· · · Institutional Repository

About the transformation of a former laboratory into a short stay establishment. With apartments, swimming pool, fitness a restaurant and a café. Aim: realizing a luxury establishment while complementing the historical fabric and the sloping landscape.

The development of a platform, which encourages companies and designers in the reuse of waste materials.

A25 September 2005, Barents Sea, near Murmansk.Ten metres under the surface of the sea, the launch tube of the Mstislav, a Rostropovich class nuclear submarine, grinds open. The countdown for the launch of a Volna R-29R slbm (Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile) starts: For many years, satellites were launched into orbit in the nose cone of a dispensable rocket. This is a very costly procedure with limited possibilities, which is why the Space Shuttle project was launched. Since this did not yield the expected savings, the new solution is thought to be a fully reusable launcher that looks a bit like an aircraft. Delft researchers are working on an experimental spacecraft that can be reused upon returning to earth after re-entry through the atmosphere. The capsule is to be launched in 2003 from a Russian submarine, and will be carried aloft by a Volna (Stingray) missile.

The subject of this thesis is the reuse of hollow core slabs from office building to residential buildings. It was written as final part of the master Civil Engineering of the TU Delft. The occasion for this particular topic is the short functional lifetime of buildings compared to the technical lifetime of their concrete load bearing structure. By reusing instead of recycling concrete, a higher level on the waste management hierarchy is reached. This implies an environmental gain since less connections have to be broken within the concrete and less new ones have to be formed to build up the new construction. This fits well into the chain-aimed policies of the government that are partly drawn up to reduce the environmental impact of the building sector. The question that is attempted to be answered within this research is if it is feasible to reuse concrete elements present in buildings, both technically as well as on process level.

Hybrid buildings Zaanlijn graduation lab project. The project deals with the re-use of industrial heritage commonly found in the Zaanstreek.

As a result of chronic water scarcity, the countries of the MENA region (Middle East and Northern Africa) recognize reclaimed wastewater as a non-conventional water resource. Nonetheless, in this region, substantial amounts of the wastewater that are collected are still discharged into the sea or water courses without treatment. Moreover, most of the treated wastewater is not re-used but discharged. The objective of this research is to analyze the technological, regulatory, institutional, financial, and socio-cultural opportunities (incentives) and constraints (disincentives) that influence the adoption of wastewater treatment and reuse for agricultural irrigation in the MENA region based on the experiences of Jordan and Tunisia. A fieldwork was conducted in Jordan and Tunisia to collect data on wastewater treatment, agricultural irrigation with the reclaimed wastewater, and crop marketing and consumption. The data collection in the two countries targeted 72 administrators, 31 wastewater treatment plants, 104 farmers and their irrigated farms, 326 households, and 3 crop markets. Though Jordan and Tunisia have made great strides in raising the proportion of reused wastewater, their Wastewater Reuse Index (WRI) (which measures the actual reuse rate over the potential one) is still only 27.8 and 12.7, respectively. The lack of an integrated wastewater management and reuse policy, and the poor coordination between bureaucracies are major hurdles. Different from the expectation, farmers and customers alike are relatively well prepared to use reclaimed wastewater in irrigation, and to buy crops from these fields. However, to raise the WRI, the economic and marketing dimensions of reuse should be better recognized. Notably, pure freshwater should be priced higher and reflect its true scarcity, thus creating a stronger incentive for farmers to buy the reclaimed wastewater. Similarly, better crop market transparency and regulation would increase the confidence of the consumer and remove a disincentive to buy such crops. More information: http://www.taylorandfrancis.co.uk

When dealing with a project related to the RMIT studio, one knows from the very beginning that the main concern will be the reintegration of a building and/or site on different levels: built (usually urban fabric) economic, social, etc. However, what is more challenging is to see whether you can take a step further from reintegration and see which would that be. The Mechanical Hive is designed as a model of transforming an industrial site from residual to generating, making thus a step further from just re-integration. By introducing a strong program, which reaches out to the social level, in terms of interaction, stimulation and involvement, the Hive intends to trigger a new identity for the whole neighborhood, acting on urban, architectural and social level. To support a flexible program, which promises a continuous diversity, I introduced a special type of architecture, mobile architecture. The Hive, physically expands in the proximity and the entire neighborhood by means of mobile ateliers, self sustainable units that populate and interact with the surroundings. The Hive becomes an unique entity, an open community of artists who live and work together, who share and accept the city and its people within;it promises diversity, social interaction, and very important openness to experiment.

In the contemporary business world, more and more organizations especially in the engineering domain structure their working processes around projects. These organizations are called project-based-organizations (PBOs) and have established distinct work processes to successfully execute the projects that they undertake. The working processes in the early phases of a project are quite important in adding value to the project, and are called Front End Development (FED) of projects. Knowledge Management is a practice that adds value in FED of projects, since knowledge is an important resource that provides PBOs with competitive advantage to survive in harsh competition. A knowledge management strategy to achieve learning across projects, is codification; converting tacit knowledge from people’s minds, to explicit knowledge in documents. In a strife to increase value in their projects, PBOs are looking for ways to improve reuse of explicit knowledge in the FED of their projects: a practical problem. From a scientific point of view, a clear scientific mapping of the factors that support or hinder explicit knowledge reuse in the FED of projects, and what such a mapping entails for a strategy to foster reuse of explicit knowledge in PBOs in the engineering domain is not present yet. Therefore the main research question for this research is: What factors support or hinder explicit knowledge reuse in the front end development of projects, and how can project based organizations in the engineering domain exploit them aiming to improve value in projects during their front end development? The selected approach in this research for improving reuse of explicit knowledge, is the identification and categorization of the factors that support or hinder reuse of explicit knowledge, and their respective exploitation. The design science research framework is used to guide this research approach: exploration of the environment, development & evaluation of the designed artifact, and contribution to the knowledge base. The environment of the present research is the Technology department of Heerema Marine Contractors. To manage the research process, the principles of process management are adopted; create an open and safe decision making process during the research.

"Can you keep a secret?" is about a urban design for redevelopment of the Heijplaat area, and about an architectural design to transforming the former submarine shed of the RDM into an educational center for sustainable science. The thesis is relevant to the assignment we now face: finding a way to deal with the giant built structures left to us by our industrial past.

Freeform features are parameterizable shape parts that are used in the design of industrial products. The parametric nature of the feature allows a designer to quickly manipulate shape without having to precisely configure the geometry of the shape. However, in many cases, designers want to use existing shapes in their designs, for which features have not been defined. In this case part of the existing shape must be (re)interpreted as feature data. In this thesis, new theory and methodology is given that addresses the problem of freeform feature recognition, in which geometric data is interpreted as feature data, thereby opening up the possibility for the designer to modify the shape parametrically. The developed method uses an evolutionary procedure, in which a feature shape that is defined beforehand is matched to the geometric data a designer wants to interpret. The procedure mimics the process of natural evolution and âevolvesâ towards an optimal solution. Once a solution has been found, the structure of the predefined feature shape matches that of the geometric data and can be used to parametrically control the shape data. The developed freeform feature recognition method significantly increases the accuracy and efficiency with which existing shapes can be incorporated in a design, and increases the level of control the designer has over the shape.

In the usual wastewater treatment schemes the application of membranes follows a biological process. However, ultrafiltration of untreated wastewater produces permeate free of particles and bacteria in one single step and could represent the starting point for new water-reuse concepts. This thesis focuses on crossflow ultrafiltration of raw municipal wastewater, which produces a sanitised water rich in nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) and dissolved organics. In a newly built facility, systematic data sets are generated while varying feed wastewater (untreated sewage, effluent of primary clarifier, coagulated sewage) and fundamental operating parameters (TMP, crossflow velocity, backflush cycle). The effects are evaluated in terms of filtration characteristics (flux decline and resistance increase) with respect to elapsed time and produced volume. In addition, mathematical modelling (blocking laws) is applied, with the purpose of supporting the interpretation of results by generating comparable parameters. Results show that at the appropriate operating conditions fouling is controlled and stable operation is achieved. At TMP = 0.3 bar and crossflow velocity = 1.5-2 m/s, a loose (dynamic) cake is formed on the membrane surface, allowing gross flux values above 100 L/(m2h) and protecting the membrane from other irreversible forms of fouling. The effects of sedimentation and coagulation on the process performance appear of minor importance, whereas the interpolation of flux curves with the cake filtration model appear a useful tool for the selection of the appropriate operating conditions. A preliminary cost estimate indicates that where the (re)use of water and nutrients is possible or necessary, the application of direct ultrafiltration may prove economically attractive.

Na de inpoldering van het Haarlemmermeer halverwege de 19e eeuw was de polder een groot productielandschap. Hier is weinig van overgebleven. Een groot deel van de polder is volgebouwd en het landbouwgebied dat er nog is staat onder druk, niet op de laatste plaats vanwege het zilte water dat omhoog komt en problematisch is voor de landbouw. Met het ontwerp voor een productielandschap in de wig tussen de Schiphollijn en de HSL wordt er nadruk gelegd op de processen die de maatschappij draaiende houden. De gekozen processen zijn bovendien gekoppeld aan de waterproblematiek in de Haarlemmermeerpolder. Afvalwater van het stedelijk gebied wordt aan de grens van het grootste probleemgebied (peilvak 9) gezuiverd en kan vervolgens voor de landbouw gebruikt worden, zodat er veel minder zoet water van buiten de polder nodig is. Dit wordt zichtbaar gemaakt in het landschap, zowel op de schaal van de snel passerende treinreiziger als op de schaal van de fietser die alles op zijn gemak kan bekijken. De landbouwproducten worden op hun beurt weer gebruikt in de brouwerij annex café-restaurant, een gebouw waarin de stappen van het brouwproces duidelijk te zien zijn. De schaal van het gebouw probeert zowel aan te sluiten op de schaal van het productielandschap - met een erf als tussenliggend element - als op de schaal van de gebruikers van het gebouw. Zie voor meer informatie www.fransbochanen.nl

This thesis deals with design guidelines, as defined in the field of architectural conservation, by focusing on the problem of the conversion of industrial buildings. It is generally agreed that the best way to secure the future life of industrial heritage is through their adaptive reuse. The former function of ‘production’ for these buildings has to be replaced by contemporary, sustainable programmes. In most cases this reprogramming requires extensive conversion of the buildings’ fabric and layout. Conservationists generally prescribe design guidelines for conversion schemes in formal terms, requiring that past and present exist in a formal unity. According to the conservation charters, this ethical position can be achieved if the ‘aesthetic integrity’ of the protected building is altered as little as possible. However, in the mid 1980s, when conversions of industrial buildings became more widespread, industrial buildings were thought of as not possessing any architectural value because of the assumed deficiency of their stylistic character. Conversely, these buildings gained historic importance as a result of industrial archaeological research, and they were consequently protected as a symbol expressing the historic value of our industrial culture. Industrial buildings are therefore protected not because of their architectural value, but because of their archaeological and historic interest. It then becomes questionable how guidelines reflecting the importance of building’s aesthetics can guide the conversion of a building that is considered to be without aesthetic value in the first place. The main aim of this thesis is therefore to resolve this apparent dichotomy. The first step of this study is to investigate how the concept of ‘aesthetic integrity’, as defined in the conservation charters, can be interpreted in relation to industrial buildings in order for it to serve as a design guideline for the conversion of this type of building. Drawing upon recent architectural historical research of the nineteenth century, this thesis proposes that industrial buildings from the eighteenth century onwards were designed with aesthetic considerations in mind that were pertinent to that time. Therefore, to interpret the notion of ‘aesthetic integrity’ in relation to the industrial buildings, we need to go into the theoretical assumptions of the architectural debate of that period. For that purpose, this thesis draws upon the concept of ‘organicism’, interpreted by Van Eck as being a rhetorical strategy that led both design and interpretation of nineteenth century architecture in general. Following this interpretation of ‘aesthetic integrity’ , the stylistic character of buildings thus becomes of secondary importance. An evaluation of this theoretical proposal shows that this non-stylistic understanding of nineteenth century organicism opens up a way to define the notion of ‘aesthetic integrity’ of industrial buildings in terms other than that of style. Consequently, this study proposes that it is this definition of ‘aesthetic integrity’ that helps establish guiding principles for the conversion of industrial buildings. The study thus concludes that, when ‘organicism’ is used as a design guideline for the conversion of nineteenth century industrial buildings, past and present can exist in formal unity.

Water is one of the most valuable natural resources in the West Bank, Palestine. Due to its limited availability, it is a resource that needs particular protection. Although agriculture consumes most of the water (70%) in the West Bank, the domestic water supply is strategically not less important. It is the aim of this study to evaluate domestic water management options suitable for Palestinian conditions that contribute to achieving water sufficiency in the domestic water use in the house of tomorrow. A number of options were evaluated economically, environmentally and socially using the concept of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Results of the study showed that by introducing a combination of domestic water management options, a substantial decrease in the water consumption of more than 50% can be achieved, thereby reducing the pressure on the scarce water resources. The annual environmental impact of the in-house water use can be reduced in the range of 8%, when using low-flow shower head to 38% when using rainwater harvesting systems. Some of the options (faucet aerators, low-flow shower heads and dual flush toilets) were found to be financially attractive with a pay back period of less than their expected lives, others (rainwater harvesting, graywater reuse and dry toilets) were found to be financially unattractive because of the high investment. In the social context, it was found that introducing such options can improve the quality of life of those not having enough water. There is already a popular willingness to take part in water conservation in the domestic sector in the West Bank. The strongest driving force for using water conservation measures is the awareness that water is a scarce resource. It was concluded that, theoretically, the house of tomorrow can be largely independent in terms of water and sanitation. Education and awareness campaigns in the context of water management with a focus on non-traditional options are key to achieve such a house.