Urbanisation is increasing rapidly around the world, bringing with it challenges such as energy consumption, resource depletion and social inequality. The concept of the compact city, which promotes denser settlement patterns for sustainability, has emerged as a response. However, challenges remain in the Dutch context, including land scarcity and affordability issues. Efforts to optimise land use through densification and building reuse are underway, but inefficiencies remain.
This research investigates the feasibility of implementing dual-use spaces to enhance the intensification of space use. By sharing space between functions, the total hours per square metre can be increased and the total metres built per function can be reduced, potentially mitigating land scarcity and promoting sustainability. The study proposes the incorporation of flexible dual use to maximise space efficiency, building on the compact city theory.
Using a theoretical framework of success, the research explores the feasibility of dual-use between residential and work functions, based on the coherence of characteristics on three pillars: People, Practicalities and Management. Enablers and barriers are identified through qualitative methods including literature review, case studies and expert interviews.
This research provides valuable insights for developers, policymakers, investors and practitioners seeking to maximise space utilisation and promote urban sustainability through the integration of residential and workspace functions.
In summary, the research shows that there are common motivations among the target groups, including cost-effectiveness, collaboration and the shared urban environment, while cultural factors may present barriers to adoption. Financial analysis highlights the potential cost efficiencies of shared space models, while regulatory hurdles, particularly in the residential sector, emerge as significant barriers. On the management side, research highlights the importance of active community management and flexible lease arrangements. Despite regulatory complexity and political reluctance, the study highlights the potential for innovation and increased space efficiency in urban development through dual-use approaches, while highlighting the differences between contexts. By addressing regulatory challenges and fostering a supportive policy environment, stakeholders can unlock opportunities for sustainable and vibrant communities.

While urban development is essential to keep our cities alive, existing buildings and structures are essential for communities to thrive. Moreover, this development needs to minimise construction waste and pollution, which means that it is illogical to demolish existing buildings that contain valuable resources. However, transformation is often more expensive than new construction. Additionally, in academic literature a hiatus exists regarding the social side of
sustainable development. Therefore, this research sheds light on the effectivity and costs of social sustainable measures in architecture to facilitate their implementation by answering the following research question: “How is social sustainability included in the practice of adaptive reuse architecture and how does it impact the costs?“
The results show several social sustainability benefits regarding adaptive reuse. However, the results confirm a hesitance amongst practitioners regarding its execution as well, thanks to unpredictable costs and a lack of expertise. Therefore, evidence suggests reducing uncertainty, by means of minimising change in favour of social sustainability. In turn, social sustainability and adaptive reuse issue several economic benefits that promote their further integration in development of the built environment, but are in need of further research.

The housing market in the Netherlands faces two challenges which are the housing shortage and the climate crisis. Modular construction can help solve these challenges due to the many advantages that modular construction has over traditional construction. The advantages that are most related to solving these challenges are the reduced construction time, reduced waste production, reduced transportation movements and the reusability of modules. On top of these advantages modular construction offers many more advantages over traditional construction such as reduced construction cost, reduced failure cost, increased quality, increased worker safety, reduced disturbance for neighbouring buildings and reduced need for traditional labour. Despite all these advantages, the uptake of modular construction is still quite low, mainly due to three problems. The summary of these problems comes down to that there is a lack of knowledge about how to implement modular construction properly, so that the advantages of modular construction can be realised. Therefore, in this graduation research, recommendations will be given on how modular construction can be implemented better so that modular construction performs well. To do this, the following main question has been used: “What is the current performance of 3D modular multistorey student accommodations in the Netherlands and how can this performance be increased?”. As the research question says, this research will focus on 3D modular construction that is used for multistorey student accommodations in the Netherlands. This research will include theoretical review, a performance measurement of modular buildings and recommendations to improve this measured performance for future modular buildings. The theoretical review forms the basis for this entire research, as it gives knowledge to the state of the art about 3D modular construction. The performance measurement considers the objectives of the entire built environment and the student housing association DUWO. Based on these objectives the performance of three modular student accommodations will be measured. The final product of this research will be to give recommendations about how the measured performance of the modular buildings can be increased. These recommendations are based on interviews with experienced stakeholders, combined with the theoretical review.

In a context of neglect for natural resources, formerly guiding cores of cultural development and revealed in a constitution of public spaces - due to the urban and economic development in the city of Iraklion, Crete, this project aims at exploring, understanding and revealing the potentials of Yofyros river as an actor to facilitate, enhance, and connect living-with-water in the nature, the field, and the city.

In Yofyros landscape human activities and environmental imbalance are inscribed, and -in terms of use and movement, seasonal interventions for flood protection, and lack of urban planning- it is a fact that the river is pressed in a “corset” made of built irrationalities. As a physical space, it does not belong nor is included in the structure and the organization of the urban tissue, and essentially, its significance, as a part that preexists and can reinforce the public space of the city, is ignored. When it overflows, it floods the city and the outskirts, claiming more space, but also damaging houses, farming, and infrastructure. As a place with cultural and symbolic role it is rejected from the urban memory. Flood events are relatively frequent, and in combination with the contemporary fast building- they displace locals and direct stakeholders living in adjacency to the river, away from the values embedded in it.

Thus, this project suggests that the locals should become actively engaged and committed to the place in their everyday life and through a physical experience that promotes further interpretation and bonds with the material and immaterial heritage of the location. The landscape biography approach was drawn upon and from the discovery of existing spatial and physical elements that specify the developing relation between the locals and the river, by defining also the main authors of the landscape, and they become the main drivers of this research and the on-site analysis, in order to retrieve multifaceted meanings of the place, their in-between connections, and their potentials for further interventions.

Interventions are guided through the notion of “bridge” that situates the physical landscape and its intellectual interpretation on the ground, as it, upon itself, has both spatial and symbolic meaning. Bridge as a physical structure is dealt with the incorporation of existing pedestrian bridges and the addition of new ones, emerging to connect spaces of long-term value, and derelict spaces that are newly envisioned and intervened to reinforce already operating programs by also including their surrounding, and improve environmental issues, while through the trails they form, they provide users with “new” perceptions and mental connections with the existent and its context.

Water scarcity is a problem not only in the Tarim river but worldwide. Starting from water scarcity in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, this research focuses on exploring the possible solution for water scarcity and unsustainable livelihood for farmers in this region. By referring to similar cases and literature, principles of water-saving, afforestation, and new circularity were concluded to solve those problems. During the design process, the possibility of the upper reaches of the Tarim River was explored by the method of logical system and mapping. This project brings a new water system, farming method, and forest to this region and by those new elements could formulate a new solid circularity. In this design-based research, solutions for water scarcity and sustainable livelihood are explored, experimented , and achieved in the upper reaches of the Tarim River.

Our cities have to expand either horizontally or vertically to accommodate the growing population and urbanization trends. Meanwhile, our needs, demands and desires evolve over time. This makes sustainable development and adaptability more relevant than ever. However, a main problem with adaptability is the additional investment costs against the lack of additional revenues. This lowers the financial return and disincentivizes to invest in adaptable developments. This claim is based on linear financial models that calculate on a rather short-term basis and only take the first function into account. The added value of the possibility to adapt to another function is not included in these financial models yet.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate different approaches towards adaptability and business cases that are needed among long-term owners specifically to incorporate the added value of adaptable features. A hybrid research consisting of literature research combined with a case study on adaptable tall buildings will be executed, to identify important adaptability features, and how to better incorporate them in a business case. Interviews have been held with both stakeholders of the selected cases, as well as with different professionals in the built environment concerning a long-term business case.

The results have shown that a building should not be regarded as one object, but merely as an ensemble of different building elements, each with a different lifespan. In addition, demountability has shown to be inherently connected to adaptability, and as means to achieve a more circular economy. By delivering a set of conditions on a technical, financial, organisational and a broader field, it is strived to contribute to increased implementation of adaptability in practice. By elaborating a roadmap for a more long-term business case, it is hoped to contribute to a smooth transition towards a more circular economy. In addition, this research aims to raise awareness, understanding and create incentives for adaptability possibilities.

This gradation project deals with the adaptive re-use of the vacant heritage V&D department store in Leiden. Both the story of the downfall of the V&D and the vacancy of these department stores illustrate a larger problem in the building industry. Because needs and desires in society change rapidly and that is why buildings will become irrelevant or vacant after some time. The result is often demolition of vacant buildings, a pile of waste and the loss of finite materials. Several V&Ds in other cities have already been demolished and made place for new buildings, contributing to the enormous yearly creation of waste in the building sector.

A sustainable alternative to build in an ever changing society and achieve an optimal use of building materials, the circular economy is gaining momentum in both research and design. The Dutch government set the goal to become circular in the Netherlands by 2050, including the building sector. The main focus of circularity in the building sector is on: reduce dependency of raw materials, minimize waste and design for adaptability. But there lies a challenge in applying circularity to existing buildings with monumental values, because you have to deal with a complex existing building.

 

This graduation project is focused on applying principles of the circular economy on the heritage V&D building in Leiden. The redesign researches the possibilities to activate and increase the circular potential of this building with heritage value. In the redesign the former V&D building is transformed into a circular innovation centre where recreational, educational and innovative functions meet and work together on the transition towards the circular economy.

The title ‘a gap in the market’ refers in the first place to the economic importance of the site in the city of Leiden throughout history, because of its function as central marketplace. The vacancy of the V&D building creates literally a gap in the heart of the city of Leiden. But with the new function as a circular innovation center, this building can facilitate the next gap in the market. 

This research investigated the determinant effect of public green spaces (PGS) on high-rise housing prices in Rotterdam. The growing population and tendency of people to gravitate towards city centers, have led to an increase in high-rise residential buildings in The Netherlands. It is therefore of high importance to optimize the integration of these buildings within its surroundings to increase the liveability, an important aspect of this is PGS. The gap in literature and social problems showed that there is a current mismatch with the desired and current needs of PGS regarding residents of high-rise buildings. The importance of PGS for residents of high-rise buildings is reflected by the housing price. The housing price indicates how much residents are willing to pay for certain variable of PGS and was used to evaluate different variables of PGS. The variables of PGS are divided into five domains: the environmental, social, cultural, functional and safety domain. Each of the domains indirectly affects the liveability of residents and citizens. The domains are identified by a comparison between international studies and Dutch municipal vision documents. The identified variables of the domains are further analyzed by a quantitative research, performed by a hedonic pricing model (HPM). Within this HPM, nine high-rise buildings were selected in the city of Rotterdam that provided an input of 977 apartments for the HPM. The regression showed a generally positive determinant effect of PGS on the housing price for high-rise buildings in Rotterdam. The strongest effect is the presence of having a PGS within 300m from the apartment, which impacts the housing price with a maximum of 17.7%. The view effects included in the HPM show a positive effect for both the number of green views and the specific PGS. The effects of the other PGS domains are correlated with the distance and view variables which makes it complex to quantify the effects of these domains separately. Interviews with developers of high-rise buildings, Stichting Hoogbouw and the municipality of Rotterdam were conducted to validate the results of the regression analysis and to assess the variables and aspects that are more difficult to objectively measure, such as the attractiveness of PGS. The main take-away of this research is that PGS have a positive determinant effect on the housing price of high-rise buildings which emphasizes the importance of having PGS nearby high-rise buildings. This study could be used as part of a reference approach for marketing research or during approval sessions regarding investment decisions to make stronger argumentations to implement PGS in the surrounding of high-rise buildings.

A significant growth in the development of tall buildings has taken place within the past two decades, during which approximately 75% of the total existing tall buildings has been constructed. This construction boom has happened in alignment with the phenomenon of the increasing urbanization of cities worldwide. A tall building offers the capability to accommodate large volumes of people and satisfy both their residential and business needs in cities with limited margins of horizontal expansion. Consequently, tall buildings can act as a solution to the phenomenon of increasing urbanization. This thesis enriches the pool of existing knowledge with additional quantitative data, from a global viewpoint. Main objective is to understand what determines the development of tall buildings and especially their height. A quantitative research methodology is employed, where a database of 4826 tall buildings is created. This includes tall buildings taller than 150 meters, constructed after 1960 and still standing, worldwide. Factors that determine the height are investigated with the use of Multiple Linear Regression, having four perspectives as guide. These are: economic-related, building-related, location-related and height competition. The effects of space and time are also taken into account with appropriately constructed variables and the regression models created turned to have moderate explanatory power. Findings suggest that the decision to develop a tall building is based on the location itself, complemented by the current economic conditions and depending on the function the building is designed to serve.

Sustainable development is the key solution to mitigate the impact of the 21st century’s major challenges such as the depletion of our natural resources, emissions that accelerate climate change together with the large waste generation. One of the largest contributor to the aforementioned issues is the existing building stock, in particular the office sector. Upgrading the sustainability performance of the existing building stock is not only in the interest of regulators or society. Real estate professionals are interested in the sustainability performance of their property, portfolio or occupied property. Due to the complexity, it is not feasible for market participants to verify the sustainability performance of a property. As a consequence, voluntary certification schemes have emerged to provide an objective evaluation. However, at the same time, appraisers are paradoxically expected to provide an objective estimation/opinion on the potential added value of sustainability while their duty according to governances is to derive the market value by analysing available data. The inability of current valuation practices for incorporating a thorough sustainability assessment resulted in decision-makers to focus solely on energy-related costs and justify their investment decisions based on energy-related benefits. For this reason, many investment decisions are believed to be profitable for users instead of owners. However, previous research has shown that property owners of sustainable offices might achieve positive effects in relation to an enhanced image, corporate social responsibility, less risky profile for investors and improved marketability. In the effort to shed light on these far-reaching tentacles of sustainability, this thesis sets forth the base for developing an indicator-based sustainability assessment framework for the appraisal of offices. The proposed framework integrates sustainability and the value it holds for various stakeholders by conceptualizing the relationship between sustainability indicators and different value systems as well as the economic parameters that are adjustable by an appraiser in the income capitalization method. In this way, an appraiser is able to provide an objective estimation of the possible added value of sustainability. Starting from an extensive literature review of different certification schemes, a pre-selection of sustainability indicators was made. Through conducting 8 semi-structured interviews with sustainability experts, the first selection of indicators could be determined together with their goals, measurement and criteria. It is remarkable that according to the participants, actively monitoring the consumption and other management-related indicators are defining the sustainability performance of an office as well, next to the physical characteristics. The online survey was distributed among sustainability experts with a questionnaire designed with the constant sum method and were requested to allocate points over the indicators as well as the categories to determine the relevance. Ultimately, the selection resulted in a set of 34 indicators. Combining the findings from the interviews, data from the survey and the literature review resulted in a framework which was discussed in an expert interview with an appraiser. The findings of the expert interview indicate that there is still a huge gap between practice and theory. The nature of the current valuation techniques hampers the integration of sustainability by focussing mainly on the rental agreement. In order to integrate sustainability aspects into the appraisal, a shift from only looking at the rental agreement to looking at the current use and the fitness for use would be needed. Future research could focus on validating and expanding the linkage between the sustainability indicators and the economic adjustable parameters and reducing the subjectivity of input for the indicators.

Over the past years, construction activities in the Netherlands shifted from spacious greenfield developments to dense inner-city redevelopment projects. Approximately 50 per cent of the total turnover in construction is generated within the country’s large cities. It’s expected that this percentage will grow to 80 per cent in the near future(De Bes et al., 2018). Inner-city construction activities and the large logistical supply stream connected to it has a large impact on the liveability of the city. Almost 30 per cent of al business traffic is related to construction logistics (Vrijhoef, 2018). Consequences of these activities are a nuisance for neighbours due to noise, congestion, poor air quality due to the emission of greenhouse gasses and particulate matter, and a negative impact on road.

The development of Construction Consolidation Centres is an innovation in the logistical process that helps with lowering the impact construction has on the cities. The benefits for society and involved companies would suggest that the CCCs are a great success and are widely used in practice, the reality is different. Researchers debate the ability of CCCs to be financially self-sufficient (Browne et al., 2007) or state that the implementation of CCCs in the construction process is expected to increase when the financial benefits are transparent. De Bes et al. (2018) stress the need for the development of financial models that enable supply chain partners to consciously decide for the implementation of Construction Consolidation Centres based on predicted financial benefits. An important step in the development of these new logistics solutions is proving their value by measuring the impact on efficiency and costs (De Bes et al., 2018).
The implementation of Construction Consolidation Centres in the Dutch construction sector is limited due to a lack of tools to prove the financial benefits. A calculation model that predicts the impact of the logistical costs on the construction costs in the preparation stage of the project to prove the financial benefits of the Construction Consolidation Centres has not been developed yet.

The aim of this research is to develop an alternative model for cost accounting in the construction industry. This model includes the activities of the construction logistics process impacted by the implementation of a Construction Consolidation Centre. The developed model needs to enable the prediction of the impact of the implementation of a CCC on the costs of a construction project in the preparation stage of the process.

Context: The majority of buildings are designed as static objects, in order to serve a specific goal, a specific function. Although, this does not match to the contemporary and constantly changing way of living and working. Moreover, it does not match with the evolving technology, economy and culture. Thus, buildings that cannot respond to the changing demand can easily get obsolete by being outdated, inefficient, unable to be reformed accordingly. Buildings’ obsolescence and vacancy is a quite common problem globally, that creates a lot of externalities in the built environment and in the quality of the daily life. A way to phase it, is be transforming the existing obsolete building stock to dynamic real estate objects that can adjust to the current and future demand. Thus, to enhance their future-proofness. This can happen by enabling design strategies which have the capacity to create adaptable transformation project. The aim of this research is to generate a framework that can be used in order to support the decision making and designing process of adaptability in real estate transformation projects.

Problem Statement: The main problem to be confronted is the real estate obsolescence as a result of buildings’ inefficiency. Usually the functional life-cycle of an asset is smaller that the structural and/or technical. Thus, when the building is not able to adjust to the changing demand it becomes obsolete, a situation that can create a variety of other problems. The research is focused on transformation projects.
Methodology: The research aims at defining a solution for the problem and provide a practical tool to support this decision. So, as the objectives are hybrid the same happens with the methodology, Main pillars are the literature study and the empirical research, which consists of the Delphi research method and semi-structured interviews. These work as the backbones of the research while in the second part design and analytical tools, like SWOT and scenario planning, are used to illustrate the implementation of the proposed solution.
Results: After the conduction of the empirical and scientific research a design framework was developed based on the analyzed data. The framework consists of three degrees of adaptability which are additive to each other and can endorse specific type of accommodation supply alternatives. The way that the framework should be implemented and the steps for decision making are described via a set of tools and illustrations. Conclusions: The author proposes a design framework for adaptable transformation projects. This can be adjusted and used based on each project’s demands in order to offer a balanced outcome for a future proof building. Although the framework was developed for transformation projects of a specific typology, its general principles can be implemented into all the buildings, transformation or not. The final outcome is a result of deep understanding on the values and aspects of adaptability with respect to each projects uniqueness.
Keywords: obsolete buildings, adaptability, transformations, future-proof, design framework

This research aims to investigate the height pattern and height determinant factors of Chinese skyscrapers. A skyscraper is a habitable structure that is taller than 150 meters, with more than 50 percent of the space occupiable (CTBUH, 2019). It is a widely used building typology around the world, especially in countries and areas with rapid economic growth. This is due to the ability of skyscrapers to accommodate a large amount of the population and activities in a single location, where it is also an efficient building design for areas with high demand in land, and locations with high land prices. Building tall is one of the characteristics of a skyscraper, and Height could be used as a tool to allocate city population and improve city efficiency. Thus Skyscraper distribution and height pattern is important to understand for city development.

In general, from the results, one infers that building height does not have a significant relationship with city-level height determinants. Looking into the height distribution around the country, skyscrapers in China mostly cluster around 200 meters, this, on one hand, shows that “building higher” is not the main focus regarding most of the construction in China. On the other hand, it also shows that lands in the urban area are not used efficiently. This is also proven by a wide range of height and the expansion of cities in China. According to the theory stated in the literature review, skyscrapers are first designed to provide more space in a location due to high land prices and a limited amount of land, but China has large amounts of empty land around. This may be the reason why there are more skyscraper development projects that stay around 200 meters.

Some of the results in this research show similarity to previous research, including the connection between skyscraper development and economic situation; there are also results that contradict the previous research results, including height competition and location-specific factors. This shows that skyscraper development in each country could be different due to many reasons. Some Specific characteristic could largely influence the construction pattern. Also, skyscraper development connects with height and also the number of buildings. This research focuses on height, the results derived also from the perspective of height, so more studies could be done on the connection between the amount of skyscraper and height.

This research concludes on the strategic and operational considerations for implementing circularity in hotel buildings and operations. Sustainable urban area developments are increasingly led by private parties and facilitated by public parties. Hotels support the make-up of a sustainable mixed-use development while also trying to reduce their carbon emissions and meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. To do so, circularity has been proposed as a solution. Through three case studies of pioneering hotels in Amsterdam and an additional test case in Delft, the considerations for implementing circularity in hotel buildings and operations have been discovered. Findings include considerations beyond the scope of real estate to include strategic business considerations such as position in the market, brand story, target market, community impact, environmental impact, regulations, partners as well as real estate and investment strategy. Operational considerations found were practical and included availability, durability, maintenance, reliability and aesthetics. These findings show that considerations extend beyond the scope of real estate and beyond the building level, leaving privately developed circular hotels to contribute to sustainable urban area developments.

English - Language (scroll down for Dutch) Various technologies in the domain of digital fabrication have been introduced in the construction industry to promote efficiency. This thesis provides a platform for reviewing 3-d construction printing technology. This thesis explored the barriers that make the adoption of 3-d printing technology in the construction industry difficult. The significance or effects of these barriers will be evaluated by assessing the positions and views of the study participants. These barriers include: • High costs of printer. • Immaturity of printing partners. • Unclear regulatory implications. • Inability to create larger structures. • High cost of printed structures. • Lack of commercial viability. • Lack of customer support. • Lack of sufficient successful examples. • Architect/designer unpreparedness. • Difficulty of transporting printers. • Technology interruption risk. • Need for expensive specialty materials. The three suggested problems climate change, depletion of natural resources and socio-economic factors are all considered important which is quite broad if not explained with a good point of 22 departure. However, the point of departure of this thesis is that it is about attributing to the solving of these 3 big problems (national and even world problems). And that scalability of a product and thus mass feasibility of 3-d printing is crucial for worldwide adoption and solving real-world issues instead of just creating a niche market for free-form architecture. When a product is highly scalable and brings real value, assumable big private (and even public) investments can be attracted if the product makes sense from an investor point of view. Therefore, 3-d construction printing really needs to add value on a larger scale and not just for a niche market on the longer term. It should be clear to see if big investments are worthy for 3-d construction printing. Besides, I wanted to learn how to research a new product for myself and on its potentials for providing a solution for important (world) issues. In short, there are potential new materials, there are barriers and I research the way how barriers can be discovered and potentially be overcome in the domain of digital fabrication, focusing on cementitious 3-d construction printing. The thesis was divided into different parts. The first section is an introduction from where the topic was introduced. The next part covered the research methods and more importantly, the techniques that were used to gather data and information from the study participants. From there, main research results were provided. Here, the results were divided into interview results and questionnaire results. Subsequently, a brief conclusion that summarized the main parts of the paper was be provided followed by possible recommendations. Dutch - Language Verschillende technologieën op het gebied van digitale fabricage zijn geïntroduceerd in de bouwsector om efficiëntie te bevorderen. Deze thesis biedt een platform voor het beoordelen van 3-d constructieprinttechnologie. Deze thesis onderzocht de barrières die het gebruik van 3-d printtechnologie in de bouwsector bemoeilijken. De betekenis of effecten van deze barrières zullen worden geëvalueerd door de posities en standpunten van de studiedeelnemers te beoordelen. Deze barrières omvatten: • Hoge kosten van de printer. • Onvolwassenheid van print partners. • Onduidelijke gevolgen met betrekking tot regelgeving. • Onmogelijkheid om grotere structuren te maken. • Hoge kosten van gedrukte structuren. • Gebrek aan commerciële levensvatbaarheid. • Gebrek aan klantenondersteuning. • Gebrek aan voldoende succesvolle voorbeelden. • Onvoorbereide architect / ontwerper. • Moeilijkheden om printers te vervoeren. • Technologieonderbrekingsrisico. • Behoefte aan dure speciaal materieel De drie gesignaleerde problemen klimaatverandering, uitputting van natuurlijke hulpbronnen en sociaal-economische factoren worden allemaal als belangrijk beschouwd, die vrij breed is als ze niet worden uitgelegd met een goed uitgangspunt. Het uitgangspunt van deze thesis is echter dat het gaat over het bijdragen aan het oplossen van deze 3 grote problemen (nationale en zelfs wereldproblemen). Daarmee is de schaalbaarheid van een product en de massale haalbaarheid van 3-d printen van cruciaal belang voor wereldwijde acceptatie en het oplossen van deze wezelijke problemen in plaats van alleen maar een nichemarkt te creëren voor vrije-vormarchitectuur. Wanneer een product zeer schaalbaar is en echt waarde oplevert, kunnen veronderstelde grote particuliere (en zelfs publieke) investeringen worden aangetrokken als het product vanuit het 8 oogpunt van de belegger logisch is. Daarom moet 3-d constructieprinten echt waarde toevoegen op een grotere schaal en niet alleen voor een nichemarkt op de langere termijn. Het moet duidelijk zijn om te zien of grote investeringen waard zijn voor 3-d constructieprinten. Bovendien wilde ik leren hoe ik een nieuw product voor mezelf kon onderzoeken en wat het potentieel is om een oplossing te bieden voor belangrijke (wereld) problemen. Kortom, er zijn potentiële nieuwe materialen, er zijn barrières en ik onderzoek hoe barrières kunnen worden ontdekt en mogelijk worden overwonnen in het domein van digitale fabricage, met de nadruk op cementgebonden 3-d constructie geprinte buitenwanden. Deze thesis is in verschillende delen verdeeld. De eerste sectie was de introductie van waar het onderwerp is geïntroduceerd. Het volgende deel behandelde de onderzoeksmethoden en, nog belangrijker, de technieken die werden gebruikt om gegevens en informatie van de onderzoeksparticipanten te verzamelen. Van daaruit werden de belangrijkste onderzoeksresultaten verstrekt. Hier werden de resultaten verdeeld in interviewresultaten en vragenlijstresultaten. Vervolgens werd er een korte conclusie gegeven met een samenvatting van de belangrijkste delen van het artikel, gevolgd door mogelijke aanbevelingen.

This research project focuses on the recognition that the surrounding environment affects people’s health and well-being. Bridging architecture and neuroscience, it is possible to demonstrate how space in its broad meaning affects biologically and psychologically humans; therefore this thesis investigates the application of findings from scientific research about environmental psychology and neuroscience applied to architecture, on a design which aims to the creation of a place able to enhance mental well-being.

The result is a project that focuses on the regeneration of the abandoned psychiatric hospital San Salvi (Florence, Italy), aiming to its integration in the urban flows and urban consciousness, through the planning of new functions and the design of outdoor spaces, rooted in the past of the location, and in the findings from the literature study about human’s response to the built environment.

Buildings taller than 200 meters have been built since 1909, and since then, over 1500 have been built. Their development has followed unique trends in different areas of the world, with sudden surges followed by down periods. The property industry is a supplier of capital goods, so demand for property is inevitably linked to the demand for investment goods in the economy as a whole. It supplies space and is affected by the economic factors that cause more or less demand. From a global perspective, we can expect skyscrapers development to follow finance to some degree, especially by clustering most projects in locations with high accessibility and low cost of capital, targeted by foreign investment and with positive expectations of financial growth. The symbolism of tall buildings has stimulated height competitions throughout the world, while their iconicity has attracted different kind of users. New technologies have allowed to reach new heights as well as making prohibitive applications feasible through research and development. As time evolves, new systems and applications are made available to reach height easier and cheaper. Over 70% of the world supply of skyscrapers have been built in the past 10 years, in an ever-growing pattern. In previous research, it has been suggested that there is a strong interrelationship between business cycles and skyscrapers development, yet this has never been measured at global level. This is the gap in existing knowledge this research addresses.