ALBERT

Description: The awareness of the negative effect of the intensive usage of synthetic material has led to a significant phenomenon in recent global development. Moving forward to become a fully ready developed country, Indonesia shall move toward a more sustainable architecture for presenting a greener environment. Despite blessed with a distinctive collection of tropical material variants, reflected in its vernacular architecture, advanced material development must be invented to promote more progressive architecture in Indonesia. This research illustrates a new perspective regarding biodegradable material concepts for future Indonesian sustainable architecture. It is produced by respecting local and global development trends by using a bibliographic coupling and experimental methods in the laboratory to contribute to Indonesian sustainable architecture. A retrospective is aimed to highlight Indonesian biodegradable material and Indonesian vernacular architecture potency; it is presented as follows; (1) Understanding local–global trends in biodegradable architecture; (2) Indonesian potency on biodegradable materials; (3) A biodegradable material concept as an alternative perspective for Indonesian sustainable architecture. As a result, a new concept is proposed as an alternative for developing Indonesian biodegradable building materials. A more profound sustainable architecture is expected to engage local craftsmanship while highlighting unique biodegradable materials easily found in the surrounding environment, such as Indonesian Kombucha Tea and Indonesian Coffee.

Description: With the aim to enhance sustainability in general including walkability, the recent urban forms of the designs of the Emirati neighborhoods have been denser and more compact, if compared with the older design models. While there are various guidelines and regulations related to the microscale walkability measures for the urban design of neighborhoods in the Emirates but unfortunately the macroscale walkability measures have not received similar attention. So, to investigate how would these denser and more compact recent neighborhoods designs better perform regarding walkability macroscale measures, the research utilized the urban modelling interface (UMI) walkability simulation tool to calculate the UMI Walkscores of these designs because it considers almost all macroscale factors including both urban morphology and urban planning measures and it also allows for the customization of the types, required catchment distances, and weights of the significance of locally provided amenities. The UMI Walkscores were calculated for the six recent denser and more compact neighborhoods designs and were compared with the UMI Walkscore for a conventionally designed model of urban sprawling neighborhoods. Unexpectedly, it has been found out that urban compactness per se is not a sufficient design measure for enhancing walkability in local neighborhood designs, where much higher compactness and density have achieved disappointing UMI Walkscores. So, it seems that for the recent neighborhoods’ designs, little attention was paid to the impact of the street network connectivity measures of Intersection Density, Block Length and the link-to-nodes ratio, on UMI Walkscores, if compared with the main attention paid to increasing FAR through decreasing plot sizes. Meanwhile, the explicit macroscale urban planning measures including the land-use factors of the types, numbers, and the location of amenities, as well as the implicit factors of their destination and global weights seem to be more influential in enhancing the UMI Walkscores but have been less considered when planning these neighborhoods. So, besides considering well-known macroscale urban morphology aspects of street network connectivity and locational distribution of provided amenities, boosting walkability macroscale measures on the design level requires adopting a set of adequately customized measures including the appropriate values of their global and distribution weights. These walkability design weights should be also resilient and continuously reviewed to satisfy the changing needs of the local communities. Based on its findings, the research proposed a five-actions plan to help boost walkability macroscale measures in the design of local urban communities in the UAE.

Description: Positive Energy Block (PEB) is an emerging paradigm to transform cities into low carbon cities. It is expected that buildings will become the main components of the future energy infrastructure. This scenario demands a structural integration of the cyclical environmental variables in designing our buildings and cities as a whole. However, such an integration continue to be rare due to the dominance of object-oriented approaches. This study contributes to reducing these difficulties by developing a process-oriented approach, focusing on the wind contribution. The assumption posed herein is that the transition towards PEBs should be an opportunity to redefine the rules to organise the built environment structure integrating energy and urban environmental qualities. A case study, involving three public school buildings located in three different urban patterns in Rome, illustrates a preliminary step in developing an integrated platform to orient strategic design solutions towards PEBs. This is done by developing and assessing three indexes: wind form index, wind thermal-loss index, and wind energy production index. The results point out the usability and limits concerning the approach adopted, stressing the relevance of an integrated platform to support decision-makers in planning the agenda to transform buildings as components of PEBs.

Description: The problem of slums is one of the most imperative problems experienced by many developing countries as well as some developed countries. The random gatherings shape real disruption in the economic and social development plans of the concerned countries. The importance of the research lies in conducting a field study for Ezbet El-Shahatin area in Mansoura city, given that it is the largest unplanned informal area in Dakahlia Governorate in terms of area. Geographic information systems were used to make enter data to form a coordinated database. In addition, policy intervention matrix in slums was used to make the appropriate decision regarding the development of the area. The study concludes to specifying several recommendations to deal with slums and set a model for integrated urban development in low-income areas that can be repeated in other similar locations.

Description: This article addresses an urban design issue at a micro-urban design level; the spaces between buildings on neighboring blocks or the side yards, how such spaces they are used, and their social impact on residents. A socio-psychological approach was taken into studying arrangements of these open spaces in contemporary residential zones in—side setback spaces in Japan, and backyards and light shafts in Iran in terms of their similarities and differences. The research involves development policies and interviews with residents in buildings where such conditions prevail, in two different contexts—Shiraz, Iran and Sapporo, Japan, two cities comparative in their size and densities for their cultural differences might have on their social responses. Seventy-two respondents in Shiraz District 6 were recruited by Shiraz University architecture students and in Japan, 75 responses were collected in Central Ward, Sapporo, from various groups of residents. Majority of the windows to side setbacks in Sapporo had matte glasses; therefore, privacy concerns were not among residents. Lack of maintenance in inner courtyards was a major concern for Iranians and they see side setbacks as a challenge to their and safety, however providing opportunities for neighborly atmosphere, if the windows have matte glasses and provided with guards. It argues that contacts are not controlled are perceived the same in two different cultures; however, the arrangement of open spaces play a role in light reception and ventilation in Japanese example.

Description: Providing quality public housing is one of the main goals of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government. This paper assesses the level of satisfaction with public housing offered by the UAE government to its citizens based on the physical characteristics and traditional social aspects of the housing unit, urban design, and social environment in the residential area, whereas also their contribution to the residents' life quality under overall satisfaction with the place of living. At the same time, the study provides access to sustainability measurements applied at both the environmental and social levels within the Estidama accredited national rating system. The survey results of two residential complexes in Abu Dhabi show that the majority of residents are mostly satisfied, although the overall level of satisfaction with the functionality of the building and public facilities provided was generally higher than that related to the social environment in the residential district. The research focused on the application of new technologies that increase the level of sustainability in future housing projects.

Description: The ‘family house’ has played a major role within the urbanisation processes that have been transforming the Italian landscape since the 1960s. It is a common feature of the widespread settlements that are part of what has been labelled the ‘diffuse city’ and was the subject of numerous studies during the 1990s. More than 20 years later, this paper returns to the topic of the Italian family house using a renewed methodological approach to describe relevant changes. The hypothesis here is that in order to grasp the tensions affecting ‘family houses’ in today’s context of demographic transition and increased imbalances between dynamic and declining areas, and to contemplate their future, the qualitative gaze adopted by scholars in the 1990s must be integrated with other investigative tools, focusing on demographic change, uses, and the property values of buildings. Using this perspective, the paper provides a series of ‘portraits’ rooted in four meaningful territorial contexts, portraits which may help scholars to redefine their imagery associated with family house and be useful for dedicated building policies.

Description: Space is produced by a society in accordance with its habits, and habits, mostly in the Western society, have been heavily influenced by forms of production. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that the Industrial Revolution definitely changed the space of modern landscapes, cities and dwellings life at all scales, and the way in which we perceive them. Cognitive capitalism is no exception. Since it fully established itself as one of the prevailing economic forces in the 21st century and in the Western world, it produced deep changes in the way in which people work, connect, and live. Starting from the assumption that changes in means of production generate new social relationships, this paper investigates how these changes might result in new ways of building architectural space. Without indulging in a deterministic attitude, it focuses on housing as one of the fundamental artefacts where a society expresses its approach to space. The house is a basic element of complex urban systems and is, therefore, the one calling for a more radical conceptual rethinking, marking an effective distance with the forms inherited from the previous centuries. Finally, the paper aims at understanding the repercussions of the digital paradigm on the space of dwelling, reasoning on some crucial questions to understand how housing might evolve, unfolding through its spatial configuration the new ways of life of the digital society.

Description: The article suggests a set of design requirements to orient urban practices of transformation and space management when they work on transition spaces, which are difficult to interpret and classify in accordance with traditional dichotomous categories such as centre/periphery, urban/not urban, open/closed, abandoned/lived, public/private. The first part of the article explains how various disciplines describe and characterise this kind of space, which cannot be described precisely through traditional categories. Literature search indicates how transition spaces have a number of attributes that can be translated into requirements to steer design actions. The examples of urban practices, described in the central paragraphs of the article, quickly show how project actions actualize the requirements that can be inferred both from literature and from the examples themselves. The conclusions summarise the design requirements to transform and manage transition spaces, in order to orient “pioneering urban practices”, thus opening the way to different modes of intervention and offering new insights into the role of designers and users in this particular kind of practice. Promising prospects emerge not only for the design methodology of this type of spaces, but also for the possibility of addressing relevant issues in the current disciplinary debate concerning, on the one hand, the liveability and care of urban spaces and therefore the regeneration of public space, at a time in history when its existence is questioned, on the other hand the effectiveness of the involvement and empowerment of local societies in the processes of space transformation.

Description: The value of cultural heritage and its transmission for “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” is an integral part of the UN Agenda 2030 and the new international policy for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Nonetheless, the role of culture for these important challenges is an issue that current scientific literature on resilience has not yet sufficiently investigated. Starting from the concept of Heritage Community, elaborated in the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Framework convention on the value of cultural heritage for society, 2005), along with the hypothesis of its role for Community Resilience, this study elaborates a conceptual framework in which “Heritage Community Resilience” is defined. It is both a target and a process in which cultural heritage supports the building of a community able to prevent, cope with and recover from disturbances and/ or disasters. Through a survey of several case studies on heritage-driven practices in Italian inner peripheral areas, the research aims to define the specific characteristics of Heritage Community Resilience as well as identify any critical actors and variables, strategies and governance mechanisms, which influence both Heritage Community and Community Resilience. It predicts the challenges and highlights the potential that culture and heritage can develop for Community Resilience, towards further perspectives of resilient circular city.