As populations continue to grow, cities also continue to densify and expand. In this process, natural surfaces are increasingly replaced by impervious surfaces, which reduce the ability of rainwater to infiltrate into the ground. This increases pluvial flood risk and shows the need to rethink how urban areas are built. One way to do this is by making room for more natural areas within the urban fabric. However, in dense cities where space is limited, these areas also need to perform multiple functions. Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) offers this form of spatial adaptation by combining rainwater regulation with other urban benefits. While some BGI strategies are applied at the building scale, this research focuses on ground-based BGI adaptation: strategies applied to open spaces and ground surfaces at the urban scale.

Ground-based BGI adaptation is often evaluated through its ability to reduce flood hazard in general. However, when adaptation resources and available urban space are limited, it becomes important to ask where adaptation can create the most meaningful improvement. This is why a more targeted receptor-based perspective is needed. Among the many urban receptors affected by flooding, this research focuses on buildings and examines how building flood-resilience improvement can be understood through an urban adaptation lens.

Drawing on the idea of ‘Grounded Resilience’, the study explores how building flood-resilience assessment can be used to ground the spatial design of ground-based BGI adaptation strategies. To achieve this, the research develops a Grasshopper-based simulation workflow that integrates rainwater simulation, BGI design evaluation, and building-level resilience assessment based on building attribute data. This enables area-level evaluation based on data-driven differences between buildings within a single design environment.

The workflow is tested in the Lijnbaan area in Rotterdam. The results show that the workflow enables the comparison of ground-based BGI adaptation scenarios through indicators including absorbed runoff volume, changes in flood depth, differences in building resilience scores, and runoff path visualisation. By linking site runoff behaviour with building resilience outcomes, the workflow supports early-stage design decision-making by helping designers identify where ground-based BGI adaptation can deliver the greatest local resilience improvements and where adaptation efforts should be prioritised. ... Read more

This thesis presents an innovative façade element designed to significantly reduce a building’s operational energy consumption while ensuring full recyclability. It achieves this by dynamically adjusting the thermal insulation of a mono-material facade element.
Given the building sector’s high global energy consumption and waste production, such innovations are critically needed.

The methodology consists of a literature review followed by three design phases: (1) conceptual design; (2) preliminary design; (3) final design. The iterative build–measure–learn cycle guided the development process.

Four different designs were developed for the switchable insulation: auxetic structure, soft robotics, doors and organic tree. The auxetic structure was selected to be further developed because of its low sensitivity to production errors and high thermal performance in the insulating state.

When it comes to the material, thermoplastic copolymer (TPC) was used for the facade, because of its flexibility, flame retardance, UV and moisture durability, compatibility with 3D printing, recyclability, and adherence to ISO and EU standards.

The final design achieves a Rc-value of 4.7 m²K/W in its insulating state and 1.16 m²K/W in its conducting state. Switching the state is done with a pneumatic actuator controlled by a rule-based system, making the facade responsive to its environment.

Future research should focus on optimizing the auxetic structure to reduce actuation force and exploring alternative sustainable materials compatible with the mono-material switching concept. ... Read more

Located in the large urban area named Randstad, the Rotterdam-The Hague metropolitan area (MRDH) has the largest European port and the majority of Dutch greenhouse sector residing within its borders. Accounted for only 2.7% of the area in the Netherlands, the MRDH consumes 17.3% of the total energy use. However, the MRDH is almost impoverished in terms of energy resources. Most of the fossil fuel energy used in the region is imported. Therefore, this energy intensive development model has also brought challenges from both climate change and fossil fuel depletion, resulting in multiple ecological, environmental, economic and social issues, which obstruct the further growth of the region. There has been an urgency in transforming traditional energy landscape to sustainable energy landscape.

Although the Netherlands has released many policies and regulations on sustainable energy, the current approach is still far too slow. Only 6% of the energy used in the Netherlands comes from renewable sources in 2016. One of the reasons that can explain the slow approach is that the renewable energy technologies are facing public resistance. People keep holding protests because of the negative impacts on landscape. Thus, the practical gap within energy landscape which separates sustainable energy transition and landscape quality apart needs to be addressed. Energy transition and landscape quality have, to date, been treated as two separate conceptual domains. The deficiency in spatial planning and design has evoked the public resistance because people are more aware and concerned about the quality of living environment.

With the focus on sustainable energy landscape and landscape quality, this project gives a new insight on how spatial planning and design can improve the landscape quality of energy landscape, in order to increase public concern and support about sustainable energy transition, thus to contribute to creating a more sustainable, livable and resilient MRDH. ... Read more

In June 2013, Uttarakhand (Northern India) faced unusual heavy rainfall, series of cloud bursts and glacial lake outbursts all within 4 days leaving the sacred valley of Kedarnath completely ravaged. The flooded holy river ‘Ganges’ swept with it pilgrims, inhabitants, houses and flora/fauna creating a havoc in the valley transforming the valley into a construction site with silt, boulders, and dilapidated structures. The 3000-year-old Temple shrine at Kedarnath survived the major event without any damage. The unchecked tourism and unregulated urban sprawl of the valley aggravated the calamity to an apocalypse causing severe damage to infrastructure and completely uprooting the genius loci of the religious landscape of the valley. Therefore, this thesis aims to organize and restructure the valley in order to carve spaces within the fragile landscape while preserving its sacred aura. The dynamic processes of sedimentation and erosion were tapped to strengthen the landscape. The seasonal economy was also a major challenge and therefore the design includes community participation in the construction process as well. The restructured landscape aims to give rise to a generative landscape due to accretion that will help stabilizes the fragility and reinvigorated the cultural, economical and social life of the communities.
... Read more