Assessing Self-shading Benefits of Twisting Towers

Over the last number of decades, tall building geometries have been shifting from rectangular boxes towards shapes that are defined through geometrical transformations such as twisting. While, from an aesthetical point of view, these twisting geometries make tall buildings appear contemporary and iconic, from an environmental point of view, however, the benefits are not as straightforward. They may vary significantly based on climatic loads and urban conditions, among others. This study aims to assess the self-shading benefits of twisting geometries by finding a correlation between floor-to-floor rotation and façade solar irradiation across climates, primarily focusing on hot ones, where self-shading is used as a passive solar design strategy. The study analysed three types of irradiation studies: Cumulative Annual Irradiation, Cumulative Harmful Irradiation during Cooling Design Day, and lastly, Solar Irradiation Self-Shading Balance. The latter compares beneficial and harmful solar irradiation during Hot and Cold Degree Days to quantify the impact of floor-to-floor rotation on optical and thermal performance. The study explored hundreds of possible scenarios across different climates and various floor-to-floor rotation angles, revealing a variety of positive, negative, and neutral situations. The study recommends careful examination of environmental conditions via a combination of multiple irradiation studies, particularly in the case of a smooth façade scenario

The effect of low water on loading capacity of inland ships

Temporary low water levels can have a major impact on the loading capacity of inland ships, and as a consequence on the transport capacity of the overall waterborne supply chain. Insight in the capacity reducing effect of temporarily lowered water levels is important for the design and operation of robust transport chains on the one hand, and for the optimisation of fairway maintenance and long-term infrastructure development on the other. Knowledge on the effects of low water is clearly available at the level of individual ship owners, who adapt their transport operations to changing environmental circumstances, but less accessible at an aggregated level to assess the effects on the overall transport capacity of an inland waterway network. Based on a range of field observations and information collected from individual ships, this article introduces a general model to define the effect of low water constraints on the deadweight capacity and payload of inland ships, for which only the type, length, and beam of the vessel serve as input

Towards an Architecture of Self-reliance

This research project focuses on how decisions made by practitioners, articulating rural housing in Sub-Sahara Africa, contribute to the decreasing level of self-reliance inhabitants have regarding their housing. Multiple case studies on Mt. Elgon proved that inhabitants have a significantly higher self-reliance level, comparing traditional to modern housing. To study this phenomenon in practice and to articulate suitable design support the Design Research Methodology was chosen. The research clarification pinpointed inhabitant capacities as the key-contributor to self-reliant housing. Household survey outcomes proved that large numbers of rural inhabitant’s desire housing which they have insufficient capacities for. Indicating that the inhabitants experience a disparity between existing and desired housing capacities, moreover an inability to bridge this disparity independently, and consequently require external help. Architect seemed most appropriate to offer this help as it consist of sociocultural, engineering and design tasks. Architects are not trained in inhabitant capacity evaluation and as no suitable design tools existed, this research project developed the required design support, its application requirements and the impact measurements. These were then tested in a pilot project on Mt. Elgon. The findings were used to evaluate the support’s impact and suitability. The support tool users found it suitable to assess and integrate inhabitant capacities into housing solutions. The impact shows that the support group families have sustained their family’s level of self-reliance unlike the control group. The developed technological design, with modifications, could be used not only in rural Kenyan communities, but also help others around the continent

Subsidized ridesourcing for the first/last mile: how valuable for whom?

The first/last mile is a long known deterrent to public transportation use, yet difficult to solve with fixed route transit. Many transit agencies are exploring partnerships with ridesourcing companies to offer subsidized feeder services. Ridership, however, has been surprisingly low. We explore two conceptual explanations. First, ridesourcing fares are found to exceed travel time savings for all distances below 1 mile and annual household incomes below USD 30,000 (i.e., the majority of US bus-using households). Subsidies are thus necessary, yet common schemes (flat fees, flat value or percentage discounts) are inequitable as they particularly benefit high-income households (thus miss their main target group). Second, the disutility of the additional transfer (‘transfer penalty’) and wait times exceed travel time savings assuming modest values for all distances below 0.45 miles. Subsidized ridesourcing for the first/last mile is thus not the panacea often portrayed, particularly not for short first/last miles. Where first/last miles are longer, investments in first/last mile services only might miss their purpose as the private car often remains the faster, more convenient and cheaper option. A much more holistic set of policy changes is hence required. Where transit agencies decide to proceed with first/last mile subsidies, they are advised to integrate them into existing fares (offering first/last mile rides for free) as this is the most equitable approach

Architectural Record 1942-1967

This PhD thesis examines the editorial policies and publishing history of the American periodical Architectural Record in the quarter century from 1942 to 1967. Operating since 1891, the Architectural Record is the longest-living and most circulated professional magazine of architecture, with a strong and lasting impact on the development of the discipline and the profession in the US and abroad. As an archive of architectural knowledge, its history during the mid-20th century is revealing the paradigm shift that occurred in-between the emergence of Modernism in pre-war Europe and its transition to Post-Modernism in the second half of the 20th c., as a largely American issue. The success and influence of the magazine was due to the resources of its parent corporations, F.W. Dodge and McGraw-Hill, its support and acknowledgement by professional and academic organizations and the connections, commitment and inventiveness of its editors. The editorial campaigns of the magazine trace the struggle for the adaptation of the modern movement in the American context and through that to its subsequent global eminence as “contemporary architecture,” a term popularised by the Record. In the midst of the media revolution, the architectural magazines saw the transformation of the profession to an information-based business, beyond an art and an engineering science. At a time when “architectural composition” was redefined into “architectural design.” Amongst the greater media revolution emerging aggressively in the US, the Architectural Record undertook the task of catering for the needs of the practising architect in the post-industrial, managerial and information age. And while initially the magazines were following the architectural developments, reporting on literal images of architecture, by 1967 its editors were educating, managing, consulting and navigating the profession trough its new markets. This trajectory pinackled in the Record's editorial campaign for “the image of the architect” that exemplified the phenomenon of how magazines were lobbying for the profession. A phenomenon that is still largely inexplored and that defines 21st architectural practice and design. But more than any theoretical sub-narrative, this thesis is dedicated to the history of the people and events that took place behind the pages of this era-defining magazine through the archives and living records of their time

Editorial: Special issue of the Transport Research Days (TRDs) of BIVEC-GIBET 2019

On May 23-24 2019 the Transport Research Days (TRDs) of BIVEC-GIBET, the Benelux Interuniversity Association of Transport Researchers, took place in Ghent (Belgium). What then was common practice -- going to a conference, present your paper, and interact with people face-to-face on campus – is now, due to COVID-19, something we all again look very much forward to. The TRDs are organized biannually and offer young and established scholars from the three Benelux Countries an opportunity to present their research findings to an informed audience of transport, mobility, and logistics researchers. It is already the 8th time that the TRDs have been organized. Previous editions were held in Hasselt (2005), Rotterdam (2007), Brussels (2009), Namur (2011), Luxembourg (2013), Eindhoven (2015), Liège (2017), and Ghent (2019). And also the venue for the 9th TRD has been decided: Delft (2021). In May 2019 the TRDs were organized by the Social and Economic Geography (SEG) Research Group of the Geography Department of Ghent University. The conference theme, although general enough to welcome various mobility- and transport-related disciplines, centred around moving forward towards more sustainability mobility and transport through smart systems. In 12 different sessions devoted to Safety, Travel behaviour, Traffic flows, Freight, Climate, Accessibility, Route choice, Pricing, Cars, Ports/airports, and Travel data, the best of current transport, mobility and logistics research in the Benelux-countries was presented. The set of full papers can be found in Witlox (2019). Yes, BIVEC-GIBET keeps its tradition and still publishes (in paper form) its proceedings… Another tradition is to go for a special issue of a journal, and we are very happy that European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research (EJTIR) agreed to host such a SI. In total we received eight papers, three of which, after review, have been accepted. By coincidence, all three accepted papers stem from Dutch researchers. And all three are of high relevance in today’s ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease, although neither of the three papers refers to COVID-19 because the research was conducted prior to the pandemic

Responsible deployment of a projectile device in society

The superhero genre includes numerous examples of highly advanced technologies such as the Iron Man suit, the trick arrows used by Hawkeye, and the shrinking suit of Hope van Dyne (the Wasp). Another technology is the War Machine suit – an exoskeleton suit worn by Colonel James Rhodes. The War Machine suit is home to a plethora of weapons such as a Gatling gun. In this paper we present a prototype of a projectile device based on coils, which we constructed ourselves, that can replicate the projectile capability of a traditional projectile device. However, unlike traditional projection technologies, we imagine that this device could be used for the benefit of society to improve transportation systems and upgrade space travel

Plandocumentatie Woningbouwtentoonstellingen

The planning documentation for this ninth issue of DASH contains ten exhibition projects that give an overview of the different approaches to, and motivations behind, housing exhibitions during the past 100 years. All of the documented examples featured homes exhibited on a 1:1 scale. With the exception of the exhibition ‘Die Wohnung unserer Zeit’, which was meant to be temporary, the homes in the other nine projects remained even after the exhibition period was finished, and have since been permanently inhabited. Each of these ten exhibitions forms a mirror of the prevailing Zeitgeist. They call for change, expose shortcomings, form a platform for experimentation, offer a stage for political propaganda, or attempt to initiate urban renewal.In de plandocumentatie van deze negende DASH staan tien tentoonstellingsprojecten die een overzicht bieden van de verschillende benaderingen bij woningbouwtentoonstellingen gedurende de afgelopen 100 jaar. In alle voorbeelden was (en is) sprake van het tentoonstellen van woningen schaal 1:1. Met uitzondering van de als tijdelijk opgezette tentoonstelling ‘Die Wohnung unserer Zeit’ zijn de woningen na de tentoonstellingperiode behouden en permanent bewoond. De tien tentoonstellingen vormen stuk voor stuk een spiegel van de heersende tijdgeest. Ze roepen op tot verandering, stellen misstanden aan de kaak, vormen een platform voor experiment of politieke propaganda en zijn initiator van stedelijke vernieuwingsprocessen

Redactioneel

The cover of this issue of DASH shows a home interior that was exhibited in Berlin in 1952, at the exhibition ‘Wir bauen ein besseres Leben’ / ‘We’re Building a Better Life’. In this model interior, which was designed like a brilliant white laboratory, American actors showed the audience that had flocked to Berlin how you were supposed to live in this kind of house. An expert in a white coat, who towered above the drab audience, was on hand to explain the house, and what the actors were doing. Like no other picture, this photograph shows how the housing interior has been seized upon in the modern era as a tool in emancipatory and political processes (from both the outside in and from the inside out) that have dramatically changed the dwelling landscape. With the rise of mass housing in the previous century, dwelling undeniably became an architectural task, and the interior has played an important role in this process. Yet one can also ask whether the home interior can indeed be seen as an architectural project. After all, within the four walls of one’s own house, the resident will go his own way, unseen and undisturbed, with the walls separating the private from the public. The house is furnished and customized to one’s own needs, and is decorated with the paraphernalia of everyday life and the memories of the past. Despite this personal dimension, history has shown that the home interior has also always been linked to representation, and that makes it by definition an architectural assignment: just think of the interiors of large houses and noble palaces. The rise of mass housing over the past 100 years concentrated on dwelling as an architectural task, and that created the space for the home interior to also be an architectural assignment, one that has since overtaken the noble elite and the decorative. Nowadays it seems that every interior is considered an ‘architectural’ project, or better yet a ‘design’ project: just take a look at any magazine kiosk to see how dwelling consumers are inundated with information on the latest trends. The interior seems more than ever to have become an instrument by which an individual presents himself to the world, much in the way that fashion is also such an instrument. For DASH, this focus on the home interior is interesting because (in)explicitly formulated ideas about the interior always play a role, and always have done, in the design of homes; this is true not only in the design of private houses, but also of mass housing. The transfer of these ideas primarily took place, and still takes place, through the interiors themselves, which are publicized by the media (books, magazines, newspapers, television, films, exhibitions, department stores, catalogues, home design blogs). Some of these interiors are specially made to express a specific view about dwelling and architecture. In this issue of DASH, we explicitly focus on these exhibited home interiors, which we call ‘interiors on display’. We examined 15 of these rooms from the last century: interiors that were never inhabited, but that were exhibited at exhibitions and fairs. In most cases, the interiors were broken down, and only live on in the form of drawings and/or photographs. Leading up to this documentation, five essays and an interview offer different perspectives on the idea of the interior as an architectural assignment, as a commercial object and as a tool in creating artistic, avant-garde and cultural reflections on society. This issue of DASH thus presents a small cross section of more than 100 years of dwelling, in the context of the rapidly changing (Western) society, and shows how these developments have been architecturally projected onto the interior.De omslag van DASH nr. 11 toont een woninginterieur dat in 1952 tentoongesteld werd in Berlijn op de tentoonstelling ‘Wir bauen ein besseres Leben’ / ‘We’re Building a Better Life’. In dit modelinterieur, vormgegeven als een stralend wit laboratorium, deden Amerikaanse acteurs aan het toegestroomde Berlijnse publiek voor hoe er gewoond moest worden in een dergelijk huis. Een deskundige in witte jas, die boven het grauwe publiek uittorende, voorzag het huis en de handelingen van de acteurs van uitleg. Als geen ander beeld toont deze foto hoe het woninginterieur in de moderne tijd is aangegrepen als instrument in emancipatoire en politieke processen, van buiten af én van binnen uit, die het wonen drastisch hebben veranderd. Met de opkomst van de massawoningbouw in de vorige eeuw is het wonen onmiskenbaar een architectonische opgave geworden en het interieur speelt daarbij een belangrijke rol. Men kan zich echter afvragen of het woninginterieur wel een architectonische opgave kan zijn. Binnen de vier muren van het eigen huis gaat de bewoner immers zijn gang, ongezien en ongestoord, waarbij de muren het private van het publieke scheiden. Het huis wordt ingericht en aangepast naar eigen wensen, gedecoreerd met de parafernalia van het dagelijks leven en de herinneringen aan het verleden. Dit persoonlijke ten spijt, laat de geschiedenis zien dat het wooninterieur ook altijd aan representatie verbonden is en daarmee per definitie een architectonische opgave: denk alleen al aan de interieurs van grote woonhuizen en adellijke paleizen. De opkomst van de massawoningbouw in de laatste 100 jaar heeft het wonen als architectonische opgave centraal gesteld en daarmee ook aan het woninginterieur de ruimte gegeven om een opgave te worden, die de adellijke elite en het decoratieve voorbij is gestreefd. Tegenwoordig lijkt ieder interieur gezien te worden als ‘architectonisch’, of beter nog, ‘design’-project: men hoeft slechts in een willekeurige kiosk rond te kijken om te zien hoe de woonconsument overspoeld wordt met informatie over de laatste trends. Het interieur lijkt meer dan ooit een middel geworden waarmee een individu zichzelf aan de wereld presenteert, zoals de mode dat ook doet. Voor DASH is deze aandacht voor het woninginterieur interessant, omdat al dan niet expliciet geformuleerde ideeën over het interieur altijd een rol spelen (en gespeeld hebben) bij het ontwerpen van woningen, niet alleen bij het ontwerp van privé woonhuizen, maar ook binnen de massawoningbouw. De overdracht van deze ideeën vond (en vindt) voornamelijk plaats via de interieurs zelf, die door de media (boeken, tijdschriften, kranten, televisie, films, tentoonstellingen, warenhuizen, catalogi, woon-blogs) publiek gemaakt worden. Een deel van deze interieurs is speciaal gemaakt om een specifieke opvatting over wonen en architectuur uit te drukken. Op deze tentoongestelde woninginterieurs, die we hier ‘stijlkamers’ noemen, richten we ons in dit nummer van DASH. Voor dit nummer hebben we 15 stijlkamers onderzocht uit de afgelopen eeuw, interieurs die nooit zijn bewoond, maar wel getoond op tentoonstellingen en beurzen. In de meeste gevallen zijn de interieurs weer afgebroken en restten alleen tekeningen en/of foto’s. Voorafgaand aan deze documentatie bieden vijf essays en een interview verschillende perspectieven op het interieur als architectonische opgave, als commercieel object, en als instrument in kunstzinnige, avant-gardistische en culturele reflecties op de maatschappij. DASH biedt daarmee een kleine dwarsdoorsnede over 100 jaar wonen in de context van de sterk veranderende (westerse) samenleving en laat zien op welke manier dit architectonisch geprojecteerd is in het interieur

Construction of Full Residual Stress Depth Profile in Glass Using the Knowledge of Surface Stress

This paper presents the development of a simple method to determine the full residual stress depth profile in architectural (i.e. construction sector) glass. The proposed model requires only the knowledge of the surface residual stress of glass, which can be known from the glass manufacturer or can be measured using a Scattered-Light-Polariscope (SCALP), as input. The requirement of through-thickness force equilibrium and the knowledge of parabolic shape of the residual stress depth profile are used to uniquely determine the residual stress depth profile in any given glass panel. Unlike the complex models reported in the literature, the proposed technique does not require modelling the complex multi-physics phenomenon of the generation of residual stress or the use of complex computational models. The residual stress predictions from the proposed model were validated against experimental results. The paper also presents a sensitivity analysis in order to justify the accuracy of the proposed model even after the possible errors/inaccuracies in the only input data (i.e. surface stress) of the model was incorporated in the analyses