Integration of Algorithm-Based Optimization into the Design Process of Industrial Buildings: A Case Study

Algorithm-based optimization is widely applied in many fields like industrial production, resulting in state-of-the-art workflows in the production process optimization. This project takes the cultural lag of conventional industrial architecture design as a motivation to investigate the implementation of algorithm-based optimization into traditional design processes. We argue that an enhanced way of architectural decision-making is possible. Current approaches use a translation of the whole design problem into a single, overly complicated optimization system. Contrary to that, this paper presents a novel workflow that defines precise design steps and applies optimizations only if suitable. Furthermore, this method can generate relevant results for factory planning design problems with contradicting factors, making it a promising approach for the complex challenges of i.e. resource-efficient building.

An architecture governance approach for Agile development by tailoring the Spotify model

The role of software architecture in large-scale Agile development is important because several teams need to work together to release a single software product while helping to maximise teams’ autonomy. Governing and aligning Agile architecture across autonomous squads (i.e., teams), when using the Spotify model, is a challenge because the Spotify model lacks practices for addressing Agile architecture governance. To explore how software architecture can be governed and aligned by scaling the Spotify model, we conducted a longitudinal embedded case study in a multinational FinTech organisation. Then, we developed and evaluated an approach for architectural governance by conducting an embedded case study. The collected data was analysed using Thematic Analysis and informed by selected Grounded Theory techniques such as memoing, open coding, constant comparison, and sorting. Our approach for architectural governance comprises an organisational structure change and an architecture change management process. The benefits reported by the practitioners include devolving architectural decision-making to the operational level (i.e., Architecture Owners), enhancing architectural knowledge sharing among squads, minimising wasted effort in architectural refactoring, and other benefits. The practitioners in our case study realised an improved squad autonomy by the ability to govern and align architectural decisions. We provide two key contributions in this paper. First, we present the characteristics of our proposed architectural governance approach, its evaluation, benefits, and challenges. Second, we present how the novel Heterogeneous Tailoring model was enhanced to accommodate our architectural governance approach.

The interaction between photovoltaic materials and building forms

There is an intrinsic relationship between photovoltaic materials and building forms; although there are numerous imaginations and concepts about buildings integrated photovoltaic materials. The relationship between these two components needed to be identified and examined in the process of architectural decision making. This thesis explores the relationship between photovoltaic materials and building forms in particular geographical and climatic environments through case studies and then proposes an architectural design project. Based on the research suggestion, the design illustrates how a recreational facility adopts an approximate building form for photovoltaic integration and how the concept is developed. Some implications and principle for solar design are summarized in the final chapter.

The interaction between photovoltaic materials and building forms

There is an intrinsic relationship between photovoltaic materials and building forms; although there are numerous imaginations and concepts about buildings integrated photovoltaic materials. The relationship between these two components needed to be identified and examined in the process of architectural decision making. This thesis explores the relationship between photovoltaic materials and building forms in particular geographical and climatic environments through case studies and then proposes an architectural design project. Based on the research suggestion, the design illustrates how a recreational facility adopts an approximate building form for photovoltaic integration and how the concept is developed. Some implications and principle for solar design are summarized in the final chapter.

Construing Scandinavia: A semiotic account of intercultural exchange in theme park design

Evaluation of other cultures is a strong force in a culture’s definition of itself. Cultures are formed in encounters that include domination, conflict, and dismissal as much as appreciation and smooth exchange. In this paper, the construction of cultural identity is discussed, with reference to a Scandinavian Theme Park proposal made in cooperation between American design consultants and a local Swedish team of planners and visionaries. The image production in this design proposal, which never came to be realised in architectural production, shows that “Scandinavia” appears as a two-some dialogic construction that adopts stereotyped cultural identities, and that it was not brought to any wider public dialogue. In a semiotic account of this architectural decision-making, models of culture (Lotman. 1990. Universe of the mind: A semiotic theory of culture. London: Tauris.) are discussed in terms of the tripartition of culture into Ego-culture, Alter-culture and Alius-culture (Sonesson. 2000. Ego meets alter: The meaning of otherness in cultural semiotics. Semiotica 128(3/4). 537–559.; Cabak Rédei, Anna. 2007. An inquiry into cultural semiotics: Germaine de Staël’s autobiographical travel accounts. Lund: Lund University Press.), considered as a basic abstracted backdrop of what is meant by cultural difference. In this paper it is suggested that this tripartite view on culture, can be further discussed in reflection of post-colonial studies, notably through terms such as “mimicry” (Bhabha. 1984. Of mimicry and man: The ambivalence of colonial discourse. October 28. 125–133.) and “subalterity” (Spivak. 1988. Can the subaltern speak?. In Cary Nelson & Lawrence Grossberg (eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture, 271–313. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.). The model of culture can furthermore be discussed through Peirce’s distinction between different stages and carriers of representation, adding to the cultural model an understanding of what it means, over time, for a culture to relate to an admired as well as to a neglected other cultural actor.