This graduation thesis comprises a feasibility study and design of a floating classroom which can offer students a safe learning environment in typhoon and flood-prone areas by designing a classroom which is typhoon resilient with a floating foundation. This research is a follow-up study to the Finch Floating Homes project. One month of field research has provided more insight into the local problems in the schools, climate, materials and wishes from the school. These insights in combination with a literature study on school design, typhoon resiliency and indoor comfort are the basic principles for the design. Additional parameters are set up by analyzing the Finch Floating Home and the Makoko floating school and the design principles of the Finch’s buildings. In the design framework, there is a design analysis in which the choices for the design are explained followed by a structural analysis in which the design is tested for its resistance to high wind speeds that can occur with a typhoon and for its buoyancy by using the calculation software Technosoft and Axisvm. Also, passive design strategies which are implemented in the design are explained to make the classroom indoor comfortable. The result is a design of a floating classroom that is able to offer the students a safe and comfortable learning environment which is ready to be built.

Summary The objective of this project was to illustrate the value of nature-based circularity by illustrating its potential in creating composed and engineered circular products at large, and that of Mycelium-based sandwich panels as perfect embodiment of such product in specific. To effectively explore the feasibility of these panels as a natural and circular alternative, an industry-oriented product development approach was used. Therefore, this research focussed on parameters thought to be crucial in generating interest from industry players. Within the limitation of the research these were the structural behaviour and scaled production of the product. In an extensive analysis of this novel material both general characteristics as exact properties of Mycelium-Based Composites (MBCs) were explored. This project succeeded in getting a ‘feel’ for it and has applied that deeper understanding in tackling the further steps in the research. A potentially promising industry niche was found in the distribution centre construction sector and its dynamics were studied. It was found that this niche sector is extremely sustainability-savvy, accounting for a total share of 16% of all BREEAM certification issued in 2018. While at the same time being responsible for 16% of the nation rigid foam insulation demand. This large quantity simply applied fossil-fuel derived foam was identified as ideal low bearing, ‘positive impact’, fruit. Through interviews with industry experts and an industry analysis several quantitative and qualitative boundary conditions was collected that formed a foundation for the remaining research. It was decided to perform a number of 4-point bend test, exploring the fungal sandwich panel’s potential to serve as roof plate. Both lose MBC as sandwich panel samples were tested. Based on the data provide by the experiments could be concluded both the properties of the material and the product are currently insufficient for the envisioned application. However, the found result were of an order of magnitude interring enough for further research. The MBC is approximately two to three times weaker than traditional foams. Although, the sandwich samples showed ten times better behaviour its full potential was far from realised. Weak adhesion of the individual components and the following premature delamination were identified as the main cause for this underperformance.Summary | 7 Further development is needed on a material, product and application level to achieve applicability, suggestions of potential fruitful development directions have been made. The order of magnitude of the results is however of such comparable quantity that, especially less demanding, employments of the product can on a short-term be accomplished. It is therefore interesting to see that this research has shown how the production process of mycelium-based sandwich panels could look like. By converting button mushroom facilities, a batch-based production system could be put into place with a scale adequate for the demands from the distribution centre construction industry. Twelve of the envisioned facilities could produce all insulation material for the complete sector. In this explorative project it has been shown that this nature-based technology holds potential. Sandwich panels can be made with a certain quality and quantity. But although current product performance is not sufficient for the studied application other widespread uses can be foreseen. So, although further research is certainly needed in the development of composed mycelium-based circular products it can be concluded that based on qualitative and quantitative benchmarks these products can and likely will serve as a sustainable and circular alternative to traditional, oil-based, rigid insulation products.

The energy transition is a hot topic, businesses also need to think about manners to transition to sustainable energy. Within this graduation the- sis, a stakeholder is involved named the ‘Nederlandse Spoorwegen’, in short NS. The stakeholder has the ambition to make their station’s en- ergy neutral. To achieve this, electricity generating assets needs to be implemented on every asset they own. One of these assets is the P+R parking plots near stations. An easy way of implementing solar into the parking plots is by integrating the solar panels into a carport structure. Current solar carport designs which have been constructed so far, are purely focusing on the aspect of generating the maximum amount of electricity and neglecting the aspect of design. The NS has the ambition to make the carport design sustainable in appearance and material use. Besides the sustainable appearance of the design, the design should be applicable in every P+R parking plots. This results in a modular sustain- able carport design that is orientation independent. For the design, a solar cell technology was needed. Three generations of solar cells were found in literature, but the third generation was not further researched since this generation isn’t commercially available yet. The remaining two generations of solar cell technologies (1st and 2nd generation) were researched on the following topics; performance, de- sign, and sustainability. The information found in this literature research directly fed the multi-criteria analysis (MCA) method called the analyt- ical hierarchy process. With this MCA method, polycrystalline silicon solar cell technology was selected to be the best suitable for the design. Another downside to the current solar carport designs is that these de- signs don’t fully exploit the structural capabilities of the solar panels. In the final design, a connection is designed and analyzed to exploit the structural capabilities of the solar panels, whilst still keeping the trans- parent nature of the solar panels intact. The final design features recycled rail tracks in the structure of the car- port. Besides being made from high-grade steel and the shape of the rail tracks suits their integrating into the structure, the direct link to the stakeholder was also recognized as a benefit for the final selection of this material. To further enhance the sustainable appearance/function of the carport, a green wall is implemented to absorb the rainwater. Thus, im- proving the water absorption in the asphalt dominated landscape of the P+R parking plots. In particular, the design of the sustainable solar carport for the NS is analyzed on solar radiation performance and structural performance (on carport scale and on connection scale). To gain an understanding if the new connection is beneficial on a carbon footprint scale, the newly designed connection is compared to a standard aluminum transom and mullion system.

This thesis concerns research into the parametric modelling and optimization of steel-concrete bridge typologies typically found in the Netherlands, in order to further the automation of preliminary bridge designs. The research question posed is: "How can a parametric bridge design model be composed to fit into the
overall road design process in order to get a comparative overview of structurally sound bridge designs of different typologies?". Within the literature review some background information is provided about the design of steel-concrete bridges, parametric design, finite element modelling and evolutionary solvers for optimization. With this information seven different bridges are designed according to boundary conditions and requirements posed in a fictitious case. These bridge designs cover the beam-, truss-, arch- and cable stayed
bridge typologies. The designs are then parametrically modelled and converted to a finite element model in a single parametric design environment, after which they are structurally analysed and optimized for minimum costs. The result is that, for the fictitious case considered, the Warren truss without verticals is the
solution with the lowest costs. This bridge design is able to carry the loads, according to load model 1 from the Euro Codes,with a lower amount of structural steel compared to the girder beam bridges, and the absence of expensive cables in the structure makes it less expensive than the arch and cable stayed bridges. Due to the scope defined at the start of the research, there are some limitations. The costs calculated for the bridges are purely based on the bridge structure itself, foundations and approach structures are not considered and this has to be kept in mind when comparing the bridges. Finally, the research into how to implement this design and optimization tool into the overall design process has not been performed, however, the model is composed in such a way that it will be compatible with minor changes to the start and end of the process.