News

The new handbook, edited by Roberto Rocco and Jan van Ballegooijen, explores 25 cases in 24 cities around the world. In each case, informal urbanisation has played a pivotal role in how people have struggled for their right to the city and for their ‘right to rights’ as citizens.

The MOR (Modular Office Renovation) team of the TU Delft, which consists of 54 students, is working on a design to renovate (a part of) an inefficient office into an apartment that produces more energy than it uses. On the 15th of January 2019, the team revealed the definitive design of this prototype. With the prototype, the team will travel to Hungary in July 2019 to participate in an international student competition for energy-efficient residences.

Spatial integration of new buildings in an existing environment is food for much discussion, while it in fact is not about words. Studies should focus on forms and patterns, if the goal is to achieve historical continuity in an urban design, concludes Jiaxiu Cai in her PhD research.

Many cities form on the banks of rivers, but that does not mean that city and water are integrated by definition. PhD researcher Claudiu Forgaci investigated how better designed river corridors can contribute to a more resilient and more liveable city.



The winning design for a new stair case of the BK Expo physically and visually connects the exhibition space with the surrounding spaces. The design by Veerle Alkemade and Sanne Sophie Hoogkamer is the winning design of the Stylos Scala design competition.

The new BK Lab for innovations offers a creative space to develop new innovations and to make cutting-edge research visible within the faculty. The new Lab, located at BG.West.200, offers a communal space where researchers can interact and push the boundaries of their research projects.

A new collaboration with the Dutch installation sector has resulted in the creation of the Chair of Building Services Innovations. The chair will be directed to the academic development of innovative building services and support of this part of the building industry, which has a pivotal role to play in the challenges of sustainability and quality of life.

Together with producers and clients, researchers from BK Bouwkunde and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) developed a prototype circular kitchen. This kitchen can be renewed almost indefinitely and adjusted to individual preferences, meaning it is a kitchen for life.

Uta Pottgiesser has been appointed Professor of Heritage & Technology. She will continue the cutting-edge research programme on the technical aspects of architectural heritage, which is vital for the sound restoration of historical buildings.

The knowledge programme Smart Urban Regions of the Future deals with societal challenges. Two research projects from BK Bouwkunde have been funded in the latest round of the SURF knowledge programme: research into future spatial patterns of grocery shopping and research into sustainable urban riverfronts.