How can architecture improve the daily lives of people living in temporary housing while responding to the growing challenges of climate change?
This question formed the starting point of one of the most inspiring Bucky Lab design studios at TU Delft. In collaboration with the Dutch Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), sixteen student teams explored innovative ways to reduce overheating in modular housing units that are used across asylum centres in the Netherlands.
These transportable steel modules provide fast and flexible accommodation, but during increasingly hot summers they quickly become uncomfortable indoor environments. The challenge for our students was therefore much more than adding shade. They were asked to rethink the building envelope and develop practical, circular and scalable solutions that could improve both thermal comfort and quality of life.
Each team designed and built a working concept based on a clear set of ambitions: passive cooling wherever possible, modularity for buildings up to four storeys, robustness against intensive use, and the application of renewable, recyclable and bio-based materials. Every proposal also had to be demountable, transportable and suitable for implementation at multiple COA locations.
To bridge visionary thinking with real-world feasibility, every project was presented through a detailed 1:10 scale model including a complete housing unit. In addition, each team selected its most critical construction detail and realised it as a full-scale 1:1 prototype, demonstrating the technical feasibility, appearance or fabrication method of the proposed solution.
The result is a remarkable collection of sixteen innovative concepts that combine architectural design, engineering and sustainability. Some focus on adaptive shading systems, others explore ventilated façades, green solutions, modular secondary skins or multifunctional elements that improve both environmental performance and social interaction.
Over the coming weeks, Facadeworld will present each of these projects individually. Together they demonstrate how education, research and industry can collaborate to transform pressing societal challenges into tangible, buildable innovations—and how the next generation of façade engineers is already designing for a warmer future.
Welcome to the Bucky Lab COA Cooling Series.
facadeworld 