NOT JUST GREEN: Developing a sustainable elevated GRT system infrastructure for airports

Big and growing airports, like Schiphol, have many facilities, like hotels and parking lots, that need to be connected to each other and the airport terminal. A good approach for this, would be the use of electrically driven, driverless vehicles, called Automated People Movers (APM). An application of this, a so called Group Rapid Transit (GRT)...

Towards an all Polymeric Solar Collector: An exploratory study

Solar thermal energy solutions are facing a slow market penetration because of long economic pay back times of the initial investment. Concerning solar water heating, installation and hardware costs must be significantly reduced to allow for successful market penetration. As an attractive approach to cost reduction, I propose to replace the...

City Supplement

The main issue of this project is waste and how we can better deal with it. We have to make clear at this point that being myself an architect the whole project has been approached through an architectural point of view. I firmly believe that there is a clear and clean way of solving it. So, When waste can be a problem? Everything that is...

Harvesting Tool for Sustainable Taxoid Extraction from Taxus Species

Taxoid is a member of a class of anticancer drugs derived from Yew (Taxus species) trees. This includes paclitaxel and docetaxel, which have found wide commercial exploitation. Currently taxoids are extracted from the taxus species through chemical extraction from needles, barks and through cell culture. These are chemical intensive processes...

Towards a green design brief: Development of a support for Dutch designers (and their clients)

THE GOAL The Dutch Association for Designers (BNO) is the largest organization of professional designers in the Netherlands and committed to support the interests of its members. BNO provides assistance in sustainable design through their ‘Groene Offerte’ (GO) community. However, there is no adequate sustainable support for during the briefing...

Sustainable monument care: A theoretical framework to design for the future

Sustainable monumentcare. A theoretical framework to design for the future. Research on combining design for sustainability and monument care to create truely sustainable monument care, has led to a 3 step approach to sustainable monument care. Using this 3-step method, a design case study is conducted on a historic café and monument.

Urban Asymmetries: ECATEPEC. Proposing alternative urbanities

Ecatepec, Mexico City presents the challenge of uniform, low-density peri-urban sprawl in the form of privately developed gated communities for the lower income groups. The main objective of this project is to propose alternatives to low-income housing, amplifying local skills and cultural consciousness, facilitating autonomy through local...

A timber bearing structure for 'Concept House': A design to solve bottlenecks

This research focus on the solving of important bottlenecks which hinder a timber bearing structure for the new appartment building system of concept house.

The design of a sustainable fence for Heras

Background: The emerging ‘green’ economy lets Heras, Dutch market leader in outside security, respond by re-considering its position in the market. To remain market leader, a company should invest in innovation to be one step ahead of the competition, in this case by implementing sustainability. Results: Field research, a life cycle assessment...

Sustainable personal mobility in Rotterdam 2021

Rotterdam is in the middle of its ‘second rebuilding’. Its modernist and car-friendly character that was so successful in the first rebuilding after the second world war are now blamed for a number of social and economical problems Rotterdam is faced with. The Rotterdam of 2021 is denser than today. Its centre houses more residents and is...

An alternative bathing practice for sustainable renovation

When showering, needs of comfort and wellbeing are increasingly valued in the North-Western European culture. However these needs also result in an increase of water and energy consumption. The challenge within this project lies in designing an alternative bathing practice that consumes less water and energy and fits to the lifestyle of North...

A redesign of Kamworks' solar home system: Increasing efficiency, flexibility and value-for-money

This report documents the redesign of Kamworks’ Solar Home System (SHS), a small autonomous solar system that is designed to meet the electricity needs of families living in Cambodian rural areas. Kamworks is a social enterprise, founded by Dutch entrepreneurs, which tries to provide the local population with light and electricity to stimulate...

Connect: How to go from the public water to the private dwelling

Het is crisis, dat zal niemand ontgaan zijn, maar een crisis biedt ook mogelijkheden. We moeten zuiniger en effectiever met ons geld en dus ook gebouwen omgaan. Radicaal slopen is in deze tijden niet meer de enige optie. Renovatie en duurzame nieuwbouw heeft de toekomst. Bij duurzaam bouwen wordt echter vaak gedacht aan zonnepanelen of...

Mothers, grow your baby a bottle! A toolkit to grow vegetables at home in the city of Hanoi

Vietnam has developed very fast over the past decades and is growing both in population and economic power rapidly. Especially the march of a middle-class is pushing the consumerism to a higher level; people have more money to spend on for example luxury items and food. Private food consumption is one of the most important areas with a big...

Sustainable Photonic Textiles for the Office Environment

The Dutch company Royal Philips Electronics N.V. has developed a smart textile that is able to emit light. Philips named this specific type of electronic textile a photonic textile. With the use of LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) the textile can feedback light to a user or environment. The implementation of this technology, up to this moment, is...

Moving towards a carless place of work: A qualitative research on hospital employees

This study investigates the opinion and perceived equity of hospital employees regarding sustainable travel modes for their commute, the (e-)bike and shared bike combined with public transport in specific. The objective of the research is to be able to advise the Academic Medical Center and Pon on whether the alternatives are deemed successful,...

Pumping when the wind blows: Demand response in the Dutch delta

This thesis investigates the potential of a large pumping station in IJmuiden, the Nether-lands, for participating in Demand Response. Due to climate change, renewable energy is onthe rise. The intermittency of energy, together with its unpredictable supply, are a big hurdlefor the energy transition. Two methods are promising solutions to this...