SPOOL
Not a member yet
211 research outputs found
Sort by
Robotically driven construction of buildings: Exploring on-demand building components production
Get PDFRobotically Driven Construction of Buildings (RDCB) is an exploration into design to production solutions for robotically driven construction of buildings initiated by the faculties of Civil Engineering and Architecture, TU Delft and Architecture, TU Eindhoven and implemented 2014 within the 3TU Lighthouse framework. The aim of was to involve the disciplines of architecture, robotics, materials science, and structural design in order to integrate knowledge from the individual disciplines and develop new numerically controlled manufacturing techniques and building-design optimisation methods for adding creative value to buildings in a cost-effective and sustainable way.
RDCB builds up on expertise developed at Hyperbody with respect to applications of robotics in architecture and this paper presents the contribution of the Robotic Building team from Hyperbody, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft to the RDCB project. The contribution is in line with Europe’s aim to improve material and energy efficiency of buildings and efficiency of construction processes. Robotically driven construction and customised building materials have the potential to realise this in a cost-effective way and at the same time reduce accidents and health hazards for workers in the building sector. In order to achieve this RDCB is distributing materials as needed and where needed. This requires exploration of a variety of techniques and implies working with customised materials and techniques while finding the best methods of applying materials in the logic of specific force flows or thermal dissipation patterns.
RDCB advances multi- and trans-disciplinary knowledge in robotically driven construction by designing and engineering new building systems for the on-demand production of customisable building components (Bier, 2014). The main consideration is that in architecture and building construction the factory of the future employs building materials and components that can be on site robotically processed and assembled
Semantic web of building information: Cloud based ‘real world’ building data
Get PDFInformation required by practicing architects, engineers, construction managers, building operators, asset managers, owners, and users becomes more and more distributed, detailed, and richer. BIG DATA is on the rise and this trend will not stop. We rather expect that this trend will further accelerate in the upcoming years as;
more and more sensor technologies will become widely available to access existing conditions in the built environment,
more and more information streams will be combined for various purposes, e.g. mobile data access information to space use in order to evaluate wireless infrastructure performance but also to establish building use patterns in post-occupancy evaluations,
advanced design tools will allow for more detailed data-driven simulation of an increasing number of design alternatives in shorter time spans, and
participatory efforts will involve an ever larger number of specialists and non-specialists that all provide information that needs to be accounted for during design and construction planning.
We expect that these will be key areas for research in the upcoming years. In this lighthouse project we made four important first steps to enable such research:
3TU BIM Data Repository
Data format, standard, and dictionary map
Information use and exchange processes
Automated indexing method
Understanding the whole city as landscape. A multivariate approach to urban landscape morphology
Get PDFThe European Landscape Convention implies a requirement for signatory states to identify their urban landscapes which goes beyond the traditional focus on individual parks and green spaces and the links between them. Landscape ecological approaches can provide a useful model for identifying urban landscape types across a whole territory, but the variables relevant for urban landscapes are very different to those usually addressing rural areas. This paper presents an approach to classifying the urban landscape of Vienna that was developed in a research project funded by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology: ‘Urban Fabric and Microclimate Response’. Nine landscape types and a number of sub-types were defined, using a multivariate statistical approach which takes account of both morphological and urban climate related variables. Although the variables were selected to objectively reflect the factors that could best represent the urban climatic characteristics of the urban landscape, the results also provided a widely plausible representation of the structure of the city’s landscapes. Selected examples of the landscape types that were defined in this way were used both to simulate current microclimatic conditions and also to model the effects of possible climatic amelioration measures. Finally the paper looks forward to developing a more general-purpose urban landscape typology that allows investigating a much broader complex of urban landscape functions
Sensing Hotterdam: Crowd sensing the Rotterdam urban heat island
Get PDFSensing Hotterdam recorded the temperature in 1,000 Rotterdam homes and at 300 public spaces in the summer of 2014 in order to outline the links between the urban heat island, the built environment and public health in the city of Rotterdam. The measured outdoor temperature readings point to a clear heat island effect in Rotterdam. Temperatures in homes are generally higher than those in the surrounding area, and also show a large degree of variation. Indoor temperatures are less affected by local outdoor temperatures than we had expected
A method for metropolitan landscape characterization; case study Rotterdam
Get PDFoai:spool.ac:article/7This paper presents a theoretical and methodological framework for a comprehensive landscape characterization, focussing on the largest and most complex urban realm: the metropolitan region. Landscape character has in recent years emerged as a new paradigm to understand, monitor and evaluate cultural landscapes undergoing change. The scope of characterization methods however, is by and large limited to the non-urban realm. In physical terms, the border between the urban and non-urban realms is becoming increasingly diffuse, particularly in metropolitan regions.
Metropolitan regions thus conceptually challenge the scope of landscape characterization, as cities can also be understood to be in and of themselves a form of cultural landscape. Moreover, territories where urban and rural realms merge, result in new ‘hybrid’ types of space that fall outside existing characterization methods. The method developed and presented in this paper is aimed at producing a comprehensive landscape characterization tool for metropolitan regions in order to understand, evaluate and monitor their spatial form. The method developed combines elements from conventional landscape character assessment with urban morphology, mapping, and cluster analyses.
The first version of the method was tested using the metropolitan region of Rotterdam and resulted in a preliminary categorization of thirty-six metropolitan landscape types. Twenty-four of the thirty-six types are defined as ‘hybrid’ or mixed landscape types, which occupy approximately 30% of the territory. Their make-up is determined by formal varying densities of topographic elements, land use categories, and heights. The hybrid landscape types that have emerged as a result of applying this method are of particular interest, as they were not recognized as a specific category by other classification methods.
The extent and character of these landscapes is not yet fully understood and therefore not used in the landscape policy forming. The method also reveals a substantial disparity between the assumed threshold of city and countryside in the Rotterdam region, and the one that has resulted from this study. The distribution of hybrid landscape types also shows that patterns of dispersion, diffusion, periphery and fragmentation have exceeded what is considered the peri-urban area of Rotterdam in administrative and planning circles
The rural-urban fringe in the Netherlands: recent developments and future challenges
Get PDFIn recent decades, most rural-urban fringes in the Netherlands have seen substantial urbanisation. Urban expansions at the rural-urban fringe have formed complex hybrid landscapes consisting of residential areas, commercial zones, agricultural land, recreational and nature areas. In certain regions, urbanisation is rather compact and concentric, whereas others show dispersed and polycentric morphological patterns. Based on quantitative and qualitative spatial research, this article analyses recent urban developments and urbanisation patterns along the rural-urban fringe in the Netherlands, and identifies challenges for planning and design at national, regional and local levels.
Urban compaction policy has prevented urban sprawl in the Netherlands. However, in some regions traditionally unwanted urban development patterns can be discerned. On a national level, an important question is how increasing dispersed urbanisation may affect the economic performance of cities and the efficient use of existing infrastructure. On a regional level, there is a need for urbanisation strategies that transcend municipal boundaries. On a local level, innovative urban design/re-design strategies may help improve connections between separated functions, involve local stakeholders, and upgrade the identity of places at the fringe
Impenetrable infiltration: Air permeability of Dutch dwellings
Get PDFHet is wenselijk dat gebouwen beschikken over voldoende en de juiste mogelijkheden om te ventileren. Buiten de benodigde ventilatievoorzieningen is het echter de bedoeling een gebouw zo luchtdicht mogelijk te maken ten einde comfortklachten en onnodig energiegebruik te voorkomen. In het Bouwbesluit zijn eisen met betrekking tot de luchtdoorlatendheid – het tegenovergestelde van luchtdichtheid – opgenomen. Met betrekking tot een heel gebouw wordt in Art. 5.4 lid 1 het volgende geëist: De volgens NEN 2686 bepaalde luchtvolumestroom van het totaal aan verblijfsgebieden, toiletruimten en badruimten van een gebruiksfunctie is niet groter dan 0,2 m³/s. De Universiteit Twente en de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven hebben samen met het bouwbedrijf SelektHuis gewerkt aan de uitvoering van het onderzoek “Impenetrable Infiltration”. Dit onderzoek naar de luchtdoorlatendheid van woningen kent drie onderdelen, namelijk:
A. Een veldonderzoek waarbij luchtdichtheidsmetingen worden uitgevoerd op vrijstaande woningen om zo te bepalen tegen welke keuzemogelijkheden luchtdichtheidsmeters en uitvoerende bouwondernemingen aanlopen om de luchtvolumestroom te beïnvloeden;
B. Een deskstudie waarbij rapportages van luchtdichtheidsmetingen worden bestudeerd om zo te bepalen wat de huidige stand van zaken is betreffende de luchtdichtheid van woningen;
C. Een vergelijkend praktijkonderzoek naar het bepalen van de luchtdichtheid, waarbij drie partijen de luchtdichtheid van dezelfde duurzaam gebouwde vrijstaande woning zullen vaststellen.
Om de veldstudie en het praktijkonderzoek uit te kunnen voeren, is de nodige apparatuur aangeschaft. Er is gebruik gemaakt van een blower door, een ventilator en een digitale manometer. Tevens is er tijdens de metingen gebruik gemaakt van twee dataloggers om de luchtdruk, binnen- en buitentemperatuur elke minuut vast te leggen. Er werd een anemometer gebruikt om de windsnelheid op locatie te bepalen. Om inzicht te krijgen waar eventuele lekken zich bevonden, werden een rookmachine en een infraroodcamera ingezet
The LIGHTVAN: Mobile light laboratory
Get PDFThe 'LIGHTVAN' research aims to optimize the lighting design for healthy schools and modern senior housing and care homes with regards to the use of light as a cheap and important source of energy.
A multi-functional mobile light laboratory was built into a delivery van, the LIGHTVAN. This LIGHTVAN has two clear aims: With this mobile light laboratory we can travel to the living environment of specific groups of people, such as children and seniors, so that they may be subject to specific age-dependent light studies. In this moving laboratory measurement equipment is present for this purpose and a table and chairs for the various subjects. Testing of luminance and color contrasts are possible, as well as the testing of "light and shadow" patterns. Even small eye tests can be performed.
In addition, the rear side of the delivery van is adapted so that with opened doors all kinds of innovative facades can be tested. The LIGHTVAN travel to different locations to be accommodated and be positioned towards various sun directions.Several passe-partouts are available for building physics measurements of different facades sizes in order to allow test-subjects to indicate their preferences for specific facades in terms of comfort
Metropolitan Gardens – gardens in the interstices of the metropolitan tissue
Get PDFThe heterogeneity of the contemporary metropolitan landscape has led to a multiplicity of intermediate spaces, in between and within the different tissues of the metropolitan landscape. These interstices can provide favourable conditions to be transformed into gardens. What design instruments can be discovered for these gardens to address the characteristics of the interstice? And what is the value of doing so? In this essay three contemporary examples are compared, which explicitly address the different metropolitan landscapes in which they are located.
Paley Park (New York, USA) is a transformation of an interstice within a dense urban tissue.
Crazannes Garden (Crazannes, FR) creates a point of contact between motorway and rural landscape.
Reflection Garden (Seattle, USA) addresses the inclusion of what used to be the hinterland into the metropolitan realm, which has so little physical impact that the interstitial space between the urban fragments constitutes practically the entire surface.
The gardens are compared focusing on the landscape, the metropolitan condition of their situation, and the formal, spatial and visual transformation of the context in the composition of the garden. From the case studies one can conclude that gardens can define specific places in a generic metropolitan landscape, employing several design tools: centring, enclosing and highlighting a specific selection of existing landscape qualities
Kine-Mould: Flexible mould system opens up wide range of possibilities
Get PDFThe Kine-Mould is a development that makes it easier to manufacture building elements with complex geometry. Since June 2014 the team has been working on a range of solutions and prototypes. Various building materials have been investigated such as concrete, glass and plastic composites. In a joint effort of TU Delft and TU Eindhoven the following prototypes were designed and built:
One for thermoplastic polymers;
One for concrete elements;
One for glass elements;
Several for inflatable mould surfaces.
Students carried out a significant part of the work. Companies were involved in the manufacturing process of the prototypes and application of the results