Grounding the curriculum: learning from live projects in architectural education

Abstract: For more than twenty years architects in the UK have advocated the use of ‘live’ projects in architecture schools as an alternative to the more traditional model of studio learning, but the educational establishment continues to marginalize community-based approaches to learning. Recent debate, focusing on shortcomings of the studio culture in architectural education, has condemned the isolation of students from real world contexts and teaching methods that cultivate values of individualism and competition. As an alternative, many claims have been made about the potential for enhancing student learning by adopting live briefs and involving clients and users in the education of architects. Yet much of the literature remains largely speculative or descriptive and so far has neglected to investigate participatory design processes to determine their precise pedagogic value. The aims of this paper are to examine the nature of learning in student projects outside the studio environment, to locate that learning within a range of categories of learning, and to develop a conceptual structure for further exploration of alternative pedagogies in architectural education. The study is based on evaluations of two participatory design projects carried out with students at Lincoln School of Architecture in the UK. Students’ perceptions of the learning they acquired are compared with the intended learning outcomes identified by tutors at the start of the projects, and these are further contrasted with the ‘competencies’ that are typical outcomes of the traditional curriculum. The findings, which reveal significant contingent and emergent learning in the live projects, are then discussed in relation to recognized theories of learning, such as experiential learning, social constructionism, situated learning and collaborative learning. The objective is to identify an appropriate theoretical framework that may be used to draw attention to the valuable contribution of live project learning in architectural education and support arguments in favour of a more expansive and socially grounded architecture curriculum

An Updated Trade Area Analysis of Wisconsin Counties for 2006

The intent of this functional research project is to apply the tools of Trade Area Analysis (TAA) to retail and service sales data for Wisconsin Counties. For this analysis we use the sales tax data as reported by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue for 2006, the most current year the data are available. Only those counties that have elected to collect the optional county sales tax are included in the analysis. Through Pull Factors and measures of Surplus and Leakage the relative strengths, and weaknesses, of local retail and service markets are identified.

Digital technologies for virtual recomposition : the case study of Serpotta stuccoes

The matter that lies beneath the smooth and shining surface of stuccoes of the Serpotta family, who used to work in Sicily from 1670 to 1730, has been thoroughly studied in previous papers, disclosing the deep, even if empirical, knowledge of materials science that guided the artists in creating their master- works. In this work the attention is focused on the solid perspective and on the scenographic sculpture by Giacomo Serpotta, who is acknowledged as the leading exponent of the School. The study deals with some particular works of the artist, the so-called "teatrini" (Toy Theater), made by him for the San Lorenzo Oratory in Palermo. On the basis of archive documents and previous analogical photogrammetric plotting, integrated with digital solutions and methodologies of computer- based technologies, the study investigates and interprets the geometric-formal genesis of the examined works of art, until the prototyping of the whole scenic apparatus.peer-reviewe

Real estate tax credits and other incentives for investing in historic property in the United States

This article reviews different incentives provided in the USA and makes comparisons to incentives offered in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Together with outputs 1& 2, this article was cited in House of Commons: ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee, Eleventh Report of Session 2003-4 (Volume I) into “The Role of Historic buildings in Urban Regeneration” (HC 47-I, EV29 published on 29 July 2004)

Memory bank predictors

Cache memories are commonly implemented through multiple memory banks to improve bandwidth and latency. The early knowledge of the data cache bank that an instruction will access can help to improve the performance in several ways. One scenario that is likely to become increasingly important is clustered microprocessors with a distributed cache. This work presents a study of different cache bank predictors. We show that effective bank predictors can be implemented with relatively low cost. For instance, a predictor of approximately 4 Kbytes is shown to achieve an average hit rate of 78% for SPECint2000 when used to predict accesses to an 8-bank cache memory in a contemporary superscalar processor. We also show how a predictor can be used to reduce the communication latency caused by memory accesses in a clustered microarchitecture with a distributed cache design.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

An Analysis of Retail and Service Sector Count Data: Identification of Market Potential for Wisconsin Counties

The objective of this applied research project is to use Wisconsin county sales tax data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of selected retail and service sectors. Using "count" data on the number of businesses that report taxable sales we apply regression analysis to develop an estimate of the expected number of firms in the county. By comparing the observed and expected number of firms we can identify strengths and weaknesses. Through the regression analysis we can also identify which socioeconomic characteristics are associated with which types of retail and service firms. The method that we offer we refer to as Firm Count Analysis (FCA) and can be viewed as a complement to Trade Area Analysis (TAA) and the analysis of sales data.

The development of accessibility indicators for distance learning programs

A study was undertaken to explore program policies and practices related to the accessibility of American distance learning courses to qualified students with disabilities. A literature review was conducted, a draft list of accessibility indicators was created, examples of applications of the indicators in existing distance learning programs were collected, the indicators were systematically applied to one distance learning program, input from a variety of distance learning programs was used to further refine the indicators, and these programs were encouraged to adopt the indicators and make use of resources provided by the project. Results of this exploratory work suggest that incorporating accessibility considerations into policies, procedures and communications of a program requires consideration of the unique needs of students, course designers, instructors and evaluators; involves approval and implementation at a variety of administrative levels; and is an ongoing process that may be implemented in incremental steps

Understanding Space: the nascent synthesis of cognition and the syntax of spatial morphologies

24-28 September, 200