1,150 research outputs found
The New Capital of Spanish Language Literature: The Best Seller
No full textThis translation was originally published as:
“The New Capital of Spanish Language Literature: The Best Seller.” New Spain New Literatures, by Maarten Steenmeijer. Eds. Luis Martín Estudillo and Nicholas Spadaccini. Vanderbilt UP (81-98). Invited Translator. Book chapter. (2010)
Port expansion project: Port of Phillipsburg St. Maarten Netherlands Antilles
No full textThe Sint Maarten Ports Authority (SMPA) , wishes to expand the present port of Phillipsburg, due to the increase of cargo throughput and forecast for the cruise tourism. The SMPA has appointed Grabowsky&Poort International BV as the main consultants for the port development. To give this report a more complete character, a summary of the Port Lay-out Study, the Wave Climate Study [ref.: 3J and the wave Penetration Study [ref.: 2J are included. These three studies were performed during my work emplacement at GrabowskY&Poort International BV.Hydraulic EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
CAY HILL: The possibilities of creating a synergy between an informal settlement, local craftmanship and cultural economic opportunities on Sint Maarten
No full textOn September 6th of 2017 Sint Maarten got struck by Hurricane Irma, which caused severe damage to the houses, especially to the informal settlements. Sint Maarten is a Caribbean island with a rooted past from its history that has caused severe economic difficulties. Along with, a high amount of migration that has been common among he islands, Sint Maarten has a tourism-led economy. In Turn, the hurricane also affected the tourism-led economy as many visits to the island declined. Lots of building materials on the island are getting imported. The island is lacking of local building resources and knowlegde. This project aims to propose an alternative housing solution and local economic business model for the people living in the informal settlement Cay Hill. This study is investigating the possibilities of creating a synergy between an informal settlement, local craftmanship and cultural economic opportunities on Sint Maarten.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science
A Resilient Community: Housing for Sint Maarten
No full textSint Maarten is a Caribbean island that is located in one of the six tropical zones were hurricanes may develop each year. The island deals with a limited resilient housing stock due to the lack of building regulations and affordable materials and contractors. This results in a community that needs to rebuild the housing stock every time a hurricane hits. In addition, most people lose their jobs after a hurricane because the numbers of tourists drop. This project attacks this problem by making resilient housing with plastic roofs. Plastic waste can be harvested locally and be used as a building element. This way a newindustry is developed and creates more local job opportunities. By designing understandable units, that are close to the traditional way ofbuilding and are prefabricated and supervised, the resiliency is guaranteed. This project let to promising results in reusing plastic as a building material for resilient housing. Additional research could be performed on the more technical effect of wind forces on recycled plastic roofs. Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science
Humanitarian Innovation at the Netherlands Red Cross: A case study on disaster preparedness on Sint Maarten
No full textThis report shows the process and result of a graduation project at the Netherlands Red Cross (NLRC). In their search to improve the humanitarian system, innovation is necessary. However, the Netherlands Red Cross faces challenges associated with time, resources, culture and methodologies to execute a research regarding the integration of innovation into the organisation. Based on this problem the following research question was formulated:“How can humanitarian innovation at the Netherlands Red Cross be improved?”To answer this research question, two ethnographic studies were conducted in the context of the headquarters of the Netherlands Red Cross and Red Cross operation on Sint Maarten. Ethnographic research is a qualitative research method in which you observe, interact and empathise with the topic that is being researched. It is mainly used to gain a deep understanding of the context when dealing with highly complex problems.Ethnographic Study 1The first ethnographic study took place at the headquarters of the Netherlands Red Cross, involving methods such as observations and interviews. The research resulted in a general understanding of the way of working at the NLRC. Furthermore, multiple bottlenecks of innovation were identified: Donor structure, organisational silos and project proposals.Ethnographic Study 2The second ethnographic study was conducted on Sint Maarten. The island, located in the hurricane prone Caribbean, was hit by hurricane Irma in September 2017. The Red Cross responded and provided relief aid to the inhabitants of Sint Maarten. The field visit, which had a focus on disaster preparedness, allowed research into the programming of the Red Cross on Sint Maarten. The following insights were found: Design principlesThe Red Cross should follow the the following five design principles; (1) embrace a holistic approach; (2) pivot the existing situation; (3) ensure knowledge is transferred; (4) use a context specific approach and; (5) use a phase specific approach.Organisational insightsThrough collaboration, the missing identified qualities: creativity, ideation, speed, hands-on approach and decisiveness, can be implemented into (future) projects.ConceptThe concept, ‘Community Based Data Collection’, that was developed for this thesis consists of three different phases: preparation, quick response and long-term benefits. Each neighbourhood will have a local ‘data collector’ with knowledge of the community, which will gather relevant data for the three different phases. Preparation• Identify the most vulnerable people in the communities by mapping the neighbourhoods;• Use data to estimate the quantity of relief good necessary per community, and;• Identify and map valuable capacities on the island for a ‘sharing economy (relief operation)’.Response• Use data from the preparation phase to deliver appropriate and focussed aid;• Use a communication system (e.g. pop-up wifi) to provide communication possibilities for both beneficiaries and the Red Cross, and;• Use real time data to optimize relief aid.Long-term benefits• Identify and map structural problems on Sint Maarten;• Provide information to specialized organisations in order to solve these problems, and;• Create a financial independent project by having a ‘data based business model’.Strategic Product Desig
Hoe God aanwezig is in het werk van Maarten ’t Hart
No full textMaarten ’t Hart is widely regarded as the prototypical Dutch author who has left his Orthodox Reformed background behind. Yet religion is present throughout his work. In her dissertation Religion im Werk von Maarten ’t Hart (2022), German theologian Christina Bickel describes the playful manners in which ’t Hart deals with religion as an inspiring way to open the mind of modern man to transcedental reflections. Her interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis, theological hermeneutics and homiletics, offers a surprising example of the reception of a Dutch author within a foreign cultural context.Maarten ’t Hart is widely regarded as the prototypical Dutch author who has left his Orthodox Reformed background behind. Yet religion is present throughout his work. In her dissertation Religion im Werk von Maarten ’t Hart (2022), German theologian Christina Bickel describes the playful manners in which ’t Hart deals with religion as an inspiring way to open the mind of modern man to transcedental reflections. Her interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis, theological hermeneutics and homiletics, offers a surprising example of the reception of a Dutch author within a foreign cultural context.Maarten ’t Hart is widely regarded as the prototypical Dutch author who has left his Orthodox Reformed background behind. Yet religion is present throughout his work. In her dissertation Religion im Werk von Maarten ’t Hart (2022), German theologian Christina Bickel describes the playful manners in which ’t Hart deals with religion as an inspiring way to open the mind of modern man to transcedental reflections. Her interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis, theological hermeneutics and homiletics, offers a surprising example of the reception of a Dutch author within a foreign cultural context
Reintroducing tropicality to St. Maarten: A residential typology rooted in the soil of the past
No full textSt. Maarten has been subject to outside influences since its existence. From the indians that traveled through the caribbean and made their stops on the island 3500 years ago, until the time that the economy started to influence the way that life is lived. From the 1950s onward, the tourism sector started to grow which provides income for the largest part of the people on St. Maarten. This economical prosperity increased the total population from a little over 2000 inhabitants in 1955 to around 42.000 people today, excluding the illegal immigrants (which is said to be around 30.000 more people). This accounts only for the dutch side of the island. St. Maarten has had to expand very quickly from the 1950’s and these expansions resulted in relatively monotonous urban environments where public space is scarce and social interactions do not occur alot. The buildings are built in a farely standard way which are mostly bungalows constructed out of concrete. The buildings and neighborhoods do not respond to the tropical savannah climate that they are in and when walking through a typical middle class neighborhood you would not expect these buildings in a tropical climate.This way of building was not always a normality. Before 1950 the buildings on the island looked like they did in the picture in the top right border. Buildings were constructed using a wooden frame and wood finishes placed on a foundation of local natural stones. This way of building fits the natural climate better because these buildings are light and have more openings in the facades to let i natural ventilation. Yet, there is one aspect of the climate that made these buildings disappear which is the hurricanes that occur once every couple of years. Concrete ofcourse is a stronger material and quickly became more popular when it became more affordable than wood.This project is a exploration to design a residential typology which not only responds to all aspects of St. Maarten’s climate but also its context and culture.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Intectur
Flood risk management in Sint Maarten–A coupled agent-based and flood modelling method
No full textDisaster risk reduction is a major concern of small island developing states. Measures to reduce risk should not only be based on the magnitude of physical hazard, but also on the exposure and vulnerability of communities. In this article, we examine flood risk management policies in the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten using coupled agent-based and flood models. The agent-based model is used to model actors' behaviour in relation to urban building development and policies that are designed to reduce flood hazard and communities' vulnerability and exposure. The policies considered in the model are a Beach Policy, a Building and Housing Ordinance, a Flood Zoning policy and hazard mitigation structural measures. The flood model is used to simulate coastal and pluvial floods on the island. Agent behaviour such as building new houses and implementing hazard reduction measures affect the flood model as these actions affect the rainfall-runoff process. The flood maps generated from the updated flood model simulations are then used to assess the impact and update agents’ attributes and behaviour. The simulations results show that low-lying areas are populated, which increases the exposure, and the number of vulnerable houses is also high. Hence, out of the four policies, implementing hazard reduction measures is the most important. Reducing the flood hazard by widening existing drainage channels, constructing new ones and building dykes as coastal flood defence would reduce the hazard, hence reducing the number of flooded houses. As it affects all households on the island, the Building and Housing Ordinance is an important policy to reduce vulnerability. In general, the coupled model outputs can be used to inform policy decision making and provide insights to policymakers on the island.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Energie and IndustrieSystem Engineerin
Senator James Eastland discussion
No full textMaarten Zwiers, a 2007 Ole Miss graduate from the Netherlands, became so interested in his study of the South that he became this year the author of the first full-length biography of the man who dominated politics in the state for a generation. Zwiers returns to campus to describe how Eastland was a power to be reckoned with in Washington, too
Reconstructing independence on Sint Maarten: Rebuilding a resilient community with a circular neighborhood intervention
No full textOn September 6th 2017 hurricane Irma hit the island of Sint Maarten leaving 90% of the build environment destroyed and the tourist based economy to collapse. Funding for reconstruction stagnated due to corruption and a lack of proper building materials and building knowledge leads to poor reconstruction. Especially the poorer communities are left exceptionally vulnerable to natural disasters. Solutions to address their needs were the starting point for this project. The proposed intervention is there for an affordable hurricane resilient building system that firstly transforms Sint Maartens linear economy to a circular economy. By using local waste materials, and producing new building products from waste it improves the urban metabolism of the islands economy. Secondly it improves the socio-economic resilience by bringing together different actors to create a more resilient and productive actor network. On an urban scale the system can grow incrementally. In the final stage the program contains housing units with a communal space, a decentral recycling hub, a communal garden and commercial spaces.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Intectur
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