Archive
06 June 2019
The impact of regional design on spatial planning
What influence does spatial design have on spatial planning at a regional scale level and on decision-making at all scale levels? Based on practical case studies from the Netherlands, PhD researcher Verena Balz explored the two-way traffic between regional design and the development of spatial policy.
06 June 2019
Close collaboration for quick breakthroughs
The municipality of Delft and TU Delft will intensify their collaboration on urban area development. “The challenges in urban area development request a close collaboration to achieve breakthroughs faster,” explains professor Co Verdaas.
06 June 2019
Community building through remanufacturing
Collaborative production in cities has the potential to promote a more circular production paradigm, engage communities, and promote urban and community development. The research project Pop Machina aims to understand the spatial and social consequences of such circular collaborative production in urban areas.
22 May 2019
Facilitating rural newcomers
The Ruralization project aims to develop knowledge and support policy making in answering rural area challenges.
22 May 2019
Water sensitive design for Indian cities
The project Water4Change focusses on fit-for-purpose water sensitive design for fast growing liveable cities in India, combining know-how from Dutch and Indian experts.
21 May 2019
Hospital builders: east meets west
Designing hospitals is a special niche within the architecture discipline. The Hospital Tour & Masterclass offers the opportunity to Chinese top architects from this niche to visit several hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium.
21 May 2019
Housing the urban invisibles
Visiting Professor Marina Tabassum took students of the Global Housing design studio on a tour through Dhaka, exploring the social and spatial patterns of inhabitation in Dhaka. The design studio focuses on the theme ‘Dhaka: Housing the urban invisibles’, and will synthesise the student findings in a ‘Dhaka book of patterns’.
21 May 2019
Sustainable and resilient coastal cities
Nature-based solutions can be highly beneficial to coastal management and policy making, but is still underused due to a clear knowledge gap. The Sustainable and Resilient Coastal Cities (SARCC) project aims to bridge this gap. Researchers from BK Bouwkunde and the faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences received a € 480.000,- Interreg grant to create interdisciplinary innovations and implement the findings in seven case study locations.
21 May 2019
Making Nicosia a greener, healthier place
The City-Zen Roadshow visited Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus. The group of international environmental experts, led by Andy van den Dobbelsteen and Craig Martin (AE+T), studied the city together with residents and created a strategy to make the city a greener and healthier place.
21 May 2019
Tacit knowledge in architecture
Tacit knowledge is a specific type of knowledge that architects employ when designing. The Communities of Tacit Knowledge (TACK) will for the first time combine the expertise on tacit knowledge that has been developed at ten different research centres in Europe. The research project is an ITN-Marie Curie networking project, with BK Bouwkunde as one of the ten research centres involved.
21 May 2019
BK alumna Hanneke Stenfert wins Marina van Damme Grant
Not one, but two TU Delft alumni received the Marina van Damme Grant 2019. Andrea Mangel Raventos and Hanneke Stenfert were both awarded € 9.000,- to achieve their goals.
09 May 2019
Dutch housing market in stagnant phase
The current Dutch housing market can be described as ‘stagnant’. There is a decreasing trend within the number of transactions and the number of sold new-build homes, as well a continuing but flattening rise of housing prices in the last quarters. That can be concluded from the Monitor Housing Market for the first quarter of 2019.
09 May 2019
The lessons of Franco’s utopian villages
Following the Spanish civil war, Franco spearheaded sweeping rural modernisation and reconstruction. During this period, Franco had 300 ‘utopian villages’ built from scratch. Doctoral candidate Jean-François Lejeune places these villages in the wider context of a distinct South European modernism, and argues for a reassessment of this controversial heritage.
25 April 2019
Bridge design is more than a procurement process
Good bridge design requires perfect interaction between all parties, but that is precisely where things often go wrong in modern practice, concludes PhD researcher Joris Smits. He argues for a role as ‘design integrator’ for the architect, to combat fragmentation of the design process.
11 April 2019
Rebuilding the future
During the Green Tie Gala 2019, professor Andy van den Dobbelsteen was awarded a top 3 position in the ABN AMRO Sustainable 50. This list reflects what has happened and who contributed the most to a more sustainable built environment over the past year.
11 April 2019
The value of research by design
As part of the upcoming book publication ‘The city of the future’, BK researchers Tom Daamen and Hedwig van der Linden reflected on the value of research by design for urban area development. This type of design thinking can create added value for clients on different levels of the design brief.
11 April 2019
Zero-energy hotel profits from earth, wind, and fire
The new Breeze Hotel will open in a few weeks in Amsterdam. The hotel is the first building to apply ‘Earth, wind, and fire natural air conditioning’, and uses natural processes to ventilate the near 200 rooms of the hotel. The concept was developed by Ben Bronsema, and presented within his PhD research in 2013. The performance of the concept will be monitored for a longer period to further enhance the system.
11 April 2019
Integrating online education with on-campus classrooms
A broad international debate is paramount for urban planning education. To this end, the Bridge DOCS research project aims to connect students from online courses with students in on-campus classrooms. Igor Tempels Moreno Pessoa and Roberto Rocco received a Comenius Teaching Fellowship grant of € 50.000,- to develop the necessary platform. They will start with connecting first year Urbanism students with students from the MOOC ‘Rethink the city’.
11 April 2019
Robocar and Urban Space Evolution
Automated mobility is likely to happen and will significantly change cities. The symposium ‘Robocar and Urban Space Evolution’ looked at automated mobility in the context of sustainability, and the future of urban planning and design. A summary of the symposium and further reflections on the theme are now available through the open access publication of the same name on the BK Books platform.
11 April 2019
Dream catcher
Students from BK Bouwkunde and the Czech Technical University collaborated on applying computational techniques to design and build an architectural object with a complex form. The resulting ‘Dream catcher’ is a robotically woven bio-composite structure.
28 March 2019
Assessing conservation materials and techniques
For a successful intervention on cultural heritage buildings, the effectiveness and compatibility of conservation materials and techniques should be assessed prior to application. The new Heritage & Technology Lab has been set up to develop and assess solutions for the conservation of historic buildings.
28 March 2019
Co Verdaas appointed dijkgraaf
As of 1 April 2019, Co Verdaas has been appointed as the new dijkgraaf of the Water Board Rivierenland. The position of dijkgraaf within a water board is the equivalent of the position of mayor within a municipality council.
28 March 2019
Money is not all that counts in sustainability
Dutch housing associations are very keen on sustainability, but when it comes down to it, costs are the decisive factor. This is the conclusion of Sandra Hoomans in her PhD research. “Strategic considerations on making housing stock more sustainable should also be based on ecological values.”
28 March 2019
Modern trombe wall saves loads of energy
A trombe wall with phase-changing materials can ensure a much lower energy consumption of buildings. That becomes evident in the DoubleFace 2.0 research project. State-of-the-art technologies breathe new life into this age-old heat control method.
14 March 2019
Cross-cultural approaches in architecture
In the Spring semester of 2019, BK Bouwkunde welcomes Dhaka-based architect Marina Tabassum as visiting professor. Tabassum is celebrated for her focus on local culture, climate, materials and history. On 21 March, she will kick of her visiting professorship with her public lecture 'Cross-cultural approaches in architecture'.
14 March 2019
KIVI Award for Andy van den Dobbelsteen
The Dutch Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) will present the KIVI Academic Society Award to Andy van den Dobbelsteen, professor Climate Design & Sustainability, on 18 March, the Day of the Engineer. Van den Dobbelsteen is awarded for his years of pioneering in the field of sustainable construction and for his distinctive presence in the debate on climate change.
14 March 2019
Movies from the building site
In the course ‘The smell of wet concrete’, bachelor students of BK Bouwkunde explore the building site. Details of the building under construction are filmed by the students, explaining in detail how the elements are created and assembled on site.
14 March 2019
Connecting history with computer sciences
Researchers from BK Bouwkunde and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science at TU Delft have formed a partnership to connect Humanities and Computer Sciences. They will combine their interdisciplinary skills to connect long-term historical knowledge with cutting edge computer vision, geospatial technology, and crowd sourcing technology.
14 March 2019
Blended modifiers reduce salt damage in lime mortars
Lime-bound mortars are vulnarable to damage caused by salt crystallisation, but this can be remedied. PhD researcher Sanne Granneman discovered crystallisation modifiers mixed in with the mortar can prevent them from breaking down.
13 March 2019
Dick van Gameren appointed Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment
The Executive Board has appointed Prof. Dick van Gameren Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment as of 1 April 2019. He is currently chairman of the Architecture Department at the same faculty.
08 March 2019
New design for making city districts free of natural gas also delivers considerable CO2 savings
28 February 2019
Pushing the boundaries of Architectural Glass
James O’Callaghan has been appointed Professor of Architectural Glass. The Chair of Architectural Glass deals with glass in a wider context, both in the built environment and in building envelopes. It is about pushing the boundaries of materiality, performance, form, energy, and the aesthetics of architectural glass.
28 February 2019
Exploring the role of stations in future metropolitan areas
At the main point of intersection between the railway and the city, stations are key elements in the organisation of the intermodal transport. The new book ‘Stations as Nodes’ explores the role of stations in future metropolitan areas from a French and Dutch perspective.
28 February 2019
Exploring processes and technologies
Paul Chan has been appointed Professor of Design and Construction Management. The Chair addresses questions of processes that enable whole-life thinking in the development and realisation of building projects. Future practices and accompanying new technologies are looked at from a sociotechnical perspective, exploring how they can contribute to constructing better buildings and communities.
26 February 2019
Four fields of study at TU Delft in global top 10 of QS Subject Rankings
14 February 2019
The importance of fundamental glass research
The TU Delft Glass and Transparency group received the Encouragement Glass Award from Bouwend Nederland. The award acknowledges the importance of fundamental academic glass research to develop new solutions for the future.
07 February 2019
Will 2018 be a pivot-point for the Dutch housing market?
From mid-2013, the Dutch owner-occupied housing market recovered at a rapid pace from the crisis in the five preceding years. In a relatively short period, purchase prices rose sharply. The year 2018, however, shows a decreasing growth or even a decline in the volume on the owner-occupied housing market and on the mortgage market.
31 January 2019
Smart Box: exhibition space, cinema, observation tower and living room
The Smart Box has won the Smart Square design competition from the Bosch Architecture Initiative and the municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch. The design of BK Bouwkunde students Sebastiaan Vork, Nikki de Zeeuw, and Luuk Goossen was unanimously chosen from 52 entries by the jury.
31 January 2019
New heritage insights through satellites and social media
The HERILAND project applies satellites and social media to provide new insights into heritage. Satellite photos quickly provide a perfect image of the development of cities and their protected areas.
17 January 2019
Cinematic approach to ‘Port city futures’
As part of the Port City Futures research programme, Carola Hein and Paolo De Martino (Architecture) will make a film in collaboration with artist and filmmaker Ollie Palmer. The film will feature interviews with key players in Naples, Rotterdam, and Dunkirk together with future development scenarios provide a view into evolving port-city region relationships.