This research paper examines the morphological transformation of the historic urban quarters (HUQ) adjacent to Maldah Patti in Dinajpur and provides guidelines for maintaining architectural continuity in new constructions. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, including historical research, physical surveys, user interviews, design ethnography, and participant experiences. The identified factors contributing to architectural degradation in HUQ adjacent to Maldah Patti in Dinajpur include economy-focused considerations, lack of awareness, municipal regulations, community sense, owner preferences, bureaucracy, and the architect’s lack of knowledge. The study identified physical characteristics of historical structures in the HUQ, including location, ownership, present use, facade emphasis, style, and pedestrian experience. The study recommends balancing historical continuity and socioeconomic development, designing elements to evoke historical ambience, acknowledging functionality and spatial constraints, ensuring client participation, paying attention to detail, taking inspiration from historic structures, deriving vertical and horizontal emphasis in the fac¸ade, facing trade-offs and compromises, giving importance to communication, and paying attention to security issues to achieve architectural continuity in HUQ.

Urban waterfronts are important gateways that reflect a city’s image and characteristics. Evaluating waterfront vitality and its influencing factors is critical for guiding urban waterfront planning and redevelopment. Hourly human movement data, provided by the Baidu Heatmap, were used to explore the weekday and weekend urban vitality spatial distribution characteristics of the waterfronts of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. Global (ordinary least squares) and local (multiscale geographically weighted regression) models revealed the influence of physical–environmental characteristics (objective) and spatial experience evaluation factors (subjective) on urban vitality. (1) The Qinhuai River waterfront urban vitality agglomeration characteristics were similar between weekdays and weekends, and the core vitality areas were distributed in the dense tourism, commercial, and residential areas along the river. (2) The evaluation of catering experience had the strongest positive correlation with vitality, whereas the waterfront distance had the strongest negative correlation. (3) The influence of each factor on waterfront vitality in the study area exhibited considerable spatial differences, with attenuation trends observed from the east-to-west river sections. This study shows the urban vitality distribution characteristics of the Qinhuai River waterfront spaces. Exploring the influence of physical–environmental and spatial evaluation factors on the vitality distribution can provide a scientific basis and reference for urban waterfront planning and redevelopment focusing on cultivating vitality.

This paper presents a design framework of a shading device applied on a building envelope, with a scheduled automatic activation logic, based on a sun path diagram. This proposal aims to balance the direct sun indoor exposure by evaluating the envelope area exposed to direct sun rays and the hourly activation rate of shading devices. These procedures are over the parametric modeling and simulation platform using raytracing, structural finite element analysis, and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) prototyping. The design process of building envelopes equipped with kinetic devices can use all these design resources. The kinetic device’s activation logic relies on the feed-forward paradigm, scheduling the activation from the parametric modeling and the sun path diagram, using an angle threshold between the device post and the sun vector as a parameter. The design framework showed the preliminary path to develop shading devices considering the building envelope shape with a feedforward activation logic based on local sun path characteristics.

Architecture communication on photo-sharing social networking services like Instagram focuses on photorealism. Meanwhile, the conceptual intention or the experience of the architectural space has less impact in these media. Some architectural graphics techniques are closer to this purpose due to their nature. The main objective is to identify the visual qualities of the architectural space experience from a linear perspective. To do this, the research proposes the design of a visual pattern recognition tool and applies it to pairs of images (photography and drawing) from the same place. The results provide the strategy design based on five variables: the level of human presence, the distortion of perspective, the chromatic distortion, the overlay realism and the emphasis. Finally, the visual summaries lead to values that help to understand the communicative qualities of the experience of space due to their ability to compare main milestones of visual information.

Many cities in Egypt have been built recently with spatial characteristics that differ structurally from the spatial configuration of the ancient Arab city. There is a growing interest in understanding how social and economic phenomena related to the community are transformed in new cities, particularly those that extend from the old city, as is the case with the city of New Cairo. We have developed an analytical framework to study the effects of spatial configuration on the pace of growth of the new city and identify its characteristics in terms of phenomena related to movement and the distribution of economic activities, as well as urban vitality. A framework for combining quantitative and qualitative analysis helps in understanding phenomena related to the morphology of the development of the new city. Using syntactic analysis, place syntax and field observation, the spatial characteristics of the city of New Cairo were investigated, then compared with Old Cairo to determine which features were enriched in terms of the city’s vitality or what has been lost during the expansion phases, based on the planning concepts that were applied. The study concluded that changes in the characteristics of the spatial configurations of the new Egyptian cities by increasing the flow of vehicular traffic via wide arterial roads do not reflect the requirements of the local community, but instead impede local movement within the city and reduce the integration of its neighbourhoods, turning them into isolated islands. The greatest impact of this is the way in which the characteristics of society in these cities have been limited, resulting in isolation and a lack of connection with the identity of the place and the customs and traditions of the community. This paper presents an analytical framework for evaluating similar cities in terms of the characteristics of this planning configuration, identifying the extent to which the old has been preserved or changed and emphasising the validity of the methodology by evaluating the characteristics of other new cities.

This study assesses the commonly adopted adaptation planning strategies of infrastructures in Northwest Florida (USA) based on economic analysis under different objective years. Specifically, the economic analysis considers both direct and indirect impacts of sea level rise by deploying the interdependence of infrastructures. We demonstrate the difference and significance of considering indirect economic impacts in the process of cost-benefit analysis under sea level rise. Based on the results, we recommend that the most effective strategy is partial protection of land use plus inundated transportation network upgrade, even though the total shoreline protection can make more benefits. Furthermore, we compare the performance of objective planning year from two criteria: total benefits and cost-effectiveness. The result indicates that the year 2080 could be the most economical if it is set as the objective year for the long-term infrastructure planning. The result also highlights that the economic analysis of infrastructure should be conducted over time since the total costs are distributed over many years. It is not to say that the farther the year is, the more effectiveness the strategy would be, although the total benefits would be greater.

This paper carefully explains Pirnia’s theory regarding the orientation of traditional Iranian cities and buildings (Roon) and investigates the factors involved in this historic architectural phenomenon. For this purpose, 40 traditional Yazd Qajar houses were under study. Most of which are in the Rasteh Roon and close to the southwest direction, and only five contradict the direction that Pirnia had pointed. While the primeval data indicated the theory is strengthening, the investigation followed the fundamental factors behind this event. From the perspective of analysis and discussion on involved factors (climate, topography, aqueducts, urban arteries, politics, trade routes, privacy, noise, view, and religion), it turns out that the direction of the wind and sun had negligible impacts on this orientation, and architects of the Qajar era in Yazd old city did not care about these climate factors. It seems religious factors were more influential. Thus, despite being approvingly referenced in many scientific studies, Pirnia’s orientation theory (Roon)—the efforts of past Iranian architects to orient buildings in a specific direction due to their unique knowledge of region and climate factors—becomes not solid.

Experts in the field of architecture and landscape design have reached a broad consensus that the Chinese literati garden is a type of built environment that seamlessly integrates architecture and landscape with exceptional cultural, artistic, and historical values. However, previous site-based studies have often leaned towards either a subjective description of the experience or a technical analysis of the space. Both approaches may result in oversimplified interpretations of the Chinese literati garden, failing to adequately capture its fundamental spatial-experiential structure.

This paper aims to address this challenge through the lens of phenomenology. Specifically, it examines an essential spatial-experiential structure—the FS-FW structure—embedded within the Chinese literati garden. The term FS-FW structure, as meticulously established in this paper, refers to the spatial-experiential structure formed by the relationship between one’s experience within a single “focusing space” (a space built for visitors to linger and mindfully appreciate their surroundings) and that within its “focused world” (a phenomenal world of surroundings generated during visitors’ stay in the focusing space).

Using the Master of the Nets Garden as a case study, this paper investigates how the FS-FW structure shapes one’s experiences within a literati garden and explores several important mechanisms related to it. Avariety of methods are employed throughout, with GIS-based spatial-visual analysis being particularly significant. The case study leads to a series of original results, including some significant mechanisms, that explain how Chinese literati gardens shape visitors’ experiences. This paper concludes that the FS-FW structure is a key factor responsible for shaping a continuous, rich, and clearly formulated experience within the Chinese literati garden.

This study aims to create a basis for sustainable conservation by identifying the heritage value of 166 Ikseon-dong. Based on old land registers and cadastral maps of the 1920s and 1930s, it interpreted the construction procedure, social background, and urban architectural characteristics of the road and plot subdivision of the modern Hanok district. Ikseon-dong Hanok produced four types of ground plans based on the grid-street system. This study argues that these innovative experiments have already been attempted through Bak Young-hyo”s proposals in his Geonbaekseo and the architectural activities of Jeong Segwon, and that the idea of applying various housing types, layouts, and grid-street system planning was embodied through the development of the Hanok complex in Ikseon-dong. Further, this attempt greatly influenced the design of other Hanok complexes built in colonial Gyeongseong after 1936, taking the Ikseon-dong Hanok as a role model. The radiation of new perspectives will be a groundwork for the future sustainable conservation of heritage places.

Taking the constituent elements other than the main buildings of local Confucian temples as a research object, including memorial archway, screen wall, Pan-chi (pond), worship altar, sacrificial hall, pavilion and tower, this paper combines textual narrative and historical measurement to sort out the production and development history of these constituent elements. It analyzes the spatial evolution trend of Confucian temples to present the dynamic processes of derivation of constituent elements and spatial evolution of local Confucian temples. On this basis, this paper surveys the causes of the growth of Confucian temples from a macro historical perspective by considering political, social and cultural factors. This dynamic development process, sacred and secular as it is, will grow and last forever under the multiple official implications and folk beliefs.

This research explores the subject of territory, understood based on the life world of Andean inhabitants of the Colca Valley (Arequipa, Peru), who are descendants of ancient local Indigenous groups that, since prehistoric times, have known how to adapt to the rugged geographical reality of the Andes. Through a phenomenological approach, which assesses the subjective experience, it was possible to corroborate the existence of routine patterns of spatiality that preserve the emotional essence of past territorial conceptions, which have prevailed despite the hegemonic impositions systematically forced upon the land ever since the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Through carrying out coexistence fieldwork in situ, five layers of territorial sense have been registered, which, besides being very useful in order to optimize and give coherence to their agricultural and animal husbandry tasks, are periodically represented through verbal and corporal narratives, which have been mapped in this work in order to make their dynamics of symbolization visible and to conclude in the existence of an emotional Andean territory.

This paper aims to characterize the varied urban settings community-based elderly care facilities are located, and examine whether characteristics of urban built environments influence the number of older people attending care facilities for multiple services. The dataset incorporates 108 cases of community-based elderly care facilities and usage records from over 17000 users collected in the Chinese city of Nanjing. A network-based approach was employed to comprehensively describe urban built environments surrounding care facilities with a series of metrics on street morphology and land-uses. It was found that urban built environments significantly influenced the number of users attending care facilities. Facilities having more users tended to locate in places with more shops and stores, on major arterial streets of the city, or inside large housing estates in the outer city. Moreover, urban factors performed differently in affecting users of different services as services accepting spontaneous users were more likely to be influenced by street morphology. This study revealed specific urban factors facilitating older people’s usage of care resources. It also generated practical implications regarding the strategies for the planning of spatial locations and service provision to improve the utilization of community-based elderly care.

Construction material offcuts is a data problem that can largely be avoided by dimensional coordination during concept design. Besides the environmental benefits, early phase coordination is beneficial to the overall design process as it integrates information not typically considered until later in the design process. However, taking reality-changing actions is often challenged by uncertainty, time constraints, and lack of integration of available tools. Acknowledging the potential of computational design in enabling architects to manage design and coordination complexities and taking plasterboard opportunities for dimensional coordination, the paper presents a review and assessment of the existing methods to interrogate what, when, and how are these adaptable to the task. The study shows that ML-based methods outperform other methods and concludes that leveraging computational design powers to reduce offcuts is not a question of a tool, but one of a strategy. Eventually, the future steps to achieving such a strategy are discussed.

There is a lack of facade design methods for early design stages to balance thermal comfort and daylight provision that consider the obstruction angle as an independent variable without using modeling and simulations. This paper aims to develop easy-to use solar radiation-based prediction method for the design of office building facades (i.e., design parameters: room size, window-to-floor ratio, and glazing thermal/optical properties) located in urban canyons to balance daylight provision according to the European standard EN 17037:2018 and thermal comfort through specific cooling capacity. We used a simulation-based methodology that includes correlation analyses between building performance metrics and design parameters, the development of design workflows, accuracy analysis, and validation through the application of the workflows to a new development office building facades located in Tallinn, Estonia. The validation showed that the mean percentage of right/conservative predictions of thermal comfort classes is 98.8% whereas for daylight provision, it is higher than 75.6%. The use of the proposed prediction method can help designers to work more efficiently during early design stages and to obtain optimal performative solutions in much shorter time: window sizing in 73,152 room combinations in 80 s.