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Environments (out) of Control: Notes on Architecture’s Cybernetic Entanglements
Get PDFThis article examines the contradictory circuits of (neo)cybernetics in contemporary architectural and urbanistic discourse by reframing them within the ‘environmentalitarian’ epoch. Cybernetics is today simultaneously exalted as a liberatory mechanism for designing emergence, complexity and open-endedness, and constitutive of an indiscernible mode of decentralised, environmentally modulated control. The history of cyberneticisation has received renewed attention as the key catalyst for environmentalisation, and as the predominant control paradigm underlying late-capitalist Environmentality. Given the profound spatial implications of this trajectory, understanding architecture’s own cybernetic entanglements is a much-needed step towards a critical revaluation of environmentality. The article thus maps the cybernetic imaginary ‘at large’ across architecture – alongside landscape architecture and urbanism – under various guises such as adaptation, responsiveness, cultivation, resilience or conversation. By probing the salient characteristics of these approaches, their problematic proximity to the logic of cybernetic capitalism is contextualised in relation to the broader ontological and ontopolitical questions of the Anthropocene era. The article concludes by tracing possible conceptual trajectories amid and beyond the restrictive circuits of Environmentality: from adaptation to contingency, via Yuk Hui’s proposal for a cosmopolitics grounded in affirmative fortuity; and from responsiveness to response-ability, via Donna Haraway’s experimental material-semiotics of sympoiesis
Architecture as Information Machine
No full textArchitecture has always been dealing with machines. Differently but constantly. At the middle of the last century, new kind of machine and its science have emerged: Cybernetics and Information Machine. Architectural theory and practice displayed great interest in these new paradigms and produced some design experimentations and essays but it seems like these scientific and technological results call for recasting the architectural foundations. Not only to figure out how to design new or complex architectural forms but to attempt replaying to the question, “what is form?” then to contribute to the understandability of all kinds of forms —not only architectural or urban forms, but all the forms involved in the built environment— and to link or “translate” one form into another. Such transversal view might renew not only our reading of the past and current built environment but also our manner to interact and to shape it. What if, in contrary to the other former machines, the Information Machine is neither to be represented, nor to be imitated but to be actualized, or better to be modeled
The Dialogical, The Ecological and Beyond
Get PDFIn this article Jon Goodbun and Ben Sweeting engage in a conversation about design and its complex relation to communication. They look at the role of dialogue, the dialogical (signifying signs), and the limitations of the dialogical as one considers contemporary processes of cybernetisation and how “asignifying signs” are produced and exchanged within complex systems of all kinds. Prompted by the opening question referring to cybernetics as a general study of information processes, focusing on the production, exchange, and consumption of meaning, not limited to a focus on digital logic, Goodbun and Sweeting revisit a plethora of positions on dialogue including those of Gordon Pask, Gregory Bateson, Ranulph Glanville, David Bohm among others. In so doing, they make clear certain semantic confusions related to terms such as communication vs. conversation, dialogue vs. discussion, and analogue vs. digital, and provide a richer understanding of why these semantic revisions are necessary for the context of everyday design practice. Using examples from their own research and teaching work, they point towards models where an alternative approach to communication that critically acknowledges the complications related to “asignifying signs” can help designers grapple with the ecological crisis in the contexts of politics, research, and education
Field Survey of Flank Collapse and Run-up Heights due to 2018 Anak Krakatau Tsunami
Get PDFOn the 22nd of December 2018 tsunami waves generated by the flank collapse of the Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia flooded the shorelines of the nearby Sumatra and Java islands. The authors conducted a field survey of the Krakatau group of islands to clarify the volume of the collapsed flank and the run-up of the tsunami around the island themselves. To aid with the simulation of this complex tsunami and document the current situation of the islands, bathymetric surveys, aerial drone and panoramic video mapping were also carried out. The results show that while much of the source directionality was towards the SE of Anak Krakatau, significant wave run-ups were also measured towards the NW, indicating that further numerical modelling is needed to fully explain this event.  
Rock Armour Slope Stability under Wave Attack; the Van der Meer Formula revisited
Get PDFThe Van der Meer formula for rock slope stability under wave attack has been in use now in research and design for more than thirty years. This paper takes the original formula as a basis and then explores into a larger field of application, as investigated by various authors, or includes improved insights in parameters to be used. The spectral period has become the leading wave period over the mean or peak period in the field of wave overtopping. First the Van der Meer formula has been rewritten to include this spectral wave period, based on original data.
A guideline how to compare new research in extending application areas has been developed, including how to come to a modification of the formula. First the essence of the Van der Meer formula is given, such as a gradually developing damage curve according to a power function and the relationship between damage development and storm duration. Each new research should be validated for these relationships before a direct comparison is possible. Such comparison can be done along graphs of damage versus the breaker parameter (including wave period and slope angle), including the original data of the Van der Meer formula.
Possible modifications to the formula are best described if using multiplication coefficients for plunging and surging waves that directly show the influence on the original formula by the deviation from the value 1.0. Two significant investigations have then been re-analysed along the developed guidelines, one on rock shape and one on rock placing.
The research on rock shape was performed with a significant thinner armour layer, so it actually included two effects: rock shape and a thinner armour layer. The two effects have been divided and can be described by adjusted multiplication coefficients.
Individually placed rock with three points of contact, or placed with a dense packing, increase stability significantly and may always be seen as a good measure. The damage curve, however, is not gradually developing, but shows a kind of brittle failure. Direct comparison with the Van der Meer formula is not possible then. A brittle failure needs a safety coefficient, showing for design similar stone sizes as with the formula
Field measurements of very oblique wave run-up and overtopping with laser scanners
Get PDFThis paper presents the first field measurements with an innov[1]ative laser scanner system, during a severe winter storm. The goal of this paper is to validate this system for measuring wave run-up and wave overtopping parameters during storms with very oblique wave attack. To this end, the paper describes the analysis of the data obtained during storm Ciara (10 - 12 February 2020) and validates the results with data from overtopping tanks and video recordings. Storm Ciara was a highly unique and complex storm, with offshore-directed wind and alongshore-directed waves at the dike. This posed large challenges for measuring the front velocities. The wave run-up heights and the overtopping discharges could be measured accurately with the laser scanners. Reasonable results were achieved for the run-up depths. This has led to several new insights into the probability distribution of oblique wave run-up and the run-up depths of up-rushing oblique waves. The 2D front velocities that were derived from laser data deviated more from a commonly used equation. The wave angle of incidence could not be determined as accurately for storm Ciara, as in previous calibration tests and numerical simulations with less oblique wave attack. This arose from the very oblique wave attack during storm Ciara
Standing wave impacts on vertical hydraulic structures with overhangs for varying wave fields and configurations
Get PDFThis study focuses on standing wave impacts on vertical hydraulic structures with relatively short overhangs. It addresses the demand for extended knowledge and loading prediction expressions for these structures. Based on laboratory experimental data from 146 tests, this paper works on two complementary objectives. Firstly, this study extends the knowledge on this type of wave impacts addressing the following aspects: changes in hydraulic loading conditions (regular/irregular waves and varying freeboards) and changes in the structure geometry (lateral constriction and loading reducing ventilation gaps). All laboratory tests consider relatively short overhangs, with ratios of wave length to overhang length between 10 and 40, and ratios of overhang height to overhang length of 3 and 6. The regular wave tests showed that the tests with the longer overhang were related to longer impact durations and larger loading variability compared to the tests with the shorter overhang. Also, tests with reduced freeboards produced larger impact loads. In addition, repeated tests presented equal impulse values (I, Beta, td, Lambda). Furthermore, the pressure peaks measured at one location were found to not represent the pressure peaks averaged over the structure width, while the pressure-impulses measured at one location were found to properly represent the pressure-impulses averaged over the width. The constriction tests showed that a lateral constriction amplifies pressure peaks and pressure-impulses at the constriction edge. The ventilation gap tests showed that ventilation gaps are effective in reducing force peaks and force-impulses. The irregular wave tests highlighted that the dynamic interactions of the incident waves with the structural configurations are even more dynamic and variable in tests with irregular wave conditions. Secondly, this study presents loading prediction expressions for preliminary loading estimations built up by the previously developed pressure-impulse theory that is empirically calibrated using the presently acquired experimental data. To that end, the relation between the effective bounce-back factor (1<Beta<2) with the Gamma Parameter is described. These loading prediction expressions may be used for preliminary load estimations and in combination with structural response models
Auction-based coopetition in the landside air cargo supply chain
Get PDFIncreased competitiveness with other transport systems and declining operation margins have motivated freight forwarders in the air cargo transport industry to look into horizontal collaboration. This paper focuses on developing a fully integrated five-phase auction-based coopetition model, a form of horizontal collaboration where competition is preserved. A combinatorial auction is used to exchange transportation requests without having to reveal critical company information. Freight forwarders submit requests into an auction pool, where they are grouped into attractive bundles by a central planner and offered for auction. The request selection and bundling procedures are based on the time windows of the request deliveries. A freight forwarder’s bid on each bundle is equal to the marginal profit of that bundle, which is obtained by solving two NP-hard routing problems with a simulated annealing and large neighborhood search meta-heuristic. A unique aspect of the auction is that the dock capacity of the ground handlers is taken into account, which helps to alleviate truck congestion at the ground handlers. The potential of the auction-based coopetition model is shown for an air cargo supply chain scenario. There is a clear increase in profitability for the collaborating freight forwarders because the auction model decreases the transportation costs for the entire coalition. This cost reduction is achieved by an increase in transport efficiency, while the collaboration disadvantages, as seen in the literature, are limited
The safety of physically separated cycle tracks compared to marked cycle lanes and mixed traffic conditions in Amsterdam
Get PDFBicycle infrastructure is utilised to improve cycling safety and encourage bicycle use as a sustainable and healthy transport mode. This study sets out to assess whether providing physically separated cycle tracks along distributor roads, as prescribed in Dutch design guidelines and the Sustainable Safety vision, yields the expected safety benefits for cyclists. Therefore the safety of physically separated cycle tracks is compared to marked or painted cycle lanes and to mixed traffic conditions at distributor roads with a speed limit of 50 km/h in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The study also includes the presence of the risk factors curbside parking and trams. Since police records are known to underreport single bicycle crashes and other crashes without a motor vehicle involved, ambulance records are used in this study instead. Also, both motor vehicle volumes as well as cyclists counts are taken into account in the crash analysis. By doing so, this study aims to address two weaknesses of previous research, i.e. the lack of control for exposure of cyclists and the use of police recorded crashes which miss the majority of bicycle crashes without motor vehicles. Results show that, controlled for kilometres travelled by bicycle and by motor vehicle, 50-60% less bicycle crashes occur on distributor roads with cycle tracks compared to those with cycle lanes. Curbside parking and trams are related to an increased likelihood of bicycle crashes, a difference of a factor 2 and 1.7-2 respectively. The authors therefore recommend to favour physically separated cycle tracks over cycle lanes and to take out curbside parking from the cross section as this presents the possibility to introduce cycle tracks in existing cross sections and mitigate an important risk factor concurrently
The value of historical and archaeological data in understanding patterns of long term coastal change
Get PDFThe historical evolution of the coastline has been determined by the fluctuating relationship between land and sea. This process can be assessed to provide valuable information on trends that contribute to our understanding of past and current coastal change scenarios. These changes were initially dominated by the marine transgression following the last Ice Age, but the pace of sea level rise slowed and an equilibrium became established. This natural balance remained relatively stable until it was influenced by humans.
Where early archaeological material can be dated and contextualised within the landscape it provides evidence of the changing physical environment. Prehistoric structures act as datums that can be used to demonstrate how settlements were overwhelmed by rising sea level and they can indicate how populations reacted to the loss of land. In historical times, when sea levels were comparable to modern conditions, humans became more proactive along the coastline. Some of the alterations they made did not take into account weathering and as a consequence storm events could be destructive. These incidents were often recorded within historical, and artistic sources, that, along with the archaeological data, can be used to interpret the long-term impact of natural and human influences along the coast. Additionally, artistic representations can be used to make the story accessible to a wide range of people.
This paper will assess the under-used archaeological, historical and palaeo-environmental information within the English Channel and southern North Sea coast as data sources to provide insights into the impact of human activities along the coastline from the early Holocene, into the Anthropocene and to the mid-twentieth century. This research is being conducted within the Sustainable and Resilient Coastal Cities project (SARCC) and it concludes that while some human interventions have been positive, many have been counterproductive
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