In improving the sustainability of our built environment, European institutions emphasize the importance of protecting and advancing cultural values. As most of the stock is not listed, nor is its heritage significance assessed, future sustainable developments risk neglecting present attributes, causing the loss of resources and their significance. This problem applies to 1965-1985 Dutch housing, comprising over 30% of the stock, with no clarity on its heritage significance. This thesis aims ...

This thesis brings forward the design dimension, and, more specifically, co-design, to the study of housing affordability. Co-design occurs when end-users and professionals work together towards a common goal. It is a process often applied in collaborative housing, an umbrella concept encompassing different housing forms based on collective self-organisation and collaboration, where residents choose to share certain spaces. The aim of this research is to assess if and how co-design processes ...

In recent years, the Private Rented Sector (PRS) has witnessed rapid growth across numerous jurisdictions, with Chinese metropolises notably standing out. Throughout the history of housing policy development in China, the PRS has been largely disregarded. It was not until 2015 that the government proposed the idea of “accelerating the development of the rental housing market” to achieve a “balanced development between home renting and purchasing”. However, the PRS in China is still in...

The clean energy and Circular Economy transitions in the Built Environment have respectively dominated the academic dialogue in architecture, engineering, and real estate for the last 20+ years. While significant progress has been done, and many fine examples of more sustainable architecture exist, the process has been hindered by traditional systemic models for the planning, contracting, financing, construction, and management of building projects.

If we are to meet the ambitious climate-cha...

Social Inclusion has been growing as a goal in heritage management. Whereas the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) called for tools of knowledge documentation, social media already functions as a platform for online communities to actively involve themselves in heritage-related discussions. Such discussions happen both in “baseline scenarios” when people calmly share their experiences about the cities they live in or travel to, and in “activated scenarios�...

This thesis explores the integration of Circular Economy (CE) principles of narrow, slow, close, and regenerate in the social housing practice through digital technologies. Beginning with the examination of the CE implementation in Dutch social housing organisations, the research extends its focus to the broader built environment, introducing the Circular Digital Built Environment Framework and identifying ten enabling technologies. Subsequent chapters explore real-world applications of these...

This thesis investigates the introduction, adaption, and implementation of the modern concept of heritage conservation in modern China after the opening of its treaty ports. Through an analysis of the different layers of disseminating and receiving knowledge in transnational exchanges, it explicitly points out the divergence between the Eurocentric concept of conservation and the Chinese tradition of treating historic buildings and sites. As a result of the complexity of understanding and ada...

More and more citizens are entering the public domain and taking over tasks that traditionally belong to the government. For example, citizens increasingly run a community centre themselves, maintain the greenery in their neighbourhood and manage the local playground. To some extent, governments also encourage this behaviour and are disposing of social real estate. Against this background, this study examines the rise of citizens' initiatives in the Netherlands and how this takes shape in the...

Rapid urbanization has exerted unsustainable pressures on the environment, and implementing circular economy (CE) in cities has been seen by policy makers as a potential solution for resource scarcity. Scholars have therefore called for an understanding of the spatial aspects of CE that go beyond urban governance strategies, engendering the recent integration of spatial disciplines, such as urban planning and regional economics, into the study of CE.

Using the Netherlands as a case study, th...

Urbanized sandy shores around the world suffer from coastal erosion due to a lack of sediment input and sea level rise. These dynamics place new demands on coastal spatial planning. To compensate for coastal erosion in a more natural and systemic way, sand nourishments are deployed as a ‘Building with Nature’ technique, restoring the sediment balance and promoting dune formation as coastal defence.

In this research, Building with Nature is reframed as a landscape approach, regenerating t...