New Housing Models for an Autarkic Rural Community

Autarky, the quality of being self-sufficient, potentially provides a new sustainable, economic model for rural living that could reverse recent high-carbon settlement practices and the associated costs of rural home ownership. This paper explores new spatial forms of autarkic housing for a rural site owned by the National Trust for Scotland in Cottown, Perthshire where the demand for new housing in near rural areas is predicted to increase by as much as 33%. The Grade-A listed thatched and earth-walled Schoolhouse, a relic from a lost local vernacular once widespread throughout the Carse of Gowrie, acted as a catalyst for sustainable thinking along with a body of thematic research into national, regional and local trends in population, housing demand and energy consumption. The research directed proposals for alternative theoretical models and spatial concepts for affordable, low-energy regionally responsive housing development. The study uses map progression and measured survey work analysing the layout and building characteristics of the hamlet. While density studies identified the current capacity of the developer model, setting the benchmark for financial viability, proposals are based on urban densities whilst maintaining overall numbers of units with the objective of intensifying the reading of landscape between built form and open space, and releasing land for community use, food and energy production. Intended as an alternative to mass-market housing, the proposals address the broader requirements of the Scottish context in terms of sustainability, low energy use, low-carbon material resources, and the competitive market place. The spatial quality of the proposals at intimate and distant scales are key considerations in developing imaginative and appropriate solutions for new forms of sustainable living, with forms and an identity directly related to the site’s particular geographical location and peculiar regional sustainable building traditions

The newly built city hall Venlo, more than merely sustainable How City of Venlo creates positive impact for people and the environment with a profitable circular business model

This report presents a case study of the city of Venlo and its circular business model, selected by the R2π project along with 17 other cases, due to its position within the construction and building materials sector, which is one of the priority areas of the European Union’s circular economy strategy. The objective of the report is to analyse the contextual and business factors affecting the circular business model, as well as to assess the enablers and barriers to implementing such a model and to provide considerations for both business leaders and policy makers. The city of Venlo (NL) embraced the Cradle to Cradle® (C2C®) principles as first region in Europe. In 2008 Venlo decided to build their City Hall as shining example of C2C® design. The creation of a pleasant and healthy workplace for employees of the Municipality of Venlo has been the central theme: a building that offers a comfortable and healthy working environment, combined with sustainable innovation. Venlo considers the C2C® principles as a revolutionary economic concept and true driver for innovation, based on new circular economy business models and the use of materials in perpetually cycles. Based on these principles, Venlo applied a wide variety of circular measures within a circular economy business model, for which they invested €3.4 mln. This investment creates a net saving of € 16.8 mln over the use time of the building and a positive cash flow after year 1. Besides, the building has been realized within the budget and without dependency on subsidies. Since the building is in use (October 2016), the operational costs are significantly lower compared to former and traditional (linear) buildings. The above mentioned circular measures show that, during use time, indoor air quality is even better than outdoor air quality (while indoor air in offices is on average 4-8 times worse than outside). This is one of the results of the creation of a pleasant and healthy workspace being a central theme for the City Hall. Furthermore, due to its green roofs and facades, the building purifies a measurable 30% of the fine dust and CO2 level in an area of 500 meters around the city hall. Moreover, the building generates its own energy and a helophyte filter purifies grey water, which is reused in the building. Numerous C2C CertifiedTM products are used. The building is approached as a material bank for future valuable raw materials and designed for disassembly. Arrangements are made with suppliers about residual value and guaranteed take-back of materials. This resulted, for example for the furnishing concept, in a residual value of 18% with a maximal number of C2C CertifiedTM materials. In less than 1,5 years, after opening in October 2016, the city hall Venlo has seen over 25.000+ visitors with a special interest in the Cradle to Cradle® approach. Of these 60% are Dutch, 40% are international visitors. As a result of these visits, many organizations have been inspired to apply the circular principles within their own context. Also other developers in Venlo have been applying C2C® principles in their real estate project, such as primary schools, gyms, residential houses and companies. The circular principles even became part of Venlo’s strategy, facility management and procurement criteria. This case study describes Venlo’s vision and approach in realizing buildings with a positive impact. The municipality of Venlo wants to give an exemplary role in the transition towards a circular economy and strives to “do good rather than less bad”. The scope of this case study is the business model of Venlo’s newly built city hall. The uniqueness of this case study, compared to other case studies within the R2Pi project, is the fact that Venlo is a local government. As a consequence, this case study differs slightly from other case studiesThis project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 73037

Creation of a Wooden Model Toy Car as a Learning Module for Students Enrolled in Manufacturing 152

This project involved the design and manufacture of a children’s wooden model toy car constructed on the CME factory floor. Apart from building a children’s toy, the purpose of this project was to introduce younger CME students to a high-quality product made efficiently in regards to manufacture time and total cost. The design for the car required the inclusion of principles from different manufacturing philosophies taught in the CME such as LEAN Manufacturing, which works to eliminate waste from a process, and Design for Manufacture and Assembly, which seeks to reduce cost and cycle time for a product. Through the analysis of different machines, materials, methods, sizes, and safety considerations, an adequate balance was found between quality, time, and cost to create a visually appealing and fully functional toy car that is safe for children. As these cars are children toys, research was done on established toy manufacturing standards to ensure that the product was safe and to set proper age restrictions for children who can safely play with the toy. The choice to use hard maple wood and human-operated machinery, such as bandsaws and drill presses, provided the best opportunity to minimize cost and cycle time, while still creating a high-quality product. The dimensions of the car body were originally designed to be four-by-four-by-ten inches, but were later reduced to two-by-three-by-eight inches in order to reduce the mass of the car, so it is easier for small children to maneuver. Through the completion of this project, the project goals were successfully met in that a safe, visually appealing, fully-functional toy car was created using various manufacturing philosophies learned from coursework in the CME

Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

Intelligent shop scheduling for semiconductor manufacturing

Semiconductor market sales have expanded massively to more than 200 billion dollars annually accompanied by increased pressure on the manufacturers to provide higher quality products at lower cost to remain competitive. Scheduling of semiconductor manufacturing is one of the keys to increasing productivity, however the complexity of manufacturing high capacity semiconductor devices and the cost considerations mean that it is impossible to experiment within the facility. There is an immense need for effective decision support models, characterizing and analyzing the manufacturing process, allowing the effect of changes in the production environment to be predicted in order to increase utilization and enhance system performance. Although many simulation models have been developed within semiconductor manufacturing very little research on the simulation of the photolithography process has been reported even though semiconductor manufacturers have recognized that the scheduling of photolithography is one of the most important and challenging tasks due to complex nature of the process. Traditional scheduling techniques and existing approaches show some benefits for solving small and medium sized, straightforward scheduling problems. However, they have had limited success in solving complex scheduling problems with stochastic elements in an economic timeframe. This thesis presents a new methodology combining advanced solution approaches such as simulation, artificial intelligence, system modeling and Taguchi methods, to schedule a photolithography toolset. A new structured approach was developed to effectively support building the simulation models. A single tool and complete toolset model were developed using this approach and shown to have less than 4% deviation from actual production values. The use of an intelligent scheduling agent for the toolset model shows an average of 15% improvement in simulated throughput time and is currently in use for scheduling the photolithography toolset in a manufacturing plant

Material Considerations in Architectural Design: A Study of the Aspects Identified by Architects for Selecting Materials

Material selection in architecture is not only about choosing the strongest, cheapest, or most obvious materials available. Architects also choose warm, formal, functional, or local materials for buildings. And the material options are not limited by only these considerations. The material selection process is a complex process that is influenced and determined by numerous preconditions, decisions and considerations. The current material selection tools, however, focus mainly on the technical aspects of materials. In order to make well-considered and justifiable material choices, architects have a need for information on the whole spectrum of aspects considered during the design and selection process. Earlier work presented a framework, based on a literature study and the analysis of in-depth interviews, in which the different attributes of materials that contribute to a design project were identified and organized. To refine this framework and make it available for architects during the material selection process, a group of architects was selected and assembled into a focus group. This study presents how the focus group identified, classified and commented on the considerations that are made by architects while selecting materials for a project. The evaluation of the collected data, and the discussion within the group, permitted the formulation of comments and resulted in a revised framework of material considerations, useful during the design and selection process of a material. Material properties (1), Experience (2), Manufacturing process (3), and Context (4) were identified as the different elements that are related to the material selection process. The four groups are presented here in detail. Keywords: Material Selection; Design Aspects; Architectural Experience; Material Attributes; Focus Group; Design Process</p

A Practical Guide to Planning and Executing and Impactful Exit

The first objective of this manual is to provide Venture Philanthropy/Social Investment practitioners with an important tool to assist them in their daily activities and thus enhance the effectiveness of their work. The second objective is to increase the transparency and accountability of the Venture Philanthropy/Social Investment sector. This manual should be useful for both experienced Venture Philanthropy Organisations that want to reflect on how to exit their investments while maximising and sustaining the impact achieved, and for organisations approaching VP, which can learn from the experience of VP/SI practitioners