From nomadic labour to online services and from street food kitchens to pop-up shops, informality is on the rise as never before. Its transformative power can be seen in the new ways we produce, consume and live, with commerce playing a crucial role in these changes. The resulting tension between the formal and the informal is nowhere more evident than in the struggles over contested marketplaces.

This book provides a deeper understanding of the formal-informal linkages that have given shape ...

A compelling visual and narrative journey through the ever-changing Dutch Delta

Combining perspectives from science, art and design, the book presents a holistic view of the societal and spatial impacts of climate change

With archival documentaries by, among others, Bert Haanstra, Digna Sinke and Louis van Gasteren

Seen from space, it is obvious that the Netherlands is one big river delta. Here fresh water from several major European rivers meets and mingles with the salt water of the North ...

A hands-on guide that blends placemaking, arts-based methods, and policy insights for co-creative urban transformation

Learn how trustmaking can bridge generational gaps and foster more inclusive cities

A new perspective on urban transformation that integrates youth agency, creativity, and collaboration at every level

How do we foster trust in our public spaces, communities, and each other? Trustmaking explores how the youth can lead the way in reimagining cities through collaboration...

- English -

With (w)EGO: Tailor-Made Housing, The Why Factory investigates participatory processes applied to housing design. These processes establish a negotiation among the desires of each of the residents of a housing slab and help determine the design of their apartments. To achieve this, Wegocity manifests a particular interest in the development of a gaming process. This game leverages the specificities of each resident and transforms them into spatial needs. This way, unexpected hous...

In this in-depth conversation, illustrated by extensive plans, models, references and photos, the founders of Baranowitz Kronenberg Architecture, the acclaimed Tel - Aviv-based studio, provide a personal analysis of the thinking behind seven of their projects: two hotels, three restaurants, a store and a private home. Incorporating culture, time and place into the design process is fundamental to Baranowitz Kronenberg's approach. Symbolic starting points as disparate as, among others, the art...

Thomas Karsten (1884 - 1945) was one of a small group of modern Dutch architects that included men like Henri Maclaine Pont and C.P. Wolf Schoemaker who developed their careers in the Dutch East Indies in the first half of the twentieth century. Karsten laid the foundations of modern urban Indonesia with work represented in Semarang, Solo, Padang, Palembang and Medan.

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the rise of modernist architects. Brokers of Modernity reveals how East Central Europe turned into one of the pre-eminent testing grounds of the new belief system of modernism. By combining the internationalism of the CIAM organization and the modernising aspirations of the new states built after 1918, the reach of modernist architects extended far beyond their established fields. Yet, these architects paid a price when Europe’s age of extre...

In Nigeria, housing units are not adequate for the entire population, especially in cities (Anosike et al. 2011, Makinde 2014). For instance, the deficit grows at an alarming rate, from about 8 million in 1991 to over 16 million in 2000s (Aribigbola, 2000; Aribigbola and Ayeniyo 2012). The challenges of housing provision are not only quantitative but also qualitative and have to be dealt with in a dual institutional perspective: the formal and the informal sector (Makinde, 2014; National Popu...

This thesis elaborates on the role and position of regional design in spatial planning. Building upon the argument that design in this realm aims to improve planning guidance by judging its implications for particular situations, the thesis develops an analytical framework for an enhanced understanding of how design both influences, and is influenced by, prevailing planning rationales. The analytical framework is applied to a set of regional design initiatives that evolved in the context of D...