AMFİ-DERSLİK ÖĞRENME ALANLARINDA İNSAN ODAKLI MİMARİ AYDINLATMA TASARIMI

By using artificial lighting in AMFI classrooms where there are architectural constraints and daylight cannot be adequately benefited from, it can contribute to the visual comfort and indirectly to the health of the students. In this study, point-based analysis of the Equivalent Melanopic Lux values of artificial lighting and learning environments in schools was made according to the criteria of WELL standards specified in the Human Centric Lighting concept. By using direct lighting, without changing the architectural design, optimum lighting suitable for human biology is provided with low-cost artificial lighting arrangements. According to the Human-Centered Lighting concept, an architectural lighting design was made in accordance with the WELL standards criteria. As a result of the improvement of visual comfort and optimum circadian effects in the learning environments of the students studying in AMFI classrooms, it is predicted that the success and participation of the students who use these learning areas will increase.

Structural Assessment Considering Architectural Constraints with Seismic Retrofitting

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is located in a low to medium earthquake zone. Therefore, the inclusion of seismic loads in building design was limited to specific building structures such as highrise and midrise in the past decades. Recently, the development and adoption of the Saudi Building Code (SBC) and the experienced seismic activity at many regions in the Kingdom necessitate detailed seismic design considerations for all buildings. Given this, the current work initially emphasizes assessing structural grids obtained from an architectural plan for an existing building in AL Madina. Then the structure has been analyzed critically in such a way to reduce columns and simplify the structural grid. Also, the orientation of columns has been modified to obtain structure symmetry keeping in view the architectural constraints. Two cases have been developed initially: flat slab and solid slab and designed to withstand gravity loads using Saudi Building Provisions. These cases are analyzed for the seismicity of the Medina Region. Since Medina is less prone to seismicity, the building withstands the lateral load calculated based on static analysis. To assess these buildings for stronger earthquakes, we increased the applied load to assess their capacity. Since both the proposed cases fail to withstand the increased seismic load, a bracing system has been introduced at the locations where it does not disturb the architecture of the building. It was observed that introducing bracing improves the performance of the structures. Therefore concluding that complex structural grids schemes can be simplified, regularized, and economized as well. In addition, bracings provide an easy technique to retrofit already existing RC buildings.

The sound diffusion in Italian Opera Houses: Some examples

Soundfield diffuseness in rooms is considered a fundamental aspect of a high-quality room acoustics. Since early studies by Hodgson up to more recent studies of Shtrepi and Embrechts, it was shown that high levels of sound diffuseness could guarantee blending of music, as well as spatial sound perception by listeners, and this could enhance the global indoor acoustic quality. Conversely, Italian-style Opera houses represent an important architectural place, in which the special features of the rich decorations, and the specific characteristics of the volume, give a unique atmosphere, including a peculiar psycho-acoustics impression. However, some geometric properties of the opera houses could influence the global acoustic perception. The shape of the marmorino wall on the stalls, as well as the parallelism of the lateral walls in the boxes, often causes a lack of spaciousness and sometimes in the worst cases provokes focalization. This phenomenon leads to design special devices that could be inserted in the theatres, to avoid focalization, even if they are rarely accepted. This article deals with the design of some acoustic diffusing panels and their functioning in three different theatres, combining both acoustics needs with architectural constraints. The article starts analysing and commenting on the issues that resulted from the measurements conducted in an Italian opera house. In the following step, three examples of the design of diffusing panels are proposed. Finally, the results of diffusion and scattering coefficient of panels realized in the last theatre considered here are reported.

The Experience Megachurch: Lakewood, Hillsong, and The Pragmatics and Semiotics of “Inspiration”

Megachurches, although differing in terms of denominational affiliation (or relative lack thereof), spatial logic, liturgy, teaching, and congregational demographics, share the common trait of size and are often fast-growing churches as well. This is particularly true of what might be called (following scholarship on the “experience economy”) the “experience megachurch”: those with a broad attractive appeal, large and growing congregations, and relative freedom from traditional Christian spatial-architectural constraints, rituals, and denominational histories. Such experience megachurches share an emphasis on offering their congregations an “inspiring” experience of the reality of God’s existence and presence in the church. Applying theories of pragmatics, semiotics, and bodily discipline, this article examines two experience megachurches (Lakewood in Houston, U.S.A., and Hillsong, headquartered in Sydney, Australia) to offer a taxonomy of megachurch praxis.

Openings effects in reinforced concrete shear walls; a literature review on experimental and finite element studies

One of the types of earthquake-resistant systems is the concrete shear wall system, which has attracted the attention of engineers due to its good performance in past earthquakes. But some architectural constraints force engineers to install openings in shear walls; thus, this will affect the behavior of the shear wall. Many researchers have conducted experimental and finite element studies for assessing the effects of openings in reinforced concrete shear walls. However, there is a lack of comprehensive comparisons between different studies. This paper reviews some most recent experimental and finite element studies available in the literature and presents a review of the main contributions. This literature review reveals that the seismic responses and the stiffness of structures are influenced by the size and location of the openings in the reinforced shear wall.

What counts as an exemplar model, anyway? A commentary on Ambridge (2020)

Ambridge (2019) calls for exemplar-based accounts of language acquisition. Do modern neural networks such as transformers or word2vec – which have been extremely successful in modern natural language processing (NLP) applications – count? Although these models often have ample parametric complexity to store exemplars from their training data, they also go far beyond simple storage by processing and compressing the input via their architectural constraints. The resulting representations have been shown to encode emergent abstractions. If these models are exemplar-based then Ambridge’s theory only weakly constrains future work. On the other hand, if these systems are not exemplar models, why is it that true exemplar models are not contenders in modern NLP?

What counts as an exemplar model, anyway? A commentary on Ambridge (2020)

Ambridge calls for exemplar-based accounts of language acquisition. Do modern neural networks such as transformers or word2vec – which have been extremely successful in modern natural language processing (NLP) applications – count? Although these models often have ample parametric complexity to store exemplars from their training data, they also go far beyond simple storage by processing and compressing the input via their architectural constraints. The resulting representations have been shown to encode emergent abstractions. If these models are exemplar-based then Ambridge’s theory only weakly constrains future work. On the other hand, if these systems are not exemplar models, why is it that true exemplar models are not contenders in modern NLP?

Refurbishment of a house in a historical building: energy saving, electrification and flexibility

Buildings with architectural constraints and recognized historical values require a careful design process, aiming to combine the needs of conservation and the adaptation of the buildings to the modern use and its accessibility. The feasible interventions consist in improving the energy performance of the building envelope, in inserting efficient technological systems and using renewable energy sources where possible. The compatibility between the architectural constraints of the building and its more sustainable future use represents a crucial challenge. This work presents the interventions designed and realized on a small villa located in the Prati district, in Rome. Starting from the requests of the client, the primary objective was to create a comfortable house both in the winter and in the summer season, with widespread use of automation systems for managing the utilities. In line with the current energy scenario, the interventions were oriented to energy efficiency, the reduction of polluting emissions, the electrification of utilities and the use of renewable energy sources. The proposed solutions showed high gains in terms of energy saving even if the changes to the building envelope were limited by the desire to preserve the values of the cultural heritage. Therefore, a virtuous refurbishment can effectively respond to current energy efficiency goals.