Brandes Verhagen Kroemer (e.brandes@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Meijer / Salet

Frieling

in concept

around Almere in all European countries

Concept Potentiele opdracht van de gemeente Almere, samen met het INTI, ten behoeve van de toekomst van Almere: nu groeistad voor de overloop van Amsterdam met (2007) 185.000 inwoners op weg naar een stad met 350.000 inwoners, die in meerdere mate zelfstandig kan worden. Vraagstelling Wat kan een middelgrote stad van 350.000 inwoners zijn, wat kan zij te bieden hebben; betekent verdubbeling meer van hetzelfde of zal daar een grotere diversiteit kunnen zijn en een hoger niveau aan activiteiten, cultuur, bevolkingscategorieën, instellingen en bedrijvigheid. Uiteraard heeft het voorzieningenniveau met meer te maken dan alleen de kwantitatieve omvang, ook van invloed zijn: - de groeitijd (een oude stad heeft meer verscheidenheid te bieden dan een in korte tijd ontwikkelde stad), - de ligging in een al dan niet verstedelijkte omgeving (regionale verzorgingsfunctie) en de aanwezigheid van ‘concurrerende steden in de nabijheid’ en - ruimtelijke constellatie: geconcentreerd of gespreid model, aanwezigheid van een deel met hoge dichtheid. - bereikbaarheid, centrale ligging, stations en snelwegen, aanwezigheid van een luchthaven Erg belangrijk is ook wat de stad zelf wil, het beleid, wat voor soort stad wil zij zijn: voornamelijk een heel prettige woonstad, of ook een stad met een rijk cultureel leven of met een sterke economische functie. Of een stad met een typische identiteit, bijvoorbeeld een badplaats of havenstad. Om de discussie daarover richting te geven, in relatie met deze kwantatieve groeitaak, heeft Almere behoefte aan voorbeelden van middelgrote (qua omvang overeenkomstig) steden in Europa. Selectie van steden Gezocht moet worden naar een breed pakket van verschillende steden. De stad wordt gekozen omdat hij of op een of andere wijze een voorbeeld kan zijn voor Almere, of omdat er duidelijke parallelen te trekken zijn. Interessant zijn: nieuwe steden en oude steden met een uitgesproken identiteit en een uitgebreid of specifiek voorzieningenpakket; gestabiliseerde, goed functionerende steden en steden in snelle ontwikkeling, zelfstandige, complete steden en gerelateerde steden (de andere helft van de dubbelstad), bij voorkeur in Europa.

Ir. C. Sezer (c.sezer@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2005 - Jan 2009

Prof.dipl.-ing. H.J. Rosemann

Dr. Stephen Read

Spacelab

Amsterdam / Istanbul

Summary: This thesis aims to investigate the spatial and temporal variables of the daily visibility patterns of an Anatolian-Turkey origin immigrant community in the public sphere, in Amsterdam and Istanbul. Among various forms of public sphere, my focus will be on streets, parks, and some specific casual meeting places (tea houses, mosques) in the chosen neighborhood case studies. Through this investigation, I aim to develop / test urban design strategies to generate possibilities for co-presence of diverse urban groups to stimulate ‘unassimilated tolerance to the social differences’ in the city. The final product will be an atlas with urban design strategies, which can be translated into real urban design or development process by planners, designers and policy makers Case Studies: The proposed case studies are high immigrant populated districts in Amsterdam (Indische buurt and Bos en Lommer) and Istanbul (Sultanbeyli and Gaziosmanpasa). The aim to choose two different cities with different social and physical dynamics is not to construct a comparative study, rather to provide a rich empirical ground to observe / measure spatial and temporal variables of visibility patterns of an urban community with similar background.

Ir. M.J. van Dorst (M.vanDorst@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.ir. C.A.J. Duijvestein

Environmental Design

In the years ahead, housing needs are going to become qualitative rather than quantitative. Demand on the housing market is already becoming more diversified – a process that is being accelerated by new forms and styles of living. This means that it will become impossible to rent or sell houses that have been written off in economic or structural terms. Quality and living comfort will become the determining factors in what is a sustainable built-up environment. However, there is no framework or model that can (or will be able to) support claims about liveability in relation to the context of society and the physical and natural environment. The purpose of the research is to investigate the way in which liveability and sustainability will be able to reinforce each other. The most important relation is an ecological liveability in which the environments facilitate a durable quality of life. Important factors within this type of liveability are a sense of control on social interaction and a non-anonymity physical environment. This leads to design guidelines for a sustainable liveable neighbourhood

Ir. R. Rocco (r.rocco@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2004 - Jan 2008

Prof.dipl.-ing. H.J. Rosemann

Chair of Urban Renewal and Management

Randstad-Holland, Sao Paulo

How is Globalisation changing the form and structure of cities today? Deceptively simple, this question presents us with a number of methodological challenges and unanswered theoretical problems. First and most important, what is globalization? Can we define a series of distinctive new phenomena constituting a coherent and logical outline? Second, do these phenomena influence the form and the shape of cities today? Is there a ‘new global city’, recognisable by distinctive spatial features from previous times, or are ‘new global spaces simply a continuation of processes already at play?’ Our hypothesis is that, just like in previous shifts of economic production, processes related to the internationalisation of the economy have resulted in some convergent transformation in urban form and structure in globalizing cities all over the world. However, convergent transformation emerges from very particular historic and social processes in each city. Old and new phenomena are in constant interplay and spatial outcomes may be very different at first sight. The dichotomy between globalizing and non-globalizing spaces may contribute for social and spatial division and polarisation in cities. On the other hand, the demands of "global" economic agents are quite similar, particularly in the most dynamic sector of the globalised economy: advanced producer services. Ernst & Young seeks approximately the same locational advantages in Buenos Aires as in Kuala Lumpur. What are these locational advantages? What kind of infrastructures and urban landscapes do advanced business services search for in order to locate their activities? In order to answer these questions, the backbone of this research is the analyses of the locational choices of command activities (trans-national corporations and advanced producer services headquarters), which we regard as some of the ‘top players’ of globalisation. Simultaneously, the study of Large Urban Projects carried out by the public sector in order to attract those functions of command gives us the background, where public policies and actions can be analysed. Our main research questions are: - How are urban form and structure in globalizing cities being affected by the progressive internationalization of economy? - How do the locational choices of command activities (trans-national corporations and advanced producer services headquarters) shape places in global cities? - Which are the spatial-structural conditions that have arisen as comparative advantages in order to attract command activities? In order to answer these questions, I analyse large urban projects in two distinctive but representative globalising urban regions: São Paulo and The Randstad.

Ir. G.J. Bruyns (G.Bruyns@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.dipl.-ing. H.J. Rosemann

Dispo_za_tif: spatial mechanisms and a revised spatial reading of the contemporary city: is an urban research project that is a formal enquiry into a spatial form of the contemporary urban condition. This approach commences from a traditional discourse of investigating the composition and structure of urban settlements known as urban morphology, as well as the models used in clarifying these compositions and shapes. Matters of concern within this study address the prominence of the spatial form, not as a produced result, but as a productive mechanism that alters and transforms the urban formal condition in its entirety. This approach alternated in ‘the reasons for being so’, by adopting a model of interpretation based on movement. The empirical nature of the research, measures the effect of movement in space, through ‘sedimented’ programmes (commerce), found on the street level, producing variations to the traditional predefined-compositional morphological logics. Visual analysis and mapping techniques are applied in order to compare spatial form and functional distributions patters within various scales of the urban systems. The main intent of the study is to contribute - and possibly - extend the way urban form is interpreted, and consequently, how spatial form is exposed, understood, and applied for future scenarios or to the societies that inhabit them.

Camilo Pinilla (C.Pinilla@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2003 - Jan 2007

Prof.dipl.-ing. H.J. Rosemann

Dr. A van Nes

Chair of Urban Renewal and Management

The traditional view of urban intervention arose when circumstances at the Industrial Revolution initiated what we know today as urban or town planning. The idea was to make plans to adapt milieus to new socio-technical conditions. Accordingly, plans should occur first, individual action afterwards. Planning was conceptualised as the means to control individual behaviour in benefit of a better ordered society. [Bruton, 1974; Hall, 2000; Ascher 2004] Nowadays, much is been said on shifts from modern-industrial to post-modern, second modern, global or network societies [Beck 1993, Giddens 1990, Harvey 1990, Lyotard 1984, Castells 1996, Sassen 1991, Urry 2003]; and about the increasing complexity of spatial transformation processes and the consequent lack of effective instruments for action [Forrester 1989, Salet and Faludi 1999, Friedmann 1987, Ascher 2004, Boyer 2003, Koolhaas 1998]. How do these new conditions alter traditional notions of urban intervention? Within today’s spatial and social conditions, what attitudes must plans have, to steer urban transformation more accurately? The hypothesis claims that instead of thinking of plans as first in the ‘plan-action’ process, (namely the planning paradigm), plans should be conceptualised as outcomes. This derives from the fact that within contemporary conditions, plans are not only proposed by authorities in advance, but are increasingly becoming the result of many individual actions and negotiations (namely the emergent paradigm). This does not mean urbanisation is out of control. In opposition, it suggests to think of alternative processes. Accordingly, the research (1) conceptualises planning and emergence within the shift from modern to contemporary modes of urban intervention; (2) Analyses the formulation of recent plans, studying how are they made and followed, and how much individual action influences them; and (3) gives suggestions about new attitudes for intervention adapting more accurately to such influences. Diverging examples from the Randstad -linked to planning- and Bogotá regions -related to emergence- are selected to work with a wide scope of material. Recommendations about new possible ways to act in such contexts will include flexible, communicative, strategic, and scenario based approaches. Illustration of such recommendations will also be presented.

Dr.ir. A.M. Fernandez-Maldonado (A.M.Fernandez-Maldonado@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2001 - Jan 2004

Prof.dr. P. Drewe

Dr. Edward Hulsbergen

Network City

Buenos Aires and Lima

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) use and application – within and between cities - are producing significant urban transformations, making cities more connected and at the same time more complex than ever before. A sub-discipline of urban studies - urban ICT studies - has recently emerged to explore, analyse and theorise how the technological advances are transforming urban forms, urban processes and the perceptions of urban life. ICT-related transformations in cities of the developing world, however, have not received enough academic attention until now. This book makes a contribution to the field of urban ICT studies in cities of the South by exploring the ICT-related transformations in the Latin American urban scene, characterized by high economic and social inequalities. Based on Gabriel Dupuy’s notion of ‘urbanism of networks’, this explorative research analyses the recent transformations at three levels: the ICT infrastructure networks, the networks of production and consumption of ICTs in the local urban economy, and the diffusion of digital connectivity in everyday life. The emphasis is on three strategic urban processes: the positioning of the metropolises vis-à-vis the global Internet backbones, the ICT-related development of the local urban economies, and the socio-cultural aspects of ICT diffusion, including bottom-up initiatives of users. The case studies Buenos Aires and Lima are useful for testing the hypotheses on the three aspects studied. The results have been also useful to spell out the main trends regarding urban functioning and the urban form, as well as the new problems and new opportunities that the introduction and development of ICTs bring to Latin American cities. The main findings point out that Latin American metropolises have great assets at the infrastructural level as main nodes of the ICT backbones infrastructures. However, there is a profound contradiction between the ICT-related developments occurring in the urban economies, and the social and cultural life of the cities. The low performance of the Latin American metropolises regarding their integration in the global economy and the production of science and technology are in stark contrast with the eagerness of Latin Americans to be connected and to be able to participate as citizens in the network society. This contradiction constitutes the largest problem of the future of the metropolises.

M.G.A.D. Harteveld MSc (M.G.A.D.Harteveld@tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof. H.C. Bekkering MSc

Urban Design

The aim of my research is to clarify the urban design role next to the architectural design role concerning the design task of interior public space. From out of the viewpoint of public space, the design of public interiors is a dismissed task for urbanist. By systematic analyzing different types of interior public spaces, such as the arcade and the mall, through time, the evolution of their different contemporary urban design tasks becomes clear. In general: If the position in the city and the urban context are highly relevant, I conclude, the urban design task is just as crucial. The research also includes social science and public & civic law. Maurice Harteveld

ir. A. van Bilsen (A.vanBilsen@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

emeritus prof. P. Drewe

dr. I.T. Klaasen

Spatial Planning

Problem statement Summary: In the framework of the fundamental scientific research in the before mentioned project Urban Design, Society, Science, the goal of this research project is to provide a mathematical underpinning for existing spatial organization principles and theoretical urban/regional models. Where necessary the mathematical results are used to revise them or to construct new ones. The practical implications are evaluated in the light of social needs and wishes. New developments in the past decades in network theory and complexity theory open up new ways to see the urban fabric. To say anything at all about an urban area in mathematical terms, one must convert it into a mathematical entity. One can think of graphs, formal languages and probability fields. In this research, these are being related to a probability density field concept: 'Probability Action Space Time' (PAST), derived from the concept of ‘Action Space’. A foundation for the PAST field is sought in the interaction between observers and their urban environment. For these observers the primary relation is an information flow from the environment to their consciousness. Research into this process uses input from ecology, information theory, physiology and environmental psychology, resulting in meaningful ‘local fields’ that surround individual observers. The local fields provide clues on the dynamics of PAST fields. Overlapping the PAST fields of many people and activities can show potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats on larger scales (social networks). The results are used to revise known patterns and organization principles, and to construct new ones. Patterns and organization principles can be used ex ante to design and plan. The practical implications are evaluated in the light of social needs and wishes. Research question: In what way can mathematics be used to underpin patterns, organization principles, models, and the design/plan-guidelines that follow from these?

Akkelies van Nes (a.vannes@tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 1999

Europe

Road building and urban centrality: Present and past constructions of roads and streets presumably give directions for future city growth and locations of urban centres. Their order and structure in general exist longer than buildings. If one changes the street and road pattern in a built environment, then this change must have some kind of effect on future buildings and also on the functions they actually have or will assume. Space & Crime: At this moment, more knowledge is available on the physical characteristics of the built environment and their relationship to criminal opportunity rather than on the spatial characteristics of potential targets and the public and private space between them. To improve this situation, a research project was started in the Dutch cities Gouda and Alkmaar that aimed to address several spatial characteristics of the built environment, to develop a method to quantify these characteristics and to relate them to the geographic distribution of residential burglaries and thefts from cars. The predominant task consisted in identifying the spatial conditions on various scale levels - in terms of the street net’s configuration - and the relationship between private and public space favouring burglaries and theft from cars. Furthermore, statistical analysis was used to study the relationship between crime risk and spatial configuration on various scale levels.

Camila Pinzon (c.e.pinzoncortes@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2003 - Jan 2008

Prof.ir. H.C. Bekkering, Prof, dr. ir. V.J. Meyer

Urban Design

Crossections across Bogota region (Colombia) and Randstad (The Netherlands)

This PhD studies the possibilities to map urban form and spatial transformation principles of areas outside the compact, historical centers. This implies a revision of approaches to urban form and to mapping in relation to the contemporary city. Which elements of the ones used by the traditional morphological approach are applicable when studying different spatial configurations? Similarly, which of the recent approaches to mapping can tell something about the form and the transformation principles of the contemporary city? After this revision, longitudinal strips across the Randstad in the Netherlands and in the region of Bogota, Colombia are mapped. Three main aspects are mapped and compared: 1. how urban fragments interact to each other without necessary an idea of totality. 2. How networks become the totalizing element, giving structure to the territory and facilitating urban growth and transformations. 3. How the open space, and the landscape become an active element and not anymore ‘the outside’. These three aspects are the key in the attempt to map the transformation processes in the form of the contemporary urban territory.

Qiang Sheng, Linfei Han (q.sheng@tudelft.nl)

Journal Paper

Jan 2009 - Jan 2009

Beijing

This paper is a morphological study on Beijing’s metropolitanisation process based on the development of its transportation networks. By extracting the ‘scale structure’ embedded in them, we construct a movement network model for Beijing and use it to analyse changing metropolitan centralities as shopping areas and market places in 1924, 1987 and 2006. Following Taylor’s proposal of Central Flow as a complementary model to Central Place, our study focuses on how the spatial distribution of metropolitan centralities has been affected by the rapid modernisation of transportation networks.

Ir. J.J.A. Heijligers (M.Heijligers@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.ir. C.A.J. Duijvestein

Environmental design

Dutch spatial planning is dominated by the view that urban and rural areas are separate entities. The so-called ‘red’ and ‘green’ areas are represented by blinkered policy organisations that work mainly with sectoral policy instruments. This research attempts to bridge the gulf between ‘red’ and ‘green’ in a design study by integrating urban design, ecology and landscape planning. The result is a toolbox with design tools for the planning and designing of new green living environments that are used as ‘building blocks’ in the construction of green corridors. Various case studies have generated the research material required to describe the design guidelines for green living environments and green corridors at several scale levels. In addition, material has been obtained from collaborations with final year students, workshops with students and practising designers. Finally, the design guidelines are used for the design of a new ecological cultural village in Almere. Moreover, contacts with education and practice are suitable moments in the research project to evaluate the practicability and consistency of the design guidelines and design method

Drs. F.L. Hooimeijer (F.L.Hooimeijer@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2003 - Jan 2008

Prof.dr.ir. V.J. Meyer dr. ir. F.H.M. van de Ven

Urban Compositions

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Tokyo, St. Petersburg

This PhD research investigates the relationship between the technology of water management and urban compositions in the Dutch polder cities. Due to their wet situation in the delta, the character of the Dutch society and its technological development has everything to do with the fight against the water. The Dutch have a ‘fine tradition’ in organizing, technically orchestrate and design water systems. Half of the Netherlands lies below sea level, though the Dutch have managed to make their territory profitable by building beautiful polders and urban water structures. Technological prosperity (the combustion engine and electricity) has made it possible to rely more on machines instead of the ‘fine tradition’ that also takes the spatial aspect into account. The technocratic approach and the further subsidence of the west part of the Netherlands has led to the current situation that there has to be a 24/7 of pumping and when the electricity would fail, the Netherlands would flood in two days. The current climate change puts even pressure on the polder cities because the regional water system (ground and surface water) suffers from precipitation increase and precipitation extremes. Tropical rainstorms flood these dense polder cities with no sufficient discharge. The solution can only be a spatial adjustment of the fabric of the polder cities and more specific in building site preparation: matching the characteristics of the location of the projected urban features to the soil and water conditions and the technique of making those conditions suitable for urban projects.

Dr.ir. P.J. van Eijk (eijkpj@pzh.nl)

PhD research

Prof.ir. C.A.J. Duijvestein

Environmental Design

This thesis describes the results of a doctoral research project on changing water management in the urban renewal of 1960s districts. The research was conducted at Delft University of Technology as part of the Ecological City research programme of the Delft Interfaculty Research Centre – Sustainable Built Environment (DIOC-DGO). Ecological modernisation of water management can help in the process of democratizing and socialising water management in the Netherlands. In recognition of this, the trios: holding water back / slowing water down / releasing intake water, keeping water clean / separating water by quality / purifying water and cleaning-up contaminated sediments, are joined by the trio: participation / information / enforcement. This plan-making action doctoral research has shown that combining urban renewal and water management tasks for the 21st century has great potential. The Participative Strategy makes participants aware of these opportunities – opportunities for retaining water, for keeping urban water clean and for participation.

Dr.ir. L.M. Calabrese (L.M.Calabrese@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.ir. H.C. Bekkering

Urban Design

The dissertation proposes to develop a shared domain theory and design practice for urban mobility and architecture. It discusses the possibility of unravelling spatial conflicts that result from largescale infrastructures by looking at the sources that generated them, namely, the lack of cooperation among disciplinary fields in charge of the planning and design of spaces of mobility. It questions the mechanisms underlying the problems of contemporary spaces of mobility and the ways urbanism and architecture have contributed together with transportation and traffic engineering to produce the functional, spatial and aesthetic poverty of such products. In doing so, it poses a challenge to a series of traditional conventions: mobility as traffic engineering, urbanism as town planning and urban design, and architecture as entirely concerned with the production of artefacts. It presents a paradigm, which extends across disciplines to support the design of everyday urban spaces. At its most basic level, this research allows us to speak about the possibility of reweaving our disciplinary fields at the intersection of theory and design practice.

Ir. M.Y. Berghauser Pont, Ir. P.A. Haupt, M.Arch. (P.Haupt@bk.tudelft.nl; M.Y.Berghauser-Pont@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.dr.ir. V.J. Meyer

Ir.J.A.Westrik

Urban Compositions

Recent changes in urban planning practice demand new strategies to enable planners, politicians and the public to regain influence on relevant aspects of the quality of the urban environment. At the same time, such a strategy must leave enough flexibility and freedom during the realisation of the plan. Spacemate is an instrument that can be used in such a strategy. This instrument, developed by Meta Berghauser Pont and Per Haupt, makes it possible to describe an urban environment by using a set of density variables (FSI, GSI and OSR). These quantitative aspects are used to describe and classify different urban typologies. The Spacemate thereby enables the participants of the planning process to relate different programmatic demands (quantity) to different spatial types (quality). This PhD research explores the subject of urban density and its relation to spatial typologies and urban environments. The research combines a quantitative analysis with a typomorphological approach, with the aim of describing and classifying urban environments in terms of measurable physical density and condensing this knowledge into an instrument for an open planning process.

ir. E.H. Stolk (e.h.stolk@tudelft.nl)

PhD research

prof. dr. ir. T.M. de Jong

ir. A. Guney

Province of North-Holland

Within spatial policy in the Netherlands the concept spatial quality is of great importance. This also counts for the policy of the province of North-Holland. In the coming years the policy changes (because of the nWRO) from a controlling task to a more stimulating role at the beginning of planning processes. This asks for a reevaluation of current instruments, amongst others the process of design review. Research in the Netherlands on spatial quality lacks the role of creative design thinking. This kind of research often concludes with a set of performances alone, not relating them at all to form (morphological) aspects of the living environment. This research aims at clarifying this relation between performances, relevant to the province of North-Holland, and form, through mediating operations. In order to clarify this relation this research will consist of 5 major parts. (1) Refining and clarifying these performances, describing them in a clear knowledge representation scheme – relating them to morphological aspects through mediating operations. This will include a cognitive approach to design and analysis process as proposed by Tzonis and Guney. (2) Developing & using a (new) type of visibility analysis, three dimensional isovist analysis, and relating these measures of this analysis to some performances, like (perceived) openness; (3) A brief analytical overview of the field of urban design from the viewpoint of numbers 1 and 2; (4) Evaluating existing research, policy, and design review using numbers 1,2 and 3 as background knowledge; (5) Recommendations for implementation of the concept spatial quality in the policy, contributing to design and analysis process and design review. In order to implement these aspects a close relation with the province of North-Holland will be maintained, starting with an evaluation of current design review practices and contributing to the ‘Nieuwe Provinciale Structuur Visie’.

Cornelia Redeker, M Arch (C.Redeker@tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.dr.ir. V.J. Meyer

Robbert de Koning

Urban Compostions

Rhine Cities D+NL

The post-productive Central European city is challenged by its industrial legacy, while facing competition with other cities often more privileged regarding topography, climate and thus life style. In this context, Central European river cities along the Rhine are advantaged, as the interaction between city and river may catalyze developments capable of responding to these challenges. The pressure of site value along urban river fronts versus the damage potential of their seasonal flooding demands for an accommodation of varying water levels within the urban fabric. Left with the modernist legacy of separated functions and a tendency towards a musealizing urban water fronts, the integration of river dynamics within urban planning strategies may have the potential of reintroducing programmatic complexity by combining flood management within urban functions. Regarding anthropogenic manipulations of the river basin, there have been two major paradigm changes beyond the scale of local intervention. The channelling of the Upper Rhine in the 19th and 20th century can be considered the true industrialization of the Rhine basin. It has led to multi-faceted impacts of an unknown severeness not only on site, but also downriver of the intervention. Currently, river expansion strategies are manifesting a spatial turn in European flood management. Expanding the riverbed is not only a rural strategy towards flood mitigation linked to the predicted increase of extreme floods. It is also related to the demand for a cultural landscape capable of accommodating river dynamics in a less exclusive way. Rarely, adaptations of the built environment to varying water levels are also being tested as a strategy for urban riverside regeneration and flood management. Morphological transformations of the urban water front and/or object-related adaptations to the buildings it is hosting may offer the chance of adding new qualities to the post-industrial condition while lessening economic damage potential. What do potential post-industrial Rhine cities have to offer for the adaptation to varying water levels regarding flood alleviation? Vice versa, what urban potential do varying water levels offer to post-industrial Rhine cities? Challenge as well as potential lies in the synergetic approach. The interdependency of interventions for the river as a whole forms the basis for the exploration of the specific river segments` capacities for the respective city.        

Ir. C. Mulders-Kusumo (C.Mulders-Kusumo@bk.tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Prof.ir. J.M. Schrijnen Prof. ir. D. Frieling

Dr. Ir. S. A. Read

Metropolitan and Regional Design (Delta Design)

Railway stations have emerged as a new central places in metropolitan cities. As major nodes of transportation networks, that produce movements, which offer sufficient opportunity for the development of commercial land use, stations are often automatically equated with nodes of socio-economic activities. Urban planners and designers put a lot of effort to transform the station areas into urban centres. However, the designer is just left with statistical numbers of accessibility, population density or some facelift design guidance, and is expected to transform the railway station area into a beautiful design and successful urban space with socio-economic activities around the station. The space is taken for a granted, self-evident continuum that automatically comes out from the pencil of the designer. This often results in a design failure in a multimillion-Euros project, the expected liveability and increasing economic value does not occur. Thus, there is still a lack of knowledge on how to design the spatial layout that is favourable for the commercial establishment and to create a public space that is able to cope with crises and offers a real urban centrality around the railway station This research investigates the centrality of the spatial configuration around the railway station area and analyses the influence of the urban grid on the distribution pattern of retail and service firms around the railway station. Two contrasting types of railway station areas in Indonesia and the Netherlands are analyzed by the grid configuration analysis using Movement Layer techniques to uncover space-structural details within the urban fabric as a field of movement and activity. These different case studies are subsequently compared, to analyze how the different street configurations affect the economic activities around those stations. The findings demonstrate that the distribution of street-edge shopping, and the local qualities which support this function, appear to be determined very powerfully by spatial-configurational factors. The understanding of the spatial logic opens up a new level of discussion in deliberations about complex urban regions. It makes the performance of space and the urbanity, especially in providing a strategic potential place for commercial activities, a more predictable phenomenon that is related to urban movements and the geometry of the urban grid.

Devisari Tunas (d.tunas@tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2003 - Jan 2007

Dr. H.J. Rosemann dipl.ing

Dr. Paul Stouten

SBS

Jakarta, Indonesia

See: http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/users/tunas/internet

Jeroen van Schaick, MSc (j.vanschaick@tudelft.nl)

PhD research

Jan 2004 - Jan 2010

Prof. Vincent Nadin

dr. Ina T. Klaasen

Network Cities - Delft Centre for Sustainable Urban Areas

Integrating Knowledge on Activity Patterns of People in Urban Design and Planning [/br][/br] This research project has two main premises. [/br][/br] It is fundamental for the future value of urban space and place to take account of the use of urban space and place by people. Without taking account of people, urban design and spatial planning are left with a narrow, art-based approach to the formal composition of urban space and place. The spatial and temporal organization of urban space and places through spatial planning tools such as master planning - based on artistic formal designs of urban spaces as it were an artefact - are nowadays under pressure because people's use of space differs from the use that planners project in those designs. [/br][/br] This leads to the second starting point of this research project. The use of urban space and place is not the same throughout history. Temporo-spatial activity patterns of people are, for example, influenced by the introduction of new technologies, such as the introduction of rail transport, the car and contemporary communication technologies. Four main trends can be distinguished: time-space convergence (connected to the speeding up of transport and communication means), time-space compression (connected to the number of activities of people and the throughput of good and information per day, week, month or year), time space flexibilisation (connected to the increasing connectivity between people across traditional barriers in time and space), and time-space diversification (or individualization; connected to emancipation processes and increased wealth). [/br][/br] Problem description [/br][/br] Urban design and planning have a long history in trying to establish a link between knowledge on the possible future behaviour of people and the making of urban designs. However, literature and planning history shows that applying knowledge directly in urban designs is highly problematic. This is known as the ‘applicability gap’ (Klaasen, 2004; Hillier, Musgrove & O’Sullivan 1972: 29-3-2). [/br][/br] This research explores the possibilities to fill or bridge this applicability gap by focusing on ways to establish a ‘medium shift’, i.e. the translation of verbal or numerical knowledge with regard to spatial organisation into a visual ‘language’. The study focuses on the problem of integrating knowledge on spatial organisation with knowledge on small temporal grains (days, weeks, months) by which spatial activity patterns of people are characterised. [/br][/br] Research question and theoretical framework [/br][/br] The main research question is: In what ways can existing knowledge on temporospatial activity patterns of people be explicitly incorporated in the making of urban designs and plans? To explore this question the research project follows a number of lines of inquiry (see below) that are synthesised in design experiments focusing on a polycentric urban region which functions as proof-of-concept for establishing a ‘medium shift’ through designerly knowledge on activity patterns of people. [/br][/br] By exploring the question in this way, this research project adds to research on a scientific body of knowledge of urban design as formulated by dr. I.T.Klaasen (Delft University of Technology, Klaasen 2004; formerly NWO-sponsored research project). This research builds from the theory of network urbanism (as developed by G.Dupuy, Paris I Sorbonne and P.Drewe, Delft University of Technology), the fragmented body of knowledge on time-oriented urban design (e.g. S.Bonfiglioli, Politecnico di Milano; also Lynch, 1976), and on the theoretical framework on process-oriented urbanism and spatial organisation principles developed by I.T. Klaasen (Delft University of Technology; see also Mey, 1994). For knowledge on activity patterns of people the research project uses time geography theory (Hägerstrand, 1969; e.g. see the work of Prof. M.Dijst, Universiteit Utrecht) [/br][/br] Approach [/br][/br] The work entails an explorative study on the integration of knowledge in urban designs on activity patterns of people. The work follows three related main lines of inquiry: comparing a range of conceptual frameworks in urban design and planning; defining visualisation principles for visualising small temporal grains in relation to space; research-by-design on spatial organisation principles for a polycentric urban region. [/br][/br] The analysis of current and past practices of time-oriented urban design provides theoretical ground work for the study as does a study of the use of analytical tools (for analysing activity patterns) in urban design, using the example of tracking technologies. [/br][/br] The main research methods are literature study and qualitative research on expert skills, attitudes and opinions. [/br][/br] The research is being developed within the context of the chair of Spatial Planning at the Faculty of Architecture (Delft Univeristy of Technology) as part of the research program Network Cities partially funded by the Delft Centre for Sustainable Urban Areas. As PhD-student I have been involved in the DSD (Delft School of Design) and NETHUR.