Visual Description of the Indoor Space of Real Estate in Crowd-Sourcing Environments

Emerging the power of collective intelligence through crowdsourcing could create a clear path for visualizing real estate as well. One of the Crowdsourcing applications is describing the indoor space of a real estate. This paper aims to describe real estate in the context of spatial crowdsourcing. Qualitative and quantitative criteria were used in this study to describe the real estate space, topological relationships, directional relations, color, location, dimensions, and height as qualitative criteria. Quantitative criteria were selected as the dimensions and height. The proposed model was evaluated by two groups: those who had never seen the real estate and others that had already seen the same real estate. We implemented a website called SAMA1 to evaluate the proposed model with crowdsourcing data using online collaborative tools. SAMA is using tools, such as a sketch plan, photo, text, virtual tour, and visual descriptions. To evaluate SAMA, we compared it with four representative commercial websites, and the impact of the tools was precisely examined. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed model can be utilized to visually describe the indoor space of real estate in crowd-sourcing environments.

Energy simulation supported sketch plan optimization of the University of Pécs, Medical School extension

A building physics supported development was undertaken for the new block of the University of Pécs, Medical School. During sketch design stage climate, lighting and energy simulations were applied to quantify energy optimization strategies. Simulation cases assess the impact of shading technologies, wall-window ratios and thermal masses on used thermal energy demand. Based on a previous study about visual and comfort performance, goal was to identify the highest energy efficiency rates with maximum investment cost savings. Besides best comfort results, the most optimal development represents 9% saving in used thermal energy, and they were proposed for further design.

Comfort simulation supported sketch plan optimization of the University of Pécs, Medical School extension

During sketch design stage for the new block of the University of Pécs, Medical School comfort and lighting simulations were applied to quantify optimization strategies. Simulation cases about shading possibilities, façade glazing ratios and internal heat storage masses evaluate the impact of illumination, solar gains, loads and heat transmission on visual and thermal comfort. The goal was to select the most favorable comfort, coupled with maximum reduction of investment costs. Concepts represent 14% (shading), 10% (reduced wall-window ratio), 11% (slabs without suspended ceilings), and 17% (combined wall-window ratio and thermal mass) improvement in thermal comfort performance, and it was proposed for further design.

Use of drone for scene investigation

This article aims at presenting the possibilities of using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) as tools for producing photomaps of the sites being investigated. This novel technology emerging in the civilian sector can provide additional documentation in the form of orthophotomaps to be included in the case file next to traditional documentation. Subsequently, an actual, horizontally projected, freely scalable image can effectively replace a traditional sketch-plan.

Colin St John Wilson and the Independent Group: Art, Science and the Psychologising of Space

As an architect with the London County Council (LCC), a newspaper columnist, friend of artists and an incipient collector, Colin St John Wilson is a fascinating figure in the interacting circles of 1950s London. It was Wilson’s sketch-plan that ordered the ‘market-stalls’ of the This is Tomorrow exhibition and – in the opinion of Theo Crosby – the display he created with architect Peter Carter, engineer Frank Newby and sculptor Robert Adams most closely achieved the exhibition’s original aim of an anonymous synthesis of the arts. In this article, the author interprets Wilson’s life, work and theory as both critique and commentary in an examination of three pertinent issues within the Independent Group: the possibilities of artistic collaboration in architecture; the creative tension in architecture between science/technology and art/humanism; and the potential for a deeper psychologising of space – linked to psychoanalytical debates of the time. Interrogating these concerns is of importance, the author proposes, as they were so central to the discourses and form-making of architecture both at the time and in the immediate futures of the 1960s, the 1970s and afterwards.

Generalize Key Requirements for Designing IT-Based System for Green with Considering Stakeholder Needs

Forward-thinking governments and companies are attaching great importance to sustainable development for protecting natural environments and advancing human ecosystems. For this purpose, information technology (IT) based system with applying environmental management theories has become an emerging means of promoting smarter services for Green. However, how to strategically generalize key requirements for designing such IT-based environmental services is crucial but merely discussed. To systematically analyze essential needs of planning services, a Define-Analyze-Sketch-Plan (DASP) framework referring to various concepts including strategy management, technology foresight, contemporary environmental management system models, value engineering, and signpost-based decision making is introduced in this paper. Through performing the DASP, V&T Network, and N&F Matrix are delivered to sketch initiatives for system development and strategic signposts for risk management. In practice, the proposed process-oriented DASP can not only benefit system design for IT-based Green services but also indicate a valuable research direction towards Environmental Management and Engineering.

Creating 3D Models from Sketch Plans for Spatial Landscape Evaluation

2D sketch plans are hard to interpret for non-professionals and do not contain enough information for plan evaluation. Simple extrusion of 2D sketch plans into 3D will not suffice. This problem is faced by stakeholders in the early stages of the plan design process. Landscape types play an important role in bridging the gap between abstract 2D plans and 3D physical models. A landscape type consists of pictures from an existing landscape, a 3D model and additional attributes providing quantitative data. Through a matching algorithm, 2D landscape components in the sketch plan are replaced by 3D objects. Multiple 3D plans can be created from a specific area with different landscape types. These 3D plans are visualized with a high level of realism and they can be evaluated using the additional data. In this paper examples are shown for an apartment district and a villa district under different energy scenarios. The visual consequences of strategic energy decisions become apparent in the 3D model.