in the entire region. This will work as a large time machine that harvests CO2 from the air and brings a sense of eternity to the people of Parkstad.

We are getting close to the so called peak of oil and this will result in a shortage of oil and therefore oil products. We can assume that the oil industry will get in decline, therefore we should think about the heritage that the oil industry will leave behind. An iconic element of the petrol industry is the oil storage tank. We can knock these tanks down, but what if we could repurpose them. This paper will set an example by repurposing an oil tank into multiple dwellings.

This exhibition presents analytical models of hofjes(the little charity courtyard), made by MSc2 students in the elective course Analytical Models at the faculty of Architecture in Delft.@en

This design research focusses on ways to make a architectural design more accesibible and inviting for people to enter, to use and to meet each other and perform healthy, sportive or social activitities.

Steenfabrieken en uiterwaarden, ze zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Op zoek naar klei paradeerden ze langs de rivier, waardoor het landschap gevormd werd voor de rivier. Door een samengaan van natuurlijke processen en menselijk handelen bleef bijzondere flora en fauna achter, maar ook ovenlichamen en hoge schoorsteen die herinneren aan een florerende industrie. Helaas staan veel van deze gebouwen op het punt te verdwijnen.
Mijn afstudeerproject geeft een voorstel voor vormen van tijdelijk of permanent gebruik en wil hiermee laten zien hoe dit belangrijk deel van onze cultuurhistorie behouden kan worden voor de toekomst. Geen behoud om het behoud, maar door de centrale fabrieken weer centraal te stellen in de natuur - en land¬schapsontwikkeling. Hierdoor zijn de fabrieken niet alleen waardevol voor hun context, maar dragen ze ook bij aan het beheer van de uiterwaarden. Deze nieuwe vormen van gebruik zullen een natuurlijke brug gaan vormen tussen het heden en lange termijn plannen als Ruimte voor de Rivier. De combinatie van waterberging in de uiterwaarden met historisch erfgoed, biedt exploitatiemogelijkheden en derhalve een extra impuls voor behoud van dit karakteristieke type industriële bebouwing in de toekomst.