Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing The Meaning Of ‘Thesis’ And ‘Final Year Project’ In Architecture And Engineering Education, Rahman Tafahomi, Shannon Chance

Articles

Architectural education shares much in common with engineering, including the use of a culminating capstone experience in the final year. The form of this experience varies, with the research-based thesis and final-year project being most common. This paper explores the literature on traditions of enquiry and the meaning of research in various fields and the evolution of the ‘thesis’ and ‘final year project’ approaches over time. It then briefly summarises empirical research conducted on a case study institution struggling to bridge gaps in understandings of these distinct forms of learning and teaching. Throughout, the paper presents a comprehensive set of …

A Review Of Current Construction Guidelines To Inform The Design Of Rammed Earth Houses In Seismically Active Zones, David Thompson, Charles Augarde, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

Sustainability in the materials we use for construction is a prime concern, focusing on reducing the embodied energy and carbon footprints of the materials used. The cement used in concrete products is responsible for a significant proportion of Man's CO2 emissions and its production requires substantial energy input, as do fired clay products. For this reason, products formed from unfired earthen materials are of increasing interest and the current challenges include devising means of robust design for strength and to address durability concerns. One form of earthen construction that employs an in-situ method is rammed earth, and it is a …

Exploring Accessibility Features And Plug-Ins For Digital Prototyping Tools, Urvashi Kokate, Kristen Shinohara, Garreth W. Tigwell

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Many digital systems are found to be inaccessible and a large part of the issue is that accessibility is not considered early enough in the design process. Digital prototyping tools are a powerful resource for designers to quickly explore both low and high fidelity design mockups during initial stages of product design and development. We evaluated 10 popular prototyping tools to understand their built-in and third-party accessibility features. We found that accessible design support is largely from third-party plug-ins rather than prototyping tools' built-in features, and the availability of accessibility support varies from tool to tool. There is potential to …

Website Builders Still Contribute To Inaccessible Web Design, Athira Pillai, Kristen Shinohara, Garreth W. Tigwell

Articles

Website builders enable individuals without design or technical skills to create websites. However, it is unclear if modern websites created by website builders meet accessibility standards. We reviewed six popular website building platforms and found a lack of accessibility support. Wix provided the most comprehensive accessibility documentation and robust accessibility features. However, during an accessibility audit of 90 Wix webpages, we found many accessibility issues, raising concerns about how users are supported.

How To Use Analogies For Creative Business Modelling, Ryan Rumble, Niall Minto

Articles

Purpose

This paper aims to present a method for interpreting and reinterpreting business models as analogies to support the creation of new business model ideas.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use the literature on cognitive frames and attention to demonstrate the often-overlooked potential of analogies. From this, the authors derive practical recommendations for the use of analogies in creative business model design.

Findings

Managers can design creative business models by seeking multiple interpretations of the way other businesses create and capture value.

Originality/value

Business model frameworks are commonplace, but there is little discussion on how to use them effectively. Furthermore, while analogies …

Examining The Role Of Store Design On Consumers’ Cross-Sectional Perceptions Of Retail Brand Loyalty, John Murray Dr., Jonathan Elms, Christoph Teller

Articles

This paper compares new and established store design prototypes of the same retailer to examine the role of consumers’ cross-sectional perceptions of retail brand loyalty. In-store surveys were administered to capture consumers’ store-level perceptions towards a new store prototype and an older established prototype of the same fast fashion retailer. The data was subjected to multi-group analyzes with structural equations modeling. The findings suggest that store novelty and complexity promote both store design pleasure and retail brand loyalty outcomes. The different store designs do not, however, account for differences in brand loyalty perceptions at the overall retailer level when multi-group …

Pivot Dublin: A Discussion On The Bid For Dublin To Become World Design Capital, Barry Sheehan, Ali Grehan

Articles

In this article, Barry Sheehan interviews Dublin City Architect, Ali Grehan, about PIVOT Dublin, the bid for World Design Council, how and why it came about, what happened to the bid and where PIVOT Dublin is now.

Iron In The Soul, Noel Brady

Articles

This paper re-examines the iconic use of cruciform columns in the famous Barcelona Pavilion and the other ‘German’ projects of the architect Mies Van der Rohe. It extrapolates for the material itself to construct a theory about the meaning behind their design and iconography linking it to Shinkel and a coded national identify.

Human Factors Issues And The Risk Of High Voltage Equipment: Are Standards Sufficient To Ensure Safety By Design?, Maria Chiara Leva, Roberta Pirani, Micaela De Michela, Paul Clancy

Articles

High voltage equipment is mostly designed according to technically prescriptive standards requirements based on electrical engineering safety principles. However a more risk-based approach to standards and regulation may be advisable to enable designer and user to take an active role in establishing that their installation is inherently safe. The use of Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) for instance is enabling the new substation to be housed indoors and condensed into around one quarter of the space. The manufacturers argue that design improvements in GIS make it virtually “maintenance free”, comply with all the relevant standards. However some of these improvements have …

Criticality In Graphic Design, Clare Bell

Articles

No abstract provided.

Human Factors Engineering At Design Stage: Is There A Need For More Structured Guidelines And Standards?, Farzad Naghdali, Maria Chiara Leva, Nora Balfe, Samuel Cromie

Articles

Human Factors Engineering (HFE) focuses on the application of human factors knowledge to the design and construction of socio-technical systems. The objective is to ensure systems are designed so as to optimise the human contribution to production and minimise potential f r design-induced risks to health, personal or process safety or environmental performance (OGP, 2011). The ISO standard ISO 9241-210 (2010), Ergonomics of human-system interaction, requires that all new facilities projects apply the principles of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) during early design stages. In practice this means ensuring, as a minimum, that every new facilities project is screened in collaboration …

Benefits Of Video Presentations In Product Design, Alex Lobos

Articles

Product Design uses a human-centered process to develop solutions that solve unmet user needs. Because of the sequential nature of this activity, final designs are often presented in printed process books or digital slideshows, which visually communicate the development of the solution from start to finish rather than focusing just on the final result. Storytelling is a key element to consider when creating these process books in order to communicate the design solution as well as where it came from. An alternative to these presentations is the use of short videos, which offer the advantage of communicating the design process …

Model For Interdisciplinary Collaboration In Packaging Design, Lorrie Frear, Alex Lobos, Sandra Turner

Articles

This paper explores a studio course in packaging design within Rochester Institute of Technology, which touches on three key elements: First, the course is designed as an interdisciplinary studio comprised of fourth year and graduate students in graphic design, industrial design and packaging science, allowing them to refine skills in their own disciplines while expanding their breadth in other methods of thinking. This model, commonly called “T-shape” profile, is crucial in today’s professional practice (Design Council 2006). Second, the course involves a Fortune 500 company sponsor, who challenges students to develop packaging solutions in an internal design competition. While collaborations …

Building Fabric Design : Thermal Performance Standards, Joseph Little

Articles

This is the first of a series of articles using content from the new RIAI Building Fabric Design CPD which explores a range of themes of central importance to designing buildings that are highly energy efficient, genuinely compliant and perform to their design intent and specification. As the articles are short and the themes are often complex, they can be at best a short introduction to the issues raised. In this article we will look at the new minimum building fabric standards: these are far more onerous than much of the Industry understands.

A Theoretical Framework For Serious Game Design: Exploring Pedagogy, Play And Fidelity And Their Implications For The Design Process, Pauline Rooney

Articles

It is widely acknowledged that digital games can provide an engaging, motivating and “fun” experience for students. However an entertaining game does not necessarily constitute a meaningful, valuable learning experience. For this reason, experts espouse the importance of underpinning serious games with a sound theoretical framework which integrates and balances theories from two fields of practice: pedagogy and game design (Kiili, 2005; Seeney & Routledge, 2009). Additionally, with the advent of sophisticated, immersive technologies, and increasing interest in the opportunities for constructivist learning offered by these technologies, concepts of fidelity and its impact on student learning and engagement, have emerged …

The Latest Homebond House Building Manual : A Critique, Joseph Little

Articles

The Homebond House Building Manual had the distinction of being called the ‘bible’ for many building during the boom. It was a commonly‐used reference book, even for many builders and architects who never built housing estates and therefore had little need of a Homebond guarantee. One might design a construction detail of a dwelling differently, but one did it with an awareness of what the manual showed. It gave the insurance scheme great credibility and standing. This architect remembers reluctantly getting involved with an external wall insulation self‐build project in rural Ireland in 2006 (far beyond his normal travel distance) …

Can Design Thinking Have A Social Life Through Networking?, Brenda Duggan

Articles

‘The design process is best described metaphorically as a system of spaces rather than a predefined series of orderly steps. The steps demarcate different sorts of related activities that together form a continuum of innovation’. (Brown, 2008, 4) This paper addresses two different spaces for examining design thinking — the design research notebook and the digital space, the topic-driven blog. The premise for this paper arises from teaching digital media on a visual communication programme. I wanted to ask the question from my perspective as an educator — if the individual research notebook is a convention or vehicle for design …

Disassembly, Todd Mclellen

Articles

My interest in the real has always been present and I try to mix my work with that. In my series disassembly, I have used old items that are no longer used by the masses and often found on the street curbs heading for disposal. All of the items in the photographs were in working order. The interesting part was the fact that they were all so well built, and most likely put together by hand. I envisioned all the enjoyment these pieces had given many people for many years, all to be replaced by new technology that will be …

Buttering Up The British: Irish Exports And The Tourist Gaze, Mary Ann Bolger

Articles

This paper argues that the advertising of Irish exports in the 1960s provided for their consumers a form of ‘tourism without travel’. (1) This concept is borrowed from Mark McGovern, who uses it to describe the experience of the consumer of the ‘Irish pub experience’ in his article ‘”The cracked pint glass of the servant”: the Irish pub, Irish identity and the tourist eye’ in Michael Cronin and Barbara O’Connor (eds) Irish tourism: image, culture, and identity. Clevedon; Buffalo, N.Y.: Channel View Publications, 2003 In particular, Kerrygold butter acted as an especially authentic souvenir of Ireland because it was, as …

Reconsidering The Avant-Garde Through Ritual, Clodagh Emoe

Articles

This essay seeks to challenge, albeit in a modest capacity, the ostensible understanding of the avant-garde as a failed project. While acknowledging the criticisms arguing the failure of the avant-garde to motivate a new social order by leading cultural commentators, such as Raymond Williams and Peter Bürger, this essay follows critic Hal Foster’s retroactive model of art and theory to reconsider the avantgarde under conditions of enquiry that focus on the enactment of alternate modalities — this being ritual theory. A key concern of Fosters “new articulation” of the avant-garde is an understanding of the critical capacity of art by …

Word And Place In Irish Typography, Brian Dixon

Articles

Toponomic typography, or place-name typography, is not, in any sense a formal discipline. It is, however, common for typographers to find themselves setting the names of locations and settlements within a diverse range of projects. Wayfinding solutions, public transport information material and road signage are but some examples of the instances in which the designer is required to represent and visually interpret those words which mean so much to so many.

Motionless Monotony: New Nowheres In Irish Photography, Colin Graham

Articles

‘But my mind was too confused … so with a kind of madness growing upon me, I flung myself into futurity … What strange developments of humanity, what wonderful advances upon our rudimentary civilization, I thought, might not appear when I came to look into the dim elusive world that raced and fluctuated before my eyes. I saw great and splendid architecture rising about me, more massive than any buildings of our own time, and yet, it seemed, built of glimmer and mist … the earth seemed very fair. And so my mind came round to the business of stopping.’ …

On Creativity, Kerry Meakin

Articles

A review of available literature on creativity was undertaken to determine the definition of creativity, the common traits displayed by those perceived as being creative and how those traits may possibly be nurtured. The word ‘creativity’ has been used by politicians as if it is tangible commodity that must be developed in time of economic recession. Indeed, Dublin City Enterprise Board, a local government authority are in the process of staging ‘Idea Generation’ workshops, “this workshop not only shows you what ideas are good ideas but also introduces you to the concepts of thinking laterally” (Dublin Regional Authority, 2011). The …

The Designer Who Started A Print Revolution. Remembering Steve Jobs., John O'Connor

Articles

Article commissioned by Irish Printer to commemorate Steve Jobs.

Thermal Bridging - Understanding Its Critical Role In Energy Efficiency, Joseph Little, Beñat Arregi

Articles

Plane element heat loss[1] and thermal bridging[2] together constitute all the conduction heat loss (measured in W/K, watts per kelvin) through the thermal envelope[3] of a building. Perversely insulating the plane elements more and more without carefully dealing with junctions can lead to a significant increase in thermal bridging heat loss. This is often more significant in poorly thought-out energy-focused retrofits than in existing or new buildings.

Top Tips For Domestic Refurbishment, Joseph Little

Articles

1) It stands to reason that insulating a wall should not affect its strength or longevity, nor should it result in a buildup of moisture (inter-stitial condensation) or mould. However the Industry is currently gripped with a desire to insulate to the highest standard (U-value) at the lowest financial cost, as quickly as possible, with little thought of these issues. An appropriate, robust solution must take the original wall, the occupant’s health, the room’s function and even the building’s location into account.

Breaking The Mould 5 : Comparative Simulation Of Internal Insulation Systems, Joseph Little

Articles

In the last edition of Construct Ireland ‘Breaking the Mould IV’ established the standard that should be used to evaluate thermal upgrades of single leaf walls, described steps to physically prepare the wall, explained some of the mechanisms that affect the likelihood of mould and gave criteria for judging the simulations outputs. The next step is to simulate a number of permutations of typical internal insulation systems using WUFI Pro under IS EN 15026.

Breaking The Mould 4 : Condensation Risk Analysis – The Standards And The Issues, Joseph Little

Articles

The ‘Breaking the Mould’ series of articles was written to explore the range of issues associated with upgrading single leaf walls with a focus on occupant and building health as much as energy, just as the Home Energy Saving Scheme was launched. A year on from the first article the need for greater understanding and clear guidance for the Industry is greater than ever. This is because the Government’s ‘Energy Demand Reduction Target’ (EDRT), under the 2006 EU ‘Energy Services Directive’, is bringing energy utilities (e.g. ESB, Bord Gáis) into the refurbishment market.

Loosening The Ties That Bind: Grangegorman Masterplan, Noel Brady

Articles

Interview with James Mary O'Connor, Architect and Masterplanner with Moore Rubel Yudell designers of the Masterplan for DIT at Grangegroman, Dublin

Breaking The Mould 3, Joseph Little

Articles

This article is the third in a series looking at thermal upgrades to single-leaf walls of existing houses. The theme for this article was intended to be an analysis of various drylining options for brick and rubble-built walls of older properties. That will follow. The following events forced a change in focus.