With the rise of all-electric buildings the load on the electrical grid grows. This could slow down the energy transition and densification of existing neighbourhoods as the current grid is not capable to withstand a higher load. This research gathers literature on different peak shaving techniques to create a clear overview and investigates the impact on the load profile when techniques are combined. This new insight in combined techniques will provide a solid basis to develop a more detailed modelling tool to simulate the actual energy use and generation on a daily and annual basis. The load profiles of these techniques are combined with the existing energy demand curve to see how these techniques reduce peak loads that occur during the day. To asses the influence on the annual load curve the ZED-tool was used to simulate peak shaving techniques on a case-study building. The results show that a combination of outside insulation, sun shading and a heat pump flatten the daily and annual load profile significantly. However the implementation of east and west facing façade PV in combination with wind energy decreases the peak loads the most. Finally when all techniques are combined with a battery a building block can become not only energy neutral but almost self sufficient.

These research results were developed into a design for the renovation of a post-war appartmentbuilding in Haarlem Schalkwijk. In the new design other topics like densification, flexibility and climate adaptation were addressed as well to improve the post-war neighbourhood. This design is a base for a bigger renovation strategy that could be implemented in multiple post-war neighbourhoods in the Netherlands.

Cement production is responsible for 8% of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions [1]. Reducing this share will be a strenuous task as the global population and urbanization rates are increasing and, therefore, the need for concrete will remain high [2], [3]. Simultaneously, despite the alarming statistic, a vast majority of demolished concrete buildings are structurally sound [4]. Therefore, this thesis aspires to push beyond the abundance of new concrete and outlines a design workflow for using reclaimed concrete. To enhance the material savings, the workflow focuses on double-curved, compression-only structures that benefit from the principles of structural geometry.

To implement the workflow, a novel stacking algorithm is designed using COMPAS [5], an open-source Python framework. It positions quadrilateral voussoirs on a funicular geometry’s thrust surface in a sequential one-by-one manner. The placement is guided by three global design principles. First, a pair of opposing voussoir sides are aligned parallel to the force flow while the remaining pair, which represents the load-transferring faces, is aligned perpendicular to it. This is done to prevent sliding failure. Second, the thrust surface is confined within the middle third of the voussoir to prevent the formation of hinges and cracks. Third, voussoirs are cut into hexagonal shapes and staggering is ensured among neighbouring voussoirs to create an interlocking geometry. Once a structure is completed, its stability is ensured by finding a compression-only equilibrium using the Rigid Block Equilibrium method [6].

The algorithm is then studied using various stocks with different voussoir dimensions of both regular and irregular side lengths, various deployment strategies that enable the user to customize the launch of the algorithm, and different thrust surface shapes. It is primarily assessed what fraction of the initial concrete volume can be retained in the structure. It was found that on average 47% of volume per voussoir is retained and that voussoirs of regular dimensions retain approximately 5% more of the initial volume. Minor differences exist in the results among different thrust surfaces with shapes of more uniform force flow retaining more concrete. Furthermore, smaller voussoirs mostly sized 0.7x0.7x0.2m required 20% less volume to construct a shell than a stock of 1.0x1.0x0.2m voussoirs. At the same time, the smaller stock required almost double the amount of voussoirs, thus, indicating competing goals that require the decision-making of the designer.

Next, high-level waste minimization was performed by checking if offcuts could be used to create other voussoirs from the remaining structure or if they could be returned to the stock for future placement. A pessimistic and an optimistic scenario were studied and it was found that 70-85% of the initial voussoir volume can be efficiently retained within the shell and the stock.

These results served as the basis for reflecting on how the stacking algorithm influences the suggested workflow by bringing design and fabrication-specific constraints to an earlier design phase. It is described that to improve the retained volume the designer can, first, alter their way of deploying the algorithm, second, modify the input geometry, third, custom select what stock is used for placement, and, fourth, inform the contractor of the level of detail to which a building should be deconstructed and post-processed. Thus, a designer is brought closer to the construction process, and incentives for a more collaborative cross-disciplinary workflow are outlined.

Finally, suggestions are made on how to improve the functionality and efficiency of the algorithm. The primary conclusion made is to expand the criteria based on which a voussoir is selected for placement. An emphasis is directed towards using criteria such as distance-to-staggering, local radius of curvature, local force flow, and dimensions of the surrounding voussoirs to limit the offcuts that will be created to ensure complete tessellation.

Overall, this study provides a workflow that is enabled by a stacking algorithm. It outlines how to design double-curved, compression-only structures and how their design can influence the entire workflow.

System Design in the built environment is one of the most influential design paradigms in architecture and construction. This paper seeks to amalgamate empirical design strategies with various architectural principles, including the notion of “open buildings” or “open-ended architecture,” as well as Structuralism, all within a computational design framework employing discrete aggregation. Structuralism, articulated by Herman Herzberger, represents a “concept rather than a style” distinguishing the structure from the infill through individuality. It is important to note that the advanced technologies available for data collection and analysis did not exist during the 1960s Structuralist movement. Thus, this paper endeavours to forge a novel methodology, drawing inspiration from historical system design practices in architecture. The design research took place in the Merinterin Amsterdam due to its uniqueness and importance.

Waste derived from constructions and demolitions creates an opportunity to lower the carbon footprint of buildings. As bricks and concrete make up two of the most common construction materials world-wide, once the buildings they are built into, reach their end life, a large portion of the waste becomes available for reuse, rich in properties such as compressive strength and mass. If this waste is placed back into buildings, their carbon footprint can be massively reduced, while saving up on having to extract new raw and natural resources.

In an effort to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW) derived from the future generation of buildings, innovation and technologies are necessary. In the past several decades, robotic applications have made a great impact in many industries. Thanks to its efficiency, automated processes and flexibility of use, robotics has proven to be successful in manufacturing and assembly processes which can now be customized for architectural practices like the digital fabrication of new structures with the potential of implementation of new materials . If robotic manufacturing has the potential of upcycling CDW in the construction process, then buildings can have a smaller environmental footprint. Further research into experimenting with this waste material implemented into 3D printing with a 6DOF robot arm is necessary.

Key words:
Upcycling, Waste material, CDW, Low-Carbon Buildings, 3D Printing, AMoC, Robotic fabrication

In face of climate change, a large challenge was posed to the construction section as the European Union introduced requirements to reduce CO2 emissions; these must be reduced by 40% before 2030, and all member states have to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. At the time of writing, the construction industry in the Netherlands is respon¬sible for a large part of CO2 emissions, and due to the lack of significant changes in the industry in recent decades, a meaningful reduction of emissions in the coming years seems unlikely. The difficulty of lowering emissions is further amplified by the major housing shortage, for which it is estimated that one million homes must be built before 2030 to meet the population’s demand in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the construction sector is far behind in terms of environmentally conscious innovation when compared to sectors such as technology and transportation. Architects, contractors, engineers, and civil servants therefore have to join arms to implement large-scale in-depth reforms and accept much-needed innovation.

The booklet, paper and posters present the results of an innovative building system that can contribute to the sustainability of the construction sector. This concept was developed based on six months of research in which nine timber building systems were tested for their degree of flexibility and demountability. A framework was then created, where a chosen system was further developed, step by step, into a building concept that can be applied on a large scale. An attempt was made to incorporate every aspect that a building must satisfy without compromising simplicity. The development of the system has a generic and an applied phase. In the generic phase, the basis of the system is laid, which in theory is the same for every building. In the applied phase, the system is further ela¬borated based on the design assignment, which in this case concerns a temporary student building that must be transformed into laboratory and office functions after 10 years. Although the two phases are separate, the gaps in the generic part become vi¬sible when the system is tested in an actual design, resulting in a generic and specific phases that have continuous exchange and influence on each other. In practice, such a standardised system that is to be applied on a large scale is further fine-tuned after it has been realised and experimented with many times.

Bridge the gap is a project that shows how with flexibility and energy neutrality existing and upcoming office vacancy can be successfully transformed. This all in cooperation with the Open Building ideology where the current building process is questioned and a spot early-on in the building process is reserved for the residents. With the use of this case study and the help of the created toolbox the whole of the Netherlands can reduce its CO² emissions but also solve a big part of the housing shortage with a place to stay for everyone within society.

This thesis introduces an adaptive framework for mass-customization of design for residential infill solutions. The proposed method focuses on a tough challenge of delivering minimal compact infill configurations for the urban context, where the square meters are expensive, and where the height is cheap. Industrialization of housing on the one hand and participation in design on the other hand are the key focus points of this thesis. The ‘open building’ approach is chosen to separate the building into two parts: the support and the infill parts. The support is considered as a collective flexible part of the 3D infrastructure of a city and the infill is considered to be a individual customizable residential unit of a building. The main question is focused on designing a computational method for ensuring mass-customization of housing infills with participatory mechanisms.

The architectural engineering graduation studio created an opportunity to address the emerging social, urban, environmental and infrastructural challenges facing the global context today. This project seeks to embrace the culture of circular building concepts and methods through materialization and vernacular principles in addressing social and urban pressing needs. The title of the graduation project is “STUDIE-TAINER”, conceived from the concept of students living in a shipping container. This project can simply be envisaged as an architectural composition and exploration of re-purposed shipping containers, local building materials and techniques to create a micro and eco-friendly living experience for students in Ghana, West Africa. The design proposal will be located on Central University campus, Tema, Ghana. The inspirations regarding the use of shipping containers as a building element for student housing also emerged from an appreciation of some interesting student housing projects in the Netherlands. It was intriguing to see how cargo-architecture had been used to address student housing demands within the temperate climatic region. Considering the tropical climate of Ghana, this proposed project will serve as a basis for experimenting how to create a climate and eco-friendly living experience for students, thus achieving both indoor and outdoor comfort for the users. Ghana is enriched with diverse cultural values and traditions especially with respect to traditional architecture. Bearing in mind the climatic and cultural influences of Ghana, an experimental approach was developed to harness these influences to create an architecture that responds to both the climatic and cultural aspirations.

The project proposes a futureproof neighborhood of an open building system in order to deal with the housing shortage, a circular economy and changing needs in society. The dense neighborhood in Amsterdam Sloterdijk makes a connection to the Brettenzone and is completely built from a smart support system and demountable infill systems and components from a toolbox. The toolbox will be used by different architects to design a building block in collaboration with the users who can create their own home with pre-designed assemblies and start a sharing community based on shared values and interests.

Since the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels have played, and continue to play, a dominant role in global energy systems, and thereby in the social, economic and technological developments worldwide. Unfortunately, these energy sources have their negative side-effects: local air pollution and global CO2-emission. The latter has never been this high, resulting in an extra, more negative, important role for fossil fuels: in global warming. Not to mention that these fossil sources of energy are depletable resources; once we’ll be running out of them. The project ‘Repurposing the Port’ combines this issue with the challenge of port-cities to house the expected growth in number of citizens, reach their climate goals ánd bring back the former intimate connection of the city and the port. In this project the Petroleumhaven in Amsterdam, symbolically being the first port outside the city and the first fossil fuel-specialized port, is transformed to a future-proof, mixed-use neighborhood. In this transformation both the existing structure of the area, and the available building structures (and materials) are reused to make it a fully circular redevelopment. The flexible wooden building system provides for a community-driven realization and on top of that for a carbon-negative footprint of the project. To do so, the aboveground steel storage tanks (AST's) in the area are analyzed in the research paper, and used as the main starting point for the design project.

The TU Delft (strategic framework 2018-2024) aims to have a CO2 neutral and circular campus that departs from the linear economy to closed material cycles by 2030, meaning that the campus becomes climate neutral. Currently, the TU Delft is accountable for 47.957 tCO2-eq emissions, uses 166.038 MWh of energy for electricity and heat , and is for approximately 5-15% circular. There is a need to improve in order to meet the goals set by the TU Delft. On campus the Applied Physics buildings consumes the most energy, equivalent to 12.873,2 MWh or 425 kWh/m2 in 2018 for electricity and heat combined. The technical state of the building is mediocre and is in need of a thorough renovation to meet the current standard. The goal of the graduation project is to develop a re-design and renovation strategy for the Applied Physics building, by re-using as many of the existing materials and closing the energy flows on a local level. Architecture – reuse existing The building is designed by the architecture firm Roosenburg, Verhave and Luyt and built in 1963. It has an area of 43.100 m2, making it one of the largest buildings on campus. The building is located in the centre of the campus next to the Aula and the Library. It is embedded in the urban fabric of the TU Delft with a 175-meter-long rhythmic façade facing toward the Mekelpark. The concrete façade has a sense of monumentality however, it has quite a closed look and is not overly inviting to visit. The new architecture starts from the existing building and the desire to reuse as many of the existing materials as possible to reduce the CO2 impact of the renovation. An inventory of the materials present in the structure and façade has been made. 93% of the materials analysed are in the concrete structure and therefore this will be completely reused. The remaining 7% of the materials are located in the façade and they will be carefully harvested. Prefab biobased façade panels, based on the existing structural grid, will be attached to the existing structure. On site the harvested materials will be re-used to clad the newly insulated façade. Energy flow To move away from an energy system that runs on fossil fuels, there is a need to introduce so called cyclifiers to create a closed loop system. Firstly, the energy consumption needs to be reduced by introducing a well-insulated façade and a smart building system that regulates the temperature and ventilation. The remaining energy needs to be produced sustainably. A biogas plant is introduced that turns waste into three valuable products, namely biogas, fertiliser and clean water. The biogas plant runs on waste from the sewer system as well as on algae, which are integrated in the roof of the atrium that is added to the building. The algae serve a triple purpose because they provide sun shading in summer, absorbed CO2 and are a renewable energy source. PV panels are added to the roof and facades of the building to produce even more renewable energy. The heat for the whole campus is supplied by a geothermal source connected to the already existing heat grid and a heat and cold storage is added to the building.

This master graduation project presents an exciting vision of a better built environment for affordable housing in The Netherlands and abroad for many generations to come.

Established industrial manufacturing methods combined with parametric design have the potential to disrupt the conventional design-to-manufacturing processes in the building industry. Currently factors such as increasing cost of labor, stagnated productivity per employee and highly fragmented design-to-manufacturing processes in the building industry have not proved to be fruitful influences for the mass production of customizable buildings. Moreover, in order to become sustainable the building industry has to make a drastic shift towards renewable materials and integrate a high level of modularity.

With market fit solutions by product thinking a wide variety of parametrically engineered housing options can be offered to the customer without having to enter the entire iterative process of design and engineering. This strategy also allows to finally integrate a high level of robotization in off-site manufacturing facilities.

Divided cities are generally linked with civil wars in which group identity is threatened. This type of war dominated the late twentieth century, leaving many cities vulnerable. According to J. Calame and E. Chalesworth(2009) in Divided Cities: Belfast, Beirut, Jerusalem, Mostar, and Nicosia, since World War II there has been a marked shift in global warfare trends from inter - to intrastate conflict: of 64 wars between 1945 and 1988, 59 were intrastate or “civil” wars, and about 80 percent of those who perished were killed by someone of their own nationality. Mostar can be added as one more case some years later. Because of the division these cities hypofunction spatially and socially. In the case of Mostar, Neretva River is used in the frame of the politics of division, providing mental and physical spaces of shame. More specifically, it forwards a surface common memory, as supposed effort of reconciliation of the past with scattered stones, calling them monuments, around the city, leaving the core of its identity, the river, as an abandoned area. In order for the city to start functioning social normally again, it’s necessary to be created a common space of history, which will produce common memories for the future generations. The thesis tries to give a new insight on how to deal with a landscape where ordinary pleasant memories replaced with memories of terror (Neretva), responding to the need of the city for a new memorial architecture. Even though, it addresses a specific area (Neretva), could be influence for many other cities which suffer from post-traumatic events, since it will propose a memorial, not as a spot but, as a system, taking into account the complexity of social, historical, religion, economical, morphological parameters. The new memorial scape in Mostar will not represent a reason for being sad but rather a way to look and hope for the future, becoming with the river a symbol of the city. It is designed as part of the history, being a powerful reminder of society and how citizens of Mostar should stand together in the face of the tragedy of the war. It redefines the relationships between the local community helping the future generations to understand a bit of their history as well. The memorial scape tries to become a part of the Mostar culture, being based on the powerful connection between man and nature. The idea is not only to create a space that stands as a symbol of memory but also to allow people the opportunity to relax and enjoy a new green space. It is just as important for the memorial scape to serve the collective memory as it was to have a high functionality level, providing residents of the area with a new space to enjoy the open outdoors.

Since the disturbance of the civil wars from 1991-1996 a multiplicity of ruined, abandoned and contested landscapes can be found in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Defining those spaces today implies not only thinking of the violent circumstances that shaped them, but also of the slow but persistent transformation caused by neglect since then. Abandonment of these spaces to the process of ruination and decay that has led to the return of non-human actors shaping them. This layering and entanglement of human and non-human actors, species and processes has resulted in the flourishing of new, unplanned and ephemeral ecosystems.
This project looks at the ruin of the former University Library, with its new collection of ruderal plant life, it’s heritage value and its role in the city. The project aims to find new ways to negotiate the space for both man and nature to come together through a co-cultivation of the ruined landscape.

The graduation project is a transformation and reuse design of a previous office building, De Beurs, in Almere Stad. De Beursgebouw was designed by E.D. Partnership of architects and engineers Amersfoort in 1979 and finished in 1981 as the first building constructed in this area (Fig 1), and Almere is a New Town established around 1970s in Flevo Polder. De Beursgebouw located on the north of Almere Central Station, surrounded by two high speed main roads on the south and east side. The Almere center is in the south side of station. http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:092be184-361d-4a14-8b3c-5c59612659e4
De Beursgebouw has been empty for around 10 years since economic crisis in 2008. Because it was one of the city growth witness, citizens of Almere share a common memory of it, especially about its unique façade form, iconic big metal machine on the roof and the unusual ramps and stairs at entrance. In my case, the building, together with its neighbor abandoned office building on the north, are transferred into an amateur art center as a citizen gathering place with creative entertaining and catering venue.

The graduation studio is called ‘Adapting 20c Heritage’, and the renovation assignment deals with young heritage in Almere city. Almere is a planned city in the south-west of the reclaimed province Flevoland, and my graduation project is about renovation of the Beursgebouw, which is the first office building in Almere Stad. The Beursgebouw has been the office for company Oranjewoud from the very start, and since 2005, it remained vacant until now.
Based on findings of preliminary research and analysis, I started thinking about my own design assignment, and my focus point turned to the social value and communal spirit of the Beursgebouw. My ambition for the renovation is to make a new social platform where people from different generations and different groups come together and interact with each other, thus benefitting the Beursgebouw as well as the Almere city.

Het toenemende gebruik van de openbare Amsterdamse ruimte presenteert de gemeente van Amsterdam met de uitdaging om maatregelen treffen ter optimalisatie van duurzame benutting en ruimtelijke organisatie voor stadsplas de Nieuwe Meer. De kansen en ambities die voortvloeien uit deze uitdaging zijn opgenomen in verschillende gemeentelijke visies, met elk een eigen thema. Daarnaast zijn er nog een tal van andere belanghebbenden zoals omwonenden, huidige gebruikers, bedrijven, en verenigingen. Samen met de gemeente delen zij de ambitie om de kansen van het gebied beter te benutten, al lijken er door de verschillende stakeholders uiteenlopende belangen en plannen vastgesteld te worden voor dezelfde geografische ruimte. De fusie van deze uiteenlopende belangen zou meer dan de som van zijn delen kunnen creëren.

In deze thesis ligt de aandacht voor duurzame stedelijke ontwikkeling op de samenkomst van sociale, ecologische, economische en projectmatige belangen, ook wel verwoord als People, Planet, Prosperity en Project. Het doel van deze thesis is om het fysieke landschap van de Nieuwe Meer in Amsterdam aan te passen aan de belangen van verschillende actoren op duurzame wijze, en om op die manier toegevoegde waarde te creëren op het gebied van sociologie, ecologie, economie en het project. Daarom is deze thesis gericht op het beantwoorden van de volgende vraag: Hoe kan de People-Planet-Prosperity-Project (PPPP) methode toegevoegde waarde creëren voor de fusie van recreatie en ecologie in de Nieuwe Meer in Amsterdam?

Om een antwoord te kunnen geven op de onderzoeksvraag is een theoretische basis gevormd van het begrip ruimtelijke kwaliteit, de People-Planet-Prosperity-Project methode, en de Fusie van Belangenstrategie. Vanuit dit perspectief zijn vervolgens twee case studie-projecten geanalyseerd, resulterend in praktische inzichten in duurzame ontwerpstrategieën en generieke lessen voor een gelijksoortige ontwerpopgave. Om inzicht te winnen in de belangen en wensen van de stakeholders van de Nieuwe Meer is kwalitatief onderzoek uitgevoerd in de vorm van literatuuronderzoek, mondelinge individuele interviews en een online enquête. Het resultaat van het onderzoek bestaat uit een ambitiekaart voor de Nieuwe Meer waarin al deze belangen zijn samengevoegd en gevisualiseerd. Aan de hand van deze ambitiekaart is gezocht naar oplossingen voor een fusie van de ogenschijnlijk tegenstrijdige belangen en plannen, welke vorm hebben gekregen in een projectvoorstel voor een duurzame wakeboardbaan met bijbehorende landschappelijke elementen en horecavoorzieningen, als recreatieve impuls voor de Nieuwe Meer.

The housing process in dense metropolitan environments experiences difficulties to adapt to the comprehensive needs and wants of the modern household. As a consequence of the increasing flexibility in daily-life, there is a growing diversity in the shape of households and their living patterns. In addition, digital developments enable and create more specific requirements among users for the products they purchase. Knowing the impact that these rapid developments have on consumerism, it is inevitable that users will create stronger preferences for their living environment as well. These tendencies in our society must be translated to its housing. To adapt to such diverse demands would be a difficult challenge for the housing market. Current processes make it labour-intensive and therefore a costly and unsustainable matter. It is of importance that both our existing and future housing is able to respond to these demands in an adaptive and sustainable manner.

A possible solution, responding to the diverse demand, would be to involve the consumers themselves in the development of their dwelling. When involved, consumers can directly shape the dwelling to their needs themselves; customisation. However, current practices make this an undoable matter. The over-complexity in (pre)construction processes and conservative mind-sets of real-estate developers and construction firms hinder any level of participation with the consumer. There is a need for smart processes and designs to involve the user in the realisation of the customised urban dwelling.

De stadscentrum van Heerlen heeft al jaren te maken met leegstand. Zo staan hele stadsblokken leeg of zijn gebouwen in gebruik ter preventie van kraak. Het Schinkelkwadrant-Zuid is daar een voorbeeld van: een groot leegstaand blok grenzend aan een culturele route in het centrum van Heerlen. Het blok bestaat uit kleine gebouwen en een groot oud stadskantoor. Het project is een voorstel om dit blok aan te pakken met zo min mogelijk te slopen om zo de identiteit van dit blok te waarborgen. Door een strategische interventie wordt het oude passage en stadskantoor aangepakt en krijgt een geheel nieuw programma. De strategische interventie zorgt voor een nieuwe route door het blok en nieuwe route in dit gebouw. Het programma betreft een nieuw warenhuis concept waar het verkoop van artikelen niet voorop staat, maar de productie ervan; er is plek voor interactie tussen de maker en de bezoeker.