Circular economy in the City of the Loops: Modelling an urban utopia aware of resources scarcity

The master thesis treats the possibilities of applying circular economy principles into specific conditions of post-soviet city: Nowa Huta. The city faces complex problems of negative demographics, loss of heavy industry and socio-economic regress. The project proposes several strategies that focuses on dealing with problems internally, without...

A Visual Life Cycle Analysis - for architects and policymakers

The impact of urbanizing 400 million people in China in 20 years - a comparative analysis of common structural materials with bamboo as a promising alternative for (semi) high-rise developments. Transport, End of Life scenarios and Lifespan are essential factors in a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The Building Energy Use itself is becoming less...

Hypercraft

This Master Thesis as presented to the chair of Explore Lab 14 of the TU Delft, deals with the issue of perspective. The problem that architecture is all too often drawn out of a singular perspective and even opposes different modes of perception, is an issue which influences the role of the architect. This problem, generated at the hand of...

Circular Urban Systems: Moving Towards Systems Integration

Today, most cities function linearly. One way to improve their environmental performance is to make a transition from linear to Circular Urban Systems (CUS) so that part of the waste streams becomes valorised locally. This does not only require technical but also organisational and institutional changes. Moreover it implies that links have to be...

Innovativeness of Innovation: A study on the effects of social institutions on innovation practices in the Westland horticulture sector

The Master's programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. The horticulture sector in the Netherlands is facing economic difficulties, which have become more severe since the crisis of 2008. The innovation strategies the growers select to stimulate their organizations, are identified...

Integration of Life Cycle Assessment Into Agent-Based Modeling: Toward Informed Decisions on Evolving Infrastructure Systems

A method is presented that allows for a life cycle assessment (LCA) to provide environmental information on an energy infrastructure system while it evolves. Energy conversion facilities are represented in an agent-based model (ABM) as distinct instances of technologies with owners capable of making decisions based on economic and environmental...