Development of web-based services for the marine sciences

pp. 225-23

Innovation, IT issues and indigestion: Building a new electronic product for today's libraries

p.5

The Way We Live Now : How Architectural Education can support the Urban Development of Small Settlements

One of the most significant aspects of twenty-first century society is the need for the individual to lay claim to the control of many aspects of the circumstances of life. Traditional government, in which policy is formed by experts and administered by state officials, is increasingly being challenged. Top-down enforcement of regulations, rules or directives is no longer acceptable to many people who feel that the individual or small collective is much better placed to make important decisions about things that happen within their own neighbourhood. It is well documented that the UK has a shortage of well-constructed and affordable housing. Neighbourhood Planning was part of the Localism Bill introduced in 2011 by the British Government. It passes responsibility for important decisions about the development of the built environment from the centralised government to the local community. This should, in theory be a very good thing. The community is much better positioned to understand the needs and capability of their environment. Neighbourhood Planning certainly enables communities to play a much stronger role in shaping the areas in which they live and work. It provides an opportunity for communities to set out a vision for how they want their community to develop in ways that meet identified local need and make sense for local people. However, there is the danger of well-meaning, but ill-informed individuals making decisions that have massive implications for the community. Continuity in Architecture, a studio for research, practice and teaching at the Manchester School of Architecture have been working directly with the local communities to develop meaningful and productive proposals for the development of the built environment. This chapter examines the evolution of Neighbourhood Planning, then discuss the projects that the studio have been involved with before offering some thoughts for the development of future initiatives

UnDoing Buildings Tour

Sally Stone, and Laura Sanderson from the Manchester School of Architecture, along with architect and conservationist Johnathan Djabarouti will lead a tour of some of the most interesting and compelling examples of adaptation and re-use in the city. These will range from prominent and well known buildings to secret places that have delicate relationships with their surroundings. Sally, Laura and Jonathan will encourage discussion and debate during the walk

The Response of Cerebral Cortex to Haemorrhagic Damage: Experimental Evidence from a Penetrating Injury Model

Understanding the response of the brain to haemorrhagic damage is important in haemorrhagic stroke and increasingly in the understanding the cerebral degeneration and dementia that follow head trauma and head-impact sports. In addition, there is growing evidence that haemorrhage from small cerebral vessels is important in the pathogenesis of age-related dementia (Alzheimer's disease). In a penetration injury model of rat cerebral cortex, we have examined the neuropathology induced by a needlestick injury, with emphasis on features prominent in the ageing and dementing human brain, particularly plaque-like depositions and the expression of related proteins. Needlestick lesions were made in neo- and hippocampal cortex in Sprague Dawley rats aged 3-5 months. Brains were examined after 1-30 d survival, for haemorrhage, for the expression of hyperphosphorylated tau, Aβ, amyloid precursor protein (APP), for gliosis and for neuronal death. Temporal cortex from humans diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease was examined with the same techniques. Needlestick injury induced long-lasting changes-haem deposition, cell death, plaque-like deposits and glial invasion-along the needle track. Around the track, the lesion induced more transient changes, particularly upregulation of Aβ, APP and hyperphosporylated tau in neurons and astrocytes. Reactions were similar in hippocampus and neocortex, except that neuronal death was more widespread in the hippocampus. In summary, experimental haemorrhagic injury to rat cerebral cortex induced both permanent and transient changes. The more permanent changes reproduced features of human senile plaques, including the formation of extracellular deposits in which haem and Aβ-related proteins co-localised, neuronal loss and gliosis. The transient changes, observed in tissue around the direct lesion, included the upregulation of Aβ, APP and hyperphosphorylated tau, not associated with cell death. The findings support the possibility that haemorrhagic damage to the brain can lead to plaque-like pathology.This work was supported by the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund, and by the Bluesand Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

A pilot study of homeworking: WorkHouse (30)

Workhouse aims to improve technology-based homeworking, through an understanding of working patterns, interactions with architecture and furniture. A log record of participants working environments, their hours of work, and their posture. The 10 participants revealed a range of working patterns (6:30 to midnight); choice of rooms, even with a dedicated study available. There are some issues to be resolved with the logs: recording of working hours, posture, and the need to make further decisions about the data required

Undoing Buildings: Assemblage, Memory and the Recovery of Wholeness

Buildings can in microcosm represent the attitudes and culture of the society that occupy them. Inevitably this process of addition and reuse is cyclical along with the development of the social culture. The content of this paper is the historical research on the existing building reconstruction which especially focusing on the the greater relationship between the form of the existing building and the resultant form of the adaptation within building reuse projects rather than the simple variation of function or use.Through the elaboration of collective memory and identity combined with ideas of tradition, history and culture, this paper attempts to retain a sense of continuity with the past as a way of creating a sustainable future

Conservation as experience

Experience design can be described as the choreography of temporary and shifting engagements across a series of design disciplines. Conservation is just one of those disciplines and as such has embraced the contemporary need for the seemingly historical authenticity within such experiences. These are recreational activities that occur in places that are imbued with a sense of time and history, but which embrace the contemporary attitude towards what is precious. Today time is the most precious commodity of all, and testament to this is the need to experience, to live, to engage with different and worthwhile pursuits. However, this preciousness is also exposed in the attitude towards the conservation of the existing environment, where again it is the precious time needed to laboriously clean and repair the building that is valued, thus contemporary design and conservation practices pursue a similar authenticity

Notes towards a definition of Adaptive Reuse

This essay will discuss the evolution of writings about adaptive reuse. The architectural practice is as old as the buildings themselves, yet it has scarcely been discussed or even recognised until relatively recently. The essay will document the varied influences that informed the early publications (the first from 1976). The lack of easily available material (that is, books and documented buildings) meant that pioneering writers had to draw upon other sources—those beyond established architectural discussions. Therefore, these early authors were not limited by the strictures of an already established subject but were able to collate information from a variety of sources. Thus, adaptive reuse draws upon a collage of different sources, many beyond pure architecture, including installation art, fine art, curation, interior design, and urban design. Inevitably, as the subject moves from the periphery of architectural practice towards the middle ground, the number of publications has increased. This diversity has provided the subject with a greater scope, supporting the acknowledgement of the importance of technology, sustainability, and conservation in addition to ideas of heritage and culture, while also allowing for a much less Western-centric focus