2020, Article / Letter to editor (vol. 17, iss. 13, (2020))Early studies conclude that high-rise apartment buildings present challenges for people’s quality of life, resulting in social isolation, social annoyance and anonymity for residents. Nevertheless, empirical research into factors supporting social interaction in high-rise apartment buildings is still scarce. This study aims to investigate how often and where people in high-rise neighborhoods interact, and how this is affected by personal and neighborhoods characteristics. A mixture of both quantitative and qualitative methods was used including social interaction diaries and questionnaires among 274 residents, in-depth interviews with 45 residents and objective measurement of the physical environments in four high-rise apartment buildings for low in-income people in Hanoi, Vietnam. Results demonstrate that social interaction is influenced by a number of personal and neighborhood characteristics. Furthermore, most social interactions—also gathering and accompanying playing children—take place in the circulation areas of the apartment buildings. However, the use of these spaces for different purposes of interaction is found to have negative impact on people’s privacy, the feeling of safety and cleanliness of the shared spaces. The findings of this study provide information for planners and designers on how to design and improve high-rise apartment buildings that support social interaction.
2019, Article in monograph or in proceedings (The use of layers for the upgrade of dutch stacked postwar reconstruction residential houses towards circular energy-neutral houses., pp. 796-804)
2021, Article / Letter to editor (Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, (2021))This research explores current strategies and approaches directed to integrate innovative technologies in the home modification process to support independent living and ageing in place. The systematic review considered studies conducted from the perspective of architecture, smart technology, and gerontology. Scientific databases of related disciplines (e.g. Scopus, Web of Science, Engineer village, Google Scholar, Crossref) were searched and supplemented by hand search method. Thirty-three out of 2594 articles were analysed from three perspectives: the framework of the smart home environment for ageing in place, the smart home modification process, and problems and countermeasures of independent living. The result shows that both home modification and smart technologies can support older adults’ independent living, especially with fall prevention and indoor accessibility. Technologies deployed in older adults’ homes are transiting from manual assistive technology to more intelligent devices, and the notion of the robotic home has emerged. According to existing practices, universal design is an extensively adopted strategy for smart home design and modification. However, in most cases, universal design is used as a retrofitting guideline for general home settings rather than specifically for smart homes. The fundamental requirements in smart home modification phases are customisation, minimum life interference, and extensible technologies to cope with the ageing process.
2010, Article / Letter to editor (Senior, vol. 1, iss. 2, (2010), pp. 10-11)Het concept van de zogenaamde serviceflat bood decennialang een alternatief voor opname in een verzorgingshuis vanwege de extramurale (dat wil zeggen buiten een instelling) setting, de grotere zelfstandigheid van de bewoners en de eigen financiering van woonlasten, voorzieningen en diensten. Nederland beschikt over een 400-tal van deze serviceflats.
2012, Part of book or chapter of book (, pp. 144-152)Het is algemeen bekend dat architectuur en derhalve de gebouwde woonomgeving ons dagelijkse leven en welzijn beïnvloedt, zowel in directe als indirecte zin. We kennen in de bouwwereld allemaal de tekening van Leonardo da Vinci, de ‘Vitruviusman’, inzake de ‘menselijke maat’ zoals beschreven door Vitruvius. Dit begrip ‘menselijke maat’ heeft tegenwoordig vooral een figuurlijke betekenis gekregen. Om aan de menselijke maat in deze zin te kunnen voldoen moet de omgeving de impliciete en expliciete behoeften van de gebruiker van een gebouw kennen en daarop reageren. ‘People and Buildings’ van Robert Gutman, ‘A Pattern Language’ van Christopher Alexander en ‘The Urban Villagers’ van Herbert Gans zijn slechts enkele voorbeelden van onderzoeken die ontwerpers aanspoorden na te denken over deze interactie tussen de gebouwde omgeving en de gebruiker. Enkele voorbeelden van de menselijke maat in zorgarchitectuur zijn Evidence-Based Design, een ontwerpbenadering waarin besluiten worden geschaafd aan de hand van het best beschikbare bewijs van effectiviteit en Healing Environments dat zich op de oorzaken van gezondheid (salutogenesis) in plaats van op de oorzaken van ziekten (pathogenesis) richt. Het gaat met name om de positieve effecten van natuur op gezondheid en welzijn en de vertaling daarvan in het ontwerp.
2012, Part of book or chapter of book (, pp. 78-83)Vastgoedpartijen die investeren in zorggericht vastgoed overzien regelmatig niet waaraan ze beginnen en wat bij deze investeringen de succesfactoren zijn. En dat terwijl dat juist nu zo hard nodig is, omdat AWBZ budgetten krimpen en marktwerking zijn intrede doet. Een goed voorbeeld daarvan is het beleggen in kleinschalige woonvormen voor dementerenden. Uit een recent onderzoek onder zorginstellingen blijkt, dat veelal een integrale businesscase ontbreekt en toevallige factoren (een beschikbare locatie, de bestaande bedrijfscultuur en faciliteiten) veelal leidend zijn. Als gevolg daarvan bestaan grote onzekerheden over de exploitatie en de toekomstige rendementen voor investeerders. Volgens ons is dit onnodig en kan investeren in dit soort vastgoed juist aantrekkelijk zijn, mits partijen vanaf het begin een gezamenlijke businesscase uitwerken rond zorg- en vastgoedexploitatie.
2020, Article / Letter to editor (Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 31, iss. 101404, (2020))The dynamic nature of daylight and occupant's position can cause some issues such as heat gains and visual discomfort, which need to be controlled in real-time operation. Responsive facades have been pervasively used for preventing daylight glare and meeting daylight performance requirements. However, some passive strategies such as the colored glass of the Orosi typical architectural elements used in Iranian central courtyard buildings have the potential to filter excess daylight, as well as providing other functions such as aesthetics and privacy. This paper explores, for the first time, the possibility of coupling a kinetic façade with colored glasses to improve the daylight performance. This research builds on a combination of relevant literature and parametric simulation to investigate the development of integration of colored glass from Orosi with interactive kinetic façades, triggered by sun timing and occupants' positions. In total, 72 interactive kinetic façade cases are parametrically simulated, and their daylight performance is evaluated through climate-luminance based metrics. The simulation results confirm the high performance of the interactive kinetic facades for improving daylight performance regarding a base case. The integrated interactive kinetic façade with colored glass provides a real-time adaptation of the multifunctional passive strategy to sun timing and occupants' position. The integrated interactive kinetic façade with colored glass which uses parametric decentralized and hierarchical rotating (0–45°) movements, shows more improvement in daylight performance compared to other cases based on climate-luminance based metrics evaluation.
2020, Article in monograph or in proceedings (Biloria, N. (ed.), Data-driven multivalence in the built environment, pp. 157-180)In this chapter, we explore the possibility to use the living environment (of inpatient and outpatient care settings) for facilitating and encouraging the social inclusion of older adults in an increasingly smart society. We therefore pay attention to the spatial and smart design of emerging housing typologies for older adults in the Netherlands in which social activities and encounters take place.
Our first explorative research question reads: To what extent can the social inclusion of older adults with physical and/or mental disabilities contribute to their well-being? Based on (sociological) theories and existing knowledge from the literature, we can conclude that there are sufficient indications that the social inclusion of senior citizens in society have positive effects on their well-being, by strengthening social resources, in the case of intimate ties, and by stimulating public familiarity and random encounters. Moreover, it can be argued that encounters between elderly people with (either physical or mental) disabilities and healthy others can have a positive influence on the social acceptance of the former.
Following on the above, our second research question examines which spatial and smart interventions in and around inpatient and outpatient care settings can stimulate social inclusion. In this light, we discussed two new housing typologies in the Netherlands that can positively affect the inclusion of senior citizens in society: Farm sharing, which is particularly suitable for vital older adults who want to live independently for as long as possible, and the Care Estate, that seems to be a suitable form of living for vulnerable elderly people with physical and mental comorbidity, such as dementia. These housing typologies demonstrate the existence of an interplay between spatial design and smart technologies, in the sense that these factors can make each other superfluous or can provide added value.
In order to be able to optimize the well-being and health status of their residents, housing typologies must meet the needs of (vulnerable) older adults with regard to care, and social interaction, autonomy as much as possible. The art of designing new suitable housing typologies for older adults therefore should be based on linking different layers of people’s living environment: the care environment, the socio-spatial environment, and the digital environment. The two examples of housing typologies that we cover in this chapter, demonstrate how these different layers can be interconnected in order to design a new suitable housing concept.
2021, Article in monograph or in proceedings (The 17th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE2021). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)The ageing of the population in developed countries asks for smart solutions to promote seniors' inclusion in society. Therefore, how to shape a place that is both smart and encourages healthy ageing is a key question in the field of shaping smart and inclusive living environments. Smart placemaking, i.e. the augmentation of physical place with location-specific digital services, offers a range of powerful opportunities to add value to public spaces in ways which can translate into health promotion in society and improved living environments for all. In order to successfully shape a healthy ageing living environment through smart placemaking, one could learn from the experience of successful practices of existing healthy communities. An example of such communities can be "Blue Zones" which are home for the world's longest-lived populations[1]. This paper aims to integrate the process of smart placemaking with learnings from socio-spatial characteristics of Blue Zones in a neighbourhood-scale environment, i.e. Malvalaan, in The Netherlands. This integration will be presented in the form of proposing urban and architectural design interventions. The process of integration will be experimented in an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment. This paper reports on the feedback received from the participants (inhabitants of the Malvalaan) of the experiment which can lead to a better understanding of the proposed design interventions and, consequently, can help to provide better place-based architectural and urban design guidelines.
2019, Part of book or chapter of book (Brankaert,, Rens; IJsselsteijn, Wijnand (ed.), Dementia Lab 2019. Making Design Work : Engaging with Dementia in Context - 4th Conference, D-Lab 2019, Proceedings, pp. 24-34)
2012, Article / Letter to editor (Senior, vol. 2012, iss. 3, (2012), pp. 10-11)Met voor de komende decennia enerzijds de vergrijzing anderzijds de krimp voor ogen proberen gemeenten, woningbouwverenigingen en zorginstellingen de juiste combinaties voor hun levensloopbestendige bestaande en nieuwe wijken te maken ten aanzien van wonen, zorg en service. De juiste combinaties, maar ook de juiste duurzame keuzes: welke woningen aan te passen en welke te slopen; waar kan een buurt met positionering van een extra voorziening het juiste welzijns- of zorgniveau bereiken? En…, waar dienen we, tot voor kort ongebruikelijke, krimpscenario’s te hanteren? De overheid als voorschrijvende partij heeft zich bovendien daarvan teruggetrokken, keuzes en de financiële verantwoording daarvan worden aan de markt overgelaten.
2010, Article / Letter to editor (FMT gezondheidszorg, iss. 10, (2010), pp. 18-20)Het Lectoraat ZorgGericht Bouwen van de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen voert onderzoek “Cradle to Cradle in de zorg” uit. In dit project zijn een verpleegkamer, een operatiekamer en een couveusekamer onderzocht op materiaalgebruik.
2010, Article / Letter to editor (FMT gezondheidszorg, vol. 10, iss. 8-9, (2010), pp. 33-35)Het loslaten van het concept “afval” wordt door Loesje treffend verwoord: “Waarom afval produceren als je het toch weggooit?”. Cradle to Cradle sluit hier op aan: producten moeten zodanig ontwikkeld worden dat deze na gebruik als grondstof kunnen dienen voor een nieuw product in de kringloop. De vraag is nu hoe wij bij het ontwerpen van de gebouwde leefomgeving in de gezondheidszorg gebruik kunnen maken van deze gedachte.
2010, Article / Letter to editor (FMT gezondheidszorg, vol. 10, iss. 11, (2010), pp. 12-14)Het inleidende artikel van de auteurs over Cradle to Cradle in de Zorg is verschenen in januari 2009, het artikel over Cradle to Cradle in de Zorg, “De Verpleegkamer” is verschenen in FMT 8/9 2010. In een latere uitgave van FMT zal het onderzoek naar een couveuse worden gepubliceerd. In het onderzoek “De Operatiekamer” van het Lectoraat Zorggericht Bouwen aan de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, is aandacht besteed aan het huidig gebruik van materialen in een operatiekamer en de mogelijke gevolgen hiervan op de mens en zijn omgeving met oog op het Cradle to Cradle principe. De centrale vraag daarbij was: hoe is het gesteld met duurzaamheid van toegepaste materialen in een operatiekamer? En welke Cradle to Cradle oplossingen zijn mogelijk?
2010, Article / Letter to editor (FMT gezondheidszorg, vol. 10, iss. 12, (2010), pp. 26-27)Het Lectoraat ZorgGericht Bouwen van de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen voert onderzoek “Cradle to Cradle in de zorg” uit. In dit project zijn een verpleegkamer, een operatiekamer en een couveusekamer onderzocht op materiaalgebruik. Dit derde artikel in de reeks C2C beschrijft het onderzoek “De Couveusekamer”. De doelstelling van het onderzoek is aanbevelingen te doen voor Cradle to Cradle materiaalgebruik met betrekking tot de gezondheid van de gebruikers van de couveuse.
2020, Article / Letter to editor (Online Journal of Art and Design, vol. 8, iss. 3, (2020), pp. 75-89)Due to recent technological advancements, technological transition through designing
together with living organisms is a growing phenomenon in multiple disciplines as well as
in building design. Within this technological transition period, a large number of concepts
with varied terms and definitions introduce comprehensive aspects and possible impacts
of the unity of living and manufactured components. While many concepts resonate in
building design, a blanket term is missing in the existing literature. To identify suitable
terms and definitions which either should be adopted or disregarded in the scope of the
building design, this paper presents an overview of the existing terminology. In the
framework of the research, firstly the descriptions of the innovations, exemplifying the
incorporation of living components, were examined in eighty (80) cases related to
building design. The most-used terms and definitions lead us to determine the scope of
the literature review. Further on, expert opinions, (20) twenty practitioners professionally
working with the innovations, were obtained. While the research clarifies the variety in
the terminology, the paper underlines the critical importance of the phenomenon in
terms of bringing substantial possibilities into building design through multiple functions,
domains, disciplines.
2012, Article / Letter to editor (Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, vol. 17, iss. 358, (2012), pp. 2308-2312)We present a novel method to achieve light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells. Unlike the commonly used surface textures, such as Asahi U-type TCO, that rely on light scattering phenomena, we employ embossed periodically arranged micro-pyramidal structures with feature sizes much larger than the wavelength of visible light. Angular resolved transmission of light through these substrates indeed showed diffraction patterns, unlike in the case of Asahi U-type substrates, which show angular resolved scattering. Single junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells made at 125 °C on the embossed structured polycarbonate (PC) substrates showed an increase in current density by 24% compared to a similar solar cell on a flat substrate. The band gap and thickness of the i-layer made by VHF PECVD are 1.9 eV and 270 nm respectively. A double p-layer (nc-Si:H/a-Si:H) was used to make proper contact with ZnO:Al TCO. Numerical modeling, called DokterDEP was performed to fit the dark and light current–voltage parameters and understand the characteristics of the cell. The output parameters from the modeling suggest that the cells have excellent built-in potential (Vbi). However, a rather high recombination voltage, Vµ, affects the FF and short circuit current density (Jsc) for the cells on Asahi as well as for the cells on PC. A rather high parallel resistance » 1 MO cm2 (obtained from the modeling) infers that there is no significant shunt leakage, which is often observed for solar cells made at low temperatures on rough substrates. An efficiency of more than 6% for a cell on PC shows enormous potential of this type of light trapping structures.