Solar Cooling Integrated Façades: Main Challenges in Product Development for Widespread Application

The global attention to solar cooling systems has increased during the last years as a result of the expected growth in the world cooling demand. Such systems encompass the use of renewable energy as the main driver for mitigating indoor temperatures. Currently, some of these technologies are mature enough for their commercial application in...

Assisting the development of innovative responsive façade elements using building performance simulation

Thermal mass is usually positively associated with energy efficiency and thermal comfort in buildings. However, the slow response of heavyweight constructions is not beneficial at all times, as these dynamic effects may actually also increase heating and cooling energy demand during intermittent operation or can cause unwanted discomfort. This...

Nuances of emotions in product development: Seven key opportunities identified by design professionals

Applying design thinking elsewhere: Organizational context matters

In this contribution design thinking is taken as a transfer of design methods from product development to other domains. It is argued that the success of this transfer depends on the organisational context offered to design thinking in these other domains. We describe the application of design methods in product development and in two new...

Adapting scrum development method for the development of cyber-physical systems

Designing with residual materials

Many entrepreneurial businesses have attempted to create value based on the residual material streams of third parties. Based on ‘waste’ materials they designed products, around which they built their company. Such activities have the potential to yield sustainable products. Many of such companies remain in the more artistic domain, with...

Towards scaling up grassroots innovations in India: A preliminary framework

Grassroots innovations (GI) include need-based products or services that are created by individuals or groups within local communities. These products and services have potential to contribute to the quality of an individual’s life, and on a larger scale contribute to the development of a community by creating new business activities. The...

Supplier Involvement in Product Development: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Working Paper

The paper reports the preliminary findings of four current case studies on supplier involvement in product development from the respective perspectives of Engineering, Purchasing and Suppliers. The supplier involvement is studied from the viewpoint of how supplier information and knowledge are deployed in the fuzzy front end of product...

A Culture-Inspired Approach to Gaining Insights for Designing Sustainable Practices

This paper explores a design method to generate insights for designing less resource-intensive forms of everyday life. This study takes the assumption that looking at cultural diversity can widen the variety of insights which can be used as a source of inspiration for designing sustainable practices. However, there is a lack of clear-cut...