My Coping Toolkit: Reframing the way we deal with stress

We all want to keep balance in our lives, however, we don’t live statically, changes in our daily environments are inevitable and the need to know how to restore balance when faced with external stimuli is a lifetime effort. <br/><br/>The long-term effects of stress, both physical and psychological, are of increasing concern with some even...

Emotional first aid for broken hearts: Translating psychological strategies into a tangible form

What do we do when we make a mistake, get rejected at a job interview or by a romantic prospect? Loneliness, loss, and failure are common everyday experiences that every one of us goes through. However, many brush aside such ’emotional injuries’, or even make them worse, ’picking on their wounds’ by engaging in unhelpful coping strategies (Winch...

Modelling fatigue crack propagation in coped beams using XFEM

In the past years, the safety of steel railway bridges has been questioned due to the coped beam connection sensitivity to fatigue and fatigue crack appearance. To ensure the safety of these railway bridges, the propagation of the fatigue crack needs to be analysed by performing regular inspection on the bridges. The frequency of these is...

The Soul of the City: A theoretical framework for city identity creation in post-disaster situations

Essence of the research<br/>This research thesis was built on the idea that the city identity should be developed by the citizens when rebuilding a city after disaster. This idea stems from the intertwined triangle of government, business, and society, where the psychological needs of the citizens are most underestimated. The citizen-centred...

Designing for psychiatry: How design supports coping in a psychological crisis

Karakter – a child- and adolescent psychiatric hospital - is implementing a new way of working: high & intensive care (HIC). The HIC offers the most intensive treatment, whenever ambulatory care does not work any more. Patients are admitted when they become a danger to themselves and to others. In the HIC it is important to have respect for the...

Designing Interactive Hospital Environments for Children with Cancer and Their Families

Each year, about 530 children aged 0 to 18 are diagnosed with cancer in the Netherlands. A child with cancer, and the family, have to deal with many stress factors after being diagnosed with cancer. During hospitalization and the process of trying to heal from cancer, each child will feel and behave in a different way and would want to cope in a...

The location of structurally vacant offices. The link between location characteristics and structural office vacancy in Utrecht, and how to regenerate the Merwede quarter, an area with high office vacancy.

The aim of this research is twofold. The aim is (1) to find common location characteristics increasing the risk of the occurrence of structural office vacancy, and (2) to design an urban strategy for an office district with high office vacancy in Utrecht.