BK BOOKS

Problem definition

According to the European Union, the future (2050) will be completely energy neutral and circular. Renovation concepts are needed for making existing homes more sustainable, taking into account the housing qualities of the existing stock, changed...

The settlements along the Trans-Israel Highway illustrate the privatisation of the national settlement enterprise. To understand this process, this dissertation focuses on the settlement production mechanism, which consists of the reciprocal interests of the government and various private...

It is well-known that the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) at schools affects the health, comfort and performance of school children. Considering the need for a more effective way to improve both the IEQ in primary school classrooms and children’s satisfaction, along with the positive...

In 2018, for the first time, the University of Bologna’s Board of PhD in Architecture and Design Culture assigned second-year PhD students the task of developing and managing an international conference and publishing its works. The organisers of the first edition of this initiative – Giacomo...

In deze ‘Gereedschapskist van Bach’ is de methodiek van ‘Omgekeerd ontwerpen’ vanuit ruimtelijke gebruikspatronen (in plaats van mono-disciplinair vanuit de ontwerper) toegankelijk voor studenten en voor burgerinitiatieven die zich inzetten voor het verbeteren van de (leef)omgeving....

Multi-family buildings usually have a fixed subdivision in units with standard layouts. However, households are all different and change over time, as so do their needs and desires. With this in mind, the Open Building concept, which originated in the 1960s, proposed two levels of intervention...

Energy simulation models for buildings are widely used by policymakers, researchers and consultants as a tool to advice on the reduction of residential energy consumption. Previous studies have shown that there is a gap between theoretical building energy simulation results and actual energy...

In this work Deborah Hauptmann deals with the relationships between mind, body, architecture and the city. Major authors ranging from Henri Bergson and Walter Benjamin to Henri Lefebvre and Gilles Deleuze are discussed in order to open up thinking on the roles of perception and the cognitive...

New technologies and automation concepts emerge in the digitalization of our environment. This is, for example, reflected by intelligent production systems in Industry 4.0. A core aspect of such systems is their cyber-physical implementation, which aims to increase productivity and flexibility...

Accurate determination of building’s critical thermo-physical characteristics such as the walls’ thermal resistance, thermal conductivity, and volumetric heat capacity is essential to indicate effective and efficient energy conservation strategies at building level. In practice, the values of...

In his 1912 pamphlet for the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association Nothing Gained by Overcrowding, Raymond Unwin set out in detail the lessons learnt from his formidable practical experience in the design and layout o f housing: at New Earswick from 1902, Letchworth gard en c ity from...

Cities are in transition. Most cities, like Amsterdam, are growing in terms of inhabitants, visitors, and jobs, which cause an increase in the movement of people and goods to, from, and around the city. Next to that, socio-economical factors, new insights, policies, and technology innovations...

Structuralism represents an architecture that can interact, grow and adapt. The buildings can be recognised by their vivid open structures, composition of small units, and a spatial organisation like a city. As a reaction to CIAM functionalism, the avant-garde members of Team 10 proposed...

INDESEM - International Design Seminar - is a biennial with workshops, lectures and debate founded in 1962 and re-initiated in 1986 by Herman Hertzberger. This publication reviews and reflects on the 2019 edition of the seminar; explorations on the position of the architect in a rapidly...

There is an increasing body of literature suggesting that the conventional idea of a gradual transition in spatial structure from urban to rural does not properly reflect contemporary patterns of urban development and their potential for sustainable development. Furthermore, it is argued that...

The research investigates How can the morphological approach in combination with the pattern language approach assist urban designers to achieve historical continuity in urban design both on theory and application levels.

This research overviews the developments and applications of the...

In our Architectural Engineering program we seek innovative and inspiring architectural solutions for environmental and societal issues. We are driven by the need to think differently about our building culture. Understanding existing potentials, knowing the possibilities of renewal and...

Since the 1970s, cities world-wide have been witness to radical de-industrialisation. Manufacturing was considered incompatible with urban life and was actively pushed out. As economies have grown, public officials and developers have instinctively shifted their priorities to short-term,...

This research introduces the concept of visibility as a useful tool to assess the democratic features of public spaces. We understand democratic public spaces as open spaces, which are accessible to all and allow different cultural expressions for individuals and groups. The concept of...

The EAAE Annual Conference of 2019 is titled ‘The Hidden School’, aiming to discuss an architecture school’s true character, the substance and the quality of architectural education in the broadest sense, and that which is beyond the stated curricula, yet — whether concretely manifested or...

This research aims to develop user-focused design principles for energy-efficient office renovations. The goal of this is to improve the quality and comfort of workspaces without compromising on energy-saving goals. Due to increasing sustainability requirements, new ways of working and...

The central question and purpose of the thesis is to understand how landscape as a design concept is changing our understanding of architecture. It explores the ways in which landscape is relevant for design strategies in architecture.

Buildings that have been designed like landscapes...

A book about a university docent and one of his courses – why would you do that? And what is the academic impact?

The question of impact, especially as it relates to the rapidly developing culture of publications in scientific journals, should be the topic of a separate discussion....

This research is aimed at better understanding how occupants use energy in their homes from a comfort-driven perspective, in order to propose customized environmental characteristics that could improve the occupants’ comfort while reducing energy consumption. To propose such bespoke...

One of the long-standing issues in the field of corporate real estate management is the alignment of an organization’s real estate to its corporate strategy. In the last thirty years, fourteen Corporate Real Estate (CRE) alignment models have been made. In some of these CRE alignment models it...

The subject of this dissertation concerns the investment decisions made by housing associations in urban renewal neighbourhoods in cooperation with other stakeholders.

Project background and problem statement

A number of radical changes are taking place in the...

Passive cooling for thermal comfort in summer is a big issue in low-energy building design. An important reason is global warming because global warming increases the number of cooling degree days. In addition, the energy demand of buildings has increased rapidly due to both the improvement of...

Glass as a material has always fascinated architects. Its inherent transparency has given us the ability to create diaphanous barriers between the interior and the exterior that allow for space and light continuity. Yet, we are just starting to understand the full potential, properties and...

The Department of Urbanism of the TU Delft is organised in five sections: Spatial Planning & Strategy (SPS), Urban Design, Environmental Modelling, Urban Studies, and Landscape Architecture. SPS has three distinct and complementary pillars: (i) Spatial Planning & Strategy, (ii)...