The traditional over-the-bench methodology for the design of a building is resulting in failure costs, failures at delivery and severe problems. An interactive top-down approach is required, both for the communication process necessary to facilitate the design, construction, maintenance and operation of an indoor environment and for the establishment of end-users' wishes and demands (requirements and needs). The system engineering approach used in other industries is discussed based on the results of three European and one national project. The outcome reveals that the applied top-down approach seems to be an improvement for the building process, but we still have a long way to go. Despite the obvious bottlenecks observed in the selection of team members and the communication process, it can be concluded that to be really usable, the top-down approach needs to be facilitated by a framework that clarifies to all stakeholders the links between system requirements, design and technical requirements for the different phases of a building. The framework also needs to separate the generic from the specified requirements for a particular building.

Temporary transformations of vacant buildings could alleviate the shortage of housing for urgent home seekers. However, not much is known about the transformation of buildings into temporary, adequate, and affordable housing. A multidisciplinary literature review covering design, indoor environmental quality, housing, and environmental psychology, was performed to determine if such an integrative approach could shed light on a new perspective to provide housing for 'urgent home seekers'. Subsequently, building transformation case studies were compared with the literature review findings. It is concluded that there is a gap in knowledge on how the concept of 'home' can be added to existing regulations in order to design and realise temporary housing that fits the needs of urgent home seekers.

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Distribution system (grid) operators (DSO’s) currently experience turbulent times. Changes in society and the energy infrastructure related to the worldwide accords to diminish CO2 emissions and the rise of decentral energy production demand a different position from DSO’s. Until recently DSO’s were utilities part of larger companies combining energy production, transportation and delivery. This changed after the introduction of a market model in the EU, making sure that consumers had a choice and competition would promote more efficiency and the investment of private capital in energy production. Now we are facing major impacts of the results of man induced global warming current economic models are questioned. Therefore it is important to investigate whether a different way of organizing would be able to bring about social transformation and different results that would be of value in reducing CO2 emissions and addressing adverse effects of the current economic system. In this paper it is investigated what the different model of cooperation would bring. This paper uses a framework of cooperation to explore new ways of working for DSO’s in the Netherlands. For this a case study is used directed at facilitating internal cooperation within one Dutch DSO.