Architecture and the Built Environment:

This publication provides an overview of TU Delft’s most significant research achievements in the field of architecture and the built environment during the years 2010–2012. It is the first presentation of the joint research portfolio of the Faculty of Architecture and OTB Research Institute since their integration into the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. As such the portfolio holds a strong promise for the future. In a time when the economy seems to be finally picking up and in which such societal issues as energy, climate and ageing are more prominent than ever before, there are plenty of fields for us to explore in the next three years

Midterm evaluation Research 2016-2018:

The research of TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (Faculteit Bouwkunde) covers the full spectrum of design, engineering, planning, and management of the built environment. Its research portfolio comprises the research that is conducted by four departments: Architecture Architectural Engineering + Technology (AE+T) Management in the Built Environment (MBE) Urbanism The faculty’s research focusses specifically at improving the design and performance of buildings, districts, cities and regions in order to better meet the requirements and expectations of their users and communities. From that perspective, much of the research that is conducted can be understood as applied science, appealing to the curiosity and the needs of other researchers, practitioners and the broader public alike. The research is a blend of humanities, social and engineering sciences. The humanities are strongest represented in the Architecture department, social sciences in the MBE and Urbanism departments, while the engineering sciences find their strongest representation in AE+T

Architecture and the Built Environment:

This publication provides an overview of TU Delft’s and Berlage’s most significant research achievements in the field of architecture and the built environment, produced over the years 2003–2009. The publication is produced in preparation for the Dutch 2010 research assessment exercise Architecture and the Built Environment. It is the first joint publication by Architecture, OTB and Berlage and hints clearly at stronger future ties between the three institutes, which are strategically positioned in the Rotterdam/Delft cluster of creative industries in architecture and urbanism

BK 10-15:

Over the years 2010-2015 TU Delft's Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (in Dutch: Bouwkunde or BK) made good progress with its research by: merging the Architecture faculty and the Built Environment research institute; streamlining its PhD research by setting-up a graduate school for doctoral education; co-founding an institute for metropolitan solutions in Amsterdam together with MIT and Wageningen University (targeted yearly budget: 25 M€); implementing good research management; increasing the scientific output; managing a project portfolio with a yearly income of 1.5 M€ in research grants, 5 M€ in contract research and up to 2 M€ in other external funding; ranking 3rd in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015 - Architecture / Built Environment. Presented in this book is an overview of research data and policies, together with a selection of our finest research results: activities, organisations, facilities/assets, output, including indications of their use and recognition. Now it is not the time to become complacent. Instead, we should look ahead to face new academic and societal challenges and opportunities, knowing we can always do better

Hi Rise, I can see you! Planning and visibility assessment of high building development in Rotterdam

West European cities like London, Paris, Rotterdam and Frankfurt am Main have seen impressive high-rise developments over the past two decades. The cities with a longstanding tradition of urban management, building regulations and zoning plans seem to feel the need for additional instruments to control the development of what is described by McNeill (2005) as "an extremely complex spatial phenomenon". It was only after the emergence of a new type of high building development in the inner cities and suburban centres in the early 1990s that the image of high buildings started to change for the better, not just in the Netherlands but also throughout much of Europe. Even now, high buildings evoke emotions and provoke controversies. This has led them to develop policies for regulating the planning and construction of tall buildings, high-rise buildings and skyscrapers within their territory. This article presents a systematic approach for analysing the visual impact of high building development on a city and its surrounding region, using Rotterdam as a case study. This work is based on a previous analysis that included aspects such as architectural height, year of completion, location and functional use of high buildings in the city. It allowed us to compare the actual high building development with the urban policies in place. The showcase city of Rotterdam demonstrates that a considerable distance exists between policy and reality. The city struggles to deliver a consistent and integrated policy for high-rise urban areas, although the high building developments themselves seem to be ruled by a remarkable internal logic that is not fully recognised in policymaking. By studying the height and completion year, identifying the tall building cluster as it is perceived visually, and by conducting a GISc-based visibility analysis, it provides a context to tall building designs, making the assessment of individual projects more transparant and balanced, and removing some of the emotional elements that often enter into the discussions

A bridge with a view, a view with a bridge

This paper discusses design considerations for creating high quality civil works with an emphasis on bridges. The authors pursue a design study and analysis approach to highlight the specifics of infrastructure design for regional identity, based on their own work on a series of bridges in the Dutch Zaanstreek region. Subsequently two highlights of the authors work, the award winning Juliana Bridge and the wildlife crossing in Rijssen, are used to illustrate how to create good infrastructure design in sensitive contexts, without making use of a neo-vernacular vocabulary

Geo-Design: Advances in bridging geo-information technology, urban planning and landscape architecture

Geodesign is a GIS-based planning and design method, which tightly couples the creation of design proposals with impact simulations informed by geographic contexts. Geodesign as such comprises a set of geo-information technology driven methods and techniques for planning built and natural environments in an integrated process, and includes project conceptualization, analysis, design specification, stakeholder participation and collaboration. Though the origins of this concept can be traced back to the early1960’s – and without computers to the end of the nineteenth century – from 2005 onwards the term geodesign was introduced in order to (re-)present GIS (geographic information systems) as an instrument for planning and design. In fact it is an attempt to bridge the possibilities of geo-information technology and the needs of urban landscape research, planning and design. This is needed because often GIS is recognized as a useful tool but the potential of GIS is still underutilized in these fields, often due to a lack of awareness and prejudice.  Geodesign. Advances in bridging geo-information technology, urban planning and landscape architecture brings together a wide variety of contributions from authors with backgrounds in urban planning, landscape architecture, education and geo-information technology presenting the latest insights and applications of geodesign. Geo-Design is here understood as a hybridisation of the concepts “Geo” – representing the modelling, analytical and visualization capacities of GIS, and “Design” – representing spatial planning and design, turning existing situations into preferred ones. Through focusing on interdisciplinary design-related concepts and applications of GIS international experts share their recent findings and provide clues for the further development of geodesign. This is important since there is still much to do. Not only in the development of geo-information technology, but especially in bridging the gap with the design-disciplines. The uptake on using GIS is still remarkably slow among landscape architects, urban designers and planners, and when utilised it is often restricted to the basic tasks of mapmaking and data access. Knowledge development and dissemination of applications of geodesign through research, publications and education therefore remain key factors. This publication draws upon the insights shared at the Geodesign Summit Europe held at Delft University of Technology in 2014. All contributions in the book are double blind reviewed by experts in the field. The publication starts with a personal historical perspective by Carl Steinitz, one of the founding fathers of geodesign. Further contributions are organized thematically in three parts. The papers in part 1 focus on advances, applications and challenges of geodesign in spatial planning and design. Part 2 treats more specific issues and applications of geodesign related to land use, urban and facility management. Part 3 presents some interesting cases of geodesign education. While all the papers address the wider scope of geodesign they also treat synthetic positions that overarch the whole variety of aspects touched upon, either thematically or in a specific place

Hotterdam: How space is making Rotterdam warmer, how this affects the health of its inhabitants, and what can be done about it.

Heat waves will occur in Rotterdam with greater frequency in the future. Those affected most will be the elderly – a group that is growing in size. In the light of the Paris heat wave of August 2003 and the one in Rotterdam in July 2006, mortality rates among the elderly in particular are likely to rise in the summer. Method The aim of the Hotterdam research project was to gain a better understanding of urban heat. The heat was measured and the surface energy balance modelled from that perspective. Social and physical features of the city we identified in detail with the help of satellite images, GIS and 3D models. We determined the links between urban heat/surface energy balance and the social/physical features of Rotterdam by multivariable regression analysis. The crucial elements of the heat problem were then clustered and illustrated on a social and a physical heat map. Results The research project produced two heat maps, an atlas of underlying data and a set of adaptation measures which, when combined, will make the city of Rotterdam and its inhabitants more aware and less vulnerable to heat wave-related health effects. Conclusion In different ways, the pre-war districts of the city (North, South, and West) are warmer and more vulnerable to urban heat than are other areas of Rotterdam. The temperature readings that we carried out confirm these findings as far as outdoor temperatures are concerned. Indoor temperatures vary widely. Homes seem to have their particular dynamics, in which the house’s age plays a role. The above-average mortality of those aged 75 and over during the July 2006 heat wave in Rotterdam can be explained by a) the concentration of people in this age group, b) the age of the homes they live in, and c) the sum of sensible heat and ground heat flux. A diverse mix of impervious surfaces, surface water, foliage, building envelopes and shade make one area or district warmer than another. Adaptation measures are in the hands of residents, homeowners and the local council alike, and relate to changing behaviour, physical measures for homes, and urban design respectively

Hotterdam:

Heat waves will occur in Rotterdam with greater frequency in the future. Those affected most will be the elderly – a group that is growing in size. In the light of the Paris heat wave of August 2003 and the one in Rotterdam in July 2006, mortality rates among the elderly in particular are likely to rise in the summer. Method The aim of the Hotterdam research project was to gain a better understanding of urban heat. The heat was measured and the surface energy balance modelled from that perspective. Social and physical features of the city we identified in detail with the help of satellite images, GIS and 3D models. We determined the links between urban heat/surface energy balance and the social/physical features of Rotterdam by multivariable regression analysis. The crucial elements of the heat problem were then clustered and illustrated on a social and a physical heat map. Results The research project produced two heat maps, an atlas of underlying data and a set of adaptation measures which, when combined, will make the city of Rotterdam and its inhabitants more aware and less vulnerable to heat wave-related health effects. Conclusion In different ways, the pre-war districts of the city (North, South, and West) are warmer and more vulnerable to urban heat than are other areas of Rotterdam. The temperature readings that we carried out confirm these findings as far as outdoor temperatures are concerned. Indoor temperatures vary widely. Homes seem to have their particular dynamics, in which the house’s age plays a role. The above-average mortality of those aged 75 and over during the July 2006 heat wave in Rotterdam can be explained by a) the concentration of people in this age group, b) the age of the homes they live in, and c) the sum of sensible heat and ground heat flux. A diverse mix of impervious surfaces, surface water, foliage, building envelopes and shade make one area or district warmer than another. Adaptation measures are in the hands of residents, home owners and the local council alike, and relate to changing behaviour, physical measures for homes, and urban design respectively

A bridge with a view a view with a bridge: Identifying design considerations for bridges to strengthen regional identity

This paper discusses design considerations for creating high quality infrastructural artefacts with an emphasis on bridges. The authors pursue a design study and analysis approach to highlight the specifics of infrastructure design for regional identity, based on their own work on a bridge ensemble in the Dutch Zaanstreek region. Two highlights of this work, the award winning Juliana Bridge and the wildlife crossing in Rijssen, are used to illustrate how to create good infrastructure design in sensitive contexts, without making use of neo-vernacular methods