Design studio: a vacant church building burns down in Heijplaat. An ignition of reactions, emotions and processes are the start of a posed solution for the ruins and outhouse that are left. The possible interventions on this specific site are a possibility to restore a (former) social monumentality that was present, specifically in its former social center: the Julianakerk. Heijplaat, such as many other ‘company-towns’ went through a phase of heavy (classic) de-industrialization which brought the evident unemployment. Consequences are that the obviousness of the former social structures are no more. In an area such as Heijplaat this is amplified by its small scale and lack of the resilience as the garden city is completely dependent on the ‘company’ (RDM). There are no valuable events taking place on this site anymore.

Research studio: At the moment two churches close their doors per week in the Netherlands alone. These former places of social and spatial centrality left a hole in our cities and neighborhoods. How should these be filled up? Private laws and public laws do not make it easy to make sustainable plans for such objects, which is part of the reason that 600 churches are vacant in the Netherlands at the moment.

I did my graduation project at the master track Dutch Dwelling, Architecture. The studio describes the graduation assignment as following: “The task in the Dutch Housing Graduation Studio is to design a housing project that fits in a scenario of your own making for the future of Amsterdam. Behind the brief for an apartment building lie the bigger questions of ‘how do we want to live in the
future?’ and ‘what do our cities need?’”

To answer this question, I asked myself what kind of problems Amsterdam will face in the future in order to be able to answer the first question, what will Amsterdam need in the future. There are numerous issues that the future city have to deal with, and my approach was that if a city focuses on food production within the urban fabric, it can at the same time tackle a lot of other
issues in different fields as energy, rainwater management and reusing resources. When focusing on food production in the city, you encounter two sides of this topic. There is a technical side and a social side. In my research and design I stress this twofold. The project is about combining these two elements, using technology to make the food production as efficient as possible and incorporating the social aspects of food production to increase the livability of
residents and the people visiting. To let these two elements profit from each other, the dwellers of the green and the green of the dwellers, was the challenge of the design.

I designed the dwellings for the project, a public ground floor, I designed the green house and a huge conservatory coffering these elements, saying that this is the part where all these elements come together. The main design question became how this conservatory can truthfully become the part that brings the project together. An other design focus point became the relation between inside and oudside, making the transition very gradually.

Design for adaptive reuse of the Maassilo in Rotterdam within the graduation studio of Heritage and Architecture. This design focusses on creating physical and social connections with an integrated sustainable design.

After a period of suburbanization, the city of Amsterdam is growing in popularity among families. The city, however, doesn't respond to this trend. Most families living in Amsterdam are unhappy with their living situation. As a result, a lot of families are moving out of the city when the children grow older and families expand. For the city this is a major problem: families have a large influence on the city economy and contribute to a safe and diverse city. Families who choose for the city are looking for a so called 'sheltered urbanity'. This means that there are more families with children, qualitative outdoor space, accessible amenities and no fast traffic. When children grow older their action range expands. A living environment for families has to facilitate this process. Based on research, in this graduation project a design was made for a family friendly living environment in the inner city of Amsterdam.