Dec 2021, Volume 10 Issue 4
    

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  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Juan-Andrés Rodrı´guez-Lora, Daniel Navas-Carrillo, Marı´a Teresa Pérez-Cano

    Le Corbusier’s urbanism is routinely met with a backlash of criticism, which often overlooks the complexity of his work. There is a tendency to focus on the characteristics of his proposal for Paris in 1925 or on the ideas of CIAM’s Athens Charter. However, such affirmations ignore the conceptual and qualitative evolution of his urban proposals. In this sense, the research hypothesis is that Corbusian urban models go beyond the Plan Voisin, diffused by urban planning theories as the unique paradigm of his urban ideas.

    Through analysis and characterisation of the inner-city urban plans of Le Corbusier, this report seeks to demonstrate the existence of other models and compares them to those often showcased in the partial examination of Le Corbusier’s urbanism. The following parameters will be analysed: (1) population densities and areas for (2) buildings, (3) vehicles, and (4) pedestrians.

    The results of this research indicate the need to parameterise and analyse Le Corbusier’s cities beyond a single case to demonstrate the diversity and evolution of his urbanistic work. This process seeks to dissipate the common view that falsely extrapolates ideas of his urban planning, largely that of his first proposal, for Paris.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Zifeng Guo, Biao Li, Ludger Hovestadt

    Typical traffic modeling approaches, such as network-based methods and simulation models, have been shown inadequate for urban-scale studies due to the fidelity issue of models. As a go-around, data-driven models have received increasing attention recently. However, most data-driven methods have been restricted by their data source and cannot be scaled up to manage urban- and regional-scale studies. Regarding this issue, this research proposes a pipeline that collects traffic data from online map vendors to bypass data limitations for large-scale studies. The study consists of two experiments: 1) recognizing the dominant traffic patterns of cities and 2) site-specific predictions of typical traffic or the most probable locations of patterns of interests. The experiments were conducted on 32 Swiss cities using traffic data that were collected for a two-month period. The results show that dominant patterns can be extracted from the temporal traffic data, and similar patterns exist not only in various parts of a city but also in different cities. Moreover, the results reveal that a country-level lockdown decreased traffic congestions in regional highways but increased those connections near the city centers and the country borders.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Yingxiang Niu, Xiaoyan Mi, Zhao Wang

    With a history spanning thousands of years, the water system of Suzhou is an indispensable carrier of urban space and civil culture. Quantificational model analysis of the waterfront in the ancient city of Suzhou has significant implications for the future design of waterfront space and the establishment of an evaluation method to determine the vitality of such space. In this study, a vitality evaluation model was first constructed using river attributes, the spatial type of waterfront areas, vision accessibility, transportation accessibility, and combined new data extracted using spatial factor analysis. Second, a vitality evaluation matrix was established using the analytic hierarchy process to simulate the vitality of waterfront spaces. Third, a hash algorithm was employed to determine the fitting degree between the vitality model of Suzhou’s waterfront space and crowd activity. The different areas between them were found and then the factor evaluation process was adjusted on this basis of analyzing the causes. Thus, this study identified the factors influencing the vitality of Suzhou’s waterfront. Furthermore, this research constructed a model for evaluating the vitality of waterfront spaces. Finally, some guidelines were presented regarding the design and implementation of waterfront spaces in urban design.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Matti Lakkala, Janne Pihlajaniemi

    Due to the global increase in wood construction, it is crucial for architects to understand wood. In Finland, log building, a special subset of industrially manufactured massive timber construction materials is experiencing a renaissance. Cultural aspects combined with newer technical developments make log a complex material from the viewpoint of architectonic expression. To inform practicing architects, the aim of this study is to explore how the tectonics of logs contribute to the architectonic quality of log architecture. Semistructured interviews among architects of twelve recently published log buildings are conducted. The results describe how architectonic quality is perceived among participants, and features of logs related to tectonics that they consider to be of importance in terms of architectonic quality. These features include the statics of log construction and log’s nature as a simultaneously insulating, load-bearing and visual material. Differences between industrial and hand-hewn logs, as well as other architectural aspects of using logs in contemporary architecture are discussed. Especially the “non-settling” log was perceived to have manifold implications for the architectonic possibilities of log architecture. The results are of practical importance to designing architects and the log industry. Theoretical implications include tangible information on architectonic quality and tectonics of log building.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Daoyuan Chen, Guoen Wang, Guojun Chen

    Disasters are becoming the norm in this world, which also poses challenges to architects. Many needs to build temporary buildings may occur at the same time randomly around all over the world. Constructing an efficient and economical solution is the motivation of this research. Through a comprehensive review of all past related researches and architectural practices, “convenience” and “recyclability” have been identified as two important features of temporary buildings in the post-pandemic era. In this article, we carry on a novel research of discrete architecture. Based on the design paradigm of discrete architecture, this research uses the three main components of S/U/P to develop a Lego Architecture design method by combining with the Grasshopper plug-in under the Rhino platform to write a program that automatically generates the target plan. Then, a typical design scheme for physical construction verification and structural optimization is selected to ensure landing and safety. Originating from the thinking of productization, this research attempts to package the design methods and related knowledge into a systematic solution, relying on an open construction system framework to achieve a rapid, simple and safe construction of temporary buildings after disasters.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Mohammad Keshavarzi, Mohammad Rahmani-Asl

    Automated floorplanning or space layout planning has been a long-standing NP-hard problem in the field of computer-aided design, with applications in integrated circuits, architecture, urbanism, and operational research. In this paper, we introduce GenFloor, an interactive design system that takes geometrical, topological, and performance goals and constraints as input and provides optimized spatial design solutions as output. As part of our work, we propose three novel permutation methods for existing space layout graph representations, namely O-Tree and B*-Tree representations. We implement our proposed floorplanning methods as a package for Dynamo, a visual programming tool, with a custom GUI and additional evaluation functionalities to facilitate designers in their generative design workflow. Furthermore, we illustrate the performance of GenFloor in two sets of case-study experiments for residential floorplanning tasks by (a) measuring the ability of the proposed system to find a known optimal solution, and (b) observing how the system can generate diverse floorplans while addressing given a constant residential design problem. Our results indicate that convergence to the global optimum is achieved while offering a diverse set of solutions of a residential floorplan corresponding to local optimums of the solution landscape.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Zhe Kong, J.Alstan Jakubiec

    This paper presents a field study that explores lighting qualities within higher educational classrooms in Singapore. Eight classrooms of three typesdcomputer labs, collaborative learning spaces and lecture hallsdare studied. Lighting simulation models are calibrated and validated by measurements taken onsite and utilized to generate both instantaneous and annual physical lighting data. A questionnaire survey is distributed to 333 participants to gather subjective responses to current lighting perception. The results show that electrically lit lecture halls present more uniform distributions of lighting environments, while daylit computer labs and daylit collaborative learning spaces present relatively lower daylighting conditions. For daylit computer labs, horizontal illuminance is an effective predictor in terms of controlling lighting levels; For electrically lit lecture halls, the mean luminance of the horizontal 40_ band is an effective predictor in terms of subjective lighting comfort.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Pietro Matracchi, Ali Sadeghi habibabad

    The current study aimed to investigate the quality of the interior architecture of the religious spaces regarding inducing the sense of spirituality with an emphasis on light. Thus, the authors introduced the best option by simulating the light intensity of the interior environment of the Nasir Al-Mulk Mosque, Shiraz, in software and developing a visual standard questionnaire with a statistical population including the experts. This research was a field, and survey study and computational software were used to simulate the light intensity of the interior environment of the mosque in the first part. Then, the researcher-made visual questionnaire was developed. Also, this questionnaire was sent to the experts online due to the current situations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The statistical population was selected using the purposive sampling method from the universities of Iran, Malaysia, India, and Turkey, whose expertise was architecture, environmental psychology, and sacred arts.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Seyed Morteza Hosseini, Masi Mohammadi, Torsten Schröder, Olivia Guerra-Santin

    The architectural form of the façade determines its identity as well as interactions with micro-climate forces of the ambient environment, such as solar radiation. The dynamic nature of daylight and occupants’ positions can cause some issues such as heat gains and visual discomfort, which need to be controlled in real-time operation. Improving daylight performance and preventing visual discomfort for multiple occupants simultaneously is challenging. However, integrating the biomimicry principles of morphological adaptation with dynamic, complex fenestration, and human-in-loop systems can lead us to find an optimal solution. This research builds on relevant literature study, biomimicry morphological approaches, and parametric simulations, to develop a bio-inspired interactive kinetic façade for improving multiple occupants’ visual comfort simultaneously, inspired by plant’s stomata movement and behavior principles. Learning from the transitory stage and hunting new position of stomata’s patchy patterns, leads us to identify the dynamic transitory-sensitive area of attraction point on the façade that is triggered by the dynamic sun-timing position and multiple occupants. The annual climate-based metrics and luminance-based metric simulation results of 810 bioinspired interactive kinetic façade alternatives prove that the elastic-deformable-complexkinetic form triggered by the dynamic transitory-sensitive area can improve the visual comfort of multiple occupants simultaneously. In particular, the bio-inspired interactive kinetic façade with grid division 8x1 displays extraordinary daylight performance for south direction that prevents visual discomfort by keeping cases in the imperceptible range while providing an adequate average Spatial Daylight Autonomy of 60.5%, Useful Daylight illuminance of 90.47%, and Exceed Useful Daylight illuminance of 2.94%.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Aws M. Salman, Younis M. Saleem

    Todays, most Iraqi cities suffer from extremely hot-dry climate for long periods throughout the year. However, most urban patterns that exist inside these cities are not suitable for this harsh conditions and lead to an increase in the value of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) index. Consequently, this will increase outdoor human thermal discomfort as well as energy consumption and air pollution in cities. This study attempts to evaluate the effect of UHI mitigation strategies on outdoor human thermal comfort in three different common types of urban patterns in the biggest and most populated city in Iraq, Baghdad. Three different mitigation strategies are used here- vegetation, cool materials, and urban geometry- to build 18 different scenarios. Three-dimensional numerical software ENVI-met 4.2 is utilised to analyse and assess the studied parameters. The input data for simulations process are based on two meteorological stations in Baghdad: Iraqi Meteorological Organization & Seismology, and Iraqi Agrometeorological Network. All measurements are taken in a pedestrian walkway. The results of different scenarios are compared based on their effect on human thermal comfort. Outdoor thermal comfort is assessed according to Predicted Mean Vote index, as mentioned in ISO 7730 standard. This study provides a better understanding of the role of UHI mitigation strategies on human thermal comfort in the outdoor spaces of Baghdad’s residential neighbourhoods. This can help generate guidelines of urban design and planning practices for better thermal performance in hot and dry cities.