This paper explores the networks of thoughts behind words by reading architectural texts in the context of linguistics. Using a corpus-based model, our main interest is what the collocational data contribute at an architectural level. The notion of “collocation identification in architecture” was drawn from an analysis of the use of the data for Rem Koolhaas. The data for this study were collected from Rem Koolhaas’s articles from 1977 to 2014. An analysis of Koolhaas’s ideas about architecture and urban planning was conducted using the AntConc 3.4.4.0 corpus analysis toolkit. The corpus-based model reduced selected articles to words and lexical bundles using the corpus analysis toolkit. This paper explores Koolhaas’s thoughts on understanding architecture and the metaphors he uses by analyzing articles using the corpus-based analysis model. The discourse codes in the texts of Koolhaas are examined. A corpus-based model proposal tested on architectural texts has the potential to create new areas of knowledge for architectural discourse. Deciphering the texts and analyzing the codes contribute to the development of new models.

For the past 50 years, the Sydney Opera House has been the subject of a prodigious hagiography of the personalities involved in its realization and their legendary querelles. Yet it remains paradoxically unexplored when it comes to its operative construction decisions, particularly those that relate to the erection of its renowned superstructure. Through the analysis of a newly discovered set of shop drawings prepared for the innovative formwork system of the iconic roof sails, the paper contributes to the construction history of the building whilst shedding light on the hitherto unacknowledged role of the general contractor in the design process. In doing so, it questions the validity of conventional assumptions about the technical division of labour in complex projects, where construction and project management tend to be kept separate from architectural and structural design, furthermore suggesting the need for broader design exegeses, combining project-based and production-based concerns. In reflecting on its import for contemporary practice, the study suggests that the revealing picture of the Sydney Opera House project, as it emerged from the cumbersome archive-based cross-analysis of the manual documentation produced for it, is in principle much easier and perhaps important to obtain today. This is due, on the one side, to availability and diffusion of digital project collaborative platforms; on the other side, to the merging and the blurring of professional and non-professional design contributions.

This article will discuss a false dichotomy between two models, the modern art studio and the post-studio, which oppose the private and the public, the individual and the collective, hiding and the revealing. We will begin by analysing Daniel Buren’s position in his canonical text “Fonction de l’Atelier” and his practice, where the artist defines the foundations of post-studio work. As the text also describes a New York studio type that must be left behind, we will analyse Jackson Pollock’s and Andy Warhol’s workspaces through drawing reconstructions to demonstrate that these meet the defining characteristics of both models. It will be shown that the artists have used design strategies to retain certain aspects of studio culture while exploring others of the post-studio. This turning point reveals that the current belief about the obsolescence of the studio in a global era defined by communication, networking and mobility ignores its emerging post-studio qualities. This work aims to acknowledge this shift, obtaining a critical vision that will allow us to design contemporary workspaces avoiding stereotypical and reductionist approaches.

The study examines traditional design approaches for intermediate spaces of residential buildings to support environmentally driven design strategies of current practices. For the evaluation of the potential of traditional design strategies, traditional houses of Korea and Turkey are explored by making a detailed comparison of maru and sofa according to theoretical considerations on intermediate spaces. After examining the concept of the intermediate space and the general characteristics of Korean and Turkish traditional housing, 10 cases from 17th to 19th centuries are selected and compared to clarify the features of maru and sofa as intermediate spaces. Based on the results, the arrangement of maru shows characteristics of contradiction between interior rooms and intermediate spaces in a monotonous structural repetition, while sofa presents an apparently hierarchical spatial composition. Sofa has the placeness quality, while maru has the quality of plurality, actively mixing both inside and outside environments. While maru allows various free access with clear spatial continuity, sofa produces a sequential spatial experience with the pleasure of different architectural qualities. Finally, the study suggests opened type and closed type of intermediate space as two possible strategies for modern houses based on the results of comparative analyses. Recent environmental studies in architecture should consider intermediate spaces of various traditional houses due to the insights and possibilities these spatial elements may potentially provide to both architectural practice and theory, especially in a pandemic era.

Commuting zone research is critical to the understanding of the operational rules of the metropolitan spatial structure and improving spatial performance. This study aims to identify the main commuting centers and zones by using cellular data with Nanjing City as the example. This study analyzes the operational features of the internal spatial structures of the city from two dimensions by merging multi-source data, namely, commuting centers and zones, thus achieving an understanding of the existing problems with the urban spatial structures and their internal causes. Results showed that the commuting zones of Nanjing are distributed in a pattern of “multiple commuting centers”, with Xinjiekou–Hunan Road and Hongwu Road–Chaotiangong–Shuangtang as the core, Mochou Lake as the main commuting area, and Dongshan and Jiangpu as the secondary commuting zones. Significant differences and similarities are discovered in our comparisons along the two dimensions of commuting zones and centers in terms of spatial structural factors, such as land use, transportation, and commuting in the city. The similarity is shown as a common declining trend in the values of all our indicators with the increase in the distance of commuting zones from the city center. However, the differences are significant in terms of the clustering features of the various parameters concerning commuting centers and zones. Specifically, four clustering patterns are discovered, namely, “monocentric clustering”, “circular monocentric clustering”, “polycentric clustering”, and “sparsely dotted distribution”. This study sheds light on the existing problems with the city’s spatial structure and proposes some overall suggestions toward urban spatial structure improvement on the basis of these findings.

The paper investigates the territorial layout of the fortified system of Naples that developed during the Spanish Vice Kingdom in the 16th-17th centuries.

Both existing castles and towers, and constructions built for the purpose, were included in the system. The Tower of Nisida is one of the existing ancient towers that became part of the impressive 17th century defense system of Naples.

The study focus is on the strategic importance acquired by Nisida and its Tower in those years, when it became a key location in the fortified system, both evidencing its cruciality through the study of the field of vision that widens from the location and dealing the issue with the point of view landscape and territorial defense, recalling the concept that the defense architecture is part of architectural heritage.

This article investigates one of the earliest attempts to systematically construct a building tradition and incorporate it into modern Chinese architectural design. These efforts were put forth by Liang Sicheng (1901–1972), one of the most distinguished Chinese architects and architectural historians, in the 1920s and 1930s in China, informed by the strong collective intention to honour the Chinese past. This article provides a historical and critical reflection on this collective intention that is still shared nowadays by architects and architectural theorists.

This article examines in depth the evolution of the different ways Liang used the building past and constructed the Chinese architectural traditions in different crucial stages of his architectural career in the 1920s and 1930s. It uses architectural drawing as both the research subject and the research method. Three of Liang’s representative drawings from these crucial professional stages are juxtaposed and investigated to reveal this evolution using the iconography and iconology method.

Recent years are showing a rapid adoption of digital manufacturing techniques to the construction industry, with a focus on additive manufacturing. Although 3D printing for construction (3DPC) has notably advanced in recent years, publications on the subject are recent and date a growth in 2019, indicating that it is a promising technology as it enables greater efficiency with fair consumption of material, minimization of waste generation, encouraging the construction industrialization and enhancing and accelerating the constructive process. This new building system not only gives an optimization of the building process but provides a new approach to the building design materiality. The direct connection between design and manufacturing allows the reduction in the number of the various construction phases needed. It is opening a new and wide range of options both formal and chromatic in customization, avoiding complex formworks, reducing costs and manufacturing time. The creative process has a strict and direct link with the constructive process, straightening design with its materiality. Cement-based materials lead the way, but new alternatives are being explored to further reduce its carbon footprint. In order to leverage its sustainability and enhance the system capacity, initiatives are being pursued to allow the reduction of the use of PC. Geopolimers are taking the first steps in 3DPC. Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) materials are used to substitute natural aggregates. Even soil is being explored has a structural and aesthetic material. These research trends are opening a wider range of possibilities for architecture and design, broadening the spectrum of color, texture, and formal variations. The concern about textures and colours is not yet evident in many the structures already printed, opening the opportunity for future research. More can be done in the mixture and formal design of this building system, “discovering” other raw materials in others waste. This article aims to make a critical review of technologies, materials and methodologies to support the development of new sustainable materials to be used as a plastic element in the printed structure. A roadmap of 3D printing for construction is presented, and an approach on mix design, properties in the fresh and hardened state, highlighting the possibilities for obtaining alternative materials are pointed. With this review possible directions are presented to find solutions to enhance the sustainability of this system discovering “new” materiality for architecture and design.

Mosques have intermittent operational schedules with short-term occupancy during the five daily prayers. The occupancy level of the daily prayers is a fraction compared to the mandatory Friday prayers with full occupancy. Usually, the same thermal control mechanism is operated within the same large prayer hall to maintain the thermal comfort of the occupants. Yet, the comfort requirements are often not met due to the short span of operation during prayer times. Nevertheless, mosques have a very high energy usage as the same energy-intensive system is operated even during minimal occupancy profiles. The current research aims at using a passive approach towards design to achieve the comfort conditions during the low occupancy daily prayer times without employing mechanical intervention. Numerical simulations are carried out on a validated model of the case study building to investigate the impact of the west-facing Qiblah wall as the congregation stands in proximity to this wall. The design alternatives are tested in conjunction with ventilation strategies to holistically assess the thermal comfort of the occupants. Results show that as much as 4–6°C reduction in indoor wall surface temperature can be achieved with a suitable Qiblah wall design, which reduces the mean radiant temperature of the occupants by 2–4°C. Combined with ventilation strategies, thermal comfort can be significantly improved by at least 40% for the prayers during the hottest times of the day, and as much as 80% for night-time prayers. Results suggest that suitable comfort conditions can be achieved without the need for air-conditioning for at least two or three of the five daily prayers.

Existing studies on horizontal sunshade systems mainly focus on the influence of the sunshade on the room under or inside the sunshade systems. Meanwhile, the top surface of horizontal sunshade, especially those with mirror surface or made of metal, reflects solar radiation into the indoor and surroundings, resulting in “secondary reflection”. This paper mainly focuses on the influence of secondary reflection on the room above the sunshade, using Design-Builder software to conduct numerical simulation analysis and building architectural model for field measurement. Results from simulation and field measurement both prove that mirror materials increase secondary reflection reflected into the indoor. Moreover, results from experiments show that retroreflective materials decrease secondary reflection reflected into the indoor. At low latitude, the application of retroreflective materials on the top surface of horizontal sunshade effectively reduces the adverse influence of secondary reflection on the room above the sunshade.

High concentrations of indoor CO₂ pose severe health risks to building occupants. Often, mechanical equipment is used to provide sufficient ventilation as a remedy to high indoor CO₂ concentrations. However, such equipment consumes large amounts of energy, substantially increasing building energy consumption. In the end, the issue becomes an optimization problem that revolves around maintaining CO₂ levels below a certain threshold while utilizing the minimum amount of energy possible. To that end, we propose an intelligent approach that consists of a supervised learning-based virtual sensor that interacts with a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based control to efficiently control indoor CO₂ while utilizing the minimum amount of energy possible. The data used to train and test the DRL agent is based on a 3-month field experiment conducted at a kindergarten equipped with a heat recovery ventilator. The results show that, unlike the manual control initially employed at the kindergarten, the DRL agent could always maintain the CO₂ concentrations below sufficient levels. Furthermore, a 58% reduction in the energy consumption of the ventilator under the DRL control compared to the manual control was estimated. The demonstrated approach illustrates the potential leveraging of Internet of Things and machine learning algorithms to create comfortable and healthy indoor environments with minimal energy requirements.