Materiality and digital technologies: concrete experiments for the built environment

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Aramouny

PurposeThis paper presents the applied research and design work on innovative and sustainable building products developed by an undergraduate architecture seminar course. It presents the case for innovative uses of cement-based products, while framing the proposals within a global shift toward environmentally responsive and bio-integrated materials.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology utilizes a process of hybridization between digital fabrication and analog making methods that is framed within the larger design discourse and that intersects the digital design process with material know-how. The approach engages local problematics and applies advanced technology and the integration of natural behaviors to develop a rich applied design method.FindingsThrough the presented work and proposed building products, critical findings and outcomes emerge, ones that relate to the design process itself and others to the designed products.Originality/valueThe research presented here proposes novel approaches to cement-based building systems utilizing digital and analog fabrication, and original design solutions that engage with their context and provide active and crucial environmental performance.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Emami ◽  
Mark D. Packard ◽  
Dianne H.B. Welsh

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to extend effectuation theory at the front end by building cognitive foundations for the effectual design process.Design/methodology/approachWe adopt an integrative conceptual approach drawing on design cognition theory to explain entrepreneurial cognition.FindingsWe find a significant gap in the entrepreneurial cognition literature with respect to effectuation processes. We thus integrate the Situated Function–Behavior–Structure framework from design theory to elaborate on the cognitive processes of effectuation, specifically with regard to the opportunity development process. This framework describes the cognitive subprocesses by which entrepreneurs means and ends are cyclically (re)formulated over time until a viable “opportunity” emerges, and the venture is formalized, or else, the entrepreneur abandons the venture and exits.”Practical implicationsUnravelling this entrepreneurial design process may facilitate more appropriate and effective design work by entrepreneurs, leading to more successful product designs. It also should facilitate the development of better design techniques and instruction.Originality/valueThis research contributes to new cognitive foundations for effectuation theory and entrepreneurial process research. It better explains how means are transformed into valuable goods over time through an iterative reconsideration of means-ends frameworks. This theoretical elaboration will expectedly facilitate additional research into the iterative cognitive processes of design and enable more formulaic design thinking.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Morrow ◽  
Billy Hare ◽  
Iain Cameron

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider design engineers’ perception of health and safety and its impact on their behaviour during design activity. The study presents three types of design engineers each, exhibiting particular tendencies when faced with health and safety considerations during design. The discovery of these tendencies pose important implications for education and professional institutions and practical measures are suggested to help design engineers manage their tendencies to be more conducive to ensuring improved health and safety performance. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory design method was used – grounded theory, to include 13, in-depth, one-to-one interviews with design engineers, representing junior staff, middle and senior management. Findings – The paper provides empirical insights about how designers think and behave when asked to consider health and safety issues during the design process. It identifies three group types of designers: doers, receivers and givers, who will exhibit their particular tendencies based on how they view and understand the term health and safety. Research limitations/implications – The data obtained were from design engineers only, and therefore the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for those involved in the creation and development of designers e.g., educators and professional bodies. The data forms the basis for helping designers to manage their perceptions towards the term health and safety and thus, their tendencies exhibited in their behaviour. Originality/value – This paper contributes to new understanding of designers’ behaviour and considers the significance of how designers’ views of health and safety will influence their behaviour.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Miodrag Nestorovic ◽  
Predrag Nestorovic ◽  
Jelena Milosevic

This paper is related to the fact that use of computational tools for form generation, analysis and digital fabrication (CAD/CAM/CAE) in an efficient way enables accurate representation of ideas, simulation of diverse impact and production of rational design solutions. Application of geometrical and numerical computational methods and adoption of performance based priorities enables formal exploration in constrained conditions and improvement of architectural engineering design process. Implementation of advanced technologies in 3D digital design process facilitates production of unconventional complex designs, their verification by construction of physical models and experimental diagnostics, as phase preceding construction of real structure. Within this work concept that provides design of non-standard, context-specific, freeform structure using rapid prototyping technology and 3D optical measurement will be reviewed. The analyzed design solution of roof structure above atrium of National Museum in Belgrade has a function to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Tokuhisa ◽  
Tetsuro Morimoto

A variety of healthcare robots for elderly care have been developed. However, as the elderly and caregivers experience psychological resistance towards not only new technologies but specifically to robots, the adoption of healthcare robots has scarcely progressed. This article aims to develop a service design method, which consists of a design process including design tools to identify jobs in an elderly care facility and to reveal what kinds of jobs to assign to service robots and to caregivers. This article develops a design method which is composed of six steps and adopts original design tools to identify jobs needed in elderly care facilities and assign them to human and non-human actors, including service robots. The tools include an actor map to visualize the Actor to Actor (A2A) network, a current jobs to be done (JTBD) worksheet to visualize existing jobs, a new JTBD worksheet to visualize new jobs, and an actor worksheet to summarize information about each actor including their philosophy. With this design method, we conducted a series of workshops with the aim to develop a service fulfilled by humans and non-humans at an elderly care facility in Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. The results of questionnaires administered to the workshop participants demonstrated the effectiveness of all the tools except the new JTBD worksheet. Also, the results of interviews with employees in the elderly care facility indicated the effectiveness of the approach, which reveals visible and invisible regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements through interviews with human actors, and embeds them in the service design process. The design method including the original design tools proposed in this article contribute to a service design method for the use of robots in elderly care facilities by allocating jobs to human actors and non-human actors appropriately, and it also contributes to the issue of psychological resistance to the adoption of service robots in these facilities, which brings efficiencies to society. The contribution of this article is to reframe the issue of resistance to the adoption of service robots in elderly care facilities to the issue of what kinds of jobs in an elderly care facility should be assigned to service robots or caregivers, and the development of a service design process including original design tools.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Chang ◽  
Xiaoliang Jia ◽  
Kuo Liu ◽  
Hao Hu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a knowledge-enabled digital twin for smart design (KDT-SD) of aircraft assembly line (AAL) to enhance the AAL efficiency, performance and visibility. Modern AALs usually need to have capabilities such as digital-physical interaction and self-evaluation that brings significant challenges to traditional design method for AAL. The digital twin (DT) combining with reusable knowledge, as the key technologies in this framework, is introduced to promote the design process by configuring, understanding and evaluating design scheme. Design/methodology/approach The proposed KDT-SD framework is designed with the introduction of DT and knowledge. First, dynamic design knowledge library (DDK-Lib) is established which could support the various activities of DT in the entire design process. Then, the knowledge-driven digital AAL modeling method is proposed. At last, knowledge-based smart evaluation is used to understand and identify the design flaws, which could further improvement of the design scheme. Findings By means of the KDT-SD framework proposed, it is possible to apply DT to reduce the complexity and discover design flaws in AAL design. Moreover, the knowledge equips DT with the capacities of rapid modeling and smart evaluation that improve design efficiency and quality. Originality/value The proposed KDT-SD framework can provide efficient design of AAL and evaluate the design performance in advance so that the feasibility of design scheme can be improved as much as possible.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gangling Hou ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Binsheng Wang ◽  
Tianshu Song ◽  
...  

PurposeAn inter-story isolation structure (IIS) for AP1000 nuclear power plants (NPPs) is provided to resolve the conflict of seismic safety and the optimal location of air intakes.Design/methodology/approachThe effect of passive cooling system (PCS) is better with lower altitude of air intakes than that in the original design of AP1000 NPPs. Seismic performances of IIS NPPs, including the seismic responses, damping frequency bandwidth and seismic reduction robustness, are improved by combining the position of air intakes lower and the optimal design method.FindingsTheoretical analysis and numerical simulation are illustrated that the seismic reduction failure of IIS NPPs is the lowest probability of occurrence when PCS has highest working efficiency.Originality/valueThe IIS NPPs can transfer the contradiction between PCS work efficiency and seismic safety of NPPs to the mutual promotion of them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 1080-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Wiberg ◽  
Johan Persson ◽  
Johan Ölvander

Purpose This paper aims to review recent research in design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), including additive manufacturing (AM) terminology, trends, methods, classification of DfAM methods and software. The focus is on the design engineer’s role in the DfAM process and includes which design methods and tools exist to aid the design process. This includes methods, guidelines and software to achieve design optimization and in further steps to increase the level of design automation for metal AM techniques. The research has a special interest in structural optimization and the coupling between topology optimization and AM. Design/methodology/approach The method used in the review consists of six rounds in which literature was sequentially collected, sorted and removed. Full presentation of the method used could be found in the paper. Findings Existing DfAM research has been divided into three main groups – component, part and process design – and based on the review of existing DfAM methods, a proposal for a DfAM process has been compiled. Design support suitable for use by design engineers is linked to each step in the compiled DfAM process. Finally, the review suggests a possible new DfAM process that allows a higher degree of design automation than today’s process. Furthermore, research areas that need to be further developed to achieve this framework are pointed out. Originality/value The review maps existing research in design for additive manufacturing and compiles a proposed design method. For each step in the proposed method, existing methods and software are coupled. This type of overall methodology with connecting methods and software did not exist before. The work also contributes with a discussion regarding future design process and automation.


Author(s):  
Vimal Viswanathan ◽  
Shraddha Sangelkar ◽  
David Alexander ◽  
Johnathan Brock Moody

There is an abundance of multi-purpose products in the market. Multi-purpose products are defined as the artifacts that have more than one primary function. While some of the multipurpose products are well designed and successful in the market, many of them fail to make an impact. Many times, these products are designed without considering critical aspects of customer requirements into account. The current research in design theory and methodology primarily addresses the design of products with one main function and many supporting sub-functions. When more than one primary function is present in the design, the process becomes more complicated. Many times, the primary functions conflict with each other, making the design process further complicated. Motivated by this fact, we aim to develop a comprehensive design method that considers the user’s perspective for the design of multi-purpose products. As a first step, we developed a set of guidelines from a user point of view. This paper presents a case study where the authors redesigned a multi-purpose utility tool, which has a very high potential and a targeted audience. The original design process behind the product is studied with the help of the designer and the manufacturer. The newly developed guidelines are repeatedly applied on the product to derive new requirements for its redesign. Following a systematic redesign procedure, the product is redesigned. This paper details the case study along with the lessons learned from the same. It also describes the best scenarios for the use of the multi-purpose product design guidelines.


Author(s):  
Timur Smetani ◽  
Elizaveta Gureva ◽  
Vyacheslav Andreev ◽  
Natalya Tarasova ◽  
Nikolai Andree

The article discusses methods for optimizing the design of the Neutron Converter research plant design with parameters that are most suitable for a particular consumer. 38 similar plant structures with different materials and sources were calculated, on the basis of which the most optimal options were found. As part of the interaction between OKBM Afrikantov JSC and the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R. E. Alekseev, the Neutron Converter research plant was designed and assembled. The universal neutron converter is a device for converting a stream of fast neutrons emitted by isotopic sources into a "standardized" value of flux density with known parameters in the volume of the central part of the product, which is the working part of the universal neutron converter. To supply neutron converters to other customer organizations (universities, research organizations and collective centers), it is necessary to take into account the experience of operating an existing facility, as well as rationalize the design process of each specific instance in accordance with the requirements of the customer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3266
Author(s):  
Insub Choi ◽  
Dongwon Kim ◽  
Junhee Kim

Under high gravity loads, steel double-beam floor systems need to be reinforced by beam-end concrete panels to reduce the material quantity since rotational constraints from the concrete panel can decrease the moment demand by inducing a negative moment at the ends of the beams. However, the optimal design process for the material quantity of steel beams requires a time-consuming iterative analysis for the entire floor system while especially keeping in consideration the rotational constraints in composite connections between the concrete panel and steel beams. This study aimed to develop an optimal design method with the LM (Length-Moment) index for the steel double-beam floor system to minimize material quantity without the iterative design process. The LM index is an indicator that can select a minimum cross-section of the steel beams in consideration of the flexural strength by lateral-torsional buckling. To verify the proposed design method, the material quantities between the proposed and code-based design methods were compared at various gravity loads. The proposed design method successfully optimized the material quantity of the steel double-beam floor systems without the iterative analysis by simply choosing the LM index of the steel beams that can minimize objective function while satisfying the safety-related constraint conditions. In particular, under the high gravity loads, the proposed design method was superb at providing a quantity-optimized design option. Thus, the proposed optimal design method can be an alternative for designing the steel double-beam floor system.


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