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With her thesis on investments in rental housing for middle-income households Ana Luiza Barros has won the BZK thesis prize of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). Her thesis is about the possibilities of institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, to invest more in rental housing for the middle class in the Netherlands.

The number of new homes completed in the new-build market has been falling for some years now. The consequences for the existing owner-occupied market have become increasingly clear in the last two quarters. The falling number of new-build houses is making it more difficult for the through-flow of houses already on the market as well, which is why the supply of existing owner-occupied houses for sale is declining dramatically. Some of the owner-occupiers are postponing any relocation plans or converting them into plans to rebuild their current home. The result is an unprecedented shortage of both new and existing owner-occupied houses, with sharply rising house prices and a slightly declining number of sales in the first quarter of 2021.

Starting in November, in 10 weeks students from the Architecture Minor Archineering designed a pavilion for the Delft Fringe Festival. A pavilion where ticket sales, meeting and performances take place. The bright pink Delft Fringe Rabbit is the winning design of students Bartek Kotlicki and Ben Provan-Bessel. The pavilion design is so strong that the Delft Fringe Festival is going to use it as a new logo.

The value of the European data economy has been assessed to be €739 billion, and highly likely to grow significantly in the coming years. Especially when data is shared openly with the public, more value is expected to be created. However, current developments in the field of open data are characterised as highly fragmented. The TU Delft project ‘Towards a sustainable Open Data ECOsystem’ (ODECO) has been granted as one of the 147 projects funding by the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie action Innovative Training Networks.

Sustainability is a high priority at TU Delft. Not only is it a common thread in many of the university’s education, research and valorisation activities - the university is also taking steps towards making the campus more sustainable. In this regard, the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment is the first faculty which offers an entirely vegetarian menu at Ketelhuis starting 3 May. When the other food & beverage facilities at the faculty reopen, their assortment will also be fully vegetarian.

Major home renovation projects often cause uncertainty and stress for the residents of social rental homes. Residents - sometimes due to a language barrier - often do not understand the impact of renovation works, find it difficult to make choices, and have little faith in the project. The use of interactive virtual reality (VR) changes this.

Strandeiland is the newest artificial island in the IJburg archipelago in the IJmeer, on the east side of Amsterdam. The island is currently being constructed. With 8,000 homes, Strandeiland is one of the largest future urban districts in Amsterdam. At Strandeiland the DemoS project aims to create an inclusive community of future Strandeilanders. Particularly exciting: new methods are explored to involve residents in the area development process.

The Zuiderwaterlinie (Southern Water Line) is one of the oldest and longest water defence lines in The Netherlands. The line connects Bergen op Zoom to Grave. The line has a long history with specific stories of war and peace from the past until now. In the past academic year, students made plans to develop this military heritage for the future. The purpose of the student plans is to show what possibilities the Zuiderwaterlinie offers for the future of Noord-Brabant.

This year INDESEM 2021 will take place 29th of May – 3rd of June. The program of the INDESEM seminar week consists of lectures, excursions and a workshop, all organized around a specific contemporary theme. Every edition of the seminar aims to raise awareness about this theme and its consequences for the architectural practice. This year we will explore the topic ‘Datascape’. How could data – about how people live, breathe and move through the projects we create - influence our future architectural designs?

Justice is a crucial dimension for sustainable cities and communities. Recent systemic shocks including climate change, the pandemic, a general erosion of democratic norms and more have prompted a rethinking and conceptualisation of the Just City in this light. A Manifesto for the Just City includes texts by a number of guest authors and 43 manifestos written by students from 25 universities around the world.