Discipline Of Architecture Research Articles

Topology Optimization: A Case Study of Precast Panels

This research hypothesizes that designers can use engineering problem-solving tools such as topology optimization for architectural design explorations beyond optimizing a design domain with predefined boundary conditions. Engineering, in this sense, is not just an after-the-fact consideration or an assessment tool but an integrative part of the design process. We selected the design of architectural precast concrete elements for façades as a case study to demonstrate how defining the design problem leads to different solutions. The discipline of architecture has increased awareness of the environmental impact of material use; thus, it is important to employ design methods that create structural geometries that do more with less. The results of this study demonstrate innovative design approaches for designers.

The Architecture of Global Governance: Paths of Approach

International organisations and global governance studies typically refer to “architecture” as the structures of decision-making, power distribution, or financial flows. This position paper challenges this conventional understanding by delving into its primary meaning—the built environment. It charts ways in which architectural design, historiography, and criticism become relevant for the study of international organisations and, inversely, how multilateral diplomacy (e.g. “informal” networks such as the G20) questions existing architectural typologies and narratives. The study focuses on the meanings and expectations embedded in the spaces utilised by global governance actors. By evaluating the architectural discipline’s ability to conceptualise these spaces beyond their symbolic dimension, we emphasise the material characteristics and cultural connotations that shape negotiations, agreements, and treaties. Understanding their agency highlights the influential but often overlooked spatial dimension within international diplomacy and unveils how the built environment contributes to the imagination and materialisation of international governing.

The formal, the temporal and the modern A historical view on the unfnished urban transformation of the city of Prishtina

Following Walter Benjamin’s thinking of “the modern” – which is an important theoretical contribution to the study of form – one could understand that the term designates both a formal temporal structure and the diverse range of its historical instances, past and present, whose reinterpretation and critical reading can stimulate possible future scenarios for urban spaces, or the understanding of specific developments related to them. For Benjamin’s theory to be applicable in the discipline of architecture, particular knowledge and methods are required, through which unfold the processes of modernity in relation to the temporal and formal phenomenon. Thus, the aim of this essay is to re-read Benjamin’s modernity within the discussion on temporality, by using architectural form and language as tools. Temporality and modernity are widely discussed topics of scientific research, particularly linked to the tradition of the Frankfurt School. However, we are interested in deciphering these two topics through a historical category, as an object through which the scientific architectural research is crafted. And in order to connect this category to a practical level contextualized within an urban setting, this essay studies the urbanization of modernist cities, the historical events impacting it, and the stages of modernity, focusing on the city of Prishtina in Kosovo. Prishtina is used as a case-study on account of its particular history in the course of the twentieth and twenty-first century. It is the capital city of a post-socialist state that experienced a radical shift in ideological and political systems, characterized by a complex architectural and urban form with distinguished modern features. This paper will study the unfinished modernism in Prishtina (1945-ongoing), – interrupted by politico-ideological instances – which led to a fragmentation of the urban form and the presence of multiple urban realities. In so doing, this paper will decipher specific events from different time periods, to be defined as critical junctures of Prishtina’s modern history, which had a particular outcome in architecture and its urban setting. The study of the temporal and the formal in modern architecture and city planning will focus on two plans: 1) The political and economic context in Prishtina, within former Yugoslavia, which produces an ideological condition within which architecture becomes ideological; 2) The discipline of architecture, which impacts the form and aesthetics of buildings and cities through modern ideology and normativities.

Između pejzaža i hiperobjekata - mapiranje viskoziteta borske flotacione jalovine

In contemporary architecture and related disciplines, the understanding of landscape is undergoing transformative changes due to ecological emergencies. Rather than perceiving landscape as a static form, it is regarded as an open process, suggesting its complete comprehension may be elusive. Consequently, alternative models that surpass traditional picturesque representations are emerging within the field of landscape representation. Furthermore, different theoretical frameworks are being employed to grasp the supposed geological epoch of the Anthropocene. Object-oriented ontology (OOO) is a framework that falls under the speculative realism school of thought. Within this theoretical lens, Timothy Morton introduces the concept of hyperobjects, referring to entities that transcend spatial and temporal boundaries and profoundly impact life on Earth. Hyperobjects manifest through diverse phenomena such as global warming, radioactive materials, nuclear waste, pollution, etc. They possess five defining characteristics: viscosity, nonlocality, time undulation, interobjectivity and phasing that may be further interpreted in the architectural discipline. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on hyperobjects and their essential characteristics while exploring their connections to various architectural landscape concepts. Moreover, it seeks to conduct a design-driven research experiment focused on an alternative viscosity representation in Bor, a flotation tailing in Eastern Serbia.

The Landscape Question in the Work of Rosa Barba: The Landscape Project and the Abstraction of Territory

Abstract An advocate of landscaping and landscape architecture as fundamental tools in the revitalisation of urban planning in the late 20th century, architect Rosa Barba both energised and modernised the discipline of landscape architecture in Spain by delving into previously unchartered waters and approaching landscape both from a perspective of conceptual innovation and in an effort to offer a response to the issues of the day. From a stance that was simultaneously theoretical, academic and professional, she offered a critical perspective of city, territory and landscape and envisioned new horizons for architecture and urbanism through landscaping, thereby broadening the scope of these disciplines. Her work establishes relevant, pioneering contributions to landscape design and transformation that are still relevant today. The purpose of this article is to offer, via analysis of some of her principal projects, an in-depth examination of the theoretical and disciplinary position from which she approached the landscape question and explored the possibility of improving the conceptual and technical instruments and models used for the analysis and interpretation of the same in a broad, complex manner that both offers a response to the concerns of the day and establishes a theory of landscape intervention.

The Rebirth of the Madrasa Through Deconstructive Architecture: The Case of the College of Islamic Studies in Qatar

Architectural movements such as modernism, postmodernism, and deconstructivism emerged during the twentieth century. These movements drastically affected the discipline of architecture, with such divergences from traditional forms demonstrating how building design could be influenced by architectural history to guide its development. The College of Islamic Studies (CIS), also known as the Minartein, in Doha, Qatar, is an example of how architectural theory can affect building design and create structures that cater to different and novel ideas and philosophies. The unconventional, postmodern, parametric building creates a vital link that unites history, theory, and religion in a modernized form of the traditional Islamic madrasa. This article recounts how the architect, Ali Mangera, has realized the vision of originality, plurality, and contemporaneity through post-deconstructive architecture at the CIS. It also examines how architectural concepts such as abstraction, the juxtaposition of contradicting shapes and forms, surface manipulation and construction, massing techniques, non-rectilinearity, and fragmentation can all contribute to a better understanding of the symbolic significance of the building. The article demonstrates how the use of deconstructive methods for disassembling the architecture of famous madrasas may have influenced the architecture and design complexity of the building.

Border Formation

This doctoral thesis examines the militarisation of the Southern border of Hungary as a process of spatial formation, expanding the debate on borders from the political to the architectural arena. Combining spatial theory with empirical research on the case study, the thesis rethinks the border as a complex spatial system, with an agency of its own. From this perspective, it contests the enforcement of spatial boundaries from the above and related ideas of fixity. It brings attention to the agency of space in the advancement of a material becoming; the role of migration in the radical redefinition of meanings and functions of space; and the action of technologies in the strategic manipulation of measures and scales. While conceptualising the border as a space in formation, this thesis builds a diagrammatic method of study and moves the research in an ontoepistemological direction. With the aim of fostering a change in those structures that control the partition and governance of space, this doctoral study calls the discipline of architecture to review its questions, methods, and practices. It invites to use architectural knowledge to engage with borders’ complexity and challenge their established meanings and makings.

Spatial video projection and public open spaces: A distinct bibliometric study approach

In the 21st century, digital technologies have begun to play a more active role in ensuring sustainability. This situation has led to studies examining the interaction between digital technologies and different academic disciplines in many study areas. In terms of spatial planning and design disciplines, this study focuses on spatial video projection (SVP). Through bibliometric analysis, this paper aims to identify and locate an assortment of SVP technologies and contemporary urban public open spaces (POSs) within the global research landscape. Utilizing WOS, Scopus, and the VOSviewer software, a 6-phase process is used to evaluate the current research landscape. The phases include: identifying groups of keywords for cross-examination within the manuscripts; exploring words inside articles with their dominancy levels and linkage clarity through bibliometric analysis; developing a grading technique regarding dominancy levels; grouping graded words into thematic fields; calculating overall values of each of the fields for both databases settings; and comparing the fields for developing discussions and strategies. The findings of this study indicate that architectural disciplines lack SVP-related research. In future academic studies, the approach used in this study could be used to develop topic selection strategies in multidisciplinary settings. In addition, it is expected that SVP will offer potential applications for enhancing the quality of the shared public spatial experience of cities. Thus, this study also forms a cornerstone for further research investigating the potential of utilizing SVP in POSs for the sustainability of cities.

Editorial

No abstract availabale

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPLORATION ON CLIMATE NOTION IN DIGITAL RESEARCH

Research related to climate concepts has started to be more interdisciplinary with the climate change awareness. Climate action, and climate-positive design research topics are common notions among design disciplines, especially in architecture and landscape architecture. It can be said that computation, digitalization, performance-based simulations of environmental effects, and production methods in digital design are initial topics that come to the forefront concerning methodology. The reflections of these methodologies differ according to the aims and objectives. This paper aims to examine which notions and word phrases are used in the literature on climate in digital design research in a comparative way. Within this scope, The International Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC) and The Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture (JoDLA) are chosen as academic resources indexed in the Scopus. To obtain the differentiations on climate-related concepts and their associations with other fields in an interdisciplinary manner; published research articles' titles, abstracts and keywords are defined as datasets. The examination is conducted through the data mining method as a deductive approach, using the main words are separated and associated with various phrases, and binary term occurrences. The outcomes are visualized through a map to reveal the relations of the notions that occur in the research. The findings reveal that both disciplines work on environmental issues from the context relationality stage. Although landscape architecture seems to be more related with the environment, climate and ecology trio, the binary-term occurrences show that there is not much difference in the research rates. Nevertheless, considering the close relations with environmental and climate issues in the landscape architecture discipline, the specialization is not high in terms of computational approaches regarding architecture. It is anticipated that this research may be used in future interdisciplinary literature and methodological approaches in digital design research in architecture and landscape architecture.

Other Perspectives: Extending the Architectural Representation

This paper discusses how the tension between arts and science inherent in the discipline of architecture, can be traced in architectural representations, which are not neutral but actively contribute to the design process, ranging from highly poetic, subjective, and artistic to more exact and objective. Within this paper, we reflect on how to overcome this restrictive perspective implicit in conventional design media by comparing two elective courses that aim to broaden the traditional architectural perspective. In doing so, we take a position in the broader debate on the role of artistic practices within an academic learning environment.

An Archetype of Architecture

Architecture is the art, and science of the built environment, where a multidisciplinary approach is prevalent. The paper tends to clarify architecture and explain its etymological meaning for an architectural student, practicing professional architect, and academic person. The paper suggests an archetype model using a combination of various logical terminologies that lead to the design of exquisitely defined words in human history. The manuscript relates each principal keyword as self-expressive for ARCHITECTURE. The research is based on the literal analysis of diverse content that covers the wider scope and application of architecture in qualitative research design. The note-taking series from different manuscripts that identify key areas in the field of ARCHITECTURE and their corresponding connection with each acronym was studied. The emerging themes consist of various parameters and help make strong arguments for the archetype model. The twelve emerging themes have been mapped using the mind-mapping technique in network diagrams. In the end, an archetype is explained, linking the connection of all keywords that prioritize the link with different aspects of architecture. Each letter refers to a specific term as A- Anthropometry, R-Responsive, C-Construction, H-History, I-Inspiration, T-Technology, E-Environment, C-Culture, T-Transformation, U-Utility, R-Resources, E-Economy. The author took help from the literature to reinforce the concept. In the end, an archetype is explained, linking the connection of all keywords with different aspects of architecture. The views expressed in the manuscript are based on a review analysis of existing information in the architectural discipline. It was difficult to include expert opinions due to the limitation of time and cost, and a more rigorous study can be planned later. The paper is based on the framework to benefit architectural students, academic people, and practicing architects and professionals about the range of approaches in ARCHITECTURE. Besides many definitions to expound, elucidate and clarify Architecture, the paper is novel in the approach of explaining the word ARCHITECTURE from a diverse perspective. Each letter has been an acronym with a term covering all significant aspects.

Models of Diagnosis and Concept in the Pioneering Architects in Recent Architecture

Architectural sphere evolved into a different direction within the last three decades due to both the development of digital tools and the economic boom, accompanied by the discourses suggesting that radical changes were underway in design and production. In the context thereof, the present study aimed to understand, what today's leading architects considered design input, what factors led them to form, and the conceptual nature of the association they established between form and content. The available texts inked by the renowned architects on their public buildings built between 1990-2020 were accessed via their own web sites and publications. Those briefs were reviewed using textual analysis based on issue and concept notions, remaining loyal to the intra-text context. The conceptual information was then transformed into conceptual categories. The architects were selected among the renowned architects, where the Google Hits method was used to determine the status of being renowned. Accordingly, a total 1146 architectural briefs by 66 renowned architects on their public buildings were analyzed with an aim to transparently see, what was defined as a problem by the designer and by which concepts the designer sought solutions to identified problems. The approaches of recent architects suggested that the architectural discipline maintained its ancient design paradigms, including the quest for function, surroundings, and form, but the way those parameters were addressed and questioned was changed. Furthermore, the spatial configuration-oriented, ecology-oriented, and city-oriented concepts came to the fore, while metaphor and analogy were frequently used. The present study was limited to the own briefs of the renowned architects on public buildings designed between 1990-2020. Unlike the previous studies in the relevant literature, which focused on recent architectural approaches, the present study addressed the subject based on the architects' own texts. Thus, the architect's expression but not the author's interpretation comes to the fore, contributing in the objectivity of the study.

Furniture configurations in an active learning classroom make further differences in student outcomes

PurposeThe aim of this study is to understand the effect of class configurations in an active learning classroom (ALC) on students' self-perception of experiences and learning outcomes, namely participation, performance, motivation and creativity.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered survey (N = 131) was conducted in seven classes from the varied disciplines of communication, interior design and architecture. During the first half of the semester, all selected courses were conducted in traditional classrooms, whereas those in the second half were conducted in an ALC. ALC was designed to be used with several furniture configurations which could be easily set up by members of the learning community themselves. The survey was conducted at the end of semester before final exams, when students have a clear idea of the experiences in both the traditional and the new (ALC) classrooms, having spent equal time in each of these learning environments.FindingsThe main finding of the study is that students were eager to have future classes in the ALC rather than in traditional settings since the students experienced better learning outcomes in the ALC. During the second half of the semester, students who were in classes conducted following active learning (AL) pedagogies, with its supportive spatial configurations, were more aware of the learning outcomes facilitated by the physical environment. Further, the authors found that the increase in the number of furniture configurations has a statistically significant positive impact on learning outcomes.Originality/valueAL pedagogy is often studied as a way of teaching and rarely with its associated classroom environments. In most of the existing studies, the configuration of furniture has often been overlooked within an AL environment by a learning community. This study fills the gap in emphasising the spatial aspects of the ALC by focusing on the specific pedagogy being followed.

Testing Olmsted’s Lasting Legacy—Comparing Design Theory and the Post-Occupancy Conditions of New York Central Park

Social media is a rapidly developing field in architecture and landscape research, which is used to understand public opinions and landscape use. The year 2022 sees the 200th birthday of Olmsted, the founding father of landscape architecture in America. While we commemorate Olmsted’s ground-breaking contribution to the landscape architecture discipline, in-depth analyses are always required to examine historic legacies for their current relevancy. Taking his first practical work, New York Central Park, as an example, this paper systematically revisits Olmsted’s park design theory and vision, and investigates its post-occupancy conditions from 11,501 posts on TripAdvisor. The results show that the current park use pattern confirms the validity of his scenic image theory. At the same time, his design works have become increasingly popular as public projects to foster social interaction.

Blurring disciplinary boundaries in the design studio: Bringing architecture, business and arts students together to prototype new solutions for palliative care

As complex global problems increasingly require the knowledge and skills of a broad array of disciplines, existing pedagogical approaches need to shift to support graduates to develop the skills necessary for innovation. This article reports on an experimental design studio that asked students from the disciplines of architecture, business and arts to work collaboratively to propose innovative solutions to complex real-world problems. While bringing other disciplines into the design studio is not new, in previously reported examples students were provided well-defined parameters for assessment tasks, alongside clear expectations for how disciplines should work together. The studio reported here provided students with the agency to define their own artefacts in response to the problems facing palliative care, and to decide how they would work together in the process of that production. Within this context, students were forced to examine their own disciplinary limitations and to find strategies for working beyond those, and in doing so, move beyond the recognized limitations of inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches to problem solving. To understand the value of this learning experience, extensive data were gathered from students in addition to educator observations. This article provides advice for design educators wanting to augment the studio learning environment through transdisciplinary collaboration, as well as those beyond the design disciplines who may be interested in utilizing this learning approach.

Interaction of Architecture with the Culture of Digital Civilization

To this moment, several studies have been conducted on the specifics of the use of digital methods in architecture, however, researchers have yet to evaluate the continuously changing digital formation in architecture and the problems arising in the process of its evolution. The main purpose of this article is to identify and analyze topical issues of digital culture in nonlinear formation. Modern problems of digital shaping arising in the context of digital architecture are analyzed. The concepts of architectural theorists in the field of nonlinear architecture development based on the topic under study are presented. Contradictory aspects of modern design related to the limitations of new technologies and the difficulties of their integration into architectural processes are also presented. The issues of the absence of holism in modern architecture are investigated. In this regard, the problem with lack of integral design approach that would combine existing techniques into a common structure has been analyzed. The aspects of changing the perception of the role of the architect and urban space in the digital age are considered. Identification and analysis of the described problems of introducing digital tools into the structure of architectural shaping is an important step in the further development of the architectural discipline. This is necessary for timely identification of existing difficulties in the design and further evolution of shaping methods.

The Need for a Scientific Research Paradigm Understanding and Clarification in Algerian Architecture Departments

This article highlights the problem of scientific research in the field of architecture discipline and takes Algerian universities as a study case. It presents and discusses research paradigm problems in academic architecture research and aims to perform a content analysis of architecture, urbanism, and built environment doctoral theses submitted in different architectural departments. Understanding and correctly applying a research paradigm is of capital importance in any research. It guides the research by controlling its evolution and the relevance and coherence of the research approach. Above all, paradigmatic positioning allows the establishment of research validity and legitimacy. So, this article aims to analyze the main paradigms of research and their respective philosophical principles, to understand the methodological problem of research paradigm identification and its crucial role in scientific research regarding architecture, urbanism, and built environment in Algerian universities. Therefore, several doctoral theses in various specialities in architecture and urbanism were analyzed to determine their research paradigm and whether the ontological, epistemological, and methodological points of view were respected according to the logic of every paradigm. The article stresses the importance of reviewing some traditional models of knowledge that still dominate, in an erratic way, the world of scientific research in the field of architecture and urbanism. The article showed that research paradigms are not identified and clarified, and a big part of the selected theses do not respect research standards in each paradigm philosophy.

Identifying the role of technology within the discipline of 21st century landscape architecture

OVERVIEW This research seeks to explore the meaning of Technology in Landscape Architecture (TLA) as part of Landscape Architecture (LA)’s body of knowledge. It will investigate TLA and its emerging specializations, along with related core domains and associated topical areas. This exploration will also examine the inter-relationships of DTT and research methods within the landscape research as a way to analyze the meaning of TLA and its significance on 21st century LA core domains. In this study context, this research will draw from three realms of knowledge: (1) Digital Tools and Technology (DTT) in LA; (2) LA Core Domains; and (3) Trends, Themes and Priorities in LA Research. This research proposes a mixed methods approach with the exploratory goal to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of TLA, its specialties and ways it intersects with the core knowledge domains within the LA discipline. This study on TLA will also be comprehensive in its examination of both contemporary scholarly research and professional practice including current trends and themes. The significance of this research demonstrates ways technology has evolved as its own significant domain where the discipline of LA has shifted from the art-science binary narrative to an emergent 21st century conceptual tri-partite core consisting of art, science and technology.

The Role of Socio-Cultural Factors in (Trans)formation of Dwellings: A Reference Palette for Theories, Methods, Tools and Techniques

Understanding the role of socio-cultural factors in dwellings has become important in the current trends of urbanization and modernization. This can be explored through primary studies and from previous studies done by researchers. When pursuing a primary study also, understanding the studies done by previous researchers becomes a necessity. Hence, this research paper would be beneficial for the researchers to do analysis of the previous studies. A methodology model was developed for the analysis of secondary data involving socio-culture and dwellings. Previous researches were identified and selected based on certain inclusion and exclusion criteria for this paper. The limitations were the time frame chosen for selection of literature from January 2010 to May 2021 and the search websites chosen were Google Scholar and EBSCO websites. The methodology comprised of five stages. The first stage identified and selected the previous researches for the study, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The second stage listed the theories, methods, tools and techniques from the books of pioneers. The third stage comprised of two parts; the first part checked the applicability of the theory stated by the pioneer Amos Rapoport that, the socio-cultural factors were the main factors in the formation of dwellings on to the transformation of different aspects of dwellings. The second part applied the listed theories, methods, tools and techniques from second stage, on the selected previous researches and categorized accordingly. The fourth stage categorized the reasons for the theory of Amos Rapoport being proved true at certain instances or false at certain other instances. The lacunas in the focus of the research topic discussed in the selected secondary data were also identified for further exploration. The fifth stage identified the different avenues available for researchers and also formulated a reference palette of the theories, methods, tools and techniques. This paper would be an additional secondary data for researches in the discipline of architecture, socio-cultural studies and anthropology. It would create an awareness to the architects, designers, urban planners and policy makers on the importance of the role of socio-cultural factors when designing dwellings and framing policies for the future developments.