Alexander Nieuwborg, Suzanne Hiemstra-van Mastrigt, Marijke Melles, Sicco Santema
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering
Jan Zekveld
Royal Schiphol Group, Innovation Hub
The outbreak of COVID-19 demonstrated the fragility of the transportation system and its Multimodal Transport Hubs (MTHs). Global travel reduced dramatically, leading to an existential crisis in MTHs. To cope with the pandemic, MTHs implemented multiple resilient measurements including social distancing, rapid testing regimes, and infrared cameras. Although these measurements are valuable tools, this research advocates to transcend resilient measures and move towards antifragility by applying a systems thinking approach. As Nassim Taleb (2013) defines: “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” Our goal is to contribute to a long-term future of the transportation system by transforming MTHs into a tool to effectuate antifragility during the management of health disruptions.
Keywords: design for antifragility, pandemics and systems thinking