Bird Richness As A Mediator Between Greenspace And Mental Health Relationships, Sihao Chena, Huaqing Wang, Wenyan Xu

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Neighborhood greenspaces are widely known to benefit bird diversity and human mental health. However, whether bird richness mediates the relationship between greenspace and mental health is unknown. We ascertain such mediation effects in 294 census tracts in Los Angeles City. We obtained greenspace data from one-meter resolution satellite imagery, bird species data from eBird citizen science datasets, and prevalence of poor mental health from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mediation analysis combined with spatial error models was used to assess the mediating effects while controlling for geographic, demographic, and socio-economic factors. We found that the higher greenspace …

Green Building Information Modeling Framework For Sustainable Residential Development In Egypt, Mohamed Ahmed Nabawy Dr., Ahmed Gouda Mohamed, Ahmed Osama Daoud Dr.

Civil Engineering

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Green Building Information Modeling Framework for Sustainable Residential Development in Egypt

by Mohamed Nabawy *, Ahmed Gouda Mohamed , Israa Awad and Ahmed Osama Daoud * Construction Engineering and Management Programme, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, The British University in Egypt (BUE), El Sherouk City, Cairo 11837, Egypt * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. Buildings 2025, 15(7), 1035; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071035 Submission received: 20 January 2025 / Revised: 23 February 2025 / Accepted: 27 February 2025 / Published: 24 March 2025 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Building …

Defining Demand - The Suitability Of Sensor-Based Demand-Controlled Ventilation Within Deep Energy Retrofit Dwellings, Seamus Harrington, Mark Mulville

Articles

This paper reviews a Sensor-Based Demand-Controlled Ventilation (SBDCV) system which seeks to provide fresh air for breathing and to dilute and exhaust pollutants and odours. Previous studies have demonstrated that the constant pressure system increases ventilation extract and inflow based on relative humidity levels and/or presence detection and works on the assumption that the level of ventilation provided is sufficient to control the concentration of all indoor air pollutants, including those that are not occupant generated. This paper presents the results obtained from monitoring the indoor air quality of eight dwellings that had undergone a fabric-first deep energy retrofit and …

Toward A Construct-Based Definition Of Urban Green Space: A Literature Review Of The Spatial Dimensions Of Measurement, Methods, And Exposure, Doo Hong Lee, Brent Chamberlain, Hye Yeon Park

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Student Research

Interdisciplinary research has significantly advanced our understanding, benefits, and measurements of Urban Green Space (UGS). Further, the rapid expansion of research on this topic has resulted in a diverse array of definitions, which can rely on implicit assumptions without a formal definition. This variability highlights the need for a carefully structured framework to refine and combine these definitions. This narrative review examines constructs underlying UGS, particularly focusing on the spatial aspects of how we spatially measure UGS, the measurements of UGS, and how we define exposure; the latter focuses on two methods: viewsheds and image segmentation. Our findings reveal a …

Production Of Alinite-Chlormayenite Clinker And Its Hydration Behavior With Increasing Gypsum Content, Marco Simoni, Aniruddha Baral, Zhili Ren, Tristana Y. Duvallet, Robert B. Jewell, Christiane Rößler, Theodore Hanein

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

An alternative low-energy alinite-chlormayenite clinker was produced and its hydration with different gypsum content was studied. The clinker was produced at 1225 ◦C using reagent-grade materials in an electric kiln with alinite, larnite, and chlormayenite content of 48, 24, and 16 wt%, respectively. The hydration kinetics of the clinker with different gypsum additions (0,10, 20, and 40 wt%) did not have a distinct induction period, and the hydration was faster than Portland cement. Alinite was in general more reactive than chlormayenite. In the presence of a limited amount of gypsum (10 and 20 wt%), alinite consumed gypsum to form ettringite …

Housing Affordability Impacting Factors In U.S. Urban Areas From 2010 To 2020: An Empirical Review Of Theoretical Factors, Colby Lee Woodson

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study examines housing affordability in United States Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) and counties from 2010 to 2020, using American Community Survey and Building Permits Survey data. It evaluates theoretical frameworks from George Galster and Kwan Ok Lee. Using a multiscalar approach, affordability is assessed through a costs-over-income ratio, incorporating both supply- and demand-side factors. A novel contribution is the integration of elder dependency rates, which limit housing turnover and exacerbate supply constraints. Findings indicate that rising full homeownership—particularly among older households—has reduced tenure mobility. The study also shows that CSAs offer a stronger analytical resolution than counties. Despite home …

The Healthy Campus Project: Assessing The Indoor Health Of The Campus Environment, Amy Claire Bourque, Sam Carduner

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Research, monitor, observe, and analyze the health of a designated building on Belmont University’s campus in accordance with “The 9 Foundations of Healthy Building,” along with information from Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick – or Keep You Well.

Techne 2023-2024, Elena M’Bouroukounda, Jieun Yang

TECHNE

EDITOR’S NOTE. This second edition of TECHNE, following last year’s relaunch as an archive of student work, reflects a growing commitment to showcasing projects across all architectural sub-disciplines. In this edition, featuring work from the 2023-24 academic year, readers will find student-written explorations of architectural history—an opportunity to pause and reflect. We hope this publication serves as a catalyst for dialogue between past and present as students shape the built environment of the future. A deep understanding of where we come from will help guide the department’s trajectory as it engages with the world at large. This book remains an …

An Essay Of Images From Playlab Inc., Playlab Inc., Archie Lee Coates Iv

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

A series of images depicting the illustrious Playlab Inc. as a collection of projects in different mediums. The LA-based design studio has contributed to fashion, art, and urban culture through collaborations with major institutions and emerging artists. The photo essay highlights Playlab Inc.’s diverse projects and installations, embodying its core philosophy: no focus. This principle guides the studio to the cutting-edge of contemporary culture, where innovation meets execution. The creative powerhouse has demonstrated a capacity to engage with contemporary cultural movements through its projects. For instance, in the OTW Vans project, the firm acquired images from notable skate photographers Atiba …

Cache County Has 2500 Acres Of Highly Walkable Urban Land, With Potential For 4935 New Housing Units, Jordan Taft

Research on Capitol Hill

Utah faces a housing crisis – with rapid internal population growth compounding the issue.

Balancing Construction Costs And Environmental And Social Performances In High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach, Peng Du, Geoffrey Little, Erick Romero

College of Architecture and the Built Environment Faculty Papers

The urban design process is complex and interdisciplinary, especially in the context of high-density cities with high-rise buildings. The design of high-rise buildings requires input from a variety of stakeholders in the city, who often represent conflicting requirements and interests. However, conventional design approaches struggle to address this complexity. This study introduced a generative urban design approach and applied it to a case study for high-rise urban development in Guangzhou, China. Specifically, 7500 urban forms were generated with variables such as street networks, block offset, building typology, and green space, and then were evaluated and optimized via multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. …

Inclusive Space For Everyone Door Sign (Printable 8.5 X 11 Inch), Joan H. Robinson

Open Educational Resources

This is a printable 8.5 x 11 inch door sign for faculty, staff, and administrators to let people know it is an inclusive space for everyone. For improved visibility, print with a color printer and cut along the dotted line.

See also: 11 x 17 inch door sign.

Cohen-Lasry: The Architectural History, Jennifer Krulisz-Hossain

Strassler Center Archival Collection Finding Aids

This collection contains images, newspapers and architectural plans related to the current Strassler Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at 11 Hawthorne Street in Worcester, MA

Irrigation And Society In The Upper Río Grande Basin, U.S.A: A Heritage Of Mutualism, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

The acequias of the upper Río Grande are more than just irrigation canals. They also allocate and manage water for the community of landowners in the system. After four centuries of use, the acequias persist into modern times with their founding principles intact: self-government, local autonomy, internal rules for operating procedures, and a strong sense of mutualismo or communal responsibility. They have endured since Spanish colonial settlement and have maintained continuity of a water culture surviving political-administrative changes under three sovereigns, Spain (1598-1821), Mexico (1821-1848), and the United States (1848-Present). Despite stressors of climate variability, demographic changes, urbanization, and economic …

Exploring Urban Growth Drivers In Heritage Areas Using Machine Learning: The Case Of Gharb Sohail, Aswan, Mohamed E. Elattar

Architectural Engineering

Heritage areas are increasingly threatened by rapid urban expansion, driven by population growth and insufficient planning measures. These areas are vital as they preserve cultural identity, social cohesion, and economic vitality, making their preservation essential. This study investigates the drivers of urban expansion in Gharb Sohail, Aswan, a culturally and historically significant heritage area. Employing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and advanced machine learning models, including the Land Change Modeler (LCM) and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural networks, the research identifies key factors shaping urban growth and simulates future expansion scenarios. The findings indicate that urban sprawl within the study area is …

Balancing Sustainability With Preservation In Historic Italian Architecture, Maya A. Bruno

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

This research examines the intersection of historic preservation and sustainability in Italian architecture, analyzing how architects and contractors adapt historic structures to modern energy efficiency standards while maintaining cultural integrity. Using three Italian case studies—Ex-STA.VE.CO in Bologna, Sant’Apollinare in Perugia, and Castelvecchio in Verona—the study explores common challenges in regulatory compliance, material constraints, energy efficiency, seismic resilience, and adaptive reuse. Each case illustrates how sustainability measures interact with Italy’s stringent conservation laws and how historic buildings, inherently designed for climate adaptability, can be innovatively retrofitted. The findings provide insights into reconciling preservation principles with sustainable interventions, offering policy recommendations for …

The Influence Of Sustainable Lighting On Modern Structures And The Methods Used To Bring Artistic Elements To The Forefront Of Sustainable Lighting Design, Abigail Abrams

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Sustainability in architecture is a broad subject in the discipline that has been gaining popularity across the globe for the past three decades. While sustainable technologies are heavily researched, more specific methods in which sustainability blends within a building are infrequently studied. In particular, the way sustainability is integrated into the lighting design of buildings is a topic receiving limited study from architects and researchers alike. This paper and project explore the methods modern architects use in establishing a design-centered lighting system throughout a building that reflects a new age of building materials, sustainable technology, and construction practices. Using architectural …

Green Project Finance For Infrastructure And Building Construction: Instruments And Benchmarks, Yunping Liang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

It is counterintuitive that both the practice and research on green project finance for infrastructure and building construction are ascendant and still have limited precedents, considering that individually, the two parts (i.e., project finance and sustainability in the built environment) are both familiar to the communities. To narrow the gap and facilitate the financing of the built environment’s sustainable transformation, this study systematically reviews the common instruments for financing green infrastructure and building projects. Benchmarking questions distinguishing the profile of green project finance from common construction project finance are developed based on the literature review and then are used for …

From Equitable Access To Equitable Usage: Moving Towards Data-Driven, Evidence-Based Cycling Assets Management, Kewei Ren, Yunping Liang, Chun-Hsing Ho

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Cycling is increasingly recognized for its wide range economic, environmental, and health benefits as a mobility option. However, disparities in the provision and the quality of bicycle infrastructure persists. Ensuring fair access and usage of these benefits for all presents a significant challenge. As a result, establishing effective methodologies to evaluate cycling equity is critically important. This paper synthesizes research on infrastructure asset management with a focus on equity considerations in bicycle infrastructure. A systematic review of 19 North American studies critically examines how existing research categorizes vulnerable populations and assesses fairness. The results reveal that most existing analyses focus …

Art Teams Grant Report Year 4, Guy Trainin, Kimberley D'Adamo, Hyeonjin Yoon, Azadeh Hassani, Zohreh Tamimdari, Jiabin Lyu, Michael Nti Ababio, Sarah Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

Year Four of the Art TEAMs grant was designed to continue the professional learning for cohort two while following cohort one to measure implementation sustainability. Our second cohort of educators is excited about the program. It brings great diversity in art forms, including five ceramics teachers, a digital media teacher, and generalists from career and technical education and family and consumer science. This diversity of teaching domains helps illustrate the versatility and impact of the arts across K-12 curricula. We have revamped our professional learning curriculum and the process of learning from the educators who take part in the program. …

Education And Industry: The Balancing Act, Roy Vincent Byrne, Seamus Harrington

Other resources

Quantity Surveying students are required to study a vast spectrum of modules during their programme of study. Perhaps one of the most important taught modules on a Quantity Surveying programme and a core professional competency relates to building measurement. Many early stage quantity surveying students are introduced to building measurement via the concept of manual take-off which offers students a good grounding in the basic skills and good practices required to successfully measure a building project. However, manual measurement ultimately is no longer used in practice in any meaningful capacity and teaching it is a time-consuming process. The research explores …

Iii.A.2 Displacement & Barriers To Home Ownership, Kim Rostan, Bria Harper, Jim Neighbors, Mark Byrnes

Crafting Democratic Futures

This document explains how systemic racism and discriminatory policies from the Civil War & Reconstruction period through the 20th century prevented African Americans in Spartanburg from building wealth through land ownership and home equity. It details barriers such as Black Codes, sharecropping, convict leasing, exclusion from New Deal programs, discriminatory housing policies, and urban renewal projects that displaced Black neighborhoods without providing equitable opportunities for economic advancement.

Shared Architecture Of The Sacred:Designing Sacred Spaces In Virtual Reality, Ian Gonsher, Sameerah Munshi

Scholarly Research

This project investigates how sacred spaces might be conceived and experienced within virtual reality (VR). Through interfaith dialogue, design research, and iterative prototyping, we explored affordances in virtual environments for prayer, contemplation, study, and communal gathering. Drawing on insights from Jewish and Islamic traditions in particular, we developed design principles that informed the creation of a pilot prototype for sacred space in VR. This paper presents the conceptual framework, design process, and architectural strategies embodied and expressed in that pilot prototype, with particular attention to the formal and symbolic elements of light, orientation, sound, and written text. Additionally, the project …

The Impact Of Short-Term Rental Activity On House Prices: Evidence From Coastal Virginia, Navid Safari, Lei Zhang, Timothy M. Komarek

Finance Faculty Publications

Short-term rentals such as Airbnb have grown substantially in recent years. In this study, we investigated the effect of Airbnb rentals on neighboring house prices in Hampton Roads, Virginia. We focus on three different measures of Airbnb activity to obtain more robust results. Our measures include active Airbnb listings, active listings with at least one reservation, and the sum of reservations over three different periods. Consistent with previous literature, our main results show that prior Airbnb rental activity has a positive impact on the surrounding housing sales prices. Furthermore, the localized impact diminishes over geographic space (i.e., distances greater than …

Bioagricorridors: Uban Ecosystem Networks To Enhance Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Services And Food Production In Barcelona, Spain, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Filippo Vegezzi

Faculty Publications

Urbanisation and environmental degradation pose significant challenges to biodiversity, ecosystem services, and food pro- duction. The Bioagricorridors strategy addresses this by inte- grating agroecology in the urban environment, emphasising the continuity principle to connect diverse ecosystems through green infrastructure. Employing a mapping strategy, bioagricorridors bridge theory and space, using maps as communication tools and deep mapping to explore multi-layered, digital cartographic representations. This approach aids in addressing pressing urban conditions, enhancing genetic diversity, and improving soil and water quality. The exploration uses Barcelona as a case study, a city marked by historical urban planning shifts and landscape fragmentation. Taking into …

Challenges In Combating Climate Change: Lessons From Latin American And Caribbean Case Studies, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

Climate change presents a complex global threat, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the impacts are severe, yet the region also showcases innovative approaches to face these issues. This study systematically analyzes the challenges faced by urban sustainability projects in the region, drawing insights from 35 case studies in the Urban Sustainability Exchange (USE) database. The primary objective is to identify shared challenges in implementing climate action initiatives, offering valuable lessons for future projects. Challenges were categorized into 14 themes, with issues related to collaboration and communication emerging as the most frequent. Other significant challenges included infrastructure limitations, …

Adaptation For Whom? Understanding The Impacts Of Dyke Policies On Small-Scale Farmers In Ca Mau Province Of Vietnam, Nguyen Minh Quang, Nguyen Van Minh, Nguyen Vo Chau Ngan, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Low-lying deltas worldwide are extremely vulnerable to sea-level rise. As the risks of climate-induced flooding become increasingly clear, the thirst for infrastructure-driven adaptation increases. This highlights a patent need to understand the impacts of engineering adaptation solutions, especially those targeting built structures such as dykes and sluices, on farmers from a bottom-up, farmer-centred perspective. The study addresses this call by examining cases where dyke policies, while successful in some dimensions, have undermined small-scale farmer livelihoods in Ca Mau ― Vietnam’s southernmost rural province. It identifies areas in need of attention and adds empirical data related to this group of farmers. …

Understanding Roof Systems Of Metal Buildings, Michael W. Seek, Vincent E. Sagan

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

[Introduction] A metal building is a system with complex behavior that, when properly accounted for, provides an efficient structural solution. To help the engineer properly design for this behavior, the Metal Building Manufacturers (MBMA) has recently released the Roof Framing Design Guide for Metal Building Systems, 2nd Edition (Roof Framing Design Guide).

Developing Entrepreneurial Mindsets In Construction Management Through Experiential Projects, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Entrepreneurial Minded Learning (EML), a framework supported by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), promotes critical thinking and innovation by encouraging students to explore real-world problems through the 3Cs: Curiosity, Creating Value, and Connections. In construction management education, the focus often remains on technical skills and project execution, neglecting the development of entrepreneurial skills like adaptability, value creation, and stakeholder engagement, leaving a gap in preparing students for the challenges of the industry. To bridge this gap, micro-moment activities were introduced prior to the main project to prime students for EML-based thinking. These short, focused exercises encouraged students to solve …

Healthy Building Data Collection, Angeli N. Warren, Rania I. Abdullatif, Abigail Rhea Blackmon

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Understanding the cruciality of a Healthy Building