The Digital in Architecture: Then, Now and In the Future

Authored by architecture theorist Mollie Claypool, it’s your one-stop-shop for the history of digital thinking in architecture. From debates around parametric design to the emergence of collaboration, the report condenses the interplay between digital innovation and architecture into one, tangible piece to reference

An Application of IoT in a Drone Inspection Service for Environmental Control

This paper presents an exploratory activity with a drone inspection service for environmental control. The aim of the service is to provide technical support to decision-makers in environmental risk management. The proposed service uses IoT for the interaction between a mobile application, a Smart City platform, and an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The mobile application allows the users to report risky situations, such as fire ignition, spills of pollutants in water, or illegal dumping; the user has only to specify the class of the event, while the geographical coordinates are automatically taken from device-integrated GPS. The message sent from the mobile application arrives to a Smart City platform, which shows all the received alerts on a 3D satellite map, to support decision-makers in choosing where a drone inspection is required. From the Smart City platform, the message is sent to the drone service operator; a CSV file defining the itinerary of the drone is automatically built and shown through the platform; the drone starts the mission providing a video, which is used by the decision-makers to understand whether the situation calls for immediate action. An experimental activity in an open field was carried out to validate the whole chain, from the alert to the drone mission, enriched by a Smart City platform to enable a decision-maker to better manage the situation

Progress in ambient assisted systems for independent living by the elderly

One of the challenges of the ageing population in many countries is the efficient delivery of health and care services, which is further complicated by the increase in neurological conditions among the elderly due to rising life expectancy. Personal care of the elderly is of concern to their relatives, in case they are alone in their homes and unforeseen circumstances occur, affecting their wellbeing. The alternative; i.e. care in nursing homes or hospitals is costly and increases further if specialized care is mobilized to patients’ place of residence. Enabling technologies for independent living by the elderly such as the ambient assisted living systems (AALS) are seen as essential to enhancing care in a cost-effective manner. In light of significant advances in telecommunication, computing and sensor miniaturization, as well as the ubiquity of mobile and connected devices embodying the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), end-to-end solutions for ambient assisted living have become a reality. The premise of such applications is the continuous and most often real-time monitoring of the environment and occupant behavior using an event-driven intelligent system, thereby providing a facility for monitoring and assessment, and triggering assistance as and when needed. As a growing area of research, it is essential to investigate the approaches for developing AALS in literature to identify current practices and directions for future research. This paper is, therefore, aimed at a comprehensive and critical review of the frameworks and sensor systems used in various ambient assisted living systems, as well as their objectives and relationships with care and clinical systems. Findings from our work suggest that most frameworks focused on activity monitoring for assessing immediate risks while the opportunities for integrating environmental factors for analytics and decision-making, in particular for the long-term care were often overlooked. The potential for wearable devices and sensors, as well as distributed storage and access (e.g. cloud) are yet to be fully appreciated. There is a distinct lack of strong supporting clinical evidence from the implemented technologies. Socio-cultural aspects such as divergence among groups, acceptability and usability of AALS were also overlooked. Future systems need to look into the issues of privacy and cyber security

4DStock: Adding an organisational dimension to a 3D building stock model

Building stock models, such as University College London’s 3DStock, help us understand energy use across a building stock across time and space. 3DStock is currently used for decision-making and evidence gathering at the national and local policy levels in the UK. A novel innovation proposes to add an organisational dimension to the existing 3DStock model, turning it into a 4DStock model. This conceptual paper articulates some of the anticipated benefits and challenges of this effort, introducing why and how three dimensions could become four. The fourth organisational dimension is eventually intended to incorporate trends in building ownership and usership, with a particular focus on non-domestic buildings and commercial real estate. This organisational dimension is critical for setting agendas, creating agreement, and stimulating action because low-carbon technologies do not adopt themselves. By focusing exclusively on physical buildings and premises, stock models generally omit the human dimension of energy use, including ownership and usership. Organisational characteristics are particularly important in commercial real estate (CRE), which includes 50–75 % of the non-domestic building stock. Different sizes and types of building ownership—for example, large/SME; public/private/listed; owner-occupied or tenanted—have been shown to affect the shape and nature of organisational participation in energy efficiency schemes. Different sizes and types of building usership are also important. The concerns, capacities, and conditions of occupiers have been shown to affect their energy practices and cultures. Understanding these dynamics is essential as we move from theoretical models to practical actions. We need a better grip on both ‘achievable potential’ (the subset of technologies that are actually installed in practice) and ‘social potential’ which includes both how these technologies are used and other organisational behaviours. As an initial sketch of this field, the paper concentrates on how a 4DStock model would incorporate both technical and organisational variables related to occupiers. Further developments will be more useful for ongoing carbon accounting and planning in academia, government, and business

Review of policy instruments for climate-smart mountain forestry

Implementing the Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) concept into practice requires interaction among key stakeholders, especially forest owners and managers, policymakers (or regulators in general), forest consultants, and forest users. But what could be the most effective policy instruments to achieve climate smartness in mountain forests? Which ones would be the most acceptable for forest owners? And for the local forest communities? Should they be designed and implemented with the use of participatory approaches or rather on a top-down basis? This chapter summarizes key policy instruments structured in three subsequent categories: commandand-control, voluntary market-based instruments, and community cooperation. It provides examples of their functioning in the forestry sector and discusses their suitability for the implementation of climate smart forestry. It appears that there are many policy instruments used with varying degrees of success such as forest concessions or voluntary certifcation schemes. A wide range of instruments are responding to direct regulation; this has been seen as insuffcient to deal with natural hazards and calamities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mulsemedia: State of the art, perspectives, and challenges

Mulsemedia-multiple sensorial media-captures a wide variety of research efforts and applications. This article presents a historic perspective on mulsemedia work and reviews current developments in the area. These take place across the traditional multimedia spectrum-from virtual reality applications to computer games-as well as efforts in the arts, gastronomy, and therapy, to mention a few. We also describe standardization efforts, via the MPEG-V standard, and identify future developments and exciting challenges the community needs to overcome