Showing papers on "Architecture published in 2006"

A framework for distributed digital object services

Abstract: The following paper was written by the authors over a period of approximately 16 months during the period November 1993 to May 1995 in an attempt to explore a set of open research issues and to integrate them with certain ideas of a small group of researchers who had been briefed on the notions inherent in the Digital Object Architecture that one of the authors (Kahn) had been developing at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). This research group had been organized by CNRI as part of its "Computer Science Technical Reports" (CSTR) project that was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The CSTR project had several objectives, of which one was to digitize existing collections of technical reports from five leading computer science departments at universities in the U.S and make the reports available on the Internet. A second objective was to fund research at these institutions on digital libraries, especially research that made good use of their local collections. A third objective was to link heterogeneous electronic libraries, such as were being developed in the program. The difficulties inherent in this third objective ultimately led to this paper. In particular, the motivation arose from a set of concerns first expressed by these researchers at a meeting at CNRI on October 25, 1993 when the Digital Object Architecture was first presented to the research group by Kahn. In the discussion that resulted, many issues emerged, some of which we ultimately decided must be resolved in any architecture, and some of which-perhaps just as crucially-could be deferred for the time being. For example, questions arose about the role of semantics in identifiers; we decided to address them early on. Another issue that proved controversial was how to deal with situations in which the digital objects were actually mobile programs in the network. Since a digital object could contain other digital objects, this led directly to the notion of a mobile repository. The basic question was how best to describe this kind of situation and explain how to access information that was not at a known specific location or IP address on the net. We decided not to cover this aspect of the architecture in the interest of getting closure on the paper. A critical part of this effort was dealing with various intellectual property issues; and the architecture was designed to take this important aspect into account. We were fortunate to have the help of Ms. Patrice Lyons, an experienced intellectual property lawyer, in the formulation of certain key elements of the architecture dealing with terms and conditions for access to information, and in the drafting of the paper. Although her name does not appear on the paper, her insights and contributions played an important role in the preparation of the paper. One key component of the architecture is a general-purpose resolution system, known as the Handle System®, an implementation of which has been operational on the Internet since 1994. At present, close to 50 million identifiers are assigned to digital objects and resolvable by the system, which has been available 7x24 for many years. It is anticipated that the number of resolvable identifiers in the system will grow rapidly and could easily exceed a billion in the not too distant future.

The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft

Abstract: Honorable Mention, 2008 Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award presented by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. and 2007 Winner of the Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award at University of Southern California. As we spend more and more of our time staring at the screens of movies, televisions, computers, and handheld devices--"windows" full of moving images, texts, and icons--how the world is framed has become as important as what is in the frame. In The Virtual Window, Anne Friedberg examines the window as metaphor, as architectural component, and as an opening to the dematerialized reality we see on the screen. In De pictura (1435), Leon Battista Alberti famously instructed painters to consider the frame of the painting as an open window. Taking Alberti's metaphor as her starting point, Friedberg tracks shifts in the perspectival paradigm as she gives us histories of the architectural window, developments in glass and transparency, and the emerging apparatuses of photography, cinema, television, and digital imaging. Single-point perspective--Alberti's metaphorical window--has long been challenged by modern painting, modern architecture, and moving-image technologies. And yet, notes Friedberg, for most of the twentieth century the dominant form of the moving image was a single image in a single frame. The fractured modernism exemplified by cubist painting, for example, remained largely confined to experimental, avant-garde work. On the computer screen, however, where multiple "windows" coexist and overlap, perspective may have met its end. In this wide-ranging book, Friedberg considers such topics as the framed view of the camera obscura, Le Corbusier's mandates for the architectural window, Eisenstein's opinions on the shape of the movie screen, and the multiple images and nested windows commonly displayed on screens today. The Virtual Window proposes a new logic of visuality, framed and virtual: an architecture not only of space but of time.

The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War

Abstract: In times of conflict, buildings are inevitably damaged or destroyed. But there has always been another war against architecture: the destruction of the built artefacts of a people or nation as a means of cultural cleansing or division. In this war, architecture takes on a totemic quality: a mosque is not simply a mosque but represents the presence of a community. A library or an art gallery is a cache of cultural memory ? evidence of the reality of that community?s history that extends and legitimizes it in the present. Even office buildings may acquire powerful symbolic value: this was brought home with singular force by the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York. In The Destruction of Memory, Robert Bevan examines both the effects of conflict on architecture over the last century and also examples throughout history: from the conflict between Islam and Hinduism in India and the razing of Aztec cities by Cortez to the Holocaust and the Chinese destruction of Tibetan Lhasa. A notable example from more recent times is the terrorist activities in the former Yugoslavia. Incidents discussed include the bombing of Dubrovnik; the destruction of the iconic bridge at Mostar; and the blackened leaves of priceless books floating down over Sarajevo after the National Library was shelled. Robert Bevan argues that these were not ?collateral damage?, as some might claim: they were deliberate acts of destruction, an attack not only on the architecture, but also the cultural memory of a nation.

Describing the changes in architectural information technology to understand design complexity and free-form architectural expression

Abstract: The key question arising in this paper, is how our currently ubiquitous and pervasive information and communication technologies (ICT) has throughout the years managed architectural design information and how has that affected architectural design, in which building geometry has mainly been studied. The evolution of computer-aided design (CAD) is used as the "backbone" for the assumptions made. The focus area of this paper is CAD and more widely digital ICT within the architecture, engineering and construction field (AEC), its development and available computer-aided design tools throughout the last 30 - 40 years. Architectural design is discussed in this paper from the viewpoint of complex design and construction projects and therefore the more complex information structures used in contemporary design and construction. Complexity has also resulted in a more complex, curved and "free" architectural building geometry, which has been enabled by modern CAD-tools. The main conclusion is, that information and communication technology has indeed enabled us to manage more complex building projects better and more comprehensively than earlier, and also more complex architectural expression can therefore be used in contemporary construction. Building product modelling (building information modelling, BIM) has been proposed to be a suitable method to manage all design and construction issues within current IT-oriented building projects and process environments. Product modelling is seen as a natural step in the evolution of ICT. Building product modelling is regarded in this paper to be a promising method to increase our ability to manage some more vague building and design criteria, such as design richness or even overall building quality. This paper is related to the authors' post-graduate studies on architectural design, environment changes and building product modelling in Helsinki University of Technology.

The Architecture of Happiness

Abstract: What makes a house beautiful? Is it serious to spend your time thinking about home decoration? Why do people disagree about taste? And can buildings make us happy? In "The Architecture of Happiness", Alain de Botton tackles a relationship central to our lives. Our buildings - and the objects we fill them with - affect us more profoundly than we might think. To take architecture seriously is to accept that we are, for better and for worse, different people in different places. De Botton suggests that it is architecture's task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be. Turning the spotlight from the humble terraced house to some of the world's most renowned buildings, de Botton considers how our private homes and public edifices - from those of Christopher Wren to those of Le Corbusier and Norman Foster - influence how we feel, as well as how we could learn to build in ways that would increase our chances of happiness. "The Architecture of Happiness" amounts to a beguiling tour through the philosophy and psychology of architecture.

Strategies for Sustainable Architecture

Abstract: Filling a gap in existing literature on sustainable design, this new guide introduces and illustrates sustainable design principles through detailed case studies of sustainable buildings in Europe, North America and Australia. The guide will provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the design issues involved in delivering sustainable buildings, and giving detailed description of the process of integrating principles into practice. Approximately one hundred case studies of sixty buildings, ranging from small dwellings to large commercial buildings, and drawn from a range of countries, demonstrate best current practice. The sections of the book are divided into design issues relating to sustainable development, including site and ecology, community and culture, health, materials, energy and water. With over 400 illustrations, this highly visual guide will be an invaluable reference to all those concerned with architecture and sustainability issues.

Static and dynamic

Abstract: Contemporary architectural discourse seems dominated by largely unbuilt projects said to be concerned with process, dynamism, unpredictability, self-organisation, flexibility…‘change’ generally. At the same time, the general media is dominated by the notion of change: changing oneself through diet, through lotteries, through education and personal development, or securing oneself against change through insurance or superannuation. James Gleick in Fastersuggests a technology driven acceleration of ‘stuff’ in our lives, and contra-indicatively, a ‘slow’ movement has also developed to combat this intensity, most notably in slow food. This is also present in architecture, in the reactionary return to the drawing as a legacy technology, after the computer takeover. Thinking about the last 300 years, or even history generally, time has always been the continuum in which people have lived their lives and change is the most obvious manifestation of time. Because our lives are so ‘now’, it must be part of the human condition to become increasingly preoccupied with change as we age. Thinking about this preoccupation with change in architecture, perhaps there is no real acceleration of change, but rather the access that computers have given us to represent change in different media seems to give the designer the ability of ‘engaging’ it. For landscape architecture, the notion and term ‘change’ is fundamental to the definition of the discipline, and is often cited as its raison d’etre. In the postwar period in English-speaking landscape architecture texts, there are three main contexts in which this pivotal role of change in landscape architecture is discussed: its design palette of changeable things, its connection to a changing landscape and its apparent dynamism in contrast to a static architecture. The palette argument goes that, because landscape architecture has grown out of gardening (via a circuitous route) its basic materiality comprises things that change, most obviously plant material. Both the qualities and form of plants change as they grow: they are different now than they will be at maturity. This argument is fundamentally materialistic. After noting this ‘changeability’ of the material (plants), the use of that material tends to be substituted into an architectonic formal surface. This view was articulated with sophistication by modernist American landscape architect James Rose. This view of change sees a tree as a regularly growing tree circle on the page, rather than an organism transforming over its life, which may be chaotic and varied, and plagued by catastrophes.

An Architecture for Provenance Systems

Abstract: This document covers the logical and process architectures of provenance systems. The logical architecture identifies key roles and their interactions, whereas the process architecture discusses distribution and security. A fundamental aspect of our presentation is its technology-independent nature, which makes it reusable: the principles that are exposed in this document may be applied to different technologies.

Internet 3.0: Ten Problems with Current Internet Architecture and Solutions for the Next Generation

Abstract: The basic ideas of the Internet architecture were developed 30+ years ago. In these 30 years, we have learnt a lot about networking and packet switching. Is this the way we would design the Internet if we were to start it now? This paper is an attempt to answer this question raised by US National Science Foundation, which has embarked on the design of the next generation Internet called GENI. In this paper, we point out key problems with the current Internet Architecture and propose directions for the solutions. We propose a general architectural framework for the next generation Internet, which we call Internet 3.0. The next generation Internet should be secure. It should allow business to set their boundaries and enforce their policies inside their boundaries. It should allow governments to set rules that protect their citizens on the Internet the same way they protect them on other means of transports. It should allow receivers to set policies for how and where they receive their information. They should have freedom to select their names, IDs and addresses with as little centralized control as possible. The architecture should be general enough to allow different governments to have different rules. Information transport architecture should provide at least as much control and freedom as the goods transport networks provide. We propose the framework of an architecture that supports all these requirements.

Cognitive Radio Architecture

Abstract: This chapter develops five complementary perspectives of cognitive radio architecture (CRA), called CRA-I through CRA-V, each building on the previous in capability. Architecture is driven top-down by market needs and bottom-up by available, affordable technologies. Taking the top-down perspective requires some attention to the use cases that the functions are intended to realize. This chapter therefore reviews the substantial changes in use cases that drive cognitive wireless architecture. Often technical architectures of the kind accelerate the state of practice by catalyzing work across the industry on plug-and-play, teaming, and collaboration. The thought is that to propel wireless technology from limited spectrum awareness toward valuable user awareness, an architecture is needed. The CRA articulates the functions, components, and design rules of next-generation stand-alone and embedded wireless devices and networks.

Design Decisions: The Bridge between Rationale and Architecture

Abstract: Software architecture can be seen as a decision making process; it involves making the right decisions at the right time. Typically, these design decisions are not explicitly represented in the artifacts describing the design. They reside in the minds of the designers and are therefore easily lost. Rationale management is often proposed as a solution, but lacks a close relationship with software architecture artifacts. Explicit modeling of design decisions in the software architecture bridges this gap, as it allows for a close integration of rationale management with software architecture. This improves the understandability of the software architecture. Consequently, the software architecture becomes easier to communicate, maintain and evolve. Furthermore, it allows for analysis, improvement, and reuse of design decisions in the design process.

Procedural 3D reconstruction of Puuc buildings in Xkipché

Abstract: This paper examines how architectural shape grammars can be used to procedurally generate 3D reconstructions of an archaeological site. The Puuc-style buildings found in Xkipche, Mexico, were used as a test-case. We first introduce the ancient Mayan site of Xkipche and give an overview of the building types as distinguished by the archaeologists, based on excavations and surveys of the building remains at the surface. Secondly, we outline the elements of the building design that are characteristic of the Puuc architecture. For the creation of the actual building geometries, we further determine the shape grammar rules for the different architectural parts. The modeling system can then be used to reconstruct the whole site based on various GIS (Geographical Information Systems) data given as input, such as building footprints, architectural information, and elevation. The results demonstrate that our modeling system is, in contrast to traditional 3D modeling, able to efficiently construct a large number of high quality geometric models at low cost.

How do buildings mean? some issues of interpretation in the history of architecture1

Abstract: Architectural history as we know it has been written tacitly adhering to the crudest version of the paradigm of communication: all the attention has been focussed on the design of the new forms, none on their interpretation. It is time to realize, that even within the limits of the paradigm of communication, there should be a history of meaning, not only a history of forms.2 —Juan Pablo Bonta You think philosophy is difficult enough, but I can tell you it is nothing to the difficulty of being a good architect.3 —Ludwig Wittgenstein ABSTRACT Despite growing interest from historians in the built environment, the use of architecture as evidence remains remarkably under-theorized. Where this issue has been discussed, the interpretation of buildings has often been likened to the process of reading, in which architecture can be understood by analogy to language: either as a code capable of use in communicating the architect's intentions or more literally as a spoken or written language in its own right. After a historiographical survey, this essay, by contrast, proposes that the appropriate metaphor is one of translation. More particularly, it draws on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin to suggest that architecture—and the interpretation of architecture— comprises a series of transpositions. As a building is planned, built, inhabited, and interpreted, so its meaning changes. The underlying logic of each medium shapes the way in which its message is created and understood. This suggests that the proper role of the historian is to trace these transpositions. Buildings, then, can be used as a historical source, but only if the historian takes account of the particular problems that they present. In short, architecture should not be studied for its meaning, but for its meanings. As historians we are always translating architecture: not reading its message, but exploring its multiple transpositions.

An Architecture for Modular Data Centers.

Abstract: Several factors are driving high-scale deployments of large data centers built upon commodity components. These commodity clusters are far cheaper than mainframe systems of the past but they bring serious heat and power density issues. Also the high failure rate of the individual components drives significant administrative costs. This proposal outlines an architecture for data center design based upon 20'x8'x8' modules that substantially changes how these systems are acquired, administered, and then later recycled.

On the modular representation of architectural aspects

Abstract: An architectural aspect is a concern that cuts across architecture modularity units and cannot be effectively modularized using the given abstractions of conventional Architecture Description Languages (ADLs). Dealing with crosscutting concerns is not a trivial task since they affect each other and the base architectural decomposition in multiple heterogeneous ways. The lack of ADL support for modularly representing such aspectual heterogeneous influences leads to a number of architectural breakdowns, such as increased maintenance overhead, reduced reuse capability, and architectural erosion over the lifetime of a system. On the other hand, software architects should not be burdened with a plethora of new ADL abstractions directly derived from aspect-oriented implementation techniques. However, most aspect-oriented ADLs rely on a heavyweight approach that mirrors programming languages concepts at the architectural level. In addition, they do not naturally support heterogeneous architectural aspects and proper resolution of aspect interactions. This paper presents AspectualACME, a simple and seamless extension of the ACME ADL to support the modular representation of architectural aspects and their multiple composition forms. AspectualACME promotes a natural blending of aspects and architectural abstractions by employing a special kind of architectural connector, called Aspectual Connector, to encapsulate aspect-component connection details. We have evaluated the applicability and scalability of the AspectualACME features in the context of three case studies from different application domains.

The many faces of architectural descriptions

Abstract: In recent years architecture has acquired recognition as playing a pivotal role in change processes. Despite this recognition, describing architecture has proven to be difficult. Architecture frameworks have been defined to address this problem. However, there are many of them, and together they leave us with seemingly contradicting terminology. What are the underlying forces that caused people to create so many different frameworks? What do these frameworks teach us about the essence of architecting? Where do I start to select or create a framework for my current project? With these questions in mind we set out to perform a comparison of existing architecture frameworks. We ended up with a deeper understanding of the function of a framework, and "discovered" nine fundamental dimensions that seem to underlie architectural thinking. These "base dimensions" can be used to clarify the meaning of individual architecture documents independent of the framework they originate from, and they can be helpful in defining new architecture frameworks or situational architecture descriptions. In this paper we also relate our findings to IEEE 1471, which is another important generalisation of existing frameworks.

Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics

Abstract: The forced polarity between form and function in considerations of architecture -- opposing art to social interests, ethics to poetic expression -- obscures the deep connections between ethical and poetical values in architectural tradition. Architecture has been, and must continue to be, writes Alberto Perez-Gomez, built upon love. Modernity has rightly rejected past architectural excesses, but, Perez-Gomez argues, the materialistic and technological alternatives it proposes do not answer satisfactorily the complex desire that defines humanity. True architecture is concerned with far more than fashionable form, affordable homes, and sustainable development; it responds to a desire for an eloquent place to dwell -- one that lovingly provides a sense of order resonant with our dreams. In Built upon Love Perez-Gomez uncovers the relationship between love and architecture in order to find the points of contact between poetics and ethics -- between the architect's wish to design a beautiful world and architecture's imperative to provide a better place for society. Eros, as first imagined by the early lyric poets of classical Greece, is the invisible force at the root of our capacity to create and comprehend the poetic image. Perez-Gomez examines the nature of architectural form in the light of eros, seduction, and the tradition of the poetic image in Western architecture. He charts the ethical dimension of architecture, tracing the connections between philia -- the love of friends that entails mutual responsibility among equals -- and architectural program. He explores the position of architecture at the limits of language and discusses the analogical language of philia in modernist architectural theory. Finally, he uncovers connections between ethics and poetics, describing a contemporary practice of architecture under the sign of love, incorporating both eros and philia.

Bauhaus: 1919-1933

Abstract: Focusing on buildings designed by Bauhaus members from 1919 to 1933, this book features some 65 famous and lesser-known building projects in Germany, Vienna, Barcelona, Prague and Budapest by architects including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Arranged chronologically, "Bauhaus" offers informative commentary and site plans along with photographs, taken especially for this book. Engels' photographs show many buildings in their newly restored conditions and reflect the full range of Bauhaus architecture, one of the most influential schools of architecture in the twentieth century.

E-Government Architecture In Jordan: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract: This study explains architecture for the E-Government system; its main concepts, objectives, most common applications, famous worldwide experiences and the E-Government in Jordan. It introduces the E-Government model as a modern evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and how to convert the life of societies to the communication and networked age. It presents the experiences of countries like USA, UK, Singapore, UAE and Egypt. The study focuses on launching the E-Government project in Jordan, the main planning and implementation features noticed there and the main obstacles. It proposes a simplified model for some of the Jordan E-Government Portal Online services.

The sociology of architecture and the politics of building : The discursive construction of ground zero

Abstract: Because architecture provides a ‘concrete’ focus for many debates pertinent to collective identities, then the rebuilding of the Ground Zero site by architect Daniel Libeskind is hugely significant from the perspective of sociology. So-called ‘starchitects’ such as Libeskind are increasingly conscious of the complex identity discourses within which their work is situated, with competing identity claims evidenced not only in the actual form of buildings, but also in the abstract narratives architects use to situate their work in a way that avoids (symbolically) privileging one identity over another.The capacity of architects to position their buildings in this way provides the focus of this article, which argues that architects’ discourses frequently reveal many tensions between culture, politics, power, and identity.The symbolic nationalization of the architecture at the Ground Zero site has, in part, been achieved by the narrative, highly symbolic links between the buildings there and an ‘American’ colle...

Building A Revolution: Chinese Architecture Since 1980

Abstract: This book presents a picture of Chinese architecture in transition, as the entire economy shifted from being planned and state-controlled to being market-led.

The Ecolead ICT Infrastructure For Collaborative Networked Organizations

Abstract: This paper presents a distributed and open ICT infrastructure that is being developed in the ECOLEAD IST IP project to help members of Collaborative Networks in doing businesses and collaborations more efficiently. ICT-I design relies on the service oriented architecture paradigm, and it is implemented with web-services. ICT-I services are to be used on demand and pay-per-use models. It is flexible to support an easy entrance of new services and the withdrawn of others. So far the type of organizations envisaged by the proposed ICT-I are the ones members of virtual breeding environments, virtual organizations and professional virtual communities. This paper details the 1CT- I requirements, its architecture and services. A small description of a first ICT-I prototype is given in the end.