Architecture

This essay centers on the term “Ecological Design” in architecture, tracing its development from natural history and evolutionary theory to contemporary architectural theory. Beginning with the term’s biological origins in the work of Darwin and Haeckel in Europe, as well as Swallow in the U.S., the article charts how ecological thinking has shaped the evolution of architectural practice, from nineteenth-century analogies with nature to twentieth-century critiques of technologically driven sustainability and, finally, to contemporary shifts to post-human matters of care. The concept of the niche is proposed to support the translation of ecology into architecture, offering a generative model that pushes beyond normative site responsiveness. Instead, niche thinking considers design as co-evolution between the built form and the environment, structured by cultural and social practice. Full article

Over the last decade, augmented reality (AR) has been widely adopted in architectural education, yet it is still often treated as a visualization add-on rather than as an operative design medium. This paper argues that AR becomes pedagogically meaningful when it is anchored to physical or graphic artefacts so that overlays function not as final images, but as reversible instruments for testing, adjustment, and spatial verification. Building on reflection-in-action as a model of situated design learning, the study examines two teaching experiences: one focused on the AR-based translation of complex two-dimensional graphic fields into three-dimensional hypotheses, and another centred on kinematic reasoning through equilibrium and iterative adjustment. The article proposes that error within AR-based workflows has a double pedagogical role: first, as corrective feedback, when mismatch reveals imprecision, insufficient legibility, or unstable alignment in the target; and second, as generative design feedback, when recalibration and reconfiguration trigger new spatial hypotheses or bidirectional transfers between physical and digital models. Evidence is based primarily on analytic observation of documented episodes and on visual documentation of process transformations, complemented by a background evaluative scaffold and supplementary student feedback where available. Results indicate that AR can (a) increase the material and graphic precision of the supporting artefact; (b) strengthen spatial and kinematic understanding by making intermediate states and inconsistencies visible; and (c) turn mismatch and recalibration into operative parts of the design process itself. The paper therefore reframes AR in architectural education not as a representational endpoint, but as a medium of verification, adjustment, and projective transformation. Full article

Kindergarten toilet design influences children’s autonomy, hygiene behaviours, and psychological well-being. Yet systematic architectural evaluations in conflict-affected and developing regions remain scarce. This study conducts a comparative architectural audit of toilet facilities in ten kindergartens in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, assessing design features associated with child-centred principles. A literature-derived framework comprising four domains (Autonomy and Functionality, Health and Hygiene, Safety and Comfort, Aesthetics and Sustainability) was operationalised through 14 architectural indicators and assessed via a five-point rubric. Data sources included architectural drawings and systematic on-site observations. Overall design feature scores ranged from 3.1 to 4.3 (scale 1–5). While basic safety requirements were universally met, significant deficiencies emerged in inclusive design (accessible fixtures present in 3/10 facilities, 30%), advanced hygiene technologies (sensor-activated fixtures in 2/10, 20%), and aesthetic-environmental quality (mean score 2.4/5). Higher-scoring facilities demonstrated closer classroom-toilet proximity (≤6 m vs. >15 m) and distributed rather than centralised layouts. This study does not measure child outcomes or user experiences; it provides an architectural baseline. Current kindergarten toilet design in Erbil achieves functional adequacy but consistently fails to deliver inclusivity, technological innovation, and spatial quality. Policy revision beyond minimum compliance toward child-centred design standards is warranted, with priority given to accessible fixtures and classroom-adjacent layouts. Full article

In multi-layered cultural heritage buildings at risk of earthquakes, preserving the authenticity of the heritage building while managing its seismic risk is crucial. However, in such buildings, the sources providing information about the historical process of the building are often fragmented. Due to structural weaknesses and external factors, these buildings suffer damage, leading to interruptions and breaks in their historical continuity. To ensure that a historical building is preserved for the future with all its values intact, it is necessary both to correctly understand the values that have accumulated layer by layer from the past to the present, and to learn from the structural weaknesses and damage that have occurred throughout history. Through the documentation and classification of the data obtained from archival research, this study aims to utilize historical research as a tool for tracing the continuity of structures and revealing earthquake damage mechanisms (specifically, parts exhibiting structural vulnerability). This approach is exemplified by the minaret of the Orhan Gazi Mosque in İzmit and is applicable to cultural heritage sites. Full article

Retrofitting existing residential buildings is a critical strategy for achieving urban decarbonization while addressing public health disparities, particularly in communities disproportionately affected by environmental and socioeconomic stressors. This study presents a scalable urban building energy modeling framework that integrates physics-based simulations with machine learning to evaluate and prioritize health-driven retrofit strategies across residential building stocks. Synthetic datasets were generated through parametric simulations of representative building archetypes and retrofit scenarios, capturing variations in envelope performance, HVAC systems, infiltration rates, and ventilation strategies. Machine learning models were trained as surrogate predictors of building energy performance, enabling the rapid evaluation of retrofit impacts. A range of algorithms—including decision trees, random decision forests, gradient-boosting machines, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors, and artificial neural networks—were evaluated. An artificial neural network implemented as a multilayer perceptron was selected for further analysis due to its strong predictive performance (R² = 0.94) and ability to capture complex nonlinear relationships among retrofit variables. The final model used the Port optimization algorithm for stable convergence and improved generalization. The framework is applied to Seattle’s Duwamish Valley, a community experiencing disproportionate environmental and health burdens, and is generalizable and transferable to other cities with comparable residential building stocks across a range of climatic and environmental contexts. The results highlight retrofit priorities—particularly infiltration reduction, HVAC upgrades, and improved envelope performance—that deliver co-benefits for energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and occupant health. The results demonstrate that machine learning-enhanced physics-based UBEM can significantly accelerate retrofit evaluation while preserving the interpretability of simulation-based approaches. The proposed framework provides a scalable approach for identifying health-informed retrofit pathways that support equitable urban decarbonization. Full article

Post-disaster reconstruction generates extraordinary demand for construction materials, often necessitating the rapid deployment of temporary concrete production facilities. While these systems are operationally essential for rebuilding, their environmental and public health impacts remain insufficiently examined through structured and reproducible analytical approaches. This study develops an integrated qualitative-dominant environmental risk assessment framework combining systematic documentary analysis, environmental pathway modeling, semi-quantitative risk scoring, and comparative benchmarking against established environmental health standards. Focusing on the reconstruction process following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes in Türkiye, the study identifies and evaluates major environmental exposure pathways, including particulate matter emissions, wastewater discharge, soil degradation, and noise pollution. A semi-quantitative risk assessment model based on probability, severity, and exposure duration is applied to classify the relative intensity of identified environmental risks under post-disaster operational conditions. The findings demonstrate that accelerated reconstruction processes, emergency regulatory flexibility, and rapid industrial deployment substantially amplify cumulative environmental pressures in already vulnerable post-disaster environments. In response, the study proposes an integrated governance and engineering framework aimed at reducing environmental impacts while maintaining reconstruction efficiency. Methodological transparency is ensured through explicit documentation of data sources, screening procedures, analytical criteria, and risk classification logic. The study also acknowledges the limitations associated with restricted access to primary field measurements in post-disaster environments and therefore adopts a triangulated documentary and comparative analytical strategy. The proposed framework offers a transferable model for evaluating temporary industrial infrastructures in post-disaster reconstruction systems globally. Full article

Research on platformed placemaking has concentrated primarily on demand-side processes—how places are consumed, represented, and contested through platform mediation—while the supply side remains underexamined. This study investigates how professional actors interpret platform signals and translate them into spatial practice within heritage district regeneration. Drawing on interviews with 35 planners, designers, and operators involved in Beijing Road and Yongqing Fang in Guangzhou, and complemented by field observation, the analysis identifies four strategic dimensions through which professionals configure heritage spaces for platform visibility: variety design, technological interaction, regional characteristics, and serialized activities. To systematize the processes underlying these strategies, the study proposes professional translation as an analytical framework organized around three interconnected dimensions: platform decoding, spatial–temporal encoding, and professional routinization. The study contributes to platformed placemaking scholarship by systematically documenting and analyzing the interpretive labor through which platform signals enter professional spatial practice, extending existing frameworks from consumption-oriented analysis toward the production side of platform-place dynamics. Full article

Public Open Spaces (POSs) are fundamental to sustainable urban development, yet their planning and design potential as resilience-generating infrastructure in coastal cities remains insufficiently explored. In tsunami-prone contexts, POSs can be reconceptualized as multifunctional spatial systems that integrate environmental sustainability with disaster-responsive urban design. This study investigates how POSs can be planned and designed as tsunami-responsive infrastructure to enhance coastal urban resilience. Using a grounded theory approach supported by a focused literature review, data were collected through 72 unstructured interviews with tsunami-affected communities, urban planners and designers, disaster resilience experts, sociologists, and coastal environmental planners, etc. The findings identify three resilience-oriented POS typologies: (1) evacuation-integrated open spaces structured as spatial corridors and elevated assembly landscapes; (2) protective and mitigative landscapes employing topographic modulation, vegetative buffers, and water-sensitive design; and (3) adaptive shelter-embedded open spaces designed as flexible civic grounds capable of rapid transformation into temporary refuge infrastructure. The study proposes an architectural and urban design framework that positions POSs as adaptive coastal infrastructure simultaneously serving everyday civic functions while supporting evacuation, mitigation, emergency response, and climate adaptation. This approach advances resilience-focused architecture and risk-informed coastal urbanism. Full article

Due to rapid urbanization, climate and socio-economic change, vernacular architecture in the Kara region of Togo is now facing mutations that threaten its existence. In the Kara region, new forms of housing, inspired by ancestral building practices and green technologies, are emerging as neo-vernacular architecture. This study aims to evaluate the overall performance of the CIDAP social hall, which is considered a model of neo-vernacular architecture. Through a series of both qualitative and quantitative tools, including the VerSus tool, the PTVA method and the calculation of the temperature difference ratio (TDR), the CIDAP social hall was analyzed regarding the criteria of durability, vulnerability to climatic hazards and thermal comfort. This work indicates that this building achieves a sustainability score of 88.33%. In terms of vulnerability to climatic hazards, the vulnerability index is around 0.392 for heavy rainfall, 0.389 for high heat and 0.309 for strong wind hazard. For thermal behavior, the TDR is of the order of 0.634. All these results reveal a satisfactory performance of the CIDAP social hall in terms of durability, vulnerability and thermal comfort. Full article

The accelerating climate crisis and resource depletion demand new architectural paradigms that move beyond linear models of production and consumption. While the concept of Intelligent Ecologies is often associated with digital and artificial intelligence systems, this study reinterprets it through the lens of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), vernacular architecture, and constraint-based innovation. Grounded in a critical reading of key references in ecological knowledge, vernacular studies, circular economy theory, and responsible innovation, the paper develops a conceptual framework tracing a trajectory from TEK to adaptive and circular design. Two architectural case studies, the ARCò kindergarten in Sant’Alessio (biological cycle) and the Parabase Elementa housing project in Basel (technical cycle), are analysed to demonstrate how natural and collective intelligence can be operationalised in contemporary practice. The findings show that circularity emerges not as an added sustainability layer but as the logical outcome of design under ecological and material constraints. The study concludes that Intelligent Ecologies should be understood as socio-ecological systems in which architecture participates in living processes through adaptive, regenerative, and temporally open strategies, thereby repositioning innovation as continuity with historically embedded forms of ecological intelligence rather than technological rupture. Full article

Building details are often treated as technical externalities, subordinate to form, image and architectural narrative. Reading details as liminal spaces reverses that hierarchy. The joint concentrates transitions between the inside and outside, public and private, exposure and protection, and these transitions are constructed as intervals, experienced through thickness, reveal, edge condition, shadow, touch, and the small resistances that accompany crossing. The article develops its analysis through archival hand-drawn detail drawings from the Azrieli Architectural Archive. It defines building details as both technical assemblies and threshold devices, points where architecture becomes accountable to perception as well as to climate, labor, regulation, and everyday use. A semiotic reading of large-scale sheets shows how line weight, hatching, notation, and layout encode priorities, marking boundaries between what must be precisely resolved and what may remain adjustable. The archive is treated as a laboratory of “detail families,” recurring junction types such as windows, stairs, and envelope edges that reveal office-specific languages of joining. Two case studies, by the architects Ram Karmi and Arieh Sharon with Eldar Sharon, show how micro-variations in depth, overlap, and edge control tune thresholds, producing perceptual tipping points where comfort can shift into irritation, calm into unease, and openness into vulnerability. Although grounded in a local archive, the argument addresses a broader condition of contemporary practice: standardization and digital production chains can relocate authorship and responsibility away from the joint, precisely where buildings most affect everyday conduct. The paper proposes a liminal literacy of detailing as both a historiographic method and a design ethic aimed at making threshold decisions legible, contestable, and accountable in present-day workflows. Full article

This work involves the building occupants of a smart building during a period of hybrid working, with the purpose of co-designing data-rich workplaces that support wellbeing. Through the design of a custom card-kit based on PROWELL Model of Workplace Wellbeing Assessment, this work provides insights from an online 90 min co-design workshop with six building occupants utilizing the card-kit to speculate on the design of data-driven physical interventions that support workplace wellbeing. Transcript data from the video-recorded workshop were thematically analyzed, producing findings namely framing novel socio-technical dimensions for biophilic and biomimetic designs in the built environment. Contributing to discourses on Human-Building Interaction (HBI) research, findings were synthesized into a design agenda and considerations for supporting wellbeing in the hybrid workplace that utilizes physical feedback and passive sensing. Composed under the premise of co-creating smart environments together with their occupants, the proposed agenda highlights areas of critical research interest for HBI, Biophilic Design and Soft Robotics in the built environment. Full article

Graph-based spatial analysis methods are widely used to evaluate accessibility, visibility, spatial hierarchy, and movement-related properties of architectural floor plans. However, these analyses are often conducted using standalone tools and separate simplified models, which can delay design feedback and introduce additional data preparation steps. This paper presents a BIM-embedded computational workflow for configuring, computing, and visualising spatial graph analyses within Autodesk Revit using Dynamo, Python scripting, and the Accessibility and Visibility Analysis (AVA) package. The contribution is not the development of new graph algorithms, but the documentation of a reproducible workflow that sequences existing tools, graph construction settings, metric configuration, spatial measure computation, and 2D/3D visual feedback within a modelling environment. The workflow is demonstrated through a two-storey residential case study and supports accessibility, visibility, centrality measures, visual step depth, shortest path, isovist, object visibility, and activity-based origin–destination analysis. Particular attention is given to incorporating vertical circulation connections into level-based accessibility graphs for selected cross-level movement analysis. Building on prior AVA–DepthmapX verification by the authors, the paper focuses on workflow transparency, reproducibility, and multi-level accessibility representation. The findings indicate that BIM-embedded spatial graph analysis can support iterative, performance-informed design evaluation. Full article

The growing scale and duration of global displacement driven by complex humanitarian crises pose significant challenges for humanitarian shelter and settlement planning. Refugees and displaced persons often live long-term in settlements and collective accommodation initially intended as temporary, which are frequently characterised by overcrowding, limited privacy, inadequate infrastructure, and uncertain living conditions, heightening psychological distress. Despite the recognition of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in humanitarian response, the role of the built environment and its impact on MHPSS remains underexplored. This study utilises a systematic-informed review of academic and grey literature to examine how healing architecture can support humanitarian settlement planning, with a focus on the wellbeing of displaced communities. Literature was identified through searches in Web of Science and Google Scholar, alongside selected publications from United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations, resulting in a total of 34 documents included in the analysis. The paper addresses three research questions: What mental health challenges are most common among displaced populations? What healing architecture strategies are most relevant, and how do they influence mental health? How and under what conditions can healing architecture strategies contribute to humanitarian settlement planning to support wellbeing? Studies were identified through database and repository searches, appraised for quality, and synthesised using thematic analysis. Findings highlight key design strategies, including access to private and communal spaces, connection to nature, and culturally responsive layouts. Although the analysis identified contextual and methodological limitations in humanitarian settlement planning, integrating healing architecture offers practical pathways to enhance wellbeing through participatory and inclusive design. Full article

This qualitative research investigates the adoption of Circular Economy (CE) principles in contemporary Australian architectural practice, referred to as circularity, to address climate change, resource scarcity, and increasing demands for built-environment resilience. The Australian government’s 2035 national circularity target, which aims to double 2024 levels, will have profound implications for architectural practice. This research examines the current and future ability of practices to adopt circularity. It addresses two specific knowledge gaps: (i) how circularity is currently being adopted by architectural practices in Australia, and (ii) what factors restrict or undermine this adoption. To address these gaps, the research draws on insights developed from focus groups and interviews (n = 33 participants) with professional Australian architectural service providers and closely related design and engineering practitioners. Qualitative data collection captured empirical evidence on the barriers, challenges, and opportunities for circularity, followed by NVivo-based Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) that iteratively and inductively identified emerging themes. The findings indicate that architects’ and associated practitioners’ adoption of circularity in Australia is evident but constrained by short-term project horizons, fragmented responsibilities, limited procurement infrastructure, and uncertainty about material supply and skilled labour. The paper concludes that, despite some conceptual ambiguity and structural limitations in current practice models, adoption remains fragmented and selective and offers actions for architects and other stakeholders to address logistical infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, legal contracts, and barriers stemming from a short-term economic value mindset. Full article

This research addresses the latent disconnect between citizens and World Heritage sites, analysing how intensive tourism and declarations focused on monuments (1980s–1990s) have created a distance that makes managing these heritage sites very difficult. The main objective is to propose and validate participatory methodologies that restore social bonds and strengthen urban governance. The identified knowledge gap lies in the lack of operational tools that allow the theory of participation to be put into actual practice, overcoming the current methodological void in assessing social and economic impacts. Under the methodology of the WHATS-UP project, an action-research approach is employed that combines ethnographic work, mapping of key actors, and participatory workshops with shared walking tours in the Alhambra and the Alcázar. This data is integrated into Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) to map social perceptions of values and risks. The results show that, although tourism has led to alienation and gentrification, the participatory process succeeds in rescuing “invisible values”, such as memories and traditional trades, that are absent from official narratives. In conclusion, the study proposes a consensus-based co-management model between institutions and the community, transforming heritage into a resource for urban cohesion and resilience. This integration of methodologies, which combines collective mapping with safeguarding plans, enables progress toward protection strategies that are more effective and better reflect contemporary social realities. Full article

Architectural and urban quality, or spatial quality, is inherently difficult to objectify due to its subjective nature. Traditional surveys can identify general trends but lack numerical precision. This study proposes a “qualitative quantification” model that transforms subjective judgments into measurable values and tracks their evolution throughout the production process. Based on evaluation criteria decomposition and Hanrot’s MATEA framework, the model measures a large set of indicators related to the spatial quality of the built environment, including accessibility, density, visual comfort, functionality, maintenance and several other aspects. It generates a conceptual and graphical radar evaluation scheme, integrating production stages with quantified indicators. Applied to the outdoor spaces of 40 collective housing estates in Biskra, southeastern Algeria, the model objectively confirms the poor spatial quality perceived subjectively by residents and other stakeholders. Results reveal negative evaluations in design, construction, use and maintenance reflecting systemic deficiencies and governance challenges. This approach contributes to post-occupancy evaluation and sustainable urban development assessment, providing a reproducible framework for quantifying and visualizing spatial quality throughout architectural and urban production, enabling planners and designers to identify weaknesses and monitor improvements over time. Full article

Heritage buildings constitute a significant element of the United Kingdom’s (UK) built environment, with 460,000 listed buildings across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These assets present substantial challenges for national decarbonisation due to statutory constraints on fabric alteration and the need to consider whole-life carbon impacts. This study evaluates the impact of conservation-compatible retrofit strategies on the operational energy and carbon performance of Fitzroy House, a Grade II listed late-modern office building in Nottingham. Dynamic building simulation (IES Virtual Environment) was used to assess baseline performance and to develop two retrofit scenarios incorporating improvements to glazing, airtightness, roof insulation, and the introduction of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR). Climate resilience was evaluated using future weather files for the 2080s. Results are derived from comparative scenario-based modelling rather than calibrated predictions of absolute performance. Within this framework, the proposed measures can reduce annual heating demand by up to 68%, cooling demand by 60%, and operational carbon emissions by approximately 41% (district heating) to 64% (natural gas), relative to the as-built baseline under the most advanced retrofit scenario. Performance remains broadly robust under future climate scenarios, although cooling loads increase modestly. The findings demonstrate that, while meaningful reductions in operational carbon are achievable, retrofit outcomes are fundamentally shaped by conservation constraints, which act as an interpretive framework defining the limits and possibilities of intervention. However, results should be interpreted as indicative of relative performance improvements rather than fully generalizable or predictive outcomes, and embodied carbon impacts are not included within the scope of this study. The research provides an evidence-based pathway for improving similar late-modern listed office buildings while highlighting the limits imposed by conservation requirements and existing building fabric. Full article

In a context marked by the Anthropocene, the climate crisis, and the contemporary blockage of political and projective imagination, utopias and dystopias re-emerge as fundamental critical instruments for architecture. Far from constituting evasive or unrealizable exercises, these constructions operate as epistemological and projective devices capable of exploring possible futures, revealing latent tensions, and questioning the ideological frameworks that shape the built environment. This article examines speculative design as a contemporary updating of the utopian and dystopian tradition in architecture, understood not as a normative model but as a critical method for imagining radical transformations of dwelling in response to the current ecological, social, and geopolitical urgencies. Drawing on a series of projects developed within the university context, it analyses how architectural speculation, enhanced by artificial intelligence tools, enables the exploration of alternative scenarios of urbanization, adaptive habitats, and new relationships between architecture, territory, and nature. The cases analysed show that the combination of utopia, dystopia, and emerging technologies fosters an understanding of architecture as an open, dynamic, and relational system capable of responding to contexts of high uncertainty. The article argues that the return of utopian imagination, now mediated by speculative practices and digital tools, constitutes a relevant contribution to the contemporary debate on new forms of urbanization, flexible megastructures, and sustainable architectural futures. Full article