Antony Radford

Understanding sustainable architecture

1. Sustainability 2. Images 3. Ethics 4. Objectives 5. Systems 6. Green Houses 7. Cohesion. Bibliography

Issues of Abstraction, Accuracy and Realism in Large Scale Computer Urban Models

The availability of large scale computer urban models promises to radically improve the effectiveness of urban design policy-making and development control. A key question in the implementation of such models is how the balance between abstraction, accuracy and realism influences the effectiveness of their use. This paper discusses and illustrates the issues involved, with a computer model of the City of Adelaide as example.

Iteration as a strategy for teaching architectural technologies in an architecture studio

The linking of architectural technologies and design is problematic in the education of architects. While students can understand how environment, building performance, structure, construction and building services interact and work in a particular building, they often find devising strategies and technologies for designs of their own to be difficult. In this article, we describe the learning outcomes and student responses to an experimental integrated building design studio that explored whether planned iteration would promote learning of these issues and technologies. By planned iteration we mean the programming of the explicit cycles in which the same issues and technologies are revisited several times in a way that recognizes and develops a students increasing understanding. This positions design (in a broad sense) as a cyclical process of reflective practice, where the design situation and potential are only fully understood through the process of postulating and reflecting on design proposals. The design knowledge needed is only fully apparent once the process is underway. Results indicate that ‘low-risk attempt followed by feedback’ is an effective mode of learning. Such an approach has dangers of requiring unrealistic staff time in providing feedback; in this experimental studio most feedback was offered to groups rather than individuals.

Responsive cohesion as the foundational value in architecture

In his book A Theory of General Ethics Warwick Fox puts forward ethical principles that explicitly embrace the built environment. The key concept is ‘responsive cohesion’, in which a ‘thing’ (creature, community, building) or process (learning, play, design) exhibits mutually beneficial interactions between itself and its contexts, and also between its internal components. This contrasts with domination by one factor (fixed cohesion) or anarchy (discohesion). This paper examines the impacts on the aesthetics, products, skills and discourses of architecture of accepting Foxs proposition that responsive cohesion is the foundational value in a general ethics. In design, achieving responsive cohesion with a context that already exhibits responsive cohesion is then ultimately more important than achieving it internally, although the aim is to achieve both. The largest and most important context is the natural or biophysical environment, because that sustains all other systems. The next largest context is the social environment. Recognising an ethics of responsive cohesion places emphasis on connection (not separation), on collaboration (not individualism) and on buildings as sustaining context (not buildings as objects). A ‘perfect’ building would respond with a convincing answer to any question about its internal and contextual relationships at local and global levels. This is a difficult achievement, and even acclaimed works of architecture may be far from this ideal.

Alvar Aalto and the expression of discontinuity

We examine recurring patterns of discontinuity in the designs of the Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898–1976). Discontinuity expresses an ambiguous duality of incompletion (growth) and ruination (decay). We take examples from architecture, painting, sculpture, glassware, furniture, landscape and urban planning. We suggest that the typically fragmented skylines, voids and irregularity of Aaltos architecture all rely on the repeated use of a relatively economical (but infinitely elaborated) set of form-making strategies. Further, we argue that these same strategies of discontinuity and incompletion extend over all branches of his design work. Discontinuity echoes the essential nature of the human condition and is a reason for the continuing appeal of Aaltos work.

Building with uncertain ethics

Moral dilemmas in the design and care of the built environment are normal, not exceptional (Ray, 2005). In the everyday design and maintenance of the built environment there are often difficult and important balances to be struck between culture and commerce, employment and conservation, health and cost, private and public interest, heritage and utility. The complexity of these ‘everyday’ problems conforms to Rittel and Weber’s (1973/1984) concept of ‘wicked problems’ and the recognition of the fundamental indeterminacy that exists in all but the most trivial of design problems. The ethical dilemmas faced by practitioners therefore arise from the normal conditions under which the built environment is constructed and renewed. Recognizing these dilemmas and responsibly attending to them leads to ethical deliberation being a productive and constructive aspect of the problemformulation and iterative solution-making processes. A reflective focus on ethics can help built environment practitioners to clarify objectives and priorities, guide decision-making, and help to evaluate outcomes, cutting through what often seems to be an intractable confusion of personal opinion, hidden agendas, and fruitless searches for technological fixes.

Educative visuals - digital delivery of architectural information for (potential) heritage buildings

The paper proposes models that address current issues and considerations at several key levels relating to treatment of architectural information, its presentation and delivery methods specific to architecture education requirements. It investigates fundamental digital communication strategies for the understanding of architectural work of heritage or potential heritage values, highlighting how digital simulations in particular could complement other media like texts, drawings and photographs to facilitate an understanding of design. It proposes dynamic visual layering system of information and information types relating to site, construction, materials, textures, design philosophy, etc, while also taking into account feedback from the intended audience. The architectural work featured as an example is of high potential heritage value - an area of special interest in the context of a country with a relatively short architectural history as Australia. The information depicted in the model has a role to supplement a site visit or to communicate independently to the much larger audience who are unable to visit the site. Although the paper does not insist on definite or final prescriptive techniques for the delivery of architectural information of heritage or potential heritage values, it suggests a possibility of standardisation in this area with features and considerations that need to be firstly addressed.

Hybrid Digital Media Architectural Visualisation Delivery -Murcutt, Lewin & Lark's the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre on Digital Flatland

This paper shares ongoing research explorations into visualising and representing architecture through the limited real-estate spaces of computer screens. It proposes greater access, ‘interactivity’ and clarity in digital representations for the study, analysis and/or digital record of existing architecture by drawing on concepts and strategies – within and outside the discipline – to arrive at hybrid visualisation techniques. To illustrate some of these techniques, the paper outlines several issues in the production of hybrid media representations of the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre. This award-winning building was designed by the 2002 Pritzker Prize-winner, Glenn Murcutt in association with Wendy Lewin and Reg Lark. It is recognised as a landmark in Australian architecture and a worthy subject of our representation experiments.

Games in Early Design Education

Play and design can be put into metaphorical relation. To do so is to let each inform the other. As part of a larger project, we have used the metaphor of play in creating and using learning resources for early design education. In doing so, it became apparent that the entailments of play, the other metaphors that both frame and are framed by play, needs to be better understood. We discuss seven metaphors related to play: games, exploration, balance of forces, tactility, intrinsic reward, embodiment and rules and how we use these in learning games.

Responsive cohesion in the art and artfulness of urban design: some case studies in Helsinki

Abstract The term ‘responsive cohesion’ combines the adjective ‘responsive’ (reacting, receptive, answering, sensitive) with the noun ‘cohesion’ (forming a unit, holding together). The paper first describes the character of responsive cohesion and examines its relation to the literature on preferences in urban aesthetics. The body of the paper critically examines how responsive cohesion is evident in five urban sites in the city of Helsinki, Finland. These sites range from mixed-use developments to individual buildings inserted into the urban fabric. The paper shows how a quality of responsive cohesion crosses boundaries of aesthetic value, functional value and ethics.