“Bioshotcrete” is a new technology being developed by a team of robotic experts, architects, engineers, and drones’ specialists, aiming at using drones in the construction industry to spray natural materials over a temporary light formwork until a self-standing shell is completed. This technique consists in projecting paste-like matter composed of clay mixes following precise and customized deposition sequences over a temporary formwork, incorporating computational techniques in the design and fabrication stages, therefore proposing a more sustainable version of shotcrete. In particular, this paper features experiments using drones for spraying wet and dry ranges of clay mixes over a reusable inflatable formwork with the purpose to build monolithic earthen shells. The featured case studies propose specific protocols to control different deposition sequences, describing the proper formulation of clay mixes, the design and production of customized spraying devices, and fitting options in the drone allowing to vary pressure and other drone spraying parameters. The development of Bioshotcrete using robotic fabrication strategies could help expand and transform existing construction methods and processes to be applied at large scale, therefore incorporating innovative digital fabrication protocols towards a more sustainable building construction realm.
Navigation performance in urban and large-scale built-up spaces (e.g. airports, train-stations, hospitals) depends on gradual environmental perception during locomotion, and spatial knowledge acquisition, update/integration at different times along a path. Rotational locomotion is regularly involved in everyday navigation; this, combined with the fact that people cannot perceive the whole of a large-scale setting at once often leads to incidents of cognitive loading and disorientation. Our research explores the mechanisms involved in rotational locomotion for human navigators, and the role of familiarity as well as the cost of cognitive load on orientation accuracy and spatial memory. We examine the impact of structural and featural cues on spatial knowledge updating in relation to egorotations from the viewpoint of behaviour-based design practice and evidencebased design interventions. The results are based on a case study in a train station, experimenting on rotational problems in navigation. Here we present preliminary results emphasizing the role of environmental cues in rotational location, outline possibilities for further study, and discuss implications for evidence-based design practice and cognitive design assistance technology development.
We study active human visuo-locomotive experience in everyday navigation from the viewpoints of environmental familiarity, embodied reorientation, and (sensorimotor) spatial update. Following a naturalistic, in situ, embodied multimodal behaviour analysis method, we conclude that familiar users rely on environmental cues as a navigation-aid and exhibit proactive decision-making, whereas unfamiliar users rely on manifest cues, are late in decision-making, and show no sign of sensorimotor spatial update. Qualitative analysis reveals that both groups are able to sketch-map their route and consider path integration: i.e., conscious spatial representation updating was possible but not preferred during active navigation. Overall, the experimental task did not trigger automatic or reflexlike spatial updating, as subjects preferred strategies involving memory of perceptual cues and available manifest cues instead of relying on motor simulation and continuous spatial update. Rooted in the behavioural outcomes, we also position applications in computational modelling of navigation within cognitive technologies for architectural design synthesis.
Parametric design systems serve as powerful assistive tools in the design process by providing a flexible approach for the generation of a vast number of design alternatives. However, contemporary parametric design systems focus primarily on low-level engineering and structural forms, without an explicit means to also take into account high-level, cognitively motivated people-centred design goals.
We present a precedent-based parametric design method that integrates people-centred design “precedents” rooted in empirical evidence directly within state of the art parametric design systems. As a use-case, we illustrate the general method in the context of an empirical study focusing on the multi-modal analysis of wayfinding behaviour in two large-scale healthcare environments. With this use-case, we demonstrate the manner in which: (1). a range of empirically established design precedents —e.g., pertaining to visibility and navigation— may be articulated as design constraints to be embedded directly within state of the art parametric design tools (e.g., Grasshopper); and (2). embedded design precedents lead to the (parametric) generation of a number of morphologies that satisfy people-centred design criteria (in this case, pertaining to wayfinding).
Our research presents an exemplar for the integration of cognitively motivated design goals with parametric design-space exploration methods. We posit that this opens-up a range of technological challenges for the engineering and development of next-generation computer aided architecture design systems.
AIM: To estimate the effects of targeted elimination of environmental barriers (EB) in the ordinary housing stock in Sweden, and to explore the estimated effects on accessibility at a population level in relation to (a) residents with different functional profiles, (b) different housing types and (c) building periods.
METHOD: Data on dwellings from existing Swedish research databases were utilized. EB and accessibility were assessed by means of the Housing Enabler instrument. In simulations of EB removal, five items that correspond to the most common housing adaptations were selected. The simulations were applied to four functional profiles of different complexity.
RESULT: EB known to be commonly removed by housing adaptations exist in large proportions of the existing ordinary housing stock. Estimated targeted elimination of selected barriers would have the largest accessibility effects for the more complex functional profiles. The effects would be consistently larger for one-family houses, and for all types of dwellings built before 1960.
CONCLUSIONS: The elimination of the EB most commonly addressed by housing adaptations could result in a reduction of the housing accessibility problems that community-living older people are facing. For society to solve the housing situation for the ageing population well-informed and efficient upgrading of ordinary housing is imperative.
Ageing in place is a global trend with high priority on the political agenda. In Sweden, as in many other countries, a transfer from high specialty hospital care to home health care is ongoing, which calls for the need of new knowledge concerning transdisciplinary teamwork, not only between professionals but also between different levels in the health care organization. The situation that unfolds when someone’s home becomes an arena for care opens a complex context, including possible conflicts between a feeling of home and a supportive and attractive workplace. To support the process of healthy ageing, and employing staff in home- and healthcare, it is important to conduct transdisciplinary research on the interaction between researchers from different disciplines, including older people and their living environment, staff performing home- and healthcare to older people living in ordinary housing and stakeholders in society. In this chapter, we will describe in what way a transdisciplinary research approach is appropriate when planning for a study, how this can contribute to research on ageing in place, and also share lessons learnt from this process.