Middle Eastern Maidans:: The Role of Interactive and Integrated Public Squares in Urban Social Sustainability

This paper focuses on two public squares (Maidans) in rapidly growing cities in the Middle East: Maidan Naghsh-e-Jahan in Isfahan, Iran and Maidan Rolla in Sharjah, UAE. These cities are selected for their social diversity and the intentional use of public squares in formalizing and directing city growth. As epicenters of urban performances, both Maidans have historically attracted diverse people across social strata and age. While Iran and UAE may not be considered model democratic states and each has a distinct demographic composition, the enhanced social interaction that takes place in the two case Maidans have lessons for making "safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces” (Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). In comparatively analyzing the two case Maidans, we aim to: 1) Identify their socio- spatial features; 2) present indicators of socially interactive and integrated public places. Using mixed-methods research, we first layer historical maps of the two cities to identify the case Maidans that have persisted over time. Second, we use "Space Syntax” to assess their integrative character. Finally, engaging Projects for Public Space criteria, we comparatively assess their interactive aspects to illustrate their shared urbanity

How Designers Learn to Learn:: Connecting Motivation and Cognitive Process in Practice- based Research Design

Performing research under the umbrella of design engages various methodological approaches. Scholars such as Christopher Frayling (1993) position dominant modes of art and design research as research-/nto, research-through, and research-for, while more contemporarily Laurene Vaughan (2017) argues for the value and importance of practice-based design research as an embodied "research-a//” approach. Through practice-based research, the traditionally distinct role of designer-maker and research-writer often merge for "making,” both in engaging theoretical frameworks and in focusing research activities. However, in disciplines such as architecture and industrial design that have traditionally favored investigating the measurable performance of "products” as primarily positivistic, the individual's motivation to initiate directed research activities may be challenged by merging different modes of knowledge acquisition and production. This leads us to question in what ways understanding individual motivation and self-concept can inform the research process under the umbrella of design research. By more closely examining Jacquelynne Eccles (1987) educational model of Expectancy Value Theory, this paper focuses on the rarely acknowledged issue of an individual's motivational beliefs and self-concept in the practice of design research. This exploration begins to conceptually connect these influential factors, especially a designer/researcher's expectancies and values toward certain tasks, to their learning behavior and performance. Specifically, by looking at traditions in institutional pedagogy and their emphasis on visual and textual knowledge and content provides evidence of a separation between "thinking of things” and "writing design.” Using Donald Shon's (1984) concept of "reflective practice” in design, research practices and activities can be viewed as successions of representation and conscious learning that are accessible, manipulatable, and flexible. Through practice-based design research ” or research-*// ” this paper posits that an individual's motivation, expectancies, values, and experiences are reflected in their "knowledge performances” and research design

New Approach for Documenting Historic Buildings

This paper discusses utilizing new 3D CAD system for documenting historical buildings. The 3D CAD modeling was used to generate three-dimensional drawings of the Main Justice Building Court yard. The courtyard, which covers approximately 4,500 square meters is situated over top of a parking garage in the Main Justice Building in Washington DC, and is comprised mainly of stonework. The scopes of the renovation work includes salvaging the courtyard stone, demolishing and rebuilding the concrete structure of the car parking below the courtyard, and reinstall the salvaged stone back in its original location. Traditionally, the measuring tape is used to document the vertical planes, and conventional surveying equipments are used to document the horizontal planes. In this project, the courtyard stone pieces are inherited in the building structure and some of the stones have unique threedimensional configurations that cannot be surveyed by conventional techniques. Valcuní† 3D CAD modeling was used to document the locations and the shapes of the stonework in the courtyard before removing the stone and demolishing the concrete structure. 3D CAD modeling has the ability to locate the required points in the three- dimensional space. 3D CAD modeling was used to generate 2D and 3D CAD drawings for the courtyard. These drawings were used to re-fabricate the dismantled stones, and to reinstall the salvaged stones in their original locations. The field surveying of the courtyard was completed in 16 working hours. More than 3000 stone pieces were located in the three dimensional space to an accuracy range of 1/8" (Arch Second, 2000)

Sharing Tacit Design Knowledge in a Distributed Design Environment

This paper reports a case study that was conducted to observe the exchange of tacit design knowledge in a distributed design environment. Prototype software was developed and tested in a undergraduate design studio in which design students sought advice from experts in remote locations. It provides tools for showing images, such as drawings, renderings, and for engaging in a written dialogue (chat session). Data were collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods to enhance the validity of findings--through content analysis, log files, simple statistics, and questionnaires

Accident and Predictability:: An Analytical Methodology for Persistent Forces in the American City

American cities are a curious blend of strongly predictable and profoundly accidental relationships, built consequences of persistent forces, the presence of which may be either visible or hidden. Observed urban form and space can be understood as resulting from decisions taken within a specific, but evolving, spatial and temporal context. The contextual elements which remain the same for the longest time are defined as being the most persistent forces of urban form-giving. I propose a methodology which seeks to identify instances of persistent forces, to discern their collisions in space and over time, and to understand observable built form and space as evidence of those forces. Results consist of completed case studies of the freeway system and instances of accidental urban relationships within Minneapolis, Minnesota

A New Form of Architectural Surface Material

This paper presents an ongoing research project about the development of the materials and fabrication techniques for a fundamentally new class of architectural composite. This type of composite, which is a representative example of an even broader class of smart architectural material, has the potential to change the design and function of an architectural structure or living environment. As of today, this kind of composite does not exist. Once completed, this will be the first technology on its own. We believe this study will lay the fundamental groundwork for a new paradigm in surface engineering that may be of considerable significance in architecture, building and construction industry, and materials science

Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart, 1925:: The Initial Scheme

Mies van der Rohe viewed his first proposal for the Stuttgart Weissenhofsiedlung as "artistically right.” Despite this conviction, he guided the project through a series of design iterations that had the effect of radically transforming the project. The origin of the initial scheme has been a matter of some speculation among historians. Most believe that the initial project was a result of collaboration between Mies and Hugo Häring. There has also been some speculation on the intentions behind the initial project. Both discussions have been thwarted by the presumed lack of documentation. This paper will present a partial reconstruction of the first scheme, based on historical documents. Rather than trying to assign authorship, it will speculate on the origins of the scheme, some reasons for the abrupt change in design direction, and reaching implications for the understanding of the later work and thinking of the later work of Mies van der Rohe

A Case Study for Sensitivity-Based Building Energy Optimization

Building design optimization process is associated with uncertainties due to climate change, unpredictable occupant behavior, and physical degradation of building material over time. The inherent uncertainties in the design process reduce the reliability and robustness of the optim3l design solution(s) and affect design decision-making results. This research studies the capabilities of parametric design tools in adopting probabilistic methods to handle uncertainties in building performance optimization. Variance-based methods, e.g., Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses are implemented to identify the most critical parameters in design optimization problems and improve the efficiency of design optimization. The optimal solutions achieved with variance-based methods are satisfying the design objectives more efficiently, also remain robust to changes and uncertainties

Bionic Building Concept

This paper describes a framework for creating a structured series of levels of building automation. It is designed to allow buildings to acquire intelligence about their own systems and equipment and to gradually obtain control of themselves. This allows planners, users, owners and other actors in the planning, construction and use to view and understand the building's operations and performance at many levels. The framework has five horizontal levels and three communication streams. Each level implies a degree of automation with the scale shifting from the mechanization at the bottom to intelligence at the top. The levels describe (bottom to top) the physical object, their representation as data, the history of the data, the processes to analyse and model the histories, and at the highest level, the ability to learn from this analysis to predict, model and plan future building behaviour. Information moves among these levels in an upstream path as well as in a downstream path. The upstream path describes how sensor information is curated to create logs that, using the IFC structure, create semantic histories. In the downstream path, the histories are measured against simulations and model-based predictions to create use-models and potential event sequences. The event sequences then become the instruction sets for the actuators and equipment in the building. Once these are carried out, the effects then feed the sensor data back upstream. In this way, a cycle of information both upstream and downstream feeds a system that can learn. The paper also describes the third stream of communication. This, at each level of the framework, shows how information given to people can be categorized in a scale of increasingly sentient perception. This denotes how the different levels allow users to perceive the building as a purely mechanistic process at the lowest level and as a sentient being at the highest level

Architecture and its (non)permeable boundaries

The project presented in this paper is part of a larger body of ongoing design research that investigates kinetic and responsive architectural skin systems. It explores integration of custom-made soft robotic muscles into a component-based surface. The result is a prototype of a light modular system capable of kinetic response triggered by inflation and deflation of soft robotic muscles. The project focuses on kinetics of architectural surfaces and tectonics that integrate stasis and motion. It proposes a ‘programmable' architectural modular system that simultaneously addresses stability, dynamics and adaptability of a singular system. This prototype-based research demonstrates the possibility of transforming aggregated structures by inflating and deflating integrated soft components (pneu) within them. In particular, the project explores the capacity of pneu structures to produce a kinetic effect in architectural surfaces. By having an elastic membrane, a pneu structure responds to the change of pressure by changing its mass. The change in pressure can cause considerable physical transformation of the structure. In addition, the nature of a boundary between architecture and its larger ecology is of particular concern. The project is based on two premises. First, that architecture and the built environment in general should be more tightly bound to the dynamics of local ecologies and that strong links to the undercurrents of its surroundings (near and far) could facilitate an active response to constant changes in the environment (external and internal). Second, that responsive architectural systems could act as ecologies in themselves, allowing architecture as a discipline to recalibrate its role in a larger socio-economic context by becoming a more intelligent and operative participant - a participant imbued with foresight