Pattern-based software architecture for service-oriented software systems

Service-oriented architecture is a recent conceptual framework for service-oriented software platforms. Architectures are of great importance for the evolution of software systems. We present a modelling and transformation technique for service-centric distributed software systems. Architectural configurations, expressed through hierarchical architectural patterns, form the core of a specification and transformation technique. Patterns on different levels of abstraction form transformation invariants that structure and constrain the transformation process. We explore the role that patterns can play in architecture transformations in terms of functional properties, but also non-functional quality aspects

Architectural Knowledge. Transformations, transpositions and variations

The challenge of architecture is to focus on architecture itself — buildings, drawings, and models— as its locus of knowledge and, specifically, on how that knowledge can became a tool of the design process. One of the first attempts to do so, Précis and Recueil, appeared in the early nineteenth century elaborated by Durand. They represented the hinge for an epistemological validation of the discipline, taking further the Vitruvian axiom architectura est sciencia, and answering Enlightenment’s anxiety for demonstration and systematization of knowledge. Durand sought to clarify the fundamentals of architectural praxis and the genealogies of what it produces by taking history as its material and, through techniques of decomposing and recomposing, established the principles of the design process. Although his effort to refocus the discipline in its inaugural act, the deterioration and oversimplification of Durand’s teachings resulted in their direct implementation by those who aspired to a definition of specific methods in order to relieve the architect’s practice, partially because of their normative and hermetic character. Architectural schools keep struggling to find ways of improving their student’s skills, having shifted its focus from architectural objects to the process of creating those, which had an enormous impact in architectural representation as a way of validating its objects, but not in the process of architectural investigation itself. Re-elaborating Durand’s questions implies reflecting on techniques of using architectural knowledge both in a creative and generative way. Through processes of transformation, transposition and variation architects have, throughout history, conferred new meanings to what is already known. It is the use of architectural knowledge as a simulacrum, and of those techniques as a way of constructing critical arguments within the discipline that will potentially improve students’ capabilities of reasoning about past and contemporary architecture, and therefore integrate aspects of theory and practice

Time indeterminacy and spatio-temporal building transformations: an approach for architectural heritage understanding

Nowadays most digital reconstructions in architecture and archeology describe buildings heritage as awhole of static and unchangeable entities. However, historical sites can have a rich and complex history, sometimes full of evolutions, sometimes only partially known by means of documentary sources. Various aspects condition the analysis and the interpretation of cultural heritage. First of all, buildings are not inexorably constant in time: creation, destruction, union, division, annexation, partial demolition and change of function are the transformations that buildings can undergo over time. Moreover, other factors sometimes contradictory can condition the knowledge about an historical site, such as historical sources and uncertainty. On one hand, historical documentation concerning past states can be heterogeneous, dubious, incomplete and even contradictory. On the other hand, uncertainty is prevalent in cultural heritage in various forms: sometimes it is impossible to define the dating period, sometimes the building original shape or yet its spatial position. This paper proposes amodeling approach of the geometrical representation of buildings, taking into account the kind of transformations and the notion of temporal indetermination

Constraint Design Rewriting

We propose an algebraic approach to the design and transformation of constraint networks, inspired by Architectural Design Rewriting. The approach can be understood as (i) an extension of ADR with constraints, and (ii) an application of ADR to the design of reconfigurable constraint networks. The main idea is to consider classes of constraint networks as algebras whose operators are used to denote constraint networks with terms. Constraint network transformations such as constraint propagations are specified with rewrite rules exploiting the network’s structure provided by terms

Some issues in the 'archaeology' of software evolution

During a software project's lifetime, the software goes through many changes, as components are added, removed and modified to fix bugs and add new features. This paper is intended as a lightweight introduction to some of the issues arising from an `archaeological' investigation of software evolution. We use our own work to look at some of the challenges faced, techniques used, findings obtained, and lessons learnt when measuring and visualising the historical changes that happen during the evolution of software

Transformation of the Ganjuran Church Complex: a Typological Study

The Ganjuran Church, a parish church located in South of Yogyakarta, is an interesting object related to typological studies. This study reveals that since its first establishment, Ganjuran Church has experienced three phases of development. From those phases, buildings in Ganjuran complex can be compiled into five types: kampong, limasan and joglo houses, Javanese Hindu-Budhism temple and Roman basilica. Meanwhile, architectural transformations occurs in the monument and church areas. This study also interprets that typological analysis is not only able to reveal architectural transformations, but also cultural transformations. In this context, typology is not only related to technical matters such as form and construction but also non-technical matters such as cultural perception and symbolism