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Research Product Types: Journal Article

peer-reviewed article in academic journal

A Space of Loss: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Ochsner, J. K. (1997). A Space of Loss: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Journal of Architectural Education, 50(3), 156–171.

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Abstract

Few published essays have explored the way in which the Vietnam Veterans Memorial actually communicates with visitors. This article explores the memorial as a "linking object," as conceived by psychoanalyst Vamik Volkan, and as a "space of absence," as defined by Richard Etlin, and shows how these two ways of understanding the memorial are interconnected. A particularly innovative aspect of the memorial is the way it engenders awareness of both surface (emphasized by the inscribed names) and space (experienced as "virtual space") resulting from the reflectivity of the granite, which gives it an apparent ("virtual") depth. The reflective surface brings one "into" the "space" of the wall and allows simultaneous perception of the names of the dead, the reflections of other visitors, and the reflection of oneself. The complex interactive process wherein the inexactness and ambiguity of the reflections catch the viewer, engender projective fantasy, and (because of the presence of the names) simultaneously structure it, fosters a proximity to and an identification with the dead, and the simultaneous experience of connection and separation.

Behind the Mask: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Interaction in the Design Studio

Ochsner, J. K. (2000). Behind the Mask: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Interaction in the Design Studio. Journal of Architectural Education, 53(4), 194–206.

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Abstract

Design studio is routinely referred to as the center of architectural education, yet surprisingly little has been published about the nature of the interaction between instructors and students in the studio environment. This article draws upon ideas such as Donald Schön's description of design as "reflection-in-action" and D. W. Winnicott's discovery of the foundations of creativity in the "transitional phenomena" of early childhood to provide a basis for understanding the emotional power of the design studio experience and the ways in which phenomena identified by psychoanalysis can emerge in the interaction of studio instructors and students.

Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon

De Almeida, Catherine. (2019). Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 13(3), 64-77.

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Abstract

Materials and landscapes associated with waste are perceived as objectionable. By reactivating and embracing waste conditions as desirable opportunities for diverse programmes rooted in economy, ecology, and culture, designers can form hybrid assemblages on waste sites through the exchange of waste materials—a landscape lifecycles approach. This frame-work is applicable to not only design research, but also as a critical lens for evaluating the landscape performance of existing projects that engage with waste reuse. The Blue Lagoon in southwest Iceland materialized as a spa industry out of geothermal waste effluent from the adjacent Svartsengi Geothermal Power Station, reusing undesirable materials and transforming a waste landscape through diversified material recovery strategies. Featuring an industrial by-product turned economic generator, this case study reveals the opportunities for reusing geothermal ‘waste’ in these emergent landscape conditions, which hybridize economies with recreation, research, and ecology, and shift the conventional relationship with waste from passive to performative.

Keywords

Waste reuse; Blue Lagoon; material lifecycles; Iceland; landscape reclamation

Experimental Investigations and Empirical Modeling of Rubber Wear on Concrete Pavement

Emami, Anahita; Sah, Hos Narayan; Aguayo, Federico; Khaleghian, Seyedmeysam. (2022). Experimental Investigations and Empirical Modeling of Rubber Wear on Concrete Pavement. Journal of Engineering Tribology.

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Abstract

Material loss due to wear plays a key role in the service life of rubber components in various tribological applications, such as tires, shoe soles, wiper blades, to name a few. It also adversely affects energy consumption, economy, and CO2 emissions around the globe. Therefore, understanding and modeling the wear behavior of rubbers are important in the design of economic and environment-friendly rubber compounds. In this study, we investigated the effect of normal load and sliding velocity on the wear rate of rubber compounds widely used in the tire treads and evaluated the wear models previously proposed for rubbers to determine the best model to predict the rubber wear rate. The sliding wear rates of different types of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) and Isoprene Rubber (IR) compounds on a broom finish concrete slab were measured for different sliding velocities and normal loads. The experimental results were used to evaluate and discuss different wear models proposed in the literature. A new empirical model was proposed to predict the wear rate by considering mechanical properties associated with rubber wear. The experimental results revealed that the wear rate of rubber compounds non-linearly depends on the normal load or friction force, while the effect of sliding velocity on the wear rate is not significant in the 20–100 mm/s range. Moreover, traces of both mechanical (abrasion) and chemical (smearing) wear were observed on all rubber compounds.

Keywords

Tire tread compounds, rubber wear, rubber-concrete interaction, smearing wear and abrasion, wear model

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Concrete Produced with Recycled Concrete Aggregates

Okechi, Ikechukwu K.; Aguayo, Federico; Torres, Anthony. (2022). Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Concrete Produced with Recycled Concrete Aggregates. Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction, 11(2), 65-74.

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Abstract

This study presents a comparison between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of concrete produced with natural aggregate and that of concrete produced with recycled concrete aggregate. In order to achieve this, natural aggregate concrete (NAC) specimens were produced, tested, then crushed and sieved in the laboratory to obtain recycled concrete aggregates, which was then used in the production of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) specimens. The RAC samples were then tested and compared to the NAC samples. The CTE testing was carried out using a AFTC2 CTE measurement system produced by Pine Instrument Company. In addition to CTE testing, the water absorption, specific gravity, and unit weight of the aggregates was determined. A vacuum impregnation procedure was used for the water absorption test. The recycled aggregate properties showed a significantly higher absorption capacity than that of the natural aggregates, while the unit weight and specific gravity of the recycled aggregate were lower than that of the natural aggregates. The average CTE results showed that both the NAC and the RAC samples expanded similarly. The results show that the CTE of RAC depends on the natural aggregate used in the NAC, which was recycled to produce the RAC. Also, there was no significant difference between the average CTE values of the RAC and that of NAC that could discredit the use of recycled aggregate in concrete.

Keywords

Coefficient of thermal expansion; Recycled concrete aggregate; Natural concrete aggregate.

A Water Quality Prediction Model for Large-scale Rivers Based on Projection Pursuit Regression in the Yangtze River

Yi, Ze-ji; Yang, Xiao-hua; Li, Yu-qi. (2022). A Water Quality Prediction Model for Large-scale Rivers Based on Projection Pursuit Regression in the Yangtze River. Thermal Science, 26(3), 2561-2567.

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Abstract

In recent decades, the Yangtze River Basin, which carries hundreds of millions of people and a substantial economic scale, has been plagued by water quality dete-rioration, threatening considerably sustainable development. In this paper, a sample set is established based on the water quality indexes of chemical oxygen demand and dissolved oxygen obtained by week-by-week monitoring on the main stream of the Yangtze River in Panzhihua, Yueyang, Jiujiang, and Nanjing from 2006 to 2018. The twelve characteristic variables are selected by random forest technique, and the week-by-week dynamic prediction models of chemical oxygen demand and dissolved oxygen at each section of main stream are established by the projection pursuit regression, which can effectively predict the water quality dynamics of the Yangtze River main stream.

Keywords

Pollution; Water Quality; Dynamic Prediction Model; Random Forest; Projection Pursuit Regression; Yangtze River

On the Tradeoffs between Embodied and Operational Carbon in Building Envelope Design: The Impact of Local Climates and Energy Grids

Echenagucia, Tomas Mendez; Moroseos, Teresa; Meek, Christopher. (2023). On the Tradeoffs between Embodied and Operational Carbon in Building Envelope Design: The Impact of Local Climates and Energy Grids. Energy & Buildings, 278.

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Abstract

The building envelope has a substantial influence on a building's life cycle operational and embodied car-bon emissions. Window-to-wall ratios, wall assemblies, shading and glazing types, have been shown to have a significant impact on total emissions. This paper provides building designers, owners, and policy makers with actionable guidance and a prioritization framework for establishing co-optimized lifecycle carbon performance of facade assembly components in a broad spectrum of climate contexts and energy carbon intensities. A large parametric study of building envelopes is conducted using building perfor-mance simulation and cradle-to-gate embodied carbon calculations in 6 US cities. The authors derive the total carbon emissions optimization for commercial office and residential space types using standard code-reference models and open-source lifecycle data. Comparisons between optimal total carbon solu-tions and (i) optimal operational carbon and (ii) minimum required assemblies, show the impact of under and over investing in envelope-related efficiency measures for each climate. Results show how the rela-tionship between embodied and operational carbon is highly localized, that optimal design variables can vary significantly. In low carbon intensity energy grids, over investment in envelope embodied carbon can exceed as 10 kgCO2e/m2, while under investment in high carbon intensity grids can be higher than 150 kgCO2e/m2.Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

Facades; Building-integrated Photovoltaic Systems; Carbon Emissions; Carbon; Building Performance; Building Designers; Building Envelopes; Refuse Containers; Building Performance Simulation; Embodied Carbon; Operational Carbon; Parametric Modeling; Environmental-impact; Search

Associations between Neighborhood Built Environment, Residential Property Values, and Adult BMI Change: The Seattle Obesity Study III

Buszkiewicz, James H.; Rose, Chelsea M.; Ko, Linda K.; Mou, Jin; Moudon, Anne Vernez; Hurvitz, Philip M.; Cook, Andrea J.; Drewnowski, Adam. (2022). Associations between Neighborhood Built Environment, Residential Property Values, and Adult BMI Change: The Seattle Obesity Study III. SSM-Population Health, 19.

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Abstract

Objective: To examine associations between neighborhood built environment (BE) variables, residential property values, and longitudinal 1-and 2-year changes in body mass index (BMI). Methods: The Seattle Obesity Study III was a prospective cohort study of adults with geocoded residential addresses, conducted in King, Pierce, and Yakima Counties in Washington State. Measured heights and weights were obtained at baseline (n = 879), year 1 (n = 727), and year 2 (n = 679). Tax parcel residential property values served as proxies for individual socioeconomic status. Residential unit and road intersection density were captured using Euclidean-based SmartMaps at 800 m buffers. Counts of supermarket (0 versus. 1+) and fast-food restaurant availability (0, 1-3, 4+) were measured using network based SmartMaps at 1600 m buffers. Density measures and residential property values were categorized into tertiles. Linear mixed-effects models tested whether baseline BE variables and property values were associated with differential changes in BMI at year 1 or year 2, adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, home ownership, and county of residence. These associations were then tested for potential disparities by age group, gender, race/ethnicity, and education. Results: Road intersection density, access to food sources, and residential property values were inversely associated with BMI at baseline. At year 1, participants in the 3rd tertile of density metrics and with 4+ fast-food restaurants nearby showed less BMI gain compared to those in the 1st tertile or with 0 restaurants. At year 2, higher residential property values were predictive of lower BMI gain. There was evidence of differential associations by age group, gender, and education but not race/ethnicity. Conclusion: Inverse associations between BE metrics and residential property values at baseline demonstrated mixed associations with 1-and 2-year BMI change. More work is needed to understand how individual-level sociodemographic factors moderate associations between the BE, property values, and BMI change.

Keywords

Body-mass Index; Physical-activity; Food Environment; Socioeconomic-status; Weight-gain; Health; Quality