The springing up of freeform architecture and structures introduces many challenges to structural engineers. The main challenge is to generate structural forms with high structural efficiency subject to the architectural space constraints during the conceptual structural design process.

Structural Morphology is the study of the relation between form and force, which can be considered the guiding theory for this challenge. The relation between form and force is important for all types of struc...

The research was inspired by the increasing impact of extreme weather events and changing climate patterns on flood-prone regions and cities, and the consequent human and economic costs. Despite global efforts for flood resilience and climate adaptation involving climate analysts, economists, social scientists, politicians, hydrological engineers, spatial planners, and policymakers, it is only partially clear how best to construct resilience measures and implement concrete initiatives. The co...

Expanding cities across the world rely increasingly on the global food network, but should they? Population growth, urbanisation and climate change place pressure on this network, bringing its resilience into question. For decades urban agriculture has been discussed in popular media and academia as a potential solution to improve food security, quality and sustainability. The new idol in this discussion is the plant factory: A fully closed system for crop production. Arrays of LEDs provide l...

The aim of this PhD project was to explore the multi-level interplay between the inter-organizational structures and interpersonal relations in building project organizations. In the first two studies, quantitative approaches were used to validate assumptions about how inter-organizational structures are shaped by actors and how interpersonal relationships affect the effectiveness of project teams in the construction industry. These two studies were integrated in a third qualitative case stud...

Population growth and urbanisation trends bring many consequences related to the increase in global energy consumption, CO2 emissions and a decrease in arable land per person. High‑rises have been one of the inevitable buildings of metropoles to provide extra floor space since the early examples in the 19th century. Therefore, optimisation of high-rise buildings has been the focus of researchers because of significant performance enhancement, mainly in energy consumption and generation. Bas...

In recent years, the Private Rented Sector (PRS) has witnessed rapid growth across numerous jurisdictions, with Chinese metropolises notably standing out. Throughout the history of housing policy development in China, the PRS has been largely disregarded. It was not until 2015 that the government proposed the idea of “accelerating the development of the rental housing market” to achieve a “balanced development between home renting and purchasing”. However, the PRS in China is still in...

The world is facing global challenges that are dramatically changing the social and physical environments, resulting in cultural confrontation. Rapid urban growth, and gentrification increase urban pressure while jeopardizing social cohesion, multicultural values and local economies. Moreover, environmental factors associated with climate change challenge the way cities respond and adapt, as their assets have to be re-designed to meet the current and future generation needs.

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This research investigates and elucidates the behaviour of nanolime products for consolidation of calcareous substrates. Based on the developed knowledge, it proposes and validates a methodology (including solvent modification and application protocol) for improving the consolidation effectiveness of nanolime dispersions, making these a suitable alternative for TEOS products.

This pioneering research focuses on Biomimetic Interactive Architecture using "Computation", "Embodiment", and "Biology" to generate an intimate embodied convergence to propose a novel rule-based design framework for creating organic architectures composed of swarm-based intelligent components. Furthermore, the research boldly claims that Interactive Architecture should emerge as the next truly Organic Architecture. As the world and society are dynamically changing, especially in this digital...

Sustainability and resilience have become indispensable parts of the contemporary debate over the built environment. Although recognised as imperatives, the complexity and the variety of interpretations of sustainability and resilience have raised the necessity to again rethink their notion in the context of the built environment and to reframe the state-of-the-art body of knowledge.

The purpose of this book is to present ongoing research from the universities involved in the project Creating...