Understanding physical distancing compliance behaviour using proximity and survey data: A case study in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic

Physical distancing has been an important asset in limiting the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to assess compliance with physical distancing and to evaluate the combination of observed and self-reported data used. This research shows that it is difficult to operationalize new rules, that context affects...

Critical factors for effective resident participation in neighborhood rehabilitation in Wuhan, China: From the perspectives of diverse stakeholders

Resident participation is essential for neighborhood rehabilitation. It requires the active involvement of residents and efficient management by organizers. To improve the effectiveness of resident participation, it is necessary to understand the critical success factors (CSFs) underlying it. However, previous research has examined the critical...

Preferences and satisfaction with social comfort of outpatient workers in six hospitals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

A PhD study was carried out on comfort and health of workers in outpatient areas because hospital workers are generally less satisfied with comfort than patients and outpatient areas were understudied. To better understand differences in preferences and satisfaction of individuals, profiles were produced with Two-Step Cluster analysis, based on...

Adaptation of the Recreovía During COVID-19 Lockdowns: Making Physical Activity Accessible to Older Adults in Bogotá, Colombia

The community restrictions during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic adversely impacted older adults’ physical activity levels. This convergent mixed-method study assessed the adaptation of the Recreovía, a community-based physical activity program in Bogotá, and characterized physical activity levels among older adult participants. Our...

Ventilation and thermal conditions in secondary schools in the Netherlands: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic control and prevention measures

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of ventilation was widely stressed and new protocols of ventilation were implemented in school buildings worldwide. In the Netherlands, schools were recommended to keep the windows and doors open, and after a national lockdown more stringent measures such as reduction of occupancy were introduced. In...

Effects of COVID-19 measures on ventilation in secondary schools in the Netherlands

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of ventilation for ensuring occupants’ health was widely stressed, especially for densely occupied places such as schools (Ding et al, 2022). Correspondingly, new protocols of ventilation were implemented in school buildings among many countries and regions. In the Netherlands, school classrooms were...

Living and working in the (post-pandemic) city: a research agenda

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Work from home (WFH) received much public attention. Imposing such a measure was feasible in the context of labour markets’ flexibilisation, which has reshaped urban live-work relationships. However, the pandemic’s effects on those relationships have rarely been explored in housing and planning studies. This...

The role of crises in transformative change towards sustainability

Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive,...

Design quality: what we learned from evidence-based design and post-occupancy evaluation research during the COVID-19 pandemic

The future work environment envisioned by Dutch employees: Reimagining the configuration of the future work environment and the role of the home-based work environment through the perspectives of Dutch employees in the post-covid era

On March 11, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. The pandemic caused a sudden shift in the work environment, and quarantines and lockdowns in particular, brought about much change. Since changes in society affect employees’ preferences and needs regarding the future work environment,...

Students’ self-reported health and psychosocial status at home before and during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 outbreak, university courses were shifted online and students spent the majority of their time inside their homes. However, staying indoors can affect students’ health due to the exposure to several environmental stressors, such as background noise, and/or inefficient ventilation, and/or insufficient lighting. Previous...

Self-reported health and comfort of outpatient workers in six hospitals

As hospital workers are generally less satisfied with comfort than patients and limited information was available on health and comfort in outpatient areas, a PhD study was carried out on staff in outpatient areas. The study design, main conclusions and recommendations of this PhD study are discussed. To gain a more representative view of the...

Mitigating personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chain disruptions in pandemics – a system dynamics approach

Purpose: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has emerged as an unprecedented health crisis worldwide and heavily disrupted the healthcare supply chain. This study focuses on analysing the different types of disruptions occurring in personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and on proposing mitigation...

Community Masks – from an Emergency Solution to an Innovation Booster for the Textile Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in shortages of personal protective equipment and medical devices in the initial phase. Agile small and medium-sized enterprises from regional textile industries reacted quickly. They delivered alternative products such as textile-based community masks in collaboration with industrial partners and research...

Two-Population SIR Model and Strategies to Reduce Mortality in Pandemics

Despite many studies on the transmission mechanism of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), it remains still challenging to efficiently reduce mortality. In this work, we apply a two-population Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) model to investigate the COVID-19 spreading when contacts between elderly and non...

Confronting Ableism in a Post-COVID World: Designing for World-Familiarity Through Acts of Defamiliarization.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a pervasive digitalization of our social and practical lives. For many, this has signified a substantial loss, with the pandemic underscoring that in-person interactions play a key if not constitutive role in well-being. At the same time, many disabled people and disability rights activists have celebrated...

Perceptual breakdown during a global pandemic: introducing phenomenological insights for digital mental health purposes

Online therapy sessions and other forms of digital mental health services (DMH) have seen a sharp spike in new users since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having little access to their social networks and support systems, people have had to turn to digital tools and spaces to cope with their experiences of anxiety and loss. With no clear end...

A study on office workplace modification during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands

Purpose<br/>Triggered by public concerns over office workplace safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study sheds light on the office workplace environment and aims to investigate how organisations respond to forces from the external environment (impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic) and how they modify their office workplace management...