News

Two recent MSc graduated from our faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment became third in the finale of the DAIDA Foundation Global Thesis award 2021. The annual event, acknowledges master graduates who come up with ideas to improve the lives of vulnerable groups living in rapidly growing cities in the context of the Global South. Ramona Scheffer and Zhuo-ming Shia were shortlisted with their graduation work amongst 10 other nominees and ended up sharing third place.

According to researcher Willemijn Wilms Floet the concept Hofje (charity courtyard) is likely to succeed in cities that face renewal and densification challenges: they bring security, tranquillity and a nice green communal environment. Hofjes contribute to the urban variety that makes dwelling and living in cities attractive. In her book and open access publication ‘Urban Oases, Dutch Hofjes as Hidden Architectural Gems’ she explains the sustainable design principles, the development, the social impact and why architects, urbanists and real estate developers in the 21st century could benefit. Every era deserves a hofje of its own.

Landscape architecture is more than the designing of parks and squares. It is an engineering tradition, argues Adriaan Geuze, landscape architect and founder of West 8. As the new Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology, he sees opportunities for using landscape architecture in a crossover with the other domains in Delft. That is how we could work on complex and urgent long-term tasks, such as climate adaptation, housing construction, energy transition, and agriculture realignment.

Insufficient supply of new and existing owner-occupied homes is the main reason for the once again enormous rise in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2021. A declining number of house sales and increasing numbers of first-time buyers and middle-income households being sidelined were the first signals of a change in the housing market. The threat of a further rise in mortgage interest rates has now been added to this.

Jacques Van Marken was the founder of the Delft factories Calvé, Gist-Brocades and DSM. He was the first industrialist to build a green factory district for the employees, the Agnetapark. Van Marken was an extremely social entrepreneur who also arranged accident and health insurance for his staff, which was almost unheard of at the time. 30 students submitted models of their vision of an imaginary museum for someone who was of great importance to the city of Delft.

Teachers, students and construction practitioners experience a gap between the architect at the desk and the craftsman/woman on the construction site. The novice architect has a great gap between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge that is applied on the construction site, and therefore finds it difficult to maintain himself in contact with contractors and foremen.

Climate migration, or the movement of people due to environmental changes, is expected to grow as the climate changes. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre projects that 14 million people could be displaced annually by disasters, for example. Where will people leave, and where will they go – and why? How can we, as a society, manage this change in an equitable way?

Throughout the world, people have transformed natural water flows into ingenious and controlled water systems, creating impressive cultural and urban landscapes. Traditional water systems are comprehensive systems that are closely linked to the existing landscape, the people -who inhabit and work the landscape-, the animals and plants.

Recently, the role of elderly residents in the housing crisis is hotly debated in the Netherlands. Undoubtedly, more housing would become available if elderly residents would (or could) move to a smaller dwelling. But what do they actually aspire to? What are their housing needs and dilemmas? How can new housing concepts based on sharing and collectivity contribute to the solution? And how can these homes be developed and designed to match the needs of seniors?

An open access book discusses the possibilities of hydrogen in a global renewable energy transition and the position of the Netherlands in a variety of points of interest such as: technology, areas of application, geopolitics, social aspects and the hydrogen economy. (Im)possibilities of hydrogen have been examined across the board, and in particular what it could mean for the Netherlands and Europe.