ARCHITECTURE
CITIES
LANSCAPES
ARCHITECTURE
CITIES
LANDSCAPES
Student Theses.
Each year, students in the programme produce original Master’s theses that reflect their individual interests and the programme’s interdisciplinary scope. These research projects explore architecture, cities, landscapes, and heritage from historical, critical, and contemporary perspectives, often engaging with real sites, archives, and societal challenges, showcasing the diversity, depth, and intellectual ambition of student research within the programme.
De 'Dutch' in Superdutch.
Isa Walvoort
Isa Walvoort’s thesis explores the construction of Dutch architectural identity through a critical analysis of Bart Lootsma’s influential book, Superdutch: New Architecture in the Netherlands (2000). The study seeks to define the "typically Dutch qualities" Lootsma attributed to the twelve featured firms—including OMA, MVRDV, and West 8—and investigates how this publication shaped the international discourse ...
Before the Next Floods.
Jenny Levine
This master’s thesis investigates the role of cultural heritage in the context of climate-driven catastrophes, focusing on the devastating 2024 floods in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The research explores how heritage can drive community engagement, resilience, and healing amidst unprecedented environmental destruction. Using a multidisciplinary framework that combines Critical Heritage Studies ...
Ontworpen Spontaniteit.
Hilde Bloemers
This thesis, titled Ontworpen Spontaniteit (Designed Spontaneity), investigates the integration of ecology within Dutch landscape architecture during the 1970s and 1980s. The research addresses a central tension: whether ecology can truly be "designed" or if the concept remains a professional myth. By adopting an architectural history perspective, Bloemers examines how the "ecological worldview"—fueled ...
Effective use of AI-generated Historical Reconstructions in representing Multivocality in Heritage. Ravini Wimalasuriya
This research thesis explores the intersection of Cultural heritage and Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-Al), focusing on the potential of AI-generated historical image reconstructions to facilitate multivocality in heritage interpretation. While recognising that heritage is not merely the factual historical past, but a process of appropriation shaped...
Een straat als een dorp; een huis als een jas. Sanne van Drenth
This thesis examines the architecture and development of Centraal Wonen (Central Living), a collective housing movement that emerged in the Netherlands during the 1970s and 1980s. The research explores how this alternative woonvorm (housing form) sought to break through rigid housing regulations to provide an environment where residents shared facilities while maintaining independent living units ... independent living units...
Identity & Resilience.
Michaela Simeckova
Post-industrial landscapes shape today´s world topography more than one could generally admit or acknowledge. They surround and interfere not only in urban areas, oftentimes being left abandoned and misused, practically at the mercy of destiny. Thus, now the time has come to address the industrial legacy, reclaim it back and, preferably, set it going. The master thesis engages in the global paradigm of revitalising, re-using and ...
The mine is the city, the city is the mine. Roemer Doekes
Kiruna has positioned itself as one of Europe’s most contemporary sites, where the green industrial transition, climate change in the Arctic, and deep-rooted cultural traditions intersect. This ambition is explicitly articulated in Kiruna’s application for the title of European Capital of Culture 2029, which presents the city as a place where industrial innovation, global mobility, and long-standing cultural landscapes coexist and generate ...
Interpretation and Management of the Fascist Architectural Heritage in Post-Fascist Italy Maria Nebolsina
This master’s thesis explores the complex legacy of architecture constructed during Mussolini’s regime and its subsequent treatment in post-war Italy. Using the EUR district (Esposizione Universale Roma) in Rome as a primary case study, Nebolsina investigates how post-fascist society has interpreted, utilized,and managed these ideologically charged ...
Enhancing Public Engagement in Historic House Museums of Amsterdam. Ksenia Kiselova
A persistent challenge has been identified: historic house museums struggle to attract and retain visitors worldwide. In the Netherlands, data from 2023 confirmed a significant decline in visitor numbers to small museums, a category that includes historic house museums. This thesis proposes a response to this issue by exploring how increased transparency around ...