西班牙萨拉戈萨水上公园设计

由西班牙建筑师Inaki Alday、Margarita Jover及法国景观设计师Christine Dalnoky共同设计的水上公园是2008年萨拉戈萨世界博览会中最具吸引力的景观设计项目,它充分地体现了这次世博会的主题思想:"水与可持续发展"。该文通过对萨拉戈萨世界博览会水上公园的地块现状、规划构思、园路设计、水处理系统及植被系统等方面进行分析与评价,进一步阐述对景观潜能的延伸和实现将是景观设计领域中全新的创作视角和思维方式。     

Non-Hall-Petch hardness dependence in ultrafine fibrous MgAl2O4-MgO eutectic ceramics fabricated by the laser-heated floating zone (LFZ) method

MgAl₂O₄-MgO eutectic ceramics were fabricated by the laser-heated floating zone (LFZ) method with various growth rates to assess its possible beneficial effect on microstructural aspects and mechanical properties. It was determined that the growth rate optimizing the microstructure and mechanical properties is 750 mm/h; below this value, coarsening of the fibrous microstructure takes place with a degradation of these properties. In the extreme case of 50 mm/h growth rate, the presence of undesirable transverse cracks was unavoidable. Thanks to the high growth rate of 750 mm/h, ultra-fine fibrous microstructure MgAl₂O₄-MgO eutectic ceramics can thus be fabricated with greater hardness (15.5 GPa from Vickers indentation and 22 GPa from nanoindentation) and flexural strength (?345 MPa). It is reported that hardness scales with the interfiber spacing λ according to a law of the type lnλ/λ, contrary to the assumed Hall-Petch-like dependence. This proposed law can be explained in terms of dislocation hardening induced by the MgO fibers.     

The Rise of the ‘Invisible Detail’: Ubiquitous Computing and the ‘Minimum Meaningful’

The architectural detail has provided the essential material building block for conveying an idea. Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel of the SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ask how this, though, is all set to change in a digital context. As technologies shrink and vanish from sight, what might become the new minimum meaningful unit for architecture? How might a new relational scale establish itself, at the level of the ‘invisible detail’ or the microchip? How might this, in turn, change the very nature of buildings as they become highly responsive, human-occupied transmitters?     

Otherwise Engaged: New Projects in Interactive Design

What are the possibilities of interactive technologies delivering a new level of social engagement in architecture? Taking 2002, with the ETH Ada project and Diller & Scofidio's Braincoat project, as an important watershed, Mark Garcia reviews the advances that have been made per se, and with four projects in particular, in socially interactive spatial design. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Open and Flexible Tradition

There is a rich tradition of Rationalist architecture in Spain, dating back to the years immediately after the Spanish Civil War and then the period of postwar recovery in the 1950s. Josep Maria Montaner explains how this has developed across time into a contemporary interpretation of Rationalism that is versatile and inclusive, often combining Functionalist ideas with a stripped-back repertoire of materials and elements. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.