People in western countries spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. This severely affects their health (WHO 2013; Klepeis et al. 2001). The health risks are exacerbated if people travel between indoor spaces by car or public transport. Buildings on streets specifically designed to create a human …

Over my time spent at the Academy, I discovered the value of the public realm in the shaping of cities. With the high pressure on new housing areas, the quality of life in the city is becoming increasingly important, and along with this, the layout and the use of the public domain. Museums and other …

From the early 2000s onward the Netherlands has witnessed unexpected and unprecedented polarization. Right-wing populist activism challenged the right of newcomers to belong in Dutch society. Coinciding with this populist swing, participatory media (web communities such as Marokko.nl, blog sites such …

This thesis investigates the interplay between displacement and marriage practices among Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Jordan. Processes of national identification, belonging, and citizenship rights impact marriage practices, and do so differently depending on the particular displacement history …

Early studies conclude that high-rise apartment buildings present challenges for people’s quality of life, resulting in social isolation, social annoyance and anonymity for residents. Nevertheless, empirical research into factors supporting social interaction in high-rise apartment buildings is still …

The coronavirus crisis has forced us to rethink the demarcation between the public and private space in the city. Individual homes – stages for domestic life – have become office spaces and places for unusual social interactions. As people started working remotely en masse, they were also forced to expose …

People in western countries spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. This severely affects their health (WHO 2013; Klepeis et al. 2001). The health risks are exacerbated if people travel between indoor spaces by car or public transport. Buildings on streets specifically designed to create a human …

The crossroads of living in cities on the one hand and ageing of the population on the other is studied in an interdisciplinary field of research called urban ageing (van Hoof and Kazak 2018, van Hoof et al. 2018). People live longer and in better health than ever before in Europe. Despite all the positive …

Virtual communities are online spaces with potential of integration of (member-generated) content and conversations [7,8]. In our research project we are interested in the adoption and building of virtual communities in organized sports, that is to say in the voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) in the Netherlands. …

Increasingly, adding trees to the city is a new goal on the urban agenda in order to fight climate change. There is an interesting contrast when looking at the average lifespan of trees in the city: 30 years. The reason is that trees are still being seen from a utilitarian perspective and as urban furniture …