Geospatial analysis and living urban geometry

This essay outlines how to incorporate morphological rules within the exigencies of our technological age. We propose using the current evolution of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) technologies beyond their original representational domain, towards predictive and dynamic spatial models that help in constructing the new discipline of "urban seeding". We condemn the high-rise tower block as an unsuitable typology for a living city, and propose to re-establish human-scale urban fabric that resembles the traditional city. Pedestrian presence, density, and movement all reveal that open space between modernist buildings is not urban at all, but neither is the open space found in today's sprawling suburbs. True urban space contains and encourages pedestrian interactions, and has to be designed and built according to specific rules. The opposition between traditional self-organized versus modernist planned cities challenges the very core of the urban planning discipline. Planning has to be re-framed from being a tool creating a fixed future to become a visionary adaptive tool of dynamic states in evolution

Expanding of the Limits of Forms in Architecture through the Use of Parametric Methods and Algorithms

The debate of new aesthetical approaches to form in architecture is permanent and one of the key topics of theoretical and applicative studies. The content in architecture is strongly interrelated to language and form, as the basic expressive and communicative tools.This paper demonstrates the role of the technological improvement and of the implementation of new applied mathematical concepts, in determining the components of language and obviously those of form generation.This understanding is reached through a historical analysis of the evolution of the modeling techniques and their impact on the limits of form and its conception methodology.The main object of the analysis is to evaluate the influence of parametric modeling in the form conception and generation process. The experiment consists in comparing a variety of three-dimensional models, generated by means of classical methods and different advanced Computer Aided Design applications which utilize primitive geometry or parametrical modeling and algorithms.The outcome confirms on one hand the absolute quantitative advantage of the alternatives generated through Computer Aided methods and on the other hand the fact that parametric modeling and algorithms can generate aesthetically pleasant and unusual three-dimensional results. These tools are already capable of reshaping architect's aesthetical convictions and they are certainly promoters of a new methodological approach to design that most probably will affect radically the future visual quality of the built environment

Eco‐Holonic 4.0 Circular Business Model to Conceptualize Sustainable Value Chain Towards Digital Transition

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a circular business model based on an Eco-Holonic Architecture, through the integration of circular economy and holonic principles. A conceptual model is developed to manage the complexity of integrating circular economy principles, digital transformation, and tools and frameworks for sustainability into business models. The proposed architecture is multilevel and multiscale in order to achieve the instantiation of the sustainable value chain in any territory. The architecture promotes the incorporation of circular economy and holonic principles into new circular business models. This integrated perspective of business model can support the design and upgrade of the manufacturing companies in their respective industrial sectors. The conceptual model proposed is based on activity theory that considers the interactions between technical and social systems and allows the mitigation of the metabolic rift that exists between natural and social metabolism. This study contributes to the existing literature on circular economy, circular business models and activity theory by considering holonic paradigm concerns, which have not been explored yet. This research also offers a unique holonic architecture of circular business model by considering different levels, relationships, dynamism and contextualization (territory) aspects

Multi-level agent-based modeling - A literature survey

During last decade, multi-level agent-based modeling has received significant and dramatically increasing interest. In this article we present a comprehensive and structured review of literature on the subject. We present the main theoretical contributions and application domains of this concept, with an emphasis on social, flow, biological and biomedical models.Comment: v2. Ref 102 added. v3-4 Many refs and text added v5-6 bibliographic statistics updated. v7 Change of the name of the paper to reflect what it became, many refs and text added, bibliographic statistics update

Optimal Piecewise-Linear Approximation of the Quadratic Chaotic Dynamics

This paper shows the influence of piecewise-linear approximation on the global dynamics associated with autonomous third-order dynamical systems with the quadratic vector fields. The novel method for optimal nonlinear function approximation preserving the system behavior is proposed and experimentally verified. This approach is based on the calculation of the state attractor metric dimension inside a stochastic optimization routine. The approximated systems are compared to the original by means of the numerical integration. Real electronic circuits representing individual dynamical systems are derived using classical as well as integrator-based synthesis and verified by time-domain analysis in Orcad Pspice simulator. The universality of the proposed method is briefly discussed, especially from the viewpoint of the higher-order dynamical systems. Future topics and perspectives are also provide

Mechanisms in Dynamically Complex Systems

In recent debates mechanisms are often discussed in the context of ‘complex systems’ which are understood as having a complicated compositional structure. I want to draw the attention to another, radically different kind of complex system, in fact one that many scientists regard as the only genuine kind of complex system. Instead of being compositionally complex these systems rather exhibit highly non-trivial dynamical patterns on the basis of structurally simple arrangements of large numbers of non-linearly interacting constituents. The characteristic dynamical patterns in what I call “dynamically complex systems” arise from the interaction of the system’s parts largely irrespective of many properties of these parts. Dynamically complex systems can exhibit surprising statistical characteristics, the robustness of which calls for an explanation in terms of underlying generating mechanisms. However, I want to argue, dynamically complex systems are not sufficiently covered by the available conceptions of mechanisms. I will explore how the notion of a mechanism has to be modified to accommodate this case. Moreover, I will show under which conditions the widespread, if not inflationary talk about mechanisms in (dynamically) complex systems stretches the notion of mechanisms beyond its reasonable limits and is no longer legitimate