Connected Architecture

MX3D – Smart Bridge

The world’s first steel bridge, 3D printed by robots, will soon span a canal in the centre of Amsterdam. This ground-breaking project is an initiative of the Dutch start-up MX3D and the brainchild of designer Joris Laarman. They have teamed up with a consortium of mathematicians and IoT specialists to develop a smart sensor network to monitor the bridge’s health in real time. These sensors will measure environmental factors (air quality, temperature), enabling engineers to measure and monitor the bridge’s health. The project illustrates the speed with which this new technology and possible applications are developing. What challenges did the face, creating the smart bridge? And what specific data will it generate? Tim Geurtjens & Alec Shuldiner share their insights.

Heren 5 – Het Fundahuis

Every month Funda, the largest house site in the Netherlands, has over 4 million unique visitors. The interaction of all those visitors ensures big data. Can you design a house based on that data? Heren 5 took up the challenge together with Dingeman Deijs Architects. The data from Funda shows that the Netherlands is looking for villas and castles, but that terraced houses are the most sold homes. The tension between dream and reality has been the starting point for the design of the Funda Huis. They look like two extremes, the typical Dutch terraced house and the large free-standing bastion, but they are more compatible than you might think. Jeroen Atteveld presents their designproces.

BNA – City of the Future

© BNA

Begin 2018, the BNA initiated the design study ‘The city of the future‘, that looks at new ways of area development. Ten multidisciplinary design teams were involved in intensive design studies at test locations in cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven. Together with designers and municipalities they aimed to answer the question: how we can link construction tasks to energy transition, innovations in transport, circular economy and other system-and network innovations in times of the next compaction wave? BNA-director Fred Schoorl explains the results and Bram van Ooijen and Bart Mispelblom Beyer, team members of Team Triangel, present their experiences within the project.

DATAstudio

The DATAstudio was a program of Het Nieuwe Instituut in collaboration with the city of Eindhoven (2015-2017) in which available data and technological possibilities were combined with the reality of the street and the needs of the residents. What can the ‘smart city’ mean for living together in a neighbourhood? And (how) can technology help to encourage citizen participation? Linda Vlassenrood shares her experiences.

Tada

In rapidly digitising cities, ethical and responsible use of data is a major challenge. As is the case in Amsterdam. Professionals from the Amsterdam region therefore wrote the manifesto ‘Tada – data disclosed’ which contains values that, according to the founders, should be valid in responsible digital cities. Douwe Schmidt talks about the promises of data and new technologies for urban challenges. How do we combine optimism and alertness?