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In this reflection paper, a new proposal for Nepalese schools is explained. After the earthquake, more than 8000 schools are damaged and need to be renewed. Making one typology , which can changes according to the different climate zones in Nepal. In the design it is important to try to keep the typical Nepalese characteristics besides a little touch of the modern European architecture. Proposing a new building typology, with the preference of using local materials, new techniques, try to understand the knowledge of the Nepalese people and apply their construction methods. By keeping elements of the existing school it can be seen as a renovation of the building instead of making a totally ne school building. Mostly a renovation of the facade, using the knowledge of the community. Thereby the people of each village can help to rebuild the school building, make it a community building, which can be used for the whole village. Redesigning the facade of the school building is to improve the interior conditions, light, heating and cooling. Try to make it a more ecological building by using materials in the near environment. The title of the project refers to the different boundaries represented in a residential house. By making flexible walls, the people of the village can decide how and when they use each boundary.

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In this project I will be investigating the consequences of an ageing population and housing stock in Flanders and tackling the taboo of demolition. Although most buildings will eventually face demolition, this process is rarely designed despite it’s inescapable role within the discipline. The widespread promotion of home ownership in Flanders since the late 19th century has cemented this form of living as the dominant type to this day. In addition to the political outcome, culturally homes have become intrinsically linked to personal identities which can be most sharply seen in the Flemish context where the eclectic tastes of homeowners are displayed side by side across the region. The lack of restrictions which enabled rapid suburbanisation have left much of the land unusable for other purposes. As the initial boom was spatially unplanned and subsequent planning was retroactive it lacked a long term vision for how the territory would change in future: where the next wave of construction could occur, what would happen when land ran out or when homes became vacant. I hope to demonstrate that in order to tackle the problems of sprawl and improve the resilience of the region, demolition will need to be part of the long term plan as well as the Betonstop. A restructuring of the territory would consolidate services, improve the landscape and the quality of the built environment. Although this project is a reflection on the whole region, I have chosen a specific area as a test site. The Kortrijk metropolitan area is shrinking and therefor will experience the issues of an ageing population and housing stock before others. Although there are some specifically local factors in the project, I have tried to focus on conditions which are typical in Flanders in order to create a strategy which is relevant at a larger scale. The project looks at scales of unbuilding from the region (Flanders); province (West Flanders); municipality (Kortrijk); Village (Bellegem) and Site (Edge, Ribbon, Gap site). There are four strategies explored for what to do with land liberated through unbuilding; densification in open areas, the creation of polycentric civic spaces on the edges of settlements and the complete unbuilding of ribbon developments to create green networks and agricultural zones. The densification scheme explores high density, low rise patio housing as an alternative to the fermette typology in suburbs as a new way of dwelling.

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Nowadays, Food and food production have an essential impact on our climate. The current environmental changes affect the sustainability of the production as well. Because of the gradual shrinkage in arable lands in rural areas in addition to the cutbacks on crop yields over time, the food supply is becoming unstable, facing challenges in producing, harvesting, and collecting crops in a sufficient way. Not only that, but the ability to feed the constant growing population is at risk. However, the long food chain contributes to the level of CO2 emissions, lowering the chance of having fresh and healthy food. Above all, the people are becoming more and more disconnected from the whole food process. By zooming in on the city of Ghent and comparing it with the past years, there is a much higher level of awareness regarding the food issue. while most of the developments are still small-scale. This has a minimal impact on the quantity and quality of food produced and slowly influences the ecological footprint. Therefore, the challenge here is to take action on a larger scale in order to provide a sustainable, healthy food system. In the neighbourhood of Sluizeken-Tolhuis-Ham, Voormuide there is a dire need to develop an urban food system. The population of young adults between ages 18-30 is constantly growing as Ghent is a youth city. Nevertheless, the housing types in the neighbourhood are mainly for families without taking into consideration the active youth community presented in the area in particular, and in the whole city in general. Additionally, looking into the existing situation in the neighbourhood, there is a potential to reactivate the existing urban structure since it contains some unused buildings and neglected lands. Hence, there is an essential need to integrate the youth age group and reconsider the available urban elements as a new opportunity for future development in the site. The aim of this thesis was to explore the possibility of designing a mixed-use project based on three main aspects related to the healthy city strategy proposed for the common master plan. Starting from “Feed healthy”, reducing the food miles by creating a food experience in the inner city of Ghent. “Lead healthy” community-oriented activities and functions to integrate and prepare future leaders. “Build healthy” rethink the existing structure and use a food system as a main design tool. While analysing the site, the intention of having a green, commercial, and live-work active area is obvious. However, the food is extremely lacking. It is rare to find initiatives related to local food production, and Gent en Garde activities and food cultivation are minimal. Moreover, there was vacant land and buildings located in an interesting position on the corner acting as an entrance to the neighbourhood. These factors were taken into consideration during the research as it has a great influence on the final decision regarding the design project and its location.

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Ghent is a habitat for all different kind of people such as students, older people, youngsters, etc. All different kinds of cultures find their place in this beautiful city. But of course are there also a lot of problems that were the basis for my project. The site I am working on is Dampoort station. It’s a very busy place but will change dramatically in the future. Nowadays, half of the site is abandoned and there is a big opportunity to improve the site to a place where mobility, culture and green comes together in one project. ‘How can new coming people be integrated in the existing environment?’, is my research question. I discovered that Ghent knows two kind of people that come to the city The new coming people: visitors that come to the city temporary such as workers, students, tourists and living people. The second group are the citizens that already live in the City. The result of my research was that there was a big problem with this second group, especially the younger people gathering in the streets. This was an opportunity to include in my design. As a solution for this problem, I designed a dancecenter and want to combine it with a hostel, which is nowadays lacking in the neighbourhood. In this way, it brings the two types of groups, new coming people and existing environment, together at one place. This can work together in a very interesting way.

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By means of the conceptual 13th annual ring of Stockholm, I believe it is possible to achieve a shift in the approach towards urban development in the city. This new approach can result in a new type of urbanity which is characterized by the notions of co-creation, diversity, density and small-scale and which starts with the recognition of the existing urban structures or ‘tabula plena’. As proven in this reflection paper, this strategy can be implemented on three different scales. The first scale is the one of the city fabric of Stockholm. Literally, the 13th ring can be visualized by the many brown fields located in the half-central belt of Stockholm which are each very specific and need to be tackled one by one considering the existing urban structures. This means the city cannot redevelop the whole central belt on a large scale and interaction with different actors will be crucial. Creativity is needed in order to redevelop this urban fabric while preserving the identity and character of those places. A second scale that deals with these 4 criteria of the new type of urbanity is the scale of the Färgfabriken site which serves as a pilot project in this paper. Since many actors and owners are already present here, participation is the first condition for redevelopment. The rich mix of vacant buildings in between still operating is asking for adaptive reuse. By implementing a new programme according to the qualities of the buildings, the buildings can be used again to their full potential. Already various primary functions are present on site, but by adding some new programmes, such as residential and leisure, the site becomes more dense and can serve as a cultural magnet for the neighbourhood and therefore attract a great diversity of users. Due to the re-devision of the properties on site, it is not possible for private developers to develop the whole site at once. The different zones for residential development ensure that the projects stays small-scale and enlarge the possibility to participate with the future users. The last scale on which the strategy can be applied is the scale of the collective housing development in zone 5. This development is co-created in the sense that I, as the architect, tried to involve a diverse mix of future users in the design process and designed for their specific needs. This approach is cost-saving and boosts the sense of community at the same time. By interlacing the units like tetris blocks, a high density in terms of occupation is achieved. The spatial structure of alleyways, squares and courtyards provides separated yet overlapping accesses to the units and stimulates social interaction between the neighbours. This collective housing project embodies the four criteria of the new type of development and could be a case-study for other redevelopments within the 13th annual ring of Stockholm. To conclude I can say that ‘Promiscuous Assemblages’, which is the title of this Master dissertation studio, occur on each of the three scales mentioned above. The city of Stockholm can be described as a promiscuous assemblage of rings, the site as a promiscuous assemblage of old and new urban structures and the collective housing project as a promiscuous assemblage of people.