Search results

This systematic literature review focusses on original research that examines the effect of persuasive architectural interventions on stimulating health behaviour. This paper gives an overview of the empirical evidence and aims to examine the evidence for health behaviour change through architectural interventions and the underlying theoretical pathways and mechanisms using social cognitive theory.

This paper reviewed 40 peer-reviewed articles found through Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and a supplementary hand search and examined for effect, type of interventions, type of behaviour and underlying mechanisms using social cognitive theory.

This review shows that architectural interventions can stimulate healthy behaviour. However, much of the research focusses on specific health behaviours (physical activity), in specific target groups (children or older adults) and with specific types of interventions (supplying provisions). Furthermore, the effect of the physical environment on cognitive factors should be taken into consideration.

Hardly any research on smart architectural interventions for health behaviour change exists, but combining insights from product design and built environment has the potential to impact designing for health behaviour change.

Stimulating certain types of health behaviour can positively contribute to health goals and has been the focus of many health promotion practitioners over the years. The focus of health promotion interventions has primarily been on social and psychological factors. However, current research shows the importance of the physical environment as an influence on health behaviour. Potentially, with the use of smart technology, this effect could be enhanced.

This research seeks to provide methodological bases for the identification, documentation and critical reflection of good practices of architectural design in built heritage. These are applied explicitly to the School of Porto architects, which express a high sense of pedagogy and community practice in this field. The methodological approach defines the selection criteria for a georeferenced inventory and the procedures for in-depth analysis of adaptive reuse strategies.

The works included in the inventory were selected according to geographical, chronological, typological, qualitative and quantitative criteria. The cases chosen for in-depth analysis have been studied along four thematic axes to dissect all the intervention processes (previous state, design/construction and final state). This approach is supported by a cross-analysis of different sources (oral, written, graphic) and using drawing as a fundamental research tool.

The research has collected and disseminated up to 150 works by 44 architects, providing a comprehensive portrait of heritage intervention by the School of Porto over the past decades. The selection of 22 buildings for in-depth documentation reveals a particular sensibility toward the cultural values through a case-by-case approach based in deep knowledge of the preexisting context and the introduction of contemporary additions in continuity and harmonious relation with the environmental and sociocultural context.

This work provides a novel methodology suitable for further extension and adaptation to other case studies, as a first contribution to a more comprehensive “Atlas of Architectural Design in Built Heritage” with European case studies. The research aims to introduce new and deeper perspectives on reference works that may constitute pedagogy for the future practice of architects within contextual, inclusive and sustainable approaches.

The aim of this study is to present design tactics (DTs) for supporting the adaptability of existing primary and middle school buildings into the emerging needs of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study introduces a novel algorithmic model for postoccupancy evaluation of the existing school buildings and provides solutions to enhance the adaptability of these buildings.

This study employs the DTs defined by the authors, integration of DTs to the algorithmic model and tests the usability of the proposed model in the selected sample set. The sample set consists of four primary and middle school buildings with different architectural qualities. The degrees of flexibility of the existing sample set are evaluated depending on the outcomes of the implementation.

The degrees of flexibility are achieved as a result of execution of the algorithmic model for each selected school building. Initial results of the case studies show that the flexibility of a school building is highly related to affordances and design decisions of the plan layout which were considered in the initial phases of the design process. Architectural qualities such as open plan and having sufficient voids in the interior and exterior space become prominent factors for ensuring flexibility.

Developing a systematic approach to the adaptation problem of primary and middle school buildings to postpandemic reuse is a novel research topic. Apart from this contextual originality, the proposed taxonomy for postpandemic reuse in terms of three levels of adaptation is a new conceptual framework. Moreover, the proposed algorithmic model itself can be considered as an original contribution, as well as a merge of qualitative values such as adaptation and flexibility with an algorithmic model.

The purpose of this paper is to test critical conservation approaches through conceptual architectural interventions that integrate the evolution of a significant urban building, the Temple of Dagan in Ugarit, the capital of an important Bronze Age civilisation in Syria, with the pre-existing phases of the site and offer a paradigm for the presentation of the city’s evolution. This reflection aims to investigate how far the remaining fabric can frame the original architectural experience of the place allowing the visitors of the ruins to contextualise the architectural development of the temple.

A detailed reading of archaeological reports and the French mission’s architectural interpretation as well as in situ surveys and architectural and urban analyses were carried out to inform this conservation reflection, which primarily explores the potential of critical conservation approaches for key architectural interventions. The main vehicle is a virtual reconstruction approach to probe the proposed critical conservation principles and their success in highlighting the stratigraphy of a site.

The work shows that critical conservation approaches can make a distinct contribution to the understanding of the ruins; in particular, the virtual approach can handle effectively the presentation of the intangible experience of the temple (original processional routes) and its archaeological stratigraphy.

The poor condition of the temple, being exposed for more than 80 years after excavation, have limited further architectural analysis as some evidence is confusing to read in situ. The pre-conservation analysis, therefore, was based more on the archaeological mission’s work, which is comprehensive.

The reconstitution of the temple’s architectural layers in a coherent narrative will have educational value as it will highlight the development of architectural perception and techniques during the Bronze Age. Debate on the application of such tools by managers of the site may enhance the visitors’ appreciation of the ruins. The digital output itself constitutes an engaging material that enhances the public understanding of the site and its rich stratigraphy.

The study is the first attempt to constitute an architectural experience out of the confusing ruins integrating the archaeological evidence in the frame of contemporary conservation and architectural design. As one of the predominant urban artefacts in Ugarit, the Temple of Dagan witnessed at least a millennium of the city’s history and thus the conservation strategy of its intense development and stratification reflects the whole city.

This study aims to propose a systematic way of evaluating the impact of historic and current interventions on cultural asset values of monuments that have preserved their authentic functions so that future interventions can be better guided.

The study focuses on the Mosque typology. The case studies are chosen from a region that has a rich historic background, but has generally undergone rapid urbanization and faces extensive restorations today. Conventional site survey, archive and historical research and visual analysis are made, but the evaluation process has been designed. As a result, scale and intensity of interventions and disasters and the vulnerability of the monument should be identified for each period of the asset. Variations in the intensity of esthetic or historic qualities and the environmental settings should be credited, rather than the utilitarian necessities.

Mosques and their environs are most vulnerable in terms of their architectural authenticity and site aesthetics.

The objects studied in the previous studies present a variation, but the majority of the work is carried out with conventional evaluation methods with the emphasis on building scale. However, the mosques are affected by the interventions and disasters, not only as single architectural entities but also as the focal elements of their neighborhoods. So, the intervention-value relations should be understood both for building and site scales. An evaluation process is proposed for understanding the change of values with respect to interventions and disasters throughout history by combining qualitative and quantitative techniques.

This article sets out to show how principles and questions about method that underlie a way of interpreting the discipline of conservation and restoration can find results in research and studies, aiming at achieving even conscious reuse process. The occasion is the very recent research performed on the former Church of Saints Gerolamo and Francesco Saverio in Genoa, Italy, the Jesuit church annexed to the 17th-century College of the order. It is a small Baroque jewel in the heart of the ancient city, former University Library and actually abandoned, forgotten for years, inaccessible and awaiting a new use.

The two-year work carried out on the monumental building was conducted according to a study and research methodology developed and refined over the years within the activities of the School of Specialisation in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa. It is a multidisciplinary and rigorous approach, which aims to train high-level professionals, up-to-date and aware of the multiple problems that interventions on existing buildings, especially of a monumental nature, involve.

The biennal study has been carried out within the activities of the Post-Graduate Programme in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa. The work methodology faces the challenges of the contemporary complexity, raised by the progressive broadening of the concept of cultural “heritage” and by the problems of its conservation, its active safeguard and its reuse: safety in respect of seismic risk, fire and hydro geological instability, universal accessibility – cognitive, physical and alternative – resource efficiency, comfort and savings in energy consumption, sustainability, communication and involvement of local communities and stakeholders.

The goals of the work were the following: understanding of the architectural heritage, through the correlated study of its geometries, elements and construction materials, surfaces, structures, spaces and functions; understanding of the transformations that the building has undergone over time, relating the results of historical reconstructions from indirect sources and those of direct archaeological analysis; assessment of the state of conservation of the building recognising phenomena of deterioration, damage, faults and deficits that affect materials, construction elements, systems and structures; identification of the causes and extent of damage, faults and deficits, assessing the vulnerability and level of exposure of the asset to the aggression of environmental factors and related risks; evaluation of the compatibility between the characteristics of the available spaces, the primary needs of conservation, the instance of regeneration and possible new uses; the definition of criteria and guidelines for establishing the planning of conservation, restoration and redevelopment interventions.

The entirety of a region’s architectural expressions, that is, its building culture, has a strong impact on a region’s atmosphere. Being a collective and networked endeavour, building culture is difficult to coordinate. Against this background, this chapter presents an empirically informed reflection on architectural governance. The chapter is based on a multiple case study which compares five regions in the European Alps in terms of their coordination mechanisms in the areas of architecture and spatial planning, that is, architectural governance. The analysed regions include Grisons (Switzerland), Vorarlberg, Tyrol (both Austria), South Tyrol and Trentino (both in Italy). By combining conceptual considerations with empirical evidence, the chapter concludes with hypothesised relationships between architectural governance, building culture, socio-economic development dynamics and tourism.

Adaptive reuse processes aim to preserve heritage values while creating new values through the architectural interventions that have become necessary. This claim provokes a discussion about the meaning of values, how we can preserve them in practice and how we can translate them into architectural qualities that users experience. Riegl's understanding of the different perspectives of heritage values in the past and present opens up the possibility of identifying present values as a reflection of current social, material and political conditions in the architectural discourse.

This qualitative and practical study compares two Belgian projects to trace the use of values in adaptive reuse projects from an architectural design perspective. The Predikherenklooster, a 17th-century monastery in Mechelen that now houses the public library, and the C-Mine cultural centre in Genk, a former 20th-century coal mine, are compared. The starting point is Flemish legislation, which defines significance through values, distinguishing between 13 heritage values.

The study demonstrates the opportunities that axiological questions offer during the design process of an adaptive reuse project. They provide an overarching framework for tangible and intangible aspects that need to be discussed, particularly in terms of the link between what exists, the design strategy and their effect.

Adaptive reuse can draw on approaches from both heritage conservation and contemporary architecture and explore values as a tool for “re-designing” built heritage.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of contemporary architecture in heritage protection, reinterpretation and reuse, an issue that has become increasingly relevant due to the recognition of architectural heritage as a key factor for cultural and economic development.

In Portugal, as elsewhere in Europe, cultural heritage management has often been associated with the creation of new museum spaces, namely, within national monuments and archaeological sites. Drawing on restoration theories and international charters, this paper analyses and compares two parallel interventions recently built inside São Jorge Castle, in Lisbon: the Museum Centre (Victor Mestre and Sofia Aleixo, 2007-2008) and the Archaeological Site (João Luís Carrilho da Graça, 2008-2010). This approach offers insight on the complexity of addressing and reconfiguring the profusion of past transformations within a single monument.

These two complementary museum spaces are representative of different attitudes towards heritage appropriation, substantiating the thesis that musealizing always entails the creation of narratives, which translate history and heritage into architectural and curatorial discourses. Besides meeting the functional requirements of specific museum programmes, such interventions frequently deal with the challenge of opening up new perspectives on the past.

Considering the central role of communication in contemporary museums, this paper discusses how heritage musealization can contribute to the translation of historical evidence into updated iconographies, narratives and dialogues. Furthermore, the unique characteristics of this twofold case study can provide an insightful contribution for a broader debate on the reinterpretation of iconic monuments and sites.

This research aimed to define the factors that may impact the effectiveness of online architectural education during COVID-19 and to examine the degree of students' and instructors' satisfaction with these factors among Jordanian governmental universities. Further, the research examines the relationships/interrelationships between the degree of their satisfaction with these factors and the students' and instructors' age, gender, education level, home size, and family size.

Different research methods were used to achieve the research purposes, including semi-structured interviews, online questionnaires and reviewing recent literature. This research used descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson r) to analyze the data.

This research found that online architectural education during COVID-19 was stressful. It was ineffective in teaching practical architectural courses like design and negatively affected the architectural learning process and outcomes. In contrast, the online teaching of architectural theoretical courses was reliable and convenient if the students and instructors had intentional, sufficient technological and appropriate resources. Online architectural education negatively affected the students' design ability and skills, peer review, intended learning outcomes (ILOs) achievements, the quality of feedback, workload, interaction mode, participation, collaboration, productivity and increased cheating on online exams. The home environment was unsuitable for online architectural education. Family interventions, privacy, home size and family size significantly influence online architectural education's effectiveness.

Students' and instructors' satisfaction determines the continuity of using online teaching mode, which depends on information quality, system quality, service quality, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, achieved intended learning outcomes, cognitive absorption, skills, motivation, engagement, implementing resources and strategies and positive emotions as hope and enjoyment. Students' and instructors' satisfaction reflects how they view their learning experience, which is crucial in assessing the effectiveness of online education quality that focuses on the context, input, process and product, which is still not clearly understood, particularly for developing countries.