Comments on “School Integration Policies in Northern Cities”

This study develops a research method of assessing people's satisfaction with housing. Instead of the old approaches which consider in fragmented ways the characteristics of the dwelling, or the neighborhood, or the social environment, the author proposes a systems approach in which various interdependent factors are studied in relation to one another. Using the techniques developed, the relative satisfaction of tenants in public housing projects in certain areas of Canada is identified, analyzed, and discussed.     

Perceptions of HIV/AIDS policies and treatment programmes by Western Cape construction firms

The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses a substantial long‐term threat to economic development in South Africa. A questionnaire survey explored the perceptions of a sample of construction firms in the Western Cape regarding HIV/AIDS policy and treatment programmes. The findings show that there is no universal view about the long‐term threat of HIV/AIDS. Most organizations have awareness policies in place but prevention and treatment policies are less common. Treatment programmes are the least implemented of all intervention services due to insufficient resource capacity, the potential stigmatization of infected persons, and low take‐up rates. Despite an acknowledgement of the benefits flowing from mounting treatment programmes, doubt exists as to their financial viability.     

Core–periphery dynamics in the Portland, Oregon, region: 1982–2006

The relative strength of positive and negative spillovers of urban development is a long-standing and contested issue in regional and development economics, and the search for spread and backwash effects of development in urban core economies goes back at least 50 years. Using data from IMPLAN and the Bureau of Economic Analysis to develop multiregional input–output models, we developed estimates of core–periphery economic interdependence (sales and purchases of goods and services and commuting of workers between the core and the periphery) of the Portland, Oregon, region for 1982 and 2006. We explored whether the changing flows of sales and purchases, spillovers and commuting between 1982 and 2006 suggested a dominance of spread effects or backwash effects. We found increased commuting between periphery and core, decreased core–periphery transactions, and smaller core-to-periphery spillovers and periphery-to-core spillovers in both goods and services. Our findings do not point to a clear dominance of spread or backwash effects. Results showing smaller core-to-periphery and periphery-to-core multipliers/spillovers suggest that spread effects related to trade in goods and services weakened between 1982 and 2006. Our findings of increased commuting are consistent with enhanced spread effects in labor markets.     

Planning Belgian Congo’s network of medical infrastructure: type-plans as tools to construct a medical model-colony, 1949–1959

ABSTRACT

Throughout the 1950s, the Belgian colonial government constructed a vast network of hospital infrastructure as part of its Ten-Year Plan, a colony-wide socio-economic scheme emblematic for the era of ‘welfare colonialism.’ This network played a key role in Belgian colonialism, by providing healthcare, but also by boosting labour productivity, facilitating state presence and control, and by advertising Congo as a medical model-colony. In this article, we unpack the extensive administrative apparatus that was necessary to buttress this ambitious building programme, and we highlight type-plans as crucial government tools to construct such a vast network of healthcare infrastructure. At first glance, the use of type-plans confirms classic characterizations of the Belgian colonial government as an omnipotent and technocratic state apparatus that implemented large, top-down government plans through authoritative methods, often discarding local realities. However, tracing hospital construction on the ground reveals that type-plans did not function as immutable models, but rather as modular blueprints that allowed local administrations to adapt hospitals to local needs and contingencies. As such, our article illustrates how, facilitated by surprisingly flexible type-plans, everyday colonial policymaking in Belgian Congo was, contrary to the still dominant discourse, deeply reliant on the agency and aptitude of local officials.     

An evaluation tool for design quality: PFI sheltered housing

The complex procurement process entailed by the private finance initiative (PFI) means that clients need new capacities to manage their relationships with bidders and to assess project proposals if the desired level of design quality is to be achieved. To assist local authorities in their client role, a new Architectural Design Quality Evaluation Tool was developed. The aim was to improve the quality of design in residential sheltered housing, procured through the PFI. The tool was developed for and applied to a programme that will see the replacement of a local authority's entire sheltered housing stock. The tool has two functions: (1) to inform the client's assessment process and assist with the selection of the preferred bidding consortium through a series of stages in the PFI process; and (2) to improve the quality of all the submitted designs through an iterative process. Although several existing mechanisms are available for evaluating the performance attributes of buildings, few also tackle the less tangible amenity attributes, which are vital to the feeling of home. The new tool emphasizes the amenity attributes without neglecting performance.     

Aeration and gutter water levels in siphonic roof drainage systems

An investigation is presented into how negative system pressures, the degree of aeration, and gutter water levels are affected by the number of outlets in a siphonic roof drainage system. The experimental results show that system pressures decrease if outlets are blocked. It is also shown that the depth of water above an outlet is strongly influenced by the negative pressure acting at the outlet. As the suction effect at the outlet increases, due to lower system pressures, more water and air will be drawn into the outlets and this will result in a corresponding increase in overall gutter water depth. The results also show that there is often built-in redundancy in multiple outlet siphonic systems experiencing lower-intensity rainfall events, and if one or two outlets were blocked, the system would still operate satisfactorily. A new outlet suppressor was trialled and this was shown to reduce gutter water levels by up to 58% at some positions in the gutter.

Il est présenté une enquête sur la manière dont les pressions négatives dans le système concerné, le degré d'aération et les niveaux d'eau dans les chéneaux sont affectés par le nombre d'orifices de sortie dans un système d'écoulement des eaux de toit par siphonnage. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que les pressions dans le système diminuent si des orifices de sortie sont obturés. Il est également montré que la profondeur de l'eau au-dessus d'un orifice de sortie est fortement influencée par la pression négative s'exerçant à l'orifice de sortie. Plus l'effet de succion à l'orifice de sortie augmente, en raison des pressions plus faibles dans le système, et plus les quantités d'air et d'eau entraînées dans les orifices de sortie seront importantes, et cela aura pour résultat une augmentation correspondante de la profondeur générale de l'eau dans les chéneaux. Les résultats montrent également qu'il existe souvent une redondance intégrée dans les systèmes à siphons comportant des orifices de sortie multiples et soumis à des épisodes pluvieux de faible intensité, et que si un ou deux orifices de sortie sont obturés, le système fonctionne encore de manière satisfaisante. Un nouvel obturateur d'orifice de sortie a été essayé, ce qui a permis de montrer que celui-ci réduit dans une proportion allant jusqu'à 58 % en certains points les niveaux d'eau dans les chéneaux.

Mots clés: aération, niveaux d'eau dans les chéneaux, pressions négatives, écoulement des eaux de toit par siphonnage     

Letter to the Editor

Abstract

This article describes a decade-long research project that intersects the practices of architecture, engineering, teaching, surrealist methods of collage, and construction technology. Two specific examples illustrate the approach to design/research pursued in this work. The first is a studio teaching environment/method that uses analogue construction materials and processes to discover architectural forms and ideas. The second is a method of forming reinforced concrete structures in flexible fabric membranes that has extraordinary potential for both architectural design and civil engineering. The latter is a technical research practice that is indistinguishable from design speculation, while the former pursues methods of teaching design that are indistinguishable from technical invention.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Book reviewed in this article:

Recent Works on the Theme of Technology and Place

The Land That Could Be: Environmentalism and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century William A. Shutkin