Showing papers on "Architecture published in 2004"

Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing

Abstract: Digital Ground is an architect's response to the design challenge posed by pervasive computing. One century into the electronic age, people have become accustomed to interacting indirectly, mediated through networks. But now as digital technology becomes invisibly embedded in everyday things, even more activities become mediated, and networks extend rather than replace architecture. The young field of interaction design reflects not only how people deal with machine interfaces but also how people deal with each other in situations where interactivity has become ambient. It shifts previously utilitarian digital design concerns to a cultural level, adding notions of premise, appropriateness, and appreciation. Malcolm McCullough offers an account of the intersections of architecture and interaction design, arguing that the ubiquitous technology does not obviate the human need for place. His concept of "digital ground" expresses an alternative to anytime-anyplace sameness in computing; he shows that context not only shapes usability but ideally becomes the subject matter of interaction design and that "environmental knowing" is a process that technology may serve and not erode. Drawing on arguments from architecture, psychology, software engineering, and geography, writing for practicing interaction designers, pervasive computing researchers, architects, and the general reader on digital culture, McCullough gives us a theory of place for interaction design. Part I, "Expectations," explores our technological predispositions -- many of which ("situated interactions") arise from our embodiment in architectural settings. Part II, "Technologies," discusses hardware, software, and applications, including embedded technology ("bashing the desktop"), and building technology genres around life situations. Part III, "Practices," argues for design as a liberal art, seeing interactivity as a cultural -- not only technological -- challenge and a practical notion of place as essential. Part IV, "Epilogue," acknowledges the epochal changes occurring today, and argues for the role of "digital ground" in the necessary adaptation.

An architectural approach to autonomic computing

Abstract: We describe an architectural approach to achieving the goals of autonomic computing. The architecture that we outline describes interfaces and behavioral requirements for individual system components, describes how interactions among components are established, and recommends design patterns that engender the desired system-level properties of self-configuration, self-optimization, self-healing and self-protection. We have validated many of these ideas in two prototype autonomic computing systems.

Performative Architecture: Beyond Instrumentality

Abstract: Architecture's unscripted performance / David Leatherbarrow -- Product and process : performance-based architecture / Andrew Whalley -- Sustainable design : an American perspective / Mahadev Raman -- Biotechniques : remarks on the intensity of conditioning / William Braham -- Performance form / Thomas Herzog -- Performance simulation : research and tools / Ali M. Malkawi -- A framework for rational building performance dialogues / Godfried Augenbroe -- Engineering complexity : performance-based design in use / Craig Schwitter -- Engineering in a performative environment / Jean-Francois Blassel -- Non-standard structural design for non-standard architecture / Harald Kloft -- Communicative display skin for buildings : Bix at the Kunsthaus Graz / Jan Edler -- The structure of vagueness / Lars Spuybroeck -- Performativity : beyond efficiency and optimization in architecture / Ali Rahim -- Computing the performative / Branko Kolarevic -- Towards the performative in architecture / Branko Kolarevic -- Performance (and performers) : in search of direction (and a director) / Peter McCleary -- Conceptual performativity -- Operative performativity.

The Philosophy of Sustainable Design: The Future of Architecture

Abstract: "Philosophy, Evolution and Principles of Sustainable Design A Brief Survey of Green Building Technologies and Components of Sustainable Design Shades of Green - the Levels of Sustainability Productivity and Wellbeing Greening your Organisation Green Economics Aesthetics of Sustainable Design The Future of Architecture"

Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production

Abstract: In this long-awaited work, Dalibor Vesely proposes an alternative to the narrow vision of contemporary architecture as a discipline that can be treated as an instrument or commodity. In doing so, he offers nothing less than an account of the ontological and cultural foundations of modern architecture and, consequently, of the nature and cultural role of architecture through history. Vesely's argument, structured as a critical dialogue, discovers the first plausible anticipation of modernity in the formation of Renaissance perspective. Understanding this notion of perspective against the background of the medieval philosophy of light, he argues, leads to an understanding of architectural space as formed by typical human situations and by light before it is structured geometrically. The central part of the book addresses the question of divided representation--the tension between the instrumental and the communicative roles of architecture--in the period of the baroque, when architectural thinking was seriously challenged by the emergence of modern science.Vesely argues that to resolve the dilemma of modernity-- reconciling the inventions and achievements of modern technology with the human condition and the natural world--we can turn to architecture and its latent capacity to reconcile different levels of reality, its ability to relate abstract ideas and conceptual structures to the concrete situations of everyday life. Vesely sees the restoration of this communicative role of architecture as the key to the restoration of architecture as the topological and corporeal foundation of culture; what the book is to our literacy, he argues, architecture is to culture as a whole. He concludes by proposing a new poetics of architecture that will serve as a framework for the restoration of the humanistic role of architecture in the age of technology.

An Introduction to Model Driven Architecture - Part 1; MDA and Today's Systems

Abstract: on Model Driven Architecture (MDA) 1 as an approach to application design and implementation. This is a very positive development for several reasons. MDA encourages efficient use of system models in the software development process, and it supports reuse of best practices when creating families of systems. As defined by the Object Management Group (OMG), MDA is a way to organize and manage enterprise architectures supported by automated tools and services for both defining the models and facilitating transformations between different model types.

AcmeStudio: supporting style-centered architecture development

Abstract: Software architectural modeling is crucial to the development of high-quality software. Tool support is required for this activity, so that models can be developed, viewed, analyzed, and refined to implementations. This support needs to be provided in a flexible and extensible manner so that the tools can fit into a company's process and can use particular, perhaps company-defined, domain-specific architectural styles. In this research demonstration, we describe AcmeStudio, a style-neutral architecture development environment that can be easily specialized for architectural design in different domains.

NOX: Machining Architecture

Abstract: Rotterdam-based NOX, run by Lars Spuybroek, is the most important digital architecture studio in Europe. This major publication serves as a manifesto of the next techniques in digital design; a manual of instruction, showing how complex spaces can actually be built; and a monograph of NOX's complete output. An introduction by Spuybroek explains the background to his thinking and his general approach to architecture. The book is divided into three essential elements: documentation of NOX's oeuvre, including built and unbuilt work, some twenty-three projects in total; essays by leading lights in design and cultural criticism who are carrying out research in the area of architecture and the computer - Manuel Delanda, Brian Massumi, Detlef Mertins, Andrew Benjamin and Arjen Mulder; and explanatory texts by Spuybroek that link the projects together and give clear, step-by-step descriptions of his design methodologies. Many of the illustrations in the book have been specially created, making accessible for the first time the complex strategies and techniques employed by Spuybroek. This in turn will make the publication an invaluable resource for students and practising designers looking

Environmental Diversity in Architecture

Abstract: Part 1: Introduction 1. Environmental Diversity in Architecture Part 2 Framework 2. Social, Architectural and Environmental Convergence 3. The Ambiguity of Intentions 4. Human Nature 5. Designing Diverse Lifetimes for Evolving Buildings Part 3: Urban 6. Urban Diversity 7. Outdoor Comfort 8. Intermediate Environments 9. The Reverential Acoustic Part 4: Interior 10. Environmental Diversity and Natural Lighting Strategies 11. Daylight Perception 12. Exploring Thermal Comfort and Spatial Diversity Part 5: Design 13. Experiencing Climate: Architecture and Environmental Diversity

Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America

Abstract: 1. Introduction: The Paradoxes of Sustainable Architecture 2. Re-Interpreting Green Design: Beyond Performance and Ideology 3. Theory, Practice, and Proof: Learning from 'Buildings that Teach' 4. The Social Construction of 'Green Building' Codes: Competing Models by Industry, Government, and NGOs 5. The Politics of Design in Cities: Preconceptions, Frameworks and Trajectories of Sustainable Building 6. Equal Couples in Equal Houses: Cultural Perspectives on Swedish Solar and Bio-Pellet Heating Design 7. Safe Houses and Green Architecture: Reflections on the Lessons of the Chemically Sensitive 8. Revaluing Wood 9. Policing Sustainability: Strategies Towards a Sustainable Architecture in Norway 10. Green Buildings in Denmark - From Radical Ecology to Consumer-oriented Market Approaches? 11. Leaky Walls: Challenges to Sustainable Practices in Post-Disaster Communities. 12. Social Research on Energy-Efficient Building Technologies: Towards a Sociotechnical Integration 13. Conclusion. Reflections and Engagement: Towards Pluralists Practices of Sustainable Architecture

ISO quality standards for measuring architectures

Abstract: The main concern of this paper is measuring the quality of the architectural design. The goal of this work is to use the architectural design process proposed in the unified process framework, adapting and detailing it to include the quality requirements specification at architectural level. There is general agreement on the fact that in modern applications the selection of the architecture must be addressed early in the development process, to mitigate risks. Moreover, the integration of enterprise applications is a component-based development requiring quality values associated to the services offered by the components. The services depend mostly on the architecture. In consequence, methods arise for guiding the selection or for constructing software architectures. Our approach allows associating the quality requirements (nonfunctional properties) for the architecture expressed using the ISO 9126-1 standard quality model, with the use cases, to facilitate the selection of the “key” use cases. Measures for the architecture's quality characteristics are specified in details, precising attributes, units, numerical systems and scale types. A case study of a real-time application for monitoring stock exchanges illustrates our approach. We hope that our results will be particularly useful for practitioners, such as software architects, analysts and designers.

Architecture for Implementing the Mobile Government Services in Korea

Abstract: Each nation’s architecture for the m-Government including Korea’s is being laid out somewhat differently according to its strategy, approach, and its own structural conditions and challenges. Despite such differences, all of them are making numerous efforts to establish the advanced service architecture for the m-Government. In the meantime, they are confused in securing and managing strategic resources which are needed to create constant mobile values, diversifying wired and wireless connection sections, and dealing with technological complexities and differences in various kinds of mobile technologies. Therefore, this study proposes the m-Government service architecture, which can effectively provide nationwide m-Governmental services. It also defines key components of the m-Government service architecture and specific characteristics of applied technologies.

Simulation of Imagined Realities: Environmental Design Decision Support Tools in Architecture

Abstract: The spur for this research was a lack of use by architecture practitioners of the environmental design decision support tools (eddst’s) they learn to use during their education. It was hypothesised that lessons for the improvement of eddst’s could be found in a systematic examination of the problems encountered by design teams with a range of currently available eddst’s. The research plan was to establish through surveys and case studies how practising architects who have tried to use building eddst’s assess the effectiveness of these tools. A range of different types of eddst was examined, each addressing a different aspect of the environment in buildings. The research did not achieve its original goal of developing a formula for the generation of new eddst’s for architects in the fields of building acoustics, lighting, thermal design and aerodynamics. What was found is a more fundamental common denominator underlying building design eddst’s: the need for built-in Quality Assurance measures that assure not only the architect, but also the simulationist and the client of the reality of the ebuilding performance predictions. It was found that contrary to their general reputation, designers do want detailed quantitative environmental information. They want to be able to discuss costs and benefits of decisions. However, they also want to be able to understand and trust this information. The output from eddst’s must therefore also be qualitative in the sense that it communicates the quality of life resulting from a design decision. What is proposed therefore for designers and simulationists is Quality Assurance (QA) procedures that are codified and incorporated into the design tools themselves. These are to ensure that the ‘black box’ of a digital simulation of building performance yields information that designers feel they can trust. The research demonstrates that to address the issues identified in the practitioner surveys, a Quality Control (QC) reality test is the single most important feature needed in any QA process. This would be a reality test that examines whether the ebuildings constructed with an eddst behave in a believable manner - like a ‘real’ building. The proposed Simulation QA (SimQA) approach is an internet web service. It is a database of the databases available on the internet of Quality Assured performance data. Each time a person sets up a new Quality tested eddst input file or measures a building, it becomes another “data point” - another database listed in the SimQA metadata. Also required in a robust QA process is the development of international norms for the simulation of building performance. www.aecsimqa.net is proposed as the venue for the development of an international documentation standard for simulation. Finally, modern computer-based building performance simulation has not rid the design profession of its traditional problem with design tools: that they evaluate completed designs. The proposed database will make web-accessible a set of tested building designs and their associated performance measures. Placed at the designer’s fingertips this will reveal insights into how their current building design should perform. It should be possible to generate initial design ideas based on systematic study of the successful precedents!

Virtual Spiral Architecture.

Abstract: Spiral Architecture is a relative new and powerful approach to machine vision system. The geometrical arrangement of pixels on Spiral architecture can be described in terms of a hexagonal grid. However, all the existing hardware for capturing image and for displaying image are produced based on rectangular architecture. It has become a serious problem affecting the advanced research on Spiral Architecture. In this paper, a novel mimic Spiral Architecture called virtual Spiral Architecture is presented. Using virtual Spiral Architecture, images on rectangular architecture can be smoothly transferred to hexagonal architecture. Moreover, such mimicking operation does not introduce distortion and reduce image resolution, which is an advantage over other mimicking methods. There is no doubt that virtual architecture will be helpful to research on Spiral Architecture and other hexagonal architectures.

The Rise of the Middle and the Future of End-to-End: Reflections on the Evolution of the Internet Architecture

Abstract: The end-to-end principle is the core architectural guideline of the Internet. In this document, we briefly examine the development of the end-to-end principle as it has been applied to the Internet architecture over the years. We discuss current trends in the evolution of the Internet architecture in relation to the end-to-end principle, and try to draw some conclusion about the evolution of the end-to-end principle, and thus for the Internet architecture which it supports, in light of these current trends.

Pricing and architecture of the Internet: Historical perspectives from telecommunications and transportation

Abstract: With telecommunications in a slump, the search is on for ways to re-invigorate this key industry. The main problems are clearly economic much more than technological, and many of the proposed remedies would lead to new architectures for the Internet that would provide for greater control by carriers. They would drastically reduce the role of the end-to-end principle, the main foundation for the success of the Internet, in which functionality resides at the edges of the network. The proposals to restrict voice over Internet (VoIP) are just one part of this trend. Historical precedents from telecommunications for introduction of differentiated services and sophisticated charging methods on the Internet are discouraging. The general trend has been towards decreasing price discrimination and simpler pricing. The history of transportation presents a different picture, with frequent movements towards increasing price discrimination and more complicated pricing (although with many noteworthy reversals). Charging according to the nature of the goods being transported has been and continues to be the norm. Since the incentives to price discriminate are increasing, and the ability to do so is also growing, it is conceivable that telecommunications might break with its historical record and follow the example of transportation. It is therefore of interest to examine the evolution of pricing and quality differentiation in transportation. Some historical sketches on the evolution of pricing in transportation are presented. Their implications for telecommunications, and especially for Internet pricing and architecture, are discussed.

Architecture of Institution & Home. Architecture as Cultural Medium

Abstract: This dissertation addresses how architecture functions as a cultural medium. It does so by by investigating how the architecture of institution and home each construct and support different cultural practices. By studying the design of ordinary settings in terms of how qualitative differences in architectural environments affect those who use them, this study exemplifies architectural research directed toward constructive cultural change. In the United States, ordinary people often describe housing as in a spectrum from homey to institutional. For example, hospitals are more institutional and less homey than apartment buildings, but apartment buildings are more institutional and less homey than single family detached dwelling. This dissertation examines the terms institution and home, exploring the hypothesis that they form an oppositional pair. The two ideas are studied from many different perspectives: The way that ordinary people evaluate photographic images in semantic differential and free sort studies is compared to architectural form as documented in sketches, words, photographs, inventory and plan. Analyses reveal that different housing types reflect different degrees and kinds of domesticity and institutionality. The investigations pertaining to this were completed during the 12-year period (1981- 1993), and followed by Phase 3, substantiating research concluded in 1996. Motivated by the normalization principle, that citizens with disabilities have the right to dwellings as similar as possible to that of society's mainstream, the Phase 1 studies (1981-84) developed guidelines for the alternative housing for disabled adults, including a checklist of architectural features. Phase 2 (1984-86, explored the lay understanding of institution, home, and other related qualities, tested the validity of the checklist guidelines and refined measures for home-likeness and institutionality in living rooms. In addition to normalization, several other theoretical positions inform this work. Architecture is conceived as a cultural medium that communicates cultural ideas, attitudes and expectations thereby tending to produce patterns of behavior. Culture is seen as a shared and evolving vision of the world manifested directly in behavior and indirectly in artifacts. Culture is understood as produced in its practice, being a collective process that evolves or changes as particular practices are discontinued, modified or replaced. A first corollary to the conception of architecture as a cultural medium is the conception of architecture as a medium for conscious cultural change. If culture is produced through practice, then it is susceptible to change by conscious practices as well as by unconscious ones. From this perspective, when applied to the design of buildings, normalization or deinstitutionalization can be seen as an intended cultural change, although not fully conscious. For cultural change to be fully conscious, the change must be well considered, with clear identification of both the change that is needed and the method of change. Furthermore, in order to be what is here called conscious cultural change, the change not only needs to be implemented, but also evaluated and adjusted. A second corollary to the conception of architecture as a cultural medium is the implementation of an architectural reception theory. In addition to considering the design and making of an artifact, reception theory emphasizes how it functions socially and symbolically for the people who experience it. This research addresses how the design of different residential settings affects the people who will use and inhabit them.

Becket’s Crown: Art and Imagination in Gothic England 1170–1300

Abstract: To appreciate England's earliest Gothic buildings and art - the great cathedrals at Canterbury, Lincoln, Salisbury, and Wells and contemporary Gothic texts and images - it is necessary to understand the religious and ethical ideals of the individuals and communities who sponsored them. Paul Binski's fascinating new book offers a radical new perspective on English art, architecture, social formation, and religious imagination during this pivotal period. Binski reveals that the Church, although authoritarian and undergoing reform, was able to come to terms with new developments in society and technology as well as with the fact of social and religious diversity. He explains how varying ideals of personal sanctity were bound up with radical new notions of leadership, personal ethics, and styles of religious devotion and how ideas of reform of worship, personal conduct, and art impacted on the community at large.

Architecture, Technology and Process

Abstract: This new selection of essays follows Chris Abel's previous best selling collection, Architecture and Identity. Drawing upon a wide range of knowledge and disciplines, the author argues that, underlying technological changes in the process of architectural production are fundamental changes in the way we think about machines and the world we live in.Key topics include: new patterns of urbanism in the fast growing cities of asia pacific; metaphorical extensions of mind and body in cyberspace; the divergent European and North American values shaping Sir Norman Foster's and Frank Gehry's work, and the collaborative work methods and technologies creating the adaptable design pratices of today.

Towards biomimetic architecture.

Abstract: Building shapes are making exciting departures from the rectilinear boxes that have dominated in architectural history, leading people to draw similes with the natural world. But there is the potential for architects to learn more deeply from nature, and use biomimetic materials and technologies in improved buildings for the future.

An alternative architecture for financial data integration

Abstract: Exploring a new paradigm for mediated data integration.

Archispeak: An Illustrated Guide to Architectural Terms

Abstract: Widely used in architectural circles in the heat of discussion, the recurrent use of particular words and terms has evolved into a language of design jargon. Commonly found in architectural literature and journalism, in critical design debate and especially in student project reviews, Archispeak can seem insular and perplexing to others and -- particularly to the new architectural student -- often incomprehensible.There is a need to translate architectural design concepts into spoken and written commentary -- each word in use embodying a precise and universally accepted architectural meaning. If we explore the vocabulary of this language we gain insight into good design practice and into collective understanding of what constitutes a refined architecture. This unique illustrated guide will help students understand the nuances of this specialized language and help them in communicating their own design ideas.