Energy Innovation
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27-31The application of new Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), digital fabrication and additive manufacturing techniques in the construction industries is expected to bring major change to these industries. Driven by a foreseen reduction of construction time and labor cost, simplification of logistics and an increase of constructible geometrical freedom, many experiments are performed both at academia and in practice.
Beyond these economical and architectural objectives, digital fabrication in construction can be used to reduce the environmental footprint of the industry. The...
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PD Lab explores the applications of building sector related product development. PD lab investigates and tests digital production technologies like CNC milled wood connections. It will also act as a platform in its wider meaning to investigate the effects and influences of file to factory production, to explore the potential in the field of sustainability, material use, logistics and the interaction of stakeholders within the chain of the building process. -
The challenge of the future is to minimize the energy consumption of buildings while maintaining an optimal comfort level in the interior. Controlling the energy streams in and out of the building , and especially daylight management, plays an important role. It deals with many, sometimes conflicting functions of the building:
Generally a maximum of natural lighting is desired to reduce the need for lighting energy which in today’s buildings accounts for approximately 30% of the total electricity demand. But daylight contains a lot of energy. We need to block sun radiation in...
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At this moment in history, a staggering 60 million refugees rely on international help - the highest number of displaced persons ever. A large variety of solutions have been developed that cater for primary needs. However, long-term public and community facilities have been neglected.
This project is addressing the necessity of dignifying community facilities in the context of permanent temporariness in refugee camps. Twelve plans for public buildings are developed, each with a different program. During the coming spring, certain parts of these projects will be built in scale...
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Additive Manufacturing (commonly known as 3D printing) technology has become a global phenomenon. In the domain of heritage, 3D printing is seen as a time and cost efficient method for restoring vulnerable architectural structures. The technology can also provide an opportunity to reproduce missing or destroyed cultural heritage, in the cases of conflicts or environmental threats. This project takes the Hippolytuskerk in the Dutch village of Middelstum, as a case study to explore the limits of the existing technology, and the challenges of 3D printing of cultural heritage. Architectural...
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The application of structural glass as the principal material in restoration and conservation practices is a distinguishable, yet discreet approach. The transparency of glass allows the simultaneous perception of the monument at both its original and present condition, preserving its historical and aesthetical integrity. Concurrently, the material’s unique mechanical properties enable the structural consolidation of the monument. As a proof of concept, the restoration of Lichtenberg Castle is proposed. Solid cast glass units are suggested to complete the missing parts, in respect to the...
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The applicability of glass in structures is continuously ascending, as the transparency and high compressive strength of the material render it the optimum choice for realizing diaphanous structural components that allow for light transmittance and space continuity. The fabrication boundaries of the material are constantly stretching: visible metal connections are minimized and glass surfaces are maximized, resulting to pure all-glass structures. Still, due to the prevalence of the float glass industry, all-glass structures are currently confined to the limited forms and shapes that can...
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Governments, regulatory bodies and road authorities all push for and promote sustainability. Contractors respond with strategies to reduce their carbon footprints. Besides optimising their asphalt production and logistics processes, companies are investing in the development of low energy asphalt mixes.
Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is such an asphalt mixture produced at lower temperatures, thereby requiring less energy. It has recently become very popular in the Netherlands with various types of WMA products being developed by construction companies. In essence, the asphalt mix is...
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31-35Robotically 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...
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3TU Saving Energy Battle (sEB) aimed at charting post-war neighbourhoods in energy saving rankings, and take a first step in a global monitoring tool on resource efficiency. We also tested the new process of energy performance certification, in three post-war neighbourhoods of major Dutch cities: Westelijke Tuinsteden, Amsterdam; Ommoord, Rotterdam; and Mariahoeve, Den Haag.
This monitoring tool and online short courses were developed online. Further, we organized an live event on 28 February 2015, where students and volunteers teamed up to assist building owners with the upload of...
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Information 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...
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Sensing 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.
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The Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) technology based on integrated photonics, offers specific benefits including thermal mapping, damage detection, shape- and distributed sensing. This makes it useful for determining pavement behaviour during extreme weather conditions e.g. freeze-thaw cycles when harsh winter conditions could damage the asphalt surfacing layer. However, the harsh construction environment and traffic loading highlights the high-risk challenge of installing the sensor into the asphalt layer in a noninvasive manner so that the key parameters are accurately measured during and...
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Car traffic causes carbon emissions and air pollution and has negative effects on public health and quality of life in cities. Solar bikes are an innovative, sustainable transport option that can offer a substitute for car travel. Solar bikes are electric bikes with solar cells that are powered by the sun. This expands their range compared to regular e-bikes as the bikes are charged during the trip and at the destination without electricity. The aim of this project is to understand people’s preferences, conditions for acceptance and experiences with the solar bike. Insight in preferences...
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Monumental buildings are demolished when they lose their traditional function. These historical monuments can be maintained by repurposing them for modern use, like lectures and musical events. This results in a demand for different acoustic conditions. However, monuments are subject to strict building intervention regulations; any intervention concerning changes to the original elements are often prohibited. This creates a demand for demountable and adaptable product design, repurposing monumental buildings by alleviating acoustical problems without distorting the view towards the...
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Spong3D is an adaptive 3D printed facade system that integrates multiple functions to optimize thermal performances according to the different environmental conditions throughout the year. The proposed system incorporates air cavities to provide thermal insulation and a movable liquid (water plus additives) to provide heat storage where and whenever needed. The air cavities have various dimensions and are located in the inner part of the system. The movable liquid provides heat storage as it flows through channels located along the outer surfaces of the system (on the indoor and outdoor...
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61-64Spying the Underground refers to the buried utilities that are often hidden from the eyes of citizens and city engineers. Since they are difficult to localize and measure from street level, utility plans are the only models that convey geometry information about them. Nowadays, Augmented Reality (AR) techniques allow us to display three-dimensional (3D) virtual utility models over a surface level camera image. To achieve this, 3D information needs to be added to existing utility models. Therefore, we developed a data model that allows storage of depth and geometry information. Based on...
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With natural resources depleting, sustainable solutions are becoming more and more a necessity. To deal with the depleting resources, the Dutch government aims to generate 14% of country’s energy consumption through natural resources by 2020. The Dutch built environment is estimated to be responsible for 38.1% of the total energy consumption. This means that investments and innovation within this area have high potential.
However, there are some indications that these goals cannot be met. New houses often meet these requirements but, with a growth of 0.8% per year, these only...
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In recent years, natural disaster and military conflicts forced vast numbers of people to flee their home countries, contributing to the migration crisis we are facing today. According to the UNHCR, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached the highest level since World War II. Post-disaster housing is by nature diverse and dynamic, having to satisfy unique socio-cultural and economical requirements. Currently, however, housing emergencies are tackled inefficiently. Post-disaster housing strategies are characterized by a high economic impact and waste production, and a...
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The '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...
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Although many consider drones to be toys, multiple industries, such as the agriculture and mining industry, already know what advantages professional Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can offer. However, many companies in the construction industry do not seem to be familiar yet with the possible advantages of UAVs for their projects. In our 3TU Lighthouse project “Throw in the I-drone” we, the University of Twente, Delft University of Technology, and BeemFlights, would like to make the construction industry aware of the possibilities UAVs have by demonstrating possible usages, by providing...
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Our electricity is predominantly powered by alternating current (AC), ever since the War of Currents ended in the favor of Nicola Tesla at the end of the 19th century. However, lots of the appliances we use, such as electronics and lights with light-emitting diode (LED) technology, work internally on direct current (DC) and it is projected that the number of these appliances will increase in the near future. Another contributor to the increase in DC consumption is the ongoing electrification of mobility (Electric Vehicles (EVs)). At the same time, photovoltaics (PV) generate DC voltages,...
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3D printing techniques for the building industry are developing fast. Concepts like Contour printing, concrete printing concepts of the TU/E and D Shape are examples. Despite the range of techniques is broad (and vary from a large gantry system, to a supersized Delta printer for example), many of the developed 3D printing machines are constraint in their movement. Mobile 3D printers however show advantages in flexibility, as they can move outside the constraint of a large 3D printer and they can move in the highly unstructured and hazardous environment of the building site, which can be...
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