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Advancements in Designing, Producing, and Operating Off-Earth Infrastructure
Full text linkSending humans to the Moon and Mars in the near future requires appropriate infrastructure to support and subsequently sustain human activities. This includes infrastructure to shield from environmental conditions, generate energy, and facilitate mobility and communication. Construction of such infrastructure aims to use in-situ resources and reduce the use of supplies from Earth. The establishment and maintenance of the required infrastructure, equipment, and hardware involves the development of adequate manufacturing techniques, which can enable maximal use of the local resources. Those techniques can be based on processing of local materials into construction materials, extraction of useful elements from local materials or in combination with materials brought from Earth. The required manufacturing techniques address the range of needs for sustained human activities, from smaller scale manufactured items to large built structures. The design of such structures is associated with a number of space systems’ engineering challenges, ranging from the accurate definition of all resource budgets (mass, volume, power, data) to the design of the interfaces between all subsystems making use of these resources. The interplanetary spacecraft used to transport the required materials (and eventually, crew) from Earth to the final site would probably need to be designed ad-hoc for this specific application, given its peculiar mass and volume constraints, especially in case a reusable concept is adopted. Other engineering aspects involved in the design of the infrastructure systems include the selection of an appropriate power generation approach and the definition of the radiation environment in order to provide sufficient shielding to the habitats. This Spool CpA #4 issue investigates challenges of designing, engineering, constructing, operating, and maintaining off-Earth infrastructure
Banjarmasin, where the river is the city! Participatory Revitalization of Urban Riverine Settlements
Full text linkThe Indonesian city of Banjarmasin, Borneo, is widely known as the ‘city of the thousand rivers.’ Residents live and work in urban settlements that occupy the river and its banks. However, modern road-oriented urbanization, overpopulation, illegal building activity, and pollution have a devastating impact. Without adequate management, Banjarmasin’s impressive river-related identity would lose its cultural and socio-economic significance. Therefore, the city government is searching for solutions to revive its river culture and to revitalize riverine settlements. In 2019, a workshop was carried out by following the HUL Quick Scan method, which is inspired by UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach. This paper focuses on the outcomes of the workshop in Banjarmasin in relation to participatory revitalization of urban riverine settlements
Design by Radical Indigenism: Equitable Underwater & Intertidal Technologies of the Global South
Full text linkThis article considers the traditional water systems of indigenous cultures and explores their innovations as unique responses to the impacts of climate change in the global south. Local communities have been living with and developing water-responsive infrastructures for generations that engage and support the complex ecosystems they inhabit. Many of these innovations improve coastal resiliency, yet remain undocumented and unexplored in the evolution of contemporary solutions. Rooted in traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK, these technologies work symbiotically with, rather than against nature, and offer examples of a more comprehensive approach to underwater and intertidal design. These innovations are Lo—TEK, a term coined by designer and author Julia Watson, that is defined as resilient infrastructures developed by indigenous people through Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) (Watson 2019). The movement to bring these innovations to the forefront of the design field counters the idea that Lo—TEK indigenous innovation is low-tech, a term often incorrectly applied to indigenous innovation that means unsophisticated, uncomplicated, and primitive. In actuality, Lo—TEK aligns to today’s sustainable values of low-energy, low-impact and low-cost, while producing complex nature-based innovations that are inherently sustainable. Lo-TEK expands the definition of contemporary technology by rebuilding our understanding of climate resilient design using indigenous knowledge and practices that are sustainable, adaptable, and borne out of necessity. Indigenous people have learned to live symbiotically with their environments, especially water. This essay will explore the Kuttanad Kayalnilam Farming System by the Malayalis in India, the Sangjiyutang Mulberry Dyke and Fish Ponds in China, and the Ramli Lagoon farms in Ghar El Melh, Tunisia. These innovations are inherently resilient to the stresses of the climate and are multi-functional, symbiotic structures themselves. While not directly intended for protection from the new challenge of sea level rise, they can inform how we can build circular water systems that work with the environment, rather than disrupting it
Towards a Digital Window: Interpenetrations, challenges and potential of augmented reality in architecture
Full text linkThe present work has as its starting point and inspiration in the observation of the habit of staying at the window, mostly performed by older adults, in Lisbon, Portugal. Beginning from this habit, we seek to substantiate, develop, and record speculative and artistic visual experiments that propose a digital reinterpretation of the architectural element window. Such experiments deal with the intertwining of diverse concepts as hybrid architecture, material, digital, virtual, and augmented reality (AR). The experiment, entitled Projected Windows, consists of three different installations where we visually simulate, through image capture and projection, various possibilities of visual reinterpretations of the window in the context of the interior of dwellings. The experiment is based on digital imaging. The first two parts of the experiment are non-interactive AR experience, while the third one is a visual interactive AR experience. The project is in the initial phases of development, indicating the potential of correlating concepts, which allow to fundament experiences and visual narratives that can instigate greater advances in terms of interactivity as the work progresses.
 
Riverine Women after Resettlement: The Case of the Belo Monte Hydropower Dam Project
Full text linkThe construction of Belo Monte Hydropower dam has resettled riverine communities from their homes to the outskirts of the city of Altamira, kilometres away and disconnected from the river. Resettlement can be a threat to both women and men’s adaptation in the new environment, whereas the lack of in-depth studies regarding gender policies and local traditional communities can create even more obstacles for women. The disconnection that stems the resettlement from these individuals has resulted in the loss of their spatial identity and livelihood. This situation caused local traditional people to share resettlement units with city dwellers, thereby jeopardising their traditions and distancing them from both the river and their livelihood
Infrastructure, Canning and Architecture: The Case of Matosinhos
Full text linkIn this article, we seek to reconnect architectural history with social and industrial histories as a strategy for understanding the relationship between infrastructure, fishing, and urbanisation by studying the emblematic case of Matosinhos. This paper traces the formation of the port area and the process of its subsequent transformation with the development of the fishing and canning industries, to understand the relationship between urban planning, the architectures of production (infrastructures, industries, and urbanism) and the architectures of reproduction (housing), and the dynamics of the physical and economic transformations, as well as the key role played by the port in supporting the urbanisation process. In the last decades of the twentieth century, the canneries almost completely disappeared and the gap left by its concentration and modernisation led to the creation of a new urbanisation plan, directed by Álvaro Siza Vieira. Recent works, such as the seaside platform designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura and built at the beginning of the present century, the redevelopment of Leça’s shoreline in 2006 or the conversion of the ruins of a former winery into the new ‘house of architecture,’ are signs of growing functional disputes and symbolic transformations of a particular port city
Evaluating Adaptive Reuse Alternatives of a Multi-Layered Port City: Acre, Israel
Full text linkAcre is a port city in the north-western part of Israel, with a history that goes back more than 4000 years. Being inscribed on the World Heritage List, the Old City of Acre preserves the urban and architectural elements of a historic town. Its outstanding value relies on the Crusader remnants preserved under the Ottoman city, showcasing the dynamism and continuous change of Mediterranean port cities. Moreover, the presence of various religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Bahai, adds to its complexity, expressed as monuments and religious sites that enrichen Acre’s cultural heritage. The dramatic change in values over the past decades has a direct impact on the built environment and the citizen’s lifestyles, in some cases jeopardising the physical elements and drastically influencing people’s lives. This paper aims to analyse the changes linked to the sea: livelihoods, tourism, and recreational use; and the change of use of the khan, as both the sea and the khan are constant elements in the city. The analysis of these processes serves as the starting point to identify changes in values which can enhance development or promote gentrification, and in the case of Khan Al-Umdan and its vicinity, we aim to recognise the lights and shadows that followed the adaptive reuse evaluation procedure, and the influence of the multiple narratives in its development. The conclusions will provide a solid base on which to develop a methodology on the one hand, identify changing processes, such as gentrification; and on the other, to evaluate adaptive reuse alternatives of cultural heritage in contested societies and changing values
Immediate Systems in Architectural Research and Praxis
Full text linkImmediate Systems are defined as systems that overcome the limitations of remote design by embedding design and implementation in situations of use. This paper extends the theoretical framing of IS and traces three approaches towards IS in architecture: as adhocist mode of action, as acceleration of design transfer and as human-architecture symbiosis. These three approaches consider the same phenomenon from different perspectives respectively, that of the lived experience of the user-designer, that of the designer’s methodology and technology, and that of ecology.
 
Combined Airborne Wind and Photovoltaic Energy System for Martian Habitats
Full text linkGenerating renewable energy on Mars is technologically challenging. Firstly, because, compared to Earth, key energy resources such as solar and wind are weak as a result of very low atmospheric pressure and low solar irradiation. Secondly, because of the harsh environmental conditions, the required high degree of automation, and the exceptional effort and cost involved in transporting material to the planet. Like on Earth, it is crucial to combine complementary resources for an effective renewable energy solution. In this work, we present the results of a design synthesis exercise, a 10 kW microgrid solution, based on a pumping kite power system and photovoltaic solar modules to power the construction and subsequent use of a Mars habitat. To buffer unavoidable energy fluctuations and balance seasonal and diurnal resource variations, the two energy systems are combined with a compressed gas storage system and lithium-sulphur batteries. The airborne wind energy solution was selected because of its low weight-to-wing-surface-area ratio, compact packing volume, and high capacity factor which enables it to endure strong dust storms in an airborne parking mode. The surface area of the membrane wing is 50 m2 and the mass of the entire system, including the kite control unit and ground station, is 290 kg. The performance of the microgrid was assessed by computational simulation using available resource data for a chosen deployment location on Mars. The projected costs of the system are €8.95 million, excluding transportation to Mars
Port City Architecture: Reading Paintings as an Architectural Design Method
Full text linkThis article addresses the role and the importance of the 19th-century narratives and depictions of port cities in contemporary architectural design with a specific focus on paintings. In the last decades, cities the world undertook a large number of urban regeneration projects along waterfronts. In this way, vacant sites on waterfront areas became an opportunity to apply contemporary architectural design; however, many of those projects resulted in generic buildings failing to establish relationships with their landscape, environs, and the history of port cities. High-rise buildings, for instance, began to dominate waterfronts in many of the port cities (e.g., in London, Liverpool, Rotterdam, Baltimore). The land was simply used as a “site” by developers, and the contemporary architectural design failed to address the specificity of the architecture and caved in to the demands which had little to do with the possibilities of place. This article showcases a library and concert hall project realised in Bodø, Norway, to provide insight into an alternative model, where the architecture is situated specifically in response to the port condition and acts as a mediator between port, city and landscape.
An interview with the architect Daniel Rosbottom, founder of the architecture firm DRDH which designed the project, provided insight into the design process. As Rosbottom elaborated broadly, a 19th-century painting of church San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice h, by the English painter J.M.W Turner was used as an inspiration for the design process. The embedded knowledge in the painting informed the project at various levels and turned a site into a place on the waterfront of Bodø. The design process analysis reveals similarities and significance of paired relations between artworks and architectural design and hints that the remedy of the contemporary architectures in port cities may lie in port cities’ own (immaterial) resources