English Articles

Roads, flyovers, and bridges in the Netherlands constantly need renovation because of the large quantity of the infrastructure, that requires large investment. That creates room for innovation and sustainability. But how do we approach that? Scientis

A brain for buildings, a digital scale model of a city, or a robot assistant on the construction site. Digitalization is crucial in the built environment. Giorgio Agugiaro explains what your city will look like in the future.

Concrete is indispensable in construction. It's strong, cheap, and resistant to wear and tear. But concrete also requires lots of materials. It's time to recycle and make it sustainable.

Buildings have a significant impact on your health. They can provide increased job satisfaction, better health, and inclusion through optimal use. In this article, we explain how.

We know honey bees mainly from beekeepers. But in the wild, honey bees are invaluable for biodiversity. To give wild bees more space, innovative nests have been developed.

To make the construction sector structurally sustainable, we need not only practical solutions but also a long-term vision. This is what the building faculties of the technical universities advocate.

The office building you work in could be equipped with a "brain" in the coming years: a self-learning system that optimizes building performance and thus sustainability and comfort.

Extreme heatwaves are affecting many European cities. What can we do to keep the heat bearable?

The Dutch construction industry is at a loss. To cope with the housing crisis, one million new houses must be built before 2030. And in a sustainable way. Fortunately, students inspire the housing industry. They are working in teams across the country to come up with the most groundbreaking solutions. “Through trial and error, we found out that sustainable doesn’t have to be expensive at all,” says former student Antoine Post of Integer Technologies.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Twins are cautiously gaining a foothold in the construction industry. The possibilities of digitalization seem endless, but their implementation still needs to be improved.

3D printers in construction are the ideal solution to both the housing shortage and the labor shortage. The opportunities are endless, but there are also some drawbacks.

A fully circular construction economy by 2050. Are we going to achieve that? t will be difficult, but it starts with good cooperation.

Something to think about: we will only end climate problems with integral solutions. "It sounds abstract but at the same time it makes perfect sense."

Construction in the Netherlands urgently needs to innovate. The housing shortage, meeting sustainability goals, and infrastructure maintenance make transition and innovation necessary. Professor André Dorée, chair of the Civil Engineering & Management Department at the University of Twente, is already involved for 30 years in how the Dutch construction industry - and infrastructure in particular - innovates. "In this, I mainly look at the role of the government," he says. "It fulfills many roles. Among other things, the government is market master, important buyer, licensing authority and enforcer."

Innovations that go far off the beaten track, that is what 4TU.Bouw, one of the nine Centers of the 4TU.Federation, is dedicated to. The four technical universities and fourteen universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands are working together on a long-term vision and an action plan for (fundamental) research in the construction sector. Clever minds are shining their light on the future of the construction sector, each from their own background and perspective.