Teresa Heitor

Combing Grammars and Space Syntax: Formulating, Generating and Evaluating Designs

This paper is concerned with how two different computational approaches to design – shape grammars and space syntax – can be combined into a single common framework for formulating, generating, and evaluating designs. The main goal is to explore how the formal principles applied in the design process interact with the spatial properties of the designed objects. Results suggest that space syntax is (1) useful in determining the universe of solutions generated by the grammar and (2) in evaluating the evolving designs in terms of spatial properties and, therefore, in guiding the generation of designs.

Investigating Accessibility to Achieve Inclusive Environments: The Spatial Experience of Disability at a University Precinct in Lisbon

According to the universal design paradigm, accessibility in the built environment indicates the degree to which any space to be used by people is reachable by someone with a permanent or temporary impairment (Levine 2003). A disadvantage (handicap) is not just a characteristic of people with disabilities. It can occur with anyone whenever the demands of the environment exceed their capabilities.

Improving Pool Design: Interviewing Physically Impaired Architects

People with a temporary or permanent physical impairment are often excluded from bathing activities due to the difficulties of getting in and out of the water. This paper explores pool design, specifically the design of the access to the tank, which is the key to pools’ inclusivity. In trying to break down existing barriers between users, accessibility experts and designers, we interviewed physically impaired architects about their perception of four types of pool access often used by wheelchair users: ramps, transfer walls, transfer systems and lifts. The interviews revealed limitations in all four types of pool access. To compensate for the limitations identified, combining different types of access in one single pool may be of interest. Moreover, the interviews allowed the identification of another type of pool access, designed by one of the interviewees: an upper pool border connected to an underwater bed and seat allows for an easier exit than transfer walls and transfer systems. Another interviewee advanced the idea of a cane holder for physically and visually impaired people, which may contribute to freeing poolside floors from obstacles and reducing the risk of falls. These insights may contribute to making pools more inclusive, by accommodating specific temporary or permanent mobility needs of all of us.

Campuses as Sustainable Urban Engines—A Morphological Approach to Campus Social Sustainability

This paper focuses on university campuses and precincts, and their roles within urban context. It explores the role campus morphology plays in the local impact of the institution, fostering its ability to engage in successful urban dynamics, as well as acting as an urban engine. The aim is to provide a methodological description of its elements and their morphological traits with an effect on campus integration within its adjacent environments. It is argued that one of the major aspects of sustainable development in universities relies on the relationships established between university and its environs, since universities perform a key role in urban dynamics in the current context of knowledge based societies and economies. Their impact exceeds the physical connection and their environmental footprint, as universities largely contribute to bringing dynamism to cities, through their mission, actors, activities and flows of movement. Thus, campus social sustainability relies on the relationships established between university and its environs.

Computer vision of mobility: towards a space-use analysis method

This study examines the role of computer vision to collect space-use data, with the goal of building a computational tool that supports space-use analysis better than those in current use. In the past, research on space use was predicated on selective samples and labour-intense fieldwork, mainly through direct observations that were often inaccurate through necessity. Computer vision technology allows space use to be monitored, represented, and quantified in ways not considered before, minimising errors and bias that can affect reliability and validity. The careful use of the technological potential of computer vision opens up new ways of identifying phenomena, becoming aware of systematic patterns and regularities and inquiring further into the degree of congruence between the physical organisation of layouts and patterns of space use.

Computer game engines for accessibility assessment: The IST Alameda campus case-study

This poster aims to contribute to Serious Games implementation, focusing on the design of a tool to evaluate built environment accessibility, developed within the framework of the IN_LEARNING research project. The proposed tool was tested in a university precinct in Lisbon - IST Alameda campus - where the principle of diversity is demanded by a variety of users with different accessibility requirements (e.g. temporary and/or permanent disability, visual impairment, advancing years, pregnancy). It offers guidance for future interventions intended to upgrade the inclusivity of the built environment and to help improve the aesthetic and functional quality of buildings and outdoor spaces.

On the Characterization of Axial Maps

We propose a characterization of axial maps by means of an extension of a local property which has been proved to describe the cell decomposition of the plane induced by line arrangements. This gives a discrete model which is more closely related to axial maps than the usual representation by graphs.