design2sustain

This article was originally published on http://www.urban-goods.net By the end of this year, 2016, purchasers will be able to start working with the new ISO20400 norm for sustainable procurement. This norm describes in quite some detail which elements an organization needs to address in order to credibly implement sustainable purchasing. What does this mean for … Continue reading →

The key role of Sustainability Manager In a transparent, globalized world, the challenge for business is to meet shifting expectations of the general public, suppliers and customers regarding societal outcomes and value creation. The sustainability manager plays a key role in building trust and involvement of suppliers and customers by engaging them on the basis … Continue reading →

Feature: Mapping the Role of Energy in Community Health & Resilience design2sustain was invited to work with ShiftN on creating a grant assessment framework for the JPB Foundation. The JPB Foundation’s Environment Program focuses on ‘enabling healthy and resilient communities by enriching and supporting the environment’. The project itself consists of developing a grant assessment … Continue reading →

Shared Value Creation through Integrated Systems Design. Exploring the case of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Manhattan. Introduction With last year’s record high temperatures and droughts in the USA the general public seems to catch on to the fact that climate change is upon us[1]. Coupled with the recent superstorm Sandy and hurricane Irene (2011) the … Continue reading →

In a liberalized, networked and westernized society we have witnessed an increasing trend of concentration of manufacturing and assembly facilities in pursuit of global economies of scale. In particular this has been a move of manufacturing towards China. In the near future some factors have the potential to reverse this trend, dispersing these production facilities, … Continue reading →

Friday march 23rd I met with an interesting group of people at the Herengracht location of designthinkers to participate in the Green Startup LAB workshop, funded by Green Metropole. Simone Veldema and Tim Schuurman (of designthinkers) led a workshop on sustainable service design. With diverse backgrounds in food, bicycles, wedding planning, social sustainability, ict, product design, … Continue reading →

Writing my second entry on disposable plastics has been somewhat of a challenge. The deeper I dig the more complex the topic appears. I decided to take a different angle on the whole topic by understanding how plastics have crept into my own everyday life. I was ‘gobsmacked’, I believe the English would say. In … Continue reading →

Just yesterday I had the pleasure to meet-up with founders Rob Breed and Changfang Luo of Architecture in Development. I learned about them through a friend of mine, and I was interested to understand more about the background of their initiative. This non-profit organization started in 2009 with the aim of reconnecting sustainable development with … Continue reading →

Plastics are all around us, in the houses we live in, in the sofa’s we sit on, the cars we drive, in the tv’s we look at, wrapped as packing material around our groceries, and as main material of the bags in which we carry these groceries home. While for many products the Dutch society … Continue reading →

This is part 3 (of 3) of an article on ‘design as a change agent’ that I wrote for the publication “Design for Biodiversity”. Part 3 redefines the role of design and the design professional as change agent, translates this specifically for architecture and the architect, and provides closing comments. Part 1 covered the introduction, explores our ‘western’ … Continue reading →

This is part 2 (of 3) of an article on ‘design as a change agent’ that I wrote for the publication “Design for Biodiversity”. Part 1 covered the introduction, explores our ‘western’ enlightened world view, and the role of design within this framework. Part 2 discusses ‘new world views’, and elaborates on ‘ecologies thinking’. Part 3 … Continue reading →

This is part 1 (of 3) of an article on ‘design as a change agent’ that I wrote for the publication “Design for Biodiversity”. Part 1 covers the introduction, explores our ‘western’ enlightened world view, and the role of design within this framework. Part 2 discusses ‘new world views’, and elaborates on ‘ecologies thinking’. Part … Continue reading →

TiSD (Technology in Sustainable Development) backcasting project covering the development and implementation of a sustainable campus food supply. By Kim Dekker, Willemijn Elkhuizen, Merel Segers, Peter de Ruijter, Luis Carlos Ramirez This research was conducted as part of the Technology in Sustainable Development curriculum. As part of an interdisciplinary group, consisting of two Architecture students, … Continue reading →

The concept of the Mundaneum of Knowledge (1929) by Le Corbusier forms the basis for the graduation project of the Mundaneum of Sustainability. Founded by the Belgian philantropist Paul Otlet, the Mundaneum of Knowledge aimed to bring world peace by collecting and sharing knowledge between world citizens. Achieving a sustainable way of living will be … Continue reading →

Singapore’s hot humid climate limits the succes of passive design principles to improve human comfort in the built environment. This booklet was made as part of the Technology in Sustainable Development curriculum. The key research question addressed was how human comfort in the urban context and within the building envelope can be improved or managed … Continue reading →

Which stakeholder in the building process is hardest to convince? Presentation on investors and sustainable cities. This small research advocates investing in sustainable cities as a matter of common sense. In the building process a number of different parties are involved, at different stages of the lifecycle of a building. These stakeholders are the investor, … Continue reading →

The design for the China Town Community Center is the outcome of extensive research on the development of Singapore as a nation state. Understanding what needs to be built in a certain place, is not only the result of an in depth morphological or physical inventory of a place and its context. The analysis will … Continue reading →

Introduction This essay is my follow-up on the essay called “Developing the Creative Class in Singapore – Investigating the conditions for Development”. It’s main topic also covers the creative class, however in this essay I will focus more on South East Asia in general. To illustrate my argument for South East Asia I will be … Continue reading →

Introduction In this essay I will use the work of Richard Florida on the Creative Class to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the Singaporean society to attract and grow a creative class. Firstly I will use Castells work to argue my case for the need of a creative class to exist. Secondly I … Continue reading →

The Bachelor’s graduation design involves an urban strategy for the (area around the) “Hofbogen” railway track and the design for a seniors’ apartment complex. In a multidisciplinary group I took the role of urban designer. The elevated “Hofplein” railway track was constructed between 1901 and 1909, and is a designated “Rijksmonument” status for being one … Continue reading →