Legacy creation strategy in Olympic cities: The path towards sustainable development?

Mega-event strategies and their impact on the development of host cities have drawn increasing interest as they have become part of wider city development strategies. However, many city leaders are challenged by a gigantic and complex task after the events: how to deal with the post-use of large event venues and facilities? How to use the events...

Paths of urbanisation in Shenzhen New Town: Exploring emerging forms of polity, community and economy, towards integral and sustainable development

A contextual and spatial approach towards resource cycles

Multiple system-based concepts exist to analyse and manage urban throughput of resource flows, examples are Urban Metabolism, Industrial Ecology and Energy Potential Mapping. Common threads in these propositions are fundamental principles valid in nature, notably homeostasis and thermodynamics. Those and likeminded concepts are valuable links in...

Assessing facade value - how clients make business cases in changing real estate markets

RELEVANCE: The value of any intervention in the built environment is most relevant for the stakeholders that are investing in it. For them all costs need to be balanced with benefits - not necessarily directly financial, but adding value to the performance of the accommodated organization. Business cases contain performance criteria like...

Higher education: Features, trends and needs in relation to sustainability

The progress of sustainability within higher education has steadily increased in focus over the last decade and has increasingly become a topic of academic research. With various scholars, journals and conferences exclusively dealing with the subject, a wealth of literature has been produced on best practices, suggestions, and assessments...

Energy potential mapping: Visualising energy characteristics for the exergetic optimisation of the built environment

It is difficult to fully satisfy the energy demand of today’s society with renewables. Nevertheless, most of the energy we use is lost as non-functional waste energy, whereas a large part of the built environment’s energy demand is only for low-quality energy, so the initial demand for primary, high-quality energy can be reduced by more...

Courtyards as solutions in green architecture to reduce environmental pollution

After the industrial revolution, men intended-more than ever-to use energy, specifically the fossil fuels. In spite of providing comfort conditions for human life, too much use of these energy resources can cause the pollution and destruction of environment. The result is the threatening of the environment and the continuity of life on the...

Towards a sustainable campus: Visions for the future of higher education

Since 2008 long-term agreements on energy efficiency have become effective in the Netherlands. Participating organisations of forty-six sectors have agreed with the Dutch government to make efforts to realise energy efficiency of 30 percent in the period 2005- 2020 and 50 percent - as a guideline - before 2030. Higher education is represented...