bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Chinese philosophy of information by Kun Wu
Authors: Wu Tianqi , Da Kaiyan
Published: January 2021

Purpose

By introducing the basic concepts and theories of the philosophy of information created by Kun Wu, and making some comparisons of the philosophy of information and related information theories between Wu and other scholars, this paper aims to have Chinese philosophy of information widely known and understood by more people in the world, thus promoting the international exchanges between Chinese and Western scholars on the topic of philosophy of information.

Design/methodology/approach

The main research methods used in this paper are the literature review and the comparative study. On the one hand, it reviews some related concepts and theories in Kun Wu's academic works of philosophy of information. On the other hand, it compares the thoughts and viewpoints of Kun Wu with those of other scholars.

Findings

First, Kun Wu is the first person who has established a complete and comprehensive theoretical system of philosophy of information in China; second, Kun Wu's philosophy of information is significant in originality and value, which could be thought as the intellectual quintessence of information age, thus worth learning. Third, with more international exchanges, Chinese philosophy of information created by Wu will surely be more and more influential in philosophical circles at home and abroad.

Originality/value

It is a very valuable first-hand material for Western scholars to know and understand Chinese philosophy of information.
The complex relationship between inflation and equity returns
Authors: Liu Jinan , Serletis Apostolos
Published: January 2021

Purpose

To investigate the complex relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a bivariate VARMA, GARCH-in-mean, asymmetric BEKK model to investigate the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.

Findings

Using monthly inflation and equity returns data for the G7 and EM7 economies, we find that the effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty on equity returns vary across countries.

Research limitations/implications

The mixed evidence we find potentially reflects the changing dynamics, policy regimes, economic shocks and country-specific factors (such as differences in the financing patterns of enterprises and the legal and financial environments) across the G7 and EM7 countries.

Practical implications

We contribute to the empirical literature in the following ways. First, we rely on a wide sample of countries, including both developed and emerging economies. Second, we extend previous research by estimating a GARCH-in-mean model of monthly equity returns in which both realized returns and their conditional volatility are allowed to vary with inflation. Previous articles that studied the relationship between inflation and stock market returns generally sought time-invariant effects of inflation on stock returns.

Social implications

The paper helps to reconcile the divergent results of previous empirical studies and distinguish between alternative explanations of the relationship between inflation and equity returns.

Originality/value

Our study provides an improved comprehension of the ambiguous relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns under various central bank mandates and different levels of central bank independence. The mixed empirical evidence across countries we present provides insights for the macroeconomic models that consider the relationship between uncertainty and macroeconomic performance as a fundamental building block. Therefore, our empirical study calls for further work on the relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and equity returns.
Immunization during COVID-19: let the ninja dance with the dragon
Authors: Singh Sanjeev , Singha Roy Sruti , Sahu Kirti Sundar
Published: January 2021

Purpose

Throughout history, pandemics have played a significant role in reshaping human civilizations through mortalities, morbidities, economic losses and other catastrophic consequences. The present COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees resulting in overstretched healthcare systems, increased health inequalities and disruptions to people’s right to health including life-saving routine immunization programs across the world.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a commentary paper.

Findings

Immunization remains one of the most successful, safe, cost-effective and proven fundamental disease prevention measures in the history of public health. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively thrown the world's immunization practices out of gear, depriving approximately 80 million infants, in rich and poor countries alike, at risk of triggering a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio. It is estimated that each COVID-19 death averted by suspending immunization sessions in Africa could lead to 29-347 future deaths due to other diseases including measles, yellow fever, polio, meningitis, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Originality/value

The value of implementing robust immunization policies cannot be underestimated. Risks associated with postponing immunization services and the fact that COVID-19 is now an integral part of human civilization have resulted in several countries making special efforts to continue their immunization services. However, critical precautionary measures are warranted to prevent COVID-19 among healthcare service providers, facilitators, caregivers and children during the immunization sessions.
Mediated democracy and internet shutdown in India
Authors: Momen Md. Nurul , S. Harsha , Das Debobrata
Published: January 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to highlight the very recent cases of internet shutdown during the creation of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and enactment of Citizenship Amendment Act and the detention under Section 66 (A) of Information Technology Act 2000.

Design/methodology/approach

This study takes up a broad explorative discussion of the challenges posed to the consolidation of democracy in India due to frequent internet shutdowns for online communication and social media usages.

Findings

As findings, it is narrated that due to politically motivated reasons, India compromises its commitment to the pluralism and diversity in views, in particular, individual rights to freedom of expression and opinion, enshrined in the constitution.

Originality/value

Right to freedom of speech and expression has now taken a new shape due to the emergence and availability of the internet that enriches the quality of democracy.
Evaluation of the iHEART mental health education programme on resilience and well-being of UK secondary school adolescents
Authors: Kelley Thomas , Kessel Anthony , Collings Rosalyn , Rubenstein Brian , Monnickendam Charlotte , Solomon Andrew
Published: January 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a preliminary study based on a novel structured mental health education programme – Innate Health Education and Resilience Training (iHEART) – in a cohort of secondary school adolescents in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

A curriculum-based ten-week programme was delivered by trained facilitators. In total, 205 students enrolled in the study. An additional 64 participants were within an age-matched non-intervention control group. A non-randomised control mixed methodology approach was used. All students, pre- and post-programme, completed a quantitative questionnaire – the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Survey. Qualitative measures were used to assess participants’ perceptions of changes in their resilience and mental well-being.

Findings

Those who received the intervention showed a small improvement in mental well-being relative to those who did not, with a similar change in resilience. Qualitative findings regarding impulse control and emotional resilience provided positive findings.

Originality/value

iHEART may be a promising new intervention offering a step change in mental health education for improving resilience, mental well-being and the ability for participants to navigate psychological challenges.
Moral judgment and perceived justice in service recovery
Authors: Ma Ke , Zhong Xin
Published: January 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of perceived justice and consumer's moral judgment of a service failure on recovery outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The research model is examined by adopting a field study approach followed by an experiment. The SPSS program with the PROCESS tool was used to analyze the simple moderation and moderated mediation effects.

Findings

The research findings show that consumer's moral judgment of a service failure moderates the relationship between service recovery (psychological compensation vs monetary compensation) and recovery outcomes (recovery satisfaction, negative word of mouth and repurchase intention). Moreover, the conditional indirect effect of service recovery on recovery outcomes through perceived justice is significant when service failure is seen as less moral. Specifically, consumers report lower perceived justice and react negatively to recovery measures when service failure is seen as less moral. In contrast, when consumers perceive a service failure as moral, a psychological compensation outperforms a monetary compensation, lessening negative word of mouth (NWOM).

Originality/value

These findings provide important insights into recovery measure development when considering consumer moral perspectives.
Book Reviews
Authors: Brown Robert , Datta Ayona , Cruz Germán T. , Koester Robert J. , Smith George R.
Published: January 2021

OWNERSHIP, LEADERSHIP AND TRANSFORMATION CAN WE DO BETTER FOR CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT?

CHALLENGE OF SLUMS: GLOBAL REPORT ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS 2003

SMALL CHANGE ABOUT THE ART OF PRACTICE AND THE LIMITS OF PLANNING IN CITIES

THE PHILOSOPHYOF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

THE URBAN HOUSING MANUAL: MAKING REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS WORK FOR THE POOR
Editorial
Authors: Salama Ashraf M.
Published: January 2021

Whether in school buildings or university campuses the educational process involves many activities that include knowledge acquisition and assimilation, testing students' motivation and academic performance, and faculty and teachers' productivity. The way in which we approach the planning, design, and our overall perception of learning environments makes powerful statements about how we view education; how educational buildings are designed tells us much about how teaching and learning activities occur. Concomitantly, how these activities are accommodated in a responsive educational environment is a critical issue that deserves special attention. While it was said several decades ago that a good teacher can teach anywhere, a growing body of knowledge-derived from knowledge on “evidence-based design” suggests a direct correlation between the physical aspects of the learning environment, teaching processes, and learning outcomes. In its commitment to introduce timely and pressing issues on built environment research, Open House International presents this special edition to debate and reflect on current discourses on sustainable learning environments.
Educational Buildings as 3D Text Books: Linking ecological sustainability, pedagogy and space
Authors: Newton Clare , Wilks Sue , Hes Dominique
Published: January 2021

This paper discusses the opportunity afforded by a substantial research grant to examine three aspects of recent school design and learning. First, spaces that support effective learning, second, the role of the building in achieving sustainability, and third, pedagogies and practices that support one and two. Schools are complex systems in which the physical environment interacts with pedagogical, socio-cultural, curricular, motivational and socio-economic factors as well as providing benefits or costs in environmental terms. Limiting the research focus to exemplar case study schools will enable a more comprehensive study of the schools as 3D texts. Through proactive research methodologies, students, teachers and architects will collaborate to manipulate the spaces to suit different learning modalities. Students will help collect environmental data and therefore learn more about climate and energy. They will also participate within teams to further their problem solving, communication and organizational skills. Teachers will become more aware of and hopefully skilled at managing space both environmentally and pedagogically. Architects will have the unusual opportunity of experiencing and analyzing their designs through the eyes of users. While this ambitious research is in its infancy, the interdisciplinary approach and support from nine industry partners is relevant for other researchers who are seeking to have an impact on design practice using an action research methodology. The research is timely.4 Following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom, Australian state and federal governments have committed to reinvigorate our aging school stock. This research led by an interdisciplinary team, was developed in partnership with Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, the Victorian Government Architect's Office, and seven design firms with expertise in learning environments. The research has been funded by the Australian Research Council
Modular Ecotechnological Architecture: A Response to The Demands of the 21st Century
Authors: Belausteguigoitia Jone , Laurenz Jon , Gómez Alberto
Published: January 2021

Constant change in current market and social conditions has triggered the demand for a more adaptable building stock. The capacity to assume and accommodate change has thus become a new requirement for buildings. At the same time, there is a growing demand for more environmentally conscious buildings. New protocols, building codes, and certification systems are becoming stricter regarding buildings’ CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, and other environmental aspects. The current building industry fails to satisfy these two demands; conventional buildings rarely enable change, unless undergoing complex renovations, and rarely consider environmental features beyond mandatory legislation. In this context, this paper proposes Modular Ecotechnological Architecture as a response to both demands. The basis is an integrated design that looks at energy, water, and materials’ efficiency altogether, combined with a modular industrialized building system. The system allows buildings to grow or reduce in size according to their needs, with little impact for their inhabitants, enabling versatility for a variety of uses within the same space and over time. This paper presents the concept of this new building system together with the technical, building code-related, and economic challenges encountered throughout recent experimental projects.
Examining The Potential for Mass Customisation of Housing in Malaysia
Authors: Daud Nasir , Hamzah Hasniyati , Adnan Yasmin Mohd
Published: January 2021

In housing, mass customisation is increasingly seen as a useful innovation for promoting customer satisfaction and thus for contributing to the long-run sustainability of the housing industry. A major stimulus has been the escalation in competition among housing developers in response to the increase in housing consumers' want for individuality in their purchased properties. However, in the absence of confirmatory evidence, the presumed consumers' want for individuality has remained only as a perception until now. In quest for the evidence, an empirical investigation was conducted recently through a questionnaire survey that involved housing consumers, both existing owners and prospective purchasers, in four centres of population across Peninsular Malaysia. This paper presents the findings from the survey. The evidence that was found supports the conclusion that mass customised housing is very much a way forward in Malaysia. The findings show that while buyers' dissatisfaction with current developer-delivered housing has led to a desire or preference towards customised house, buyers' satisfaction with existing situation has not weakened the desire. In the context of Malaysia, this study is important to the development of mass customised housing since it has examined market readiness on the demand side, one of the critical criteria for the concept to be successful in the country.
Editorial: “Expanding Normal: Towards A More Inclusive Approach to Designing the Built Environment”
Authors: Mostafa Magda
Published: January 2021

Architecture, at its very essence, is the process of providing physical space and place for human activity. Primarily concerned with responding to the specific needs of users and their societies, the built environment plays a tremendous role in shaping and facilitating the every day world we live in. Although being inextricably concerned with this man-environment dynamic, architecture however seems to limit its mainstream practices, education and standards to the conventional spectrum of “normal”. This leaves numerous user groups and victims of social circumstances largely excluded from the luxury of an architecture that deems itself specifically to serve them.
Effectiveness of Tactile Surface Indicators in ‘Design For All’ Context
Authors: Demirkan Halime
Published: January 2021

The aim of the study is to determine and prioritise the characteristics of the built environment that increase the effectiveness of the walking surfaces for blind and vision-impaired people. Tactile walking surface indicators are installed on the floor of indoor and outdoor built environments for guiding blind or vision-impaired people. These people perceive the walking surface by a long white cane, through the soles of their shoes or impaired vision. Based on the relevant research and published standards there is a consensus on the characteristics of tactile working surfaces in terms of design specifications, visual contrast, material and installation requirements.

In order to have the right decision while using the related knowledge, the designer of a built environment should identify and prioritise the characteristics of the users. The findings of factorial analysis showed that the individual characteristics such as shoe width, stature, gender, and frequency of leaving residence and experience alone, or with help, determine the effectiveness of tactile surface indicators as the primary factor. The second important factor that can be named as perceptual characteristics of the individual is composed of long white cane usage, time of sight loss and visual efficiency type. It is found that ease of walking on tactile surfaces as ease of change in direction, ease of stay on proper course of walking and transition from truncated domes to bars are third in priority as long as they comply with the standards.
Kavaklidere-Ankara: The Formation of a Residential District During the 1950s
Authors: Resuloğlu Çılga , Ergut Elvan Altan
Published: January 2021

This paper aims to examine the formation of Kavaklıdere as a ‘modern’ residential district during the 1950s. Contemporary urbanization brought about changes in various regions of Ankara, among which Kavaklıdere emerged as an important location with features that defined a new stage in the development of the identity of the capital city. The construction of houses in this district from the early 1950s onwards was in accordance with new functional requirements resulting from the needs of the contemporary socio-economic context, and exemplified the relationship between architectural approaches and social developments. In line with the rapid urbanization of Ankara throughout the 1950s, daily life in Kavaklıdere was transformed, as experienced in the apartment blocks that were the newly constructed sites of modernization. The contemporary transformation of Kavaklıdere was apparently formal and spatial, with the modernist architectural approach of the period, i.e. the so-called International Style, beginning to dominate in the shaping of its changing character. Nonetheless, the transformation was not only architectural but also social: the characteristics of this part of the city were then defined by structures like these apartment blocks, which brought modernist design features, together with modern ways of living, into wider public use and appreciation. The paper discusses how the identity of Kavaklıdere as a residential district was formed in the context of the mid-twentieth century, when these new residences emerged as pioneering modernist architectural housing, the product of social change, which housed and hence facilitated the ‘modern’ lifestyle of that time.
Affordance Based Housing Preferences
Authors: Coolen Henny
Published: January 2021

In several countries the period after World War II is characterized by building dwellings in mass production in order to bring the supply in line with the increasing housing demand. As a result little attention was paid to societal trends and actual user wants. Several trends and developments with respect to housing have been identified since then, which seem to make a more individualized approach to the development, design and building of dwellings and residential environments desirable. In such an approach a thorough understanding of the objectives and activities of inhabitants seems to be required. But how can we explore these objectives and activities? We lack a structured set of instruments that can be used by policy makers, architects, developers and builders to map out a detailed record of user wants. Although there are many methods for the elicitation of housing preferences these methods are not satisfactory for this purpose, because, among others, they focus on what people want and not on why they want it. In this paper I shall first describe the main characteristics of methods for measuring stated housing preferences. Subsequently, I will present an outline of a more user-oriented approach to the measurement of housing preferences. This approach is based on Gibson’s theory of affordances.
Editorial
Authors: Wilkinson Nicholas
Published: January 2021

The 40th year of publication of Open House International is now complete. That means one hundred and sixty manuscripts have been published since the journals inception forty years ago. To keep standards high we impose strict regulations for writing and we wish to see that there is always a clear and understandable focus to the subject at hand. In the application of this approach approximately seventy five percent of the manuscripts received are rejected each quarter whilst the remaining twenty five percent continue on to the production and final publication stage.
A Social Responsibility Design Project for Child-Friendly Interiors
Authors: Manav Banu
Published: January 2021

Interior design is a process which collaborates different approaches, strategies, methodologies and practices. This study is a social responsibility project which had been conducted under the supervision of the author and the authorities of The Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). The purpose of this project is to investigate how effective the integration of knowledge-based sessions and research-project development phases, while trying to increase students’ motivation. The project had been rejenerated twice, in 2014 and 2015 spring terms, during which the visual research method was photographing, computer modelling, interviews with authorities and children. In regard to the mission of the foundation, twenty-eight interior design students (in 2014 spring term) and seventeen students (in 2015 spring term) developed concept sheets, prepared design proposals, presented and submitted them to the authorities. This paper is a brief discussion and evaluation on the design process which may help to provide a base for similar social responsibility projects. Design proposals in the study may also help to identify new research questions such as whether/how changes in social, physical and cognitive concerns may influence the psychological reactions to educational activity centers and how such impacts may help enhance the affective quality in designs where necessary. In the project, each project team was asked to develop a concept map and to identify the most important words. It was recorded that all groups used “children” as the main keyword in their concept maps. Hence, the most frequently referred terms in the concept maps were grouped, analysed and interpreted, which can also be defined as the “concept map” of the project. Another concrete outcome of the study was the encouragement of students, they got involved in the design process equally. They were honoured by “TEGV social responsibility certificates” which supported their awareness and motivation to the design process as well.
Adapted Design Language for Anatolian Vernacular Housing
Authors: Erem Ömer , Ermiyagil Selen Abbasoğlu
Published: January 2021

This paper aims to define an adapted contemporary design language for housing built next to vernacular residential buildings of Anatolian villages. The case has been selected from Balıkesir province in the North-western part of Anatolia within a corpus of 104 houses from selected 81 villages of the region. Originally, vernacular house plans consist of allocation of rooms around a hall: sofa. Each room is a core living space with everyday living needs for a family. House is formed with various spatial relations between sofa and rooms around it. This relation is the determinative feature in formation of vernacular language for each Anatolian house. The study has three phases: analysis, adaptation and generation. The first phase analyzes the elements of vernacular by decomposing its language into sub-parts. In the second phase, the inadequacies of existing vernacular structures were exposed with methods of observation and questionnaires applied on users and new demands for living have been adapted with vernacular existing language grammar rules. In the last phase within the framework of adapted language rules for Balıkesir vernacular, numerous novel design alternatives were generated. This study claims to sustain the existing socio-cultural spatial configuration by adapting newly built contemporary houses to actual vernacular architecture in the planning context.
Value Components of Historic Residential Properties Evidence from Budapest Real Estate Market
Authors: Kutasi David
Published: January 2021

There are plenty of historic buildings bearing different stylistics in Budapest and many of them have residential function. In the city center of Pest, most of the properties are historic buildings constructed between the period of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1876 and the World War II, but Buda also has some residential dwellings with historic value. Estimation of the value of the Budapest residential housing is an important issue for owners, real estate developers and investors, nevertheless not many studies have focused on the value components of those buildings in Central Eastern Europe or Hungary.

In this paper the value components of Budapest residential flats were identified using the hedonic regression method. On a sample of more than 1800 residential properties of Budapest the differences between historic, panel and other buildings were compared. The conclusion can be drawn that altering aspects are relevant for each segment. Even the categories determine large differences between panel buildings and non-panel buildings regarding the value. For the historic properties, the existence of balcony, the up-to-date type of heating, the good condition of the flat, the unique panorama, the location in Pest City, the vicinity of parks and the distance from noisy facilities are the most important factors. Meanwhile for panels the allocation on lower floors, the better heating system, the good condition, the location in Buda and the vicinity of market are the factors that have the major positive effect on the value. For the non-historic and non-panel buildings the balcony, the up-to-date heating system, the good condition, the luxurious Buda district location, vicinity of parks and remoteness of noisy facilities are the most important components of value.
Editorial
Authors: Wilkinson Nicholas
Published: January 2021

VR is a new term to me. With a couple of words in brackets immediately after the abbreviation, (Virtual Reality) all is clear and well. Thank you to a colleague of mine. (See manuscript title CREATIVITY IN THE INITIAL PHASES OF ARCHIECTURAL DESIGN. Page 29 On the same level use of the abbreviation CD is more well known than the use of its actual meaning of Compact Disc.
Lifestyle as a Resource for Re-Structuring Romani Urban Housing
Authors: Grbić Milena , Nikezić Ana
Published: January 2021

Solving settlement and likewise housing problems of socially vulnerable Romani in Belgrade and Serbia still has not found the right design approach. In contemporary plural society, it is a process of interaction of theoretical and practical tryouts set beyond the disciplinary limits. Insufficient awareness on Romani lifestyle elaborated in Romanypen, i.e. the Romani cultural system causes a lack of methods, techniques and tools to choose from and develop for this untangled complex problem. The intent of this article is to show that a collective lifestyle represents the essence needed for developing adequate design decisions of Romani settlements, thus fulfilling the potential for improving adequate housing solutions.

The study starts on the assumption that in Romani settlements there is a strongly rooted relation between spatial and social level that enables an understanding of what this cultural group produces as its own place. The urban pattern of Romani settlements do not have an institutionally imposed organization; they are formed by the Romani themselves, by reflex rooted in needs of everyday life activities and consequently organized and built through inherited knowledge and skills. The subject of this study is aimed at recognizing and thus establishing spatial expressions of the Romani collective lifestyle in three types of Belgrade Romani settlements that, according to the differences in their inner habitational pattern, display a representative model. It is based on the field analysis of five already created and developed unplanned settlements in Belgrade through observing and residing within them and by talking and questioning to their residents.

This study shows that the key to understanding existing urban and architectural patterns, as well as the potential for future design actions lies in reading out the processes of everyday life. Then, it demonstrates a tool that has a potential to divert previous housing politics towards a revitalization of design in relation to social profiles specificities. At the end, the study opens a path to creating adequate architectural and urban parameters for housing care in accordance to the lifestyle acceptable for each and every socially perceptible group.
A Survey Study on the Defects Found in Low-Income Housing: Case Study Seongnam City Korea
Authors: Ko Bong-Kuk , Lee Woo-Jung , Lee Jae-Hoon
Published: January 2021

The purpose of this study is to understand what health and safety hazards low-income households are subject to by surveying the real conditions of the defective housing of low-income households, and to find improvement strategies. For this purpose, we visited the concentrated areas of the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) (also known as multi-family residential) housing in Jungwon-gu and Sujeong-gu in Seongnam City, Kyunggi-do, one of the representative areas in Korea with a massive distribution of the low-income class. Based on the survey data, the level of housing defects were comparison analyzed per income decile (decile 1, decile 2, deciles 3–4), and per housing location, in the categories of subsidence, cracks in the wall, delamination, water leakage/infiltration, condensation, and contamination. The housing condition per income class was more defective in the decile 2 households rather than in the decile 2 households, and in the substructure more than in the superstructure. Among the six defects, contamination problems, caused by sub-standard living conditions, were the most frequent cases. Structural defects, subsidence and cracks in the wall, were found in the main living areas—the bedrooms and the living rooms. It was confirmed in this study that the conditions of low-income housing are serious, and that it is necessary to explore specific countermeasures in the near future.
The Multi-Objective Space Optimal Allocation of Urban Land Based on Spatial Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Zhu Xinhua
Published: January 2021

With the constant increasing scale of urban buildings, the contradiction between supply and demand of land use problems is more prominent. Therefore, the multi-objective space optimal allocation of urban land use based on spatial genetic algorithm was proposed in this paper. Firstly, the present situation of the urban land use resources was expounded; in view of the urban land use planning, a spatial genetic algorithm was proposed; then, the urban land was divided into different functional areas, and the land planning and design method was put forward; finally, taking a city's land space planning as an example, the optimal planning and design were carried out to the geological disasters, low hilly land and land overall utilization; by comparing the land use before and after the planning optimization, the advantages of land optimization design were confirmed.
The Social Construction of a Neighbour-Hood Identity
Authors: Madrazo Leandro
Published: January 2021

The urban renewal process in neighbourhoods with well-rooted communities often reveals the ties between people and spaces, and highlights the inextricable links between social and physical structures. The residents of three neighbour-hoods in the city of Barcelona–Trinitat Nova, Plus Ultra and Vallcarca–have endured and fought against the threat of radical urban renewals planned by the municipal authorities for decades, and their efforts have only recently been rewarded with the acceptance of their demands by local administrations. In this period, residents organized themselves to defend their vision of the place against official plans, a vision which was a collective construction of personal memories and historical evidences. In the PROHABIT research project, we have undertaken an interdisciplinary study, involving architects-planners and social and environmental psychologists, to understand the process of construction of a sense of community and place identity in three neighbourhoods. The study has highlighted the need to overcome the divisions between social sciences and design disciplines, between the real world of experience and the abstract world of design thinking. In this regard, the work conducted in this project offers some insights into the need to create a holistic understanding of today's urban environment, and how architects and planners need to develop skills and methods to enable them to form part of the open and participatory planning systems which our contemporary urban environments demand.
Features of Design of Gardens and Parks with Symbolic Meaning in Shymkent City—Kazakhstan
Authors: Yussupova Akmaral , Songfu Liu , Namazbay Ardasher , Ebrahimi Ahad Nejad
Published: January 2021

This study investigated the emerging progressive use of ornamental art in the landscape architecture of Kazakhstan and determined the influence of symbolism on the quality of new urban environments. The study analysed the existing recreational facilities in Kazakhstan in order to establish their symbolic meaning, the level of utilisation of symbolic ornaments, and the socio-economic factors that influence the design structure of landscape elements. The results revealed that symbolic meanings of the ornaments stem from historic, legal and cultural traditions of different ethnic groups in Kazakhstan. Therefore, the form depends on not only the topography of the area, but also the traditional symbolism and numerology. This study categorised the studied places according to their size: large gardens, small squares and small landscape forms. Taking into account the natural and climatic features of Kazakhstan, small landscape forms acquire the quality of arid zone gardens. However, lack of identity and consistency appears to be a major problem in design of larger scale landscapes. This article posits that coordination between socio-economic and historical-cultural factors will open new creative opportunities for the development of an original landscape architecture in Kazakhstan, yet balance between environmental construction and contextually meaningful urban planning will still be needed.
Community Asset Management A Good Practice in Participatory Local Governance
Authors: Taylor Wendy
Published: January 2021

This article places the concept of community asset management (CAM), the focus of a DFID Knowledge and Research (KAR) project which has been described elsewhere, in the context of the broader concepts of participatory local governance and good practice, themselves the subjects of other recent KAR projects. It is contended herein that it is imperative to local development, service delivery and poverty reduction that these concepts are fully operationalised by the stakeholders involved in the governance process. The article argues that, not only is CAM as a community participation approach a good practice in good governance ‘in its own right‘, but the very practice of the CAM approach involves the operationalisation of other participatory local governance principles.
Describing Housing Morphology in The City of Trabzon
Authors: Dursun Pelin , Saðlamer Gülsün
Published: January 2021

In morphological studies analysis, rather than intuitive explanations, of differences pertaining to the man-made environment requires an understanding of the relational or configurational structure of that specific spatial system. Space Syntax is a set of techniques for describing and analyzing those relational or configurational properties of man made environments. Space Syntax tries to clarify these properties and their meanings by mathematical and graphical analysis to interpret them on a scientific basis. Originally conceived by Prof. B. Hillier and his colloquies in the 1980's as a tool to help architects simulate the likely affects of their designs, it has since grown to become a tool used in a variety of research areas and design applications. This study attempts to formulate the various spatial patterns that have been formed through the history of Trabzon, by means of Space Syntax techniques in a concrete way. It is suggested that the analysis techniques of Space Syntax, supported by a wide range of knowledge, have contributed greatly in the formulation of spatial models in concrete form, further intuition, and can be accepted as a useful tool for defining similarities and differences between different home environments.
Digital Media Instruction in Architecture Education
Authors: Angulo Antonieta
Published: January 2021

The aim of this paper is to provide a structured collection of case studies organized around the core discussion of how to address the subject of digital media in schools of design in general and architecture in particular. By means of these case studies it will be possible to understand the trajectory that we have followed in the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University, having as main goal the incorporation of digital media instruction in design curricula and to assess whether our instructional methods and strategies are in tune with our present understanding of the role of digital media in design. The case studies have been organized following three main contextual themes, namely: shaping our understanding of the role of digital media in design, incorporating digital media in the design studio, and adapting to the availability of new technology. The paper includes the identification of critical issues, among them: polarization between traditional and digital media, solutions for continuous learning and update, and pervasive accessibility of digital means. The paper states conclusions and identifies the opportunities and challenges that we foresee in the near future based on the implementation of multidisciplinary integration and the development of multimodal and media-rich design environments.
Editorial
Authors: Mitchell Maurice
Published: January 2021

Aside from the general anxieties (Vidler, A. 2000) inherent in modern competitive liberal capitalist democracies beset by climate change, war and tsunami, those surrounding the availability of domestic and public space, beset by uncertainty around land, shelter, drinking water and sanitation rights, are some of the most distressing for those affected.
How Urban Agriculture is Reshaping Peri-Urban Beijing?
Authors: Feifei Zhang , Jianming Cai , Gang Liu
Published: January 2021

In Beijing, urban agriculture (UA) experienced a corkscrew development with its role changing in decades: It has evolved from the purely production mode to multi-functional urban agriculture, fulfilling both social and ecological demands. At present, the practice of UA as well as the number of rural to urban migrants is growing rapidly in peri-urban Beijing. Through Multi-stakeholder Process for Action planning and Policy Design (MPAP) methodology and four in-depth case studies, we can see that UA activities are playing very important roles in reshaping peri-urban Beijing. Socially, UA induces the emergence of new migrant communities. While migrants rebuild their social network, they are changed by the city as well, which has also changed the local community. The new comers are on their way to creating a new balance. Physically, urban and peri-urban farmland limits urban sprawl, supplies agricultural products for everyday life, and reserves urban green spaces for recreation and leisure for citizens in Beijing, which has changed the landscape and land use and land cover (LUCC) pattern greatly. Under Beijing's land policy, the concentric configuration spatial allocation through multi-functional UA is formed, which at the same time due to migrants' UA activities are creating harmful and low efficient land use pattern which should be of concern.
Teaching Environmental Sustainability to Higher Education Students: Some Reflections
Authors: Itard Laure , Bogaard Maartje van den
Published: January 2021

This paper deals with teaching environmental sustainability to students in higher education, focusing on the sustainability of buildings and the built environment and more specifically on energy. Integrating sustainability issues into the curricula of engineering education proves to be a big challenge. The main issues are: the fuzzy definition of sustainability; continuously advancing insights in environmental sciences and mono disciplinary versus multidisciplinary approaches. These issues are put into relation with theories and practice regarding curriculum development and change.
Cultural and Economic Influences on Multi-Cultural Cities: the Case of Doha, Qatar
Authors: Mahgoub Yasser , Qawasmeh Reham A.
Published: January 2021

Population diversity is one of the main challenges facing metropolitan centers worldwide. Especially in emerging Arab Gulf countries, where the population is composed of multiple nationalities; socio-physical, socio-economic, and socio-cultural presence in the city is highly noticeable. Doha, the capital of Qatar, is an example of Gulf cities that attract an inflow of foreigners to live and work due to its economic prosperity. It is noticeable that utilization of urban spaces in Doha is affected by socio-cultural and socio-economic backgrounds of its inhabitants. This study focuses on investigating the experiences of the multicultural groups within the city's spatial dimension. It aims at understanding the cultural, economic and spatial connections of these diverse groups and how the urban environment of the city can be improved to support the experiences of these multicultural populations. The paper explores the experiences of different nationalities according to the social activities distribution of the sub-cultures as an exemplary of other Gulf cities. In depth interviews, questionnaires and systematic observations were conducted to gather information from Qatari and non-Qatari populations focusing on their weekly activities and preferred urban spaces in the city. The paper argues that urban spaces define limits and boundaries for social experiences and interaction based on the cultural and economic background and suggests measures to improve the quality of urban experience of the diverse cultural groups.
Paper Tube Emergency Shelter: Design Experiments for Refugees
Authors: Park Jin-Ho
Published: January 2021

An emergency shelter design as an immediate response to assist people in disaster situations was evaluated in this study. The design experiment concerns the use of recyclable paper tubes and simple construction techniques so that unskilled labor can quickly and readily assemble the shelter where required. The design exercise is a result of a joint effort of a group of architecture students at Inha University with the help of an architect, Shigeru Ban, who is renowned for his innovative work with paper tubes. In the first phase, five different design alternatives for a short term recovery option are proposed and in the second phase, a design was selected and developed on the full scale to demonstrate its design and assembly technique.
Conceptual Model of the Relationship Between Neighbourhood Attachment, Collective Efficacy and Open Space Quality
Authors: Karacor Elif Kutay , Parlar Gozde
Published: January 2021

The decline in neighbourhoods resulting from globalization and technology, which trigger high rise buildings, has been discussed by several disciplines. Changes in life styles destroy not only traditional neighbourhoods but also open spaces. This situation leads to a decrease in both collective efficacy and neighbourhood attachment. Place attachment would play an important role in overcoming fear of crime and low security perception, which are the most substantial social problems of today's cities. Therefore, it is important that urban designers, architects and landscape architects develop design policies that contribute to place attachment. The aim of this study is to develop models that explain neighbourhood attachment by collective efficacy, open space quality and socio-demographic variables. Kuzguncuk neighbourhood was chosen as a study area because of its unique character, socio-cultural diversity and the collective power that is due to the various social groups in the neighbourhood. This study seeks to answer the following question: Do open space quality, collective efficacy and socio-demographic factors predict neighbourhood attachment? We examined whether attachment to a neighborhood is associated with collective power and perception of open space quality by inhabitants. Therefore, neighbourhood attachment and its predictors were studied in this specific neighbour-hood. Face to face interviews were conducted with 313 inhabitants using a stratified sampling method. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical linear modelling analyses were used to predict neighbourhood attachment. We found that collective efficacy, open space quality, place of birth and length of residence were predictors of neighbourhood attachment. Therefore, to prevent social problems, such as fear of crime, low security perception, loneliness and segregation, policy makers, designers, planners and social scientists should focus on neighbourhoods that have small communities. In conclusion, the quality perception of open spaces should be considered to increase neighbourhood attachment, and inhabitants should be encouraged to use public spaces in which social ties can develop.
Editorial
Authors: Hurol Yonca
Published: January 2021

This is not a theme issue of Open House International and it contains articles on various different subjects. One of these articles is based on a recent improvement in research approaches and methods: post-phenomenology. Because of this, I preferred to base this editorial on the general changes in research and architectural research methods.