How can the public library fulfil its classic social mission in our individualized and sometimes fragmented society? And how does such a library fit into the urban public space, in which commerce and consumption seem to reign supreme? This requires innovative architecture, the strength of imagination and the willingness to think countercyclically.

In Imagination and Participation librarians Rob Bruijnzeels and Joyce Sternheim examine the most important transitions in public library work. They...

A map is a visual story of the world. It feeds our imagination and shapes our view of the world. A standard atlas, however, predominantly tells only one story, that of the nation-state. It depicts a world in which people are uniformly packed into national containers, enclosed by borders, and in which migration is often represented as threatening invasion arrows.

Free the Map goes beyond this narrow, state-centric cartography. The book argues for a new cartographic story: a Hermes – the gran...

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Van de wereldberoemde zeventiende-eeuwse grachtengordel tot de markante nieuwbouw op de Zuidas: Amsterdam telt vele architectonische schatten van de middeleeuwen tot nu. Deze gids toont dé 100 highlights die je niet mag missen waaronder het Paleis op de Dam, Rijksmuseum, het Anne Frank huis, dierentuin Artis, de woningblokken van ...

Formats for Living Amsterdam features 59 contemporary residential projects built between 2013 and 2023, with more than 250 detailed floor plans on a scale of 1:100. Immerse yourself in a wide range of designs, from micro lofts and innovative social housing to lavish apartments. This exceptionally by Ricky Rijkenberg designed large-format book contains a series of critical essays that places housing development in its societal dynamics. Editors: Marc Reniers and Jan Loerakker. Authors: Vincent...

In this brief, accessible volume, the authors – an urban philosopher and a mathematician-physicist – explain the surprising new findings from the sciences that are beginning to transform environmental design in the modern era. Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros explore fractals, networks, self-organization, dynamical systems and other revolutionary ideas, describing them to non-science readers in a direct and engaging way. The book also examines fascinating new topics of design, includi...

Over the years, the consumption of materials for construction exceeded more than half of the total materials consumed in the Netherlands, and construction waste exceeded the volume of solid waste produced by households. Since the introduction of the "Ladder van Lansink" (in the 1970’s) and the further development of the European Waste Framework Directives followed by the Circular Economy concept, waste prevention has been considered a priority measure. Whereas the goals to improve waste man...

This research aimed at understanding how occupants use energy in their homes to make themselves feel more comfortable. This was done to propose customized environmental characteristics that could improve the occupants’ comfort while reducing energy consumption. To conceptualize such bespoke environmental features, occupant archetypes were produced based on the occupants’ intentions and motivations behind comfort behaviours.

A mixed-methods human-centered design approach was developed for ...

This research introduces the concept of visibility as a useful tool to assess the democratic features of public spaces. It understands democratic public spaces as open spaces, which are accessible to all and allow different cultural expressions for individuals and groups. The concept of visibility refers to the visual perception of the observable features of distinctive urban groups in public space, which give evidence of how these groups engage with, shape, and construct public space. The re...