Architectures of an “Otherwise”: Inhabiting Displacement

This concept paper aims to destabilize the limits and delineations of conventional architectural thinking by disclosing its ambiguities and contingencies through the centralization of the inhabitation-displacement nexus and, by extension, the figure of the inhabitant. Building upon our January 2019 workshop at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany, entitled: Inside Out – Outside In: Shifting Architectures of Refugee Inhabitation, its keynote interventions by Prof. Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi and Prof. Romola Sanyal, together with the vast array of topics and methodologies brought to the table by our presenters, we primarily argue towards the concept of inhabitation as an epistemic shift of both the site and the subject of architectural (knowledge) production. Shifting our focus particularly to the sites and subjects of displacement (i.e., ‘the refugee’/ ‘the migrant’ and beyond) enabled us to centralize the concept of inhabitation as a modality of the architectural spatial production of an otherwise through the prime subject figure of architectural authorship: the inhabitant

Wavelet denoising of multiframe optical coherence tomography data

We introduce a novel speckle noise reduction algorithm for OCT images. Contrary to present approaches, the algorithm does not rely on simple averaging of multiple image frames or denoising on the final averaged image. Instead it uses wavelet decompositions of the single frames for a local noise and structure estimation. Based on this analysis, the wavelet detail coefficients are weighted, averaged and reconstructed. At a signal-to-noise gain at about 100% we observe only a minor sharpness decrease, as measured by a full-width-half-maximum reduction of 10.5%. While a similar signal-to-noise gain would require averaging of 29 frames, we achieve this result using only 8 frames as input to the algorithm. A possible application of the proposed algorithm is preprocessing in retinal structure segmentation algorithms, to allow a better differentiation between real tissue information and unwanted speckle noise

Artificial Intelligence for Automated Floor Plan Generation

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Waterfront theatre: Art and performance centre in Amsterdam Noord

Architectur

Adapting Particle Filter Algorithms to the GPU Architecture

The particle filter is a Bayesian estimation technique based on Monte Carlo simulations. The non-parametric nature of particle filters makes them ideal for non-linear non-Gaussian systems. This greater filtering accuracy, however, comes at the price of increased computational complexity which limits their practical use for real-time applications. This thesis presents an attempt to enable real-time particle filtering for complex estimation problems using modern GPU hardware. We propose a GPU-based generic particle filtering framework which can be applied to various estimation problems. We implement a real-time estimation application using this particle filtering framework and measure the estimation error with different filter parameters. Furthermore, we present an in-depth performance analysis of our GPU implementation followed by a number of optimisations in order to increase implementation efficiency.Parallel and Distributed SystemsSoftware TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Sustaining Design Decision Makers in the AEC industry

Todayis typical decision making problem such as strategic planning, portfolio analysis, resource allocation and human resource management involves a variety of tangible and intangible strategic goals, conflicting constraints, dozens or hundreds of alternative initiatives to be pursued, and limited resources. A decision maker cannot meaningfully combine all of this information to make right decisions. To sustain decision makers in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, this paper proposes a tool to transfers a complex problem into a concept of hierarchical structure consisting of goal and its criteria and sub-criteria. Irrespective of the applied domains, this tool provides a flexible means for tackling the complex decision making process. It embeds a mathematical model for prioritization and decision making which is based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

How to assist designers in the urban design process

A lot of CAAD programs and design applications exist to assist designers. They hardly support the whole urban design process. Although those programs are useful for the architectural design process but are not suitable for urbanistic design. We have been working on the Urban-CAD application to assist designers with urbanistic design activities

Urban-CAD, a Tool for Urbanistic Design

The existing CAD, CAAD programs and design applications hardly support the urbanistic design activities. The conceptual difference between architecture and urbanism necessitates developing new CAD software based on the urbanistic design process. Our developed Urban-CAD system assists designers with urbanistic design activities

An Urbanistic Design Tool

The existing CAD and CAAD programs and design applications hardly support the urbanistic designactivities. Although those applications are useful means to be utilized generally in design tasks, they arenot suitable tools as urbanism community needs. Most existing CAD programs are based on thearchitectural design process and therefore not suitable for urbanistic design. The conceptual differencebetween architecture and urbanism necessitates developing new CAD software based on the urbanisticdesign process. We believe that our developed Urban-CAD system assists designers with urbanisticdesign activities and overcomes the limitations of the already existing CAD applications