Is architecture relevant for political theory?

Is architecture relevant for political theory? That is the key question that structures this excellent collection Political Theory and Architecture, although a number of essays fit a broader formulated theme better, namely, concerning the political relevance of the organization and design of our built environment more generally, including architecture but also spatial planning and urban design. The collection demonstrates that our build environment is not merely a passive backdrop to a political community, but actively shapes aspects of our common political life. This constitutive nature of our built environment figures in many different guises throughout this volume. In this review article, I discuss some of these and conclude that concerns about the ‘common good’ and hence about the discipline of political theory should take reflections on urban design, planning, and architecture into account.

Rethinking territoriality concept on public space after pandemic COVID-19

The spread and pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that is currently happening in the world, has led to new policy steps in the security of public spaces to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and protect public health. There is new adaptation in the policies while using space like limiting the use of public spaces, increasing social distancing between people or creating territory. Territory means specific area where are claimed or maintained (can be physically, through ruler or symbols). Territory can give a sense of security to the users. Therefore, this paper give insight and rethinking the territory concept as sense of security in interior public space and built environment where people expect to see strangers in this space. The methods in this paper are literature review method by collecting and synthesizing previous research using integrative approach. For the result is territory concept achieved as part of protection to the users in the build environment with mechanisms that should be applied in each type: the boundary between areas; limitation to the symbolic; supervision and control of space.

Subtask A: User perspective and requirements - A.3 Personas

The consumption of energy for lighting in buildings depends very much on the way people interact with the build environment. In this study the following building types were studied, office, school, university, commercial and industry buildings. For each building type typical user groups were identified. Then, Personas have been created for each group. As opposed to describing users with numbers and statistics, a single Persona reflects a group and is presented with a narrative. The Persona has a name, a family and living conditions that are representative for the group, also her/his values and interests are not uncommon. The Personas “typical day” includes a time schedule typical for the group. Visual conditions are common for the group, but some specific challenges connected to the visual conditions that may occur in the group are also mentioned.

Adaptive Reuse and Sustainability Protocols in Italy: Relationship with Circular Economy

This paper explores the enhancement of adaptive reuse (AR) of buildings through the lens of the sustainability protocols within the context of circular economy (CE) in Italy. Cities and the built environment can play a key role in the transition to a CE, especially considering the documented negative global impact due to resource consumption and waste generation. This is recognised among the principles of circularity defined by the European Commission towards a general strategy for a sustainable built environment, which encourages initiatives of building reuse and land consumption reduction. It has been proven that the AR of vacant buildings can bring environmental, social, and economic benefits towards an urban strategy based on CE principles by generating useful values to support innovative development dynamics. In this perspective, the sustainability protocols can be identified as useful tools to pursue strategies for spreading the culture of sustainable build environment. Considering the huge vacant Italian architectural heritage, this paper aims to analyze how the most widely used sustainability protocols in the Italian context currently address the enhancement of the reuse of buildings, to improve environmental, social, and economic quality in the built environment. We discuss the results highlighting how and which sustainability protocols better intercept these issues, providing grounds for future development.

Sustainability of the build environment and its impact on user performance. Case study Polis University

<p>The built environment is important not only for its users and owners, but also for the community and society as a hole, and yet, construction is one of the most energy consuming, destructive, and moreover material consuming industries. Deficiencies with adaptability to meet changing needs in terms of sustainability in architecture can eventually cause needless costs, environmental pressure and dissatisfaction. The aim of this study is to explore whether the circular construction and sustainability of built environments is not only a matter of reducing environmental impacts and limiting the use of non-renewable resources, but it can be successfully used to enhance of environmental protection, social equity, and economic development of a facility. Furthermore, the study tries to understand whether we can use circularity principles not only for the building to be more sustainable and in line with circular economy principles, but also be used to enhance user performance, in this specific case the performance of student and academic staff. The study was applied to Polis University and its premises. Two survey formats were specifically designed to collect data on overall functionality and comfort of Polis University facilities, as well as data on academic staff and student self assessment performance. The study emphasizes the importance of the elements of sustainable built environment, and the care that designers and builders need to achieve what is called optimal comfort and functionality of each element, keeping in mind not only end users but also environmental, social and economical aspects as a fully accomplished sustainable architecture design.</p>

Overtourism Phenomenon at Borobudur Temple Based on The Penta Helix Perspectives

The purpose of this research is to identify the overtourism issues at Borobudur Temple based on Penta Helix's perspectives. There is 5 kind of issues that will be identified based on Peeter et al (2018) such as issues related to tourist number, issues related to physical or build environment, socio-cultural issues, socio-economic issues and tourist perception based on Penta Helix perspectives. The empirical condition happened that many events like Borobudur Symphony, Concert Marathon, and the liked conducted in the area of Borobudur Temple. This study used qualitative research. Researchers wanted to understand the phenomena of certain social conditions that occurred in the research place. To identify the overtourism phenomenon in destination, the interview was conducted with each stakeholder according to Penta Helix elements which consist of academicians, business, community, government, and media. By interviewing each of Penta Helix elements, comprehensive findings can be produced following the 5 kinds of issues mentioned. According to each stakeholder by the Penta Helix model, there are some overtourism phenomena or issues that already happened in the destination. Those are issues related to tourist numbers, physical and built environment, socio-cultural issues, and tourist perception. And one of the issues that have not happened in the destination is socio-economic issues.

Fractal tools to analyse the spatial variability of Blue Green Solutions in an urban area

&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;A city's response to a rainfall event depends not only on the rainfall spatial-temporal variability, but also on the spatial distribution and the initial state of its Blue Green Solutions (BGS), such as green roofs. They hold back runoff and may prove being critically important elements of blue-green build environment.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The aim of this study was first to adapt the existing hydrological model to the urban area of Melun (France), to validate it and then to assess numerically an optimal configuration of green roofs&amp;#160;to mitigate pluvial floods for particularly vulnerable areas. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;The main focus was put on the investigation of interactions between rainfall space-time scales and resulting hydrological response over fine scales, all being controlled by the performance assessment of BGS. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This presentation will particularly illustrate how fractal &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;tools were used to:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;- highlight the scale dependency of the input variables and its e&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ects on gridded model performance;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;- explore, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;analyse&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; and represent the influence of BGS location and configuration on the mitigation of runoff associated with short-duration, high-intensity rainfall at neighborhood scale;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;#160;- identify the urban design options that maximize the potential for runoff reduction&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;In overall, these &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;results may serve as a referential &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;for upscaling the optimized implementation of BGS in urban areas, by considering other urban infrastructures and their interactions.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt;

Introduction

This Oxford handbook on non-synoptic wind systems is an outlook of the state of knowledge of various aspects of these wind systems and their impacts on our natural and build environment. During the last two decades, it has become clear that these types of winds dominate in terms of damage in some geographical areas; at the same time, they are different from the large-scale synoptic winds for which the knowledge matured. As opposed to the synoptic winds, the non-synoptic ones are localized in both space and time, three dimensional in nature while having similar intensities. The handbook explores the particularities of this type of wind in terms of climatology, surface layer, and aerodynamic and structural impacts on buildings, structures, and natural habitat. It also addresses the implications on risk analysis, engineering guidelines and codes, socioeconomic aspects, and insurance policies. The handbook comes at the moment when the state of knowledge in this area has evolved but is not yet mature. Therefore, it provides the opportunity to inform and trigger debate.

Introduction: Framing Community and Spatial Exclusion

This section focuses on the community and spatial aspects of social exclusion. For this introduction, we define the community aspect of exclusion as the unintended reduction of participation in local life and spatial aspects of exclusion as the unintended reduction of mobility outside and inside of a person’s home. Fighting against social exclusion of older adults is a priority due to the negative effects of exclusion on older adults’ quality of life as well as on the equity and cohesion of an ageing society as a whole (adapted from Levitas et al. 2007 in Walsh et al. 2017, p. 83). Place, as a socio-spatial phenomenon, can shape older adults’ lives and their experiences of social exclusion. It encompasses dimensions such as social and relational aspects of place, amenities and build environment, place-based policy and experiential belonging. The purpose of this chapter is to briefly introduce some allied concepts related to older people’s relationship with their place and environment, and broadly illustrate the relevance of this relationship to old-age social exclusion. The chapter closes with a short introduction to each contribution within this section.