Simple Buildings Research Articles

Automatic Detection and Reconstruction of 2-D/3-D Building Shapes From Spaceborne TomoSAR Point Clouds

Modern spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors, such as TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X and COSMO-SkyMed, can deliver very high resolution (VHR) data beyond the inherent spatial scales of buildings. Processing these VHR data with advanced interferometric techniques, such as SAR tomography (TomoSAR), allows for the generation of four-dimensional point clouds, containing not only the 3-D positions of the scatterer location but also the estimates of seasonal/temporal deformation on the scale of centimeters or even millimeters, making them very attractive for generating dynamic city models from space. Motivated by these chances, the authors have earlier proposed approaches that demonstrated first attempts toward reconstruction of building facades from this class of data. The approaches work well when high density of facade points exists, and the full shape of the building could be reconstructed if data are available from multiple views, e.g., from both ascending and descending orbits. However, there are cases when no or only few facade points are available. This usually happens for lower height buildings and renders the detection of facade points/regions very challenging. Moreover, problems related to the visibility of facades mainly facing toward the azimuth direction (i.e., facades orthogonally oriented to the flight direction) can also cause difficulties in deriving the complete structure of individual buildings. These problems motivated us to reconstruct full 2-D/3-D shapes of buildings via exploitation of roof points. In this paper, we present a novel and complete data-driven framework for the automatic (parametric) reconstruction of 2-D/3-D building shapes (or footprints) using unstructured TomoSAR point clouds particularly generated from one viewing angle only. The proposed approach is illustrated and validated by examples using TomoSAR point clouds generated using TerraSAR-X high-resolution spotlight data stacks acquired from ascending orbit covering two different test areas, with one containing simple moderate-sized buildings in Las Vegas, USA and the other containing relatively complex building structures in Berlin, Germany.

Design optimisation for window size, orientation, and wall reflectance with regard to various daylight metrics and lighting energy demand: A case study of buildings in the tropics

Design optimisation problems of window size and façade orientation in buildings have been investigated many times, with regard to energy and comfort criteria. To indicate daylight availability in indoor spaces, a number of daylight metrics have been proposed, but those metrics are not always fully accounted in the optimisation process. Also, most studies were conducted for locations with high latitude, where the sun is located most of the time either at the south or at the north part of the sky hemisphere, which is not the case in the tropics. Therefore, this article presents a simulation study to investigate the influence of window-to-wall ratio (WWR), wall reflectance, and window orientation on various daylight metrics and lighting energy demand in simple buildings located in the tropical climate. A simple approach for the multi-objective optimisation was proposed by classifying the results in six pairs of two different performance indicators. Solutions in all Pareto frontiers were filtered against the defined target criteria, and were accepted into the optimum solution space if they belong to at least 4 out of 6 Pareto frontiers, and were ranked either in the order of their mean distance to the utopia points, or in the order of number of times they belong to a Pareto frontier. Three optimum solutions are found, all of which belong to four Pareto frontiers. The most optimum solution with the least mean distance to the utopia points is the combination of WWR 30%, wall reflectance of 0.8, and south orientation. The proposed approach enables one to observe the inter-relationship between the involved performance indicators, while providing a possibility to visualise the boundaries of the solution space.

Barbarico more testudinata. The Roman image of Barbarian houses

There are only few Antique literary sources on simple buildings and depictions which show huts or Barbarian houses are scarce too. The short study makes an attempt to identify structural details that were shown on Late Roman coins and link them to other surviving images.

Die Gewölbekomposition der Kirche in Luggenhusen/Lüganuse

Most of the parish churches built in North-Estonia during the 14th centuryare simple rectangular buildings without vaults and sanctuary. This was probably an expression of Dominican ideology. These churches weresubsequently vaulted in the 15th century by Tallinn’s master builders.The story of the Lüganuse Church’s development is similar. Due to thewidth of the nave, it was built into a double-nave church. In the 17thcentury, the vaults were destroyed and today only a small fragment ofthe transverse arch survives on the western wall.When the vaults were built in the church, buttresses were also built.On the eastern side, at first glance, their placement seems strange – thereare none on the corners of the building. The buttresses were builtwhere the lateral pressure was the greatest. It is possible that the vaultcomposition in Lüganuse was identical to the one in the Keila Church(vaulted in 1489), where a triangular bay was constructed in front of thesanctuary in the eastern part of the nave. This composition would havesignificantly reduced the load on the chancel arch. Current literature datesthe vaulting of the Lüganuse Church back to the first quarter of the15th century. But apparently, the reconstruction of the church startedconsiderably later – possibly not until the last decades of the 15th century.

Experimental‐numerical research on the seismic performance of URM buildings made of lightweight AAC blocks / Experimentell‐numerische Untersuchung zum seismischen Verhalten von unbewehrten Mauerwerksgebäuden aus Porenbetonblöcken

AbstractMasonry walls constructed with lightweight AAC blocks and thin‐layer mortar meet the increasingly strict requirements of energy efficiency and sustainability. In this sense, they represent an excellent solution for modern buildings, not only for external cladding but also as loadbearing elements. Despite the possible advantages of using lightweight AAC masonry, a specific assessment of its seismic performance is mandatory in order to set design recommendations allowing to reach safety levels consistent with those required for other masonry types complying with EN 1998 standard requirements.A comprehensive study on the seismic performance of unreinforced masonry buildings made of lightweight AAC was carried out in an integrated experimental‐numerical approach. The experimental campaign provided the necessary information to setup a reliable numerical model to be extensively used to assess the seismic performance of a number of prototype AAC masonry buildings with different characteristics, by means of both linear and nonlinear static (pushover) analysis.The results of this systematic numerical assessment were eventually used to draft design recommendations, to set parameters (behaviour factors) to be used in linear analysis and to calibrate rules for simple buildings.

3D Building Roof Modeling by Optimizing Primitive’s Parameters Using Constraints from LiDAR Data and Aerial Imagery

In this paper, a primitive-based 3D building roof modeling method, by integrating LiDAR data and aerial imagery, is proposed. The novelty of the proposed modeling method is to represent building roofs by geometric primitives and to construct a cost function by using constraints from both LiDAR data and aerial imagery simultaneously, so that the accuracy potential of the different sensors can be tightly integrated for the building model generation by an integrated primitive’s parameter optimization procedure. To verify the proposed modeling method, both simulated data and real data with simple buildings provided by ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), were used in this study. The experimental results were evaluated by the ISPRS, which demonstrate the proposed modeling method can integrate LiDAR data and aerial imagery to generate 3D building models with high accuracy in both the horizontal and vertical directions. The experimental results also show that by adding a component, such as a dormer, to the primitive, a variant of the simple primitive is constructed, and the proposed method can generate a building model with some details.

How much did a Swedish Schoolhouse Cost to Build? Rewriting the history of 19th-century rural schoolhouses

How much did the 19th-century rural schoolhouse cost to build? On the basis of a study of schoolhouse building in the Sundsvall region in the period 1842–1900, this article shows how the cost of school buildings increased over time, both overall and by schoolhouse, largely because of the marginalization of cheaper and simpler redevelopment projects, as well as the construction of a number of more expensive schoolhouses. Through the use of extensive source material, preserved from the building of 66 schoolhouses, a more detailed analysis of these developments has demonstrated differences in price levels between purchased schoolhouses, redevelopments of existing buildings and new building projects, and buildings intended for different types of schools. Insights are also given into labour and material costs. In addition to establishing basic facts about a main feature of the expanding system of mass education, this study thus makes a reinterpretation of the 19th-century rural schoolhouse which emphasizes new patterns of development and fundamental distinctions, presenting schoolhouses as a social and economic issue, rather than an architectural or pedagogical concern. Instead of being described as rather simple buildings, in comparison with the major buildings in the cities, schoolhouses thus appear as a major item of expenditure for local government.

La désacralisation de l’église dans quelques romans des Rougon-Macquart

Being agnostic and believing in science only, Emile Zola perceived churches as simple buildings, monuments to a dead religion that would certainly lose the battle against nature and science. The paper gives some examples of this vision in four novels, parts of the Rougon-Macquart cycle.

A TALE OF FOUR AUSTRALIAN SPORTS HALLS

INTRODUCTION This is the story of four apparently simple buildings. It is the tale of four Australian sports halls. Their forms range from a heavy, low concrete structure; to a floating lightweight building using steel and plywood; to another with an ephemeral transparent form and no apparent mass; and, finally, to a building that looks like a grandstand at the side of a cricket pitch. The buildings have won multiple Australian architecture, design, and building awards, and one went on to win the Best Sports Building award at the World Architecture Festival. What is remarkable about the buildings is that all four—each designed by Australian architects Allen Jack+Cottier—were designed in response to the same, some might consider prescriptive, design brief from the New South Wales government. Or, more specifically, they were designed to meet a standardised briefing document from the NSW Department of Schools and Sport & Recreation NSW for indoor sports halls. Each building takes its form from the landscape ...

FITTING OF PARAMETRIC BUILDING MODELS TO OBLIQUE AERIAL IMAGES

Abstract. In literature and in photogrammetric workstations many approaches and systems to automatically reconstruct buildings from remote sensing data are described and available. Those building models are being used for instance in city modeling or in cadastre context. If a roof overhang is present, the building walls cannot be estimated correctly from nadir-view aerial images or airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. This leads to inconsistent building outlines, which has a negative influence on visual impression, but more seriously also represents a wrong legal boundary in the cadaster. Oblique aerial images as opposed to nadir-view images reveal greater detail, enabling to see different views of an object taken from different directions. Building walls are visible from oblique images directly and those images are used for automated roof overhang estimation in this research. A fitting algorithm is employed to find roof parameters of simple buildings. It uses a least squares algorithm to fit projected wire frames to their corresponding edge lines extracted from the images. Self-occlusion is detected based on intersection result of viewing ray and the planes formed by the building whereas occlusion from other objects is detected using an ALS point cloud. Overhang and ground height are obtained by sweeping vertical and horizontal planes respectively. Experimental results are verified with high resolution ortho-images, field survey, and ALS data. Planimetric accuracy of 1cm mean and 5cm standard deviation was obtained, while buildings' orientation were accurate to mean of 0.23° and standard deviation of 0.96° with ortho-image. Overhang parameters were aligned to approximately 10cm with field survey. The ground and roof heights were accurate to mean of – 9cm and 8cm with standard deviations of 16cm and 8cm with ALS respectively. The developed approach reconstructs 3D building models well in cases of sufficient texture. More images should be acquired for completeness of overhang results and automatic accuracy check of roof parameters.

ACCURACY OF 3D MODELS DERIVED FROM AERIAL LASER SCANNING AND AERIAL ORTHO-IMAGERY

Three dimensional (3D) mapping has been used widely in the spatial industry as a powerful technique for rendering artificial objects and their surrounding topography. However, an accurate and effective 3D modelling of complex features e.g. feature rich buildings and trees, is still challenging. The aim of this study is to develop an efficient framework to obtain a high-accuracy 3D model of urban buildings using Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data and aerial ortho-imagery. First, building outlines and a digital surface model are extracted from ALS data. Aerial ortho-imagery is then integrated to improve the accuracy of building outlines. Digital photos of building facades are patched to the 3D model for texture mapping. The accuracy analysis is conducted by assessing the heights and outlines of extracted features. As far as the authors know, this is the first accuracy evaluation of constructed 3D models. The digital surface model (DSM) shows vertical errors of less than 12 cm. Building heights are less accurate than the DSM, with errors of less than 22 cm. This difference is explained in the paper. In order to examine the building model more closely, the buildings are classified into three categories: simple rectangular objects, complex polygons, and curved outlines. The horizontal accuracy of the three categories ranges from 42 to 64 cm in Easting (1σ) and 16 to 48 cm in Northing (1σ). The results show that the horizontal coordinates of simple rectangular buildings are more accurate than those of complex polygons or circular-shape buildings. Mean errors and root mean square errors for each category are presented in the paper.

Wood Frame Building Response to Rapid-Onset Flooding

Floods are considered to be among the deadliest, costliest, and most common natural disasters. Rapid-onset, catastrophic floods inundate the shore quickly and manifest as deep water with high velocities, inflict great pressures and forces on the built and natural environments, and pose a threat to human safety. Current building codes, design practices, and disaster planning methods account for potential earthquake and wind loads on simple wood-frame buildings typical of North American residential construction. However, flood impacts have not been considered to the same degree of detail. A theoretical model is developed that describes flood impacts on wood-frame residential buildings and relates building response to flood depth and velocity. The failure mechanisms considered and the model logic are described and applied to assess the response of a typical Canadian wood-frame home to flood conditions that might be experienced in a rapid-onset flood event.

Casa mediterranea, casa araba and primitivism in the writings of Carlo Enrico Rava

We love the poetry and the primeval power of the formative processes of these simple buildings. We believe that — along with the recent prolific and fantastic technological possibilities — if they ...

Legible Simplification of Textured Urban Models

Most of the algorithms used for research in mesh simplification and discrete levels of detail (LOD) work well for simplifying single objects with a large number of polygons. For a city-sized collection of simple buildings, using these traditional algorithms could mean the disappearance of an entire residential area in which the buildings tend to be smaller than those in commercial regions. To solve this problem, we developed a mesh-simplification algorithm that incorporates concepts from architecture and city planning. Specifically, we rely on the concept of urban legibility, which segments a city into paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. If we preserve these elements of legibility during the simplification process, we can maintain the city's image and create urban models that users can understand more effectively. To accomplish this goal, we divide our algorithm into five steps. During preprocessing, it performs hierarchical clustering, cluster merging, model simplification, and hierarchical texturing, at runtime, it employs LOD to select the appropriate models for rendering.

A Vegetated Urban Canopy Model for Meteorological and Environmental Modelling

An urban canopy model is developed for use in mesoscale meteorological and environmental modelling. The urban geometry is composed of simple homogeneous buildings characterized by the canyon aspect ratio (h/w) as well as the canyon vegetation characterized by the leaf aspect ratio (σ l ) and leaf area density profile. Five energy exchanging surfaces (roof, wall, road, leaf, soil) are considered in the model, and energy conservation relations are applied to each component. In addition, the temperature and specific humidity of canopy air are predicted without the assumption of thermal equilibrium. For radiative transfer within the canyon, multiple reflections for shortwave radiation and one reflection for longwave radiation are considered, while the shadowing and absorption of radiation due to the canyon vegetation are computed by using the transmissivity and the leaf area density profile function. The model is evaluated using field measurements in Vancouver, British Columbia and Marseille, France. Results show that the model quite well simulates the observations of surface temperatures, canopy air temperature and specific humidity, momentum flux, net radiation, and energy partitioning into turbulent fluxes and storage heat flux. Sensitivity tests show that the canyon vegetation has a large influence not only on surface temperatures but also on the partitioning of sensible and latent heat fluxes. In addition, the surface energy balance can be affected by soil moisture content and leaf area index as well as the fraction of vegetation. These results suggest that a proper parameterization of the canyon vegetation is prerequisite for urban modelling.

And Then We Moved In

And Then We Moved In

The Reinforced Cut Wall (RCW): A Low-Cost Base Dissipator for Masonry Buildings

The design criteria for a new, low-cost base dissipation technique for simple masonry buildings are presented together with the results of some numerical analyses. The proposed apparatus, termed the “reinforced cut wall” (RCW), is made up of a layer of weak mortar (50 mm) and a 4- mm-thick elastomer membrane sheath laid between the foundation and base of the wall, which is further reinforced by a series of vertical steel rods (8–12 mm in diameter) connecting it to the foundation. Experimental trials have been performed on a sample set of dissipators in order to establish their mechanical properties and define suitable assembly techniques. Numerical simulations, consisting of incremental nonlinear static analyses, of several types of masonry buildings highlight the system's efficient performance in terms of force-displacement law. For moderate horizontal actions, the RCW does not cause relevant foundation-base displacement. However, when a prescribed force limit is exceeded, friction behavior of the weak layers of the RCW permit inelastic deformation along both horizontal directions, while the vertical steel rods ensure an elastic restoring force for rocking movements as well. Furthermore, the RCW provides the added benefit of isolating the structure from ground humidity.

Exploring the Use of Three-Dimensional Dispersion to Damp Building Vibrations

This paper explores the use of mass/stiffness eccentricity in simple buildings to damp the response to excitation due to base motion. Examples include one- and two-story buildings when discussing low-rise structures and shear beams when discussing taller structures. Base motions include a simple step function and earthquake input. A broad range of efficiencies is achieved depending upon the system eccentricity and the available viscous damping. Asymptotic efficiencies of 50% are indicated in some cases. Optimal parameters are discussed.

仰角による短縮法に関する考察 : 丹下健三とプロポーションに関する研究 その1

The author argues the construction method of the proportion by Kenzo Tange through the reduction method by the angles of elevation. Even in the cases of simple function buildings of his early works like Hiroshima Peace Center, it is impossible to get complete proportion balance only with the simple drawing methods, because it is necessary to consider the influence of reduction and extension of the angles of elevation to get actual beautiful proportion 3 dimensionally. For this purpose studies of details of sections with models through his eyes is necessary, and as the result he could reach the good works.

Experimental and CFD evidence of multiple solutions in a naturally ventilated building.

This paper considers the existence of multiple solutions to natural ventilation of a simple one-zone building, driven by combined thermal and opposing wind forces. The present analysis is an extension of an earlier analytical study of natural ventilation in a fully mixed building, and includes the effect of thermal stratification. Both computational and experimental investigations were carried out in parallel with an analytical investigation. When flow is dominated by thermal buoyancy, it was found experimentally that there is thermal stratification. When the flow is wind-dominated, the room is fully mixed. Results from all three methods have shown that the hysteresis phenomena exist. Under certain conditions, two different stable steady-state solutions are found to exist by all three methods for the same set of parameters. As shown by both the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental results, one of the solutions can shift to another when there is a sufficient perturbation. These results have probably provided the strongest evidence so far for the conclusion that multiple states exist in natural ventilation of simple buildings. Different initial conditions in the CFD simulations led to different solutions, suggesting that caution must be taken when adopting the commonly used 'zero initialization'.