Simple Buildings Research Articles

Learn to Create Simple LEGO Micro Buildings

This paper presents the first learning-based generative pipeline for effectively creating 3D LEGO® 1 models. This task is very challenging due to the lack of dedicated representations and datasets for learning coherently-connected bricks arrangements, as well as an immense design space that is combinatorial in nature. We approach this task by focusing on creating LEGO® micro buildings. Our contributions are four-fold. First, we propose the LEGO® semantic volume representation to encode LEGO® models, considering the bricks types and bricks connections, while allowing back-propagation learning. Second, we further consider the transformative nature of LEGO ® to atomize the semantic volume and formulate a generative model to learn the representation. Third, we build a rich dataset of micro buildings for model learning. Last, we design the progressive reconstructor to create 3D LEGO® models from the generated representations, while ensuring bricks connections. We employed our pipeline to create LEGO ® micro buildings with a wide array of bricks types, demonstrating its strong capability of learning diverse micro-building styles and producing assemble-able LEGO® models. Further, we performed various quantitative evaluations, ablations, and a user study to show the compelling capability of our approach in terms of generative quality, fidelity, and diversity.

Wind tunnel measurements of cross-ventilation flow in a realistic building geometry: Influence of building partitions and wind direction

Wind tunnel measurements have widely been used for validation of computational fluid dynamics simulations of natural ventilation airflows. However, the majority of such measurements employed simple generic single-zone buildings, while there is a lack of studies on realistic buildings including flow-critical geometrical features (e.g. internal partitions). To assess the effect of internal partitions at different incident flow angles (α = 0° and α = 30°), wind tunnel measurements of velocities in and around a cross-ventilated realistic residential building (with and without internal partition) were performed. Measurements were conducted at a geometric scale 1:40, using laser Doppler anemometry. Results indicate a large impact of the internal partition on indoor airflow distribution and resulting ventilation flow rates. For instance, for α = 0°, on the partitioned building side, regions of velocity increase (from ∼0 m/s to ∼80% of the outdoor reference velocity, Uref), but also regions of velocity decrease (from ∼50% of Uref to ∼0 m/s) were observed. The ventilation flow rate through the windows at the partitioned side decreased by 23% and 32%, respectively. For the partitioned building, a change from α = 0° to α = 30° resulted in regions of velocity increase from 0 m/s to ∼60% of Uref.

An improved transient search optimization algorithm for building energy optimization and hybrid energy sizing applications

In this paper, a new algorithm named the improved transient search optimization algorithm (ITSOA) is utilized to solve classical test functions, optimize the consumption of building energy, and optimize hybrid energy system production. The conventional TSOA draws inspiration from the fleeting behavior of electrical circuits with energy storage components. Rosenbrock’s direct rotation technique is used to improve the traditional TSOA performance against exploration and exploitation unbalance. First, the ITSOA performance is investigated in solving 23 classical benchmark functions, and the outcomes have shown the superior capability of the recommended algorithm in comparison with the conventional TSOA, DMO, SHO, GA, MRFO, and PSO methods. Also, the ITSOA proficiency is verified in solving the building energy optimization (BEO) problem for minimizing the energy usage of two simple and detailed buildings. The optimization results showed that the optimized solutions of ITSOA in single and multi-objective optimizations compared to conventional TSOA, DMO, SHO, GA, MRFO, and PSO obtained a lower value of the cost function. Also, the superiority of ITSOA has been confirmed to solve the BEO compared to previous methods. Moreover, the multi-objective optimization results have shown that ITSOA is able to determine the ultimate solution among the Pareto front set based on the fuzzy decision-making approach and building energy utilization decisions.

The Development of Standard Designs of Primary School Buildings in Lithuania During the 1920s and 1930s

Summary This article analyses the development of standard designs of primary school buildings in Lithuania during the 1920s and 1930s. This process aimed to create simple and comfortable standard school buildings and provide them to the primary schools operating in the country. The article presents the development of standard designs that took place at that time, explaining the circumstances of their emergence, and comparing the main designs of such buildings developed at that time. To reveal this process as best as possible, the influence of the then Ministry of Education of Lithuania, local former Lithuanian county municipalities, and various architectural specialists in the standardisation of buildings for primary schools and the development of standard designs are presented and analysed. This aims to introduce the readers to the still little-known process that took place in the architecture of Lithuania during the 1920s and 1930s.

Dissonances in Building Cost: An Analytic Review of the Impact of Design Variables

The cost of building is influenced by a variety of design variables. There would however appear a paucity of readily available cost data on the impact of design variables. This research is set out with a view towards the establishing readily available cost data information as well as relevant cost indices. The research used case study from previous buildings, extensive reviews, the statistical technique of percentile as its computational technique and rates obtained from synthesized bills priced by professional Quantity Surveying firms, as relevant components of its methodology. The location of the research, Port Harcourt metropolis is situated in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Research findings from the case study buildings as well as extensive literature review established that there exist differentials in the initial and total costs of both building plan Shapes (Square and rectangular), recording a 12.56 percentage differential. The elemental cost derived from both shapes also established differentials between 0.53 to 17.79%. The study also establishes the perimeter wall and gross floor area ratio which is an important index towards the determination of economic building shapes. The research concludes that the results, from the case study building would appear limited and as such should avoid being overgeneralized, nevertheless, it does serves to further reveal in broad terms, that the influence of plan shapes of simple buildings on cost is minimal. It recommends further, exploratory study that focuses on design and their cost implications, using cost models that input a wider range of variables

Energy Performance Certificate renewal — An analysis of reliability of simple non-domestic buildings ’ EPC ratings and pragmatic improving strategies in the UK

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are designed to provide consistent and comparable energy efficiency ratings. Since 2008, any building constructed, rented or sold is required to obtain an EPC in the UK. 4% of simple office buildings have renewed their EPC to date in England and Wales. In this paper, by comparing the original and renewed EPCs of these buildings, we examine the reliability of non-domestic EPC ratings and discover realistic energy efficiency improvement strategies reflected in the changes. We have found that buildings with their conditions remaining unchanged can be better rated by approximately 10 points on average when their initial rating is above the minimum requirement in the regulation. The ones initially rated below the minimum requirement are expected to have a greater scale of improvement on ratings while making no efforts which brings doubts on the effect of the “Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard” policy. Evidenced human factors are also jeopardising the fairness of EPC ratings. Based on the changes in the EPCs, we have found 4 clusters of improved buildings and 5 clusters of deteriorated buildings. We derived practical energy efficiency improvement strategies that people have already naturally adopted.

Pelatihan Pembuatan Simple Drying Building Bagi Mama-Mama Asli Papua Dusun Sarsang

In Sarsang Hamlet, most of the residents are native Papuans where they like to plant tubers and bananas as food ingredients for rice substitutes, but they have also started processing tubers and bananas into processed products in the form of chips. The purpose of this service is to provide training to Papuan women from Dusun Sarsang regarding how to process banana products besides making chips but in the form of other processed products, namely sale bananas using the Simple Drying Building.The methods used are Experimental and Applicative, counseling and training on making Simple Drying Buildings using simple and inexpensive materials. The mechanism is carried out in 4 stages, namely (1) designing a Simple Drying Building (Unmus Architecture Laboratory), (2) Building/making a Simple Drying Building (Unmus Architecture Laboratory), (3) Preparation of Materials and Tools for Extension and Training (Unmus Architecture Laboratory), (4) Counseling on making Pisang Saleh and how to use the Drying Building.The results of this service are expected to use Simple Drying Buiding to make the process of making sale bananas and other products (with the drying process) healthier (hygienic free from dust, flies and other bacteria), besides that the native Papuan mothers of Sarsangg village can make or produce new business (opaque, salted fish and others) independently so as to improve the economy of indigenous Papuan women.

The Watermills of Mosul in the Ottoman Period

Abstract This paper presents a documentary and archaeological study of the watermills in Ottoman Mosul to gain a political and social-economic understanding of the water-resource management in Mosul and its north-eastern hinterland in the early modern period. Watermills are of importance to historians, as the simple buildings equipped with sophisticated hydraulic devices, for teasing out various strands of water-resource management and agricultural economies from a regional and longue-dureé perspective. By synthesizing historical and archaeological methodological approaches, this paper aims to address the questions of what historical legacy of Mosul was left to the Ottoman Empire regarding the water infrastructure, including watermills and irrigation systems, and what contribution the Ottoman administration made to the development of Mosul’s water infrastructure. It presents an archaeological examination of a group of milling installations in Wadi Bandawai in the north of Mosul, demonstrating changes in settlement patterns during the long Islamic period, from the 7th to early 20th centuries, and also drawing attention to methodological problems with Islamic and Ottoman archaeology concerning the periodization of material culture.

Improving Mathematics Learning Outcomes Using Concrete Props in Grade V Elementary School Students

Topics in learning mathematics are generally abstract in nature, while elementary school-age children think concretely. This makes a teacher must be able to manage learning mathematics well. The purpose of this study is to describe through concrete props in learning the material of the nets of simple space buildings can improve student learning outcomes. The method used is descriptive method with the form of research, namely classroom action research with 2 cycles. The research was conducted in class V at a elementary school in Hanoi City, Vietnam. The number of respondents consisted of 129 students consisting of 58 male students and 71 female students. Based on the first cycle, student learning completeness was only 37.21%. This achievement is classified as low. Based on reflection, cycle II made improvements in planning and in implementing learning. In cycle II there was an increase, where classical learning completeness became 96.89%. This shows that the use of concrete teaching aids in math learning can improve students' learning outcomes

Space Utilization in Vertical Residential Complex (Rusunawa) in Jakarta, Indonesia

The rapid growth of cities, including Jakarta, encourages the conversion of non-built-up areas into built-up ones. It can threaten their sustainability. To overcome a decreasing trend of green open spaces, the Government of Jakarta (GoJ) has established a policy stipulating that urban areas must have at least 30% green open spaces. Therefore, the vertical residential complex can be a solution to reach it, especially in Simple and Low-Cost Apartment Buildings (Rusunawa). Based on previous issues, this paper analyses their surface and whether it reaches the regulation. Moreover, this paper identifies factors influencing the surface. We study 30 of 32 Rusunawas in Jakarta. Then, we conducted descriptive spatial analysis by interpreting high-resolution satellite imagery to find space utilization patterns in the Rusunawas. The findings are that: only 20 % of Rusunawas (6 of 30 Rusunawas) have reached a minimum of 30 % green open space of the total area, indicating challenges to meeting the regulation. Based on in-depth interviews with the management of Rusunawa, the findings are that: the land availability of Rusunawas' complex is limited, green open space competes with anthropogenic-living space use, and the initial site plan is not designed to meet the regulation. Moreover, in the case of Rusunawa located near the coastal area, water, and land salinity are obstacles.

Analysis of the behaviour of the floating pipe pile foundation on soft soil

Planning the foundation according to the characteristics of the soil is the most important thing before starting construction. In recent studies, the use of PVC pipe pile foundations has been introduced. These foundations, called floating foundations, offer a lighter and more economical solution for simple buildings on soft soils. The study involved variations in pipe diameters of consistent lengths. In laboratoryscale axial loading tests, the behaviour of pipe stacks against load drop is observed. The bearing capacity of pipe piles is evaluated through a static loading test, with one end of the pipe pile hermetically sealed and aspirated in an alternating pile in a glass box filled with soft soil with a content of 98%. The results of this test are then analyzed with the Chin Method Interpretation to determine the carrying capacity and behaviour of pipe piles against soft soil, The results of the analysis show that the diameter of the pipe piles has a significant effect on the bearing capacity of the foundation. Although the results are promising, further research is still needed, especially in the development of foundation construction suitable for multi-storey buildings in areas with soft soil or peat

Rapid Assessment of Earthquake Threat Vulnerability in Campus 3 of University of Technology Yogyakarta Based on Android Application

The province of D.I.Yogyakarta is crossed by the Indo-Australian Plate which is one of the three world plates. The impact that occurs when an earthquake happens is the damage to buildings not only simple buildings but also multi-story buildings, such as School Buildings and Educational Facilities. The Campus 3 of University of Technology Yogyakarta is located at Jl. Prof. Dr. Soepomo, S.H. No.21, Muja Muju, the sub district of Umbul Harjo, Yogyakarta. The purpose of this study is to determine the results of the evaluation using the RVS method on a form that is filled out manually and by an application using ArGis. The method used in this research is FEMA 154-2015 which is adjusted to the regulations in Indonesia, namely SNI 1726-2019, and the results are analyzed quantitatively. Based on the checking of vulnerability of the campus building with the RVS High Seismicity form, the campus 3 building is of the type of reinforced concrete frame and functioning as a school. The results obtained show that the average of two buildings in the Campus 3 of University of Technology Yogyakarta is 2.3, and the RVS stops at level 1. Both conditions confirm that the two buildings have a risk that is not dangerous. Nevertheless, there should be a further supervision.

Computing steel frame analysis of behavior semi-rigid connection

Semi-rigid connections are very economical compared to other connections because they can prevent the frame from breaking immediately due to brittleness without endangering the entire structure. Steel frame construction is one of the types of construction described in the building codes for simple seismic buildings. The research on the use of this semi-rigid connection uses one of the computer software that uses the finite element method, namely ANSYS ED.9, by taking validation models from experimental and manual calculation analysis and using 35 research models with different loads, positions and number of bolts and types of portal bracing. The ability to survive on the gantry due to side loads is dominated by the number and position of the bolts and the type of gantry stiffener used, this is evident from the different models, with the rise ratio in each model ranging from 0.7852 to 2.5900 and in ranges of softening compared to clamped stiffeners, which experience a decrease in stress, with the same ratio.

3D RECONSTRUCTION OF SIMPLE BUILDINGS FROM POINT CLOUDS USING NEURAL NETWORKS WITH CONTINUOUS CONVOLUTIONS (CONVPOINT)

Abstract. The automatic reconstruction of 3D building models from airborne laser scanning point clouds or aerial imagery data in a model-driven fashion most often consists of a recognition of standardized building primitives with typically rectangular footprints and parameterized roof shapes based on a pre-defined collection, and a parameter estimation so that the selected primitives best fit the input data. For more complex buildings that consist of multiple parts, several such primitives need to be combined. This paper focuses on the reconstruction of such simple buildings, and explores the potential of Deep Learning by presenting a neural network architecture that takes a 3D point cloud of a single building as input and outputs the geometric information needed to construct a 3D building model in half-space representation with up to four roof faces like saddleback, hip, and pyramid roof. The proposed neural network architecture consists of a roof face segmentation module implemented with continuous convolutions as used in ConvPoint, which performs feature extraction directly from a set of 3D points, and four PointNet modules that predict from sampled subsets of the feature-enriched points the presence of four roof faces and their slopes. Trained with the RoofN3D dataset, which contains roof point segmentations and geometric information for 3D reconstruction purposes for about 118,000 simple buildings, the neural network achieves a performance of about 80% intersection over union (IoU) for roof face segmentation, 1.8° mean absolute error (MAE) for roof slope angles, and 95% overall accuracy (OA) for predicting the presence of faces.

KOMPARASI BEBAN KONSTRUKSI BANGUNAN KONVENSIONAL (SEDERHANA) DAN BANGUNAN NON KONVENSIONAL, STUDI KASUS BANGUNAN SATU LANTAI

Many people use new building materials but are guided by old materials, which are actually a lot different. The purpose of this study is to calculate the ratio between dead loads on buildings with conventional (simple) structures and dead loads on buildings with non-conventional structures. This knowledge is important as a basis for calculating building structures. The object of this research is the building model as the basis for calculating the volume of materials. For this model, a simple building design is made with two different structural designs. The first is with a conventional structural design, namely a structure that is commonly used in society, while the second design uses a non-conventional structure, namely a structure that is often used in modern buildings, using the latest materials and construction. Calculation of construction loads using the unit weight of materials obtained from building materials brochures, or also standards that are already available from the literature, and if it is difficult to find standards or brochures, direct measurements are carried out, namely by weighing the materials to be measured. From the calculation results, the total construction weight in simple buildings is 124.299 Kg, while in non-conventional buildings it is 74,392 Kg. The conclusion is that the weight of simple building construction is 1.67 times heavier than the weight of non-conventional building construction.Keywords: comparison, construction, building

Ulster’s Evangelical Plain Style: A Visual Inquiry

The paper explores the design of the small evangelical halls that exist across the nine counties of Ulster. Conceived of as conduits to salvation, as representing the current non-material iteration of God’s holy temple, and even as prefiguring the coming eschaton, these are simple and unassuming buildings, decorated largely with text. The paper argues that the “plain style” provides a fruitful approach to consideration of the materiality of these spaces. Plain style is defined as a complex denial of ostentation and elaboration in design and communication that is linked to reformed Protestantism. Contending that such a plain style must engage with the quotidian and the contingent, the importance and the problems of photo-documentation as a method of inquiry are discussed. The paper argues that a careful and reflexive approach to photography and analysis, drawing on keywording and metadata provides a method suitable for exploration of such “new” spaces where access must be negotiated with care. The paper concludes by presenting some findings drawn from a keywording approach to the visual data and relating the use of text, materials and building forms to discussion of an everyday plain style.

SHALLOW FOUNDATION BEARING CAPACITY ANALYSIS BASED ON CONE PENETRATION TEST

In the simple buildings, shallow foundations can be used to support the construction above them. This shallow foundation has various types, including the type of footplate which can be calculated using the Terzaghi equation. In the Terzaghi equation, it requires dimension parameters of the footing and soil material parameters such as cohesion and soil volume weight which requires laboratory testing to obtain it. Meanwhile, Schmertmann provides an equation to obtain the Terzaghi bearing capacity factor in the form of Nq and Nγ by using the Cone Penetration Test (CPT). This bearing capacity factor value can be used to calculate the bearing capacity using the Terzaghi Equation. In addition, Schmertmann also provides an equation to directly calculate the bearing capacity value based on CPT data. Based on this problem, this study analyzes the bearing capacity of various footplate dimensions using the Schmertmann approach. The study took place in the Argoboga, Salatiga which the type of soil based on the CPT test value generally is sandy soil. The results show that the bearing capacity calculated by the Nq correlation method is greater than the Nγ correlation method and the direct correlation method. In addition, the greater the difference between the dimensions and the depth of the foundation, the greater the deviation of the bearing capacity results between each method.

Sawdust and soil block as wall in simple buildings to gain the optimum heat and embodied energy in humid tropical area

Red bricks are widely used in Indonesia. The process of making red brick itself causes many problems such as the combustion process and the creation of air pollutant during the production process. On the other hand, waste from timber industry in Indonesia, which is called sawdust, becomes a problem that need to be solved by the woodcraft industry. Therefore, this study aims to substitute the use of red brick as wall material as well as reducing the waste of woodcraft industry by mixing sawdust waste with clay and cement as an alternative. The purpose of this study is investigating the performance of sawdust as wall material in terms of heat transfer and embodied energy in buildings compared to red brick. This study aims to analyse the optimum composition of sawdust as wall material to gain a balanced heat and embodied energy in simple housing. The study investigates sawdust wall in building with the size of 36m2 by using simulation software called Archipak. The embodied energy calculation uses standard embodied energy per unit. The research variable is the thickness of sawdust walls. The result of this study is the thickness of sawdust wall with minimum heat transfer and embodied energy.

Pengaruh Penambahan Serat Ijuk Terhadap Kuat Tekan Beton

Concrete is one of the construction materials consisting of a mixture of coarse aggregate and fine aggregate as a filling material, as well as cement and water as a binder. With the addition of fiber as a partial replacement of ceme­nt to obtain a cheaper cost, for simple buildings. With partial replacement of cement with fiber in normal concrete, which aims to determine the effect of partial replacement of cement with fiber against the compressive strength of concrete. By comparing the length variation of fibers which are respectively 4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm and fibers taken 2% of the weight of cement. Where the calculation analysis (mix desing) using SNI 7656-2012 (procedure for making normal concrete mix plan). Mix design is done in order to determine the proportion of the mixture is done with strong concrete quality planned. The test object is a cylinder with a diameter with a diameter of 15 cm and height of 30 cm. From the results obtained the replacemen of some of the cement with fibers. Where the test results of normal concrete slump of 10 cm, fiber concrete measuring 4 cm by 10 cm, fiber conrete measuring 6 cm byy 9.8 cm and fiber concrete measuring 8 cm by 9.7 cm. And the maximum compressive strength test results obtained decreased, the test value of cylindrical concrete without the addition of fiber of 27.08 MPa, where the compressive strength of concrete by using 2% fibers with a length of 4 cm of 26.70 MPa, concrete fiber 6 cm of 25.94 MPa, and for fiber 8 cm of 24.72 MPa. So that the compressive strength of concrete that occurs decreases from normal concrete without the addition of fibers.

Semantic Equalization Learning for Semi-Supervised SAR Building Segmentation

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) building segmentation, which is one of the fundamental tasks in the remote sensing community, has been achieved remarkable performance using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Since most methods do not consider distinctive characteristics of SAR images, they tend to be biased towards simple and large buildings while ignoring small and complex-shaped ones. To build a general and powerful SAR building segmentation model, in this letter, we introduce a semi-supervised learning (SSL) framework with semantic equalization learning (SEL). Concretely, we leverage labeled SAR and EO image pairs and unlabeled SAR images for SSL to extract representative SAR features with the help of context-rich EO features. Moreover, SEL aims to balance the training of well and poor-performing samples via our purposed data augmentation technique and the objective functions. It consists of a semantic proportional CutMix (SP-CutMix) module to increase the sampling probability of under-performed samples during the training phase, and an equalized segmentation loss (ESL) to adjust the loss contribution depending on difficulties. By doing so, our method prevents the model from being biased to easy samples and increases the performance of difficult building samples. Experimental results on the SpaceNet-6 benchmark demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework, especially by significantly improving the most challenging scenarios, that is less labeled data available.