News

Collaborative living is experiencing a revival in The Netherlands. In the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, more and more people turn to collective self-organisation to provide housing that is community-oriented, environmentally sustainable, and affordable. But why is it so difficult for these initiatives to get off the ground? And what can be learned from other European countries?

Co Verdaas was recently appointed as government commissioner for the National Delta Programme and will start his work as Delta Programme Commissioner at the beginning of December: ‘It’s a real honour to be able to contribute to the climate-proof future of our delta in my role as Delta Programme Commissioner. Water has shaped the Netherlands and will continue to do so.’

The new GlassLab in our faculty will be the centre of innovation in architectural glass design and construction at TU Delft. In this lab, research will be conducted on glass products and structures that will transform the built environment.

On the 12th of October the BK Treasury will officially open its doors. Everyone is invited to come to the Oostserre between 17h and 18h to participate in this celebration of architectural and design history. For the coming weeks, the Treasury will display three chairs by iconic Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld, together with documents on their creation. The display cases will continue to exhibit a revolving cast of treasures for the foreseeable future.

Robert Gorny, affectionately nicknamed Bob, is an Architecture theorist, lecturer, and researcher. In his work he has always engaged with feminist and queer theory. As such, his appointment to the position of Diversity officer (now called EDI officer) this past February was a logical next step. Cecile Calis originally applied for the same position, but her pitch for an event-based approach convinced the dean to create the new position of Community officer. Together they champion the cause of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) and Community at the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.

Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, political activist and philosopher from China. He was in the Netherlands for the opening of the exhibition 'Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity' at the Kunsthal. For lecturer Job Schroën of the master studio Extreme, this was an excellent opportunity to invite Ai Weiwei to our faculty.

PhD candidates Nail Ibrahimli and Shenglan Du are both doing research on how to advance architecture with AI. Nail builds AI models which combine photogrammetry with artwork analysis to create stylised 3D objects. Shenglan became fascinated by processing point clouds from trees, reconstructing their shapes from raw data. For her PhD, she is extending the scope to urban objects in general.

During the festive closing ceremony of BK-Archiprix, the participants for the National Archiprix, the annual competition for up-and-coming design talent, were announced. The jury selected the nine projects to participate in this prestigious Archiprix.

The Mirage is an outdoor sculpture made of more than 450 glass cylindrical columns from 70 different types of desert sand. Its realisation was no easy task and required the collaboration of hundreds of people worldwide. For the past 2 years, the TU Delft Glass Group has been working behind the scenes on the R&D of this challenging cast glass sculpture.