Rainwater's Well-come: Resettling former refugees into New Zealand

<p>There are now an unprecedented number of refugees world-wide. The global impact of this is felt in New Zealand, with the refugee quota set to increase in 2018. The refugee crisis is an important design problem that architects must engage with as refugees are a particularly vulnerable group of people. Typically refugees have been assimilated into New Zealand society, however it is known that this process can cause psychological harm. This thesis seeks to investigate how architecture can thoughtfully and compassionately engage with refugee communities through a design-led investigation which will explore how a dwelling can meet specific cultural and spatial needs while providing opportunities for self-employment, and how a space which is specifically designed for refugee needs can embrace diversity and create opportunities for intercultural dialogue in the wider community. To investigate this, a sociological framework is used as a lens to examine methods of integration which provide potential ways for architecture to be manifested. Refugees often arrive with few economic resources and can be more reliant on the state and their surrounding communities. The biggest issue felt over long-term resettlement for refugees is a lack of employment which has a direct impact as they don’t have enough money to meet their everyday needs. This can also contribute to a negative public opinion about refugees. To address this issue, this thesis seeks to investigate how a hybrid building type, the shop-house, could be explored to provide refugees a dwelling that could meet their specific cultural and spatial needs and create potential opportunities for self-employment, self-determination and intercultural contact. The shop-house is a fundamental feature of a city, and can provide an economic foothold for people of all economic means. However, this thesis discovers its limitations and explores an alternative option to allow a refugee community to put down roots and make a new life in a new country which also enriches the host community.</p>

Rainwater's Well-come: Resettling former refugees into New Zealand

<p>There are now an unprecedented number of refugees world-wide. The global impact of this is felt in New Zealand, with the refugee quota set to increase in 2018. The refugee crisis is an important design problem that architects must engage with as refugees are a particularly vulnerable group of people. Typically refugees have been assimilated into New Zealand society, however it is known that this process can cause psychological harm. This thesis seeks to investigate how architecture can thoughtfully and compassionately engage with refugee communities through a design-led investigation which will explore how a dwelling can meet specific cultural and spatial needs while providing opportunities for self-employment, and how a space which is specifically designed for refugee needs can embrace diversity and create opportunities for intercultural dialogue in the wider community. To investigate this, a sociological framework is used as a lens to examine methods of integration which provide potential ways for architecture to be manifested. Refugees often arrive with few economic resources and can be more reliant on the state and their surrounding communities. The biggest issue felt over long-term resettlement for refugees is a lack of employment which has a direct impact as they don’t have enough money to meet their everyday needs. This can also contribute to a negative public opinion about refugees. To address this issue, this thesis seeks to investigate how a hybrid building type, the shop-house, could be explored to provide refugees a dwelling that could meet their specific cultural and spatial needs and create potential opportunities for self-employment, self-determination and intercultural contact. The shop-house is a fundamental feature of a city, and can provide an economic foothold for people of all economic means. However, this thesis discovers its limitations and explores an alternative option to allow a refugee community to put down roots and make a new life in a new country which also enriches the host community.</p>

Push, Pull, Shrink, Grow: The co-share workplace interior that reflects changing spatial needs

<p>This thesis explores how co-working offices emerged as a solution to the shift in the social expectations of the workplace. It studies how the rise in the number of freelancers and entrepreneurs has resulted in the materialisation of co-working offices. It examines how co-working offices offer flexibility in terms of membership plans, but how their interior environments do not yet reflect this. In short it aims to investigate how these workplace interiors can adapt to meet residents needs. This research embraces the multi-functionality of the co-working office and the demands of residents who occupy these spaces. Three local case studies and international precedents are explored which give insight and offer opportunities on materiality, site context and multi-functional spaces. It explores how to engage residents by challenging how best to design co-working offices. This project considers the requirements of the co-working office and how co-working interiors are occupied throughout the day. The design proposes a kit of parts ‘space making’ solution, which enables co-working offices to meet resident’s needs. This research contributes to the limited published discussion of understanding interior space in the context of co-working offices. This research explores through interior architecture, how co-working offices can be designed to reflect its resident’s individual ways of working and co-workings varying spatial needs. Although based around co-working spaces, the researcher recognises the implications for findings based around corporate office environments.</p>

Push, Pull, Shrink, Grow: The co-share workplace interior that reflects changing spatial needs

<p>This thesis explores how co-working offices emerged as a solution to the shift in the social expectations of the workplace. It studies how the rise in the number of freelancers and entrepreneurs has resulted in the materialisation of co-working offices. It examines how co-working offices offer flexibility in terms of membership plans, but how their interior environments do not yet reflect this. In short it aims to investigate how these workplace interiors can adapt to meet residents needs. This research embraces the multi-functionality of the co-working office and the demands of residents who occupy these spaces. Three local case studies and international precedents are explored which give insight and offer opportunities on materiality, site context and multi-functional spaces. It explores how to engage residents by challenging how best to design co-working offices. This project considers the requirements of the co-working office and how co-working interiors are occupied throughout the day. The design proposes a kit of parts ‘space making’ solution, which enables co-working offices to meet resident’s needs. This research contributes to the limited published discussion of understanding interior space in the context of co-working offices. This research explores through interior architecture, how co-working offices can be designed to reflect its resident’s individual ways of working and co-workings varying spatial needs. Although based around co-working spaces, the researcher recognises the implications for findings based around corporate office environments.</p>

Does the Heart Want What It Wants? A Case for Self-Adapting, Mechano-Sensitive Therapies After Infarction

There is a critical need for interventions to control the development and remodeling of scar tissue after myocardial infarction. A significant hurdle to fibrosis-related therapy is presented by the complex spatial needs of the infarcted ventricle, namely that collagenous buildup is beneficial in the ischemic zone but detrimental in the border and remote zones. As a new, alternative approach, we present a case to develop self-adapting, mechano-sensitive drug targets in order to leverage local, microenvironmental mechanics to modulate a therapy's pharmacologic effect. Such approaches could provide self-tuning control to either promote fibrosis or reduce fibrosis only when and where it is beneficial to do so.

Typological features of housing for comfortable living of the elderly

The article analyses the spatial needs for comfortable living of different categories of elderly people: elderly dependent, semi-dependent or independent of assistance from others. The typological features of living spaces that will meet the needs of all categories of older people are considered.

Spacing behaviour.

This chapter discusses the effects of space on the health and behaviour of animals highlighting the following aspects: types of spacing (home range, territory, and individual space); spatial features; association versus avoidance; spatial needs; and crowding. The spacing behaviour for dogs, cats, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and poultry are presented.

Built environment and autism: towards a set of spatial requirements for autism friendly cities

Background The opportunity for people functioning in an atypical way to autonomously and fully interact with the city is often compromised or denied, due to the gap between their specific spatial needs and the physical and functional organization of the urban environment. The need to reconsider the living environments taking into account the vast diversity of people gained an increasing importance in the overall debate and specifically in the field of urban planning and design. The research aims at investigating the relationship between the urban environment and people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Methods A scoping review of current available original studies research exploring the relationship between autism and built environment was conducted. PubMed, Scopus, PsychInfo and Web Of Science where searched. Studies included provided spatial requirements for designing autism friendly environment. Results In total, 801 studies were identified and 22 were included. Current researches and applications investigating the role of spatial configuration as a means for improving the autonomy of people with ASD almost exclusively focus on closed and dedicated spaces (residences, schools, care facilities, healing gardens) mostly devoted to children. Starting from this and the data collected, a first set of enabling urban spatial requirements addressing the atypical urban functioning of people with ASD - the reduction of sensory overload and the use of visual supports - in order to promote their possibility to walk autonomously and safely across the everyday city is proposed. Conclusions Despite the wide variability of the spectrum which makes it very difficult to define effective design criteria for all people with ASD, it's possible to identify a set of recurrent spatial needs. Furthermore, designing cities for people with ASD can also contribute to healthier and more inclusive urban environments for other groups of vulnerable inhabitants.