In a future scenario where nuclear energy has been the globally accepted solution to solve the energy crisis, an accident happening in the year 2056 obliterates any hopes for humanity's future on the surface of the Earth. This graduation project narrates an evolutionary exploration of unconventional ways of living in a post-apocalyptic scenario in which architecture becomes the central element that creates a bond between the radioactive environment and the living systems. The architectural intervention is defined by three main intentions: the first one is the solver of conflicts between the radioactive context and the villagers. The second one is the inducer of environmental self-sufficient practices as a more sustainable approach to the use of the resources of our planet. And finally, the third intention is to give continuity to the communal and territorial systems existing in the area before the accident, creating a dialogue between pre-nuclear and post-nuclear Cofrentes. In this architectural narrative, the project builds on an evolutionary process that grows organically answering to the societal needs and resources available in the radioactive context. From the moment of the accident until the present day, the project evolves from a post-apocalyptic phase characterized by the use of scavenged materials and rudimentary constructions to a self-organizative phase, which applies the research findings explored during the first period of the graduation studio, initiating a more technological design. Post-nuclear Cofrentes exposes through the power of architectural imagination, the ever-present potentiality of a nuclear-dystopic event, a reality we might live to see.

Context - In the construction industry of today, buildings are seen as finished products rather than ongoing processes. The business model of facades as a product service system is a promising strategy to change these practices. A pilot project at Delft University of Technology sparks the interest of Alkondor Hengelo, to explore their tasks and responsibilities as pioneers in this new way of supplying facades. Suppliers would retain the ownership of a leased PSS façade and guide a project through its entire service life and beyond, managing materials in a circular way. The two main challenges were identified as 1. Going from a linear model to circularity, and 2. The ongoing involvement in a PSS instead of handing over their product. The first steps of implementing the façade leasing model have been taken, however the full strategy yet needs to be outlined, to understand how value is added for suppliers and clients and where technical barriers are found. Objective - Ideally, a PSS would optimize façade performance and provide all services that are needed to do so. This adds value for the client and creates a steady source of income for the supplier. As the pathway to a full PSS is best approached in smaller steps, it should be defined: What set of tasks would the façade supplier take on in a basic stage of servitization, and what could be added on to form a more advanced service agreement? For façade suppliers, it is important to make the best use of the investment into their product, as they would not only be acting as producers, but also operate and safeguard the product and its performance throughout the entire cradle-to-cradle life cycle. Therefore, it should be designed for optimal operation and output during use, and designed for circularity, to achieve a high residual value after the first use. Different design criteria and considerations are therefore given, as a reference for future designers of circular facades as PSS.

The built environment has an important role to play in sustainable development. The Dutch government estimates that the build environment is responsible for 50% of resources used, 40% energy use, 30% of water use, 35% of CO2 production and 40% of the total waste production in the Netherlands. Because of these relatively high numbers, changes in the build environment can have large impact on the sustainability of our society. At this moment about a hundred thousand dwellings built during the 1960 -1970 are reaching the age of 50 each year making more than 50% of the Dutch building stock older than 50 years. In the current Dutch building stock, only a small portion of new buildings is added every year. At the current rate of 0.4% it would take 250 years before all buildings would be renewed. The average lifetime of a residential building is 50 years. This can be extended another 50 years with the right intervention. It is therefore very important to have a solid strategy to deal with existing buildings as this can play an important role in maintaining a high-quality building stock while working towards sustainable goals. This thesis looks at the challenges of high rise residential flats built in the post- WW2 era of the 1960’s in order to develop a refurbishment method that can help to upgrade and maintain these types of buildings in a sustainable way. By keeping the buildings instead of demolishing or replacing them resources and energy can be spared and by refurbishing them a more sustainable building stock can be achieved. The chosen refurbishment method is an add-on strategy as this deals with many challenges the flats are facing. Using the parameters from the case study project the Leeuwerik flat in the Poptahof, add-on variants have been designed with big emphasis on flexibility, demount ability and durability. The Add-ons aim to improve the physical building qualities by providing better thermal performance. They improve the spatial qualities by providing extra space and they improve the social quality of a building by provide a new and more diversified look. The three main add-on variants are categorised by material namely wood, concrete and FRP. The add-ons have been detailed to be completely prefabricated and to be quickly mounted on the building. The performance of each of the addons has been assessed in order to compare them and to find out what the influence is of the material choice on add-on dimensions, the thermal performance the and the environmental performance. Overall it can be concluded that using a demountable add-on strategy is a feasible way to quickly refurbish a building. It offers a way to deal with existing building physical problems and can improve the architectural and spatial qualities of an existing building. Different add-on types and construction materials and are possible. This leaves a lot of space for designers that want to use the demountable add-on strategy while working on a refurbishment project of a high rise residential building to make their own choices depending on the focus of the project, giving each building a unique appearance. This will lead to a higher quality and more sustainable building stock in the long run.

This graduation project has the goal to improve the living conditions of rural African communities by showing them how to construct off-grid, self-sufficient, and what is most important affordable clean water, energy, and sanitation system. I believe it can be easily adapted by communities of poor regions. Those communities struggle with poor quality water for living which is the cause of many deaths. To change it, a solar-based system is proposed to purify any kind of input water. Widely known simple solar stills are typically designed as single units serving only individuals, moreover, its efficiency is usually low. Therefore, an improved solar still concept is adapted in this research, and its principles are used in the roof system to produce water for the basic living needs of 50 people daily. Providing clean water to rural communities without access to the national grid is crucial and the most important aspect of this project. Based on the research elaborated in Phase I of this report, the most adequate to both climate and the economic-social situation prevailing in Beira, way to provide water is to purify raw water on-site using the energy of the sun. This solution not only does not require the construction of additional infrastructure outside the site but has a chance to be developed and multiplied in the least urbanized areas - often inhabited by a significant part of the region’s population. Due to the situation in the region, the use of only low-tech solutions and very cheap materials for the entire project is very important. This report aims to draw attention to two faces of disaster in Mozambique: consequences of climate change and poor living conditions.

Almeria is a geographical point of arrival and passage of African migrants on their migratory route to Europe. The region is home to thousands of migrants seeking work in the agricultural sector. The lack of affordable housing for these collective has led to the creation of several informal settlements around agricultural areas. This project is a proposal for social housing as an affordable housing offer for migrants, focusing on reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. For this, the design focuses on climate adaptation with low tech strategies and the implementation of materials from the context. As opposed to the dependence on mechanical installations for acclimatisation, the project is inspired by the vernacular architecture of the area to adapt to the arid desert climate of Almeria. As construction material, compressed earth blocks are proposed, extracted in areas with microplastic contamination, in order to reduce the impact of agricultural activity on the environment.

FabField is a building system that borrows most of its basic principles from more evolved and flexible industries, making use of digital fabrication methods (CNC milling) to produce all components that constitute a building. However, not all aspects have been fully thought of in the system: the integration of building services for FabField is needed in order to perpetuate the core aspects of the building system: pre-fabrication, low-costs, high accuracy, light weight components and short construction times.

Urban population growth predictions and the threats posed by climate change will exacerbate social problems such as equal access to water worldwide. This will happen mostly in developing countries and will couple with other environmental issues such as the intensive use of raw materials and the production of new waste. New solutions need to be thought and atmospheric water supplies such as fog or dew water represent alternative sources still largely untapped. Within the Living in a Bottle project, this research looks at computational design workflows and Additive Manufacturing as tools that can play a role in mitigating these risks, while transforming the perception of plastic waste from burden to construction material. Moreover, 3d-printing represents a flexible fabrication technology that could play a relevant educational and developing role in growing communities. The goal of the research is to propose a solution for a mono-material building envelope component designed to enable and maximize atmospheric water collection in developing countries. The design aims to be adaptable to different climatic scenarios and easy to replicate locally. The task is approached systematically by defining all necessary functions and exploring the best strategy for each of them. Every step is performed considering both the optimization of functionality and 3d-printability. Functions are then combined in one element which is prototyped and tested. Computer simulations for the city of Rabat (Morocco), show that the combination of a dew and fog collector in one component would reduce by half the surface required to fulfill the water needs of one person. A feasibility analysis is also performed and the price of one module is estimated. The result is comparable to the cost of standard solutions in the field of atmospheric water harvesting and represents therefore an interesting achievement in the development of such technology.

In the times of growing attention towards renovation for energy efficiency in the built environment, the building stock particularly associated with heritage value deemed monumental or protected is currently exempted under the Dutch law to comply with the energy performance guidelines. Limitations with regards to protecting the aesthetics of these heritage buildings make interventions for energy saving restricted to interior application. While it is necessary for these buildings to be more efficient, the process of interior energy renovation is complex in terms of financing, space, thermal performance and managing stakeholders. This thesis researches into ways to simplify and streamline the process of interior renovation with a focus on application of thermal insulation to the envelope to reduce transmission losses. The present challenges are addressed by three interventions in the workflow of the renovation process starting with a shift to super insulation material for better performance and space saving. Digital data capture and processing create opportunity of an integrated process of digital design to production. Lastly prefabrication of insulation ensures reduction of onsite time. The result is a globally adaptable approach towards an optimized renovation workflow that creates an synergy between energy efficiency, performance, production and preservation of the architectural heritage while keeping the occupants central.

The life cycle of a building has a tremendous impact on the environment. This is due to its energy demand, production and transportation of building materials, and its maintenance. Actually, the building industry is one of the most polluting industries that contribute to climate change. In the Netherlands alone, this sector is chargeable for 50% of the materials consumed, 40% of the total energy used and 35% of the total CO2 emissions. To limit the effects of climate change, the Dutch government has set several requirements for new buildings concerning energy use and emissions. The energy performance of buildings is a requirement to minimise the energy demand of buildings. The environmental performance is a requirement to reduce the environmental impact of materials used in the building. These requirements correlate negatively. Therefore, when the regulations get more strict, it will not be possible to satisfy both. Thus, the requirements will adversely affect each other. This thesis ‘When energy savings become a waste’ describes research about the design of facades to increase the sustainable performance of office buildings steered by the regulations energy performance of buildings and environmental performance of buildings. It is about the conflicting demand and how to design a facade in such a way that no energy will be lost because the energy reduction is less than the energy needed for the production of an element. The main research question that is answered in this research is ‘How can the Dutch building industry achieve sustainable buildings by designing according to both the energy performance and environmental performance of buildings applied on facades?’ First of all, the relation between sustainability, energy performance-, environmental performance- and circularity of buildings is established. In this research, sustainability is defined as a goal to minimize harmful emissions to the planet. This goal can be achieved in different ways , one of which is the circular building principal. A circular approach of building aims to no longer use new resources and produce no more waste. The energy performance of buildings and the environmental performance of buildings can help steer towards sustainable buildings. Next, the concepts of the environmental performance of buildings (MPG) and the energy performance of buildings (EPC) are introduced, and their current use in methods and tools is analysed. Several methods exist in which the energy performance and the environmental performance are combined. For this research, the ‘sustainability performance of buildings’ (DPG) will be used, which is an objective method combining the energy and material by converting the total CO2 emission in the energy performance to shadow costs and by adding this to the shadow costs as calculated in the environmental performance. Therefore, the sustainability performance indicates the total emissions of the whole life cycle of a product, process or building and the total costs required to bring the environmental impacts of a product, process or building to an acceptable level. The sustainability performance of buildings is expressed in shadow costs per square meter, €/m2. In a one-factor-at-the-time analysis, the environmental- and energy performance of buildings is calculated in different scenarios with a varying parameter in the design of the facade. For this analysis, a reference office building was used as a study case. This is a medium-sized office building with a curtain wall facade of aluminium and triple glazing. Eight variants are examined, in particular: type of glass, insulation value and insulation material, the ratio of open and closed parts in the facade, use of PV-panels on the facade, sun shading, facade composition, orientation and changing the building process from linear to circular. The most important results of the case study are as follows: •In types of glazing, vacuum glazing has the best sustainability score. Also, triple glazing with a total glass thickness of 12 mm is an improvement compared to the current thickness of 16 mm. The performance of HR++ glazing is only 1% worse than triple glazing and can, therefore, also be considered in use. •The insulation value, as well as the insulation material, has no significant influence on the sustainability performance. The reduction in energy by adding more insulation material is almost equal to the energy needed for the production of the extra material. •The percentage of glass in the facade has a tremendous impact on both the environmental performance and energy performance. Both the performances get worse with a higher percentage of glass. The trend in the design of office building is, however, to increase the percentage of glass. •The use of PV panels in the facade is beneficial for the sustainability performance. The revenue is small for PV panels on the north facade, and the investment will not pay off. In the other orientations the PV panels the payback time is between 11 and 15 years. PV panels on the south facade achieve the most improvement. •The addition of sun shading will only slightly improve the sustainability performance when no louvres are included in the design and the control system is optimal to reduce the heating and cooling demand. •A change in the facade system and materials can significantly reduce the sustainability performance. However, this is mainly caused because no louvres are added in the other facade designs. Therefore the addition of louvres is not sustainable; neither is increasing the height of the floors. The facade with wooden cladding has the best sustainability performance. •The orientation of the building can influence the sustainability performance without changing other parameters. For the reference building, the most optimal orientation is achieved by a rotation of 90 degrees. The windows are then orientated north and south. •The effect of different circular scenarios is calculated and compared to the reference scenario with a service life of 50 years. The scenario considering the reference situation with a realistic service life of 20 years, has the highest score of all. In the next scenario, the percentage of reuse is increased to 60% and the service life of the facade is 20 years, resulting in an improved sustainability performance of 2%. In the last scenario, the service life is extended to 100 years, causing an improvement of 4%. Conclusions of this research are only based on the sustainability performance and do not take into account social and financial aspects. Therefore in some variants, the most sustainable solution might not be feasible in practice. For example, vacuum glazing is very expensive, and consequently, triple glazing with a thickness of 12 mm is advised to use. One realistic variant is calculated with a combination of variants. In this scenario, financial and social feasibility are taken into account, and an improvement of 15,5% is achieved, showing the value of this integral approach. Based on this research, it can be concluded that the Dutch building industry can achieve sustainable buildings when the design is focused on decreasing the sustainability performance of buildings. An integral approach considering both energy and material use is essential when enhancing the sustainability performance of buildings. The goal of the Dutch government to steer on CO2 emission can help to improve the sustainability performance. However, the relationship between the sustainability performance and CO2 emission is not entirely linear. Energy and material use need to be balanced together to accomplish a sustainable built environment. To be able to use this knowledge in a broader context it is recommended to conduct this research for a combination of the used variants, take into account design aspects of the whole building, and perform analysis on multiple buildings. In this research, only the aspects of sustainability concerning the planet are taken into account. Aspects regarding people and profit should also be considered to determine the feasibility of sustainable measures.

The building sector is responsible for more than one third of resource consumption globally. Concerning the new construction, new regulations have been set, which impose that by 2020 all new buildings constructed within the EU should reach nearly zero-energy levels. The building envelope plays a strategic role in the energy and environmental performance of the building, significantly affecting the levels of indoor comfort. The increasing necessity of sustainability in built environments is leading to the need of the adaptive façade adoption. The façade is no longer a mere static element offering just a shelter for users. The future building skin is required to respond dynamically, being able to react to non-continuous, ever-changing climatic conditions, occupant comfort and energy efficiency requirements. It is apparent that building facades need to be transformed to fulfill adapted roles of high performance integration and façade elements need to be designed to provide the necessary flexibility needed in terms of energy flow and thermal comfort. Companies like “Rollecate”, which is a facade construction company in the Netherlands with worldwide projects have grasped this change and are interested in creating new products, which reflect the current trend of adaptivity. This graduation project started with the existing research project “Future Adaptive Facades and Components” with the question from “Rollecate” about the direction the facade industry is heading to. “Rollecate” wants to know what the future of adaptive facades is and how this is translated into a new product or a modification of an existing one that could be developed soon and be relevant for the building sector in the next five years and on. The aim of the research project is the development of a Multi-functional Façade Module (MFM) that consists of several functionalized layers that could be separately assembled depending on the architectural design of the building and the corresponding climate. Moreover, the proposed design is modular, which gives the possibility to be altered easily throughout its lifecycle, thus being also adaptive to future technological innovations. In order to evaluate it, this facade system is tested for an office building in Amsterdam, Netherlands with the main objective of providing thermal comfort to the occupants, whilst minimizing the energy consumption. In the framework of a decade-long research activity on Advanced Integrated Façades (AIF), MFMs show a considerable potential for building envelopes, being one of the most promising Responsive Building Elements (RBE) in terms of energy reduction potential. In addition, the results of this research project prove that MFMs are performing well, offering considerable energy savings. They are a promising facade concept for future applications, offering not only an adaptive but also a sustainable solution to the construction of office buildings. Nevertheless, there is still space for future improvement, as well as further research and development as explained at the end of this research project.

The concrete bridges constructed in the 1960s and 1970s lack shear reinforcement, rendering them non-compliant with current design regulations. To potentially enhance their shear capacity, the proposed approach involves applying a layer of ultrahigh-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) on both sides of the normal strength concrete (NSC) beams supporting the bridge deck. A crucial aspect of this method is ensuring a high-quality connection between the UHPFRC layer and the NSC beam to transfer shear stresses effectively. Therefore, the report explores the feasibility of employing active infrared thermography (IRT) as a non-destructive testing (NDT) method to identify delaminated areas within this interface. The primary objective of this report is to answer the question: "Is it possible to detect and quantify delaminated areas, within the connection between a NSC beam and a layer of UHPFRC of a certain thickness in an objective way, with data gathered by an infrared camera in a lab environment?" The report outlines the chosen approach for detecting delaminated areas, establishes a standardized testing methodology, and formulates an analytical model to process the data gathered during experiments conducted based on the established standards. The data collection process involves utilizing an infrared camera to measure the temperature of every pixel in each frame of a recording. From literature review and a qualitative comparison of different methods to detect delaminated areas, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) method is chosen in this report. The SNR method compares the temperature in a specific area to that of a sound area while considering the standard deviation of temperature in sound areas, accounting for environmental factors. The analytical model developed in the report identifies delaminated areas when infrared camera recordings are available. To ensure objectivity, a standardized approach for heating and cooling the specimens is established. Heating is achieved with a heat flux of 1750 W/m² on the UHPFRC layer's surface for 1500 seconds, followed by recording the cooling process with an infrared camera. The analytical model selects the optimal frame for analysis based on this data together with data gathered from a finite element analysis performed in the software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6. The report distinguishes between two situations: one where the location of a sound area is known, and another where it is not. The analytical model produces promising results for both scenarios, with simulated delaminated areas visible in the test samples. However, in cases where the location of sound areas is unknown, the model may underestimate the size or extent of delamination, especially in nearly fully delaminated structures. Further research is recommended to assess the accuracy and applicability of the method in situations where sound area locations are unknown and to determine the model's minimum detectable delaminated area.

This paper investigates the potential of passively lowering the operational energy requirement of performance buildings in the Central European Climate. The energy consumption of this typology is largely caused by mechanical ventilation to cool and ventilate the theatre during shows, necessary for the thermal comfort and ventilation requirements of the audience. Mechanical ventilation in theatres needs to significantly over-provide ventilation air in order to cool, and the exhaust air is not allowed to be mixed with incoming air, making them are inherently inefficient. Passive design strategies can lower the energy requirement of buildings during operation, by efficiently using ambient elements and simple laws of physics. Berlin, which perfectly embodies Central European’s climate, experiences strong seasonal climate variations. In the hotter summer months, there is a low ambient cooling potential. However, the climatic conditions are sufficient for a direct connection between the theatre and the ambient air, which would result in no need for HVAC during operation. There is a high ambient cooling potential in autumn, winter and spring. This potential can be fulfilled by efficiently integrating thermal mass, indirect evaporative cooling in the roof of the theatre, radiative cooling in the ceiling of the theatre, natural ventilation through buoyancy stack effect or wind-driven cross ventilation. These methods are addressed on macro scale and deserve micro scale validation of a site before implementation.

In light of the current environmental crisis, we are faced with the responsibility to drastically change our anthropogenic impact. We humans often view ourselves as superior to nature. We have developed a dualistic view of our existence on this planet – one that blinds us to our interconnectedness with the environment. We must shift the way we relate to this earth and understand that it is a single living organism which is inextricably interconnected. We must place value and importance on the entire environment and all life in it, not just the parts that are useful for humans. In ‘Back to the roots’ the residential building standard on Aruba is reconsidered according to this ecocentric philosophy. The design proposal introduces a nature inclusive urban development strategy, a passive, climate responsive housing typology with locally harvested materials and floorplans based on participatory design to easily customize, evolve and adapt to changing cycles of use and facilitate a circular way of building.

The thesis aims to offer a review of a modern conceptual facade focusing on one more possible solution to sustainable facade refurbishment for existing tall buildings. There are thousands of highrise buildings in the world and almost all of them over time will require some degree of refurbishment. The premise of this thesis is based on the rising ecological concern of human-made climate change, and the role building industry has in its effects. The thesis only focuses on a smaller part of the whole sector, namely “curtain wall facades”. But, data suggests that the demand of curtain wall systems is rising when they age or the buildings which already have deteriorated curtain walls for over 30 years will require some degree of intervention to improve the facade quality and the performance of the building using the facade. Alternatively, the increase in maintenance costs and utility costs will render the building undesirable and hence cause premature demolition of the facade or the building itself. Although this thesis only focuses on a specific region, the postulation of this research applies to any location based on region-specific analysis and design solution. The solution will mostly concentrate on feasibility aspects of design for disassembly and integrated functionality (BIPV) into one system, namely Plug & Play facades.

To provide the current population of Bospolder - Tussendijken with a future perspective that tackles socio-demographic issues, they create Phase Change Material (PCM) Modules of waste products Frying oil and Mg2+ in the cooperative factory: 'Frituurfabriek' in the M4H. They have the opportunity to participate in society, to become owner of a factory, to earn salary and to bring back home the modules to sustain their homes. The accessible production process for this circular passive cooling element for housing renovations allows great crafts and educational development for the people. It attracts a wider public than pure the workers, since there is also a community centre, additional workshops and an extension of the BoTu neighbourhood, located on top of the factory. As a showcase this is designed as a full PCM building; no insulation but PCM ensures consistent interior climate. All together, this social concept of emancipating the population is tohave social impact by low-tech innovation, it relinks the historic M4H and BoTu relation and offers an alternative concept for architecture an (conservative) use of finite material use as sand.

Philippine low-income housing is uncomfortable since it is not built to deal with the hot and humid climate in a passive way. Since local vernacular architecture is known to have a good climatic responsive performance, the aim of this research is to learn how Philippine vernacular design strategies can improve thermal comfort for low-lying, sub-urban and rural, low-income housing. The strategies studied are openings, eaves, stilts, orientation, roof insulation and roof angle.  Two-day in-situ thermal measurements are used to study the comfort performance of the housing typology. To study the influence of the strategies or combinations of them on comfort, numerical predictions are used consisting of energy and CFD, wind-driven simulations. The numerical models are validated before the strategies are varied on a general case or a case study. The average exceeding temperature (AET) in Kelvin is used to assess comfort. It is calculated by accumulating for every hour of the year the exceeding temperature in Kelvin and divide this by the amount of hours that could be uncomfortable. A conceptual implementation study is performed to take disaster resilient and practical considerations into account. The impact of varying the strategies on the case study resulted in a reduction in AET of about 5 K for openings, 0.7 K for orientation, 0.6 K for eaves, 0.5 K for stilts and 0.1 K for roof insulation. On this basis, it can concluded that applying the guidelines as stated below, comfort increases significantly. More impact can be obtained if the strategies are implemented and combined as described by the passive design guidelines below. • To increase wind driven ventilation in wind direction, openings should be made on the wind- and leeward facade until ground floor, have an opening height (Oh) based on the facade height (Fh) by the rule of thumb: Oh[m]=0.85·Fh[m], include a leeward roof opening and include openings on the remaining facades. • Dependent on the wind direction, the openings should be opened accordingly. If no wind is present, all roof openings should be opened. During typhoons, they should be closed. • As much open area on facades in the main monsoon wind direction is advised. The openings on the other facades should be placed in the middle of the width to increase the performance with wind coming from the other directions. • Hinged eaves with a 15° angle and length calculated by the rule of thumb:  El,15°[m]=0.6·Fh[m] should be used. During typhoons they should be folded in to decrease the related pressures. • Increasing stilts height increases comfort by an exponential decay. To determine the height, a comfort increase of about 0.17 K for 1 meter, 0.30 K for 2 meter and 0.40 K for 3 meter in AET reduction are obtained. Braced, wooden stilts are advised to protect against floods and increase earthquake resilient behaviour. • A roof insulation with an Rc-value of 1 m2K/W is advised to gain about 0.2 K AET. Further research is needed on buoyancy driven ventilation to improve the provided design guidelines.

The problem for which solutions are proposed in this report is ambient air pollution, which causes health risks for people living indoors worldwide. This research focuses on the two Major Air Pollutants nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, that cause the most problems now and in the future. The starting point of this research is to solve the problem within the building industry and with the use of natural ventilation. This distinguishes it from existing solutions in mechanical ventilation systems such as the HEPA filter. The purpose of this research is to add a new function to the façade by filtering the incoming air using existing air purification technologies and applying them in an innovative way. The research focuses on high-rise buildings in urban areas in industrialized regions, because there the exposure to polluted air is mainly indoors. Despite the fact that in those regions other measures are or already have been taken to reduce air pollution, this is still not enough and in these regions the willingness to apply technological solutions in the building industry is high. The focus is on a facade type that is fully or partially closed and placed in a building that uses ventilation type C, which means natural supply of air through the facade and mechanical exhaust within the building. The research question answered is as follows: 'How can the façade of a high-rise building in an industrialized region be designed to improve the indoor air quality by using ventilation type C?' An answer to this question is given in this research by six concept designs and two elaborations in two case studies of the building 'Montevideo' in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. To obtain that answer, a literature study was carried out to examine existing air purification technologies, five of which were further elaborated and their relationship to each other determined. It was also investigated what has to be taken into account when designing ventilation openings. Hereby it was examined which ventilation openings are relevant for this research and how they relate to each other. Partly to validate the literature, partly to discover how air purification technologies work and mainly to support the concept designs, a test set-up was made to test filters for filtering out particulate matter. A sub-goal was to do this with a test set-up at home instead of in a laboratory. For this research, hard criteria have been formulated that the concepts must meet. Soft criteria have been defined in order to be able to compare the different concepts and determine which concept is best to be worked out in which case study. The concept designs and case studies, which are answers to the main question were created to serve as inspiration for designers interested in developing facade systems that filter air. As such, the designs in this research are primarily conceptual examples and are not yet a product. This research provides a theoretical basis for further concepts to be developed and applied in case studies.

Building industry consumes around 50% of the world’s electricity consumption and space heating and cooling plays an important role in ozone depletion and global warming potential. Solar cooling technologies promise more sustainable approaches with reliance on solar energy as a renewable energy source. Thermoelectric technology is a promising solar cooling technology that is powered by electricity from PV panels and has been researched in recent years for investigation of potentials for building and façade integration. These small devices create a temperature difference between the two sides when applied to electricity and therefore, can be used in generating both cold and heat for conditioning of spaces. As an example of arid to semi-arid climates, Tehran has been selected as the context of this project. This graduation project focuses on designing an integrated façade product that uses thermoelectric technology for providing cooling and heating demands of an office building in Tehran. One of the main challenges of this design was the low performance of the TE system that could be increased in a few ways among which decreasing the temperature difference created at the two sides is the most crucial. An office building was initially selected to represent typical offices in Tehran and a few passive strategies including reductions in WWR, changing glazing type, applying insulation and reducing infiltration rate as well as using natural ventilation were implemented on this office model. The implementation of these passive measures leads to a decrease of 55 percent in the annual heating and cooling loads and 39 and 49 percent in the heating and cooling design capacity, respectively. Having this passive model, a ventilation integrated active cooling and heating system was developed that functions like a heat recovery system and uses extracted ventilation air to cool down the temperature of the hot side in summer. Fresh conditioned air is provided in this system through the cold side of the façade via an underfloor air distribution system. A unitized façade product was then developed to accommodate this integrated concept and it this TE system was proved to be flexible in terms of design and integration. To evaluate the performance of this façade, a comprehensive model was developed, and a code was written in EES to solve the equations simultaneously. A baseline model was set to simulate a summer peak situation and as a result, COP, electricity consumption, and temperature difference values were obtained. Next, all the variables in the model were studied and optimized to obtain the best results for every time step of the year. The annual simulations showed that average COP of 1 to 1.3 and 2.1 to 3.0 could be obtained for summer and winter conditions. Feasibility aspects of this façade unitized system were then studied and compared to other solar cooling technologies to obtain a better understanding of limitations and promises of this façade. It was found out that although in terms of performance and cost the TE façade can compete with other solar cooling technologies, issues such as weight, size requirements, and noise might affect its application in some cases.

This thesis aims to provide passive design recommendations to improve the design quality of low income houses in the Philippines, by evaluating the indoor environmental quality of the pilot floating house project. The pilot project is the result of researches carried out by Pieter Ham and Joran Van Schaik to find a solution for the housing backlog, poor living conditions and the seasonal natural disasters in the low lying areas of the Philippines. The thesis focuses on the indoor environmental quality, the thermal comfort of the pilot house. Prior to the field visit, the significant parameters for the in situ measurement and the comfort standards for the region are chosen by literature studies. A systematic measurement plan is made in order to perform in situ measurements and field study. The measurements are done for a period of nine days. In addition to this, one of the objectives of the research is to develop an economical measuring and remotely accessible monitoring device for the thermal comfort parameters. It is achieved by programming Raspberry Pi and DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor. Hypotheses are formulated after the field visit. Then the measured data is sorted systematically and analysed. This analysed data is further studied and the comfort performance of the house is compared with the comfort standards of the region. It is found that the performance is quite satisfactory for all the spaces in the house except the attic space, which has higher temperatures than the upper comfort level. Moreover the usability of the existing doors needs improvement in terms of controlling privacy and air velocity. For the improvements, it is envisioned to have minimal interventions to the existing design and construction. For this two options are put forward. Both the options are compared with the existing design by making DesignBuilder models. The simulation results of the models are compared to find the better performing strategy. Final design is made with the inference from the comparison of the simulation results, and visits to the local architecture. From the final design, the following design improvement recommendations are put forward for the housing type: “openings for ventilation at sleeping height in the attic floor” “openings at top of the roof to enhance stack effect” “collapsible doors with louvered shutters for providing users with more option in controlling air velocity and privacy”

Semarang is one of the large historical harbour cities on Java, Indonesia. The historical centre of the city is characteristic for its colonial set-up. During the last few decades the city of Semarang has been expanding rapidly. Nowadays, the historical centre of the city is not central anymore. In Semarang, the functions which require a lot of space such as health care facilities are likely to be located in the peripheral, newer neighbourhoods, where space is still available. And so, the dense historical cores of these cities lack medical functions. During more certain times, Indonesia’s health care system already has to deal with challenging circumstances. As the scarcely distributed and non-inclusive character of the Indonesian health care system has to deal with one of the biggest crises in medical history, opportunities arise as people are forced to focus on the distribution of health care services. As Dutch-colonial buildings are available in the historical centres of large Javanese coastal cities, transformation could provide a solution to the lack of appropriate places for the establishment of health care institutions. In this graduation project, a possible role for Dutch-colonial architecture as host for medical applications is explored. The technical possibilities of Dutch-colonial buildings, regarding their ability to adapt to the Javanese climatic circumstances and their structural integrity have an important role in the project. How can centrally located Dutch-colonial architecture serve as a foundation for the development of a socio-cultural and socio-economical based health care facility, in order develop a more inclusive medical system in Indonesia? The design which is developed in this graduation project is a modular system which is easy to replicate in segments. In this way, the new medical function can be tailored to fit the existing structures. The use of the modular systems in this design proposal is demonstrated by showing the effect they have on two historical structures in various circumstances.