In face of climate change, a large challenge was posed to the construction section as the European Union introduced requirements to reduce CO2 emissions; these must be reduced by 40% before 2030, and all member states have to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. At the time of writing, the construction industry in the Netherlands is respon¬sible for a large part of CO2 emissions, and due to the lack of significant changes in the industry in recent decades, a meaningful reduction of emissions in the coming years seems unlikely. The difficulty of lowering emissions is further amplified by the major housing shortage, for which it is estimated that one million homes must be built before 2030 to meet the population’s demand in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the construction sector is far behind in terms of environmentally conscious innovation when compared to sectors such as technology and transportation. Architects, contractors, engineers, and civil servants therefore have to join arms to implement large-scale in-depth reforms and accept much-needed innovation.

The booklet, paper and posters present the results of an innovative building system that can contribute to the sustainability of the construction sector. This concept was developed based on six months of research in which nine timber building systems were tested for their degree of flexibility and demountability. A framework was then created, where a chosen system was further developed, step by step, into a building concept that can be applied on a large scale. An attempt was made to incorporate every aspect that a building must satisfy without compromising simplicity. The development of the system has a generic and an applied phase. In the generic phase, the basis of the system is laid, which in theory is the same for every building. In the applied phase, the system is further ela¬borated based on the design assignment, which in this case concerns a temporary student building that must be transformed into laboratory and office functions after 10 years. Although the two phases are separate, the gaps in the generic part become vi¬sible when the system is tested in an actual design, resulting in a generic and specific phases that have continuous exchange and influence on each other. In practice, such a standardised system that is to be applied on a large scale is further fine-tuned after it has been realised and experimented with many times.

The Constructing industry around the world is growing exponentially. In the Netherlands itself there is a need of constructing 1 million affordable new homes by 2030. Such a massive demand for new buildings has given rise to a need for a solution for mass customization of architectural configurations. Simple repetition or a badly configured building is not ideal and can lead to a lot of social and environmental problems. Generative Design can offer a digital solution for this mass customization problem. It can utilize the power of Artificial intelligence in design to generate a system where users can create custom solutions rapidly. The second part of the customization problem is the user participation in determining the customization goals. More often than not the end users of the built space do not get an opinion in the configuration process and this leads to unsatisfactory and undemocratic design solutions producing urban inequality.
In this thesis a comprehensive digital solution by means of a digital platform is provided in an attempt to solve the 3D layout problem in a participatory manner. The platform built in the thesis is intended for designing Open buildings at a scale of support structures. The concept of Open buildings calls for separation of the structure and the infill layer making the buildings open for modification and customization.
The 3D-Layout configuration problem in its full sophistication is a classical example of a wicked problem. So, in this thesis the problem is methodically broken down into a group of nested smaller problems with local goals to achieve the global spatial planning goals and various computational methods are tested for solving the problems. The nature of the smaller problems is often iterative hence a robust decision support system is also designed for stakeholder participation and control over the problem-solving method. The computational methods used in the thesis are inspired from various other disciplines like Computer science, Industrial engineering, Operations research, etc. where they are used to solve similar problems in their respective domains. Techniques like Multi-agent systems, Multi-criteria decision analysis, Techniques for solving the clustering and packing problems in operations research are explored to solve the various nested smaller problems in the 3D-Layout problem.
Finally, all the methods developed in the project are used to solve a test case for the design of a mixed used Open building consisting of Housing and Commercial spaces in the Buiksloterham region which is one of the first circular neighbourhoods in Amsterdam to showcase the potential of the platform and the feed forward design process developed in the thesis.

The architectural engineering graduation studio created an opportunity to address the emerging social, urban, environmental and infrastructural challenges facing the global context today. This project seeks to embrace the culture of circular building concepts and methods through materialization and vernacular principles in addressing social and urban pressing needs. The title of the graduation project is “STUDIE-TAINER”, conceived from the concept of students living in a shipping container. This project can simply be envisaged as an architectural composition and exploration of re-purposed shipping containers, local building materials and techniques to create a micro and eco-friendly living experience for students in Ghana, West Africa. The design proposal will be located on Central University campus, Tema, Ghana. The inspirations regarding the use of shipping containers as a building element for student housing also emerged from an appreciation of some interesting student housing projects in the Netherlands. It was intriguing to see how cargo-architecture had been used to address student housing demands within the temperate climatic region. Considering the tropical climate of Ghana, this proposed project will serve as a basis for experimenting how to create a climate and eco-friendly living experience for students, thus achieving both indoor and outdoor comfort for the users. Ghana is enriched with diverse cultural values and traditions especially with respect to traditional architecture. Bearing in mind the climatic and cultural influences of Ghana, an experimental approach was developed to harness these influences to create an architecture that responds to both the climatic and cultural aspirations.

The TU Delft (strategic framework 2018-2024) aims to have a CO2 neutral and circular campus that departs from the linear economy to closed material cycles by 2030, meaning that the campus becomes climate neutral. Currently, the TU Delft is accountable for 47.957 tCO2-eq emissions, uses 166.038 MWh of energy for electricity and heat , and is for approximately 5-15% circular. There is a need to improve in order to meet the goals set by the TU Delft. On campus the Applied Physics buildings consumes the most energy, equivalent to 12.873,2 MWh or 425 kWh/m2 in 2018 for electricity and heat combined. The technical state of the building is mediocre and is in need of a thorough renovation to meet the current standard. The goal of the graduation project is to develop a re-design and renovation strategy for the Applied Physics building, by re-using as many of the existing materials and closing the energy flows on a local level. Architecture – reuse existing The building is designed by the architecture firm Roosenburg, Verhave and Luyt and built in 1963. It has an area of 43.100 m2, making it one of the largest buildings on campus. The building is located in the centre of the campus next to the Aula and the Library. It is embedded in the urban fabric of the TU Delft with a 175-meter-long rhythmic façade facing toward the Mekelpark. The concrete façade has a sense of monumentality however, it has quite a closed look and is not overly inviting to visit. The new architecture starts from the existing building and the desire to reuse as many of the existing materials as possible to reduce the CO2 impact of the renovation. An inventory of the materials present in the structure and façade has been made. 93% of the materials analysed are in the concrete structure and therefore this will be completely reused. The remaining 7% of the materials are located in the façade and they will be carefully harvested. Prefab biobased façade panels, based on the existing structural grid, will be attached to the existing structure. On site the harvested materials will be re-used to clad the newly insulated façade. Energy flow To move away from an energy system that runs on fossil fuels, there is a need to introduce so called cyclifiers to create a closed loop system. Firstly, the energy consumption needs to be reduced by introducing a well-insulated façade and a smart building system that regulates the temperature and ventilation. The remaining energy needs to be produced sustainably. A biogas plant is introduced that turns waste into three valuable products, namely biogas, fertiliser and clean water. The biogas plant runs on waste from the sewer system as well as on algae, which are integrated in the roof of the atrium that is added to the building. The algae serve a triple purpose because they provide sun shading in summer, absorbed CO2 and are a renewable energy source. PV panels are added to the roof and facades of the building to produce even more renewable energy. The heat for the whole campus is supplied by a geothermal source connected to the already existing heat grid and a heat and cold storage is added to the building.

Since the disturbance of the civil wars from 1991-1996 a multiplicity of ruined, abandoned and contested landscapes can be found in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Defining those spaces today implies not only thinking of the violent circumstances that shaped them, but also of the slow but persistent transformation caused by neglect since then. Abandonment of these spaces to the process of ruination and decay that has led to the return of non-human actors shaping them. This layering and entanglement of human and non-human actors, species and processes has resulted in the flourishing of new, unplanned and ephemeral ecosystems.
This project looks at the ruin of the former University Library, with its new collection of ruderal plant life, it’s heritage value and its role in the city. The project aims to find new ways to negotiate the space for both man and nature to come together through a co-cultivation of the ruined landscape.

The housing process in dense metropolitan environments experiences difficulties to adapt to the comprehensive needs and wants of the modern household. As a consequence of the increasing flexibility in daily-life, there is a growing diversity in the shape of households and their living patterns. In addition, digital developments enable and create more specific requirements among users for the products they purchase. Knowing the impact that these rapid developments have on consumerism, it is inevitable that users will create stronger preferences for their living environment as well. These tendencies in our society must be translated to its housing. To adapt to such diverse demands would be a difficult challenge for the housing market. Current processes make it labour-intensive and therefore a costly and unsustainable matter. It is of importance that both our existing and future housing is able to respond to these demands in an adaptive and sustainable manner.

A possible solution, responding to the diverse demand, would be to involve the consumers themselves in the development of their dwelling. When involved, consumers can directly shape the dwelling to their needs themselves; customisation. However, current practices make this an undoable matter. The over-complexity in (pre)construction processes and conservative mind-sets of real-estate developers and construction firms hinder any level of participation with the consumer. There is a need for smart processes and designs to involve the user in the realisation of the customised urban dwelling.