News

Climate change and material scarcity, combined with housing shortages acutely calls for alternative materials that curb the environmental damage of the construction industry. Bio-based materials, and in particular the latest generation of mass timber products can play an essential role and contribute to making the construction industry climate-neutral and circular.

The underground is given more space in the design of the built environment. The Flemish-Dutch design study Stad × Ruimte collaborated with the interdisciplinary master design studio Architecture & Urban Design by having students emphasize the cross-section during the design process. The student work, that explores the opportunities of building and living underground in Amsterdam and beyond, can be seen in an exhibition together with the work of the professional design teams.

In summer 2020, part of a quay wall in Amsterdam collapsed, and in 2010, construction for a parking lot in Amsterdam was hindered by old sewage lines. New sustainable electric systems are being built in places where industry thrived in the 19th century. Carola Hein received a Kiem Grant to map invisible historical underground structures in a densely built-up historical city. “We argue that truly circular building practices in old cities require smart interfaces that allow the circular use of data from the past when planning the future.” says Carola Hein.

The book Reglazing Modernism, written by Uta Pottgiesser, provides 20 in-depth case studies of Modern architectural icons in both Europe and the Americas. Focusing on interventions to steel-framed glazing assemblies, the book offers a critical assessment of historic building envelopes, their values, damages and potentials, while also exploring emerging technologies that may offer higher performance of the building envelope and the building in the future. Using a selection of 20 iconic buildings in Europe and the USA, the book documents the current technological status of the three most common strategies used today: restoration, rehabilitation, and replacement. 

Today, at the online TU Delft Best Graduate Award Ceremony 2021, eight recently graduated engineers presented their research and results of their excellent master thesis. Zhuo-ming Shia, graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment received the prestigious title TU Delft Best Graduate 2021.

How to make stations still interesting places ‘to go’ and ‘to be’ for all in the post-covid situation? And how can we improve the mobility transition so that it fits seamlessly and creates public space for more inviting and attractive stations for people and with fewer cars? That is the research question of Project WALK-IN for which dr. Manuela Triggianese received a KIEM Grant.

An undiminished large latent demand for owner-occupied houses, insufficient availability of new-builds and existing dwellings, and an increased financing capacity are the combined underlying cause of the enormous price rises on the owner-occupied housing market in the third quarter of 2021. Also the availability of houses for sale in the existing housing stock has never been as low as in this quarter. The other side of the picture is the declining number of house sales and households taking more and more risks when taking out mortgages.

Despite the perception that glass is 100% recyclable, the vast majority of everyday glass products are not reused or recycled. The "Re3 Glass" project shows that this can certainly be done differently. With specially cast glass components made from glass waste, the "Re3 Glass" project has now been selected to represent the theme of "climate change" in the Parlamentarium - the European Parliament's Visitors' Centre in Brussels.

The campus is an excellent advertisement for TU Delft, says researcher and landscape architect Nico Tillie (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and Urban Ecology Lab), and should serve as a living lab for the cities of the future.

Every year, the best graduation projects of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment are selected and exhibited. The jury selected the nine best projects to compete in the Dutch Archiprix, the leading annual competition for upcoming design talent. The nine projects were selected from a total of 44 preselected projects, showing the diversity of the different specialisations of architecture and the built environment.