The Vertical Campus in The Hague redefines the synergy between educational institutions and urban environments amid increasing urbanization and scarcity of (public) space. By transitioning from a traditional horizontal sprawling campus to a vertical framework, this concept addresses the challenges and opportunities of this transformation. This project strives to expand the city’s public space “vertically” to create a place where The Hague can escape from all the hustle and tension. Central to this concept is the “Vertical Town Square,” which provides the basis to weave the education campus into the urban fabric, aiming to reduce the anonymity in the densely built-up high-rise areas and create a place to stay in the city.

The Vertical Town Square transcends conventional educational atmosphere by creating a dynamic and inclusive environment that supports both formal and informal space for development and interaction. The focus of this concept is not on the interaction of different cultures, but on encouraging interactions that occur unconsciously to create a social and interactive context. The squares are unprogrammed places where spontaneity and informal encounters can flourish, while preserving and enhancing the intrinsic value of existing public spaces. This integration serves as inspiration for the multiple town squares, each with its own unique spatial design features, which enrich the academic and social domains by facilitating collaborative and experiential learning.

In higher education, "teaching" often refers to lecturing. Teaching at universities involves more than just lecturing, it involves creating conditions conducive to learning that involve relational, personal and emotionally challenging activities. This environment transcends traditional static classrooms and provides a dynamic and interactive environment for both formal and informal learning. Contemporary society often ignores the fundamental role of universities and rarely questions their importance or function. It is essential to see universities as institutions that shape a culture of lifelong learning within the community. This approach enriches the community but also responds to changing spatial dynamics. This creates a space where educational and social interactions can coexist, supporting lifelong learning and active participation in the community.

The building's various town squares are integrated into the urban landscape, allowing the Vertical Campus to promote inclusivity and accessibility while keeping education a public good. The campus provides environments that offer both extroverted and introverted functions, such as squares for meeting, creativity and relaxation that allow for unexpected encounters, serendipity and innovation. This diverse building supports exchange and diversity of development and promotes a living space that accommodates disorder and dissonance. Individuals can only participate in and contribute to changing our time if they are given the opportunity to shape it themselves. The campus will provide a platform for this.

The final conception of my music marvel is to create a binary musical community center with auditorium and rooms for music therapy/school purposes but also creating a space for urban “flaneur” the wanderer of the city that can visit accidently and still have memorable experiences through seasonal exhibitions and pop up shows. The space will be divided into active and passive spaces, in which the active space will consist of an auditorium and acoustics insulated rooms for musical activities, and the passive space with an amphitheater in an open space with possibilities to enclose or create exhibitions through ephemeral structures such as scaffolding. The two spaces will be “divided” through a sphere roof structure creating a “surreal” different experience both from the outside and in the inside. The dome will also help with the passive climate system making the center more sustainable. Although defined, the active spaces also can be flexible as they will have modular adaptable structures that can become the desired size.



“Form does not follow function. Function follows vision. Vision follows reality.” ( Kiesler,1949)



As Huizinga states in his book Homo Ludens, it is essential for humanity to maintain the play element for the development of society. As a result, the Music Marvel initiative may benefit society by adding a layer of that playfulness to the urban environment. More than just playfulness, it will be a place where music will be boosted to reach the guests’ unconscious thoughts and assist them escape the stresses of everyday life.
The structure will serve both as cultural hub and an artifact, with the goal of assisting in qualifying the city by inspiring discussions that go beyond the architecture but as a vehicle and instrument for change. A mental curating center through music.

Crafted with Care imagines a small-batch bean-to-bar artisanal chocolaterie producing luxury craft chocolate, sited within a space of 1000 square meters on a sloped terrain in the medieval town of Gruyères in Switzerland, located at the top of an 82 meter-high hill overlooking the Saane valley. The rural town of Gruyères specializing in milk production and cattle breeding remains a popular tourist destination for the traditional precision craftsmanship of the infamous cheese and chocolate production. The existing family-owned chocolaterie, Chocolaterie de Gruyères, producing artisanal craft chocolate is integrated with the existing fortification at the entrance of Gruyères with proximity to regional products—such as double cream, Friborg milk, Morello cherries, Swiss kirsch, and Swiss cane beets—for their dark or milk "bean to bar" chocolate products. However, the new engagement of the chocolaterie with Hermès, a family-owned French house recognized for its luxury crafted goods, to preserve the craft of chocolate-making from its forthcoming extinction requires a new development of Chocolaterie de Gruyères to express the luxury and craft of chocolate-making and is thus sited in an exclusive heritage monument of the fort tower, offering a parallel exclusivity that compliments the product identity. The chocolaterie—committed to the tenets of traceability—is redesigned to additionally function as a gallery, educating the visitors on the transparency of chocolate processing and the value of craft production through the implicit connection with the maker. Through the disintegration of chocolate production into its layers of programmatic elements, the chocolaterie tends to highlight the precision at each level of chocolate-making, while providing different transitional routes for the varying consumer flux. The integration of the new intervention with the existing fortifications creates visual and transitional vistas overlooking the chocolate production, thus connecting the preservation of the building with the preservation of the craft of the inherently luxurious chocolates.
The site in the car-free village has proximity to parking areas, is located at a distance of 800 meters from the railway station, and at a distance of 90 meters from the bus stop with excellent connectivity for the transport of these chocolates into the major Swiss trade routes in Europe. A resultant modified supply chain will allow Swiss local experts to introduce a new distribution network of real chocolate across the Blue Banana, under a premium brand, eventually customizing the consumer experience in Albert in Delft through a branded shop-in-a-shop to reach a target demography with its artisanal opulence.

The ultimate aim of this research is to create a theoretical framework for the design of a multifunctional cultural waterfront on the edge of the Tarwewijk in Rotterdam South. From this follows the main research question: How can the regeneration of a waterfront into a cultural area add social and cultural value to the Tarwewijk and Rotterdam South? There is a strong cultural division between the North and South of Rotterdam what leads into the fewer access to culture and lower demand for culture in the South of Rotterdam. Knowing this, the redevelopment of an underused unconnected waterfront in the South of Rotterdam into a cultural area can lead to unwanted social effects, like no social and cultural connection to the neighbourhood and by this it could lead to gentrification. It is important to develop a cultural area that adds social and cultural value to the neighbourhood and that this area is part of the neighbourhood (tangible and intangible). This can narrow the (cultural) gap between the North and South of Rotterdam. This happens because both culture becomes more inclusive and approachable for the local people and the population of Rotterdam South become culturally richer. In order to investigate this, The research that follows focusses on three hypothetic parts of the solution. The first one is multifunctionality. This subject will be researched through the questions: What does multifunctionality entail? How can multifunctionality benefit the cultural area? How can multifunctionality be beneficial to the neighbourhood? And how do multifunctionality and multiculturality relate to each other? The second subject is identity. The sub questions for this are: What creates this identity? How can identity benefit the museum? How can identity be beneficial the neighbourhood? The last subject is connection. In this part there will be focus on how can tangible and intangible connections can be established between the site and the neighbourhood with as main goal to integrate the museum with the neighbourhood. For every of the three subjects firstly there will be done a literature research to theorize the subject and get a grip on the main principles of the subject matter. I will research what others have done in the field of multifunctionality, identity and connection and from there I will try to come up with my own hypothesis about these subjects. After that case studies will be conducted where the aspects of multifunctionality, identity and connection will be analysed. After that site specific research will be done to form a conclusion about the information that is gained from the literature and the case studies. In this research and design I want to redefine the way cultural area’s and museums are looked upon to make them more attractive to a wider audience that normally wouldn’t visit a cultural area or museum. It aims to create an alternative to the classic typology of the museum. The research and design try to show that a museum or cultural area can also function in a more social and inclusive way. This case can then be an example for future projects.

Haven is a public condenser with the ambition to change a social condition through architectural form and its contingency. Within a vision of networked public spaces to contrast urban-induced segregation in Copenhagen, the project aims to encourage social interactions by including broadly diverse recreational activities. It performs as a 'sharing platform', open to diverse organizations and individuals to maximize the use of space over time. Its unique circulation zone made of a sequence of platforms enhances accessibility, enables users to self-organize furniture and routing. Haven heralds the future of more collaborative and adaptable public spaces in urban contexts.

Commons of Care is situated in Skydebanehaven Park within the post-renewal district of Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark. As part of the chair of Public Building, the project plays on the two aspects of everyday life that concern the public as participants: commons and care, material and immaterial, goods and services. Implicit in the title is an acceptance that forms of care (daycares and elderly-care centres) are common goods. Care as a resilient urban marker provides a framework that concerns the marginalised multitude of the city, namely the immigrant (“newcomers”) and elderly (“late-agers”) populations in the city. The design is guided by four principles (cure, curation, collectivity, connectivity) that suggest multiple interventions for realising the aspiration for a public condenser. The concept of care legitimises coexistence between multiple communities where accessibility and inclusivity become benchmarks for a renewed definition of liveability in Europe.
CARE: Guided by the principle that welfare ties to wellbeing and excludes no one.
CURE: Providing relief for the those in need, cure offers a support network.
CURATION: The verb “to care” derives from the Latin ‘curare’ which is inscribed etymologically in the word “to curate”.
COLLECTIVITY: Cure and curation come within a collaborative framework of shared identity: assemblage, togetherness, solidarity, belonging.
CONNECTIVITY: Offer new opportunities in the city that connect to people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised.

The Fortællingernes Hus acts as a public condenser, in which multiplicity is used to create unity on multiple levels. Thereby it aims to prevent polarisation and stimulate social mixing in Vesterbro (Copenhagen); a neighbourhood that has been in the process of gentrification. More specifically, it aims to ensure that the benefits of economic growth will be shared by both the original and the new inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

In order to do so, the building is embedded in its direct urban context and the intrinsic qualities of the project site are emphasised. Formal and informal ways of storytelling are combined in curiosity evoking architecture; to make boundaries fade and stimulate its users to interact and inspire each other.

The PUBLIC CONDENSER provides a framework for interesting meetings between culture and movement and between people. It will be a place where people of different ages, exercise habits, cultural consumption and lifestyles encounter each other. It should be a place where there is room to be with friends and family, but also a place where you meet new people. The physical form of the PUBLIC CONDENSER must support these meetings, so there is opportunity to follow many of the ongoing activities and be inspired by what others are doing. External facilities must provide interactive cultural experiences and encourage people to play and exercise, contributing to the dynamic city life in the area.

The specific study of multi functionality within the realm of public architecture is a niche which has had to invent itself relatively recently to cope with increases in both demands and limitations of available space. I consider this discipline to have more potential than simply forcing functions together under the same roof. The Public Condenser offers a research platform into the investigation of what makes a cohabitation of functions into a ‘single’ project. This investigation has the aim to demonstrate that non-complimentary functions can co-habitate together if the element of multiplicity is showcased. In doing so, the aim is to not only challenge the idea of a multi-functional building, but also use such an approach on other projects which could benefit from being a part of a whole rather than systematically kept apart. The single-use building is an increasingly unlikely scenario in an architectural context where rising demand requires increasingly complex solutions to meet rapidly changing contexts.

This project investigates the development of a public condenser in a public park called the Melis Stokepark, in the neighborhood Morgenstond in The Hague Southwest. It focusses on social interaction and aims to invoke meeting between the local residents of the area, by creating an social urban hub in between a low profile building complex. Multiplicity in architecture is one of the key components and makes its way into the project in various ways.

The field of architecture is extensively faced with densification and gentrification. In pre-war neighbourhoods there is a dilemma between adding housing stock and simultaneously improving the existing stock in terms of sustainability. In the contemporary society these neighbourhoods are distinguished as troubled areas with unilateral demographical social class, poverty, below-average health issues and poor quality of public space. Gentrification aims on one hand to introduce a new diversity in these neighbourhoods and on the other improve the quality of the public space. Without municipal interference, repression and displacement of current inhabitants becomes inevitable and the opposite of diversification occurs. Consequently, municipalities recognizes the phenomena and introduce new regulation to cope with the issue and prevent the displacement of inhabitants. By replacing the old stock of building they set the condition that social housing can’t be reduced and by densifying the already existing social housing should be rebuild. These visions result in a new social cohesion wherein different contradictory groups co-exist in the neighbourhood with more contrasts in society. Public buildings have to deal with tensions and contrasts of the site-specific condition in order to guide the process of gentrification and should offer an act of interchangeability in which groups can benefit from each other socially, culturally and personally. The negative connotation of gentrification can turned around with public building to function as precursor that emphasizes a new rich layer of exchange between all present groups. An interchangeability that is able, within the converging multiple purposes of the building, to lift contrast between the ‘gentrified’ and the ‘gentrifier’ and emphasise the notion of generic properties of human behaviour and stressing the interaction of cultural activities of exchange and equality.