Current energy transition towards a carbon neutral urban environment urgently calls for understanding how energy scapes should be redefined, while tmeeting energy demand and controlling the social-environmental impacts of this transition within a specific territorial context. The energy system in Albania is characterized by traces of the previous energy-space nexus, which manifest as abandoned remnants of the past, referred in this project as Patterns of Production, or as automated landscapes of the present. Amidst these spatial uncertainties, Albania faces the challenge of climate vulnerability of the current energy infrastructure, alongside with energy poverty and environmental degradation of communist industrial sites, all standing as three primary challenges in the country’s energy transition. Therefore, the following research question emerges: “How can the energy-space nexus in the Pattern of Production contribute to energy security for a socially and environmentally sensitive transition in Elbasan?”

This project aims to establish a new synergy between former communist industrial sites and residential areas within the Pattern of Production of Elbasan, while diversifying energy sources, and considering the social and environmental impacts of this synergy simultaneously. This endeavor addresses the spatial challenges and potentials of integrating communist industrial spaces into the energy transition, while acknowledging their local strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats. Using the maximization method, three scenarios have been developed to enhance energy security, energy equity, and environmental qualities in Elbasan. These scenarios employ the Multi-Level framework to create a pattern language for the energy-space nexus under each maximization pillar. To visualize the implementation of the desired energy-space nexus in 2050, they are overlapped to define the vision in macro scale and strategic plan of Elbasan in meso scale, while considering the phased implementation of this strategy and stakeholder integration.

This project yields transferable insights applicable to other Patterns of Production in Albania with overarching recommendations such as: deep understanding of the specific context and aligning the energy-space nexus with local potentials and limitations, designing spaces of consumption and production according to the needs of local residents, defining community-based spaces, increasing accessibility to clean energy sources, and creating ecological synergies between energy production and consumption. Additionally, this project contributes to the existing literature on the spatial notion of a sustainable energy transition, specifically focusing on the Balkan countries, which have been underrepresented in current academic research.

The Province of South-Holland is one of the fastest-growing regions of the Netherlands. The metropolitan provides employment opportunities, has an (inter) national mobility network, and houses densely urbanised landscapes. Because of these benefits, the population keeps increasing. This reflects the need for an addition of 200.000 dwellings in the Province of South-Holland.
On the other hand, population growth also influences the economy. The urban qualities create a wished business climate, which is attractive to companies to settle. Currently, the province has some strong economic sectors. However, the economy should shift towards a more circular economy by 2050 which asks space for industry to develop and retain disruptive businesses nearby living environments. This research specifies business ecosystems with a focus on construction materials.

This socio-economic structure results in scarcity of land where the spatial pressure is high. The result is a tension between space for working and living. Innovative approaches to how to use space in a multifunctional way could shape the future of these companies. An underexposed opportunity to realise this multifunctionality is mixed-use strategies at business parks.
However, when creating these environments, liveability needs to be ensured. Nowadays, business parks are inaccessible for pedestrians, have a nuisance due to externalities of the industry, forbid buildings within the zones designated by environmental regulations, and do not provide a wide range of public spaces to meet each other. That is why mixed-use is not yet assigned as a possibility in these transition zones between disruptive businesses and living environments.

Therefore, this report research which spatial qualities and characteristics shape future possibilities for mixed-use strategies in business ecosystems that focus on construction materials. By developing scenarios, the balance between providing a liveable environment and facilitating the circular economy in the Province of South-Holland by 2050 can be investigated.

Through interviews, literature, observations at specific locations, examples of projects, and research by design these future scenarios will come about.

The aim is to realise a strategic framework with guidelines that describes the different compositions of mixed-use possibilities and the role of the business parks in the circular economy on the regional scale. This divides the business ecosystem into places that can be mixed with dwellings and business parks that should remain for the circular economy.
In addition, this report uses example projects to indicate how this can be shaped. The focus lies in explaining how the business ecosystems of construction materials work in the province and at these specific locations. In addition, it creates insight into how to emphasise the urban qualities surrounding the business parks while suggesting site-specific opportunities for a balanced mixed-use area. These conclusions reflect on several scales so that the mixed-use not only affects the neighbourhood but also contributes to the city and even regional scale. The main takeaway message can be found in the infrastructure. By separating different forms of transportation spaces comes available that can be used to transform into another function.
This design is then translated towards a policy recommendation as well, which can be implemented by the Province of South-Holland. These policies are focused on regulating infrastructure, densification and spaces for industries while stimulating knowledge exchange and education.

Korea had a history of wooden architecture for about 2,000 years before modernization. However, after the Korean War, the concept of modernist concrete high-rise apartments was radically introduced to solve the severe housing problem. In US, Charles Jencks declared the death of Modern Architecture, but it was a huge success in Korea. Apartments have become Korea’s representative residential type, and they call it Apatu. In addition, the phenomenon of demolishing old Apatu and reconstructing new ones every 30 years has become considered a housing culture until now. Instead of this existing reconstruction method, the principle of Open Buildings is proposed by reusing existing apartments into vertical infrastructure.

North-western European countries play an important role in the global food system, by providing 80 percent of the whole European production. The current production system is focused on profit, has a yearly emission of 1250 megatons of CO₂ equivalent in North-western Europe and produces pollutants in the soil, water, and air. This results in an imbalance between natural and human activities, which is destroying biodiversity, natural resources and is increasing food access inequality. Therefore, our goal is to reduce CO₂ emission to net-zero in 2050 and to reach food security for all people North-western citizens.
We aim to design a sustainable food production system that is based on three pillars: nature-based, community-based and production for need. We analysed the current system through fieldwork, data analyses and literature reviews.
The concept of the circular economy formed our basis for a vision of an open adaptive system for the food production system. It includes concepts of circularity from the production on the fields, towards the re-valuing and re-purposing of household and industrial by-products. For each of the production steps we have developed a toolbox of innovations, which are integrated following the local context. New ways of production are incorporated in the farming process; management techniques, which reduce CO₂, are implemented in the processing phase; new marketing strategies are applied in retail; in the consumption phase mindset is changed to accept alternative products and meal planning. In terms of disposal, waste is reduced by reusing it as an input for other processes. Lastly, carbon sequestration is improved by recovering and increasing natural areas, leading to an increase in biodiversity and soil health.
This toolbox is implemented as a strategy in the region of South Holland to illustrate the spatial, social, and economic impacts of the new food production system. The circular concept ensures an approachable transition from linear to circular food production systems in North-West Europe. Therefore, it can be used to inform international cooperations, national and regional governments in making policies, and to provide an overview of the spatial implications of this transition on the national, regional, and local scale. Overall, it is a radical shift towards renewable energy sources, incorporating by-products as inputs and using and producing food products with a smaller CO₂ footprint.

The beginning of the 21st century is defined by geopolitical tensions around resources, an expected shortage of fossil fuel resources and the emerging climate crisis, amplifying the urgency of the transition to renewable energy sources. This energy transition has been at the forefront of public discussion, framed by the 2016 Paris Agreement and the 2019 European Green Deal. In this context, European member states must accelerate the decarbonisation of their industries and the transition to renewable energy sources. As each member state attempts to deal with this challenge, issues associated with social and spatial justice in coal-intensive European regions arise, calling for a coordinated, inclusive and collaborative plan aiming at a just transition.

This thesis uses the coal intensive region of Western Macedonia as a case study and proposes the reconfiguration of the energy landscape by formulating a territorial vision, based on an analysis and the evaluation of scenario building. More specifically, it develops a series of spatial and non-spatial strategies aimed at restoring ecological integrity, diversifying the energy production, re-using heritage spaces and promoting governance collaboration and social inclusivity. By examining the vulnerabilities, potential, and opportunities present in the territory of Western Macedonia, this thesis seeks to promote the reconfiguration of Western Macedonia, embracing principles of regenerative development, adaptive re-use, participatory planning and collaborative governance.

The shortage of housing stock and the deindustrialization of cities have rendered many areas prone to severe transformations. Many sites across the
country have been characterized as transformation areas. In an effort to battle the housing crisis, urban redevelopment processes have been initiated or are under examination for a plethora of industrial sites. Former port piers start to transform into residential and mixed-use areas. Many of the locations though,
house active manufacturing facilities that are forced to be relocated without appropriate planning. Is there a way to diversify our cities while permitting
new forms of co-existence between new and existing functions? What are the transformations of the urban fabric that could facilitate this?
Usually, those areas are dealt with a tabula rasa mentality, not respecting the communities and the productive landscapes that are embedded within. This often results to fancy but uniform, new residential areas that fail to meet the identity of the place that was already there. The active displacement of
the communities leads to phenomena of gentrification and raises questions about diversity and social inclusivity. At the same time, the lack of a cohesive
approach results in a fragmentary urban fabric. Spatial discontinuities come along with concerns about the liveability and resiliency of the desired urban
growth.
Through research by design, the thesis will try to provide a new perspective for the future, where working and living environments could harmoniously co-exist. Interventions and proposals suggested will be built upon the basis of co-creation with existing communities. An interscalar approach will be sought, ranging from the city scale to the neighborhood level and the public space within.

The importance of the energy transition is an emergent issue on a global scale. The United Nations, the European Union, the Dutch National government and the Province of South-Holland all have set clear and urgent goals. But still, it seems very hard to find the right strategy to tackle this challenge, together with a desired circular economy and without letting people behind. The Province of South Holland envisions sustaining the region with the port of Rotterdam as an important energy node for Europe and the region itself. Now, the port still relies heavily on petrol, which will become obsolete in this transition. Therefore, the petrol dependency endangers a sustainable and secure future for the port of Rotterdam region. The energy transition will be achieved through three phases from 2020, to 2030 and 2050 in an aim to gradually phase-out fossil fuels and phase-in renewable alternatives, together with increasing levels of circularity and social inclusion. Hence, this process revolves around the integration and intertwining of three main pillars that shape the framework of this project: Energy transition, Spatial justice, Circular economy.

In the post-petrol era of 2050, the region of Zuid Holland will embody a dynamic and adaptive energy landscape. This new energy landscape will become more resilient and autonomous. The landscape will consist of an interdependent and just network of actors and relies entirely on renewable energy sources.

In the future, the port of Rotterdam will be an important node on the global and regional scale. The futural port will be the core of the decentralized energy network in the region, consisting of several energy nodes that connect autonomous and self-sufficient energy regions. Besides, these nodes are serving as hubs for energy storage, raising awareness, education and other social activities. The port and the energy network will be opened up to the public to establish a new cultural relation between use and production of energy. Pernis-Botlek will be the strategic location where this comes together. The development strategy will reveal how individuals from all origins and walks of life will be included and can adapt to this change. Since, not only public actors have high interest to make this transition happen, private actors and citizens that have to change their business models and daily activities have to be considered. Therefore, the strategy also reveals how different stakeholders can work collaboratively and what actions are needed to combat the energy transition together. This will be shown with casestudies in Brielle, Delft and Westland. To maintain the economic importance in the energy sector of the port on a global scale, an invert of energy flow will be purposed, , from the import of Petrol to the export of hydrogen.

Mankind is exhausting natural resources. Therefore, the need to transform the linear material flows towards circular chains is increasing. Steel is a material that is produced and used globally and has high potentials for recycling. However, in the maritime sector, steel is currently barely recycled, let alone reused in a more direct way. Maritime manufacturing is a vital industry in the province of South-Holland, strengthened by a strong knowledge network. The aim of this project is to localise and extend the steel life cycle, to create an environmentally and socially sustainable province in which maritime manufacturing can grow in a responsible way. In order to close the loops, the R-ladder is used as a framework for circular material flows in the manufacturing industry and in the participation of the citizens. A local steel life cycle for maritime manufacturing will be achieved through the connection of the steel using maritime companies in Rotterdam and the Drecht Cities with the steel production company of TATA Steel in IJmuiden. Missing links in the cycle, a secondary steel processing company and ship disassembly companies, will be brought to the province, providing a new purpose to the Port of Rotterdam when fossil fuels phase out. The transition to material circularity will be made possible through innovations in modular shipbuilding and renewable fuels. Innovation centres in the maker's industry will bridge between knowledge and practice. The consumers will be involved in the material transition through community re-hubs in their cities, where they can share, reuse and recycle products. In this strategy, the extensive water network will function as a backbone along which spatial developments will take place. The water backbone will be a connector for both public transport and industrial transport. This strategy for a transition towards circular steel flows in maritime manufacturing, can be an incentive and inspiration for other manufacturing sectors to close their material cycles.

Nowadays, circular economy is of growing importance in the social, economic, and environmental fields. The realisation happens on different scales. First steps towards a circular economy have already been taken, but it will take time before a circular world is reached. Also, under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the bio-based concept raises more awareness.

This strengthens the aim to create a circular economy. The industry in the Port of Rotterdam is mainly based on fossil-based industries that follow the linear system. Therefore, high emissions and waste are caused. This contradicts the aims of the SDG and the idea of a circular system. Consequently, the port area should be transformed into a flexible system that can adapt to changing future situations. This will be realized by a circular system that contributes to the development of the bio-based industry.

This transition is triggered by the current oil- and plastic industries taking place within the Port. By treating the bio-plastic industry as a trigger industry, a strategy for the transition towards a bio-based system is created. This leads to a circular economy that depends on bio-based materials. Since the bio-based system might face future challenges, it is important to guarantee further adaptation and self-improvement over time. The final goal is to create a closed-loop within the Port region to reduce emissions and waste products using these bio-based materials.

To close this loop, the Bio-Loop ZH2050 is integrated into the Port area. A Green Belt strategy promotes the circular economy within the province of South Holland, and by implementing the Living Labs, knowledge and technologies are improved over time. The Bio-Loop ZH2050 influences the aim of the province to become 100% circular by 2050 and several SDG topics. Environmentally, this project supports the transition towards a circular bio-based system and to reduce the impact of pollution and climate change. Socially, the Bio-Loop ZH2050 creates the possibility to get society involved in the bio-based circularity. And finally, economically, the Port of Rotterdam will become the port of Europe based on the bio-based economy, which is the entrance connecting the global market and EU market.

Among the many cities that lost their status of capital with the Italian unification, Naples is the one that struggled the most to reconcile with its past. With the cholera outbreak of 1874 the criticalities of centuries of uncontrolled urban development under foreign kings rose to the fore of the public opinion of the Kingdom of Italy. Yet, for the following decades until nowadays, institutions and politicians failed in providing an integrated vision for the city that could give it a new inclusive identity. Instead, lack of dialogue, path dependency among stakeholders and scarce involvement of communities served the interests of a weak entrepreneurial class and extremized the social problems of the old capital.
King Ferdinando II and Francesco II of Bourbon, the last royals of Naples, saw in the geographical position of the South of Italy the protection of their power: as they liked to say, the peninsula was confining with the salty water of the Mediterranean Sea toward south and the Holy water of the Vatican state up north (Astarita, 2006). This image not only reflected the attitude of the monarchs in international affairs, but it also reveals the two major constraints that have hampered the Neapolitan urban development: a problematic relationship with the sea and the unwillingness to open to a diverse liberal society.
What had grown in between these two limits, was what Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis would have referred to as the Porous city (Benjamin, Lacis, 1925). When the two visited Naples in 1925 found an obstinately antimodern city where the people had the same consistence of the stone that constituted its walls and that, in its rejection of dichotomies, was a distant alternative to the rational northern European cities which the authors were so used to. According to their description, the urban environment of the Parthenopean city was extremely promiscuous: families from different social extractions used to share the same ancient buildings and attend the same squares, where a crowded market poured into the street in a continuous swarm of praises and trades, that could only be broken open by the sudden passage of a religious procession.
Since then, this image lived a life of its own, having a profound impact on the imaginary of urbanists and planners across the world and reoccurring in different forms in the speeches and texts of researchers over the last seventy years. Most notably, the Italian duo Bernardo Secchi and Paola Viganò reinterpreted this concept in their work for the city of Antwerp in 2009 (Secchi, Viganò, 2009). The two urbanists, in fact, would later explain how the theme of porosity does not only concern the material quality of the buildings but rather more the different ways through which different city users appropriate the space. As such, porosity allows for diversity in the urban environment maximizing social and economic interaction (Tallen, 2008), thus enabling kinship network, the system of formal and informal relationships that make up a community to be active and thriving.
But what is left of the porosity of Naples? Since the end of the XIX century, having by then lost the role of capital, the city had to go under a much-needed process of reinvention and even if originally Naples had to be a maritime city, the foreign rulers, especially during the two centuries before the Italian unification, never developed the full potentiality of the port (Di Mauro, 2006). Under the new regime instead, the Neapolitan elite class rediscovered the sea in its potential for the industrial development. Following logic of economic efficiency and rationality led to new patterns of expansion and consumption of land (Ascher, 2001) and the insalubrious territories, once considered the limit to urban expansion, became the desirable location for the new Industrial city. The old walls of the city where gradually demolished and the city began its expansion towards east in the Borgo Loreto, the marshy delta of the Sebeto river and the, at the time separate, town of San Giovanni a Teduccio. These Bad lands (Secchi, 2006) were necessary for the current socio-economical functioning of the city, not only, because they hosted the construction of warehouses and fabrics, but especially, because they accommodated the rural immigrants that would have constituted the human capital of the new economy. For many, these transitional cities have been constituting the access to the urban social network and economy and they retained this function even when the deindustrialization took over the initial motivation of their existence. The lack of access to facilities, poor housing conditions, low property value and population decline transformed these lands into enclaves for the low-income classes and those who are excluded by the society (Grahame Shane, 2005). Conversely, the Neapolitan upper and middle classes steadily fled the historical centre to pursue a new lifestyle on the hills up west and restructured the city to serve their interests. Nowadays Naples has partially lost its porosity and presents many visible and invisible barriers, whether are they segregating infrastructures, low quality urban and housing environment, monofunctional districts, differences in the social status and political representation.
Since the 70s attempt to convert the city’s economy to the tertiary sector, Naples’ development has been driven by the alleged will of answering to the many crises of the city without ultimately being successful (Galasso, 1987). This is, in some measure, due to the fact that the city’s institutions are still partially tied to their conception of the “Holy water” that manifests itself in a in a scarce attitude towards change that results in institutional inertia (De Martino, 2020). Emblematic in these regards are the not fulfilled promises of the at the time just elected new mayor of the city Luigi de Magistris toward the Islamic community in Eastern Naples. This rapidly growing community had been promised in 2011 the construction of the first Mosque of city and an Islamic cemetery. Only after 10 years, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, in August 2020, the municipality granted the concession for the use of a land to bury the dead (il Mattino, 2020).
The genealogy of the Eastern Naples returns the image of a bad land that has never been given the proper tools for development and whose communities have never been involved in the decision making. Nowadays as then, it is a Purgatory, a city of perennial transition, of goods and people: the established Neapolitan population that aspires to move to other parts of the city or the immigrants arriving from overseas.
In this work, I explore how can the study of the porosity of the urban environment set the bases for a community-based design approach. After having delved into the study of the context of the East Coast of Naples, I focus on the Case Nuove and Mercato del Ferro areas, the first districts to be built outside the former walls of the city in the old Borgo Loreto, and their relationship with the Mercato, the historical neighbourhood grown behind the city walls. The two are institutionally one administrative entity and share an increasing lack of porosity that manifests itself in visible and invisible barriers, problematic social issues, and low quality of the urban environment. Taking this case as example, I will define a design process and stakeholders engagement strategy through which to answer the question: Through what means can Eastern Naples provide a spatially just alternative for its citizens?

New York has developed rapidly in only several centuries, becoming a super metropolis today. The city is growing more densified. Less land can be used for public used. However, more and more people flooding into this city call for space to contain more activities. How and where can public spaces be integrated in the future city, considering the highly densified urban environment such as New York? In future, will it be possible to design public space as an important block of city planning, instead of designing on existing city planning or building? Based on research of public space in New York, compared to traditional large opening parks, POPS, which are smaller, more flexible one will be the most important type of public space in future New York. There is an assumption that a totally new city will be built on existing city according to research of building morphology in New York in the future. But how to create POPS in such a city and how to use POPS to Implement such assumption? Can we design POPS on different layers in city and extend city ground to different layers or create new cities by these POPS? In a word, the task asks for a “plug-in typology” on existing buildings. The specific project site is an old building in Midtown called Farley Post Office. The building consists of two parts, the west part was built in 1934, while east part in 1914. The program of the project will be city hall, hotel, office and media centre.

In the United Kingdom spatial challenges are formed due to a significant erosion rate, especially on the southeast coastline, where the soil has a weak resistance to erosion (Masselink & Russell, 2013; Hurst et al, 2016). This erosion causes the soil to be washed away until no soil remains (Dornbush et al, 2006). Ecology, society and urban environments are at risk in coastal cities due to environmental risks. Protection measures, such as sea walls and embankments, are the primary solutions to today’s erosion risks. These protection measures are often expensive, short-term and can have negative influences on other sections of the coastline. The measures influence the processes along the coastline by interruption of longshore sediment transport (Cooper and McKenna, 2007). Currently, cities and their residents are unable to adapt to this increasing erosion and are often exposed to unforeseen and abrupt events that impact their habitat and, therefore, have an influence on the human livability. In the English context, a regional strategy is needed to find a balance between coastal social justice and the continuing risks of Coastal Erosion (Apine, 2011; Alexander et al, 2012; Cooper and McKenna, 2007), which are further investigated and explained in the thesis. This project investigates possible strategies for urban environments to adapt to the increasing erosion rates which is the result of climate change and sea level rise. With the use of mixed methods research, a regional strategy is formulated and implemented in local urban designs. The research method used to achieve the formulation of a strategy is the Data, Opportunities, Challenges & Anecdote (DOCA) method developed by FABRIC (Vafa, 2018). This method uses opportunities and challenges that can be found on a regional scale, but also on the local scale for different coastal cities in the project area. In the thesis this method is used to find local innovation opportunities that can be integrated within a regional urban strategy. This approach considers interdisciplinary and layered approaches with the use of domains that involve defence-resilience, networks, tourism and economy. Within the DOCA method, the six-step approach by Hooimeijer et al (2020) is applied to create a multi-scalar and adaptive planning system. With the use of both these methods, thesis aims to create an urban design as a response to ecological, societal and urban environmental challenges relating to Coastal Erosion effects and spatial planning strategies. The project’s developed regional strategy aims for Regional Resiliency in southeast England with the design of local Sustainable Urban Environments in Bexhill-on-Sea and Hastings.

The city block of Bijlmerplein is a significant example of created identity through different notions. In the context 70s and 80s heritage, Bijlmerplein demonstrates ideological interplay between different ideas and ways of design of built environment in the one neighborhood. It was designed as a remediation and a response to failed modernist utopia - “City of the future” of Bijlmer together with other residential blocks such as Heesterveld, Hoptille and Haardstee. The final goal intended to create new identity for an area which would be relevant to Amsterdam city and could give sense of belonging to society in contrast of alienated and futuristic Bijlmer urban setting. Bijlmerplein boundaries had been shaped by the infrastructure (elevated streets, parking lots and separated traffic) which was the consequence of CIAM ideas. The area has also an anthroposophical concept which are embedded into NMB head office in by Alberts & Van Huut. Cluster 2, designed by Atelier Pro architects had nature inclusive notion. Cluster 4 was designed by BroekBakema architects who were searching for national Dutch identity in the architecture and developed the “total” space concept inspired by ideas of neo-plasticism The design by research the focus was given for cluster 4 within the Bijlmerplein, because of its complex spatial composition, relation with public squares, accentuated front façade, architectural language, and the postmodern archetypes. The main idea of the design was to open the cluster by introducing the “green alley” feature and by densifying the block by careful extensions. The green alley becomes the key element for circulation and the center of the new residential spaces. It helps to reactivate the plinth and introduce urban greenery. At the same time, the research explored different ways of purifying and revitalizing postmodern archetypes such as: “gate”, “bridge”, “tower”, “street”, “courtyard” and “colonnade”. These features were seen as an attribute regarding historical value of the block. Cluster 4 is primary a social housing residential block, which also causes many social issues such as: lack of ownership, segregation, poverty, exclusiveness, drug dealing, homelessness. These issues were tackled by introducing different types of housing which intend to attract people from different social layers and diversify the block. This was done by introducing penthouses for young families, lofty studios for young professionals and three residential blocks for residents with medium income.

This thesis has two main subject areas: 1) Peripheries/rural areas, more specifically those that have been in decline for a long time. Their problems have recently gained another level of urgency with the territorially-bound emergence of populism in European democracies. The specific expression this typology takes within the region state of Brandenburg, Germany forms the background in front of which the main project of this work unfolds. 2) The food system, and particularly agriculture. Under the current paradigm, it is regarded as fundamentally unsustainable. The main goal of the thesis is to understand how to transform this system, regionally and locally to begin with, into something that strongly reduces its negative externalities on all scale levels, while also providing means of re-development for the aforementioned rural peripheries. The thesis is based on the idea that a regionalised food system, built on an ecologically responsible agriculture, can provide such a project. Given the scale of Brandenburg and the scope of a MSc thesis, it cannot aim to provide a design for the region. Rather, its main goal is to develop a working method for the development of such a system, thought from the side of Brandenburg: a) in a spatial manner from local to regional level; b) related to governance, by exploring necessary changes to higher level policy and co-creation possibilities on local to regional level.

Windows are important elements in a building. They protect the interior from the exterior environment regarding weather conditions, noise, security and so on. While they also, in contrast to walls and floors, connect the two, creating links and providing rooms with daylight, fresh air and views in and out of the building. The most governing element of the window is the insulated glazing unit (IGU). There are many developments concerning coatings to add functions to the glass ,such as solar control or self-cleaning windows but they contain critical materials such as cobalt, copper and titaninum. Added elements such as coatings, foils for laminated glass and the sealant prohibit the IGU from being recyclable, as the prevailing glass industry requires high quality and clean ingredients only. This makes the IGU a finite, single life product resulting in almost 125.000 tonnes of post-consumer glass waste each year in the Netherlands. The IGU works optimally as an insulating element as long as there is dry (argon) gas inside the glazing panes. However, the life span of current IGUs is just around 15-20 years and is dependent on the butyl seal which is just 1% of the costs and 0.1% of the weight. During its life span the seal starts failing by allowing water molecules inside the cavity. The panel as a result starts building up water vapor and the coating inside will start to corrode, the glass shows fogging and the thermal performance drops down due to outgassing of the panel. In the current design of the IGU no refurbishment is possible, meaning that the glass panes and the spacer will not be re-used, but instead end up as landfill while these materials exceed the life span of the sealant by a large margin (Veer,2016). This thesis therefore focusses on the possibility of remanufacturing the IGU. The re-designed edge seal system for the IGU makes it easy to remanufacture the IGU on-site. The design utilises a detachable butyl seal that functions as a dry gas and vapor barrier and a hollows section that assures the tightness of the seal. This idea shows the possibility to replace the weakest part of the whole glazing panel every ten years so that the glazing panes which have high stored embodied energy and the spacer bar, which is currently approaching the theoretical value in terms of energy efficiency, both can have a life span of more than 100 years. The interlocking design of the spacer bar and butyl sealant is a result of a form finding process. A fiberglass hollow section can be slid into the butyl profile to assure the load is transfered to the window system. Furthermore, a check valve type is chosen to fill the cavity again with Argon gas with every remanufacturing cycle.

Presently, the urban and natural systems in the world are trying to balance between coping with the extreme climate conditions and the expanding development. The urgency of accommodating these changes calls for flexible and adaptive response, which can sustain the risks and enhance the performance of the systems. This graduation thesis studies the possibilities of creating urban environments which can withstand and absorb shocks, ultimately increasing their resilience towards climate change. The focus of the research is the Bandung Region in Indonesia, a densely populated metropolitan area, highly exposed to flood risk due to its vulnerable socio-spatial context. The future predictions indicate that by 2035 the population in this area will increase double to the current situation (Djalante, Garschagen, Thomalla, & Shaw, 2017), leading to rise of the social inequalities and escalating vulnerabilities. By further exploring the existing practices for reduction of those risks, the research finds measures improving the safety conditions, but failing to address the issues of well-being and quality of life of the society. This leads to the understanding that overcoming the issues of vulnerability, within the framework of the uncertain future, requires more than just aiming at flood protection. Thus, this graduation thesis explores the added value of flood risk adaptation strategies through the lens of creating safe, healthy and inclusive urban setting.

Like many other Latin American cities, Lima experienced explosive population growth during the last century. Its population went from 600 thousand people in 1940 to nearly 9.5 million people nowadays. Former agriculture fields between the coast and the beginning of the Andes mountains were quickly filled with urban developments. Neither the public sector nor the private housing market provided decent living conditions in the city for all these newcomers. 34% of the city’s land was developed informally (Municipality of Lima, 2013a) and 70% of the houses were to some degree self-built. The process of urban development and, specifically, the control of the space through land ownership, generated a segregated city. The urban poor usually accessed low-cost land or housing in areas exposed to high levels of risk, with accessibility problems or lack of basic infrastructure.

The current process of urban development, along with a quantitative understanding of housing in policy, continues reproducing socio-spatial segregation today. Buying a plot to land traffickers on the steep slopes of the periphery is the primary way for the low-income population to access a place to live in the city.

This graduation project has two main goals. On the one hand, it tries to understand the relations between housing, urban development and socio-spatial segregation in Lima. On the other, it explores the potential of housing (understood as a process) to develop alternative models of urban development and reduce socio-spatial segregation, in search of a more just city.

Through the perspective of Urban Metabolism, that focuses on the design of flows, this project researches the flow of energy in regards to the Paris climate agreement of 2015. The energy transition towards renewable resources is considered in the terms of spatial impact and public acceptance. The energy landscape is used as a design concept that comprises the various aspects of all three of these occurrencies. Through a layer-approach the research builds towards a strategy for the energy landscapes of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.