Martin Centre Research Seminar Series

Abstract The motivation behind the interdisciplinary research project "Collaborative Design Platform" (CDP) is to resolve the current discrepancy between analogue ways of working in the early urban design stages and the ever-increasing use of digital tools in office pratice. By directly linking familiar, analogue ways of working with digital computer aided design tools, the CDP represents a working environment that allows designers to work the way that they are used to, while making use of the potential of computers. The platform creates a direct connection between physical volumetric models and interactive digital content using a large-format multi-touch table as a work surface combined with real-time 3D scanning. Combining the 3D data from the scanned model with the 3D digital GIS environment model makes it possible to computer design relevant simulations and analyses. These are displayed in real-time on the working model to help architects assess and substantiate their design decisions. Biography Frank Petzold's research and teaching activities cover the entire spectrum of IT-supported architectural design and planning. He has contributed more than 50 papers and articles to conferences and professional journals. As part of the Collaborative Research Centre project, "Materials and constructions for the renovation of building structures", funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation), he examined architectural design in existing built contexts and the structured capture of data for building information modelling (BIM). In the DFG-funded "AR Cave - projection-based technology for on-site surveying, visualisation and simulation" research project, augmented reality methods were employed for working directly within existing built contexts. The "KREMLAS - Development of a creative evolutionary design method for layout problems in architecture and urban design" research project (also funded by the DFG) examines approaches for assessing solutions produced using evolutionary methods.

Abstract: The title of this lecture is explained by Richard Murphy Architects' location between two different points pf view. There is little in our work that might be called avant-garde. The office does not subscribe to the high-octane world of the international 'starchitects' depositing iconic buildings in different cultures around the world, which whilst having some superficial photo-journalistic value, rarely repay close inspection. The other position is represented by the society in which we work, Edinburgh in particular, but also elsewhere in the UK. This is a city in which many citizens wish that the modern era had never occurred. Modern architecture, it seems to be universally agreed, has spoilt the view. However it is essential for the health of our culture that we make buildings that are recognisably of today so that in the future there will be some history of this era to preserve. Rooting recognisably new buildings into old places or particular landscapes; contributing towards rather than damaging, their location; continuing rather than fossilising, the history of a place: these are our objectives. We call it architecture of its time and place. Biography: Richard Murphy was educated at Newcastle and Edinburgh Universities. Before founding Richard Murphy Architects he worked for MacCormac Jamieson and Pritchard Architects in London, and directed the edinburgh office of Alsop Lyall & Stormer Architects. He has taught at Edinburgh University, Robert Gordon University, Edinburgh College of Art, Strathclyde University, The Technical University of Braunschweig, the University of Virginia and Syracruse University, New York State. Richard's publications include Carlo Scarpa and the Castelvecchio (Butterworths Architecture, 1991), Querini Stampalia Foundation, Carlo Scarpa (Phaidon Press, 1983) and An Architects' Appreciation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Bellew Publishing, 1990). He is an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Fellow of Napier University. His practice has won 21 RIBA and RIAI awards in as many years.

Abstract: Passive solar architecture, with some active assistance, will be viewed through the lens of James J Gibson’s theory of ‘affordances’, 1977, Jay Appleton’s ‘prospect-refuge’ theory, 1975, Aldo van Eyck’s ‘reciprocity’, 1961-62, and ‘in-between’, 1959, and Alvar Aalto’s ‘From Doorstep to Living Room’, 1926. All four theoretical strands will inform commentary on the use of sun-traps, sun-buffers, sun-diodes and sun- collectors in a range of domestic and non-domestic projects; this leading to a discussion of the key ‘comfort’ and ‘well-being’ issues for occupants of low-, zero-, and plus-energy buildings and their carbon footprints. Tensions between technology and human frailty will be raised, for example in relation to indoor air quality and sensory satisfaction. The presentation will conclude on the issue of emphasis regarding new-build and retrofit models and the alignment of, rather than competition between, ‘passive-solar’ and ‘passiv-haus’ solutions. Biography: Colin Porteous is an architect with an interest in energy-efficient design. He became a full-time academic in 1986, leading a community technical aid centre linking the problem of fuel poverty to passive solar solutions via the EU-funded Easthall Demonstration Project in the early 1990s. He initiated the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU) in 1993, and is author of The New Eco- Architecture (2002), Solar Architecture in Cool Climates (2005) and Sensing a Historic Low-CO2 Future (2011) – a holistic overview of indoor air quality (Chapter 8, Intech.org; free online book).

Abstract: This lecture will discuss alternative approaches to urban energy modelling, suggesting that the most powerful and flexible approach is one of micro-simulation in which individuals (agents) may be explicitly simulated. The discussion will include: emerging procedures for generating and attributing a synthetic population of agents’ how their presence may subsequently be simulated at a range of potential destinations’ their activities within these destinations and the range of activity-dependent behaviours; likewise their investments in energy-related technologies and behavioural changes. The lecture will also outline some remaining challenges to the achievement of a fully comprehensive urban energy micro-simulation platform. Biography: Professor Darren Robinson is Chair in Building and Urban Physics and Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham. For the past fifteen years his work has focused on the development of models of building occupants’ comfort and behaviour and of models of buildings’ energy use at the urban scale – these two interests now converging in the form of urban energy micro-simulation software. This is summarised in his most recent book “Computer Modelling for Sustainable Urban Design”. Darren has received the CIBSE Napier-Shaw Medal (2007), the Building and Environment journal Best Paper Award (2009 and 2010) and the JBPS Best Paper Prize (2010-2011).

Abstract: This lecture explores the human dimension of new city-building that has emerged in East Europe. Utilizing firsthand research culled from more than 100 interviews conducted primarily in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia—a city whose public spaces have unravelled over the last two decades—this lecture will examine the ways people live and experience the new, post-socialist urbanism. Also addressed are what these new spaces tell us about their builders, users, and inhabitants. Embracing an explicitly cultural approach, this lecture will suggest that disappointment with socialist and post-socialist conditions has led to mass scepticism toward the public domain (further resulting in a radical de-construction of public spaces), and will offer provocative insights into the complex relationship between society and space during times of fundamental change. Biography: Sonia Hirt’s focus as a scholar and teacher is on exploring the complex social meanings of the urban built environment. She aspires to help enhance the quality of urban environments first by developing a richer understanding of the social processes and cultural values that influence their evolution, and second by provoking critical debates within the urban planning profession. She conducts research along three main themes: East European urbanism – resulting in two books: Iron Curtains: Gates, Suburbs and Privatization of Space in the Post-socialist city (2012) and Twenty Years of Transition: The Evolution of Urban Planning in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, 1989-2009 (with Kiril Stanilov, 2009); comparative urban planning and land-use regulation – she is currently writing a book on the subject tentatively entitled Zoned in the USA: Urban Planning and the American Dream; and urban planning theory and history – she is especially interested in the ideas of Jane Jacobs and has edited a forthcoming volume, The Urban Wisdom of Jane Jacobs (2012). Sonia Hirt holds a fellowship from the Institute of Society, Culture and the Environment. Last year she served as a visiting associate professor at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University.