Monterrey (Mexico), situated in a semi-arid climate, confronts a several challenges because of rapid urbanization, such as droughts, floods, health issues and heat. The urban expansion resulted in higher vulnerability to climatic and political happenings. To navigate these multiple complexities, a comprehensive strategy is imperative. This study presents an integrative model of nature-inclusive urban agriculture, conceived to address the intricate interplay of ecological, water, and social dynamics within the urban fabric. Incorporating the implementation of heritage crops and techniques to strengthen the connection between humans, nature, and food production. The method used involves a multi-level approach, combining both bottom-up and top-down approaches. Through a case study in Monterrey, this model is refined into a more detailed toolbox, and applied in various locations across the city. Three distinct foodscapes are designed with the use of this toolbox, strategically positioned across the cityscape to maximize resilience. This toolbox goes beyond just geographical limits. It provides useful ideas and methods that can work for places dealing with similar challenges in (semi-)arid climates. By bringing together views from different regions and involving people at different levels, this approach helps communities adapt and become more resilient in changing environmental situations. This research doesn’t just add to academic discussions but also gives real solutions that can have a big impact on making cities more resilient and sustainable in semi-arid areas around the world.

As a complex public institution that accommodates life and architecture at different scales, the Stockholm Public Library was the focal point for the studio this year. Around the turn of the century, libraries were confronted with increased digitalisation, privatisation of public space and questions about their role in society. The institution has gradually transformed - from a place dedicated to lending books to a complex public space that promotes inclusivity and diversity.

The starting point of the studio is the architectural competition launched in 2006, which sought the expansion of the Library and the possibility of a renewed urban strategy. The challenge then became addressing the identity of the monumental building and the integration of a wide range of programmes, as well as discussing and embracing issues of equality and multiculturalism.

The graduation project aims to extend Asplundhuset, by enhancing existing qualities and connecting the detached, the library and its closest annex. To facilitate a connection between the buildings, a delicate intervention is added, a screen that is able to negotiate the differences between the two buildings, as well as act as a filter between the street and Observatory Hill.

Internally, the intervention aims to relieve unbalanced spaces that are housing several functions that are colliding with each other, allowing for continuity and accessibility. Embracing the challenging aspects of all the different activities that can take place in the library, the proposal is looking at carefully introducing a generous range of social spaces as well as individual ones, contributing to the overall complexity of the institution - a complexity that can rarely be found in the more dispersed and fragmented spaces in the city. Overall, the addition would be valuable in establishing a compelling and logical portrayal of the Public Library as a uniquely inclusive space.

Decarbonizing the energy sector to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 poses challenges, especially for regions heavily dependent on fossil fuel extraction. Groningen, a region highly dependent on gas extraction, faces significant socio-economic and spatial challenges. This thesis examines a strategy for Groningen based around the energy transition. The strategy includes repurposing the current energy infrastructure, placing renewables, regenerating nature, and shifting land-use change, all contributing to a new green economy for Groningen. Three scenarios are developed based on a set of different values. These scenarios present alternative futures and highlight areas with spatial competition. Different claims on the same space necessitate choices and smart design solutions. The strategy combines the three scenarios and shows a possible design outcome. An important aspect of the scenarios and strategy is to inform the local communities. Engagement strategies and proposals for more inclusive governance are developed, specifically focusing on marginalized groups, who are often most affected by the transition. This thesis aims to enhance knowledge about the energy transition in the context of Groningen and to promote more inclusive governance.

There is a growing need for alternatives regarding aviation; the Hyperloop might offer a partial solution. However, there is a gap in knowledge, case studies and design concepts to investigate how the new system could be connected to aviation at airports. Such a space does not exist yet, and is therefore relatively undiscovered territory.

This brings up the following question: What kind of space do we need in order to make passenger exchange between Hyperloop and aviation possible, and what does that look like in architectural terms?

Would you feel relaxed in hospital? Would you choose to meet a friend there? Would you like to spend your free time there? The answer for most people is no. Hospitals have always been synonymous with fear and sadness. Although it relates to the fact that life and death is a heavy topic, the hospital’s factory-like model and oppressive space exacerbate the negative emotions.
This situation is even worse for elderly people. According to a CNN Health survey, the older you are, the worse the hospital is for you. But on the other hand, Germany is even entering a super-ageing society. According to the United Nations Health Organi-sation, 27.6% of the population in Germany is over 60 years old, the second highest population in the world after Japan.1 And in the German healthcare system, more than 60.5% of patients are older than 60. Geriatric medicine department’s average length of stay of 15.2 days is twice the average, ranking first among all departments.
All the facts prove that hospitals, which have remained unchanged for decades, need a revolution. The best future hospital is NOT hospital, at least not the way it is now. This article studies the body perspective to provide an excellent healthcare experi-ence for elderly patients. Filling the gap between society, hospital and home, ena-bling the revolution from hospital to house.

This graduation project, having as a starting point the concept of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), highlights the importance of high-density mixed-use developments around railway stations.
With this goal in mind, the station area of Amsterdam Sloterdijk was selected as a case study location. Sloterdijk is an important node within the overall transportation network and the plans of future development of the city of Amsterdam. However, the current spatial organization of the area, the high complexity, and several environmental problems are hindering its success as a place. Therefore, this graduation project, investigates through design, the potential of the area of Sloterdijk to become a sustainable and livable neighborhood, dealing with both the ongoing housing and the climate crisis in an integral way.
The primary method used in this graduation project was research by design, meaning that through several design iterations of different spatial elements, insights on the conflicts and potentials of these elements were revealed. Other methods used, included spatial mapping, literature review on the key concepts of livability, density, and TOD and lastly the method of fieldwork.
The results of this graduation project that can be extracted from the final proposal for the area of Sloterdijk, emphasize the challenges stemming from the high intensity of use and competition for space in places that function simultaneously as mobility hubs and as potentially vibrant urban districts. Key elements of the design were the intense densification and introduction of housing and other functions to the area, the substantial reduction of space allocated to mobility, the careful consideration of public space that promotes social interaction, overcoming the various infrastructural barriers, and lastly the integration of green and blue networks with the aim of providing living spaces to various species, improve local microclimate and mitigate environmental risks.

The Guadarrama mountains are a mountain range crisscrossing the Spanish highlands, dividing the historic region of Castile in two and separating the wealthy, but rampantly overbuilt region of Madrid from the rural and undeveloped Castile-and-Leon. This project explores the possibility of addressing the three main current challenges in the area (climate change, energy crisis and urbanistic disparity) through a drastic landscape intervention in the water system.

This project focused on the relationship between speed, mobility mode, human perceptions, and the landscape, using Zaanstad in the Netherlands as a research and design site. It examined the region's transportation history, shifting from water-oriented movement to land-based mobility. The cultural shift towards a fast-paced society led to environmental issues and changed people's connection with their surroundings. The project took an experimental approach to explore a new way of travelling. It proposed the concept of an Intermotion Landscape—a hypothetical mode that interstices both fast and slow flows. This landscape serves as a bridge between different ways of mobility, aiming to provide an alternative travel experience.

The design proposal also aimed to restore the lost spirit of place and strengthen the connection between people and nature. By creating meaningful connections between individuals and their surroundings, the project sought to enhance the sense of belonging and re-establish a harmonious relationship between humans and the environment.

The Slums phenomenon is a global and ethical challenge that hinders the well-being of cities. The vast majority of these areas are located in and around cities of the Global South because of the fast urbanisation and globalisation trends that have been met with insufficient employment, infrastructure and housing opportunities. This graduation project will explore new slum development alternatives through the lens of circular economy principles. The main focus is to elaborate holistic proposals and strategies that reject eviction and resettlement processes and aim for social, spatial and economic integration. Taking the case of Casablanca, Morocco, the project takes as a starting point the existing assets of les bidonvilles* which potentially, will lead to better approaches for tackling the challenge of slums at the local and metropolitan scales while developing contextualised circular economy guidelines.

Coney Island is a special place. It is both a chimera and a relic. A chimera (is a mythological creature with multiple faces) that shifts and vanishes and reforms right before our eyes. And a relic that has seen so many different stories and has been part of many lives in so many different ways. For most, Coney Island is an energetic escape from daily city life. A place to let go at, within its explosiveness, absurdity and extremity. It’s amusement parks and their rides and attractions seem to be a collection of all bombastic parts of life. However Coney Island also has an intimate side that doesn't get experienced often, but makes it a truly time-resistant landscape. The design for the Coney Hotel, reveals Coney Island's amusement area's whole narrative in order to benefit city life as a fitting escape from it. The design is like a confident creature that isn’t afraid to be in the spotlight but is also humble enough to let its surroundings take the stage. It is elegant, but strong, crazy but nice. It is an energetic attraction that can be used to escape to, collecting story after story becoming a relic, with an intimate connection to its surroundings and its users, being honest about its different faces and allowing Coney Island to be so as well.

Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country. The economy and morphology of the city has been shaped by the physical infrastructure but has neglected the ecological and social aspects in planning. This has led to the extreme vulnerability of the region to ecological and social negative externalities. The region experiences urban flooding every year disrupting the daily lives and inflicting loss to both the life and livelihood of many. Also, the state of emergency due to climate change that the planet deals with fighting sustenance for humankind is a severe challenge. Especially Mumbai, one of the largest cities in the world, is at risk of being wiped out. It is built from an archipelago of islands, the city’s historic downtown core-the island city is particularly vulnerable along with most of the suburban districts. This leads to an urgent need for providing resilience to the socio-ecological system in the region by providing climate adaptive capacity against floods.

The chapter first introduced the author’s motivation for this project. It shows the sprawl of monofunctional residential neighborhoods and the urgency to building more homes to accommodate the increasing population. In the problem statement, the author illustrated now the normal renovation mode of Lilong is to introduce monofunctional residential towers (Xiaoqu), and there are many issues like faceless urban pattern and poor walkability. The development is caused by profit, its is not sustainble for the city. For the research question, this chapter concludes “How to achieve sustainable living neighborhoods rather than introducing Xiaoqu in the old Lilong area by mixing in Shanghai’s densification Process?” To proceed with the research, it shows multiple methods to cope with research questions and defines possible research outcomes. For the methods, the author presents three main ways, including Spacemate, MXI, and parametric programming. Besides, he introduces a alignment table to show the inner connection among multiple research questions, methods, and outputs. In the end, he shows the conceptual framework and future steps of this project.

It is possible to recover and maintain the value of urban solid waste (USW) through the implementation of circular economy practices in the waste management strategy. This can have social, economic and environmental benefits. One of the most noticeable benefits is the reduction landfilled USW. To achieve this it is necessary to, firstly, understand the nature and magnitude of the USW problem and, secondly, implement treatment techniques for the different types of USW; yet these must fit the local socio-economic context. This quantitative research takes as a study case the city of San Cristobal de las Casas (SCLC), which is a main tourist destination in the south-east of Mexico. The research is divided in three parts. In the first part the nature and magnitude of the USW problem are mapped; this includes a field study of the USW footprint cause by tourism. The second part is an evaluation of the treatment techniques, for types of waste that are identified in the study case, that can be applied in the city to recover value from USW and match the socio-economic context. The third part, is a circular business case where organic waste, the largest waste type in terms of mass, is treated with pyrolysis to produce charcoal briquettes; the intention of this product is to reduce the consumption of cooking char and firewood from illegal origin in the city. The results demonstrate that, using the approach found in this research, it is possible to obtain a significant economic return and, at the same time, social and environmental benefits from the USW in SCLC by using a circular economy approach. Furthermore, these circular solutions can significantly reduce the amount of landfilled USW.

Over time physical intersections such as mobility hubs have grown to places with high densities of users. The same accounts for digital intersections such as social media platforms which also have grown to places with high amounts of users. Both make use of density as a focal point for public activity. Physical mobility hubs for example offer the convenience of facilities on the go. However digital platforms are replacing activities that are previously done in the physical realm. What remains offline? New digital lifestyles also affect the way people use a mobility hub with people living in their own digital cocoon. Nonetheless transport can’t be simulated virtually and therefor remains an physical mean in the future. Altogether this poses a situation where the meaning of public spaces at a physical mobility hub is on the verge of change. Intersections, a reinterpretation of density at mobility hubs, is about physical activity that can’t be done online and reflects on new digital lifestyles.

Since the introduction of the car, our use of mobility is continuously growing (Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteitsbeleid, 2018). Which leads to highly polluted areas, affecting urban health. Besides, the growing mobility results in a higher number of traffic accidents on the main road network (NU.nl, 2017). And not only growing mobility, but also the urban development of our cities will have an influence on urban health. Suburban development causes a population level reliance on car use every day. This imposed reliance causes low physical activity levels in a lot of residential neighbourhoods among many industrialized countries (Badland & Schofield, 2005). Physical inactivity, caused by dominance of the car in cities, the car dependency and infrastructural barriers in the city, can result in major health risks, especially in industrialized countries (Badland & Schofield, 2005). When engaging in physical activity, local streets and public spaces have been identified as the most suitable spaces (Badland & Schofield, 2005). 
The introduction of automated mobility will provide car users with new possibilities to do while traveling. As a consequence, people are willing to travel longer, and the frequency of trips might increase (Stead et al., 2018). Automated forms of traveling will be chosen over active forms of travelling, because of the ease and comfort of automated vehicles. All of this results in more and more cars on the streets and an increased traffic complexity. Summing up, the ever-growing mobility puts urban health at risk. On top of this, the introduction of automated mobility is posing a threat on various facets of urban health (personal lifestyles, accessibility, etc.), especially in residential neighbourhoods (because of the high car dependency). The following question is leading in this project: ‘‘How can the implementation of automated mobility contribute in improving urban health, in residential neighbourhoods in the city of Almere?’’.  Since this project is concerned with the topic automated mobility and the impact of it urban on health, the research type is a predictive one. Automated mobility is still in an early stage, it is uncertain what will happen in the future. Therefore, scenario planning will be at the heart of this project. For the progressive scenario a design is made for two neighbourhoods in Almere. Urban regeneration strategies are developed with a set of design elements and recommendations. Creating and retrofitting urban environments which will improve urban health. Promoting physical activity through urban design at the micro scale (neighbourhood scale) is one of the most effective measures to improve urban health. On top of this, strategies in reducing air pollution on the macro scale (city scale) will also be highly impactful in reducing diseases worsened by poor air quality. Besides, in the development of urban areas (on the district scale) a good accessibility to leisure facilities, healthy food, and public and green spaces can be integrated into the design to support health and well-being (Pineo & Rydin, 2018). Slow traffic should get the full priority, therefore fast automated vehicles are only allowed on a limited number of roads.

This graduation project addresses the problem of waste management in Nairobi, Kenya. The current inadequate waste management throughout Nairobi remains a spatial challenge as it contributes to health concerns, threatens local ecologies, and degrades public space. Analyzing waste flows, the social construct and in particular communitybased-organizations which are catalyzing local challenges to enhance community participation brings forth a set of solutions. By combining circular economy principles, the strengths of community-based-organizations and proposing schools as collection point, this study develops a roadmap towards a circular, healthy and green future. By defining a spatial program at the urban river front of the Nairobi River, as well systemic interventions this roadmap has ambition to improve the local environment and give answer to local needs.

How the zoo can have a sustainable place in our urban environment against the growing welfare concerns present in our society. Zoos are both loved and despised by people. Loved for their ability to bring people closer to exotic wildlife and despises for the ethics of keeping exotic animals in captivity. The existence of zoos is more and more challenged by animal right activists, yet today a zoo can be found in almost every big city and are annually visited by millions of people, but will this be the same in the future? Although many people regard them as a primary recreation attraction, modern zoos are also valuable conservation, education, and research centres.

The research focusses finding a method for sustainable exotic wildlife exhibition within our urban environment. This is achieved by developing a Zoo Evaluation Tool, to give insight in the complex system that the zoo is and to analysis for each zoo how it is preforming on various aspects or components. The tool doesn’t propose or implies a perfect or ideal future zoo but helps to indicate what the current conditions of a zoo are. Thereby helping to formulate questions or channels manners of thinking in which directing a zoo could develop.

The zoo as a space in the urban environment and society can be dissected in three main topics; Objectives, Urban fabric and Lay-out. The objectives of the zoo can be evaluated in four aspects education, research, conservation and research, from which conservation will be of prime importance for the future zoo to be viable in or society. The urban fabric has been broken up in the aspects of edge, mixed functions and accessibility. Currently the zoo is a gated community within the urban environment, the future zoo needs to open to the urban environment to allow a mutually beneficial dialogue between city and wildlife. The lay-out of the zoo and method of exhibition tells a lot about the relationship humans have towards wildlife and nature. On macro, meso and micro this influences the animal welfare and visitor experience. The future zoo needs to allow the animal to live as free and natural as possible and offer the visitor a trip to this imported wilderness within the city.

To change the current zoo into a future zoo, based on the Zoo Evaluation Tool, guidelines and design principles have been proposed. In a case study design for the Rotterdam Zoo the tool, guidelines and design principles have been applied. By mixing zoo and urban function together and by greaten large ecozones and animal rotation structures the future zoo can find a viable place within the urban environment of Rotterdam.