Smart Urban Redesign: value for the region

Our aim is to develop interdisciplinary research that integrates innovative urban design and special planning strategies with building renovation concepts and new technologies in energy, materials, and devices to achieve a regenerative urban metabolism.

This allows us to modify consumption patterns, improve energy production and distribution systems, shift to different means of mobility, and increase efficiency in buildings and the use of public spaces.

SURD is working along three interconnected lines of research in order to achieve its ambitions:

1. Urban transformation with a focus on the transformation of urban districts and public spaces using technical and non-technical solutions
2. Circular building technology with a focus on design, realization, operation, and decommissioning zero-energy buildings and building components in pre-existing and new built environments
3. Sustainable energy in the built environment with a focus on combining material science with energy, building technology, and urban dynamics that affect city and district design. This line is excecuted by the Special Research Center Solar energy in the Built Environment.

To fulfil its role the research group aims for close collaboration with regional and local stakeholders such as The Province of Limburg, Parkstad Limburg, IBA, municipalities, housing corporations, industry and the community. SURD also collaborates with the other research centres of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.

SURD collaborates with the Research Centre for Material Sciences with a particular involvement in coating materials for solar panels and the use of 3D-printing in the construction sector.

Our research ambitions can act as an umbrella, strengthening the technological vision and strategic research topics.

Nurhan Abujidi graduated in 1996 from the Faculty of Architecture of the Bir Zeit University of Palestine.

Between 1996 and 2000, she worked as the Chief Architect for the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage. She obtained two postgraduate Masters’ degrees at the Catholic University of Louvain/Leuven (Belgium) on the preservation of historic cities and buildings and on the architecture of human habitation. She also obtained her PhD at the same university in the field of architecture and regional and urban planning.

She taught on graduate and international postgraduate programmes at the Catholic University of Louvain, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and the universities of San Jorge and Zaragoza (Spain). In Zaragoza, she was also a senior researcher in sustainable urban development.

Nurhan was involved in supervising various PhD research projects as the academic coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus UII module Urban Studies at the VUB. Last but not least, she was co-director of the School of Architecture at San Jorge University where she was in charge of research and international relations. She also taught in the field of urban planning and planning theory.
Inaugural speech
On Thursday 1 March 2018, Nurhan Abujidi presented her inaugural speech 'Places for People: Towards a new identity for Limburg'. 

18/12/2018
SIA subsidy ‘City Deal’ granted
We are excited to announce that our request for SIA subsidy ‘Impuls City Deal Kennis Maken’ project is granted. This City Deal accelerates cooperation between universities and municipalities in solving social problems of cities by involving researchers, teachers and students. This way knowledge is put to better use and the city becomes a (rich) learning environment for students. Zuyd collaborates with Maastricht municipality and University of Maastricht to develop creative urban interventions to improve vitality in Maastricht's neighbourhoods.