Cultural values change in the rehabilitation of historic schools in Portugal

Despite the importance of the preservation of the historic built environment for the benefit of present and future generations, there is a lack of knowledge of the effects of architectural rehabilitation decisions on the cultural significance of historic buildings. Architectural heritage conservation literature has focused almost exclusively on providing principles and guidelines, describing intervention methodologies, and discussing predicted impacts of design on material values. This thesis argues that a focus on the actual effects is needed if the sociocultural sustainability of historic buildings significance is to be achieved. Supported by an extensive literature review and informed by personal insights from the researcher’s everyday practice, an adapted model of the Theory of Change based on Weiss (1995) was designed, providing a tool to evaluate the effects of rehabilitation on cultural significance [ERECS]. Using a selection of six recently rehabilitated historic secondary schools in Portugal (liceus), this research investigated architectural decisions and their effects on the cultural values of this building typology for education, focusing on three objectives, corresponding to three stages of interventions: understanding the existing cultural significance, identifying the design strategies applied and assessing the short-term effects of design decisions on the cultural values. Stressing the role of stakeholders in rehabilitation processes, data were collected from the buildings and architectural projects, the decision makers in the conservation process, and the school community. Although confirming that the evaluation of the effects of architectural decisions on cultural values is a complex task, the findings demonstrate that the historic liceus have historical, architectural and sociocultural values, and whilst strategies did not value social values, material cultural values were generally considered and preserved, contributing to the enhancement of intangible values. The implications of this theory-based and evidence-based research highlight the importance of evaluating actual effects for cultural heritage theory, architectural conservation practice and heritage management policy

Proceedings of the 9th Arab Society for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ASCAAD) international conference 2021 (ASCAAD 2021): architecture in the age of disruptive technologies: transformation and challenges.

The ASCAAD 2021 conference theme is Architecture in the age of disruptive technologies: transformation and challenges. The theme addresses the gradual shift in computational design from prototypical morphogenetic-centered associations in the architectural discourse. This imminent shift of focus is increasingly stirring a debate in the architectural community and is provoking a much needed critical questioning of the role of computation in architecture as a sole embodiment and enactment of technical dimensions, into one that rather deliberately pursues and embraces the humanities as an ultimate aspiration

Designing the Urban Microclimate

This doctoral thesis presents research on the integration and transfer of knowledge from the specialized field of urban microclimatology into the generic field of urban design. Both fields are studied in order to identify crosslinks and reveal gaps. The main research question of the research is: How can the design of urban neighbourhoods contribute to microclimates that support physical well-being and what kind of information and form of presentation does the urban designer need in order to make design decisions regarding such urban microclimates? This question consists of two parts, which are addressed separately in the first two parts of the dissertation. Part 1 concerns an assessment of relevant knowledge on urban design by literature review, followed by a field study into the use of expert information in the urban design process. Part 2 discusses the influence of the urban environment on its microclimate and, consequently, the living quality of its inhabitants – both by means of literature review. Combined, Parts 1 and 2 serve as a basis for a framework for a design-decision support tool, which is discussed in Part 3. This tool is proposed as a means to integrate knowledge of the urban microclimate into the urban design process, bridging an observed gap. Urban design is concerned with shaping the physical environment to facilitate urban life in all its aspects. This is a complex task, which requires the integration and translation of different stakeholder interests into a proposition for the realization of physical-spatial constructs in the urban environment. Such a proposition comprises different planning elements in the following categories: spatial-functional organization, city plan, public space design and rules for architecture. During the design process, the urban designer has to deal with incomplete, often contradictory and/or changing constraints and quality demands as well as other uncertainties. He/ she handles this complexity by starting with a small selection of constraints, iteratively working to a design solution by incorporating an increasing number of constraints. The selection of constraints is subjective, depending on the design frame of the individual designer. In order to make design decisions, the urban designer requires diverse information. To establish how urban designers collect information and which formats and information levels they prefer, field research among Dutch urban designers was carried out. This consisted of a series of exploratory interviews and an online questionnaire. The results indicate that dissemination of expert knowledge to urban design should be focused on the orientation and sketch phases of the design process and should provide different layers of detail, using mainly visual information accompanied by explanatory text. The results furthermore show a remarkable discrepancy between the assigned significance of the urban microclimate for urban design and the frequency of inquiry on this topic; almost all interviewees and respondents consider the subject to be important, but a majority of them seldom collect information on it. This signifies a gap in the knowledge transfer process. It is important to bridge this gap, because the urban microclimate has a significant impact on the physical well-being of people. All components of the urban microclimate – solar radiation, daylight, wind, air quality and sound – affect the physical well-being of people, whether separately or in conjunction. Some of these effects are immediate, such as heat stress and noise annoyance; others develop over a longer period of overexposure or underexposure, such as pulmonary and respiratory diseases. Some cause discomfort, for example sleep disturbance; others can be life- threatening, such as heat stroke or skin and lung cancer. It is therefore vital that the urban microclimate is given considerable attention in the urban design process. The urban microclimate is to a large extent influenced by the city’s morphology, materialization and landscaping. This influence is exerted through different physical principles, such as reflection, absorption and evapotranspiration. Basic knowledge on how and to what extent the urban environment affects the urban microclimate and of the underlying physical principles, supported by design guidelines and examples/ reference projects, will enable urban designers to estimate the effects of their design choices on the microclimate themselves better, and help them create conditions for urban microclimates that favour physical well-being. In order to make this information available to the urban designer in a way that corresponds to his/her working process, a framework for a design-decision support tool was set up. Requirements regarding form and function were derived from the field of urban design, while requirements regarding content were derived from the field of urban microclimatology. The tool is proposed to be a web-based knowledge base, consisting of five main menu categories: “climate elements”, “plan elements”, “principles”, “guidelines” and “example projects”. Each category provides access to separate pages for underlying items, containing different layers of information, from general to detailed, that can be accessed through collapse menus or click-through functions. Hyperlinks between related items are provided to support different ways to access information. The main menu further gives access to background information on physical well-being and regulations and standards. Separate item pages can be added to a ‘shopping cart’, enabling customised information selection for a specific design at hand. Providing the necessary content for the tool requires further translation of expert knowledge into design information as well as additional research regarding: the plain and simple formulation of physical phenomena related to the urban environment; the integration of expert knowledge of separate microclimatological elements; the incongruity of parameters in microclimatological studies and urban design plan elements; and the presentation of information consistent with design and (design) communication purposes as opposed to evaluation purposes. To illustrate how expert studies can be rendered into design information, the impact of three selected plan elements - Floor Space Index (FSI), Ground Space Index (GSI) and orientation - on solar irradiation and wind was examined with the aid of numerical simulation tools. The results of the calculations for both climate elements were integrated in order to identify conflicts and matches. The emphasis of the study lay on showing trends and generating generic knowledge. Such knowledge is required to fill the proposed design-decision support tool with content. Answering the main research question, it can be concluded that various aspects relating to the morphology, materialization and landscaping of urban neighbourhoods can be employed to create conditions for a distinctive microclimate; urban microclimates often deviate substantially from the regional climate, and even vary within a few meters. Designing urban microclimates needs to be done with care as they affect the physical well-being of people significantly. In order to be able to do this, the urban designer needs information that ties in with his/her way of working and cognitive process. However, expert knowledge from the field of urban microclimatology does not fulfil this requirement and needs to be translated to information for urban design purposes. Aiming to give direction to this translation and facilitate the dissemination of expert urban microclimate knowledge to the urban design process, this research proposes a framework for a design-decision support tool. Requirements for the framework were derived from both the field of urban design and the field of urban microclimatology. A tool created according to the proposed framework will enable urban designers to practice climate-sensitive urban design, and, thus contribute to the physical well-being of people

Designing the Urban Microclimate:

This doctoral thesis presents research on the integration and transfer of knowledge from the specialized field of urban microclimatology into the generic field of urban design. Both fields are studied in order to identify crosslinks and reveal gaps. The main research question of the research is: How can the design of urban neighbourhoods contribute to microclimates that support physical well-being and what kind of information and form of presentation does the urban designer need in order to make design decisions regarding such urban microclimates? This question consists of two parts, which are addressed separately in the first two parts of the dissertation. Part 1 concerns an assessment of relevant knowledge on urban design by literature review, followed by a field study into the use of expert information in the urban design process. Part 2 discusses the influence of the urban environment on its microclimate and, consequently, the living quality of its inhabitants – both by means of literature review. Combined, Parts 1 and 2 serve as a basis for a framework for a design-decision support tool, which is discussed in Part 3. This tool is proposed as a means to integrate knowledge of the urban microclimate into the urban design process, bridging an observed gap. Urban design is concerned with shaping the physical environment to facilitate urban life in all its aspects. This is a complex task, which requires the integration and translation of different stakeholder interests into a proposition for the realization of physical-spatial constructs in the urban environment. Such a proposition comprises different planning elements in the following categories: spatial-functional organization, city plan, public space design and rules for architecture. During the design process, the urban designer has to deal with incomplete, often contradictory and/or changing constraints and quality demands as well as other uncertainties. He/ she handles this complexity by starting with a small selection of constraints, iteratively working to a design solution by incorporating an increasing number of constraints. The selection of constraints is subjective, depending on the design frame of the individual designer. In order to make design decisions, the urban designer requires diverse information. To establish how urban designers collect information and which formats and information levels they prefer, field research among Dutch urban designers was carried out. This consisted of a series of exploratory interviews and an online questionnaire. The results indicate that dissemination of expert knowledge to urban design should be focused on the orientation and sketch phases of the design process and should provide different layers of detail, using mainly visual information accompanied by explanatory text. The results furthermore show a remarkable discrepancy between the assigned significance of the urban microclimate for urban design and the frequency of inquiry on this topic; almost all interviewees and respondents consider the subject to be important, but a majority of them seldom collect information on it. This signifies a gap in the knowledge transfer process. It is important to bridge this gap, because the urban microclimate has a significant impact on the physical well-being of people. All components of the urban microclimate – solar radiation, daylight, wind, air quality and sound – affect the physical well-being of people, whether separately or in conjunction. Some of these effects are immediate, such as heat stress and noise annoyance; others develop over a longer period of overexposure or underexposure, such as pulmonary and respiratory diseases. Some cause discomfort, for example sleep disturbance; others can be life- threatening, such as heat stroke or skin and lung cancer. It is therefore vital that the urban microclimate is given considerable attention in the urban design process. The urban microclimate is to a large extent influenced by the city’s morphology, materialization and landscaping. This influence is exerted through different physical principles, such as reflection, absorption and evapotranspiration. Basic knowledge on how and to what extent the urban environment affects the urban microclimate and of the underlying physical principles, supported by design guidelines and examples/ reference projects, will enable urban designers to estimate the effects of their design choices on the microclimate themselves better, and help them create conditions for urban microclimates that favour physical well-being. In order to make this information available to the urban designer in a way that corresponds to his/her working process, a framework for a design-decision support tool was set up. Requirements regarding form and function were derived from the field of urban design, while requirements regarding content were derived from the field of urban microclimatology. The tool is proposed to be a web-based knowledge base, consisting of five main menu categories: “climate elements”, “plan elements”, “principles”, “guidelines” and “example projects”. Each category provides access to separate pages for underlying items, containing different layers of information, from general to detailed, that can be accessed through collapse menus or click-through functions. Hyperlinks between related items are provided to support different ways to access information. The main menu further gives access to background information on physical well-being and regulations and standards. Separate item pages can be added to a ‘shopping cart’, enabling customised information selection for a specific design at hand. Providing the necessary content for the tool requires further translation of expert knowledge into design information as well as additional research regarding: the plain and simple formulation of physical phenomena related to the urban environment; the integration of expert knowledge of separate microclimatological elements; the incongruity of parameters in microclimatological studies and urban design plan elements; and the presentation of information consistent with design and (design) communication purposes as opposed to evaluation purposes. To illustrate how expert studies can be rendered into design information, the impact of three selected plan elements - Floor Space Index (FSI), Ground Space Index (GSI) and orientation - on solar irradiation and wind was examined with the aid of numerical simulation tools. The results of the calculations for both climate elements were integrated in order to identify conflicts and matches. The emphasis of the study lay on showing trends and generating generic knowledge. Such knowledge is required to fill the proposed design-decision support tool with content. Answering the main research question, it can be concluded that various aspects relating to the morphology, materialization and landscaping of urban neighbourhoods can be employed to create conditions for a distinctive microclimate; urban microclimates often deviate substantially from the regional climate, and even vary within a few meters. Designing urban microclimates needs to be done with care as they affect the physical well-being of people significantly. In order to be able to do this, the urban designer needs information that ties in with his/her way of working and cognitive process. However, expert knowledge from the field of urban microclimatology does not fulfil this requirement and needs to be translated to information for urban design purposes. Aiming to give direction to this translation and facilitate the dissemination of expert urban microclimate knowledge to the urban design process, this research proposes a framework for a design-decision support tool. Requirements for the framework were derived from both the field of urban design and the field of urban microclimatology. A tool created according to the proposed framework will enable urban designers to practice climate-sensitive urban design, and, thus contribute to the physical well-being of people

In the quest of an adaptable built form : studying transformations in the MIT Campus

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-198).Adaptability of the built form has for a long time been the concern of many designers. Driven by different motives such as the accommodation of "uncertainty," the pursue of an "economical space", the restoration of the user's "control" over the form, and the pursue of "fit," designers and scholars have proposed various formal means in order to achieve an architecture that would provide for change. The purpose of this thesis is to add to this discussion, proposing particular design strategies. In order to do this, transformations are documented and measured in the Main Buildings of the MIT Campus, which have often been cited for their ability to accommodate change. The thesis hypothesizes that the buildings in question contained in their body a certain DNA that enabled them to transform easily and effectively. Through the analysis of the original system of buildings and its transformations, which are divided into the two categories of growth and internal change, this DNA is exposed and juxtaposed to the formal means that have been suggested in the ideas of designers and scholars.(cont.) The DNA is argued to consist of stems, knuckles, "unit-sections," courts, add-on facades and an underlying circulation system. The result of this thesis is a tested, in terms of effectiveness, series of specific formal means, comprised of MIT's DNA and the other designers' propositions, which can be outlined as three general strategies; provision of extra space, "open- endedness" and delineation of a comprehensive framework along which transformations can take place. At the same time, a physical history of the early years of the Cambridge Campus is produced, ranging from 1912 to 1933.by Maria Zafeiriadou.S.M

REGIONALISM, NATIONALISM & MODERN ARCHITECTURE

PALLINI, Cristina – Modern Architecture in the (re)Making of History. Schools and Museums in Greece, p. 11-23 PIMENTEL, Jorge Cunha – Rogério de Azevedo’s Regionalist Drift, p. 24-39 BIGHAM, Ashley – The Palace as Type. Finding Regionalism in Soviet Modernism, p. 41-53 CARVALHO, Rita Almeida de – The Junta de Colonização Interna and the shaping of the Estado Novo’s peasantry: newness and stagnation of the rural society, p. 54-62 CAPRESI, Vittoria – White Cubism Reloaded. The reinterpretation of Libyan Vernacular Architecture as the Answer to how to build in the Colony, p. 63-75 CESARO, Giorgia – Modernity from Far East. Kazuo Shinohara’s Fourth Space, p. 76-90 CRESCI, Edoardo – Piero Bottoni. Three houses on the Tyrrhenian Sea, p. 91-100 ESENWEIN, Fred – Agrarian Ideals in American Architecture Schools, p. 101-113 HSIAO, Leah – I. M. Pei’s Museum for Chinese Art, Shanghai, 1946. Modernism, regionalism and the search for an architectural representation of national identity, p. 114-127 JADRESIN MILIC, Renata; MADANOVIC, Milica – Romantic Visions vs. Rejection of Ideal Reconstruction, p. 128-143 JANOWSKI, Maciej – The patient searching of new forms of local architecture. Micro-intervention as the strategy of preservation of genius loci in Grison, p. 144-156 KLUSEMANN, Christian – Regionalism in GDR-Modernism of the 1960s and 1970s, p. 157-174 MAIA, Maria Helena; CARDOSO, Alexandra – Nationalism and Rural Modernization. The Spanish Tagus Valley colonization villages in the context of Southern European inner colonization, p. 175-189 MARCOLIN, Paolo – The settlements design of the Boalhosa’s agricultural colony. A dialectical perspective: between tradition and the construction of modernity, p. 190-201 MARGIONE, Emanuela – Italian Modern Architecture Between Rurality and Monumentality. The case study of the Italian New Towns as an experimental territory for the Modern Movement in Italy, p. 202-220 MARICCHIOLO, Luca – The Modern Appropriation of Urban Space Through Mediterranean Medinas, p. 221-236 MELA, Giulia – Luis Barragán and the invention of Mexican Regionalism, p. 237-249 NADOLNY, Adam – A diary of a polish architect and film maker from his travels to the west. Modern Italian architecture in the Polish documentaries dating back to the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, p. 250-264 NEZIK, Christin – The Search for a Contemporary Finnish Architecture. Adaptations of the vernacular tupa in the oeuvre of Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren, Eliel Saarinen, and Alvar Aalto, p. 265-280 OLIVEIRA, Tiago Cardoso de – Modern Architecture and Local Tradition in 1950`S Portuguese National Inns (Pousadas de Portugal), p. 281-295 PARRA-MARTINEZ, Jose; CROSSE, John – Lewis Mumford, Henry-Russell Hitchcock and the Rise of “Bay” Regionalism, p. 296-316 PEGIOUDIS, Nikos – An American ‘Parthenon’. Walter Gropius’s Athens US Embassy Building between Regionalism, International Style and National Identities, p. 317-329 PONZIO, Angelica – The [Latin] Modernism of Ponti, Costa and Barragán, p. 330-341 PRISTA, Marta Lalanda – Tradition and modernity in the Portuguese Inner Colonisation: the laboratorial case of Pegões, p. 342-355 ROMA, Chiara – The Space of Pompeian Domus towards Le Corbusier Hospital of Venice, p. 356-369 SAVAŞ, Ayşen – An Early Critique of International Modernism in the Anatolian Context, p. 370-381 SEBESTYÉN, Ágnes Anna – Disseminating the Regional within the Global. Representing Regionalist Ideas and the Global Scale of the Modern Movement in the Hungarian Journal ‘Tér és Forma’, p. 382-398 SIMON, Mariann; LACZÓ, Dániel – Deeply Embedded in Tradition. Interpretations of regional roots for modern Hungarian architecture in the 1960s, p. 399-411 SØBERG, Martin – Regionalism and the Functional Tradition in Danish Modern Architecture, p. 412-423 ŚWIT-JANKOWSKA, Barbara – The Polish Avant-Garde Architecture in the Interwar Period - Regionalism, Nationalism and Modern Architecture, p. 424-436 TERIBA, Adedoyin – Buildings Instead of Discourse. Empathy and Modern Architecture in West Africa, p. 437-448 TSAI, Jung-jen – The Construction of Chinese National Identity and the Designs of National Museums during the Early Post-war Period in Taiwan, p. 449-464 VIKHREVA, Natalia – The Roots of Brazilian Modern Architecture, p. 465-473info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Universal Singular

Critical introduction to the planning and design of public space. The design of public spaces is a reflection of their time. In our globalised world of images and experiences, however, the striving for uniqueness tends towards the opposite: square designs are becoming more and more similar in their choice of means and are thus becoming independent of their urban surroundings. The author analyses ten outstanding contemporary square designs in Europe with regard to their urban functionality and materialisation. In interviews with the planners, she traces the changes that the projects underwent during the planning phase and documents them with numerous sketches. She also examines the reception of these projects in the community. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version

Solar potential in early neighborhood design:a decision-support workflow based on predictive models

In light of the acknowledged need for a transition toward sustainable cities, neighborhoods and buildings, urban planners, architects and engineers have to comply with evermore demanding energy regulations. These decision-makers must be supported early-on in their process by adequate methods and tools. Indeed, early-design decisions, which concern parameters linked to the building form and urban layout, strongly dictate the solar exposure levels of buildings, in turn influencing their energy need (e.g. for heating and cooling) and production potential (e.g. through on-site active solar systems). Despite the spread of existing digital tools, limitations remain, withholding their integration into the early design process. These considerations lay down the context within which this doctoral research was carried out. The main objective of this thesis is the development of a performance-based workflow to support decision-making in early-design neighborhood projects. The performance is here defined through three criteria: (i) the daylight potential, quantified by the spatial daylight autonomy, (ii) the passive solar potential, quantified by the annual energy need for space heating and cooling, and (iii) the active solar potential, quantified by the annual energy production. The research process consisted of two main phases. First, the development of a performance assessment engine allowing real-time evaluation of an ensemble of buildings. Second, the integration of this method into a decision-support workflow, taking the form of a digital prototype that was tested among practitioners. For the first phase, a metamodeling approach was adopted to circumvent the limitations associated to simulations involving solving physics-based equations. Mathematical functions were obtained to predict the daylight and energy performance of a neighborhood, from a series of geometry- and irradiation-based parameters, easily computable at the early-design phase. To derive these functions (or metamodels), a neighborhood modeling and simulation procedure was executed to acquire a dataset of reference cases, from which the metamodels were trained and tested. The resulting multiple-linear regression functions, combined to an algorithm for quantifying the active solar potential from the irradiation data, formed our performance assessment engine. To assess its usability and relevance, the workflow was implemented as a prototype, supported by existing 3D modeling and scripting tools. Inspired by the emerging performance-driven and non-linear design paradigms, a multi-variant approach was adopted for this implementation; from the space of possible designs defined by a small set of user-inputs, a series of neighborhood variants are generated through a random sampling algorithm. Results of their evaluation by the core engine are displayed to allow a comparative assessment of the variants in terms of their morphology and solar potential. Having been tested among practitioners during workshops, the prototype appears promising for providing design decision-support. Direct feedback gathered from participants support the relevance of the approach and reveals multiple avenues for further improvement. Results collected during the workshops also allowed probing the validity boundaries of the metamodels: the prediction accuracy achieved attests the potential of the approach as an alternative to more complex methods, less adequate for exploring early-phase design alternatives