Housing Design: Furniture or Fixtures? Accommodating Change through Technological and Typological Innovation

The recent global pandemic has sped up architectural research in residential design aimed at rethinking housing layouts, services, and construction methods to accommodate the changing needs of the rapidly evolving contemporary society. New typological and technological design approaches are required to address, on the one hand, the adaptability of the plan as a result of higher flexibility and temporariness in familiar and working patterns, together with a downsizing of the layouts to ensure affordability and quality of life. On the other hand, the issues of sustainability and circular economy require specific attention to interpret the resilience of the building and the reuse/recycle of the fit-out systems. The paper aims at interpreting the notion of integration between fixtures and furnishing in housing design, based on a comprehensive literature review enriched with a case study analysis that shows design concepts and approaches rooted in theories and experiences of 20th-century architecture. Principles, potentials, and barriers to the development of integrated systems are highlighted and the possible implementation of industrialised production components, the potential for modularity, flexibility, and assembly are discussed

The architecture of energy systems between technological innovation and environment

This paper has the aim of defining possible interpretive models concerning the integration of energy infrastructures and landscape, highlighting emerging issues and drafting future paths for further development through technological innovation of energy systems and beyond. A taxonomy of different design approaches is disclosed, portraying different energy landscapes and supported by a selection of case studies (built and concepts) in a historical perspective. Whilst the research towards alternative sources of energy has recently downsized, albeit considered determining at the beginning of the century, technological change moves towards the enhancement of the existing common sources, an incremental innovation which benefits from well-established experiences and therefore affordable in terms of availability and size of investments. Product innovation trends are directed towards an increased upgrading and advancement in order to develop flexibility in architectural integration or to improve energy storage systems for a widespread uptake of microgeneration. Finally, the paper emphasizes the need for an active, bottom-up involvement of society in the energy transition and thus in landscape transformation, a perspective requiring a rethinking of energy laws and market regulations still strongly related to top-down energy policies and oligopoly

Comparison between Two Different Two-Stage Transperineal Approaches to Treat Urethral Strictures or Bladder Neck Contracture Associated with Severe Urinary Incontinence that Occurred after Pelvic Surgery: Report of Our Experience

Introduction. The recurrence of urethral/bladder neck stricture after multiple endoscopic procedures is a rare complication that can follow prostatic surgery and its treatment is still controversial. Material and Methods. We retrospectively analyzed our data on 17 patients, operated between September 2001 and January 2010, who presented severe urinary incontinence and urethral/bladder neck stricture after prostatic surgery and failure of at least four conservative endoscopic treatments. Six patients underwent a transperineal urethrovesical anastomosis and 11 patients a combined transperineal suprapubical (endoscopic) urethrovesical anastomosis. After six months the patients that presented complete incontinence and no urethral stricture underwent the implantation of an artificial urethral sphincter (AUS). Results. After six months 16 patients were completely incontinent and presented a patent, stable lumen, so that they underwent an AUS implantation. With a mean followup of 50.5 months, 14 patients are perfectly continent with no postvoid residual urine. Conclusions. Two-stage procedures are safe techniques to treat these challenging cases. In our opinion, these cases could be managed with a transperineal approach in patients who present a perfect operative field; on the contrary, in more difficult cases, it would be preferable to use the other technique, with a combined transperineal suprapubical access, to perform a pull-through procedure

The Magnitude of Global Marine Species Diversity

Background: The question of how many marine species exist is important because it provides a metric for how much we do and do not know about life in the oceans. We have compiled the first register of the marine species of the world and used this baseline to estimate how many more species, partitioned among all major eukaryotic groups, may be discovered. Results: There are ∼226,000 eukaryotic marine species described. More species were described in the past decade (∼20,000) than in any previous one. The number of authors describing new species has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of new species described in the past six decades. We report that there are ∼170,000 synonyms, that 58,000–72,000 species are collected but not yet described, and that 482,000–741,000 more species have yet to be sampled. Molecular methods may add tens of thousands of cryptic species. Thus, there may be 0.7–1.0 million marine species. Past rates of description of new species indicate there may be 0.5 ± 0.2 million marine species. On average 37% (median 31%) of species in over 100 recent field studies around the world might be new to science. Conclusions: Currently, between one-third and two-thirds of marine species may be undescribed, and previous estimates of there being well over one million marine species appear highly unlikely. More species than ever before are being described annually by an increasing number of authors. If the current trend continues, most species will be discovered this century

The heteronomy of building technologies in the construction industry in Italy. Notes for a to-do list

A pervasive self-referential technique has characterized architecture for some decades, affecting a minor part of architectural production. Celebrated by specialist publications, it has marginally impacted current and ordinary constructions that actually transform the landscape. Addressing the latter production, the essay attempts to define and argue the heteronomous nature of technological change in the national context as a prerequisite for orienting research and design towards the pursuit of a social role of technology, considered a response to the broadest and most widespread demand. This thesis is also underpinned by the discussion of emblematic cases in the history of the Italian construction sector during the post-war period. Finally, starting from a brief outline of the structural factors of change, we intend to provide some operational reflections to rethink the relationship between design and construction

THE ROLE OF WATER IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT OF THE PUBLIC SPACE

The increasing number of extreme weather conditions prompted by climate change is already noticeable nowadays in the succession of extended periods of drought to precipitations and storms of substantial intensity, events that significantly impact anthropized systems, in particular in densely populated urban contexts. This is also due to the inadequacy of the infrastructural equipment, often underpowered and lacking in the functional, managerial and environmental aspects. This contribution seeks to define the attributes and contents of a new project-oriented approach - methodological and technical - for urban public spaces, which stands out for the use of water as a natural element in the variety of its potentials and aesthetic, environmental and climate-related connotations

Architektur ohne Grenzen: Die visionären Bauten der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate

New developments in design in the United Arab Emerites have changed forever the face of world architecture. Here, the traditional Islamic culture co-exists with a radical movement towards modernity, resulting in a futuristic architecture, dominated by skyscrapers that seem to defy gravity, and constructions that embody the cutting-edge of technology. To record the height of the buildings are flanked by the spectacular rotating skyscrapers, almost dream like imagination of new forms, plans for the construction of huge artificial islands that affect entire coastal stretches, in a general challenge to the climate and environment. In an economic environment where everything is possible and can become real, this book offers a snapshot of an image inevitably surprising growth for the speed of implementation. The designers involved belong to some of the largest international firms and the entire star system (Ateliers Jean Nouvel, SOM, Zaha Hadid & associates, Foster+Partners, ws Atkins & partners,OMA, etc.) is required to give a cultural and express a new idea of the city. From state-of-the-art hotels to luxury residences to the headquarters of some of the world’s most important financial institutions, specially commissioned photographs showcase the innovations that make this an area of great interest to design professionals. Superb images depict the graceful sail-shaped silhouette of the opulent seven-star hotel Burj Al Arab and convey the majesty of the twin Emirates Towers. Other remarkable structures featured in this book include Dubai Sports City, Hydropolis Underwater Resort Hotel, Media-1, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Tower, to name just a few

Design “reactivity” for the enhancement of the built environment. New models of living in abandoned office buildings

The contribution proposes strategies for the convertibility of the disused heritage, in which hybridisation, temporary functionality and use become generative factors to support changes in requirements over time. The design criteria: modularity and its articulations, dry construction technology, flexibility, with the relative choice of technical, techno-typological and procedural solutions, respond to a predictive need of the project as a degree of freedom that allows transformations. The work provides tools and operational models to rethink rehabilitation as an action of continual improvement over time, which goes beyond the concept of reversibility (as debated on an international scale) to achieve continuous convertibility, recognition of heritage as a resource. The design approach interprets the intervention on the existing building not only as a static qualitative adjustment (functional, spatial, physical...) but as an action that reformulates the life cycle and the 'reactivity' of the building to future changes, through peculiar construction solutions. The conditions illustrated configure a design result adapted to the dynamics of demand, to multiple categories of users and to the interests of the stakeholders, triggering interventions with a social value. Through design simulations and the assessment of technical-economic feasibility, design models and strategies are then inferred that are capable of generating a new use of living space, to guarantee hygiene, health and wellbeing, and which can be replicated on different application contexts in variable ways