Architecture Commons^™

State Must Play To Crowd On Renting Or Face The Consequences, Lorcan Sirr

Media

In 1895, the French polymath Gustave Le Bon published his seminal work, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, on the behaviour and danger of crowds. For decades after, Le Bon’s theories influenced generations of politicians and their policies. Le Bon was influential at a time of rapid urbanisation, social upheaval and worker organisation. Social order was under threat and it was feared that “the masses” might break with patriarchy, social order and religion.

Creating A Successful Wayfinding System: Lessons Learned From Springfield, Massachusetts, Yanhua Lu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The masters project presents findings from recent work the author completed related to wayfinding, and wayfinding systems. This work began as part of a graduate urban design studio, followed by work as a research assistant at the UMass Design Center in Springfield, on a new “demonstration” wayfinding system installed in Springfield, Massachusetts. The wayfinding project was done in association with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and the Springfield Office of Planning and Community Development, was implemented with the main goals of improving public health by encouraging more people to walk.

Wayfinding systems are increasingly seen as an important part of …

How Acoustics In California High Performance Schools Relate To Student Achievement, Devin K. Wong

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

This research project seeks to determine if students attending K-12 schools meeting a minimum standard of high performance classroom conditions in the state of California do evidence higher scholastic achievement, based on publically available results on state-wide standardized tests. In three phases, a subset of 200+ schools applying for grants dedicated to building high performance schools over the past decade was correlated with an existing database of achievement scores for all public schools in California. The criteria utilized to specify high performance classrooms was provided by the California High Performance Initiative (HPI) Grant program. Academic achievement was evaluated on a …

Just…Do It

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

Fourteen years after Hong Kong was promised a purpose-built cultural district the site of the project in West Kowloon remains a blank canvass but the new Chief Executive, Michael Lynch, has promised to break through the inertia and make the dream a reality.

Field Of Eames

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

There are few people who have had greater impact on the way we live than Charles and Ray Eames. Their chairs and houses did for furniture and architecture what Steve Jobs did for the computers. The first exhibition of their life and work took place this autumn at the HKDI and it has helped to spark a global reappraisal of the couple's contribution to modern design.

World Environment Day

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

…Architectural installation at the World Environment Day in Tamar Park…

Miami A City Reborn

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

From Art Deco to Deconstructionism, Miami has long been a centre for architectural design. We look at its history and the architects planning its future.

Interior Intelligence

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

In celebration of World Interiors Day, HKDI held a series of seminars with prominent interior designers and a workshop to promote this year's theme of intelligence.

In The Frame

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

A sneak peak at what's to come at the HKDI this autumn.

Play On

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

Music lab is the work of Higher Diploma in Interior Design student, Forest Lai Yip Lam, and pays tribute to the Hong Kong music Industry…

Building The Revolution

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

A collection of pre-crafted houses and pavilions, created by the world's best architects, designers and artists, forms Revolution. We look at this epic collection and its creators.

Talking About My Regeneration

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

Benedetta Tagliabue is one of the founding partners of EMBT, the architecture firm renowned for its urban regeneration work. She speaks to SIGNED about her projects and the exhibition at HKDI.

Innovation Explorers

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

A group of Masters students in architecture from Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) spent three weeks in the extreme colds of the Arctic to try out their innovative prototypes. The results are astounding.

Back To The Future

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

The unique urban regeneration style of Spanish architecture firm EMBT is showing how to make the old into the new. For many architects the goal is to build something new, for Miralles it was about regenerating the old.

Help-To-Buy Scheme Is Detached From How We Really Live, Lorcan Sirr

Media

The government’s help-tobuy scheme, announced in the budget, was rightfully criticised by many people. Various ministers seemed a little surprised, if not a bit tetchy, that fewpeople had rowed in behind their latest genius wheeze. In research carried out by Davy stockbrokers and the property website myhome.ie, even firsttime buyers did not expect a helpto- buy scheme (people are not too easily schmoozed these days). Two other things flew under the radar when the proposal was announced. First, the silence from retail banks was deafening, which was strange given the allegedly positive response from the Central Bank. It nowlooks as …

Post Disaster (War) Rapid Reconstruction And Its Impact On Reducing Living Space At Residential Houses In Kosova, Lulzim Beqiri, Zejnulla Rexhepi, Mimoza Sylejmani

UBT International Conference

Reconstruction process as a huge need after disaster, a part that is creating emergency shelter for people in need, as well has a direct impact on living space as one of the emergency created after every disaster. This paper aims to identify the impact of intervention of humanitarian organizations without being coordinated and agreed on minimal living standards that will be applicable during reconstruction phase because of environment created after disaster. Kosova was exposed to the war on 1998-1999 and massive destruction of 250000 residential houses (EAR 2000) and as result within several years after the war was over, the …

Daily Migration As Indicator To Defining Functional Urban Region – Case Of Prishtina, Elvida Pallaska

UBT International Conference

Cities and metropolitan areas are major contributors to national economies and play a key role as nodes in global markets. Moreover, at a time of deepening globalisation and increasing international competition for investment, metropolitan regions have become the targets of a wide range of public interventions.

Evaluation of existing and future potentials, role and function of Prishtina as capital city vs its region- neighboring cities (Fushw Kosove, Kastriot, Lipjan and Podujeve), with the capital infrastructure resources, functions and management, classification and definition of its commuting zone from the perspective of its daily migration as per OECD criteria.

Definition of the …

Antonyms And Synonyms In Relation To The Buildings Performance, Binak Beqaj, Blerta Vula Rizvanolli, Gent Hasimja

UBT International Conference

The facade is a representative element of a building which may faces the roads or public spaces. It is essential that the facade is correctly built because it directly influences the performance of the building.

An Evaluation On Applications Of Sustainable Approaches In Condominiums, Nida Yildirim

UBT International Conference

Nowadays, as the result of the damage caused by building sector to the environment and with increased depletion of natural resources, sustainable architecture has required to be an integral part of the construction industry. To prevent unhealthy construction and to increase the number of sustainable or green buildings in terms of the environment, there were established several sustainable building rating systems. These sustainable building rating systems, while maintaining human health and comfort, also try to decrease the damage of the environment to a lower level. However, rating systems have specific criteria depending on their countries climate and culture. Therefore, these …

Risk Assessment In The Implementation Of Construction Projects In Developing Countries, Bashkim Alili

UBT International Conference

The construction industry plays an important role in the economic growth and the socio-economic development, which are particularly important for the developing countries. The current general situation in the construction of buildings in a country like ours is that the product of a construction company is mainly characterized by the poor quality of work, exceeding the costs and the time for realization. These characteristics exist as many risks are taken into account very little in the project planning and realization or not taken into account at all. Therefore, it is necessary that the managing of the risks for improvement of …

Unesco World Heritage And Kosovo Towards A Tentative List For Kosovo, Caroline Jaeger Klein

UBT International Conference

In 2015, Kosovo tried to join UNESCO and failed by three quotes. Is Kosovo ready for its UNESCO membership? At least for its national architectural heritage, this question is to answer with no. The intensively discussed issue of the medieval monuments of Kosovo inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage by Serbia and Montenegro before the declaration of independency in 2008 and their further management through Kosovo is just one aspect. More troubling is that the rather young state not yet could establish sufficient structures to gain a systematic inventory of its monuments, sites and historic ensembles, nor to extract a tentative …

The Imaret Of Mehmed Ali Pasha Preservation And Transformation Of An Ottoman And Egyptian Heritage Into A Masterpiece Of Heritage Protection And Revitalization In Greece, Ivkovska Velika

UBT International Conference

As part of the Architectural Heritage-Past and Future Challenges for the Region and Architecture Values and Heritage session, I will offer the participants of the 5th IC ASPC 2016 a glimpse at one of the greatest, monumental Islamic structures built in once Ottoman Kavala and still existing with its whole grandeur in today’s Greece, The Mehmed Ali’s IMARET.

The Imaret külye (complex) of Kavala, built by Mehmed Ali Pasha, an Ottoman general and the future founder of the Egyptian Dynasty, is one of the most outstanding Islamic historical monuments in today’s Greece, dominating the view of the old hilly peninsula …

Professional Access Of Woodworking Engineers To The Labor Market, Ramadan Topuzi, Arben Bejtja, Leonidha Peri

UBT International Conference

In the Wood Industry Department at Agricultural University of Tirana, wood processing engineers have been graduating for years. Faculty performs its mission through trainings provided for the student during the learning process and practice until his graduation. This is considered as the fulfillment of institutional responsibility as there is no possibility of their employment management. The private sector constitutes real employment opportunities for Wood Processing engineers in Albania. The wood industry in Albania (after '90) was transformed from a centralized industry to free enterprise. Today it is mainly organized in small to medium enterprises, which produce and trade furniture and …

Role Of The Architects In Creating Building And Urban Resilience, Ferhat Bejtullahu

UBT International Conference

Extreme weather events are increasing in intensity and frequency. While the social component of resilience with all its dimensions depend on all citizens, spatial and environmental components with all their dimensions depend on more from architects than from other professionals. In this context, architects have a responsibility to evaluate, design (create) and maintain resilient build environment that can more successfully adapt to natural conditions and that can more readily absorb and recover city from different disasters.

The objective of this research and used methodology is to identify the role of architects in creating the building and urban resilience qualities that …

Can A New Railway Track Be Used To Foster Smart Urban And Regional Development?, Thomas Dillinger, Markus Neuhaus

UBT International Conference

The future Smart City Ebreichsdorf (SMCE) is a fast growing municipality in the area of the metropolitan region of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. The expansion to a double track railroad of the „Pottendorfer Linie“and the thereby even better connexion to Ebreichsdorf will strengthen this growing process even more. A new train station is built, located on a greenfield site, between the city districts Ebreichsdorf and Unterwaltersdorf. The existing railway track is going to be abandoned. In spatial planning approaches, it’s goal leading to locate future growth in the area of the new train station. Action options, how such an …

The Concept Of “Green Roofs” In Tirana, Eduina Zekaj, Franceska Delia

UBT International Conference

The term “green roof” is a pretty old concept in the history of Architecture, and it begins since prehistoric times with attempts of our ancestors to cover up their housing with greenery. But this term is not well known in Tirana and it is just starting to apply in the new era of projects.

The first attempts started in 2010, but there are very few existing projects that fulfill the construction details that a real green roof needs. First of all, we have to understand why we do need green roofs in Tirana. According to “The Guardian”, Tirana was called …

Urban /Architectural And Historic/Cultural Analyses Of Rural Settlements -Region “Reka E Keqe” In Kosova And Region “Reka E Epërme” In Macedonia, Binak Beqaj, Enis Jakupi

UBT International Conference

Rural settlement size and its extension are some of the main factors that is responsible for settlement success in achieving its development objectives. Interlinks between settlement functions and location; are dependent on the socio-economic general conditions of the society. These conditions were rapidly changing over the last century.

As case studies have been taken the region called “Reka e keqe” (eight rural areas) in Kosova and region called “Reka e eperme” (eleven rural areas) in Macedonia. Those regions have geographical position, territorial expansion, population, tradition and other similarities. Main parameters used for analyses of those rural settlements are to be …

Legislative Framework Conflicts And Their Impact In Generating The Phenomena Of Coastalization In Albania, Doriana Musaj

UBT International Conference

This paper argues about the legislative and institutional overlapping in managing the territory of Golem area (and country level) and the consequences that these conflicts have in generating the coastalization phenomena.

This research seeks to discover the relationship between land tenure systems, urban planning, sustainable tourism in terms of legislative framework and policies. In order to understand the past, to approach the present and to plan the future development of sustainable tourism in the coastal areas.

Failure to clarify the ownership of securities, non-implementation of planning instruments or territory management, non-implementation of property laws etc. has bring consequences in the …

Urban Landscape And Functionality Of Urban Space Through The River Flow –Study Cases Berati (Albania) And Gjakova (Kosova), Binak Beqaj, Florian Nepravishta

UBT International Conference

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Innovative Solutions For Information Flow In A Multinational Construction Project, Blerta Vula Rizvanolli

UBT International Conference

Construction project presents highly complex one-of-a-kind environments which require engagement of many parties for a long time period. Data insertion from different sources should be managed and controlled avoiding conflicts and cost overruns. In addition to efficient and effective material flow, the management of construction projects is the most information-influenced industry, which entails timely and accurate communication between parties involved. Nowadays, innovative web-based solutions are applied to insure the inter-organization of the participants’ communication. Findings from the literature review have shown online information exchange in construction management to be of great importance. In this paper we present the case study …