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PhD candidates Nail Ibrahimli and Shenglan Du are both doing research on how to advance architecture with AI. Nail builds AI models which combine photogrammetry with artwork analysis to create stylised 3D objects. Shenglan became fascinated by processing point clouds from trees, reconstructing their shapes from raw data. For her PhD, she is extending the scope to urban objects in general.

“The way we construct our buildings needs to change.” says Arjan van Timmeren professor of Environmental Technology & Design at TU Delft. Over 35% of our global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the built environment. A third of that amount is specifically related to the production of abiotic (non-renewable) materials such as concrete, metals and plastics. The associated challenges are not only climate related, but also concern resource scarcity, health and housing provision.

In his Delft research on the revitalization of city and country, particularly Groningen and Friesland, Zef Hemel wants to take the northern landscape with its rich history of habitation as a starting point. In the coming climate change, we must prepare for sea level rise, salinization, flooding, heat and intense drought.

De Faculteit Bouwkunde heeft twee nieuwe deeltijdhoogleraren bij de sectie Urban Design aangesteld: Anne Loes Nillesen en Tess Broekmans. Met hun praktijkervaring brengen ze waardevolle inzichten naar de academische wereld én andersom. “De TU Delft speelt een cruciale rol bij het aanpakken van grote maatschappelijke vraagstukken. Daar hebben we goede ontwerpers voor nodig.”

Sustainable urbanisation, climate adaptation and biodiversity require a design approach that takes the landscape as its starting point. In short, that is what new professor Steffen Nijhuis focuses on within his teaching and research on Landscape-based Urbanism. “The landscape offers structure, ecological coherence and variety, but is also flexible and multifunctional.” Steffen further explains his research and ambition in an interview.

Automated technologies have driven the transformation and growth of the Dutch dairy industry. Today, this sector is questioned for its adverse effect on nature, especially in the context of the nitrogen crisis. To better address environmental problems caused by farming, it is important to understand how the use of automation and other digital technologies in this sector is affecting those places where food is produced.

Our past sometimes has controversial sides regarding heritage when it’s linked for example to the Second World War or slavery. When protecting this controversial heritage, you need to have a good plan to appreciate the different visions and sensitivities regarding this heritage. Of course, heritage experts prefer to preserve relics from the past. But what is the public opinion of people living close by this multifocal past?

What words are needed to express what you experience when you read the IPCC reports and the newspapers? To describe a truly sustainable future? Silke Jonk (industrial ecology student TU Delft) and Elise Chalcraft (former sociology and urban studies student, EUR) created a dictionary of ten new terms. One is presented to Arjan van Timmeren professor of Environmental Technology & Design and scientific director of Resilient Delta Initiative.

This year Bieke Cattoor of the department Urbanism, section Landscape Architecture, is one of the new members of The Young Academy. The Young Academy is a dynamic and innovative group of scientists and scholars with outspoken views about science and scholarship and the related policy.

Subsidence, salinisation, climate change, population growth, social dichotomies and dwindling resources. Nature systems and societies in urban deltas around the world are struggling. The Netherlands is no exception and, for this reason, professor of Delta Urbanism Chris Zevenbergen is making the case for greater imagination in science and public administration.