Projects

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Re-framing urban polycentricity: conceptualising, comparing, and tool-building KU Leuven

Ben Derudder
Public Governance Institute

The overall objective of this project is to significantly innovate the scientific literature on ‘urban polycentricity’. The general idea underlying urban polycentricity is fairly straightforward: the term is used to refer to territories that have multiple, proximately located (sub)centers and are characterized by balanced development. This general idea is, however, also vague and arguably at the root of much confusion. The urban ...

Comparing technology cultures in urban DR Congo (1960-present): Kinshasa, Kikwit and Lubumbashi. KU Leuven

Katrien Pype
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
The project aims at establishing a team of researchers who study the ways in which technological infrastructures have been co-producing the post-colonial society in three cities in the Democratic Republic in Congo (1960-present), Kinshasa, Kikwit and Lubumbashi. The team (PI, 2 PhD students, 2 post-docs and 2 senior scholars) will carry out ethnographic case studies in the domains of communication (Kinshasa), health (Kikwit) and energy ...

GIStorical Antwerp II. The historical city as empirical lab for urban studies using high-resolution social maps. University of Antwerp

Tim Soens
Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, Centre on Inequality, Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City, Centre for Computational Linguistics and Psycholinguistics (CLiPS), Society and Environment, Centre for Urban History
In a time of rapid urbanization solid long-term perspectives on the many environmental, social, economic or political challenges of urbanity are urgently needed. Uniting urban history, sociology, environmental studies and digital humanities, GIStorical Antwerp II turns the historical city into a digital lab which provides an answer to this need. For 8 snapshots between 1584 and 1984 it offers dynamic social maps including every household in the ...

Serendipity Engine: towards surprising and interesting urban experiences. University of Antwerp

Bart Goethals
ADReM Data Lab (ADReM)
Concerns exist regarding the controlling and restricting nature of today's recommender systems. The trend is towards serving predictable, popular and homogeneous content, which is often referred to as "filter bubbles". In an urban context, this means that people are no longer exposed to the diversity of cities and their inhabitants, which has negative consequences for the open and democratic character of the city. This is a timely issue that ...

Experimenting with living streets to train urban mobility (EX-TRA). Ghent University

Frank Witlox
Department of Geography

Across Europe, cities are trying to radically reduce their dependence on car mobility in order to address a range of sustainability challenges. However, two major shortcomings are hampering these efforts towards a 'post-car' city: first, there is a lack of a proactive vision of cities that are not only sustainable but also accessible without a car, and second, there is a lack of effective strategies to deal with strong in-built systemic ...

Development of a coupled source and receiver model for vibrations due to urban railway traffic. KU Leuven

Geert Degrande
Structural Mechanics Section
In the analysis of the dynamic behaviour of many civil engineering structures, it is essential to account for the interaction between the structure and its environment. Despite the advance of high performance computers, the numerical solution of large scale dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) problems remains very challenging and in many cases beyond current computer capabilities.

This dissertation addresses the development and ...

Numerical and experimental analysis of smart urban wind turbines KU Leuven

Dirk Saelens
Building Physics and Sustainable Design, Concordia University, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, TU Delft, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

The EU’s climate goals necessitate all the EU countries to have at least a 32% share of renewable energy consumption by 2030. Achieving this requires energy harvesting from all the renewables in potential locations. Wind energy is the largest contributor among the renewables throughout the EU with a share of 44.2%. Among the potential locations for wind energy harvesting, urban areas, although very promising in terms of providing a local ...

Modelling of railway vibration in urban areas using a hybrid prediction method. KU Leuven

Geert Degrande
Structural Mechanics

Increasing urban congestion and demand for mass transport is driving the development of new railways in urban areas. These railways generate ground-borne vibration, which can cause disturbance to nearby residents and interfere with sensitive equipment. A primary concern for engineers when designing a new railway is ensuring that vibration level limits are met. This requires accurate prediction methods that have been validated against ...

Augmenting the sociability of media architecture. KU Leuven

Andrew Vande Moere
Architecture and Design, Institute for Media Studies
The role of the built environment as an ideal place for social interaction is diminishing by the increasing interaction between computers and people. At the same time, developments in display technology and building materials have led to new forms of media architecture, which have the ability to interact with people and places. However, media architecture serves mainly commercial, artistic or entertainment purposes, does not relate to the social ...