Accommodation of China’s Industrial Heritage in Urban Conservation Practices (Ⅱ)

In recent years, the conservation of industrial heritage in China has gained increasing attention within the broader context of urban conservation practices. For both policy-makers and scholars, accommodating this industrial heritage will emerge as a pertinent issue for consideration as a growing number of industrial architectural legacies dating from the Republican and Maoist eras come under (re)development pressures. This paper thus traces the development of industrial heritage conservation practices in China and discusses several dilemmas intrinsic to this type of conservation, including issues of authenticity, representativeness, and distinction. Based on comparative case studies from China and other international precedents, this paper also seeks to illustrate the different approaches that could be pursued while still attaining a balance between competing interests and claims.     

The Hinging Tower

For their project for a tower in downtown Singapore, which they undertook for the Rising Masses Studio at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), Ana María Flor Ortiz and Rodia Valladares Sànchez adopted a mathematical approach. They explicitly used mathematical notation as a mechanism of controlling form, in a manner that could also harness the possibilities of more random and unanticipated influences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Terahertz all-optical modulation in a silicon-polymer hybrid system

Although gigahertz-scale free-carrier modulators have been demonstrated in silicon, intensity modulators operating at terahertz speeds have not been reported because of silicon's weak ultrafast nonlinearity. We have demonstrated intensity modulation of light with light in a silicon-polymer waveguide device, based on the all-optical Kerr effect-the ultrafast effect used in four-wave mixing. Direct measurements of time-domain intensity modulation are made at speeds of 10 GHz. We showed experimentally that the mechanism of this modulation is ultrafast through spectral measurements, and that intensity modulation at frequencies in excess of 1 THz can be obtained. By integrating optical polymers through evanescent coupling to silicon waveguides, we greatly increase the effective nonlinearity of the waveguide, allowing operation at continuous-wave power levels compatible with telecommunication systems. These devices are a first step in the development of large-scale integrated ultrafast optical logic in silicon, and are two orders of magnitude faster than previously reported silicon devices.     

形式与手法:胡安·布斯盖兹教授与BAU和BLAU的城市设计

BAU和BLAU的设计在满足适宜的功能、社会活动和环保性能的实体之上,更关注城市活动的物质性或实体性(马丁·海德格尔语)。城市的形式与构成它的物质被视为相互关联、相互影响的。形式不但预示着未来的空间形态,还有设计师的阐释与创造建筑的手法。从更深层次讲,手法往往源于巧妙的匠心,特别是对某种主要因素的呼应,或是对某种特定形式的性质或"实体性"的强调。从所有这些方面来看,BAU和BLAU的城市设计中至少包含了五大特征。     

Accommodation of China’s Industrial Heritage in Urban Conservation Practices (I)

In recent years, the conservation of industrial heritage in China has gained increasing attention within the broader context of urban conservation practices. For both policy-makers and scholars, accommodating this industrial heritage will emerge as a pertinent issue for consideration as a growing number of industrial architectural legacies dating from the Republican and Maoist eras come under (re)development pressures. This paper thus traces the development of industrial heritage conservation practices in China and discusses several dilemmas intrinsic to this type of conservation, including issues of authenticity, representativeness, and distinction. Based on comparative case studies from China and other international precedents, this paper also seeks to illustrate the different approaches that could be pursued while still attaining a balance between competing interests and claims.     

Aged ACSR conductors. I. Testing procedures for conductors and lineitems

Field and laboratory tests of ACSR conductors and related line items from many of Ontario Hydro's older transmission lines are described. A nondestructive corrosion detector was modified for live line measurement of the loss of galvanizing from the steel cores of the ACSR conductors. Samples of conductors tested in the field have also undergone laboratory metallurgical investigation, and tests of fatigue, tensile strength, torsional ductility, and electrical performance. Extensive environmental studies identified corrosion products of ACSR conductors, the atmospheric factors responsible for corrosion, and the mechanisms by which corrosion takes place. It is concluded that the corrosion detector serves as a useful indicator of impeding end of conductor life, while the torsional ductility tests serve as a more precise condition indicator and can provide a guide for scheduling conductor replacement