[50–100 words] Context and Situated Knowledge Briefly introduce the context from which your research emerges. What field or body of knowledge are you engaging with? Describe the perspective or background you bring to the inquiry. Identify the research methods you have used—whether observational, material-based, collaborative, theoretical, or otherwise—to obtain and shape your understanding.

[100–150 words] Contribution and Research Focus What situated knowledge does your project generate, and why is it meaningful within your chosen context? Articulate the value of your contribution by reflecting on what your project reveals, challenges, or proposes. Clearly state your research question or design statement. This is a retrospective reflection—focus on what your project does, not just what it intended to do.

Context and Situated Knowledge

My research emerges from generative design, situated within my perspective as a fourth-year international student in Rotterdam. I engage with computational methods to capture and materialize hyperlocal, lived knowledge of place. My methods are observational and technical: conversations with students and locals, photography, and documentation of situations unique to Rotterdam. I employ text-to-image generation, fine-tune the model with a custom dataset of Rotterdam imagery, convert outputs through image-to-3D pipelines, and fabricate using clay 3D printing—a fragile medium paralleling Rotterdam's constant transformation and the ephemerality of hyperlocal references: landmarks vanish, local characters die, inside jokes fossilize.

Contribution and Research Focus

This project asks: How can generative tools capture the situated knowledge of place? It generates a participatory material archive of Rotterdam's identity as experienced through the lens of temporary inhabitants. My contribution reveals Rotterdam's gedogen culture—its pragmatic tolerance and embrace of paradox—by creating "010 Totems": ceramic figurines that freeze witty, recognizable moments unique to the city. Each object embodies situated knowledge typically reserved for those who live here: local peculiarities, architectural details, and social situations that exist outside tourist narratives.

The project proposes that generative tools, when locally fine-tuned and materially grounded, can facilitate collective place-making where multiple voices contribute to urban portraiture. By rendering computationally generated forms in clay—a fragile medium—the work acknowledges the impermanence of both personal experience and urban culture itself. These totems form a playful yet poignant snapshot of a city that thrives on contradiction.