VERBAL DRAWINGS: MAPPING LANDSCAPE IDEAS

Verbal drawings, as a particular drawing category of drawings, are discussed in this paper about its history, qualities, and what kind of role they could play in the design communication of contemporary landscape architecture. The definition of verbal drawings arises from the observation and reading of Rupestrian art and its process in making drawings and paintings. Rupestrian art was the first human written communication prior to the emergence of words and spoken communication. For this reason, Rupestrian art drawings and paintings are not just images to be seen; above all, they are texts to be read. They are written drawings using pictograms, ideograms, and psycho-ideograms to compose images with a specific grammar and syntax. These written images have three qualities: a sense of immediacy, a sense of beauty, and a sense of lightness. Representing human activities in particular environments, Rupestrian art drawings are not only the first landscape representations but also the early representations of the act of mapping, opening a connection between the art of cartography and the art of verbal drawings. Using examples, this paper explains the importance of ancient and modern mapping arts in connection with the discourse of contemporary landscape architecture by demonstrating how the senses of immediacy, beauty, and lightness help contemporary verbal drawings compete with the neutral, beautiful, quickly produced and consumed digital representations nowadays. In the end, the text proposes a confrontation between Umberto Eco’s concept of “open work” and verbal drawings — Verbal drawings might be intended more like “open frameworks” than “open works.” It is a concept that considers verbal drawings able to accept new ideas for extending their meanings and significance throughout the design process.     

Documenting regional science exceptionalism: what’s special about WRSA?

Although many regional science associations exist around the world, members of the Western Regional Science Association have long maintained that the WRSA is special. In an effort to measure this sentiment, a survey of the Western Regional Science Association’s membership was conducted in early 2011 in advance of the Association’s 50th anniversary conference. The survey prompted respondents for both quantitative information, in terms of number of meetings attended and basic socio-demographic characteristics, as well as more qualitative information, such as favorite meeting locations and meeting recollections. This paper provides an analysis of both the quantitative and narrative elements of the survey. In addition, it provides a profile of current membership, based on survey respondents. The results suggest that respondents do, indeed, view the WRSA as “special”, and that this sentiment is a result of both longstanding conference quality and an environment of collegiality and friendship. The paper closes with an assessment of potential future challenges to the Association’s “exceptionalism” and an expression of hopes for the next 50 years.     

Thirty-three Years of Regulating Fire Protection at Commercial U.S. Nuclear Power Plants: Dousing the Flames of Controversy**

This article focuses on what have been, and may continue to be, the more controversial aspects of fires at commercial nuclear power plants regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Examining what has transpired in fire protection regulation since the 1975 fire at Browns Ferry Unit 1, which first focused attention on the potential hazard of fire at commercial nuclear power plants, we offer a personal perspective as to whether or not the “the flames of controversy” have been “doused.” We show that significant progress has been made while speculating whether these “flames” may ever truly be extinguished, or only kept under control. No core damage accident has ever occurred at a commercial nuclear power plant due to fire.

Experimental and theoretical research on analytical models of piled-raft foundations

Several methods for the design of pile foundations, including those recommended in Building Code 50-102-2003 [1], are analyzed,. Tests of a model of a pile foundation in a pan with freeze-frame photographs of the displacements of sand grains, and their digital processing by the method of particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) are described. A method of analyzing a rigid spatial pile foundation with “high-“ and “low-profile” rafts of arbitrary planform, which makes it possible to obtain a uniform load distribution on the piles without use of finite-element software is proposed on the basis of experimental results. The method is implemented in the form of design software in the MathCad system. Examples of the analysis are presented.     

Use of gestalt in wayfinding design and analysis of wayfinding process

The authors brought forward the definition of “Gestalt space” and indicated this kind of space can be easily cognized. Three experiments showed that “classification” and “grouping” are the human strategies to solve wayfinding problems. “Similarity” and “Legibility” of the space are advantageous to help people to complete wayfinding tasks. The designer should provide the essential “Legibility” in Gestalt space, by using some techniques such as “break” and “accession” to settle the wayfinding problem. __________ Translated from Architectural Journal, 2007, (5): 89–91 [译自: 建筑学报]     

Measuring the effects of air quality regulations on “dirty” firm births: Evidence from the neo- and mature-regulatory periods

In this article, we use annual (1980–90) county-level manufacturing plant location data for New York State to examine the effects of the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments on the location decisions of new pollution-intensive manufacturing plants in the “:neo-regulatory” (1980-84) and “mature-regulatory” (1985–90) phases of the Act's implementation. Our results suggest that the temporal effects of regulation vary. Whereas the location decisions of pollution intensive manufacturing firms were unaffected by the Act's regulatory restrictions in the “neo-regulatory” period, the restrictions appear to have had a significant negative impact on the location decisions of these types of firms in the Act's “mature-regulatory” phase. The diversion of new pollution intensive plants to counties with less stringent environmental regulations suggests that current US environmental regulations may be leading to a “browning process” whereby counties historically free of pollution become havens for polluters. Received: 2 April 1999 / Accepted: 18 October 1999     

"Composition" and regularisation of architectural production in contemporary China

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the “Beaux-Arts” “composition” sustained the constitution of design principles for architectural production in China in the last two decades of the twentieth century. “Composition”, a key technique of the “Beaux-Arts” system, is not a simple act of “putting elements together” into a unified whole, but also relates to an array of different “constructions” of architectural knowledge which regulate and sustain the act of design. Through analysing the structure of three “textbooks” published in the early 1980s, this paper examines three aspects of the “constructions”: the setting up of the principles for governing architectural forms, regularisation of design methods and approaches for architectural practice, and the construction of a “tradition” for the expression of “Chineseness”.     

Public Perceptions of High-rise Building Emergency Evacuation Preparedness

In light of the events of September 11, 2001, a concern in the fire safety community is that the public attitudes toward emergency evacuation procedures and preparedness may have changed and that current assumptions about occupant behavior may no longer be valid. In 2006, a survey of high-rise building occupants was conducted to explore their knowledge of high-rise building safety and emergency evacuation procedures and their attitudes and perceptions about high-rise safety and emergency evacuation procedures. Some 244 residential building occupants in Chicago, New York City and San Francisco and 228 commercial building occupants in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia were surveyed. The study revealed that the events of September 11, 2001 have heightened occupants concerns about safety in high-rise buildings. Eight in ten commercial building respondents participated in a fire drill in the last year, compared to 18% of residential building respondents. Among both survey respondents, the most frequent top-of-mind suggestion to building management to improve safety was “more fire drills.” Almost all occupants know where the fire exits are. And, keeping with conventional wisdom, most occupants believe using elevators is unsafe during a fire, however, 28% also believe that going to the roof is a possible alternative to using the stairs. These findings support the need for continued public education about emergency evacuations procedures in high-rise buildings.

A simple model to study the influence of fluctuating airflow on the effective air exchange rate when using natural ventilation

Fluctuating airflow may strongly influence the real air exchange rate when using natural ventilation, resulting in a larger “effective” air exchange rate than the “mean” air exchange rate calculated by conventional methods (i.e., the network method). To study the effective air exchange rate during natural ventilation under conditions of actual use, this study proposes a simple model that accounts for fluctuating airflow. The model assumes that the airflow near a building opening fluctuates regularly and velocity is assumed to have either a square or sine wave pattern. Our analysis shows that the effective air exchange rate is larger when accounting for fluctuating airflow. This suggests that the mean air exchange rate should not be calculated without consideration of real airflow fluctuations.     

International comparison of social housing management in Western Europe

This article provides an overview of social housing management in seven West-European countries. In order to place the concept of housing management in context and allow comparison, housing management is classified according to technical, social and financial aspects of management. Housing management has become increasingly independent and the financial ties are becoming looser in nearly all of the seven investigated countries. Even though governments still play a major role in Europe with respect to the granting of subsidies, the non-profit institutions have to entirely rely on the capital market in order to obtain the required funds. However, in many cases intermediary organisations are still responsible for attracting loans. Peter Boelhouwer is a senior research at the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology. His research focus has been on general housing policy, housing finance and comparative housing research. This paper is based on two recent OTB-studies about the social rented sector in Western Europe. The first study was written by Birgitta van de Ven and was published in 1995 in the Dutch series “Volkshuisvestingsbeleid en Bouwmarkt” (26). The title of this report is “Housing systems in Europe: A comparative study of housing management”. The second study (Boelhouwer, 1996) is titled “Financing the social rented sector in Western Europe”, and is published in the series Housing and Urban Policy Studies. This project was carried out by the OTB in cooperation with the School of the Built Environment of the De Montfort University in Leicester (UK). This cooperation forms part of the Centre for Comparative Housing Research.     

Temperature distribution in the noncombustibility furnace

The authors maintain that an ISO-recommended combustibility test for building materials contains weaknesses that may result in a material being classified “combustible” by one laboratory and “noncombustible” by another. They offer solutions to the short-comings of the test.     

Simulation of a building and its HVAC system with an equation solver: Application to benchmarking

The today-availability of powerful engineering equation solvers is opening very new possibilities in technical component modelling and in system simulation. The simulation models, the “user guide” and the “reference guide” are all included in a same file. Reliable “reference” and “simplified” models are currently available for the building zone and for most (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) HVAC components. Focus is given here on “simplified” models and on a simulation tool, called “Benchmark”. This tool should help an auditor to make the best use of the limited information usually available about actual fuel and electricity consumptions and to get a very first evaluation of the actual performances of a given HVAC system. An example of such use is presented. Another simulation tools and more information about the modelling of HVAC components will be presented in a further paper.     

Spatial dimensions of the demand for homeownership. A Danish rural–urban perspective

This paper introduces the concept of “spatial location satisfaction” and examines its relation to the individual demand for homeownership. Based on a Danish questionnaire survey carried out in a rural study area (N = 1,000) and in an urban study area (N = 1,015), a tenure choice model was estimated relating spatial location satisfaction to homeownership, while adjusting for control variables. The spatial location satisfaction variable was constructed from two questionnaire items asking respondents to state their actual and preferred place of settlement given five location type options: large city, medium-sized city, small town, village, and “in the countryside”. As hypothesised, the study shows a strong association between spatial location satisfaction and the individual demand for homeownership. This association is robust across study areas. Spatial location satisfaction is highest in the rural study area and explains about 6% of the rural–urban difference in homeownership rates. The identification of a positive association between spatial location satisfaction and homeownership adds credibility to population surveys that measure the correspondence between actual and preferred location type. This, in turn, provides increased impetus to use such survey data as one of the tools in formulating regional planning policies.     

Location-allocation aspects of Tinbergen-Bos systems

Tinbergen-Bos Systems (TBS) operationalise L?sch's general spatial economic equilibrium model in terms of “centers” (clusters of activities) and “systems” (combinations of centers). The initial specifications are generalised to a non-discrete metric, and a method is derived to solve the resulting location-allocation problem by linear programming. Applications are presented, the conclusion being that the way is paved to handle large quasi-dynamic TBS, allowing to study the evolution of “economic landscapes”. Received: December 1997/Accepted: May 1998     

Negatives in symmetric input–output tables: the impossible quest for the Holy Grail

In the Supply-Use (or Make-Use) input–output models, “product-technology” (PT) or “fixed-industry-sales-structure” (FISS) assumptions are more widely adopted (SNA, Eurostat) for deriving symmetric input–output tables (SIOT) than “industry-technology” or “fixed-product-sales-structure” assumptions, but generate negatives in the SIOT. A SIOT deduced from the Supply-Use model is considered as satisfactory as soon as it contains no more negatives; scholars have focused on the negatives in the SIOT and on how to remove them. However, as a SIOT may include no negatives even if there are some negatives in the inverse Supply matrix, we have completely reversed the reasoning. A counter-example demonstrates that computing the inverse Supply matrix, as imposed by PT or FISS assumptions, is mathematically a nonsense operation even when the symmetric input–output tables do not include any negative; this result is new. Hence, deriving a SIOT under PT or FISS assumption must be rejected. Three applications are provided: Austria 2000 and 2005 and USA 2007.     

Relationship between office workers'' staying and workstation attributes in a non-territorial office using ultra wide band sensor network

This paper investigates the staying and moving characteristics of office workers in a non-territorial office using an ultra wide band (UWB) impulse radio sensor network. The differences between office workers’ staying and moving are clarified according to the individual workstation type that they select. The study determines the characteristics of each type of workstation. By clarifying office workers’ preference for staying and moving with regard to individual workstation types and office worker post, the reasons why office workers in different posts tended to select different types of workstations were revealed. Specifically, leaders tended to select workstations at the “inner meeting corner side” most frequently, as they had a greater need to stay in other areas. In contrast, ordinary staff needed to visit office workers in other areas less often, and as such, they tended to select individual workstations at the “middle meeting corner side.” Barring this, they tended to select individual workstations at the “middle corridor side” or “outer-meeting corner side.” Temporary staff members had little need to visit or stay at other places so they tended to select individual workstations at the “window side,” which is seldom visited or stayed at by other office workers and they could be disturbed less often from their solo work.     

Housing management matters: Citizenship and managerialism in the new welfare market

This paper addresses three neglected issues in the restructuring of housing policy and provision in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s: first, the relationship between welfare restructuring and management regimes; second, the nature of local variations in the impact of welfare restructuring; and third, the significance of human agency interpretations of change. The paper starts by summarizing the main features of welfare state restructuring and then considers recent manifestations of citizenship and managerialism in housing. Three competing conceptions of citizenship rights are used to examine changing notions of welfare: “market efficiency”, “institutionalized rights” and the “radical challenge” provided by social movements. A four-part typology of the main concepts and themes in the “new public management”—“efficiency”, “downsizing and decentralization”, “excellence” and “public service”—is used to present the main components of change in management regimes. The paper draws on literatures on housing management, citizenship and “the new public management” and on recent research into tenant participation, housing rights and housing advice services. Conclusions are drawn about how tensions between different conceptions of citizenship and public management are implicated with national and global influences at the local level to create particular welfare outcomes.     

The dynamics of coastal landslides: insights from laboratory experiments and theoretical analyses

Laboratory experiments have been carried out to study the dynamics of landslides commencing sub-aerially and ending inside a water basin. A comparison between experiments with and without water shows differences in the final deposits. In the subaqueous experiments the grains did not spread out from the mass in the same way as in the subaerial movement. It is suggested that air can be trapped inside the mass which, released during the final stage of the underwater mass propagation, modifies the buoyancy forces. Other effects observed during the air to water transition include the “jumping” and “tilting” of grains. It is concluded that the air to water transition plays a key role in the dynamics of combined subaerial/subaqueous landslides. The information obtained from the experiments may also be useful in the consideration of tsunami generation and the sedimentological analyses of landslide deposits.     

Stay or Go? Human Behavior and Decision Making in Bushfires and Other Emergencies

The policy of “leave early or stay and defend”, often shortened to the “stay or go” policy, has been the subject of critical review in the Royal Commission that followed the recent disastrous bushfires in Victoria, Australia. The need for people to evacuate or stay and defend their property and protect themselves is a critical life safety decision for many people on days of high bushfire activity. Some limited research has been undertaken into this individual decision making in bushfires. Other fields of emergency management also require people to make similar decisions as to whether to evacuate or stay in a “defend in place” situation. This paper examines research into “stay or go” strategies and decision making performance for high rise buildings, looking for common factors that may inform the bushfire situation and potential reforms for policy. Similarly, research into Hurricane Katrina and the failures to evacuate when mandated provide further insight into factors which can affect or postpone decision making. A number of common improvements related to emergency preparedness, situation awareness and trusted communication systems emerge in all these fields. However, this paper also suggests that this decision making in bushfires is more complex that just two simple options of “stay or go”. A greater understanding of group behavior and socio-cultural factors and their impact on personal decision making is required if more effective emergency management is to occur in the bushfire domain.