Many studies have analysed the effects that design elements, such as lighting and colour, have on students’ cognitive functions. These analyses, while providing useful information, do not allow researchers to compare the effects of multiple design elements. The objective of the present study is to analyse the relative influence of lighting, colour and geometry on attention and memory, the main cognitive functions that underlie learning, and on preference. In a controlled, virtual reality (VR)-based experiment, 200 university students (100 male/100 female) performed attention, memory and preference tests in classrooms with different configurations of lighting (colour temperature and illuminance), colour (saturation and hue) and geometry (height and width). The results identified significant gender-based differences, which demonstrates the need to segment, by gender, samples in this type of study. Lighting had the greatest influence, significantly affecting males’ memories, females’ attention and the preferences of both genders. Colour was also an influential element, significantly affecting females’ attention, while geometry was the least influential. Finally, it should be highlighted that attention was the metric most sensitive to design variations. These results may be of interest to architects, interior designers and engineers who wish to create classrooms that satisfy students’ psychological needs.

This research analyzes the earliest located floor plan of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, an anonymous oil painting in 1741, which has not been studied so far. The objective is to know the dimensional accuracy of the most relevant architectural forms drawn, considering the elements referenced in their legend and the graphic symbols used, to assess their documentary interest. It has also been compared with two important plans of the Mosque-Cathedral drawn in 1767 and 1868. The first task was a photogrammetric survey of the oil painting has been carried out. Subsequently, some data has been measured in the monument using a 3D scanner. The orthophoto of the oil painting has been overlapped to the digital model to verify its metric accuracy in a selection of points. For the first time, the legend and labels included in the oil painting have been transcribed. This precise graphic document contains reliable abundant data for future research about the transformations and restorations of a monument that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. The oil painting dating from 1741 can be considered as the first scientific plan of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, and as an outstanding architectural survey of eighteenth-century Europe.

Responsive facades can reduce building energy consumption and control daylight and natural ventilation to improve user comfort. This study aims to develop alternative responsive facade systems based on semi-regular and demi-regular tessellations. For this purpose, first, the tessellation method used to generate responsive facades is introduced. Then, the geometric and parametric design principles and the movement capabilities of the proposed facade systems are presented. Finally, a set of analyses are performed to test and compare the performances of the facade systems based on daylight metrics and indoor glare comfort. This study contributes to the literature with the proposed facade systems that can adapt to changing environmental conditions, provide flexibility in shape control and simplicity in mechanism design, and improve building performance. The analysis results show that all the proposed facade systems provide the desired visual comfort and daylight levels at different configurations.

The relationship between design and science in architecture continually receives attention from scholars, but to our knowledge, no substantial and systematic literature reviews have been undertaken to generate insights into how the relationship between the two has developed in recent times. As most of the related debate remains theoretical, this paper presents evidence acquired through content analysis of selected 782 peer-reviewed papers published in the last four decades, a period in which design requirements continue to grow in complexity and research efforts increasingly concentrate on design methods. In response, this study departs from the two keywords, architectural science and building science, and develops search strings to support examination of the relationship between science and architectural design since the 1980s, when research that addresses the building environment started to intensify. The analysis employs tools based on machine learning algorithms for text analytics in combination with traditional content analysis methods. The presented research method is fully replicable and stands as one of the contributions of this study. The findings capture the expansion of the research context concerned with the built environment through a careful selection of defining terms, and generate an informed discussion on how the role of science in the architectural design process has changed.

This study proposes a graph theory based method for generating three-dimensional architectural layouts on the target of creating space that provides rich perceptual experience. The proposed approach incorporates the decisions of architects in the generation process to improve efficiency and avoid invalid results. Space is interpreted as a combination of volumes adjacent to, intersecting with or containing each other and is represented by a graph with nodes and edges. The study first generates an orthogonal orientation digraph (OODG), which denotes the relative positions of spaces and provides options for users to decide whether to continue generating the layout. Based on a given OODG, a combination of connected volumes is generated. The generation results show that the proposed method can generate space providing a rich experience when relations between volumes are properly set.

This reflection paper considers the epistemological implications of constructing a digital model of an existing building. The paper compares, in detail, three distinct approaches to constructing a digital model of the New Sacristy at S. Lorenzo in Florence, Italy. Each of the three approaches explores the effects of problematizing the model-building duality. This problematization implicates two conventional assumptions about existing-building models, namely, that they must be geometrically accurate and semantically predictable in order to be useful for research purposes. Proposed counterstrategies of “frictional reciprocity” and “emergent semantics” draw attention to often-overlooked knowledge-production capacities of existing-building models. Thereby, the paper aims to highlight and recommend these strategies as necessary to visioning possible futures, as a viable alternative to conventional modelmaking approaches.

Chinese Traditional Maps and Local Chronicles serve as significant sources for investigating the urban history of ancient Chinese cities. These documents prioritize the abstract representation of topological relationships over precise numerical values and geometric shapes. This is consistent with the traditional Chinese city image and spatial schema emphasizing “harmony between man and nature”. Most Chinese Traditional Maps reflect a centripetal spatial schema, wherein the core area is located at the center, and other locations are positioned hierarchically about the center. Based on this data, this research aims to categorize and examine the development and evolution of the centripetal spatial schema in ancient Chinese cities by constructing a pedigree of types. The authors identify three types and summarize their causes, calculate the topological features, and reveal their correlations with the type of pedigree. This study reveals that cities with different centripetal forms exhibit regular differences in the accessibility, centrality, and functional attributes of central nodes, as well as the proportion of nodes with different attributes in the city. Overall, the conclusion aims to deepen people’s understanding of traditional Chinese spatial concepts at the macro-urban level, particularly in the context of China’s current urban renewal wave. Additionally, it provides practical references for inheriting and applying Chinese traditional construction wisdom.

Defensive traditional architecture research is critical to the understanding of the ethnic history and multiethnic villages. Currently, there are few studies on the combination of traditional architecture and multiethnicity, and most of the defensive traditional buildings in multiethnic villages of Guangxi are facing the plight of being destroyed and abandoned. The aim of this research is to identify the spatial characteristics, commonalities, and differences of Guangxi’s defensive traditional architecture with Mozhuang Village and Guxietun Village as the examples, in order to preserve the architectural and ethnic components of these villages. This research uses the four research methods: literature review, field research, observation and space syntax analysis, and it summarizes the three results from the five aspects: plan, elevation, construction material, masonry and decoration. Results showed that the spatial characteristics are dominated by the ethnic group with the higher technological, cultural or economic level, and there are both commonalities and differences in defensive traditional architecture in multiethnic villages. Based on the three study results, this research proposes some overall suggestions toward traditional villages and architecture improvement in ethnic areas.

The literature on the development of industrial parks has often been neglected by the role of sustainability criteria for long-term prediction. The current study aimed to evaluate the relationship between industrial park development and sustainability levels in Iran and Turkey from 1980 to 2019. Although many researchers have investigated the link between them in different geographical locations, there is no clear picture of the relationship as the results overall are contradictory. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model bounds testing panel data method with structural fractures was used to analyze the annual selected data to determine whether the development of industrial parks in Iran and Turkey has been successful. The ARDL model is special in that it incorporates sustainability criteria by role of industrial “parks”. The reasoning behind including this explanatory variable is to determine whether countries with industrial parks are more sustainable and to identify future development challenges. Theory suggests that developing industrial parks will eventually strengthen sustainability regulations and policy implementations based on environmental and economic issues.

The historical cities in Southeast Asia with distinct characteristics are an important part of Asia’s cultural heritage system and the ancient capitals of Myanmar are as an example of these civilizational achievements. Their urban forms through history are essential spatial carriers reflecting the traditional local planning thinking. However, the overall understanding has yet to form due to a lack of systematic research. This study aims to complement it by studying the urban forms of almost all Myanmar’s ancient capitals based on verifiable spatial elements, works of literature, archaeology documents and field survey. The location, boundary and layout elements are analyzed to classify and characterize these urban forms, and their evolution rules are then summarized. Furthermore, the urban planning characteristics are discussed, indicating that the regulated structure and distinctive image gradually formed, accompanied by increasingly mature planning thinking and methods. The study reveals that the urban form and the planning thinking of Myanmar’s ancient capital cities had undergone an evolution with its own characteristics and that the “Golden Royal City” is of unique value in the genealogy of Asian capitals. The findings will contribute to the mutual learning between civilizations and provide a scientific foundation for the heritage conservation.

In the transition to a more sustainable built environment over the last two decades, the “greening” of architecture as a popular approach has received widespread attention. However, there are still many open questions and contradictions regarding how to design with “nature” and contribute to sustainability. In addition, explorations of built examples are rare, and three-dimensional (3D) green spaces in buildings are often overlooked. Therefore, we introduce “green pockets” (3D green spaces) as a typology distinct from two-dimensional green roofs and walls/facades. We draw on a mixed-method approach to study two cases (Erasmus MC and Hotel Jakarta), comprising 12 semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders, design document analysis, and site observation. We develop a critical reflection (a framework) on the impacts of “green architecture” on sustainability from unpacked benefits and adopt a biophilic design framework to analyse designing with “nature” in architectural practice. These findings demonstrate that green pockets contribute to integrating multiple experiences of “nature” into buildings and developing sustainable architecture. Designing green pockets with visibility, accessibility, and spatial characteristics (e.g., prospect and refuge, organised complexity, peril, and mystery) of “nature” improves building quality. Furthermore, we provide design recommendations to advance green pocket designs and make suggestions for future research.

The form of a building is among the most critical design aspects concerning building energy consumption. Form-based passive design strategies, like solar control, can significantly reduce heating and cooling demands if implemented early in the design process. In this sense, there is an evident need for tools that can adequately support designers in their decisions. This paper aims to illustrate how geometry-based graphical methods (GGM) can provide effective support in the conceptual design stage. The paper introduces a novel digital framework for designing and analysing shading devices that leverages geometrical models and graphical methods. The digital implementation of GGM allows extending their applicability to three-dimensional and non-planar geometries. A comprehensive review of existing methods and tools for the design of shading devices lays the ground for the proposed digital framework, which is then demonstrated through two case studies. The results show that the diagrammatic nature of GGM facilitates a better and more direct understanding of the relationship between form and performance.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of horizontal elements and building orientation on indoor particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 mm (PM_2.5) concentration and airflow. We added horizontal elements to the envelope of a standard Thai school building using computational fluid dynamics for testing the dispersion and concentration of PM_2.5 in classrooms under the PM_2.5 crisis condition in Chiang Mai Province. The results showed that the building orientation and the addition of horizontal elements to the front wall of the school building had different effects on the concentration of PM_2.5 and airflow within the classroom in eight directions. Classrooms in standard school buildings facing NE and SW directions had the highest indoor PM_2.5 concentrations, and those facing NW and SW had the least compared to all directions. Adding horizontal elements on the front wall of the standard school building was found to reduce the PM_2.5 concentration in the classrooms of the building facing the N, NE, E, and SE directions. Increasing the horizontal element width from 1 m to 2 m reduced the PM_2.5 concentration in classrooms of the N- and SE-facing buildings but had little effect in the classrooms of the NE- and E-facing buildings. This study will provide insight into the optimization of air quality in school buildings, informing the decision-making for adding horizontal elements and controlling their widths.

In the cultural stone heritage, progressive deteriorations develop over time with the effect of atmospheric processes. These deteriorations can reach to a significant degree that threaten the integrity of the monuments built from weak-strength rocks. In this study, it is aimed to determine the deteriorations caused by atmospheric processes on the monument surface in cultural heritage works built by carving into low-strength pyroclastic rocks by non-destructive tests (NDTs). To this end, two historic structures in the Kilistra Ancient City of Konya (Turkey) were selected. The index, strength, mineralogical and petrographic properties of the rocks, in which the monuments were carved, were first investigated. Then, contour scaling, crack, efflorescence and biodeterioration types were determined on the facades of the monuments. Later, NDT deterioration change maps were prepared based on the data obtained by performing the relative humidity, Schmidt hammer rebound (SHR), and P-wave velocity (Vp) measurements on the facades of the monuments. In the deterioration maps, it was determined that the SHR and Vp values of the rock were low in the capillary, infiltration, and crack zones with water penetration in the monuments built on low-strength pyroclastic rocks. However, deterioration was less in the regions with more limited water access according to zones.