1,666 research outputs found
The Naturalisation of Architecture
Sustainability is gaining a firm presence within the discipline of architecture in spite of the number of obstacles with which it has been challenged: either confronting detractors, sceptics, and the discredit resulting from the abusive use of the term as a marketing tactic, or dealing with the actual practicalities inherent to its implementation. This heightened environmental consciousness increasingly engrained within the profession is solidly supported by a growing social, political and media interest, which has impelled new regulations and the involvement of new experts like physicists, engineers, and ecologists in the design process. This phenomenon is transforming architectural practice and design techniques, moving the focus from a mechanical perspective of architecture (tectonics, construction, materiality, structure) to a biotechnical approach which attempts to equip the architect with instruments to regard buildings as living structures permanently exchanging energy with their environment. Using the environment as a creative generator for design has prompted the emergence of new aesthetic models in current architectural design. The access to new tools, together with new concerns and ways of thinking, have opened new lines of intervention that seem to affect the profession in a more fundamental way. The focus of this paper is to provide an account of these cultural constructs as experimental aesthetic systems, with the intention of not only clarifying their principles and objectives, but also reflecting on the design techniques associated to them. Ultimately, this paper provides a reflection on the role of aesthetics in sustainable design, and on the critical question: is sustainability finally becoming an intrinsic part of architecture
Gradual transition from insulator to semimetal of CaEuB with increasing Eu concentration
The local environment of Eu (, ) in
CaEuB () is investigated by
means of electron spin resonance (ESR). For the spectra show
resolved \textit{fine} and \textit{hyperfine} structures due to the cubic
crystal \textit{electric} field and nuclear \textit{hyperfine} field,
respectively. The resonances have Lorentzian line shape, indicating an
\textit{insulating} environment for the Eu ions. For , as increases, the ESR lines broaden due to local
distortions caused by the Eu/Ca ions substitution. For , the lines broaden further and the spectra gradually change from
Lorentzian to Dysonian resonances, suggesting a coexistence of both
\textit{insulating} and \textit{metallic} environments for the Eu ions.
In contrast to CaGdB, the \textit{fine} structure is still
observable up to . For the \textit{fine} and
\textit{hyperfine} structures are no longer observed, the line width increases,
and the line shape is purely Dysonian anticipating the \textit{semimetallic}
character of EuB. This broadening is attributed to a spin-flip scattering
relaxation process due to the exchange interaction between conduction and
Eu electrons. High field ESR measurements for
reveal smaller and anisotropic line widths, which are attributed to magnetic
polarons and Fermi surface effects, respectively.Comment: Submitted to PR
D-LITE: Database of Light-Interacting Technologies for Architectural Envelopes
On-line catalogue on light-control technologies and their architectural implementation (cases studies + construction details + model
Incorporating Digital Tools with Ceramic Crafting: Design and Fabrication of Light Diffusing Screen Shells
This paper investigates the possibilities which arise by incorporating digital tools into the design and fabrication of ceramic building components. In particular, we present how traditional ceramic crafting fabrication methods could be enriched by using parametric, performative and generative design techniques alongside digital fabrication technologies. Considering the growing importance of ceramic components in architectural construction due to their economic and environmentally friendly properties, this paper highlights the findings of design-led research explorations, demonstrating potential innovative solutions and failures arising through a digitalised ‘file to factory’ design approach
Incorporating Digital Tools with Ceramic Crafting: Design and fabrication of light defusing screen shells
Site specific spin dynamics in BaFe2As2: tuning the ground state by orbital differentiation
The role of orbital differentiation on the emergence of superconductivity in
the Fe-based superconductors remains an open question to the scientific
community. In this investigation, we employ a suitable microscopic spin probe
technique, namely Electron Spin Resonance (ESR), to investigate this issue on
selected chemically substituted BaFeAs single crystals. As the
spin-density wave (SDW) phase is suppressed, we observe a clear increase of the
Fe 3 bands anisotropy along with their localization at the FeAs plane. Such
an increase of the planar orbital content interestingly occurs independently on
the chemical substitution responsible for suppressing the SDW phase. As a
consequence, the magnetic fluctuations combined with the resultant particular
symmetry of the Fe 3 bands are propitious ingredients to the emergence of
superconductivity in this class of materials.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
A Probabilistic Approach for Human Everyday Activities Recognition using Body Motion from RGB-D Images
In this work, we propose an approach that relies on cues from depth perception from RGB-D images, where features related to human body motion (3D skeleton features) are used on multiple learning classifiers in order to recognize human activities on a benchmark dataset. A Dynamic Bayesian Mixture Model (DBMM) is designed to combine multiple classifier likelihoods into a single form, assigning weights (by an uncertainty measure) to counterbalance the likelihoods as a posterior probability. Temporal information is incorporated in the DBMM by means of prior probabilities, taking into consideration previous probabilistic inference to reinforce current-frame classification. The publicly available Cornell Activity Dataset [1] with 12 different human activities was used to evaluate the proposed approach. Reported results on testing dataset show that our approach overcomes state of the art methods in terms of precision, recall and overall accuracy. The developed work allows the use of activities classification for applications where the human behaviour recognition is important, such as human-robot interaction, assisted living for elderly care, among others
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