CyberParks Songs and Stories - Enriching Public Spaces with Localized Culture Heritage Material such as Digitized Songs and Stories.

This chapter offers theoretical considerations and reflections on technological solutions that contribute to digitally supported documentation, access and reuse of localised heritage content in public spaces. It addresses immaterial cultural heritage, including informal stories that could emerge and be communicated by drawing hyperlinks between digitised assets, such as songs, images, drawings, texts and more, and not yet documented metadata, as well as augmenting interaction opportunities with interactive elements that relate to multiple media stored in databases and archives across Europe. The aim is to enable cultural heritage to be experienced in novel ways, supported by the proliferation of smartphones and ubiquitous Internet access together with new technical means for user profiling, personalisation, localisation, context-awareness and gamification. The chapter considers cyberparks as digitally enhanced public spaces for accessing and analyzing European cultural heritage and for enriching the interpretation of the past, along with theoretical ramifications and technological limitations. It identifies the capacities of a proposed digital environment together with design guidelines for interaction with cultural heritage assets in public spaces. The chapter concludes with describing a taxonomy of digital content that can be used in order to enhance association and occupation conditions of public spaces, and with discussing technological challenges associated with enriching public spaces with localized cultural heritage material

The House of Affects Project

The House of Affects is an experimental installation to be part of the PerFormaSpace project pursued at the University of Cambridge, UK (DIGIS) and Goldsmiths College London, U.C.L. (Digital Studios), currently partially funded by Arts&Business East 2006, in collaboration with Econavate, UK who will provide their technical expertise in fabrication using recycled materials. This paper presents project-specific information and theoretical discussion on the design process and the computational methods used to develop advanced adaptive structural components in relationship to behavioural goals, criteria and constraints

Using ICT in the Management of Public Open Space as a Commons

The chapter defines public open space as a commons and explores innovative ways for its management and sustainable development through the use of new information and communication technologies. It argues that hybrid conglomerates of space and technological interfaces provide this possibility. Section 2 defines common pool resources and discusses issues of its management, before it moves to identify public open space as a commons and to outline key directives for governance. Section 3 outlines the new ICT and considers practices and technologies that can be used in order to enhance community identity, social interaction and user engagement in the governance of the public open space as a commons. Finally, the last section concludes this chapter with some remarks on the conditions under which the hybrid of a public open space with ICT features could be approached as yet another kind of ‘soft’ type of common pool resource. © 2019, The Author(s)

Adaptive Generative Patterns: design and construction of Prague Biennale pavilion

This paper describes an experimental practice-based research project that considered design process, implementation and construction of a pavilion built to be part of the Performative Space section of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Prague 2005. The project was conceptualized as a time-bound performative situation with a parasite-like relationship to its host environment. Its design has emerged through an innovative iterative process that utilized digital simulative and procedural techniques and was formed in response to place-specific behavioural challenges. This paper presents the project as an in-depth case-study of digital methods in design, mass customization and unified methods of production. In particular, it considers the use of Voronoi patterns for production of structural elements providing detail on programming and construction techniques in relationship to design aspirations and practical constraints

Exploring the Concept of Cyberpark: What the Experts Think

The chapter aims to provide a contextualisation of the cyberpark concept as this is perceived by a wide range of experts in public space and information technologies. To do so it makes use of a questionnaire survey conducted with the participants of the CyberParks COST Action, which collected their views on a number of aspects concerning both the mediated and the not mediated public open spaces, such as: their elements and qualities, the facilities they should offer, the activities they should facilitate, the type of space and location that are most suitable to accommodate them, their appropriate size and manner for their development, their target user group and other aspects of their configuration. The analysis brings out the commonalities and differences in experts’ views regarding the mediated and the not mediated public open spaces, and, as such, it contributes to specify further the cyberpark concept, mapping out its characteristics and dimensions. This should enrich the ongoing dialogue within the literature and facilitate interactions between relevant, yet fragmented, scientific disciplines in the area to inform the production and appropriation of both mediated and the not mediated public open spaces. © 2019, The Author(s)

Analysis of the indoor thermal quality in low income Cypriot households during winter

The recent global financial and economic crisis is responsible for the significant decrease of heating energy consumption, especially in low income population that mostly live in non-thermally-performing houses. The decrease of the residents’ income results in lower internal temperatures, hence lower thermal levels and lower indoor environmental quality, which are responsible for health problems and inadequate quality of life for the residents. This paper deals with the problem of energy poverty. The aim is to investigate whether the economic crisis, which affects the heating energy consumption and the indoor thermal quality, has consequences on the social and health problems in low income families of the Republic of Cyprus, during the winter season. To this aim, an extensive continuous monitoring study in terms of indoor air temperatures was carried out, for one year since December 2013 in 38 low income households in Limassol and Paphos, two of the main districts of the island after the capital of Nicosia. Additionally, questionnaires regarding energy, environmental, social, and health data were designed and collected from each household. Consequently, a cluster analysis, based on the monitoring data related to the first two months of 2014 and the survey's responses, was performed. Poor households of Cyprus were found to live in low indoor thermal quality, i.e. their average indoor air temperatures (ranging from 16 to 19°C) are lower than the accepted limits of the comfort zone for the island (18–21°C in winter). However, the thermal comfort and health conditions were found between the “acceptable” and “good” levels for each cluster. Additionally, a strong correlation is detected between the average internal temperature of the dwellings and the average income of the selected families. Finally, the heating energy consumption was found to be lower than the country's average for the clusters characterized by high and partial deprivation

Analysis of the indoor thermal quality in low income Cypriot households during winter

The recent global financial and economic crisis is responsible for the significant decrease of heating energy consumption, especially in low income population that mostly live in non-thermally-performing houses. The decrease of the residents’ income results in lower internal temperatures, hence lower thermal levels and lower indoor environmental quality, which are responsible for health problems and inadequate quality of life for the residents. This paper deals with the problem of energy poverty. The aim is to investigate whether the economic crisis, which affects the heating energy consumption and the indoor thermal quality, has consequences on the social and health problems in low income families of the Republic of Cyprus, during the winter season. To this aim, an extensive continuous monitoring study in terms of indoor air temperatures was carried out, for one year since December 2013 in 38 low income households in Limassol and Paphos, two of the main districts of the island after the capital of Nicosia. Additionally, questionnaires regarding energy, environmental, social, and health data were designed and collected from each household. Consequently, a cluster analysis, based on the monitoring data related to the first two months of 2014 and the survey's responses, was performed. Poor households of Cyprus were found to live in low indoor thermal quality, i.e. their average indoor air temperatures (ranging from 16 to 19°C) are lower than the accepted limits of the comfort zone for the island (18–21°C in winter). However, the thermal comfort and health conditions were found between the “acceptable” and “good” levels for each cluster. Additionally, a strong correlation is detected between the average internal temperature of the dwellings and the average income of the selected families. Finally, the heating energy consumption was found to be lower than the country's average for the clusters characterized by high and partial deprivation