This study investigates the evidence supporting the impact of the built environment on the health outcomes for patients within the hospital setting. Improving the hospital environment may potentially impact the lives of millions of patients, patients’ family, and staff. Prior research has suggested that the built environment can contribute to positive health outcomes. Reporting the most recent evidence may assist designers in making informed decisions. In this study, a literature review was conducted using the PICO framework within scientific databases and additional hand-searched documents. A total number of 15 articles were included. Effects of each environmental factor on patients’ health outcomes were discussed in detail. Environmental factors that affect patient outcomes are (1) form, (2) unit layout, (3) floor material, (4) room features, (5) medical equipment visibility, (6) nature, (7) lighting, and (8) music. Although several studies have provided a high level of evidence, other studies have lacked a robust research design. Thus, evidence regarding several environmental factors is not conclusive. Additional studies using experimental/quasi-experimental research design have been suggested. In some studies, several environmental factors were introduced simultaneously which obscured the separate effects of each environmental factor.

This paper aims to present a new approach for using structural topology optimization to evaluate and generate bioinspired architectural design. To investigate these possibilities, we present several experiments in two and three-dimensional domains under a variety of load and support conditions that are inspired by nature. These experiments are based on structural topology optimization techniques, which have shown to be viable for fostering innovative ideas to solve complex building stability problems. Moreover, these techniques enable fruitful collaborations between architects and engineers in the early stages of the design process. We compare the optimal solutions with different species of plants and animals and evaluate their potential use as a structural system through visual and quantitative analyses. Results reinforce the efficacy of using topology optimization in the development of bioinspired structures and, as such, its future use in creative design contexts.

Are avant-garde elements added to historical objects as a temporary fashion to fulfill the aspirations of designers or an attempt to draw attention to themselves? It may be the exact opposite, and this type of controversial project is the best lifebelt for such monuments. This article explores issues related to external avant-garde elements added to adapted churches and their influence on the efficiency of such adaptation projects. Gothic churches located in the north of Europe that have changed their religious function, entirely or in part, were considered. This work examined former churches in Maastricht, namely, the Minorite Church, the Church of the Kruisheren Monastery, the Dominican Church, as well as Polish churches located in Gdańsk, including St. John’s Church and St. Catherine’s Church. This article attempted to identify the factors that contribute to the successful adaptation of former churches and the benefits and drawbacks of adopting avant-garde design solutions. Results of this study might provide valuable inspiration for other churches that are losing worshippers. This study was conducted on the basis of a wide range of literature, statistical data, logical reasoning, and comparative methods. Observations from selected edifices were checked for their correlation over time. This study also included in situ investigations.

Computation-based approaches in design have emerged in the last decades and rapidly became popular among architects and other designers. Design professionals and researchers adopted different terminologies to address these approaches. However, some terms are used ambiguously and inconsistently, and different terms are commonly used to express the same concept. This paper discusses computational design (CD) and proposes an improved and sound taxonomy for a set of key CD terms, namely, parametric, generative, and algorithmic design, based on an extensive literature review from which different definitions by various authors were collected, analyzed, and compared.

Buildings could play a critical role in energy and food production while making highdensity cities more resilient. Productive façades (PFs), as flexible and multi-functional systems integrating photovoltaic (PV) and vertical farming (VF) systems, could contribute to transforming buildings and communities from consumers to producers. This study analyses the architectural quality of the developed PF concept drawing on the findings of a web-survey conducted among experts e building professionals in Singapore. The developed design variants are compared with regards to key design aspects such as façade aesthetics, view from the inside, materialisation, ease of operation, functionality and overall architectural quality. The study also compares and discusses the results of the web-survey with the results of a previously conducted door-to-door survey among the potential users e residents of the Housing & Development Board (HDB) blocks. The findings confirm an overall acceptance of the PF concept and reveal a need for synergetic collaboration between architects/designers and other building professionals. Based on the defined PF design framework and the results of the two surveys, a series of recommendations and improved PF prototypes are proposed for further assessment and implementation in order to foster their scalability from buildings into communities and cities.

Due to rapid urbanization around the world, high concentrations of vehicular pollutants have deteriorated the outdoor air quality, which can affect the physical and psychological well-being of humans. Numerous strategies have been proposed to overcome these harmful impacts by improving the dispersion of air pollutants. Consequently, a question arises regarding the potential effects of building morphology on the dispersion of pollutants. Subsequently, transient three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed to examine the effect of building morphology on PM10 dispersion. Eleven cases with various prototypes and morphological methods are compared with a simple building form to identify the patterns of PM10 dispersion within a given time sequence under a prevailing inflow condition. The results indicate that the different designs of building morphology with varying Relative compactness (RC) indicator highlight the importance of considering morphological factors to improve outdoor air quality. In addition, the proposed prototypes can reduce PM₁₀ concentrations by approximately 30%e90% at specific points in the studied time sequence. In particular, the vertical, horizontal, and grid folded prototypes can be considered more effective as an approximate decrease between 70% and 90% in PM10 concentrations is observed, which reflects the influence of building morphology on improving outdoor air quality.

Parametric architecture can be used to improve design quality by integrating and coordinating design components, and any change in one parameter affects the final design. Daylight is a crucial parameter in designing energy-efficient buildings. In this research, daylight inside a building was improved by designing a kinetic shading system with independent units parametrically responding to sunlight through 3D rotation (around the centers of the units) and 2D movement (on the surface of the shading system). Various patterns were determined to create the unit’s basic form and allow the designer to have a wide range of options. The units were defined with the plugin “Grasshopper.” Their rotation was parametrically controlled on the basis of sun path and weather data by using “Honeybee” and “Ladybug” plugins to provide constant optimized daylighting inside the building. Results showed that the use of such a shading system in optimal situations can greatly increase the efficiency of indoor daylight.

This study optimized the ventilator and furniture location of a tenement unit in a low-income urban habitat to obtain maximum experiential indoor environmental quality (e- IEQ) over the breathing zone. Hypothetical interior layouts using a combination of the two design parameters of ventilator location and bed position were generated for optimizing the design layout. This layout could promote maximum indoor airflow and minimum indoor air temperature and contaminant concentration. In this study, an improved indoor environment is hypothesized to be attainable through improved natural ventilation and thermal performance in the occupied zones. A sequential methodology involving “parametric design modeling ecomputational simulationemultiobjective optimizationemulticriteria decision making”- based framework was selected. Results exhibited that the currently designed tenement unit had a poor indoor environment, whereas the hypothesized iterated layout “optimized design layout, scenario 3 (ODL 3)” derived from the optimization and decision-making algorithm performed effectively in providing e-IEQ. An increase in experiential indoor air velocity by 0.2 m/s and a decrease in temperature by 2 C were observed over the monitoring point in the ODL 3 considering the existing scenario. Therefore, this study can find a way toward the development of sustainable habitat design guidelines under upcoming slum redevelopment policies across the nation.

Energy consumption rates have been rising globally at an escalating pace since the last three decades. The exploration of new renewable and clean sources of energy globally is thus gaining prime importance. In Australia, coal is still the primary source of energy, which, during the process of energy production, generates greenhouse gases, subsequently resulting in environmental degradation. Within this context, the paper compares the economic and environmental benefits of utilizing two renewable energy production sources: algae building technology (ABT) and solar PV panels. A case study site for retrofitting a specified area on the front façade of a multi-storied building at the University of Technology Sydney, City Campus, Australia was thus chosen for the study. A cost and benefit analysis model using the following performance indicators; return on investment, payback period as well as net present value of the two systems, was thus initiated. Annual revenue generation of both systems which included tangible and intangible benefits of both systems were simultaneously calculated. The investment and operation and maintenance costs of both systems were calculated based on market research as well as quantitative data adapted from our literature review. Our conclusions show that closed tubular photobioreactor systems have more benefit than solar panel system from an environmental impact perspective considering Australia’s current struggle with water scarcity, drought, air pollution and carbon emission reduction goals.

This study deals with the architectural properties of traditional Siverek houses, which are important in the larger corpus of Southeastern Anatolian houses. The historical city center of Siverek has partly preserved its authentic character with its monumental buildings and traditional houses. Despite the considerable number of traditional courtyard houses in Siverek, no detailed survey has been conducted on them. In this work, these traditional houses in the historical Siverek City center are identified and documented for the first time. Their plans, façades, and structural systems are examined in detail, and the structural elements are comprehensively analyzed. We document the architectural features of these traditional Siverek houses and introduce the cultural heritage of the city. These details provide information for proper decision-making regarding the preparation of restitution and restoration projects and selecting materials and techniques that suit the structures to be restored.

The current pressure on the built historical heritage requires a global evaluation to develop strategies for its preservation. A combined vision of the state of conservation of architectural heritage is essential to highlight the vulnerabilities of the structure from which harmonized measures can be proposed for its mitigation.

This study proposes a multi-criteria analysis methodology that considers a qualitative and quantitative approach to organize the global conservation state of heritage buildings hierarchically. A global index can be determined on the basis of the generation of an interoperable data matrix by defining a set of indicators to assess different components of a building. This index describes the risk with respect to the stability, safety, and habitability of the building.

This methodology aims to achieve the state of the building in an integral way by obtaining a simple and objective index that enables efficient comparison among different buildings. The application of this methodology to a historic area allows creating a hierarchical map of risk to stablish priorities for intervention and enable a sustainable and critical management and planning over the actions of maintenance, conservation, and restoration. In this way, a holistic vision of the complex reality of built heritage and the urban landscape is obtained to identify critical areas of priority intervention.

The modernization of Shanghai has experienced two boosting periods. The first appeared in the 1930s, when it formed the civil society of Shanghai and initially facilitated the trade port into an international metropolis. The second started after the nation’s reform and opening-up, which attempted to promote the city into a global metropolis in the 2010s. In order to evaluate the socio-spatial transitions of communities in Shanghai during the process, Lilong historical neighborhoods in the 1930s and 2010s are successively chosen as research objects. Meanwhile, three specific neighborhoods in each period are selected for case study, so as to depict different symbiosis patterns of the socio-spatial structures under different spatiotemporal conditions by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the consumption level. By pointing out Shanghai in the 1930s was marked with social integration and local-based consumption, while it was inundated with administration tendency and global-oriented consumption in the 2010s, the article believes the dual integration of local-based and global-oriented consumptions is an alternative solution for Shanghai. Finally, the article proposes that Shanghai’s current urban regeneration should rely on the multi-centered symbiotic structure to create a compound network, during which territorial socio-spatial structures and basic living needs of the plebeian can be simultaneously preserved.

Shenzhen exemplifies the rapid development of urban planning and construction in China. Over the last 40 years, many representative urban spaces and buildings have been built on Shennan Road, the city’s main eastewest thoroughfare, which has witnessed the formation of a multicenter structural layout and the miraculous expansion of the city. Many iconic buildings were designed by Hong Kong or foreign architects. The continuous development along Shennan Road not only symbolizes the fruits of the reform and opening up policies of Shenzhen and even China, but also reflects the modern architectural history in Shenzhen. This study uses historical research methods to review the changes in the urban fabric and the design trends, as seen in representative buildings along Shennan Road in different periods. In addition to the transition path of the city center, the unique role of streets and buildings in the development of the urban structure is analyzed, and other urban functions and symbolic meanings are identified. This work contributes to the history and theory of the modernization of contemporary Chinese architecture.

The growing urbanization of hill towns results in an increasing demand for infrastructural facilities. Infrastructural facilities are generally planned without considering the effects of the surroundings as well as their effects on the sensitive ecosystem of hill areas. Site planning decisions are taken on the basis of judgment and experience of planners in the absence of a rational and quantitative framework for ensuring the sustainable development of hill areas. This scenario generates the need for an efficient site planning framework. Site planning is a creative problem solving (CPS) process. Hence, in the current study, the CPSbased framework is developed as follows. First, existing CPS-based frameworks for planning and designing are reviewed. Second, the framework is developed for site planning in hill areas. Third, the developed framework is validated through planning infrastructural facilities of an institutional campus on a site located in hill areas. The major strength of the developed framework includes three cycles, namely, understand, process, and implement. Site planning decisions are taken through the generation of alternate scenarios and their subsequent evaluation on the basis of impact on the sensitive ecosystem of hill areas.

This study offers a multifaceted perspective on the history and theory of North American urban development. It extends a framework that deconstructs the complex urban evolution process into the three stages of assembly, disassembly, and reassembly. Urban development is explained through planning, architectural and critical theoretical perspectives. This study examines the inextricable links among land use regulations, public policies, transportation, urban economics, and communication technologies and underlines their impacts on shaping suburbia and downtown redevelopments. It argues that today’s revived traditional cores and medium-to-high-density mixed use developments are not mere incarnations of historic urban models. Despite responding to certain real-market demands for livable and vibrant urban environments, these quasi-traditional developments are driven by globalization forces and facilitated by cutting-edge technological advancements. Using combined evidence from theoretical investigations and interviews with experienced professionals, this research demonstrates the complexity and multidimensionality of urban development processes that require in-depth understanding of current global socioeconomic and technological transformations.