Today, our cities continue to expand, and these cities have outgrown traditional urbanist descriptions. The character of the city, and its surroundings, has been replaced by dispersed areas, and a low-density, decentralised form of urban sprawl has become popular around the world, known as the Zwischenstadt, in-between city. At the metropolitan scale, this decentralised urban spatial character provides space for landscape interventions that are full of potential when the landscape is viewed as a whole.
In the past, most landscape interventions have been carried out from a systematic and functional angle, such as the famous IBA Emscher park project, which created a regional scale blue-green network system that is now the basis for a regional green way in the Ruhr area. Few have explored our regional landscapes from the angle of spatial form and spatial experience. Few also look at the question of the arrangement of our regional landscapes through the lens of morphological studies of urban forestry.
Therefore, this paper will explore how to describe the morphology of in-between regional landscape in the context of the Rhineland Ruhr region from two major angles: urban forestry and landscape form in metropolis. at the same time, how to develop these two major theories from the human perspective and apply these two theories to regional design to help people to perceive specific urban landscape images. Finally try to use these landscape theories to shape the future landscape of the Rhineland Ruhr region.

The studio theme of ‘Last Green in Town’ encouraged us to engage with La Friche Josaphat, an urban wasteland that has grown into a greenfield in the middle of the city. The lack of human engagement has allowed biodiversity to naturally take over the wasteland, creating a wilderness, unknown to the city beyond its borders. Around the Friche, nature exists mostly in conventional forms (parks, gardens, sports fields etc.) which are products of narrow utilitarian approaches, with few exceptions of human-nature synergies. These make it evident that different perceptions of urban nature have produced diverse urban cultures of nature, few of which validate the interdependence of nature and humans while most treat nature as a distinct entity needing a functional purpose.
The thesis roots itself firmly in the ‘as found’ conditions and delves into site-specific research, in an attempt to understand the evolution of the existing urban culture of nature over time. Using this research, the thesis attempts to develop a project that validates the past, sensitively deals with the present 'as found' conditions and situates itself within the site for a symbiotic evolution of humans and nature in the future. The programs evolve from the site, responding to the urban conditions and mediating between the urban and the wild. The community centre brings the urban closer to the wild friche, while the research and education centre undertakes the task of creating and imparting knowledge of the biodiversity within the friche to the people beyond the borders. The programs work in tandem to create a flow of energies between the friche and the city, while carefully allowing sensitive accidental and incidental micro engagements between humans and nature.

Places with high densities of people are characterized by an urban infrastructure dependent on the economically efficient movement of people and matter. Moving from one place to another as quickly as possible. In the history of Liège, economic material transfers have led to social transfers. The results are a rearrangement of the social composition & properties, and stress and exhaustion of the people and the earth.

I am of the city but somehow not in it. I am of the earth but somehow not on it.

This design project is reacting to the movements of the place (and its history) and is offering a transitional path leading to a moment of standstill. Preventing exhaustion of both human and earth. The path leads a movement from the time-ruled urban landscape to an open space, where freedom of movement and a different perception of time can be experienced. The composed walk and turning point embody a tension between hovering and grasping, lightness and weight, movement and stillness. The turning point of the path is represented by a light and bright interior space where the physical activity temporarily comes to rest.

The escape from the efficient urban infrastructure creates the possibility of reorientation. This can create awareness to change the relationship between people, and between people and their topographical position. A shift from creating and claiming properties and territories to maintaining a reciprocal relationship.

In this research, the use of spatially applied adaptive pathways for rainwater resilient redesign of urban areas is investigated. It is explored how adaptive pathways can contribute to the integration of the climate stress of pluvial flooding in the planning process for the redesign of existing urban areas. This is done by developing adaptive pathways for the rainwater resilient design for a case-study in Amsterdam and evaluating their possible contribution to the planning process for redesign in general and specifically in Amsterdam.

The use of spatially applied adaptive pathways for rainwater resilience was explored by first developing pathways for a redesign for a case study in Amsterdam, the neighbourhood Bosleeuw, following the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) approach. It was found that when considering pluvial flooding as the system stressor, the number of parallel design alternatives that could be included in the map are limited because rainwater resilience is considered at neighbourhood scale. Moreover, the shortage of the rainwater storage capacity in the current situation compared to the set objective for 2050 results in the inability to express the adaptation tipping points in terms of storage capacity and a sell-by date in terms of time. In addition, because of the number and size of the required measures to reach the objective for rainwater resilience in Amsterdam, the need to consider the implementation time in the adaptive pathways arose, to ensure the feasibility of the proposed pathways.

To this end, a set of modifications were made to the set-up of the pathways for a single design alternative, that enhanced the functionality of the pathways to illustrate the feasibility of the implementation of a solution. The results showed that the modified pathway set-up enable the incorporation of the implementation time of measures, the definition of adaptation tipping points and their sell-by dates and reviewing the effect of partially implemented measures combined.
These functionalities are demonstrated by developing pathways for the implementation of the redesign for the case-study under the temporal limit of the renewal strategy in Amsterdam: the strategy to plan all projects in the public space simultaneously and at the moment of planned maintenance or renewal of infrastructure. The results show that the modified set-up of the pathways enable the visualization and comparison of different implementation strategies and allow for the back casting of required actions to attain a set objective, without going into time-consuming or incomprehensible detail. However, the beneficial feature of the DAPP approach to postpone decisions to the future by reviewing parallel solutions and keeping future options open, is eliminated in the modified set-up, that reviews the implementation of a single solution. Similarly, the focus on the duration of implementation time and the consideration of actions in a timeline reduced the feature of the DAPP approach to express moments of decision and action in terms of how far the uncertain development has progressed rather than in time, which is a key attribute of allowing uncertainty in decision-making and design. The modified pathway set-up presented in this research, therefore, should be considered as complementary to the DAPP approach rather than a replacement. Overall, it is concluded that the adaptive pathways can contribute to rainwater resilience planning by providing a guiding spatial and temporal overview of required actions to support decision-making and the monitoring of adequate implementation of spatial adaptations.

Social cohesion is perceived to be under pressure in the Netherlands, especially in its larger cities. The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced and deepened the socio-spatial divide between vulnerable urban areas and the rest of the city, which not only affects the residents of the area and of the city, but also starts to affect the cohesion of the society as a whole. In light of the large scale spatial transitions that will also need to take place in these vulnerable urban areas, the Dutch government has issued the National Programme for Liveability and Safety, a long term, integrated and multidisciplinary urban regeneration approach to tackle the liveability, safety and social issues within the vulnerable urban areas. To achieve the overall improvement of the quality of life of the residents, it is stated in the Programme that interventions in the spatial domain should reinforce policy objectives in the social domain and vice versa. The objective of this graduation project is to explore to what extent urban design of physical public spaces in urban areas can facilitate the formation of social cohesion. To do this, literature research was conducted to define social cohesion, and to translate the concept to the local community level into specific urban design objectives. For this, the Social Cohesion Radar of the Bertelsmann Stiftung was taken apart and operationalised into requirements and a description of the ideal situation. From this, it was concluded that the design objectives consist of certain types of social interactions with specific characteristics. Furthermore, using relevant theories from environmental psychology and sociology, it was researched how the environment affects human behaviour. Combined with urban design theories the findings from the theoretical exploration and the operationalisation were used to develop a framework to analyse a physical space from the lens of social cohesion. In this analytical framework, the central point through which urban design interventions connect to social cohesion is through social interactions. Through the design of specific elements the defined social interactions could be directly facilitated, or would be facilitated via the improvement of characteristics of the space. The type of space that is analysed sets the expectations for the interactions that are likely to occur, and sets expectations for the characteristics and elements to be found there. For the implementation of the framework a guideline was developed, as well as an overview of typical settings to be found in Dutch urban areas, and a set of possible design interventions for social cohesion. The use of the framework to analyse a physical public space in an urban area should provide an urban designer with a decent understanding of the potential of the space to facilitate social cohesion, and provide the designer with possible spatial improvements. The framework provides the urban designer with an instrument to develop explicit and specific hypotheses regarding the facilitation of social cohesion through urban design.

The graduation project proposes the transformation of the police headquarters in the Hague, into a mixed-use development, including an IT university, co-working spaces, apartments, along with a public library and other facilities that encourage the interaction between the building users and locals, forming innovative knowledge clusters across the community. The project aims to explore, both through research and design, the role of structure in the adaptability of former 20th century Dutch police stations. The subject of investigation was decided with the realization that structure constitutes an essential element of an existing building whose potential needs to be thoroughly identified in order to transform it for future uses. The research contributed to the design by pointing out the influence of structure in terms of spatial organization, qualities, and form of existing buildings. As an ultimate aim, the proposal aspires to inform future projects using standardized and factory produced elements about the design possibilities in existing office buildings. Finally, the biggest challenge was to re-introduce a building of such identity, scale and status to its setting, that has been left out of all the activities taking place inside the colossal building complex, ever since it was built.

This thesis concerns the application of different multi-objective optimization (MOO) methods and strategies for finding the optimal envelope for a given building plot and lighting performance indicators. More specifically, the PV potential and daylighting potential of the building are maximized using different optimization solvers. Auxilliary objectives are introduced to constrain the model to a certain compactness and size. The method utilises an existing data framework called TopoGenesis and solves the problem using the PyGmo library.

A ray tracing is used to find all possible collisions between the objective test
points and the building mass and environment. The problem is first presented as a standard integer programming problem, but solving this problem is not feasible if complexity needs to be kept at a reasonable level. An alternative method of continuous optimization is therefore proposed that uses (meta)heuristics to find an optimal solution for maximizing the objective functions. The occupation status of the massing is used as inputs for the decision variables.

After the application of this method on small scale toy problems, a few of the
design options are selected and evaluated by their performance indicators, as well as the measure with which the option makes sense from a more traditional design perspective. The comparison of the performance and results of both methods give insight into the recommended workflow, settings, and pitfalls for finding an optimal solution to a multi-criteria design problem with visibility objectives. From the initial results, the Non-Sorted Genetic Algorithm seems to be the best option for solving these types of problems, and the PV potential objective is validated. The daylighting potential objective performs less satisfactory and suggestions are made on alternative approaches for this metric.

Due to population growth, a growing housing shortage, and a space shortage, it is expected that new urban developments in the Netherlands will mainly take place inside existing city boundaries and in high densities. At the same time, it is projected that the effects of climate change will increase, as climate change is expected to intensify. These two trends cause an increased climate risk for the liveability in these new urban areas. Climate adaptation is essential to reduce this risk. Climate adaptation planning is crucial to ensure the development of sustainable urban areas with high liveability standards for future and far-future inhabitants. However, traditional spatial design and -planning practice does not match with the climate adaptation task. If no climate adaptation action is taken now by spatial actors, the problems could be passed on to future generations. Hence, there is a need for a different way of working. A paradigm shift towards adaptive planning is needed to plan for climate adaptation and adaptive pathways are promising approaches to support this.

The objective of this research is to contribute to the search for new approaches that support climate adaptation planning. This research aims to investigate the usability of the Spatial Adaptive Policy Pathways (SAPP) approach for climate adaptation planning in new urban areas in the Netherlands. This research explores this approach to define the possibilities and points for improvement, through four main stages: analysis, identification, development, and application. To test the approach, Haven-Stad in Amsterdam has been selected as a case study area. The evaluation of the outputs and approach provide input to answer the main research question of this thesis: How can the Spatial Adaptive Policy Pathways approach support climate adaptation planning for new urban areas in the Netherlands?

The research has shown that the Spatial Adaptive Policy Pathways (SAPP) can support climate adaptation planning for new urban areas in the Netherlands. The SAPP approach brings forward a paradigm in which uncertainty is embraced and adaptivity is central. SAPPs do not show which trajectory is best to follow, but can address certain options, decision points, and consequences. In addition, it can bring different actors together through spatial- and governance elaborations. Thereby, SAPPs can form a basis for a broad dialogue about the future of an area in the short-term and long-term. It supports the development of adaptive designs and can address potential future governance challenges. The SAPP approach could thus be a promising approach to apply in practice. However, it would have to be further developed first.

Further development of the approach requires more testing at different case study locations and testing in practice. More research needs to be done on the applicability of the approach at different scales and the potential integration of scales and climate stresses.

Due to its global economic attractive power, London is growing as never before. And although the divided and global city strives to develop towards more inclusivity in the city, the growth, revitalisation, redevelopment and renewal in London currently takes forms of exclusive urban development, better known as gentrification. This gentrification is initiated and facilitated by the private developer and the local authority and causes indirect displaces of the original residents out of their neighbourhood and out of the city. In order to cope with displacement, this research aims towards more inclusivity in London and explores how this inclusive urban development can be supported in the London urban planning system. The research leaves the complex and solid planning system of the UK intact and adapts on the existing system by implementing the strategy towards inclusive urban development in the form of policies via one of the actors; the civil society. Since the introduction of the Localism Act of 2011, the civil society has the ability to gain more power and influence in the urban planning process thanks to Neighbourhood Planning. This Neighbourhood Planning approach is explored as tool to implement inclusive urban development in the London planning system resulting in an inclusive derivative of the Neighbourhood Plan; the Inclusive Neighbourhood Plan. The Inclusive Neighbourhood Plan stimulate and encourage inclusive urban development in areas with high risk of gentrification and comes with a an ‘Inclusive Pattern’ toolbox and a clear and understandable ‘step-by-step roadmap’ to make a faster and stronger Inclusive Neighbourhood Plan (see booklet B). This Inclusive Plan will contribute to a city where both new and original residents will benefit from the urban development in the global city and will lead towards a more inclusive city; an inclusiv(c)ity

Climate change is the defining crisis of the 21st century. While increasingly there are efforts being made globally to spread awareness about the impact of human activities on the natural environment, the talks on the direct impact of the change on the human are still nascent. There are an increasing number of people who are losing their land, livelihoods and basic access to food and potable water due to the adverse effects of climate change. In an attempt to survive these people have no option but to seek sanctuary in nearby settlements (Myers, 1997). A rough prediction of 200 million climate induced migrants by the end of the century has brought this issue to the forefront and is being termed as the ‘human face of climate change’ (Myers, 1997). Caught in a ‘negative vulnerability cycle’ (illustrated in Figure 1) the displaced population lacks visibility, recognition and even a basic definitive category which makes it impossible for them to seek refuge or get national or international aid. Their migration is usually termed as ‘economic’ in nature and classified as an act of desire rather than survival. This research aims to establish this definitive category through a review of scientific literature. Further it highlights the social, economic and spatial injustice faced by the environmentally displaced people and investigates the role of spatial planning, strategy and good governance as a tool to address the issue. Using methodologies like case studies, field trip, deductive mapping, data and comparative policy analysis, the research presents a strategic framework to socio-spatially and economically accommodate the EDP’s. The strategy uses the ongoing and future migration for the socio-economic benefit of the sending and receiving regions. It aims to generate a sustainable livelihood pattern for the affected to enhance their climate-resilience as well as trigger their growth. It presents migration as an adaptive strategy for the affected population and focuses on community-based initiatives and self-organisation as central concepts. The research constructs and tests this framework in the context of the cross-border region of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (GBD). Being the largest and one of the most densely populated deltas in the world, it has been experiencing the impact of climate induced migration for decades. Further, the displacement of 40 million people by 2050, has been estimated.