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Urban Physics: Effect of the micro-climate on comfort, health and energy demand
Peter Moonen, Thijs Defraeye, Viktor Dorer, Bert Blocken, Jan Carmeliet
Front. Archit. Res.. 2012, 1 (3): 197-228.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2012.05.002
The global trend towards urbanisation explains the growing interest in the study of the modification of the urban climate due to the heat island effect and global warming, and its impact on energy use of buildings. Also urban comfort, health and durability, referring respectively to pedestrian wind/ thermal comfort, pollutant dispersion and wind-driven rain are of interest. Urban Physics is a wellestablished discipline, incorporating relevant branches of physics, environmental chemistry, aerodynamics, meteorology and statistics. Therefore, Urban Physics is well positioned to provide keycontributions to the current urban problems and challenges. The present paper addresses the role of Urban Physics in the study of wind comfort, thermal comfort, energy demand, pollutant dispersion and wind-driven rain. Furthermore, the three major research methods applied in Urban Physics, namely field experiments, wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations are discussed. Case studies illustrate the current challenges and the relevant contributions of Urban Physics.
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Optimizing energy efficiency and occupant comfort with climate specific design of the building
Christoph Mitterer, Hartwig M.Künzel, Sebastian Herkel, Andreas Holm
Front. Archit. Res.. 2012, 1 (3): 229-235.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2012.06.002
Designing energy efficient and comfortable buildings requires harmonizing the complex interactions of architecture, construction and building service engineering. The building envelope has a particular importance, since it integrates many functions and has direct influence on indoor climate. Focusing on satisfaction of the user means that the indoor climate is a key for a holistic design approach. Only a satisfied user will not intervene with the designed energy concept or the indoor climate control; dissatisfaction results in multiple system interventions which may cause waste of energy and sometimes even damage to building envelope components. Satisfaction with the indoor environment also increases working productivity or enables effective recreation of residents. The paper deals with international research activities in the field of climate specific building design. Various comfort and energy monitoring surveys of office buildings as well as residential buildings provide substantial information about the occupants’ behavior and their needs during specific situations under different outdoor climates. This information allows summarizing basic climate dependent design principles which architects should keep in mind during the early stages of the design process. It also helps to develop strategies aiming at reducing building energy demand and at the same time consider comfort aspects. The second part of this paper demonstrates application of the climate dependent design principles in a housing project in Dubai.
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Interactive morphologies: An investigation into integrated nodal networks and embedded computation processes for developing real-time responsive spatial systems
Nimish Biloria
Front. Archit. Res.. 2012, 1 (3): 259-271.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2012.07.003
The design-research illustrated in this research article focus on the emerging field of interactive architecture focusing on developing real-time information exchanging architectural bodies. These interactive bodies demonstrate a fusion between the material, the electronic and the digital domains. This fusion is explicitly attained through a synergistic merger between the fields of ambient sensing, control systems, ubiquitous computing, architectural design, pneumatic systems and computation. The resultant spatial bodies are thus visualised as complex adaptive systems, continually engaged in activities of data-exchange resulting in physical and ambient adaptations of their constituting components in response to contextual variations. Interdependent nodal networks, where every node/junction of a spatial prototype becomes a potential information hub by means of its ability to collect, process and communicate contextual data apart from working as an actuated detail owing to its ability to kinetically re-position itself in three-dimensional space is thus a critical outcome of this inter-disciplinary way of working. A strategy apt for binding material logistics with the digital to materialize dynamic spatial behaviours owing to real time data exchange between the prototypes and their context is thus embarked upon via three research and design projects, namely: Electronic Media Augmented Spatial Skins, The InteractiveWall and the Muscle Re-configured.
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The development of residential space in the old town of Nanjing since 1978
Kun Liu, Jianguo Wang, Peng Tang
Front. Archit. Res.. 2012, 1 (3): 280-286.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2012.05.003
Since the 1990s, with people’s living requirements getting more and more advanced, the speed of the residential commercialization gets higher and higher, which promotes the residential construction deeply. To some extent, the construction of residential area has accelerated the urbanization and impacted the progress of urban renewal. It has already happened in most Chinese major cities and is progressing right now. But it has not been shown clearly in existing researches how and how deeply it impacts the development of urban construction. This article discussed how the development of urban residential space impacted the progress of urban renewal, based on the theoretic researches of urban renewal, taking the old town of Nanjing for example, and using the methods of quantitative evidence method and kernel density estimation.
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Study on semantic structure of cultural and creative industry park based on internet literature
Lu Shen, Zao Li, Jun Zeng, Jin Li
Front. Archit. Res.. 2012, 1 (3): 295-304.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2012.07.002
According to the information of 231 cultural and creative industry parks on the Internet literature, this research classified and studied the park elements from the text using the method of semantic Ontology analysis. The paper analyzes the cultural and creative industry park in the performance of type, constitution elements of geographical attributes, character- istics, etc. Through analysis, we found that ‘‘location’’, ‘‘form’’ and ‘‘rhetoric’’ are frequently mentioned in the park names. As the parks prefer to combine cultural relics with their own characters for highlighting influence and specialties, the park locations also have certain restrictions (e.g., ‘‘historic sites’’, ‘‘ancient cities’’). Furthermore, cultural and creative industry parks cover a wide range of contents (e.g., ‘‘digital industry’’, ‘‘ecological land- scape’’). The boundaries of the park type and content are not very clear in present China. And, the parks lack of overall planning and often have an imperfect industrial chain and other issues. Therefore, on developing cultural and creative industry parks, the overall planning and perfect industrial chain need to be focused on.
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Landscape characteristic aesthetic structure: Construction of urban landscape characteristic time-spatial pattern based on aesthetic subjects
Min Wang, Bochun Yu
Front. Archit. Res.. 2012, 1 (3): 305-315.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2012.07.001
The paper presents means and models of city-landscape characteristic structure construction on the aspect of landscape aesthetics subjects, which is called the landscape characteristic aesthetic structure and in short as LCAS. In this paper, the steps of LCAS research are as follows: Describes the concepts of the landscape characteristic aesthetic structure (LCAS), and expounds the LCAS properties: systematic quality, temporal and spatial quality, and virtual existence. Learns from typology research methods, discusses the elements and types needed in a landscape characteristic aesthetic system, and constructs research method for LCAS pattern. As for the temporal dimension, the dynamic evolution and interaction expressed in LCAS between the ‘‘tradition’’ and ‘‘modernity’’ landscapes conflict. As for the spatial dimension, this paper explores the LCAS patterns in macroscopic scope of city group, the middle scope of single cities and the microcosmic scope of urban spaces with questionnaires and examples research. Uses pattern language to express different LCAS types in the temporal and spatial system. We develop the patterns of various LCAS types with graphical patterned representation, as well as construct the LCAS research method and theory which is based on the general people’s aesthetic standards and sensibilities to build city characteristics and urban landscapes as a guidance.
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11 articles
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