Open House International

Wilkinson, Nicholas

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0001

The Support and Infill concept has been generally accepted and adopted by the design disciplines as well as the construction and manufacturing industries. Support and Infill were developed as an alternative to mass housing (Habraken 1961) The author argued that mass housing made no sense because of the absence of the user as a player in the housing process. This led to all sorts ills and wasted opportunities. This was mainly a relationship problem between the inhabitant and the dwelling itself resulting in identical units in identical blocks in identical neighborhoods which never changed nor ever moved until the mass demolishers came in to make way for something better which often was ‘supports’. Overlapping with this concept, Open Building emerges describing decision making levels of the urban tissue, supports, infill and all their spatial and physical properties and components. Now Time Based Architecture (TBA) (Leupen 2005) has come to the front. It is, as the name suggests, an Architecture which does not resist change but which embraces it. It is something close to Supports and Open Building but slightly different. All Supports are TBA edifices but not all TBA edifices are Supports? To explain this it is perhaps sufficient to say here that Supports did not deal in flexibility per se but with restructuring the building industry, to re-orientate decision making and also a large amount of attention was paid to modular co-ordination. TBA addresses this but also crosses borders into high tech buildings, flexibility and explores the use of contemporary materials and the flexible nature of glass and steel construction.

Beisi, Jia

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0002

Baumschlager & Eberle's design works can be characterized as typological, regional, tectonic and highly crafted, using both modern and traditional technology. Their work provides a reference for study, the findings of which may bridge the gap between Open Building research and theory on one hand, and the skillful architectural practice on the other. This paper analyzes their conceptual and methodological approaches. It concludes that the quality of architectural work relies on the interpretation of the particular social, cultural and technological conditions of the specific place in which a building is situated. They generated an open plan typology and operable façade systems to deal with changing needs of the users and even any uncertainty in the design and construction process. They conceptually and technically divided a building into five separate systems according to different life spans of materials, to accommodate a diversity and change of needs, and at same time maintain the long lasting and sustainable structure including the façade. The buildings they designed are the product of their unique design management, which aimed at motivating all the people involved in the building process, without undermining the role of the architectural profession.

Hadjri, Karim; Boussaa, Djamel

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0003

Over the last two decades the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been actively restoring their modest urban heritage. However, conservation actions are not streamlined within the country and there is no legislation to protect this heritage. A number of European experts have been invited to carry out studies, but the extent of this involvement has not been clear.To illustrate this, conservation interventions in specific urban and architectural heritage sites, namely Al Bastakia in Dubai and Al Merraija in Sharjah, were examined.First, this paper discusses conservation philosophy, meanings and practices. This is to assist understanding of the broader conservation issues affecting urban and architectural heritage in the UAE. Then, it presents historical accounts of architectural and urban heritage practices in Dubai and Sharjah. Finally, conservation approaches implemented over the last two decades within the two historic sites are compared and evaluated.

Kashef, Mohamad

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0004

This study examines the strands of thought that define the urban design discourse today. One of the common and primary urban design approaches developed an understanding of the visual, perceptual, and psychological dynamics underlying human behavior in urban areas. It associated urban design with the visual characteristics of built forms and their impact on people's perceptions and ability to create clear mental maps or images of their surroundings. Another approach emphasized historical, typological, social, and morphological aspects of built forms. It linked successful urban spaces with mixed-use, traditional urban models and advanced place-making principles that encourage spatially defined, legible, and culturally grounded built environments. Lately, there has been an increased debate about the potential of developing an all-encompassing, holistic urban design approach that synthesizes prior urban design approaches and is predicated on the premise that urban design is an interdisciplinary activity concerned with creating livable/sustainable built environments. However, dialogues with architects, landscape architects, and planners revealed an entrenched professional divide among urban design practitioners based on their educational backgrounds and subsequent experiences. This study is premised on the need to address the contradictory views about the city in design and planning educational curricula in order to bridge the intellectual divide and build a holistic or interdisciplinary urban design approach.

Mandour, M Alaa

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0005

Within the last decade the media's full potential has been its use as a tool for conception and production of new architecture. What is this new architecture? Is it is really new or it is just a term to describe a transitory fashion development similar to the short lived post-modern flirtations of the 80th? A quick view at some of the buildings being constructed today does certainly suggest that there is a totally different approach to the production and the resultant form of architecture.Traditional methods of architecture conception are being replaced by digital media; a revolt, that many argue, has far-reaching inference in how the architectural entity is presented, recognized and practiced. More prominently, it proposes new formal possibilities absurd a decade ago. Architects working within this digital realm utilize CAD/Cam systems, CNC milling systems and software programs such as Maya, Form Z, and CATIA. Terms such as beauty, scale and proportion, used to describe the formal character of the pre-digital vernacular are being replaced by adjectives such as smooth, supple, and morphed, derived from the digital practice. The built result of such experiments are obvious the world over, whether it is Gehry's Philadelphia Music Hall, or Itto's new opera in Thailand, among others. The work of these architects was, a decade ago, confined to the virtual space of the computer, only seen in architectural magazines, viewed as a radical approach to architecture. However, the digital revolution has allowed for this vision to be transformed into reality. The use of digital tools both as a presentation tool and form generating device is unquestioned, a given, and will in the future consider any other traditional systems.Spaces have gone from being a physical to virtual of a gigantic digital network of networks, which shapes our collective future. The way and pace at which we connect, communicate, memorize, imagine and control the flows of valuable information have changed forever. The paper also will introduce a new concept of virtual urban spaces and interaction between it and the physical urban environments.

Johansson, Rolf

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0006

A case study is expected to capture the complexity of a single case, which should be a functioning unit, be investigated in its natural context with a multitude of methods, and be contemporary. A case study and, normally, history focus on one case, but simultaneously take account of the context, and so encompass many variables and qualities. When a physical artefact is the case the gap between case study and history tends to diminish and case studies often become more or less historical case studies. Case study methodology also bridges the gap between quantitative and qualitative methods in the social sciences. Still the different concepts of validation in quantitative and qualitative research sometimes create confusion when they are combined, as they often are in case studies.The case might be studied with an intrinsic interest in the case as such, or with an interest in generalising. When a generalisation is based on the deductive principle, the procedure of testing hypothesis is used. A second mode of generalisation is inductive theory-generation, or conceptualisation. The third mode depends on the principle of abduction. Abduction is the process of facing an unexpected fact, applying some rule and, as a result, positing a case that may be. But there are two kinds of abduction: One is when a case is created from a few facts; for instance, historical data or clues. The other is operative when generalisations are made from known cases and applied to an actual problem situation by making appropriate comparisons. This is also called naturalistic generalisation. In a case study, the different modes of generalisation are often combined.The conclusion is that case studies has the potential for further development through the mastery of the combination on different levels of techniques, methodologies, strategies, or theories, like; the combination of case study and history, which is important when the case is an artefact; the combination of differing quality standards in qualitative and quantitative research, which are difficult to codify; and the combination of different modes of generalisation.

Coolen, Henny

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0007

Two ideal types of data can be distinguished in housing research: structured and less-structured data. Questionnaires and official statistics are examples of structured data, while less-structured data arise for instance from open interviews and documents. Structured data are sometimes labelled quantitative, while less-structured data are called qualitative. In this paper structured and less-structured data are considered from the perspective of measurement and analysis. Structured data arise when the researcher has an a priori category system or measurement scale available for collecting the data. When such an a priori system or scale is not available the data are called less-structured. It will be argued that these less-structured observations can only be used for any further analysis when they contain some minimum level of structure called a category system, which is equivalent to a nominal measurement scale. Once this becomes evident, one realizes that through the necessary process of categorization less-structured data can be analyzed in much the same way as structured data, and that the difference between the two types of data is one of degree and not of kind. In the second part of the paper these ideas are illustrated with examples from my own research on the meaning of preferences for dwelling features in which the concept of a meaning structure plays a central part. Until now these meaning structures have been determined by means of semi-structured interviews which, even with small samples, result in large amounts of less-structured data.

Ragab, Ahmed A. Monem

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0008

The transformation of the traditional desert houses in "Al-Arish" old settlement through various cultures and civilizations is a particularly unique case. The way the traditional house absorbs new members and accommodates new nuclear families at the same plot area is an interesting case. Previous researches have examined configuration characteristics of the traditional houses in "Al-Arish". This paper will focus on the interpretation of morphology and social structure. It is almost a truism within space syntax research that the sociologically significant aspects of a building are directly reflected in its spatial configuration. (Sonit Pafna, 2001). In the selected area for the case study, there are different house types referring to three main time periods; 1) pre-occupation period (type-a) unchanged original house forms, 2) occupation period (type-b); and 3) post-occupation period (type-c). House plans were examined using space syntax methods, and relationships to shifts in social traditions and family structures were analyzed. Typically the guest courtyard and the family courtyard, as the central living spaces, have always been an essential part of the social life of the society, their transformation were emphasized. Results of the study related to transformation process and the feedback of the changed social structure and the impact of the Islamic inheritance roles on the house forms were simulated and discussed for further research into accommodating solutions for contemporary needs of the inhabitants as guidelines for current housing practices.* The research aims to sketch a way of understanding the impact of the social rules and traditions on the spatial pattern, in other words detecting the society's impact on space. The paper intends to examine and explore the transformation process of Sinai's traditional houses and the changed social behavior from living within complex family structure to nuclear family structures with segregated household.

Akalın, Aysu; Yıldırım, Kemal; Yücel, Çiğdem; Güngör, Can

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0009

The intent and aim of the research was to look at a particular house type i.e. a terraced house with four floors, which is one of the popular designs commonly used in the last ten years in mass housing projects in Turkey. There are four alternatives of the type related with the cross-sectional relationship with the ground floor level. Emphasis was placed upon the "semi-cellar type" assuming that even though the level of residential satisfaction gradually increases with the possibility of interpreting the use of the open-plan floor space, and by proposing new design elements to create more adaptable and flexible spaces, the users may still experience dissatisfaction with designs where the space cannot be revised. With the use of a questionnaire, participants judged their own house as a whole and evaluated its uses for different functions and activities, complained in respect of changes required, and finally outlined their plans for the future. Despite the high level of satisfaction with having a garden (a unique characteristic in apartment-saturated Ankara), the aspect of dissatisfaction mostly referred to was the kitchen-garden relationship (or lack thereof). The residents, especially the older ones, were generally dissatisfied with the multi-storey design of their house. They prefer to remain on the backyard level without changing floors in different seasons. Besides, the users spending the longest time in the house complained more than the others and the people spending variable time in the house stated that they preferred to change the floors in different seasons. As compared to larger families, the smaller families were more likely to change floors.

Crosbie, Michael J.

2007 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-03-2007-B0010

Design Studio Pedagogy - Horizons For the Future