The potential of wood acetylation

Wood, having the lowest embodied energy of any mainstream building material, is carbon neutral. As such, wood, our only naturally renewable construction resource, helps combat global warming by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it away for the life of the wood product. Not only is wood renewable, but it is also biodegradable and...

Designing a 3D Cadastral System Demonstrator: A Case Study

In the past decade, the nature and use of the cadastral system has changed significantly. Increasingly, land tenures are being created with explicit limits in the third (height) dimension. At the same time, 3D modelling is expanding in its application in the built environment—from the project level, Building Information Models (BIM)/Digital...

In situ soil permeability reduction through Al and OM precipitation as a geoengineering tool for dike stabilization: (Abstract)

Systemic view on reuse potential of building elements, components and systems: comprehensive framework for assessing reuse potential of building elements

The physical impact of the increasing building mass in industrial and developing parts of the world is undeniable. In Europe, the building industry accounts for 38 percent of the total waste production, 40 percent of the CO2 emissions and 50 percent of all natural resources used within the building sector. (EIB 2015) Such negative impact of the...

On the Nature and Relationships of 3D Spatial Cadastral Objects

After the incorporation of digital Information Technologies (IT) in the regular operations of mainstream cadastral systems, particularly in the advanced countries, attention has been paid in expanding the capabilities of those systems in other areas of operations and capturing additional aspects of the cadastral domain. An important path of work...

Capturing Legal and Physical Boundary Differences in 3D Space – A Case Study of Trinidad and Tobago

Technology has simplified the construction of a 3D cadastre by allowing rapid, remote capture of the data required for the graphic components of the system. Research into using 3D information generated from laser scanning, LiDAr and satellite imagery, and aerial photography for Building Information Management (BIM) has advanced considerably over...

Identification and Treatment of Erodible Clays in Dikes

When it comes to flood protection, the established method is to use impermeable material in dikes, to prevent seepage. This material is usually some kind of clay soil which is considered as impermeable and erosion-resistant. Dispite that, in many occasions not only seepage, but the failure of the dam occured due to surface erosion, because these...

Fusion of Perceptions in Architectural Design

A method for fusion of perceptions is presented. It is based on probabilistic treatment of perception, where perception quantifies the chance an unbiased observer sees an environmental object, and the associated probability can be interpreted as degree of awareness for the object. The approach uniquely accounts for the fact that final...

Toward accessing spatial structure from building information models

Data about building designs and layouts is becoming increasingly more readily available. In the near future, service personal (such as maintenance staff or emergency rescue workers) arriving at a building site will have immediate real-time access to enormous amounts of data relating to structural properties, utilities, materials, temperature,...

Sustainable retrofit potential in lower quality office stock in the central business district

Given the relationship between energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, the built environment has significant potential to lessen overall emissions. With around half of all greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the built environment; it has a significant role to play in mitigating global warming. With large percentages...

Implementation of innovation: The inertia of implementing the open building concept in practice

The Open Building concept has been developed half a century ago. Despite the relative potential advantages to society, this concept of Open Building has not been widely implemented in the construction industry. Consequently, it did not lead to a general new approach of designing structures. Why does the construction industry use the Open...

Ecodynamic design as a boundary object

Consensus in Dutch society is that the existing coastal defence regime is not sustainable. Adaptation is not only a technical challenge, but affects elements like ecology, cultural heritage, recreation, urban development, making the issue complex both from a political and from a scientific point of view. And innovations must cope with the actual...

Sustainable innovation. In search for the value added configuration

The concept of sustainable innovation goes beyond realizing technical solutions. For innovation to be effective, knowledge that is developed during the innovating activity requires to be dispersed to assure benefit of the innovation in production, use, maintenance and disposal. Actually doing so might jeopardize an organization’s competitive...