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FROM EDGE TO CORE : Realigning sustainability in architectural education
No full textClimate change and the built environment’s ecological impact necessitate that we embed sustainability in architectural education. However, this often takes the form of an addition (satellite) to the prevailing core programme. In 2018 and 2019 elective courses at the School of Architecture at Unitec, New Zealand, prompted students to focus on two distinct topics: the issue of waste in New Zealand’s building industry and building with low carbon materials. The experience of these ‘sustainability electives’ cemented the belief that the established architecture curriculum needs to evolve so that sustainability becomes the core of the programme. This paper discusses the reasons why this evolution is necessary and proposes strategies informed by a holistic view of sustainability. It suggests a reconsideration of what sustainable thinking is and challenges the dominance of quantitative and technological solutions to environmental problems. It opens up the discussion beyond the human realm and the western educational model and offers acupunctural interventions that have the potential to reimagine sustainability as the core of architectural education and thus equip students with a sense of agency to face the global ecological challenge ahead
Total fluidity
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION:
How can Zaha Hadid’s techniques and key learning theories inform the design of flexible, dynamic and transformational learning environments?
ABSTRACT:
In New Zealand, education facilities are typically placed in buildings which are adapted for reuse. This is common, for example, in the case of residential homes being adapted, to house smaller institutions such as early childhood centres. As schooling compromises around 70 percent of a child’s life and cultivates the path for our children’s futures, a question arises as to why the importance of educational spaces is not usually reflected through their architectural identity. Education architecture, in general, exhibits a sense of anonymity as it typically blends within its surrounding community, therefore, ‘Total Fluidity’ aims to identify fundamental design principles for learning by drawing on a range of key learning theories to create a contemporary architectural typology that reflects the significance and purpose of education.
The project investigates built pedagogy and draws attention to how the innovative techniques of Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) could mutate and manipulate a form to encourage children’s curiosity and investigation using the architecture. A review of literature on the importance of learning theories in educational design was undertaken including the writing of Ana Luz and Mary Barlow who argue that learning in a space designed in accordance to the applied learning theories affects how one teaches and also how one learns, acts and responds. Patrik Schumacher, director of Zaha Hadid Architects, expresses her involvement as shaping the culture of architecture and pushing all boundaries of formal strategies. Hence, Hadid’s design techniques became a noteworthy set of tools to create flexible, dynamic and transformational learning environments and this project asks:
How can Zaha Hadid’s techniques and key learning theories inform the design of flexible, dynamic and transformational
learning environments?
Hadid’s artistic and architectural techniques offers insights that could help diminish the negative qualities of anonymity in New Zealand education facilities typologies. Driven by the originality and distinctiveness of Hadid’s designs, this project aims to thoroughly examine the techniques she used to generate creative and playful environments in order to formulate a structure that emphasises learning through the architecture itself. If successfully achieved, this project has the potential to offer something genuinely beneficial to New Zealand education
Learning through the multi-disciplinary studio
Get PDFPROBLEM:
The environmental effects of climate change on the world's cities are becoming more and more evident Sea level rise, pluvial flooding, storm water contamination are just some of the environmental issues that will undermine traditional urban verities. There have been many design approaches from the traditional design disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture. However they have proved inadequate in addressing the complex issues that climate change is creating
RESPONSE:
We argue that a multidisciplinary focus is the only way in which these serious challenges to the sustainability of our cities can be met . Architects and landscape architects must work together to share expertise , specialist knowledge, and skills and through collaboration develop solutions that are larger than those the individual disciplines can provide.
METHOD:
This paper discusses the potential of the multidisciplinary design studio for architecture and landscape architecture students to both develop innovative thinking in response to the challenges of climate change and to enhance the learning experience. The design studio structure was shaped to develop a framework to help build collaboration by students in the design process. This process was articulated for the students by using a real world project, one with a client, a community and a site will be affected by climate change . The studio process emphasizes how creating a multidisciplinary learning space can develop design work that can help build resilient urbanism
CASE STUDY:
The authors have run a multidisciplinary design studio at the School of Architecture Unitec for a number of years. In this paper we illustrate our argument with results of the Onehunga Port project, located in in Auckland, New Zealand. Students were invited by Panuku, an Auckalnd Council CC0 to develop an alternative urban waterfront masterplan for the recently purchased Onehunga Port.
Architecture and landscape architecture students formed 5 collaborative groups to produce alternative masterplans. The joint master plans demonstrated, that faced with the issues of climate change, students were forced to develop design strategies that broke down traditional disciplinary boundaries. The design of buildings had to responded to the direct challenges of climate change by adapting landscape based strategies. The design of the landscape had to adapt to the imperative of the building programme.
CONCLUSION:
The design work was fed back to the Panuku through crits and presentations at different stage . The response by Panuku to the students work was overwhelmingly positive . Students were able to see how through collaboration, broader and more inclusive connection to the a real world client could be made
Development of unified and dynamic geometric framework for modelling plant leaf spots
No full textThe use of computer vision and image processing techniques have proven to be effective in detecting and classifying plant diseases from symptoms, such as leaf spots or mosaic leaf patterns caused by pathogens. To identify these symptoms, these techniques typically utilize a static geometry specified by a human expert via pixels or image objects. Thus the results rely on generic parameters defined by the user before or after classification. In this paper, a dynamic geometry is proposed that can be applied to identify plant disease symptoms without setting any geometric parameters. The offered method consists of two primary phases established based on the notion of Vector Agents (VAs): construction of a unified geometry, and creation of a dynamic geometry. In the construction step, the method utilises a set of geometric rules to link the raster space to the vector space during the simulation process. These rules specify the growth direction of a leaf in the simulation space and the maximum length of each edge specified based on the image spatial resolution and size. The creation step includes four main geometric operators: 1) vertex displacement, 2) half-edge joining, 3) converging vertex displacement, and 4) edge remove. This enables the leaves to automatically change their geometry in the simulation space without setting any geometric parameters. This structure allows a classifier to model a wide range of leaf shapes in the image space. The proposed geometry method was tested to model different leaves and the results demonstrate its effectiveness in generating different leaf shapes
Being different as a personality and being design unique requires respect, bravery, and patience vs What learnings from the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team can be gleaned by tertiary Architectural Students in teambuilding and dealing with differences
No full textThe Festival of Transitional Architecture (FESTA) is a voluntary organisation that came into being after the devastating Christchurch earthquakes between September 2010 and February 2011 (the latter claiming the lives of 185 people).
“CityUps” was their 2014 version of the Event.
The Festival of Transitional Architecture (FESTA) was a group was set up to specifically to explore the CBD (Central Business District) voids before the ‘rebuild’ of the city could commence.
Group ING (for ‘Inspire, Nurture, Grow’). ING’s composition was six female and ten male students, with nationalities ranging through Pacific Island, Kiwi, Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese and one Danish student. The group’s members ranged in age from 19 through to 25 years old
Re: Kaitāia
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION
How can an architectural intervention facilitate positive re-growth in the community of Kaitāia?
ABSTRACT
The world around us shares a complex interconnectedness that links all things, nature-place-people-culture. In this age where the new modernist strives to be a globetrotter, relatively devoid of genuine cultural connection, the opportunity for meaningful interaction and the desire to ‘put down roots’ has subsequently lost its hold. The true impact is now being realised through a growing sense of ‘placelessness’ and a sense of dis-ease among individuals and communities alike.
RE: Kaitāia investigates how architectural intervention can be shaped by the ideas of mauri, community, and place, to generate positive re-growth and re-connection in the settlement of Kaitāia. Consideration of our past, present, and future enables a holistic understanding of where we are; and who we are as a nation. With confidence, we can plan for a shared positive future, by applying old wisdom to our shared contemporary issues, such as consumerism and climate change. It is time to regain our sense of place, community, and identity for the betterment of all through re-invention.
Design site: Commerce Street, Kaitāia, New Zealan
Shifting practice? Exploring how teaching practice develops in new classroom spaces
No full textA number of institutions in New Zealand have developed new formal learning spaces with the intention of engaging students in more active learning, often with the availability of supportive technologies. While some teachers adapt easily to teaching in such environments, others may find a new space or the new technologies it contains more challenging.
This presentation reports on two iterations of research into teachers’ perceptions of their developing practice in new collaborative spaces at a large polytech in Auckland. Data was collected over a period of two separate years (2014 and 2018) with different teachers at the same institution. Methodology used in the first round of research was weekly journalling (32 participants) followed up with focus groups at the end of each semester (22 participants) while in the second iteration, individual interviews were held with 13 participants.
Findings identify aspects of change in relation to classroom management, teaching style and pedagogical intentions. The opportunity to work in new spaces afforded a shift in teacher practice to be more facilitative and learning-centred. The second round of research described will give a more nuanced perspective on changes in individual practice, with a focus on teachers’ use of the affordances of a space to respond to their diverse learners, and their sense of agency in matching practice to their personal pedagogical intentions
Human biometric traits : a systematic review focusing on vascular patterns
No full textAuthentication methods based on human traits, including fingerprint, face, iris, and palm print, have developed significantly, and currently they are mature enough to be reliably considered for human identification purposes. Recently, as a new research area, a few methods based on non-facial skin features such as vein patterns have been developed. This literature review paper explores some key biometric systems such as face recognition, iris recognition, fingerprint, and palm print, and discusses their respective advantages and disadvantages; then by providing comprehensive analysis of these traits, and their applications, vein-pattern recognition is reviewed
Early welfare in Kurow, New Zealand
No full textThis story is taken mainly from the booklet Four Shillings and Threepence (2008), produced by the Kurow Heritage & Information Centre.
One of New Zealand’s first hydroelectric power stations was built on the Waitaki River, which separates Canterbury from Otago. Construction started in 1928 and was completed in 1934, the period of the Great Depression. The project was a type of ‘make-work’ scheme, and as such there were no machines to dig the site. It was all done by hand, using pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. “More than half-a-million cubic metres of material was excavated manually while steam-powered pumps kept the area dry” (p. 12).
With such a massive development, a new temporary Waitaki Village for workers was created near Kurow. Fifteen hundred workers were involved in the project as well as others (around 350) who were unemployed and looking
for work. Up to 2000 workers were housed in huts and the rest in canvas tents. [...]
Based on what had been achieved, Dr McMillan [the medical officer for a Benevolent Society called the Waitaki Medical Association] presented a report to the New Zealand Labour Party conference in 1934. The system was a template for a New Zealand-wide health service. It was adopted in principle and was published as “A national health service: New Zealand of to-morrow.