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Thesis Project Topic Guide 1314 PDF
Thesis Project Topic Guide 1314 PDF
In October a supervisor per project group has one office hour in which students can come to ask
questions about the theme of the group and how this fits the topic the student has in mind for his/her
thesis.
The on-going economic crisis strongly affects practices of urban development. Large scale
interventions and urban projects that started before the crisis, often during the booming real-estate
economy, are today facing a reality of debt, slowness, civic protest or, often, complete stalemate. The
instruments, regulations and overall strategies of area development (gebiedsontwikkeling) used back
then do not seem to work anymore. Hence, the need to fundamentally rethink the general logics,
principles, and objectives of area development and the need for planning innovations in times of
socio-economic and urban change (e.g. the base of large urban projects, new ways of thinking,
experimental spatial concepts).
This thesis project thereby has three starting-points for researching urban projects. Firstly, it is
possible to explore the new dilemmas, challenges, and struggles that planners have to face in area
development. In practice these for instance emerge from the continuing need to distinguish areas of
intervention (e.g. government-led) from areas of spontaneous change (e.g. ‘do-it-yourself urbanism’).
Secondly, the use of enabling flexibility at the local level can be recognised in changing practices.
Experimental regulation could for example address temporary reuse of land and buildings. Thirdly,
challenges arising from the need to rearrange the financial and economic infrastructure of urban
projects are discernible. Rearrangements for example are innovative investment strategies that target
the reduction of long term risks and are tailored on the concrete, small scale, demands of inhabitants.
The nucleus of this thesis project is attached to the recently started APRILab research project. The
project is a cooperation of different universities in Europe, and it is financed within the frame of the
Joint Program Initiative, Urban Europe. It aims at discovering different ways to deal with complexity
and dilemmas in planning. In particular it focusses on concrete practices of intervention, on
innovative usages of regulation and on changing financial arrangements of urban projects. However,
students that wish to research urban development project under crisis from another perspective are
welcome too.
Maximum of 10 participants
Supervisors: Rick Vermeulen, Stan Majoor
Urban planning has a very technocratic tradition in which ‘the planner’ was to set the future course of
development through blueprints and strategic visions. This tradition was founded on a firm believe in
the capacity to predict the future and make decisions about what is good and desirable. Today, this
way of planning is questioned on the value of both its process and its output. In terms of the process,
planners are asked to rethink their central role. Numerous projects and plans have shown the
incapability of planners to predict the future. Increasingly pluralistic playing fields make it ever more
complex to balance different objectives. Should the planner not step down and leave more space for
the input of other actors such as citizens, local organizations and businesses? In terms of the output,
the traditional hard-lined blueprint or vision is questioned for its merits. In a world that develops at a
rapid pace and is increasingly complex, what is the value of a blueprint? Should the traditional static
end-products of planning processes not be replaced by something more dynamic?
Recent development of the economy has made these questions even more urgent. Times of crisis
always come with uncertainty about future development. Moreover, governments have fewer
resources available to steer development in the preferred direction. This has led many planners to
realize that ‘the old ways’ of planning no longer suffice and that new processes, practices and
products have to be developed. At the same time, however, contemporary issues such as
sustainability, (water)safety, accessibility, infrastructure provision, economic development and
regional landscapes require strategic planning on a larger (metropolitan) scale of some sort.
This thesis project then looks at how new ways of planning are taking shape on the level of strategic
spatial planning. Also students that want to do comparative or internationally oriented research on this
are most welcome.
Maximum of 7 participants
Supervisors: Luca Bertolini, and to be announced
Planning challenge
Contemporary urban lifestyles and business practices are increasingly dependent on mobility. At the
same time, the negative impacts of mobility on natural and social environments are growing
dramatically, as is the public outcry for their reversal. Urban planners are faced with a difficult
dilemma: how to deal with the tension between the essential role of mobility in enhancing cities’
welfare and well-being and the lack of sustainability of present urban mobility practices? Coping with
this dilemma requires an understanding and management of the deep intertwinement of urban
mobility, spatial developments, and broader socio-economic and cultural processes, but also the need
to come to terms with the many, irreducible uncertainties of the challenge. Only a more intensive and
critical interaction between different disciplines – at the very least integrating transport and spatial
planning – and between planning science and planning practice can achieve this.
Research themes
This Master thesis project welcomes students that wish to undertake research related to these issues.
Potential themes include:
- identifying barriers (e.g. spatial, institutional) and/or strategies towards a shift to more
sustainable urban transport means (e.g. bike, public transport)
- identifying innovative strategies (e.g. Transit Oriented Development, Shared Space) for
achieving sustainable urban mobility
- developing approaches (e.g. accessibility planning) and instruments (e.g. accessibility
measures) to foster the integration of transport and land use planning
- exploring the relationships between quality of life in cities and/or competitiveness of cities
and mobility
- exploring the implications of emerging telecommunication technologies (e.g. internet,
smartphones) for urban mobility
- exploring the implications of emerging lifestyles (e.g. families wishing to live in cites) and/or
business practices (e.g. teleworking) for urban mobility
- other themes proposed by students and having relevance for the dilemma sketched above
Planning challenge:
The ongoing financial crisis and the context of stalled national real-estate markets require new
arrangements to ensure that public goods and services such as social and affordable housing, public
space and urban infrastructure, will remain available in future decades. Increasingly, the realization of
these public goals lies beyond the powers of local governments. Public funding, while still important,
is becoming scarce. Streams of investment that supported national public projects during the post war
decades, such as those managed by pension funds, are now embedded in global markets. Lacking
sufficient financial means for direct provision, public actors now aim to facilitate and monitor new
developments lead by commercial actors, not-for-profits and civil society. Interest is growing in
arrangements that incentivize, mandate or require commercial actors to develop or invest in public
goods and to deliver publicly-defined outcomes within a private real-estate development context. The
potential for tapping into large streams of institutional investment from pension funds and banks is a
particular focus. Yet existing international examples of arrangements to bring together social and
commercial interests show that they can be both costly and complex, raising new and difficult
challenges for urban planners and policymakers.
This thesis-project invites students to critically analyse arrangements for the creation of public goods
and publicly-defined outcomes that rely on private investment or real-estate development. Students
choosing to undertake comparative research are encouraged to pay close attention to the different
institutional contexts within which these arrangements function and to consider alternatives for the
Netherlands.
Maximum of 10 participants
Supervisors: Christian Lennartz
Housing as an individual and social issue has come to the fore in media and political debates in recent
years. Indeed, the global financial crisis, was triggered by, and strongly impacted on developments in
home ownership, with dramatic consequences for both individual households and economic systems.
In this thesis project group for both planning and human geography students we examine diverse
aspects of housing and housing systems and how they interact in space and society. Methodologies
applied in housing studies are diverse and include quantitative studies of markets and cities, etc., as
well as case studies, ethnographies and other qualitative investigations of housing related phenomena:
such as the meaning of home; housing institutions; residential communities and housing submarkets.
One focus is the Dutch context and the relationships between different housing providers and
consumers. Dutch Housing Associations, for example, are quite exceptional and provide an interesting
case from which to consider institutional, planning and sociopolitical issues. Another focus is
international or comparative level analyses and students will be encouraged in developing their thesis
ideas to consider how housing operates in different contexts and the significance of diversity across
systems and societies.
Maximum of 8 participants (both urban and regional planning students as well as human geography)
Supervisors: Arnold Reijndorp, in collaboration with Marco Bontje
Shenzhen
Lying adjacent to Hong Kong in the Pearl River Delta, Shenzhen used to be an area filled with many
small fishing villages. It was given the status of Special Economic Zone in 1980 by the Chinese
government to become a controlled experiment of capitalism with a socialist character. Shenzhen
soon became a metropolis and a prototype for both economic and urban reform within China. In only
thirty years, the number of inhabitants has grown from 30,000 to an unofficial count of almost fifteen
million – of which 82% are immigrants. In its urge for expansion the city has swallowed up hundreds
of villages, the so-called ‘urban villages’. Shenzhen’s economic backbone is largely dependent on
high-tech, logistics, financial services and cultural industries. In 2009, three new industries – biotech,
new energy and Internet – were introduced to boost economic growth.
Shenzhen is currently rethinking its urban future and needs to consider what branches of industry are
needed to turn the city into a more pleasant and socially diverse city, and how to undertake integrated,
cross-border area developments that give due consideration to the existing population, landscape and
urban fabric. The current upgrading of the primary industry into secondary and tertiary industry (due
to land shortage and the increase of wages) is leading to new urban developments, but also to great
demographic changes within society: thousands of unskilled laborers will be replaced by highly
educated staff with different needs and wishes in regard to their social and urban life. The Shenzhen
government is aware of the major challenges, but is unfortunately primarily focused on the large
urban scale.
Shenzhen is a city that has been raising eyebrows for years, because of its fast development and
exceptional position. However, its urbanization process also causes many problems such as a shortage
of land and water resources, energy constraints, increasing CO2 emissions, deterioration of the
environment, ecological system vulnerability, etc. The city’s latest master plan (2009-2020) is
therefore focused on compact urban development in order to control urban sprawl and save energy. In
this regard, urban renewal is now considered an important strategy to deal with informal urban
development and land resource shortage more efficiently.
Master thesis
This master thesis project gives master students an unique change to participate in this collaborative
research, with a special focus on the Da Lang district, but participation in other sites is possible.
Students will spend time in Shenzeng (between the beginning of March and June), collaborating with
Chinese partners and students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Maximum of 5 participants (both urban and regional planning students as well as human geography)