Despite its importance to public health, environmental noise and soundscapes are a forgotten topic in urban design. This study crates a framework for a design tool for soundscape design. The aim of this framework is to bridge the knowledge gap of soundscapes for urban designers. This is done by looking at the relationship between design elements and the percevied pleasantness in the soundscape. This pleasantness will be predicted by machine learning methods.
Machine learning methodologies present a promising approach for predicting and evaluating the efficacy of potential solutions aimed at improving urban soundscapes. By analyzing datasets that include environmental factors, noise levels, architectural designs, and community preferences, machine learning algorithms can help identify optimal interventions. Predictive models can also streamline decision-making processes by forecasting the potential impact of proposed solutions on soundscape quality.
This paper investigates the complexities of urban soundscapes, examines the feasibility and limitations of using machine learning to predict viable solutions, and proposes a data-driven framework to guide decision-making in urban development. The goal is to enhance auditory environments in urban areas without the necessity of consulting soundscape experts.
The RF regressor that was used for the prediction model in this research had an R2 of 0.41, explaining 41% of the variance of the model. This framework is tried and tested on a new location to verify its use. The prediction maps and section are a helpful tool in communicating the value of the soundscape pleasantness and understanding the effect that the design elements have on its prediction.

Architects play a pivotal role play in the sustainable development of the built environment, shaping spaces that minimize environmental impact while enhancing human well-being. However, due to the escalating complexity of design requirements, designers are becoming underequipped to solve today’s design challenges. Solving such problems involves balancing multiple different co-dependent factors, such as spatial configuration, daylight satisfaction and embodied carbon. Currently this is addressed through inter-disciplinary collaboration where different parties focus on their own specialisation. As a result, a significant gap exists between design and building performance analysis leading to underperforming and expensive solutions.

An artificial intelligence-powered platform could aid in the design process by bridging the gap between different disciplines. Such a platform could ensure that all aspects of a project are considered holistically, reducing the risk of conflicting decisions that cause lacking performance and unnecessary expenses. Simply consolidating information, as done with building information modelling (BIM), is not sufficient. Instead, the platform must provide performance-driven recommendations, offering deeper insights when conflicts between different disciplines arise.

This work aims to develop a framework through which deep learning methods can be applied to create floorplans informed by performance-based criteria and user guidance. Since functionality is heavily dependent on site-conditions and requirements laid out by the client, the relationship between form and function must be uncovered dynamically. To achieve this, inspiration will be drawn from the field of reinforcement learning which allows the training of a neural network without the use of training data.

Energy use, CO2 emissions, and waste production are all significant causes of environmental issues. The building sector is a major contributor to these problems, specifically the manufacturing of (structural) steel elements. Application of reuse and/or remanufacturing, as done in a circular economy, will reduce these effects. Therefore, these techniques must to be taken into account while designing buildings and structures. However, as actors in the construction industry recognize barriers, such as time delays in the early phases of the design process, these tactics are not yet commonly used. Nonetheless, reusing structural steel components is still favoured by structural engineers, particularly when the aforementioned obstacles can be removed. This is feasible with the use of computational tools.

In this thesis, an AI based deep generative design framework is developed to optimize a 3D spatial truss structure for structural performance, material use and similarity to a defined stock of reusable materials. This workflow consist of a labelled dataset of geometries and performance indicators, a variational autoencoder (VAE), a predictive surrogate model and optimization through gradient descent. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the extent to which such a workflow can be applied in early-stage architectural and structural design exploration, especially with regards to making circular design & reuse more feasible. The case study in this thesis is a spatial truss structure supporting a flat roof. It was found that a surrogate model can be successfully trained to predict the performance of a geometry. For this, various input data representations can be used, including adjacency matrices and edge-vertex matrices. Through training of a VAE, a latent space from which meshes could be generated was successfully constructed. The VAE was able to accurately reconstruct a significant part of the geometry dataset. Through gradient descent, novel meshes were generated. Predicted performance of these meshes was increased. After assessing performance with simulations and calculations, increases in performance often remained. The largest performance increase found was 74.2%. Minor editing of meshes based on user insight demonstrated further increase in mesh performance.

Myopia is an eye disease that begins to develop at a young age, approximately between the ages of six and nine years. Children these ages spend a large amount of time inside school buildings. Two case studies have been studied to see what can be improved in school building design to get more light inside. Light measurements have been done to see what the current situation is of these schools. After this, several design adaptations have been simulated to see their impact on the light levels inside. These design adaptations included enlarging the windows in several ways and changing the colours and materials inside. They are ranked in two design matrices, rated on effectiveness, feasibility and costs for both renovation and newly build school buildings. Results show that replacing the floor with a light coloured one and replacing the sun shading with white thin ones , increasing the illuminance inside with 25% and 63% respectively, are the best design strategies for renovation. For new school buildings it is recommended to make the windows wider instead of lower, which can result in an increase of illuminance inside of 34%.

The development of three-dimensional cladding in architecture has witnessed significant advancements, particularly from the computer-driven design era, which started to enable the creation of intricate and elaborate shapes. However, examining various case studies has revealed the considerable environmental impacts of the materials typically employed in three-dimensional cladding. These impacts include material extraction and production, energy consumption, waste generation - and further carbon emissions - underscoring the urgent need to address these challenges.

This research aims to investigate and develop a design solution rooted in circular principles for mitigating the environmental impact of the construction industry and promoting waste-driven design. To this end, bio-based materials produced through a moulding process have been identified as promising alternatives with lower environmental footprints.

The adoption of circular strategies, including modularity and flexibility, dematerialization, the use of safe and circular materials, and design for disassembly, serves as the guiding framework for enhancing sustainability in the three-dimensional cladding. As a specific design solution, the concept of seamless tiling has been developed, enabling the continuous pattern and flexible placement of modular panels within the facade while ensuring versatility. Applying parametric design techniques is instrumental in realizing the modular panel system and accentuating its adaptability by creating diverse and versatile façade configurations that exemplify the system’s adaptability and flexibility.

Finally, to validate the material’s performance within the developed design, a prototype will be constructed and evaluated. This empirical testing will provide insights into the proposed design solution’s practicality, feasibility, and effectiveness, serving as a vital step towards practical implementation.

This academic research contributes to the discourse on sustainable architectural practices by advocating using bio-based materials with moulding and integrating circular design strategies in the three-dimensional cladding. Through the comprehensive exploration of these approaches, the study aims to advance the understanding and realization of how three-dimensional architectural interventions can be developed with minimized impacts and, eventually, fostering a more sustainable built environment while maximizing design flexibility.

The rise in average surface temperature has intensified the need to explore new
methods to address climate change. Housing sector is one of the leading contributors to the total energy consumption. As a solution, there has been a growing emphasis on the application of passive strategies in buildings that leverage local climatic conditions.

Researchers have been investigating solutions to promote the use of passive design strategies. One promising approach involves integrating Phase Change Materials (PCMs) with certain building components. By possessing excellent thermal and optical properties, PCMs can be integrated into windows to enhance the thermal performance of buildings while guaranteeing light transmittance.

This research specifically focuses on the integration of PCMs trombe walls in
existing residential buildings in the Netherlands. Building upon the findings of
previous studies, the research envisions to explore strategies that can facilitate
the widespread use of PCMs. Currently, the market for PCMs primarily offers
products manufactured on request, limiting their broader adoption.

Through simulations conducted on virtual models, the behaviour of PCMs in
trombe walls is investigated. The analysis focuses their thermal capacity and
light transmittance to strike a balance between the two contrasting building requirements. Multiple room configurations are studied to investigate how the environment impacts the performance of this particular building component.

Finally, the research develops a workflow and identifies trends that can facilitate
the application of PCMs trombe walls across various scenarios.

This study investigates the feasibility of manufacturing wooden elements using Layer Object Manufacturing (LOM) technology to replace steel nodes in the built environment. LOM offers significant advantages in allowing the designer to dictate the grain direction of each layer of material and optimize the cutting process, potentially reducing the amount of waste material produced. However, the technique is still in its developmental phase, and there is a lack of information available regarding its performance when used with wood. The study identifies design parameters for constructing solid wooden connection elements using LOM, including object geometry, grain direction, and layer segmentation. Wooden pegs are suggested to create reliable connections between a wood-LOM produced node and a timber structure.

The building industry is material intensive and is responsible for approximately 40% of the total waste generated across the European Union. It operates on a ‘take-make-dispose’ model due to which key issues such as resource scarcity, waste generation, and environmental pressure occur. The circular economy has been attributed to the need to utilize waste flows more effectively, thereby reducing raw material demand. By 2050, the Dutch Government aims to transition to Circular Economy and organize the building industry in a way to ensure sustainable construction by use, reuse, maintenance and dismantling of objects.

Remanufacturing is a strategy of the circular economy that supports this approach. It is a process of returning a used product to its original performance with a warranty that is equivalent to or better than that of newly manufactured product. It is an important component of resource efficient manufacturing as it reduces the dependency on virgin materials.Through research, it was observed that the principles of circular economy are well established theoretically but lack guidelines that make them applicable in practice. Therefore, the thesis focuses to find out “how” remanufacturing of building products be implemented as a strategy to accelerate the progress towards a circular built environment.
The project develops a remanufacturing canvas and list of criteria through literature study of successful examples of remanufacturing such as Xerox, Caterpillar, Canon, Philips MRI Systems and Davies Office furniture. Further the proposed canvas is validated through a case study of the building De Satelliet of DNB complex to investigate their remanufacturing potential of EoL façade elements which were disassembled with an intention of giving a second life.

The study includes crafting guidelines for the remanufacturing of EoL façade elements. Remanufacturing as a strategy was evaluated through assessments based on Cost, Embodied energy, and thermal performance of the façade elements. The results from the assessments were in favour of remanufacturing. However, it was concluded that while remanufacturing depicts the power of smaller loop and follows all the principles of circular economy, it is important to note that remanufacturing process shifts a large amount of responsibility from a customer to the manufacturer. There is always a risk of creating more impact than virgin production and hence decisions must be supported through results from calculations of embodied carbon and LCA.

The following work focuses on giving an appreciation of gridshell performances at an early stage of design. It has per goal to implement a tool that will orient the user toward a set of possible “best performing” designs. The aspects of interest in this trade-off exploration are the global warming potential, time of fabrication and construction, structure performance, and envelope repercussion.
Being able to funnel different design options at the early stage is a fundamental step in reducing the climate impact of our buildings and structures. The implementation of such a tool comes along with the effort to further integrate the different actors of the AEC industry to produce leaner and more efficient buildings.
To do so, the research divides the different design features of gridshells into parametrizable blocks of code. Each block is explored to generate a wide design space and produce the necessary data to track the desired performance traits. All together a working tool is assembled and its relevance is tested. For that, a graphical interface between the tool and the user is also developed to provide a quick and easy way to identify those trade-offs. The tool limits itself to the coarse structural part of the gridshell with a diamond grid and symmetrical shapes. It proposes to use wired line designs drawn at a schematic stage as a general base for the use of the tool.
The result is a working prototype that constitutes a quick and reliable way to assess the “best performing” designs to undergo the next stage of design. It proposes a new way to look at how to connect both the early stage of design and the late prefabrication construction stages. Normally directed by two different entities, this research provides a clear direction on where and how the industry could enhance its collaboration. Finally, the tool provides an initial working prototype that highlights the limitations of the AEC and proposes the directions for future research and implementations to cover these needs.

The building environment has high energy consumption and carbon emission which contributes to the rapid climate change. The changing climate condition not only impacts the natural environment but also our habitation. To improve the building performance in both energy and indoor comfort, performance-based design is commonly applied in architectural design. In general, a building lifespan is around 80 years, which means the buildings are designed and constructed now would face different climate conditions than the weather we used to evaluate the performance. To prevent the influence caused by climate change, this research develops computational workflows to generate predicted future climate conditions and multi-objective optimization to study the relationship between design decisions, climate conditions, and building performance. The conclusion of this research is based on the comparison and discussion of the result of optimization from five different climate and design scenarios with a single case study building.

In the near future, pressure on sustainability requirements in building structures will increase further as governments around the world are forced to tackle climate change issues. The construction industry is one of the most resource intensive and wasteful sectors in the world and is estimated to keep growing at a fast pace due to growing populations. Earth building materials and construction systems are perhaps one of the most attractive options available. The advantages of raw earth are that it is considered to be widely available, recyclable, can be sourced at low costs, can exhibit high strength and can provide an excellent indoor climate for occupants. The interest in building with earth is experiencing a renaissance but advancements in Earth Building Technology is currently at its infancy. Most improvement in earth buildings has been related to fabrication methods, where current developments and opportunities in additive manufacturing has potential to create a new form of earth architecture. From a mechanical perspective, earth materials are strong in compression and weak tension, making compression-only structures like arches, vaults and domes especially interesting.
The purpose of this thesis is to determine how feasible it is to combine earth material with a robotic sprayed earth fabrication method to build wall and arch structures. Emphasis has been put in understanding the material for robotic fabrication. Therefore, an in-depth literature study of earth materials and their properties was conducted to understand how they gain strength. In AM, modelling the structural-up of a printed structure requires time-dependent material properties where early-age behaviour is especially critical. As a result, time-dependent compressive strength and Young’s modulus of potential shotearth with and without cement stabilisation was predicted. Equations from the material predictions were input into the design tool developed by Witteveen+Bos to explore geometrical shapes, assess printing time and dimensions that can be achieved.
The results of this work show that earth building materials is essentially impossible to predict without testing as soil composition has a big influence on mechanical strength. Prediction of raw earth properties was based on understanding of soil consistencies and water content. Prediction of cement stabilised earth properties was based on existing data from 3D extruded and sprayed concrete experiments. 3D printed structures, extruded and sprayed, can be compared to ancient masonry structures in their structural design and inspiration from these structures sees different layering techniques adopted to minimise formwork and maximise structural efficiency and strength. Through a geometrical non-linear FE analysis with the time-dependent properties defined and varying robotic printing speeds between 1000 -6000 mm/min, a free standing wall structure of one meter width can reach heights between 0.1 and 0.62 m. For the overhanging structures, a barrel vault and a half dome, considering no formwork, an 8.5 -10.5 degrees arch or tilt can be achieved, compared to the vertical free wall. It is found that for lower printing speeds, more structure can be printed before failure. For the half dome almost the full geometry can be achieved. The unstabilised and cement stabilised upper bound material models resulted in comparable geometric dimensions for all structures analysed. Results of this study also compared the barrel vault and half dome using the roman (radial) and nubian (inclined) layering techniques.

The world around us is rapidly changing and evolving. In a new report by the World green structure committee, the building and development industry are liable for 38.8% of all CO2 emissions internationally, with operational outflows (from energy used to warmth, cool and light structures) representing 28%. Our designed structures depend upon many resources during the construction or operational phase. So it is clear that the design decisions we make now for our built environment have a significant impact on the future. As the population increases, the need for freshwater, electricity, and other urban resources grows exponentially. It constantly increases pressure on the urban resources and infrastructure needed to run our cities smoothly. Self-sufficient buildings can be a crucial solution to urban problems like increasing energy demands and poor air quality, which we face today. It is less dependent on active energy systems like mechanical ventilation and electricity from the grid; it is more inclined towards passive energy systems. Integrating vegetation into the built environment has proven in many instances that it increases the self-sufficiency of the users' buildings and well-being, according to R.Hassell, 2017.

Nature has always provided inspiration and ideas for the field of innovation. It has always inspired newer living and green solutions for the future, environmental, economic, health, and community benefits. The integration of green vegetation into the buildings has various psychological and physiological benefits over the users

To summarize, integrating green building strategies can increase the self-sufficiency index in our structures. The research has explored various computational methods used for similar contexts and related them with green building strategies to design a self-sufficient habitat.
The research question mainly revolves around developing a design process that explores computational methods in green buildings and landscapes. After careful deliberation, all investigations are moving towards understanding different aspects and finding the overlaps between these two emerging fields because innovation and new ideas can be explored in that overlap. To summarize, the research question is "How to integrate green building strategies using computational methods to design self-sufficient buildings."

This research focuses on aircraft noise exposed urban spaces around Amsterdam Schiphol airport. In particular, a case site in Rijsenhout is studied, where a representation of the noise wave propagation due to refraction is performed. Subsequently, a series of landscape configurations regarding geometry are gradually tested through acoustic simulation and noise maps are imported inside a parametric design environment. Finally, a conceptual design proposal is structured in order to explore the potential of such configurations in the urban environment.

This research aimed to design a new bridge for the city of Rome, Italy, through the support of modern optimisation and decision-making processes that can be implemented to make informed choices regarding aesthetic performance, structural firmness, and environmental impact. The bridge’s design was carried forward considering the city’s plans for the new connection and the relationship with the context dominated by a rationalist architecture. The architectural relationship with the context, the parametric optimization, and the minimization of the material used were the main drivers behind the final design.

Shape has long been an important parameter in improving the internal comfort of buildings and reducing energy demand. This can be seen from historical vernacular architectural typologies, like igloos, which have minimal thermal loss surface to provide a comfortable internal climate.  Using a shape factor to reduce the building envelope and to minimise thermal loss is incorporated into the Dutch Building codes for a long time, aimed at a comfortable climate and low energy demand. This research is focussed on optimising building shape to reduce energy demand but combining this with demands for thermal comfort and daylight entrance.  By making use of Grasshopper a parametric design model is created. Using this model, a large variety of building designs was generated which are analysed on their daylight entrance and energy demand using Honeybee and Ladybug. By analysing the outcomes of these performance analyses, the window-to-wall-ratio and shape, quantified by shape factor Lc, of these designs were optimised using the autonomous optimisation algorithm pilOPT in modeFRONTIER. The optimisation objective is to minimise the total energy demand for heating and cooling. This is assessed by calculating the normalised energy demand for heating and cooling for both a summer and winter period. To execute the optimisation, the Erasmus Campus Student Housing project by Mecanoo in Rotterdam was used as a reference project.  The optimisation results show more compact buildings, with low WWRs have lower energy demands. This can also be seen from the Pearson correlation between the Lc [m] and the normalised energy demand [kWh/m2]. Which is found to be -0.624 for the first optimisation and -0.632 for the second optimisation. This confirms current building practice in which the relative building envelope is tried is be reduced.  Low WWRs (< 0.2) can obtain a minimum daylight factor (DF50%) of 2.1%, which is lower than current practice. However, the minimum WWR is largely affected by the presence of neighbouring buildings. For facade orientations with adjacent buildings, minimum WWR is significantly higher (up to 0.8). Since buildings outside the own plot are not considered in the daylight calculation according NEN 2057 and the new NEN-EN 17037 situations may occur where buildings will obtain legal requirements but acquire poor daylight entrance. For future building shape optimisation studies, it is recommended to make use of visible part of the sky analysis (VSF) in the assessment of daylight criteria. Using VSF can save minutes of computation time per building analysis thereby speeding up the optimisation process. Recommendations for further research following this thesis are to: enlarge the number of case studies; focus on more detailed WWRs in a smaller range, by allowing smaller steps for WWR parameters, more detailed optima may be found; include the effect of installation efficiency, as this will affect the primary energy demand; assessing the effect of on-site energy production such as PV-panels on the building shape and WWR, as increasing the building envelope might not increase the net energy demand of buildings if more energy can be produced.    

Timber and complex designs are making a move in the building industry, as the building industry is on the brink of a significant change toward a 100% customized, more sustainable architecture. Robotic fabrication and Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) can play an important role in this change, but there is a lot of uncertainty and ignorance about the design process of robotically fabricated CLT elements. This uncertainty is primarily caused by the application of linear workflows instead of integral ones. Within the fields of robotic fabrication and CLT, the research narrows down to the robotic milling process of CLT connection panels. Therefore, this research intends to answer the following question by means of four different parts: What does an integral workflow for robotically fabricated customized CLT connection panels look like, that promote exploration of the structural performance of CLT structures in the preliminary design phase? Part I Literature Study Part II Pilot Study Part III Integral Workflow Development Part IV Discussions The Literature Study focusses on two fields, namely the field of CLT and the field of robotic fabrication. In the final chapter of this part, the mutual affordances and constraints of these fields are discussed as these significantly influence the design space of the integral workflow. The second part concerns the production of a small mock-up to explore the process of robotic fabrication. The literature and pilot study together serve as input for the development of the integral workflow in the third part of the research. This workflow is developed in the parametric environment of Grasshopper and is divided in three modules: Global Structure, Joint Design, Robotic Fabrication. For the Joint Design, focus is laid on CLT connection panels of which the principle is derived from a reference project in Alblasserdam (NL). The main conclusions on the research question consist of the relationships and (in)dependencies between the different modules. Another important conclusion is that one cannot apply CLT in the outdoor environment without applying shedding to ensure complete moisture control. To increase the integrality of the workflow as developed in this research, more feedback loops across the three modules should be integrated. For instance, the affordances and constraints of the robotic fabrication process should be integrated within the relationships between the three modules. Hence, if doing so, this information was available in an early stage of the design process and would decrease the uncertainty of it. This implementation could be investigated by producing a mock-up study along the integral workflow.

The following graduation thesis "A change of state: A thermodynamic and cost-effective optimized Trombe wall based on latent heat storage (LHS) for year round application” aims to investigate and optimize the thermal energy performance of a Phase change material (PCM) Trombe wall to create an economically feasible product. This passive system reduces the total cost of ownership of the energy system, inside an office building located in The Netherlands, by reducing the energy demand and the maximum peak-loads from the mechanical system. In the European Union (EU) buildings are responsible for almost 40% of the total energy consumption, the energy efficiency of these buildings needs to increase by at least 32,5% by 2030 according to the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) from the EU. Research has shown that the information on the economic feasibility and optimization of PCM within the built environment is somewhat limited, this research will give an in-depth insight in the actual performance on thermodynamics and the cost-effectiveness. The PCM Trombe wall will be optimized by means of the Research through design - method, using different design strategies based on the knowledge of the thermodynamic principles of the PCM. An initial simulation model is used for the energy performance calculations, this model is extended and developed according to the parameters defined for the optimization. A combination of MATLAB and Simulink, a simulation environment based on textual and graphical programming, together with modeFRONTIER is employed. The results from these simulations are first validated with DesignBuilder Software Ltd to verify the legitimacy of the results from the added components and the changed location input data. The actual performance of the PCM on the reduction of the heating and cooling energy demand, the maximum power-load and the investment cost for the product are determined according to dynamic set-point calculations. A detailed study together with an yearly performance analysis is used, the results from all the different simulations and optimizations are summarized in a design guideline. This guideline gives a clear indication on the differences between the input parameters and the results from the performance of the system. In the end, these results are all brought together in an adaptive and integrated design solution for the application in an office building in the Netherlands.

Nowadays, the energy consumption has a significant role in the entire life cycle of a building. The energy demands keep rising due to growth in population, increasing demand for healthy, comfort and productive indoor environment, global climate changing, and so on. This rapid increase in energy use in buildings represents a major issue especially in regions with extreme climate conditions. For instance, in tropical climates the major reason for the high energy consumption for any type of building is the use of air conditioning. Before the implementation of refrigeration technologies in the building industry and the increase of thermal comfort levels, designers in tropical climates used to tackle the climate conditions using natural methods to prevent the building from unwanted heat and to control the heat gains from the surrounding environment. Thus, this research investigate the possibility of designing a purely passive building in order to reduce at minimum the energy consumption of an office building in tropical climates, combining the bioclimatic approach and passive cooling strategies. In particular, the design objective is to define to what extent can the cooling consumption of an office building be decreased. Different design strategies are implemented and tested through Building Performance Optimization (BPO). In specific, two optimization rounds are run. The first to investigate the impact of envelope parameters, and the second to investigate the impact of the envelope and indoor comfort parameters on the cooling consumption.

This thesis aims to provide a better understanding on the relationship between the mechanical and geometrical properties of shell structures. In search hereof, an attempt is made to describe the thrust surface; a geometrical representation of the in-plane force trajectories through a structure. There exists a well-known relation between the parabolic shape of a (two-dimensional) catenary and the moment line of a simply-supported beam subjected to a distributed load, a relation which is similar to the three-dimensional case of shell structures. In this thesis, this relation is further exploited in the creation of various shell structures, using the moment hill of various simple plate cases. The moment hills of twistless plates as shell structures pose promising results with respect to shell-like behaviour. In the process of generating shell structures from moment hills of twistless plates, establishing the correct boundary conditions has proven to be essential in obtaining shell geometry with maximum shell-like behaviour. The Airy stress function is utilised to get further insight into the mechanical behaviour of shells. Exploiting the reciprocal relation between this Airy stress function and the diagram of forces allowed for both the design and analysis of shells. Taking the reciprocal figure of a discretised version of the Airy stress function results in a force polyhedron which by nature is in equilibrium. It was proven that the rules of graphic statics apply here, the angular defect between two planes then act as force vectors. By means of the force polyhedron a distinction can be made between tensile and compressive forces through any structure. Calculating the angular defect in an edge of the Airy stress polyhedron results in the force through its corresponding edge in its reciprocal figure. This thesis proposes multiple parametric tools with which the reciprocal figure of any Airy stress function can be created. These tools provide insight in the structural behaviour of a shell structure, and aid in the design of shells in the preliminary design stage.

The research of this thesis focuses on the stiffness and the durability of a composite panel that consists of thin glass as outer layers and a 3D printed core element from recycled PET. Thin Alumino-silicate glass, mostly used in computers, tablets and smartphones, is known for its lightweight, flexibility, durability, high bending strength and relatively low weight. However, the lack of stiffness allows for some safety-issues. In combination with another material, composite panel can be generated. The core element of this composite panel will consist of 3D printed recycled PET. The use of recycled PET has been taken into account, due to the increasing of plastic waste for the next 30 years. A combination of both materials allows for a much stiffer composite panel and reduction in weight of 71,9 % compared to a normal double glazed window panel. The unaffected composite panels showed that the panels returned to its original shape after removing the load. However, the experiments showed that 3D printing reduces the mechanical properties of recycled PET and PET. An overview is presented in this paper of the durability of the composite panel. The durability aspects for this research are UV radiation, elevated temperature and fire. The UV radiation showed that the glue from DELO ensures for a better adhesion , which allows reaching higher forces. Also, the showed to let recycled PET change into a yellowish color and becomes more brittle. At an elevated temperature of 80 ⁰C, recycled PET looses its stiffness and strength and can not take up forces when exposed. Recycled PET has melting temperature starting from 200 ⁰C and during a fire temperatures could reach up to 1000 ⁰C. This allows the core element to melt fully during a fire. The following chapters of this thesis will give an overview of the literature study and the experiments that were performed and how the composite panel can be integrated into a facade. Keywords: Thin glass, Recycled PET, PET, composite, 3D printing, UV radiation, elevated temperature, fire, Honeycomb pattern, Truss pattern.