Starting from informal cross-disciplinary conversations between colleagues, this volume is the result of an experiment in understanding the standpoints and methodologies of others in a multidisciplinary setting. At its heart are the core values of a liberal arts education: intellectual curiosity and the ability to communicate across borders. Written with the aim of communicating academic content to non-specialists, the essays interweave narratives about truth with various kinds of dialogue an...

Recently, Chinese Public Rental Housing (PRH) provision has witnessed a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’: policy making shifted from government steering to mixed forms involving government, market and civic actors to pursue effective and fair policies. In the meantime, this new-era PRH governance is credited with mixed results. However, the existing studies fail to describe the mechanisms underlying this new-era governance of PRH with the rising involvement of market actors and...

In recent years, the density on the Dutch university campus has increased substantially due to a continued growth of student populations. Campus managers face the challenge of accommodating the university’s students and employees mainly in the existing buildings, which are used ineffectively and inefficiently. In order to improve the space use on campus, campus managers need better information about space use. Therefore, this PhD dissertation proposes the use of Smart campus tools: a servic...

The presented research on Immediate Systems in Architecture (IS-A) is an attempt to afford a better human-technology match in architecture, pursuing a state where humans can simultaneously use and design, apply and amend the technical system they engage with.

The thesis contains both theoretical and experimental contributions on IS-A. Initially, the notion of Immediate Systems (IS) is introduced and framed. IS offer interaction in the style of direct manipulation, embed design and implementat...

This dissertation focuses on architectural education and practice as a collective experience, examining the particular case of the PUCV School of Architecture and Design and Ciudad Abierta in Chile. The study asks whether the culture of collectivity that characterises the school has served as a supporting structure for its artistic and pedagogical project and if so, which elements configure the collective ways of studying and practising at this school. The dissertation delves into these quest...

"Nikos Salingaros is a mathematician who's also a brilliant thinker about architecture and urbanism. 'Solid' doesn't begin to hint at his virtues and talents, but isn't it nice when you encounter 'solid' in the world of the arts? Salingaros has worked closely with Christopher Alexander, and has become a major architecture theorist in his own right." -- Ray Sawhill.

"This is an interesting compilation of some of the important roots and evolutions of modernism and its latest development, the De...

Public organizations matter, now more than ever. Be it hospitals providing us healthcare, schools offering us education,

police officers keeping our streets safe, museums safeguarding our cultural heritage, one can provide multiple examples of how public organizations impact our daily lives. But running public organizations is complex and expectations towards

these organizations have never been greater — they need to be efficient and effective, provide high-quality and equitable services, a...

In 1905 Einstein introduced his Special Theory of Relativity (STR). The rumours I heard when I was about 16 years old were that only he and a few other extremely intelligent scientists would be able to understand this theory. A turning point in the history of physics, not only because of this supposed sublime theory, but even more because of the abandonment of the phenomenon ‘ether’. Until that turning point in history no physicist ever thought about the possibility that this phenomenon w...