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Project properties |
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| Title | Planning and design for urban interspecies play |
| Group | Cultural Geography Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 (MSc) |
| Supervisor(s) | Clemens Driessen
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| Examiner(s) | Prof. dr Edward Huijbens |
| Contact info | GEO thesis contact person Chih-Chen Trista Lin: chihchentrista.lin@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2020/01/01 |
| End date | 2022/12/31 |
| Description | Urban environments have long been designed and planned as a human habitat, targeted to meet their needs and demands. With a growing attention to urban biodiversity, ecologists, architects and planners have also started to take into account the interests of urban wildlife, which resulted in adapting cities to non-human residents by means of green walls and roofs, animal passages etc. (see Vollaard’s ‘Making Urban Nature’ 2017 for more examples). However, in many cases, planning and design for humans is performed separately from planning and design for animals, and the interactions that result might be uncontrollable or unpleasant. Drawing inspiration from the theory on ludic city by Quentin Stevens, which puts forward play as an important aspect of urban experience, this thesis project aims to explore possibilities for design of playful interactions between human and non-human city residents. The prospective student will investigate the existing ways in which humans and wildlife might be engaging in playful interactions by considering the following questions: is the play mutual and/or beneficial for both sides? which material/cultural/political conditions make the play possible? In the end, the student will propose ways/design solutions to encourage mutually beneficial play between different species in the urban environment. |
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