What is the estrangement of architecture? The concept has been incessantly mentioned by academics while there seems to be a lack of discussion systematically sorting out the significance, influence,and origins of estrangement asanarchitectural concept. Thiswork aims to discern the meaning of estrangement from the beginning and its process of entering the field of architecture. The first part is expected to answer the following questions: what is estrangement’s original meaning in the field of literature and its variantions? The second part determines what estrangement is in architecture and in what form estrangement is represented according to these arguments. The third part points out the difference during this translation fromliterature to architecture and demonstrates the reasonable inference thatmay actually compose the possibleway of applying the estranging technique in architecture.
The experience, perception, awareness, and appreciation of the environment created by public spaces are important elements of urban design. In this context, a strong link exists between perception, public spaces, and historical cities. Amasya is one of the multilayered historical cities in Anatolia. Amasya’s holistic urban texture, close relationship with the river, and public spaces are associated with both the Iris River and the historical texture. This pilot study examines the Yalıboyu Promenade, a contemporary open public space designed along the river and across the historical texture in Amasya in Turkey to reveal how it affects people’s perception of the historical environment. The study uses the mixed method approach, which includes qualitative and quantitative data. Following the theoretical discussion, the study investigates the context of the promenade. The survey results revealed how the first-time visitors had perceived the historical texture of the promenade based on Rapoport’s method of using environmental signs. The results were interpreted by jointly evaluating qualitative and survey data. Furthermore, although some aspects need improvement, the promenade solidifies the perception of the historical environment. Overall, when the public space is integrated with the historical environment and public life, it offers multidimensional contributions that cannot be ignored. Therefore, examining the promenade from perceptual aspects and offering a design approach to promote integration with the historical environment may help to establish a precedent case for future initiatives.
Rem Koolhaas/OMA carried out the study for De Koepel prison throughout a decade (1979–1988). However, only its initial stages (1979–1980) were disclosed and have been investigated. The hypothesis presented in this article suggests that Koolhaas implemented his —then— recent thesis present in Delirious New York (1978) on “life in the metropolis” and the “Culture of Congestion” in the conception and design of this project. Thus, this article has the aim of examining —by means of the documents compelling the entire period of the study—how the project suggested transforming the domesticity of De Koepel prison into a “social condenser” of the contemporary metropolis. By doing so, it makes it possible to consider the role of this project within the first decade of Koolhaas’ career as an architect (1978–1989), and to establish that Delirious New York is, in fact, the theory on which it was based on when first conceived. This project anticipated the strategy and the methodology he implemented, at a later time, in other projects, offering a different perspective. On this occasion, this diagrammatic investigation took place in Bentham’s Panopticon; reason why, he was then able to develop the reflections on heterotopias and prisons carried out by Foucault.
This study explores the essential issues pertaining to a landscape bridge based on a multi-scale methodology, in view of the paucity of design theories for contemporary landscape bridges. We contribute to reinterpret landscape bridges on their physical temporal-spatial scales, instead of from perspectives of individual disciplines or their mechanical cooperation. Envisaged in a new systematized framework, we elaborate the dominant and their opposite counterparts of landscape bridges from a binary deconstruction point of view, i.e., (1) Development and retrogression on the temporal scale, (2) connection and separation on the spatial topographic scale, (3) skyphilia and topophilia on the spatial landscape scale, and (4) extroversion and introversion on the spatial architectural scale. The deconstructed multifaceted scales are instrumental in understanding landscape bridges from various perspectives, with a pyramid model proposed afterward to mediate the discovered oppositions and stimulate the cross-scale interactions. Various possible design paths could be derived from this well-organized and openminded multiple system, which is initially expected in this study to inspire bridge designers with dissimilar backgrounds and calls for a wider ramification.
Given the cultural and environmental potential presented by historical water infrastructures in urban contexts, this article states the evidence of a not much documented urban phenomenon in Portugal, the refurbishment of water heritage protected areas motivated by European-based regeneration projects. By employing a case-study design, four good practices -placed in Évora, Lisbon, Braga and Guimarães-are chosen to enlighten this growing and aware trend. The assets located there -the Água de Prata Aqueduct, the Águas Livres Aqueduct, the Sete Fontes water-supply system and the Zona de Couros industrial area, respectively-are geographical, historical and culturally characterised, while the projects that concern them are documented by visiting the areas and analysing the available sources. Then, open-data platforms and heritage protection decrees are processed to graphically code the topography, hydrology, urban land use, infrastructures, landmarks and protected areas, employing QGIS free software for Geographic Information Systems. As a result, the four practices are documented, discussed and compared. A table assesses and summarises their pre-existing and currently added values and a series of diagrams illustrates the landscape changes generated. These graphics validate the practices and update the status of the assets, enhancing the rediscovery of the existing landscapes and showing the main challenges and future opportunities faced by these areas.
To incline and unfold the constituent elements of Louis I. Kahn’s architecture and philosophy, a precise attention must lie on the fundamental objectives that he vigorously pursued and mastered, especially in his latest works. This work focuses attention on Louis Kahn’s idiosyncratic approach to light manipulation which he used to shape his architecture. That’s due to the constant coherence of his approach even today. As we are merged in the plurality of fonts that haul our discipline, we constantly question the real sense of architecture and what makes it intelligible. Kahn’s method drew conclusions and seeked for this sense through precise fonts: lessons from the past, current modernist flow, and the context. He combined and transformed these inspirations distinctively through his own sensitivity to achieve that spiritual value and its own true sense that architecture should retain in its form. Thus, it is considered of utmost interest to rethink his approach and particularly to reflect today on the pertinence of his main architectural parameter: Light.
With the rapid development of building technology, transparent envelope is more and more widely used, which makes the indoor environment of buildings more and more affected by solar radiation. However, the effects of solar radiation are not included in the PMV model. The Corrected Predicted Mean Vote (CPMV) model considering solar radiation was previously proposed and verified in northern China. In order to expand the applicability of the CPMV model to the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) zone of southern China, a field study was conducted in an office building in Nanjing. A total of 686 valid questionnaires were recovered during the surveys in two summers in 2019 and 2020. The results show that the evaluation value of CPMV is highly consistent with the actual thermal sensation vote (TSV) when the corrected operative temperature is below 30 °C. However, when the corrected operative temperature is above 30 °C, the CPMV value is higher than TSV, because it underestimates the tolerance of human body to the hot environment in Nanjing. The thermal neutral temperature is 26.12 °C (CPMV) and 26.28 °C (TSV) respectively, which is higher than that in winter and summer in northern China. This study fills the blank in the application of CPMV model in southern China. The CPMV model can accurately evaluate the thermal comfort of indoor environment affected by solar radiation, which is worthy of promotion and application to other types of buildings and areas.
In the last ten years, ‘nature’ and biophilic design have received widespread attention in architecture, especially in response to growing environmental challenges. However, open questions and controversies remain regarding conceptualizing and addressing ‘nature’ in practice and research. This study conducts a literature review to discuss biophilic design as a theoretical framework to interpret ‘nature’ in architecture. The following questions are answered: (1) How has the concept of biophilic design emerged, and how can it be defined? (2) In what ways can biophilic design contribute to the goals of sustainable architecture? (3) What are the key design strategies in biophilic design? This review identifies and compares the key frameworks of biophilic design and explains their major elements. We then analyse the benefits (e.g., enhance health, well-being, productivity, biodiversity, and circularity) of biophilic design in achieving sustainability, as framed through the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The results indicate that biophilic design is more complex and richer than the mere application of vegetation in buildings; it broadens the variety through encompassing different types of nature from physical, sensory, metaphorical, morphological, material to spiritual. Moreover, knowledge gaps are identified to motivate future research and critical reflections on biophilic design practices.
Today, there is a growing interest in developing energy efficient buildings since it is estimated that buildings account for about 40% of the total primary energy consumption in the world. In relation to existing buildings, energy efficiency retrofits have become an important opportunity to upgrade the energy performance of commercial, public and residential buildings that may reduce the energy consumption, demand and cost. In this paper we cover the energy efficiency deep retrofit process that has been carried out for Nottingham Playhouse theatre building for the aim of enhancing its environmental performance and analysing the energy efficiency gained after implementing certain proposed modifications. It is a nationally protected historic building, listed as Grade II* on The National Heritage List for England (NHLE). The building has had insulation enhancement, doors modifications, solar energy installations, energy-saving lights, in addition to improved heating and air conditioning system. The paper presents a novel methodology; and its results indicate significant improvements in the building’s energy performance which is demonstrated using infrared thermographic images and data logger sensors where significant energy savings to the building’s thermal performance are obtained. The energy saving measures have been completed while maintaining the heritage building’s general appearance and architectural features, which have received a Commendation Certificate from The Nottingham Civic Society for this achievement.
This study aimed to propose climatic zones in the Brazilian semiarid region using multivariate statistical techniques and to characterize these zones for energy efficiency applications in buildings. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to select the variables with the greatest practical relevance. From this selection, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to spatially define climatically homogeneous zones. For each defined zone, the most feasible constructive thermal conditioning strategies were defined, and the thermal indexes of heat and degree-hours of cooling and heating were calculated. As result, PCA reduced the dimensionality of the initial database from 104 to 48 variables, among which the climatic and bioclimatic variables related to temperature stood out. From the HCA, three climatic zones were defined for the Brazilian semiarid region. For all zones, there was a high demand for constructive conditioning strategies, which have to be adopted in more than half of the total annual hours. The proposed zoning is adapted to the climatic aspects of the Brazilian semiarid and has significant potential for applications in construction planning in this region. Moreover, the methodology presented can be applied for establishing climatic zones in other regions, which can contribute to increasing the energy efficiency of buildings.