Construction projects are swiftly growing in complexity that poses a significant challenge to project success, performance, schedule and cost. Cross-functional teams are commonly arranged for complex projects to facilitate comprehensive problem-solving and decision making. Shared leadership, a critical success factor in project management associated with various benefits for team effectiveness, plays a pivotal role in cross-functional teams. However, there is scant research how this manifests in practice. This study sets out to explore shared leadership behaviors in Dutch project design teams, to promote a comprehensive understanding how it influences and enhances team effectiveness. Two complex construction projects were studied; 50/10kV main station and 150/20kV main station. The main research question that this study aims to answer is what effects do shared leadership behaviors have on team effectiveness in Project-Based Cross-Functional Design Teams under different project delivery methods in the Dutch construction industry?

This study adopted the mixed methods approach, with a comparative case study as the research strategy. Data was collected through a context analysis, participatory observations, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires. Qualitative data was analyzed by coding and annotating audio transcripts. Quantitative data was analyzed by calculating the baseline scores and team effectiveness scores. Subsequently, qualitative and quantitative data were integrated.

The study showed that that every task-focused and person-focused leadership behavior was exhibited, individually or in various combinations. This indicated that there is no one-size-fits-all leadership behavior. Moreover, the findings revealed the presence of situational leadership indicating the ability of individuals to adapt their leadership behaviors by prioritizing, steering and meeting the needs of the team. The second main finding suggested that high exhibition of leadership behaviors, especially person-focused behaviors during milestones, was associated with higher team effectiveness. Milestones were unveiled as critical moments that had a substantial impact on the exhibition of shared leadership behaviors and team effectiveness. An unexpected finding suggested that team composition -more than the project-delivery method- moderates the relationship between shared leadership and team effectiveness. Furthermore, the findings suggested that the project phase and responsibilities of individuals play a significant role in the involvement and presence during meetings. Hence, the study should be extended to fully observe and comprehend the influences of the project-delivery method on team composition. Therefore, two hypotheses are formulated that deserve further research, specifically suggesting that: 1) team composition moderates the relationship between shared leadership and team effectiveness in Project-Based Cross-Functional Design Teams; and 2) team composition in Project-Based Cross-Functional Design Teams are project phase-dependent.

In conclusion, this study provided valuable insights into the importance of shared leadership on team effectiveness in engineering design teams in the Dutch construction sector and has shown how various task-focused and person-focused leadership behaviors manifest in practice and how they can shape team effectiveness through time. The findings strengthen the idea that person-focused behaviors are equally important, if not, more important than task-focused behaviors in enhancing team effectiveness in Project-Based Cross-Functional Design Teams. Emphasizing person-focused behaviors should be beneficial to increasing overall performance, satisfaction and quality effectiveness. All team members can contribute to addressing this challenge, which promotes cohesion, satisfaction and improved team work.

Utilising research in environmental psychology in order to achieve stress reduction in the design of a healthcare center. The design clusters the architectural programs based on the reason people visit certain functions within the building, and privacy aspects. This clustering of functions also allowes the design to be tweaked to achieve stress reduction unique for every program.
Changing the architectural characteristics for every function leads to a patchwork like architecture.

Preventive measures for a healthy population are becoming a trending topic in the Netherlands because of rising costs of care and an increasing population of elderly. Due to this, prevention methods in the built environment can help with minimising this problem. Urban area developments are ways for improving or developing new built environments. Health will need to become part of these developments. To research this, the following question was answered: ‘’How can actors involved in urban area (re)developments in the Netherlands realise healthy urban areas?’’ The research was conducted using mixed methods of literature study, questionnaires and case studies. What was found is that actors need to collaborate following the rules of collaborative governance. Many challenges are seen such as ambiguous definitions and difficulties with monitoring. However, recommendations are found. These are: extended front-end work; digital twinning; involving medical actors; assigning an ambassador of health; introducing an after-delivery team for health; collaborating with knowledge institutes; monitoring on city level and introducing a database; investing increased returns in health interventions; clear norms set by the state; and a communal knowledge of health. These can help future healthy developments to be realised.

The importance of the research field, physical environment and the effects on people’s well-being, is highlighted since the report of Ulrich 1978. However, since this topic has an influence on a large amount of people, the difference between people gives the topic its multifaceted aspect. Which means many different angles on this topic have not been research yet or are still lacking research data. Notably the people who are sick and/or injured (hospital patients), are confined inside hospital patient rooms while they recuperate. The effect of relevant factors of view to the outside and the daylight parameter on the visual perception of patient, which influence patients’ wellbeing and recovery, is still lacking in research. This led to the research question of this graduation project paper: Which relevant factors related to the view to the outside and/or to daylight parameters influence the visual perception of people?

The Dutch government is aiming to transition towards a fully circular economy by 2050 to mitigate climate change. To comply with these standards, a transition team for the construction sector has identified biobased materials as a cornerstone for the sector to become circular, enabling a crucial shift because of the sector's large contribution to carbon emissions and environmental pollution. Principles on which this shift relies are focused on environmental health while neglecting human wellbeing, especially mental health as one of the building blocks of human wellbeing (the other being physical health), albeit of great importance due to the significant amount of time humans spend indoors. Mental health is defined by life satisfaction and happiness and is measured through perception and experience. A two-way path is identified: from mental and physical health to human wellbeing.
This research aims at identifying the effect of biobased insulation materials on the wellbeing of residents through a pilot study in the Netherlands. Individuals' perceptions and experiences of their living environments—specifically, their homes—serve as the basis for measuring wellbeing in this context.
A mixed method is used, combining quantitative and qualitative results from a discrete choice experiment in a virtual reality environment. Participants were presented with three sets of two predetermined configurations. For every set, participants were asked to make a discrete choice between the two alternatives.
The results were analysed using a Cox proportional hazard model in SPSS. The quantitative and qualitative data showed several discrepancies, but both emphasised the importance of indoor comfort. It is concluded that biobased insulation materials that ensure good indoor comfort are preferred over materials that don’t. Additionally, the importance of low maintenance needs and a small wall diameter is emphasised to lead to a preferred living environment and thus increased wellbeing.
Recommendations to move the model beyond a pilot include diversifying the sample population, materials, and attributes that are presented while aligning these with the target audience, including non-expert views throughout the development of the model, and revealing associations with the materials.

A statistical analysis into the health benefits of nature. Dividing nature into areas with a different landscape and areas with a different biodiversity score. Indicating a different influence on the aspects of heath depending on the landscape. Showing a greater influence in areas with the landscape open agricultural, half open and closed agricultural, forest and dunes. Considering the degree of biodiversity, areas with a higher biodiversity score are shown to score better on the different aspects of health. The quality of nature influence the health of the inhabitants to such a degree that areas with a large amount of high quality nature experience health benefits while areas with a low quality of nature experience a drawback.

COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of the healthcare systems in society. The pandemic overwhelmed hospitals and forced rapid and radical changes in healthcare organizations' working practices and management structures (MASS Design Group, 2020; Ramboll, 2021; Capolongo et al., 2020). The virus led to unfamiliar environments, new spatial configurations of hospitals were necessary to cope with the surge capacity, new protocols and strategies were fundamental to respond to the crisis. Past pandemics have occurred, and other infectious diseases and viruses might come. COVID-19 is not going to be the last challenging situation for the health sector. Thus healthcare systems could become more resilient. Hospitals need to be resistant to future outbreaks, maintaining and adapting critical functions during crises (Ramboll, 2021). It is essential to learn from the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic to be more prepared for future events.
This practice-based research aims to gain insight into the pandemic experience to provide recommendations to future-proof hospital design. A qualitative approach is proposed for this study. First, through a general questionnaire, information on building adaptations and working practices of hospitals in the Netherlands during the pandemic was assessed. Then follow-up in-depth interviews with chosen facility and real estate managers that answered the survey would be conducted to reflect on the crisis period and understand the decisions and choices taken regarding planning, design, and engineering during the different waves in the country's hospitals.
According to findings, the pandemic in the Netherlands increased cohesion and collaboration between healthcare organizations. The national government advised the coordination of the emergency response, and the decisions within each organization were driven by independent Crisis Management Teams (CMT). Clear guidance facilitated the decision-making process of the measures and services that needed to be implemented. In general, hospitals felt well prepared for the pandemic, although changes and improvements were made regarding building, technical and employee-focused modifications to respond to the surging demand of covid-care.
Additionally, an analysis considering three spatial characteristics of hospitals: type, building year, and urban density, was done to determine if there was a distinction in the measures taken. It was found that most hospitals implemented some top measures and that there is also some differentiation between groups of hospitals. Based on the findings and the lessons learned from the interviews, some suggestions for future renovations and developments were made. Recommendations could help build up towards future-proof facilities to a virus-like COVID-19 increasing spatial flexibility, robustness and adaptive capacity of healthcare buildings.

Modern urban road systems often bring environmental problems and affect the quality of life of residents. The main roads in the south of Rotterdam face problems with lack of greenery, heat island effect and flash flooding. These problems have had a negative impact on the well-being of residents, and have also caused the road ecosystem to fail to provide better ecological benefits for the city.

This thesis aims to explore the potential of main roads in improving ecological benefits and quality of life through the concept of ecosystem services. The purpose of the research is to use the arterial network to create urban ecological corridors, support for healthy living, and climate-adaptive infrastructure.

Through the determination of the ecological value of the arterial network and its spatial quality, this thesis clarifies the goals of supporting and habitat services, cultural services and regulating services provided by roads, and proposes spatial intervention strategies. The spatial intervention strategies are applied to the three streets and become different landscape schemes.

The research process of this thesis shows the value and importance of the city's arterial network in improving the ecological integrity of the city and the well-being of residents.

Humanitarian architecture is a field which is very open to different interpretations and for free uncontrolled experimentation. For architects willing to contribute to this field there is no defined framework that can support them in designing a suitable project. The core of this research is based on a case study in which three different cases in humanitarian architecture are investigated and analysed to create a framework with design principles for humanitarian architecture. These design principles can be used as a tool to evaluate projects or as a supportive framework by architects designing buildings with humanitarian purposes. The design principles are explicated as People, Planet, Profit, Place and Process. At the end of the research, Participation is added to this framework as the sixth principle to emphasise the importance of social design in humanitarian architecture. Those six principles are supposed to produce humanitarian architecture projects which can contribute to the creation of autonomy for communities in need. Project MIMPI includes a multidimensional design of a homelike orphanage in Jakarta in which the created framework is used and validated.

Due to an aging population and the consequently rise in publicly funded cost for long-term care a major change was made in the financing structure of the health care system in The Netherlands. Since this change in 2015 care providers have closed care homes. In Delft the main institutional care provider now has partly vacant real estate. This report addresses advice to explore whether new ways of independent living for elderly will be helpful for them to independently age in place and provide a solution to existing real estate vacancies at institutional care providers. Cohousing for elderly was chosen an studied for motives and continuity.

Aan het begin van de 21 eeuw kwam de overheid tot de conclusie dat door onaanvaardbare en ontoelaatbare hoge zorgkosten de overheid genoodzaakt was om in 2006 de nieuwe zorgverzekeringswet in te voeren. Een geprivatiseerd Nederlandse zorgsysteem werd het nieuwe uitgangspunt. De overheid was van mening dat door het privatiseren van de zorg, de marktwerking die zou ontstaan uiteindelijk de zorg in Nederland kwalitatief beter en goedkoper zou worden, mede door een zwaarder accent te leggen op de participatiemaatschappij. Een vaak aangehaald voorbeeld van de participatiemaatschappij is de sociale wijkgezondheidshub zoals die in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Het gaat hier om het voorbeeld van het Bromely by Bow Centre in Londen. Het Bromely by Bow Centre is een ‘Community Health Centre’ en is ontwikkeld voor en door de bewoners uit de omliggende wijken. In het centrum is een samenwerkingsverband tussen zorgprofessionals en vrijwilligers waardoor er zowel een regulier eerstelijnszorg aanbod aanwezig is als sociale (zorg) activiteiten. Het kern idee van het centrum is dat er hierdoor geen scheidslijn tussen formele en informele zorg en welzijn ontstaan. Hierdoor is de zorg laagdrempelig en de druk van goede zorg ligt niet alleen maar bij de huisarts. Alle diensten in het centrum zijn onderdeel van het aanbod van de huisarts.

Design in healthcare projects is complex because of the high number of stakeholders and the involvement of end-users in the design process. This causes collaboration issues and information asymmetry which are barriers in communication and information exchange. The purpose of this research is to gain insight into the design process in healthcare building projects, more particularly into the way the end-users groups like the medical caregivers and the design team exchanged information and participate in developing the design. The focus of this research is the end-user design team interactions in the hospital design process.
The main research question is: In hospital building projects, how does the project organization translate the end-user information into design? By performing a single case study, data was collected through context analysis, document analysis, and in-depth interviews about end-user involvement, information flow, and decision-making process in Erasmus MC Rotterdam new building project. Ten interviews were conducted with different members of the project organization including project managers and leaders, design experts, and also external advisors. The research analysis illustrates a participative design and decision-making process and the three main findings of this research:(1)End-users from different groups were involved in the design and decision-making process and the level of involvement was different in each stage. There is mainly a consultative form of user involvement that evolved into a co-design form in the technical phase of design. User representatives and designers were members of technical design teams: TOTs in this phase looking for design solutions together. (2) Two groups had key roles during the process: User Coordinators and the Building Expertise group. User Coordinators ensure the gathering of user information and engagement of end-users during the design, and they are the information exchange link between the end-users and the design team. The Building Expertise group in this project had an intermediator role acting in different boundaries of the organization. (3) Design decisions are based on continuous consultation with end-user representatives which are linked to the project organization at all levels. There was a transparent and informed decision-making process. Review matrices were decision-making support tools used by different groups including different end- end-user groups and help different groups exchange information in different boundaries. Research findings and the analysis gives a better understanding of information management, end-user, and stakeholder management in healthcare building design and planning and give insights on project management and how to organize the information exchange and the team interactions and use different methods and tools during the briefing and design process in complex building design projects like hospitals.

It is the year 2019 and the Dutch economy is flourishing. However, the retail sector is still in a ‘re- inventing phase’. The popularity of e-commerce is increasing and Dutch shopping districts are continuously changing. This affects the profitability of both retailers and retail investors. Considering that the Dutch population is aging, people live longer independently and elderly people like shopping centres as places for spontaneous encounters it seems clear that an increasingly important target group for Dutch neighbourhood shopping centres are the elderly people. If our neighbourhood shopping centres are not tailored towards the wishes of the elderly consumers it can have both a social and financial impact. First of all, the elderly might not be able to buy the goods they need for an autonomous live and they might not like the physical environment of the shopping centre as a social meeting place. Besides this, it can lead to missed financial opportunities for retailers and shopping centre investors. The main aim of this research is to gain insight into solutions / measures that make existing neighbourhood shopping centres future proof in aging societies such as the Netherlands. The emphasis in this study is on analysing the wishes of elderly visitors with regard to the characteristics of the shopping centre.

Sustainability is a much debated topic last decades and in particular the past few years . Many governments, organisations, business and people feel the urgency to act. The United Nations even states in their IPCC 2018 report that in order to keep the climate change contained, unprecedented changes to systems in terms of scale and speed are necessary. A possible change that the system can make is a change towards a circular economy. The circular economy combines business models to environmental principles like reuse, reduce recycle and recover. This report researched the extent to which the principles of the circular economy are applied by housing associations and if these applications are innovative compared to Cradle to Cradle or traditional sustainable applications.
In order to answer this question a case study was carried out. The cases were selected because of the link that was made between the project and the circular economy by the housing associations. Eight cases were studied through ten interviews. The data were analysed using an analytical framework developed in a literature study. The findings of the analyses were discussed in a focus group interview. The result of the research is that the extent of the application of circular economy by housing associations is limited. Four of the eight cases are demolition projects. The recycling and reuse that took place in these projects were no different than the demolition principles that were already common practice. In these cases there also was no circular business model used. There is just one case that applied a circular business model. In this cases however, there is a third party introduced for the execution of the lease model. According to the circular economy theory, these third parties should be avoided.
Although most cases prioritize sustainability over finance, they don’t fit the label Cradle to Cradle. The projects insufficiently focussed on design to avoid waste. Besides, the materials in the projects were not 100% upcycled.
These conclusions do not mean that housing associations do not have sustainable projects and agenda’s. They envision to increase the sustainability of their real estate portfolio. Together the housing associations have a strong market position. They can make a big contribution to sustainability through tenders, collective purchasing of sustainable products and sustainable products as a service.

Lelycentre – an area that was initially planned as a living, working and shopping district, which also would form the city centre of Lelystad – was meant for the first inhabitants who came to Lelystad in September 1967. Using clear zoning plans as a base, much was promised to the new inhabitants. These promises consisted of low rise houses for big families with children, surrounded by abundance of greenery, plenty of (public) space and – as one of the first in the Netherlands – separated traffic. Unfortunately, with altering the layout of Lelystad and moving the city centre away from Lelycentre, as a result of the refusal of realising the fourth polder Markermeer, this composition of different functions has radically changed and this changing is still ongoing. With the changing of composition, also the state of the area and the inhabitants changed. Of the 120.000 expected inhabitants, only 77.000 came at its peak. This resulted in lots of real estate as well as social problems, such as vacancy, neglection of public spaces, isolated groups with no interaction and a constantly aging population, accompanied by the migrating youth, which the municipality of Lelystad is, still to this day, trying to deal with. Amidst all the solutions the municipality is envisioning – which are strongly focused on helping the inhabitants with low-income with social-housing and the elderly with nursing homes – they are forgetting two important groups in the society. Those two groups are the migrating youngster – who find it difficult to find decent housing and jobs – and the wandering migrant workers, who likewise find it difficult to find proper housing and often end up with twenty-plus people living in private rented houses all over Lelystad. This graduation project focuses on those two forgotten groups. Transforming the partly vacant Smedinghuis – former Rijkswaterstaat office building – which stands in the area as a monumental icon and functions as a gateway to Lelycentre, into housing for the youngsters and the migrant workers, will not just give those two forgotten groups fitting housing, but it will also solve the vacancy problem of one of the first office buildings in Lelycentre. By giving the migrating youngsters proper housing and give them reason to stay, will help repulse the aging problem in the area as well. The same applies for housing the strayed migrant workers. Adjoining to that – which is not less important – this transformation will preserve a monumental icon in the area; Smedinghuis. For the design part of this graduation project, the use of Virtual Reality as a design tool was important. With the help of Virtual Reality crucial design decisions have been made.

The ageing population and healthcare reform leads to a changing demand for short-term care. Health-related care and service providers offer several types of short-term care, but lack a clear vision and associated real estate strategy. Therefore, care processes are not always arranged efficiently, and real estate does not add value to the performance of the organisation. This affects the quality of care that clients receive. The aim is to gain insight in the care processes of six different types of short-term care in order to establish 1) to what extent (horizontal) integration is possible, 2) to determine the requirements for real estate, and 3) to identify possibilities for organisational change. The intention is to increase insight into the possibilities and prerequisites of optimizing short-term care through a closer alignment with the real estate strategy.
A qualitative interview study (n=16) within one health-related care and service provider was conducted with respondents holding a management position. In order to add validity, two focus group sessions (n=10) were held to discuss the findings and identify barriers and prerequisites towards integrated short-term care.
Findings show that short-term care is currently paired with long-term care although the goals and care environments differ substantially. All types of intermediate care, geriatric rehabilitation, respite care and Wlz crisis care can be integrated to some extent from the care and client perspective, along with a general practitioner, day centre and primary care treatment centre. Concentration of services on a location or within a building that is not associated with long-term care is recommended. It can result in more efficiency, higher quality and integrated care, and better expectation management. The client’s preference of care close to home needs to be taken into account as well. Certain barriers on macro, meso and micro level were identified. Respondents indicate that clear communication and creating a physical identity through real estate can solve some of the discussed barriers.
A limitation of the research is that it was conducted within the boundaries of one organisation, limiting the transferability of the data due to the specifics of the organisation and context. Furthermore, real estate recommendations are made based on short-term care processes, but financial feasibility is not considered. This requires further research.

According to literature, the benefits of BIM can be well found in complex projects such as healthcare. When well implemented, the use of BIM as a tool for communication and collaboration can lead to a higher design quality and quality of the realized building, as well as increased efficiency and costs savings.
BIM can be used for integrated communication and collaboration between different stakeholders, from the same as well as from different project phases. For a good collaboration with BIM, clear objectives should be communicated between stakeholders. With BIM, project team actors can work together in a shared environment, existing of a 3D model and other tools. The project stakeholders can be architects, engineers, (sub)contractors, but also new roles that emerge due to BIM, such as BIM managers and BIM designers. Existing roles of project actors, such as architects, can also change because e.g. different technical BIM related skills are required. BIM can be used for information management between these different roles of the design team and the client and its end-users.
Considering the project lifecycle, the design and operation phase are critical because in the design phase the usability for the use phase is defined, and the use phase is the longest phase of building projects. BIM can be used for communication between the different actors that work in the design and use phase. Also, end-users can be included in the communication about design and operation of buildings, to make a building better fit to the end-use. When communicating about the design and its specifications, the design and corresponding BIM model should be validated and verified.
Although a lot of benefits are given in literature, the findings of empirical research show that these benefits are often not met in practice: interviewed stakeholders stated that the benefits are not always working out as proposed by BIM programme makers, and the connection between design and use with BIM is often not implemented well enough, e.g. due to different information needs of different actors.
The process of communication in the project, as well of the way stakeholders validate and verify the design, are influenced by the project context, including language, culture, background and interests of different stakeholders. Further, incidents during the process can influence the extent that the BIM documents such as protocols and execution plans, as agreed upon in the start of the project, are followed during the project. Critical points towards a successful project are: 1. To use BIM as a means, instead of a goal in itself: the reasons why BIM is used should be well defined upfront, and good agreements should be made about it.; 2. BIM is not only a way to resolve design errors, but also to involve different stakeholders, including the client. The interests and competences of different actors should be defined upfront; 3. If the client does not have extensive knowledge of BIM, or does not know exactly why and how to use BIM, it is also up to the design team to help the client sort this out. 4. BIM and digital communication should not replace real life communication, as it stays important to meet face to face.

Discrete choice experiment about the interior office design preferences during collaboration and individual concentration. This study was an evaluation study for an activity-based working office located in Amsterdam.