Archive

The Living Data Conference was held from 12 to 14 February 2025 at TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and the Nieuwe Instituut. Hosted by researchers of the faculty’s Department of Architecture, the conference explored the topic of data as a design material and how innovative concepts in data visualisation can inspire architectural design.

On 4 March, Gili Hofland, master's student in Architectural Engineering, received the 2024 Thesis Award from Hoogheemraadschap Delfland. She won 2,000 euros for her thesis ‘Engaging with water’, in which she presents a water-inclusive design for future-proof housing.

On 3 March, in the occasion of Open Education Week 2025, eight TU Delft lecturers nominated by faculty received the award in recognition of their commitment to openly share knowledge and educational resources with the world. From our Faculty, lecturer Mariette Overschie received the Award.

An installation titled ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.’ will be showcased at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the Architecture Biennale 2025. The project, titled “VENICE” IN CONVERSATION is an AI-driven seminar uniting diverse thinkers with deep ties to Venice. Involved in this project is Eytan Mann of the Architecture Archives of the Future Group, Architecture Department, alongside Eli Keller (Technion) and Mark Jarzombek (MIT).

With her Master thesis ‘The Impossible Revolution: Pursuing Liberation, Peace, and Spatial Equity in Syria’ Marh Echtai won the second prize at the ‘JC Baak prijzen’ of KHMW. Normally this prize goes to social and legal theses and now a thesis that starts from planning and the built environment has won one of the prizes. The jury stated about her master's thesis: ‘The author has presented her arguments in an unusual but exciting way, which has contributed significantly to the enormously compelling discourse of the thesis.’

Five master’s students Architecture are launching SWEAT., a pop-up sauna along circular design principles. Opening on 20 February at X TU Delft, this clothes-on sauna will operate for three weeks, offering a space for relaxation and joy during the tail end of winter.

Carlo Ratti will be the first guest within AE&T's new Jaap Oosterhoff Visiting Prof programme. He explores how new technologies are changing the way we understand cities, design them and we ultimately live in them. Ratti joins two Building Technology courses this semester and concludes with a public lecture in a BK Talks ‘In conversation with’’.

Investors have been selling rental properties at an increasing rate due to the implementation of some sweeping policy and legislative changes in adjacent policy areas of the housing sector. As an unintended side effect of these legislative changes, around 45% more rental properties were offered for sale in 2024 than in 2023. This expansion of the housing supply for sale resulted in more transactions and more mortgage lending in the second half of 2024. This (temporarily) improved opportunities for first-time buyers.

To what extent has a drastic restructuring policy in Rotterdam displaced low-income residents and contributed to a certain segmentation within the city? Kim van Balken graduated cum laude last year with her research on restructuring policy and densification in old city neighbourhoods within the master's track Urbanism, winning the Jeroen van der Veer Thesis Award.

Carel Weeber, high-profile architect and professor emeritus of architectural design at TU Delft, has passed away at the age of 87.

NRP annually awards the Master prize to up-and-coming talent within the renovation and transformation sector. BK student Sebastiaan Vork won the first prize with his thesis ‘Dutch Housing Commons, non-speculative housing within and against the housing market’. In addition to a cash prize of 3,000 euros, next year Sebastiaan will be a jury member for the NRP Gulden Feniks.

During the first weeks of 2025, students in the minor Archineering designed and built a real-size mobile workshop pavilion in The Green Village. This diverse group from multiple universities transformed innovative ideas into practical, bio-based construction. Eva ten Velden, course instructor: “We want students to create hands-on with the material, gaining both academic and practical knowledge while working toward sustainable solutions.”

Climate change is a pressing global issue that affects all aspects of life. The most vulnerable communities, those already facing socio-economic inequalities, are often the hardest hit by climate-related disasters. This highlights the importance of justice and equity in addressing climate change. The open book ‘Where We Stand: Exploring Inequalities in Climate Adaptation Policy’ was published in December 2024.

The short film ‘When I Came to Your Door’, developed as part of the Addis Abeba Living Lab research project, will have its international premiere at the 54th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on 31 of January 2025.

In honor of her 183rd anniversary, TU Delft today presents four radical yet realistic scenarios for the future of the Dutch mobility system in 2050. Developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers called “The Mobilisers,” these scenarios serve as a strategic framework to help stakeholders in government, industry, and academia navigate the complex challenges surrounding mobility. The four scenarios and the accompanying report are now available online.

At the end of October, diplomats and scientists from all over the world came to Cali, Colombia for the 16th United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16). Those who visited the Dutch pavilion between debates and lectures sometimes witnessed unexpected things. A dance conveying knowledge about the water system? A woven belt that says something about how to grow food in harmony with nature? The Landscape Architecture Section has a refreshing message: ‘Traditional and indigenous knowledge can be harnessed to landscape solutions for biodiversity and water.’

After a term of six years, Kees Kaan will step down as Head of the Architecture Department of TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment from 1 February 2025. He will continue his work leading the Complex Projects Group. From that moment Georg Vrachliotis will take on the role of Head of the Architecture Department. In this capacity, Georg will also represent Architecture within the Management Team (MT) of the Faculty.

This week, the faculty received the sad news that our much-loved and valued colleague ir Christien Janssen passed away on 10 December 2024 in Utrecht after a months-long battle against her illness. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Christien's husband Maurice, daughter Isabel, son Arthur, family, friends, her colleagues and students.

The intrinsic link between health and the built and natural environment has never been clearer, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic and the escalating climate crisis. From the design of cities to indoor climate, our environments have a profound influence on both physical and mental well-being. Recognizing this, BK Health seeks to address a pressing question: How can the built and natural environments actively improve health and well-being for all?

Caroline Newton, the new ED&I officer starting January 1, 2025, plans to foster diversity and inclusion within the faculty through a two-year program. Her strategic approach is based on two primary goals: establishing an inclusive academic working environment and systematically incorporating diverse perspectives. 'This method is built around three pillars: intersectionality, neurodiversity, and decolonisation,' Caroline explains.

How do you make the long term more important in the spatial choices we make now? From 1 January 2025, Peter Pelzer will start his work as the new professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy with a clear mission: ‘To achieve necessary change, we must dare to let go of what we are used to.’

In 2024, both Master Geomatics and Master MADE were assessed. Both have a positive assessment. For Geomatics, it is stated that this programme is unique because of its focus on modelling the built environment. And at MADE, challenges of contemporary metropolitan problems are assessed as very positive.

In Nature Partner Journals, ten researchers advocate the use of imagination in tackling the climate crisis. They focus specifically on urbanising river deltas, which are of great social and economic importance and highly vulnerable to climate change. "We scientists should not merely outline doomsday scenarios," says Professor Chris Zevenbergen. "Create a vision for people to believe in and work towards.”

The inaugural event of AI Insights, Reimagining Healthcare, took place on 17 October 2024. It focussed on how AI and emerging technologies can transform healthcare spaces. The event explored architects' evolving roles, the influence of data on hospital design, and the adaptation of medical spaces to new technologies.

During the Teaching Academy's Education Day, the awards were presented for Educator of the Year and Education Team Award. The team that developed the Personal Development Weeks (Persoonlijke OntwikkelingsWeek or POW) of the Bachelor Renewal won the award for TU Delft Education Team of the Year.

DigiPedia is a new digital platform designed to offer comprehensive tutorials on software and computational methods to students and life-long learners around the globe. All conveniently housed in one location for easy access.

How do we want to live in the 21st century? Society is changing rapidly, but housing is still organised according to traditional family models. Alternative forms of living based on sharing and collectivity challenge this paradigm. Darinka Czischke has received a VIDI grant for her project 'InCommon: Reconceptualising individual and collective housing preferences' in which she explores what motivates different types of people to live collectively.

TU Delft aims to become carbon-neutral, climate-adaptive, and fully circular by 2030, with a strong focus on biodiversity and quality of life. Each faculty plays a role in this mission, with a dedicated Local Sustainability Coordinator. As of mid-October, Sultan Çetin has stepped into this role for our faculty, bringing her expertise in circular and sustainable construction to the forefront of TU Delft's sustainability goals.

NWO has awarded 102 researchers a Vidi grant in total 86,7 million euros. Eight promising TU Delft researchers from the domains Exact and Natural Sciences (ENS), Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and Applied and Technical Sciences (ATS) have been awarded. This Vidi grant up to 850,000 euros will enables the laureates to develop an innovative line of research over the next five years and further expand their own research group.

Relax with a book in an easy chair or on the sofa, reading light on and cup of tea by the side, play a game with fellow students and teachers in the living room. A fireplace would not have been out of place. From Tuesday 5 to Thursday 7 November, the Oostserre will be the focal point for the Personal Development Week (POW) for our Bachelor students. Kristel Aalbers, POW programme coordinator, explains what these reflection days are for.

The water and soil system has traditionally been an important basis for the development of mostly densely populated delta areas. Climate change also changes the existing conditions of the water and soil system; this has an impact on the future spatial economic compositions of deltas and their land use. On 8 November, Professor Anne Loes Nillesen (Urbanism) will give her inaugural address ‘Climate Adaptation; an Act of Design’.

During the festive closing ceremony on 8 October, the nine participants for the National Archiprix 2025 were officially announced. The carefully selected projects, chosen by a jury, will compete in this prestigious competition for talented young designers. The National Archiprix annually showcases the best emerging design talent in the Netherlands and will be on display at our faculty in March.

Two years after the first ideas about transforming the courtyard of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment into a Urban Climate Grove, was ready to be opened. On Tuesday 1 October 2024, during a festive opening, Dean Dick van Gameren, Frank van Vliet (Delft alderman for Climate, Culture and Public Space) and Renate Geven (Asset Manager Buitenruimte at campus real estate CREFM), planted the final plants.

The Netherlands, recognised as a European leader in innovation, is home to more than 100 experimental environments. These environments range from controlled field labs to more open, participatory urban living labs. A consortium in which Alfons van Marrewijk (MBE) among others, has been awarded a prestigious grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to explore how various forms of innovation in field labs, such as the Green Village, urban living labs such as Engy Lab South-East in Amsterdam, and in all sorts of citizens’ initiatives, can be mainstreamed and make more impact on sustainability transitions.

On 17 September, TU Delft launched a new initiative to implement sustainable building practices across the Dutch educational landscape by bringing together educators from Dutch vocational institutions (MBO) and TU Delft lecturers.

All 24 courses in BK’s renewed bachelor’s programme are now connected to at least one Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The most prevalent SDG in this new programme is SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), followed by SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 15 (Life on Land). In total, 14 of the 17 SDGs are linked to at least one course: a starting point for better integrating sustainability in the courses’ contents, assignments and teaching materials.

The world’s oldest and most used building material is now fashionable again, after a period of over 250 years of being ignored or scorned. After 25 years of personally trying to persuade the profession, clients and industry to use wood for many reasons, professor Alex de Rijke finally sees it emerging, ‘like Phoenix from the ashes of a coal fire’. De Rijke will deliver his inaugural address ‘A wood taxonomy for a carbon tax economy’ on Friday 25 October.

Tess Broekmans, co-owner of Urhahn urban design and strategy, delivered her inaugural address as professor of Urban Design on Friday 6 September. In it, she addressed ‘the complexity of the everyday’. After all, how can designers' visions connect better with people's everyday lives? In doing so, she also sees a new role for area developers.