Architectural Design Strategies Research Articles

An SoS Framework for Improved Collaborative Decision Making

Efficient team decision making has become vital in organizations, dominated by the complex system of systems (SoS). Inefficient decisions can result in significant extra cost and reduction in the overall performance within the organizations. Therefore, SoS success requires an adaptable design that can proactively evaluate and modify decisions in a dynamic process. Improved systems engineering (SE) processes and tools are needed during the systems’ development lifecycle to make decisions, and rapidly evaluate and assess multiple design alternatives to effectively select the architectural design strategies that yield the highest mission performance. This research aims to increase the knowledge of SoS engineering by developing an agent-based model of team collaboration in an operational SoS. The model evaluates and selects the decision(s) for SoS comprised of collaborative teams that result in higher mission performance. The proposed agent-based model was applied to test the team decision-making improvements within the SoS structure of the air transportation domain. The experimental results indicated significant improvements in decision coordination, decision workload, and overall mission performance in the air transportation domain. This research contributes to the agent-based modeling of the SoS teams and can assist with evaluating team decisions and improving decision making as an essential element in the field of SE.

Architectural spatial design strategies for summer microclimate control in buildings: a comparative case study of Chinese vernacular and modern houses

The objective of this paper is to clarify the spatial design strategies used to control the microclimate of a Chinese vernacular house in summer by comparing the building with modern Chinese rural houses and presenting ideas for contemporary architectural design practice. For this goal the spatial configuration, the spatial boundary conditions, the vegetation in the space and the human activity in the space were analysed for the vernacular house and for modern rural houses. Also, field measurements were conducted to evaluate the summer thermal environment in the vernacular and a modern house. The results show that the vernacular house has a diverse spatial design and a better building microclimate, making it easier to obtain thermal comfort than the modern houses. Therefore, spatial design strategies of Chinese vernacular houses are still of great value to modern house design, especially when the free-running thermal comfort theory is applied.

Research on Reconstruction Design of Exterior Wall Materials and Structures of Industrial Architectural Heritage

With the advent of the post-industrial era, China’s traditional industrial industry has gradually declined or transformed, leaving a large number of industrial buildings abandoned and idle. A majority of these existing industrial building heritages were built with original facade design, which cannot meet the requirements of the time and no longer fits into the new urban interface. From the perspective of language relationship in architecture, building skin and building space are two vital interdependent elements, and the study of building materials as a carrier has a significant impetus to the exploration of building skin. Therefore, the external wall material has naturally become an important factor directly related to the design and performance of the renovation of the industrial building heritages. Its performance and form largely influence or determine the possible ways and means of the transformation of the heritage facades. How should material performance be used to preserve the historical imprint of industrial heritage while conforming to contemporary aesthetics? What are the rules of material performance in the renovation of industrial buildings? These are the issues that needs to be considered and studied in the transformation of industrial building heritage.This paper studies the exterior wall materials and structures in the renovation of industrial building heritage facades, and uses reconstruction theory as a methodology to sort out effective strategies and methods for the material performance of industrial building heritage facade renovation. First it summarizes and elaborates the classification and performance characteristics of the materials of heritage facades as well as the principles and methods of facades transformation. Later it focuses on the practice and development of the renovation of facades in China’s industrial building heritages, taking the reform practice of Nanjing Hutchison Factory as an example. Combing the analysis and summary of the practical project with the theory, this paper helps improve the theoretical system of architectural skin materials within the scope of architectural design theory, summarizes the design concepts consistent with the current view, and conclude the corresponding architectural skin design strategy and methods.

Lead-Free Bilayer Thick Films with Giant Electrocaloric Effect near Room Temperature.

Electrocaloric refrigeration utilizing ferroelectrics has recently gained tremendous attention because of the urgent demand for solid-state cooling devices. However, the low room-temperature electrocaloric effect and narrow operation temperature window hinder the implementation of lead-free ferroelectrics in high-efficiency cooling applications. In this work, chemical engineering and thick-film architecture design strategies were integrated into a BaTiO3-based system to resolve this challenge. Novel environmental-friendly Ba(Zr0.20Ti0.80)O3-Ba(Sn0.11Ti0.89)O3 (BZT-BST) bilayer films of ∼13 μm in single-layer thickness were prepared by the tape casting process. A giant adiabatic temperature change, Δ T ∼ 5.2 K, and a large isothermal entropy change, Δ S ∼ 6.9 J kg-1 K-1, were simultaneously achieved at room temperature based on the direct measurements, which are much higher than those reported previously in many lead-free ferroelectrics. Moreover, the BZT-BST thick films exhibited a remarkably widened operation temperature range from about 10 to 60 °C. These outstanding properties were mainly attributed to the multiphase coexistence near room temperature, relaxor ferroelectric characteristics, and improved electric-field endurance of the bilayer thick films. This work provides a guideline for the development of environment-friendly electronic materials with both ultrahigh and stable electrocaloric performance and will broaden the application areas of lead-free ferroelectrics.

Toward the Realization of Encoder and Decoder Using Deep Neural Networks

Deep learning continues to offer groundbreaking technologies in communications systems just as it has in a variety of other fields. Despite the notable advancements of technologies based on DNN-based technologies in recent years, their high computational complexity has been a major obstacle to the application of DNN in practical communications systems where real-time operation is required. In this sense, challenges regarding its practical implementation must be addressed before the proliferation of DNN-based intelligent communications becomes a reality. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the present article is the first to present an efficient learning architecture and related design strategies including link-level verification through the implementation of digital circuits using hardware description language (HDL) to mitigate this challenge and to deduce the feasibility and potential of DNNs in communications systems. In particular, a DNN is applied to an encoder and a decoder to enable flexible adaptation with respect to their system environments, without the need for any domain-specific information. Extensive investigations and interdisciplinary design considerations, including a DNNbased autoencoder structure, learning framework, and implementation of a low-complexity digital circuit for real-time operation, are taken into account, all of which support the use of DNNbased communications in practice.

Bioclimatic design strategies: A guideline to enhance human thermal comfort in Cfa climate zones

Architectural design based on bioclimatic features has long been of interest to many designers. Exploiting climate indicators and the use of passive strategies are among the central principles of this design approach. The main purpose of the present study is to provide bioclimatic design strategies to enhance the human thermal comfort in the humid climate zones based on Cfa Köppen climate classification. This study focused on to improve indoor thermal comfort with climate indicators. The eight cities studied include Rasht (Iran), Durban (South Africa), Tokyo (Japan), Kutaisi (Georgia), Houston (United States), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Brisbane (Queensland) and Trieste (Italy) according to similarities in the climatic zones and the most important criteria climates such as humidity and rainfall were selected all around the world. Hereafter, the city of Rasht was directly investigated as a case study. In this way at first, the climatic data of Rasht collected. Then it analyzed concerning the Givoni Bioclimatic Chart and Mahoney Table to determine the appropriate bioclimatic design strategies. In the following, these strategies plotted from the Givoni chart and the Mahoney table and the design recommendations provided as diagrams related to the strategies and debated separately. In the end, the executive function of the strategies regarding the relations between the zones of Givoni bioclimatic chart and months of the year, and also the strategies have discussed the indicators of the Mahoney table as well. The extensive findings described in this paper allowed us to conclude that certain bioclimatic design strategies that have been adopted in specific cities and countries could be exported to other zones with similar climates because they were proven to be useful functional architectural design strategies that resulted to improve human indoor thermal comfort.

Optimization of MRI Turnaround Times Through the Use of Dockable Tables and Innovative Architectural Design Strategies.

The purpose of this study is to increase the value of MRI by reengineering the MRI workflow at a new imaging center to shorten the interval (i.e., turnaround time) between each patient examination by at least 5 minutes. The elements of the MRI workflow that were optimized included the use of dockable tables, the location of patient preparation rooms, the number of doors per scanning room, and the storage location and duplication of coils. Turnaround times at the new center and at two existing centers were measured both for all patients and for situations when the next patient was ready to be brought into the scanner room after the previous patient's examination was completed. Workflow optimizations included the use of dockable tables, dedicated patient preparation rooms, two doors in each MRI room, positioning the scanner to provide the most direct path to the scanner, and coil storage in the preparation rooms, with duplication of the most frequently used coils. At the new imaging center, the median and mean (± SD) turnaround times for situations in which patients were ready for scanning were 115 seconds (95% CI, 113-117 seconds) and 132 ± 72 seconds (95% CI, 129-135 seconds), respectively, and the median and mean turnaround times for all situations were 141 seconds (95% CI, 137-146 seconds) and 272 ± 270 seconds (95% CI, 263-282 seconds), respectively. For existing imaging centers, the median and mean turnaround times for situations in which patients were ready for scanning were 430 seconds (95% CI, 424-434 seconds) and 460 ± 156 seconds (95% CI, 455-465 seconds), respectively, and the median and mean turnaround times for all situations were 481 seconds (95% CI, 474-486 seconds) and 537 ± 219 seconds (95% CI, 532-543 seconds), respectively. The optimized MRI workflow resulted in a mean time savings of 5 minutes 28 seconds per patient.

Optimizing windows for enhancing daylighting performance and energy saving

Using sustainable architecture design strategies specifically daylighting could reduce lighting energy that have an indirect impact on the HVAC energy requirements especially in cooling-dominated buildings in hot climate. As a result of the interactions between lighting and HVAC, the aims of this paper were to reduce the energy consumption by having the balance between beneficial natural light and excessive solar heat and therefore reducing the energy consumption and to have an easy guideline for the architecture to help in increasing the sustainable building designs in Egypt. This paper utilized simulation techniques for identifying the most efficient glazing with a good WWR and a correct daylight autonomy by dominating the thermal heat gain and reducing cooling load yet as energy consumption.Performance predictions and simulations will facilitate in distinguishing ways for reducing energy consumption and up building performance by rigorous analysis method and that is what's this analysis methodology is about. The implementation of the simulation process is carries out using Rhinoceros 3D modeling which supports DIVA for rhino as a simulation engine to space with southern orientation in Alexandria, Egypt.The outcome of this analysis is needless to say selecting the right glazing kind could be a Brobdingnagian issue of reducing energy.

Approaching low-energy high-rise building by integrating passive architectural design with photovoltaic application

Building envelopes can highly impact the building energy demand and indoor environmental quality, so that the application of novel façade systems such as photovoltaics has been widely investigated. However, few study has addressed the interactive effect between photovoltaic (PV) application and traditional passive architectural design strategies, which is thoroughly discussed in this comparative study using a holistic design optimization process. The holistic design optimization approach combines screening-based and variance-based sensitivity analyses with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) and hybrid generalized pattern search particle swarm optimization (HGPSPSO). The impact of the light-to-solar gain ratio (LSG) is evaluated as one of the key factor to combine the passive design and PV glazing based on a comprehensive glazing database. Through an exhaustive sensitivity analysis (SA), the Morris method is proved to be efficient and robust in factor prioritizing only when the required minimum sampling size is satisfied. The window to ground ratio showed much greater impact on the net building energy demand when PV applications are coupled with all available vertical façades. Furthermore, the necessary particles for specified design input dimensions are determined for the optimal performance of HGPSPSO. With the optimum design configuration, the net building demand can be reduced by up to 71.36% under the hot summer and warm winter condition of Hong Kong. Research findings from this study can be used to develop low-energy building guidelines and building integrated PV applications in early planning stages.

Analysis and comparison on the potential of low-carbon architectural design strategies

The adoption of low carbon design strategies in the conceptual design phase has significant influence on the ultimate building performance (e.g. energy consumption and carbon emission). Taking an office building in Shanghai as reference, this paper analyzes and compares the carbon reduction potential of several passive and active design strategies (i.e. natural ventilation, daylighting, shading, passive heating, photovoltaic power, wind power, green plantation) which are closely related to architectural morphology in the conceptual design phase. The results show that photovoltaic has the highest potential of strategies examined, while natural ventilation is the best passive design choice. And the effect of passive heating and wind power is minimal. These findings offer architects scientific suggestions on the low carbon strategies selections in the conceptual design.

Landscape Strategies in Architecture

The central question and purpose of the thesis is to understand how landscape as a design concept is changing our understanding of architecture. It explores the ways in which landscape is relevant for design strategies in architecture. Buildings that have been designed like landscapes have become a topic in contemporary architecture and in the recent literature about it. The apparent distinction between architecture and landscape is questioned in exemplary theoretical works and building designs with increasing interest in landscape as a phenomenon of contemporary architecture. To understand this phenomenon this thesis first explores the term of landscape and its design. The introduction focuses on the exploration of the idea of landscape and how it is applicable in architectural design. Strategies of landscape design as they are discussed in contemporary landscape architecture are defined and illustrated with specific examples. This view is contrasted with the idea of nature in architecture. Architecture's concepts of nature reveal some crucial problems that lead to the polarity of 'wild' nature and 'human' architecture. With a critique of these common architectural theories and within the methodological differentiation the thesis reveals the necessity of research through analysis of landscape spatial composition in architecture. The core of this thesis is three case studies of architectural designs that approach a building like a landscape. A selection of analytical techniques is applied to key cases in three central chapters. The main analytical model for landscape architectural composition that Steenbergen and Reh (2003) developed for the European Gardens of the Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment is applied as a drawing analysis of the formal composition of three selected contemporary architectural projects in a period from 1992 to 2015. Each of the three building designs is studied with the same four-layer method of design analysis. In conjunction with this comparative analysis, a project specific method that reveals unique aspects of each design has been developed. The first case is OMA's unbuilt Jussieu design for two university libraries in Paris. In 1992 Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his collaborators at OMA proposed the Jussieu project at a turning point of the discipline, where new forms of architecture with landscape design strategies were being explored. Though this project has not been realised, this thesis makes it possible to describe the building in a guided walk-through. This visualisation of the design as it could have looked if built is also the specific analytical method chosen for this example. The second case, the Rolex Learning Centre at EPF Lausanne, has been clearly declared 'landscape' as architecture by its designers. This competition winning design from 2004 and opened in 2010 is the largest scale international building of Japanese Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA). The specific analytical method used for this case is a visual space analysis of the project using 3D-isovists. The third case is the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela by American architect Peter Eisenman. This project was initially designed in 1999 in a process of layering - in principle, similar to the layer model analysis of this thesis. However, the four tenets of the thesis layer model - ground form, spatial form, metaphorical form and programmatic form - will alter the reading of this project. This execution of the giant public project of "City of Culture" was interrupted half-way in 2015, with great political difficulties fo Galicia. The specific analytical method used for this case is an experiment that uses the ruins of unbuilt architecture as the base for a landscape architectural design. This design of a temporary garden mimics the design principles of architect Peter Eisenman. This experiment shows that landscape strategies developed for the design of a building can be applied in reverse for designed landscapes. In conclusion, this thesis will compare the three case studies of architectural designs with each other. While some design instruments, strategies and methods are specific, others are commonly applied in several or all of the projects. In a broader scope, the analysis is transposed into the greater societal and theoretical realm to explore whether landscape design strategies change architecture. For the discipline of architecture in general, the thesis explores how far landscape could lead the profession further as a new concept to build a sustainable human environment. Evoking potential applications and the reach of landscape in architecture in the perspective of future development, the thesis ultimately discusses unexplored potentials for landscape design strategies in the architectural discipline.

Architectural spatial design strategies for summer microclimate control in buildings

The objective of this paper is to clarify the spatial design strategies used to control the microclimate of a Chinese vernacular house in summer by comparing the building with modern Chinese rural houses and presenting ideas for contemporary architectural design practice. For this goal the spatial configuration, the spatial boundary conditions, the vegetation in the space and the human activity in the space were analysed for the vernacular house and for modern rural houses. Also, field measurements were conducted to evaluate the summer thermal environment in the vernacular and a modern house. The results show that the vernacular house has a diverse spatial design and a better building microclimate, making it easier to obtain thermal comfort than the modern houses. Therefore, spatial design strategies of Chinese vernacular houses are still of great value to modern house design, especially when the free-running thermal comfort theory is applied.

TSUNAMI MODELLING PROCEDURES TO REFINE COASTAL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STRATEGIES AT KUALA MUDA

This paper discusses the use of tsunami modelling to refine the strategies to be used in coastal architectural and planning design works in effort to minimize future tsunami impacts on the coastal buildings. The ability to recreate the characteristics of the 2004 Sumatran Tsunami waves and their impacts is the reason to use computer simulation as the main tool of this research project. The Cornell Multi-Grid Coupled Tsunami Model (COMCOT) programme has been chosen to generate a series of tsunami events onto a one-kilometre-square area of Kuala Muda (north-west of Peninsular Malaysia) coastal area. COMCOT is expected to help practitioners and researchers make the best possible designs for this tsunami-threatened near-beach area. It has the capability to simulate the entire lifespan of a tsunami inclusive of the characteristics and the behaviour of the waves once it inundates the design area. It creates an opportunity to better understand and evaluate the performance of proposed designs in order to achieve the most tsunami-resistant design. The 2004 Sumatran Tsunami waves are considered the worst case scenario this area will experience. Therefore, the waves generated act upon proposed settlement patterns and buildings which are iteratively modified to achieve minimum tsunami damage. COMCOT outputs are used to propose coastal architectural design strategies for present and future nearbeach area developments, especially in the north-western coast of Malaysia. The final Tsunami Responsive Architecture (TRA) design is intended to be culturally acceptable, and to be extended with or without modification to suit other coastal areas at risk of tsunami.

From verifiable authenticity to verisimilar interventions: Xintiandi, Fuxing SOHO, and the alternatives to built heritage conservation in Shanghai

ABSTRACTThe introduction of contemporary architecture into historic urban environments creates an open heritage discussion that includes the underlying relationship between development and conservation. This discussion requires theoretical clarification, as heritage conservation is frequently mistaken for other architectural design approaches that, even though they may operate within the historic environment as their primary source, do not comply with the complex definition of heritage authenticity used today. This article aimed to contribute to this debate, offering a characterization of such architectural design strategies operating through principles of verisimilitude that target authentication for tourists and the creative classes in a global city like Shanghai. Comparative studies of Xintiandi (Ben Woods, 2001) and Fuxing SOHO (Von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, 2015) provided an insight into the concepts of historic re-creation and abstract inheritance, currently used as ways of interpreting the historic residential typology of the Shanghai lilong according to the economic and political aims of the entrepreneurial model of governance. This allowed a critical evaluation of the growing attention paid to heritage in Shanghai in the last 25 years, and whether the substitution of the principle of authenticity for authentication has solved the contradictions between urban conservation and development in contemporary China.

A Mechanically-Adaptive Polymer Nanocomposite-Based Intracortical Probe and Package for Chronic Neural Recording.

Mechanical, materials, and biological causes of intracortical probe failure have hampered their utility in basic science and clinical applications. By anticipating causes of failure, we can design a system that will prevent the known causes of failure. The neural probe design was centered around a bio-inspired, mechanically-softening polymer nanocomposite. The polymer nanocomposite was functionalized with recording microelectrodes using a microfabrication process designed for chemical and thermal process compatibility. A custom package based upon a ribbon cable, printed circuit board, and a 3D-printed housing was designed to enable connection to external electronics. Probes were implanted into the primary motor cortex of Sprague-Dawley rats for 16 weeks, during which regular recording and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement sessions took place. The implanted mechanically-softening probes had stable electrochemical impedance spectra across the 16 weeks and single units were recorded out to 16 weeks. The demonstration of chronic neural recording with the mechanically-softening probe suggests that probe architecture, custom package, and general design strategy are appropriate for long-term studies in rodents.

A general framework dedicated to computational morphogenesis Part II – Knowledge representation and architecture

In our previous paper we introduced morphogenesis and post-embryonic life as arising from cells interacting via coupled chemical, electrical and mechanical processes occurring across multiple organization levels. We reviewed these processes from the perspectives of developmental biology and how they relate to physics-based constitutive equations that are well suited to model intercellular interactions’ fields. In this paper we will describe a knowledge representation and architectural design strategy that can organize and encode the biochemical, biological and biophysical data necessary to represent and model the highly specialized and diversified cells that constitute living tissues. Since there are about 200 different types of cells in mammalian tissues, a huge amount of molecular, cellular and tissue data must be accounted for. This data cannot be incorporated in an ad hoc manner but, on the contrary, must be organized according to some sound principles. We give an overview of these principles and describe how they can be incorporated as proper features of a Knowledge Base System (KBS) dedicated to computational morphogenesis (CM).

7.D. Worskhop: Architecture and Urban Context's Design Strategies to Promote City Users' Healthy Behaviours

7.D. Worskhop: Architecture and Urban Context's Design Strategies to Promote City Users' Healthy Behaviours

7.D. Worskhop: Architecture and Urban Context's Design Strategies to Promote City Users' Healthy Behaviours

7.D. Worskhop: Architecture and Urban Context's Design Strategies to Promote City Users' Healthy Behaviours

A new application model of building ventilation with light shafts: a proposal based on case study assessment

There is a lack of studies concerning both the quality of air entering buildings from light shafts and its impact on energy consumption. A combined isothermal analysis of several factors such as urban environment and wind, along with the dimensional conditions of the building, facilitated the assessment of the light shaft to promote air change. The aim of this study was on the impact of architectural design on the quality of the incoming air from light shafts. The capacity of light shafts to provide air change with urban air was evaluated using the concept of air change efficiency. This is determined by the environment, the dimensions, and the proportions of the building containing a light shaft. These were simulated using computation fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques which were experimentally validated. This concept requires the definition of an ideal control domain for comparative evaluation in different cases. For the case studies evaluated, it was verified through numerical analysis that the longer the light shaft in the wind direction was, the better the air change efficiency. It was confirmed that light shafts up to 12 m high and with height/length (H/L) rates lower than 3 were those achieving the best efficiency. The study provided several evaluation tools of a design of this type of outdoor space according to the criteria of air change content. An equation is presented defining the value of the air change efficiency for the outline of architectural design strategies intended for buildings with air shafts.

One-pot synthesis of graphene-wrapped NiSe2-Ni0.85Se hollow microspheres as superior and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

A novel porous electrocatalyst of reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-wrapped NiSe2-Ni0.85Se hollow microspheres (RNHM) has been synthesized via one-pot hydrothermal process, which is facile, cheap and easy to realize scalable manufacture. Compared to bare NiSe2, Ni0.85Se and NiSe2-Ni0.85Se hollow microspheres (NHM), RNHM shows outstanding hydrogen evolution properties with a low Tafel slope value of 31.3 mV dec−1, a low onset potential of −175 mV (vs RHE), and a high cathode current density of 37 mA cm−2 (at ∼ −240 mV vs RHE). More importantly, it shows excellent HER stability after 2000 CV cycles. That superior performs of RNHM can be attributed to the well-designed hollow microsphere architecture with rich porosity and high specific surface area, which provides abundant active sites for HER. In addition, the two-dimensional graphene nanosheets can not only act as a highly conductive matrix facilitating the charge transfer during the process of HER, but also work as a flexible skeleton guaranteeing excellent structural stability. This study provides a novel and rational architecture design strategy of Pt-free catalysts with superior performances and outstanding stability for hydrogen evolution reaction.