Dark nights?

Light has long been seen as a positive force in our environment. Artificial light allowed us to overcome nature’s darkness. It is Enlightenment in its most concrete form. Light represents economic activity: Factory workers in brightly lit production facilities during the night shifts, office workers burning the midnight oil, greenhouses that illuminate the cloud cover […]

Flourishing Foodscapes

Review Flourishing Foodscapes – Han Wiskerke & Saline Verhoeven The resident of a house without a refrigerator has little need for a supermarket chain that sells cartons of imported milk. Residents of poorer neighborhoods of Dar es Salaam therefore share the cooling of dukas. These neighborhood shops with extended opening hours therefore play an important […]

High tech – low tech

The sci-fi rom-com ‘Her’ by Spike Jonze shows a world in which technology functions so well that it becomes virtually invisible. In this future we see no cars and the phone – a beautiful small pocket book – rarely appears. The vast majority is controlled by artificial intelligence. All other communication between technology and its […]

Heat circuit Apeldoorn

Like many places in the Netherlands, the Stedendriehoek is facing a major restructuring of its housing stock. Tens of thousands of homes built between 1965 and 1980 need renovation in the coming fifteen years. A central heating network is a better investment than post-insulation of cavity walls and roofs. To this end, Apeldoorn will create […]

Relaxation network

Stedendriehoek has many holiday resorts. In particular, the concentrations on the Veluwezoom and around Lochem stand out. These resorts function as isolated companies, despite their proximity. Can that be done differently? In a not too distant future guests expect a network of electric mobility offering a smooth ride from their homes to the resorts. Electric […]

Urbanization

For the first time in history, over half the world’s population lives in urban areas. Opportunities offered by cities appeal and attract people. The countryside, however, is rapidly developing as well. More than ever it has become a place of residence and employment. It accommodates both the urban excess and evolution according to its own […]

Tidal energy

Tidal energy is a commercially promising form of energy from the ocean. The technology – similar in operation to wind turbines – is advanced, but has only modest power generation so far. Great Britain has big plans and has invested millions in recent years, particularly in Scotland. Dutch companies see tidal energy as an important […]

Dredging

Years of dredging the shipping lane to Antwerp, has made the canals in the Westerschelde deeper. This has increased the flow rate of the water while the estuary’s storage capacity diminished. Coastal defense and biodiversity suffer from the strong currents in the Westerschelde. Extensive deepening and widening of the navigation channel reinforce this. The ecology […]