Background and aim – This paper studies urban decline, the processin which the built environment suddenly or gradually loses its practical,technical and economic functionality, resulting in it being abandonedby its legitimate occupants and neglected by its owners for an extended period of time. Recent European examples of urban decline fromaround the globe as well as five German examples were studied. This isfollowed by a reflection on the risks for public safety and public healththat these examples show and the possible role of facility managers indiminishing these risks.Methods / Methodology – Data were collected by means of desk research and direct observations.Results – At all locations public safety and public health risks were considerable. Direct observations at five German locations show extensive urban decline.Originality –Identifying safety and health risks in abandoned buildings and connecting these issues to the facility management profession offers a new perspective on dealing with urban decay.Practical or social implications – Abandoned buildings that are easily accessible to the public generate considerable risks for public safety and health. This paper calls for a debate about how to deal with these risks. Part of the debate should be whether or not such situations should be allowed to continue.Moreover, this paper suggests a prominent role for the facility management profession in order to deal with these safety and health issues.Type of paper – Research paper.
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From the article: Using Roger Crisp’s arguments for well-being as the ultimate source of moral reasoning, this paper argues that there are no ultimate, non-derivative reasons to program robots with moral concepts such as moral obligation, morally wrong or morally right. Although these moral concepts should not be used to program robots, they are not to be abandoned by humans since there are still reasons to keep using them, namely: as an assessment of the agent, to take a stand or to motivate and reinforce behaviour. Because robots are completely rational agents they don’t need these additional motivations, they can suffice with a concept of what promotes well-being. How a robot knows which action promotes well-being to the greatest degree is still up for debate, but a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches seem to be the best way. The final publication is available at IOS Press through http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-708-5-184
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The design of healthcare facilities is a complex and dynamic process, which involves many stakeholders each with their own set of needs. In the context of healthcare facilities, this complexity exists at the intersection of technology and society because the very design of these buildings forces us to consider the technology–human interface directly in terms of living-space, ethics and social priorities. In order to grasp this complexity, current healthcare design models need mechanisms to help prioritize the needs of the stakeholders. Assistance in this process can be derived by incorporating elements of technology philosophy into existing design models. In this article, we develop and examine the Inclusive and Integrated Health Facilities Design model (In2Health Design model) and its foundations. This model brings together three existing approaches: (i) the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, (ii) the Model of Integrated Building Design, and (iii) the ontology by Dooyeweerd. The model can be used to analyze the needs of the various stakeholders, in relationship to the required performances of a building as delivered by various building systems. The applicability of the In2Health Design model is illustrated by two case studies concerning (i) the evaluation of the indoor environment for older people with dementia and (ii) the design process of the redevelopment of an existing hospital for psychiatric patients.
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In this policy evaluation report, the results of the first 2 years of the Interreg funded ABCitiEs project are presented. In total 16 entrepreneurship collectives have been studied in 5 partner regions, i.e. Athens, Vilnius, Varazdin-Cakovec, Manchester and Amsterdam. The report contains an analysis of the cases and gives an overview of the most important opportunities and challenges faced by these cases. On the basis of these result, 4 policy directions have been selected in which improvement are considered most successful, i.e. access to funding, intermediaries, monitoring and experimental learning environments. Also, the report presents the action plans that have been formulated on the basis of these policy directions for the cities involved in this project. In the last 2 years of the project, project partners will implement these action plans in their respective cities.
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Hundreds of cities and communities in the world have joined the WHO’s Global Network for AgeFriendly Cities and Communities since 2010. In order to do quantitative assessments of the age friendliness of cities, the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) was developed for the Dutch municipality of The Hague. The purpose of this study was first to translate and test the validity and reliability of the AFCCQ for use in North Macedonia and second to explore perceptions on age-friendliness of the bicultural and bilingual City of Skopje. The AFCCQ proved valid for use in North Macedonia. Overall, older adults in Skopje experience the age-friendliness of the city as neutral (in seven out of nine domains). The best score (“slightly satisfied”) was found in the domain of Housing, which was rated positive in all ten municipalities. The lowest total score (“slightly dissatisfied”) was found in the domain of Outdoor spaces and buildings, which received negative scores in eight out of ten municipalities. In five out of nine domains differences were observed between the Albanian and Macedonian communities. The Albanian sample has slightly higher scores in two domains: 1) Housing and 2) Civic Participation and Employment, while the Macedonian sample scored higher in three domains: 1) Communication and Information; 2) Outdoor Spaces and Buildings and 3) Transportation. A hierarchical cluster analysis further revealed the presence of six distinct age-friendly typologies that can be used for a better understanding of subpopulations in the city and draft policies and action programs on the city level.
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Herontwikkelen van industrieel erfgoed vereist grondig onderzoek naar de bouw- en gebruiksgeschiedenis van dat erfgoed, en een kaart met alle waardevolle details. Anders gaat teveel verloren bij herontwikkelingen, concludeert HU-docent Kees Geevers in zijn promotieonderzoek aan de TU Delft. Hij pleit voor nieuwe richtlijnen
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Publicatie naar aanleiding van de door Stadslab European Urban Design Laboratory georganiseerde Master Class met als thematiek het ontwerpen van een Innovative District voor de Poolse stad Lublin. De Master Class werd gevolgd door 8 internationale deelnemers en stond onder supervisie van Didier Rebois (Europan, Parijs), Marc Glaudemans (Fontys) en Juliette van der Meijden (Fontys)
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With the increasing global population, urbanization, the current unsustainable and expansive agricultural practices would be expected to further elevate the risk of food and nutritional insecurity of the global population, which is recognized as a global threat for the 21st century. This paper reviews the demographic changes, urbanization, sustainability of the conventional agricultural systems, the environmental and resource implications and presents possible sustainable alternatives.
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This booklet holds a collection of drawings, maps, schemes, collages, artistic impressions etc. which were made by students during an intense design moment in the project (re)CYCLE Limburg, which took place in December 2016. Students of Built Environment, Facility Management, Social Work and Health & Care cooperated in making designs and developing strategies for urban renewal in Kerkrade West (Province of Limburg, the Netherlands). The study focused on the importance of qualitative and shared public spaces. The local community (inhabitants, shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, municipality, housing corporation) was actively engaged by sharing knowledge and information, ideas and opinions. These reflections are part of the Limburg Action Lab (part of the Smart Urban Redesign Research Centre). It engages in research by design on innovative and tactical interventions in public space, that might enhance the identity, sustainability and socio-spatial structure of neighbourhoods.
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Een fles rode wijn per dag drinken is ongezond, maar een glas per dag reduceert mogelijk de kans op hartkwalen. Dit is een voorbeeld van ‘hormese’: het verschijnsel dat een agens dat in grote hoeveelheden schadelijk is, bij lage doses juist gezond is. Iets vergelijkbaars geldt voor zonlicht: lage doses worden geassocieerd met positieve gezondseffecten, hoge doses met verbranden en een hogere kans op huidkanker. Er zijn onderzoekers die zich op het omstreden standpunt stellen dat ook ioniserende straling hormetische eigenschappen heeft. In dit artikel gaan we nader in op de verschillende standpunten omtrent lage-dosiseffecten, de argumenten voor en tegen hormese en de consequenties van recente inzichten.
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