Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town: Panasonic’s Challenge in Building a Sustainable Society

Urban utility equipment and electronic goods manufacturers are experiencing profound challenges in this age of rapid technological change. Panasonic, Japan’s leading electronics company, has also recognized the limits of its traditional product manufacturing orientation and decided to enter IT-intensive town management in view of these challenges. It has advanced a new strategy for creating sustainable communities to encourage both stakeholders and local residents to get involved. Stressing sustainability, the strategy has adopted a long-term perspective (i.e., a 100-year timeframe). Significantly, it must provide values that foster community-based sustainability and adopt a business model that ensures the economic viability of both constructing the town and managing its ongoing services. As information systems play a big part in the provision of services in the new town, the strategy requires the linking of information with technology and social aspects, quite unlike traditional manufacturing, which is solely based on technology concerns. As part of its new strategy, Panasonic defined five prominent service areas (i.e., energy, security, mobility, wellness, and community). The company thought these areas would expand and generate new value and services throughout the strategy’s timeframe

Redefining Hawaii Urban Housing Affordability through Adaptive Reuse, Prefabrication, Lifecyle Building and Flexible Design

Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable.Providing housing that is affordable in Hawaii is a complex and compounded problem. However, most of the discussion around housing affordability solutions for Hawaii focuses around changes in government regulations, subsidies, and land cost; not necessarily around the actual building design. This project proposes a method of providing quality, long-term housing in Hawaii that is affordable, sustainable and desirable to inhabit by taking advantages of the construction cost benefits achieved through adaptive reuse, prefabrication, lifecycle building, and flexible design. The goal of this project is to encourage more sustainable urban housing in such a way that extends a the usable life of Hawaii’s existing building stock and redefines Hawaii’s approach toward providing housing that is affordable

The Critical Role of Public Charging Infrastructure

Editors: Peter Fox-Penner, PhD, Z. Justin Ren, PhD, David O. JermainA decade after the launch of the contemporary global electric vehicle (EV) market, most cities face a major challenge preparing for rising EV demand. Some cities, and the leaders who shape them, are meeting and even leading demand for EV infrastructure. This book aggregates deep, groundbreaking research in the areas of urban EV deployment for city managers, private developers, urban planners, and utilities who want to understand and lead change

Performance assessment of urban precinct design: a scoping study

Executive Summary: Significant advances have been made over the past decade in the development of scientifically and industry accepted tools for the performance assessment of buildings in terms of energy, carbon, water, indoor environment quality etc. For resilient, sustainable low carbon urban development to be realised in the 21st century, however, will require several radical transitions in design performance beyond the scale of individual buildings. One of these involves the creation and application of leading edge tools (not widely available to built environment professions and practitioners) capable of being applied to an assessment of performance across all stages of development at a precinct scale (neighbourhood, community and district) in either greenfield, brownfield or greyfield settings. A core aspect here is the development of a new way of modelling precincts, referred to as Precinct Information Modelling (PIM) that provides for transparent sharing and linking of precinct object information across the development life cycle together with consistent, accurate and reliable access to reference data, including that associated with the urban context of the precinct. Neighbourhoods are the ‘building blocks’ of our cities and represent the scale at which urban design needs to make its contribution to city performance: as productive, liveable, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive places (COAG 2009). Neighbourhood design constitutes a major area for innovation as part of an urban design protocol established by the federal government (Department of Infrastructure and Transport 2011, see Figure 1). The ability to efficiently and effectively assess urban design performance at a neighbourhood level is in its infancy. This study was undertaken by Swinburne University of Technology, University of New South Wales, CSIRO and buildingSMART Australasia on behalf of the CRC for Low Carbon Living

Urban dwelling environments : Istanbul, Turkey

Thesis. 1976. M.ArchAS--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch.Bibliography: p. 106.by Mark Horne Butler and Nedret Tayyibe Butler.M.ArchA

Affordable Housing Hawaii

There is an expected housing shortage of 50,000 units in Hawai’i. 40% of these are set to be affordable, targeting an income range of 80% of area median income and below. As the least affordable location in the United States, Hawai‘i’s affordability is only expected to worsen. This study puts forward an architectural strategy to put more affordable housing on the market and fill a portion of the affordable housing void. The investigation applies mixed methods research including interviews, case studies, and historical research. The interview subjects included real estate developers, architects, politicians, social workers and leaders of organizations that are critical to creating affordable housing in Hawai’i. From this, the author strives to determine the DNA of the two most critical drivers that will form the basis of how to successfully achieve an effective affordable housing project in Hawai’i. The first driver is the process of creating a collective and collaborative design body to execute the project. The construction of this process includes both the determination of the players involved as well as the contribution that each person or organization can potentially make. The second driver is product based. It is a framework that begins to establish the important touch points that affordable housing projects in Hawai’i should address. The resulting product of the combination of these touch points is what this doctoral study strives to analyze and propose as an effective solution to a new and necessary housing typology in Hawai’i. This doctoral study attempts to differentiate itself by creating a symbiotic system based on three key pillars: the community, the profession, and the politicians. This symbiotic system fails to succeed with the omission of anyone of these pillars. In effect, it demands intimate collaboration between these three players. The omission of any one group leads to a less effective and less deliverable affordable housing product in Hawai’i. Three design projects undertaken by the author as part of a larger group in the interest of this doctoral study will demonstrate clearly how the above statement can be substantiated

Modern Housing Solutions for Hawaii: Utlizing Prefabrication Technologies to Develop High Quality Urban Housing in Hawaii

The core characteristics of Hawaii have long created a difficult market for the design and construction of modern high-quality homes. Although strategically located in the Pacific and blessed with a lush, resourceful environment, Hawaii is relatively far from other industrial centers and has a limited supply of land. Land and building materials are often cost prohibitive, and the quality of housing suffers accordingly. Large developers have a distinct advantage in this environment and they continue to build low-quality homes that they can sell for premium prices. As a result, the residents of Hawaii consistently get “less” housing for “more” cost relative to other markets in the United States. This project investigates how modern prefabrication technologies in architecture can be utilized to create high-quality, high-performance homes at lower costs in Honolulu, Hawaii’s urban center. Whereas previous prefabrication efforts have required mass production or standardization to be economically viable, advances in digital design and fabrication are now allowing architects to design and build cheaper and in non-conventional ways. These emerging technologies will help architects introduce creative but cost-effective housing solutions appropriate to Hawaii in a market dominated by generic and limited developer-driven housing. A townhouse prototype design for Honolulu will be proposed that utilizes structural concrete insulated wall and floor panels as a modern prefabricated building element. This design will illustrate the benefits and opportunities offered by prefabrication tools and technologies such as panelized building systems, building information modeling, computer numerical controlled fabrication, and digital parametric design variation