Palliative care is becoming increasingly important at Erasmus Medical Center (Erasmus MC) as the hospital sees around a thousand annual deaths due to various conditions. However, the hospital environment has not adequately addressed the psychological, spiritual, and social needs of patients and their loved ones during the end-of-life phase. This TU Delft graduation project, in collaboration with Erasmus MC, aims to explore the unique needs of patients, their families, medical staff and the patient environment in the final days of life. The goal is to develop a sustainable, design-driven concept that illustrates enhanced end-of-life care across different hospital departments. This research employed a multi-phase design approach using the Double Diamond framework. The Discover phase involved extensive research, including literature reviews, visits to care facilities, patient room analyses and interviews with healthcare professionals. The Define phase synthesized these insights into a framework for the End of Life journey, analyzing the needs and responsibilities of key stakeholders. This analysis led to a future vision, outlining three design directions for improved palliative care. In the Develop phase, a concept was teratively created and evaluated to align with this vision. The design process focused on the design goal: “To create a patient room that supports stakeholders in the End of Life process in facilitating a dignified end of life experience for all involved.” Finally, the Deliver phase presented a proof of concept to illustrate the possibilities of this research, with recommendations for future implementations at Erasmus MC. The research identified several key findings, categorized into three main design opportunities: improving communication and expectations, enhancing the autonomy of actors involved and balancing the wishes of patients with the resources of the medical team. “De Verhalenhoek" emerged from this process: a cabinet where patients can store meaningful items, facilitating conversations about values and interests between patients, loved ones and medical staff. The concept invites users to personalize the room and serves as a starting point for conversations about the End of Life process. De Verhalenhoek aligns with the goals by creating a welcoming space that encourages discussions about patients' values and the meaning of death, enhancing communication and quality of care. This helps to reveal individual, cultural and religious preferences, allowing medical staff to tailor treatments to patients' whishes and ensuring patients and loved ones feel seen and heard. The research concludes that integrating thoughtful design into patient rooms can improve communication in end-of-life phases and enhance the sense of autonomy for stakeholders involved. Key recommendations include evaluating the interactions through a pilot study to assess the impact in the intended setting. This pilot aims to help patients feel more in control and supported in their final days and to better prepare the loved ones for the grieving process. Future research should focus on implementing these design solutions across various hospital departments to broadly enhance the quality of palliative care at Erasmus MC. This project demonstrates the potential of design to improve End of Life care in patient rooms, making a contribution to the field of palliative care.

The report at hand is a comprehensive summary of the conducted research and consequent developments in the experimental design of a solar-heated water displacement pump focused on its implementation in areas lacking access to safe drinking water, particularly in developing countries. The research begins by examining the dire situation faced by the two billion people lacking safely managed drinking water (WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2023). This is done by looking closer at the factors influencing water supply, considering needs and the context in which these affected people live. This contextual analysis motivated the need to develop a solar-powered water pump system designed to effectively, reliably and sustainably bring safe drinking water from improved water sources to households in the most affected regions of the world. To address this need, existing pumping systems that are currently used or have the potential to mitigate this problem were studied and evaluated. By carefully examining the most recent advancements in relevant water pumping technologies for this contextual application, an innovative opportunity for converting low-grade heat energy into mechanical energy was identified. Having identified the problem and understood its context, analysed the existing solutions and identified a potentially disruptive hypothesis, an innovative system of an affordable, robust, and scalable solar-heated water displacement pump was designed. In addition, the design was validated with a high-fidelity prototype with which experiments were done to successfully prove the concept’s working principle. The successful proof of concept aligns with the established objectives of simplicity and accessibility. In fact, the water pump prototype was created on a minimal budget, making use of simple and accessible tools and materials, highlighting its potential for scalable cost-effective manufacturing. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the performance of the prototype, along with the theoretical design considerations that influenced its development. As a result, it serves as an experimental logbook that also offers insights into the existing water crisis and contributes to a better understanding of it. Thus, the present work lays the foundation for future research and developments on this innovative working principle, making it a valuable contribution to this life-changing field.

This report contains a future vision for sailing yachts. It differs from many other visions as technology is not used as the basis for development, but behavioural change. The starting point is chosen as the upcoming Digital Nomad culture: Working from anywhere in the world. The thesis is done in cooperation with Contest Yachts, a sailing yacht builder from the Netherlands. The analysis is done in two parts, which meet at the conclusion of the chapter. It consists of a brand analysis and a future use study. Contest as a brand has three important values to cherish in the future to remain true to their current brand identity. These values are safety, quality and comfort and innovation. There is also a foreseen change, to make their current semi-custom approach more manageable in the future. With the use of the ViP-method, future behaviour is predicted and separated in four different quadrants, each characterised by multiple habits. From these four, one is chosen to design for: The Trusting Tribe. With a strong focus on community and an inherent drive to be in nature, these people are interesting for Contest to build a new model around. The following vision is formulated: “We want people to uninterruptedly explore themselves and the planet through an open and flexible yacht.” The starting point for the ideation is shared ownership in combination with the tribe analogy. As the model of sharing is getting increased attention in the yachting business, also noticed by Contest. Within this system, it is important that the sailor still has a feeling of responsibility. The result is the Florence CS. She is a combination of a lease service in combination with ownership. The yacht exists of a fully functional interior and two empty private modules with their own heads. The shared space holds a galley, lounge area and workstation. Future Tribe members can lease a yacht on one of the seven Contest harbours (Seen in step 1.) with friends, family or strangers. The local Contest crew fits the interior and prepares the yacht for departure (step 2). Contest provides a full and careless sailing experience to their future members (step 3). After the trip, the Contest crew removes the interiors and store them in local warehouses (step 4). The ship is checked, serviced and prepared for the next group of nomads to use. The final proposal disrupts the current yachting market. It introduces a new business model for Contest in the shape of a lease service. Also, it includes shared ownership. For future developments and innovations, it is up to Contest to make further work of this. Possible next steps are: redoing this project with another graduate student; developing it into a case study and share it with more experts and enthusiasts; organising a creative day for employees and let them share their thoughts and expertise. As innovation is embedded in Contest, the above-named options should be within reach. Outcomes of these options can help to make Contest future-proof as well as to make the brand the booster the yachting world.