Voor het Stadsmakerscongres 2025 interviewde OPEN Rotterdam mij over ons onderzoek Ruimte voor Meiden op Zuid. Wij deden onderzoek rondom Zuidplein: op welke plekken komen meiden graag en welke plekken mijden ze liever? In deze korte video gaan we langs een aantal van deze plekken en vertel ik waarom meiden zich hier wel of niet… Read more: Stad voor mannen: hoe Rotterdam veiliger kan worden voor vrouwen

Are you interested in how creative practices and competencies foster better collaboration between citizen collectives and local governments? Apply for this PhD position and join the ECCO consortium! Citizen collectives (CCs) are essential actors in shaping transitions, because they innovate new pathways, (bottom-up) approaches, and potential solutions for persistent societal challenges. Examples of innovations developed… Read more: Fully funded PhD position available

I’m extremely happy to announce that we have a new paper published in Cities and it’s about citizen participation tools. But, you may think, there are already so many papers on tools?! Indeed! So in this paper, that resulted from an inspiring and rewarding collaboration, we propose the EmpowerCycle, a framework that helps us understand… Read more: Process first, tools second! New paper in Cities

Co-design and participation seem to be standard urban practice. But what does this really mean beyond inflated buzzwords? Do you want to unfold the complex practices of genuine urban co-design? Then please apply!! This PhD project gives you the opportunity to draft your own proposal within this broader theme and select cases that you find… Read more: Fully funded PhD position available

Great news! Thanks to an award of a whopping €6.8 million by the NWO, the ECCO project can start in 2026. The goal? To strengthen citizen collectives and improve their cooperation with governments. Scientists, government parties and civil society organisations join forces. The National Science Agenda (NWA) has allocated 6.8 million to a broad consortium… Read more: ECCO funded!

Untangling the participation buzz in place-making: mechanisms and effects I am so proud and extremely excited that this work with my Danish bestie Nicolai Brodersen Hansen got published in CoDesign. Place-making has recently gained traction from a variety of domains. In this paper, we executed a systematic literature to draw together the scattered research and… Read more: Publication alert!

Are you a 3rd year BSc student looking for a minor? Do you want to learn about socio-spatial inequalities, policies, and how the built environment impacts our wellbeing and health? Consider enrolling for our minor The Healthy Inclusive City where you will be working on real urban challenges, and learning about action research and designing… Read more: Minor: The Healthy Inclusive City

After months of careful preparation, and years of hard work (mainly by my colleague and PI Juliana Gonçalves), on 1st of April the Citizen Voice platform was launched! Citizen Voice became so much more than once anticipated: it is a collective of people that are interested in citizen participation, community empowerment, and transdisciplinary research. In… Read more: Citizen Voice Launch

Vorige week gaf ik met Linda Zuijderwijk (dr.) een workshop over veiligheidsbeleving in de stad. Dit naar aanleiding van ons onderzoek Ruimte voor Meiden op Zuid. We lieten de deelnemers kennismaken met een van de co-creatie methodes die we in het onderzoek hebben gebruikt: het maken van een collage. De vraag hierbij was: wat is… Read more: Workshop veilige openbare ruimte

Very happy that our paper “The role of digital technologies in urban co-creation practices” is published! We found that:⏩ Building trust between stakeholders and getting familiar with each other is best supported by analogue co-creation tools and activities⏩ Using digital tools in urban co-creation runs the risk of participants getting distracted by technology flaws and… Read more: New paper: The role of digital technologies in urban co-creation practices

Last week, during the Design Research Society (DRS) conference, Gubing Wang and I presented our paper where we outline the clash of co-design principles, leading to dilemmas when doing co-design in practice. For example, working towards consensus to make design decisions versus being comfortable and leaving space for dissensus and disagreement. This paper is a… Read more: New paper on Co-design principles and dilemmas

On 30 June I was invited as a guest by Pointer on NPO Radio 1 to talk about the role of women in designing public space. This conversation followed from recent research showing that women often feel unsafe and unwelcome in outdoor areas. What causes this? And what is needed to create a more inclusive… Read more: Interview on National Radio

This week I am a really proud supervisor because I have seen my first three students in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft succeed in their graduation projects! I am truly grateful that they have chosen me as their supervisor and I feel a little bit sad that our journey has… Read more: My first students are graduating!