The Living: Surface Tensions

‘Our work begins with the premise of a dynamic world. Political and cultural conditions change: what if the walls and windows morphed in response?’ New York-based team The Living, led by David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang, have developed a practice of deep, open-source interfaces of participation. Jordan Geiger describes how for The Living their home city and its environs is a site of evolving forms of public space whether on land, air or water. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

颜元的“格物致知”思想

清初学者颜元在批判前人对“格物致知”解释的基础上，以“习动”、“日行践履”的求知观为出发点，认为“格物致知”就是亲自动手去做实际的事情，真切接触事物。同时提出“知以物为体”的观点，强调以“六德、六行、六艺”为内容的“三物”为实践对象方能得到真知，并有利于个人道德修养的提高以及社会价值的实现。     

三河口水利枢纽厂房联合布置

根据工程供水、调蓄和发电的任务要求,三河口水利枢纽厂房需要装配水泵水轮机、常规水轮机和减压调流阀,分别修建泵站、电站与供水阀室三个建筑物的分离方案布置难度较大、工程量大、投资高,而且分离方案泵站运行时间短,泵站设备长期属于待运行状态,维护管理费用高。为了将其合理地布置于厂房内,针对机组及减压调流阀的选型进行了研究,同时对本工程的运行特点以及水泵水轮机在本工程中的使用条件进行了分析,最终选取了将水泵水轮机机组、常规机组、供水阀布置于一个厂房的方案。此方案具有减少工程投资、提高机组效率、方便运行管理、提高调水灵活性等特点,可以为类似工程参考。     

江南水乡园林发展简史（之三）——江南水乡园林之兴盛

江南水乡园林的发展、演变历史进程,划分为四个时期：兴起、发展、兴盛、高潮,隋唐五代宋元为江南水乡园林兴盛期。该文指出此时期,江南水乡园林体现出几方面特点：园林规模继续趋小;文人园林完全成熟;唐宋园林,尤其是宋代园林,达到我国古典园林艺术之高峰;皇家、私家、寺庙园林等区别渐著;在庶民阶层普遍追求庭院、庭园等园林形式的同时,世俗化园林在各地流布等。     

Aesthetics, Death, and Landmark Structures: Approach for Values Clarification

The Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic landmark, which has long held the distinction of being the most popular structure in the world to commit suicide. A general process is presented for policy makers’ use to generate conversation and clarify their values in making decisions about public works improvements. This applies particularly well where issues of aesthetics and cost are emotionally and politically charged. The Golden Gate Bridge serves as a case study of how this process can be used. Three design solutions were generated on the basis of architectural concerns and developed in the context of evaluation criteria. A value-based decision analysis approach was taken to determine the preference structure of decision makers involved and to provide a rational framework for further development. Results indicate that existing preferences among decision makers may not be consistent with their public decisions and could be clarified given a more rigorous framework. The do-nothing option is likely to be less preferred to other options given a thorough definition of the acceptance criteria.     

Sources and timing of anthropogenic pollution in the Ensenada de San Simon (inner Ria de Vigo), Galicia, NW Spain: an application of mixture-modelling and nonlinear optimization to recent sedimentation

The Ensenada de San Simon is the inner part of the Ria de Vigo, one of the major mesotidal rias of the Galician coast, NW Spain. The geochemistry of its bottom sediments can be accounted for in terms of both natural and anthropogenic sources. Mixture-modelling enables much of the Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations of the bottom and subaqueous sediments to be explained by sediment input from the river systems and faecal matter from manmade mussel rafts. The compositions and relative contributions of additional, unknown, sources of anomalous heavy-metal concentrations are quantified using constrained nonlinear optimization. The pattern of metal enrichment is attributed to: material carried in solution and suspension in marine water entering the Ensenada from the polluted industrial areas of the adjacent Ria de Vigo; wind-borne urban dusts and/or vehicular emissions from the surrounding network of roads and a motorway road-bridge over the Estrecho de Rande; industrial and agricultural pollution from the R. Redondela; and waste from a former ceramics factory near the mouth of the combined R. Oitaben and R. Verdugo. Using (137)Cs dating, it is suggested that heavy metal build-up in the sediments since the late 1970s followed development of inshore fisheries and introduction of the mussel rafts (ca. 1960) and increasing industrialisation.     

The Grand Work of Fiction: The Detail as Narrative

A practising architect and Professor at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Edward Ford is the leading expert on the architectural detail and the author of three seminal books on the subject. Here Ford explains that, though the decision ‘to abstract or to articulate’ architecture ‘may be largely subconscious’, it is never ‘arbitrary’. For ‘in the well-designed building, it is done in the service of the creation of a larger narrative, a unity of vision’.     

Survey of Residential Foundation Design Practice on Expansive Soils in the San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, California has experienced significant population growth over the last 60 years. The design practices for residential foundations have evolved substantially over this period, as a result of improved geologic characterizations, better engineering understandings of foundation performance, building code changes, and project litigation. The majority of residential foundations are constructed on expansive soils and bedrock, with the primary movement as a result of swell due to wetting of materials in an arid environment. A survey of design practice of practicing geotechnical engineers in the bay area was conducted using a written questionnaire and telephone interviews to compile data regarding the most commonly used design procedures, design details, drainage recommendations, and construction monitoring practices. The results of this survey are compiled and presented in this paper. Three primary foundation systems were identified in the survey as being commonly used in the bay area—rigid footing grids, drilled piers, and mats/slabs. To illustrate problems that have occurred with each of these foundation systems, case histories are presented for recent bay area expansive soil projects for each of these three foundation types.     

31 Flavors of Inclusionary Zoning: Comparing Policies From San Francisco,Washington, DC,and Suburban Boston

Problem: Over the past several decades, inclusionary zoning (IZ) has become an increasingly popular, but sometimes controversial, local means of producing affordable housing without direct public subsidy. The conversation about IZ has thus far largely ignored variations in the structure of IZ policies, although these variations can impact the amount of affordable housing produced and the effects of IZ on production and prices of market rate housing.

Purpose: We provide a detailed comparison of the ways in which IZ programs have been structured in the San Francisco and Washington metropolitan areas and in suburban Boston.

Methods: We create a unique dataset on IZ in these three regions by combining original data collected from several previous surveys. We use these data to compare the prevalence, structure, and affordable housing output of local IZ programs.

Results and conclusions: In the San Francisco Bay Area, IZ programs tend to be mandatory and apply broadly across locations and structure types, while including cost offsets and alternatives to onsite construction. In the Washington, DC, area, most IZ programs are also mandatory, but have broader exemptions for small developments and low-density housing. IZ programs in the Boston suburbs exhibit the most heterogeneity. They are more likely to be voluntary and to apply only to a narrow range of developments, such as multifamily housing, or within certain zoning districts. The amount of affordable housing produced under IZ varies considerably, both within and across the regions. There is some evidence that IZ programs that grant density bonuses and exempt smaller projects produce more affordable housing.

Takeaway for practice: Although variation in IZ program structures makes it hard to predict effectiveness, IZ's adaptability to local circumstances makes it a particularly attractive policy tool. IZ programs can easily be tailored to accommodate specific policy goals, housing market conditions, and residents' preferences, as well as variations in state or local regulatory and political environments.

Research support: This article is adapted from a longer working paper written with financial support from the Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference.     

From the Subversive to the Serious: Temporary Urbanism as a Positive Force

Pavilions and pop-ups are most often perceived as standalone objects, but what do transient structures have to offer at the city scale? Peter Bishop , Professor of Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), and a director at Allies and Morrison, explores what temporary urbanism can contribute to the wider metropolis. He describes how when they grow out of the best of intentions and are well executed, pavilions and pop-ups can potentially inject joy and delight, enriching an over-planned and over-regulated city.