News

In the design course called ‘Making’, Tom Jaring and fellow students thought of something to do with one of the largest industrial waste streams in the Netherlands: steel slag. This waste product is created at Tata Steel in the production of steel. ‘Steel slag absorbs CO2 and nitrogen and could therefore serve perfectly as a sound barrier’, says Jaring. Just before the summer holidays, Tom's elaboration of this idea into a business plan was declared the winner of the BK Launch Studio.

Buildings in the EU are responsible for about 40% of the total energy consumption. Increasing the energy efficiency of housing is important for achieving the EU's energy efficiency goals and reducing CO2 emissions. Housing corporations and the construction industry need to work together better to achieve this goal. Jelle Koolwijk of MBE recently won the Research, Innovation, Sustainability and Enterprise (RISE) AWARD for his research into successful partnerships.

In August 2021, the open access book appeared with an extensive introduction with a comprehensive introduction to space syntax method and theory for graduate students and researchers. It provides a step-by-step approach for its application in urban planning and design. This textbook aims to increase the accessibility of the space syntax method for the first time to all graduate students and researchers who are dealing with the built environment.

Friday 1 October Klaske Havik, Professor Methods of Analysis & Imagination gives her inaugural address (online). In her inaugural address, Klaske Havik makes a plea for imaginative thinking about possible spatial and temporal realities.

During his studies, former architecture student Nima Morkoç bought the vacant Juliana Church in Heijplaat to live in with friends. Then disaster struck: the monumental building went up in flames. Now, four years later, everything indicates that the burnt-down church will rise again in the form of four houses. "That is the biggest task for our generation of architects: making affordable housing," says Nima.

In the Netherlands, water management and cultural heritage are inextricably linked. The latest issue of OverHolland focuses on the water system of the Randstad. That system is considered the driving force behind the rise of Holland.

PostNL and TU Delft have launched a new stamp sheet that focuses on the innovative capacity of our country. The 10 stamps clearly show that innovation can be found in a wide range of field. One of the ten TU Delft innovations which are featured on a stamp is Variable Stiffness, with a futuristic chaise longue, 3D printed by a robot, that can be transformed into a recliner (and back again).

The supply of homes for sale in the existing housing stock has never been as low as in the second quarter of 2021. The supply of newly build owner-occupied houses has not picked up sufficiently in the last six quarters and in the first quarter of 2021 it even fell back. However, the latent demand for owner-occupied dwellings remains high. The result is an unprecedentedly tight owner-occupied housing market and again a sharp increase in house prices.

The educational projects that have been awarded the Comenius grants of 2021 have been announced. TU Delft has no less than three winners of which Angeliki Sioli (Assistant Professor of Architecture) received the Teaching Fellowship.

“Technology and Society in Equilibrium” – a new sector portrait for Design Engineering Sciences - has been presented to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The report paints a picture of this unique sector which includes the disciplines of Industrial Design Engineering, Architecture, Technology, Policy & Management.