bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
Authors: Echevarria Icaza Leyre , van der Hoeven Frank , van den Dobbelsteen Andy
Published: November 2023

In the Netherlands awareness regarding the Urban Heat Island (UHI) was raised relatively recently. Because of this recent understanding, there is a lack of consistent urban micro-meteorological measurements to allow a conventional UHI assessment of Dutch cities during heat waves. This paper argues that it is possible to retrieve relevant UHI information – including adaptation guidelines – from satellite imagery.

The paper comprises three parts. The first part consists of a study of suited indicators to identify urban heat islands from which a method is presented based on ground heat flux mapping. The second part proposes heat mitigation strategies and identifies the areas where these strategies could be applied within the hotspots identified in the cities of The Hague, Delft, Leiden, Gouda, Utrecht and Den Bosch. The third part estimates the reduction of urban heat generated by the increase of roof albedo in the hotspots of the six cities. The six cities hotspots are located within the boundaries of the 17th century city centres. In order to avoid interference with cultural values of these historical environments most likely UHI mitigation measures regard improving the thermal behaviour of the city roofs. For instance, applying white coatings on bitumen flat roofs (or replacing them by white single-ply membranes) and replacing sloped roof clay tiles by coloured tiles with cool pigments can reduce the urban heat hotspots by approximately 1.5°C.

Remote sensing provides high level information that provide urban planners and policy makers with overall design guidelines for the reduction of urban heat.
Conclusions
Authors: Echevarria Icaza Leyre
Published: November 2023

This thesis answers the overall question if the use of satellite imagery could help analysing the UHI in the Netherlands and suggests mitigation actions that can be implemented in the existing urban contexts of the cities, regions and provinces assessed. In order to answer this main research question a number of sub questions were formulated and studied from a theoretical perspective in part A: method. The investigation carried out in part A was used as a basis for the assessment of the urban heat in three specific case studies in the Netherlands in part B: results.
Key problems associated with complex geometry GFRC
Authors: Henriksen Thomas
Published: November 2023

Glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) elements have become a sought after cladding material since their introduction as rain screen cladding for buildings. To advance GFRC for a range of complex geometry building envelopes this also requires advances in existing moulding techniques for thin-walled GFRC elements. To do so it is necessary to define the current state of thin-walled GFRC elements and the constraints and limits placed on them by existing production techniques. This paper identifies the current architectural and aesthetic requirements of thin-walled GFRC elements and maps their range of complexity, from 1-D to 3-D, to the limits of the most appropriate production method. This will inform guidelines for the future design development of thin-walled GFRC and enable an innovative approach to further advance the moulding techniques for thin-walled GFRC elements for a variety of complex geometry building envelopes. The paper concludes on which further steps need to be taken to advance thin-walled glass fibre reinforced concrete for tomorrow’s architectural buildings envelopes with complex geometries.
Testing of solutions and proof of concept for the automated process
Authors: Henriksen Thomas
Published: November 2023

Developing and testing a novel manufacturing method for thin-walled complex geometry glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels is required to advance towards a more digital automated process. The experimental procedure described identified the main bottleneck during the manufacture of complex geometry thin-walled GFRC panels, namely, the time taken to make the mould and cast the GFRC panels. The primary outcome was the development and application of a new mould capable of casting complex geometry thin-walled GFRC panels with good surface quality using a manufacturing method that enables more rapid automated large-scale production. This intermediate mould was tested successfully using the sprayed GFRC method and was the key element during the development of a novel cost effective manufacturing method for complex geometry thin-walled GFRC panels. This method was used to manufacture 9 different double curved intermediate moulds for a 10m high GFRC self-supporting, thin-walled hyperbolic shell, with 12mm thick panels at the base of the structure. The completed structure show-cased the effectiveness of the novel manufacturing method by reducing the production time from an estimated 100 days to 10 days if using a single reconfigurable mould surface, with computer controlled actuators capable of forming free-formed geometries.
Introduction
Authors: Hakak Alireza Mahdizadeh
Published: November 2023

Creative potential of human spearheads their civilization. In fact, progress in every sphere of our lives crucially depends on our creativity. Emphasizing the role of creativity in design even more than other disciplines pushes one to explore understanding of creativity as a key role player in Architecture. Furthermore, by identifying the basic principles of our ingenuity/creativity, researchers might be able to enhance these abilities in the future.

But how can we define creativity? Though creativity is the hallmark of human cognition, and therefore a topic of enormous scientific importance, yet not a single definition of creativity exists that is universally accepted by creativity researchers, and the scenario hasn’t changed much in the last fifty years. Nevertheless, any creative output (be it an idea, product, or performance) should have, at least, three characteristics: novelty (it is original), usefulness (it is functional and adaptive), and surprising (it is non-obvious, therefore eliciting an aesthetical or affective response).

Many architects confess that, very gradually and unconsciously they tend to inherit and hold on to conventional design approaches, because slowly confinements in construction and conventional stereotypes impose on them, dominate them and prevent them to think innovatively. Now, it is seemingly logical that if you get a chance to see and explore some innovative notions in virtual environments, devoid of any physical limitation, then it will lead to conceptual expansion, since diverse pictures/ inspirations shall be added to pre-conceived design ideas. This will help designers to expand their conceptual boundaries and thus eventually help them to enhance their creativity. Being in varied or miscellaneous environments can help train individuals to encode information in multiple ways, building a myriad of associations between diverse concepts.
2D vs. 3D
Authors: Hakak Alireza Mahdizadeh , Biloria Nimish , Dabbagh Amirmasoud , Venhari Armaghan Ahmadi
Published: November 2023

One of the main targets of this research is to find methods and tools for enhancing creativity. This chapter compares the results of an experiment focusing on the starting phase of a design process from two different dimensions: analogue 2D vs. digital 3D. The experiment involves providing the same design task to a group of students using two different starting points: first, with a lower dimension of analogue 2D (pen and paper) and the next time with a higher dimension using 3D software. Students, in their last semester of Bachelor’s, who were quite familiar with architecture and design were used as test subjects.

A group of architecture experts were assigned as jurors, who subjectively judged whether the creative performance of the students had been enhanced after experimenting with the higher dimension 3d environment.

This part of the research is elaborated in the second journal article “Thinking Out of the Box” from Out of the Box! Increasing the Dimension of Starting Point, Case study: Architecture students”, Scientific research publishing, 2016
Implementing UVEs
Authors: Hakak Alireza Mahdizadeh , Biloria Nimish , Rahimi Mozhgan Raouf
Published: November 2023

This chapter introduces unconventional virtual environments (UVEs) in the context of this research. The characteristics, types and parameters of UVEs are defined. Moreover, the role of experience and its efficacy on idea expansion and divergent thinking are also discussed in this Chapter. The brain possesses existing knowledge of architectural space, styles and physical world. By exposure to UVE, previously unknown data feed can be added to this existing knowledgebase.

The brain tries to digest this new feed by connecting them to the previous/existing knowledge of space. It is hypothesized that the challenge of the brain to digest new feeds, indirectly stimulate creativity. To prove this hypothesis, more research experiments were designed. These, are discussed in the following chapters.

After examining the hypothesis, a possible implementation of UVEs within architectural pedagogy is also discussed. It is also suggested to provide workshops for developing UVEs and let students navigate and interact with them during their education in order to expand their inventory of experiences. The more they can expand their experiences, the more combination of ideas is made possible, which, will indirectly influence their creativity.

Respective research findings have been published in the third journal article: “Implementing unconventional virtual environments for enhancing creativity in Architecture pedagogy”, IGI Global Publisher, Volume 3, Issue 4, 2012, pp. 41-52.
From Interactive to Intra-active Body
Authors: Chang Jia-Rey
Published: November 2023

The 60s was the age of freedom and boldness. According to John Lennon, the legendary singer-songwriter, who said in his last interview for RKO, “The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility”.10 Various technologies and cultures were developing boundlessly at an unprecedented speed during this time. Movements for civil rights due to racial discrimination, movements for women’s rights due to feminism, liberation movements for bodily autonomy, and student movements (Mai 68) in France due to the education system, influenced and challenged the conservative thought and systems in the society which people were used to. With the flourishing development of high-end technology, during the cold war period, the US and Russia were still competing to be the world leaders in technological development. The battlefields of the well-known space race included not only the terrain of the earth but also the surface of the moon. For the general public, the impact of rapid technological development, plus the discovery of chaos theory in Science and the gradual advancement of computer technology, opened the door towards all kinds of imagination about how the future world will look. The influential pop art movement, gave new birth to art which was no longer bigwigs’ assets hung on the walls of a royal palace and high-end art galleries, but relatively closer to people’s daily lives by using common substances and materials for creating art pieces. In addition, with the growth of the underground hippy culture and rock ‘n roll music, it was the golden age when people gradually had the courage to explore, to experiment, to express personal opinions, and dare to imagine and expect a future life of their own. And this was also the time when Archigram was born.
Defining a Novel Meaning of the New Organic Architecture
Authors: Chang Jia-Rey
Published: November 2023

Starting an overall investigation by categorizing current bio-inspired architectural design developments into “Material”, “Morphological”, and “Behavioral” to explore a novel definition of the “New Generation Organic Architecture”.

At present, people are confronting the unprecedented unification of machine and biology which has been revealed by the means of advancing industrial processes towards the organic model. In his remarkable publication, “Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World” (Kelly, 1995), Kevin Kelly makes an interesting observation that “Machines are becoming biological and the biological is becoming engineered”. In other words, the clear boundary of machine vs biology is blurring through current technological developments. In “Out of Control”, Kevin Kelly has further made several explicit points to support his views, that Industry will inevitably adopt bio-inspired methods:

It takes less material to do the same job better.

The complexity of built things now reaches biological complexity.

Nature will not move, so it must be accommodated.

The natural world itself—genes and life forms—can be engineered (and patented) just like industrial systems.

All the crucial points described above can be easily observed in the architectural industry as well. Each statement corresponds with material optimization, multidisciplinary technologies, evolutionary processes, and genetic engineering which are all involved in current digital architectural design developments. After years of evolution, the developments of “Organic Architecture” have been now separated into various research focuses which are distant from the original idea coined by the well-known American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. A group of followers still insist on maintaining Wright’s original idea to develop buildings which are green and sustainable, they fit or even blend into the surrounding environment as a whole. But since the power of personal computers and sophisticated modeling software has become relatively easy to access and is employed in all aspects of architectural design, various experiments have been conducted in the last decade, which try to outline a number of new definitions pertaining to “what are the essential ideas/principles of ‘Organic Architecture’?”. Nature has undoubtedly always been the greatest inspiration for the manmade industry, technology, and architecture. This development has only escalated with the assistance from computational technology over the last few decades. The thesis will preview the pros and cons of current design developments under the big umbrella of digital organic/bio-inspired architecture. This discussion will be categorized into three major divisions: “Morphological”, “Material”, and “Behavioral” owing to the different focus of computational applications within each one of them.
Conclusion and Future Recommendation
Authors: Chang Jia-Rey
Published: November 2023

Interactive Architecture should embody the features of “Information”, “Improvisation”, and “Integration” in order to generate sufficient “Intelligence” to embody the authentic kernel of “Organic Architecture”.

In the domain of Interactive Architecture, it is quite easy to become trapped in discussions predominantly focused on technical discourses. This is what can be observed in most of the published materials on Interactive Architecture available in the market today. These publications draw too much attentions in the manner of how to make technical systems, instead of focusing on why to make it. Partly, this may be because it is necessary to understand hands-on technical issues, however, there should certainly be more informative material to fertilize design thinking of Interactive Bio-Architecture. Some other publications in the same genre fall into a collection of on-going case studies in the domain of Interactive Architecture without properly arranging them into an organized systemic discourse. Unlike such publications, this research attempts to become a pioneering exploration attempting to address Interactive architecture as the convergence of three areas: Computation, Embodiment (Body), and Biology. From the computational point of view, the research outlined the historic trajectory of computational applications in digital architecture design or CAAD (computer aided architectural design) and its evolution from data storage, rendering representation, towards sophisticated physical computing. From embodiment(body) perspective, a wide range of issues from diverse fields of metrology, philosophy, media studies, interactive art, VR and motion tracking technology have been elaborated upon in order to discover intimate relationships and connections between (cyber)space and (cyborgs)human. In the section of Biology, the discussion ranged from the so-called organic architecture design that remains at the stage of mimicking organic shapes, to extracting and translating the fundamental premises of morphogenesis from Evolutionary-Development Biology (Evo-Devo) in order to propose computationally assisted body-like interactive Bio-architectures. By leading the arguments slightly more towards the humanities, cultural, and social or even biological aspects, it aims to broaden the research scope of Interactive Bio-Architecture to reverse its stereotypical associations of being extremely technical and engineering oriented. This research thus concludes by providing critical emphasis on topics such as Information, Improvisation, Integration, and Intelligence, which are reflective of the fundamental essence of the inter-disciplinary research elaborated in each chapter of the thesis.
Discussion
Authors: Bos -de Vos Marina
Published: November 2023

This research aimed to investigate how architectural firms capture value in the projects in which they are involved, and how architectural firms might be supported in developing strategies for value capture. Section 7.1 provides a summary of the key findings of the research, first with respect to the understanding of architectural firms’ project-based value capture developed in the dissertation (§ 7.1.1) and second in relation to the toolkit for facilitating the development of project-specific value capture strategies (§ 7.1.2). Section 7.2 discusses the significance of the findings for research on organizational value capture, the management of architectural firms and business model design processes, before presenting suggestions on directions for future research. Then, Section 7.3 presents the practical implications of the research for collaborative work in creative projects, and for architectural firms and other firms that are involved in these projects. In Section 7.4, the implications for education are discussed. Finally, I will reflect on the research approach and the relevance of the results in Section 7.5.
In-situ real time measurements of thermal comfort and comparison with the adaptive comfort theory in Dutch residential dwellings
Authors: Anastasios Ioannou , Itard Laure , Agarwal Tushar
Published: November 2023

Indoor thermal comfort is generally assessed using the PMV or the adaptive model. This research presents the results obtained by in-situ real time measurements of thermal comfort and thermal comfort perception in 17 residential dwellings in the Netherlands. The study demonstrates the new possibilities offered by relatively cheap, sensor-rich environments to collect data on clothing, heating, and activities related to thermal comfort, which can be used to improve and validate existing comfort models. The results are analyzed against the adaptive comfort model and its underlying assumptions. Data analysis showed that while indoor temperatures are within the adaptive model’s comfort bandwidth, occupants often reported comfort sensations other than neutral. Furthermore, when indoor temperatures were below the comfort bandwidth, tenants also often reported that they felt ‘neutral’. The adaptive model could overestimate as well as underestimate the occupant’s adaptive capacity towards thermal comfort. Despite the significant outdoors temperature variation, the indoor temperature of the dwellings and the clothing were observed to remain largely constant. Certain actions towards thermal comfort such as ‘turning the thermostat up’ were taking place while tenants were reporting thermal sensation ‘neutral’ or ‘a bit warm’. This indicates that either there is an indiscrimination among the various thermal sensation levels or alliesthesia plays a role and the neutral sensation is not comfortable, or many actions are happening out of habit and not in order to improve one’s thermal comfort. A chi2 analysis showed that only six actions were correlated to thermal sensation in thermally poorly efficient dwellings, and six in thermally efficient dwellings.
Barriers for façade integration of solar technologies
Authors: Prieto Hoces Alejandro Ignacio , Knaack Ulrich , Auer Thomas , Klein Tillmann
Published: November 2023

Solar energy has been actively promoted as a clean energy source for a long time; however, solar technologies have not been widely used in the built environment, mostly limiting their operation to industrial and macroscale applications. Along with commercially available products such as building integrated PV panels (BIPV) or building integrated solar thermal collectors (BIST); novel solar cooling integrated facades are seen as interesting alternatives for the development of new active façade components for high-performing commercial buildings. Nevertheless, there are barriers to overcome to push for widespread application of architecturally integrated solar façades.

This chapter identifies perceived barriers for widespread façade integration of solar technologies, to explore the current scenario and generate guidelines for future developments. To achieve this, the chapter discusses the results of the second part of the survey presented in the previous chapter, which addresses the perceived potential and specific issues for the integration of solar technologies. General results point to economic aspects as the main barrier to overcome, followed by particular issues related to current limitations of components and architectural products. In this aspect, most mentions point to performance, aesthetics and technical complexity of current systems as issues to improve in order to promote the development of solar integrated architectural products.
Introduction
Authors: Teye Alfred Larm
Published: November 2023

The rate of home-ownership across Europe and in many countries has increased significantly in recent decades. This is partly because most governments have promoted home-ownership as part of an asset-based welfare system with the notion that home-ownership will generate wealth for households through the accumulation of housing equity. Changes in house prices play an important role in the generation of the housing equity and the wealth inherent in home-ownership. In general, house prices change in cycles of upward and downward trends. Each of these cycles may be driven by different sets of fundamental determinants and by the prevailing conditions in the wider economy. Over the long term, home-owners usually accumulate significant housing equity, yielding welfare benefits. However, even periods of brief house price decline can erode the value of housing equity accrued over several years. Following the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), for example, the severe decline in house prices caused many recent home-owners to run into negative equity. Figures from Statistics Netherlands show that following the GFC, in the Netherlands alone the total wealth in residential properties declined from e738,449 million in 2009 to e721,018 million by the end of 2012. In effect, home-ownership involves significant financial risk, which can adversely affect the balance sheets of households. These risks require a better understanding and proper measurements. However, it is also important to first understand house price dynamics, which significantly affect the process of equity generation. A thorough understanding of house price dynamics is necessary if we are to identify innovative ways of insuring against the risks associated with home-ownership.
Risks in home-ownership
Authors: Teye Alfred Larm , de Haan Jan , Elsinga Marja , Bondinuba Francis
Published: November 2023

Purpose: Risk in home-ownership from mortgage providers’ perspectives within the euro zone has received more attention than individual home owner’s perspectives in the literature following the financial crisis in 2007/2008. The purpose of this paper is to explore the risk factors in home-ownership from the individual household’s perspectives within the owner-occupied housing sector of the Netherlands.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopted a broader review of extant literature on the different concepts and views on risk in home-ownership. These concepts are unified into a framework that enhances our understanding of the perceived sophisticated risk within the owner-occupied sector in the Netherlands.

Findings: From the perspective of the home owner, two main types of risks were identified: mortgage default and property price risk. The paper has unearthed a quantum number of factors which underline the above risks. The mortgage default risk factors include the initial amount of mortgage loan taken out, the future housing expenses and the income development of the owner-occupier. Family disintegration is also identified as one of the main causes of mortgage default in the Netherlands. Property price risk is influenced by income, interest rates and conditions in the social and private rental sectors.

Research limitations/implications: Findings of the paper are based on review of the extant literature in the context of the Dutch housing market. Possible rigorous situational analysis using other tools are recommended for further research.

Originality/value: This paper contributes to the much needed body of knowledge in the owner-occupied sector and provides a better understanding of risk in home ownership from the individual perspectives.
Risks and interrelationships of subdistrict house prices
Authors: Teye Alfred Larm , de Haan Jan , Elsinga Marja
Published: November 2023

This paper uses individual house transaction data from 1995 to 2014 in Amsterdam to explore the risks and interrelationships of the subdistrict house prices. Simple indicators suggest that house prices grow faster and are more risky in the central business district and its immediate surrounding areas than in the peripherals. Furthermore, we observe an over time decreasing inter-variations between the subdistrict house price growth rates, whereas we find a lead-lag and house price causal flow from the more central to the peripheral subdistricts.
Rotterdam
Authors: Meyer Han , Nillesen Anne Loes , Zonneveld Wil
Published: November 2023

This paper can be seen as the overall introduction in which the Rotterdam Rijnmond case study region and its spatial and flood risk challenge are introduced. It describes the strong historical relation between flood risk management interventions and the spatial development of the region. The region is protected against floods by an extensive system of (sea)barriers and dike-rings. Positioned on the edge of the Rhine-Meuse delta, the region developed as a port area and is part of the so-called Randstad area: the most densified area of the Netherlands.

Due to climate change, increasing sea levels and peak river discharges are expected in the future, resulting in an increased flood risk. In order to address this future flood risk challenge, the second Delta Committee was established - the first Delta Committee was established after the 1953 flood that flooded part of the Netherlands. This Delta Committee develops regional strategies for flood risk reduction for the long-term period, up to 2100. As part of the strategy development process, four conceptual regional flood risk reduction strategies are developed, which can be perceived as cornerstones of the playing field of possible flood risk reduction strategies for the region.

Those cornerstone strategies vary from the complete damming of the delta (thus lowering the extreme water levels behind the barrier) to opening up the delta and dealing with the expectedly high water levels by elevating the region’s dike-rings. The different cornerstones offer different potentials and threats for the spatial development of the region. In addition, at a local scale, the different cornerstones impact the spatial quality of the dike zones and flood plains in different ways.

This strong relation between the flood risk management interventions and spatial composition and quality of the region supports the urgency of approaching the future flood risk reduction task in a comprehensive way.
The Synergy Between Flood Risk Reduction and Spatial Quality in Coastal Cities
Authors: Nillesen Anne Loes
Published: November 2023

This paper describes the application of a research-by-design approach that aims for a combined approach for spatial quality enhancementand flood risk reduction, with spatial quality as a decisive exante criterion. In order to achieve this, as in the ‘Room for the River’ programme, a dual flood risk and spatial quality objective is set. This research was performed as part of the ‘Atelier for Coastal Quality’, in which The Hague’s seaside area of ‘Scheveningen’ was selected as a case study location.Here, the future reinforcement of the sea barrier could be combined with addressing the challenges of improving spatial quality, among which are: identity, vitality, attractiveness, and connectivity.

A research-by-design approach was deployed in which a single parameter was systematically varied (the flood risk intervention) while fixing other parameters (such as the context and the objectives from a spatial and flood risk perspective). After exploring and defining both the flood risk and spatial objectives for the area, three alternative flood risk reduction strategies (based on three alternative interventions: a boulevard, dunes, and a perpendicular dam) for Scheveningen were developed. In order to facilitate the integrated design process, ‘Delta Ateliers’, in which multidisciplinary experts and stakeholders interactively worked together, were successfully deployed.

As a result, it became apparent that the inclusion of a prominent spatial objective is not the main key to including spatial quality as an ex-ante decisive criterion in defining flood risk strategies. The three proposed flood risk reduction interventions had all been successfully embedded with regard to meeting the prescribed spatial criteria, thereby disqualifying the spatial aspects as selection criteria for the flood risk intervention. However, as part of the study, a supporting research-by-design exercise was performed in which three different locations for the positioning of the perpendicular dam, were explored from a spatial perspective. Here, it seemed that providing interchangeable (similarly effective) interventions at different locations did result in very different potentials for spatial quality, thus allowing spatial quality to become a decisive selection criterion.

The ‘Room for the River’ principle, which appeared essential in order to include spatial quality as a decisive ex-ante criterion, is the creation of alternative exchangeable options for the flood risk reduction interventions at different locations. Based on these findings, the research-by-design approach deployed is extended to not only systematically test different interventions, but to also systematically vary the location of the intervention. The ‘Delta Atelier’ multidisciplinary workshop approach is continued within the remaining research.
Water Safety Strategies and Local-scale Spatial Quality
Authors: Nillesen Anne Loes
Published: November 2023

In this paper, the development of a method to assess the impact of a flood risk intervention on spatial quality is described. In order to make spatial quality a decisive criterion for the selection of flood risk management interventions, the assessment of the impact of an intervention on spatial quality should be assessed in a verifiable and reproducible way. As described in the first publication, the Delta Programme defined four alternative system strategies for the reduction of flood risk in the Rijnmond Drechtsteden area. In this research, the developed method is deployed to assess the impact of those alternative system scale interventions on local scale spatial quality.

The developed method is based on the ‘Room for the River’ assessment framework for spatial quality, which is based on a combination of a criteria checklist and expert judgement. The Room for the River method is developed to test elaborate design proposals in a rural setting. In this research, the framework is adjusted and extended to test more conceptual interventions, and criteria are altered to fit the more urban setting of the Rijnmond Drechtsteden area.

In the research, the criteria on the checklist (which are based on the perception of spatial quality of a combination of utility, attractiveness, and robustness) are only considered when deemed relevant by the experts. The checklist supports the expert judgement in two valuable ways: firstly, as a tool to during consecutive assessments provide the experts with a coherent and wide view of criteria, and secondly, to make the assessment verifiable and open to discussion.

The method contains the following steps:

Adapt the spatial assessment framework to specific conditions for a case study area. Visualise the various (local-scale) locations that need to be evaluated in a consistent and neutral fashion.
Assess the current situation as a reference, using an expert team and relevant criteria from the framework
Assess the new situation related to the flood risk protection strategy, using an expert team and relevant criteria from the framework.

Though time-consuming, the assessment framework works well in achieving verifiable assessments regarding the impact of regional and local flood risk management interventions on spatial quality at a local scale, in this particular case study, by allowing the local scale spatial quality to function as a selection criterion for selecting a regional flood risk management strategy. In this dissertation research, spatial quality is aimed to be a criterion in strategy development and not just in selecting already composed strategies. In order to achieve this, in an earlier research stage, different measures will have to be assessed, and, based on the assessment, be selected or omitted as components of a regional flood risk management strategy.
Questionnaire testing, validating, and preliminary results
Authors: SANCHEZ Marco Antonio ORTIZ , Bluyssen Philomena M.
Published: November 2023

Abstract This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the TwoStep cluster analysis and the development and first results of a new questionnaire for measuring comfort, health, and energy habits. The justification for the questionnaire is to consolidate questions of six specific domains about occupants' energy consumption patterns, from the behavioural and psychological perspectives into one instrument. The questionnaire was developed from a literature review, iterative conceptualization, and testing. The resulting instrument was administered to a sample of home occupants, comprising of bachelor students of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology. The objective of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the TwoStep cluster analysis to produce occupant profiles. 316 emails were sent out inviting participants to complete the questionnaire. With the TwoStep cluster analysis, it was possible to distinguish six different archetypes of occupants based on their behavioural characteristics. These were the Relaxed Optimists, Unconcerned Indifferents, Restrained Sensitives, Positive Absolutists, Incautious Negativistics, and Resigned Savers. The results provide promising evidence of the questionnaire's potential to distinguish different occupant energy-consumption profiles based on distinct psychosocial domains in a single and concise instrument, while also showing that the analysis method is appropriate for the type of variables gathered. The value of recognizing these profiles allows for a better understanding of occupants' differing energy consumption patterns in their homes and tailoring interventions to their specific needs.
Context and Precedent Studies
Authors: Jauslin Daniel
Published: November 2023

The first chapter introduces the central questions and purpose of the thesis and explores the ways in which landscape could again become relevant for architecture. I will establish the background to our spatial analysis by defining landscape and architecture in a theoretical elaboration of their crucial interrelations.

I will give an outline of the the context of this research (1.1) and state the research questions (1.2). I will open the next section by stating the context of discussion: apparent distinction between architecture and landscape in exemplary theoretical and practical works (1.3).

I will then review and reflect on the literature that touched on the subject of this thesis, buildings that have been designed like landscapes, focusing on the aspects that are particularly relevant to the thesis (1.4). These reflections will not only show an increasing interest in landscape as a phenomenon of contemporary architecture but also position the emerging landscape strategies in architecture that I will demonstrate as both critical and urgent towards architects in design practice.

Section 1.5. will introduce the methodology in relation to these precedents.
Architecture’s involvement with Landscape
Authors: Jauslin Daniel
Published: November 2023

While nature is an important component of architectural theory, we must reevaluate how architecture deals with nature in theory in order to place landscape in this thesis in the disciplinary context of architecture.

While revisiting 17 of architecture's crucial exponents throughout twenty centuries, I explore their dealings with landscape or nature and the concepts thereof. The beginning of this chapter (3.1) will touch on some crucial problems that lead to the polarity of 'wild' nature and human architecture, or more precisely, the divide between nature and humanity through architecture. Part of the theoretical problem elaborated in the beginning of the chapter is, that landscape and nature are oftentimes conflated if not confused, in particular by architects.

Out of my critique of a thematic selection of common architectural theories and within the methodological differentiation (3.2), I will argue for the necessity of research through analyses of landscape spatial composition in architecture. This argument should lead to introduce my application of the a twofold analytical model. One side of the analysis is about the form of the landscape architectural composition (Steenbergen & Reh 2003) with a method of drawing analysis of the formal composition of architectural projects in this thesis. The other side is evaluation of their strategies with the previously explained four attitudes. The introduction the twofold analytical methods will conclude with the research framework for our further investigation into Landscape Design Strategies drawing from the different theories of the conceptual landscape attitudes and the formal landscape composition, our research framework will merge these two theories into a complete picture of the phenomenon.

In section 3.3, I will propose what has led to the selection and varied analytical techniques throughout this study and motivated the selection of key cases. I will treat the three cited cases in each individual chapters 4, 5 and 6.
Rolex Learning Centre at EPFL, Lausanne
Authors: Jauslin Daniel
Published: November 2023

The Rolex Learning Centre has been overly announced, published and praised as ‘landscape’ as architecture. Completed in 2010, it is the largest scale international building of Japanese Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), and it quickly becomes clear the designer’s explicit aim was to solve a complex programmatic and spatial request with an artificial landscape.

The commitment of the building to the creation of landscape explains the choice of the project for this study (5.1.). The context of the project in the EPFL campus of Lausanne and its insertion in the lake Geneva landscape deserve some explanation as well as the specific need for it and how that was answered by the design (5.2.). The impression from the field-trip will be described in the next section (5.3.). The challenging form led to a relatively long planning and building process in which quite unusual techniques and structural design were used for concrete reinforcements, formwork and even pouring at high local building standards (5.4.). My 4 layer analysis can be executed in a pure and complete manner (5.5.). The specific analytical method used for Rolex Learning Centre is a visual space analysis of this project with a 3D isovist software tool, a method I will introduce in the respective section (5.6).

My exploration of the landscape architectural attitudes will also stress the important role of these spatial aspects among landscape architectural approaches (5.7.). My critique will engage the total picture to understand this creation of landscape as architecture and its extension of our conceptual understanding of landscape strategies (5.8.).
Introduction
Authors: Wandl Alexander
Published: November 2023

This dissertation aims to better understand the phenomenon of dispersed urbanisation across Europe. Although European countries have distinctive historical development patterns, a common phenomenon that occurred since the middle of the last century is that, 'most of Europe has been characterised by spreading of cities and increased population numbers, with people choosing to move out of inner cities to suburban and peri-urban areas (hybrid areas of fragmented urban and rural characteristics); this has resulted in the divide between urban and rural areas becoming increasingly blurred’ (EUROSTAT, 2016). This change has resulted in more than half of the European population to reside outside of densely populated cities.
Research approach
Authors: Balz Verena
Published: November 2023

Regional design is a collaborative and interactive social practice that includes a broad array of actors with a multiplicity of different interests. It is concerned with the built environment, which is itself a complex system. As noted in the Introduction, regional design triggers multiple expectations but its performances have rarely been evaluated. There are only a few scholarly writings that are dedicated to the topic; these elaborate upon a multitude of theoretically founded interrelations among regional design and spatial planning but draw on a narrow empirical evidence base. In such a context it is important to first detail and stabilise propositions; and exploratory case-study research is an appropriate research methodology to do so (Yin, 2013). Conditions that qualify such research include a well-motivated selection of consistent cases, suited to explore a proposition internally, and to generalise outcomes. These cases should be ones that exist prior to any exploration, be well-documented through a variety of (preferably) publicly accessible sources, and be spread over time. How these conditions were met in this research will be explained briefly below.
Overview of realized examples in architecture using structural cast glass blocks
Authors: Oikonomopoulou Faidra
Published: November 2023

In view of the meticulous and lengthy cooling process discussed in the previous chapters, in architectural applications solid cast glass components have been commercialized up to the size range of standard masonry bricks. Owing to their large cross-sectional area, solid glass bricks are promising structural components that can fully exploit glass’s compressive strength. By forming repetitive components, self-supporting, 3-dimensional all-glass structures of undisturbed transparency can be achieved. Nonetheless, at present, little and rather sporadic exploration has been made in the use of casting as a manufacturing method for structural glass in architecture. To a degree, this is attributed to the existence of only a few realized examples of self-supporting structures made of solid cast glass elements. The, so far, limited demand has in turn led to the absence of a standardized manufacturing process, to a lack of consistent engineering data and to a general unawareness of the potential of cast glass in structural applications in architecture. Currently, including the contribution of this dissertation, there are 3 structural systems employed for creating self-supporting structures out of cast glass components: (a) with a metal substructure, (b) adhesively bonded blocks, (c) interlocking glass blocks. The former two have been applied in real structures, whereas interlocking glass blocks are for the first time introduced as a building system through this dissertation. In this chapter, the 3 concepts are briefly presented, analyzed and evaluated in terms of manufacturing, structural system, level of transparency, ease of assembly and disassembly.
Architectural Record 1942-1967
Authors: Ilias Panigyrakis Phoebus
Published: November 2023

This PhD thesis examines the editorial policies and publishing history of the American periodical Architectural Record in the quarter century from 1942 to 1967. Operating since 1891, the Architectural Record is the longest-living and most circulated professional magazine of architecture, with a strong and lasting impact on the development of the discipline and the profession in the US and abroad. As an archive of architectural knowledge, its history during the mid-20th century is revealing the paradigm shift that occurred in-between the emergence of Modernism in pre-war Europe and its transition to Post-Modernism in the second half of the 20th c., as a largely American issue. The success and influence of the magazine was due to the resources of its parent corporations, F.W. Dodge and McGraw-Hill, its support and acknowledgement by professional and academic organizations and the connections, commitment and inventiveness of its editors. The editorial campaigns of the magazine trace the struggle for the adaptation of the modern movement in the American context and through that to its subsequent global eminence as “contemporary architecture,” a term popularised by the Record.

In the midst of the media revolution, the architectural magazines saw the transformation of the profession to an information-based business, beyond an art and an engineering science. At a time when “architectural composition” was redefined into “architectural design.” Amongst the greater media revolution emerging aggressively in the US, the Architectural Record undertook the task of catering for the needs of the practising architect in the post-industrial, managerial and information age. And while initially the magazines were following the architectural developments, reporting on literal images of architecture, by 1967 its editors were educating, managing, consulting and navigating the profession trough its new markets. This trajectory pinackled in the Record's editorial campaign for “the image of the architect” that exemplified the phenomenon of how magazines were lobbying for the profession. A phenomenon that is still largely inexplored and that defines 21st architectural practice and design.

But more than any theoretical sub-narrative, this thesis is dedicated to the history of the people and events that took place behind the pages of this era-defining magazine through the archives and living records of their time.