This research preliminarily develops a framework based on the existing discourses on the theme of identity in architecture. This framework serves as a tool for analysing the “identity” of existing sites for which restoration is deemed necessary, as is the case for many post-war housing estates. The analysis results indicate areas of improvement, which then guide the redesign of a post-war apartment block. We demonstrate the framework’s application in a case study of a typical late post-war neighbourhood in the suburbs of Haarlem, Netherlands. ... Read more

The project envisioned a social-ecological resilient waterfront for Rotterdam. By focusing on the outer dike area of Rotterdam, it aims to protect the port from flooding ,and at the same time create more nature habitat for biodiversity. With creating a resilient river, it can re-realize the role of industry and reconnect them into resource flows, in the end, it will formulate a healthy and liveable social-ecosystem at New River Mass. The vision of the River Mass is firstly to restore the riverfront as the place of ecological importance and also aplace for working, living and recreations. It should be a place for people to come and meet together. In order to achieve that, it implies four strategies including protect, restore, reconnect and grow. Stadhaven is the programmes for applying proposed strategies. In fact, the stadhaven is an area in transition. Over the coming decades, new links between the city and port will be constructed in stadhaven to bridge the port and city, at the same time, develop the economy. It is vulnerable to high water levels since it is part of old harbour complex. The area is on the water which is subject to tidal dynamics and could have transition between River Mass and inner city distcit. Based on that, the systematic strategies could start from the aspects of Nature(sedmiation), densification and open space and access. ... Read more

Waste streams from cruise ships come back into nature which negatively influences the environment. Research has shown that actions need to be taken to reduce climate change. Not only the government should take their responsibility, but also other businesses, like the cruise industry. The cruise industry is a growing business and cruise ships have an environmental impact. This study aims to contribute to the development of sustainable, circular cruise ships. Specifically, the gas, fluid, and solid waste streams. The final product is a roadmap, based on waste stream analyses, towards a set of targets and goals. This master thesis, examines which steps need to be taken, focusing on the three waste streams to make the transition towards circular cruise ships following the City-zen method to comply with the UN sustainable development goals. Three roadmaps are made, with three different levels of ambition; 1. Fully Circular, 2. Collaboration Ship & Land, and 3. Positive effect on the environment to find the best way to design a sustainable cruise ship. The research can be subdivided into four main sections, background information, waste stream analysis, master planning, and conclusions. These four main sections are all in relation to the case study, cruise ships from Royal Caribbean Ltd. A literature study is conducted to obtain the needed information. The results show that it is impossible to ensure that no waste enters the environment under the conditions made for the specific roadmaps. On this basis, a combination of the three roadmaps and their technical solutions is made to design the sustainable circular cruise ship. The final design for retrofit cruise ships and newly built cruise ships is not fully circular. The treated black and grey water and bilge water still contain pollutants that come back into the sea. However, the emissions from the gas stream are reduced or fully eliminated, more pollutants are removed from the black, grey and bilge water, pollutant by-products are recycled on land, heat is recovered and reused, clean products as biogas, biodiesel and struvite are produced, seawater as ballast water is not needed, and non-hazardous and hazardous waste is reduced, reused and recycled. These adjustments and additions should be added to prevent waste discharge into the environment. This research also shows that the same design principles and interventions used in cities and building complexes can also be implemented on cruise ships, like the New Stepped Strategy, Cradle to Cradle, material passport, plants, heat pumps, and the energy exchange principle. Further research is needed into technical systems to treat and prevent waste from entering the environment and into other criteria like cost, energy consumption, needed materials and emissions. ... Read more

To cope with the climate crisis, sustainable and eco-friendly buildings are a necessity. To achieve this, we need to change the way we build, this accounts as well for construction materials. For thousands of years, humans have lived in clay and timber hybrid constructions. These hybrids are made of sustainable, possibly circular, highly available and renewable materials with low embodied energy. However, the labour-intensive production makes these hybrid constructions expensive. This was, among others, one reason why modern architecture and construction looked to other, industrial and artificial building materials to satisfy our need for cheap, fast and prefabricated construction methods. The promising, traditional combination of earth and timber has barley been used for prefabricated wall components and façades, despite their huge ecological benefits. On the contrary, questionable and polluting building technologies and materials are used to increase the efficiency within the construction sector.

As designers and engineers, we should start looking back into clay/timber hybrids as one solution architecture can offer as an answer to the climate crisis, despite the high labour cost of this construction type. Digitalisation might be a solution to tackle these high costs. Customized computational design, large-scale 3D-printing and file-to-factory robotic fabrication allow the automatization of certain labour-intensive production steps. It offers new perspectives on production techniques and material usage. The fourth industrial revolution could, in combination with changing legislation and CO2 taxation, lead to a revival of clay/timber hybrid buildings. These hybrids could be made of timber with a density decreased non-structural gradient material infill, such as 3D printed with clay.

Exploring material mixtures, production techniques and building components results in a computational, informative workflow for customized nozzles and the building component. This allows to coordinate and customise the nozzle design according to the limitations of the material properties, the building component and the 3D printing process.

But how can the density of a 3D Printed clay prefab wall component with a 6-axis robotic arm be gradually decreased? Designing a gradient material that is dense on the inside and gets increasingly lighter towards the outside could increase the efficiency by adding another function to the earthen building element. The created cavities reduce the density, the thermal conductivity and the material usage compared to a traditional solid earthen infill. To simplify the toolpath and reduce the cycle time each density class of this stepwise gradated wall system has its customized nozzle. The customization of the nozzle allows to print a complex cross-section geometry with a simplified, otherwise complex toolpath.

Establishing an informative workflow between the building component design, the production tools and the material mixture should lead to a feasible design that is considering the limitations of each input category. Ideally, this approach reduces the necessary amount of adaptations before the earthen component infill can be printed. The nozzles will be customized to reduce the cycle time and shorten the toolpath by creating a gradient material at the same time. This material can be used as an infill for a hybrid wall structure.
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The reign of ‘Starchitecture’ is over. Good riddance. It has been buried together with the so-called neoliberal era that has dominated economic, political and social systems until (the financial crisis of) 2008. Uncannily, this turn roughly coincided with the cataclysm of our old faculty building. We uphold the hypothesis that the contemporary trends in architecture have emerged as an alternative to the (st)architectural positions dominant since the turn of the century. To meet the ethical challenge of the Anthropocene the architect’s role needs to undergo a fundamental change from that of a synaptic visionary (a psychological subject whose private meanings and public expressions are crucial to understanding her work and its effects) to a more humble yet audacious clinical/critical cartographer of the material-discursive realm. We propose to catalyse the transition by breaking the bad habit of representationalism. In this sense, we rely on Karen Barad's reinvigoration of the diffractive approach while Isabelle Stengers’s strategy of forming relays saves us from the totalizing and hence fatalistic teleological temptations. The exhibition diffractively relays five texts to eight diagrams. ... Read more

KORS Collective Stavros Kousoulas TU Delft, Sjoerd van Oevelen AKI, Andrej Radman TU Delft, Niels Schrader Royal Academy of Art. Exhibition on 17-24 May 2017 at Academy of Art and Design in Enschede. ... Read more