In an era marked by resource scarcity and shifting typologies of public institutions, the traditional library faces significant challenges to its relevance. As digitalization redefines information access, physical libraries risk becoming obsolete, losing their place as community knowledge hubs. The global materials landscape is experiencing scarcity, with critical resources under pressure from unsustainable consumption. These trends underscore an urgent need to reconsider how we use materials, emphasizing sustainable and innovative approaches.

Material Vault addresses these challenges by reimagining the library as a dynamic place, not only where knowledge of materials is stored - but also created. This reimagined library typology bridges the gap between specialized knowledge and community accessibility, positioning itself as a central resource for sustainable innovation in the energy-transition-centered EUREF Campus in Berlin, Germany. The new library of materials becomes a transparent material-testing machine with laboratories, workshops, offices, conference hall and a material showroom - the crown of the building. The vertical mass timber-high rise nested within an existing gasholder contributes to the conversation on material choices for the future building stock.

The housing shortage in the Netherlands and the high contribution of the construction sector towards climate change demands a different approach towards affordable housing. A combination of the concept of a 'housing cooperative' and the implementation of 'low-tech principles' on all scales of the design tries to bring back affordable housing back to the people in a sustainable way, where the pillars 'People', 'Planet' and 'Profit' are in balance. A pure light timber frame system with universal, interchangeable elements forms the basis for standardised housing units. By arranging the units in different ways and by giving the users freedom in infill and finishing, the housing cooperative is able to choose how they want to shape their living environment. Overarching aspects throughout the design are 'simplicity', 'rationality', 'locality' and 'human scale'.

The airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in educational buildings has raised concerns during the current COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, a portable fog generator system was designed and assembled to visualise the airflow pattern of exhaled droplets in a classroom. The system consists of five components: medium, fog generator, buffer, pump, and manikin head. The medium was made of a combination of glycol and demineralised water, which produced a fog composed of droplets mimicking to some extent human breath. The fog was produced with the fog generator and passed through a pipe into the buffer for build-up. After accumulation, the fog is pumped through another pipe and is exhaled out of the mouth of the manikin. The experiments were conducted in a simulated classroom. The lights of the room were dimmed and six lasers were used to make the fog more visible. Four different ventilation regimes were examined: no ventilation, natural ventilation (open windows and door), mixing ventilation (600 m3/h), and a combination of natural + mixing ventilation. The experiments were recorded with a camera and analysed to determine the horizontal distance of the path taken by the fog and to measure the time it remained visible after exhalation from the mouth. During the experiments, it could be observed with the naked eye that the glycol droplets travel much further and linger in the air for longer than what is captured in the recordings. Furthermore, not all the droplets were visible with the camera, especially the smaller ones of a few micrometres in diameter. The recordings showed that at the natural ventilation regime the droplets travelled the furthest distance (1.8 metres). This wind coming through the door pushed the drops further into the room. The combination of natural + mixing ventilation regime had the highest indoor air velocity, causing the droplets to reach the shortest distance (0.5 metres). In conclusion, the type of ventilation, classroom layout, and exhalation location play an important role in determining the airflow pattern, as they affect how long and how far the glycol droplets travel. Applying any type of ventilation is critical in transmission control and reduces the possibility of aerosol accumulation in the classroom as smaller droplets can linger in the air for many hours until they settle on a surface.

The building industry is responsible for 36% of global final energy use (Global Alliance for Building and Construction, 2018), 39% of CO2 Emissions (Global Alliance for Building and Construction, 2017) and 50% of global waste in just cities (Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2017). This is mainly due to the linear economy model which is still the dominant model nowadays. This model has been proven to be unsustainable, and it has put an enormous stress in the environment. For this reason, different approaches need to be integrated into the building industry. Designing with the aid of an environmental impact assessment framework is one approach to consider the degradation to the environment, product of a building design. By quantifying the amount of embodied energy and carbon footprint related to a desired acoustic and thermal insulation in a building, designers and engineers can take eco-informed decisions, which not only bring ecological benefits, but also material savings.

The focus of this thesis is on the facade level, which belongs to the ‘‘skin’’ of the building according to Brand (1994). According to Brand’s model this layer has an average lifespan of 20 years, meaning that a different approach on the facade level is required in order to reduce the environmental impact during its technical life-span, which is the end goal of the thesis. In order to reach the aforementioned objective, this thesis explores the relevant literature around facades, materials and the environment. Additionally, the relationship between the environment and the built environment is explored, as well as the building industry in the Netherlands with the aim of identifying the most used facade systems. Further study is conveyed for the development of a comparison and selection tool to identify the potentials and weaknesses of the different systems in order to design an environmentally friendly facade.

Over the years, the Leipzig Wind Profile observed under near neutral condition has been considered as an essential benchmark for idealized friction layer models. However, the general weather condition for the Leipzig Wind Profile still remains a mystery after nearly 90 years. In order to simulate this event and try to recreate the weather conditions at that time, the WRF model driven by two types of reanalysis data setting up with two domains is launched. The model captures the wind physics well, except for a small deviation around 800 meters. Additionally, the simulated surface friction velocity and surface heat flux at Leipzig are close to the validation value. The simulated temperature slope at Lindenberg has some deviation compared to the documented value, which may be caused by the vertical coarse resolution and sensitive temperature fluctuations over the height. Moreover, there may have been rain or drizzle when the observation took place and this may have contributed to the near neutral condition feature. A finer resolution simulation could be run to investigate this further