Year: 2018

The time seems ripe in architectural science for urban researchers to re-examine and further discuss the idea of the city. On the verge of Anthropocene change, architectural scholars seem not to have moved beyond their characterisation of the contemporary city as a fragmented metropolis. What comes next? Cities are likely to survive – as well…

The Melbourne brand has achieved unqualified and unquestionable success particularly if measured through various international rankings and, critically, via population growth of migrants ‘voting with their feet’. The population is forecasted to double by 2050 and the annual growth rate in the past few years (based on census data) suggest the rate has already been…

This methodology paper aims to inform a multinational competitive research grant application on research approaches for knowledge sharing and in particular, tacit knowledge. The overall project involves researchers, planners and city designers from three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. The project aims to facilitate knowledge transfer from European model-cities to recipient cities in developing regions….

Cities all over the world are being densified in the quest for sustainable urban development. Whether or not this is a viable strategy is an ongoing debate, but as densifying cities face certain challenges, they can learn from already dense cities, where interactions between interior and exterior space are explicit. This paper takes Hong Kong…

The location and design of Roman cities, farmhouses and town houses took account of the climate, at least according to the works of several Roman authors spanning a period of about 500 years, beginning with Vitruvius’ De architectura. Issues considered included latitude, site selection, heat, solar orientation, winds and daylighting. Vitruvius emphasised health, an emphasis…

Building materials in the modern era have assumed significance in architectural theory which they had not possessed in the past. The change was no doubt due to the multiplicity of materials, newly minted due to the innovative industrial production, which imposed and invited new ways of building. John Ruskin (1819-1900) proved to have a great…

We seek a framework for engaging people in urban design decision-making process by employing virtual tools. We adopt our previously developed parametric tools for design communication as a bridging method between conventional and participatory urban design approaches. We hypothesise that a virtual participatory urban design platform can provide more design associated information for laypeople to…

This research explores how parametric modelling integrated with environmental simulation, in combination with virtual and augmented reality, can be deployed at the early stages of design. Our approach is based on an integral design strategy, which gives equal weight to quantitative and qualitative evaluation. In effect, the study investigates how the qualitative aspects of post-occupancy…

In mild climatic conditions, residential houses are often ventilated by opening windows. However, the resulting bi-directional airflow mechanism in single-sided naturally ventilated spaces is complex due to the involvement of buoyancy and wind driving forces along with wind turbulence and turbulence created at the opening. In addition, the wind effect might be reinforcing or restricting…

To determine the development feasibility of a parcel of land, a potential purchaser is required to synthesize multiple information sets including local planning data, land records, financial metrics and most importantly the design rules and criteria for compliance. The information sources for the data required for a feasibility are often found on separate databases and…

To deal with the environmental and energy issues, many researchers found high potential of adopting building photovoltaic (PV) systems in urban areas, especially on building rooftop. However, the optimal energy output performance is impacted by the usable roof area, layout of PV arrays, and shading ratio considering high city density. This study aims to understand…

An aquatic centre is defined as a community or public venue that provides at least an indoor pool and three different types of amenities such as gymnasium, sauna/spa, café, crèche and stadium. There have been insufficient studies that examine the energy performance of aquatic centres worldwide. Building energy simulations provide opportunities for economic and time-efficient…

Construction industry is one of the strategic sectors in Indonesia’s development. Investment in the sector increases significantly every year. However, the performance of Indonesia’s construction industry is still poor, as indicated by high accident rate at construction site, building failure, as well as poor value for money of the construction product. Developed countries have regulated…

Recently, there have been a number of researches on building design optimization by coupling multi-objective genetic algorithm with building simulation. The researches offered dozens of potential designs solutions as outcomes. However, little attention has been paid on the post-optimization process and how to use the optimization outcomes to facilitate the building designers and engineers to…

Within healthcare architecture, there is a void of attention directed towards the non-medical spaces; the waiting rooms, hallways and all ‘between moments’ where many people spend extended periods of time under acute stress. Nowhere is this more prevalent that in the emergency departments where patients seek care and treatment for real or perceived, serious injuries…

Site is known as one of the important factors which influence the energy performance of buildings. However, in many cases when energy simulation modelling is included in the design process, it does not consider site factors. The consequences of this are unknown. Frequently, the weather data used in the energy simulation is based on the…

Current models to quantify environmental performance in the built environment are flawed as they typically focus either on one scale of the built environment (e.g. buildings), on a limited range of environmental flows (e.g. energy), or a particular life cycle stage (typically building use). There is a need to develop a more comprehensive model to…

Over the last two decades there has been a steady increase in the demand for healthcare services and a commensurate rise in the global expenditure in health (WHO, 2014). Given the significance of the financial investment in capital works programmes required to meet growing healthcare needs and the expanding environmental impact of the healthcare industry,…

An examination of a house design proposed by the Department of Rural Development of India’s Affordable and Appropriate rural housing scheme showed a major cultural gap of understanding between urban perspective and rural expectation. Significance of community value and cultural ecology have been compromised in planning and implementation of grand housing schemes. This research argues…

The challenge of meeting the increasing residential demands in New Zealand cities has seen development of urban centres in landscapes of industry, farmland, or natural spectacle. Quarry landscapes which were previously located close to the city are now found surrounded by intensification or even subject to it. Once quarrying ceases, these dramatic landscapes have the…

Place Agency is a collaborative project focused on the theory and practice of placemaking and its various strategies. The project aims to build capacity, test theory, experiment with processes and identify methods to evaluate placemaking decisions in order to create vibrant, citizen engaged public places and ultimately, better cities. A consortium of five universities has…

Outdoor thermal comfort is an effective attribute to the success of urban places. Various studies were employed to examine thermal perception and preferences of users within different geographical, functional, and climatic contexts. The complexity of the research led to the adoption of various definitions for terms and analysis methods even for similar benchmarks. However, to…

The past two decades have witnessed concerns caused due to the global increase in surface temperatures. With the world exposed to a quickly changing climate, exposure to and impacts of events like heat waves, floods and droughts has become a concern. While this is happening outside an individual’s dwelling, the impacts on indoor thermal comfort…

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) has become increasingly important due to the increased vulnerability of urban areas to UHI effects and thermal risk for urban residents. In Australia, extreme heat and overheated outdoor environments adversely affect the well-being of the urban population, energy consumption for cooling, sustainability and liveability of cities. This paper examines microclimate…