Archive

Last Tuesday, 2 April, TU Delft's Vision Team Wonen (Housing) presented their report 'Room for Housing: towards an integrated approach to the Dutch housing challenge’. Vision Team Wonen was set up by the Rector Magnificus in 2023 to address the growing housing crisis in the Netherlands. The team includes experts from CEG, TPM, IDE, and every department of our faculty. It was coordinated by Dr Gerard van Bortel (MBE) and Ulf Hackauf (Urbanism).

BK professors Philomena Bluyssen and Atze Boerstra joined forces with a global network of 37 fellow experts on the indoor environment. Their collective paper, published in Science, calls for improved monitoring and regulating of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in public spaces. It unequivocally states that “mandatory standards would result in immense benefits to the health and productivity of people around the world.”

The Netherlands is suffering from an ever-worsening housing crisis, but at the same time many buildings stand empty. The book ‘Transformation into Housing’, edited by four BK researchers, provides a thorough overview of the feasibility and sustainability of transforming these buildings into homes.

It is vital to address current and future challenges in the built environment as quickly as possible. Think of heat stress, loss of biodiversity, and flooding. Therefore, we invite you to follow the new MOOC Urban Ecology Design. You will learn how to contribute to a more biodiverse, nature-inclusive, and sustainable built environment by applying nature-based solutions in designs and policy.

On Friday, March 15, more than 1000 students, mostly accompanied by their parents, visited the Open Campus day. On all faculties and in the auditorium there was the possibility to learn more about the Bachelor programs of TU Delft. Because the numerus fixus of BK was closed on January 15, most of the students at our faculty were VWO 5 students.

In her inaugural address, Janina Gosseye will reflect on what the Honeywood File, published in 1929, might look like if it were written today, nearly one hundred years after the original book appeared. Who might the architect be, and how would they engage in architectural practice? What might the commission be? A mansion for a wealthy couple, or perhaps rather a large shopping centre? In her address, Gosseye will also consider what architectural historians might learn from the way in which the Honeywood File, which is an epistolary novel, was written.

It's hard to miss: as of late, a large timeline covers a wall near the Library. Its drawings, objects, articles and much more span from 1842 to the present day. This is 'Bouwkunde in Delft: A Chronology'. Although impressive, the timeline is not intended as a complete overview of the eventful history of the faculty but rather as an accessible and inspiring impression of where we came from.

How do you design cities in such a way as to allow people to live as pleasurably and healthily as possible? Professor Machiel van Dorst combines his knowledge of architecture with a background in environmental psychology. For his inaugural address, Van Dorst argues for focusing on the city at eye level: “To a certain extent, where you live determines who you are.”

Confidence in the owner-occupied housing market among housing consumers has clearly increased over the past few months. Households appear to be less sceptical about developments in the owner-occupied housing market. The number of consumers with a negative opinion is almost in balance again with the number of positively mooded households.

National libraries, such as the KB, National Library of the Netherlands, have been working on digitising their collections for years. Due to rising energy use and the cost of digital infrastructures, libraries are under increasing pressure to reduce their energy use and emissions whilst ensuring maximum usability and accessibility.

On Tuesday 30 January, five Architecture students (TU Delft) presented hypothetical plans for the redevelopment of three Delft locations. Delft alderman Frank van Vliet (Climate, Culture and Public Space) and city master planner Tako Postma gave their reactions to the plans.

Making digitised collections of old maps more usable for research and students is the mission of Jules Schoonman, digital curator at TU Delft Library.

Researcher Bo Li has received a Rubicon grant from NWO for his research on financialisation of rental markets. The grant will allow him to gain two years of research experience at a foreign institution.

Henri Baudet was known for his keen eye for quirky artifacts and timeless treasures. His objects are stored as part of the ‘Henri Baudet Institute’, operating out of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (TU Delft), for private viewing. But now, you can also discover the collection through the eyes of TU Delft ‘Spaces of Display’ minor students.

On 11 January 2024 the workshop Digital Engagement in Times of Climate Crisis took place as part of the TU Delft Delta week.

Delft Matters spoke with Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb and TU Delft professor Arjan van Timmeren about the city’s resilience. In the Convergence programme, TU Delft is working with Erasmus University and the Erasmus Medical Center to develop solutions to urgent and complex social problems. The city of Rotterdam serves as a living laboratory in this respect.

Two projects in which faculty researchers are involved or are the main applicant have recently been awarded with funding. These are the CIVILIAN project on civic engagement and the Building 4 Belonging project on loneliness.

We are deeply saddened that Félix Madrazo Salazar passed away last December 16th, following his battle with cancer, which has left us at a loss for words.

Urbanisation is one of the biggest challenges of this century, alongside biodiversity loss and climate change. By 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities. That implies a doubling of the number of people living in cities and a tripling of the urban footprint. Landscape-based urbanism is an approach in which the landscape is the basis for designing future-proof urban environments. On 2 February, Steffen Nijhuis will give his inaugural address 'Landschapslogica' (Landscape logic).

Traditionally attractive places for development, deltas are often among the most densely populated areas. Climate change means that the relationship developed over centuries in cohesion between cities, mobility, ecology, agricultural areas must be redefined. Design plays a crucial role in this challenge. Prior to the Dies with the theme Redesigning Deltas, a Dies Delta week will be organised.

On Thursday 7 December, the winners of the ECHO Award 2023 were announced. BK Master student Ahmed Emin Batman is the winner of the Bèta Techniek Award. Emin is now a 'well-known' face from his many times viewed TikTok video, with his Turkish parents during his BSc graduation ceremony, with now almost 600,000 views.

Today's new generations, especially young people, will face constant changes in landscapes during their lifetime. Is it possible to make young people aware of how climate change will change our landscapes and cities? Can we involve children and students in co-designing the landscape, taking into account the changing climate?

On Thursday, 16 November, the BK Launch Entrepreneurship Award was granted. A total of six already somewhat advanced entrepreneurs were made happy with an Award, between 10,000 and 20,000 euros. The Awards are intended for an entrepreneur with an innovative idea that will change the way we think about the built environment. In addition, three BK Launch Start-Up vouchers were awarded.

Recently, BK master's student Rik van den Bogaerdt won the Q-Park Student Award for his thesis on mobility hubs. A total of 75 students competed and out of 11 nominees, Rik's thesis 'Shared Mobility Hubs in Urban Developments' received the Student Award.

Op donderdag 23 november presenteert het Architectural Recovery Team, ontstaan vanuit de TU Delft , het ontwerp voor een betaalbaar en aardbevingsbestendig huis voor de getroffenen van de aardbevingen in Turkije. Op basis van dit ontwerp zal in het voorjaar van 2024 een prototype worden gebouwd in een dorp in Turkije. Daarna zal het ontwerp in productie worden genomen, om Turkse inwoners die tot op heden nog geen goede woning hebben gevonden, aan een veilige en betaalbare woning van hoogwaardige kwaliteit te helpen.

Spending four days in a container to understand how people who lost their homes after the earthquake in Turkey are now living. What is it like to live in these 'shelters'? "Besides the lack of thermal insulation, there is also a lack of general insulation, because we could hear everything that was happening outside." explains Leyla van der Waarde of the Architectural Recovery Team (ART). "Our neighbors in the container camp were very hospitable and were happy for us to stay in their camp." adds Meriç Kessaf.

Last September saw the launch of Space Oasis Delft, a new Dream Team with major input from BK. Their goal: designing a fully functional habitat for more than 150 people... on the moon. "This project is so multidimensional!" says Marit Vegt, Team Manager and student at our faculty. "Besides designing, we have to incorporate engineering, 3D rendering, psychology, physical health, and even urban planning."

How can historic military systems be preserved in metropolitan areas? This, in a nutshell, is the subject of Federica Marulo's award-winning research. She recently received the Waterlines Thesis Award for her doctoral thesis.

Purchase prices rose slightly again in the third quarter of 2023, but the number of mortgages closed, and the number of homes sold stabilized. Due to the enormous tightness in the owner-occupied housing market, the widening of the maximum borrowing capacity of households immediately leads to rising sales prices. As the supply of (newly built) owner-occupied homes will remain limited in the coming months as well, the purchase price development in the coming period will also depend heavily on the changes in maximum loan capacity.

In 2024, the courtyard of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment will be transformed into an Urban Climate Grove, in the form of a tree-rich 'wadi' (Arabic for riverbed). This wadi will not only become a nicer place for students and staff, but also facilitate a whole range of new research projects. Dr Nico Tillie: "We will study all levels, from the ground to the sky and from emissions to biodiversity." And according to Dr René van der Velde, "we are going beyond the state-of-the-art... we are inventing a new type of forest."

As a child he loved making treehouses. As an architecture student he admired structures in timber most of all. He started out as a practitioner by redesigning and rebuilding his mother’s house, using discarded plywood. “That made sense because I needed material, didn’t have any money and couldn’t bear waste.” As of November 2023, Alex de Rijke is professor of Timber Architecture at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.

On Saturday 21 October 2023 John Habraken, one of the founding fathers of Open Building and SAR (Stichting Architecten Research), passed away. John was alumnus of TU Delft and has had a major impact on multiple generations of architects since the 1960’s.

The Netherlands is struggling with major issues in the areas of mobility, housing, sustainability and climate These major challenges result in multiple interests coming together in area development. Environmental and planning law are therefore in the spotlight. On 10 November 2023, Marlon Boeve will deliver her inaugural speech, "The Environment Act and Sustainable Urban Area Development. The Proof of the Pudding.'

It cannot have been missed by anyone, but the Dutch housing market is not doing well. Numerous problems are constantly in the headlines, a " building pause" because of nitrogen, stagnant construction due to a shortage of materials or skilled manpower. A stranded rental market, not enough social housing or the rising prices of owner-occupied homes due to scarcity and higher interest rates on mortgages. The problems are numerous and complex. How to find a way out of this? Professor Peter Boelhouwer wrote an essay.

The Urban Design month (UDM) will take place between October 24th and November 28th. It aims to inspire everyone, especially students, to dive into the work of this discipline. One of the organisers is assistant professor Victor Muñoz Sanz. “We want to spark new collaborations, new knowledge, new alliances, and new education practices geared towards addressing future challenges.”

On Saturday 21 October, the winners of the Dutch Archiprix 2023 were announced. Alumnus Jacopo Zani of the Master Track Architecture is one of the three winners with 'Gardens of Dialectics'.

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.