Structure and Functions of Urban Surface Water System in Coastal Areas: The Case of Almere

In the context of global climate change, flooding and sea level rise is increasingly threatening coastal urban areas, in which large population is continuously concentrated. Dutch experiences in urban water system management provide high reference value for sustainable coastal urban development projects. Preliminary studies shows the urban water system in Almere, a typical Dutch polder city, have three kinds of operational modes, achieving functions as: (1) coastline control – strong multiple damming system prevents from storm surges and maintains sufficient capacity upon risks; (2) high flexibility – large area and widely scattered open water system greatly reduce local runoff and water level fluctuation; (3) internal water maintenance – weir and sluice system maintains relatively stable water level, providing excellent boating and landscaping service, coupling with water circulating model maintaining better water quality. Almere has provided plenty of hints and experiences for ongoing development of coastal cities in emerging economies.

Indoor Moisture Control of Auckland Houses with Different Ventilation Systems

Auckland has a temperate climate with comfortable warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Auckland house design not only focus on winter thermal performance and indoor thermal condition, but also indoor moisture control, which is closely related to indirect health effects such as dust mites, fungi, etc. Most Auckland houses are designed to use temporary heating for winter indoor thermal comfort. Based on field study data of indoor microclimate conditions of two Auckland townhouses with a whole home mechanical ventilation system or a passive wind directional skylight vent, this study is to evaluate and compare indoor moisture conditions of two insulated townhouses only using temporary heating with different ventilation systems.

Current Status and Energy Savings Potential of Solar Shading in Ningbo

To investigate the energy performance of solar shading devices, this paper carried out a survey on the current status of solar shading utilization in buildings in Ningbo and performed building simulations to evaluate the energy savings potential by adopting different solar shading devices. Results show that solar shading utilization in this area is not popular and effective, and should be considered firstly in the design stage since the potential for energy savings is up to 6.8% for residential buildings and 9.4% for commercial buildings.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Iranian Architecture on Sustainable Space Creation

lack of convenience condition is one of the problems in open spaces in hot and dry regions. Nowadays parks and green landscapes was designed and constructed without any attention to convenience condition. If this process continues, Citizens will encounter with some problems. Harsh climatic condition decreases the efficiency of people-s activities. However there is hard environment condition in hot and dry regions, Convenience condition has been provided in Iranian traditional architecture by using techniques and methods. In this research at the first step characteristics of Iranian garden that can effect on creating sustainable spaces were investigated through observation method. Pleasure space in cities will be created with using these methods and techniques in future cities. Furthermore the comparison between Iranian garden and landscape in today-s cities demonstrate the effectiveness of Iranian garden characteristics on sustainable spaces. Iranian architects used simple and available methods for creating open architectural spaces. In addition desirable conditions were provided with taking in to account both physically and spiritually. Parks and landscapes in future cities can be designed and constructed with respect to architectural techniques that used in Iranian gardens in hot and arid regions.

Bamboo -An Alternative Building Material for Modest Houses, to Increase the Stock of Affordable Housing, for the Urban Poor Living Close to Bamboo Producing Regions in India

A large section of the society in Urban India is unable to afford a basic dwelling unit. Housing shortage due to the rising unafforability makes it logical to consider alternative technologies more seriously for their application How far do these alternative technologies match up with the conventional techniques? How do these integrate with the present-day need for urban amenities and facilities? Are the owners of bamboo dwellings, for instance, a part of the mainstream housing sector, having the same rights and privileges as those enjoyed by other property owners? Will they have access to loans for building, improving, renovating or repairing their dwellings? Why do we still hesitate to build a bamboo house for ourselves? Is our policy framework and political resolve in place, to welcome such alternative technologies? It is time we found these answers, in order to explore the reasons for large-scale nonacceptance, of a technology proven for its worthiness.

Future Housing Energy Efficiency Associated with the Auckland Unitary Plan

The draft Auckland Unitary Plan outlines the future land used for new housing and businesses with Auckland population growth over the next thirty years. According to Auckland Unitary Plan, over the next 30 years, the population of Auckland is projected to increase by one million, and up to 70% of total new dwellings occur within the existing urban area. Intensification will not only increase the number of median or higher density houses such as terrace house, apartment building, etc. within the existing urban area but also change mean housing design data that can impact building thermal performance under the local climate. Based on mean energy consumption and building design data, and their relationships of a number of Auckland sample houses, this study is to estimate the future mean housing energy consumption associated with the change of mean housing design data and evaluate housing energy efficiency with the Auckland Unitary Plan.

Operating Room Capacity Planning Decisions

Operating rooms are important assets for hospitals as they generate the largest revenue and, at the same time, produce the largest cost for hospitals. The model presented in this paper helps make capacity planning decisions on the combination of open operating rooms (ORs) and estimated overtime to satisfy the allocated OR time to each specialty. The model combines both decisions on determining the amount of OR time to open and to allocate to different surgical specialties. The decisions made are based on OR costs, overutilization and underutilization costs, and contribution margins from allocating OR time. The results show the importance of having a good estimate of specialty usage of OR time to determine the amount of needed capacity and highlighted the tradeoff that the OR manager faces between opening more ORs versus extending the working time of the ORs already in use.

Climatic Range for Comfort Evaporative Cooling

This paper presents the climatic range calculations for comfort evaporative cooling for Tehran. In this study the minimum climatic conditions required to achieve an appropriate comfort zone will be presented. Physiologically uncomfortable conditions in arid climates are mainly caused by the extreme heat and dryness. Direct evaporative cooling adds moisture to the air stream until the air stream is close to saturation. The dry bulb temperature is reduced, while the wet bulb temperature stays the same. Evaporative cooling is economical, effective, environmentally friendly, and healthy. Comfort cooling by direct evaporative cooling (passive or fan forced) in the 35. 41 N (such as Tehran) latitude requires design wet-bulb temperature not over 25.4 C. Evaporative cooling outside this limit cannot achieve the required 26.7 ET, and is recommended for relief cooling only.

Estimating Spatial Disaggregation of Urban Thermal Responsiveness on Summer Diurnal Range with a Numerical Modeling Approach in Bangkok, Thailand

Facing the concern of the population to its environment and to climatic change, city planners are now considering the urban climate in their choices of planning. The urban climate, representing different urban morphologies across central Bangkok metropolitan area (BMA), are used to investigates the effects of both the composition and configuration of variables of urban morphology indicators on the summer diurnal range of urban climate, using correlation analyses and multiple linear regressions. Results show first indicate that approximately 92.6% of the variation in the average maximum daytime near-surface air temperature (Ta) was explained jointly by the two composition variables of urban morphology indicators including open space ratio (OSR) and floor area ratio (FAR). It has been possible to determine the membership of sample areas to the local climate zones (LCZs) using these urban morphology descriptors automatically computed with GIS and remote sensed data. Finally result found the temperature differences among zones of large separation, such as the city center could be respectively from 35.48±1.04ºC (Mean±S.D.) warmer than the outskirt of Bangkok on average for maximum daytime near surface temperature to 28.27±0.21ºC for extreme event and, can exceed as 8ºC. A spatially disaggregation of urban thermal responsiveness map would be helpful for several reasons. First, it would localize urban areas concerned by different climate behavior over summer daytime and be a good indicator of urban climate variability. Second, when overlaid with a land cover map, this map may contribute to identify possible urban management strategies to reduce heat wave effects in BMA.

The Study on the Development of Ornamentation in the Architecture of Safavid Dynasty

The architecture of Safavid Dynasty can be considered the epitome of Iranian architectural beauty. Safavid dynasty (1501- 1722 AC) along with Ottoman in Turkey and Mughal Empire in India were the three great Islamic nations of their time (1500 AC) often known as the last Islamic countries with international authority up to the 20th Century. This era approximately coincide with Renaissance in Europe. In this era, large European countries begin amassing power thanks to significant scientific, cultural and religious revolutions of that time and colonizing nations such as England, Spain and Portugal began to influence international trends with in an increasing while other non-industrial nations diminished. The main objective of this paper is to give a typological overview of the development of decoration and ornament in the architecture of Safafid Dynasty in Iran. It is expected that it can start a wider discussion to enrich this nation-s heritage and contribute to the development of Islamic ornament in general.

Niksic in the Context of Visual Urban Culture

Out of all visual arts including: painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, architecture, and others, architecture is by far the most complex one, because the art category is only one of its determinants. Architecture, to some extent includes other arts which can significantly influence the shaping of an urban space (artistic interventions). These arts largely shape the visual culture in combination with other categories: film, TV, Internet, information technologies that are "changing the world" etc. In the area of architecture and urbanism, visual culture is achieved through the aspects of visual spatial effects. In this context, a complex visual deliberation about designing urban areas in order to contribute to the urban visual culture, and with it restore the cultural identity of the city, is becoming almost the primary concept of contemporary urban and architectural practice. Research in this paper relate to the city of Niksic and its place in the visual urban culture. We are looking at the city’s existing visual effects and determining the directions of transformability of its physical structure in order to achieve the visual realization of an urban area and the renewal of cultural identity of a modern city.

Reflections of Utopia and the Ideal City in the Development of Physical Structure of Nikšić Aspect of Visual Perception

Aspect of visual perception occupies a central position in shaping the physical structure of a city. This paper discusses the visual characteristics of utopian cities and their impact on the shaping of real urban structures. Utopian examples of cities will not be discussed in terms of social and sociological conditions, but rather the emphasis is on urban utopias and ideal cities that have achieved or have had potential impact on the shape of the physical structure of Nikšić. It is a Renaissance-Baroque period with a touch of classicism. The paper’s emphasis is on the physical dimension, not excluding the importance of social equilibrium, studies of which are dating back to Aristotle, Plato, Thomas More, Robert Owen, Tommaso Campanella and others. The emphasis is on urban utopias and their impact on the development of sustainable physical structure of a real city in the context of visual perception. In the case of Nikšić, this paper identifies the common features of a real city and a utopian city, as well as criteria for sustainable urban development in the context of visual achievement.

Parametric Optimization of Hospital Design

Present paper presents a parametric performancebased design model for optimizing hospital design. The design model operates with geometric input parameters defining the functional requirements of the hospital and input parameters in terms of performance objectives defining the design requirements and preferences of the hospital with respect to performances. The design model takes point of departure in the hospital functionalities as a set of defined parameters and rules describing the design requirements and preferences.

Parametric Urban Comfort Envelope an Approach toward a Responsive Sustainable Urban Morphology

By taking advantage of computer-s processing power, an unlimited number of variations and parameters in both spatial and environmental can be provided while following the same set of rules and constraints. This paper focuses on using the tools of parametric urbanism towards a more responsive environmental and sustainable urban morphology. It presents an understanding to Parametric Urban Comfort Envelope (PUCE) as an interactive computational assessment urban model. In addition, it investigates the applicability potentials of this model to generate an optimized urban form to Borg El Arab city (a new Egyptian Community) concerning the human comfort values specially wind and solar envelopes. Finally, this paper utilizes its application outcomes -both visual and numerical- to extend the designer-s limitations by decrease the concern of controlling and manipulation of geometry, and increase the designer-s awareness about the various potentials of using the parametric tools to create relationships that generate multiple geometric alternatives.

Design and Development of Architectural Model Darul Ridzuan Museum

This paper focuses on the 3D reconstruction of the architectural design of Darul Ridzuan Museum. It has concentrated on designing exterior part of the building according to colored digital photo of the real museum. Besides viewing the architecture, walkthroughs are generated for the user to control it in an easier way. User can travel through the museum to get the feel of the environment and to explore the design of the museum as a whole; both exterior and interior. The result has shown positive result in terms of realism, navigation, collision detection, suitability, usability and user-s acceptance. In brief, the 3D virtual museum has provided an alternative to present a real museum.

Application of CFD for Air Flow Analysis underneath Natural Ventilation with Forced Convection in Roof Attic

In research on natural ventilation, and passive cooling with forced convection, is essential to know how heat flows in a solid object and the pattern of temperature distribution on their surfaces, and eventually how air flows through and convects heat from the surfaces of steel under roof. This paper presents some results from running the computational fluid dynamic program (CFD) by comparison between natural ventilation and forced convection within roof attic that is received directly from solar radiation. The CFD program for modeling air flow inside roof attic has been modified to allow as two cases. First case, the analysis under natural ventilation, is closed area in roof attic and second case, the analysis under forced convection, is opened area in roof attic. These extend of all cases to available predictions of variations such as temperature, pressure, and mass flow rate distributions in each case within roof attic. The comparison shows that this CFD program is an effective model for predicting air flow of temperature and heat transfer coefficient distribution within roof attic. The result shows that forced convection can help to reduce heat transfer through roof attic and an around area of steel core has temperature inner zone lower than natural ventilation type. The different temperature on the steel core of roof attic of two cases was 10-15 oK.

The Investigation of Green Roof and White Roof Cooling Potential on Single Storey Residential Building in the Malaysian Climate

The phenomenon of global warming or climate change has led to many environmental issues including higher atmospheric temperatures, intense precipitation, increased greenhouse gaseous emissions and increased indoor discomfort. Studies have shown that bringing nature to the roof such as constructing green roof and implementing high-reflective roof may give positive impact in mitigating the effects of global warming and in increasing thermal comfort sensation inside buildings. However, no study has been conducted to compare both types of passive roof treatments in Malaysia in order to increase thermal comfort in buildings. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate the effect of green roof and white painted roof as passive roof treatment in improving indoor comfort of Malaysian homes. This study uses an experimental approach in which the measurements of temperatures are conducted on the case study building. The measurements of outdoor and indoor environments were conducted on the flat roof with two different types of roof treatment that are green roof and white roof. The measurement of existing black bare roof was also conducted to act as a control for this study.

Conceptual Overview of Housing Affordability in Selangor, Malaysia

Socioeconomic stability and development of a country, can be describe by housing affordability. It is aimed to ensure the housing provided as one of the key factors that is affordable by every income earner group whether low-income, middle income and high income group. This research carried out is to find out affordability of home ownership level for first medium cost landed-house by the middle-income group in Selangor, Malaysia. It is also hope that it could be seen as able to contribute to the knowledge and understanding on housing affordability level for the middleincome group and variables that influenced the medium income group-s ability to own first medium-cost houses.

Advantages of Combining Solar Greenhouse System and Trombe Wall in Hot and Dry Climate and Housing Design: The Case of Isfahan

Nowadays over-consumption of fossil energy in buildings especially in residential buildings and also considering the increase in populations, the crisis of energy shortage in a near future is predictable. The recent performance of developed countries in construction with the aim of decreasing fossil energies shows that these countries have understood the incoming crisis and has taken reasonable and basic actions in this regard. However, Iranian architecture, with several thousands years of history, has acquired and executed invaluable experiences in designing, adapting and coordinating with the nature. Architectural studies during the recent decades show that imitating modern western architecture results in high energy wastage beside the fact that it not reasonably adaptable and corresponded with the habits and customs of people unlike the architecture in the past which was compatible and adaptable with the climatic conditions and this necessitates optimal using of renewable energies more than ever. This paper studies problems of design, execution and living in today's houses and reviews the characteristics of climatic elements paying special attention to the performance of trombe wall and solar greenhouse in traditional houses and offers some suggestions for combining these two elements and a climatic strategy.

Analysis of Climatic Strategies in Designing the Residential Buildings in Cold Dry Climate of Tabriz Metropolis to Reduce Air Pollution in Urban Environment

Nowadays, the earth is countered with serious problem of air pollution. This problem has been started from the industrial revolution and has been faster in recent years, so that leads the earth to ecological and environmental disaster. One of its results is the global warming problem and its related increase in global temperature. The most important factors in air pollution especially in urban environments are Automobiles and residential buildings that are the biggest consumers of the fossil energies, so that if the residential buildings as a big part of the consumers of such energies reduce their consumption rate, the air pollution will be decreased. Since Metropolises are the main centers of air pollution in the world, assessment and analysis of efficient strategies in decreasing air pollution in such cities, can lead to the desirable and suitable results and can solve the problem at least in critical level. Tabriz city is one of the most important metropolises in North west of Iran that about two million people are living there. for its situation in cold dry climate, has a high rate of fossil energies consumption that make air pollution in its urban environment. These two factors, being both metropolis and in cold dry climate, make this article try to analyze the strategies of climatic design in old districts of the city and use them in new districts of the future. These strategies can be used in this city and other similar cities and pave the way to reduce energy consumption and related air pollution to save whole world.