Robotic Minimally Invasive Tools for Restricted Access Confined Spaces

A study has been performed in the design and fabrication of deployable borehole robots into confined spaces. Three robot systems have been developed to perform a visual survey of a subterranean space where for any reason humans could not enter. A 12mm diameter snake arm was designed with a focus on the cable tensions and the failure modes for the components that make the snake arm. An iterative solver was developed to model the snake arm and algorithmically calculate the snake arms optimal length with consideration of the failure modes. A robot was developed to extend the range capabilities of borehole robots using reconfigurable borehole robots based around established actuation and manufacturing techniques. The expected distance and weight requirements of the robot are calculated alongside the forces the robot is required to generate in order to achieve them. The whegged design incorporated into the tracks is also analysed to measure the capability of the robot over rough terrain. Finally, the experiments to find the actual driving forces of the tracks are performed and used to calculate the actual range of the robot in comparison to the target range. The potential of reconfigurable mobile robots for deployment through boreholes is limited by the requirement for conventional gears, motors, and joints. This chapter explores the use of smart materials and innovative manufacturing techniques to form a novel concept of a self-folding robotic joint for a self-assembling robotic system. The design uses shape memory alloys fabricated in laminate structures with heaters to create folding structures

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

KEER2022

Avanttítol: KEER2022. DiversitiesDescripció del recurs: 25 juliol 202

Metal music as critical dystopia : humans, technology and the future in 1990s science fiction metal

Metal Music as Critical Dystopia: Humans, Technology and the Future in 1990s Science Fiction Metal seeks to demonstrate that the dystopian elements in metal music are not merely or necessarily a sonic celebration of disaster. Rather, metal music's fascination with dystopian imagery is often critical in intent, borrowing themes and imagery from other literary and cinematic traditions in an effort to express a form of social commentary. The artists and musical works examined in this thesis maintain strong ties with the science fiction genre, in particular, and tum to science fiction conventions in order to examine the long-term implications of humanity's complex relationship with advanced technology. Situating metal's engagements with science fiction in relation to a broader practice of blending science fiction and popular music and to the technophobic tradition in writing and film, this thesis analyzes the works of two science fiction metal bands, VOlvod and Fear Factory, and provides close readings of four futuristic albums from the mid to late 1990s that address humanity's relationship with advanced technology in musical and visual imagery as well as lyrics. These recorded texts, described here as cyber metal for their preoccupation with technology in subject matter and in sound, represent prime examples of the critical dystopia in metal music. While these albums identify contemporary problems as the root bf devastation yet to come, their musical narratives leave room for the possibility of hope , allowing for the chance that dystopia is not our inevitable future

Shortest Route at Dynamic Location with Node Combination-Dijkstra Algorithm

Abstract— Online transportation has become a basic requirement of the general public in support of all activities to go to work, school or vacation to the sights. Public transportation services compete to provide the best service so that consumers feel comfortable using the services offered, so that all activities are noticed, one of them is the search for the shortest route in picking the buyer or delivering to the destination. Node Combination method can minimize memory usage and this methode is more optimal when compared to A* and Ant Colony in the shortest route search like Dijkstra algorithm, but can’t store the history node that has been passed. Therefore, using node combination algorithm is very good in searching the shortest distance is not the shortest route. This paper is structured to modify the node combination algorithm to solve the problem of finding the shortest route at the dynamic location obtained from the transport fleet by displaying the nodes that have the shortest distance and will be implemented in the geographic information system in the form of map to facilitate the use of the system. Keywords— Shortest Path, Algorithm Dijkstra, Node Combination, Dynamic Location (key words

Simple individual behavioural rules for improving the collective behaviours of robot swarms

Swarm robotics is an ongoing area of research that is expected to revolutionise various real-world domains such as agriculture and space exploration. Swarm robotics systems are composed of a large number of simple and autonomous robots. Each robot locally interacts with other robots and with the environment following a set of behavioural rules. These individual interactions enable the swarm to exhibit interesting collective behaviours and to accomplish specific tasks. The main challenge in designing robot swarms is to determine the behavioural rules that each robot should follow so that the swarm as a whole can perform the desired task. The performance of robot swarms in a given task depends on the designer's choice of appropriate individual behavioural rules. In this thesis, we investigate simple individual behavioural rules for improving the performance of robot swarms in two major tasks. Using simple behavioural rules makes the designed solutions possibly usable with simpler platforms such as micro- and nanorobots. The first task we address is known as the best-of-n decision problem where the swarm is required to select the best option among n available alternatives. Solving the best-of-n decision problem is considered to be a fundamental cognitive skill for robot swarms as it influences the swarm's success in other tasks. In this thesis, we introduce individual behavioural rules to improve the performance of robot swarms in the best-of-n problem. Through these rules, robots vary their interaction strength over time in a decentralised fashion to balance the acquisition and the dissemination of information. The proposed behavioural rules allow swarms of simple noisy robots with constrained communication to limit the effect of individual errors and make highly accurate collective decisions in a predictable time. In some scenarios where the best option changes over time, the swarm is required to switch its decision accordingly. In this thesis, we introduce individual behavioural rules through which the robots process new information and discard outdated beliefs. These behavioural rules enable robot swarms to adapt their decisions to various environmental changes, including the appearance of better choices or the disappearance of the current swarm's choice. Our analysis shows that relying on local communication is more favourable for achieving adaptation. This result highlights the benefit of the local sensing and communication characterising biological and artificial swarms. The second task we address in this thesis is the collective resource collection task. In this task, the robots are asked to retrieve objects that are clustered at unknown locations in the environment. We address this task because of its numerous potential real-world applications. In many of these applications, the objects to collect are assigned different importance or value. In this thesis, we introduce a bio-inspired individual behaviour that allows robot swarms to perform quality-based resource collection. Similarly to foraging ants, in our proposed behaviour, the robots coordinate their collection efforts by laying and sensing virtual pheromone trails. The use of pheromone trails offers an advantageous implementation of the memory and communication capabilities necessary for the efficient collection of clustered objects. The proposed behaviour allows robot swarms to satisfy various collection objectives and achieve an optimal resource collection behaviour in the case of relatively small swarms. In this thesis, we analyse swarm robotics systems using both minimalistic tools such as stochastic and multi-agent simulations, and more advanced tools such as physics-based simulations and real robot experiments. Using these tools, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed individual behavioural rules in improving the performance of robot swarms in the addressed tasks. The results we present in this thesis are of potential interest to both engineers designing robot swarms, and biologists investigating the behavioural rules followed by individuals in living collective organisms

Luckenbooth and The metamorphosis of a novel (inspired by Kafka's The Metamorphosis)

Luckenbooth is a novel inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. It is set in an Edinburgh tenement building and concerns the metamorphosis of the residents’ lives over nine decades. The purpose of setting the novel over such a long period of time is to be able to show how society changes but also remains the same. The aim is to represent how wider societal structures regarding the evolution of society impact upon the individual. Each story concerns itself with a protagonist whose life is in some way peripheral to mainstream society, or who is responding to the centre from a point of Otherness. Famously, the opening line of The Metamorphosis sees travelling salesman Gregor Samsa awake as an undefined yet monstrous creature. Kafka’s opening is a climax that is unravelled through the entire story. In a similar vein, the characters’ lives in Luckenbooth are woven together by a main event that impacts on the structure and narrative. In this way my opening includes a delayed climax that can only be fully resolved at the end of the novel. Luckenbooth begins in 1910 when the devil’s daughter, Jessie MacRae leaves her Father’s corpse rammed on a clifftop on a small island in the Highlands. She gets into a coffin her Father built for her and rows across the North Sea to Edinburgh. She begins a job at No. 10 Luckenbooth Close for the Minister of Culture. She is to be a surrogate for Mr Udnam and his fiancee. An extremely violent event occurs and Jessie MacRae curses no.10 Luckenbooth Close and the lives of its residents for the next hundred years. Structurally the building houses the curse much in the same way that Gregor Samsa’s body defines his fate. In flat 1F1, 1910 we have Jessie MacRae, in the 1920s, a young woman (who used to be male) is going to a drag ball in 2F2, 1930s sees a young civil rights activist from Louisiana, living in 3F3 and working at the Bone Library Royal Dick Vet. Ivy Proudfoot is a young woman training to be a spy in the war in the 1940s. There is a seance in the 1950s that exposes much of what happed to Jessie MacRae. Beat poet William Burroughs is doing cut ups in the 1960s and attending the famous 1962 Writers Conference at Edinburgh International Book Festival. In the 1970s an Edinburgh gang fights the Triads. A miner who has a phobia of light tries to care for his niece in the 1980s. The last decade occurs on Hogmanay 2000 where a cosmic agent called Dot exposes all the secrets hidden in Luckenbooth Close for a hundred years. I wanted the final voice to be that of Jessie MacRae so we conclude by going back to the event alluded to at the very start of the novel and she tells us in her voice exactly how this all began. The accompanying critical essay Luckenbooth / ‘The Metamorphosis of a Novel (Inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis) explores how the influence of Kafka’s Metamorphosis informed my re search for Luckenbooth. It discusses many of the academic texts around Kafka and Metamorphosis which deepened my understanding of why this story had called out to me so strongly as a literary artist. The essay discusses Kafka’s influences both theoretically and creatively to see how they influenced his ideology. Kafka referred to his life as literature. The art of life is something Foucault saw as part of the practice of literature. In between these theories I explore how my own fundamental approach to art, literature and life has encompassed the influence of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and how it underpins my entire approach to Luckenbooth

The enigma of development :building a reflexive point of view across remote contexts

PhD ThesisThis thesis singles out point of view (POV) as the governing technical choice in creative writing. As such it integrates creative practice with an essay on the theoretical basis for a POV across remote contexts. The methodology follows Mikhail Bakhtin’s call for a new story telling position through an enquiry into Western literary history, Classical Chinese novels and Gao Xingjian’s partitioning of POV by narrative angle. Part One Chapter one establishes the importance of POV to motives in my own creative work and sets out the case for Bakhtin over normative theorists, calling for a reconfiguration of POV to withstand contextual aberrations arising from cultural or historical differences, or from the boundaries of what Bakhtin refers to as Small Time presentism. Further, it argues against Tzvetan Todorov’s generic view of the novel as a property of discourse, an ahistorical constant, by considering Bakhtin’s meta-historic survey of Western literature with periods of intensified novelistic discourse in given contexts. Chapter two considers POV in the separate context of Chinese literature focussing on the historiographic POV taken in Classical Chinese novels, namely The Four Great Works. Comparisons are drawn between these and Western short story cycles noting forms given in Andrew Plaks’ Chinese Narrative (1977) and aesthetics in François Cheng’s Chinese Poetic Writing (1982). Critical contemporary concerns arising between Classical and Modern Chinese are addressed with reference to essays by Xi Chuan, Yang Liang and Henry Zhao. Chapter three begins with reflexivity as an inherent property of what Bakhtin identifies as discrete double voicing and draws parallels with the bi-polar unity of Daoism and its Chan iv (Zen) hybrid, consulting Victor Sōgen Hori’s studies of capping phrases and contemporary techniques in the fiction, drama and essays of Gao Xingjian. Part Two Creative enquiry takes the form of a novel, Interesting Times, (working title: The Enigma of Development), in which a first person protagonist’s narrative alternates with third person short stories embedded in a historical schema. The novel depicts economic development through the construction of a power station, following a schema of short story settings in one location from pre-industrial salt making to sophisticated intellectual piracy, indentured peasant labour to chaotic collateral debt finance. These short stories alternate with chapters from the linking protagonist whose narrative encircles the whole from the rural location of his family’s ancient English heritage. With the cognitive ground of one POV set against that of the other, the resulting novel is intended to create an interpretive domain for the reflex between the two, in this case a cyclical relationship between exploiter and exploited, interchangeable as subjects and objects

At home in the world:

Although the German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt never addressed architecture specifically, her writings very well can help us to rethink architecture as a spatial, cultural and political phenomenon and practice. Arendt’s work after all is remarkable spatial: behind all of her writings is a particular concern about the ‘world and its inhabitants’ tangible. Arendt once used this phrase to describe the writings of her teacher, the German philosopher Karl Jaspers. His writings were spatial, she stated, not because they were bound to a particular space, but since they always were related ‘to the world and its inhabitants’. The same thus counts for Arendt’s writings, I argue. It is not bound to a particular situation, but it stresses ‘the world and its inhabitants.’ Arendt actually distinguishes the world from the ‘earth’. Whereas the latter refers to the natural globe, the world refers to the human and cultural intervention in that earth – and intervention that is needed, in order to make the earth fit for human life. Important in this distinction is that the world always is ‘in common’. Human life after all is living together with and amongst others. Arendt moreover stresses this world as permanent and durable (in opposite to the cycle of nature) – we have it in common not only with our contemporaries, but also with our predecessors and our successors. This world (and its inhabitants) therefore, for her was the ultimate aim of all political life: it is the world that not only literally brings us together, it also unites us together and conditions human and community life. This community life, in other words, is sustained by the permanence of the world. This brief summary of one of the major premises behind Arendt’s philosophical reflections actually urges architecture as a practice and phenomenon that actively contributes to the establishment of this world-in-common. Architecture as a phenomenon contributes to the permanence, whereas architecture as a practice intervenes in that world-in-common. There cannot be one other profession that is so powerful present as architecture in this regard. Architecture designs and constructs the everyday environment of people, more extensively than any other intervention in the earth or addition to the world. This study, called At Home in the World, stresses the field and profession of architecture against this background by simultaneously investigating the perspective of Hannah Arendt as well as investigating the world, as it is designed and constructed through architectural interventions. It starts with the question of the public space, a central question, of course in relationship to the commonness of the world, as it also has been a central theme in architectural discourses for about three decades now. Sparks of it already are evoked more than a century ago, with the establishment of a ‘modern’ approach to the city, but it particularly got attention through the 1989 English translation of a seminal book from the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, the 1962 Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. In this book he explains how in the 18th century the bourgeoisie in Europe established a third realm in-between the market on the one hand and the state on the other. He describes it as the emancipation of the public from the feudal system: this third sphere, the public sphere, was neither susceptible by the sphere of the government, nor by the sphere of the market. Both the state and the market had to relate to the public sphere in this new situation – it had to deal with the public opinion. Ideally, of course, since in the book he also describes the fall of this sphere in the 19th and 20th century, since it lost its independency. However, the core of the public sphere was, according to Habermas, people gathering together in cafés, coffeehouses, salons, discussing actualities, as they were made accessible by new media: the newspaper, that had the capacity to inform a large part of the public with the same information. These discussions, the reflections of the participants in the debates, their opinions somehow converge (on the meta-scale) to the public opinion, to which the other spheres had to relate. This thus is the image of the public sphere: a sphere of conversations, debates, exchange of opinions, that, taken together, have power against the market and the state. But Habermas’s book was not simply celebrating this third sphere of power, it recognizes its decline throughout modernity. The public sphere was lost (or at least in a very poor condition) – the market had taken over. The translation of Habermas’s perspective, and particularly the description of the diminishing power of the public sphere, in English, and the publication particularly in America, somehow evoked a fierce debate amongst political theorists, a discussion that also came to the table of architectural and urban theorists. What Habermas described somehow was visible in the American cities and the countryside, where new urban and suburban artefacts, like the gated community and the shopping mall, were characterized by exclusive rather than inclusive (public) spaces. The suburbanized landscape, as well as the contemporary city had become strongly segregated, which makes it hard to imagine a well-functioning public space, where people of all different backgrounds together take part in public life, conversations, and exchange of ideas. This of course is not only the situation in America, it can be touched upon around the globe, even in much sharper tones. In America, however, the loss of public spaces found its theoretical imperative in the hypothesis of Habermas. The first part of this study maps the contemporary suburban landscape (Chapter 2) and city (Chapter 3), parallel with a reading of the discourse in architectural and urban theory of the last three decades. The discourse is rather pessimistic: the public sphere has become a ‘phantom’, public space is ‘dead’. The landscape and the city after all can be described as a world that falls apart in enclaves, worlds on its own. Even in the city, where diversity is sought and celebrated, processes of gentrification disturb the ideal image behind truly public spaces, spaces that are used by all, give room to exchange of ideas and perspectives. Such spaces after all are hardly imaginable in a segregated spatial organization as the contemporary situation. It thus is clear how ‘spatial organization’ contributes to (or has a negative effect on) the possibility of public life that needs to support the public sphere. The architectural debate on public space, as well as the philosophical debate on the public sphere seems to be stuck in this negative scope. The second part of this study therefore investigates the other origin source of this debate on public space, a source that only in limited ways has entered the discourse on the city and architecture: Hannah Arendt (I extensively introduce her in by an intellectual biography in Chapter 4). Arendt, in her 1958 book The Human Condition introduces the idea of a public realm, a term that often is taken as synonymous to Habermas’s term ‘the public sphere’. Her reference, however, is not the early stages of modernity, but the establishing of the Greek and Roman Polis, and their organization of its political life. Citizens of these city-states took part in public life through action and speech, Arendt states. They appeared in public, in public space, actively: they participated in public discussions and joint their words, their contributions, with actions. For Arendt this is an important figure. In The Human Condition, Arendt actually distinguishes between three human activities on earth: labor, work and action. The latter thus is bound to the public realm, it is the essential aspect of political life, and bound to the multitude and plurality of citizens of the city state. If any citizens was rendered the same, no action nor speech would be needed. The first two activities deal with the earth and the world, the notions we touched upon already previously: labor deals with the temporal and survival, the cycle of nature, while work creates the world that has a certain permanence, and therefore is able to house the human community on earth. The interesting perspective here is that this notion of the world is required before action is possible. In other words: there needs to be a permanent world that enables political life. Action and speech, Arendt argues, creates a web of human affairs that is sustained and supported by the permanence of the world. Participation in political life only makes, if this web of human affaires somehow is reified in the world. Yet, this political life is not simply only possible in and through the world, it vice-versa also has this world (and its inhabitants) as its objective. What unfolds here is discussed in Chapter 5, 6 and 7, in which I discuss Arendt’s reflections upon action, the world, and political life and bring them to the current architectural discourses. Chapter 5 discusses Arendt’s notions of action and the public realm, particularly by emphasizing an important difference with Habermas’s reading of the public sphere. For Habermas, the public sphere is characterized by inter-action, whereas Arendt’s public realm is characterized by action. Arendt’s notion of action certainly incorporates inter-action (speech, in Arendt’s terms), but only insofar it contributes to and supports action. Speech is needed in order to explain action, in order to gain support and response. The argument that is unfolded here states that inter-action easily can become virtual and intangible (as in the columns of newspaper, the forums on internet) without any connection to the tangible. Action, on the contrary, needs bodies and spaces, needs others, a public that sees (and hears) and responds. It, in other words, stays real, needs real spaces. This argument, which thus offers a perspective upon the importance of reality and real spaces regarding Arendt’s notion, even more is underpinned by another description Arendt offers of the public realm: it is the ‘space of appearance’. Through this notion Arendt once again introduces a spatial perspective: we appear in public, amongst peers, through action (and speech). I qualify this ‘appearance’ as moment and movement: it is situated in space and time. It is a moment of revelation (Arendt argues that everyone acts differently, and that only through action the actor is disclosed, and thus fundamental plurality of men is revealed) of plurality as the very condition of the public realm. This of course, confronted with the reality of the contemporary city and suburb, is a critical perspective. In the enclave world, plurality is at stake. Arendt’s notion however is hopeful here as well: her description of plurality is not so much differences between groups of people, but stresses the unique-ness of individuals. That means that even within the enclave, that seems to be inhabited by a homogenous group, there is a fundamental plurality. Therefore, even in the mall or the gated community, there is at least a tiny potentiality of appearance to one another. Plurality, however for Arendt is important, since only through plural views (from different positions) upon the world, the reality of the world is revealed. Without touching upon others, the human being is stuck in his own perspective, which not simply is superfluous and virtual, but also limited and compelling. The space of appearance therefore also requires movement: to appear in public is to step out. It is to appear in a particular space from somewhere else. At this point, it is clear that Arendt has a strong distinction between the public and the private in mind: a life lived in public will lose its depth, while a life lived deprived from public appearance will never be fully human, she even states. It is, as previously seen, stuck in the private perspectives, and loses contact with the reality of the world. For Arendt, going back and forth between the public and the private, the public to participate in the world, and to the private, to recuperate in order to participate again, is important. This going back and forth, I argue, is an important movement, to which architecture, as the very profession that creates differences in the world, contributes extensively (or disturbs it extensively). Architecture creates spaces to appear, but it does not create ‘spaces of appearance’ per se. They after all are bound to the gathering of people, not to a particular architectural place. The nevertheless require space. What architecture does through its intervention in the world, therefore, is to contribute to or to disturb the potentialities of a space to become a space of appearance. Chapter 6 then takes up Arendt’s notion of ‘work’, and discusses the significance to understand architecture as part of Arendt’s notion of work, as being distinguished from labor. The debate on public space takes here an ontological turn. Since work creates the world-in-common, it is a pre-requisite for political life. Work creates a durable world, that connects the now with the past and the future. It does not make sense to participate in public and to be engaged in a web of human affairs, if it is not sustained by a world that does not change overnight. Political life thus requires the world and its permanence as its stage. Arendt introduces the art-work as the human product that exemplifies this perspective, since the work of art is an end in itself, and therefore cannot be spoiled through consumptive processes (which is the case with all other objects produced, which together from this world). This chapter however particularly argues in what way ‘architecture’ contributes to the world. If permanence is reified in everyday structures, then it is through architecture. I take Arendt’s understanding of the arts in order to see how this also is applicable to architecture. Art, after all, is understood by Arendt as not only the most permanent of all things on earth, it also contributes to our understanding of the reality of the world. Art, after all, transforms matter in order to challenge spectators to look differently, to open their eyes and senses, to step aside and to take other perspectives. In other words, it ‘thickens’ our understanding of the reality of the world by opening up different perspective and offering particular experiences. These perspectives are a challenge to architecture too. Art, after all, often is hidden in particular art-spaces, while architecture is the context of our everyday life. Architecture therefore mostly is experienced in a distracted manner (contrary to art, to which one need to decide to go). It nevertheless is not neutral how this everyday environment is designed: unconsciously it offers views upon and experiences of the ‘world and its inhabitants’. This chapter therefore argues that no distinction should be made between mere building on the one hand, and architecture on the other. Here I refer to a well-known distinction that sometimes explicit and sometimes implicitly is made within architectural discourses. The world is full of (mere) building, and architecture only is understood as the surplus of these structures. Those buildings that make a change, are technologically innovative or aesthetically attractive. Most constructions today however seem to be simply the results of economic rules and construction efficiency, while only the striking and remarkable buildings are understood through a cultural perspective. The argument in this chapter is, however, that since all constructions intervene in the world, and therefore create a world-in-between the inhabitants of the world. Mere building and architecture, in this perspective, fundamentally are the same. No building therefore should be only the outcome of simple economic maths or private profit – each construction is politically charged. Architecture (like mere building) intervenes in the world-incommon, erect structures that will shape the world, not only now and tomorrow, but permanently. Architecture treats the world as we inherit it, it treats the past and transforms it in the world that will offer space for the needs of tomorrow and cater the space of appearance today. This therefore urges the designer to think beyond the actual intervention, program, ambitions, and understands each construction and intervention in the light of culture and community – or in other words, in the perspective of the establishment and maintenance of the world-in-common. This brings us to the 7th Chapter, that takes up the question of design. If every assignment is politically charged and challenged by a public perspective, how can we reflect upon architecture as a profession? This perspective of course first is an ethical question. The work of architects does not shape a single building; it shapes the world that we have in common. Building never is only in the interest of a singular client. It after all impacts all of us. This chapter therefore introduces architecture as simultaneously work and action. Architecture reifies, which is the work-part. It however also actively creates spaces, new conditions, takes initiatives for change, which is the action-part. Work and action, however, needs to be supported by reflection, I argue. Reflection upon ‘what-he-is-doing’ distinguishes the craftsman from the amateur and profiteer. This notion brings us to another distinction Arendt offers, particularly in her latter writings: between thinking, willing and judging. This chapter finalizes than by offering the notion of judgment as model for design itself. Arendt’s notion of judgment strongly relates to the public. Judging, for Arendt, is to be able to think from different positions, not in order to come to the average, but to take knowledgeable decisions that are communicable to the public. It involves the public, but not to come to a singular public opinion, but in order to come to a judgment that is explicable to the the public. This perspective thus not simply urges ‘building’ as always affecting the world, but also stresses ‘designing’ these buildings as a public enterprise. It offers a perspective through which the very activity of design can be understood in the light of the world and its inhabitants. Arendt’s ideas, since she does not explicitly address architecture, cannot be used 1:1 within the profession of architecture. There is a significant gap between reflections of the philosopher and their active use in architectural design. This study somehow bridges that gap, by investigating Arendt’s writings and consciously bringing them to the profession of architecture as well as the discourses on architecture and the city. This of course urges an important methodical issue, that also Arendt once challenged. In a reflection upon the writings of German philosopher and literature critic Walter Benjamin, who she met during her flight from Germany, via Paris, to America, prior to World War II, she describes his work as ‘pearl-diving’, or as a fragmented historiography. What Benjamin did was diving into the past, in order to bring valuable findings, pearls, from there to here, from then to now. But in this transition, the context of the findings is destroyed – they are brought to a new context. The pearls are taken from their natural habitat towards an artificial one. It nevertheless is significant to do, Arendt stated. Modernity already had cut this line with tradition, she states. The historical context already is destroyed – unreachable for our contemporary perspectives. Nevertheless, this perspective does not dismiss the past. Not at all, Arendt argues: the past still frames our experiences today. We need these pearls from the past, in order to understand today. A similar perspective also counts for this study: taking fragments from Arendt’s writings towards the field of architecture means somehow to dive for pearls and to bring them to another context. By doing so, it never can fully describe and revive the original context. But by carefully taking them out of their place in the writings of Arendt, and placing it in the discourses on architecture and the city, new perspectives, new horizons, and new connections are established. Particularly her focus on ‘the world and its inhabitants’ offers a new understanding of architectural constructions and interventions, and even challenges architectural design and craftsmanship. It offers not simply new perspectives, but it also renews insights that were long forgotten or lived a hided life. It challenges the significance of all aspects of architecture as it is related to the public. Chapter 8 then finalizes by bringing a few of these lessons learned to the fore. It urges the significance of architecture, not only as a profession taking care of the ‘beautification’ of buildings, but as a profession that has responsibility over the world-in-common. It urges architecture politically, since it forms literally the experience of this world, even if it is an unconscious experience. Architecture enables (or disturbs) the experience of the world as it also can be the stage of public life. It intervenes in the world in order to make differences – differences that can create moments and movements that contribute to the potentiality of a ‘space of appearance’. In other words, how these interventions are designed is significant. It cannot be left to the drawing boards of architects, nor to the maths of developers. It need to get words and images that enables the discussions amongst architects, their clients, but also publicly in society. Architecture needs to have the public interest always in its scope, it after all maintains and establishes the world-in-common, and thus needs t