Unique Architectural Design Research Articles

Western Style Eastward: The Derivation of Architectural Art and Design in Harbin (1898-1945)

Harbin s architectural design is known for its fusion, with Western design providing its outer skeleton and Chinese culture giving it its inner blood. Harbin has attracted the world s attention with its unique architectural design style since the 19th century. From the early Russian and Japanese colonial period, European and Japanese styles were introduced. Harbin s architectural design history has not only witnessed the changes of an era, but also demonstrated the fusion and symbiosis of multiple cultures. In the context of globalisation, how can Chinese art participate in the process of globalisation with a unique Chinese consciousness and visual image, how to face up to the existence of exotic transplanted cultures, and how to incorporate foreign design language symbols into Chinese design methodology? These are the questions that need to be solved urgently. Harbin s architectural design is not only a display of architectural art, but also a microscopic mirror of the progress of human civilisation and cultural exchange. Through in-depth study of the philosophical thinking, cultural interactions and aesthetic concepts behind its design, we can not only have a better glimpse of the cultural concepts of urban landscape, but also have a deeper understanding of the development of human civilisation and the future direction of Chinese architectural design.

2D/2D Heterojunction of Cobalt‐Iron Selenide Nanolamellas/MXene for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

AbstractElectrochemical water splitting is considered to be a green and flexible strategy for the mass production of hydrogen fuel, while the high cost and insufficent activity of current cathode catalysts severely suffocate the widespread thriving of hydrogen economy. Herein, we present a bottom‐up assembly strategy to the controllable construction of 2D/2D heterojunctions built from cobalt‐iron selenide nanolamellas and Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets. This unique architectural design gives the resulting CoyFe1‐ySe2/Ti3C2Tx catalysts a series of interesting structural advantages, such as 2D/2D heterostructure, large active surface areas, modulated electronic structure, uniform CoyFe1‐ySe2 dispersion, and good electron conductivity, thereby leading to strong synergistic coupling effects. As a consequence, the optimized Co0.7Fe0.3Se2/Ti3C2Tx electrocatalyst with an appropriate Co/Fe ratio possesses unusual hydrogen evolution properties in terms of a low overpotential of 69 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a small Tafel slope of 51 mV dec−1 and reliable long‐term durability, which are more competitive than those of bare Ti3C2Tx, FeSe2 and CoSe catalysts.

The engineering legacy of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM: Al Thumama Stadium

The structures of the Al Thumama Stadium, built for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, can be categorised into four main building components. The permanent bowl structure with lower and middle tiers is mainly cast-in-place reinforced concrete with precast seating units. Structural steel was used for the upper tier stands, to be dismantled for legacy conversion after the tournament. The roof and façade system use steel and cable systems with a unique membrane cladding design derived from the cultural gahfiya symbol. The roof is a self-anchored tension–compression ring system based on the principle of a horizontal spoked wheel, with one compression ring along the outer perimeter and two tension rings along the oculus. The façade consists of lightweight double-layered and prestressed cable nets spanning between curved vertical beams. A translucent polytetrafluoroethylene-coated glass fibre membrane with highly transparent mesh inserts form the cladding of the stadium, providing its unique architectural design. This article gives an overview of the stadium's design and construction methodology.

Development of a Novel Multi-Modal Contextual Fusion Model for Early Detection of Varicella Zoster Virus Skin Lesions in Human Subjects

Skin lesion detection is crucial in diagnosing and managing dermatological conditions. In this study, we developed and demonstrated the potential applicability of a novel mixed-scale dense convolution, self-attention mechanism, hierarchical feature fusion, and attention-based contextual information technique (MSHA) model for skin lesion detection using digital skin images of chickenpox and shingles lesions. The model adopts a combination of unique architectural designs, such as a mixed-scale dense convolution layer, self-attention mechanism, hierarchical feature fusion, and attention-based contextual information, enabling the MSHA model to capture and extract relevant features more effectively for chickenpox and shingles lesion classification. We also implemented an effective training strategy to enhance a better capacity to learn and represent the relevant features in the skin lesion images. We evaluated the performance of the novel model in comparison to state-of-the-art models, including ResNet50, VGG16, VGG19, InceptionV3, and ViT. The results indicated that the MSHA model outperformed the other models with accuracy and loss of 95.0% and 0.104, respectively. Furthermore, it exhibited superior performance in terms of true-positive and true-negative rates while maintaining low-false positive and false-negative rates. The MSHA model’s success can be attributed to its unique architectural design, effective training strategy, and better capacity to learn and represent the relevant features in skin lesion images. The study underscores the potential of the MSHA model as a valuable tool for the accurate and reliable detection of chickenpox and shingles lesions, which can aid in timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment planning for dermatological conditions.

Architectural Design Criteria Considering the Circular Economy and Buildability for Smart Disaster Relief Shelter Prototyping

The frequency of natural disasters is exacerbated by the escalating impacts of climate change with the need for effective relief shelters for victims and displaced individuals. Providing accessible and easy-to-assemble relief shelters is essential in addressing these needs. Due to climate-related challenges and the need for sustainable solutions, the integration of circularity principles in shelter design has become imperative. Circular economy principles promote the efficient use of resources, minimising waste generation and the cost of shelters. Moreover, a considerable number of people usually suffer from homelessness, and an increasing number of families live in slums in every part of the globe. All such people are entitled to be housed in affordable, safe, and appropriate shelters for at least several months after a disaster until they can either rebuild their former houses or find somewhere decent to settle after recovering from the hardship. With the aim of investigating the immediate housing needs of people after a disaster, this paper identifies the essential factors that must be taken into account during shelter design. The paper also presents the prototype developed on the basis of theoretical criteria and the identified factors. The paper’s main objectives were to design an easy-to-assemble emergency shelter on circular economy principles, identify critical factors for the circularity and buildability of the shelter, and present a proposed smart shelter acceptance model. The methodology behind the research involves conducting an intensive literature review and creating a novel prototype of a smart disaster relief shelter on the basis of long-run laboratory work and various prototype iterations. The paper presents the details of the novel prototype and shows materials that enhance the circularity of the shelter, according to a unique architectural design strategy of ‘reusing’ materials to enhance circularity practice in the design and construction sectors. The prototype was developed in a workshop after 6 months of reiterations using plastic water bottles, basic pipes, and other reusable materials. Then, by incorporating the essential factors, a set of criteria was designed that can be used as a guide for the architectural design of shelters. The criteria offered in this paper are useful to evaluate each factor’s importance in shelter design. In total, 51 effective factors in designing and constructing such accommodation are presented, clustered into five design strategy groups: social–cultural, physical–technical, environmental, economic, and organisational.

Nature-inspired architecture combining organic–inorganic frameworks: Unique structure and active sites toward a stable anti-corrosion coating

As a promising technology for material engineering, hybrid organic-inorganic (HOI) materials with a diversity of spatial hierarchical structures have become prospective candidates for cutting-edge applications. In this hot field of hybrid materials, considerable progress has been made in the manufacture of new systems toward large applicability. However, the complex synthesis pathways, stability and durability of such frameworks remain ongoing challenges facing us that seriously hinder the practical viability of this technology. Herein, an effective nest-like network is skillfully designed with both unique architectural design and outstanding structural activity of the self-assembled material resulting from a suitable band-gap configuration. Moreover, the present work put forward how the nest-like network would architecturally upgraded on the pre-existing Al2O3 porous film by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) with the synergy of two organic molecules resulting in a tunable organic-inorganic hybrid material. This study inspired by the natural nest is realized to offer more adsorption and reaction sites in order to meet an excellent anti-corrosion performance, meanwhile achieving outstanding long-term stability. This strategy would open up a whole new possibility of the synergistic effect of two or more molecules for the fabrication of new hybrid materials not only endowed with excellent properties but also with facile synthetic route.

1D-2D hybridization: Nanoarchitectonics for grain boundary-rich platinum nanowires coupled with MXene nanosheets as efficient methanol oxidation electrocatalysts

Although a direct methanol fuel cell with high energy utilization efficiency and low hazardous emission has broad application prospects in various energy-related fields, the insufficient methanol oxidation activity as well as the short service life of the anode catalysts continue to hinder its large-scale commercialization. Herein, we demonstrate a convenient and robust approach for the controllable synthesis of 1D grain boundary-rich Pt nanowires strongly coupled with ultrathin Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets (Pt NWs/MX). Such a unique architectural design endows the heterojunction catalysts with a series of structural merits, including large accessible surface area, stable interconnected Pt networks, numerous grain boundary sites, ameliorative electronic structure, and excellent electron conductivity. Consequently, the optimized Pt NWs/MX catalyst exhibits a unique methanol oxidation performance with a large electrochemically active surface area of 105.5 m2 g−1, a high mass (specific) activity of 1621.5 mA mg−1 (1.6 mA cm−2), as well as superior long-term durability, making it more competitive than conventional Pt nanoparticle/carbon catalysts with the same Pt loading.

Style and meaning in translations of the Qur'anic verb-noun collocations into English

Purpose This paper aims to investigate seven prominent translations of the Qur'anic verb-noun collocations into English (Pickthall, 1930; AL-Hilali and Khan, 1977; Ali, 1934; Arberry, 1955; Shakir, 1999; Sarwar, 1981; Saheeh International, 1997) to unfold their renditions of the style and meaning of such Qur'anic verb-noun collocation into English. Design/methodology/approach The study follows a corpus-based research in a sense that the study is conducted on seven translations of the Noble Qur'an that have been taken form The Qur'anic Arabic Corpus, using linguistic and exegetical analyses. Based on Reiss’ model of text analysis (2000), the author analyses the intralinguistic and extralinguistic features of the Qur'anic verb-noun collocations. Findings Findings reveal that linguistic and exegetical analyses are perquisites for adequate rendition, which prevent deviation in meaning and translation loss. It is also found that Qur'anic collocations use unique literary techniques and devices, which hinder their natural and adequate renditions into English. Originality/value The novelty of this study lies in studying the architectural design of the Qur'anic verb-noun collocations in terms of the unique selection of words and style. Such unique architectural design of such collocations creates monumental hindrances in their rendition into other languages, which have not been given due attention in translation studies.

Towards a high-precision contactless fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication.

The raging COVID-19 pandemic accentuates the urgent and compelling need for non-contact fingerprinting biometric authentication devices to mitigate the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other contagious infections. Current approaches to contactless fingerprinting scanners suffer limitations ranging from poor compatibility with two-dimensional equivalent touch-based fingerprint images to perspective distortions, inconstant resolution, motion blur images and low correlation factors. Herein, these constraints are tackled by implementing a system that enables the positioning of the target finger(s) at fixed vertical and horizontal distances away from the camera lens without the physical contact of the fingers with the device framework during scanning. A high-precision fingerprint pattern recognition of up to 97.51% correlation factor has been achieved, using this contactless method, by varying the background illuminating light and implementing two-dimensional imaging techniques and near-constant resolution. Additionally, a convenient contactless fingerprint acquisition process is reinforced through a unique architectural design.

3D Holey Graphene/Polyacrylonitrile Sulfur Composite Architecture for High Loading Lithium Sulfur Batteries

AbstractLithium sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted considerable interest as next‐generation high‐density energy storage devices. However, their practical application is limited by low capacity and rapid capacity fading at commerical‐level mass loadings, which is largely attributed to the inferior electron/ion conduction, as well as severe the shuttling effect of soluble polysulfide species. To address these issues, a three‐dimensional holey graphene/polyacrylonitrile sulfur (3DHG/PS) composite cathode is developed for high‐mass‐loading Li–S batteries. The unique architectural design with the 3D holey graphene framework ensures fast electron and ion transport within the thick electrode, and affords enough space for mitigating the volume expansion of the electrode. Moreover, in situ Raman results demonstrate that covalent sulfur within 3DHG/PS fundamentally avoids forming soluble lithium polysulfides, which effectively reduces the undesired shuttling effect. With these advantages, the 3DHG/PS cathode exhibits an ultra‐low capacity fading rate of 0.012% per cycle after continuous 1500 cycles, as well as high specific capacity and superior rate capability with a high mass loading of 15.2 mg cm–2, which offers a promising avenue to construct future Li–S batteries with superior performance at mass loadings that exceed commercial levels.

XBlock-EOS: Extracting and exploring blockchain data from EOSIO

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and applications have flourished in blockchain research community. Massive data generated from diverse blockchain systems bring not only huge business values but also technological challenges in data analytics of heterogeneous blockchain data. Different from Bitcoin and Ethereum, EOSIO has richer diversity and a higher volume of blockchain data due to its unique architectural design in resource management, consensus scheme and high throughput. Despite its popularity (e.g., 89,800,000 blocks generated till November 14, 2019 since its launch on June 8, 2018), few studies have been made on data analysis of EOSIO. To fill this gap, we collect and process the up-to-date on-chain data from EOSIO. We name these well-processed EOSIO datasets as XBlock-EOS, which consists of 7 well-processed datasets: (1) Block, Transaction and Action, (2) Internal and External EOS Transfer Action, (3) Contract Information, (4) Contract Invocation, (5) Token Action, (6) Account Creation, (7) Resource Management. It is challenging to process and analyze a high volume of raw EOSIO data and establish the mapping from original raw data to the well-grained datasets since it requires substantial efforts in extracting various types of data as well as sophisticated knowledge on software engineering and data analytics. Meanwhile, we present statistics and exploration on these datasets. Moreover, we also outline the possible research opportunities based on XBlock-EOS.

Highly Efficient Antifouling Coating of Star-Shaped Block Copolymers with Variable Sizes of Hydrophobic Cores and Charge-Neutral Hydrophilic Arms

Star-shaped block copolymers (SPs) have shown promise as antifouling coating materials on water purification membranes. The unique architectural design of these SPs, composed of covalently linked h...

Rational architecture design of yolk/double-shells Si-based anode material with double buffering carbon layers for high performance lithium-ion battery

Among the many strategies to fabricate the silicon/carbon composite, yolk/double-shells structure can be regarded as an effective strategy to overcome the intrinsic defects of Si-based anode materials for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). Hereon, a facile and inexpensive technology to prepare silicon/carbon composite with yolk/double-shells structure is proposed, in which the double buffering carbon shells are fabricated. The silicon/carbon nanoparticles with core–shell structure are encapsulated by SiO2 and external carbon layer, and it shows the yolk/double-shells structure via etching the SiO2 sacrificial layer. The multiply shells structure not only significantly improves the electrical conductivity of composite, but also effectively prevents the exposure of Si particles from the electrolyte composition. Meanwhile, the yolk/double-shells structure can provide enough space to accommodate the volume change of the electrode during charge/discharge process and avoid the pulverization of Si particles. Moreover, the as–prepared YDS-Si/C shows excellent performance as anode of LIBs, the reversible capacity is as high as 1066 mA h g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A g−1 after 200 cycles. At the same time, the YDS-Si/C has high capacity retention and good cyclic stability. Therefore, the unique architecture design of yolk/double-shells for Si/C composite provides an instructive exploration for the development of next generation anode materials of LIBs with high electrochemical performances and structural stability.

A Research on the Architectural Design and its Implementing of Dong Nationality in Northern Guangxi

The traditional architecture of national minorities is the phenomenon of national culture. Under the long history of history, each nation has a unique traditional architectural design and style. They are the treasures of Chinese nation. Dong architecture is one of the most classic type in Chinese minority architecture. Dong people take advantages of their natural and geographical conditionals to build unique all-wood architecture. Its unique architectural design is the embodiment of traditional Chinese excellent cultural heritage and the carrier of humanistic spirit. This paper mainly takes the Dong architectures in northern Guangxi as research objects, by analyzing the architecture modeling, inner building structures and building materials of the drum building, the wind and rain bridge and the dry-column style residential building, to display the creation of Dong architectural mode, and hope to provide some practical experiences for the construction of buildings with certain national characteristics.

A Research on the Architectural Design and its Implementing of Dong Nationality in Northern Guangxi

The traditional architecture of national minorities is the phenomenon of national culture. Under the long history of history, each nation has a unique traditional architectural design and style. They are the treasures of Chinese nation. Dong architecture is one of the most classic type in Chinese minority architecture. Dong people take advantages of their natural and geographical conditionals to build unique all-wood architecture. Its unique architectural design is the embodiment of traditional Chinese excellent cultural heritage and the carrier of humanistic spirit. This paper mainly takes the Dong architectures in northern Guangxi as research objects, by analyzing the architecture modeling, inner building structures and building materials of the drum building, the wind and rain bridge and the dry-column style residential building, to display the creation of Dong architectural mode, and hope to provide some practical experiences for the construction of buildings with certain national characteristics.

Sociocultural concepts for the Chinese settlement resilience in Lasem

This paper presents the resilience phenomenon of Chinese Settlement that faces the political policies and economic activities in Lasem. The political and economic conditions that have lasted for centuries do not influenced the resilience of the culture and architecture of Lasem Chinese Settlement. The resilience of Lasem Chinese Settlement is reflected in several temples with their original and unique architectural design that has been around for hundreds of years. They become artefacts that remain resistant to change and have their own meaning for Lasem Chinese community. The purpose of this study is to determine the resilience phenomenon of Lasem Chinese Settlement. This research is expected to provide knowledge about the activities, functions, and values of space and form that play a role in maintaining human existence as its inhabitants. This study employed a qualitative approach that was based on the naturalistic paradigm with an inductive method. The end of the research conclusion was to build local knowledge from the field of study. The result of the research showed that the Chinese Settlement was able to adjust to the political and economic development. The resilience of space and form of Lasem Chinese Settlement can be viewed by the ability of settlement, public and religious spaces in maintaining human existence as its inhabitants. The resilience grows from the socio-cultural values and gives Lasem city sense of place and local identification that remains resistance.

Enhanced Cycling Performance of Lithium Metal Batteries By Separator Architecture Design

Lithium (Li) metal anode has attracted renewed research interests due to its high specific capacity (3860 mAh/g vs 360 mAh/g of a graphite anode) and the lowest negative potential (-3.04V vs the standard hydrogen electrode), which allows Li metal batteries to achieve high energy density when paired with the sulfur or air cathode. However, Li metal anode has safety issues and severe capacity fading. In this report, we will present a facile technique by simply adding a nano-structured interlayer onto the commercial polypropylene separator (PP) to create a composite architecture (AP). By using Li-Li symmetric cells, we will demonstrate the superior performance of AP. This unique architecture design of separator provides new insights for rechargeable lithium metal batteries, which are aimed at high energy density and cycling efficiency.

Superior Li-ion storage of VS4 nanowires anchored on reduced graphene.

Research on VS4 is lagging due to the difficulty in its tailored synthesis. Herein, unique architecture design of one-dimensional VS4 nanowires anchored on reduced graphene oxide is demonstrated via a facile solvothermal synthesis. Different amounts of reduced graphene oxide with VS4 are synthesized and compared regarding their rate capability and cycling stability. Among them, VS4 nanowires@15 wt% reduced graphene oxide present the best electrochemical performance. The superior performance is attributed to the optimal amount of reduced graphene oxide and one-dimensional VS4 nanowires based on (i) the large surface area that could accommodate volume changes, (ii) enhanced accessibility of the electrolyte, and (iii) improvement in electrical conductivity. In addition, kinetic parameters derived from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy spectra and sweep rate dependent cyclic voltammetry curves such as charge transfer resistances and Li+ ion apparent diffusion coefficients both support this claim. The diffusion coefficient is calculated to be 1.694 × 10-12 cm2 s-1 for VS4 nanowires/15 wt% reduced graphene oxide, highest among all samples.

NiCo2S4 Nanorod Arrays Supported on Carbon Textile as a Free‐Standing Electrode for Stable and Long‐Life Lithium‐Oxygen Batteries

AbstractDesigning and constructing an effective and efficient oxygen electrode plays a pivotal role in the successful development of lithium‐oxygen (Li−O2) batteries. Herein, NiCo2S4 nanorod arrays directly grown on carbon textile (R‐NCS/CT) is successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal route and systematically studied for the first time as a free‐standing electrode in Li−O2 electrochemical systems. The R‐NCS/CT based Li−O2 battery achieves a low charge overpotential (1.17 V), a high discharge capacity (4506 mA h g−1), and improved cycle life (500 cycles). These improvements can be attributed to both, the unique architecture design of the electrodes for facilitating the rapid oxygen diffusion and electrolyte penetration and superior activity of oxygen electrode kinetics of NiCo2S4 nanorods. To some extent, the optimization of the catalyst composition and design of the electrode structures provide a guidance for further development of more stable and efficient cathodes for Li−O2 batteries.

Synergistically enhanced lithium storage performance based on titanium carbide nanosheets (MXene) backbone and SnO2 quantum dots

Titanium carbide MXene (Ti3C2Tx) possesses a metallic conductivity and an opened nanostructure, being an ideal host for transition metal oxide (TMO) to construct advanced lithium-ion battery anodes. However, Ti3C2Tx is prone to be oxidized under hydrothermal treatment, which limits the growth of TMO/MXene composites through a wet-chemistry approach. Here, we take advantage of the strong electrostatic interaction between SnO2 quantum dots (QDs) and delaminated Ti3C2Tx to protect the latter from oxidation under the hydrothermal condition. The in-situ heterogeneously nucleated SnO2 QDs are tightly anchored on the Ti3C2Tx nanosheets, while the Ti3C2Tx nanosheets effectively limit the growth/aggregation of SnO2. Further freeze-drying of the colloidal mixture results in the SnO2 QDs@Ti3C2Tx composite with conductive Ti3C2Tx nanosheets as backbone, which displays a high specific surface area and abundant voids. The unique architecture design renders SnO2 QDs@Ti3C2Tx a high capacity (1021 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 in the 2.6 mg cm−2 electrode) and long lifetime performance, which maintains 810 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles (100 mA g−1), 697 mAh g−1 after 520 cycles (200 mA g−1) and 500 mAh g−1 after 700 cycles (at 500 mA g−1). More importantly, this wet-chemistry/freeze-drying approach is general, and can be extended to other TMOs and MXenes to fabricate corresponding TMO QDs/MXene composites for various applications.