ADAM - Open Technologieprogramma NWO
Existing absorption technologies are strongly limited by traditional materials, design and production processes and consequently do not cover the increasingly required demand in customization, optimized performance and complex shapes. ADAM explores the merging of the academic and industrial fields of Room Acoustics, Additive Manufacturing and Parametric Modelling. A new cutting-edge acoustic device is proposed that regulates its performance by its geometrical characteristics based on interference principles. The developed absorbers are easily customizable and point towards new acoustic structures with highly tuned performance and increased freedom in design and material choice.
DoubleFace – 4TU Lighthouse Project
Goal of this project was designing and prototyping an adjustable translucent modular system featuring thermal insulation and thermal absorption in a calibrated manner. Specifically, the project designed and prototyped a modular system for adjustable translucent thermal mass, based on an innovative (digital) approach to thermal principles of trombe walls. Effort was addressed especially towards lightweight options for thermal inertia. The system aimed at passively improving thermal comfort. The project outputs provided a test case and demonstrator of the design principles.
DoubleFace2.0 – Research Through Design NWO project
Double Face 2.0 is a novel solar wall, joining a strong design identity and high technical performances. During the Double Face 2.0 project thermal, daylight and manufacturing performance aspects were such design drivers in the development of an innovative lightweight translucent Trombe wall (solar wall). The proposed wall overcomes the limitations of traditional Trombe walls, which are usually massive and obstructive. It uses new materials like phase change material (PCM) for heat storage and aerogel for thermal insulation, has an optimised shape for best thermal performance, is manufactured using robotic 3D (FDM) printing, allows daylight to pass through and can be adapted according to the varying conditions at hand. By optimising and shaping geometry, the final design has good engineering performance and at the same time offers new creative opportunities for the designers.
Reprinting Architectural Heritage – 4TU Lighthouse project
As scientists in private and public settings develop new technologies for 3D scanning and 3D printing at the scale of paintings, ornaments, building parts, they encounter questions related both to technical possibilities and usability of 3D printing at the scale of the building with high resolution. We are convinced that these developments can propel technological, heritage and architectural design discussions forward in each field and in connection to each other. We propose a pilot that includes high-definition scanning and 3D printing of a pilot structure, the Hippolytuskerk Middelsum, at a building scale that challenges high-precision 3D printing developed for paintings to take on the building scale, its multiple dimensions and materials, and to connect to heritage specialist and designers to rethink the applicability of the new technique in academia, practice and education..
Spong3D – 4TU Lighthouse project
This research investigated the potentials of Additive Manufacturing porous structures for thermal performances, and more specifically thermal insulation and heat storage. It focused on the potentials of AM for an adaptive facade system that optimizes thermal performances according to different environmental conditions. The main general objective was is to prove that AM 3d printing technology enables the creation of mono-material façade components that integrate multiple functions. The specific objective was to create a plastic façade panel that can regulate the temperature inside a building throughout the whole year. It used the thermal properties of porous structures and the heat storage capacity of liquids. The final product is a proof of concept for an adaptive façade panel that controls the heat exchange between the indoor and the outdoor environment by integrating geometries for thermal insulation and heat storage, while guaranteeing structural strength.
Computational Design for Sport Buildings
The design of sport buildings has great impact on top-sport as well as on recreational sport-activities. The project deals with the concept of Multi-objective Multidisciplinary design optimization techniques to support trade-off decisions between multiple conflicting design objectives and interdisciplinary design methodology, during the conceptual design of sport buildings. The proposed method is based on parametric modelling, performance simulation tools and algorithms for computational optimization, for which the project tackles three specific aspects. Firstly, variable screening techniques are investigated to refine the design space before running the optimization, and thus make the optimization more efficient and feasible within the limited time-frame of real projects. Secondly, a customized computational process for the rapid assessment of temperature and airflow patterns is developed. Thermal and daylight objectives are combined with structural optimization. Thirdly, the process requires the combination of design optimization and design exploration, while searching for well-performing solutions, for which multivariate analysis algorithms are engaged into the post processing of numerous optimization data.
TERRA-ink – 4TU Lighthouse Project PhD Projects: ICDA: Interactive Computational Decision Support for Architecture
TERRA-ink aimed at developing a method for layering local soil, by implementing 3D printing technologies. With the aid of such a construction system, the goal was to create durable structures that can be easily de-constructed once they served their purpose. The use of locally sourced materials in combination with additive manufacturing is investigated aiming at reductions in financial investments, resources and human labor, as well as at simplified logistics, low environmental impact and adaptability to different situations and requirements. Such a building system has the potential of combining low and high-tech technologies, in order to facilitate a fully open and universal solution for large scale 3D-printing using any type of soil.
Wood without trees
Wood is typically a well-recognized option by society, and the widely available processed timber presents remarkable properties. However, its use comes with drawbacks related to excessive waste from conventional subtractive fabrication processes, need of adhesives (which are often toxic or based on fossil resources), and difficulties in the fabrication of complex geometries. The strength of wood derives from its building blocks (lignocellulosic fibres), which are the most abundant biopolymers in nature. Cellulose is commonly used as raw material in the paper industry and as a fibre reinforcement on bio-based composite. Lignin is a by-product from the same industry, usually burnt as an energy source. They can be extracted from several waste streams, including agricultural and forestry waste. When combined, they can create a fully natural material with similar characteristics to timber but with potentially adjustable mechanical properties and more freedom to generate complex structures. The on-going Wood Without Trees project studies a solution to upcycle both components into a fully biobased material for additive manufacturing. The project aims to be a stepping stone toward full circularity (from locally sourced bio-waste streams to material recyclability within the construction industry) while allowing for easy to tune material properties and high-performance building components thanks to 3D printing – and thereby resulting in reduced greenhouse gases emissions and waste.
Solar Geometry in Performance of Built Environment
This research aims at proposing a novel design framework for designing a solar geometry in a built environment, in order to achieve the maximum performance in terms of comfort and energy use in architecture design. This research specifically attempts to address the lack of understanding on site characteristic information leading to the unexpected failure after the building was located. The ultimate goal is to allow architects to make informed design decision towards high-performed design through 3D point cloud data and the solar envelope performance. It particularly investigates two sections: first, the attribute information of 3D point cloud as an input of the environmental database. This database then comes with the simulation of solar radiation integrated with the material properties of the existing context. Second, design principle of solar envelopes aiming to examine design requirement of the solar access in the new development areas.
Configurational Layout Optimization for Hospital Design
Hospital facilities are known to be functionally complex buildings in various ways, namely due to their spatial connectivity requirements. There are usually configurational problems that lead to inefficient circulation of medical staff, difficult way finding for visitors, lengthy procedures, long walking times, etc. This PhD research aims to investigate the relation between the performance of hospital buildings with their configurational layout at various levels of abstraction; and to devise configurational layout optimization methods for optimal layout of hospital buildings. Spatial layout methods will be designed and tested by using Graph Theory, Facilities Planning, and Soft Computing methodologies.
Computational Intelligence in Decision Making for Self-Sufficient High-Rise Buildings
This research is focusing on the concept of self-sufficient high-rise buildings, which can play an important role for future urbanization. With this regard, development of a computational model for designing self-sufficient high-rise buildings is the main purpose. For this reason, two main research domains, which are high-rise buildings and computational intelligence, will take part to realize this research. In order to develop the computational model, three main steps are considered. These are developing parametric high-rise form generation, implementing self- sufficient criteria to evaluate the building performance, and make use of the power of computational intelligence to deal with such complex design task. As a result, it is aimed to reach tested computational model, which can be used by architects to design self-sufficient high-rise buildings for the future.
Research projects
The chair of design infomatics is proud to present its research projects.