Human beings engage with architectural spaces both cognitively and emotionally, with research highlighting the significant impact of emotional experiences on health and well-being. As cities become increasingly urbanized, a notable absence of natural environments has raised concerns about a growing disconnection from nature. This gap manifests in both the quantity and quality of interactions with the natural world. The central challenge, then, is how to re-establish a meaningful connection to nature in urban settings.
This research aims to address two key objectives: first, to explore the environmental and emotional challenges posed by urbanization, and second, to develop a set of design principles and tools that empower architects and designers to create human-centered, emotionally resonant spaces.
In conclusion, emotional architecture offers a promising approach to mitigating the environmental and psychological impacts of urbanization. By engaging the senses, honoring local culture and climate, and integrating nature as a central design element, urban environments can be transformed into vibrant, restorative spaces that enhance both our well-being and our connection to the natural world creating an Urban Oais.

Former military infrastructure, in the form of individual structures or whole military areas, tend to become functionless, often further becoming neglected. Additionally they tend to act as a source of dissonance, contestation, different interpretations, especially in places with histories that have diverse perspectives rising from different ethnic groups. They entangle a variety of issues - political, cultural, social, urban. Could there be an alternative to such sites? Instead of becoming neglected with their stories and histories forgotten, could they become an integral part of their surrounding context, encouraging remembrance and co-existence of a multiplicity of narratives and voices? Could they become a catalyst for communities to come together and encourage an exchange of knowledge?

The former fortification complex around the city of Liepāja together with the former military base of Karosta presents a site that entangles both neglect and dissonance. Having lived through a variety of historic periods and being mostly associated with the Soviet Occupation, the place has always been seen and portrayed as one with a heavy and dark past. The research therefore aims to unpack the reason for the neglect present in the neighbourhood as well as to uncover stories of the place that have not been exposed. The research outcome comes together as a biography of place that addresses the complexity of the site and provides a further base for the design proposal on the chosen site.

This research explores the lost architectural approach of how to design and construct a large number of standardised homes, focusing on the appearance of facades and urban space. The combination of the large building blocks of Berlage’s ‘Plan Zuid’ and the highly concentrated architectural style of the Amsterdam School with its many ornaments and facade elements makes it a suitable location to examine case studies. Consequently redefining the role of ornaments and other facade elements, offering new design principles to revive the grandeur back to residential housing and answering the main research question: How does the Amsterdam School use ornaments and other facade elements to partition dwelling blocks in ‘Plan Zuid’?
Before analysing the case studies, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of the circumstances in which both ‘Plan Zuid’ and the Amsterdam School were created, as well as the factors that influenced their outcomes. The broader social and architectural context of the early 20th century played a significant role in shaping both ‘Plan Zuid’ and the Amsterdam School. Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation of cities created an urgent demand for affordable housing, leading architects, like Berlage, along with critics and social reformists, to advocate for fast and efficient construction, often at the expense of ornamental design. However, the monotonous and utilitarian nature of such developments sparked a reactionary movement, embodied by the Amsterdam School, which sought to give the rationalism of Berlage a more vibrant, exuberant and sensitive aesthetic. This tension between functionality and ornamentation reflected the competing priorities within architecture at the time. As the 20th century progressed, the architectural discourse shifted towards functionalism and minimalism, prioritising efficiency and standardisation while rejecting said ‘unnecessary’ decoration, which aligned with the needs of industrialisation and economic constraints.
The different elements of two building blocks, chosen for their significant size and amount of different elements, are examined on their use and effect on the facade and urban appearance. Derived from this catalogue of elements and their analyses 12 principles are given in a toolbox, which plead for the reintroduction of several elements particularly in the design of multistoried dwelling blocks. This implies redefining ornaments as more than mere decorative elements; they become integral components of architectural design that can help define and organise facades, enhance engaging features, and contribute to the overall appeal of urban spaces. The toolbox balances standardisation with individuality, providing techniques to create distinctive sections within building blocks, giving each section unique elements while maintaining overall cohesion with the surrounding urban fabric.
Further research could consider the economic implications or potential cost associated with implementing these elements and could address how these tools can be adapted to other architectural styles or regions with different historical, cultural, or environmental contexts. It could also address how modern issues like sustainability, environmental impact, or current construction methods might integrate with the principles outlined in the toolbox. Since the diversity of elements within the Amsterdam School is guided by individual architects, further studies on buildings would expand the catalogue of elements and could add more principles and different techniques.
In conclusion, the Amsterdam School represents a lost approach to architectural design, one that combined standardisation with a particular focus on the appearance of facades, using various ornaments and other facade elements. Through research and the development of defining design principles, it is possible to revive this approach and create future ‘palaces’ that enhance the urban environment, restoring a sense of recognition and character to modern housing.

The sauna in Estonian culture is seen as a necessity of life, an instinct. It is the biggest social network in Estonia and the oldest. The sauna is a place where Estonian people meet, reconnect, and share on a physical and spiritual level. By being naked in this heat, one re-experiences its body, to reconnect the physical, mental, and spiritual relationship with one-self, others, and nature.

Whereas gentrification is on the rise in the Kopli area it is important to create spaces where local people can meet, socialize, relax and thrive in there neighborhood. To have a space where they feel connected with themselves, the sea, nature, and their surroundings. The chosen location near the sea has the possibility of connecting people and water. People need each other and nature to thrive.

The site-specific design of these four buildings allows the people of Tallinn to reconnect with themselves, each other, and nature in a mental, physical and spiritual way. The saunas and its buildings function as a place of sensorial reconnection, through materials, nature, and social facilities.

This research preliminarily develops a framework based on the existing discourses on the theme of identity in architecture. This framework serves as a tool for analysing the “identity” of existing sites for which restoration is deemed necessary, as is the case for many post-war housing estates. The analysis results indicate areas of improvement, which then guide the redesign of a post-war apartment block. We demonstrate the framework’s application in a case study of a typical late post-war neighbourhood in the suburbs of Haarlem, Netherlands.

My project is a tourist center located in the Tallinn harbor area. Its functions include tourist guidance, exhibitions, and a bus station. Through this project, I aim to provide tourists with a
deeper understanding and appreciation of the city. Additionally, besides serving tourists, it offers a comfortable public space for the surrounding urban environment, enhancing the connection with nearby areas.

It is designed to be a transitional space within the urban environment and the first impression visitors have of the city. Therefore, I have paid special attention to the connection between the
interior and exterior environments of the building. The center utilizes Estonia's most iconic wood
and recycled limestone, integrating them with the existing limestone walls on the site. My hope is
for it to become a window through which people can learn about the city.

The research and design show how to use local wood from an ex-production forest in het Goois Natuur Reservaat (GNR) in an affordable (social) housing project. With the use of efficiënt building and community housing principles affordability is established, while still creating high quality housing in a natural environment. Damage to the environment due to building in such an area is limited by using prefabrication, a good layout and nature-inclusive design.

The Office for Digital Oblivion is a project that aims to re-ground discourse on information technologies and the realm of the digital through engagement with its immediate material conditions and operations. It has grown to become a full-fledged hybrid, blurring boundaries of what we consider natural or cultural, ecological or anthropocentric. It aims to to challenge perceived banalities around information infrastructures, tracing systems through scales, aiming to spatialise and thus problematise operational complexities which due to their scale remain largely illegible. With that, it puts forward new approaches to conceive of infrastructural systems, transgressing purely technocratic dogmas and new ways of thinking, worlding and becoming-together in the Anthropocene.

Architecture of Accumulation is a manifestation of the infrastructure of global capitalism, an attempt to find a form for the mass of objects and operations required to sustain global trade and logistics. Architecture of Accumulation materializes in Panama, a key point of international logistics. Architecture of Accumulation sublimates and crystalizes the unresolved tension between global operations and local landscapes. Architecture of Accumulation reimagines the organization of the industrial landscape by imposing a vertical density instead of horizontal expansion. It goes beyond the scale of traditional architectural gesture and becomes the territory itself. Architecture of Accumulation is an exploration of programmatic complexity and density. Architecture of Accumulation is adjusted to the scale of a container rather than a human body. Spaces for homo sapiens are carefully designated and limited. Architecture of Accumulation is a mass of symbiotic and conflicting fragments. Architecture of Accumulation remains in a state of unfinishedness. By the time the last beam is produced, the first one will already rust. The structure, like a modern-day Ship of Theseus, remains in constant change. Architecture of Accumulation resists simple categorization. It is technocratic to the most radical extent, where paradoxically it transcends mere practicality and becomes and architectural landmark. Architecture of Accumulation illuminates the condition of contemporary infrastructure, and utilitarian landscapes, which evoke a feeling of sublime, almost forgotten within the architectural field.

Local conditions along the New Silk Road are often largely impacted by the global ones operating in their area—one of such being the Republic of Panama, ever since the build of the Panama Canal. The canal offered a shortcut and connected the World over water, but paradoxically introduced divisions in other directions, it divided continents, the country, and ecosystems, ... This project explores the dual and opposing nature of connecting elements. The dichotomy in the meaning they hold is ascribed to the ever-changing factors, narratives, directions, and perspectives towards them, while the elements themselves persist as the only constant, as a reference. Despite being perceived as linear, once approached carefully, thresholds become spaces, spaces consisting of all the areas they divide. Cinta Costera 3 viaduct surrounds the two impoverished neighborhoods and the old core of Panama City: Casco Viejo, while offering connection to the residential and work areas for the wealthy. This connecting element simultaneously divides Casco Viejo from the wealthy areas and from the ocean. A seemingly linear border, a threshold to pass in order to reach the open ocean. The design aim is to dissolve the city into a beach. The intertidal landscape between the city and the threshold becomes a beach and becomes the end-goal itself. The city is reaching out to pass the threshold and achieve freedom=bathing. In this attempt, it encounters zones, thresholds, connections, and divisions, and experiences the revealed sensations of bathing, and spending time in and around water, and by the time the threshold is traversed, the aim was already experienced within.

The Mustakivi Art Museum serves as a cultural bridge, reestablishing the connection between the Lasnamäe district and Tallinn's city center. The museum, inspired by 'The Atmosphere of Silence,' aims to provide a refuge/ healing environment from the outside world. The definition of silence in this project refers to one's ability to listen inwards, experience inner peacefulness, and relish meaningful moments in the present. Emphasizing natural elements, especially water, as the medium to foster 'silence', the museum features spaces designed for both community gathering and solitary healing. Besides integrating water features, the building design, including façade decision, skylight integration, and the positioning of spaces above or underground, employs different levels of transparency to control the inclusion or exclusion of views, thereby shaping the interior atmosphere and user experience.

Responding to its location in the heart of the Mustakivi subdistrict in Lasnamäe and acknowledging the district's Soviet historical background, the Mustakivi Art Museum, as a new proposal, significantly enhances the existing site condition. Addressing the cultural gap left by the Soviet planning era, the art museum fills the void of cultural amenities in the area. It revitalizes public spaces on site and enriches residents' daily experiences by injecting new vibrancy into the urban fabric.

An architectural exploration set in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, on how to develop a vacant- and unfinished concrete structure in a cooperative and bottom-up way into a mixed-use living environment that provides people and their communities with more agency to shape their physical environment and their lives. Distilling principles for agency from research through reading and writing, analysing precedents and doing design research resulting in the design of an incremental-, modular-, flexible- and self-built system that facilitates the infill of the failed Porto Franco development at the harbour of Tallinn. Supposed to be 150.000 m² commercial space but has never finished because of a corruption scandal over which the government fell and the prime minister had to step down. Leaving the city with an unfinished- and unused space and an opportunity to redefine the role of the architect and the way in which we develop the environment around us.

The construction industry is a major contributor to climate change. To create sustainable and resilient architecture longevity should play a major role, as the initial embodied carbon can be used for longer. Furthermore, the lifespan of Dutch dwellings needs to be extended to counteract the low annual net addition of new buildings and the housing shortage.
To address these problems this multi functional design (housing + education) on TU Delft campus rethinks the typical timescales of architecture and aims to provide a sustainable alternative to construction methods with a low initial carbon footprint such as timber construction.
The combination of an „ever-lasting“ concrete structure that merges with the site, and can be seen as new land, with temporal building elements guarantees that the building is able to adapt to new functions and requirements over its long service life. The site, which is currently used as a parking lot, can be actively used as part of the campus where living, teaching, nature and leisure meet.

This research paper explores the potential of urban agriculture as a transformative tool for post-war neighbourhoods, focusing on the Netherlands. It examines how urban agriculture can contribute to healthier, more socially interactive, and self-sufficient communities in areas recovering from the impacts of war. The paper employs a mixed-method approach, including a comprehensive literature review and detailed case studies. It discusses various types of urban agriculture and assesses their benefits in terms of health, social interaction, and self-sufficiency. The findings provide insights into the practical implementation of urban agriculture offering design guidelines and strategies for revitalizing post-war neighbourhoods through sustainable and community-focused agricultural practices.

This project explores the concept of 'The Ground' as a multifaceted entity, examining its physical, cultural, and political dimensions. It begins with an etymological foundation, linking the word "human" to "humus," emphasising humanity's intrinsic connection to the earth. The project expands this understanding by investigating the layers, properties, and significance of the ground as both a physical surface and a conceptual space, encompassing themes of territory, governance, and planetary interdependence.
A central theme is Bruno Latour's notion of 'The Terrestrial,' which redefines the earth as a political actor in a reciprocal relationship with humanity. This paradigm shift necessitates a reevaluation of humanity's approach to the ground, from one of ownership and control to one of coexistence and diplomacy. The Isthmus of Panama serves as a case study, illustrating the profound interaction between human engineering and geological processes through the construction and operation of the Panama Canal.
The project proposes an 'Embassy of the Ground' as a gesture of diplomacy to foster a diplomatic relationship between humans and the ground. This embassy, situated near the Post-Panamax locks of the canal, is designed as an enclosed space with the precise dimensions of a lock chamber, granting the ground within it diplomatic immunity. Surrounding the enclosure, three departments—Communications, Legal Affairs, and Informal Diplomacy—facilitate interactions with the ground.
Ultimately, the embassy serves as a bridge between human and geological timescales, promoting an ethic of mutual respect for the ground. By redefining the relationship between the human and the earth, the project challenges static conceptions of space and encourages a dynamic, time-sensitive perspective on architecture and territory.

This project is an attempt to create an urban condenser that will utilize the concept of food, to bring back the lost connection between two residential areas Kalamaja and Pelgulinn, in Tallinn. People become familiar with all the stages of food production, from planting to cooking and from consuming to recycling and reusing the left-over materials. Food is used as a cultural carrier that has the power to tell a story about the history of a country. In my case, a culinary school is incorporated in a public building and a restaurant that through its recipes and materials tells the story of Kalamaja, opens the school to the public and connects the people and their surroundings. I try to zone my design in private classes that is followed up by a mixed-use space were students interact with visitors during the process of learning and cooking. The facade forms a public "skin" that wraps around the main building which extends to bridges that run from Kalamaja to Pelgulinn. The building forms a metaphor for the old bridge that used to connect those areas and keeps the memory alive for the locals. Parts of the floor and a blind wall are composed by bricks found in ruins around the area to give the sense of layered time (old materials and new) on the thresholds found around the building.

This project experiments in representing the spatial complexity of a research area and reintroduces it to an adjacent site in the language of architecture. A heavy industrial district for ship building and maintenance is centered on and taken as a field with its dense configuration of artifacts (cranes, workshops, cargoes) and invisible force activated by movement of these objects. For a group of people – workers who work and live inside everyday in positions of insecure employment, safety and long work hours, a collective place is proposed for leisure and cultural activities.