Geometry and life of urban space

This essay introduces rules for building new urban squares, and for fixing existing ones that are dead. The public square as a fundamental urban element behaves both as a node and as a connector of the urban fabric. Like the components of an organism, each urban element is itself highly complex, and this conception contradicts postwar design trends based on abstract simplistic ideas: those are imposed in order to control instead of stimulating social life. Urban structures, infrastructure, human beings, their activity nodes, and all their interconnections come together to form a “super-organism”, a complex and dynamic whole that is the city. This happens only when the geometry of the urban fabric is encouraged to develop in a living manner. The basic element of this “super-organism” is urban space that works with informational processes. In European culture, the square connects the local urban space with other squares, streets, and roads with a strong pedestrian use. A living city works through its connections to reach the properties of a “super-organism”

Applications of the Golden Mean to Architecture

Une visite critique de la proportion dorée appliquée au Parthénon forme, de facto, la pièce principale de l’article. Les examens de la villa Stein ou du complexe des Nations Unies à New York fournissent des enquêtes supplémentaires qui soulignent les usurpations dont a profité la réputation de la composition "dorée".Le rectangle d’or serait une réduction, limitée historiquement, d’un principe plus étendu, de portée anthropologique, où les mesures des artefacts se rapporteraient entre elles selon des lois qui se laissent écrire en mathématiques. Telle est la thèse de Nikos A. Salingaros.L’article participe d’un fond théorique très large : il ne s’agit pas uniquement de démonter les approximations ou les impostures des architectes et des critiques quand ils glorifient les vertus du nombre d'or. La posture du texte est celle-ci : la conception des ouvrages architecturaux mérite d’adopter les lois qui gouvernent les structures naturelles, celles-ci étant réputées – a priori – parfaites et propices à une réception humaine satisfaisante. Ces lois articulent les mesures de manière croissante des plus petites aux plus grandes et réciproquement, en un régime de complexité graduelle garanti par une loi dont la science mathématique peut rendre compte. Le néo-platonisme n’est pas loin.Nous pourrions qualifier une telle posture d’idéologique, tant elle adopte une antienne antique sans en revisiter les prémisses."Hierarchical scaling, ordered substructure, and ornament, which are essential for generating coherent complexity and adaptation in architecture, were not transformed [NDLR : by modernism] : they were eliminated with a vengeance. The idea that the modernist idiom somehow transmutes essential complex information encoded as proportions is a deliberate falsehood meant to sell a minimalist geometry. Visual emptiness can never relate to human feelings. And yet people have fallen victims to this deception."La question des mesures, des proportions, des échelles, demeure ouverte et peu/mal traitée en la situation contemporaine. La faiblesse moderne à cet égard est surprenante ! Le laa a manifesté sa préoccupation à cet endroit en actant la contribution de Hans Van der Laan qui a inauguré une nouvelle analyse des rapports entretenus entre les mesures architectoniques et l'expérience phénoménologique - dont le bilan doit encore être mené.Le texte "Applications of the Golden Mean " est militant, plutôt réactionnaire, éloigné des interrogations dont le laa est coutumier.Nous avons souhaité répondre positivement à une proposition de publication : dans une perspective de débat ouvert

Biophilic design of building façades from an Evolutionary Psychology framework

Built environments that integrate representations of the natural world into façades and interiors benefit occupant psycho-physiological well-being and behavior. However, the biophilic quality of buildings does not de-pend exclusively on “green”, but also upon “organized complexity” in their structure. In this exploratory study we compare quantitative (Visual Atten-tion Software) and qualitative approaches (self-rating scales) in the perception of biophilic design of building façades. Eight façades varying in their degree of biophilic design (High, Medium, Low, No biophilic qualities) were assessed on the Perceived Restorativeness Scale-11, on preference, and on a series of physical aesthetic attributes. The eight façades were scanned with Visual At-tention Software (VAS). These measures show many overlapping points. VAS can be considered a way to operationalize the engagement of attention in the first 3-5 seconds of gaze in exploring building design, and self-ratings assess-ments a measure of to what extent the building is perceived as restorative. Higher perceived restorativeness and preference match a higher degree of bi-ophilic design, which corresponds to a building where vegetation is integrated in an organic structure. Vegetation is not the only biophilic characteristic to be considered in biophilic design and this emerges clearly from self-ratings and VAS. Exploring organized complexity is fundamental for understanding human responses to architecture

A Multimodal Appraisal of Zaha Hadid’s Glasgow Riverside Museum—Criticism, Performance Evaluation, and Habitability

High-profile projects promoted by governments, local municipalities, and the media do not always meet program requirements or user expectations. The Riverside Museum in Glasgow by Zaha Hadid Architects, which has generated significant discussion in the media, is used to test this claim. A multimodal inquiry adopts three factors: criticism, performance evaluation, and habitability. Results from this method are then correlated with visual attention scans using software from 3M Corporation to map unconscious user engagement. A wide spectrum of tools is employed, including a walking tour assessment procedure, contemplation of selected settings, navigational mapping, and assessing user emotional experiences. Key aspects of the design and spatial qualities of this museum are compared with an analysis of critical writings on how the project was portrayed in the media. Further, we examine socio-spatial practices, selected behavioral phenomena, and the emotional experiences that ensue from users’ interaction with the building and its immediate context. The findings suggest design shortcomings and, more worrisome, that spatial qualities relevant to users’ experiences do not seem to have been met. In going beyond the usual method of analysis, we apply new techniques of eye-tracking simulations, which verify results obtained by more traditional means. An in-depth analysis suggests the need for better compatibility between the imagined design ideas and the actual spatial environments in use