The Binckhorst in The Hague is one of the most promising development areas of The Netherlands. Over the next years, it will continue to develop into a high density mixed-use area. Among the tabula-rasa state of Binckhorst, a Public Building will be placed in the form of a music venue. Between the orthogonal high-rise blocks, a key-project will set the tone for the cultural development in the area.

This development will be defined in a classical sense. Research shows that classical music has seen an uprising with the evolution of the internet and specifically, streaming services (Roberts, 2020) democratizing classical music through mass accessibility and distribution. However, the live classical music scene has always strongly followed formal tradition, aswell as its corresponding buildings. Thus, there is too little attention for the more experimental and modernistic development of classical music architecture. This project aims to focus on manifesting this internet-oriented, more dynamic, and informal side of classical music.

This leads to the main question:
How can dynamic re-iteration of concert hall designs modernise the audience experience of the live contemporary music scene?

This question is answered through a series of research subjects; Object, Movement and Experience. The first architectural subject is researched through morpho-typological analysis of concert hall precedents, based on J.N.L. Durand and Aldo Rossi. Then, the second and third subjects are analysed by looking through the lens of praxeology and phenomenology, using theories of Henri Lefebvre and Merleau-Ponty. The fruits of these analyses result in a toolbox of design elements that will be used for the creation of a building typology that fits this new development in a long-lasting formal culture. The new project is to introduce dynamism, multiplicity and multifunctionality to the historical prototype, to allow for stimulation of the modernistic classical music experience.

This is a ‘music marvel’ graduation project within the Public Building studio. Experimenting with the typology of an open-air amplified music venue, positioned at the core of a grand gentrification project in the Hague, it is driven by critical questions. The proposal is probing into developing applicable tactics for harvesting intergenerational value on urban terrain. What is the role of the architect when we live in times when the only thing we can do is stop building? Which are the conversations that have to happen on construction sites? Through the offered multiplicity of opportunities for cultural event formats, the conventional role of architecture is subverted. From serving the excessive wants of the powerful, to becoming a place that cultivates its own surplus of soft-power, via a rotating programmatic variety of spectacular gatherings.

1. If doing nothing is the most sustainable move, what is the next option for a 'music marvel'?
2. Circularity is fundamentally based on generic interchangeable parts — a music marvel is the opposite: custom solutions for the effect of acoustics and experience. How to proceed?
3. The project becomes an exercise of doing the minimum for a maximum spectacle.

People’s perceptions change over the years. People’s needs and interests are also changing. As designers, we have to be flexible in thinking and design to adapt to the wishes and standards of the current eras, we have to evaluate ourselves in an innovative sense. This in turn is reflected in spaces where people come together and do activities in company, or rather: ‘public buildings’.
I find it interesting how we as designers, through architecture, adapt to today’s society with regard to public spaces on different scales. In addition, I am looking forward to looking at solutions to somewhat bring people together in extreme cases such as the COVID19. These kinds of extreme events can lead to certain perspectives that we as designers have never thought about. My vision is therefore: limitations lead to creativity.

In order to approach a public building in an alternative and innovative way, the functions are not linked on the basis of function, but on the basis of sound. For this, each layer of the building gets its own sound cluster, namely: 'vibrant', 'harmonic' and 'silence'. The various functions are subdivided into the sound zones in which it fits. This ensures that the building is perceived with a typology that deviates from the 'standard' what we are used to.

Exploring the possibilities of the future ambition for Binckhorst in The Hague, a key music venue is set to integrate a modern high density residential neighborhood as part of the city centre.
However, contemporary music buildings functioning as catalysts for urban development are often focused on urban connectivity. As a result, they tend to forget the true function of music, which is to provide a mental escape for the audience. Therefore it becomes paramount for future projects to consider a migration from an exterior iconic character to an introverted oasis for musical performance. This notion establishes a degree of transposition in the experience of a visitor, a passage between the public realm and the specific main function of the building, which can be referred to as liminality. Layering phases of separation, transition and incorporation can be used as a strategy in architectural route design to construct a liminal odyssey. Finally to conceive the greatest sense of escapism within the musical oasis, parameters of intimacy and visual relations play a significant role. Nevertheless, other parameters can be used, depending on audience personality, which is related to musical genre.
Another aspect of designing for escapism is to create a world specific to music. To achieve this, the architecture should be a complete opposite to the organisational and contextual rules. In spite of this contrast, the building will still have to respond to the surroundings in a way that is characterised by its own architectural language. Only then will it become a fluid visitor route free of all limitations, purely based on the people and their liminal odyssey in anticipation of attending a concert.

Music Kathedraal is a new cultural hub in Binckhorst, The Hague. Current waste processing facility was repurposed into a music building with strong supporting public program. The variety of functions is expanding the scope of target users creating a complex, more attractive building. It contains two halls for music performance, a big hall – Kathedraal, and a small one – Chapel. Big hall is versatile and able to transform in order to host different genres of music. Rest of the time, when music is not performed in big hall, retractable seating and stage allow it to quickly change into a conference room, fashion show venue, cinema, etc.

Exterior aesthetics of the existing building designed by Jan Brouwer in 1995 was preserved because of its specific appearance and importance as an exemplar of high-tech architecture. The most prominent part of the building is wavy roof with pointy, tower-like construction. Majority of the façade is opened in order to make this, now closed to public, building attractive and inviting.

Architecture often manifests itself for a multitude of decades in the built environment, as something that is static. It is in itself an end-result, often designed as a seamless whole, specifically applicable within the design of music venues. These are often iconic objects within city fabrics, sometimes only accessible by one specific target group. The spatial configuration and experiences within the building are staying the same during its lifespan. If our cities, environments, technologies, economies and even our own ideas, activities and (musical) preferences change constantly, why do we construct and design architecture still as something that is fixed, rigid, pre-established, and permanent? Can we create architecture which generates freedom and is open for interpretation, therefore responding to unforeseen activities? For the design of the music building, a framework is designed, which is indeterminate in its functions. The framework derives from a characteristic crane rail located in the Binckhorst, The Hague (Netherlands), which functions as the ''backbone'' of the whole project. It can be appropriated and used by different groups and (sub)cultures and host various activities. The framework is flexible and can grow over time in which there is not one particular end-result created. By doing this, the building is more resilient towards future societal changes.

This project is based on 2 issues, the degradation of the ecosystem in North Sea and the decommission of offshore platforms.

Climate is changing. Weather conditions are becoming more extreme; we are expecting fiercer storm surges, more intense seasonal precipitation patterns and, in some calculations, up to three meters relative sea level rise.
Especially the south coast of the North Sea will be affected the most. Particularly in the Netherlands, the coastal topography is shallow and densely populated.

Rotterdam is one of the lowest urban areas along the south coast and it is here where changes will be most apparent. The city is built in a natural river delta, which has been altered extensively in the last millennia to facilitate a desirable and safe living environment for its inhabitants, initiating in the 14th century by damming the river Rotte. From then on, the settlement around the lock mechanism has evolved into one of the biggest urban areas in the Netherlands. It is here, where floods would cause economic loss through property damage and therefore social disruption to the population.

My aim was to investigate into the most vulnerable residential districts of the city: Noordereiland, the sole urban river island of Rotterdam, proved itself as the first neighbourhood to flood in a case of high water levels. Not protected by dikes and lying the lowest above current mean water level, it presents itself as the most urgent district to investigate, seeing it as an ideal urban test laboratory to asses solutions to flooding in an urban environment.

Firstly, limiting myself to the extents of the urban block, my project aim was to develop a systematic of how to convert the morphology of it under the extreme scenario of flooding. The system is composed of repetitive added portal structures, which span over the existing buildings. These build the framework for a new vertical circulation system, originating in corner gaps of the blocks. The circulatory system is built up by arcades on the inside and outside facades of the block, affixed to the sides of the portals. The new system converts the individual access routes of the units into a collective one for the whole block. Furthermore, extending over the whole island, these arcades, connecting the individual blocks by bridges, provide a new three-dimensional route across the whole district, providing it with an alternative plane to the flooded ground floor. Additionally, the portal structure provides a new foundation for added structures on top of the existing buildings, which compensate for the lost ground floor level.

The project is experimenting in how the urban block could re-structure its morphology to cope with flooding. The purpose of the added structure is not to act as an autonomous piece of architecture, superimposed onto the existing fabric. However, as a supporting system to aid the morphological conversion of the block, and in turn, the whole island.

We are living in the Anthropocene; a period of time shaped by, and for, dominance of the human race. Barely a place or species sharing this earth remains unaffected by our activity. Humans treat other animals as commodities, objects available to be exploited. They are used for our gain and pleasure, at great cost to those individuals involved and indeed to entire species. The North Sea, surrounded by many of the world’s most powerful nations is suffering from catastrophic overfishing. Trillions of fish are killed each year, a scale of extraction so huge it is leaving ecosystems on the brink of collapse. A disconnect in our empathy for other species is further widened by the border between land and sea, the familiar and the unknown, between us and them. Scalloway is a small town in the Shetland Isles, 260 miles North East of Scotland. It sits in a wild, beautiful and romanticised landscape, surely the epitome of nature. Yet the islands are dominated by intense and ever growing salmon farms, highly destructive both to the fish who are farmed and the environment the industry dominates. As demand continues to grow, consumers typically have very little connection to the producers or the impacts felt by production. Scalloway is left in a state of constant adaptation, intensification and increasing dependency. Alternatives to animal-based foods exist and the arguments for their adoption, from nutrient profile to sustainability to animal welfare is compelling, so why haven’t we changed our approach to production? Food, despite playing an essential, daily part of each and every of our lives, appears to be the last aspect we are willing to adapt or change. It is embedded within our social, cultural and emotional connections: a change to our eating can bring so much more. Taking Scalloway as a precedent, a new approach to food production is envisaged, using spatial design as a tool to challenge, inspire and shift patterns in our daily lives. It harnesses the technical capability of architecture, providing the physical infrastructure for a new system of production, yet combines this with the aesthetic qualities it imbues to inspire, attract and reinforce the positivity of new possibilities. Finally, it breaks down barriers and thresholds to provide spatial connections, bringing together producer and consumer and creating habitats not only for humans but for all species to thrive. Understanding the process of change as a series of provocations, reminders and inspirations, cultural (ex)change invites the visitor on a journey. A series of moments mark the gradual transition from the comfort and familiarity of the land, to the sublime, unknown of the sea; defamiliarising, reorienting, sharing and expanding. Food production anchors habitat and livelihoods for other species in a mutually beneficial, productive relationship, bringing together human and non-human needs in places of co-existence. Consumption is reunited with production to create a place of experiential education, of discovery and exploration. A place that reconsiders, how we live and who we live alongside, bringing awareness and responsibility back into the public realm, back to the scale of the individual.

The North Sea region’s energy transition has begun. The prospect of how it will happen and what it will look like, however, is still shrouded in uncertainty. What is clear is that this is a mammoth project of unprecedented scale. The sheer quantity of renewables we need to integrate into our energy infrastructures will transform our peri-urban and rural landscapes as we know them. A new spatial order will arise: one of energy landscapes. This thesis has investigated this infrastructural and morphological transition through a transcalar ‘research by design’ approach. It has endeavoured to re-establish the role of architecture as an infrastructural enabler in a projected (extreme flooding and drought) scenario, developing a transcalar spatial order in the Scottish Highlands region of Brora. The project’s agency culminates in striving to achieve symbiosis between the infrastructural design of a proposed hydro-electric energy network, the receiving landscape and the habitable space needed for existing local life. The design focuses on water and electricity delivery to an existing distillery in the area, while also reinterpreting the typological arrangement of the distillery to be as energy efficient as possible. Ultimately, it seeks to break down the cultural divide between ‘urban’ and ‘landscape’.

The graduation project starts from the attention and research to the dynamic water level change in coastal area in North Sea, and by analysising the potential flooding risks, climate-sensitive mudflat, and the relationship between regional ecosystem and local people, the observation to changing coastal landscape are emphasised, to rethink how to reuse the leftover human space to reflect the changing ecological environment, emphasing people's bioregionalism awareness. By Redefining the meanings of the fortification heritage, the meanings of the Grain tower, defencing not only the national territory but defence for the territory defined by the whole nature; not only record the history, but measure the changing nature through time. Key words: Soft edge between sea and land , fortificaton heritage architecture, tidal mudflat, changing horizon, bioregionalism, changing ecological environment

The Netherlands is often depicted as a battleground, with the Dutch in a constant struggle against the water that surrounds them. This project examines this tradition in the context of the Wadden Sea and the island of Schiermonnikoog, where this battle between the land and the sea is at its most extreme.

This project traces the myth of ‘making new land’ by investigating the four major themes from the recent publication ‘Sweet and Salt: The Water and The Dutch’: conflict, concord, profit and pleasure. These themes are adapted and used to analyse the Dutch waterscapes of the Wadden Sea and the island of Schiermonnikoog. The scenario method is then used to project the outcome of this analysis into a future where West Frisian island of Schiermonnikoog is left to nature and risks slowly disappears into the currents of the North Sea. The design intervention narrates a new myth: ‘guarding the water’ by using the typology of a fort. The scenario has four chapters and each of them narrates a different time period of the island’s future. Thus the project derives its name from the heraldic motto of Zeeland: ‘Luctor et Emergo' - ‘I struggle and Emerge’.

We now live in a time when it is now quicker, easier and more efficient to speak to one another, yet it doesn’t always reflect on the fruitfulness in decision making and outcome of a conversation. Face to face conversation is one of the most effective means to converse and the North Sea is a space which needs to be part of the conversation. The research report found that North Sea is a one of the most dense urban seascapes in the world, with each nation taking a piece of the sea for the benefit of themselves rather than seeking to explore the notion of the North Sea as a common. One space; stronger, more resilient and profitable for those interacting with it, whether you are a fisherman or an energy company.

The architecture intervention has led to the notion of a space to gather those interacting in it, to put their nation status aside for the benefit of the North Sea. This space becomes a state of exception, where jurisdiction and sovereignty of one state no longer applies. The site is on Dogger Bank, a former land bridge it becomes a poetic reference to a past time when the United Kingdom was connected to the continental Europe. It is also one the shallowest points of the North Sea, making it physically possible to construct an island.

The design will seek for all nations to contribute to the island, building an aspect of the architecture, to create an emotional connection, so the space feel like theirs. The architecture is designed to be prefabricated and shipped across the North Sea, the island cannot follow typical building methods. The building construction is also dependant on the weather therefore the time to build the island can not follow a traditional schedule.

As a typology the building is a Parliament, but it is more than this. A hybrid building, it goes beyond the traditional parliament set up we know today. It seeks to look at conversation spaces; informal/formal as the main role to get attendees together and discuss matters on the North Sea. Every attendee would have to travel to the island and may find themselves delayed in leaving due to weather conditions. The attendees truly find themselves understanding the environment they are discussing and start to truly respect the environment they are discussing.

The design will question the idea of performance as part of the decision making process. Parliaments today can be very theatrical (United Kingdom). The stage in this concept is very import in the design, it questions its position, is it the main assembly room floor , the informal conversation spaces or is it the North Sea? A part of the performance is the audience, the design questions if it is those attending the parliament or is it audience those beyond, and everyone interacting in the space?

Finally, I ask those reading the book to ultimately question where you position yourself when making a decision, are you an ego (authoritarian, dualistic, self-destructive, imbalanced, power-seeking or eco (democratic, sustainable, balance, interdependent). And what would you do if you attended the parliament?

Past to Present to Past is an architectural investigation responding to the growing need to address sea level rise in the built environment. The two sites of focus are Leysdown-on-Sea, UK and Red Sands Fort in the Thames Estuary.

The Atlantic Wall bunker ruins stand on the coast, abandoned and falling apart. There is a kind of beauty in this scene.

Contradiction between the rough concrete volumes defeated by asoft, ephemeral and seemingly delicate mass of water was the beginning of the research. Analysing the biggest territorial scale -the North Sea- the notion of “clashes” re-appeared. Historically, the North Sea was always an area of conflict. The constant fight between nature and the people trying to harness its power is it its very essence. In this context Atlantic wall seems to be the most contemporary example of the conflict on the area of the North Sea. Remains of Hitler’s plan stretch along the whole coast and in that sense are a direct translation of the territorial scale of the “war” into the architectural one- of a singular building- a bunker.

Yet, the conflict around the Atlantic war was in fact deemed to be a failure from the beginning. From the 15 000 bunkers planned only 6000 were realized by 1943. Then, suddenly, without any actual battle, the war ended. Observing the horizon was the only task of the soldiers until the war came to an end. The “absence” of the war is the essence of this narrative. Conditions of waiting, observing and experiencing the present moment surrounded by nature became a base for guidance and exploration.

Being part of theWadden Sea protected area, the location on the island of Terschelling emphasizes the contrast between the solid bunkers and dynamics of nature. Wadden Sea Islands are known for beautiful constantly changing dunes, inhabited by rich fauna and flora and influenced by regular tidal flows. One of many strong points on the island is the one located just next to the sea-shore, on top of the highest dune was chosen. It consisted of several buildings that were spread around that dune, serving primarily as an observation point.

Now, many years after the bunkers were placed there, some still remain. The passage of time and power of nature has however, changed them. They’ve became ruins. Some walls fell apart, some volumes tilted and moved, some were covered by the sand and overgrown by the grass. The “present ruinous state” of the remnants of the Atlantic Wall was understood here as the fundamental and relevant experience of the history itself and the starting point for the design. Instead of protecting against the forces, the project tries to use them as the main actors in the architectonic setting. The dominant, always present, unstoppable forces of nature are the base for design decisions. The way of
dealing with the knowledge was a strongly intuitive approach, mixing scientific knowledge with atmospheric perception of the nature. Inspiration for dealing with the composition, landscape and the ruins of the bunkers was taken from the archaeological excavation sites- the calculated geometric intervention against the vast masses of land in search of the “treasure” was to be used as the main concept in the design. The project relates to the landscape and experience of walking through the dunes. The wild nature is interpreted into rational concept. The different spaces and their architectonic qualities lead the visitor through subsequent spaces, constantly referring to the context.

The ritual experience begins by leaving the village or the parking area and entering through one of two gates. From a distance, only some of the bunker ruins and the skylights protruding through the sand are visible. Only when cutting through the ground and the building inside are the dimensions of the places revealed. The main buildings are almost all underground and are developed by taking from the architectural language of the bunkers.


The project tries to anticipate the flows of nature and takes the future time into consideration. Even though the building has a function to serve people at the beginning, it doesn’t have to be occupied all the time. It is a monument and its future role is to be there, in the constant condition of anticipation. Following the story of the bunkers that were left on sand to become ruins the concrete buildings are also going to stay and slowly deteriorate.

The cycle will close waiting for yet another chapter.

Research in the field of climate change, requires the access to, and knowledge in data of the specific subject. The research we -as graduate students- started off with a general but deep understanding of the changing environment, borders, cultures and landscapes in and around the delta areas surrounding the North Sea. Building up our research through mapping, there was one question that would repeatedly come up; where does the data come from?

Although the question aimed towards the sources upon which the research was done, the question for me went further than that. It became part of my research into the question, What is the source of climate change data?

The first step was to look into the sequence in which we as humans translate the raw data into something we call knowledge. In other words, giving context to raw data and giving meaning to information to create knowledge. Although this is an existing sequence, the concept provides the base upon which I further developed my research. Besides the basic sequence in which raw data is being turned into knowledge or wisdom, I found a similar sequence connecting the natural landscape as we know it, to the digital and immaterial artificial world of data.

German artist and landscape architect Hans Dieter Schaal worked aroud this theme in his 1978 essay and accompanying sketches, Paths and Passages and Spaces. The book is a synthesis of his previous work on continuous spaces and the fluid dynamics between the natural and the artificial. In his book: Paths passages and spaces, he describes one of his drawing as a landscape as ‘a path from a scientific-technical environment to a romantic environment. To me, it establishes a certain relation between ‘nature’ or as Schaal names ‘romantic’ and the artificial environment, as Schaal names it the scientific-technical environment.

First, Second and Third Nature
In Garden Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory, John Dixon Hunt identifies the cultural landscape (agriculture, urban development, roads etc.) with Cicero's 'second nature.' In De natura deorum Cicero wrote "We sow corn, we plant trees, we fertilize the soil by irrigation, we dam the rivers and direct them where we want. In short, by means of our hands we try to create as it were a second nature within the natural world. The second nature is based upon transforming and framing the landscape by the use of physical borders.


" 'First nature' - wilderness - is the realm of the gods, but it is also the raw material for second nature. John Dixon Hunt thinks that Cicero's formulation would have been in the mind of Jacopo Bonfadio when he wrote in 1541 to a fellow humanist that gardens make a 'third nature, which I would not know how to name.' Later in the century, another humanist Bartolomeo Taegio also used the term 'terza natura' or third nature, in describing gardens. The third nature is therefor based upon having total control over nature, in what and how we exhibit nature through the human controlled design of a garden.

Using the concept of the first, second and third nature as an analogy, I am translating the concept of the second nature to the adaptation nature from which we no longer extract agricultural resources, but rather extract data. Secondly, I loop at the third nature no longer as the garden that Cicero describes as the manifestation and exhibition of nature, but rather a curated exhibition of the extracted data. By doing so, I open a new

The Fourth Nature
With the concept of the first second and third nature defined, it arose the question about a possible fourth nature. It is an environment furthest away from the first nature; the natural environment as we know it in the first second or third nature no longer exist. In the fourth nature, it is assumed that every part of the natural environment is translated into the digital environment and therefor, the natural environment is no longer present. It is important to understand that to the inevitable step between the state of the natural environment and the state of the digital environment

Rome is a city that has always been described as an eternal city. This eternal character can be found through the many traces that Rome contains of former states within its physical environment. When researching these traces, an interesting conclusion can be drawn; almost all physical elements have either fallen into decay or have continuously moved with the city to meet the needs of new social structures. But nowadays with the declaration of the city centre of Rome as one large monument, this is no longer possible. While at the same time the current social structure is crumbling. This is particularly visible with all of the Roman churches. Christianity is losing relevance fast and these church become nothing but museumpieces in the city that are no longer contributing to the current social structure of Rome. That is why this thesis proposes a radical move; to provide space in the city center for new architectural experiments by moving 10 of the 400 churches to a new location outside the city center. With the collection of 10 churches also a grand experiment will be conducted, creating a gigantic second hand religious market, using the historical logistical character of the new location. Continuing Rome is about giving the city the impulse to restart the layering that makes Rome great and to give Rome back to its own citizens for a new eternity.

This project seeks to reclame the Tiber for the City of Rome and in doing so will create a physical interface which blurs the boundaries between the river and land. The water of the river and a piece of the City's industrial heritage will be re_appropriated within this project for the creation of; a brewery, a performance venue, a social hub and a city-centre oasis. The abandoned site of the Papal arsenal and the neglected Tiber are brought back to life through the social function of the program, brought back into the metabolism of the vibrant city of Rome

The relationship between industry and market, in the Netherlands of the 17th century, was based on a sustainable model. It linked small scale producers with consumers through a system of canal boats, maritime technology and agricultural innovations.
This marketproduction connection was carried out by farmers known as ‘warmoeziers’. In 21th century Netherlands, canal transportation or ‘binnenvaart’ is acquiring more importance thanks to economical and sustainable benefits.
Complimentary to the global seaports, the canal boats can reach directly the customers in the cities. This revival of ‘binnenvaart’ can allow for a new type of city market to emerge, where automatization, innovations in food production and vibrant public life goes hand in hand with a lower CO2 footprint. The aim of this ‘warmoezier market’ is to merge the state of contemporary port-cities with the expertise of the past resulting in a market building.