SpringerBriefs in Architectural Design and Technology – serie

This interdisciplinary book explores design theories, combining research from a range of fields including architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, industrial design, software engineering, environmental psychology, geography, anthropology, and sociology. Following an extensive review of the current literature, the author reveals eight major types of theory in design processes. The theories are classified as follows: Rational vs. Empiricist Theories, Procedural vs. Substantive Theories, Normative vs. Positive Theories, Design Scopes, Designers vs. People, Form and Space Creation Paradigms, Efficient Tools and Sources in the Design Process, and Place vs. Non-Place Theories. The respective design theories are illustrated with diagrams, tables and figures, condensing the content of over 140 essential theoretical texts that address various aspects of design processes. Given its scope, the book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students, and to researchers and practitioners in design, urban planning, urban design, architecture, art, etc.

This book presents three projects that demonstrate thefundamental problems of architectural design and urban composition – the layoutdesign, evaluation and optimization. Part I describes the functional layoutdesign of a residential building, and an evaluation of the quality of a townsquare (plaza).The algorithm for the functional layout design is based onbacktracking using a constraint satisfaction approach combined with coarse griddiscretization. The algorithm for the town square evaluation is based ongeometrical properties derived directly from its plan.Part II introduces a crowd-simulation application for theanalysis of escape routes on floor plans, and optimization of a floor plan forsmooth crowd flow. The algorithms presented employ agent-based modeling andcellular automata.

This book is comprised of two parts, both of which exploremodular systems: Pipe-Z (PZ) and Truss-Z (TZ), respectively. It presents severalmethods of creating PZ and TZ structures subjected to discrete optimization.The algorithms presented employ graph-theoretic and heuristic methods. Theunderlying idea of both systems is to create free-form structures using theminimal number of types of modular elements. PZ is more conceptual, as it formssingle-branch mathematical knots with a single type of module. Conversely, TZis a skeletal system for creating free-form pedestrian ramps and ramp networksamong any number of terminals in space. In physical space, TZ uses two types ofmodules that are mirror reflections of each other. The optimization criteriadiscussed include: the minimal number of units, maximal adherence to the givenguide paths, etc.

This book explores the extremely modular systems that meet two criteria: they allow the creation of structurally sound free-form structures, and they are comprised of as few types of modules as possible. Divided into two parts, it presents Pipe-Z (PZ) and Truss-Z (TZ) systems. PZ is more fundamental and forms spatial mathematical knots by assembling one type of unit (PZM). The shape of PZ is controlled by relative twists of a sequence of congruent PZMs. TZ is a skeletal system for creating free-form pedestrian ramps and ramp networks among any number of terminals in space. TZ structures are composed of four variations of a single basic unit subjected to affine transformations (mirror reflection, rotation and combination of both).

This book discusses the design of comfortable buildings and shows that design perception and, as a result, comfort should be an intentional feature of architectural design. Modern buildings are often sealed boxes without operable windows or daylighting design. However, contemporary designers increasingly find themselves faced with the task of creating spaces that are comfortable in terms of thermal and visual aspects.

In the context of urbanization and compact urban living, conventional experience-based planning and design often cannot adequately address the serious environmental issues, such as thermal comfort and air quality. The ultimate goal of this book is to facilitate a paradigm shift from the conventional experience-based ways to a more scientific, evidence-based process of decision making in both urban planning and architectural design stage. This book introduces novel yet practical modelling and mapping methods, and provides scientific understandings of the urban typologies and wind environment from the urban to building scale through real examples and case studies. The tools provided in this book aid a systematic implementation of environmental information from urban planning to building design by making wind information more accessible to both urban planners and architects, and significantly increasing the impact of urban climate information on the practical urban planning and design. This book is a useful reference book to architectural postgraduates, design practitioners and planners, urban climate researchers, as well as policy makers for developing future livable and sustainable cities.

This book highlights computationally enabled and digitally fabricated strategies used in the design of a series of full-size wooden structures. It introduces theoretical foundations and then focuses on the possibilities that have emerged as a result of the material-aware processes. The case studies expound wood as one of the most suitable materials to experience the seamless framework introduced with the digital design-to-construction chain. Two main aspects of the pavilions constructed, developed in various international academic groups, are considered. On one hand the case studies explore tolerances of raw and engineered material intertwined with machine processing; they also address material enhancement through strip applications in timber construction. In addition, the structures are examined in the light of an extensible designing path, which acts as an interoperable procedure, bridging the virtual and the real.

In this book, academics, policy makers, developers, architects and landscape architects provide a systematic review of the environmental, social, economic and design benefits of dense and green building types in high-density urban contexts and discuss how these can support higher population densities, higher standards of environmental sustainability and enhanced live ability in future cities.

In this book, leading architects and landscape architects provide their perspectives on the design of dense and green building types in high-density urban contexts that can support higher population densities, higher standards of environmental sustainability and enhanced liveability in future cities.

This is a book about how cities occupy space. We are not interested in architectural masterpieces, but the tools for reinventing city life. We try to provide a framework for the architecture and design of public space without aesthetic considerations. We identify several defining factors. First of all, history as the city today very much depends on how it was yesterday. The geographical location and the technology available at a point of time both play a constraining role in what can be done as well. Culture, in the form of social norms, laws and regulations, also restricts what is possible to do. On the other hand, culture is also important in guiding the ideas and aspirations that together inform what society wants the city to be. The city needs government intervention, or regulation, to ameliorate the problem posed by a tangle of externalities and public goods. We focus on two comparative case studies: the evolution of urban form in the US and how it stands in a sharp contrast withthe evolution of urban form in Japan. We emphasise the difference in regulations between both jurisdictions. We study how differences in technological choices driven by culture (i.e. racial segregation), geography (i.e. the availability of land) and history (i.e. the mobility restrictions of the Tokugawa period) result in vast differences in mobility regarding the share of public transport, walking and cycling versus motorised private transport. American cities are constrained by rules that are much further from the neoliberal economic idea of free and competitive markets than the Japanese ones. Japanese planning promotes competition and through a granular, walkable city dotted with small shops, fosters variety in the availability of goods and services. We hypothesise how changing regulations could change the urban form to generate a greater variety of goods and to foster the access to those goods through a more equitable distribution of wealth. Critically, we point out that a desirably denser city must rely on public transport, and we also study how a less-dense city can be made to work with public transport. We conclude by claiming that changes in regulations are very unlikely to happen in the US, as it would require deep cultural changes to move from local to a more universal and less excluding public good provision, but they are both possible and desirable in other jurisdictions.

This book investigates how architectural design advances as a result of the rapid developments in 3D Printing. As this technology become more powerful, faster and cheaper, novel workflows are becoming available and revolutionizing all stages of the design process, from early spatial concepts, to subsequent project development, advanced manufacturing processes, and integration into functional buildings. Based on a literature review and case studies of ten built projects, the book discusses the implications of the ongoing manufacturing revolution for the field of architecture.

This book is structured in four parts: First, it analyzes the sustainability objectives established for the building stock and the importance of thermal comfort in this aspect. Second, the existing adaptive thermal comfort models and the main energy-saving measures associated with these models are analyzed. Third, the energy savings obtained with these measures are analyzed in several case studies, comparing the results obtained with other energy conservation measures, such as the improvement of the façade. The analysis is carried out from an energy and economic perspective. Finally, a decision‐making process based on fuzzy logic is established. As an expected result, the content of the book contributes to assist architects in designing more efficient buildings from the perspective of user behavior.

This book highlights the importance of outdoor thermal comfort for improving urban living quality in the context of urban planning and urban geometry design. It introduces readers to a range of assessment methods and applications of outdoor thermal comfort and addresses urban geometry and thermal environment at the neighbourhood scale using real-world examples and parametric studies. In addition, the subjective evaluations by urban dwellers and numerical modelling tools introduced in this book provide not only a comprehensive assessment of outdoor thermal comfort but also an integrated approach to using thermal comfort indicators as a standard in high-density cities. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable guide for urban climate researchers, urban planners, and designers, and policymakers pursuing more liveable urban environments.

This book highlights human behaviour and architectural considerations for prescriptive code requirements for emergency exits in heritage cultural centers. Closed circuit television camera (CCTV) footage from a Canadian heritage cultural centre was analyzed from three separate unannounced evacuations, where recommendations based on the first two evacuations were implemented for the third. This study aims to (1) develop a baseline for the behaviour and actions of people during the pre-movement and movement stages of emergency egress and evacuation situations and (2) collect behavioural and movement data to aid the fire safety community with the decision process for egress and evacuation strategies and (3) interrogate and highlight architectural barriers in heritage structures with respect to emergency evacuation. The discussion of findings includes occupant behaviour, architectural implications and evacuation modelling and considers the often-conflicting intersection between architectural conservation and fire safety.

This book highlights a research-based design proposal which has the purpose of relieving from lack of global food supply. Due to the current overuse of land, it suggests an extension of aquatic food production with floating devices onto the sea. These devices are called SeaOasis because they function as an oasis as closed-loop systems and are therefore highly sustainable.Best geographic conditions for an extension from agriculture to aquaculture by SeaOasis match with coastal areas with serious or alarming hunger index. The low complexity, low-cost construction and the manageable size of the design is ideal for smallholders to support food security in terms of accessibility, affordability, and diversity of diet. Various configurations are described and coupled with expected revenues for potential seed-funded demonstration projects.The book presents the entire process from problem statement to design development and the preparation of its implementation. Itshowcases therefore also the benefits of aquatectural design as an interdisciplinary combination of aquatic architectural design, marine engineering and biology, sociology and economy

This book highlights various solutions for the required transition of coastal cities due to +1m sea level rise. The current understanding is that infrastructure, buildings, industry, and communities have to be protected by engineering-based solutions, or cities have to retreat. The book adds two more solutions where cities can advance onto the water or can accommodate. All four different concepts are introduced and presented in a manual and as urban design proposals for one specific site. Therefore, the book can be used in two ways: Either as a general guide for urban transition processes due to +1m sea level rise, or as demonstration project how differently sites can be developed further and created thereby additional opportunities.

It is estimated that windows in office buildings are responsible for one third of energy used for their heating and cooling. Designing window shading that balances often contradictory goals of preventing excessive heat gains in hot periods, without compromising beneficial heat gains in cold periods or visual comfort in indoor spaces of modern buildings with highly glazed facades, is an interesting multi-objective optimisation problem that represents an active research topic in the field of building energy and daylighting. Window overhangs are the simplest and most traditional shading devices that are easy to install, highly cost-effective, require low or no maintenance and offer unobstructed views outside. This book provides a review of overhang design methods for optimal thermal and daylighting performance. It starts with a historical overview of methods based on solar positions and shading masks. Next it discusses current research methodology, including shading calculation methods, ways of quantifying thermal and daylighting overhang effectiveness and the use of multi-objective optimisation approaches, together with the case studies that employ them. It further covers methods for designing innovative overhang types such as NURBS outlined overhangs and PV integrated dynamic overhangs. The appendix classifies published overhang case studies according to major climate type and latitude of their locations. As such, the book presents a valuable resource for understanding subtle nuances of interaction between solar radiation, shading devices and indoor comfort. The intended target audience are building energy researchers interested in optimisation of window shading devices.​

This book is a reflection on contemporary computational design thinking at the intersection of architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture, in a time marked by complex challenges like climate change, urbanization and population growth. Based on a critical rethinking of the notion of ground and the relation between the manmade and the natural environment, an understanding of architecture as regenerative practice is proposed. It aims at a built environment as landscape, at an architecture of prosthetic nature. The design approach is illustrated by a number of design experiments conducted within a studio setting and complemented by a series of conversations with leading experts on sustainable design and landscape architecture.

This book highlights the possibilities arising in architectural design through the integration of Generative AI technologies in the design process. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools, methods and techniques are gaining popularity in architectural design, producing illustrations of fictional or future buildings, providing floor plan solutions, simulating human behavior, or providing 3D massing solutions for buildings, among others. Some architects find them useful and inspiring, while others criticize them as superficial or feel threatened by them. Consequently, the question of how to integrate AI into the architectural design process in a synergetic and meaningful way becomes crucial. This book casts light on how such an integration may be possible in architectural research, practice and pedagogy. It explores the latest methods and techniques through fourteen articles by renowned researchers, practitioners and educators focusing on the design process and the arising possibilities and challenges in 2D and 3D generation of spatial design solutions. Our findings provide an overview of original, cutting-edge AI technology articles in the realm of architectural design, as well as insights into how AI might change architectural design processes in the future.

This book sheds light on the mechanisms at the base of formation and consolidation of vacant land in metropolitan regions, an under-debated issue of urban growth, regional science and architecture. The book adopts a kaleidoscope of different academic and practical approaches, mixing multiple perspectives that combine architectural and urban planning disciplines with more specifically economic, social and environmental aspects of the urban landscape. The book adopts a multi-disciplinary frame with the aim at reading the complexity of mechanisms and processes underlying urban growth and the formation of vacant land. Vacant land was investigated from three perspectives- architectural/design, economic/social and planning/environmental. The multiple reading frames in the book highlights further academic debate on a particularly intriguing - while less investigated - topic.

This book presents technical knowledge already available and identifies operational-methodological flows aimed at filling the existing incomplete and jumbled procedures through the use of parametric and virtual digital models for architectural heritage. Specifically, it proposes a digital code of practice for the conservation and management of existing architectural heritage through the aid of CityGML-Based models implemented with a Technical Decision Support System (T-DSS), as well as through expeditious VR-based approaches. It discusses the analysis of the methodological and technical principles for the development of semantic information systems for the study, modelling, cataloguing, and technical management of architectural heritage in a digital environment.

This book explores the ways in which architecture and urban design can alleviate the adverse effects of mass tourism. It delves into the critical challenges posed by overcrowded urban centers, strained infrastructure, and the environmental repercussions stemming from an influx of tourists. By presenting innovative solutions and pragmatic strategies across diverse geographical and cultural contexts, this book significantly contributes to the creation of resilient and sustainable urban landscapes. In alignment with the principles of Sustainable Development Goal 11, the book aspires to cultivate a balanced synergy between tourism, urban development, and community well-being, ensuring a harmonious coexistence that supports the vitality and sustainability of urban environments.

This book introduces the basic principles and methods of scientific research in architecture. Due to the specificity of the creative process and the architectural industry, the presented issues have also been adapted to the needs of architecture teachers, architects active in the design market, and others interested in the topic. The first chapter explains four crucial research skills: focus, reasoning, critical thinking, and creativity, supported by ethics. The second chapter focuses on preparation for research by formulation of the research problem, hypothesis, and correlated research questions. The third chapter is an introductory part presenting the various classifications of architectural research and explaining the roots and significance of reasoning, creativity, and ethics. The fourth chapter presents the main research methods applicable to architecture, starting with the literature review. All of them can be modified and adjusted to ever-changing requirements. In the fifth chapter, visual tools are described for clearly presenting the research related issues. The sixth chapter is the introduction to academic writing. It includes the main rules of article preparation using elements such as abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, conclusions, references, and the application of citation styles. Additionally, this chapter is concerned with general requirements for critical review preparation.

This book provides an overview of the current planning paradigms and technical strategies to cope with climatechange, specifically flooding. Architecture and planning face the challenging task of designing the built environment while addressing complex issues in urban areas. Factors such as climate change, societal and economic issues and population growth can significantly impact the success of a plan. In order to plan for the future, adaptation and flexibility have become crucial. However, the traditional deterministic approach in planning allows no room for failure, expecting plans and projects to achieve desired objectives regardless of how the future unfolds.  It also explores new planning paradigms, methods, and tools from other disciplines that can be integrated into urban planning to achieve long-term, flexible adaptation in the face of uncertain conditions (Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty—DMDU). Additionally, a case study is presented, focusing on addressing uncertainties in a flood-prone area in Rome through scenario planning, combining various cutting-edge model-based methodologies drawn from DMDU. The target audiences are researchers and practitioners in architecture and urban planning.

This open access book outlines the latest results in analysing, assessing, and managing terrorist risk in the urban outdoor built environment. In detail, contents refer to the outdoor Open Areas (such as streets, squares, urban parks and other public spaces in our cities) exposed to such violent events considering the physical elements and properties of the built environment and users. PThe built environment features, including layout, use and management, are combined with terrorist threats issues and user behaviours in emergency conditions, to determine a set of complementary tools for the reduction of risk and increase of urban resilience.  The contents hence provide different levels of tool analysis, for risk scenario definition,  risk assessment, mitigation strategies design and effectiveness evaluation, considering traditional approaches about the issue along with simulation-based approaches relying on understanding and representing user behaviors. This “behavioural design” approach offers the opportunity to manage the level of risk for specific real urban cases over going the normative limitations in Europe that are only referred to few countries and sometimes deal with the prevention of violent acts by intelligence activities as the exclusive way to face this issue. In addition, the focus on the characters of cultural and historic places and their resilience is increasing by means of introduction of mitigation and compatible solutions providing a complementary chapter for the design of resilient cities in all of their peculiarities (peripheries, consolidated, and historical). In this sense, it is one of the first organized attempts to analyse the main limitations of current solutions in these outdoor Open Areas and, at the same time, to clearly introduce the importance of human behaviours and the various choices in emergency evacuation conditions, thanks to the proposed behavioural-based simulation approach. The attention is focused on a critical aspect for historic spaces, where morphological conditions are fixed values. Thus, this book represents a sort of guidelines about these user-related issues during such violent events and is useful to both professionals and researchers in the areas of security and urban administration.