bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Urbanization As A Parameter of Change for Meanings of Homes
Authors: Yürekli Ipek , Inceoglu Arda
Published: January 2021

This study suggests that although there are no apparent clues in the built environment of informal housing settlements developed by immigrants from rural areas, urbanization processes lead to acculturation. It is possible to trace this transformation by utilizing semantic tools.

Istanbul has experienced a major population increase due to immigration from rural areas in the last two decades. Most buildings in the areas developed by these new citizens appear to be impermanent and unfinished. This study suggests that regarding to the evaluation of such settlements some of the widely accepted assumptions may not be valid, and new ways of understanding involved processes are necessary. This study suggests acculturation occurs in such areas, contrary to the general belief held until the end of 1990's. These processes are explained with the semantic model of the ‘home’ suggested in this study. This is a temporal and ‘living’ model, based on the idea that as a result of processes of urbanization people's meanings associated with their homes change. This model is used as a tool to predict these changes in the meanings and explain them in relevance with processes of acculturation. The results of the study are expected to contribute both to semantic research and research on illegal settlements.
Risk Assesment of Socio-Natural Disasters in Central America and the Caribbean
Authors: Salas Julián
Published: January 2021

This paper analyses and quantifies the relative level of risk in a geographical area that is vulnerable to natural phenomena and with a high proportion of its population in a situation of residential poverty. We deduce that the hazard in the area, composed of nine Central American and Caribbean countries, is significantly higher than the world average. The first aspect is covered in the sections Population at risk and Natural phenomena, which analyse the ‘study area’. The second aspect is covered by Poverty in the ‘study area’, various analyses of the physical situation in the target area, inhabited by almost 160 million people. Contrasted information is used as a basis for the concepts underpinning the extraordinary presence and seriousness of the socio-natural phenomena in this area. The interrelationship between the degree of vulnerability and poverty leads to the conclusion that these are the primary causes of disaster-related destruction, which in a 33 year period (1972 to 2005) has left an annual average of 20,000 human lives lost, 250,000 directly affected and approximately ten billion dollars in material damage.
The Users in Mind: Utilizing Henry Sanoff's Methods in Investigating the Learning Environment
Authors: Salama Ashraf M.
Published: January 2021

The educational process in schools involves many activities that ultimately aim at testing students' motivation, knowledge assimilation, academic performance, and teachers' productivity. How these activities are accommodated in a responsive environment is a critical issue that deserves special attention especially from users' perspective. This paper analyzes emerging understandings of learning environments. Reactions of teachers and students to classroom and cluster prototypes, among other aspects, against a number of spatial requirements and educational objectives are analyzed and discussed based on two mechanisms. The first is a comparative analysis of reactions of teachers from three elementary schools within Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District. The second part is a case study of a pre-design phase undertaken for redesigning some buildings of North Carolina School of the Arts. The results of this investigation support the assumption on how the school environment has a direct impact on the way in which teaching and learning takes place. A conclusion envisioning the need for going beyond adopting prescriptive measures to address the quality of the learning environment is conceived by highlighting the need to utilize knowledge generated from research findings into school design process, to pursue active roles in sensitizing users about the value of the school environment in reaching the desired academic performance while increasing teachers' productivity.
Topographies and Shrines: Creating Responsive Learning Environments
Authors: Aravot Iris
Published: January 2021

With most people living in ‘archipelagoes of peripheries’ in a late capitalist global regime, on an earth struggling with environmental crises, the mission of learning environments is to provide the pod for growth, whether for kindergarten children, teenagers or adults in lifelong learning. The pod is both a protective and an enabling surrounding, and itself a living part of a greater organism. The paper proposes an approach to creation of learning environments through the intertwining of topographies - the owned and continual space of everyday life and dwelling; shrines - the spaces for the new, the exalted, the non habitual; and making by the community - the continual collaboration of the community, teachers and pupils in the design and re-design of the learning environments. All three counterparts are profoundly context related, soundly local and of uttermost significance to identity, belonging and hence wellbeing. The paper unfolds knowledge from diverse sources, ranging from scientific to phenomenological research, from non-conventional community-specific learning environments to historical precedents, and from architectural theory to practical-professional experience of the author. The resulting approach, summarized in a metaphorical nutshell as Topographies and Shrines aims at a pod-environment of learning: responsive, inclusive, and supportive.
Spatial and Eeducational Patterns of Innovation for Charter Schools
Authors: Harwood Pamela
Published: January 2021

We present ten patterns and design examples in this paper, revealing some of the most relevant trends in educational design, drawn from our research on charter schools. An interdisciplinary team of students in architecture, urban planning, business, education, and psychology have completed a series of case studies of best practices, as well as profiled charter schools locally, to develop patterns and guidelines for the facility planning and educational development of charter schools. Charter schools are public schools of choice in the United States that receive more administrative and pedagogical autonomy and flexibility than district schools in exchange for meeting the performance goals specified in each school's charter. Charter schools often have innovative curriculum, challenging traditional education methods and facility design. This research addresses the connections between the designed physical environment and the learning innovations it supports, while encouraging the entrepreneurial charter school vision, emphasizing creativity in the renovation, adaptive reuse, and non-traditional use of existing buildings, efficiently maximizing student safety and learning, and adhering to best-practice standards of ecological design.
Design Intentions and Users Responses: Assessing Outdoor Spaces of Qatar University Campus
Authors: Salama Ashraf M.
Published: January 2021

This paper explores the issue of design intentions versus users' reactions by conducting a post occupancy evaluation study. It introduces an assessment of the performance of Qatar University-QU campus outdoor spaces from users' perspective after it has been used and occupied for over 20 years. The assessment aims at understanding the mutual interaction process between the built environment exemplified by the physical characteristics of campus outdoor spaces and the needs of the university community exemplified by students, faculty, and staff. Therefore, the paper argues for the value of evaluating current campus outdoor spaces from users' perspective. It aims at defining problematic areas related to the utilization of current spaces-that are contrasted with the architect's design philosophy and intentions. The methodology adopted is multi-layered in nature and incorporates a wide variety of assessment techniques; including walk-through evaluation and direct observation, behavioral mapping, and survey questionnaires. The investigation reveals a number of problems that may hinder the performance of different types of QU campus users. The paper concludes that by recognizing how well university campus outdoor spaces respond to the needs of faculty, students, and staff, one can recommend ways of improving the outdoor environment necessary to facilitate the work and learning experiences of different users within the campus and the desired student-faculty interaction.
Editorial
Authors: Wilkinson Nicholas
Published: January 2021

The last editorial dealt with the time based concept for buildings where adaptability responded to the need for change and variations. The concept actually is centuries old but only came to the fore with the advent of the office block. That in itself is nothing new but some architects have taken the principle of housing adaptability into forms which look like offices. Why not ?
The Validity of PREVI, Lima, Peru, Forty Years On
Authors: Salas Julián , Lucas Patricia
Published: January 2021

PREVI, Spanish initials for “experimental housing project”, was conceived in Lima in 1967. Among other initiatives, it launched an international architectural competition that led to the construction of a 500-unit compound based on proposals put forward by teams such as Atelier 5, Aldo van Eyck, and Íñiguez de Ozoño and Vázquez de Castro. The forty years that have lapsed in the interim and the ongoing transformation of the homes by their dwellers afford an opportunity to reflect on the suitability of the construction technologies proposed in the competition.

Ongoing growth and the rationalisation of construction methods were two of the basic premises underlying the competition. The remodelling that has taken place in the interim stands as proof of the success of the first premise, but the use of traditional techniques to build the additions calls some of the most sophisticated proposals for industrialisation into question.

At the time, the tendency was to rely on large-scale industrialisation, as can be seen in the German and Polish architects' proposals. Nonetheless, many of the PREVI proposals opted for rationalising construction and precasting short series of small elements, rather than huge three-dimensional members. In the situation presently prevailing in Latin America, the viability of some of the technological proposals deployed in the PREVI might be profitably revisited.
A ‘Fareej-in-the-Sky’: Towards A Community-Oriented Design for High-Rise Residential Buildings in The Uae
Authors: Ahmed Khaled Galal
Published: January 2021

Most of the native citizens in the UAE live in public or private single-family houses. Given the tremendous cost of developing this type of housing and the inability of providing single-family houses to cover all the current and future needs for public housing, high-rise residential buildings seem to offer an alternative. But the question is; does this type of housing suit the local communities in the UAE, especially in light of the failure of the previous western experiences?. Through addressing this question, the research proposes an approach towards a community-oriented design for high-rise residential buildings in the UAE.

The research first investigated the reasons behind the community-relevant shortcomings of the traditional high-rise residential developments in the West. Afterwards, it briefly reviewed the status quo of the community-relevant considerations in the design of the recently built high-rise residential buildings in the UAE, where it has been found that little concern has been devoted to the community needs. In an effort to find an answer to this problem, the research examined four recent design experiences as examples for the current universal efforts to design community-responsive high-rise residential developments. Some conceptual approaches were derived from these experiences that are envisaged to help reach an approach for the case of the UAE. Nonetheless, because of the unique social and cultural traits of the UAE native society one cannot rely on these global conceptual approaches alone. Instead, the research proposes an approach that, while benefiting from the relevant global experiences, is chiefly pivoted on the vertical reconfiguration of the idea of the ‘fareej’ as the smallest unit in the residential urban context both traditionally and in the future official urban plans in the UAE.
Towards Inclusive Campus Environments: Evidence-Based Research of A University Campus
Authors: Mishchenko Evrim Demir
Published: January 2021

Planning and design of university campuses is as important as the instructional philosophy of universities for determining academic and social development of university students. However, mainstream university campuses have often been designed with typical “normal” or “abled” users in mind and have neglected the needs of students with physical, sensory, and developmental disabilities. Universal design perspective with its equality, social inclusion and social justice agenda can be helpful in giving insights for inclusive educational environments. This study presents a research based design process conducted at a university campus in Turkey to create an inclusive educational environment for the students with disabilities, and to improve their participation in campus' academic and social life. For this purpose, existing campus spaces were evaluated for their inclusiveness both objectively through a checklist and subjectively through participatory workshops and meetings. The findings from both studies were used to identify the needs of the users with disabilities in the campus' settings. The results obtained from these studies were used to inform the implementations, and a holistic plan for creating an inclusive campus environment was developed. This study provides the implications for architectural and urban needs of users with physical, sensory, and vision disabilities or restraints in campus environments, develops methodology for future studies with similar context, and informs about the challenges and opportunities present in the process of creating inclusive university campus environments. .
Editorial
Authors: Wilkinson Nicholas
Published: January 2021

We continue our policy of theme issues and open issues twice a year. This particular open issue contains manuscripts on Community Participation, Real Estate Development, Housing Poverty, Dual Usage Sociability, Formal and Spatial Contemporary Transformation, Experimentation with Hanoks in Korean Housing, Infill Renovation and Post Ecological Architecture. These are based in a range of different countries from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jordan, Turkey, Korea, to Japan. The inquiries are deep and thorough, maintaining a firm grip on subject matter and focus.
The Emotional Sociability of the Abdoun Circle in Amman Jordan
Authors: Bustami Leila
Published: January 2021

The Abdoun Circle which is located in the prestigious part of Amman, changes its relationship with its users from that of an ordinary business district during the day to a very popular city night-life spot offering a variety of leisure services, mainly in the form of cafes and restaurants. This study focuses on that phenomenon of dual usage as it mirrors the major social and psychological implications of late modernity in Jordan, and adopts a transactional approach (Altman and Rogoff 1987) to explore and explain its complexity. Information for the study was obtained by observing, interviewing, and listening to a variety of opinions and voices. This process supported the development of the mutual definitions between the behavioural elements and the environmental feature elements of the studied phenomenon. The identified definitions to describe the district at night, which include pleasantness, crowdedness, complexity, variety, novelty, and dominance, in turn supported the development of a range of psychological and social benefits important to the users of the circle (i.e. new aesthetics, modernity, freedom, and opportunities to meet and socialize).

The analysis of additional data about the setting's formal and perceptual properties added the benefits of sociability and democracy, which combined with the previous benefits described, meant that the setting is seen and experienced by people from most age and social ranges, except for those from the upper class, as an outlet for pleasure in these modern times. This clearly indicates that Jordan has yet to experience a transition toward democracy and that these new public spaces, as the Abdoun Circle should be developed throughout the city in order to support the progression towards a socially balanced society.
Infill Renovation
Authors: Minami Kazunobu
Published: January 2021

Apartment houses in Japan now face many serious problems. Japanese society is aging, resulting in 1 or 2 elderly people now living in houses built for larger households consisting of 3 or more people. This has distorted the structure of the population residing in apartments, so they do not function as district communities. To ensure the future effective utilization of our housing stock, we must tackle one fundamental challenge, namely developing methods of flexibly upgrading the existing housing stock to respond to change of the makeup of the population of regional societies and to changing life styles. Housing production and supply systems that enable residents to personally plan and decide specifications must be introduced to establish infill upgrading as an effectively functioning part of the future housing market.
The Dry Construction Systems on the Rehabilitation of Built Heritage
Authors: De Berardinis Pierluigi , Marchionni Chiara , Rotilio Marianna , Friedman Avi
Published: January 2021

The dry construction techniques, widely used in past centuries have seen a renewed interest in the last few years. This is due to different reasons such as the new user’s needs for high quality at low cost, the shortage of traditional skilled labor, the need to reduce delivery times and the rising costs of initiating a fabrication plant.

Dry construction methods regard the building site as the place of assembly. The quality of the finish products, are guaranteed by a factory controlled production process and reduction to a minimum of on-site work. The building, designed by “unconnected boxes” becomes an “active machine”, capable of ensuring maximum performance for the user. Finally the design of an “open building system” also consists of a set of rules to allow creation of various solutions.

The complexity of this modus operandi increases progressively if the intervention is carried out in small historic centres. Therefore, this research aims at presenting a method of work that uses dry construction systems and that has been developed to intervene in the historic contexts damaged by the earthquake that struck the Abruzzo region on April 6, 2009.

This method develops a process that aimes at the rehabilitation of the buildings but also at improving their energy behavior while respecting, at the same time, the vernacular values. It is based on a “case by case” approach that starts from an analysis of the context and its local construction techniques, taking into account the peculiarities of each location. The results of this method have been applied to a small village located in the province of L'Aquila called Santa Maria del Ponte.
A Comparative Study of the Building Energy Performance of Thermotropic Windows
Authors: Yao Jian , Zheng Rong-Yue
Published: January 2021

This paper conducted a study on the energy-saving potential of a developed thermotropic window. Office buildings in different climate regions of China were compared in terms of heating, cooling and lighting energy demands. Results show that annual heating and cooling energy demands for office buildings differ largely, while lighting energy demand at different climates keeps a significant percentage of the total energy demand, ranging from 36.1% to 66.3%. Meanwhile, thermotropic windows achieve a great advantage in improving daylighting performance and in reducing the overall energy demand, by reducing the overall energy demand by 2.27%-8.7% and 10.1%-21.72%, respectively, compared to movable shading devices and Low-E windows. This means that this kind of thermotropic windows have a great potential in applications in different climatic regions and can be considered as a good substitute of solar shading devices and Low-E windows.
End-Users' Perception from Housing Needs Based on Maslow's Theory of Motivation
Authors: Zavei Sayyed Javad Asad Poor , Jusan Mahmud Bin Mohd
Published: January 2021

Providing operational approach to end-users' motivational tendencies in housing facilitates user-centered approach enhancing person-environment congruence. The operational approach is highly critical in case of inaccessibility of end-users in decision making, i.e. mass housing. Therefore, this study aims at explaining end-users' housing motivations from their housing attributes preferences, through a theoretical framework developed based on Maslow's theory. The investigation was carried out by using a self-administered questionnaire conducted on 127 Iranian postgraduate students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and their spouse who lived alongside them. They were selected from those who lived more than one year in mass housing apartments in Malaysia. Using exploratory factor analysis, the housing attributes preferences were analyzed to underlie the latent structure and relations among them; the extracted factors were also labeled based on the different level of needs. Then, conducting one sample t-test hierarchical tendencies among the different motivational factors were identified. Referring to Maslow's theory to explain the concept and characteristics of housing needs results in identification of two different categories of housing attributes in association with the different level of needs. Accordingly, primary levels of needs that associate with relatively tangible and concrete attributes are more likely to be content-specific and predictable. The higher levels of needs that associate with relatively complicated and abstract attributes are more likely to be problematical, confusing, and non-predictable.
Re-Reading Critical Indications of Metabolisim
Authors: Eken Cemaliye
Published: January 2021

Rapid urbanization and providing pragmatic solutions for its development is one of the fundamental agenda of last decade. The metabolism is one of the latest post-war movements-founded in 1960 by Kenzo Tange where urbanization and city as a process is re-examined within the framework of accelerated modernism and technology vision. This paper discusses Metabolism movement in order to identify crucial intimations of its utopian architectural and urban approaches as a tool for future city. The study examines four initial metabolist city approaches-Plan for Tokyo (1960-62), Clusters/city in the Air (1960-62), Helix city (1961) and Ocean/Marine City (1962) that are designed for post-war Tokyo city in Japan. The study gives modest insight of indentifying city design theory within in a series conception; such as conducting to architectural characteristics regarding urban structure, tectonic vision between land-sea-sky and organic notion (city as process and mega-structuralism). Research method is embodied with examining relevant data of literature data. Upon discussions on theory, study aims to establish an ironic notion of future city by asserting familiar characteristics or variations between four pioneer projects of Metabolist movement.
The Versatility of Terraced Housing in Iranian Vernacular Architecture Located in Steep Regions
Authors: Reza Ehsan , Dıncyurek Ozgur
Published: January 2021

This study explores the characteristics of a particular vernacular architecture, which is known as terraced housing. Terraced housing can be found in many different mountainous parts of the world such as the mountainous regions of Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Greece, Italy and Japan, which have different environmental and cultural characteristics, and which were built in response to human needs according to the particular topographical conditions. Amongst the examples mentioned, Iranian terraced housing remains distinctive with its local richness and variation, constructed and designed according to the topography of the region. Accordingly the general overview of Iranian vernacular architecture and form is examined by focusing on the environmental factors of two specific Iranian villages.

The identification of these villages is evaluated according to the topography, climate, urban pattern and spatial organization of Iranian terraced settlements. As a consequence, the analysis of case studies and data processing will enable decision makers, planners, architects and designers to become more aware of the existing architectural building tradition. The contemporary housing design problems can be solved by employing an appropriate method of design and building construction with reference to the present vernacular housing stock.
Towards Contemporariness of Local Architecture: Lessons Learned from Previous Experience
Authors: Abdel-Azim Gasser Gamil
Published: January 2021

The ideology of “Local Architecture” was about the religious experience, social and cultural interpretations non-awareness, and solutions for environmental and social problems. This case aims at producing a compatible architecture for this society. The problem of the paper deals with the absence of the local heritage in contemporary architecture. Most of our buildings reflect western ideologies, and use the local vocabulary, as has happened in most of the Arab architecture, that deals directly with a language of shapes to create compatibility with the public. Hence, the aim of the paper is to link the variables that the contemporary architecture formulated with concepts of local architecture. To meet such aims, the research is pivot around two themes: Firstly, tackling how to extract the forces that lead to the contemporariness of local heritage and formalize the DNA of any local community (Culture, Community Aspiration, Climate, and Technology), as well as discussing some experience that dealt with local architecture. Secondly, discussing some recent trials that learned from the previous attempts through history. The attempts strongly re-activate the local architecture in the contemporary challenges, namely, the use of heritage forms as is to conform to environmental determinants, development of these forms using contemporary materials through the visions of local architecture, and employing high-tech solutions to achieve contemporary appropriateness within traditional ideologies. In the end, the paper presents new ideas of the local architecture that learned from the previous experiences in our Arab societies to meet the needs of today's Arab societies.
Preservation Planning of the Qingcheng Ancient City Wall
Authors: Gaorui Lin , Fei Wang , Qingzhi Mi
Published: January 2021

The Qingcheng County, where the ancient city wall is located, has rich regional cultural heritage. This ancient city wall is an important symbol for exhibiting the regional historical culture of Qingcheng. However, urban expansionary construction activities, environment chaos, and other issues have led to the destruction of the main part of the Qingcheng Ancient City Wall. Previous strategies for historical and cultural heritage Preservation planning emphasize rigidity and disregard resilience in protecting cultural heritage and the environment. On the basis of an analysis of the built environment of the Qingcheng Ancient City Wall, this study gains insights into the three aspects, namely, land use, road traffic, and municipal and disaster prevention in frastructure of the old city proper where the ancient city wall is located. A planning strategy that integrates an ordered control of land development, highly efficient and compound road traffic, synergetic municipal administration, and sound disaster-preventing infrastructure is formed according to cognitive results.
Construction of Life Cycle Evaluation Model for Urban Innovative Ecological System Based on New-Type Urbanization
Authors: Ren Ailian
Published: January 2021

China's urbanization is a traditional development way of high energy consumption, low efficiency and extensive type. The resulting ecological environment damage and other problems seriously restrict the healthy and sustainable development of the city. Based on this, aiming at the complexity of the system, the multi-objective classification matrix method of fuzzy decision was selected, and the life cycle assessment model of the urban innovation ecosystem under the background of new urbanization in China was constructed. The research on the innovative ecological system planning of a heavy industrial city was carried out, and the wall was greening in the top space of the building. In the town planning, wind energy, solar power system, green corridor and ground floor were designed. Practice has proved that introducing innovative ecosystem into urbanization has played an important role in purifying urban air, increasing urban greening, improving energy structure and air pollution.
Operating Mechanism of Transformation and Upgrading of Urban Planning Based on Game Theory
Authors: Ma Hongchao , Yi Chongyan
Published: January 2021

Based on the new requirements of the rapid development of the national urbanization, planning adaptability and dynamic variability in the process of urban planning should be improved, which will become the focus of planning and design. Therefore, in this paper, the operating mechanism of transformation and upgrading of urban planning based on game theory was proposed. Firstly, the concept and development background of urban planning and operation were expounded, and the game theory was used to analyze the operating mechanism of urban planning; then, the formulation of urban planning based on the operation concept of urban planning was analyzed from the aspects of urban planning system, the overall development principle, the overall plan and the detailed planning; in addition, by taking the planning and design of the upgrading of a city as an example, the planning of blocks, urban parks and buildings and so on was achieved.
Ecological Art Planning and Design of the Headspace of Urban Buildings Combining with Ecological Science and Technology and Art Culture
Authors: Zhou Min
Published: January 2021

With the accelerating process of urbanization, the greening areas in high density cities are becoming less and less, and the aerial greening provides a possible way for the update of the urban building headspace greening. Based on this, the application of aerial greening in the urban headspace was studied. Starting from the plant, water, landscape sketch, pavement and other construction elements, the ecological art planning and design of the urban building headspace was studied. Then, the transformation of an old factory was studied, and the rain-flood gardens and infiltration floors linked to biological corridors were introduced in the high flood risk areas. In the building headspace, a rainwater harvesting system and an air garden were designed, and the ecological planning of aerial walkway was carried out to the front abandoned viaduct. The practice proves that the introduction of ecological science and technology and art culture in the urban headspace plays an important role in purifying urban air and increasing urban greening.
Landscape Planning and Design of Large City Square Musical Fountain Based on the Recognition of Music Features
Authors: Wang Bin
Published: January 2021

In all kinds of modern fountains, music fountain can integrate human's sense of vision and hearing in real time, and plan the perfect environmental art effect in the urban planning landscape. Based on this, the theory of musical feature recognition was proposed, and the forms of the fountain and the main points of the layout and layouts under different environments were analyzed; based on the above methods, the Dallas fountain square was analyzed comprehensively, including the design background, design features and the main points of landscape planning. The results show that Dallas fountain plaza can be regarded as one of the representative works of structuralism architectural style, and it can provide a classic case of learning structuralism for future generations.
Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Evaluate the Coupling Degree Between Scenic Tourism Building Sites
Authors: Dong LIU , Zhimin LI , Xin Wang
Published: January 2021

Scenic tourist buildings are the important material security conditions for famous scenic cities to carry out tourism activities, and the level of their planning and design will directly affect the tourists' recognition of the scenic spots. Based on this, a research on the evaluation of the coupling degree between scenic tourist buildings and sites based on analytic hierarchy process was put forward. First of all, the theory of the coupling between the landscape tourism architecture and the site was elaborated, and then the landscape tourism architecture and its planning and design were proposed; taking a certain project as an example, planning and design of its teahouse, villas, sightseeing stand and other buildings were analyzed emphatically; in addition, the evaluation of the coupling degree of AHP was used to show that the planed and designed scenic tourist buildings are in the landscape and they can also be the landscape.
Imperfect Schemes in Planning and Construction of Municipalities
Authors: Li Hu
Published: January 2021

With the growing development of China's architecture, the problems existing in municipal engineering have become the focus of public concern. Based on this, study on the lack of law in leading bribes based on the bidding of municipal planning and construction and its imperfect scheme was put forward in this paper. First of all, the needs of municipal engineering planning and construction were expounded, and the present status of the research on the theory of municipal engineering was expounded; then the perfection of the common municipal engineering bidding laws was analyzed, and the content of the architectural planning was mainly introduced; taking the municipal engineering project of a city as an example, the detailed analysis of the planning of the railway station, Central Park and the river of the municipal engineering is made to provide reference for the municipal planning and construction.
Regeneration of Public Residential Buildings for Rent in Japan
Authors: Kadowaki Kozo , Fukao Seiichi , Arahira Tsuyoshi
Published: January 2021

In Japan, various government authorities and public housing corporations built a huge number of dwellings for rent to reconstruct war-damaged cities and to accommodate the high concentrations of population in urban areas in the mass-housing era between 1955 and 1973. Approximately 40% of all public residential buildings for rent in Japan were constructed in the latter mass-housing era (1965-1973). These are four- or five-story reinforced concrete buildings whose building frames are sufficiently strong to withstand several decades' more use but whose interior finishings and functional systems are deteriorating. Although these houses were originally designed for nuclear families, they are now considered too small to accommodate more than three residents. There is growing demand for renovation of deteriorating public residential buildings for rent. Dwelling units of such deteriorating buildings are often enlarged by constructing extensions or by removing sections of existing partition walls and installing new partition walls. In recent years, several local authorities have started to add new elevator towers to residential buildings for the increasing number of aged residents. We have studied these regeneration projects in detail by conducting questionnaires at 60 public housing corporations and hearing investigations at 6 corporations. This paper describes the actual status of the regeneration of deteriorating public multi-unit residential buildings for rent in Japan.
Virtualization of Architectural Design Education in the Arab Region: Potential and Cultural Implications
Authors: Al-Qawasmi Jamal
Published: January 2021

The influence of digital media and information technology on architectural design education and practice is increasingly evident. There has been an astonishing shift in the way architecture is being taught and produced. Networked virtual design environments such as the virtual design studio (VDS) have been introduced in many architectural schools as new ways of teaching and learning design. Applying virtual design education in developing countries such as the Arab states brings with it various opportunities and challenges. As a new phenomenon, little research has been done to study the cultural implications of the new virtual design environments (VDE). This paper examines the new paradigm of teaching and learning design virtually and the possible cultural implications of its implementation in developing countries such as the Arab world.
Narrating The City: spaces Of Urban Change, South London
Authors: Hall Suzanne M.
Published: January 2021

This paper explores the documentation of social and spatial transformation in the Walworth area, South London. Spatial narratives are the entry point for my exploration, where official and ‘unofficial’ representations of history are aligned to capture the nature of urban change. Looking at the city from street level provides a worldly view of social encounter and spaces that are expressive of how citizens experience and shape the city. A more distanced view of the city accessed from official data reveals different constructs. In overlaying near and far views and data and experience, correlations and contestations emerge. As a method of research, the narrative is the potential palimpsest, incorporating fragments of the immediate and historic without representing a comprehensive whole. In this paper Walworth is documented as a local and Inner City context where remnants and insertions are juxtaposed, where white working class culture and diverse ethnicities experience difference and change. A primary aim is to consider the diverse experiences of groups and individuals over time, through their relationship with their street, neighbourhood and city. In relating the Walworth area to London I use three spatial narratives to articulate the contemporary and historic relationship of people to place: the other side examines the physical discrimination between north and south London, the other half looks at distinctions of class and race and other histories explores the histories displaced from official accounts.
Vaccinate Your Home Against the Storm - Reducing Vulnerability in Vietnam
Authors: Norton John , Chantry Guillaume
Published: January 2021

Vietnam's economic reforms have helped many poor families to replace fragile shelters with houses built using materials regarded as "solid". This substantial family investment remains at risk of damage or destruction by annual disaster events - storms, floods and typhoons - because basic principles of safe building are not applied, nor is preventive action taken by communities and individual families to safeguard the home and public buildings against unnecessary damage. Failure to do so puts people at much greater risk of loss and injury.

Over two decades, Development Workshop France (DWF) has worked in Viet Nam to promote a culture of preventive action to reduce risk of damage. Based on ten key principles of storm-resistant construction, some of which have been drawn from traditional techniques, DWF trains local builders and technicians and undertakes a wide range of awareness raising actions in and with communities to promote hands on preventive safety in poor villages. Once sceptical, local governments now actively support the programme, which also strengthens local organizational and financial capacity.

This paper reviews the approach and the lessons that can be learnt from the DWF Viet Nam experience and that of similar DWF preventive actions in other disaster contexts. It considers the opportunities and constraints to enable family and community preventive action to become a core and ongoing feature of disaster management practice at community and national level.
Designing for Urban Agriculture in an African City: Kampala, Uganda
Authors: Wolfe Jeanne M. , McCans Sarah
Published: January 2021

This paper reports on a pilot project to develop a 32-acre site made available by the City of Kampala for housing with the express purpose of promoting urban agriculture. Started in 2004 under the leadership of a city agronomist, with the aid of research teams from McGill University, Montreal, Makerere University, Kampala, and financial support from IDRC, the project is still ongoing. The process is one of participatory planning with the future residents, a group of mixed ethnicity and religions from all parts of the city, and includes training in house construction and agricultural techniques. Project implementation has been slower than anticipated due to unforeseen hazards such as mislaid title deeds, unavailability of government resources, communication shut-downs, the time required to transact business, acquire permissions, permits and the like, and most recently by the threat of a major power line from the Bujagali Falls to serve Kampala being thrust through the site. We nevertheless remain optimistic of ultimate success.
Shifting the Focus From Defects to the Effect of Defects
Authors: Ormandy David
Published: January 2021

After ten years of development, the English government adopted the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the prescribed method for assessing housing conditions. Prior to 2006, the assessment was based on the condition of the building and the presence of necessary facilities. Being ‘building focussed’, the basis of the severity of the condition was the extent and cost of any remedial works considered necessary to make the dwelling ‘fit for human habitation’. The HHSRS shifts the focus to the potential threat to health and safety from any defects and deficiencies. The assessment takes account of the likelihood of a hazardous occurrence, and the probable severity of harm that could result from such an occurrence. This approach acknowledges that defects that would be relatively inexpensive to deal with can pose a serious threat to health and/or safety.

Work on the development of the HHSRS included matching data on housing conditions with data on health outcomes. The analyses of the matched database provided information on, among other factors, the range and severity of harm outcomes associated with particular hazards. As the health data used was that available from hospitals and general practitioners, it meant that the health outcomes were those serious enough for the victim to seek medical attention. It has now been realised that it is possible to compare the one-off cost of works to remove or reduce housing hazards with the estimated annual saving to the health service. Using this approach, it has been estimated that poor housing in England is costing the health service around £600 million a year. This cost to the health service is estimated to be around 40% of the total cost of poor housing to society.
Sustainability, Professionalism and Urban Design; A Learning Process
Authors: Symes Martin
Published: January 2021

Sustainable development requires change in who makes decisions as well as in their content. The field theory of behavioural change is used here to structure a discussion of professionalism in urban design for sustainability. Sustainability and professionalism (both concepts defined by their users) are channelled subjectively, there are barriers in cities, designers act as gatekeepers, learning takes place. There follow sections on cities, designers, learning and research. There is more wealth and more poverty. In addition the cultural diversity of the urban population is becoming ever more evident. Sustainability depends on the interaction between designers and users, on new forms of practice and on new forms of urban development. There needs to be more focus on the improvement of participatory decision-making, and on new forms of communication, in design practice. This argues against a too narrow interpretation of academic standards in schools of architecture and encourages the reevaluation and further development of pragmatic approaches and the transmission of practical skills. Business School methods could be used. A good deal of previous research could usefully be looked at again with the sustainability agenda in mind, including a better understanding of skills. In conclusion, professionals need more multi-disciplinary practice and greater participation in it by lay citizens.
Traditional Urban Planning Approaches and Sustainable City
Authors: Islam Syful
Published: January 2021

The quality of city life and well being of city dwellers is central goal of urban planning approaches. Nevertheless, unsystematic and short-term planning approaches of cities have produced incomprehensible sprawl, which deteriorates social, economic and ecological sustainability of the city. The need to alleviate or remove these problems systematically for improving the social, ecological, spatial and economical components of the city is contemporary issue, though most of the planning systems do not yet explicitly address those issues of sustainability. This paper considers Urban planning as a key term as it has the capability to reveal the implications of land use strategies, policies and programmes for the social, economic and physical components of environment. In addition, all the traditional urban planning approaches have outlined to explore their soundness in the sustainable city planning, discuss the main approach followed for sustainable city planning, and outline emerging approach in both theory and sustainable city planning practice.
Conservation and Maintenance as a Means of Sustainable Development - Finnish Perspective
Authors: Broner-Bauer Kaisa
Published: January 2021

The article deals with the environmental consciousness emerged from the 1970's onwards, and with subsequent change in the ideology of city planning. The focus is on the development of urban conservation methods and on the maintenance of the built environment, which have marked a decisive shift away from the CIAM theses that dominated urban thinking during half-a-century. The decision to take the existing built environment as the starting point for all actions of city planning and design has been a radical stand for a new approach, corresponding to and paralleling the idea of sustainable development that crystallized in the 1980's up to the 1992 UN Conference. Grassroots-level strategies are considered important for all actions towards a sustainable way of life. The case of Finland is studied in some detail, with the conservation atlas of the historic milieu as an example of teaching a sustainable approach to environmental planning and design.
Editorial: Rethinking Urban Diversity
Authors: Salama Ashraf M. , Thierstein Alain
Published: January 2021

With their socio-physical, socio-economic, sociocultural, and sociopolitical presence cities have always been highly differentiated spaces expressive of heterogeneity, diversity of activities, entertainment, excitement, and pleasure. They have been (and still are) melting pots for the formulation of and experimentation with new philosophies and religious and social practices. They produce, reproduce, represent, and convey much of what counts today as culture, knowledge, and politics. Urban spaces within cities are no exception; they are places for the pursuit of freedom, un-oppressed activities and desires, but also ones characterized by systematic power, oppression, domination, exclusion, and segregation. In dealing with these polar qualities diversity has become one of the new doctrines of city planners, urban designers, and architects. It continues to be at the center of recent urban debates. Little is known, however, on how urban space diversity can be achieved.