Antonia Kalatha

It was almost five o’clock in the afternoon. The golden red sun seared our necks as it was going to its dusk, and our feet ached from the non-stop cycling. As we steered our bicycles around the island, we fell in love with the mesmerizing scenic beauty of Texel.   Up green hills and down flat land, along the dunes of the coast and through the forests of the inner part, we travelled alongside each…

a forecast of the transition to a sustainable personal life on Texel in 2065 (have a look at the video/visuals) a general overview of the sustainable island in 2065, and possible transition pathways (report) an impression of  the development of island tourism 2015-2065 (view the documentary)

Having to design a system to accommodate the community in Texel, on field research on the current situation had to take place. Before coming to Texel, along with the literature study and the online research, we contacted some locals related to the accommodation sector in order to interview them upon our arrival. What we were interested in was the characteristics of the existing buildings and…

First day of winter vacations in Texel. We rented a beautiful cottage by the sea, really old-style! Reminds me of the years when I was a student in the Netherlands… Seems like a lifetime since then; should have been 50 years ago! First thing, scan my body with the health device to see if everything’s fine and upload the results to my online health profile… At my age I need to be careful all the…

Ely, A., Smith, A., & Stirling, A. (2013). Innovation politics post-Rio+20: hybrid pathways to sustainability? Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 31: 1063-1081. Verbong, G. P., & Geels, F. W. (2010). Exploring sustainability transitions in the electricity sector with socio-technical pathways. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 77(8), 1214-1221.

Different literature reviews and the analysis made on the specific sub -system led to the conclusion that for making the accommodation sector fully sustainable the only way is for the facilities to be used 100% all year round. In the same time improving the energy usage of all types of accommodation and taking determined steps over increasing the winter tourism also seem important. Last but not…

The presence of the future system for accommodating the community has to obey to some rules and regulations to define the behavior of this system. With the goal of creating a sustainable system by improving the facilities and increasing the winter tourism, the total integrated rhythm of Texel will change from its current state. So, in order for this plan to succeed, there is the need of defining…

In this section we explain which steps are needed to connect the current state of the sub-system with the desired future. This is to determine how the transition towards a sustainable system to accommodate community will be achieved.  The biggest challenge in the transition towards the future sub-system is how to minimize the energy consumption and the overall performance of the current…

The global political agenda of the last 20 years focused on creating economic and regulatory incentives to drive more sustainable industrial development patterns within and between nation states. This is a result of the improved understanding of how innovation interacts with technological, social and ecological systems. The starting point was the first “earth summit” in Stockholm in 1972 and has…

Delft, 18 th of December 2015, 4 a.m., 11 o C. Walking home on a rather warm winter night, I couldn’t help but wondering how normal this high temperature is. Although, if we look at climate change on a narrow, personal perspective a “softer” winter doesn’t look like such a bad idea, if we take into consideration its impact on the life of billions of people around the world then things change. The…

Borrás, S., & Edler, J. (2014). Introduction: on governance, systems and change. In S. Borras & J. Edler (Eds.), The governance of socio-technical systems (pp. 1-2; 11-16; 23-xx). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Pesch, U. (2015). Tracing discursive space: Agency and change in sustainability transitions. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 90: 379-388.

Interviews While preparing to visit Texel and setting up our team’s strategy, in addition to the literature review, interviews were also taken. Two types of candidates were chosen; a (former) inhabitant of Texel, to introduce us to the everyday life of the islanders and give us an insight on what is going on there, and a graduation student on sustainable accommodation to suggest and provide…

Campsite De Bremakker won the golden barometer in 2009; an award for sustainable touristic companies. To achieve this, a variety of technologies had to be added. The reception is a sustainable house using grey water to flush toilets. The owners use harmless cleaning products. Waste gets separated and the chalets have smart lighting, water meters and solar panels installed. Unfortunately, the…

As technology of materials improves, new possibilities arise in the field of building façade design. Sustainability, adaptability to the environment, saving energy techniques, as well as aesthetics and design methods are some of the fields being improved and benefited. Nevertheless, we’re moving one brick at a time towards a more earth friendly   building future, and researchers Miguel Niño and  …

The architectural profession is recently witnessing a significant resurgence in the request for the integration of passive and hybrid environmental strategies and techniques in building design, in order to mitigate the impacts on the ecosystem and promote the adaptation of built environments to expected climate alterations. The goal of this week’s column is to examine whether the building…

In this section we explain which steps are needed to connect the current state of the sub-system with the desired future. This is to determine how the transition towards a sustainable system to accommodate community will be achieved.  The biggest challenge in the transition towards the future sub-system is how to minimize the energy consumption and the overall performance of the current…

In this chapter we build upon the gained knowledge of the previous three chapters and the research done so far in order to design the way (or the different pathways) in order to achieve our goal. An overview on relevant literature for the design of pathways of sustainable development is given in the first section, followed by our ideas on solutions that could be applied in order to define our…

Now that we cut down our needs and bought less products -or at least less non-useful products- it’s time to take a more critical step on waste prevention by focusing on reusing and recycling. The main idea of “reusing” is to keep new resources from being used for a while longer and old resources from entering the waste stream. It does not only include conventional reuse, where the item is used…

“Sustainable living”   is a   lifestyle that uses as few resources as possible and causes the least amount of environmental damage for future generations to deal with. [ 1] Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their   carbon footprint   by altering methods of   transportation, energy consumption, and   diet. [2] They aim to live in balance with the Nature and to be…

The difference between the current and the future systems lays on that fact that the desired condition will have a higher focus on being independent. Moreover, there will be more available resources to fulfil the accommodation needs of the community. The current system is static and the way it operates is the same as when divined by the architect, planner and designer. The future will be a system…

It is assumed that the two subsystems mentioned above will also exist in the future. Nevertheless, they must not only be effective in and of themselves, but they must be re-designed in such a way as to accommodate and support each other. It is only by meeting the demands of both of them that our subsector of accommodate community will reach optimal performance in the future. The use of Innovative…

The socio-technical system requires that the technical and human elements forming the whole will be recognized as independent parts which, nevertheless, interact with each other in distinct ways, are distinguishable from their environment, have developed specific forms of collective knowledge production, knowledge utilization and innovation, and which are oriented towards specific purposes in…

The following paragraph contains a critical analysis by all team members of the required readings (Borrás&Edler, 2014; Pesch, 2015) on socio-technical systems and sustainability. Several ideas and concepts were introduced and discussed in order to be applied in our team’s vision for a sustainable accommodation system in Texel. The notion “socio-technical and innovation system” refers to…

This is the first chapter of the research made towards a sustainable tourist accommodation system in Texel. The first subchapter is dedicated to literature review of the required readings; introducing and discussing ideas in order to apply in our team’s vision. In the second part the current sub-system is being discussed, whereas in the third chapter its future characteristics are being analyzed.

Have you ever wonder how do the flows of goods, waste, energy, people, water and air function in your city? What influence do these flows have on the quality of our life, how do they affect us? C. Kennedy and fellow researchers have produced a clear definition in the 2007 paper ‘’The Changing Metabolism of Cities’’ calling “the sum total of the technical and socio-economic process that occur in…