Practical considerations for implementing research on the indoor built environment

It is increasingly evident that design needs to play a role in reducing sedentary behaviour through macro- and micro-environmental changes to the built environment. Recent research explores how various environments shape health and well-being of different populations, as the findings reported in the Building Research &; Information special issue (volume 43/5) entitled ‘Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and the Indoor Built Environment’ exhibit. How can this research reach a wide audience, especially those in charge of making decisions around the design of indoor environments? Research and practice in the field of the built environment and health demands cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborations and research results need to be appropriately communicated, translated and adapted for practical use. Practitioners can extrapolate from available research and consult best practices. Forging ahead with implementation also lends new opportunities to collaborate with researchers on evaluation.     

风景园林学健康研究领域文献系统综述和 研究前沿分析

营造健康舒适的人居环境是风景园林规划设计和科学研究的核心目标。健康作为风景园林学的重要研究领域,尚有广阔的发展空间。以2008—2020年Web of Science TM核心合集数据库11650篇英文文献和中国知网CNK I数据库1396篇中文文献为研究对象,利用Cite Space和VOSviewer科学知识可视化图谱软件,结合文献内容分析和重点文献解译,梳理其发展概况、识别研究热点及前沿。结果表明:1)研究主要集中在:体力活动、健康社区、康复景观、建成环境等方面;2)研究前沿方向主要为:预防医学、森林健康、健康效益量化、健康影响评估等;3)国内外研究区别在于:国外研究多以科学研究为导向,更加关注城市自然环境与健康的定量关联和实证实地研究;国内研究则多以实践应用为导向,开展以风景园林学为依托的健康人居环境相关规划及设计方法的研究,理论体系及科学技术研究支撑体系有待完善。旨在为风景园林、公共健康、生态环境科学等领域的科学研究提供参考依据和方法指导。     

Exploring the influence of the built environment on human experience through a neuroscience approach: A systematic review

The built environment provides a habitat for the most sophisticated mammal in our universe, the human being. Developments in science and technology are forcing us to reconsider the priority of human needs in current theories of architecture and the built environment. Newly developed theories and methodologies in neuroscience have allowed us to improve and deepen our knowledge of human experience in the built environment. The potential of the relationship between neuroscience and architecture for knowledge creation generates an increasing interest in theoretical and methodological approaches to explore this intersection. Thus, a common ground on which to conduct interdisciplinary studies investigating developing and emerging concepts at the intersection must be established. However, few reviews in the literature have systematically examined developing and emerging concepts at the intersection of neuroscience and architecture. The present review aims to examine the existing literature systematically to explain the influence of the built environment on human experience by using approaches from neuroscience by examining the conceptualizations in the field. The study is conducted as a systematic qualitative review that analyzes and synthesizes the developing and emerging concepts that have appeared in the ever-evolving literature. The study concludes with an overall discussion about these concepts as a means of deeply understanding the influence of the built environment on human experience, responses to the environment based on approaches from neuroscience, and their potential for providing further directions for future research.     

Embedding built environments in social–ecological systems: resilience-based design principles

Globalization, the process by which local settlements and ecosystems are becoming linked in a global network, presents policy scientists and planners with difficult design challenges. Coping with either natural or built environments in isolation is extremely challenging in its own right (e.g. built environments at different scales: a single building, a collection of buildings, a neighbourhood or a city are in themselves very complex). In the Anthropocene era, where human activities shape the planetary system in which built and natural environments are becoming more tightly linked across scales, these complex systems need to be considered as elements in a global network, i.e. as a coupled social–ecological system (SES) at the global scale. In the context of this spiralling complexity, multi-scale and multilevel processes become more important and design/management problems become extraordinarily difficult. Preliminary ideas are explored for how research on this multilevel design problem might proceed. Specifically, based on combining insights from a collection of theories and models based on resilience and robustness concepts, the basic elements of a new approach are presented that recognizes the importance of self-organizing processes at multiple scales and emphasizes the use of feedbacks to link these processes across scales.     

The role of building design and interiors in ageing actively at home

This systematic research review examines the role of building- and interior-scale environmental factors of homes and residential developments in promoting or inhibiting older adults’ sedentary behaviour and active living. Using an adaptation of the Cochrane Review protocol, the search and screen for relevant, rigorous research studies resulted in 37 research articles. The review focuses on six built environment characteristics: (1) barriers, supports and features that ‘fit'; (2) spatial organization and layout; (3) environmental cues; (4) ambient qualities; (5) assistive technologies; and (6) gardens and outdoor spaces. Accessibility-oriented features dominated the studies and findings. Pathway and corridor design, and environmental cues that convey an instrumental function of a space also facilitated active living. Ambient features such as lighting quality and meaningful sounds and aromas were important facilitators to active living among residents with dementia. To strengthen the knowledge base of the field and its application in design and improvements of residential environments, future research should focus on: detailed measurement of built environment factors as well as active living; increasing use of digital technologies for such measurements; multidisciplinary research teams; and policy-driven research questions that arise with housing the growing population of older adults in a healthy manner.     

非线性思维下当代建筑界面场地景观适应策略

从非线性、非线性科学、复杂科学的基本思路以及现有对非线性建筑的概念出发,以建筑界面组成构件的组合方式为研究对象,以适应场地景观环境为目标,试图对现有建筑界面的实验策略进行了总结,进而探索建筑界面能够形成适应其所在外界场地景观环境的新思路。     

urbanHIST: a multidisciplinary research and training programme on the history of European urbanism in the twentieth century

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces the Planning Perspectives readership to urbanHIST, a current Horizon 2020 European Joint Doctorate programme that focuses on the history of European urbanism in the twentieth century. Its concept is based on the inherent multidisciplinary approach of the research field and the ambition to gain a pan-European perspective on planning history. The paper delineates the underlying general research trends and the current responses of urbanHIST. Finally, it connects the programme's thematic orientation with both, its external contributions and its internal key activities that might bridge the gap between the protected environment of a PhD programme with the reality of academic life.     

Optimisation models to enhance resilience in evacuation planning

We argue that the concepts of resilience in engineering science and robustness in mathematical optimisation are strongly related. Using evacuation planning as an example application, we demonstrate optimisation techniques to improve solution resilience. These include a direct modelling of the uncertainty for stochastic or robust optimisation as well as taking multiple objective functions into account.     

Environmental science and environmental philosophy — part 1 environmental science and environmentalism

Several recent critiques of Western, science‐based, technological society call for a shift away from the present paradigm of reductionism to one of holism. One manifestation of this would be the development of a new kind of science which is non‐interventionist, non‐manipulative, and much more environmentally aware.

The object of Part 1 of this paper is to assess the development of Environmental Science over the last twenty years, in order to test how far it fulfills the above role. Environmental Science is therefore considered in the wider context of Environmentalism, and its relationship to this larger social movement is examined.

As presently constituted, most U.K. Environmental Science/Studies courses are part of what O'Riordan¹ calls Technocentrism, a brand of Environmentalism which subscribes to concepts of rationality, management and control. As such it can be characterised as part of the environmentalism of the present social paradigm.

Part 2 of this paper, which explores the nature of (Environmental) Science in a possible future social paradigm, will appear in a future issue of this Journal.     

From the design of green buildings to resilience management of building stocks

ABSTRACT

The green and the subsequent sustainable building movements have been framed by changing societal contexts. Their main focus has been on the design of new buildings. However, these movements have neglected the life span of existing buildings and the long-term management of building stocks. The reasons why are considered: the changing interpretations of sustainability, the evolution of different forms of tacit knowledge, lack of a metabolic framework covering the built environment and lack of a consistent multi-scale building information modelling (BIM). The transition toward a ‘risk society’, with an increasing diversity and frequency of threats, challenges the current optimistic definition of sustainability. Resilience addresses fast- and slow-moving threats that can lead to unknown consequences and new risks. Alternative planning approaches (e.g. scenario planning, adaptive change and resilience heuristics) are discussed. The differences between anticipation- and resilience-based strategies are considered. Possible heuristics can be found in social–ecological systems, in resilience engineering and in the historic evolution of the built environment. Resilient solutions generally lead to a higher level of complexity and carry additional environmental costs. In the creation of resilience capacity, new knowledge will be co-produced through transdisciplinary research, scenario planning and design experiments under conditions of uncertainty.     

The eidos of urban form: a framework for heritage-based place making

Despite the efforts of preservationists, numerous decaying heritage structures dot the urban landscape. Simultaneously, new development in historic areas has received much debate. Applying Plato’s theory of Forms, this research highlights contributions of the historic built environment to place making, offering a new theoretical framework based on the study of eidetic imagery. The root word for eidetic is eidos, the foundation of Plato’s theory. This paper traces the connotational evolution of the term eidos, applies these meanings to place research and case sites, and presents a new framework for heritage-based place making based on these meanings. Two salient factors are suggested moving forward: (1) the regeneration of non-productive heritage structures; and (2) utilizing the shared characteristics in the local and regional historic environment for design and planning of new development. While the case sites are international, the contextualization of the problem is primarily US-oriented.     

New Professionalism: the post-industrial context

Definitions and perceptions of professionalism are continually challenged and transformed by public need, government interaction and institutional organizations. When the goals of those three entities are focused on near-term results, this poses a significant threat to the integrity, value and relevance of professional services. When the individual and corporate professional's profit margin, corporate shareholder responsibility and news media sensationalism are factored in, this short-termism dynamic is greatly magnified. Built environment professions are seen as particularly vulnerable to this threat, given that investments in buildings and infrastructure have long-life and high-performance service expectations. This commentary responds to the Building Research & Information special issue entitled ‘New Professionalism’ (2013, volume 40, number 1) and situates the predicament of built environment professionals within an emerging historical transition: that of the post-industrial information society with its characteristic knowledge workers and cybernetic bases of production. Long-term virtues of the built environment mission such as sustainability, public good and evidence-based design are shown to be reflections of the transition from industrial era short-termism to post-industrial systemic foresight. This commentary supplements the special issue papers with a discussion on the broader academy's potential role in breaking the stranglehold of contemporary short-termism in the built environment professions.     

Optimal spaces for those living with dementia: principles and evidence

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a synthesis of diverse and disparate evidence in the research literature that provide insights into the impacts of aspects of the built environment on the wellbeing of those living with dementia. The individually focused findings are structured into a set of practical design parameters driven by three overarching needs-driven design principles: manageable cognitive load, clear sequencing and appropriate level of stimulation. These needs are contextualized within a general model that suggests that action in any one area (such as the built environment) also has to take into account other key dimensions, namely any support from the caring/social environment and any pharmacological treatment. Addressing these elements holistically should maximize the opportunity to improve the quality of life of the individual. This paper, however, explicitly focuses on the built environment.     

建成环境景观水文研究框架构建——基于 数字景观技术的景观水文分析、评价与优化

景观水文概念的提出为风景园林涉水研究与实践提 供了一个交叉、整合和创新的窗口，旨在协同涉水学科、人居 环境设计学科等交叉领域，形成一套系统性、创新性的研究与 应用路径。基于现阶段景观水文相关研究进展，聚焦多尺度响 应下的建成环境涉水景观要素空间属性及其水文响应，明确了 建成环境景观水文研究范畴，包括概念、研究尺度和研究对 象。基于景观水文相关研究理论、方法与数字景观技术，从景 观水文研究目标体系、设计流程、分析方法、评价体系、优化 方法5个方面，构建了建成环境景观水文研究框架，包括多目 标集成的景观水文研究目标体系、全过程定量的景观水文规划 设计循证流程、多平台耦合的景观水文分析方法、多准则综合 的景观水文效益评价体系，以及多目标决策的景观水文优化设 计方法。景观水文研究领域的拓展需要跨学科领域的理论与技 术支持，也需要融入人居环境学科的设计方法和逻辑思维。基 于以往研究成果初步构建了建成环境景观水文研究框架，旨在 为景观水文相关研究与应用实践提供思路。     

The emergence of ideas: the interplay between sources of inspiration and emerging design concepts

The development of new ideas is an essential concern for many design projects. There are, however, few in-depth studies of how such ideas emerge within these contexts. In this article we offer an analysis of the emergence of ideas from specific sources of inspiration, as they arise through negotiation and transformation, and are mediated by design artefacts during an Inspiration Card Workshop, a collaborative event in which findings from domain studies are combined with technological sources of inspiration, in order to generate design concepts. We present a micro-analytic study of the interwoven social and artefact-mediated interactions in the workshop, and identify essential phenomena that structure and create momentum in the development of new design concepts, namely (1) the manifest properties of Inspiration Cards and Concept Posters as physical props for encouraging and supporting design moves, (2) the semantic dimensions of the cards and posters as catalysts for discussion, derivation and ideation, and (3) ad hoc external sources of inspiration as means of supplementing and developing design concepts. The analysed design situation is characterised as being socially distributed, artefactually mediated, adaptive and emergent.     

Forum A historical context for theories underpinning the production of the built environment

The quest for ‘theory’ in the Building Research & Information special issue ‘Developing Theories of the Built Environment’ (36(3) 2008) needs to be understood within a larger historical and political context. It would benefit from engaging with a rich vein of work on the production of the built environment over the last 30 years. Theory inherently develops in the political context in which it exists; if it fails to do so, it may be dangerous. This commentary traces the intellectual underpinning concerned with understanding the process of change in the built environment, particularly the result of changes in social relations and the social labour process. The production of the built environment is seen as encompassing all the social processes concerned with producing the built environment, built products, buildings and infrastructure, and out of natural resources, whilst consumption is applied to all the processes involved in consuming these, including the well-being of tenants. And between these are situated the processes of exchange, distribution, and circulation, involving complex webs of relations between developers, builders, and landlords and landowners. The challenge is not only to engage and learn from past work, but also to state explicitly what is currently driving the need for a theory (or set of theories).

La quête de la « théorie » dans ce numéro spécial de Building Research & Information consacré aux théories du développement du milieu bâti (volume 36(3), 2008) doit être comprise dans un contexte historique et politique plus large. Elle aurait intérêt à s'appuyer sur les nombreux travaux concernant la production du cadre bâti publiés au cours de ces 30 dernières années. La théorie se développe, de manière inhérente, dans le contexte politique dans lequel elle existe; dans le cas contraire, la situation pourrait devenir dangereuse. Cet article analyse le raisonnement intellectuel sous-jacent concernant la compréhension du processus de changement dans le milieu bâti, notamment les conséquences des changements dans les relations sociales et dans le processus social du travail. La production du cadre bâti est considérée comme englobant tous les processus sociaux liés à la production du cadre bâti, des produits de construction, des bâtiments et des infrastructures et aux ressources naturelles alors que la consommation s'applique à tous les processus qui entrent en jeu dans la consommation de ceux-ci, y compris le bien-être des occupants. Entre ces deux notions, on trouve les processus d'échange, de distribution et de circulation qui font intervenir des réseaux de relations entre promoteurs, constructeurs, bailleurs et propriétaires fonciers. La difficulté ne vient pas seulement du fait qu'il faut tirer profit des travaux et de l'expérience passés mais qu'il faut également expliquer ce qui motive aujourd'hui la nécessité d'une théorie (ou d'un ensemble de théories).

Mots clés: cadre bâti, cadres conceptuels, consommation, processus de travail, cadre politique, production, relations sociales     

Changes to building research funding in Sweden

Changes to the Swedish research landscape since 2001 are described including the re-organization of research councils, research programmes, the management and allocation of public funding research in Sweden, and the effects on built environment research. The reasons for these changes include the desire for increased integration with European Union research programmes, an increasing emphasis on inter- and multidisciplinary research, and the desire for research to contribute to economic well-being. Despite Sweden's high level of government investment in research, shifting priorities and an increasing number of applicants have resulted in reduced allocations for built environment research. This presents the challenging tasks to define and maintain core research capabilities within the built environment sector as well as to ensure adequate industry engagement with both the creation of the research agenda and the use of research outputs.     

Navy Demonstration Project

Abstract

The Navy Demonstration Project is a multi-layered collaborative research project between architects, material, and structural engineers the end product of which is a 5,400 square foot demonstration building for the U.S. Navy designed and built by architecture students at the Wood Materials Engineering Laboratory on the campus of Washington State University (Figures 1, 2). The project is a unique combination of design and science; it engages a series of experiments with new material development in the field of plastic wood composites, building envelope design and structural engineering. On the one hand, the project was an exploration into design possibilities inherent in engineered products such as wood-plastic composites, Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) and I-joists; on the other hand, the project was an exploration of the engineering potentials in these same materials. The building is possibly the first in the world to use wood-plastic composites so extensively and for such a wide variety of applications.     

营造尺和材分制:应县木塔五层木构表里数据采集与试解*

建立在本研究团队既有假说与分析基础上,本文选取应县木塔五层外檐铺作作为研究对象,分别以三维激光扫描和计算机 X 射线成像(CR-Computed Radiography) 技术采集外部设计与内部隐蔽构造数据信息,充分结合实测数据对现有成果进行验证,并对应县木塔五层斗栱材分制度、尺度设计和部分内部榫卯设计进一步提出以下推论： 一,应县木塔五层斗栱足材广约 1.2 尺(20 分°),单材广约 8.4 寸(14 分°);材厚在 5 寸至 6 寸之间,或存在多种设计;二,应县木塔五层大木设计之中丈尺设计与材分设计或同时存在：以丈尺控制开间(朵距)、屋架、栱长整体比例关系,以材分配合栱与斗的精细设计;三,应县木塔五层斗栱的内部榫卯设计同样受到丈尺和材分思想的双重控制。此外,本文还强调三维激光扫描技术和计算机 X 射线成像技术综合运用在古建筑研究中的深远前景,同时也讨论了现有技术条件的局限和本研究的不足之处。     

Urban design and Japanese older adults' depressive symptoms

Despite associations found between physical activity and depression, and the built environment and physical activity, there appears to be inconclusive evidence regarding the role of built environment attributes with preventing depression among the elderly. This is mainly because few studies exist on this topic. In addition, the majority of existing studies have been conducted in Western countries; and there is a dearth of studies in other regions, where the built, social, and cultural environment is different than Western countries. Using data from Japanese older adults, this study examined the associations between objectively-assessed built environment attributes and depressive symptoms. We examined these associations stratified by gender, since research has well-documented gender differences in depression. Data were from 328 older adults living in Japan. Built environment attributes were objectively calculated and Walk Score^® ratings were obtained from the website. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the GDS-15. Gender-stratified regression models were used to estimate the associations. We found that a walkable environment characterized by a high population density and proximate local destinations to be supportive for a better mental health among older adults, in particular for women. These findings suggest that walkable built environment attributes may influence depression among older women in an Asian urban context. This study contributed to the literature by examining how walkable urban design may influence elderly's depression in a setting with extreme level of environmental attributes. Investing in urban design to promote walkability may help in reducing the observed gender gap in depression in the Japanese population.