Archive

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.

Gaining more insight into the intertwined history of the water-energy-food-nexsus (WEF) in the former mining landscape in South Africa is necessary to stimulate future sustainable spatial developments. The NWO grant for a new project is intended to establish a learning environment which theory and methods are developed in order to analyse and understand spatial dynamics and long-term interactions between water, energy and food. The expected results will contribute to a sustainable vision on the redevelopment of extraction landscapes after mining in general and in South Africa more specific.

Quantitative data on collaborative housing are currently scattered or even only available upon request, and lack standard definitions. This prevents a comparative understanding of the challenges and opportunities that these housing forms offer. Furthermore, comparative data are needed to facilitate mutual learning and communication amongst users across countries and regions.

Obtaining 3D models of buildings is crucial to many urban applications (such as urban planning, solar potential analysis, urban flow simulation), which is still an open problem in remote sensing and the related fields. Existing techniques require high-quality laser scans as input, which imposes challenges to data acquisition. Besides, the building models in the existing platforms (such as Google Earth) are represented by millions of triangles. Such a representation is not friendly for the subsequent processing and application.

With his submission ‘Reconfiguring Addis Ababa’s Narratives – Storytelling for Architecture’ Antonio Paoletti, - master student of, and now alumnus- of the Global Housing graduation studio ‘Addis Ababa Living Lab’ (2019-2020) was announced the winner of the hand-drawn category of the international Architecture Drawing Prize.

The EquiCity project deploys serious gaming to combine various inputs in urban planning projects. Last week, the development team performed its first public test.

Water-rich cities, such as port cities, often have a rich history. They also have a dynamic future ahead of them, because they are faced with climate change, migration, urbanisation and a whole host of other significant developments. Generally speaking, port cities have a long tradition of adapting to new circumstances, which is often reflected in their heritage. How can we learn from their past to solve problems in the future?

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.

What better way to inspire new forms of collaborative living than through design? Through the BK Expo, staff and students of the TU Delft were offered the opportunity to showcase innovative design approaches to co-creation. Sara Brysch and Anne Kockelkorn reflect on their own contributions and the exhibition’s relevance, which can be visited till 29 October at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.

During Dutch Design Week (DDW), two of our faculty's projects will be on show: a sustainable circular partition wall made of mycelium and a glass truss construction to make forces visible.

On 22 September was the official opening of the Europe Readr reading pavilion, made by the students of Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment TU Delft. The kick-off event started with this opening of the Europe Readr reading pavilion which is part of TU Delft's commitment to the New European Bauhaus initiative, working towards more beautiful, sustainable and inclusive forms of living together.

In the design course called ‘Making’, Tom Jaring and fellow students thought of something to do with one of the largest industrial waste streams in the Netherlands: steel slag. This waste product is created at Tata Steel in the production of steel. ‘Steel slag absorbs CO2 and nitrogen and could therefore serve perfectly as a sound barrier’, says Jaring. Just before the summer holidays, Tom's elaboration of this idea into a business plan was declared the winner of the BK Launch Studio.

Buildings in the EU are responsible for about 40% of the total energy consumption. Increasing the energy efficiency of housing is important for achieving the EU's energy efficiency goals and reducing CO2 emissions. Housing corporations and the construction industry need to work together better to achieve this goal. Jelle Koolwijk of MBE recently won the Research, Innovation, Sustainability and Enterprise (RISE) AWARD for his research into successful partnerships.

In August 2021, the open access book appeared with an extensive introduction with a comprehensive introduction to space syntax method and theory for graduate students and researchers. It provides a step-by-step approach for its application in urban planning and design. This textbook aims to increase the accessibility of the space syntax method for the first time to all graduate students and researchers who are dealing with the built environment.

Friday 1 October Klaske Havik, Professor Methods of Analysis & Imagination gives her inaugural address (online). In her inaugural address, Klaske Havik makes a plea for imaginative thinking about possible spatial and temporal realities.

During his studies, former architecture student Nima Morkoç bought the vacant Juliana Church in Heijplaat to live in with friends. Then disaster struck: the monumental building went up in flames. Now, four years later, everything indicates that the burnt-down church will rise again in the form of four houses. "That is the biggest task for our generation of architects: making affordable housing," says Nima.

In the Netherlands, water management and cultural heritage are inextricably linked. The latest issue of OverHolland focuses on the water system of the Randstad. That system is considered the driving force behind the rise of Holland.

PostNL and TU Delft have launched a new stamp sheet that focuses on the innovative capacity of our country. The 10 stamps clearly show that innovation can be found in a wide range of field. One of the ten TU Delft innovations which are featured on a stamp is Variable Stiffness, with a futuristic chaise longue, 3D printed by a robot, that can be transformed into a recliner (and back again).

The supply of homes for sale in the existing housing stock has never been as low as in the second quarter of 2021. The supply of newly build owner-occupied houses has not picked up sufficiently in the last six quarters and in the first quarter of 2021 it even fell back. However, the latent demand for owner-occupied dwellings remains high. The result is an unprecedentedly tight owner-occupied housing market and again a sharp increase in house prices.

The educational projects that have been awarded the Comenius grants of 2021 have been announced. TU Delft has no less than three winners of which Angeliki Sioli (Assistant Professor of Architecture) received the Teaching Fellowship.

“Technology and Society in Equilibrium” – a new sector portrait for Design Engineering Sciences - has been presented to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The report paints a picture of this unique sector which includes the disciplines of Industrial Design Engineering, Architecture, Technology, Policy & Management.

Op 19 juni heeft de recent afgestudeerde Annabé Brouwer een gedeelde tweede plek bemachtigd bij de 41e editie van de Archiprix 2021.

TU Delft has been selected as a partner of the New European Bauhaus, a think-do tank initiated by the President of the European Commission.

The air in an operating theatre is continuously refreshed with HEPA filtered air. The idea is that this prevents infections. For many years, air treatment systems have been used to purify the air in almost every operating theatre in the same way for every type of procedure. Scientists from various scientific disciplines, including Peter Luscuere of Architecture and the Built Environment, investigate in the Medical Delta Living Lab Research OR whether this can be done differently, better and more efficiently.

This summer, all BK-students are invited to join the design & built competition for ‘Europe Readr’ pavillion. The challenge is to design and produce a small ‘pavilion’ that will, enable exchange, debate, and reflection on the future of living Europe, in new and innovative ways. The winning design will be built and travel to several locations in the Netherlands.

Complex Projects students have submitted 11 different designs for sustainable, circular and modular pavilions to the design contest set out by Soestdijk Palace. The winning design will be developed, built and installed at the estate when Soestdijk Palace | Made by Holland opens.

Dora Chatzi Rodopoulou has won the Europa Nostra Award in the category Research with her research project: Control Shift: European Industrial Heritage Reuse in review. The Europa Nostra Awards is the EU prize for cultural heritage funded by the Creative Europe programme.

An international group of 39 scientists have published an article in Science arguing for more use of ventilation to combat COVID-19. However, they want to use their argument far more broadly than just the current pandemic, and to combat the spread of all respiratory infections by changing building designs. Philomena Bluyssen from TU Delft and Marcel Loomans from TU Eindhoven are two of the authors. The article was published on Thursday 13 May.

Cities must adapt to cope with climate change impacts such as higher temperatures and periods of heat stress. Trees are widely accepted as natural 'aircon' for our cities, but precise data on how much they cool - and in particular over their life cycle - is lacking. In the project i-Tree 2.0-NL, accurate metrics for urban trees in Dutch cities will be developed and translated into databases, application software and 'orgware'.

The heat from the Amsterdam canal water could be collected in the summer, stored in the subsurface, to use it in the winter. Aquathermal energy from surface water could be a feasible alternative to natural gas, since this city counts a large number of canals and open water. AMS Institute, with research fellow Maéva Dang of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, focuses on solving Amsterdam’s energy challenges.

The BK faculty will be represented at the 17th Venice International Architecture Exhibition with “Housing the Urban Invisibles”. A show that displays student work and educational material that critically explores alternative approaches for the design of mass housing as a key component of sustainable development.