Plenary III: Building blocks of healthy, sustainable communities: A Canadian perspective on the obesogenic built environment

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Spence
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Canadian Perspective

scholarly journals EARLY 20TH-CENTURY WOODEN TENEMENT BUILDINGS IN ESTONIA: BUILDING BLOCKS FOR NEIGHBORHOOD LONGEVITY

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Hess
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Housing Demand ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Art Nouveau

During the early 20th century, the urban housing supply in Estonia expanded quickly to meet growing housing demand, resulting in tenement districts conceived for maximum profitability of rental units. In Karlova, a district near the city center of Tartu, about five hundred wooden houses, built between 1911 and the early 1920s and displaying simple Art Nouveau details, are set amid a charming district with a distinct milieu. This article focuses on three time periods during which the development of its built environment gave Karlova its distinctiveness: (1) the years leading up to World War I; (2) the interwar period; and (3) the two decades since 1991, or the post-transition period. Although the district was neglected during the Soviet era, it remains remarkably intact and has even experienced, since the 1990s, gentrification. The high-quality housing stock and charming built environment has much to offer to its diverse population of students, professionals, families, and longtime residents. Santrauka Dvidešimtojo amžiaus pradžioje gyvenamųjų namų pasiūla Estijoje greitai augo atitikdama į augančius gyvenamojo ploto poreikius. Minėtos situacijos rezultatas - daugiabučių namų kvartalai sukurti taip, kad iš nuomojamų patalpų būtų gaunamas maksimalus pelnas. Karlova – kvartalas netoli Tartu centro. Jį sudaro apie penki šimtai medinių namų, pastatytų tarp 1911 ir 1920 metų. Pastatams būdingos paprastos Art Nouveauarchitektūrinės detalės, jie pastatyti išskirtinėje patrauklioje aplinkoje. Pateikiamame straipsnyje nagrinėjami trys laikotarpiai, per kuriuos užstatymo kaita aptariamoje teritorijoje sukūrė išskirtinį jos tapatumą: 1) laikotarpis iki Pirmojo pasaulinio karo; 2) tarpukaris; 3) du dešimtmečiai po 1991 m. Nežiūrint to, kad sovietiniais metais teritorija buvo nesaugoma ir ja nesirūpinama, Karlova išsaugojo nepažeistą architektūrinį urbanistinį vientisumą, o po 1990 m. teritorijoje prasidėjo gentrifikacijos procesai. Aukštos kokybės gyvenamasis užstatymas ir žavi urbanistinė aplinka gali daug pasiūlyti įvairioms gyventojų grupėms: studentams, profesionalams, šeimoms ir vyresnio amžiaus žmonėms.

Partners in the street ballet: An embodied process of person-space coupling in the built environment

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-307
Author(s):  
Alasdair Turner
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Markov Model ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Active Perception ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Motor Action ◽  
Embodied Action ◽  
Physical Layout ◽  
Do So

The diurnal movements of pedestrians in the built environment are sometimes typified as a ‘street ballet’, where each actor or dancer has their own set role within a larger complex. Every individual in the ballet may have many influences on their behaviour including the physical layout of the environment, cognitive strategies to navigate it, experiential or affective preferences as well as social, economic and political factors, but ultimately each one seems to obey apparently choreographed actions. The aim of this article is to understand whether or not there is in fact an underlying choreography to the ballet, in that certain steps or moves are more likely than others, such that a ‘dance’ through daily life is constructed. To do so, simple automata that use active perception to inhabit the world are evolved against different tasks within the environment, representing different sets of moves that may be taken. It is shown that any evolved automaton appears to embody a mathematical person–space relationship that joins visual affordance with motor action: the convergence of a simple Markov model of visual movement. From the Markov model, a general model of embodied action in the environment is proposed, whereby memory of the dance is ingrained over evolutionary history, such that it forms building blocks for non-discursive action within the built environment and comprises a possible common phenomenological framework.

Sustaining Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-96
Author(s):  
Jennifer Forestal
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Communities Of Interest ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Cooperative Activity ◽  
Democratic Communities ◽  
Democratic Spaces

Democratic spaces must also be durable. Durable spaces facilitate our attachments to our communities and to other members; they help us sustain communities. Chapter 3 draws from Alexis de Tocqueville’s writing on democracy to explain how the durability of the built environment can be a powerful resource for generating the attachments that sustain democratic communities by (1) continually reminding citizens of their social obligations and (2) facilitating repeated interactions between citizens. The chapter then turns to the example of Twitter—particularly the mechanism of hashtags—to explore these dynamics in a digital environment. Hashtags provide temporary boundaries that are useful for mobilizing, but not sustaining, communities of interest; as a result, Twitter is not a platform well suited for cultivating the attachments required for longer-term cooperative activity. The chapter concludes with suggestions as to how we might design more durable spaces—and sustainable communities—in digital environments.

scholarly journals Common Language of Sustainability for Built Environment Professionals—The Quintuple Helix Model for Higher Education

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5860
Author(s):  
Michael Crilly ◽  
Chandra Mouli Vemury ◽  
Richard Humphrey ◽  
Sergio Rodriguez ◽  
Tracey Crosbie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Generic Skills ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Quintuple Helix

One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for delivering sustainable communities is the idea of a “common language” for all built environment professionals. This suggestion has been repeated regularly with each new political and professional review within and between different sectors responsible for the delivery of sustainable communities. There have been multiple efforts to address academic limitations, industry fragmentation and promote more interdisciplinary working and sector collaboration. This research explored the role of skills for sustainable communities, particularly within the higher education (HE) sector, and the responses to support the development of a “common language of sustainability” that can be shared between different sectors, professional disciplines and stakeholders. As an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners working with the HE sector in the North East of England, we evaluate the progression of sector collaboration to develop a quintuple helix model for HE. We use this as a suitable framework for systematically “mapping” out the mixed sector (academic, public, business, community and environmental organisations) inputs and influences into a representative sample of HE degree modules that are delivered from foundation and undergraduate to postgraduate levels, including examples of part-time and distance-learning modules. We developed a cascade of models which demonstrate increasing levels of collaboration and their potential positive impact on the effectiveness of education on sustainable communities. The methodological assessments of modules were followed by semi-structured group reflective analysis undertaken through a series of online workshops (recorded during the Covid19 lockdown) to set out a collective understanding of the generic skills needed for the delivery of sustainable communities. These generic skills for sustainable communities are presented as a pedagogical progression model of teaching activities and learning outcomes applied to the levels within HE. We propose sustainability education principles and progressions with the hope that they can have an impact on the design or review of current degree modules and programmes. The paper informs future sustainability research to be grounded in holism and systems thinking; better understanding of values, ethics, influencing and political impact; and procedural authenticity.

scholarly journals Investigating the Effect of Structure to Structure Separation Distance on Firebrand Accumulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayaka Suzuki ◽  
Samuel L. Manzello
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Flow Simulation ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Separation Distance ◽  
Strong Wind ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Accumulation Zone ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Cfd Models ◽  
Effect Of Structure

Wind plays an important role in the built environment. Large outdoor fires in the built environment are no exception. Under strong wind, firebrands fly far, which leads to quick fire spread. In this study, the effect of structure to structure separation distance on firebrand accumulation was investigated by using a custom designed firebrand generator installed in a real scale wind tunnel. Firebrands accumulated at 4 and 6 m s−1, but no firebrand accumulation zone was observed at 8 and 10 m s−1, regardless of separation distance (SD). Experimental results were compared with a simple CFD flow simulation (no firebrands included). The size of firebrand accumulation zone as well as distance from the structure front was compared with SD in the cases of 4 and 6 m s−1 wind speeds. It was found that firebrands behave differently from SD = 1 to 2 m, to that of SD = 2 to 3 m. The results of this study are the first to explore these important interactions between firebrands and structure separation distances. The results of this work will help develop and design sustainable communities that may better resist the destruction of increasing large outdoor fire outbreaks worldwide, as well as help develop the next generation of CFD models needed to grasp the important large outdoor fire problem and associated firebrand processes.

scholarly journals Life between buildings from a street view image: What do big data analytics reveal about neighbourhood organisational vitality?

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802095719
Author(s):  
Mingshu Wang ◽  
Floris Vermeulen
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Street View ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
Mixed Use ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

This article uses big data from images captured by Google Street View (GSV) to analyse the extent to which the built environment impacts the survival rate of neighbourhood-based social organisations in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. These organisations are important building blocks for social life in urban neighbourhoods. Examining these organisations’ relationships with their environment has been a useful way to study their vitality. To extract data on built environment features from GSV images, we applied a deep learning model, DeepLabv3+. We then used elastic net regression to test the relationship between the built environment empirically – distinguishing between car-related, walking-related and mixed-use land infrastructure – and the survival of neighbourhood organisations. This testing approach is novel, to our knowledge not yet having been applied in Urban Studies. Besides revealing the effects of built environment features on the social life between buildings, our study points to the value of easily applicable observational big data. Data captured by GSV and other recently developed methods offer researchers the opportunity to conduct detailed yet relatively swift and inexpensive studies without resorting to overly coarse or common subjective measurements.

Photochemical Evolution of Interstellar/Precometary Organic Material

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 23-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis J. Allamandola ◽  
Max P. Bernstein ◽  
Scott A. Sandford
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Complex Species ◽  
Infrared Observations ◽  
Interstellar Ice ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
Ultraviolet Photolysis ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Simple Molecules ◽  
Complex Organic

AbstractInfrared observations, combined with realistic laboratory simulations, have revolutionized our understanding of interstellar ice and dust, the building blocks of comets. Since comets are thought to be a major source of the volatiles on the primative earth, their organic inventory is of central importance to questions concerning the origin of life. Ices in molecular clouds contain the very simple molecules H2O, CH3OH, CO, CO2, CH4, H2, and probably some NH3and H2CO, as well as more complex species including nitriles, ketones, and esters. The evidence for these, as well as carbonrich materials such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), microdiamonds, and amorphous carbon is briefly reviewed. This is followed by a detailed summary of interstellar/precometary ice photochemical evolution based on laboratory studies of realistic polar ice analogs. Ultraviolet photolysis of these ices produces H2, H2CO, CO2, CO, CH4, HCO, and the moderately complex organic molecules: CH3CH2OH (ethanol), HC(= O)NH2(formamide), CH3C(= O)NH2(acetamide), R-CN (nitriles), and hexamethylenetetramine (HMT, C6H12N4), as well as more complex species including polyoxymethylene and related species (POMs), amides, and ketones. The ready formation of these organic species from simple starting mixtures, the ice chemistry that ensues when these ices are mildly warmed, plus the observation that the more complex refractory photoproducts show lipid-like behavior and readily self organize into droplets upon exposure to liquid water suggest that comets may have played an important role in the origin of life.

Laboratory and in-situ analysis of comet dust

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 8-9
Author(s):  
D.E. Brownlee ◽  
A.L. Albee
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Cometary Material ◽  
Comet Dust

Comets are primitive, kilometer-sized bodies that formed in the outer regions of the solar system. Composed of ice and dust, comets are generally believed to be relic building blocks of the outer solar system that have been preserved at cryogenic temperatures since the formation of the Sun and planets. The analysis of cometary material is particularly important because the properties of cometary material provide direct information on the processes and environments that formed and influenced solid matter both in the early solar system and in the interstellar environments that preceded it.The first direct analyses of proven comet dust were made during the Soviet and European spacecraft encounters with Comet Halley in 1986. These missions carried time-of-flight mass spectrometers that measured mass spectra of individual micron and smaller particles. The Halley measurements were semi-quantitative but they showed that comet dust is a complex fine-grained mixture of silicates and organic material. A full understanding of comet dust will require detailed morphological, mineralogical, elemental and isotopic analysis at the finest possible scale. Electron microscopy and related microbeam techniques will play key roles in the analysis. The present and future of electron microscopy of comet samples involves laboratory study of micrometeorites collected in the stratosphere, in-situ SEM analysis of particles collected at a comet and laboratory study of samples collected from a comet and returned to the Earth for detailed study.

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