Architecture

About: Architecture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25849 publications have been published within this topic receiving 225266 citations.

Introduction: the ‘Second World's’ architecture and planning in the ‘Third World’

Abstract: This themed issue of The Journal of Architecture focuses on what appears to be a major blind-spot of current architectural historiography of the post-war period: the transfer of architecture and pl...

Distributed Communication Architecture for Smart Grid Applications

Abstract: One big challenge in building a smart grid arises from the fast growing amount of data and limited communication resources. The traditional centralized communication architecture does not scale well with the explosive increase of data and has a high probability of encountering communication bottlenecks due to long communication paths. To address this challenging issue, this article presents a distributed communication architecture that implements smart grid communications in an efficient and cost-effective way. This distributed architecture consists of multiple distributed operation centers, each of which is connected to several data concentrators serving one local area and only sends summary or required integrated information to a central operation center. Using this distributed architecture, communication distance is much shortened, and thus data will be delivered more efficiently and reliably. In addition, such a distributed architecture can manage and analyze data locally, rather than backhauling all raw data to the central operation center, leading to reduced cost and burden on communication resources. Advanced metering infrastructure is chosen as an example to demonstrate benefits of this architecture on improving communication performance. The distributed communication architecture is also readily applicable to other smart grid applications, for example, demand response management systems.

The transformation of the inherited historical urban and architectural characteristics of Al-Najaf's Old City and possible preservation insights

Abstract: This paper focuses on the dramatic transformation of the inherited historical urban and architectural characteristics of the city of Al-Najaf in Iraq, seeking new ways of seeing the possibilities of preserving and revitalizing the historical center of the city. In addition to being one of the most sacred centers for Shia Muslims, Al-Najaf has a rich cultural and architectural heritage. Its architectural characteristics and urban structure not only reflect the history of the city but also stand as evidence of the most important junctures in Islamic history: the martyrdom of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, who is a central Islamic spiritual personality and the second most important figure after the Prophet Muhammad. Since its establishment in 750 AD, the formation of Al-Najaf has never separated from its sociopolitical context and Islamic principles, particularly Shia Muslims’ beliefs. Today, the city is a destination for more than million Shia Muslim pilgrims each year, and the number is rapidly increasing. However, as the city continues to develop, its architecture and unique urban structure transform dramatically. The cultural and architectural heritage of the city is seriously threatened. Several factors played a crucial role in the formation and the transformation of the city's specific architectural and urban structures. The most influential factors were mainly related to religion, environment, and politics. This paper introduces the main forces behind the transformation of the deep organizational structures of the architecture and urban fabric in Al-Najaf. The question of whether it is still possible to protect and preserve the remaining parts and revitalize the Old City center is also examined. The goal is to identify the major preservation issues and provide possible insights based on successful preservation experiences that address similar issues in different contexts.

Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science

Abstract: This important book, which won the 1984 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, traces the process by which the mystical and numerological grounds for the use of number and geometry in building gave way to the more functional and technical ones that prevail in architectural theory and practice today. Between the late Renaissance and the early nineteenth century, the ancient arts of architecture were being profoundly transformed by the scientific revolution. This important book, which won the 1984 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, traces the process by which the mystical and numerological grounds for the use of number and geometry in building gave way to the more functional and technical ones that prevail in architectural theory and practice today. Throughout, it relates the major architectural treatises of successive generations to the larger culture and the writings of philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. The book leads the reader through the controversy that was generated by Claude Perrault in the seventeenth century. His writings began to cast doubt on the absolute aesthetic value of the classical orders and the "perfect" proportions that were architecture's legacy from Pythagorean times. Thus the once immutable "invisible" system lost its special status forever. The book focuses in particular on eighteenth-century developments in the science of mechanics and emerging techniques in structural analysis which slowly entered the architectural treatises and found their way into practice, often by way of civil and military engineers. And by the nineteenth century, the book notes, even architectural rendering and drawing were radically changed through the introduction of new descriptive and projective geometries. Tracing these fundamental changes in architectural intentions, Perez-Gomez challenges many popular misconceptions about the theory and history of modern architecture. At the same time, he suggests an intangible loss, that of a culture's power to express through a building its total mathematical, mystical, and magical world-view.

Designing Urban Pervasive Systems

Abstract: A conceptual framework describes three aspects of designing and analyzing pervasive systems in an urban environment. A systematic approach to designing the urban environment as an integrated system of architecture and pervasive technologies requires drawing on knowledge, theory, and methods from the disciplines of architecture and computer science. Key to this interdisciplinary integration is the concept of space, by which we mean not only physical location or volume but also the social protocols, conventions, and values attached to a particular space