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The article discusses a method for appraising research paper quality eligible for evidence-based design (EBD). It mentions its aims in shifting research findings into the practice of design for architects. It also notes an algorithm and its role in guiding designers in evaluating the degree of evidence.

Large-scale language-image (LLI) models have the potential to open new forms of critical practice through architectural research. Their success enables designers to research within discourses that are profoundly connected to the built environment but did not previously have the resources to engage in spatial research. Although LLI models do not generate coherent building ensembles, they offer an esthetic experience of an AI infused design practice. This paper contextualizes diffusion models architecturally. Through a comparison of approaches to diffusion models in architecture, this paper outlines data-centric methods that allow architects to design critically using computation. The design of text-driven latent spaces extends the histories of typological design to synthetic environments including non-building data into an architectural space. More than synthesizing quantic ratios in various arrangements, the architect contributes by assessing new categorical differences into generated work. The architects' creativity can elevate LLI models with a synthetic architecture, nonexistent in the data sets the models learned from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architects aspire to build iconic buildings and focus on experimenting with non-standard forms. The construction of non-standard forms is challenging. This has led many researchers and facade designers to develop and resolve the complexity of forms to simpler, buildable elements. In this progress, the tessellation of non-standard surfaces has experimented considerably with different approaches using computational tools. All the approaches from researchers or facade engineers have limited access for every designer. As they develop patented software or use any coding languages which are not accessed by any open-source platform. Hence in academia, it is difficult to experiment in this domain. This paper analyzes the existing panalization computational tools and different approaches used by researchers worldwide in developing complex curved surfaces. Analyzing the relevant cases led to identifying the gap in current research. This has led to investigate and explore a new algorithmic process using an existing computational tool: Agent-based modeling on an open-source tool (Grasshopper-Visual programming language), which is phase -1 of the Master's thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between time and architecture is well established and thoroughly explored in architectural discourse. Despite this, examination of social time has been lacking. This paper draws on a survey of 114 architects, academics and students who responded to general questions about practice and occupational wellbeing. A finding of this study was the diverse attachments that different groups in the architectural community have to the temporal norms and infrastructures of work and of studio. Based on this study, the paper demonstrates the heterogeneity that exists in architecture and how its temporal norms are negotiated. It concludes that exposing the heterogeneity of temporal experience across a discipline reminds us that the norms of time are negotiated. Moreover, the temporal experience of the everyday transcends the notion that architects passively ascribe to long-hours work culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To design places of spiritual quality and depth, designers need to reconnect themselves to the nature of place in order to create a sense of belonging prior to presenting a design solution. The traditional site analysis research produced by architects is too removed from the atmosphere of place and often becomes a set of drawings representing a hierarchical human use analysis based solely on function. This type of process needs to change in order to bring about awareness of the character of place, including making users more present with time and their own sense of belonging. Rituals are an inherent part of spirituality, and in this case, the acts performed to understand and embody the character of place encourage the sense of spiritual. The rituals presented in this paper are ethnographic methods that challenge the Western conventions of the design process. They encourage imagination and empathy through writing poetry that utilizes personification, rhythm, and bodily movement that cocreates knowledge of the sense of place through action. The design of public spaces is an important aspect of our culture and critical engagement. To arrive at meaningful spaces, the personal and civic culture needs to be expressed and highlighted. This paper presents how to change the traditional design process in order to better understand the character of place prior to designing a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In architectural design, pencil and paper remain the most frequently used media to create freehand drawings to support early design stages. Digital tools conventionally used by architects lack appropriate functionalities and do not offer friendly interfaces for the early stages of architectural design. These are the bad news. The good news are twofold: a) hardware already available can help freehand designers to digitally express their first ideas; and b) functionality principles present in experimental software combined with appropriate hardware could successfully provide a friendly and intuitive human-computer interaction in the early stages of architectural design. This paper takes special attention to the way architects interact with computers, how input devices constrain possible interactions and how functionalities can be explored through these interactions. The article summarizes basic principles to be considered in the development of an all-in-one software and create a scenario whereby these principles are simulated on a hypothetical software to be used during the early stages of architectural design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper considers the history of a particular moment in the development of the interior decoration/design business. Although the history of interior design practice has been well charted as 'art/design history,' the business and professional history has been somewhat neglected, except for work on particular firms. The issues examined relate to four particular aspects. The first covers the distinctions between decorators, upholsterers, furnishers, and architects and how these differences were reflected in the work undertaken. Related to this is a brief examination of why many architects ignored interior work. Secondly, is the nature of the customer base and how it reacted in response to changing social and economic factors. Thirdly, there are the issues of marketing and promotion that were aimed at a much wider audience than architects would expect, and finally a consideration of the house furnisher as a foundation for the development of the professional interior decorator/designer. To address these issues, the paper offers an overview of the rise, maturity, and change of the house furnisher as the most important contributor to the supply of interior design/decoration advice and products in the second half of the nineteenth century. By taking case studies of important players in the field, the paper will consider why architects gave up their role as arbiters of taste in interior works, and how the house furnishing businesses took over. This is of some interest as it not only explores an issue that still remains in the interior design world-the notion of who controls the work, but also explores the nature and pre-history of professional interior design service providers in the period. Although the scope of this essay is potentially wide ranging, it is limited to the second half of the nineteenth century and focuses on London for its case studies. Through a consideration of primary sources, often using the trade press for commentaries, a sense of the contemporary issues is made. In addition, the recent work by scholars in the field is used to interpret the changes described. As a foundation for the subsequent development of a profession, the house furnisher had laid a number of ground rules. Apart from the issue of the control of work, they encouraged the development of specialized knowledge, and they recognized the importance of training and education, and to some extent, exercised control of access to the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: There has been an uptick in the field of emergency department (ED) operations research and data gathering, both published and unpublished. This new information has implications for ED design. The specialty suffers from an inability to have these innovations reach frontline practitioners, let alone design professionals and architects. This paper is an attempt to synthesize for design professionals the growing data regarding ED operations. Methods: The following sources were used to capture and summarize the research and data collections available regarding ED operations: the Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance database; a literature search using both PubMed and Google Scholar search engines; and data presented at conferences and proceedings. Results: Critical information that affects ED design strategies is summarized, organized, and presented. Data suggest an optimal size for ED functional units. The now-recognized arrival and census curves for the ED suggest a department that expands and contracts in response to changing census Operational improvements have been clearly identified and are grouped into three categories: input, throughput, and outflow. Applications of this information are suggested. Conclusion: The sentinel premise of this meta-synthesis is that data derived from improvement work in the area of ED operations has applications for ED design. EDs can optimize their functioning by marrying good processes and operations to good design. This review paper is an attempt to bring this new information to the attention of the multidisciplinary team of architects, designers, and clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a protocol study of professional architects' cognitive behaviour in a parametric design environment. A design experiment was conducted in which eight professional architects completed an architectural conceptual design task in a typical parametric design environment -Rhino and Grasshopper. Protocol analysis was then applied to analyse the cognitive behaviour of the architects. In analysing the protocol data, the FBS ontology adopted for developing the coding scheme was sub-divided into design knowledge and rule algorithm classes as the means to capture designers' cognitive behaviour. Applying the method of cumulative analysis, results of the relative cognitive effort expended on design knowledge and rule algorithm classes have been compared and are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to reconceptualise 'building type' in order to better account for its general role in society and everyday life. The paper merges the concept of building type with actor-network theory and object-oriented philosophy in order to develop the concept of 'territorial sorts' as a way of widening building-type research and making it more useful for investigating how building types are actually produced, not just in terms of the work done by different kinds of authorities, such as architects, engineers, and building regulators, but also in terms of the ongoing practices and power relations of everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role that community architects and other professionals can play in helping urban poor communities to survey and map their living conditions and draw up comprehensive site plans for upgrading or relocation projects. The mapping process can lead not only to a physical map but also to dialogue and understanding between community residents about the place they call home and how it relates to the wider environment, which will feed into the planning process. In addition, all the communities within a city may join together to carry out citywide mapping of informal settlements, effectively putting themselves on the map and on the local authorities’ agenda. Throughout these stages of mapping, the role of the professional is to facilitate the processes technically, as well as to ask the right questions of the community members so as to encourage them towards a deeper understanding of their socio-political and physical living context, and to take the lead in developing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to directly make insightful which implications follow from structural design changes and to be able to adapt a structural design quickly to geometrical design changes made by the architect, the structural engineer may embed a parametric and associative design approach in the structural design process. This approach focuses on parametric modelling and the development of parametric tools which serve specific needs in the structural design process, allowing designers for instance to quickly communicate and discuss alternatives or to inform design team members of structural results of changing design parameters.The paper presents multiple projects within these categories of parametric approaches. They are concentrated on design and analysis with the goal of presenting practical examples of these approaches in structural design which were integrated in the full design process in order to benefit from the qualities of a multi-disciplinary parametric and associative design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of sketching can support the sort of transformational thinking that is seen as essential for the interpretation and reinterpretation of ideas in innovative design. Such transformational thinking, however, is not yet well supported by computer-aided design systems. In this paper, outcomes of experimental investigations into the mechanics of sketching are described, in particular those employed by practicing architects and industrial designers as they responded to a series of conceptual design tasks. Analyses of the experimental data suggest that the interactions of designers with their sketches can be formalised according to a finite number of generalised shape rules. A set of shape rules, formalising the reinterpretation and transformations of shapes, e.g. through deformation or restructuring, is presented. These rules are suggestive of the manipulations that need to be afforded in computational tools intended to support designers in design exploration. Accordingly, the results of the experimental investigations informed the development of a prototype shape synthesis system, and a discussion is presented in which the future requirements of such systems are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper raises the question of embodiment and disembodiment as modes of theorizing organization and essays that struggle to negotiate what we call 'entrance' to Blur, an 'anti-architectural' installation designed as a working media pavilion by the New York based architects Diller and Scofidio. In Blur the human body is displaced from its customary mode of being-in-the-world and is given chance to discover 'media' in organization as transport and possible metamorphosis in thinking and being organization. It is difficult to escape 'Blur'. As the paper proceeds the reader begins to experience the sense that Blur is everywhere in organization—media and outcome of organization and both a symptom and possible site for the treatment of its underlying theoretical and methodological aporias. Blur invites a kind of de-subjectivization that intensifies sensation and affect splitting the subject across different modalities of consciousness and perception that provides essential experience for thinking organization critically. In the absence of this incorporeal 'en-trance' the paper argues we will remain victim of the tautologies and infinite regress that afflict current thinking in aesthetics and organization and which restrict its practice to an inherently conservative form of organization analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modularisation is a well-known method of reducing code complexity, yet architects are unlikely to modularise their visual scripts. In this paper the impact that modules used in visual scripts have on the architectural design process is investigated with regard to legibility, collaboration, reuse and design modification. Through a series of thinking-aloud interviews, and through the collaborative design and construction of the parametric Dermoid pavilion, modules are found to impact the culture of collaborative design in architecture through relatively minor alterations to how architects organise visual scripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospitals are never finished, and in the best cases they retain value and coherence for decades while they adjust in response to the dynamics of the healthcare field. In the worst cases, the facility is demolished, incapable of accommodating cycles of change. These are well known but poorly documented realities. Today, it is not unusual for one architect to design a hospital and another to design the interior fit-out, either initially or years later. Some clients ask for "shell space" to be fitted out later by another firm. Architects educated to define function first and to maintain unified control find this unsettling, believing that only if one party controls everything can high-quality architecture result. This is not the case, as diverse buildings, cities, and neighborhoods show, but the belief dies hard. In fact, the educational paradigm in schools of architecture largely maintains the old myths. This article describes this reality and poses questions about habit and method that are now at odds with reality. Finally, the paper suggests a way to handle new realities in the education of the next generation of architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established during the Italian Renaissance, the term 'design' derives from the Italian disegno, meaning 'drawing', suggesting both the drawing of a line on paper and the drawing forth of an idea. Consequently, the drawing is familiarly understood as the prototype for building. However, in this text, I suggest that the term 'prototype' is applicable to all stages of the architectural process, from drawing to building to using, as well as evolving conceptions of the architect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the process of articulation and development of design concepts from a computational standpoint. The context of the research is the architectural studio and the process of designing from scratch. The scope of the research is educational. Shape grammar formalism is used in a retrospective analysis, to show how the concept of "porosity" was used by architect Steven Holl and his team in designing Simmons Hall, a 350-unit student residence, at MIT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some architectural housing projects designed by architects in different parts of the world, considering concepts originated from the virtuality domain. Some designers propose the beginning of an interaction between the user and its dwelling that attempts to overcome the functionalist slant of so-called residential automation. After examining different approaches and proposals, ten points are presented as items for an agenda of debates. The brief and introductory analysis proposed hereby is part of undergoing studies at the Nomads.usp Center for Interactive-Living Studies (www.eesc.usp.br/nomads), of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documenting the past of mankind comprises, among other activities, the survey of monuments and cultural artefacts, for long provided by archaeologists and architects using traditional methods. However, due to the recent major technological advances in surveying, photogrammetric and laser scanning methods, surveyors are enabled to produce recording materials and end products, which surpass by far the traditional line drawings in terms of accuracy and completeness. These methodologies are able to offer products like orthophotos, raster developments, 3D representations and realistic visualizations as well as augmented reality tours. This paper investigates the principles and capabilities of contemporary and technologically advanced methods in: capturing huge amount of detailed, accurate and reliable 3D data; modeling of existing and virtual reality; management of 3D or image-based databases. Several examples covering a broad variety of cases, regarding the historical era, the size and the complexity of the monument and also the final products are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay presents a comparative study of the sociological assumptions implicit, and to some extent explicit, in the work of two famous architects, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Le Corbusier. The inhabitant implied through the architectural practice of Le Corbusier resembles Elias's homo clausus (closed person), the mode of self experience viewed by Elias as the dominant one in Western society and one which sees the individual person as a ‘thinking subject’ and the starting point of knowledge. Mackintosh's designs, in contrast, imply individual people closer to Elias's homines aperti, social beings who are shaped through social interaction and interdependence. This paper demonstrates how, as well as fulfilling social, cultural and political needs, architecture carries, within in its designs, certain assumptions about how people and how they do, and should, live. The adoption of an Eliasian perspective provides an interesting insight into how these assumptions can shape self-experience and social interaction in the buildings of each architect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1966, an interdisciplinary team led by architect and planners replanned a freeway system of Baltimore to meet “the social, economic, and esthetic needs.” But staying true to their mission, they had to side with the affected residents and clash with their client in the court of public opinions, through behind-the-scenes lobbying, and with sober debates about technical details. They fought the road war on behalf of fragmented freeway opposition groups and bought them valuable time to join together. Some architect–planners violated client–consultant obligations and conducted subversive actions such as leaking information, coaching the highway fighters, and ultimately, making them strong enough to form a powerful antiroad coalition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author introduces the work of architect Arno Pronk regarding adaptable structures in terms of space structures. The author decides to include another article of Pronk which clearly and convincingly describes the bridges that can be built between art and science. He adds that one of the challenges in the present is introducing the importance of man at the center of the conceptual design process.

New configurations as well as new applications are constantly discovered for space structures. There is every indication that this trend will continue for a very long time.This paper describes four configurations developed in the last ten years to provide architects with a framework for the accommodation of any building program.These configurations have their origin in a multi-layer, three-way space frame. They are, however, very different from each other. Although these have been the subjects of separate publications, they are discussed here together for the first time.The author feels that the discussion of topological aspects of space frames which relate to architectural considerations will make a positive contribution towards a more generalized use of space structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is surprising that, despite widespread interest in the cultural industries, few questions have been asked about the geographies of learning and innovation in architecture. Particularly relevant to global architects are debates about the way stretched relational spaces and 'global' communities of practice connect individuals, firms, and regions into networks of learning that 'perforate' scales. This paper seeks to apply such debates to the case of global architects and to examine the spatiality of the practices that allow learning and lead to innovation in their work. It is shown that global architects participate in 'local' communities of practice that rely on face-to-face interaction, talk, and 'buzz'. These 'local' communities are also part of 'global' constellations of practice constructed by forms of circulation: in particular, travel by architects and the circulation of texts and images in the media, which facilitate learning through human-nonhuman interactions. It is, therefore, suggested that in order to more effectively analyse the geographies of learning and innovation—in architecture but also other industries-focus needs to fall on (1) the geography of talk/buzz and communities of practice; but also (2) the geography of human-nonhuman interactions that form constellations of practice. Such a focus reveals that apparently local communities of practice are more often than not connected into global spaces of learning and innovation through constellations of practice produced by nonhumans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last century, the city and rural surroundings in the canton Cuenca in Ecuador have been physically constructed in a social setting where an elite group of architects, policymakers, and wealthy citizens have made decisions on architecture, urban design, and land use. They introduced international avant-garde influences in urban residential architecture and considered vernacular architecture appropriate in the countryside. However, massive transnational migration of lower-class and middle-class residents and subsequent architectural opulence have transformed both the city and rural villages in the canton, and have affected the elite's monopoly over the production of the built environment. Many established architects criticize the new ostentatious architecture from a professional and ethical point of view, but on the other hand younger architects see new professional opportunities. Whereas the professional debate focuses on opulent architecture in rural areas and on the preservation of the historical inner city, there is no public debate on the changing cityscape, because it is regarded as an issue too sensitive to discuss openly. In this paper I analyze the professional debate and describe how new sociocultural differentiations in Cuenca change the professional stance as well as the social status of architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I develop the contention that architects rarely relate their design conceptions to the human body and its multiple forms of embodiment. Where the body is conceived of, it is usually in terms of a conception of the 'normal body', or a body characterised by geometrical proportions arranged around precise Cartesian dimensions. I describe and evaluate the content and implications of architects' conceptions of the body and embodiment, and consider the possibilities for, and problems in, challenging the dominance of bodily reductive conceptions in architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents several editorial notes, to be published in different issues between October 1915 to January 1916 of the journal "The Sociological Review." In the first the editor reports about a Civic Survey of Westminster and Chelsea in London, England, which was carried on by a group of architects and artists under the auspices of the Cities Community of the Sociological Society and the Civics Laboratory of Crosby Hall. The immediate occasion for the Westminster and Chelsea Survey was provided by the war. To meet the dislocation of the architectural profession caused by the general stoppage of building, there was organized, mainly through the efforts of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a series of civic surveys at various places throughout the country. The opening article "Nationality and Government " raises issues of the first importance. On the one side are the material forces of government-administrative officialdom, law courts, police and military and naval forces, etc. On the other are the immaterial influences that mould public sentiment and form public opinion.

This study looks at the innovative urban regeneration now known as "social urbanism" seen in Medellín, Colombia, with a specific focus on how architects and architectural processes were utilized in urban development approaches by the mayors in their innovative responses to tackling the socioeconomic problems in marginalized areas of the city that was declared the most violent city in the world in 1991. It serves as a discourse on the role of professional groups, in this case, architects, and the role of inclusive design process in conflict transformation by building on the literature relating to peace building and urban regeneration and uses primary qualitative research and secondary quantitative research and reports, offering personal perceptions of the responses adopted. The findings show the influence of the mayors' policies on the way that architects now operate and also on how these architects were used to imbue a philosophy and mentality of inclusive design that permeates the city. The greatest innovations that came out of the responses were the adoption of collaborative approaches, building on community strengths and the development of a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to design that increased social, human, and physical capital and contributed to increasing the legitimacy of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the highlights of meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine's Open Section on May 17, 1993. The meeting focused on how to make hospitals into well-designed environments with the use of arts as a complementary part of health care. Richard Burton of Ahrenda Burton and Koralek discussed the experiences of his firm in producing a healing environment in hospitals. Peter Senior of the Manchester Metropolitan University discussed the artistic design of the hospital.

This study investigated the factors predicting knowledge sharing among architects in architectural firms in Ibadan metropolis, southwestern Nigeria. The study provided insight into the validity of social exchange theory, social capital theory and technological factors for studying and explaining knowledge sharing among professional architects in architectural firms. Survey research design was adopted for the study. A field survey of 104 architects was carried out using a questionnaire for data collection. Convenience and snowball sampling techniques were used to select the respondents for the study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Findings revealed that significant predictors of knowledge sharing were enjoyment in helping others, social interaction, social identification, shared language/vision and loss of knowledge power. The level of information and communication technology (ICT) usage was also found to significantly predict knowledge sharing among architects. However, the results indicated that organisational rewards and trust do not significantly predict knowledge sharing among architects. The results also showed that loss of knowledge power negatively affected knowledge sharing, suggesting a tendency to hoard knowledge. Based on these research findings, recommendations were therefore made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For junior professionals, notions of professional identity established during their education are often called into question in the early stages of their professional careers. The workplace gives rise to identity challenges that manifest in significant emotional struggles. However, although extant literature highlights how emotions trigger and accompany identity work, the constitutive role of emotions in identity work is under-researched. In this article, we analyse how junior professionals mobilize emotions as discursive resources for identity work. Drawing on an empirical study of junior architects employed in professional service firms, we examine how professional identities, imbued with varying forms of discipline and agency, are discursively represented. The study makes two contributions to the literature on emotions and identity work. First, we identify three key identity work strategies (idealizing, reframing and distancing) that are bound up in junior architects' emotion talk. We suggest that these strategies act simultaneously as a coping mechanism and as a disciplinary force in junior architects' efforts to constitute themselves as professionals. Second, we argue that identity work may not always lead to the accomplishment of a positive sense of self but can express a sense of disillusionment that leads to the constitution of dejected professional identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author shares her experiences of being architect, novelist, and academic, and highlights some of her works. She shares that at the age of seventeen, she was given two books by a Scottish poet and mentions that the books changed her life forever. Topics discussed include her master's degree in architecture from Great Britain; and the success of her debut novel Sundowners released in 2004 which was published in thirteen languages.

By integrating cybernetic features and computational schemes within architectural design, architects began to conceptualize a new form of architecture that adapts to the varying needs of the user and to environmental situations. As verified by contemporary architecture, responsive technologies allow softer, more flexible and more responsive architecture to emerge. As a result, there is a rising interest in umbrella-like systems that can intelligently respond to create a more sustainable environment, while expanding the vocabulary and practice of present-day architecture. The aim of this research is to review and highlight the importance and influence of umbrella-like systems on the creation of responsive architecture. In addition, the research aims to present recently embedded software technologies perpetrated by current practice in umbrella-like structures to explore the role of control strategies in responsive architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megastructures are promulgated by a progressive set of transnational architects in the 1960s influenced by ideas of social equality, biological process, neofuturism and eco-fantasy. As complex and symbolic attempts to solve the problems of urban density, their utopic visions include vast cities floating on oceans and plug-in capsule towers with loosely aformal composition and ludic multifunctions. This essay approaches two large-scale infrastructural projects in Singapore as millennial megastructures. It considers the implications of thinking about them as Asian iterations of this architectural phenomenon with particular interest on their queerness. The two case studies are the global university complex such as Yale-National University of Singapore (NUS) College, and man-made biospheres that look like fantasy islands or parks such as Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Combining architectural history, urban studies, performance studies and queer studies, the essay considers how these are big projects and big ideas testing the limits of environmental design, mass human scale form, extreme engineering. While providing an analysis about the gender and racial analysis of these developments, it also configures the island-state of Singapore itself as a megastructure with neoliberal and postcolonial biopolitics. Read as provocations, the space-clearing gestures of this essay begin to clear the space for using megastructure to think about queer and urban futurities in performance, visual and cultural terms. In particular, it asks how these dominant mega-projects are producing new technologies of gender, race and sexuality not only in this city-state but everywhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an interview study among 25 architects we investigated how activities were allocated over time in the design phase of an architectural project. Specifically, linking the literatures about pacing behavior and incubation, we set out to identify patterns related to how the interviewees paced their activity before a deadline. We used two types of materials to stimulate the answers in the interview: 1) standard graphs, developed in previous research; 2) a timeline. Five main themes emerged, that were termed pacing; milestones; multiple projects; deadlines; and quality–time trade-offs. Based upon the results we propose a model that includes overlapping U-shapes of activity, that is, most activity at the start of a project and right before a deadline. A second study provided a comparison of the pacing patterns among 85 respondents in jobs that required different levels of creativity. Not only U-shape pacing, but also deadline pacing was more common in creative jobs, whereas early starting patterns were less common. The two studies provide insight into how professionals in creative jobs deliberately use pacing that allows for incubation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results from exploring the impact of using a parametric design tool on designers’ behavior in terms of using design patterns in the early conceptual development stage of designing. It is based on an empirical cognitive study in which eight architectural designers were asked to complete two architectural design tasks with similar complexity, respectively, in a parametric design environment and a geometric modeling environment. The protocol analysis method was employed to study the designers’ behavior. In order to explore the development of design patterns in the empirical data, Markov model analysis is utilized. Through Markov models analysis of the parametric design environment and geometric modeling environment results, it was found that there are some significantly different design patterns being used when designing in a parametric design environment compared to designing in a geometric modeling environment. The article articulates these differences and draws conclusions from these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2009 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals (Chapter 26) provides a table that contains the thermal resistances (R-values) of enclosed airspaces for different values of airspace thickness, effective emittance, mean airspace temperature, and temperature differences across the airspace. This table is extensively used by modelers, architects, and building designers in the design for thermal resistance of building enclosures. The effect of the airspace aspect ratio (length/thickness) on the R-value is not accounted for in the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) table. However, in previous studies, it was shown that the aspect ratio of the airspace can affect its R-value. In this article, the previous studies by the author who focused on determining the R-value for vertical enclosed airspaces and horizontal enclosed airspace under upward heat flow condition are extended to investigate the effect of the aspect ratio on the R-value of horizontal enclosed airspaces under a downward heat flow condition for different airspace thicknesses and having a wide range of values for effective emittance, mean temperature, and temperature differences across the airspaces. The R-values predicted from numerical simulation are compared with those provided in the ASHRAE table. Considerations were also given to investigate the potential increase in the R-values of enclosed airspaces when a thin sheet is placed horizontally in the middle of the airspace and whose surfaces have different values of emissivity. Thereafter, practical correlation was developed for determining the R-values of horizontal enclosed airspaces for future use by modelers, architects, and building designers. The simplicity of this correlation derived for horizontal airspaces under downward heat flow condition together with those that were previously developed for vertical airspaces and horizontal airspaces under upward heat flow condition suggests that these correlations could be included in the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the initial analyses and findings of on-going research project which investigates the socio-technical transformation of Architectural practice due to technology adoption. A conceptual framework is developed as a tool to identify, analyse, and characterize the different socio-technical networks in current practice, and the ways in which these networks are being developed and coordinated. Highly technology-mediated and interdisciplinary architectural/engineering practices have been monitored and studied in their real-life project contexts. Through comparative case analyses, a conceptual framework has been developed and used to represent and analyse emerging socio-technical networks and the ways in which these networks facilitate innovation. In this context, new modes/practices of innovations are identified through the diverse and dynamic relationships emerging between architects, digital tools/systems, the design artefact, and the various multi-disciplinary knowledge/actors in a socio-technical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionals possess an authoritative and monopolistic position that rests on their exclusive knowledge and is reinforced by their normative ideology. However, in hegemonic processes professionals often serve also as “traditional intellectuals,” or agents who preserve the interests of those in power. This article focuses on a critical moment in which a threat is posed to both the professional status of architects and the established hegemonic order. By examining the professional architects’ reaction to this double threat, this article will show that the professionals attempted to protect the old social structure and hegemonic ideology, while neglecting their exclusive knowledge and tools as professionals and diminishing their professional status. This process will be examined by analyzing the conduct of discourse of Israeli architects in reaction to the partial privatization of urban planning and the freedom given to individuals to design their own homes during the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This report provides a detailed overview of the building-volume optimization (BVO) model. It allows for insights into elements that comprise the BVO model, describes its setup as an optimization tool for design and tests its possibilities through exemplary runs. It includes the description of all life-cycle cost (LCC) members involved and explains the implemented optimization process approach. It also provides a perspective regarding the sensitivity and consequences of the BVO model. Serving as decision-support for designers the model qualifies as a practice-oriented application during the early design stage. Test results indicate that LCC considerations can significantly affect building-volume designs during this stage. Therefore, the introduction of cost objectives to the building-volume design represents a valuable approach. Enabling for their inclusion, design issues referring to estimated building performances, are capable of improvement before design finalization. Especially comparisons between initial and operational costs imply that, with increasing life-cycle periods, the impact of operational costs on shaping building-volume design is continuously growing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning space design becomes a significant issue with the proliferation of online learning in higher education. Never before has the instructor been given such a privilege in building and molding the learning space to fulfill his/her instructional aspirations. However, enormous challenges are present to the instructor in taking advantage of this newly gained freedom. Most instructors have limited awareness of their new roles as learning space designers. Although learning space plays an important role in mediating student learning, it is a topic that is least understood. Therefore, it is important for online course instructors to start a dialogue in learning space design. This article reports our experiences of designing learning spaces in a discussion-based online course to facilitate and organize student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview is presented with architect Chien Chung "Didi" Pei. He discusses his work in China, and the evolution of Chinese models of urban planning. Pei notes that automobiles have largely replaced bicycles in Chinese cities, in the course of 20 years. He discusses traditional Chinese templates of house design and modern Japanese architecture, and mentions the influence of his father, the well-known architect I.M. Pei.

The European project - HealthyAir is a network project involving six institutions in Europe on actions and activities that address the effects of construction products on indoor air. Different ways to improve indoor air quality were reviewed, ranging from source control to education of occupants on how to manage the built environment to achieve healthy and acceptable indoor air. Through literature study, organised workshops with scientific experts and building professionals as well as via interviews with three stakeholder groups: producers of construction products, architects and housing corporations; requirements for information, guidance and actions to improve indoor air quality were identified. These requirements formed the basis of a possible approach to improve indoor air quality: education and awareness, regulations and policies and further research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel computer-based design method for planning process-driven buildings which extends the traditional architectural schema to include processes. Each function in the schema can be tied to a process, giving us the ability to find (1.) functions that are not present in any process (2.) processes that lack some of their required functions. As benefit of our approach, we can keep functional program and process models of the building consistent and help bridge the communication gap between process planners and architects, simulating the entered processes as we go along. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the qualities of hospital design based on research as a field. It emphasizes that hospital designs require data such as demographics, population, age cohorts, prevalent disease patterns, and historic utilization of services. The author promotes hospital design as a field because it involves evidence and architects and design professionals worked deliberately with many sources of information. A history of research-based design for health facilities is traced beginning from the 1980s, highlighting the research of Roger Ulrich published in the "Science" magazine in 1984.

Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905–1976) was an architect, decorator, furniture designer, tastemaker, and thinker whose innovative ideas on interior design during the postwar era had a formative impact on American domestic culture. Through books, articles, lectures, interior décor, and industrial design, he advanced a singular outlook on the modern home, rooted in Greco-Roman sensibilities, classical principles, and early American domestic culture. By considering his contribution to the emergence of middle-class American style during the formative years of modernism, I propose that although hardly discussed in the literature, Robsjohn-Gibbings had occupied a significant role in steering popular taste away from Art Moderne and from the popular fashion of collecting European antiques and reproductions toward a genuine American modernism. A progressive thinker, he challenged international modernism and the postwar organic language through a scholarly understanding of ancient Greco-Roman furniture and a thorough study of American material culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Maison de Verre (1928–1932), built in Paris and designed by Pierre Chareau in collaboration with Dutch architect Bernard Bijvoët, metalworker Louis Dalbet, and the clients, Dr. and Mme Dalsace, does not fit easily within the canon of modern architecture and interior design. Though acknowledged at the time of its construction for the groundbreaking use of modern building materials and technological innovations, it went unacknowledged throughout much of the twentieth century as a defining modernist building until a 1969 essay by Kenneth Frampton rescued the house from critical obscurity. In his essay, Frampton asks whether the house is to be understood as a conventional building or as a piece of furniture. The possibility that the house might be better understood as a “piece of furniture” suggests two questions: (1) Is the Maison de Verre more significant for its interior design than for its architecture and (2) can its significance be located in the quality of livability that resulted from the negotiation between the ideals of early modernism and the demands of habitation? Our purpose is to propose answers to these questions by analyzing the complexities of Chareau’s design in relation to the rhetoric of early modern architectural theory and its challenge to the nineteenth-century concept of domesticity. We assert that Chareau’s design resolution as expressed in the interior of the Maison de Verre represents a case study in livability that warrants greater attention in the context of the history and theory of interior design distinct from architectural history and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a survey of visual preferences for suburban office buildings. The participants comprised members of the professions involved in the speculative development of these buildings and building users. The survey method used paired comparisons of photographs representing eight different design types for suburban office buildings. The data were processed using a form of conjoint analysis. Differences in the preferences of architects and users were revealed, confirming previous surveys. Analysis of the preferences showed a different weighting of design attributes. Despite these differences, a design type could be identified that would combine the preferences of both architects and users. This finding is generalized in the proposal for an "ordered preference model" to generate designs which reconcile the preferences of both architects and laypersons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on cosmopolitan landscapes. It tries to determine the meanings of urban signs and its implications on the production of contemporary cities. The meanings of the words used to promote this urban developments, such as cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan, are briefly discussed. It talks about the producers of these signs, which includes Bernard Tschumi and other renowned architects and designers. The article also discusses why analyzing cosmopolitan landscapes is interesting.