Del Seminars on

Building Technology
nal version 01-09-2014
Imagine you have a beau!ful faade in mind you want to
make. Or you are fascinated by materials. Or you are convinced that we should build at least energy neutral, or even
be"er buildings that produce energy.
But now you have to design it. You have to have the knowledge and the skill to make your idea concrete. In the way
you want it to be. In fact, be"er than that; be"er than the
rst oen vague idea and not only the idea, but a concrete,
buildable design.
When you imagine these things, probably you are more or less
convinced you dont have the knowledge or skill, or you see all
technical stu as really dicult. Or you are thinking that the
technical aspects are for specialized people, not for architects
or designers. Or maybe you cant wait to start with developing
your idea and making it concrete.
This is what the course Del seminars on building technology is about.
Design task
Architecture is for an essen!al part designing technical
aspects. Del seminars on building technology is about architecture from the perspec!ve of technical building design.
The design task at hand is a new (technical) design proposal
for an exis!ng building. It is about integra!on of structure,
construc!on and product development to come up with a
design, 2030 proof. 2030 proof means designing in a dierent socio-cultural context comparing to the given building
- with new technical possibili!es, such as bio-based materials
and structural glass and challenges, such as contribu!ng to
the necessarily energy eciency.
Designing the technics is like all design processes
Above all, it is a process of itera!ve trail and error. By coming
up with a possible (par!al) solu!on, you learn about it studying the advantages and preferred aspects and the disadvantages and disliked aspects. By learning about it and evalua!ng
what you get, you are able to come up with an alterna!ve
experiment. So designing is experimen!ng a lot: comparing
alterna!ves, exploring next steps. In each experiment more
and dierent aspects (being waterproof, xing elements, composi!on, daylight,..) are involved.
To experiment well and see the implica!ons of a move or
experiment, designers work in a laboratory of sketching and
modeling: diagramma!c sketches and models, such as sec!ons, plans, details, and overviews. Besides thinking over and
formula!ng, a designer needs sketches and models, making
the images and thoughts physical. Only then you can see what
really happens, if you like it or not, if it ts in your whole idea.

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

Learning objecves
The possible solu!ons with which a designer is experimen!ng
consists of principles and pa%erns: rules of thumb, abstract
diagrams and other forms of knowledge to use in a design.
Learned from theory, reference projects and by own experience, a designer built up a frame of reference or library of
these principles and pa%erns. All principles are used consciously and, oen, unconsciously, or in other words: ra!onal
or intui!ve in a design. In some cases designers develop or
transform them into new principles.
In this course developing your frame of reference is for a large
part done by studying the exis!ng building and studying the
theme chosen at the start of the project. But of cause other
literature on building technology principles could be necessary to study. It is about understanding and becoming skilled
in all kind of technical design principles and when necessary
transforming, innovate them to improve performance.

To come up in the end with a coherent and characteris!c

design, a designer needs a posi!on or a guiding theme, an
idea or a vision: something that gives direc!on to the design,
something that helps in taking decisions and gives the arguments of the design. In fact it is a train of thoughts. It develops in !me. It may start with an overall vision or a posi!on as
a designer. Or it may start only with an idea or posi!on in
rela!on to a par!cular design task at hand. In the process of
experimen!ng it focuses which principles out of your frame
of reference you choose, in other words these principles are
the means by which your posi!on or guiding theme become
concrete.
In this course, developing a posi!on or guiding theme is a
personal journey more in general towards architecture
and technical building design and more specic towards the
given design task at hand. It is your personal interpreta!on
in rela!on to the design task 2030 proof. Being inspired by
innova!ve techniques or fascinated by playing with materials,
having a mission to make a sustainable building, discovering
an aspect to improve in the exis!ng building (as a kind of
research ques!on), all these kind of things may be part of
your personal posi!on. In fact, with the choice for a theme at
the start of the course in the special groups (1) earth, wind
and re, (2) wood, (3) lightness or (4) low tech you have started your posi!on or guiding theme. In the other groups you
are free to dene your posi!on by yourself.
Finally, the process of experimen!ng with principles and
with(in) a guiding theme or posi!on, takes place in rela!on
to a lot of aspects, summarized in 5 domains: space, material,
func!on, site and context. In all domains a designer needs to
make statements.
In this course, the focus is on the domain of material: the design focuses on structure, climate aspects and detailing of the
construc!on. Naturally, there are always rela!ons with the
other domains. For example, climate aspects are strongly related to the urban site (sun, orienta!on,.. ) and the structure
and construc!on are strongly related to aspects in the domain
of composi!on and space (order space, image faade, ...).

Two main learning objec!ves are essen!al:

1.- Developing a posi!on or guiding theme to guide the
architectural materializa!on or technical building design, more
specic in rela!on to the given design task (building fragment
2030 proof).
2.- Elabora!on of this posi!on in the design of a building
fragment: studying and acquiring insight and skill in applying
structural, construc!onal, and climate principles, meaningful
to materialize a building fragment in interac!on with your
posi!on.
Suppor!ng to these main objec!ves:
3 - It is important to present the subject in a clear and focused
way, meaning presen!ng results and arguments / reasons
why it is, as it is (= posi!on, guiding theme) in adequate
drawings and text.

Evaluaon Criteria
1. The design is coherent and integrated in architectural and
technical aspects by means of a well-dened posi!on (see
LO 1,2,3). Meaning that the posi!on is dened and clearly
recognizable in the design.
2. The technical aspects structure, construc!on and
climate - of the design are suciently explored and integrated
into the design: the building envelope is 2030 proof (see
LO 2). Meaning that all kind of technical aspects, such as
waterproof, air !ghtness, building order, are addressed and
adequate designed, also in rela!on to the architectural aspects
of the design.
3. The student has an inquiring a$tude and is able to
experiment, evaluate and make informed design decisions.
(see LO 1,2,3). Meaning that it is clear and visible that the
student is exploring and making decisions, based on exis!ng
technical design principles and pa%erns and the chosen
posi!on.
4. The student is able to present his or her work clear
and argued - in adequate presenta!on means. (see LO 3).
Meaning that the student can name his or her posi!on and
the technical principles and pa%erns used to come up with a
adequate and/or innova!ve design

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

Evalua on products

Time table

Drawing and modeling is communica!ng. Each scale drawing

and model has its own purpose, informa!on density and target
group. Consider your documents as communica!on, ask yourself: will someone understand what your idea was and what
he will need to build this? Does your drawings contain enough
technical details and descrip!ons to execute your concept?
The following list of products gives a good indica!on of the
kind of informa!on and the level of detail required.

week 1+2
In the rst two weeks four things have to be done. Part of it is
group work and part of it is individual work.

1. posi!on or vision in words and pictures; a descrip!on of

underlying design ideas with keywords, arguments, analyses
and outline sketches
2. diagrams explaining the load bearing structure, the assembly of the facade elements and the climate concept.
3. External and internal facade view, cross- and longitudinal
sec!on and oor plans of a part of the building which contributes to its characteris!c appearance, including the elements
making up the load-bearing structure and elements related to
climate control (preferred scale of 1:20).
4. Horizontal and ver!cal characteris!c details of the building fragment in which joints are worked out in full detail, and
demonstra!ng ability to exclude water and wind, indicate
dimensions, notate used materials, give room to clearance,
and show joints etc. (on a scale of 1:5 or 1:1)
5. Model of the building fragment (preferred scale of 1:20)
Al the above can be combined on maximum two posters A0.

Marks
The evalua!on ends in one nal grade:
10
9
8
7
6

Excellent
Very good
Good
Quite sucient work
Sucient

AS Almost sucient, can be corrected with a repair task

without tutoring. Must be nished before the second Friday
in the new semester 16:00 hrs. Second repair is not possible.
If the repair does not higher the grade up to 6, you will be
qualied for a repair with tutoring.
IS Insucient, but can be corrected with a repair task with
tutoring in the following semester. If the repaired entry does
not higher the grade up to 6, you will have to redo the whole
course. Entry date for repair group is 2 weeks before the P2
examina!on date 16:00 hrs. Students par!cipa!ng in this
group are obliged to con!nue working on their earlier work.
They have to make sure that they a$end at least three full
tutoring mee!ngs (of max 5) if they want their work to be
evaluated.
B Bad, does not qualify for repair op!ons.

1. Understanding the building you will work on, meaning

understanding the used technical design principles, regarding
structure, construc!on and climate and the achieved performance by these principles. This includes a short visit to the
building
2. Develop your posi!on or and formulate your guiding theme
regarding the technical building design in this project to make
your fragment 2030 proof. (= developing and extending your
frame of reference)
3.Study exis!ng, new and innova!ve technical design principles and pa$erns regarding to (1) the chosen theme and (2)
issues when designing a building fragment 2030 proof
4. Experiment and come up with a rst provisional design for
your building fragment, in rela!on to the things men!oned
before.
week 2 Friday presenta!on
At the end of the second week there will be a mid term presenta!on where you show and discuss the group work and
your individual progress
1. explora!on principles and pa$erns chosen theme
2. formula!on posi!on or guiding theme
3. provisional design of the building fragment
week 3, 4 and 5
In the following three weeks, the individual design for your
building fragment has to be elaborated:
1. deepen your posi!on or guiding theme regarding the technical building design in this project
2. experimen!ng to come up with a design for a building fragment, in rela!on to the chosen posi!on or guiding theme
week 5 Friday nal presenta!on
formula!on principles and pa$erns chosen theme
formula!on posi!on or guiding theme / argumenta!on
design
nal design of your building fragment

Media
The deadline for the delivery of the digital les is at 20:00 hrs
on the 3rd (5 wk) or 31st (9wk) of october 2014.
If you do not deliver your digital les in !me in Blackboard,
your mark cant be processed in Orsiris in !me.
Posters A0 in PDF format for Blackboard
File format Groupnumber-Lastname-studynumber.PDF
Min.res. 150 dpi - max le size: 10 Mb (unzipped)
Maximum two posters in color print for the nal presentaion
on the 3rd of October.

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

Earth, Wind and Fire

Wood

Subject and contents

Achieving energy eciency in the built environment is an
important objec"ve for the construc"on industry. European
regula"ons rela"ng to energy eciency are frequently "ghtened, and the sector is increasingly relying on the technology
of building services to meet these requirements. This has
resulted in ever-more complex, vulnerable and maintenanceprone climate control systems that oen fail to
deliver the healthy indoor climate that is desired and which,
moreover, lack simplicity, making them dicult to operate.
The Earth, Wind & Fire concept combines climate design
(environmental factors, building physics, installa"ons, etc.) to
an architectural challenge. In this holis"c design approach, the
usual distance between architect and climate engineer is reduced, so the energy eciency of buildings can be increased.
The use of building services is kept to a minimum, energy
consump"on is dras"cally reduced and is generated by the
building itself. The architecture, building mass, construc"ons
and climate facili"es all work together, in such a way that a
building is transformed into a Climate Machine, ac"vated by
the natural resources of sun, wind, geothermal energy and
gravity.

Subject and contents

In the construc"on industry new building methods are constantly being developed. Because of the urgency in respect to
declining resources and symptoms of climate change worldwide, there has been a shi towards a more sustainable use of
material and energy. In this respect one of the most promising
new construc"on techniques is engineered "mber.

The "Earth, Wind & Fire project within the Del Seminars on
Building Technology consists of redesigning an exis"ng building to such a climate machine by using climate ameni"es as
elements for architectural expression. In this exercise, some
specic architectural, structural and climate design aspects,
based on the Earth, Wind & Fire concept, are the main guiding
themes for the redesign (instead of a func"onal program,
etc.). Through research on literature and precedents, performing (simple) calcula"ons using computer soware and
making models and drawings, the student focuses on the
architectural and technical possibili"es of the Ventec-roof, the
Solar Chimney and Climate Cascade. This results in specic
design tools and forms an inspiring basis for a revitaliza"on
project.
Case study context
It is over 50 years since the controversial Neudeat of architect Hugh Maaskant in Utrecht city centre was completed. At
that "me (1961) it was the highest oce tower in the Netherlands, with a height of 57 meters and sixteen storeys. The
Neudeat appeared on lists of most ugly buildings of Utrecht
many "mes and it has been threatened with demoli"on more
than once. Nowadays one thinks dierently about this robust
modernist building and it has been revaluated with the nomina"on as a monument. With the imminent departure of the
town oces to the newly build town hall above Utrecht CS,
another use(r) for the Neudeat can be searched for. Time
for innova"ve new ideas!

The advantages are mul"ple:

Energy ecient through computer aided manufacturing
Carbon nega"ve through carbon storage and short cycle
carbon emissions
Sustainable resource, regrowth of building material
Earthquake resistant
Fast building method through prefabrica"on and on site assembly.
Good interior climate through heat and vapor exchange.
In the project the focus is on engineered "mber construc"on.
Nevertheless the building needs a faade and installa"ons.
The engineered "mber methods also allow for related design
solu"ons in these elds.
Especially the clima"c proper"es of engineered "mber allow
for a more passive approach towards building installa"ons.
You will be researching engineered "mber projects and studying literature. You will learn about the material proper"es of
engineered "mber, the dierent building systems that are
available and the building typologies in which they are used.
With these tools you will be able to make dimensional calcula"ons, drawings and models for your redesign of a case study
building.
1.2 CASESTUDY CONTEXT
Neudeat, Utrecht
EWI, Del
Nirwanaat, The Hague
Wolkenkrabber, Amsterdam

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

Lightness

Low Tech

Subject and contents

In general buildings are heavy objects and use lots of material that can't easily be re-used. But in !mes of increasing
sustainability demands concerning the shortage of resources,
why don't we get inspired by other disciplines and create
adaptable, lightweight buildings and take the aircra- (or car-)
industry as example: Let's create modern, ingenious buildings,
prepared for tomorrow. Get rid of tradi!on and let your engineers imagina!on 'get wing'.

Subject and contents

Achieving a building with a low sustainable footprint in the
built environment is an important objec!ve for the construc!on industry.

With the excep!on of wood, buildings were tradi!onally

pulled out of the ground concrete, brick, natural stone and
even glass derive from the mountains and these materials
have the advantage to integrate the spa!al separa!ng, the
physical division and, besides glass, the loadbearing func!on.
A brick wall not only shelters the interior from the dangers
of the exterior, but it also protects the interior from rain and
storm and carries the oors and the roof.
By understanding and developing materials and construc!on
methods we have been able to develop be#er and more
precise solu!ons for design and construc!on problems. For instance: A modern Boeing 787 Dreamliner - largely build out of
composi!es- isn't build in the open air and all parts are prefabricated to precise standards and are assembled in factories.
And no carpenter comes in with a hammer and a nail to fasten
the wing on the pla$orm shortly before its rst ight.....
Have you ever realized a fully loaded Boeing 747, with 450
persons on board for a ight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles,
weighs as much as a standard family house, build of brick and
conrete?
With the introduc!on of Dymaxion House
Buckminster Fuller already asked the ques!on 'What's the
weight of a building?'
But Lightness is not only reducing the mass of buildings, but in
a broader context the minimizing - or op!mizing - the use of
materials. The right combina!on of materials for the right use.
And light, means well engineered: made for a certain performance and assembled with certain specic components. And
nowadays 'light' gets more and more dened as 'having the
smallest ecological footprint'.
Other parts of industry had less technical heritage then architecture and evolved faster. Ship-, car- and aircraconstruc!on had a fresh start and suered less from tradi!onal ideas.
With weird consequences: New houses looking like tradi!onal
houses are widely accepted, but a modern car that looks like
a cart without a horse will never be a big seller. So, strangely
the demands to our buildings seem to be dierent then from
the machines or gadgets we daily use. Cant new buildings,
forlling our current needs, be build to modern standards and
look inspiring too?
So designing and building with 'Lightness' in mind, asks for
many well engineered solu!ons, but gives unforseen possibili!es. Did you know a man on a very lightweight ying bike
crossed the English Channel, about 40 years ago?

European regula!ons rela!ng to energy and material eciency are frequently !ghtened, and the sector is increasingly
relying on technology of building services to meet these requirements. Especially in climate control this has resulted in evermore complex, vulnerable and maintenance-prone systems
that oen fail to deliver a ongoing, healthy and individually
controlled indoor climate that is desired and which, moreover,
lack simplicity, making them dicult to operate.
The Low-Tech concept relies on sustainable, rela!vely simple
straight forward instruments for structure, climate and
faade design.
The Low-Tech (LT) concept combines an integral design of
structure, faade and climate (environmental factors, building
physics, installa!ons, etc.) to an architectural challenge. In this
holis!c design approach, the usual distance between architect
and engineering team is reduced, to create a truly, simple (but
smart and inven!ve) Low-tech design. The principle subjects
of the LT-theme involve such elements as:
1. Sustainable use of materials. Thus resul!ng in a low material footprint, having to do with a (an understanding of a) good
LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) prole.
2. Energy eciency (Trias Energe!ca). Understanding of these
principles is needed to keep control over the overall energy
concept.
3. User control over well-being. Low complexity user prole of
climate features. A de-central design, with an easy user control, delivers this controllable and healthy inner climate. This
mo!vates people to become responsible users.
4. Easy assembly and dis-assembly. A more generic, repe!!ve
structure and/or faade design, in which re-use is made easy.
Generally spoken a specic design makes re-use harder.
5. Loca!on and orienta!on based design. Smart, specic
design, related to the use, loca!on and orienta!on of the
building elements.
The "Low-Tech (LT) project within the MSc 1 Del Seminars
on Building Technology consists of redesigning an exis!ng
building to such a climate machine by using climate ameni!es as elements for architectural expression. In this exercise,
some specic architectural, structural and climate design
aspects, based on the Low-Tech (LT), are the main guiding
themes for the redesign (instead of a func!onal program,
etc.).
Through research on literature and precedents, performing
(simple) calcula!ons
using computer soware and making models and drawings,
the student focuses on
the architectural and technical possibili!es of the Low-Tech
elements. This results in specic design tools and forms an
inspiring basis for a revitaliza!on project.

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

Monday

Tuesday
01 September 2014

week 1

8:45
11:00

10 - 12:00
introductie (Pathe)

Wednesday

02 September 2014
work groups
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morning

13:45

08 September 2014

week 2

8:45
11:00

15:15

week 3

11:00

11 September 2014

self study

11:00

lecture Uhlrich Knaack (Zaal A)

work groups
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afternoon
17 September 2014

18 September 2014

lecture Job Roos (Zaal A)

work groups
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afternoon

work groups
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afternoon
24 September 2014

25 September 2014

self study

29 September 2014
8:45
11:00

13:45

lecture Rob Nijsse (Zaal A)

work groups
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afternoon

work groups
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afternoon
01 October 2014

30 September 2014
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morning

02 October 2014

03 October 2014
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morning

work groups
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15:15
06 October 2014
8:45
11:00

13:45

07 October 2014
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morning

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afternoon
08 October 2014

09 October 2014

10 October 2014
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morning

work groups
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15:15
13 October 2014
8:45
11:00

13:45

14 October 2014
work groups
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morning

work groups
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afternoon
15 October 2014

16 October 2014

17 October 2014
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morning

work groups
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afternoon

15:15
20 October 2014
8:45
self study

13:45
15:15

26 September 2014
work groups
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morning

lecture Mick Eekhout (Zaal A)

15:15

19 September 2014
work groups
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morning

23 September 2014
work groups
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groupnumbers
morning

13:45

11:00

12 September 2014
work groups
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morning

lecture Andy vd Dobbelsteen (Zaal A)

22 September 2014

week 4

10 September 2014

16 September 2014
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morning

13:45

8:45

week 5

09 September 2014
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afternoon

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15:15

week 6

05 September 2014
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lecture students (Zaal A)

15 September 2014

week 7

Friday

04 September 2014

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afternoon

13:45

8:45

week 8

Thursday

lecture 2 Adriaan Beukers (Zaal A)

Lecture 13:00 Jan Jongert
14:00 Jan Pesman (Oostserre)
(Oost serre)

15:15

self study
27 October 2014

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afternoon
22 October 2014

21 October 2014
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morning

23 October 2014

24 October 2014
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morning

work groups
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afternoon

work groups
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afternoon
29 October 2014

28 October 2014

30 October 2014

31 October 2014

8:45

week 9

03 September 2014

final presentation morning groups

final presentation morning groups

final presentations afternoon groups

final presentations afternoon groups

11:00

13:45
15:15

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

Monday

Tuesday
01 September 2014

week 1

8:45
11:00

10 - 12:00
introductie (Pathe)

13:45

self study
08 September 2014

week 2

11:00

self study

Friday

04 September 2014

05 September 2014
work groups
even group
numbers

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

09 September 2014
work groups
even group
numbers

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

self study
10 September 2014

11 September 2014

12 September 2014
work groups
even group
numbers

self study

lecture Uhlrich Knaack (Zaal A)

lecture students (Zaal A)

13:45
15:15

self study
15 September 2014

8:45

week 3

self study

Thursday

03 September 2014

lecture 2 Adriaan Beukers (Zaal A)

8:45

11:00

self study

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

16 September 2014
work groups
even group
numbers

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

self study
17 September 2014

18 September 2014

19 September 2014
work groups
even group
numbers

self study

lecture Andy vd Dobbelsteen (Zaal A)

lecture Job Roos (Zaal A)

13:45
15:15

self study
22 September 2014

8:45

week 4

work groups
even group
numbers

Lecture 13:00 Jan Jongert

14:00 Jan Pesman (Oostserre)
(Oost serre)

15:15

11:00

self study

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

23 September 2014
work groups
even group
numbers

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

self study
24 September 2014

25 September 2014

26 September 2014
work groups
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numbers

self study

lecture Mick Eekhout (Zaal A)

lecture Rob Nijsse (Zaal A)

13:45
15:15

self study
29 September 2014

8:45

week 5

Wednesday
02 September 2014

11:00

self study

self study

work groups odd

group numbers

30 September 2014
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numbers

self study

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self study
01 October 2014

self study

02 October 2014

03 October 2014
final presentation
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7
13:45
15:15

self study

self study

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self study

versie 26-8-2014

Architectural Engineering Del Seminars on Building Technology (Q1 2014- 2015)

final presentations
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