Sandra van Assen
Sandra van Assen is urban planner and architect. She graduated in 1999 at the TU Delft – Faculty of Architecture and studied landscape architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 2007 she specialized and received her grade in urban planning. With a team of researchers and designers she won the Harry de Vroome Price for the research ‘Old villages, new perspectives’. In 2007 she established her own office, Sandra van Assen Urbanism, with a focus on spatial quality, sustainabilty and healthy urbanism. These themes have since been primary motives in her work as provincial and municipal urban planner, as lecturer and researcher, both in the Research Group Future Urban Regions and at the TU Delft, where she started her PhD in 2017. Her research focusses on the influence of q-teams from a design perspective.
Relevant experience and education
- 2007-present: Sandra van Assen Urbanism, office for design and research
- 2017-present: PhD Q-factor, TU Delft, Urbanism
- 2018-present: Urban planner Municipality of Súdwest Fryslân
- 2017-present: Mentor and supervisor masterstudents HKU, TU Delft, WUR, Academy of Architecture Groningen
- 2018-2020t: Energyworkplace Fryslân, coördinator and advisor
- 2013-2016: Researchgroup Future Urban Regions, researcher and lecturer,
- 2008-2016: Province of Fryslân, Provincial urban planner
- 2007: State exam urban planning, The Hague
- 1991-1999: TU Delft, Master of architecture, diff. Landscape architecture, honorable mention
- 1995: Royal Academy of fine arts, Kopenhagen, Landscape architecture
Relevant projects
- 2020-present: design research workgroup Regional Energy Strategy Fryslân.
- 2020-present: development of the Energymix method, part II, with the Energy Workplace Fryslân
- 2018-present: independent expert Provincie of Drenthe for the development of new spatial quality tools.
- 2018-present: research “Perceptions of design performance”, for the Design and Government program (Spatial Design Action Agenda 2017-2020), commissioned by TU Delft.
- 2012-2014: empirical research, Q-factor, ruimtelijke kwaliteitsteams in Nederland (q-teams in the Netherlands).
Relevant publications
- Van Assen, S., Van Campen, J., Zonneveld, W.A.M. (2019). Schoonheid is geen variabele. Blauwe Kamer, 2019#2, 60-63.
- Van Assen, S., Van Campen, J., Stolk, E. (2018), Q-factor: Dutch Spatial Quality Advisory Practice, AESOP conference ‘Places of hope’, Gothenburg.
- Van Assen, S., Boomen, T. Van, Frijters, E. et al. (2017) Urban challenges, resilient solutions, Design thinking for the future of urban regions, Valiz, Rotterdam.
- Bernardt, C., Van Assen, S., Spijk, A. (2016). Imagining energy potential, a critical reflection on spatial scenario’s in a participatory planning process, conference ‘What energy is for: the making and dynamics of demand’.
- Van Campen (editor), J. (2015), Assen, S. v., et al., Foar in moai Fryslân, zes jaar Team Ruimtelijke Kwaliteit (For a beautiful Fryslân, the results of six years q-team Fryslân). Leeuwarden: Provincie Fryslân.
- Bernardt C., Assen van S., Spijk, A. van, (2015) Transitions skills, Conference paper Architecture and Resilience, Sheffield.
- Van Assen S., Campen van J., (2014) Q-factor, Ruimtelijke kwaliteitsteams in Nederland (q-teams in the Netherlands), Wageningen.