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Adapting Land Administration to the Institutional Framework of Customary Tenure: The Case of Peri-Urban Ghana
Get PDFHistorical experience in many Sub-Saharan African countries demonstrates that an alternative approach to conventional land administration methods is required to appropriately secure tenure and administer land rights in customary areas. This book is about dealing with the dynamics of customary tenure and with land governance and institutional capacity issues necessary to implement land administration at the local level. Methods for implementing land administration systems at the local level have been presented in a three-phased tenure model. The author concludes that customary tenure institutions have their own mechanisms for adapting to societal change, and a desirable solution would therefore be to adapt land administration to the institutional framework of customary tenure. The information in this book will be essential for academic work in land administration in developing countries. It will prove a useful reference for policy makers and practitioners in the land administration field
Actual Energy Consumption in Dwellings: The Effect of Energy Performance Regulations and Occupant Behaviour
Get PDFResidential buildings have continuously improved in energy efficiency, partly as a consequence of the introduction of energy regulations in many countries. Although better thermal properties and systems efficiency have lowered energy consumption for space heating in recent decades, substantial differences in energy consumption in similar dwellings are still being observed. These differences in consumption are thought to be caused by differences in occupancy patterns, by quality of construction and by rebound effects.
This research addresses the effect of energy performance regulations and occupant behavior on energy consumption for space and water heating in dwellings built after the introduction of the energy performance regulations in the Netherlands. The results of this research show that improving the energy efficiency of buildings alone is not enough to decrease that energy consumption. The large differences found in the use of dwellings indicate that, especially in energy efficient houses, occupant behavior provides an opportunity for further reductions in the energy consumption for space heating which could boost the efforts to conserve energy worldwide
West European Housing Systems in a Comparative Perspective
Get PDFWest European Housing Systems in a Comparative Perspective gives an overview of the results of almost 20 years of international comparative housing research, carried out by the author and his colleagues at OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment. The articles give evidence of the transition from descriptive analysis to theoretical exploration and the growing relevance of methodology during these years.
The results provide deeper insight into comparative research methodologies and the viability of existing theories as a framework for analyzing differences and similarities in the development of housing systems in West European countries. One of the key issues is the practicability of this framework in future policy making. Especially Kemeny’s theory on rental markets appears to offer a valuable framework to evaluate policy strategies. Therefore the book is not only relevant to academics but also to policy-makers.
 
GIS-based landscape design research: Stourhead landscape garden as a case study
Get PDFLandscape design research is important for cultivating spatial intelligence in landscape architecture. This study explores GIS (geographic information systems) as a tool for landscape design research - investigating landscape designs to understand them as architectonic compositions (architectonic plan analysis). The concept ‘composition’ refers to a conceivable arrangement, an architectural expression of a mental construct that is legible and open to interpretation. Landscape architectonic compositions and their representations embody a great wealth of design knowledge as objects of our material culture and reflect the possible treatment of the ground, space, image and program as a characteristic coherence. By exploring landscape architectonic compositions with GIS, design researchers can acquire design knowledge that can be used in the creation and refinement of a design.
The research aims to identify and illustrate the potential role of GIS as a tool in landscape design research, so as to provide insight into the possibilities and limitations of using GIS in this capacity. The critical, information-oriented case of Stourhead landscape garden (Wiltshire, UK), an example of a designed landscape that covers the scope and remit of landscape architecture design, forms the heart of the study. The exploration of Stourhead by means of GIS can be understood as a plausibility probe. Here the case study is considered a form of ‘quasi-experiment’, testing the hypothesis and generating a learning process that constitutes a prerequisite for advanced understanding, while using an adjusted version of the framework for landscape design analysis by Steenbergen and Reh (2003). This is a theoretically informed analytical method based on the formal interpretation of the landscape architectonic composition addressing four landscape architectonic categories: the basic, the spatial, the symbolic and the programmatic form. This study includes new aspects to be analysed, such as the visible form and the shape of the walk, and serves as the basis for the landscape architectonic analysis in which GIS is used as the primary analytical tool.
GIS-based design research has the possibility to cultivate spatial intelligence in landscape architecture through three fields of operation:
GIS-based modelling: description of existing and future landscape architectonic compositions in digital form;
GIS-based analysis: exploration, analysis and synthesis of landscape architectonic compositions in order to reveal latent architectonic relationships and principles, while utilizing the processing capacities and possibilities of computers for ex-ante and ex-post simulation and evaluation;
GIS-based visual representation: representation of (virtual) landscape architectonic compositions in space and time, in order to retrieve and communicate information and knowledge of the landscape design.
Though there are limitations, this study exemplifies that GIS is a powerful instrument to acquire knowledge from landscape architectonic compositions. The study points out that the application of GIS in landscape design research can be seen as an extension of the fundamental cycle of observation, visual representation, analysis and interpretation in the process of knowledge acquisition, with alternative visualisations and digital landscape models as important means for this process. Using the calculating power of computers, combined with inventive modelling, analysis and visualisation concepts in an interactive process, opened up possibilities to reveal new information and knowledge about the basic, spatial, symbolic and programmatic form of Stourhead. GIS extended the design researchers’ perception via measurement, simulation and experimentation, and at the same time offered alternative ways of understanding the landscape architectonic composition. This gave rise to the possibility of exploring new elements in the framework of landscape design research, such as the visible form and kinaesthetic aspects, analysing the composition from eyelevel perspective. Moreover, the case study showcases that GIS has the potential to measure phenomena that are often subject to intuitive and experimental design, combining general scientific knowledge of, for instance, visual perception and way-finding, with the examination of site-specific design applications. GIS also enabled one to understand the landscape architectonic composition of Stourhead as a product of time, via the analysis of its development through reconstruction and evaluation of several crucial time-slice snapshots.
The study illustrates that GIS can be regarded an external cognitive tool that facilitates and mediates in design knowledge acquisition. GIS facilitates in the sense that it can address the ‘same types of design-knowledge’ regarding the basic, spatial, symbolic and programmatic form, but in a more precise, systematic, transparent, and quantified manner. GIS mediates in the sense that it influences what and how aspects of the composition can be understood and therefore enables design researchers to generate ‘new types of design-knowledge’ by advanced spatial analysis and the possibility of linking or integrating other information layers, fields of science and data sources.
The research contributes to the development and distribution of knowledge of GIS-applications in landscape architecture in two ways: (1) by ‘following’ the discipline and developing aspects of it, and (2) by setting in motion fundamental developments in the field, providing alternative readings of landscape architecture designs
Heritage-based design
Get PDFThis book addresses the question of how to design in a historical context. How to get a grip on a site? How can a designer incorporate actual qualities of the heritage in the design? In three chapters, it is described how the conservation of heritage has increasingly become an issue of planning and intervention, with the specific cultural heritage qualities of a site as the starting point for transformation.
There are several different approaches to embed the design in the site: focussing on the designed past, the designed presence and the non-designed presence. The better the essences of the meaning of the cultural heritage (substance, structure and narrative) are exposed, the better the design can focus on these. However accurately the different process steps are adhered to — in the end the quality of the design will determine the degree of success: it’s a thin line between a disaster and a brilliant intervention. The design challenge is to give a site new vitality while at the same time preserving its value.
Over the past decade, my office has dealt with all kinds of interventions and new developments. In teams of designers and historians, we have analysed buildings, areas and landscapes to discover their visible and invisible qualities. How did they become what they are today? What were the ideas and ideals at the time of their realisation? To what extent has a site withstood the test of time, and how can the concepts, structures and stories from the past be deployed in current challenges? We gradually try to get to the core: the legacy for the future and the exact nature of the assignment — viewed from the perspective of the cultural heritage value. Defining that value is a design on its own, just like history itself is. It is a creative process, in which the views and opinions of others carry considerable weight, but where you as the specialist will have to make the final assessment to arrive at decisions and legitimation. This will create a heritage base for the design to respond to and build upon.
There is no lack of good intentions to integrate heritage in a design. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that heritage values are safe in the hands of an architect. Far too often one gets the impression that the designer makes light of the job, by haphazardly including a couple of ancient relics or some monumental fragments (cherry picking), or by forcing a format or a blueprint onto a special site. Designers also frequently limit the cultural heritage aspect to their own visual perception and display an almost hostile attitude towards the views and interpretations of the heritage sector. The underlying reasons for such an attitude are to be found in the history of modern architecture, where for a century or more the past has been regarded as an impediment for the designer. With such a background, it is difficult to relate to cultural heritage with an open mind. Fortunately, this is a rearguard action. These days, a diversity of designers all illustrate in their own way what can be won by architecture when it is nourished by the heritage. By leaving space in the design for what is already there, by getting inspiration from the stories of others, and making use of what is available, the circumstances will be created for the heritage to survive an intervention and, moreover, to derive new meaning and values from it.
A good example of responding to a site is designer Piet Hein Eek’s factory in Eindhoven. With a high degree of open-mindedness, he lets the existing quality speak for itself, at the same time linking it to his own universe and the Piet Hein Eek brand. This serves to refresh the site and to make it attractive for new target groups. Robert Winkel (Mei Architects) takes a different approach: he uses the cultural heritage framework to explore the boundaries of a possible intervention. While doing the utmost justice to the cultural heritage value, he carries out radical interventions such as the creation of large openings (Jobsveem, Rotterdam) or enormous superstructures (Fenixloodsen (warehouses), Rotterdam). These are extreme interventions, with the presence of the heritage remaining the dominant factor; it becomes as it were a free-rider on the renovation to provide it with new significance, prominence and visibility in the city. This respectful attitude towards the cultural heritage value, without running away from renewal, can also be seen in the many transformations carried out by diederendirrix architects. It is not a coincidence that all these architects operate in Rotterdam and Eindhoven: modern cities in the midst of transformation, where the architectural image is not yet fully solidified but where history is visible, with a decisive influence on the quality and the potential of the city. The challenge is to also give the poetry of the site an effective voice in the design.
At the stations of the Dutch Railways, the heritage cannot possibly be regarded as something static. By virtue of their function, they are dynamic sites, with growing numbers of travellers and major changes in programming. In De Collectie (The Collection), the railway sector has established a number of outstanding stations, with the aim of including the heritage values in the transition processes which are inherent to stations. Thanks to De Collectie, the uniformity of interventions is broken and network demands (speed, capacity, safety, commerce) are increasingly better and more obviously aligned with the existing quality and the spatial logic of each separate outstanding station ensemble. On less dynamic sites, where the architectural image is much more fixed, the design brief shifts to the interior (churches), technology (upgrading of offices) or to combining different functions in an often far from the obvious way.
The design on or around heritage is all about open-mindedness, doing justice to the cultural heritage value, daring to opt for a radical intervention if necessary, making history visible in the innovative city, and responding to the poetry of the site — and all this in appropriate measures. The architectural style (modern or traditional, contrast or symbiosis) does not really matter all that much, as long as the attitude is to design on the basis of the existing qualities and to carefully develop the detailed design
HISTORY URBANISM RESILIENCE VOLUME 01: Ideas on the Move and Modernisation
Get PDFThe 17th conference (2016, Delft) of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and its proceedings place presentations from different continents and on varied topics side by side, providing insight into state-of-the art research in the field of planning history and offering a glimpse of new approaches, themes, papers and books to come.
VOLUME 01: Ideas on the Move and Modernisatio
OverHolland 10/11: Architectural studies for the Dutch city
Get PDFThis edition of OverHolland is a good deal thicker than usual, as befits a celebratory issue. The editors have decided to make it a double issue, which at the same time makes clear that the OverHolland series will not end with No. 10. When the series began seven years ago, a contract was signed for the publication of ten issues. The achievement of that goal certainly warrants a celebration — but that is no reason to bring the series to an end. The editors and publishers will make every effort to ensure that it continues.
‘OverHolland — Architectural studies for Dutch cities is a series published on the joint initiative of the Department of Architecture at Delft University of Technology and SUN Publishers. The editors and publishers plan to publish two issues a year. The field of architectural research covered by the series includes both typological and morphological urban research and the question of architectural interventions in the context of Dutch cities.’ This was OverHolland’s ‘mission statement’ when it was launched. As it turned out, two issues a year was rather too ambitious a target, but that was not for lack of commitment. The standard of quality the editors sought often entailed more preparatory work, and in the past two years, there have also been considerable funding difficulties. However, OverHolland has proved highly popular, especially with urban historians and geographers, and has thus become a platform for the exchange of research between various disciplines.
As this issue goes to show, OverHolland’s programme is by no means exhausted. Much of issue 10/11 is devoted to an exploration of the main changes in the area that is now the Randstad between 800 and 2000. Changes in the landscape, habitation patterns and infrastructure are shown in six maps that indicate the situation in 800, 1200, 1500, 1700, 1900 and 2000. These ‘snapshots’ provide an overall picture of (a) the history of habitation and the urbanisation process and (b) changes in landscape and infrastructure. The study follows on from earlier texts published by Henk Engel and Reinout Rutte in issues 2 and 3 of OverHolland.
‘Twelve centuries of spatial transformation in the western Netherlands’ is the result of a joint study carried out from March 2008 to February 2011 by the University of Amsterdam’s Historical Geography research group and the Urban Architecture and History sections (Institute of History of Art, Architecture and Urbanism, IHAAU) at Delft University of Technology’s Faculty of Architecture. The maps and texts were produced in close consultation, the various tasks being divided up as follows. Guus Borger and Frits Horsten provided abundant source material for the maps and wrote most of the text. Otto Diesfeldt, Iskandar Paní© and Arnoud de Waaijer drew the maps and wrote the accompanying technical explanations. Henk Engel and Reinout Rutte initiated and supervised the project, edited the articles, contributed texts on the towns and cities concerned and wrote the explanations for the 1900 and 2000 maps. The editors and publishers wish to thank the Netherlands Architecture Fund for funding this issue.
This double issue also contains articles by three PhD students. Nikki Brand and Kim Zweerink take a closer look at the period 12001500, the centuries during which the urban system in what is now the Randstad began to take shape. Following on from her article in OverHolland 9, Nikki Brand traces the emergence of the waterway network and investigates how it may have influenced the development of the nine main towns in the area: Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Gouda and Utrecht. Kim Zweerink examines how the layout of these towns evolved and uses the location of urban institutions to show the initial development of town centres.
Esther Gramsbergen looks at how the development of urban institutions affected the layout of a single city, Amsterdam, which in the sixteenth century assumed a predominant position with Holland’s urban system, and whose urban institutions displayed the most differentiated development from then on. Following earlier studies on the areas around the Dam square (in OverHolland 3) and the Binnengasthuis hospital (in OverHolland 6), Gramsbergen now examines the Plantage district. After the city council had launched Amsterdam’s Fourth Expansion in 1662 in response to robust population growth, the city’s development rapidly slowed, and after the Dutch Republic’s annus horribilis 1672 it came to a complete (albeit temporary) halt. The area east of the River Amstel remained vacant, and the city council decided to create the Plantage and establish the ‘Hortus Botanicus’ (botanical garden) there. In the nineteenth century, this first ever deliberately designed urban green space was to become a testing ground for cultural and educational institutions.
Esther Gramsbergen’s study follows an article by Freek Schmidt. This discusses the emergence of private country homes in Watergraafsmeer and the accompanying cultural components, which also guided Amsterdam’s city fathers when creating the Plantage and the botanical garden. Robert Cavallo then provides an introduction to a number of graduation projects for the redesign of the area adjoining the Plantage, Roeterseiland, home to many of the University of Amsterdam’s buildings since the late nineteenth century.
OverHolland 10/11 concludes with two book reviews. Herman van Bergeijk reviews Jaap Evert Abrahamse’s dissertation De grote uitleg van Amsterdam. Stadsontwikkeling in de zeventiende eeuw (‘The Great Expansion of Amsterdam: urban development in the seventeenth century’), and Anton Kos discusses Bas van Bavel’s recent study Manors and Markets. Economy and Society in the Low Countries, 500-1600
Urban Modality: Modelling and evaluating the sustainable mobility of urban areas in the city-region
Get PDFThis thesis proposes a framework for evaluating the mobility potential and performance of urban areas in the city region, as an instrument to support urban development that contributes positively to regional sustainable mobility objectives. The research takes a quantitative approach, modelling and measuring the characteristics of a city-region and of its individual urban areas, in terms of travel patterns and socioeconomic characteristics of the resident population, and in terms of built environment characteristics. It then explores how the built environment defines the affordances of urban areas for travelling by particular modes of transport, i.e. its walk-ability, cycleability, drive-ability and transit-ability, by developing a typology of what I call their ‘urban modality’. And finally the work combines this typology with the socio-economic characteristics of urban areas to determine their sustainable mobility potential and performance. It focuses on the case of the Randstad region of the Netherlands and its VINEX neighbourhoods, which are an emblematic example of new urban areas created under a policy programme with sustainable mobility objectives.
A key stance in this work is the understanding that the location of an urban area in the region can be indicative of its population’s travel patterns, because the built environment (infrastructural) and socio-economic characteristics are interrelated and present strong regional spatial patterns. What types of urban areas support sustainable travel patterns, and what are their spatial characteristics? How do new neighbourhoods compare to the best performing urban areas, and to other areas of the same ‘modality’ type? These are some of the questions addressed in this study. There are two main contributions of this research: the methods for building and analysing integrated multimodal network models, and the framework for contextual performance evaluation using urban area typologies.
The integrated multimodal network model combines the various mobility infrastructure networks and the buildings’ land use to create a detailed description of the region, using open spatial data and open source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies. The network model’s spatial analysis covers local urban form indicators, such as street layout, network density and land use mix, as well as regional indicators of multimodal accessibility and network configuration (its structure), to give a holistic profile of urban areas across modes and scales of travel.
The analysis results go through exploratory data mining and classification procedures to identify urban form typologies of urban areas. It is shown that there is a relation between this ‘urban modality’ of urban areas and the travel patterns of their residents, measured as a set of sustainable mobility indicators related to mode share and distance travelled. For this reason, ‘urban modality’ offers the possibility for ex-ante evaluation of sustainable mobility potential of planned urban areas. Furthermore, when combined with the socio-economic profile of the resident population, ‘urban modality’ defines a context for the ex-post evaluation of sustainable mobility performance of existing urban areas.
The evaluation of suburban areas together with the more central historical urban areas gives invariably a high score in sustainable travel to the central areas, and rates the suburban areas negatively. On the other hand, the evaluation of sustainable mobility performance in the context of suburban areas of the same type allows the finer distinction of underperformers that have scope for improvement, and overachievers that provide examples of (relative) success. This contextual evaluation can become a decision support instrument for “hard” and “soft” planning measures involving sustainable mobility targets.
Applying this method to the set of VINEX neighbourhoods of the Randstad leads to the conclusion that despite being planned following the same policy objectives, the neighbourhoods have different types of ‘urban modality’, thus present different levels of sustainable mobility potential. Neighbourhoods identified as underperformers within their context can be targeted for soft measures related to transport services, technology and individual attitudes to travel, to fulfil the potential of their ‘urban modality’ type. However, if this potential is not deemed satisfactory or if they already overachieve, only by retrofitting a set of infrastructure and land use characteristics will lead to a different ‘urban modality’ type, and a change in potential. Such a change can be lengthy, costly and sometimes impossible to implement ex-post.
The thesis is based on a collection of published articles in peer-reviewed academic publications, with the first and last chapters providing an overview of the research and of its findings, and defining the main narrative thread
Imagine: Concretable
No full text'Concretable' contains inspiring examples showing the endless possibilities of concrete. Today, concrete experiences a renaissance; one could speak of a neo-concrete era. The advantages adjudicated to this material have fundamentally changed. Modern types of concrete are available on the market for a multitude of applications - ranging from light and insulating to filigree and high pressure resistant. Concrete fascinates as no other material does since in its fluid state it can be forced into any conceivable mould while becoming highly pressure resistant and massive when hardened. However, the advantage also becomes the material’s main disadvantage: concrete and formwork are closely interdependent. Only with formwork does concrete become a usable building material. Thus elaborate concrete parts require elaborate formwork. The book 'imagine 08. Concretable' illustrates what concrete is already capable of as well as what else is possible. Furthermore, it also shows future developments in the material - where concrete’s technological, constructive and - always a driving factor - aesthetic and design-related potential lie
Imagine: Performance Driven Envelopes
No full textThe impact of climate design on architecture is obvious. But design trends are currently attempting to implement climate design merely as an additional item in architectonic planning. The alternative is to start with an architectural attitude that will produce a comprehensively integrated design. To achieve this, design teams will have to accept an equality of importance, as well as understanding the demands of all relevant themes. This Imagine book is related to a series of lectures at the TU Delft and a workshop in which international professionals and students from various disciplines participated with the intention of creating an ambience deliberately oriented towards generating an integrated, performance-driven envelope