A close relationship is assumed to exist between historic preservation and architectural practice. This study explores the nature of this relationship by using evidence from scholarly literature, the job market, and architectural education. The examined literature contains many examples showing that the architecture field views historic preservation as an external interest. Evidence from the job market indicates that architecture employers are uninterested in historic preservation skills, and historic preservation employers are not looking for architecture skills. Architecture schools and accrediting organizations either disregard historic preservation or minimize its importance. Moreover, historic preservation is more closely related to environmental and behavioral studies than it is to the architectural field. The relationship between architecture and historic preservation is tenuous, strained, and based more on stereotypes than on actual evidence.
Deterioration of wall paintings caused by environmental pollution is a worldwide problem especially with reference to the present industrial era. The alarming incremental trend of pollution in Pakistan has threatened the cultural assets. The deposition of pollutants on historic fabric is the main source of chemical and mineralogical alterations of wall paintings. The present diagnostic study investigated the main deterioration mechanisms affecting wall paintings of the late Mughal period, in the Begumpura Complex, in Lahore. Micro samples were characterized by XRD and SEM-EDS to identify deterioration products and understand deterioration mechanisms prevalent at the heritage site. The results revealed that red ocher, green earth and calcium carbonate were initially used for red, green and white pigments, respectively. Sodium chloride (halite, NaCl) and gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) were identified as the main deterioration products.
Critical regionalism is an architectural concept that seeks to balance local needs and capabilities with the progressive lessons of modernisation. Critical regionalism has been an influential architectural approach in postcolonial Indian architecture. Even before the term was coined in the 1980s, architects in India had subconsciously begun pursuing the ideas of critical regionalism in designing their buildings. The degree of influence of critical regionalism on postcolonial Indian architecture has varied over the course of time as a result of economic, political and social changes. This paper identifies key architectural projects realized in India since 1947 that adhere to the ideas and principles of critical regionalism. The identified regionalist projects have been categorized according to their building programmes and significant examples in each building type are discussed chronologically while bringing forth their qualities that make them regionalist in first place. By focusing on regionalist projects of significance in each building type, the paper highlights that critical regionalism is capable of producing potent architecture to cater to any building programme.
A traditional Chinese private garden (TCPG) is a historically important spatial type of garden that is well-known for its rich experiential properties. Although several theories have been used to explain the creation of these experiential properties, little evidence exists for any of the current explanations because TCPGs are complex environments and their visual properties change as a person moves through them. This study uses computational analysis—isovists, isovist fields, and visibility graphs—to measure the spatio-visual character of movement along a path through a well-known TCPG, namely, the 16th century Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai. The measures derived from this process are used to evaluate four theories on the spatial experience of the TCPG.
Over the past 15 years, housing supply for university students has increased significantly given the considerable attention provided by national institutions on the issue of student housing. In Italy, however, only approximately 4% of students live in university residences. Since 2001, interventions on existing buildings have accounted for approximately 60% of the overall measures proposed for new university residences; these interventions comprise most of the available public economic resources. The possibility of recovering and reusing existing buildings for university residences is remarkable for the city of Catania because most of the students are enrolled in university courses located within the historic city center. Moreover, abandoned buildings are currently a significant part of the city's architectural heritage. This research aims to develop an articulated and integrated set of frameworks to support the various phases of the design process for recovering and then reusing existing buildings as university residences. The proposed approach applies existing dimensional standards and environmental sustainability principles to a constructed building using traditional techniques.
This study introduces the basic concepts and terminologies regarding space syntax research through a simple spatial configuration. The concepts are elaborated for intricate configurations. This study aims to deepen the understanding of how syntactical analysis can extract social information embedded in traditional architectural practice in the Malay Archipelago. The basic terminologies are outlined, and the sequential procedure for analysis is described along with its interpretation in the context of actual social phenomena. Result shows that the syntactical properties of a particular configuration within a particular region reflect the traditions of the people in that region. This study serves as a basis for the future study of the applications of space syntax to diverse spatial configurations in the Malay Archipelago.
Architectural design targets mainly humans, the lives of whom are dynamic and continuously changing. Consequently, the conventional design methodologies that deal with buildings as static entities do not always represent the proper method to generate user-friendlybuildings. This paper presents a methodology that deals dynamically with the changing settings of buildings and their associated systemic configurations. This method is scenario-based design, in which scenarios represent essential tools for exercising various role playing and exploring potential “what-if” settings. In this method, a scenario structure aims to develop knowledge about each setting's compatibility to a set of prescribed expectations and quality criteria. To test the applicability of the proposed methodology, an experiential studio project is implemented. The project is orchestrated to illustrate the methodological use of scenarios and to gain in-depth understanding and predictive insights into the real-world architecture from various users’ perspectives. The method presented and discussed in this paper uses scenarios to analyze, develop and evaluate architectural design solutions that aim to achieve specific performance attributes, such as the flexibility, modifiability, transformability, adaptability, extensibility, functionality and operation of building components. The project that demonstrates the proposed method in action is illustrated by examples. The reflections about themethod and its implementation seem to encourage its adoption as an alternative design processing tool that fits strongly within emergent typologies such as metamorphic, interactive, responsive and kinetic architectures.
This study reviews the issue of collaboration with respect to the manner by which it has become increasingly important in promoting a contemporary design approach. Moreover, the study aims to critically review relevant core research articles and establish the perspective of design collaboration. Furthermore, the study uses a qualitative content analysis method on 94 selected research articles that discuss the concept of design collaboration. The content analysis finds four key themes, namely, teamwork, building information modeling framework, evidence-based design practice, and modality supported collaboration design, as the proposed subjects for the examination. Further analysis reveals that majority of articles on design collaboration have focused on interdisciplinary design collaboration and teamwork using digital modalities. Meanwhile, design collaboration concentrates on the manner by which multiple designers can perform various key cognitive design characteristics, such as links, functions, behavior, structure, frame, move, evaluation, abduction, induction, and deduction. Furthermore, the main contributions, recommendations, and implications of the article are graphically presented using a statistical graphmethod. Finally, the study concludes that a definitive framework is lacking on the constituent parameters of design collaboration.
Iraq experiences housing shortage of around1–1.5 million units with low production rate. Managing this challenge requires integrated efforts across a number of fields. One way for ward is to develop an integral and appropriate architectural solution. In Iraq,it remains unknown which of the possible architectural approaches is adequate to address its housing challenges while considering occupants' preferences. Aiming at helping in forming a solution, this study critically assesses the possible building patterns and construction approaches, whichrep resent the main architectural solutions' framework. To achieve this aim, an extensive literature review was conducted that explores possible alternatives and housing requirements. Alternatives were assessed by comparing and contrasting their adequacy in satisfying Iraqis' preferences and the housing sector requirements. The assessment included conducting two surveys: a public Iraqis survey and an experts survey. The former was used to determine Iraqis' residential priorities and the latter to evaluate the adequacy of the defined alternatives in satisfying a set of housing requirements. A total number of 410 Iraqis participated in the first survey and fourteen Iraqi experts in the second. Based on the results, this paper suggests mass construction of multifamily courtyard residential buildings as a solution and discusses future research efforts.
The article proposes a method for teaching advanced urban design to working professionals in Singapore. The article aims to expand the discourse on parametric urban design education by introducing ‘Urban Elements’ as conceptual urban design instruments with an inherent rule-based logic, which can help to bridge gaps in teaching parametric urban design thinking. As case study we present a course developed for and delivered to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in Singapore in 2017 by the Future Cities Laboratory at the Singapore-ETH Centre. The article reports on the pedagogical method, course results and course feedback. The main difficulties of teaching professionals in parametric urban design are described and possible reasons and improvements are discussed. The results show that participants using the ‘Urban Elements’ method successfully linked theoretical input to urban design problems, applied evidence-based urban design strategies to these problems, and developed parametric definitions to explore the solution spaces of these urban design challenges. The teaching methodology presented opens up a new research field for urban design pedagogy at the intersection of explicating urban design intent, integrating multidisciplinary knowledge and exploring new software driven tools.
This paper studies the relationship between citizens' territorial behaviors and the levels and criteria of" integration of buildings and city in urban public spaces" (IBCUPS). The hypothesis of this research is that the levels of perception and integration criteria, of city and its buildings, will diverse based on citizens territorial behaviors. This theoretical proposition is analyzed in 7 urban streetsat 3 Metropolises of Iran, by descriptive-analytical research method, followed by survey to serve the empirical aspect of research, which conducts within the framework of fuzzy logic. The results show a co-variation between the levels of territorial behavior and perception of integration. However, the criteria of integration between buildings and city were different in various urban public spaces according to the levels and types of citizens' territorial behaviors.
In educational environments an improvement in the quality of interior lighting has a direct benefit in increasing productivity and alertness of students and teachers, as well as very important implications for the energy efficiency of th eeducation facilities but when a replacement with different lighting is analyzed, research may be tarnished by users’ preformed opinions, influenced by manufacturers and advertising. Consequently, it is necessary to understand the users’ point of view, even before of being subjected to any change in the lighting stimulus.
Based on the Kansei Engineering framework, the general objective of this paper is to evaluate and compare the subjective evaluation of students’ pre-formed opinions to lighting provided by two types of lamps (fluorescentandLED). The subjective assessment of 427 university students has been compared over four years. The results show significant differences in students’ subjective evaluation. This finding highlights the existence of symbolic or functional attributes of the usefulness perceived by the student that could influence on investigations in which different types of lighting are compared.