This study offers a new perspective on clothing consumption by uncovering the systemic nature of the wardrobe. The research builds on systems theory and aims at drawing a map of the wardrobe as a system with particular structure and behaviour. By co-designing fictional 'smart wardrobe' services with experts and discussing these services with wardrobe users, we identify characteristics of wardrobe structure and behaviour that give input for a preliminary wardrobe map. Lastly, the wardrobe map provides a basis for discussing sustainable design approaches aimed at reducing clothing demand, in the context of growing clothing production volume and its associated environmental impacts.
The complexity of analysing dynamical systems often lies in the difficulty to monitor each of their dynamic properties. In this article, we use qualitative models to present an exhaustive way of representing every possible state of a given system, and combine it with Bayesian networks to integrate quantitative information and reasoning under uncertainty. The result is a combined model able to give explanations relying on expert knowledge to predict the behaviour of a system. We illustrate our approach with a deterministic model to show how the combination is done, then extend this model to integrate uncertainty and demonstrate its benefits
The environment of the(Dutch) building industry is increasingly turbulent. There are many cges for the building industry. Innovative tendering, better marketing, openness and transparency are examples of this. A strong reduction in failure costs (estimated at between 10 and 25% of the total costs) and an increase in quality are also necessary. Lastly, the declining inflow of young people has to be mentioned. The image of the building industry is not particularly good and students prefer to choose other industries. The building industry therefore has to change and, so far, everyone agrees. Evidently both the building industry and its environment are very keen to change; the sincere will is there, and money and energy are available, but it seems that efforts are not proceeding in a very planned or coordinated manner at present. And this is causing fragmentation and, therefore, sub optimisation. How does sectoral change proceed and how is this process to be managed? That is the central question in this paper.