Search Results (7)

There is an increasing demand to replace traditional construction techniques with more sustainable systems that can reduce environmental impacts. Emissions are typically assessed only in carbon dioxide and embodied energy terms, yet these metrics alone cannot fully capture the overall impact generated. This study provides a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of three steel warehouse projects with varying cladding systems: steel walls (SW), steel-clay brick walls (SClaW), and steel-concrete block walls (SConW). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used to assess the environmental impact of materials used during the whole life cycle. The study used the software program SimaPro (System for Integrated Environmental Assessment of Products) version 9.6.0.1, with data extracted from the international Ecoinvent database. ReCiPe Midpoint approach were adopted to assess potential impacts. The results indicate that the SW project under end-of-life Scenario 2—waste recycling—exhibited the lowest impacts across most categories, followed by the SConW and SClaW projects. The findings emphasize the environmental benefits of utilizing steel cladding systems over brick or concrete masonry and considering recycling as the end of life of the materials. Additionally, the study provides insights into the significance of material choices in minimizing environmental impact on human health, resource availability, and ecosystems. Full article

Brick warehouses represent interdisciplinary heritage sites developed by social, cultural, and economic impacts. This study aimed to connect warehouse details and GIS maps in augmented reality (AR) based on the former Camphor Refinery Workshop Warehouse. AR was applied as an innovation interface to communicate the differences between construction details, providing a feasible on-site solution for articulating historical brick engineering technology. A complex warehouse cluster was georeferenced by the AR models of brick details. The map was assisted by a smartphone-based comparison of the details of adjacent warehouses. Sixty AR models of warehouse details exemplified the active and sustainable preservation of the historical artifacts. The side-by-side allocation of warehouse details in AR facilitated cross-comparisons of construction differences. We found that a second reconstructed result integrated AR and reality in a novel manner based on the use of a smartphone AR. GIS and AR facilitated a management effort using webpages and cloud access from a remote site. The vocabulary of building details can be enriched and better presented in AR. Full article

Brick warehouses represent a form of heritage at a different level of reactivation. Interdisciplinary exploration of social, cultural, and economic development has raised questions regarding the roles these buildings played in the past and how the heritage continued to evolve with the surrounding fabric. This study aimed to explore the spatiotemporal relationship between nine red brick warehouses and the historical development of the urban fabric in the Taipei metropolitan area, Taiwan. The relationship was defined by the quantitative trend assessment of the architecture, river, tributaries, and railroad, based on maps created between 1890 and 2020. The interactions between warehouses and fabric comprised single, meta, and determining indicators. The interactions evolved between two trends comprising intersections, maturity, and fluctuation. The consistent development of the architecture’s ascending trend was used as a reference indicator, by a relative scale to the fully developed stage of 100%. The meta-relationship between trends had a higher percentage and a greater occurrence closer to the present. The percentage totaled 67.74% after 1945 and remained above 50%, another indicator of the evolving frequency and intensity. The nine warehouses, which were part of a tributary branch system, created 11 intersections between 1950 and 1990. We concluded that the former active, supportive role of warehouses changed to a passive role, corresponding to the instrumentation of all trends. The warehouses functioned as trendsetters and interacted with the fabrics in a sustainable urbanization process. This was caused by role substitution, fabric replacement, degenerated dependence, and a diverted two-way relationship with hydrogeography. A geographic distribution of development was demonstrated from the river mouth inland. Full article

The use of energy efficient structures in the local construction industry assists in promoting green building concepts, leading to economical and eco-friendly solutions for self-sustained structures. The main aim of this study was to examine and compare the energy performance of various local buildings. Detailed 3D building models (house, office, and warehouse buildings) were constructed and investigated for their cost and energy savings using building energy simulation tools (green building studio and insight). Moreover, the effects of various building materials for walls, window panels, and roof construction were explored, and a life-cycle cost analysis was performed. It was observed that the effect of the window-to-wall ratio was less severe in term of energy use in office buildings compared to normal houses due to the larger amount of space available for air circulation. Furthermore, the most efficient location for windows was found to be at the middle of the wall in comparison with the top and bottom positions. The effect of the orientation mainly depended on the symmetry of the building. More symmetric buildings, i.e., tested warehouse buildings (rectangular structure), showed an energy use difference of around 7 MJ/m²/year for a 360° orientation change. Tested house buildings exhibited an energy use difference of up to 25 MJ/m²/year. Three-pane glass windows also showed major improvements, and the total energy consumption for houses was reduced to 14%. Furthermore, wood walls showed comparable energy performance with brick walls without the use of insulation. According to US-LEED guidelines, the tested house, office, and warehouse buildings achieved 79, 89, and 88 points, respectively. The cost recovery period for house, office, and warehouse buildings was estimated to 54, 13, and 14 years, respectively, including running and maintenance costs. It can be argued that the Insight and Green Building Studio packages can assist construction stakeholders to determine the energy efficiency of the modeled building as well as to help in the selection of materials for optimized and improved design. Full article

Utilizing local brick-and-mortar stores for same-day order fulfillment is becoming prominent in omni-channel retailing. Efficient in-store order picking is critical to providing timely value-added omni-channel delivery services. Despite numerous studies on order picking in traditional logistics warehouses and distribution centers, there is scant research focusing on in-store order fulfillment with the multi-skilled workforce in omni-channel retail stores. We studied the integrated Order Picking and Heterogeneous Picker Scheduling Problem (OPPSP-Het) in omni-channel retail stores. We characterized the OPPSP-Het in a mixed-integer linear optimization model with the objective of the minimization of total tardiness of all customer orders. A hybrid heuristic combining the genetic algorithm and variable neighborhood descent was designed to obtain effective solutions. Extensive experiments were conducted to validate the performance of the proposed approach relative to existing algorithms in recent literature. We further numerically showed the effects of order size and heterogeneous workforce on order fulfillment performance. We lastly emphasized the importance of workforce flexibility as a cost-effective approach to improving in-store order fulfillment performance. Full article

Building heritage contributes to the historical context and industrial history of a city. Brick warehouses, which comprise a systematic interface between components, demand an interactive manipulation of inspected parts to interpret their construction complexity. The documentation of brick details in augmented reality (AR) can be challenging when the relative location needs to be defined in 3D. This study aimed to compare brick details in AR, and to reconstruct the interacted result in the correct relative location. We applied photogrammetry modeling and smartphone AR for the first and secondary 3D reconstruction of brick warehouse details and compared the results. In total, 146 3D AR database models were created. The AR-based virtual reconstruction process applied multiple imagery resources from video conferencing and broadcast of models on the Augment^® platform through a smartphone. Tests verified the virtual reconstruction in AR, and concluded the deviation between the final secondary reconstructed 3D model and the first reconstructed model had a standard deviation of less than 1 cm. AR enabled the study and documentation of cross-referenced results in comparison with the simplified reconstruction process, with structural detail and visual detail suitable for 3D color prints. Full article

The mission of botanical gardens is to work towards the conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity. In the case of gardens established on the premises of former manor estates, actions are also being taken to properly manage existing natural resources, e.g., historic tree stands. This article is based on the case study of the Botanical Garden in Lublin. To assess the health condition of the trees growing in the oldest part of the park—Kościuszko Redoubt—sonic tomography examinations were performed. The article presents the practical application of a newer form of digital imaging, put to the service of assessing the health of old trees in an important public space. The Redoubt is the only work of defense architecture in Poland related to the activity of General Tadeusz Kościuszko, the hero of Poland and the United States of America. It has survived in an excellent condition, preserved without significant changes, as an earth structure with ramparts; an interior, i.e., a yard; a cannon post located on an inaccessible cliff; and a brick basement serving as a shelter for soldiers and a warehouse. The entire surroundings also survived: ravines masked with a wild green, embankments with a safe hidden access road to the Redoubt, and a shaped defense line. The Botanical Garden area is located in the Sławinek district, in the valley of the Czechówka River, and includes a fragment of it and the slope adjacent to the west, cut by three loess ravines. The Botanical Garden was established in 1965, where there was a manor farm earlier, and then in the 19th century, a spa that was destroyed during World War I and II. Good soils and a varied microclimate provide the right ecological conditions for the high biodiversity of plants. With an area of 21.15 ha, the Garden area has the character of a landscape park with the theme of a manor garden from the turn of the 18th/19th century and a spa garden. The primary purpose of the work was to investigate the effectiveness of the use of computer tools in the sustainable management of historical greenery in the Botanical Garden. Research has shown that diagnostics with the use of sound waves allow for an accurate diagnosis and quick protective measures against the tree, improving the safety of visitors to the botanical garden. Moreover, the obtained results and a historical query were used to prepare an application to recognize Redoubt as a monument. Full article