Conversation and critique within the architectural design process: a linkograph analysis

Conversation and critique are central to architectural design practice as they function as tools for probing and further improving design ideas. We study the kind of design activities that take place in such conversation and critique within the architectural design process. We use linkographs to characterise the design process taking place during conversation. More precisely, we study conversations between design teachers and design students. In this article, an example design process is considered that takes place via a traditional face-to-face meeting. Using the resulting linkograph, we are able to assess the kind of design activity taking place during such sessions of conversation and critique

Analysing the impact of constraints on decision-making by architectural designers

Architectural design projects are characterised by a high level of complexity. This level of complexity may be attributed to the high number of constraints that apply to architectural design projects. Along with planning, energy performance and fire safety regulations, current designers have to face constraining factors related to budget, acoustics, orientation, wind turbulence, accessibility for the disabled, and so forth. It thus appears that all sorts of restrictions and regulations steer the design process implicitly and explicitly in certain directions as soon as architectural designers aim at satisfying design briefs. In this research, we aim at analysing the impact of parameters and constraints on the design process. We wish to investigate how designers in practice deal with parameters and constraints. How do they interpret incoming parameters or constraints? Are constraints considered to be limitative (constraining), or are they key reference points in a variety of parametric possibilities? Are constraints omnipresent during the design process or are they considered only until they have been 'resolved'? To make an analysis of the role of constraints and parameters in the design process, we have studied four design sessions in a particular design use case, which will be presented briefly in this paper. In each of these design sessions, the design was not only re-evaluated, but it was also redirected in response to certain constraints that were not met (yet). In analysing these four sessions, we used linkography as a method, because this appeared to be one of the better options to obtain a more quantitative assessment of the design process. The linkography method was combined with an interview of the student design team, in order to check the correctness of our conclusions

The long and the short of radical polymerization

Precision functionality is the key feature of next-generation radical polymerization enabling the implementation of applications such as controlled drug delivery, self-healing material design, and optoelectronic materials. The incorporation of functionality is however diametrically opposed to diffusion-controlled growth-inhibiting termination reactions. The fundamental bottleneck remains the identification of a generic and flexible protocol to accurately map the shortlong termination reactivity. Herein, we introduce a unique framework based on the reversible additionfragmentation chain transferchain length dependenttermination (RAFT-CLD-T) method that encompasses an extension of state-of-the-art fundamental theories and a correction for possible polymer matrix effects. Applied to methyl methacrylate (MMA) polymerization, the shortlong termination reactivity is accurately quantified for the first time. Data analysis reveals the deficiency of currently used simplified models to describe the true shortlong termination reactivity and the dominance of short-chain diffusivity. The proposed framework and insights are a turnkey prerequisite for the fundamental understanding of radical polymerization processes and to complete current macromolecular diffusion theories

Model-based design of the polymer microstructure: bridging the gap between polymer chemistry and engineering

The performance of polymeric materials depends strongly on the control over the polymer microstructure during the synthesis step. In this review, attention is paid to the potential of microkinetic modelling to facilitate the identification of optimal reactants and reaction conditions to design the polymer microstructure in bulk and solution (post) polymerisation processes. Focus is on living polymerization, reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) and "click" chemistry techniques, covering both batch and continuous synthesis approaches. A description according to the increasing level of macromolecular detail and thus modelling complexity is provided, including not only the characterization of the polymer microstructure via a finite number of variates (e.g. chain length, overall composition and branching content) but also its explicit visualisation by the simulation of the architecture and monomer sequences of a representative number of individual polymer chains. Several complementary case studies are included to demonstrate the high relevance of model-based design for the development of improved and novel synthetic protocols for precision control