scholarly journals Ambiance through Spatial Organization in Vernacular architecture of hot and dry regions of India − The case of Ahmedabad and Jodhpur

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 03002
Author(s):  
Vibha Gajjar ◽  
Foram Bhavsar

Most notable vernacular settlements of the past had a potential of generating stimulating ambiance because of their “organicness”. The understanding of the “Nature of order” in this informality can identify the factors or parameters generating the definite spatial character appropriate for the time and place. The spatial character generates the spirit of the place, what we call the genius loci. This paper analyses the relationship of spatial organization and ambiance of the old city settlements in hot and dry climatic regions of two selected cities of India − Ahmedabad and Jodhpur at various levels. Both the selected cities are informal in nature and rich with its ambiance. Space syntax and digital simulations are used to decode the parameters of the spatial organization. The spatial morphology is analysed using tools such as justified graph analysis, visibility graph analysis, isovists analysis, agent movement analysis and sunlight study. The result of the study is summarised in tabular format and presented in a graphical manner for better understanding. This analysis is valuable in the derivation of the constants and variables to define the learning from the vernacular spatial organization.

2020 ◽  
pp. 279-287
Author(s):  
Pablo Jara-Espinoza

Ante la necesidad de contar con criterios de orden que otorguen identidad a la arquitectura, y ante la evidente identidad que posee la arquitectura vernácula, considerando la relación de aproximadamente 3600 años entre humano y entorno, inicia la búsqueda de los criterios de orden de esta arquitectura. Al comprobar que sus criterios provienen del lugar, resulta que la universalidad de la naturaleza está presente en su forma. Mediante el análisis de las similitudes entre la arquitectura vernácula y la arquitectura moderna, se identifica la universalidad de los criterios compartidos. Tanto la arquitectura moderna como la vernácula descubren la forma arquitectónica solo al final de un proceso riguroso, en el que la estrategia estructural es resuelta simultáneamente con el programa y las particularidades del lugar, mediante una serie de decisiones tomadas con autenticidad y solvencia, dan como resultado una forma arquitectónica coherente con el entorno natural y cultural, teniendo como protagonista al ser humano. En este sentido, partiendo de los resultados de la investigación, en la cual, se comprobó que el orden formal de la arquitectura vernácula depende de los factores constantes que el lugar posee, este artículo sintetiza los resultados encontrados para analizarlos desde las similitudes teóricas respecto a la relación entre arquitectura moderna y lugar presente en la obra de Mies van der Rohe. Una vez encontradas las similitudes más evidentes se procede a identificar la universalidad en sus estrategias, de esta manera se obtienen criterios de orden que al ser aplicados otorgan identidad a los proyectos arquitectónicos contemporáneos. Palabras clave: Arquitectura, vernáculo, forma, modernidad, lugar, entorno, identidad. AbstractGiven the need to have order principles that give identity to architecture, and faced with the evident identity that vernacular architecture has, considering the relationship of approximately 3600 years between humans and the environment, the search for order principles for this architecture begins. By confirming that its criteria come from the place, it turns out that the universality of nature is present in its form. Through the analysis of the similarities between vernacular architecture and modern architecture, the universality of the shared criteria is identified. Both, modern and vernacular architecture, discover the architectural form only at the end of a rigorous process, in which the structural strategy is resolved simultaneously with the program and the particularities of the site, through a series of decisions taken with authenticity and solvency, resulting in an architectural form consistent with the natural and cultural environment, with the human being as the protagonist. In this sense, starting from the results of the investigation, in which it was proved that the formal order of the vernacular architecture depends on the constant factors that the place has, this article synthesizes the results found and analyzes them by taking into account the theoretical similarities between modern architecture and the place present in Mies van der Rohe's work. Once the most evident similarities are found, the universality in their strategies is identified; in this way, order criteria are obtained, that when applied, give identity to contemporary architectural projects. Keywords: Architecture, vernacular, form, modernity, place, environment, identity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yizhi Zhou ◽  
Miao Wei

AbstractThe Shui people are an ethnic minority living in southern mountainous areas of Guizhou Province, China; they have retained many vernacular houses with a history of over a century. Using spatial analysis software depthmapX to perform visibility graph analysis and field-of-view analysis with space syntax, we examined the sequence, organisation, and hierarchy of the living space in Shui residences. We found that those residences were influenced by external cultures, resulting in two types of plan layout: front-middle-back (type A) and left-middle-right (type B). Those two types of spatial combination were evident in two different line-of-sight axes. With type A, the hearth was the core and served as the daily living space of the family. With type B, the ancestral altar was the core and served as the ritual space. The historical coexistence and changing relationship of the two axes reflect cultural exchange between the Shui and Han as well as with other foreign cultures. This study concludes that the diversity of spatial forms that developed in different historical periods is an important attribute of Shui houses and those of other ethnic minorities in Southwest China.


2020 ◽  
pp. 095269512093609
Author(s):  
Peter Ekman

What do houses do to the people who live with them? In what sense are houses themselves living things? If they live and act, how to conceive of the relationship between built and natural landscapes, and between environment and life more broadly? This article considers three moments at which human geographers have attempted to answer these questions without submitting to visions of environmental causation and constraint favoured by determinists, who dominated the discipline into the early 20th century. The article begins with the work of Carl Sauer, by 1925 the major American figure refuting environmental determinism at a theoretical level and recommending the study of housing as an articulate transcript of human action. It then looks back to the American writings of Friedrich Ratzel, one of several German scholars Sauer canonized, to illuminate a more vitalistic ontology of domestic architecture, and an urbanism, untapped by Sauer when filing his dissent. It then looks ahead to mid-century studies of vernacular architecture – by those of Sauer’s students friendlier to urban life than he was, and by the critic and publisher J. B. Jackson – to assess how this inheritance informed critiques of industrial modernity in the post-war United States. The article observes certain continuities, despite manifest tensions, between ‘old’ and ‘new’ cultural geographies. It also routes a long-standing set of debates concerning the relationship of materiality to meaning – and of spatial to social form – through the case of human geography, a peculiar interstice in the broader constellation of disciplines.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
Hamza Zeghlache ◽  
Nadır Alıkhodja

This paper addresses the forms, renovation and retrofitting of the rural settlements in the North-western county of Setif in Algeria. This region has a major advantage of being able to have a representation of the traditional rural dwellings within a massive mountain resulted in a particular Berber culture. The study will allow us to understand the relationship of the frame built respecting the physical and socioeconomic constraints, including the ongoing retrofitting. Many studies are based on the astonishing assumption that the village space is a continuation in another dimension of the urban space; this vision has marginalized village capacities in favour of an image of modernity (technical, social and political), leading to the lost of a whole cultural past. The new constructions care very slightly for ecology. The result is unsuitable houses, uncomfortable, ungracious sites and landscapes. We shall study here the effects of changes in the construction methods, in terms of a spatial organization, materials and aesthetics. This fact affects the original essence of rural architecture in this region. Is it possible to restore the delicate balance between forms, meanings and functions of theses constructions? One of the objectives of this work is deepening knowledge on this traditional crafts environment. There is also an interest in the contemporary manifestations of this habitat and forms of these contemporary changes. The data obtained during the field study (the Berber villages) are analysed and evaluated, and guidelines are proposed to improve the methods in intervening on rural housing in this region.


Vargha Lászlóban (1904–1984) az utókor elsősorban a néprajztudóst tiszteli, jóllehet szakmai pályája kiterjedt a muzeológiára és az építészettörténetre is. E három tudományterülettel életszakaszonként eltérő mértékben foglalkozott. Tevékenységét mindhárom diszciplína esetében áthatotta a finnek építészete iránti érdeklődés. Cikkemben életútját e szempontból vizsgálom, felhasználva a Szentendrei Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeumban őrzött archívumát. Fiatalkorának meghatározó élmenyei kötődnek a finnekhez. Személyes visszaemlékezése alapján Vargha a finn építészettel és művészettel gyermekkorában ismerkedett meg egy magyar folyóiratban. Pályakezdőként csereprogrammal jut el Finnországba és köt barátságot finnekkel. A második világháború idején közreműködik egy finnugor kiállítás összeállításában Budapesten és Kolozsvárott. Mindeközben gyűjti és jegyzeteli a finn néprajzi szakirodalmat. A háborút követően a nemzetközi kapcsolattartás lehetőségei szűkülnek, Vargha is csak később tér viszsza a finn kultúrához. A hatvanas években a helyszínen tanulmányozza a szabadtéri néprajzi gyűjteményeket – köztük számos északit –, melynek tanulságaival hozzájárul a Szentendrei Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum – svéd szóval: a skanzen – létrejöttéhez. Oktatóként az egyetemi órákon is tanítja a kortárs finn építészetet. Előadásokon, kiállításokon mutatja be itthon Finnország építészetével kapcsolatos ismereteit. Emellett szakmailag legkiemelkedőbb fellépései a finnugor kongresszusokhoz köthetők, melyekben visszatér egy őt korábban is foglalkoztató témakörhöz; melynek értelmében a magyar népi építészetnek létezik egy ősi, finnugor rétege. Sikereit árnyalja, hogy pályája végén több jelentős publikációs lehetőséggel nem élt. Egyéb érdemei mellett Vargha László kiemelkedő alakja a finn–magyar kulturális kapcsolatoknak, a finnekkel kapcsolatos kiemelkedő munkássága pedig önálló fejezettel gazdagíthatja pályája értékelését. László Vargha (1904–1984) is considered a prominent ethnographer in Hungary, albeit he was active in museology and history of architecture as well. During his career he had shifted between these topics. His contribution to all three disciplines was affected with a profound interest in Finnish art and architecture. My article investigates his professional career in the light of his appeal, using the sources preserved in his personal archive in the Hungarian Open-Air Museum. Vargha had determinative experience related to Finland during his youth. His first encounter with Finnish art was in the pages of a Hungarian periodical in his childhood. In an exchange programme he visited Finland and made friends with his peers. During the Second World War he contributed to an exhibition on Finno-Ugric peoples. The archives reveal that he had studied Finnish ethnographic literature in this period. Possibilities for maintaining international relationships were reduced after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Vargha returned to Finnish culture only after a significant interval. In the sixties he conducted a study trip to various open-air museums. Many of those destinations were in Sweden and Finland. The study trip contributed to the foundation of the Hungarian Open-Air Museum, which still borrows its name in Hungarian from the Nordic Museum: skanzen. As a university lecturer he introduced Finnish architecture to the curriculum. Vargha presented Finnish architecture in lectures and exhibitions across Hungary. He also participated in the International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies, where he revisited the concept that an archaic Finno-Ugric layer is present in Hungarian vernacular architecture. Despite the possibilities offered and his thorough knowledge he failed to publish significant publications at the end of his career. Apart from his other achievements László Vargha was also an important character in the relationship of Finnish and Hungarian architecture, and his outstanding oeuvre related to Finland could enrich his professional evaluation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20170237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasos Varoudis ◽  
Abigail G. Swenson ◽  
Scott D. Kirkton ◽  
James S. Waters

The physical spaces within which organisms live affect their biology and in many cases can be considered part of their extended phenotype. The nests of social insect societies have a fundamental impact on their ability to function as complex superorganisms. Ants in many species excavate elaborate subterranean nests, but others inhabit relatively small pre-formed cavities within rock crevices and hollow seeds. Temnothorax ants, which often nest within acorns, have become a model system for studying collective decision making. While these ants have demonstrated remarkable degrees of rationality and consistent precision with regard to their nest choices, never before has the fine scale internal architecture and spatial organization of their nests been investigated. We used X-ray microtomography to record high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) scans of Temnothorax colonies within their acorns. These data were then quantified using image segmentation and surface-based 3D visibility graph analysis, a new computational methodology for analysing spatial structures. The visibility graph analysis method integrates knowledge from the field of architecture with the empirical study of animal-built structures, thus providing the first methodological cross-disciplinary synergy of these two research areas. We found a surprisingly high surface area and degree of spatial heterogeneity within the acorn nests. Specific regions, such as those associated with the locations of queens and brood, were significantly more conducive to connectivity than others. From an architect's point of view, spatial analysis research has never focused on all-surface 3D movement, as we describe within ant nests. Therefore, we believe our approach will provide new methods for understanding both human design and the comparative biology of habitat spaces. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.


Author(s):  
Yu. Alekseev ◽  
M. Perekopskaya

The problem of assessing the urban development potential of the territories of the timber industry complex of the Arkhangelsk region, due to the conditions, features and specifics of the location of settlements and industries is considered; suggestions for improving their spatial organization are given. The existing system of placement and the relationship of settlements and industries within the existing territorial borders of the Arkhangelsk region does not meet new facts and data due to the features of the technological process of harvesting, woodworking technologies, reforestation and the sequence of their implementation. To ensure the vital activity of these settlements and industries, it is proposed to consider the territory of the timber industry complex in the form of a system of urban development areas. Their boundaries are determined by the potential of forest plots, which are the raw material base for enterprises; by a system of enterprises for wood harvesting, woodworking and processing of wood; by territories of municipal districts, settlements and the availability of labor resources within these districts, the specifics of functional processes, functions, factors characteristic of the planning of settlements and industries in the Arkhangelsk region being taken into account. The establishment of the boundaries of the urban development area while planning the settlements and industries in the Arkhangelsk region will provide reasonable measures for their territorial and spatial organization and placement in accordance with modern conditions and requirements.


Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.


Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.


Author(s):  
Leon Dmochowski

Electron microscopy has proved to be an invaluable discipline in studies on the relationship of viruses to the origin of leukemia, sarcoma, and other types of tumors in animals and man. The successful cell-free transmission of leukemia and sarcoma in mice, rats, hamsters, and cats, interpreted as due to a virus or viruses, was proved to be due to a virus on the basis of electron microscope studies. These studies demonstrated that all the types of neoplasia in animals of the species examined are produced by a virus of certain characteristic morphological properties similar, if not identical, in the mode of development in all types of neoplasia in animals, as shown in Fig. 1.


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