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The global increase in building cooling demands poses a challenge for designers striving for net zero energy consumption. The prevalent use of mechanical cooling underscores the necessity for designers to consider Ventilative Cooling as a viable alternative in the early stages of building design. This paper presents findings from an exploratory survey and semi-structured interviews of industry experts in Ireland and the United Kingdom about their design processes and experienced-based approaches to designing Ventilative Cooling. The findings suggest that the pre-design stage has the same influence for promoting ventilative cooling strategies as the schematic and detailed design stages for practitioners, yet limited impactful decision making occurs at this stage. Over 70 % of the survey respondents reported satisfaction with current Ventilative Cooling tools used in building design. Only 8 % of architects use a ventilative cooling tool, while engineers always do, showing that separate design advice is needed for architects and engineers. The interview findings indicate that early-stage design interventions for Ventilative Cooling can be improved if there was more empirical evidence of how strategies perform available as design guidance in ventilative cooling design guidelines. Additionally, engineers highlighted that post-occupancy evaluation and site monitoring of existing buildings are crucial stages of further research that can identify the effectiveness of Ventilative Cooling design decisions. In their building designs, the practitioners reported a need for preparedness to assess resilience to extreme future climate events such as heat waves. Effective communication between industry and academic research can help improve the built environment industry's future readiness. • The interplay between the building design processes of Architects and Engineers was assessed • The pre-design stage has the same influence for promoting ventilative cooling strategies as the schematic and detailed design stages for practitioners, yet limited impactful decision making occurs at this stage • 73 % of the practitioners reported satisfaction with the current Ventilative Cooling design tools available in the market • Only 8 % of architects use software for ventilative cooling decisions, while engineers always do showing different design guidance needed for engineers and architects • A lack of understanding of vulnerability of building designs to overheating risk, client awareness and limited early stage design guidance were key reported challenges in VC design • 79 % of building design professionals not prepared for extreme future climate events in their designs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Heritage areas fall under many urban pressures, due to the disparity between its old physical structures and their inhabitants' needs. However, heritage assets represent the main potential for such areas to achieve urban development. Architects play a pivotal role in materializing these potentials, through their role and practices, which serve as the cornerstone of the development process. This paper outlines a framework for architects' intervention, in order to attain the prospects and improvements of a sustainable community development, and achieve the goals of revitalization in heritage areas. To achieve its goals, this paper investigates three aspects of architect's intervention in heritage areas: Physical, Economic and Social Revitalization. In addition to these aspects, the framework covers the practices and indicators followed by architects to achieve sustainable community development. Finally, the applicability of this framework is investigated using the outcomes of the heritage conservation and community development project initiated by "Friends of Historical and Public Gardens Society" (FHPGS) in (Al-Darb Al-Ahmar district, Historic Cairo). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The configuration of urban projects using Information and Communication Technologies is an essential aspect in the education of future architects. Students must know the technologies that will facilitate their academic and professional development, as well as anticipating the needs of the citizens and the requirements of their designs. In this paper, a data mining approach was used to outline the strategic requirements for an urban design project in an architecture course using a Project-Based Learning strategy. Informal data related to an award-winning public space (Gillett Square in London, UK) was retrieved from two social networks (Flickr and Twitter), and from its official website. The analysis focused on semantic, temporal and spatial patterns, aspects generally overlooked in traditional approaches. Text-mining techniques were used to relate semantic and temporal data, focusing on seasonal and weekly (work-leisure) cycles, and the geographic patterns were extracted both from geotagged pictures and by geocoding user locations. The results showed that it is possible to obtain and extract valuable data and information in order to determine the different uses and architectural requirements of an urban space, but such data and information can be challenging to retrieve, structure, analyze and visualize. The main goal of the paper is to outline a strategy and present a visualization of the results, in a way designed to be attractive and informative for both students and professionals – even without a technical background – so the conducted analysis may be reproducible in other urban data contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern architecture in Soviet Lithuania (1944-1990) is outstanding in the context of former Soviet Union. İt is distinguished for its contextual approach, link with the local tradition and regard to the natural environment. The paper discusses the premises under which modern Lithuania architecture was founded after World War II. The study is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with the most influential architects, active at that time. The paper reveals: how the architects active at that time understand the phenomenon of architecture; their basic principles of architectural design; and the position of an architect in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses patterns' progress and their presence in architecture throughout the 20th century until today, traveling through its controversial opinions and identifying its meaning and importance. Through descriptive and critical analysis approaches, patterns' roles in contemporary architecture and the meanings they hold and deliver to the public are criticized. Finally, a critical review of how architects are dealing with patterns nowadays is carried out, discussing the effect of patterns on the quality of creativity in the architectural practice and the messages it delivers accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept is on the most important and primary elements during the design process. Through the history, nature has been always a source of inspiration for the human begin in different aspects of their life. Architecture interiors as one of the remarkable features in every society cannot be separated from nature. Nowadays architects and interior designers are constructing buildings without having a specific target or goal which decreases the value of the buildings. Various designers have been using concepts inspired from nature but still there are some missing parts in one of their forms, function, or structure. Therefore, the best solution for the architects and designers to increase the optimization in their design works is looking at the nature in every aspect deeper and try to apply them in their conceptual design of their project which is the heart of the design process while other architects have neglected concepts of nature despite that the surrounding environment and nature always influences human perception. The aim of this research is to understand the relationship between nature and human perception and the role that nature plays in architectural interiors to achieve buildings integrated with the surrounding environment. Also it draws attention of architects to nature and inspiration from nature in different perspectives. This paper presents projects having different concepts in architectural and interior design to make guidelines for designing buildings integrated with nature through example analysis. This paper concludes the importance of making a complete integration between the building exterior, interior and the surrounding nature by using a clear natural concept from the surrounding environment to be solving the design problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architects, engineers and contractors have been working with data for ages. What is new are the myriad ways they have to capture, analyze and apply the data that has been made readily available. Some practitioners and their organizations have balked at adding data to their repertoire, citing that they are unprepared to deal with data on top of everything else they have to contend with, including new technologies, work-processes and workflows. Data-centric organizations, on the other hand, have come to realize that capturing, engaging with, analyzing, and applying sustainability data in their projects is not “one more thing,” and have learned that to have the greatest impact, data cannot be added on top of an organization's on-going practices, but rather integrated into their pre-existing mind-sets and processes. This paper explores firms’ approaches and relationships to data, determining whether organizations are data-enabled, data-informed or data driven, or a hybrid, and how their approach can have an enormous influence on outcomes, especially where they pertain to sustainability. Likewise, many organizations remain document-centric, and are missing out on opportunities and greater gains that come with becoming data-centric. Innovative tools and insights to make the most of the data are already readily available. What has been missing, up until now, is an understanding of how others – academics and industry practitioners – are innovating behind the scenes to exploit these resources to great impact. Big data and predictive analytics are currently being leveraged across the globe to address wicked – complex and poorly defined – problems endemic of design and construction in the 21st century. Innovative results in leveraging data throughout the building lifecycle are a result of original research for a new book, “Data Driven Design and Construction: Strategies for Capturing, Analyzing and Applying Building Data,” (John Wiley & Sons, 2015.) Methods of Research: Because data driven design impacts so many facets of the building lifecycle, the research for this paper attempted to be as inclusive as possible. Using practice-based research and in-depth interviews with industry and academic leaders, the author relied on many sources, including first-hand interviews with 40 thought leaders in industry and education in the AECO industry who work day-to-day with data; with firm leaders and other industry executives at companies that range in size from sole proprietorships to large multinational organizations. The interviewee's responses were recorded, transcribed by the author, and condensed for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technological and societal developments have entailed changes within the building sector; including building trades becomingacademically based, and the introduction of new building materials, new concepts and ICT-based designsand communication, traditional methods and organizations are being put under pressure. Thus, the two central actors involved inarchitectural competitions, architects and building clients, are continually influenced by such developments, interpreting and adaptingto changes according to their interests and horizons. During a project reviewing Nordic research literature on architecturalcompetitions, a series of interviews was conducted with building clients as well as architects, focusing on the impact of the above-mentioned changes within the building sector on architectural competitions as an institution. In the interviews, ICT and notleast BIM was a recurring theme that both parties saw as having a positive impact on competitions. But when looking closely into the answers, these revealed diverse understandings of how and why the impact of BIM on competitions could be said to be positive. The paper sheds light on the interaction between the actors (building clients, architects and client consultants) and the applied technologies (competition forms, ICT tools, directives) in architectural competitions in a theoretical actor-network perspective. The diverging understandings of the role of BIM are demonstrating one of many negotiations in progress in the network of architectural competitions. BIM is transformed from an inscription device visually representing the competition proposals to form an actant that challenges the very concept of architectural competition. The objective of the paper is to contribute to theunderstanding of BIM used in the kind of network that an architectural competition constitutes, and thereby give professionalactors a possibility to act on the basis of a wider understanding of interrelations mediated by BIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architects are confronted with the priority of the early integration of natural smoke ventilation (NSV) and natural thermal ventilation (NTV) objectives in retail building designs due to several reasons including wide range of expertise and lack of fire safety knowledge. This paper presents the perception of fire engineers (FE) and building service engineers (BSE) regarding the conceptual priorities of the early integration for particular design decisions. This was achieved through surveying FE and BSE and conducting an analytical study using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. An experts’ panel was held for each profession for confirmation. The results showed that FE and BSE have agreed on the most and least crucial design decisions that should/shouldn’t require integration of NSV and NTV objectives in the early stages of the architectural design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve outdoor thermal comfort it is necessary to understand the interactions between the prevailing climate, the urban form and roughness. The near surface boundary layer is directly influenced by local irradiative and convective exchange processes due to the presence of a variety of different surfaces, sheltering elements and obstacles to air flow leading to distinctive micro-scale climates. The paper presents a micro-scale numerical model for an outdoor urban form for a hot summer’s day in Al-Muizz street located at the Islamic quarter of Cairo, where a few studies have attempted to study these conditions in vernacular settings in hot arid areas where the continuously evolving urban patterns and shaded environments were perceived to produce more pedestrian friendly outdoor environments. In situ measurements are used to validate the ENVI-met results which showed an overall agreement with the observed ones, representing adequate mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) which is one of the most important meteorological parameters governing human energy balance and has therefore a strong influence on thermal sensation of the pedestrians using the open public spaces and generating a micro-climatic map as an initial step in addressing the urgent need for a modelling platform accessible to urban designers, architects, and decision makers towards sustainable urban forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, drawing on qualitative interviews with a small number of Irish architects, we explore the discourses that architects use to produce the rural social world and the vernacular. The academic literature has explored discursive representations of rurality as well as power relations of various stakeholders in the rural housing policy arena (planners, lobby groups, local communities); however, there has been very little research on how the rural is constructed in architectural practice as well as how these representations compare with equivalent planning and housing policy discourses. The Republic of Ireland offers a fascinating case for exploring discourses around rurality and housing development, due to the country's relatively permissive planning policy and impressive rural housing output during the boom period. Our analysis suggests that the concept of vernacular might offer a new opportunity for communicating a common vision, culture and practice regarding rural housing development amongst rural housing agents. In this context, discourses of the vernacular are explored, which demonstrate its neo-endogenous attributes, in describing not only traditional aesthetics and local material, but also collaborative action and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The site of the new Tallinn Town Hall designed by the BIG architects is situated to the north of the medieval city center on the edge of the green ring close to the waterfront. The goal is to create a new urban typology that combines the human scale and intimate experience of the medieval townscape, with the public space and municipal symbolism of the modern extension. The New Town Hall will be an open and permeable public institution, extending both town center and the green ring all the way to the water''s edge. The building will be created of a village of ten individual departments and two for common space and meeting rooms. Each department is accommodated in its own dedicated office building. A thirteenth building, the tower hosts the City Government, the City Council and the Council Hall on the top floor. The departments are grouped together to meet the programmatic requirements of adjacencies. The departments are consolidated in a village-like cluster, allowing them to perform as a single open office structure as well as ten independent departments. The departments are hinged on the corners and rotated to leave courtyards for daylight and views between them. The many generous openings also provide views to the public ground floor below as well as the sky above. The current paper gives an overview of the daylight modeling and facade design, describes passive architectural cooling strategies considered. Estonia is situated in latitude 59° which means that the solar angle of incidence is rather low from late autumn to early spring. The maximum solar angle of incident is just 7° in December 21st. Then at the other side the summer temperatures are of average 27°C which makes the shading strategies essential. The building is currently in detail design phase and the construction work will presumably start in early 2014. The building has been already shortlisted for a World Architecture Festival Award in the Future Projects and Competition entries category. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The functional values and artistic charms of Shaanxi eaves tiles are mainly analyzed in this paper [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Contemporary building energy simulation programs are not only used by researchers but also are common tools in the hands of engineers and architects. Most of them are using databases of materials and structural elements, with characteristics originating from the country or the broader region where the specific program was developed. Thus, often the particularities met in other countries are not considered. Such a database of materials and constructions systematically used in the Greek building sector was developed for use with the simulation program EnergyPlus, which has become quite popular over the last years. In order to determine the applicability of the database, the energy behaviour of a typical multistory, multifamily building was simulated, having the exact materials and structural elements and patterns used in Greece. Furthermore, different thicknesses of insulation were simulated, corresponding to local climatic conditions and, even more important, to different dates of the building''s construction. The results are presented and discussed in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The building and construction industries worldwide are experiencing ever closer scrutiny of their operations as pressure mounts from clients to address the inefficiencies inherent therein. The issue of quality is of pivotal concern in this regard and this paper examines the status quo of a number of South African architectural practices with respect to how they are managing quality, and tests their opinions with regard to ISO 9000 certification as a means of addressing the issue. The results indicate that the architects in question generally have a poor grasp of quality management theory, although many of the eight main principles required for its implementation are already intrinsically present in the way they manage their practices; probably as a result of the small size of the average practice. A systematic and documented approach to quality management is however largely lacking in the profession and a great deal of negativity exists with regard to ISO 9000 certification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The theories and practices of Feng Shui can be classified into two major categories namely the Form School and Compass School. Form School has been more recognised by building professionals, as it is more scientific than the Compass School for analysing the built environment. The Form School is based on the understanding of physical configuration of geographical features, and these principles can be applied to both macro (e.g. design of a city, selection of site, etc.) and micro (e.g. orientation of building, interior layout, etc.) built environment. This paper explores the Feng Shui concepts under the Form School, and an ideal Feng Shui model is introduced. The model is used for verifying whether the design of architects based on more scientific derivation is likely to be in line with the ancient Feng Shui theories. An empirical survey was conducted with architects in Sydney and Hong Kong, and the results show that the selection of surrounding environment for a building and interior layout as proposed by the architects generally concurs with the ideal Feng Shui model established more than two thousands years ago. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]