The municipality of Rotterdam has the ambition to realize a healthy city by 2020. A healthy diet is high on the list of priorities and the municipality is supporting initiatives to ensure that healthy food is available for resident of Rotterdam. The Oude Westen district in the city center of Rotterdam …

Amsterdam is known worldwide for its historical beauty, liberal lifestyle and tolerant atmosphere. However, it risks becoming a victim of its own popularity. With fewer than one million residents, of whom less than 90 000 inhabit the inner city, Amsterdam received 8.3 million hotel guests in 2017 and …

Current heatwaves prove that the Dutch architecture and urbanism cannot cope with climate change. What are applicable design principles that will make Dutch neighborhoods heatproof? Cool Space targets the city center of the Hague, one of the most suffering cities of heat island effects in the Netherlands. …

This thesis is about dilemmas, discretionary space and ethics in public welfare. In my position as a lecturer of ethics in socio-legal practices I am concerned with the way in which these practices open up to an ethical development of their professionals. Thus, this thesis is a search for the most fundamental …

Beyond the potential of new layers of urban infrastructure - sensor-laden networks, big data, artificial intelligence - to optimize cities functionally, lay promising opportunities to also use these technologies for new forms of social interactions. In an ongoing smart city development project, we explore …

Speech interactions are often associated with virtual assistants and smart home devices, designed primarily for private contexts. A less developed domain is speech interfaces in public contexts. In a smart city development project, we explored the potential of distributed conversational speech interfaces …

Responsive public spaces use interactive technologies to adapt to users and situations. This enhances the quality of the space as a public realm. However, the application of responsive technologies in spatial design is still to be explored. What exactly are the options for incorporating responsive technologies …

When it comes to shopping and spending time in the city, much of the traditional offering has made place for something new, usually more expensive: coffee bars like Starbucks with a wide range of cafés and lattes; bakery stores with a big choice of luxury croissants, sourdough, gluten free or spelt bread; …

In a landscape where there is limited social mixing, leisure venues which host a vivid cross-section of Amsterdammers, stand out as shining examples of conviviality and hope. Inspired by the concept of hybridity, which breaks down divisions between groups and opens up space for interaction and innovation, …

Skyler White is a protagonist in the top-ranking television series Breaking Bad. She is also one of the most hated characters on television. This paper focuses on how the character of Skyler and Anna Gunn – the actor that plays her – are turned into a ‘composite celebrity’ in audience discussions. This …