A housing shortage has been building up in the Netherlands in the last 30 years. Decreasing the housing shortage takes time, while people need a place to live now. Temporarily transforming vacant buildings into housing could reduce this need by providing the housing market with time to catch up. Can different user perspectives be included in housing design so all residents can easily make their home? A review of literature from housing studies, indoor environmental quality, architectural design and environmental psychology, for students, starters on the housing market and refugees accepted for permanent residency, indicated that using meanings of home could benefit housing design. Six factors were identified using a questionnaire that was developed to identify differences in meanings of home and what activities people engaged in, linked to indoor environmental preferences they had for those activities. Qualitative methods were used to better understand what people do to make a home. Three groups of activities were identified that reflect how home is a place built with meanings, through the use of objects, decorations, and the presence of other people. The results of a workshop with professionals indicated that meanings of home can be organised on three axes and that activities operate on different time frames (continuous, long-term, and short-term, respectively). This means that small actions, too, can contribute to creating a home, though which specific actions help someone and which do not, depend on the individual. The results can be used for housing design when architects and psychologists work together. ... Read more

A significant number of young people live in temporary homes, which are designed to fulfil basic needs and provide space for normal activities. However, it is unclear what those basic activities are. Moreover, the indoor environmental quality is often left out of the meaning of home, although activities and objects can affect its experienced quality. We therefore verbally and visually explored how young temporary dwellers appropriate and experience their homes, including the indoor environmental quality. Fourteen young adults took part in semi-structured interviews and photographed their most used as well as their favourite place. The interviews were transcribed and analysed following an interpretative phenomenological analysis. The experiences of appropriation in the home were connected to the physical environment through an analysis of the photos and floor plans (sketched by the researcher) using an architectural analysis from the user perspective. The outcome showed that the young adults appropriated their home in three ways: by familiarising the place with objects and “normal” activities, organising where things are and when they happen, and managing the indoor environmental quality through activities and objects. It is concluded that qualitative and visual analyses can assist with making recommendations to improve the design of temporary housing. ... Read more

A “community of knowledge” of representatives of the housing sector in the Netherlands investigated the impact of the behaviour of residents in sustainable housing, both newly constructed and renovated stock. For this, grey scientific data were used, i.e., data and reports from non-university agencies reflecting research commissioned by civil society NGOs and commercial enterprises. The aim was to find perspectives for action (practical “rules of thumb”) to increase the impact of sustainable housing on CO2 reduction and facilitate the implementation of the Dutch national sustainability program. First, a conceptual framework and research model were created to generate the relevant research questions for the sustainable construction sector. An innovative research approach was used where data from academic non-university researchers were enriched by university academic researchers. Experiences with the methodology used are: (a) It implicitly places the many factors that influence sustainable resident behaviour in context; and (b) it makes clear that data from such research can complement university research with useful data from practice, data that are scientifically difficult to use because they are mostly derived from stand-alone case studies. The perspectives for action that were generated are: (a) Sustainable technologies must add new useful functionalities for acceptance; (b) sustainable supply must be tailor-made because households differ and tenants behave differently from homeowners; (c) decision-making about sustainable investments is not only based on financial factors; (d) residents are reluctant to become involved, so it is important that (e) the people representing contractors should be reliable; and (f) people want personalised plans and on-time delivery. Finally, the collected reports turned out to be focused on practice and therefore provided less theoretical information about the rebound effect. ... Read more

People living in short-term rental housing, henceforth temporary housing, are rarely consulted by professionals involved in the design process, whether regarding new or refurbished buildings. Knowing what is required for temporary dwellers to feel at home and how their meanings of home relate to household characteristics, activities, and indoor environmental quality, might result in better designs for these commonly small dwellings. To explore the views of temporary occupants about their home environment, we designed and conducted a survey directed to young people in the Netherlands, likely to be familiar with living in temporary accommodation (141 university students, 58 refugees who have received a permit to stay; henceforth named permit holders), 23 persons who were working 4 days and studying 1 day; henceforth named starters). Through factor analysis, six meanings of home were found to be statistically significant: Representation, privacy, sociability, rootedness, future, and appropriation. Multiple regression analyses and analyses of variance indicated that meanings of home were related to some household characteristics and the presence of light and cleanliness. Our study showed that measuring meanings of home might help understand not only how dwellings are used but also how to improve the design of small temporary dwellings. For instance, more possibilities for good or natural light, storage, and the display of personal possessions should be incorporated into the design of these small dwellings. ... Read more

There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 m; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mold for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet). Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014 and 2015 dome structures with an inflatable mold in Finland and in 2016–2019, an ice dome, several ice towers and a 3D printed gridshell of ice in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In cooperation between the University of Alberta and Eindhoven two ice beams were realized during a workshop in 2020. In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014–2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom; using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience. ... Read more

One of the challenges of designing buildings with a good indoor environment is to make it good for everyone. Ideas about requirements vary depending on who is asked; the designer, contractor, owner, investor, and occupant, might all have different ideas about what is the best indoor environment. Usually, the occupant is often the one who is not heard, and this may lead to a misfit. To make it easier to imagine how a building would function for the occupants, a game was designed in which events happen that require changes in the design. The game helps to explore the options and inform the stakeholders about their preferences and needs and how to be more responsive to changes, in a way that is visual, easy to understand, and fun. ... Read more

Background
While the indoor environmental quality of classrooms is a potential issue because it may affect the wellbeing of school children, the relations are still poorly studied. This study aimed to investigate the relations between classroom characteristics and health and comfort of school children.

Material and methods
A questionnaire was distributed among 1311 school children (8–12 years old, average 10) of 54 classrooms at 21 schools in The Netherlands. Additionally, the survey included an inspection of the school and its installations and an inspection of the classrooms surveyed using checklists, and monitoring of some environmental parameters (temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration) in the classrooms.

Results
Among the children studied, 87% was bothered by noise, 63% by smells, 42% by sunlight when shining, 35% didn't like the temperature in the classroom (too cold or too warm) and 34% experienced temperature changes. Main diseases reported comprised of allergies (26%), rhinitis (17%), hay fever (16%) and eczema (16%). Health and comfort in non-traditional schools was better than in the traditional schools studied (A non-traditional school is a school in which the way of educating children is different from the traditional way of education, according to a different educational theory). Physical building characteristics of the classrooms studied in the traditional schools were associated with the Classroom Symptom Index (location of school building, heating system, solar devices hampering opening windows or ventilation) and the Classroom Comfort Index (ventilation type, window frame colour, floor material and vacuum cleaning frequency).

Conclusions
Measures to improve acoustical, air, and thermal conditions of children in classrooms are needed. More research is required on the use of different lighting systems and use of different colours in classrooms. ... Read more

Temporary transformations of vacant buildings could alleviate the shortage of housing for urgent home seekers. However, not much is known about the transformation of buildings into temporary, adequate, and affordable housing. A multidisciplinary literature review covering design, indoor environmental quality, housing, and environmental psychology, was performed to determine if such an integrative approach could shed light on a new perspective to provide housing for ‘urgent home seekers’. Subsequently, building transformation case studies were compared with the literature review findings. It is concluded that there is a gap in knowledge on how the concept of ‘home’ can be added to existing regulations in order to design and realise temporary housing that fits the needs of urgent home seekers. ... Read more

There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 meters; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mould for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet)[4]. Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014[1] and 2015[2] dome structures with an inflatable mould in Finland and in 2016 one ice dome and two ice towers in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014-2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom[3] using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience. ... Read more

There is a shortage of housing and people with a lower income suffer most from this. Vacant buildings are transformed to provide quick housing for them, but it is not sure whether this provides a comfortable home, both from an indoor climate and a meaning making perspective. Existing material about completed transformation projects and six case studies was used to explore possible opportunities to improve the match of user and building. It appeared that buildings are only transformed when they are left vacant for a while and a new function shifts the investment balance. Also, higher quality housing was only provided when it was not meant to be temporary or meant to be sold instead of rented. Current regulations and standards are not met and appear not adequate to function for temporary transformation projects, and matching users and buildings including the meaning of home is an opportunity worth exploring to provide a comfortable home for everyone. ... Read more

Society counts a growing number of group-dynamic challenges like civilian movements, resident initia-tive, self steering teams on the work floor and innovation team challenges. The basis driving force is governments that draw back, increasing competition in business and empowerment of people. Exam-ples are the Juuka regional economic development and the Dutch sustainable city-developments as they depend on peoples’ initiatives. For the prosperity of such initiatives a mock-up research is done on an Ice-building in Juuka, Finland (FL) project. The conclusions are: ‘Making results’ and ‘leaders to follow’ are more important motivators for the participants than fun-making and problem-solving. Front-runners inspire participants inside the initiative group. During the running time the ideal front-runner changes from locals and support people in general towards leading personalities being notable and leader type locals and participants. For such group-dynamic challenges the advice is: set clear notable targets and connect leader-type front-runners to the project, for extra motivation of the par-ticipants: built on ‘social togetherness’ (instead of social cohesion) for achieving results. ... Read more

Houses were among the first structures that were built, and remain the most common type of building today. The design of housing has been the subject of architecture, while from a psychological point of view the meaning of home has been a major subject of research. These two different viewpoints are combined in this research to provide a tool for designers to design based on values. First a quantitative study was carried out to match activities and spaces in the home to human values (Schwartz, 2000). This resulted in a design-tool that consists of the ten values (hedonism, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, conformity, tradition, power, and achievement) associated activities and spaces, and hierarchical graphs based on space syntax. Lastly opposing spatial features were laid over the two dimensions (openness to change vs. conservation and self-transcendence vs. self-enhancement). Subsequently this tool was used to design seven houses, which were used to find out whether the values designed in the houses were also recognised as such. Houses with values preferred by the interviewees, were chosen more often than values on the other end of the circle, indicating that the tool is of some help when certain meanings need to be communicated by design. ... Read more