Archive

How can the energy transition be connected to creating a circular economy? Using a circular renovation module for the energy-retrofitting of housing offers a combined answer to the two challenges.

Heritage is important for our personal and collective experiences, also for future generations. It is not sustainable to only keep the pearls and make those more sustainable,” says Ana Pereira Roders. She and Uta Pottgiesser have been appointed next to Wessel de Jonge, creating a total of three professors on heritage at the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft.

The World University Rankings by Subjects 2020, published today, places TU Delft's discipline 'Architecture and the Built Environment' in second place. Dean Dick van Gameren: "The confirmation of our position in the QS World University Ranking, even a rise to a higher position, is a more than deserved compliment for the continuous commitment and energy of our faculty community.”

Over the past few decades, Turkish immigrants have played a very visible role in Amsterdam’s public space, but this is changing rapidly. The elimination of minorities from the streetscape reflects the decline in the city’s inclusiveness, argues Ceren Sezer in her PhD research.

Energy simulation models are often used to help improve the sustainability of homes, but there is a slight problem with that: in reality, the predictions they make are often wrong. PhD researcher Paula van den Brom analysed actual and theoretical energy consumption in more than a million homes and developed a calibration method to improve the models at housing stock level.

Wednesday 18 March, National Tree Day (Nationale Boomfeestdag), will see the opening of the first climate arboretum at TU Delft.

Smart construction leads to better buildings and better cities. At least, that is the intention. But this will only happen if we learn from mistakes and work together to find solutions, says professor of Design and Construction Management Paul Chan in his inaugural address. The experts can’t create the perfect future on their own.

To measure is to know, especially in the energy transition. But, as professor Building Energy Epidemiology Laure Itard argues in her inaugural address, we will only truly benefit if we process the measurement data using automated systems. The smart use of big data can prevent energy systems from continuing to underperform.

At the end of 2019, the number of transactions in the market for existing owner-occupied homes is stabilising and purchase prices for existing owner-occupied homes are growing less rapidly. The number of new-build homes sold has even fallen slightly over the past two years.

With monumental buildings, it is often difficult to estimate the building physics of the building envelope. While modifications to for example monumental solid brick facades of residential buildings can yield the desired energy savings. Researchers from the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment received €400.000,- to develop the necessary knowledge about the facades.

Energy-efficiency is at the forefront of modern office renovations, but this often comes at the cost of comfort. So doctoral candidate Minyoung Kwon has turned things around: start by looking at the wishes of the users before you design their workplace. This does not necessarily have to result in higher energy consumption.

The small white building was designed as part of a two-year research project, built by students and meant to be learned from. The Product Development Test Lab has now found a new location at The Green Village on the TU Delft campus, where product innovations focused on digital construction, the circular economy and energy saving can be further tested.

Areas around cities are often referred to negatively with the term 'urban sprawl'. But it is precisely in these territories in-between that we can achieve many of our sustainability goals, says PhD researcher Alexander Wandl. We just have to learn to plan them better.

The design ‘Building Upon Brainpark’ proposes to revitalise the Brainpark area in Rotterdam by making the area more visible to local residents and users of the location. The design by BK alumni Kevin Westerveld, Nima Morkoç, Hedwig van der Linden, and master student Lars Kloeg was selected as a special mention in the Europan 15 x Productive Rotterdam design competition.

New Horizon 2020 project UPLIFT aims to provide insight into the structural drivers of intergenerational inequalities within the European Union, focusing on vulnerable young people. Researchers from Management in the Built Environment will coordinate the participatory action research, involving the young people themselves to develop innovative policy solutions.

Residential comfort tends to be associated with pleasant temperatures, but there’s much more to it than that. PhD researcher Marco Ortiz identified the living conditions we experience as pleasant and used this research to draw up psychological profiles that can be used to design comfortable, energy-efficient houses tailored to the users’ preferences.

The new consortium IEBB stands for integrated energy transition for existing buildings and has received a 13,8 million euro grant to develop affordable and user-friendly renovation concepts in the coming years. Researchers from the faculties of Architecture and the Built Environment, Industrial Design Engineering and Applied Sciences at TU Delft are developing the necessary knowledge for, amongst others, innovative renovation concepts, digitisation of the renovation process, optimisation of heat pumps and energy performance of buildings, chain innovation and implementation.

Storage facilities of museums house over 90% of the collections of most museums. The project ‘DIPOT: Digital depot’ explores how these spaces can be made accessible through VR technologies. This would help not only to open up the collection to a broader public, but also to improve the design of future museums’ storage facilities.

Mary Lou van den Berg received the NRP Master Award for her thesis on adaptive reuse of shared heritage in the city centre of Bandung, Indonesia. The second and third prizes were received by BK alumni Ditte Gerding and Tessa Persoon, respectively.

What is the most effective way for an organisation to make decisions about real estate that best match the organisation’s needs? Monique Arkesteijn investigated existing methods and developed a model in which stakeholders’ preferences lead to the best option. Her research offers corporate real estate (CRE) managers a fresh approach to decision-making.

Master students Mickaël Minghetti and Karol Wojtas explored how you can live in a spectacular yet vulnerable environment. Vectorworks rewarded their design for an eco-cabin with a $1.000,- prize and free Vectorworks software and training for the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.

The international exhibition Together! on the future of living in the city is coming to Delft. The exhibition responds to challenges in contemporary architecture by focussing on collectivity and demand-oriented development. TU Delft organises the exhibition together with Delft municipality, architectural firm Inbo and developer cepezedprojects, accompanied by a wide-ranging programme of public and academic events.

Geo-information Netherlands awards an annual thesis award to a graduate who has made an especially memorable contribution to the field of geography. BK alumna Inge van den Meiracker received the GIN-NCG Thesis award for her graduation project ‘Exploring 3D functionalities: A research into software that support the spatial analysis and visualisation of 3D surface data’.

Vertical farming is the integration of high-tech agriculture in buildings. SKY HIGH researches this revolution in plant production with over 23 partners. Researchers from BK Bouwkunde received a grant of €560.000,- to explore how vertical farming can be integrated sustainably in buildings and urban energy systems.

Constructing energy neutral in warm areas is near impossible without the application of passive cooling. Use Chinese rural architecture as a best practice example, proposes PhD researcher Xiaoyu Du. This type of architecture does not need energy slurping airconditioning through the smart space lay-out.

We are quite good at recycling bottles, but other kinds of waste glass recycling have been less successful. Make cast glass out of it, says PhD researcher Faidra Oikonomopoulou. It is stronger than steel and concrete; plus, it is a great, transparent building material.

To create energy-neutral cities, we need to fundamentally change how we live in our cities. The City-zen Roadshow helps to understand that it is necessary to look at sustainability from both a technological and a societal perspective.

The project SPIDER aims to promote and strengthen active learning and teaching towards open spatial data infrastructures. The Urban Data Governance Group received an Erasmusp+ grant for the three-year project, collaborating with Bochum University of Applied Sciences, KU Leuven, Lund University, and the University of Zagreb.

Alumna Rapa Surajaras won the KuiperCompagnons Gradatuation Award 2019 for masterstudents for her thesis ‘Breathe: Redefining a zone of informal settlements for Ho Chi Minh City’. Her project was selected by the professional jury from over thirty contributions to the annual competition by magazine Blauwe Kamer.

On 25 October, Monika Chao-Duivis gave her farewell speech as professor of Building Law. The day before, she was awarded the distinction Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau for her efforts towards society through her work on building law.

Public libraries are increasingly facilitating a variety of performative opportunities. Supporting ‘making’ is becoming a common feature. The new open-access publication Atlas: Makerspaces in public libraries in the Netherlands’ takes a closer look to this development.

The research project ‘PrettyFace – Exploration of aesthetics in façade design’ has been granted funding by NWO Creative Industry KIEM. The project aims to explore aesthetical aspects of façade design, with the goal of identifying and discussing parameters. These parameters can be used to develop building products for architectural application based on aesthetical preferences.

Spatial Planning & Strategy is one of the key pillars to Urbanism at TU Delft. Over the past eleven years, the integrative approach to urbanism has further solidified under the guidance of professor Vincent Nadin. A new open-access publication celebrates the achievements of the past decade.

A homeless faculty. That was what the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment was when its permanent accommodation at the Berlageweg was destroyed by fire in 2008. For Alexandra den Heijer, a lecturer and researcher at that time, this personal drama provided the impetus for an inspiring learning process. What do you miss the most when you suddenly lose your building and its facilities? As the new professor for Public Real Estate, Den Heijer likes putting that question to students and professionals.

Freya Spencer-Wood graduated from the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment with a thesis on how the dialogue between politics and architecture can be made as open and accessible as possible. On 12 November, Spencer-Wood will give a live pitch to compete for the title ‘TU Delft Best Graduate 2019’, together with the seven nominees from other faculties.

Every year, the best gradation projects of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment are selected and exhibited at the BK Expo. The jury selected the nine best projects to compete in the Dutch Archiprix, the leading annual competition for upcoming design talent.

On 25 October, Monika Chao-Duives gives her farewell speech as Professor of Building Law. Within ‘The case of the melting dinosaur’, she will focus on the emergence of integrated types of contracts. But she will start by looking back at fifteen years as professor, making a final plea for basic knowledge of law to be made compulsory for every professional practitioner in the field of architecture and the built environment.

Living in a living fungus: as far as Bob Hendrikx is concerned, this should soon be possible. A life-size, tactile test setup of his graduation project will be on show during Dutch Design Week 2019.

The first cohort of MSc MADE students has graduated. With classes on metropolitan challenges, entrepreneurial skills and data analysis in the urban context, the graduates have developed to be the first generation of metropolitan innovators.

Mauro Overend has been appointed Professor of Structural Design & Mechanics at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. “Guaranteeing safety whilst using resources more efficiently, that’s the main objective.”