Nieuws

Na de Spaanse burgeroorlog vond onder Franco een grootschalige modernisering en reconstructie plaats van het platteland. Uit die periode stammen driehonderd ‘utopische dorpen’, die Franco vanuit het niets liet bouwen. Promovendus Jean-François Lejeune plaatst deze dorpen in de bredere context van een eigen Zuid-Europees modernisme en pleit voor herwaardering van dit omstreden erfgoed.

Goed brugontwerp vergt een perfect samenspel tussen alle partijen, maar juist daar gaat het nogal eens mis in de moderne praktijk, constateert promovendus Joris Smits. Hij pleit voor een rol als ‘ontwerpintegrator’ voor de architect, ter bestrijding van de fragmentatie van het ontwerpproces.

During the Green Tie Gala 2019, professor Andy van den Dobbelsteen was awarded a top 3 position in the ABN AMRO Sustainable 50. This list reflects what has happened and who contributed the most to a more sustainable built environment over the past year.

As part of the upcoming book publication ‘The city of the future’, BK researchers Tom Daamen and Hedwig van der Linden reflected on the value of research by design for urban area development. This type of design thinking can create added value for clients on different levels of the design brief.

The new Breeze Hotel will open in a few weeks in Amsterdam. The hotel is the first building to apply ‘Earth, wind, and fire natural air conditioning’, and uses natural processes to ventilate the near 200 rooms of the hotel. The concept was developed by Ben Bronsema, and presented within his PhD research in 2013. The performance of the concept will be monitored for a longer period to further enhance the system.

A broad international debate is paramount for urban planning education. To this end, the Bridge DOCS research project aims to connect students from online courses with students in on-campus classrooms. Igor Tempels Moreno Pessoa and Roberto Rocco received a Comenius Teaching Fellowship grant of € 50.000,- to develop the necessary platform. They will start with connecting first year Urbanism students with students from the MOOC ‘Rethink the city’.

Automated mobility is likely to happen and will significantly change cities. The symposium ‘Robocar and Urban Space Evolution’ looked at automated mobility in the context of sustainability, and the future of urban planning and design. A summary of the symposium and further reflections on the theme are now available through the open access publication of the same name on the BK Books platform.

Students from BK Bouwkunde and the Czech Technical University collaborated on applying computational techniques to design and build an architectural object with a complex form. The resulting ‘Dream catcher’ is a robotically woven bio-composite structure.

For a successful intervention on cultural heritage buildings, the effectiveness and compatibility of conservation materials and techniques should be assessed prior to application. The new Heritage & Technology Lab has been set up to develop and assess solutions for the conservation of historic buildings.

Co Verdaas is met ingang van 1 april 2019 benoemd tot dijkgraaf van het waterschap Rivierenland. De positie van dijkgraaf binnen een waterschap is te vergelijken met de positie van een burgemeester in een gemeenteraad.