Seminars

This paper explores the temporal organisation of laundry. It considers coordination in two forms: the scheduling of inter-connected practices (e.g. work, eating, other water-using practices) and of practitioners (for quality time, social occasions, and to align personal schedules). In both cases, the materiality of the practice – household infrastructure, the environment and, above all…

News reports and academic articles contend that Millennials (those born in the last two decades of the 20th century) are different from earlier generations in their consumption and travel patterns. This study investigates the travel behavior of young American adults and compares the behavior of Millennials with those of previous generations using data from the 1995, 2001, and 2009 National…

“Behave” is a funny word to refer to a building—in what way do buildings behave? For the particular question posed by the title, the reference is to “energy performance” and in this specific instance, the issue of why does the measured energy consumption of the building vary from the predicted energy consumption? Building modelers often say that they lack sufficient information…

The potential of past technologies is often overlooked when it comes to designing a sustainable technology. If obsolete technology is brought to our attention, it is mostly with the intention to make fun of it. But the history of technology hides many inventive technologies that could be very useful today and in the future. Many of them have been forgotten. Often, interesting possibilities…

The need to move away from fossil fuel powered transport is now well established, and cities are often seen as the places par excellence where sociotechnical transitions towards sustainable, low-energy mobility are in the making. Yet, exactly why some cities are more successful in moving towards lower energy consumption than others remains only partly understood. This presentation will argue…