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Evolving Design Pedagogies: Broadening Universal Design for Social Justice
Full text linkUniversal Design came into prominence as a successor to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), contributing to broader notions of accessibility beyond baseline codes and standards. Rooted in human factors research, Universal Design primarily centers on supporting human performance through the development of accessible and usable environments (Steinfeld and Maisel 2012, 95-96). As such, Universal Design pedagogies predominantly focus on enhancing environments for people with disabilities and aging populations (O Shea 2018, 721; Steinfeld and Maisel 2012, 49). However, some believe Universal Design is on the cusp of a paradigm shift to address broader aspects of social justice (Salmen 2012; Steinfeld and Maisel 2012, 159-160). This paper synthesizes existing literature to explore how current academic and practice-facing Universal Design pedagogies support the movement’s expansion to address social justice across demographic groups. Critical audiences for this work include architectural educators, students, researchers, policymakers, and building professionals interested in advancing the theory and practice of Universal Design. Recommendations from this work reposition Universal Design pedagogies as a pathway for creating more equitable and inclusive buildings, spaces, and communities that are truly designed for all. 
Resistance to Opportunities of Plastic Recycling
Full text linkPlastics present a vast and pressing issue in modern society. Currently recycling efforts fall dangerously short of dealing with even a small percent of the millions of tons of plastic waste produced yearly across the globe. This article investigates resistance toward plastic recycling in three areas from both a contemporary and a historical context, highlighting the magnitude of the problem and the insufficient nature of current solutions. The three primary areas covered are the plastics problem from (1) a design perspective, (2) a material science perspective, and (3) a systems perspective. Solutions are proposed that emphasize a synergistic collaboration across disciplines and research modes. Ultimately, the conclusions point to a need for stronger engagement at the level of people (both consumers and decision makers) and reintegrating reused and recycled plastics into everyday life to build a solid foundation for success
Cardboard Architecture: Eight Decades of Exploration in Academic Research and Professional Practice 1940-2019
Full text linkExplorations in the use of cardboard products in architecture exist since the 1940s. However, it was not until the early 1990s, when Shigeru Ban's work emerged when cardboard products became a potential material for architecture. Since then, cardboard use in architecture has been continuously growing worldwide, and Ban's cardboard buildings have now achieved important recognition. This article reviews cardboard architecture works in academic research and professional architectural practice in the last eight decades to lay a foundation for designers to get ahead in cardboard for architecture. Cardboard products could contribute to increase more environmentally friendly and affordable architecture because they are recyclable, low-priced, and have relatively good strength to sustain loads, among other potential advantages for construction. The study summarizes the fundamentals of cardboard architectural design and diverse strategies proposed by different authors to decrease cardboard strength degradation due to the material's weaknesses
Architecture, Waste, and the Circular Economy
Full text linkWaste is a modern global crisis. The world is drowning in an unprecedented amount of waste due to an increasing linear economy model that drive societies to consume more every day. It was reported that the average American citizen consume nearly 32 times more that the average Indian citizen. Companies, businesses, and corporates are continuously racing to deplete the planet’s natural resources in an astonishing rate. The design and construction sector alone is responsible for 30-40% of total solid waste worldwide, yet as architects, designers, and planners the waste problem is almost absent from the current discourse, both in practice and academia. Beyond sustainability, and if ideas such as the Dutch “CircularCity” become more appealing to architects, designers, and clients, the architectural education must adopt a transformational shift in the design thinking process to prepare a more responsible future architect. A shift from goal-oriented design to means-oriented design requires a shift in the design education, and the studio pedagogy. A transformation is needed in education, practice, research, and the related professions to address the current and emerging economic challenges more so post crises and pandemics, and through the built environment lens. It is time to define the role of architecture and design in the circular economy paradigm shift
An Experimental Approach to Transdisciplinary Methodology in Housing: A Transdisciplinary Approach in Housing
No full textThis article explores a transdisciplinary research method derived from the need to determine the tacit knowledge in the re-reading of contemporary housing patterns in Narcity in Istanbul, Donau City in Vienna, and the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam. The need for the development of such a method derives from two main problems: first, the necessity of re-reading the new dynamics of contemporary housing within the context of changing urban narratives in a globalised world; second, the consideration of the need for a dynamic view that engages both the subject and object in housing research. The residential areas are simultaneously evaluated at three levels defined by Basarab Nicolescu through an experimental and three-dimensional surface and inquiry space. It is projected that this methodology can help transgress the boundaries between fixed forms of policies and production and help bridge fact and fiction in re-reading and mapping controversies among researchers at different levels of comprehension
The Circular Economy of Dharavi: Making Building Materials from Waste
Full text linkAs developing nations continue to progress, people of these countries face problems of shortages in building materials and rising production of solid waste. The purpose of this research study is to explore the potential of establishing a circular economy by recycling/reusing solid waste as alternative building materials. Focused on the slum of Dharavi in Mumbai, a settlement well-known for its existing recycling business, this article explores the concept of a circular economy utilizing local informal labor by considering the flow of waste materials in the slum. This article presents an analysis of the case studies where waste is reused as a building product and identifies the gaps, advantages, and disadvantages related to how and where the building materials from the case studies could be adapted in the context of the Dharavi slum
Tendency to Circular Economy: Reuse of Architectural Elements
Full text linkUrbanization and building production that accelerate with globalization, cause excessive resource consumption and waste generation. The circular economy concept which is a contemporary economy approach, has been developed to solve this environmental and economic problem. The construction sector and architectural practice that provide building production need innovative solutions through the circular economy concept, as they consume different resources and produce waste crises. The circular economy concept is applied with the "adaptive reuse" approach in the field of architecture. One of the important applications of the concept of adaptive reuse is the reuse of architectural elements and materials. However, the relationship between the concept of circular economy and the reuse of architectural elements can be developed by examining several recent projects and its advantages. In this article, it is aimed to examine the relationship of this architectural reuse approach with the circular economy concept and to emphasize its importance. For this purpose, the theoretical perspectives and effects of circular economy were examined in the first part of the article, and the reflections of the circular economy concept on architecture were given in the second part. This section continues with description of the comparative analysis methodology that relates the building life cycle and circular economy principles to examine the architectural projects built as an example of circular economy paradigm. In the third chapter, two architectural sample projects built in China and France were selected and introduced. Being pioneers in their countries in circular economy approaches and the different environmental policies of countries have been effective in the selection of examples from different geographies. The fourth part consists of analyzing the projects according to circular economy parameters using comparative analysis method. In the last section, analysis results show that although China is one of the pioneers in adopting circular economy principles with architectural design and building life cycle, it has been found that France considers circular economy design from a broader perspective. Also, the design approach with circular economy criteria in different stage of building life cycle is gaining momentum over the years through national and local governments and collaborations. It is recommended that technological design systems such as BIM can be developed as integrated cloud systems that can share information from other sectors. Because the building life cycle is not only related to the architecture and construction sector. It is a cyclical system and economy that works with different sectors such as supply and waste management
An Innovative Ceramic Floor for Resilient Cities: LIFE CERSUDS
Full text linkLIFE CERSUDS is a project carried out over the period 2016-2019 whom the main objective was to improve the ability of cities to adapt to climate change by promoting the use of green infrastructures in the renewal of urban environments. Under the project, an innovative permeable urban pavement (hereinafter, CERSUDS) was designed using ceramic tile stock of low commercial value. This pavement solution was tested in a demonstrator in the town of Benicí ssim.
The main objective of the project was to improve the ability of cities to adapt to climate change by promoting the use of green infrastructures in the renewal of urban environments. Under the project, a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) was built as a demonstrator in the town of Benicí ssim, using ceramic tile stock of low commercial value to manufacture an innovative permeable floor (hereinafter, CERSUDS flooring), a subject already dealt with in an earlier presentation at this congress .
Once the demonstrator had been built, a monitoring period was run between August 2018 and July 2019, which enabled both the CERSUDS floor and the demonstrator's value as a rainwater management system to be validated.
This article presents the design process of the ceramic permeable pavement including the main results of the tests carried in the laboratory and the main results of the project relate to: environmental and economic assessment of the CERSUDS system, user's validation of the system, monitoring of the system's mechanical performance and permeability, and monitoring of the demonstrator's hydraulic response in terms of the quantity and quality of run-off water
Healthy Places: Towards a Transdisciplinary Mapping of the Theoretical Landscape
No full textThis 21st century has brought robust attention to the role the environment plays in human health. This article offers a mapping of the theoretical landscape to help orient and potentially connect the diverse research conducted in the areas of healthy places. The premise is that much research has been conducted within the environmental stress approach to understanding the health-environment nexus, but that additional, important work has also been conducted within both a Fit and a Place approach that provide different insights into healthy places. Each approach has its own underlying assumptions regarding the relationship between human and environment, the research questions that should be asked, the type of validity valued and praxeological assumptions. Each approach also has differing affinities with various theories of health that may serve useful in connecting Healthy Place Research to interdisciplinary research endeavors. Here it is asserted that the concepts and models of allostatic load, salutogenesis and cumulative (dis)advantage hold great promise for connecting Healthy Place Research to robust fields of health inquiry
Covid-19 Home Sign-Posts: Current Thinking in Health & Home for those in need
Full text linkThe Integral Living Research (ILR) group advocates for five foundational principles in the urban housing environment: 1) privacy, 2) security, 3) access to healthy nourishment, 4) access to green space, and 5) self-efficacy enhancement through a culture of care and creativity. These principles have emerged from almost a decade of work in communities of need and are intended to guide designers working towards solutions to reduce stress and enhance health for urban families. In this paper, we examine and analyze best practices in WELL Buildings’ pandemic response guide among others, within the framework of housing, specifically single-family urban housing. Here, within the 2020 pandemic, best practices for alleviating the challenges of the urban single-family home in an underserved community are considered. In this analysis, five areas of focus called “COVID-19 Home Signposts” have emerged and been given additional lenses of equity and access. We describe those inequities and consider how to improve pandemic housing health for those in at-risk communities. We identify further areas for empirical study that are urgent: 1) to promote better understanding of how home, health, and housing improvement all play a role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) to devise appropriate strategies for addressing the fault lines in our cities and our society