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To seed applied research projects that advance professional
knowledge and practice, the AIA recently sought proposals. The
projects must be completed within one year from May 4, 2007. The
proposals could cover a range of areas, including education and
practice; regulatory, business, and technical developments related
to a particular building type or client group; evaluation of design
and performance criteria for learning, healing, and work
environments; evaluation of project delivery methods and tools; and
miscellaneous topics relevant to the practice of
architecture.
A panel of architecture professionals and educators evaluated the
proposals and selected 10 of them to receive AIA grants of $7,000
each. The grants qualify the recipients to present their
preliminary findings and outcomes at the 2008 AIA National
Convention in addition to other venues and publications.
SELECTED PROPOSALS
Schematic Energy Design Primer – Midwest Region
Principal Investigators: Scott A. Johnston,
associate professor, Department of Architecture and Interior Design
(Miami University, Oxford, Ohio); Robert L. Knight, AIA (GBBN
Architects, Cincinnati)
The Center for Building Science Research (CBSR) at Miami University
has a 20-year history of developing design tools to help students
and practicing architects better understand the thermal performance
implications of the design decisions they make. Growing interest in
sustainable design has put our department in the unique position of
serving as consultants on real projects outside the university. The
expertise we bring to these projects is the ability to analyze the
thermal impact of design decision early in the schematic design
phase. Though our primary focus is on the building envelope, we
also have software to look at how the design of the building shell
affects system design.
The AIA funding will be used to automate and recalibrate the data
acquisition system for the department’s low-velocity wind
tunnel. Over the summer and fall, a series of simple parametric
studies will be performed to characterize visually and numerically
how the shape and location of openings on a building influences air
motion around and through it. These experiments will be used in a
chapter of an energy design primer designed specifically to aid
architects in this region as they attempt to shape the form of
their buildings in ways that are more environmentally responsive.
As an extension of this project, workshops will be offered at CBSR
at Miami and at other sites around the state, emphasizing the
importance of, and demonstrating the tools that can be used for,
analyzing building thermal performance early in the design
process.
Greening North Knoxville: Visualizing Sustainability in
Urban Conditions
Principal Investigator: Ted Shelton, AIA, assistant
professor, College of Architecture and Design (University of
Tennessee)
When working in the urban context, it is difficult for even
well-informed designers to understand how their decisions impact
the environment. The urban condition is inherently complex: Many of
the metrics of sustainability either have no visible manifestation
or are composed of multiple layers, some of which are visible and
some of which are not. This project will develop methods whereby
the complex interactions of environmental concerns and the urban
condition are made visible in order to inform the design
process.
Investigators will collect information on the geospatial conditions
of an existing urban neighborhood, North Knoxville, and use
CartaVista™ Geographic Information Visualization (GIV)
software to perform graphic analyses of aspects of urban
sustainability. GIV technology uses a layered system of Digital
Elevation Models (DEM). While these models typically correspond to
elevation data, they can also represent other data types. In this
project, DEMs will be manipulated to represent aspects of
sustainability through the creation of thematically grouped Visual
Analysis Layers. For example, individual parameters of the
walkability layer might include the width of the sidewalk; shading
of the sidewalk; distance to a commercial street, neighborhood
center, or transit stop; and density of adjacent residences.
Relating and quantifying each of the parameters, the DEM will be
manipulated to create a Digital Data Model (DDM), which
CartaVista™ in turn can display as points, lines, and surfaces
colored with hypsometric tints to describe features of the dataset
and drive visual investigation. Thus, from quantitative data comes
qualitative readings—unlocking the visual processing abilities
of the designer and informing integrated design decisions.
Developing Architectural Lighting Designs to Improve the
Health and Well-Being of Older Adults
Principal Investigator: Mariana G. Figueiro, PhD,
assistant professor, Lighting Research Center, School of
Architecture (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
The research will develop, demonstrate, evaluate, and document
architectural lighting designs that will help to improve the
health, well-being, and quality of life of older adults living at
home and in assisted lighting environments. As a person ages,
several normal changes occur in the visual system resulting in
difficulty seeing, sensitivity to glare, and difficulty performing
visually-dependent tasks. Disturbed nighttime sleep is also common
in older persons, leading to significant negative effects on the
daytime function of the affected person and on the well-being of
caregivers and family members. Disturbed sleep in older adults is
virtually always accompanied by marked disturbances of the
circadian system, and research has established that controlled
bright-dark light cycles will synchronize that system to the
24-hour solar day, helping them be more awake during the day and to
sleep better at night. To address these issues, Figueiro plans to
develop and test a 24-hour lighting scheme specifically designed to
meet the needs of older adults, including those with
Alzheimer’s disease. This project will result in guidelines
and recommendations that will help architects to design healthy and
sustainable living environments for older adults that will support
their visual needs, well-being, health, sleep quality, and
independence.
ReactiveVOID: Socializing Space through Responsive
Technology
Principal Investigators: Joshua G. Stein,
assistant professor of architecture (Woodbury University); Rob Ley,
professor (Southern California Institute of Architecture)
ReactiveVOID is a research project that capitalizes on new
technologies to influence the public perception of the built
environment through the activation of interior spaces. The research
critically examines the possibilities of responsive space given
recent developments in responsive material technology, namely that
of Muscle Wire® shape memory alloys (SMAs)—metals that
change shape according to temperature. This technology offers the
possibility of fluid and subtle movement without the mechanized
motion of earlier technologies. Operating at a molecular level,
this motion parallels that of plants and lower-level organisms that
could be called responsive but not conscious—for example, that
of a field of sunflowers or a reef covered with sea anemones. Its
practical application has been limited to the medical and aerospace
fields and to novelty toys—the super exclusive vs. the trite.
Despite the potential of this technology, there have been few
serious attempts to test its effects at the scale of responsive
environments.
ReactiveVOID imbues space with personality more than intelligence.
The architecture profession’s earlier flirtations with motion
and technology tended to emphasize justification of efficiency
through intelligence. This research aims to shift the argument from
intelligence and motion to responsiveness and personality. A
faculty grant from Woodbury University allowed the initial phase of
research into this technology, including proof-of-concept
operational kinetic models. This AIA grant would be used in tandem
with the IDEC Special Projects Grant to test this research in a
full-scale installation.
Guidelines for Spatial Regeneration in Iowa
Principal Investigator: Marwan Ghandour,
associate professor of architecture (Iowa State University);
Collaborating Investigator: Peter Goché, AIA,
(Goché inclusions llc and lecturer, Iowa State
University)
Iowa and the Midwest have witnessed a major shift in landscape for
the last three decades, characterized by the change of agricultural
production practices from family farming to corporate farming and
the consequent ecological and social transformation. The current
Iowa landscape of towns, farms, and transportation networks is
physically shaped in accordance with the family farming networks of
material exchange.
The result of this network of exchange becoming obsolete is an
accumulated building waste, which is in the form of abandoned farm
structures and town businesses. This has yielded social frustration
due to the limited future options for small town residents and
former family farmers. Concurrently there is a lack of vision for
the future of the built environment of Iowa for Iowans to work
towards. We propose to address this deficit through design
interventions on two interrelated scales, architectural and
regional. On the architectural scale, the project will address the
building waste through projects of reprogramming, refurbishment and
material recycling. On the regional scale, the project will address
the larger network of exchange in order to propose a vision for the
future built environment of Iowa that is informed not only by
production processes but also by social aspirations. Consequently,
the project will include spatial analysis, design interventions and
guidelines for regeneration of the social space of Iowa.
Doing Good, Doing Well? The Impacts of Social Engagement
and Design-Build Programs on Early Professional
Development
Principal Investigator: Peter Aeschbacher, assistant
professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (The
Pennsylvania State University)
University design-build programs emphasizing social responsibility
are grounded in two claims: (a) that project-based design and
construction experience builds professional capacity, and (b) that
engagement with social issues and underserved populations is a
transformative experience, producing
“citizen-architects.” These efforts have generated a
positive popular perception of the profession, supported
universities’ outreach missions, and addressed the
recommendations for student social engagement in the widely cited
1996 Boyer-Mitgang Report. Descriptions and evaluations of
programs-in-action are common in the literature, but little or no
postprogram evaluations have been undertaken.
This research will evaluate the impact of such programs on
graduates’ early professional development. The study will
track graduates of four representative programs: Auburn
University’s Rural Studio (1992+); University of Detroit
Mercy’s Detroit Collaborative Design Center (1995+);
University of Washington’s Howard S. Wright Design/Build
Studio (1994+); and the University of Kansas’s Studio 804
(1995+). Each program has the maturity to provide a sufficient time
frame and pool of respondents for the study. Surveys and selected
interviews will consider prior skills and motivations; student
tenure within the programs; decisions for professional practice;
and graduates’ capacity to maintain design-build and/or social
engagement in their early professional careers.
Findings will directly benefit educators and professionals engaged
with such initiatives; help to define an important link between
education and practice to the benefit of programs such as IDP;
contribute to the scholarly literature in the field; and provide
insight into the current state of practice and the experiences of
emerging professionals.
Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Family
Interaction
Principal Investigators: Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, DArch,
AIA, ACHA, design researcher (ART+Science); Debra D. Harris, PhD
(IDR Studio); Robert White, MD, director, Regional Newborn Program
(Memorial Hospital of South Bend); Annie Coull, AIA, ACHA, director
of planning (Anshen+Allen Architects); Uma Ramanathan, AIA,
principal, and Sue Ellen Donahoe, interior designer (Shepley
Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott)
Patients and families in intensive-care hospital settings are
extremely vulnerable to the physical environment. Neonatal
intensive-care settings are particularly significant in their
impact due to the frailty of the infants and feelings of loss and
fear experienced by their families. While recent design research
focuses on patients and staff, the trauma experienced by family
members is profound and long-lasting. The purpose of this research
study, therefore, is to focus on the impact of neonatal intensive
care environments on family members.
Recent technological advancements have resulted in an increase in
the NICU population. Many hospitals are expanding or adding
neonatal services, resulting in new construction and
experimentation with innovative facility design. One of the most
significant innovations has been to provide private single-family
rooms (SFRs) rather than multibed bays. While SFRs have been found
to control noise and light and to increase privacy, their impact on
family social interaction is uncertain. Therefore, this research
project explores the impact of both SFR and open units on social
interaction. The following questions are addressed in this
proposal:
1. Are there differences in family-infant interaction in the two
settings (open bay and SFR)?
2. Are there differences in family-staff interaction in the two
settings?
3. Are there differences in family-family interaction in the two
settings?
This study is the second phase of an ongoing research initiative
originally sponsored by the Coalition for Health Environments
Research (Harris, Shepley, White, et al. 2006), which focused on
the impact of SFRs on staff and infants.
Exploring Public Realm—Understanding Multiple Ways of
Publicness in Urban America: Learning from the College
Towns
Principal Investigator: Anirban Adhya, assistant
professor, College of Architecture and Design (Lawrence
Technological University)
This research will undertake a critical study of public
places—the public realm of any society—in the American
urban context. Current theories of public space represent a notion
of “public” that is homogeneous and offers universal
access. Current practices in the public realm are devoid of
contextual understanding of human diversity, human behavior, and
evolving technology and instead are founded in romanticism of
certain historically conceived typologies of streets, squares,
parks, and plazas, and markets, or in singular dimension such as
ownership. This investigation will contest such universal
understanding by examining closely a group of public places in four
college towns: Ann Arbor, Mich., Athens, Ga.; Madison, Wis.; and
Tallahassee, Fla. The study will focus on college towns because
these towns represent a distinct urban condition. Each place
considered in this research illustrates different representations
of public space and reveals various formal and informal ways of
appropriating publicness. The study will explore different ways in
which public places are understood, various processes by which
public places are used, and multiple forms in which public places
are manifested.
(1) I will apply a multiple sorting task coupled with open-ended
interviews (Canter et al. 1985, Groat, 1985) to investigate the
nature and organization of people’s conceptual constructs
related to publicness.
(2) I will observe people’s activities in exemplar public
places (four per case study) to reveal how people, individually and
in groups, appropriate these spaces.
(3) The study will analyze the historic-morphological evolution of
public places in the college towns using space syntax methods. The
dynamic interaction between urban configuration, human behavior,
and common understanding continually shapes the growth of a city
through time (Habraken 2000). I will replicate this integrative
model in the four case-study college towns.
Skin Deep: Breathing Life into the Layer between Man and
Nature
Principal Investigator: Doris Kim Sung, MArch, lecturer
(University of Southern California)
This proposal requests funds to transform the surface of an
Airstream trailer into a kinetic “skin” that performs
from both the outside-in and the inside-out. In the past, the
exterior surface of a building passively protected, shielded, and
separated man from nature. Thick walls, small openings, and heavy
roofs ensured this security. In the early 1930s, the modern
movement and industrialization rejected the segregation and
encouraged the use of glass walls as a means to visually bring the
garden indoors. But even though the glass was thin and transparent,
the window wall remained impenetrable. This design-build project
revisits the ongoing discussion of the “primitive hut”
with a new position on balancing man with nature: Skins of
buildings can be designed to be porous, animated, and
sensitive—performing as a tool rather than an object.
By making a skin that is responsive on the outside to changes in
the climate and environment and on the inside to the movements of
the body, it can connect man and nature harmoniously despite its
material, physical, and technological presence. The manifestations
would occur on the opposing surface of the skin: The outside
skin’s reaction would appear on the inside and vice versa.
Selected for its ideal grafting medium, the Airstream trailer is an
independent, inhabitable unit, continuous on all sides (including
the roof and the belly), and easily transportable. Imagine this
contemporary “primitive hut” with a new kinetic skin.
Ironically, this new skin, although tangible and technological,
would be conceptually invisible, giving a whole new meaning to the
words “organic” and “sustainable.”
Pilot Project to Aid in the Development of a Preservation
Plan for Old Acoma Village
Principal Investigators: Dennis G. Playdon; Kate
Wingert-Playdon, MArch, Professor, Architecture Program (Temple
University) and consultant (Pueblo of Acoma Historic Preservation
Office)
A pilot project will aid in the development of a preservation plan
for Old Acoma Village, Pueblo of Acoma. The village is the
spiritual and cultural center of the Native American settlement of
Acoma in New Mexico. The Acoma tribe has undertaken the task of
preserving its historic structures and is considered by the
National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) to be a leader in
implementing preservation among culturally sensitive Native
American settlements. The principal investigators for this proposed
pilot project were instrumental in the preservation process for San
Esteban del Rey Mission and the Acoma Meetinghouse, two significant
public structures at Acoma (Kate Wingert-Playdon coordinated and
wrote the 2001 preservation plan; Dennis Playdon initiated and
carried out assessment and initial projects). The preservation plan
for the San Esteban del Rey Mission was innovative and in the
forefront of preservation planning for Native American settlements.
It favors cultural needs in conjunction with preservation needs.
The preservation model couples project phases and planning
decisions as the work proceeds, allowing the work to be visible to
the community, allowing culturally and spiritually sensitive site
areas to be cared for according to Acoma’s guiding principles
and demonstrating best practices for building as a cultural
priority.
This pilot project is a next phase in preservation at Acoma.
Whereas the first phase focused on public buildings, the next phase
focuses on houses of individual families in the tribe. This phase
has many of the same priorities but also must consider the needs of
individuals together with the needs of the tribe. Acoma’s
ancient village is best known for its defensible position on a
350-foot-high mesa and its massing as a stepped pueblo structure
that is organized in relation to its environment, taking full
advantage of a balance between passive solar heating and shading
for cooling. The village profile and layout remained intact for
approximately 300 years, and there has been expansion in the
village for about a 70-year period. In spite of the growth, the
underlying structure of the village is still dominant.
Preservation planning for the village comes at a crucial time. A
National Historic Landmark, the village was named an endangered
cultural landscape by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (2004), and
NTHP recently named it a National Trust Partner Site (2006). A
number of houses in the village are in dire need of repair. The
village dating from 1629 to 1644 is made of earthen materials and,
until 20 years ago, was maintained using traditional building
practices learned through oral history. More recently, materials
thought to be time saving have been used for repairs. They include
portland cement, adobe amended with petroleum products, plywood,
and other materials incompatible with the soft earthen materials
used for 300+ years. The use of “new” materials in itself
is not a problem, but the manner in which they are used must be
better directed so that deterioration between harder and softer
materials does not undermine the structures. Best building
practices for earthen buildings are well known at Acoma and are
part of the traditional form of building maintenance. However,
these traditions are in jeopardy of being lost to the average
citizen because of a change in social structure and the loss of the
oral tradition that has guided building practices. A preservation
plan requires some teaching about the architecture and traditional
building practices at Acoma and will be innovative inasmuch as it
can reinvigorate the need for knowledge about the practice of
building in the settlement.
Success in preservation planning of the public structures at Acoma
is in part due to a two-pronged approach to planning. While a
written plan is essential, the demonstration of the process,
showing that the plan is based on the existing environment and not
imposed from the outside, is a key factor for acceptance by the
Acoma community. This pilot project will start with demonstration
of building practices in the private structures and result in a
handbook for building and preliminary plan for implementation in
anticipation of later phases. It will include youth training, a key
component to community involvement at Acoma. The initial phase is
the measurement and survey of two structures. A plan for repair and
long-term maintenance will be drawn from this. The plan will be
worked out in conjunction with the needs of homeowners along with a
range of techniques and materials that consider the preservation of
the old structures.
For further information on the AIA research program, please see the
AIA 2007 Research Summit Web site.
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