Design for the Future: Educational Institutions in the Gulf

Despite a distinguished heritage of learning in the Middle East, the expansion of provision for higher education is currently at an unprecedented scale. The Gulf States, in particular, are seeking to keep up with accelerated population growth and a demographic ‘youth bulge’. Guest-Editor Kevin Mitchell describes the architectural approaches employed in the design of institutions in the region from the first universities in Saudi Arabia to Foster + Partners's ground-breaking sustainable design for the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi and future projects.     

The Grounds of a Renewed Practice: Groundlab's Approach Towards Landscape and Infrastructure

Based in London and Beijing, Groundlab is an emerging international practice that specialises in landscape urbanism. Eva Castro, José Alfredo Ramírez and Eduardo Rico of Groundlab describe the potential that the ground itself provides for a new urbanism, which is able to integrate multiple fields and scales while also engaging with greater territorial systems. They explain how landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was influential in establishing an approach that uses ecological infrastructure as the basis for design. They proceed in describing two Groundlab projects that integrate ground remediation and water infrastructure techniques: Paisajes Latentes urban design masterplan for Valle De Chalco Solidaridad in Mexico City (2011) and the Ground Ecologies masterplan for the redevelopment of the Jiading District in Shanghai (2010).     

INVESTIGATION OF ACID DEPOSITION EFFECTS ON SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN RED SPRUCE (Picea rubens) BY DETERMINATION OF CALCIUM,MAGNESIUM, AND ALUMINUM IN FOLIAGE AND SURROUNDING SOIL USING ICP-OES

Red spruce (Picea rubens) are conifers found at high elevations (above 1370 m) sites in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. A decline of red spruce forests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains caused by atmospheric acid deposition has been reported since the 1970s. Acid deposition leaches essential nutrients (calcium and magnesium) out of the soil and increases the availability of toxic metals (aluminum) to plants. Acid deposition effects on red spruce forests were investigated by determining aluminum, calcium, and magnesium in foliage and surrounding soils using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). There was some correlation in nutrient or toxic metal concentrations found in the foliage or surrounding soils of red spruce trees with respect to elevation and geography of red spruce forests located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The majority of the results indicated that foliar nutrient or toxic metal concentrations from red spruce trees did not correlate with soil metal concentrations. Life stage of red spruces trees were independent of foliar or soil metal concentrations. A previously developed model using soil calcium/aluminum molar ratios suggested that almost all sample sites located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains are at high risk of adverse forests health effects. A comparison of red spruce sapling foliar calcium/aluminum ratios at Clingman's Dome, North Carolina/Tennessee, suggested a possible improvement since the 1980s in red spruce forest health. A comparison of sapling red spruce foliar calcium and magnesium concentrations with previous studies, which spanned 40 years, at Richland Balsam, North Carolina, suggested an improvement in red spruce health since 1994.     

A Sketchbook for the City to Come: The Pop-Up as R&D

Dan Hill , an Executive Director at Future Cities Catapult, is not content to accept that architecture is willy-nilly the carapace for the desires of the society that constructs it. He argues that pop-ups – all too often the tools of corporate branding or the cat's paw of gentrification – should be used to implement overt social initiatives, presaging an architecture of positive change in cities. A member of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra's Strategic Design Unit from 2011 to 2012, he helped lead the Open Kitchen initiative featured here.     

信息时代的文学图景与生存方式——论电影《阿凡达》和《幽灵公主》

动画与人们的审美情趣不断互动契合,业已形成一种具有一定独立性的文类,在世界范围内先造成很大影响,且正朝着纵深领域发展,构成当今视觉文化的重要组成部分。文章通过比较《幽灵公主》与《阿凡达》,探讨这两部作品对人类生存状况的深切关怀,探讨作者创作的"动机"。并且,从动画与文学的双重视角予以考量,以试图揭示我们所处时代的文学图景与生存方式。     

美国城市公园系统的形成与特点

该文回顾了美国城市公园系统产生的背景、近代公园的兴起、公园系统的形成过程、公园路和绿道的发展变化,并分析了其特点：最早建立公园法规、通过债券募集资金、公园系统建设与城市化同步、绿道发达且系统性强等.     

清代公主园寝特例 # ——寿臧和硕公主园寝图档研究

清代宗室、公主园寝是清代皇家陵寝体系重要组成部分,本文通过对寿臧和硕公主园寝样式雷图档研究、分析,还原方案设计过程,尤其对其地宫做法及原因进行探讨,为后续清代宗室、公主园寝建筑营造研究提供参考。     

道路景观保护中的变化与环境

杰克逊、克雷和其他相关人士对文化景观的研究及文献中包含了大量道路景观的内容。然而,交通廊道的保护实际上面临着许多挑战,其中大部分来自于他们长且窄的这一特点:虽然道路的结构(路基、路肩、涵洞)相对单一,且管辖权往往属于同一机构,道路本身维护相对简单。然而,廊道环境的保护通常很难,不仅由于它耗资巨大,利益相关者庞杂,还因其快速的变化。道路景观是社会环境下庞大的通讯、交通网的一部分,加之迅猛的技术变革对其产生的影响,使得道路成为"快速变化"的景观,即其使用方式、使用感受和自身特征都随着时间的推移而不断变化。考虑到如此的变化,长距离交通廊道的保护应该如何完成或根据时间的推移进行调整?来自美国本土的4个研究案例阐释了在地方、区域和国家尺度上道路景观保护所面临的挑战。论述了公园道、风景道和高速路的保护方法,及在这种保护方法下资源的动态转化与演变。