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The classroom is the most importance space in our adolescence. The education system has not changed until recently and the typical classroom is outdated. We need more dynamic classroom and a space that helps enlighten and inspires learning in your own way.

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Transforming NYC Apartments: Exploring Modular and Movable Structures for Population Densification and Green Space Integration

With the growing population, a need for spaces to inhabit is dire, but it comes at a cost of exhausting the ecosystem. This research will investigate innovative architectural and urban design solutions that address the challenges posed by rapid urbanization and population growth, in a residential scale in NYC. It will focus on the concept of vertical urbanism, which favors modular and movable structures to create adaptable and responsive spaces within limited spatial footprints while attempting to foster ecosystem and biodiversity restoration. Through case studies, data analysis, and previously documented books on vertical green buildings, I will address critical challenges related to population growth, resource conservation, and the creation of livable urban spaces.

Sources:

1. The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century: This book is relevant because it explores vertical farming, which can be integrated into urban apartments to promote sustainable food production and green space integration.

2. Singapore’s Green Buildings: This source may provide case studies and examples of green building practices in an urban environment, which can inform your research on sustainable apartment design.

3. Journal of Green Buildings:

1. ENERGY, ENVIRONMENTAL AND COST PERFORMANCE OF WALL SYSTEMS FOR STANDARD RESIDENTIAL HOUSING: A CASE STUDY: Relevant for understanding the energy and environmental aspects of residential buildings.

2. IS SUSTAINABILITY COSTLY? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM BUILT PROJECTS: Offers insights into the costs associated with sustainability in building projects.

3. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EMBODIED, OPERATIONAL, AND LIFE CYCLE CARBON IN PASSIVE HOUSE MULTIFAMILY RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS: Addresses carbon-related aspects of residential buildings.

4. A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF ZERO ENERGY BUILDINGS RESEARCH OVER THE PAST 45 YEARS: Provides a comprehensive overview of zero-energy building research, which can be relevant to sustainable apartment design.

5. WIND ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS OF GREEN BUILDING BASED ON BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING (BIM): Offers insights into the wind environment and green building design.

4. Stephen Graham - Vertical: The city from satellite: While it primarily focuses on the urban environment as a whole, it may provide insights into urban spatial dynamics and verticality, which can be relevant to your research.

5. Delirious New York - Rem Koolhaas: Relevant for understanding architectural perspectives on urban design and potentially modular and movable structures in NYC.

6. Residential Skyscrapers by Architect Stanko Fabris: Provides insights into residential skyscrapers, which may include discussions on space optimization and vertical design.

7. Sustainable Cities and Society:

1. An innovative edge-based Internet of Energy solution for promoting energy saving in buildings: This article addresses energy-saving solutions in buildings, which is highly relevant to sustainable urban apartment design.

2. Bayesian network modeling for economic-socio-cultural sustainability of neighborhood-level urban communities: Reflections from Kolkata, an Indian megacity: Although it focuses on an Indian megacity, it may offer insights into socio-cultural sustainability and neighborhood-level urban planning that could be adapted to the NYC context.

3. Improving habitability in social housing through passive cooling: a case study in Mengíbar (Ja´en, Spain): This case study on passive cooling in social housing can provide insights into improving the habitability of residential buildings, which is directly related to your topic.

4. The influence of the landscape pattern on the urban land surface temperature varies with the ratio of land components: Insights from 2D/3D building/vegetation metrics: This article could be valuable for understanding how different landscape patterns affect urban temperature, which is relevant to green space integration.

5. A Round Robin Test on the dynamic simulation and the LEED protocol evaluation of a green building: If this article discusses the evaluation of green building protocols, it could be useful for understanding green building standards and certification.

6. Energy simulation of residential house integrated with novel IoT windows and occupant behavior: If this article discusses innovative energy simulation in residential houses, it may be relevant to your research on energy-efficient apartments.

7. Integration of standing column wells in urban context: A numerical investigation-case in the City of Montreal: This article may have insights into sustainable water management in urban contexts, which could be adapted to NYC.

8. Multiscale modeling in smart cities: A survey on applications, current trends, and challenges: If this article explores modeling in smart cities, it may contain relevant insights into urban modeling and smart technologies.

8. Sustainability rating system for highway design—A key focus for developing sustainable cities and societies in Nigeria: While it focuses on highways, it might provide insights into sustainability rating systems that could be applied to urban apartment design.

Lacking Sources:

1. Local NYC Case Studies: Seek out case studies or reports specifically related to modular and movable structures in residential buildings within NYC. Local examples can provide valuable insights.

2. Architectural Journals: Explore journals specifically focused on architecture, as they may contain articles discussing innovative architectural solutions for urban apartments.

3. Government Reports: Look for reports or publications from NYC government agencies related to urban planning, housing, and sustainability. These reports can offer local insights and data.

4. Interviews or Expert Opinions: Consider conducting interviews with architects, urban planners, or experts specializing in sustainable urban design in NYC. Their insights can provide a practical perspective on your topic.

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A stack of milk cartons and metal pallets, a hollow concrete ball and a leggy wooden shelter are among the houses that Los Angeles architects and designers have created for cats.

The 11 one-of-a-kind cat shelters were created for the Architects for Animals' annual Giving Shelter fundraiser.

The shelters will be available for purchase via an online auction to raise funds for local nonprofit FixNation, which provides free spay and neuter services for stray cats in the California city. Read on to find out more about the 11 kitty-friendly shelters:

CatCube: Meowdular Dwelling Unit by Abramson Architects

This flexible modular system designed by Abramson Architects uses magnets to link the parts together, allowing pet owners to configure the number and type of units that best suit their cat's needs. Felt lines the interior of each module and playful colours coat the durable exterior.

Carpet tiles and pet grass, that can be easily removed for replacement or cleaning, provide a base perfect for lounging and scratching. Felt pads are also attached to the bottom of each CatCube to lift it off the ground, allowing the unit to easily slide across flooring.

Design by D3architecture
To sculpt this shelter, D3architecture collected an assortment of used plastic, wood and metal milk crates. The boxes stack on top of one another, above a base crafted from wood, to create ample opportunity for climbing and lots of space for napping.

The Dungeon Master's Lair by HKS
This icosagon, 20-sided hideaway, was influenced by the rocky exteriors of caves, and also references several-faced die used in popular role-playing games.

Two sides are intentionally left open to provide access in and out of the shelter, which can be left to rest on any of its sides. Black paint coats its CNC wood exterior. A clear finish used on the interior exposes the natural colour of the wood and features a white fur sleeping pad for added comfort.

Design by HOK
HOK's design is a modular system that can serve as a series of private sleeping nooks or as a playful maze. The unit is also designed to act as a seat for humans looking to interact with their cat. Its exterior uses layers of cardboard to construct a cube that is covered with a transparent plastic.

"This skeletal design exposes the bare bones of the shelter and metaphorically represents that every cat deserves a warm, dry, playful and restful home," the architects said.

Legs House by Morphosis /Xtech
A riff off urban dwellings this shelter extends three levels. Its vertical design uses CNCpmachined Kebony wood slats, a more sustainable alternative to Brazilian walnut, to express "both wild and domestic sensibilities."

The slabs vary in shape and gradually taper as they reach the ground. The first two levels provide areas for sleeping and eating, while the rooftop deck features plants and acts as a lookout space.

Clawed Purrent; Function of the Oblique 9 by Perkins and Will
Perkins and Will's imagined a parallel universe in which cats rule the world. The work's name is also a playful reference the publication, The Function of the Oblique: The Architecture of Claude Parent and Paul Virilio.

"Function of the Oblique 9 demonstrates his obsession with shifting and tipping planes and the fractured plan," Perkins and Will said.

Fabric is draped over wooden dowels which connect to a plastic tube base. The piece can be adjusted into many configurations to create different landscapes.

Sneaky Drawers by Rdc
A concrete shell surrounds three staggered birch drawers in this shelter constructed by Rdc. The shell is cut on a diagonal and is equipped with a hinge that can be used to open and close the unit, giving the dwellers privacy.

The Cat Pod by Standard Architecture
Standard Architects created a flexible, modular unit using a prefabricated curved concrete shell that is infilled with teak wood, certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and reclaimed from flooring samples. Slats of teak frame an accessible cat door and beige felt blankets the ground of the shelter.

Concrete was chosen for its high thermal mass, it gathers heat throughout the day and gradually releases it overnight, while the teak walls and doors let in a breeze, keeping the cat comfortable all day.

The Rise of SkyWhisker by Stantec
A yoga ball was used to mould the round shape of this hideaway. Stantec's design crafts concrete into a non-orthogonal form influenced by the appearance of a rocket ship.

Two ports of entry are outlined in black and its "cockpit" interior was created using recycled climbing rope. Black rope also constructs a base that the shelter rests on.

Tent by Tracy A Stone Architect

Tent by Tracy A Stone Architect

Tracy A Stone's tent-like design uses wooden poles to form a teepee structure. A blue fabric is tied to the plywood base to provide a semi-private interior. Unique amenities of the shelter include a water dish flush with the surface, an inset scratching pad and hanging yarn toys.

The Cat-esian Joint by WORD Design and Architecture
Three grey tubes constructed with MDO (medium density overlay), a form of very durable, exterior rated plywood, are attached perpendicularly to one another to comprise this shelter influenced by the intersections and space utilisation of cartesian joints. The ducting's interior is lined with a blue felt flooring. Similar to a hollow tree trunk, several openings on the surface allow entrance and exit.

Photography is by Meghan Bob.

LA architects design shelters for homeless cats

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11 architecturally influenced cat shelters

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A stack of milk cartons and metal pallets, a hollow concrete ball and a leggy wooden shelter are among the houses that Los Angeles architects and designers have created for cats. The 11 one-of-a-kind cat shelters were created for the Architects for Animals' annual Giving Shelter fundraiser.

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Some architecture is not designed for people to actively seek out its inhabitation. Though Foucault claims that no architecture is inherently oppressive, there are forms of architecture that are less attractive to its inhabitants. Hard surfaces with reflective paints, high luminosity and echo-y chambers are disruptive to our psyche – affecting things like our circadian rhythm and our ability to feel safe. There is an indisputable link between beauty and liberty, safety and justice, and the architecture of spaces where people are forced to inhabit cater more to economic design models, as opposed to models of healing or rehabilitation. We as designers must apply the architecture of hope to create spaces for individuals to forget their captivity in these spaces, and help them to grow, heal, or learn during these difficult times.

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Access to Nature through Biophilic Arch. 

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Access to Nature through Biophilic Arch. 

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Biophilia means "a love of nature." Biophilic design is the way in which architects incorporate nature into building spaces to contribute to the health and well-being of occupants. By providing direct access to-and views of-nature, and using building materials and features that both mimic and respect the surrounding ecosystem, architects create spaces that speak to our innate attraction to the natural environment. In hospitals that incorporate biophilic design principles, recovery rates improve; in schools, cognitive function improves; and in offices, productivity rates increase.

Ways Biophilic Design Taps Into Our Connection to Nature

Humans have an instinctual connection to nature, so it makes sense that we feel better when in spaces that reflect characteristics of the outdoor environment or that offer views and even access to beautiful landscaped areas, plants, and/or water features. There are several tactics that architects use when incorporating biophilic design principles into a project, including:

Access to and views of nature. Some buildings are sited to offer sweeping ocean views from windows or an abundance of trees in a sweeping landscape, others are not. When designing for urban and more industrial-like sites, architects might choose to design courtyard spaces that feature trees and other flora to provide occupants views of and access to nature

Improved air quality and ventilation. People who spend the majority of the day inside an office or another type of building often take breaks to "get some fresh air." Architects respond to that desire by using biophilic design features, operable windows, rolling overhead doors that open to outdoor areas, solar chimneys that use the stack effect to help move air, or HVAC systems that help promote healthy air exchange.

Natural lighting. Access to natural light is a huge factor in the well-being of building occupants. Excess light could result in uncomfortable glare, while a lack of daylight could result in inadequately lit spaces. Sun shading devices, orientation and window to wall ratios should all be considered in the building design in order to optimize daylight. However, daylighting need not be limited to façade applications. While providing plenty of windows is the simplest solution for this, it's not always feasible. Alternatives include implementing solar tubes or multi-story atriums, which allow diffused natural light to penetrate interior spaces. Architects can also choose artificial lighting that offers appropriate color temperature to sync with human circadian rhythms, thereby optimizing occupant well being and productivity.

Improved acoustics. Noise from the HVAC system, other mechanical equipment, elevators, and building occupants can be managed through design features such as acoustic panels. Biophilic solutions to acoustic issues also include strategically placed interior plants and water features that help mask undesired sound.
Green walls and roofs. Green walls and roofs not only add visual opportunities to connect to nature, but also improve the environment. A green facade placed over an existing wall or a "living wall" comprised of plants can help reduce urban heat island effect. In warm weather, a green roof acts as a cooling mass, deflecting sunlight penetration. In cooler weather, it provides increased insulation, resulting in decreased heating demands.

Natural materials and calming colors. Materials and finishes play a large role in connecting users of a space to nature. Nearly all finishes have the opportunity to reflect nature, whether it be in natural paint colors, scenic murals, carpet material or pattern, wall panels with etched images of nature, or natural wood casework.

Benefits of Biophilic Architecture Solutions

Biophilic design reduces stress, blood pressure levels, and heart rates while increasing productivity, creativity, and an overall sense of well-being.

At HMC Architects, we strongly believe in these benefits of biophilic design and take steps to help educate our clients on this evolving concept.

We collaborate with our clients from day one of a project. We lead workshops for clients and their consultants on biophilic design, regenerative strategies, and all of the ways in which we design for the human experience from cradle to grave. We review biophilic design strategies and how they can help meet specific client goals. For example, when a school district wants to increase learning opportunities and productivity, we explain how access to and views of the outdoors can motivate students to feel their best and do their best work.

To achieve a successful biophilic design project, strong coordination between the various build teams is needed. If, for instance, a client wants to incorporate a living machine-an on-site black water treatment system-into a project, buy-in needs to be universal. All parties, from civil engineers and plumbers to landscape architects, must fully understand the coordination process required to make this strategy a success.

The cost of biophilic design can be also a factor. We investigate incentives that might be offered by local utility companies, which could help offset the upfront cost of a particular biophilic strategy. We also conduct a life-cycle cost analysis of the strategy to estimate the overall costs of ownership. Analysis results can lead us to a design that helps to ensure the facility will be as cost-efficient as possible.

Examples of Biophilic Design

While most of our projects reflect biophilic principles in one form or another, several stand out as prime examples of our work.

The Frontier Project in Rancho Cucamonga, California, is a resource-management demonstration facility that serves to raise environmental awareness. Used as a teaching tool, it represents Southern California's best practices for energy and water conservation. We incorporated several passive strategies and used biophilic design consistently throughout the project. Our design features, including a green roof and a rain-filtering system, incorporate and respect the natural environment.

With this project, we followed a three step mantra:

1. Design with Passive Strategies first

2. Supplement with active mechanical systems if needed

3. Offset with renewable systems, if needed.

The building includes a hybrid passive-active system known as a cooling tower that uses thermal dynamics to passively circulate both hot and cool air through the building, as needed, depending on the season.

At Rancho Campana High School in Camarillo, California, our biophilic design choices allow students ample access to nature. Buildings are clustered around 'village greens' and, thanks to the mild climate of the region, a series of large doors open classrooms up to an outside learning garden. Teachers now create curricula that take advantage of both the indoor classroom spaces and the outside garden. This type of biophilic design allows students to be inspired by nature as they learn.

At Kaiser Permanente La Habra Medical Office Building in La Habra, California, we incorporated many biophilic design features to improve the patient experience, including the "Thrive Path," a beautiful outdoor area through which patients can stroll while waiting for their appointments. The Path offers opportunities for play, exercise, and education to reduce the boredom or anxiety that patients often feel when visiting doctors.

First People's Hospital in Shunde, China, is today the official pilot green hospital for China's green guide for hospital design. As with any medical center, we had to meet strict building safety and health requirements, yet we were able to implement an abundance of biophilic design features that promote sustainability and wellness. Stacked beams in a massive eco-atrium dehumidify and provide natural ventilation by moving hot air up and away from the occupants of the space. A public plaza and a number of healing gardens located throughout the campus offer plenty of access to nature and invite the community to enjoy the outdoors.

Embracing Biophilic Architecture

By incorporating biophilic design principles into our projects, we acknowledge not only the innate connection humans have with nature, but also the positive health and productivity results that can be achieved through that connection.
HMC design teams are experienced in incorporating biophilic design principles in architectural projects for all sectors. To learn how you might use biophilic design in your next project, contact HMC Architects.

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Create Access to Nature Through Biophilic Architecture and Design Principles | Ideas | HMC Architects

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Biophilia means "a love of nature." Biophilic design is the way in which architects incorporate nature into building spaces to contribute to the health and well-being of occupants. By providing direct access to-and views of-nature, and using building materials and features that both mimic and respect the surrounding ecosystem, architects create spaces that speak to our innate attraction to the natural environment.

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With 40 percent of global carbon emissions coming from the building industry and from buildings themselves, SOM is determined to develop new methods and materials in the pursuit of creating zero-carbon and carbon-negative buildings.

Prometheus Materials , a start-up company spun out of a research program at the University of Colorado Boulder, has teamed up with SOM to explore and establish applications for this new generation of biological materials that could turn the construction industry into a positive force in the fight against climate change.

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With 40 percent of global carbon emissions coming from the building industry and from buildings themselves, SOM is determined to develop new methods and materials in the pursuit of creating zero-carbon and carbon-negative buildings.

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ntroductory Chapter: Overview of a CompetentSustainable Building

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ntroductory Chapter: Overview of a CompetentSustainable Building

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Natural Building in the City: Salutogenic Construction Materials and Techniques in Urban Environments

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Natural Building in the City: Salutogenic Construction Materials and Techniques in Urban Environments

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Gültekin, Arzuhan Burcu, et al. ‘A Holistic Conceptual Scheme for Sustainable Building Design in the Context of Environmental, Economic and Social Dimensions’. Sustainable Buildings - Interaction Between a Holistic Conceptual Act and Materials Properties, InTech, 18 July 2018. Crossref, doi:10.5772/intechopen.74031.

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Gültekin, Arzuhan Burcu, et al. ‘A Holistic Conceptual Scheme for Sustainable Building Design in the Context of Environmental, Economic and Social Dimensions’. Sustainable Buildings - Interaction Between a Holistic Conceptual Act and Materials Properties, InTech, 18 July 2018. Crossref, doi:10.5772/intechopen.74031.

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String theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particles are replaced by one dimensional objects called strings. String Theory says that the tiny strings are vibration and they are interconnected with each other.

String theory in architecture would be the study of the applying concepts of “sting like” structure, emphasizing dynamic and interconnected spatial elements. These can be looked in many ways such as interconnected spaces, multidimensionality, materials and textures, light and sound, environmental sensitivity, and interactive spaces.

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Change is a process in life that makes us better. It teaches us to adapt and helps us develop resilience. You become more confident, flexible, motivated; and your lifestyle is more enhanced. Change is important because it allows you to explore new things and learn from different experiences.
The room that should change the most is the space that you spend most of your time in, the bedroom.
A bedroom is a place is escape and relax. Its where you let your guard down and are able to fully rest. Your bedroom also represent your identity, and your most intimate self. Its a personal space, that's your very own safe haven. Some people describe it as "a mirror of your life." In some instances, the state of your room is connected to your mental health.
The way that change is important to your own personal growth, a bedrooms change should have the same affect. Your bedroom is a personal oasis. To be able to change it in more ways than just redecorating it could have a positive impact on ones well being.

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A Room Of Your Own: Why Having A Space To Call Your Own Is So Important

18/02/2023

Having a room of your own is a luxury that many of us take for granted. Whether it's a bedroom, an office, or a den, having a space to call your own provides a sense of comfort, security, and autonomy. In this blog post, we will discuss why having a room of your own is so important and how it can enhance your home life. From providing a place to relax to giving you a spot to work or study, a room of your own can be the perfect refuge.
The psychological benefits of having a space to call your own
Having a of your own can be incredibly beneficial for your mental health. It's a place where you can take a break from the chaos of everyday life, relax, and have some alone time to recharge. Having your own space also gives you a sense of control and ownership. You don't have to worry about anyone else entering your space uninvited or disturbing your things. You can make it exactly how you want it - paint the walls any colour you like, get that refrigerator repair you've been wanting, and hang photos or artwork you love.
How having your own space can improve your relationships
Having your own space to call home can have a profound impact on your relationships. When you have your place, it can be an inviting and welcoming environment for you and your loved ones. With a separate room, you can easily shut off the world outside and focus on the people that matter most to you. This can lead to improved communication and understanding between all parties. Having your own space can also improve relationships by making it easier to manage everyday tasks like refrigerator repair or grocery shopping. With a private area, you can set up a routine that works best for everyone--a win-win situation.
The health benefits of having your own space
Having your own space is an essential part of living a healthy life, whether it be for working from home, play or study. Not only does it provide a comfortable, stress-free environment to relax and enjoy, but it can also have a profound effect on our physical health. One key benefit of having your own space is the opportunity to practice self-care without interruption. When you have your own space, you can take time for yourself without the intrusion of family or roommates. You can have time to focus on healthy activities such as meditation, yoga, and reading without any distractions.
The financial benefits of having your own space
Having your own space is great for more than just peace of mind and better relationships - it can also save you money. The financial benefits of having your own space go beyond just being able to decorate and furnish it according to your tastes and needs. When you have your own space, you are in control of the environment, so you can make the right investments to ensure the longevity of your home. By having your own space, you can create a haven that is tailored to your and your family's needs. With the right attention, you can keep your space safe and comfortable, while also avoiding any large repair costs or replacements.

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A Room Of Your Own: Why Having A Space To Call Your Own Is So Important

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From providing a place to relax to giving you a spot to work or study, a room of your own can be the perfect refuge.

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Death is an uncomfortable topic to talk about. The thought of leaving friends, family, dream all behind, and experiencing the unknown is scary. However as a society and Future Architect we need to talk about this topic. A graveyard is a sleeping place, where body go to rest. The dead inhabitants these spaces and so we as the living deem these spaces as haunted. As a designer we need to talk about how we deal with these spaces and celebrate the live that once lived

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Hunter College professor Tom Angotti on how these informal acts of urbanism raise questions about gentrification.

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Soares, Marcelo M., et al. “A Bus Stop Shelter Evaluated from the User’s Perspective.” Work, vol. 41, Feb. 2012, pp. 1226–33. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.arktos.nyit.edu/10.3233/wor-2012-0307-1226.

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Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980

Post war

Psychology of Space: How architecture Impacts our Mood and Behavior?

Ecological :Sustainability

Eco-Friendly Furniture Designs Are Really Fancy, But Really Inspiring

Sustainable space: Connect NEW and OLD

Evoking feelings (CONCLUSION)

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Crafting Spatial Experiences: Service Design in Architecture

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In order to craft sensory and emotional experiences, architects can work in conjunction with service designers to create spaces centered around the end user.

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In such a diverse society, there is a need for an inclusive, safe space that supports multiculturalism. In my research, I explore the idea of a cultural room, emphasising the creation of safe spaces for cultural celebration and community exchange. With an emphasis on ethnography, belief systems, language, and art, my study aims to find strategies to encourage cultural inclusion.
The lack of inclusive spaces in architecture for multicultural celebration needs to be talked about. I suggest a way that integrates cultural anthropology and design.

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Sustainable Urban Verticality: Exploring Modular and Movable Structures for Population Densification and Green Space Integration

With the growing population, a need for spaces to inhabit is dire, but it comes at a cost of exhausting the ecosystem. This research will investigate innovative architectural and urban design solutions that address the challenges posed by rapid urbanization and population growth. It will focus on the concept of vertical urbanism, which favors modular and movable structures to create adaptable and responsive spaces within limited spatial footprints while attempting to foster ecosystem and biodiversity restoration. Through case studies, data analysis, and previously documented books on vertical green buildings, I will address critical challenges related to population growth, resource conservation, and the creation of livable urban spaces.

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There is a complex interplay of historical, cultural, and societal factors that can be used to explain the existence of a mental health stigma in society. Misunderstandings about mental illnesses have historically created fear and promoted negative perceptions. Open discussions about mental health are discouraged by cultural norms that strongly emphasize independence and invalidate emotional struggles.

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Smart Cities: buildings that adapt to environmental systems and the rhythm of life 

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Smart Cities: buildings that adapt to environmental systems and the rhythm of life 

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The conventional practice of architecture is depreciating our world of valuable resources, with how our infrastructure are deeply intertwined our processes of daily living is negatively affecting out planet. The question of implementing sustainable architecture within these systems arise. Introducing the idea of smart cities can implement sustainable architecture by using cutting edge technology and AI to positively impact our planet.

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A change in education: A deep dive into the children's mind

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A change in education: A deep dive into the children's mind

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Education has played a central role in the social and mental development of adolescents youth. The current teachings that students experience are becoming outdated and out of sync with the times.

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Climate Refugees and Disaster Displacement: Climate Change Safe Havens

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Climate Refugees and Disaster Displacement: Climate Change Safe Havens

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With the onset of climate change and the increase of severe natural disasters; there is a rise in displaced communities seeking asylum. Where do these communities go? What is the architectural solution to displacement by natural disaster?

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Urban Regeneration of Industrial Zones (might be too general of a topic)

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Urban Regeneration of Industrial Zones (might be too general of a topic)

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Urban regeneration of industrial zones; are we truly designing and redeveloping spaces that give back to the environment and community? Climate change and the issue of sustainable design has been a problem for years, but has the way that we have been approach regeneration correct? How can we use traditional and new technological systems to create truly regenerative, sustainable and equitable spaces.

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Jamil, Uzma. “Exchanges with Tariq Modood: Reorienting the Multicultural.” ReOrient, vol. 6, no. 2, 2021, pp. 202–07. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.6.2.0202. Accessed 14 Sept. 2023.

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Exchanges with Tariq Modood: Reorienting the Multicultural on JSTOR

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Uzma Jamil, Exchanges with Tariq Modood: Reorienting the Multicultural, ReOrient, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring 2021), pp. 202-207

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Health care facilities such as this suburban hospital are akin to medical interventions, and they require the same research depth and overview as pharmaceuticals or other therapies.

Image courtesy of WJH Health

Johann Goethe, the 18th century polymath, once remarked, "Architecture is frozen music," by which he meant architecture interprets and expresses the values of its time - sometimes in a general epoch and sometimes at a very precise point. Experienced health care architects will appreciate this phenomenon, as current project drivers may have eclipsed those of decades past. It is in precisely this context that designers are studying the decisions and trade-offs that result from these normative preferences.

In health care architecture, design is being increasingly employed to affect patient outcomes, alter specific behaviors and mediate the interactions of those within health care spaces. The advances in design science have progressed to the point that the built environment in health care can be considered akin to medical interventions. And, as with medical interventions, the nature, risks, benefits and alternatives should be disclosed to patients and caregivers.

The ethics of buildings and construction typically involve environmental impacts and social equity of the built environment. And while these are important, the focus of this article is on the health care setting itself and how it affects patients, families and health care teams. While some of these effects bear on individual patients, such that an informed consent process may be sufficient, others have a population-level impact that will persist for generations, well after the designer's direct influence.

Focused work in medicine, neuroscience and psychology is being employed to several ends but, to date, there has been little investigation of these practices. This is because the elements affecting control are neither providers nor medications, but the health care facility building itself. Broadly, this raises issues about the nature of the built environment, what constitutes a medical intervention, what architecture is expected to do and, importantly, what obligations emerge from designers' choices.

To preview the impact of this argument, many facilities directors and design firms have built strong reputations in the architecture's "ability to heal." However, the truth and power of that proposition remain largely unexplored opportunities. While medical care itself forms the lion's share of the healing enterprise, environmental factors can enhance or detract from those effects. Taking seriously the moral obligation to be knowledgeable and intentional about the powerful effects of the built environment in health care would enable architects and facility directors to validate such claims in the same way medical therapies are validated.

State of research

One consistent theme in the following examples is the demonstrable need for more research into the effects of these interventions, some of which are described below. Consider that roughly 5,000 articles in the Center for Health Design's Knowledge Repository serve as the foundation that informs health care architecture. Compare that number to the 30 million peer-reviewed articles in PubMed that serve as the foundation of medical care. And yet, architecture has been linked to myriad physical, psychological and social effects, many of them in the health care setting.

The profession of architecture lacks the machinery that medicine or bioethics can call on for longer-term, project-spanning research enterprises. Therefore, evidence-based design requires a multidisciplinary approach involving changes at each level - at the bedside, in the project team room and in the executive suite. Some examples include:

Design interventions coupled with health outcomes. Several significant examples of the utility of some research-informed architectural interventions include intensive care unit (ICU) room visibility, treatment intensity, patient falls, infection control and the perpetual debate related to centralized versus decentralized nurses stations. Nowhere is the need for more research more apparent than architecture being used intentionally to affect outcomes.

Roger Ulrich's pivotal but small 1984 retrospective study examined hospital stays in postoperative patients in which one group's hospital window faced a brick wall and the other faced a park. The group facing the park had shorter hospital stays and took fewer doses of pain medications. This study launched the field of evidence-based design, as architects claimed professional validation by evidence to support what they had instinctively believed. In the ensuing decades, many studies examined nature's role, with findings supporting the hypothesis that access to nature and views of nature reduced stress, lowered blood pressure and diminished the need for pain medication.

Other research has found that facility design can affect the care choices made by physicians and medical teams. A Harvard lab investigated different rates of caesarian sections that correlated with elements of the building's design. A small number of labor and delivery suites and a larger number of surgical recovery bays prompted providers to move from natural birth to surgery more quickly than in other facilities. In effect, the building plan profoundly affected the care that went on inside it.

Nudging and illusion for cognitive impairments. The bioethical connection between architecture and dementia is neurological; for example, the brain regions affected in the early stages of Alzheimer's overlap with the areas important for spatial navigation. Research into these impacts has revealed perceptual disabilities in persons with dementia (PWD) that in certain settings may limit the navigation of PWD while not affecting others. Instead of managing the disruptive behaviors through traditional methods (e.g., locking exterior doors, physical restraint or the use of medications), design-based approaches may utilize these perceptual differences of PWD to decrease disruptive behaviors.

For example, PWD often avoid shiny floors and surfaces with extreme glare, grid patterns on floors and black areas on floors. Even though these design interventions do not slow or halt the progression of dementia, they are effective at decreasing the use of traditional methods of behavior management in PWD, such as chemical or physical restraint.

Across the world, dementia facilities are increasingly employing design-based approaches to similar effects. However, these interventions rely on creating a misperception of the space. The natural progression of this illusory approach is complete immersion. For example, De Hogeweyk, the original "Dementia Village" set in the Netherlands, does not limit resident wandering but promotes permissive wandering to combat the confusion and spatial disorientation experienced by PWD through a created reality. In the Dementia Village, residents are free to visit amenities such as shops, a café and a pub; and purchases are made with fake money, lending a sense of realism to transactions.

Anecdotal reports from De Hogeweyk note less agitation and behavioral disturbances in addition to fewer doses of psychotropic medications, although no formal studies to date have attempted to quantify the village design on outcomes, nor have those outcomes been defined. Is the absence of medications or restraints alone the correct metric, or should any effects on a resident's primary health and well-being also be considered? Do these interventions temporize the behavioral symptoms of dementia or even other unknown consequences?

Using design to segregate patients and staff. Health care facilities typically separate staff, patients and families. For example, private patient rooms are special spaces that allow for critical communication under controlled conditions. However, the practice of medicine is actively moving toward improved transparency and promotion of patient autonomy, diverging from the traditional architecture of hospitals, which often reinforces a clinical process that remains opaque to patients.

Recent design approaches borrowed from the hospitality industry to deliberately segregate staff activities from patient- and public-facing activities. While the intent is to improve patient satisfaction (a managerial metric), staff often become isolated from the spatial benefits otherwise afforded to patients. This trend is likely to intensify in the coming years, as contagion considerations add weight and volume to calls for separate spaces in a post-COVID-19 world looking to avoid another pandemic. Additionally, staff caregivers are already demanding better working conditions to support work-life balance (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1: Staff are prohibited from accessing a hospital garden amenity to be used for public only, resulting in space that is often unoccupied.

Image courtesy of WJH Health

Physician burnout and moral distress have been linked to poorly designed workflows and systems, which include chaotic environments, interruptions and distractions. Frequently, the hospital lobby, waiting areas and public eating zones are enhanced with art, color and amenities. But, as one crosses the consumer-design threshold into the off-stage portions of the building, the walls often become colorless, lighting becomes harsh and views of the outdoors are reduced. The resulting fragmentation, decentralization and concealment of clinical spaces create class disparities between staff and patients, a condition at odds with the current social discussions around equity and a stressor to human resource directors filling and retaining staff roles.

Ramifications for architects

If one accepts the basic notion that health care architecture is itself a medical intervention - as is often claimed by many designers and researchers - the responsibilities of their effects carry direct ethical obligations.

This is completely new territory, and many design firm attorneys will immediately claim that the standard of care is being extended. However, a high standard already exists in the research demonstrating generalizable or even specific effects. All involved in design do not have the luxury of being complacent, but these realities already demonstrate a higher order of knowledge, practice and even outcomes.

Similarly, all health care enterprises accumulate enormous amounts of data through their own internal research initiatives. As a matter of the design process, architects should be asking for specific data to develop metrics and demonstrate the value of their work in clinical efficacy, operational benefit and outcomes. The implied value proposition is significant and allows for a deeper demonstration of cause and effects regarding better patient and community outcomes, which have the potential to reduce clinical and operational costs or even enhance value for health systems.

Obligations to inform about architectural effects. With increasing knowledge of how architecture impacts patient well-being and outcomes comes the responsibility to be transparent about those effects. Health care organizations regularly conduct institutional and quality control surveillance to optimize various behaviors and policies known to affect outcomes; for example, the use of checklists to minimize surgical site infections, moving high-risk procedures to specialized services and promoting cultures of safety.

Click image to enlarge

However, institutions less commonly perform design-based interventions to optimize outcomes. While the impact of behavior has a role to play, physical design is often overlooked as one of the most powerful motivators of behavior, as an ICU study examining patients placed in rooms with poor nursing visibility demonstrates (see Figure 2 to the right).

Because designers know the built environment has profound effects on those within a space, and designers have a duty of care to its occupants, all of those involved in making decisions with this knowledge must not just be transparent about those effects but also be intentional about how one uses that power. If there are concerns that poorly visualized ICU rooms tend toward poorer outcomes, those in the architectural, medical, bioethical and public health professions should address the benefits and harms of differing designs directly.

Design and health care teams should work to maximize both outcomes and fairness to all patients, regardless of which ICU room those patients find themselves in. This has a current corollary with how health facility risks are assessed with an infection control risk assessment or a disaster, emergency and vulnerability assessment, or even more deliberate oversight that is required in the development of pharmaceutical trials. Whether the cause of the disparity or potential harm to patients is the building itself or a medical treatment, it should be addressed during design.

Weighing the benefits and harms. The harms and benefits of different design options depend on one's perspective. Some argue that creating artificial realities such as dementia villages is an affront to their dignity. Others argue the benefits of design-based interventions, which diminish disruptive behaviors by using such illusion and deception, are justified by limiting stress, conflicts with staff and the indignities of being sedated.

The potential for harm in traditional dementia care facilities that employ physical restraint and sedation might further outweigh the harms of the illusion and deception. On the other hand, the means of these interventions are at odds with principles of respect for individual autonomy and truth-telling. In the end, careful consideration of these issues and deliberate decision-making by all stakeholders is a high road forward into this unexplored terrain.

Architects are ideally suited to take a leadership role in the advancement and selection of these techniques. However, to be leaders in this new space, architects will not only need to collaborate with the physicians, bioethicists and scientists doing this research but also become versant in the ethical questions and issues that emerge.

By synthesizing the research and value considerations, architects are ideally positioned to assert a new level of professional authority beyond being an educator exclusively into a professional domain that may extend beyond health, and which pushes the envelope of how the built environment can improve the human condition.

Expanding the discussion

A way forward may recognize that health care environments are what Donald Berwick recently described as a "moral determinant of health." The researching, designing and construction of these environments can have as much impact as the best therapeutic intervention or the worst ethical breach of a patient's rights.

All involved with health care design need to preserve and assist all stakeholders' abilities to act intentionally or make deliberate choices about relinquishing freedoms. The issues raised here are distinctly architectural and bioethical, and they actively invite discussions about these issues with project teams, hospital-based ethicists, institutional review boards and executive leaders.

The value proposition offered is substantial for the future of health care design in general, and for architects to engender and assert professional authority. This may be done through responsible consideration of applied research, engaging with concurrent research studies conducted within their client's domains, and advocating for longitudinal research related to sustained outcomes.

The health care built environment should in many cases be considered a medical intervention, and it should therefore be subject to the same research depth and overview as medical interventions.

This is especially true when design elements utilize knowledge of cognitive impairments to influence behavior, associate with relevant medical outcomes, and become a source of burnout or inequity for staff.

While this work just begins to discover the full scope, impact and ethics of the built environment as a medical intervention, several basic recommendations can be drawn:

The development of architectural interventions intended or known to have effects on patients compared to other medical interventions should be rigorously reviewed.

The question of design standard of care should be openly and honestly discussed, recognizing the legal implications and potential increased value of design services.

Informed consent should disclose any design interventions aimed at modifying behavior, whether as part of the hospital admission process or when moving to a long-term care facility.

Surrogate consent to long-term care involving deception or illusion, particularly when against the patient's wishes, should be subject to additional oversight and scrutiny.

Hospital quality improvement departments may consider monitoring the effects of their built environment on relevant patient outcomes and examine more architectural interventions to improve outcomes.

Health care institutions should strive for spatial quality parity; high-value spaces are community assets that can build a sense of comradery, solidarity and trust between staff, patients and their families.

Health environments research needs suitable and substantially more funding to create a credible research infrastructure to demonstrate clear cause-and-effect relationships, akin to those afforded medicine or other therapies.

Organizations could reconsider contractual relationships to include longitudinal data collection and research.

William J. Hercules, M.Arch, FAIA, FACHA, FACHE, is an architect and the CEO of WJH Health; Diana C. Anderson, M.D., M.Arch, ACHA, is a health care architect and physician who is a principal at Jacobs and a clinical fellow at the VA Boston Medical Center; Stowe Locke Teti, HEC-C, is a clinical ethicist with Inova Health System who teaches ethics to Georgetown University and University of Virginia medical students and is editor-in-chief of the bioethics journal Pediatric Ethicscope; and David A. Deemer, M.D., MA, is a bioethicist and internal medicine resident at the University of Wisconsin. They can be reached at Bill@WJH-Health.com, diana.anderson@dochitect.com, stowe.teti@inova.org and ddeemer@wisc.edu.

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Exploring the world of architecture and bioethics

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The concept of architecture's 'power to heal' is filled with many unexplored opportunities for health care designers to mine.

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Locals’ Lawsuit Slams Flushing Waterfront Development Project

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The city’s real estate review process has been stalled for months, but now Queens activists are looking to block a proposal that could bring hotels, offices and luxury apartments to the banks of the Flushing River.

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How Can The Architecture Of Hospitals Influence The Lives Of Patients? - Astron Health Care

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The structure and architecture of a healthcare center can improve the lives of patients. The new conception of medical care facilities runs away from monotonous spaces, betting on the interpretation of color and light. In this way, the spaces influence the mood and the own perception of the body of the patients, in fact, it can help people to recover faster.

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Saving space in Israel with cemeteries in the sky | CNN

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With a land mass of barely 8,000 square miles, Israel is running out of burial space. One solution is vertical cemeteries.

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According to the Population Reference Bureau, there are approximately 101 billion dead people on earth with 7 billion more to join them within the next century. With the dead far outnumbering the living, it's no surprising that space at cemeteries has become premium.

Many European countries have been reusing graves for centuries. In the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, when space runs out, a fresh layer of soil is laid out on top of the existing graves to make room for new bodies. When the last burial took place there in 1787, there were already twelve layers of graves stacked on top of each other.
A cemetery in Hong Kong built on a terraced hill. Photo credit: Michael Chu/Flickr
In Norway, instead of piling up dead bodies in layers, old graves are dug up every two decades, which authorities hope is time sufficient for the bodies to decompose. Some graveyards would even inject coffins with a solution of limestone to accelerate decomposition.

Norway isn't alone in this. England is quickly running out of burial plots, and one study calculated that if burials remain as popular in 2050 as is today, the world will require 6,500 sq km-an area more than five times the size of New York City.

So many countries are looking towards the sky rather than towards the ground for a solution to their problem.

Asia is currently leading the trend in vertical cemeteries. In many Asian cultures, there's already a tradition of burying the dead in multi-storey pagodas. This might have influenced the design of the high-rise pagoda-like cemetery in Tainan, Taiwan, that goes by the name of the Lung Yen Life Service. In Hong Kong, cemeteries are often built on hill slopes to save space. In Japan, one businessman have even opened a hotel for the dead where bereaved families can temporarily keep the dead bodies while they wait their turn in the queue for one of the city's overworked crematoriums.

The Pok Fu Lam Cemetery in Hong Kong. Photo credit: Wendy/Flickr
A stacked cemetery in Manila, Philippines. Photo credit: Wayne S. Grazio/Flickr
A true vertical cemetery is the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Santos, Brazil. As of now, it's 32 stories high and has space to house the the remains of 25,000 people. When it was built in 1983, it was only a small building, but the demand for above-ground "tombs with a view" was so great that they kept adding extra floors until it became the tallest cemetery in the world. Each floor contains 150 tombs equipped with a sophisticated ventilation system and can accommodate up to six bodies. Once the body has decomposed, which usually takes about three years, the family of the deceased can have the body exhumed or transferred to the building's ossuary.

Aside from tombs, the building has wake rooms, crypts, mausoleums, a chapel and snack bar on the roof. The building is surrounded by beautiful gardens, a woodland, a lagoon and a waterfall.

Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Santos, Brazil. Photo credit: www.memorialsantos.com.br

Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Santos, Brazil. Photo credit: j carlos de c. silva/Panoramio

Tel Aviv is also building a new high-rise in the Yarkon Cemetery that has space for 250,000 burials. In order not to offend ultra-orthodox Jews, the building towers contain pipes filled with dirt, so that each layer is still connected to the ground.

Currently undergoing construction in Mumbai is another vertical cemetery. This futuristic-looking high-rise named the Moksha tower will be the world's tallest cemetery, outranking the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Brazil, when completed. The Moksha tower will provide facilities for both cremation and burial, as well as a tower of silence for the Parsis located on the roof of the tower.

Even with the extra space offered by the vertical cemetery, the tower's designers asserts that bodies will only reside there for 5-10 years, noting that "Mumbai's density leaves little room for the living, let alone for the dead."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to the Population Reference Bureau, there are approximately 101 billion dead people on earth with 7 billion more to join them within the next century. With the dead far outnumbering the living, it's no surprising that space at cemeteries has become premium. Many European countries have been reusing graves for centuries.

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International Journal of Stroke

Julie Bernhardt, ¹ Ruby Lipson-Smith, ¹ Aaron Davis, ¹ Marcus White, ² Heidi Zeeman, ³ Natalie Pitt, ⁴ Michelle Shannon, ¹ Maria Crotty, ⁵ Leonid Churilov, ⁶ and Marie Elf ⁷, on behalf of the NOVELL Redesign collaboration

Abstract

Healthcare facilities are among the most expensive buildings to construct, maintain, and operate. How building design can best support healthcare services, staff, and patients is important to consider. In this narrative review, we outline why the healthcare environment matters and describe areas of research focus and current built environment evidence that supports healthcare in general and stroke care in particular. Ward configuration, corridor design, and staff station placements can all impact care provision, staff and patient behavior. Contrary to many new ward design approaches, single-bed rooms are neither uniformly favored, nor strongly evidence-based, for people with stroke. Green spaces are important both for staff (helping to reduce stress and errors), patients and relatives, although access to, and awareness of, these and other communal spaces is often poor. Built environment research specific to stroke is limited but increasing, and we highlight emerging collaborative multistakeholder partnerships (Living Labs) contributing to this evidence base. We believe that involving engaged and informed clinicians in design and research will help shape better hospitals of the future.

Keywords: Stroke, stroke rehabilitation, hospital design and construction, evidence-based design

Introduction

Imagine (re-)designing the very hospital you work in. What would you design differently? What would you change, to benefit you, your patients, and their families? What evidence might help guide those design decisions?

Healthcare facilities are among the most expensive buildings to construct, maintain, and operate. 1 Once built, hospitals remain in service for decades and are difficult to modify. With stakes this high, considering how building design best supports healthcare services is important. In this narrative review, we outline why the built environment matters, with particular focus on stroke care. We also discuss challenges inherent in designing healthcare environments, undertaking research and evaluating completed architecture.

The planning and design process for new healthcare environments is incredibly complex, but, in general, it occurs in three overlapping stages: (1) the planning stage in which the healthcare provider describes the users' needs, model of care, and clinical program in a functional brief that summarizes the requirements for the new hospital; (2) the design stage in which these requirements are interpreted by architects to develop an initial concept which is then refined to a more detailed design; and (3) the delivery stage in which the building is constructed. The extent to which hospital staff and patients are included at each stage of this process can vary significantly between projects. 2

Healthcare professionals have long advocated for design features thought to benefit health and well-being, such as natural light, ventilation, and space between patients-for example, the circular hospital design proposed by the physician Antoine Petit 3 and long "Nightingale wards" proposed by Florence Nightingale. 4 Hospital design is now informed by a process termed "evidence-based design" (EBD), in which research evidence is used alongside other considerations such as the healthcare context, budget, and architects' experience, to inform the design of the healthcare built environment.5,6 In this context, the "healthcare built environment" encompasses: (1) the physical construction (layout, room dimensions, doors and window placement, outdoor and community access, etc.), (2) ambient features (noise, air quality, light, temperature, etc.), and (3) interior design (furniture, signage, equipment, artwork, etc.). 7 Analogous to evidence-based clinical practice, hospitals designed following best research evidence garnered from EBD processes have better safety, patient outcomes, staff retention, and operation costs.8,9 The Center for Health Design, established in 1993 to advance EBD, now maintains a repository of over 5,000 articles on healthcare design ( https://www.healthdesign.org).

The field is growing; however, many healthcare contexts, including stroke, have a limited built environment evidence base. 10 Establishing geographically organized stroke units has been an important focus 11; however, these studies rarely address specifics of the built environment, and we know little about optimal stroke unit design. Stroke clinical guidelines rarely mention the built environment nor provide guidance on how the environment might best support care. There are currently no stroke care-specific building standards, nor standardized checklists to evaluate the quality of these environments. 12

Why is the built environment neglected? Clinicians may identify as knowing less about how the environment might influence patient care or staff well-being. They may also feel uninformed about the design process and how to contribute their clinical expertise to influence decision-making. To begin to address these gaps, our objectives for this review were: (1) to introduce readers to healthcare built environment research and (2) to highlight evidence that underpins acute, subacute, or rehabilitation stroke care facility design. This review is in three parts:

1. Overview of healthcare built environment research;

2. Stroke care built environment evidence; and

3. Planning and design of new healthcare environments: Challenges and opportunities.

We include research from recent, relevant systematic reviews, other evidence summaries, and selected qualitative and mixed-methods research focusing on healthcare environments and design. Healthcare environments are complex and context-specific, with many interdependent variables that can rarely be isolated. This complex system does not readily lend itself to highly controlled experimental research designs in real-life settings. 13 Qualitative methods, such as case studies and pre- and post-occupancy evaluations (before and after a redesign or redevelopment), are common. With research still developing, heterogeneity exists in research designs, outcomes, environments, populations, and theoretical frameworks employed. 14 Hence, robust summary evidence derived from meta-analyses is lacking.

Healthcare built environment research

Research is dominated by studies conducted in acute environments such as emergency, surgery, and intensive care units (ICUs) ( Figure 1 ).6,15,16 Older people, including those in dementia care, are frequently studied post-acute populations. 17

In this section, we introduce three topics relevant to most healthcare contexts: (1) design of internal spaces; (2) outdoor spaces; and (3) ambient features including light, noise, and air quality (with particular focus on infection control).

Internal spaces

The design of internal spaces, such as ward configuration, corridor design, and nurse station placements (centralized vs. decentralized), can influence patient visibility, safety, teamwork, distances staff walk in a shift, and time spent providing direct care to patients. 10 For example, open-plan, larger convex spaces can lead to greater patient visibility, and corridor width impacts staff circulation, informal communication, and teamwork. 19 In ICU, designs with centralized nurse stations and visibility of most patient rooms from that location are increasingly being replaced with decentralized nurses' stations, arguably without strong evidence. 19 In emergency departments, with similar critical visibility requirements for teamwork and patient monitoring, some authors argue that physically separated zones or "pods" are neither efficient nor safe. 20 Decentralized nursing stations can lead to more patient room visits by staff.21,22 This highlights current uncertainties.

The layout of hospital spaces and line of sight influences patient and visitor orientation and their ability to find their way around ("wayfinding"). 23 Signs, information boards, and "landmarks" (artwork, furniture, views, etc.) are typical wayfinding elements.24,25 Inadequate wayfinding leads to delays in accessing services or finding people or places, associated stress, and higher staff burden as they provide directions for lost individuals. 25 While some standards exist, wayfinding is often not optimized in healthcare. 26

The proportion of single versus multiple(two or more)-bed rooms is a prominent ward design consideration. There is evidence that single rooms can support staff/patient communication, privacy, infection control, and noise reduction, but they are also associated with patient isolation and increased falls risk. 27 This evidence is, however, of mixed quality, limited to certain populations, with neutral and/or contrary results. 27 A higher proportion of single rooms generally results in longer corridors, longer staff walking distances, perceived decrease in patient visibility due to compromised sightlines, and higher construction and cleaning costs. 28 The inherent trade-offs will be different in every healthcare context. Less controversial is location of sinks and hand sanitizers; highly visible and standardized positioning promotes more consistent use.29,30

Outdoor spaces

Hospital gardens were historically commonplace 31; however, less priority has been given to green space over time. Access to the outdoors and time in nature has been linked to stress reduction, improved physical symptoms, and emotional well-being in many healthcare settings. 32 Views of nature have been linked to reduced length of stay. 33 Good hospital garden design principles include creating opportunities for exercise, exploration, socialization, and to engage with and escape in nature. 32 Surprisingly, patients and visitors are often not aware of hospital gardens, and proactive approaches to increasing patient and family use of gardens have been recommended. 34 Usually conceptualized as spaces for patients and visitors, staff are often their primary users. 32 Outdoor spaces can be restorative for hospital staff, helping to reduce stress and improve attention, which may improve patient care and staff retention. 35

Ambient features

Ambient features, such as light and noise, can impact patient well-being and comfort, sleep, and communication with staff.36,37 Light and noise also impact staff well-being and attention 38 and contribute to medication errors and other safety concerns. 39

Air quality is important for both comfort and infection control. Infection control is particularly prioritized in acute environments and is receiving deserved attention in the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent review of COVID-19 transmission showed that spatial configuration can affect patient density and thereby transmission. 40 Optimized systems for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) can filter microparticles such as viruses. Different HVAC systems also affect humidity, airflow velocities, air pressure-all important for exposure to active aerosols. Window ventilation, daylight, and electric UV light are recommended to aid disinfecting surfaces and use of surface materials that affect pathogen survival. 40

Stroke care built environment evidence

In this section, we outline how the built environment can influence important outcomes such as: (1) evidence-based stroke care, including rehabilitation; (2) efficiency of stroke care, staff processes, and communication; and (3) patient safety and well-being. The evidence-base specific to stroke care is small. 41 In Figure 2 , we summarize the design features and how they may influence a range of outcomes including patient and staff behavior. This should be considered illustrative rather than exhaustive. Where possible, we draw directly from stroke or brain injury-specific evidence, supplementing evidence from other populations where relevant.

Evidence-based practice including rehabilitation

We found no stroke-specific research to underpin built environment recommendations for optimal delivery of either time-critical acute stroke treatments or evidence-based care, including rehabilitation. Guidelines recommend early commencement of both structured and incidental physical, cognitive, and social activity for all stroke patients,42,43 although recommended levels vary. Patients in both acute and subacute environments spend most of their day alone and inactive in their bedroom.44,45 While we can hypothesize that providing "draw-them-out" features on a ward may improve activity and engagement, evidence is limited. These features may include green spaces and indoor communal (social) spaces. Unfortunately, communal spaces, when present, often appear to be underutilized in both acute 46 and rehabilitation environments. 47 Many factors may influence whether patients use communal spaces, including not knowing they exist or where to find them, difficulty accessing them without help, or feeling they don't have permission to use them. 48 In a Norwegian study across 11 stroke units with communal areas, patients were more active and spent less time in their bedroom in units where meals were served in the communal area. 49 Providing resources (games, music, books) in personalized activity packs and in communal spaces ("environmental enrichment"), with the aim to improve physical, social, and cognitive activity, has recently been tested in acute and subacute settings with mixed results.50-52 Importantly, this approach relies on staff to encourage use and engagement, rather than embedding activity opportunities into the building itself. Hallways and circulation spaces are generally underrecognized as providing spaces for incidental activity and interaction. 53

There is limited stroke-specific research about the value or harm of single- versus multiple-bed rooms. A higher proportion of single rooms may be associated with lower levels of patient activity in acute stroke.54,55 A systematic review of single- versus multiple-bed rooms in older people and those with neurological disorders found potential benefits (e.g. infection control, patient satisfaction) and harms (e.g. falls, isolation) with single rooms. 56 In rehabilitation facilities with a high proportion of single rooms, patients emphasize the importance of communal areas. 57 Further work is needed to identify and test how modifications to layout and communal and circulations spaces could enhance patient engagement, activity, and optimal care provision.

Efficiency of care, staff processes, and communication

Interprofessional communication and teamwork between physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals supports best practice stroke care. 11 Shared staff spaces support team communication and collaboration, enabling better understanding of patient needs, and greater knowledge about other team roles.58,59

Therapy spaces are often discrete locations (e.g. gym, occupational therapy rooms), rather than being holistic, context-based environments that reflect the connectivity and continuity necessary for rehabilitation and transition beyond discharge.60,61 Separation of clinical and therapy spaces can impact staff travel time, patient practice and activity, and even clinical decision-making. For example, Blennerhassett et al. 47 found that patients spent less time engaged in physical activity and more time in corridors when the ward was located further from the gym, on a separate floor. This also impacted wheelchair use and patient travel time. 47 Inaccessible therapy spaces can also change therapists' intervention choices. 62

Safety and well-being

Falls are common after stroke, 63 yet the relationship between the built environment and falls is largely unexplored. The presence of a fellow patient (multiple-bed room) may help reduce falls, especially for older patients with neurological injury.56,64 Roommates play an important role in monitoring the physical and mental health of others in stroke rehabilitation. 48 Stroke patients often experience loneliness when in hospital,65,66 and some patients will choose a shared room over the privacy of a single room. 57 Sleep is important for recovery. Unsurprisingly, visual and aural privacy is less in multiple-bed rooms. However, noise traveling between corridors and bedrooms and lack of dedicated staff spaces for confidential conversations are also important. 48

Planning and design of new healthcare environments: Challenges and opportunities

Healthcare environments research and design is a multistakeholder endeavor involving government, healthcare providers, managers, clinical staff, patients, architects, quantity surveyors, construction companies, building managers, etc. This collaborative process can be challenging,67,68 considering interdisciplinary differences in knowledge and approaches. 69 The complexity of hospital procurement and the fact that design and construction processes are foreign to many healthcare professionals adds further challenge. Clinicians often do not understand what the "user group" consultation process is supposed to achieve, and their involvement may be inconsistent throughout the design process, which limits their contribution to the process and ability to influence decisions. 67 While collaboration between architects and healthcare professionals is not new, 70 limited evidence informs current consultation processes.67,71 High-quality healthcare environments are produced when shared decision-making and collaboration happens across healthcare, construction, and architecture to create designs based on evidence and end-users' perspectives. 69

A number of research approaches are suggested to facilitate this collaboration, including participatory design, co-design, and Living Labs.2,72,73 Over many years, our team has built partnerships between healthcare environment practitioners, clinicians, researchers, and people living with stroke, which have served to create a common understanding of the barriers and opportunities for redesigning and optimizing stroke care environments. With the creation of the Neuroscience Optimized Virtual Living Lab (NOVELL) for stroke rehabilitation redesign ( www.novellredesign.com), we are working to develop new models for stakeholder engagement and research, and to contribute new evidence to stroke rehabilitation design.

In addition to collaboration challenges, research is infrequently embedded in the planning and design of new healthcare environments, and leaders in EBD have long called for appropriately funded, transparent, and freely available evaluations of completed buildings.74-76 Given the cost of constructing and running healthcare buildings, the absence, or non-disclosure, of evaluations to determine whether desired outcomes were met is concerning.77,78 Hospital design and construction is underpinned by technical and generic building guidelines and standards that differ within and between countries. The degree to which these standards are "evidence-informed" varies. In stakeholder consultations, understanding what is evidence-based and what is open to change can be difficult. Design innovation is essential if hospital buildings are to respond to new healthcare models or processes. For example, the recent COVID-19 induced surge in utilization of telehealth and other e-health technologies for rehabilitation, other treatment, and communication with people with stroke has implications for healthcare design, increasing demand for spaces for videoconferencing, equipment storage, and potential changes to waiting rooms and on-site consultation spaces.79,80 Future design considerations for stroke recovery should also extend to the home environment. 81

Conclusion

The built environment matters. It can impact healthcare delivery and patient and staff outcomes. An evidence base is growing in some areas of healthcare design, while others require significant further research. The potential for both hospital and health services design innovation is strong. By continuing to build this evidence base, EBD can complement architectural processes to deliver high-performing healthcare assets. Involving engaged and informed clinicians in built environment design and research will help shape hospitals of the future.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: NOVELL is funded by the Felton Bequest and the University of Melbourne. Julie Bernhardt is funded by an NHMRC Research Fellowship (1154904). The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health acknowledges support from the Victorian government and in particular funding from the Operational Infrastructure Support Grant.

ORCID iD: Ruby Lipson-Smith https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1702-8144

References

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23. Rooke CN, Tzortzopoulos P, Koskela L, et al. Wayfinding: embedding knowledge in hospital environments. In: HaCIRIC International Conference 2009 Improving healthcare infrastructures through innovation, Hilton Metropole Hotel, Brighton, 23 April 2009.

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42. Stroke Foundation. Clinical guidelines for stroke management. Melbourne, Australia, 2021.

48. Lipson-Smith RA. Space for recovery after stroke: exploring the role of the physical environment in inpatient rehabilitation facilities. PhD Thesis, The University of Melbourne, 2020.

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Articles from International Journal of Stroke are provided here courtesy of SAGE Publications

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Why hospital design matters: A narrative review of built environments research relevant to stroke care

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Healthcare facilities are among the most expensive buildings to construct, maintain, and operate. How building design can best support healthcare services, staff, and patients is important to consider. In this narrative review, we outline why the healthcare ...

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Aldo Rossi, a man appreciated internationally for his theories, architecture and drawings, was one of the most prominent architects of his time. His desire to create buildings that reflected his social perspective and theories was reflected in most if not all of his buildings, but it was particularly evident in the San Cataldo Cemetery.

The grounds on which Aldo's cemetery was built was first the home of an ancient cemetery by architect Cesare Costa carried out from 1858 to 1876, containing a vast amount of hand carved and engraved statues and tombstones. The cemetery built by Aldo is an analogical route through all of these images of the "house of the dead."

Rossi believed in representation of typologies, translations of the past, which were basic theories argued in his book "The Architecture of the City" in 1966. He fused ideas from the Costa and Jewish cemeteries of the 19th century to design his cemetery for a competition with Gianni Braghieri in 1972, winning the competition.

The scheme was reworked in 1976 before construction could begin in 1978, although as it stands, the vivid orange colored building is only partially completed as per the initial intentions of the architect. An important event occurred prior to the design and construction of the cemetery; Rossi was in a terrible automobile accident and he was then hospitalized for a long period of time. During his hospitalization, he began to theorize about the structure of his body as a series of fractures that had to be put together again.

This translated into a his writing as well, with the quote "the question of the fragment in architecture is very important since it may be that only ruins express a fact completely... I am thinking of a unity, or a system, made solely by reassembled fragments."

If the two influential cemeteries mentioned above are analyzed based on various criteria, resemblance's in configuration of plan and structure become very clear. Rossi has taken the fragments of formal composition found within these cemeteries and transformed or reduced specific elements to represent them in his own plan.

Rossi uses a bounding wall similar to the one found in the Costa Cemetery to define an axis and break down the rectangle into a series of zones. Rossi's ossuary cube is a commentary on the cemetery as a house of the dead, as well as being tied to the Jewish cemetery in positioning and proportion of enclosing structure to void.

The concept of a series of buildings terminating on a funeral structure is morphed into Rossi's design as well, with the line of rib-like buildings concluding in a cone shape which contains the communal grave.

The Rossian cemetery has no roof, floors, windows or doors; instead it is only a shell with openings. Some of the openings are for light, others for views, access, and even containment of cremated bodies. Many do not hold this building in high esteem, as they find it depressing or ugly.

But Rossi has found a way to make architecture metaphysical; the visitor is inevitably confronted with the thought of death, where truths are constant and irrevocable.

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Architecture Classics: San Cataldo Cemetery / Aldo Rossi

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Completed in 1971 in Modena, Italy. Aldo Rossi, a man appreciated internationally for his theories, architecture and drawings, was one of the most prominent architects of his time. His...

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Isabella's home was destroyed when Cyclone Idai hit her hometown in Mozambique. She still has vivid memories of that day.

"We suffered a lot. It caught us by surprise, we were eating and then the wind came. Some of the children were swept away by water. The trees were coming down, the houses were being destroyed," she explains while her eyes are fixed on the horizon.

Isabella was able to escape the storm and found safe haven with her family in Savane settlement with 3,000 others who were also internally displaced. Two years later, she still dreams of returning home but is still too afraid to go back.

Like Isabella, approximately 25 million people across 140 countries were displaced in 2019 due to weather-related events. In 2020, global temperatures reached new record highs and the year was marked by dozens of fires, floods and intense storms across the world. Climate change is the defining crisis of our time and its impacts are disproportionately experienced by people in vulnerable situations. But how does climate change impact refugees and displaced people?

Here's What You Need to Know:

What's the relation between climate change, conflict and displacements?

Climate change increases the risks of extreme weather events - like storms, floods, wildfires, heatwaves and droughts - making them more unpredictable, frequent and intense. At the same time, rising sea levels, droughts and drastic changes in rainfall patterns as a result of warmer temperatures can destroy crops and kill livestock, threatening livelihoods and exacerbating food insecurity - all of which can lead to massive displacement.

From Nicaragua to South Sudan, vulnerable communities around the world are already experiencing shortages in food, potable water, land and natural resources due to climate change. Competition over depleted natural resources can spark conflict between communities or compound pre-existing vulnerabilities. Climate change does not itself lead to conflict, but it can magnify the impact of other factors that can spark conflict.

How does climate change impact refugees and displaced people?

Many refugee communities are located in 'climate change hotspots' - prone to the effects of climate change and natural disasters - which compromises their security and places them at risk of secondary displacement. In Bangladesh, for example, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is helping Rohingya refugees to mitigate the effect of monsoon storms, flooding and landslides.

Climate change and natural disasters can also be a source of potential conflict between refugees and their host communities if there is competition over natural resources, food, water and land rights. In the Sahel region of Western Africa, where one of the world's fastest growing displacement crisis is taking place, temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average and changing weather patterns. The rising temperatures are jeopardizing agricultural activities in places where the majority of the population lives off the land, generating tensions that may lead to new displacement.

How many people are displaced as a result of climate change?

Climate change can clearly be seen in the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as abnormally heavy rainfall, prolonged drought, heatwaves and cyclones. Such hazards are already inducing some 23 million displacements of people from their homes each year, as an average based on data from the past decade. Most are internally displaced within their home countries, while some may also be impelled to cross borders in search of safety and protection.

According to the latest research, without dramatic action to mitigate climate change and significantly reduce the risk of climate disasters, by 2050, 200 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance annually due to the effects of climate change.

Should we use the term "climate refugees"?

The term "climate refugees" does not exist in international law. A refugee is "a person who crosses international borders due to a well-grounded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" ( 1951 Refugee Convention). The majority of people displaced by climate change typically move within the borders of their own countries.

UNHCR does not endorse the use of the term "climate refugee" and holds that "persons displaced in the context of disasters and climate change" is more accurate.

How is UNHCR addressing climate change and disaster displacement?

Since the 1990s, the UN Refugee Agency has worked to raise awareness about the consequences of climate change and on initiatives to ensure the protection of people displaced in the context of natural disasters.

UNHCR's work on climate change includes working with governments to develop legal approaches to ensure the protection of people displaced by climate change - including the protection of internally displaced people - as well as promoting policy coherence between relevant stakeholders, conducting research to fill gaps in operational and policy work and developing activities to support people during disaster displacements.

UNHCR is also working to reduce the environmental footprint of refugee camps through the use of renewable energy, reforestation activities as well as increasing access to clean fuels and technology for cooking.

What can people do to help?

Join us in calling on all governments to take urgent and decisive action to combat climate change by signing the USA for UNHCR climate petition today!

USA for UNHCR is asking governments to urgently promote measures to combat climate change and thus prevent the increase in forced displacement and the growing vulnerabilities of those already forced to flee, in accordance with the requests of the UN Secretary General. The human cost of inaction is too great. We cannot afford to wait.

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How climate change impacts refugees and displaced communities

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Millions of people are uprooted from their homes every year due to natural disasters and extreme weather events. Here's a 101 on how climate change is impacting forced displacement around the world.

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Climate Change

Migrant climate refugees seeking asylum from Honduras and Guatemala. Image: REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Senior Staff Writer and Editorial Writer, Kyodo News

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Climate refugees - the world's forgotten victims

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Climate Change Migrant climate refugees seeking asylum from Honduras and Guatemala. Image: REUTERS/Adrees Latif Senior Staff Writer and Editorial Writer, Kyodo News Stay up to date: Climate Change Follow Five countries with the most new climate refugees in 2019 Image: IDMC Discover How has the World Economic Forum helped initiate a more effective response to natural disasters and humanitarian crises?

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This post covers how architectural design services can affect hospitals and patients. A significant factor of an effective performance is determined by how well workers undertake challenges in their work environment. However, a lack of professionalism can occur due to a poorly designed setting. The hospital's architectural planning and design affect doctors, nurses, caregivers, and the patients undergoing treatment in a healthcare facility. Indeed, architectural and interior design plays a constituent in staff performance and care quality.

For example, when comparing a multiple-bed setting and a single patient room, the patient in the single room has a greater chance of receiving quality attention. In the 1980s, the first post-modern-style hospitals came into development. Previously, the tower-shaped buildings did not allow space for horizontal expansion as we see today. Our current hospitals are no longer quite tall and slick, as seen in pre-WWII hospitals.

You may even notice that hospital lobbies look a lot like shopping malls and how some areas drop their corporate nature to favor a home-like coziness. Some changes on the structure's exterior include bright colors and green foliage on walkways to provide a sense of relaxation in a hectic environment. A primary measure to grant a family-centered care facility is making hospital trips appear as a regular day-to-day routine for visitors, like a trip to the mall. While various healthcare professionals prefer fewer distractions than those stated, the patients feel welcome and encouraged to remain calm and reduce stress.

Additionally, private patient rooms become ideal when patients treat the environment as if they are at the mall or a hotel lobby. With architectural design guidance, stress is reduced to allow the staff to perform their roles well in an appropriate setting. Health professionals' efforts to address latent requirements and improve patient outcomes involve creating architecture designs to decrease distractions, ensure adequate documentation space, standardize supplies, equipment locations and promote reliable work areas.

A multifaceted approach to redesign a room can be necessary to help caregivers prevent errors and practice mitigations when they occur. Due to the complexity of functions, hospitals are by specialized architectural firms. By following their strategy, some innovation ideas get restricted as they may not apply to hospitals' design due to strict controls and regulations on inpatient care. On the other hand, hospitals ought to look modern and comfortable for better patient and staff outcomes.

Social design

Social Design refers to a specific approach to the architectural style that emphasizes the relationships between people and the structure of a building where people live or work. The purpose is to address the needs of the communities inside the building. For example, in the United States, hospitals with more operating rooms and fewer labor rooms tend to facilitate unnecessary cesarean deliveries. Therefore, adding more labor rooms could prevent thousands of surgical complications each year.

RELATED: What are the Principles of Architectural Design?

Built environment factors

Below are six identifiable architectural design elements that could significantly increase patient quality care and safety:

Patient-centeredness

labeled signs to assist patients and visitors in navigating around the hospital

sufficient space to accommodate family members

easy access to healthcare information

advantage of single-bed rooms

Safety

filtration and ventilation system to prevent the spread of infectious diseases

greater availability of assistive devices

easy-to-decontaminate surfaces

readily-available hand washing with hand rubs and alcohol

the adequate transition of the patient for effective interdependencies of care (paramedic, emergency, ambulatory, laboratories, pharmacies)

Effectiveness

standardization of room layout

strategic placement of medical equipment storage and medical supplies

installation of acuity-adaptable units

Efficiency

natural lighting for patient rooms

enhance visual performance with artificial lighting

noise-dampening structure

Timelines

rapid response to patients

efficient care delivery

clinical work of nurses

Equity

hospital structure, including size, layout, and function, must be able to facilitate care for the diverse needs of patients

The healthcare facility's design directly impacts patients' stress, experience, comfort, and staff performance metrics. Hospital design, especially in single-bed rooms, has an excellent platform to enhance safety by creating a healthier environment for patients and family members. Single-bed rooms also allow for easy noise management and more effective prevention of medical errors.

Environmental stressors in such spaces can be minimized with positive elements such as a window view of the park, neutral wall colors, adequate or natural lighting, and adjustable artwork.

RELATED: Architectural Illustrations vs. Architectural Visualization Services

Social design principles

MASS Design Group, a nonprofit architectural firm, identifies four principles adaptable to any constructed environment for healthcare purposes.

The vision reflects objectives

Hospitals traditionally measure success in terms of bed occupancy. The more patients get admitted to their facility, the better the performance. As a result, the hospital's architectural design features many private rooms but sacrifices space for patients to walk around, an essential activity for their recovery.

Visibility is more enjoyable

Room layout and navigation are standard in hospitals and other organizations. It is not about mapping the building but also the system at work in the hospital. Visual communication shouldn't be limited to static maps in a healthcare facility. It may include patient traffic patterns and information flow.

External input

Architects are creative problem solvers - creating designs that solve intricacies often means looking at issues through the lenses of numerous people like patients, visitors, physicians, nurses, and administrators. To find a solution, an architect requires to know why and how a problem arose. For example, will a change in bed orientation affect health outcomes? What are some reasons to use electric-powered ventilation in a hospital when the power grid busts frequently?

In case the power grid goes out, will everyone get exposed to airborne diseases? Is there any good reason why patients in a multi-bedroom should listen or stare at other sick people instead of seeing nature outside through a glass window? Although architects are not specialists in healthcare studies, they can use medical information to build a case and discuss it with doctors, psychiatrists, and anyone in hospital management.

Constant experimentation

An architect prepares the to-be-constructed facility for ongoing and future changes when newer innovations arrive in building design. The endless investigation is necessary to keep the design plan moving forward in preparation for the next cycle. Interdisciplinary discussions between architects, clinicians, engineers, business professionals, including patients ensure all ideas connect to a single thread of problem-solving and continual innovation. When patients become eager to seek information regarding healthcare facilities, adopting social design principles in architecture can help hospitals thrive and improve health outcomes.

How Cad Crowd can help

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How Architectural Design Services Affects Hospitals and Patients | Cad Crowd

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This post covers how architectural design services can affect hospitals and patients. A significant factor of an effective performance is determined by how well workers undertake challenges in their work environment. However, a lack of professionalism can occur due to a poorly designed setting.

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Extreme weather, rising temperatures and damaged ecosystems are threatening the lives of millions of climate refugees. A collective effort is needed to solve the issue of climate migration and help the "world's forgotten victims" of climate change.

Climate migration is devastating people's lives. Imagine losing your home or livelihood due to a flood. Going hungry because of a failed harvest or drought. Or being forced to flee your home due to desertification, rising sea levels or a lack of clean drinking water.

This is the reality for millions and millions of climate refugees who live on the frontlines of the climate crisis. For them, climate change is real, and it is happening now. And as the threat of climate change increases globally, the number of climate migrants will grow exponentially.

According to UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, an annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events - such as floods, storms, wildfires and extreme temperatures - between 2008 and 2016. This climate migration is expected to surge in coming decades with forecasts from international thinktank the IEP predicting that 1.2 billion people could be displaced globally by 2050 due to climate change and natural disasters.

"Climate change knows no borders," says Amar Rahman, Global Head of Climate Resilience at Zurich Resilience Solutions, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative during Climate Week NYC. "Collective action is needed immediately to mitigate its effects, especially on those most vulnerable."

Who are climate refugees?

The term "climate refugees" has been used since 1985 when UN Environment Programme (UNEP) expert Essam El-Hinnawi defined climate refugees - also called climate or environmental migrants - as people who have been "forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of marked environmental disruption." But the extent of the definition still causes some confusion.

For instance, when two category 4 hurricanes hit Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in November 2020, people poured across the border into Mexico and headed towards the U.S. as torrential rains and landslides meant they lost their homes, livelihoods and access to clean water.

In this case, the cause and effect are clear. It is easy to see how unlivable conditions in their home countries caused by extreme weather led people to cross borders as climate refugees.

But Rahman believes the definition should apply to a much broader range of people. Namely, "anyone who has been impacted by disruption in their society that could somehow directly or indirectly be related to short- or long-term change in the environment."

This means acknowledging that climate change does not just pose a threat by causing immediate harm to people and infrastructure, it is also a long-term danger that can slowly destabilize societies and economies. Take for instance sea-level rise. Over the past 30 years, the number of people living in coastal areas at high risk of rising sea levels has increased from 160 million to 260 million, 90 percent of whom are from poor developing countries and small island states.

Rahman explains the situation is made worse as climate risks are interconnected and can cause a domino effect. "When temperatures rise in a country, for instance, it can reduce water availability and water quality. This may increase the spread of disease and raise the likelihood of drought leading to crop failures that will reduce incomes and food supplies. All this can potentially lead to social disruption and political instability."

How conflict worsens the climate crisis

This domino effect was felt in Syria, where the desertification of formerly fertile farming land between 2006 and 2010 meant crop yields plummeted, 800,000 people lost their income and 85 percent of the country's livestock died. As people lost their livelihoods, food prices soared, and 1.5 million rural workers moved to the city to find jobs. Those left behind facing poverty were an easy target for recruiters from the Islamic State.

These are not the only factors that led to the Syrian civil war, with the Arab Spring and strict restrictions from the Syrian government playing a key role. But societal issues caused by climate change worked to exacerbate existing tensions. The result was a conflict that fueled the world's worst refugee crisis in decades with around 6.6 million Syrians (roughly a quarter of the population) forced to flee their country.

The experience in Syria is sadly not unusual as there is a strong correlation between countries most vulnerable to climate change and those experiencing conflict or violence. According to the UNHCR's report Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2020, 95 percent of all conflict displacements in 2020 occurred in countries vulnerable or highly vulnerable to climate change.

The good news is that international governments are starting to recognize climate migration as an issue that needs to be tackled. In November 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden released the Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Migration - the White House report represents the first time the U.S. Government has officially recognized a link between climate change and migration.

The report recognizes that climate migration can have significant implications for international security, instability, conflict and geopolitics. And it calls for the development of strategies that would allow the humane, safe, and proactive management of climate migration flows.

How can we help climate refugees?

Besides fighting climate change as a priority, one way to tackle climate migration is to create economic opportunity in societies threatened by environmental change. For example, in Bangladesh floods caused by cyclones have increased the salinity of 53 percent of farmland. This means farmers are unable to grow their normal crops, which poses a deadly threat to communities who rely on agriculture to survive.

However, farmers have been able to adapt to the new conditions with support from Dutch research project Salt Solution and local NGOs who are teaching them to grow salt-tolerant crops, including potatoes, carrots, cabbages and coriander. So far 10,000 farmers have received training, resulting in two to three extra harvests per year.

Bangladesh is also home to almost 1 million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar, many of whom live in refugee camps. To prevent these political refugees becoming climate refugees, the UNHRC is working with local partners to plant fast-growing trees in parts of refugee camps that are prone to landslides during monsoons to stabilize the ground.

This all requires investment. But at COP27 in November 2022, a breakthrough agreement was reached to provide "loss and damage" funding for vulnerable countries hit by climate disasters. This could help climate refugees internally displaced within their own country. Details of the new funding arrangements were not decided, but countries agreed to operationalize them at COP28 in Dubai. It marks an important first step that acknowledges the people and countries least responsible for climate change are being affected first and most severely.

The White House report also highlights the need for climate financing - from U.S. foreign aid and international financial institutions, for example - to support vulnerable communities to respond to, prepare for, and adapt to climate and migration risks. It also urges the U.S. government to establish an interagency working group on climate migration to coordinate its efforts to address the challenge. It would oversee the drafting of U.S. policy, strategies and budgets to help those impacted by climate change and migration, either domestically or internationally.

Protected status for climate refugees

But another issue is protected status. Most experts argue climate change refugees need access to the same protected status offered to other refugees, such as those who have escaped conflict.

In March 2018, the UN Human Rights Council found that many climate refugees do not fit the definition of "refugees" and called them "the world's forgotten victims." This means they cannot access legal protections to their human rights, which could protect them from threats like deportation.

To rectify this, governments and legal bodies must reframe conditions caused by climate change as a threat to human rights and recognize the deadly threat that climate refugees face - even if that threat is not always as immediate as the dangers faced by refugees fleeing war.

Even the White House report says current legal instruments to protect refugees "do not readily lend themselves to protect those individuals displaced by the impacts of climate change, especially those that address migration across borders." One of its key legislative suggestions is for the U.S. to expand use of its migrant protection program known as Temporary Protected Status.

But the ultimate solution is to curtail climate change by achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement to limit temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius (°C) and ideally to 1.5°C.

"Society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable," adds Rahman. "We need to take every measure - as policy makers, corporations and individuals - to fight climate change and protect those that are the first to be impacted by its effects."

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There could be 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050. Here's what you need to know

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Learn more about causes of climate migration, the issues facing climate refugees and solutions that can help solve this growing issue.

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Cities fortunate enough to have a waterfront-along a river, lake, or ocean-know it's a treasured asset that can be leveraged for the good of the community. But actually figuring out how to do that isn't easy, in part because of the expense, but also because there's almost inevitably conflict over the practicalities: Should it be used for recreation? Residences? Office buildings? All those things?

We've seen this in the cities visited this past year for the American Futures series. In Burlington, Vermont, for example, the city's full revitalization stops short of its northern waterfront, in part because of prolonged disagreement about what to do with old properties, particularly the abandoned Moran power plant, along the shore of Lake Champlain. But they're still working on it. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has had more success turning Falls Park, along the rocky banks of the Big Sioux River, into a tourist and recreational mecca, a highlight of the city's ambitious effort at downtown revival.

Lately, we've been reporting on our August visit to Allentown, an old industrial city near the eastern edge of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia. The Lehigh River snakes through its heart. Like so many other old industrial cities, Allentown and the Lehigh have suffered from the legacy of the past.

Long valued chiefly for its transportation or effluent-discharge uses, the Lehigh has never realized its potential in Allentown as an urban amenity, home to restaurants, apartment and office buildings, shops, and other elements of a lively area. Instead, Allentown's riverbanks are largely brownfields, now abandoned or undervalued parcels of land that nobody saw value in turning around.

But that's starting to change in one small area. And it's doing so rapidly.

Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ), which I described here a couple weeks ago, designated two large parcels of land to spark development-about 80 acres along the western banks of the Lehigh River and smaller portions located strategically at the city's core. Much of the City Center portion of the NIZ is already pretty far along: In fact, its centerpiece-the PPL Center hockey/performance arena-opened on September 12th with a sold-out concert by The Eagles.

Development of part of the riverfront portion started in July, when crews began demolishing the long-abandoned Lehigh Structural Steel plant that, until it closed in 1992, had operated along the banks of the river for more than 70 years. You can see the commencing of demolition, and the ceremony that preceded it, in this video:

Other buildings being demolished in the former industrial area to make way for the Waterfront development include warehouses for a tire company and a scrap-metal yard.

The plans for the $325 million Waterfront development are ambitious, just like the other efforts to revitalize the core of this long-beaten-down city. By the time the Waterfront is completed in eight to 10 years, the 26-acre mixed-use site will have 610,000 square feet of office space, a mix of upscale dining and retail, and 172 luxury apartments.

There'll be a half-mile "river walk," more than a mile of walking and running paths, and two large open-space plazas, all designed to provide unobstructed water views and access to the river itself.

The first phase of the project should be completed by late 2018 and will feature an eight-story building (artist's rendering above) with 150,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of street-level stores and restaurants.

Readers who live in bigger cities that have plenty of attractive new mixed-use developments may regard what I'm describing with a yawn and a dismissive "So what?"

But people in Allentown don't see it this that way. They rightly consider it a big deal. Other than the PPL Center that recently went up a little more than a mile away as part of the redevelopment at the city's center, nothing of this scale has been attempted in Allentown in decades-and never along the blighted banks of the Lehigh.

It says something about how hungry people in this community are for the kind of "live-work-play" area this development promises that the planning stage was free of conflict and controversy. In August, I interviewed Mark Jaindl, whose development company, Jaindl Properties, has partnered for this project with the firm of Dunn Twiggar. Sitting next to his large computer monitor, which offers him constant live, split-screen views of the work currently underway at the waterfront, he explained to me that the support from the community for this project has been very strong. "Unusual, too," he said, "in that there was not one point of opposition or complaint at any time from the community in the process of considering this proposal."

Assuming that's true-and my research hasn't turned up anything to suggest it's not-it's pretty remarkable, especially for a project along a riverbank, with all the environmental issues that involves. But people here recognize that this is a real opportunity to enhance the city's economic vitality and the quality of life.

The 26-acre area of the Waterfront development currently generates only about $120,000 a year in real-estate taxes for Allentown. Jaindl says that by the time the development is completed, "that number will be $4 million annually." For a city the size of Allentown, that's huge.

The businesses, restaurateurs, shopkeepers, and residents who eventually take up occupancy along the waterfront are going to enjoy not just river views, but a great location generally. The site is halfway between the City Center development and, on the other side of the river, nearby Coca-Cola Park, stadium home to the AAA baseball team, the Iron Pigs, which Deb Fallows wrote about here. And it's only several minutes by car to major roadways like Route 22 and Interstate 78 and to the airport. In short, it's in a pretty sweet spot.

Success with projects of this sort comes from hard work and plenty of effective collaboration. Sometimes, serendipity lends a hand, too. The Waterfront development-and Allentown, generally-will get a providential boost from the completion next year of the new American Parkway Bridge immediately adjacent to the north edge of the Waterfront development's footprint. The bridge, something people here have been talking about and wanting for over 35 years, will provide a new and fast connection between downtown Allentown and the east side of the river, with the highways (and airport) just beyond.

When we spoke with state Senator Pat Browne in August about the NIZ program that he maneuvered through the state legislature, he said of the Waterfront development, "The Waterfront is a bigger challenge than the City Center. But it has great upside potential." There's no gainsaying that.

The NIZ money that's spurring this development will lower rents on Class-A office space and luxury apartments to affordable levels that will attract tenants. The site offers easy access to connecting highways and amenities like a baseball park and a hockey arena. The project will offer walking access to a revitalized riverfront and will spur the sprucing-up of adjacent areas.

All of this combined spells a development that makes progress toward the "life-work-play" goal of urbanists and seems likely to make a huge difference in a city that's trying to make its way along the comeback trail.

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Wasted Waterfronts: Why Cities Struggle to Build Along Rivers

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The story of Allentown, Pennsylvania, as it turns its attention to a long-neglected asset

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National Working Waterfront Network - Sustainable Working Waterfront Toolkit

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Today's Challenges
While the history of working waterfronts is important, today's multi-modal transportation infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities make it fairly easy and economical for communities to receive necessary goods from non-local sources. As a result, most of the smaller and mid-sized ports and harbors have moved away from their historical water-dependent activities, and have been re-developed for residential, commercial, and recreational uses. The challenge for those coastal communities that still have active waterfronts is to retain as much of the functional assets and characteristics of their waterfronts as possible.

High Value of Waterfront Property
Over the past several decades, waterfront property has become increasingly desirable for a range of uses that are not functionally dependent on a waterfront location, but derive economic value from proximity to the water. The demand by these competing uses is fueled by population growth along the coast over the past several decades. These "higher value" uses, such as residential and commercial development, can afford to pay higher prices for waterfront property, which allows them to out-compete working waterfront uses in the marketplace and also leads to conversion of existing working waterfront uses. Relatedly, the introduction of residential and commercial uses into working waterfront districts often produces use conflicts. See the following case studies:

The operational characteristics of working waterfronts-noises, smell, trucks, times of operation, congestion-are not always compatible with the expectations of these new residents and commercial tenants, whose numbers and economic clout can influence policy and decision making to the detriment of working waterfront uses. See the following case studies:

High Cost of Waterfront Infrastructure
Higher costs for materials, equipment and labor along with rigorous regulatory requirements increase the costs of constructing and maintaining the infrastructure-dredged channels, jetties, bulkheads, wharves and piers-on which working waterfront depend. Water-dependent industries experiencing declining revenues cannot afford the costs of maintenance, repair, or upgrade. Federal funding for new construction and maintenance of dredged channels has steadily decreased and available funding is prioritized to those ports and harbors with high levels of economic activity dependent on navigable waterways; a rational approach, but one that increases the challenges for struggling waterfronts trying to maintain their operations. See the following case studies:

Decline in Harvestable Living Marine Resources and Fisheries Management
The abundance of stocks of some important species of fish and shellfish on which working waterfronts depend has declined. To allow stocks to rebuild, federal and state fisheries management regimes impose limitations on catch which make it difficult for fishermen to keep fishing which, in turn, affects associated fresh fish processors, fueling, ice, and marine repair businesses. See the following case studies:

Shifts in Global Trade Patterns
The growth of the global economy over the past several decades has been accompanied by changes in the pattern of trade. Liberalization of trade and emerging market economies have affected the nature and amounts of business at the nation's ports. The volume of container shipping trade at West coast ports, for example, grew significantly with the expanding economies of East Asia. Increasing trade volumes and standardized containerization is leading to larger ships calling on a smaller number of hub ports with the capability to handle these ships. The top 10 U.S. container ports account for 77 percent of containership calls (RITA 2011). The many small and mid-sized ports compete for smaller container ships making direct calls or serve as feeder ports receiving goods transshipped from the hub

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Challenges Working Waterfronts Face - National Working Waterfront Network

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Today's Challenges While the history of working waterfronts is important, today's multi-modal transportation infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities make it fairly easy and economical for communities to receive necessary goods from non-local sources. As a result, most of the smaller and mid-sized ports and harbors have moved away from their historical water-dependent activities, and have been re-developed for residential, commercial, and recreational uses.

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Can you use your degree in architecture or interior design to make the world a better place? The answer is a resounding "Yes!" Today, thought leaders in the field are approaching architectural design with an eye not only to aesthetics and environmental sustainability, but also to social equity. They are asking themselves, "What does a socially responsible architectural practice look like?"

The images of houses you see in the glossy pages of magazines and FOMO-inducing pics on Instagram might leave the impression that the design field is exclusively focused on providing luxurious spaces for privileged clients. But architectural design can be a tool to improve the well-being of all communities. "Architecture and interior design can imagine and create alternative futures," says Amy Campos, chair of the interior design program at California College of the Arts (CCA).

Seeking to improve the ways we live, work, and interact with one another through architectural design has a long history. Famous examples include model villages and utopian housing complexes in the nineteenth century and ideal cities dreamed up by Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier in the twentieth. These projects were born out of attempts to grapple with some of the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution, such as overcrowded cities, unhealthy housing, and poor working conditions.

Today, many architects are exploring how architectural design can respond to the major challenges of our times, including social and economic inequality. They recognize that inequities based on wealth, race, gender, and physical ability are reinforced by patterns of land use and ownership, the organization of our cities and suburbs, and the design of our dwellings and their interiors.

Examples of projects that improve social equity through architectural design include cohousing with shared common spaces, schools in low-income neighborhoods that incorporate healthcare services, barrier-free facilities for veterans with disabilities, neighborhoods where vacant ground-floor retail spaces are repurposed for community services, and solar energy cooperatives.

"As designers, we need to be agents of change," says Antje Steinmuller, chair of the undergraduate program in architecture at CCA. "Architects and interior designers can play a part in shaping both the spaces and the policies of the built environment. We can leverage our skills toward environmental, political, and social justice."

Inclusive architectural design addresses social inequities

"Architecture, at its root, shapes lives. It has real social repercussions, so it must be inclusive, " says Brian Price, chair of the graduate program in architecture at CCA.

Architectural design that treats all users equally while acknowledging their differences, often called equitable architecture, is a growing field of socially responsible architectural practice.

Equitable architecture is proactively inclusive of all people-of different socioeconomic statuses, physical abilities, genders, family types, sexual orientations and gender expressions, races, and ethnicities-and acknowledges the ways architecture and interior design have not served their needs in the past. It focuses on creating affordable and fair housing, healthy and safe communities, and welcoming and accessible public spaces.

Designing for equity also means putting people first. "Equitable architecture begins with learning about the people we are designing for," says Campos. "As designers, we always start with understanding communities as they are. It informs everything we do."

Architectural design can promote environmental and social justice

"When architects think about equitable design, we first think about unequal access to land and housing among historically disenfranchised communities and disadvantaged populations," says Steinmuller.

Steinmuller codirects the Urban Works Agency research lab at CCA, which is directly engaged with initiatives that tackle inequities in the built environment. Through research, exhibitions, publications, symposia, studio courses, and design projects, it aims to reorient architectural design toward environmental and social justice and economic resilience.

Exclusionary practices, from redlining to single-family zoning, and the commodification of land have had lasting effects on patterns of property ownership and residential settlement in the U.S. In the American South, for example, minority populations tend to live in areas historically prone to flooding.

"Marginalized communities are often concentrated in areas most threatened by rising sea levels and other negative pressures from climate change and environmental degradation," says Steinmuller. She cites the example of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, a low-lying neighborhood with insufficient levee protection that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the hurricane, its population was 98% African American; today, more than 15 years later, the area has yet to fully recover and the families who lived there remain dispersed.

The work of CCA's Urban Works Agency shows how architectural design can address these interrelated issues of environmental and social justice. For example, the agency has examined how inclusive approaches to property ownership, such as community land trusts, can support both social equity and ecological sustainability. It has also proposed new forms of urbanism to redistribute resources more equitably across California's agricultural Central Valley in response to the planned construction of high-speed rail.

Collective ownership and management of resources is another strategy for improving social equity. This was a centerpiece of a project for the San Leandro Bay shoreline, called Estuary Commons, that the Urban Works Agency submitted for the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge. In partnership with other design professionals and students, as well as local community groups, the agency proposed innovative design solutions to both rising sea levels and rising home prices in this underserved Bay Area community. The project included tunneling a major freeway and building floating neighborhoods on pontoons as ways to protect communities from flooding, restore native habitats, stitch together a patchwork urban fabric, and provide a network of parks.

Rethinking our definition of home can impact social equity

Housing forms the majority of our built environment, so redesigning where people live is a powerful way to improve the well-being of individuals and communities. "We need to use architectural design to develop more equitable approaches to living together," says Price.

We are currently navigating a mismatch between available housing and the ways we actually live, which is one cause of the current housing crisis in California and elsewhere. Housing in our cities and suburbs has been designed around the traditional nuclear family-a stay-at-home mom, a dad who works outside the home, and multiple children-but that family unit is no longer the only, or even the predominant, model in the U.S.

According to estimates from the most recent U.S. census, in fact, fewer than 18% of American households consist of married parents with children. Instead, we live in multigenerational households, single-parent families, and with one or more unrelated roommates-and a whopping 28% of us live alone. Increasingly, homes are becoming offices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, homes also became classrooms.

"The overwhelming majority of housing in the U.S. takes the form of single-family houses on private land," says Price. "But not only is that not sustainable in terms of resource use, it doesn't provide for diverse kinds of households." Price offers the example of San Francisco: most of its existing housing was designed with the nuclear family in mind, but today 70% of city residents live in other types of households.

This disconnect between architecture and society creates opportunities for architects and interior designers to reimagine cities and housing. Discovering what "home" really means to different people can lead to more equitable housing solutions.

"The research of many of the architecture and interior design faculty at CCA focuses on how people live together in communities, and how that is changing," says Price. "We are rethinking human relationships and the conventions of the urban and suburban built environments."

Diverse housing typologies attract more diverse residents

Instead of continuing to design cookie-cutter single-family houses, increasingly architects are investigating new models of residential architecture that respond to the ways we live in the 21st century. By serving residents of various socioeconomic statuses, cultures, and household types, diverse types of housing can ensure the vitality of a city.

"Housing that is adaptable for multigenerational households can attract African American, Asian American, and Latino families, who are more likely to live with extended family, for example, and rethinking how work spaces exist in a domestic setting can retain artists and other creatives who might otherwise be forced out of a city," says Steinmuller.

At CCA, architecture and interior design students investigate how innovative housing typologies can serve different types of residents. They begin by doing a deep dive into the needs and desires of a socially or economically marginalized community. Students research groups such as senior citizens, new immigrants, gig workers and others with precarious employment, or single-parent families to learn about the challenges they face in accessing fair housing. Only after coming to understand these communities do students begin to develop architectural designs that can improve social equity by being both more affordable and more responsive to contemporary needs.

One recent student project at CCA was a residence for a household comprising four unrelated senior citizens and the teenagers they each were fostering. The housing unit was designed to bring together residents both "vertically" - each family unit of one adult and one teen - and "horizontally"-connecting the adults together and the teens together.

By focusing on a collective domestic household and an alternative family unit, this project is a powerful model for rethinking how residential architectural design can improve social equity.

Shared spaces provide a path toward equitable architecture

How to provide quality affordable housing is a pressing issue, especially in California where the median home price is expected to rise to $834,400 in 2022. Micro-housing, in which architects fit all of the usual elements of the American single-family house into a smaller footprint, is one strategy. Building ADUs, or accessory dwelling units, in the yards of existing single-family homes is another approach. At CCA, Price says, they see greater opportunities and benefits in thinking beyond those models. "Instead of replicating the traditional house in a smaller form," he says, "we are thinking about alternatives to these conventions, especially the possibilities of sharing spaces."

Many traditional housing types, from pueblos in the American Southwest to Chinese courtyard houses, were designed around collective spaces. More recently, cohousing, developed in 1970s Denmark, drew on these models and others in an attempt to create cooperative communities through shared amenities and outdoor spaces. "Restructuring housing can restructure social interactions and create community," says Campos.

In this vein, CCA architecture students in a recent studio course began to think about the room types that could be distributed across multiple households in order to make housing more affordable. They borrowed ideas from the sharing economy and applied them to the design of housing. They wondered, "How often do we really use certain spaces?"

"The hypothesis we asked our students to test," says Steinmuller, "is whether designing dwellings with collective spaces can make housing more affordable as well as more fair."

Students investigated ways that sharing spaces could reduce the cost of the family dwelling. For instance, one project designed for a group of immigrant women who were launching food-truck businesses is organized around a large, communal commercial kitchen. These women could not each afford that kind of specialized space, which is designed not only to support their fledgling businesses but also to serve as a place for sociability. The students' hypothesis is that the shared kitchen, a place for the women to gather with their children while also making food for their businesses, can help build a community that is resilient both socially and economically.

Universal design is an element of equitable architecture

Another strategy for achieving social equity through interior and architectural design is to follow the principles of universal design. The philosophy behind universal design is that creating spaces and products that are inclusive and accessible to everyone results in design that is better for all users. Universal design is equitable, flexible, and intuitive and accommodates all types of bodies and abilities.

A compelling example of universal design is the project Stalled!, which addresses the need for safe, sustainable, and inclusive public restrooms. One proposal, by architect Joel Sanders, is to abolish binary, single-sex restrooms in favor of a multiuser model. While designed to provide equitable access to restrooms for gender nonconforming people, a multiuser restroom also meets the needs of a wider segment of the population. For example, a father would be able to take his young daughters to the restroom, or an adult daughter could accompany her elderly father who may need assistance.

"Universal design can also include furniture systems that transform to accommodate different needs and support diverse ways of moving through the world," says Campos.

Universal design is woven into the entire interior design curriculum at CCA, through workshops, lectures, projects, and courses. Students take a studio class focused on universal design in their senior year. A recent project for that course, a behavioral health clinic for children and youth ages 2 to 18, resulted in the design of custom, flexible furniture that could be used by everyone in that age range. It could accommodate the different sizes, abilities, and ways of being in space for both toddlers and teens: users could sit on the furniture, or climb on top of it, or crawl under it. "It can serve different needs at different times of day and for different users," says Campos.

Using architectural design to advance social justice

Today's architecture and interior design students are determined to put their education to use in the service of social justice causes. They are rethinking how the built environment, from the macro scale of regional planning to the micro scale of furniture design, can be shaped to have a positive impact on all of us, including historically marginalized communities.

"At CCA, we believe that designing the built environment is a critical cultural practice that can and should serve the common good," says Price. "Our students go on to use the skills they gain here to achieve environmental, social, and political goals."

Steinmuller agrees. "A degree in architecture or interior design is ideal preparation for taking action in the world."

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How architectural design can improve social equity

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Today, thought leaders in the field are approaching architectural design with an eye not only to aesthetics and environmental sustainability, but also to social equity.

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Thoughtful design can create high-quality affordable multifamily housing | Brookings

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author-bio] Developers who build affordable housing face a lot of hurdles: complex subsidy programs, expensive labor and materials, onerous local land use regulations, and, of course, community opposition. Neighboring residents often worry that low-cost housing will be ugly and comprised of hulking, boxy structures with cheap-looking facades.

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Abstract

Introduction. Current tools and methods in architectural design do not allow predicting and evaluating how people will use designed environments before their actual realization. To investigate how computational simulation can help in evaluating design proposals as far as their use by people is concerned. . Simulation of a medicine distribution procedure in a general hospital facility, while accounting for serendipitous social interactions made possible by the presence of different users in the same space, at the same time. Discussion. The simulation shows how use patterns are influenced by the social and physical context in which actors are situated, and demonstrates the significance of the proposed method of evaluating hospital designs before construction. The system allows simulating use patterns with different degrees of complexity, and enables architects to ask new types of questions related to the interactions between people and physical settings.

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Davide Schaumann, Nirit Putievsky Pilosof, Kartikeya Date, Yehuda E. Kalay

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A study of human behavior simulation in architectural design for healthcare facilities | Annali dell’Istituto Superiore di Sanità

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Introduction. Current tools and methods in architectural design do not allow predicting and evaluating how people will use designed environments before their actual realization. Objective. To investigate how computational simulation can help in evaluating design proposals as far as their use by peop…

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Everything for Everyone: an oral history of the New York commune, 2052–2072, ‎Common Notions, 2022, by M. E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi

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M. E. O'Brien writes on gender freedom and communist theory. She co-edits two magazines: Pinko, on gay communism, and Parapraxis, on psychoanalytic theory and politics. Her work on family abolition has been translated into Chinese, German, Greek, French, Spanish, and Turkish. Previously, she coordinated the New York City Trans Oral History Project, and worked in HIV and AIDS activism and services. She completed a PhD at New York University, where she wrote on how capitalism shaped New York City LGBTQ social movements. She is currently in training to be a psychoanalyst, and works as a therapist.

Eman Abdelhadi is an academic, activist, and artist based in Chicago, IL. Her research as faculty at the University of Chicago focuses on gender differences in the community trajectories of Muslim Americans. Abdelhadi has also spent many years organizing. She has been involved in the movement for Palestinian liberation, Black Lives Matter, counter-surveillance and abolitionism, marxist feminist mobilization as well as workplace struggles. She is currently co-coordinating the Muslim Alliance for Gender and Sexual Diversity, a national organization that provides support and builds community by and for Queer Muslims. Abdelhadi maintains an active creative practice that includes performance art and essay and poetry writing. Her writing has appeared in Jacobin, Muftah, and other publications.

Advance Praise

"Every socialist needs to read this book. Every abolitionist, every Marxist, every anarchist, every revolutionary needs to read this book. Every person who has ever wondered how the world will function after the final retirement of the market, the commodity form, money, wages, rent, coercive gender roles, prisons, police, class, nation states, borders, profit, and in general the dominating power of any humans over any others...It's a book that will engage seasoned organizers, well-read academics, and street-level agitators. It also could serve quite well as a dazzling introduction for newly politicizing folks who would benefit from a clear end-goal and would want to know what could be accomplished by the movements for human liberation." -Spectre Journal

"[ Everything for Everyone] challenges us to not just write fiction about revolution but to make books that practice the kinds of collaboration necessary to make revolution...This book is an uncompromising, anticolonial, profoundly queer and trans, buoying, addictive, and wholly original creation... Everything for Everyone has no patience with docile truisms about how we are supposed to write. Instead, it's a shot across the bow for contemporary fiction, raising the bar on how to crystallize utopian longings in literary form." -BOMB Magazine

"But if you come to Everything for Everyone for the politics, stay for the writing. Barring Vladimir Nabokov in Pale Fire, I can't think of another author who uses an academic form to achieve a literary result so successfully. Each of the interviewees and interviewers has an entirely unique and authentic voice. The book is utterly plausible as the archival project it claims to be, while also telling gripping stories and slipping in details to delight sci-fi fans (a space elevator in Quito! Sentient algae-based AI! Augmented reality implants for dance parties!)." -

" Everything for Everyone is the book we all need right now. It lets us imagine what can feel unimaginable in this moment-a total reorganization of social relations toward our mutual survival and the dismantling of the ruling death cult. This is a book we will all be obsessing over, arguing with, and talking about in the coming years as we try to conceive how collective action can get us through these harrowing times. I am grateful to Abdelhadi and O'Brien for making something we need so bad so compelling and readable." - Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid

" Everything for Everyone is not a dystopian end of the world, nor even a singularly perfect utopia, but something between. It is a process of making new forms of collective life as the content of revolution, shorn of romance. Indeed, nostalgia is a posture the book pointedly refuses, for the ways that it makes rigid a single version of revolutionary change. A more flexible alternative to left melancholy, though not quite a how-to, Everything for Everyone maps out the affinities that draw individual voices into a we, without leveling them out into a single, representative speaker. The oral histories offer a narrative form that can accommodate collectivity, centering the process of turning everything into a resource for everyone. In Miss Kelley's words, they take something that was property and make it life." -Blind Field: A Journal of Cultural Inquiry

"Charts dizzying, delightful new futures for science fiction, urban planning, and engaged social practice. I spent 15 years as a community organizer and never dreamed of seeing something that so bravely, brilliantly combines liberational nonfiction and radical documentary with the exuberance of the best speculative storytelling." - Sam J. Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of Blackfish City and The Art of Starving

"A love letter to abolitionist possibilities." -Lara Sheehi, coauthor of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine

"Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O'Brien's tall tales of the future draw on real experiences of the past and present. The book's multiple narratives, equal parts hope and pain, merge into a prayer for collective survival and for the eventual flourishing of our powers of love and invention. Voices from as-yet-unlived lives instill faith that our becoming is not yet done. Abdelhadi and O'Brien have created a vivid image of the possibility that we will one day make a home of the world." - Hannah Black

"The special magic of Everything for Everyone is that it combines the genres of the oral history interview with speculative utopian fiction. Oral histories can show how in their everyday lives ordinary people can make the world. Utopian fiction can show the worlds we might want to be making. Every cook, or sex worker, can govern. And this is the life they might build from the ruins of this civilization, such as it is. Such a pleasure to feel one could be making the world over with them." - McKenzie Wark, author of The Beach Beneath the Street

"Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O'Brien are changing the game of what the novel is and what the novel can be. Much as James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Imani Perry did with the epistolary form in non-fiction, Everything for Everyone uses speculative oral history to expand and explode the limits of what fiction can do. Their imagined oral histories from many parties help us understand the present from many possible points of view in the future looking back, like Rashômon meets House of Leaves. In Everything for Everyone, binaries (of male-versus-female, fiction-versus-non-fiction, past-versus-future) are irrelevant compared to something much more interesting and important that Abdelhadi and O'Brien seek to illustrate: truth, and the way we might find liberation in it." - Steven W. Thrasher, author of The Viral Underclass

"I had no idea I was a post-revolution speculative fiction fangirl till I started reading Everything for Everyone, which kicks off with a food riot at the Hunts Point Market led by a sex worker. I'm really bummed out by the fact that I'll be 82-hopefully!-when their fictional revolution kicks off and dead by the time the dust settles. Exciting to read something hopeful, intersectional and an antidote to our dystopian doldrums." - Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation

"In this genre-bending work of utopian fiction, O'Brien and Abdelhadi imagine a world that might emerge from the ashes of our own. Part speculative social science, part abolitionist manifesto, it explores the social forms and political possibilities of life after capitalism-the novel ways of organizing life, doing gender, and coping with the psychic costs of transformation that may follow the inevitable crises of capital and climate that lie in our future. Like the best utopian fiction, Everything for Everyone is also a startling work of political theory: it gives us the opportunity, as all utopias do, to learn about our own desires and hopes for a way out of our current conjuncture."- Katrina Forrester, author of In the Shadow of Justice

"Leftists are often accused of being against everything, but not having a vision of what we're fighting for. Everything for Everyone is a corrective, a sweeping vision of the type of world and society we imagine can and will provide for us all, abundantly. Not all beautiful novels are invested in social restructuring, and not all social restructuring is envisaged in novels, but here we have exactly their meeting point: a beautiful novel bristling with the necessary changes we must make to survive on this planet. The future has sex in it, and community; it has food and labor and joy. It has trauma and memories of the harm, the nightmare, of capitalist precarity. The future is sure to exist; will it have us in it? Everything for Everyone imagines that it will, and, given this remarkable vision, this perpetual possibility, it's now our work to live up to it."- Joseph Osmundson, author of Virology

" Everything for Everyone is a window into a possible future and a powerful antidote to our present moment's ubiquitous moods of anti-utopianism, despair, nostalgia, and capitalist-realism. In this must-read speculative fiction, M. E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi have skillfully deployed their joint political, sociological, and psychoanalytic intelligence-capacities they have honed through decades of experience of organizing for trans, working class and Palestinian liberation. Together, O'Brien and Abdelhadi have imagined the messy, imperfect, richly fulfilling, and slowly healing collective life that will be post-capitalism. Convincingly, they present us with an ethnography, not of an ideal society, but of a revolutionary one in flux. Never do they lapse into simplistic or deterministic "solutions" to the crises of the present. The twelve denizens of the world whence Abdelhadi and O'Brien are reporting back are survivors and veterans of exhausting, traumatizing, bloody, unforgettable, complicated, and beautiful transformations.
The interviews collected in these pages chronicle the first stages of the abolition of the family; the history of the ecological restoration projects and interplanetary technologies that might render our planet livable and leisurely; the invention of real democracy; and the armed conflagrations that were necessary along the way. So, if you have ever wondered to yourself, What will the triumph of indigenous land struggles, the overthrow of colonial occupations, and the fall of capitalism look like? Which parts of New York would be at the forefront of a communist revolution, and which would double down into religious, hyper-patriarchal fascism? Whose knowledges of facilitation, healing, conflict resolution and partying will help the population heal from its collective trauma?-then this superb novel is the book for you. Upon reaching the end, I had tears in my eyes. I took to heart the injunction of the nineteenth century utopian feminist Charles Fourier, quoted herein: 'Your behavior should be governed from now on by the ease and proximity of this immense revolution.'"- Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family: A Manifesto of Care and Liberation

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Everything For Everyone - Common Notions Press

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M. E. O'Brien writes on gender freedom and communist theory. She co-edits two magazines: Pinko, on gay communism, and Parapraxis, on psychoanalytic theory and politics. Her work on family abolition has been translated into Chinese, German, Greek, French, Spanish, and Turkish.

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Edward Wynne, Utopianism and Education, The Journal of Educational Thought (JET) / Revue de la Pensée Éducative, Vol. 10, No. 3 (December, 1976), pp. 169-178

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The Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence: An Urbanistic Viewpoint from the Lens of Smart and Sustainable Cities

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The popularity and application of artificial intelligence (AI) are increasing rapidly all around the world—where, in simple terms, AI is a technology which mimics the behaviors commonly associated with human intelligence. Today, various AI applications are being used in areas ranging from marketing…

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Data generation is believed to be possible in almost all sectors of human activity and this promises new ways of understanding our world. This availability of data showcases that Big Data can be useful in optimal usage of resources while making informed decisions (Alam, Sajid, Talib, & Niaz, 2014). The Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (Dempsey, Bramley, Power, & Brown, 2009) amongst others (Mayer-Schonberger & Cukie, 2013) can contribute greatly to this process.

Smart Cities have adopted IoT as a means to encourage efficiency and performance of urban fabrics. Bhadani (2016) and Batty (2016) supports that increased connectivity led to an unprecedented amount of data creation, which created the possibility for a platform that allows for gathering, analyzing and distribution of data that is useful in different spheres of life (Evans, 2011). IoT encompasses digitization, which sparked changes in the way numerous entities work; be it governments, organization, businesses or individuals (Miller & Mork, 2013). These changes have resulted into a tremendous growth in generated data. A report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) shares that available data by 2020 will increase to beyond 35 trillion gigabytes (Gu, Li, & Cao, 2014).

However, the perception and description of 'Big Data' keeps evolving. Alam et al. (2014) views Big Data in terms of volume, velocity and variety. On a similar line, Chen, Chiang, and Storey (2012) shares an understanding relating to volume and the analytical method employed by different individuals and organisations. Kitchin & McArdle (2016) added to these characteristics the dimensions of exhaustivity, resolution, indexicality, relationality, extensionality and scalability. As those dimensions bring numerous advantages, it is believed that cities will be amongst the main beneficiaries (Barns, 2016; Bibri, 2018a; Lim, Kim, & Maglio, 2018).

The analysis of Big Data can be done through Artificial Intelligence; which can be interpreted as the way of training computers to mimic thinking patterns and can even be done to simulate human behaviours (Tecuci, 2012). The accuracy of achieved results is understood to increase with more data and processing as machine learning occurs; hence the primordial need for Big Data and the desirability of real time data. As cities are increasingly digitized, the role of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in urban fabrics have been widely covered (Aguilera, Peña, Belmonte, & López-de-Ipiña, 2017; Allam, 2017a; Allam & Newman, 2018a; Neirotti, De Marco, Cagliano, Mangano, & Scorrano, 2014a), and it has been shown that technologies have allowed governments, municipalities and decision makers to collect data regarding a plethora of issues (Abaker, Hashem, Chang, & Anuar, 2016; Souza, Figueredo, Cacho, Araújo, & Prolo, 2016). It's processing, and analysis allows for better urban governance as policy makers can make informed decisions and formulate adequate and responsive policies. Such analysis can be performed by Artificial Intelligence.

While AI has been in fashion since the early 1950's (Google Books Ngram Viewer, 2018), its applicability has been slow in adoption. An analysis from Google Trends (Fig. 1) on the popularity of Big Data and AI (Google Trends, 2018) interestingly reveals a peak in Big Data from 2011 to 2014, while a decline in AI is observed from early 2004 to 2008. It can be seen however that the popularity of AI rose from 2014 to 2017 which can be interpreted as a result of Big Data, and even can even be foreseen to lead towards coupling. Interestingly Allam and Newman (2018a), through Fig. 2, shared that the concept of Smart Cities has peaked in almost the same time period, highlighting a key correlation with Big Data and AI.

However, even though the technologies, and the associated benefits of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Smart Cities have the potential to render numerous positives to an urban fabric, Allam (2018a) warns against the blind adoption of technology and encourages a further integration to the societal fabric. In this regard, the author recommends that careful calibration and contextualisation is key to building truly sustainable cities that are in turn resilient just as much as intelligent. This paper further explores the opportunities and challenges of ICT through Big Data and AI in relation to cities and explores and generates a framework with the potentiality of building more sustainable, safe, inclusive and resilient cities as highlighted by the Sustainable Goal 11.

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On big data, artificial intelligence and smart cities

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Cities are increasingly turning towards specialized technologies to address issues related to society, ecology, morphology and many others. The emergi...

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After several years of working with children in a busy primary school corridor, two teaching assistants trained in emotional literacy support (ELSAs*) were finally given the opportunity to create a private, comfortable and safe space where they could work. This post uses their own words (in italics) with additional comments from me and is arranged in four parts.

In part one, the two practitioners outline the hazards of sensitive, therapeutic work in a corridor. In part two, they detail the design choices they made when creating their new space and in part three they reflect on the immediate consequences of their move. Part four consists of my own reflections arising from this conversation, recorded with educational psychologist Sara Freitag in March 2020.

Sara also planned to record conversations with the children who had worked with these two practitioners in both the old and the new space. Unfortunately, these conversations have been postponed due to the limited re-opening of schools in England during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The COVID-19 health crisis has also highlighted the inadequacy of the dimensions and qualities of spaces for children in schools in England, since keeping a physical distance means that only half of the student body can return safely at any one time in most schools.

This post will be amended to include the insights of the children from the school in this study once the school has reopened to all pupils. For now, at least, the words of the two practitioners offer an unusually clear insight how design for therapeutic spaces in schools could be improved when experienced practitioners are listened to by senior members of staff and when their expertise is trusted.

In previous posts in this series, I have outlined some of the ideal features of a space where therapy sessions in schools take place. These include privacy; comfort and quiet. Adequate lighting, seating and protection from interruption would also seem to be a given for people undertaking this role. The corridor where these therapists worked daily had none of these qualities. Their requests to be relocated to a more suitable space within the school went unheeded and they worked there for several years. Not only was the corridor a busy thoroughfare, but their allocated space was situated immediately adjacent to the school library, a room visited by every class in the school at least once a week. This meant that their delicate work of encouraging children to explore their feelings was being interrupted by a queue of children waiting beside them for the library to be free. This is how the therapists described their situation:
'It was a real problem. We had a little working window of about 15 minutes while they'd be in the library and we'd chat to the child and the child would totally clam up when the class were going in or coming out of the library.'
To mitigate against the poor location, a folding screen was purchased. However, the screen made the working area dark and cramped. When the screen was opened out to allow for more light and working space, a direct sightline would be opened up along the corridor.

As well as putting up a 'quiet please' sign, the therapists would try to offer reassurance and encouragement to the children.
'I used to say 'nobody can see you, they can only see me.' 'I think they felt that people saw them in that space. If someone walked past (...) they'd go quiet and then it's trying to get them to talk again and somebody else would walk past and they'd go silent. There was no confidentiality really because the children were seen coming in, you know ... they didn't feel free to talk. We'd notice that straight away, almost instantly.
Constant interruptions, not only from pupils but also from members of staff was a feature of their daily work. At best, this halts the conversation between therapist and child. As one of the therapists commented:
'It does stop the flow. And then, you know, they forget what they were going to say.
At worst, these interruptions breach the confidential nature of what a child is trying to express.
'At times it's been difficult with staff as well, particularly in the old space. They're not actually realising how confidential our work is and they're going up and speaking to the child, speaking behind the screen. So if they're approaching from the infants side, they could see which child we were with sometimes. I don't think they really realise what we do.'
This final comment, 'I don't think they really realise what we do' lies at the heart of the problem. When someone's job is not understood and as a consequence not valued, poor design decisions around that person's role are more likely to be made and these may be difficult to reverse.

The school leadership team had invested a significant amount of money in training these two practitioners as therapists and had given them sufficient time to do their work in supporting children with emotional and psychological needs. But the financial investment in the staff was being negated by a lack of recognition of the significance of the space in promoting feelings of safety and security for the children taking part in the sessions there. Lack of space meant that only one of the two therapists was able to work in the corridor at any one time, reducing the number of children that they could potentially support by a half. The correlation between money, space and benefit to the children could hardly be clearer here. As one of the therapists concluded:
'We really couldn't get on with any of our interventions really because there just wasn't the space.'
The unsuitability of the space meant that children were, as the therapists reported, 'clamming up', forgetting what they were saying and becoming withdrawn as lines of children trooped past them to enter the library.

Eventually, the wishes of the therapists were granted and they were allowed to repurpose a store cupboard inside an unused classroom, giving them a new therapeutic space with the protection and storage space of the classroom around it. Sara Freitag asked them both to describe the new space that they had created:
'It's literally a cupboard, you know, the cupboards that people have at the back of the classrooms to store things. It looks really small but it works quite well. We removed the shelves and measured the space. We tried to make it as cosy as we can.' 'We wanted it to be as cosy as possible ... but quite simple. So we haven't got loads on the wall at the moment, we've got it quite plain. We've got a couple of beanbags for if we've got more children, we've got a lamp.' 'It just looks like a nice little room and they feel really comfortable in there. For them it's space and a 'We got a glass panel put in the door, which wasn't there before, just a safety thing, they often say you shouldn't shut doors but we can shut the door because there's a glass bit there and normally one of us is outside on the desk doing our notes. We take it in turns so that one of us sees the child while the other is doing our notes. And it works quite well. We try and get the children to ... we have got our specific children but we try to get them to know both of us so that if one of us isn't there, they're comfortable talking to the other, and just comfortable seeing the other one outside the door. And you can't hear, you can't really hear outside the door.' space. It is a safe space where they can talk about their feelings, which they didn't really have before.'
The cupboard was located in an empty classroom, which meant that they could also use the classroom area to support and resource their work and that both of them could work simultaneously.
'[Now] we've got our little designated area outside for drawing and stuff, whereas before it would be like 'we have to go and get the paper, get the stuff together and bring it down'. Everything is to hand. If they decide they want to draw there and then, they can. Whereas before you couldn't do it.' 'Before, if we wanted something else we'd have to walk around and get it and it wasn't always ideal if you had a child in tow.' 'We can do our painting and the rest of the room can't really see us because directly outside the room there's a little table there by the window so that works really well. If you're sitting there you can clean up really quickly. Before, painting was a massive job. I don't like it but I have done lots of sessions and it's been great. You're right next to the sink and you can clear it all up so that's made a massive difference.
Although therapy sessions in schools sometimes involve conversation and reflection, they are also often built around creative work, such as drama, drawing and painting. None of this was possible in the corridor.
The effect upon the children
Sometimes children are offered soft toys or puppets through which to express difficult experiences or feelings as a proxy. Without access to any storage space in the corridor, the two therapists had stopped using puppets and were more reluctant to set up painting sessions without any facility to wash paintbrushes. This changed as soon as they were able to use the classroom with its sink and cupboard space.
'Within 5 - 10 minutes of their first session they'd be talking about their feelings. Before we had to go 'round the houses'. It could sometimes take several sessions before they felt comfortable talking'. 'We had more issues come up in the new space. I think the children were more comfortable speaking to us quicker.' 'I think the main thing we've got from this is how much more open they are. Most children are far more open and open up more quickly. You don't have to have a few sessions building up to it. It kind of saves time almost having a good space because they do feel comfortable and it is a nice space. When we first started taking children there I'd say, 'ooh, close your eyes, close your eyes, look at our new space!' and made it feel really exciting and made them feel it's for them. So they can feel that it's their space and they can feel comfortable in it.' 'In the new space they seem so much freer, and they know where to find us. The only thing is you can sometimes hear the class next door, although they can't hear us'.
When the practitioners were working in the corridor without storage space close to the site of the therapy sessions, the choices that children could make to express themselves were reduced. In the new space, children can choose how they express themselves and no time is wasted in going to find the resources necessary to begin that activity.
It's quite funny actually, as we open the door to come into the room we've got, you can see the children's eyes flickering around, looking at who else is in the room. So they are very aware of other kids and what they will say and what have you. The effect upon the adults
Moving to a new space had dramatic and immediate consequences for the children.
'It was really difficult to do our ELSA role, almost practising in a way that you're told not to really. But now we feel like we are doing our ELSA job properly, really, although we were before, it was difficult (because) we didn't feel that. We almost felt that we were doing a disservice to the children whereas now I think we're doing the right thing.'
Even though the new therapy space in the cupboard is surrounded by an empty classroom, the practitioners are aware that the children who come to work with them there are vigilant and cautious when they arrive, checking to see if anyone else is there.
'And you feel a bit more ... respected because it's part of the school. It was always like we weren't that important because we were stuck in a corridor and therefore the children felt that a little bit, I think. Whereas now they'll see the space and they'll see 'Oh, who else comes here?' We obviously don't tell them who else comes here but they're intrigued and they think of it as theirs.'
Primarily, both practitioners felt that their ability to do their job had been compromised by having to work in a corridor:

Along with the ability to store and have resources to hand; privacy; quiet; a lack of interruption and a confidence in providing confidentiality in their new room, both therapists also felt that their roles as professionals were given more respect in the new space.

And although both practitioners thought that a therapy space twice the size of the cupboard would be even more ideal, being able to use the classroom space around the cupboard meant that they could adapt different areas of the room to the needs of each child.

E (her therapist colleague) might have the room because you know you've got a child who will only speak in there whereas I might know I have a child who will speak quite freely colouring in and painting. We have screens we can put around the rest of the room so we have the freedom to choose which children work well in which space if we're both using the space at the same time.

4. Thoughts arising from this conversation

The words of these two therapists, talking frankly with a trusted educational psychologist colleague, demonstrate how vital it is for the space to be well designed for any therapeutic work with children, particularly in schools. School buildings can feel exposed and unsafe for children who are processing difficult feelings.

The testimonies of the therapists also reflect how much their sense of professionalism had been undermined been by having to do their work in an unsuitable space, particularly as they had made repeated requests for a protected, private space. Their words convey a strong sense of the hierarchy of spaces within a school and how practitioners who do a different type of work from their teacher/manager colleagues, are often not accorded the same status or respect. It isn't necessarily the case that having a new room gave these therapists a higher status, but they regained a sense of being able to do their jobs in a professional manner. The new room also meant that they could work with a physical barrier to interruptions i.e. a closed door.

The designed elements that these practitioners identified as particularly significant for their therapeutic space were: privacy/protected space (both acoustically and visually); lighting; storage space to enable them to encourage creative work; enough space for them both to work simultaneously. The cupboard space and surrounding classroom fulfilled many of these elements, although it is worth noting that the therapists, when questioned about their ideal space, said that the cupboard was still a little too small.

The senior managers of the school had invested in recruiting and retaining two members of staff to do the important work of emotion coaching and therapy with children. These therapists were also given a generous amount of time in which to do their work. However, in the five year period before the move to a suitable space was made, senior management failed to recognise how detrimental the corridor space was to the therapists' practice and how much it compromised the school's investment in them as professionals.

These two practitioners struggled for several years with the frustration of being hampered in their work by poor working conditions. By negotiating a new space and designing it carefully with the children's needs in mind, they demonstrated how an environment can support rather than hinder important work like this. Their words convey a strong sense of professional pride and renewed self-respect in being able to do their jobs properly to the benefit of the children.

It is heartening that even a small and inexpensive change like this - moving a therapeutic practice from a corridor to a converted cupboard - could have such a dramatic impact on the children's ability to engage with the therapeutic process, sharing their feelings more immediately and freely.

When designing schools, or managing the spaces within them, listening to people who know exactly what their job requires, like these two therapists, is essential. Failing to listen to experienced practitioners risks undermining their roles, wasting a financial investment in staff and, worst of all, stripping away the benefit of their valuable work to the children who need them the most.

Photo by kyo azuma on Unsplash

* ELSA programmes are an initiative that have been developed by educational psychologists in schools to address the emotional needs of children who face life challenges, sudden or long-term. Emotional Literacy Support Assistants undergo a year of training by educational psychologists to deliver their programme in a safe space in their school. The training course run by the local authority in which this school is located requests that when ELSAs sign up to their training course that they school commits to providing 'a quiet, private space where pupils feel safe and secure' .

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Designing therapeutic spaces in schools 5: the corridor and the cupboard, a case study

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After several years of working with children in a busy primary school corridor, two teaching assistants trained in emotional literacy support (ELSAs*) were finally given the opportunity to create a private, comfortable and safe space where they could work. This post uses their own words (in italics) with additional comments from me and is arranged...

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The spiky modules used to build this curving pavilion in Stuttgart, Germany, are made from a bioplastic containing over 90 percent renewable materials (photography by Roland Halbe).

Students and professors from Stuttgart University's ITKE (Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design) designed the freeform facade to demonstrate the structural properties of a new bioplastic developed specially for use in the construction industry.

Bioplastics are plastics made from renewable biomass sources such as starches, cellulose or other biopolymers, that offer sustainable alternatives to plastics derived from fossil fuels. The bioplastic used in the ArboSkin project is called Arboblend and is produced by German firm, Tecnaro, by combining different biopolymers such as lignin - a by-product of the wood pulping process - with natural reinforcing fibres.

"Thermoformable sheets of bioplastics will represent a resource-efficient alternative [to oil-based plastics, glass, or metal] in the future, as they combine the high malleability and recyclability of plastics with the environmental benefits of materials consisting primarily of renewable resources," explained the project team.

The pyramidal modules are made by extruding bioplastic granules into sheets before thermoforming them to create the faceted shapes and trimming off the excess material.

The double-curved skin is formed by linking the pyramids together, with bracing rings and joists helping to create load-bearing walls.

CNC-milling was used to remove sections from some of the modules, creating apertures in the facade. The waste material from this process can be re-granulated and fed back into the production process, while the plastic sheets can be composted at the end of their life.

Here's some more information about the project:

Mock-Up: The bioplastics facade mock-up was created within the framework of the Bioplastic Facade Research Project, a project supported by EFRE (Europäischer Fonds für Regionale Entwicklung / European Fund for Regional Development). It demonstrates one of the possible architectural and constructional applications of bioplastic materials developed during the course of the project. The blueprint is based on a triangular net composed by mesh elements of varying sizes.

Bioplastic Façade Research Project: The ITKE has many years of experience in teaching and research in the fields of computer based design, simulation, and production of cladding for buildings with complex geometries. Currently, materials made from oil-based plastics, glass, or metal are mainly used to encase these structures. Thermoformable sheets of bioplastics will represent a resource-efficient alternative in the future, as they combine the high malleability and recyclability of plastics with the environmental benefits of materials consisting primarily of renewable resources. The interdisciplinary group of material scientists, architects, product designers, manufacturing technicians, and environmental experts was able to develop a new thermoformable material for facade cladding made primarily from renewable resources (>90%).

Developed by project partner TECNARO within the framework of the research project ARBOBLEND®, a special type of bioplastic granules was employed, which can be extruded into sheets and further processed as required: the sheets can be drilled, printed, laminated, laser cut, CNC-milled, or thermoformed to achieve different surface qualities and structures and eventually produce various moulded components. The semi-finished products serve as cladding for flat or free-formed interior and exterior walls. The material can be recycled and meets the high durability and flammability standards for building materials. The goal of the project was to develop a maximally sustainable yet durable building material while keeping the oil-based components and additives to a minimum. The ecological audit was completed by project partner ISWA (Institute for Water Engineering, Water Quality, and Waste Management). Furthermore, the material's resistance to microbial degradation was also determined.

Innovative Character of the Research Project: This research project marks the first occasion for the development of bioplastic sheets primarily based on renewable resources. The sheets can be freely formed, are designed for applications in the building industry and are specifically meant for building exteriors and cladding. At the beginning of the project such product was not available on the market. The conception of this material as flame-retardant sheet material also aims at applications for building interiors (spek DESIGN).

With this new development, we can therefore soon offer a product that addresses two trends: - the increasing demand for resource-efficient and sustainable building materials - the increasing development of buildings featuring double-curved geometries and planar facade components with 3D effects (relief).

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ArboSkin spiky facade made from bioplastics by ITKE | architecture

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The spiky modules used to build the facade of this curving pavilion are made from a bioplastic containing over 90 percent renewable materials.

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Open Access Feature Paper Review

School of Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia

QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia

School of Arts and Architecture, Guilan University, Persian Gulf Highway, Rasht 41998-43653, Guilan, Iran

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract
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Graphical Abstract

1. Introduction

There exists a strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest crisis of our time [ 1, 2]. In a rapidly urbanizing world, climate change and the misuse and mismanagement of land and resources are triggering natural disasters and increasing their intensity [ 3, 4]. Subsequently, cities are becoming frequently subjected to the direct or indirect impacts of natural disasters-for example, the 2019 Amazon Rainforest fires [ 5] and the 2020 Australian bushfires [ 6]. There have been numerous top-down (e.g., the Paris Agreement, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN's Sustainable Development Goals, UN Climate Change Conferences) and bottom-up (e.g., school strikes, extinction rebellion protests, climate emergency declarations) attempts to raise awareness and develop policy actions to address the climate emergency [ 7, 8].

These efforts provided some hope, despite the political and policy quagmires in many countries. Nevertheless, there has been no significant climate action undertaken to address the crisis. Instead, in recent years, with the advancement of the current digital revolution, a large portion of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have increased their faith in smart urban technologies to mark a major turning point in the history of humankind [ 9]. This technocentric view-in solving urban and environmental problems with the aid of technology-has increased the popularity of the 'smart cities' notion [ 10]. These cities-also referred to as 'geographies of disruption' [ 11]-harness digital technologies to offer new business opportunities, shape the urban fabric, improve the quality and performance, and overcome many of the challenges confronted by urban areas [ 12].

The prospects of smart urban technologies range from expanding infrastructure capacity to generating new services, from reducing emissions to engaging the public, from minimizing human errors to improved decision-making, and from supporting sustainable development to improving performances of commercial enterprises and cities [ 13, 14]. The most popular technologies in the context of smart cities include but are not limited to internet-of-things (IoT), autonomous vehicles (AV), bigdata, 5G, robotics, blockchain, cloud computing, 3D printing, virtual reality (VR), digital twins, and artificial intelligence (AI) [ 15, 16, 17]. While all these technologies are critical in transforming our cities into smarter ones, AI combined with these technologies has significant potential to address the urbanization challenges of our time [ 18]. Furthermore, AI is certainly seen as the most disruptive technology among them [ 19, 20].

2. Conceptual and Application Background

In broad terms, AI is defined as "machines or computers that mimic cognitive functions that humans associate with the human mind, such as learning and problem solving" [ 23]. In other words, AI, where machines mimic human cognitive functions, can make decisions, think, learn and improve themselves. It was first introduced in 1956 at Dartmouth College, but development was slow until recently due to immature computational technologies. In recent times, advances in hardware, software, and networking technologies have enabled us to design, develop, and deploy AI systems at scale. The application areas of AI ranges from banking and finance to marketing and gaming, and from agriculture and healthcare to AVs and space exploration-and many more areas [ 24].

AI-driven computational techniques are diverse and range from rule-based systems to deep learning systems. A popular AI knowledge map was created by Corea [ 25]. His conceptualization brings together the AI paradigms and the AI problem domains ( Figure 1). The X-axis categories various computational paradigms and the Y-axis outlines problem domains. Various technologies are then mapped to illustrate their potential value. For example, rule-based systems (e.g., expert systems, robotic process automation) that are logic-driven knowledge engines, which are common in urban systems, are often used to capture and automate structured workflows.

AI applications are used to improve and innovate the delivery of public services [ 28]. Various cities have begun 'robotic process automation' (RPA) projects. These projects are focused on automating tasks that are currently conducted by public workers that are mundane, repetitive, and costly. Thus, freeing up valuable resources to be better deployed. Cities are using RPA to process online applications for items such as permits. RPA follows structured rules to reach an outcome [ 29].

Engagement platforms between public agencies and various stakeholders of the city are also being transformed through a range of AI applications. Chatbots are the most popular set of AI applications in this regard. Rammas, a chatbot, was deployed by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) in January 2017 [ 36]. DEWA can respond to queries from residents in Arabic and English, and promotes greater knowledge awareness on utility matters. In its first year of operations, Rammas responded to roughly 700,000 queries, which led to an 80% drop in in-person visits.

AI systems ingest vast amounts of data, apply learning algorithms, and learn patterns from the data to enable predicting outcomes [ 37]. Today, cities are deploying machine learning systems to exploit data across their ecosystem from sensors on public infrastructure, to machine readable cards that provide access to city services (e.g., public transport), to images and videos that capture movements around the city, and even devices that capture auditory, olfactory, and tactile data [ 38, 39]. Urban infrastructures, such as traffic lights, are becoming connected. Traffic lights are connected to road sensors to reduce wait time at signals based on the traffic flow. Scotland's Glasgow city has installed networks of sensors that connect to streetlights and traffic lights to help monitor traffic flow and increase connectivity, aggregately reducing travel time for drivers. Further, the traffic data also feeds into maps in real-time to help drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians make decisions to plan their commutes [ 40].

In 2017, the Seattle Police Department launched a data analytics platform to transition towards improved oversight, data-driven decisions, and community engagement [ 43]. This platform helps the department to manage, govern, and support insightful policing. The system is designed to help the department's leadership team to track trends related to operations. It integrates 17 internally tracked metrics and develops visualizations for department heads. The system tracks several measures such as use-of-force incidents, number of arrests, self-initiated trips, response to calls, number of stops, and civilian complaints. The department can use this detailed information on each police officer to take appropriate measures (e.g., counselling). Since 2012, the police department in San Diego has collected over 65,000 face scans, in an attempt to match them to a directory of over 1 million images collected as part of the San Diego County Sheriff's Tactical Identification System (TACIDS) [ 44]. More recently, London Metropolitan Police has announced plans to use facial recognition technology to aid police in identifying suspects.

While the housing and urban development space today is data rich, much of the data is often left unanalyzed, thereby resulting in an inability to keep policies and enforcement standards current. Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and University of California, Irvine collaborated with the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department (AFRD) to develop an algorithm which was able to predict fire risk in buildings [ 45]. Using data from 2010-2014, the algorithm included over 50 variables-including property location, building size, structure, age, and history of fire incidents-to predict fire risk. The algorithm classified fire risk ratings for 5000 buildings and found another 19,397 buildings requiring inspection. Furthermore, the algorithm was able to predict 73% of fire incidents which occurred within the study area [ 45].

AI-enabled computational tools also help in protecting cyber-infrastructure that is the core fabric of smart cities [ 46]. Four US cities, namely Pensacola, New Orleans, Galt, and St Lucie, were all victims of different cyberattacks throughout December that rendered telephone and email systems, law enforcement systems, waste, energy, and payment systems inoperable. Often, these attacks demand a ransom, and councils find themselves either paying the attackers or employing external cybersecurity and consulting firms to mitigate and repair the situation. In Lake City, Florida, council reluctantly paid a $460,000 'ransom' to attackers after all their council systems were shut down [ 47]. Researchers from MIT developed an AI platform called AI2 that outperforms existing systems in predicting cyber-attacks [ 48]. AI2 detects 85% of cyberattacks, performing about 300% better than previous systems. The system is also able to reduce the instance of false-positive readings to one-fifth of previous outcomes. This high detection rate is enabled through supervised and unsupervised machine learning.

While we have treated each AI application in isolation, it is common to have them bundled and integrated. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University collaborated with the City of Pittsburgh to develop a Scalable Urban Traffic Control (SURTRAC), which was able to simultaneously monitor and control the flow of traffic [ 49]. The system has been deployed in the East Liberty neighborhood since 2012 and covers nine intersections. On average, 29,940 vehicles pass through this area daily. SURTRAC is a schedule-driven system designed to manage multiple competing traffic flows shifts. SUTRAC is a multi-agent decentralized system, where an agent system runs each intersection. Each agent system controls traffic signals for their intersection and monitors traffic flow by dynamically coordinating with other agents in real-time. The deployment of SURTRAC resulted in a 34% increase in vehicle speed, and a reduction of 25% in travel time, 40% in waiting time, 31% in traffic stops, and 21% in emissions.

While AI systems have significant potential, their deployments are never straightforward. In Detroit, a $9 million initiative 'Neighborhood Real-Time Intelligence Program' implemented facial recognition software and video surveillance cameras at 500 different Detroit intersections. This initiative built on the previous 'Project Green Light' Initiative, which installed 500 cameras outside of businesses capable of recording and reporting real time video footage to the police. The software boasts an ability to match faces with 50 million driver's license photographs in the Michigan police database. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that current facial recognition software more often misidentifies black faces than white faces [ 50]. Whilst intended to increase public safety, there is widespread public criticism directed towards this technology, as residents feel their privacy is compromised and knowledge of the racial biases continues to increase.

Fake news in its purest form refers to completely made up information, nonetheless, such information is often hard to identify as it can resemble credible journalism and attract maximum attention, spreading like wildfire through various social media channels [ 51]. A man was caught after he carried an assault rifle and fired shots at a pizza parlor in Northwest Washington Upon arrest, the man informed the police that he was investigating a conspiracy theory which claimed that the pizza parlor-Comet Ping Pong-was the headquarters of a pedophilia ring [ 52]. This incident caused panic among people in the neighborhood, resulting in the lockdown of several businesses.

In May 2016, a Tesla Model S car collided with a tractor-trailer in Williston, Florida. The accident occurred on the highway when the car, on autopilot mode, collided with the truck while crossing an uncontrolled intersection. The Tesla driver sustained fatal injuries, raising several questions about the autopilot functionality. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) final investigation report concluded that the accident was caused by the driver's inattention [ 56]. Since the accident, Tesla has implemented several features to keep drivers engaged while their car is in autopilot mode.

Chrysler recalled about 1.4 million cars and trucks, because these vehicles could be hacked remotely over the Internet [ 57]. These vehicles used UConnect features to connect with Sprint networks for navigation. Hackers could access these cars' navigation systems to control air conditioners, cut off brakes, and shut down engines, and so on. Software installed in vehicles need to be constantly upgraded to protect against hacks and security breaches [ 58].

Economically, local governments may lose revenue streams because of AVs due to a decrease in speeding tickets, towing fees, and driving under influence charges [ 59]. Cities in Arizona such as Phoenix and Mesa collected about $10.8 million and $4.2 million from drivers for traffic violations [ 60]. On an average, cities in California generated $40 million in towing violations annually [ 15].

The conceptual and application background of AI as presented above underlines the importance of further investigations into how we can best integrate AI systems in addressing critical urban issues. Particularly the challenges we face-e.g., climate emergency-calls for smarter systems in place. This is also highly critical to increase the smartness of our cities. A recent study that evaluated the smartness levels of 180 Australian local government areas argues for the importance of better integration of urban technologies, including AI, into local service delivery and governance [ 14].

3. Materials and Method

We undertook a systematic review of the literature to answer the following research question: How can AI contribute to the development of smarter cities? We adopted a three-phase methodologic approach ( Figure 2) following the study steps of Yigitcanlar et al. [ 61].

The first phase is planning, which involves developing the research aim, research question, a list of keywords, and criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of articles. The research aim was framed to generate insights into forming a greater understanding on how AI can contribute to the development of smarter cities. The inclusion criteria were intended to be peer-reviewed journal articles, that were available online, in English, and had relevance with respect to the research aim. A university's library search engine, which gives access to 393 different databases including: Directory of Open Access Journals, Science Direct, Scopus, TRID, Web of Science, and Wiley Online Library, was used to complete an online search. The search was carried out towards the end of December 2019 using the query string of (("artificial intelligence" OR "AI") AND ("smart" OR "smarter" OR "smartness") AND ("city" OR "cities" OR "urban")) to search the titles and abstracts of available articles. The publication date was left open. From this search it was determined that the one of the earliest studies on AI and the city was from Schalkoff [ 23]. The abstracts were then read, and if the article was considered to be relevant to the research aim, the full-text was reviewed to decide whether it was suitable to include in final analysis.

The second phase involved carrying out the review of relevant articles. The initial search resulted in a total of 799 records. These records were then screened and reduced to 245 by applying the inclusion criteria-i.e. journal articles that were peer-reviewed, and available online. The articles were then 'eye-balled' to ensure they were consistent with the keyword search, the abstracts assessed against the research aim, and duplicates removed. The total number of articles was reduced to 208. The full-text of the selected articles were read to determine the relevance with respect to the aim of the study and the results were narrowed down to 119 articles. After another round of full-text screening, the number of articles was reduced to 93. Finally, these 93 articles were reviewed, categorized, and analyzed. The criteria for formation of the themes is presented in Table 1. For the categorization, the main smart city development dimensions-i.e., economy, society, environment, and governance-were selected. Figure 3 below presents these dimensions in the context of smart cities.

The third and final phase is reporting and dissemination. This phase involved critically documenting and presenting the results from the 93 articles analyzed. A discussion of the perceived benefits and concerns associated with AI implementation were outlined.

4. Results

4.1. General Observations

The first step in the analysis of the selected 93 articles was to classify them by date of publication. This process revealed interest in AI technology had grown exponentially in recent times. Almost half of the reviewed articles were published in 2019 (n = 46; 49%), one-fifth in 2018 (n = 18; 20%), and nearly one-tenth in 2017 (n = 8; 9%). Slightly less than a quarter of all articles were published before 2016 (n = 21; 23%). The earliest article included in the literature review was published in 1999. Despite the fact that articles on AI and the city dated back to 1990, the earliest one that met our selection criteria was [ 63]. These figures reflect the results of other review studies and are representative of the increased interest in how AI systems interact and impact the development of smart cities [ 64].

Leading authors are affiliated with institutions in Europe (n = 28), East Asia (n = 24) and North America (n = 21). Nonetheless, the Oceania context, particularly in Australia, is often referenced among the best applications of AI in practice [ 65, 66]. Regarding the academic journals, the articles published in IEEE Access appear most often (n = 8), followed by Sensors (n = 5), and then three articles in both Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (n = 3) and Procedia Computer Science (n = 3).

Articles were categorized under four groups. These groups were based on the main smart city domains of: (a) Economy; (b) Society; (c) Environment; (d) Government. More than one-sixth of them (n = 17) were in the economy domain, slightly more than a quarter (n = 24) in the society domain, over one-third (n = 33) in the environment domain, and slightly less than quarter of them (n = 19) were in the governance domain.

With reference to the 'AI Knowledge Map' ( Figure 1), the majority of articles discusses AI applications or techniques that fit within the machine learning paradigm (n = 71), followed by probabilistic methods (n = 25), knowledge-based (n = 21), search and optimization (n = 21), logic-based (n = 18), and embodied intelligence (n = 15). Regarding AI applications, the most commonly mentioned in the selected literature are neural networks (n = 55), evolutionary algorithms (n = 21), distributed artificial intelligence (n = 15), computer vision (n = 13), and decision networks (n = 9). The most common AI paradigms and applications identified in the literature are outlined in Table 2. A complete list of all articles and the identified AI paradigms, applications, techniques, and supporting technology are shown in Appendix A. Please note, there is some crossover with the number of AI paradigms and applications identified in the literature as many articles discuss multiple, or hybrid AI systems.

We acknowledge that there is a potential risk in bias resulting from our strategy for selecting literature to be included in the review. Our review focused on journals only, whereas cutting edge works in engineering, design, and technology field are often published in conference papers. Nonetheless, in order to complement the reviewed 93 journal articles, the paper also cited or quoted 112 relevant literature pieces on the 'AI and smart cities' topic.

4.2. AI in the Economy Dimension of Smart Cities

Papers categorized under the economy dimensions of smart cities are those that provide insights into 'how AI can contribute to and enhance the productivity and innovation of smart cities' [ 33]. Research in this area focused predominately on technological innovation, economy and management areas, and the contribution of AI can be summarized as: (a) Enhancing productivity and innovation by automating data management and analysis; (b) Reducing costs and increasing resources through pattern recognition; (c) Supporting decision-making by analyzing large volumes of data from multiple sources, and; (d) Drawing conclusions based on logic, reason and intuition. Appendix A lists the analysis highlights of the reviewed literature.

AI is a useful tool to quickly and accurately manage and analyze large volumes of data to support business decisions [ 103, 112]. This is particularly relevant in combination with IoT-a system enabled by the internet, which allows communication between a large network of devices without the need for human intervention [ 77, 106, 110]. Together with technologies such as blockchain, cloud storage, and fog computing-which help facilitate the recording, distribution, storage, and decentralized processing of data [ 128, 149]-, AI could improve productivity by automating the data management process and removing the need for intermediaries, and hence increasing profitability [ 126]. Furthermore, AI can improve the stability and effectiveness of IoT contributing to improved network communication. In return, this would help to improve knowledge sharing, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship [ 106, 127, 128].

In analyzing the large amounts of data collected by the sensors, devices, and other sources in a smart city, AI has the potential to accelerate the decision-making process by automating complex statistical analyses [ 111, 130, 150]. This is particularly relevant with regards to the application of deep learning technology to the process of data fusion-i.e. the processes of taking data from a variety of sources, combining it, and improving its quality and usefulness by producing sophisticated statistical models [ 126]. AI has the capability to automate this process and conduct statistical analyses that are much larger and more complex than could be completed with human intervention. This information can then be used to reduce economic uncertainty and assist business decisions [ 77, 103, 107], and/or create marketplaces that are more responsive to user needs and desires [ 130].

4.3. AI in the Society Dimension of Smart Cities

Papers in this category provide insights into 'how AI can contribute to and improve the livability and wellbeing of citizens in smart cities' [ 33]. Research in this area focused predominately on the health and education sectors, and the contributions of AI can be summarized as: (a) Improving health monitoring; (b) Enhancing health diagnosis outcomes, and; (c) Providing autonomous tutoring systems that are highly individualized and adaptive to needs and external changes. Appendix A lists the analysis highlights of the reviewed literature.

Lastly, AI has been used for the modelling of the spread of the recent COVID-19 epidemic. The predictions seem to be showing reliable results as the modelling predicts COVID-19 infections with an accuracy of 96%, and deaths with an accuracy of 99%, up to one week into the future. This information would help governments implement effective contingency plans, and prevent the virus's spread and turn into a global pandemic [ 154]. Similarly, Lin et al. [ 155] utilize blockchain with AI to efficiently manage water use under the changing climate conditions, and contribute to climate change adaptation efforts.

4.4. AI in the Environment Dimension of Smart Cities

These papers provide insights into 'how AI could contribute to sustainable urban development and improved accessibility in smart cities' [ 33]. Research in this area focused predominately on the transport, energy, land use, and environment sectors/areas, and the contribution of AI can be summarized as: (a) Monitoring changes in the environment; (b) Using smart energy systems to optimize energy consumption and production; (c) Planning, development, and use of households to reduce energy consumption, and; (d) Operationalizing smart transport systems. Appendix A lists the analysis highlights of the reviewed literature.

When faced with complex environmental issues and large quantities of data, AI systems have the potential to make knowledge-based decisions that balance the environmental outcomes of the city against the social and economic wellbeing of its residents [ 63, 136]. AI systems can be used to monitor changes in the environment including, noise, temperature, humidity, emissions [ 90], water pollutants [ 133], fish stock, and other environmental indicators [ 136]. AI systems can respond to these changes, and quickly implement solutions for dealing with any issues [ 156]. Furthermore, improved data quality from AI systems can contribute to more robust and accurate environmental modelling systems [ 69, 124].

AI has also been identified as a means of creating more energy efficient cities [ 156]. Smart grid systems, integrated with AI technology, can be used to control power systems and optimize energy consumption [ 78, 79]. Including the planning and management of electric vehicle charging [ 145], public lighting [ 75], and data [ 121]. AI can also assist with the distribution of renewable electricity generated from multiple, often non-traditional sources-including body heat [ 125]-, the identification of inefficiencies, and future forecasting [ 134, 157]. By optimizing the management of resources, monitoring energy consumption, and better planning for future requirements, cities will be able to use resources more efficiently and better achieve renewable energy goals [ 80, 86].

Despite no studies in the reviewed literature directly focus on how AI can tackle climate change, we are aware of some relevant research. For instance, in their paper entitled 'tackling climate change with machine learning', Rolnick et al. [ 158] offer areas where machine learning can be deployed. These areas include better climate predictions and modeling, energy production, CO ₂ removal, education, solar geoengineering, and finance. Within these areas, the possibilities include more energy-efficient buildings, creating new low-carbon materials, better monitoring of deforestation, and greener transportation. They state that "although AI is not a silver bullet, it brings new insights into the problem". Another study, by O'Gorman & Dwyer [ 159], demonstrates the use of machine learning to parameterize moist convection and climate change, and extreme event modelling. Likewise, Dayal et al. [ 160] model Queensland (Australia) droughts based on AI and neural network algorithms for decision-makers and local inhabitants to take precautions.

4.5. AI in the Governance Dimension of Smart Cities

How AI can contribute to establishing good governance and planning in smart cities is the focus of this set of papers [ 33]. Research in this area focused predominately on the security, governance and decision-making areas, and the contributions of AI can be summarized as: (a) Enhancing the operability of surveillance systems; (b) Improving cyber security; (c) Aiding the disaster management planning and operations, and; (d) Assisting citizens with new technology to support citizen scientist and contribute to the urban decision-making process. Appendix A lists the analysis highlights of the reviewed literature.

Advanced AI surveillance technologies, enabled by motion detection, predictive analytics, drones, and other autonomous devices, can be used to monitor urban areas, recognize threats, such as crime [ 72, 93, 100, 148], fraud [ 109], accidents, and fire [ 101, 123, 160]. On a broader scale, AI can be used to monitor communication networks and recognize potential terrorist threats, trafficking, crime syndicates, and other illegal behavior [ 100]. Once targets are identified, intelligent surveillance systems can evaluate and track targets [ 93], and collect forensic evidence-such as video recording [ 138]. AI can also be used to better predict future crime incidents and ensure the optimal allocation of crime law enforcement [ 144].

Cyber threats also pose significant risks to smart cities both in terms data privacy and the protection of connected infrastructure [ 83, 161, 162]. AI can be used to identify irregular behavior, determine what is a threat and implement mitigation measures at speeds beyond that of human ability [ 83, 100]. This together with encryption technologies such as blockchain [ 100], and a focus on data security at all levels of design [ 131], can alleviate individual concerns regarding data security and contribute to increased transparency and trust regarding online systems [ 83, 141]. This would allow increased avenues for citizen engagement in policy decisions and citizen scientist engagement with policy development via crowdsourcing [ 163], along with other online services such as electronic voting [ 141] and smart contracts [ 115].

Given the ability of AI to analyze large amounts of data, scenarios to deal with potential threats could be constructed simultaneous to the detection of threats [ 161]. This would give decision-makers and other authorities more time to respond to threats such as natural disasters [ 132], house fires [ 123], or other incidents. Furthermore, AI can be used to assess the extent of damage caused by these events helping authorities better respond to, and mitigate any damage caused [ 101, 132].

5. Discussion

In this paper, we attempted to generate insights into forming a better understanding on how AI can contribute to the development of smarter cities by undertaking a systematic review of the literature. Appendix A lists the analysis highlights of the reviewed literature. The results of the review disclosed the following main points, and some of the critical issues are discussed further:

AI has an evident potential to provide a positive change in our cities, societies and businesses by promoting a more efficient, effective and sustainable transition/transformation;

AI, with its technology, algorithms, and learning capabilities, can be a useful vehicle in automating the problem solving and decision-making processes; that in return could reform urban landscapes, and support the development of smarter cities;

AI in the context of smart cities is an emerging field of research and practice. Hence, further research is needed to consolidate the knowledge in the field;

The central focus of the literature is on AI technologies, algorithms, and their current and prospective applications;

AI applications in the context of smart cities mainly concentrate on business efficiency, data analytics, education, energy, environmental sustainability, health, land use, security, transport, and urban management areas, and;

Upcoming disruptions of AI on cities and societies have not been adequately investigated in the literature; thus, further investigations are needed on that issue.

The results of the review revealed that AI-inspired computational systems are bound to make a profound impact on our cities. The impact will not only be on the physical setup of our cities but also in how our cities operate and achieve system-level objectives (e.g., livability, resilience, and so on). In order to ensure that cities advance in keeping with the values and aspirations of their key stakeholders (i.e., residents, businesses, and so on), it will be vital for us to ensure that AI systems are designed take on a value-sensitive design approach [ 170]. AI systems will need to account for the multiple aspects of diversity that are omnipresent in our cities. In addition, these systems will need to possess a degree of transparency, adaptability (to respond to varying environmental conditions), and accountability (for levels of performance). Doing so is non-trivial, but paramount to achieving responsible innovation in the context of AI and cities.

AI systems will impact cities at multiple levels, from the individual, to the local community (the residents), the neighborhood to the organizational (the city), and even the ecosystem (the city is connected to other cities) level. Impacts at the local level, will have effects up and down the hierarchy. Consider the case of algorithms used to promote sharing economy platforms (e.g., Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, and so on). These algorithms not only provide opportunities to individuals to earn rent on their assets and fees for their services, they also impact zoning rules, they impact the use of established public transport networks, they in turn impact the creation of new service opportunities for existing businesses, and even shape the nature of public finances of a city. More effort is needed to understand the cascading effects of AI innovations across the various levels of a city's functions. In addition, the interdependencies between functions and the implications for overall objectives (i.e., ensuring that local optimization does not compromise global performance) is also critical.

Given the significance of technology investments in our cities, we need to see vast improvements in projects management to deliver on their intended value. In this regard, two considerations are critical. First, we must build technologies that are agile, i.e., they have the ability to adopt, adjust, and have the capacity for transformation under changing environmental conditions. Second, we must build technologies in a manner that is in keeping with frugal engineering. Doing so will require us to move away from mega-scale smart cities projects and reconsider the issue of scale. Today, a dominant design paradigm is to build AI technologies that can scale and promote the re-use of components. This thinking is outdated. Today, it is possible to build technologies that work for specific contexts, in an agile and frugal manner, to promote personalization to a specific context and purpose [ 184].

The success of AI deployment to make our cities smarter will depend on the knowledge and care with which such technologies are deployed responsibility and in keeping with our public values. If done well, AI can help us tackle some our most complex urban challenges. However, it can also make our cities more fragile [ 54]. As stated by Stephen Hawking on the BBC, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."

On that very point, Gherhes and Obrad [ 188] report the findings of their study on technical and humanities student perspectives on the development and sustainability of AI. The study discloses that out of 928 participants 58.3% considers that AI will have a positive influence on the society. On the other hand, the percentage of those confessing to being confused or concerned is also quite significant (41.7%). The probability that AI might destroy humankind and replace people in certain activities and jobs are among the greatest fears [ 188].

As the AI applications are becoming more common, there grows the skepticism on the misuse of the technology. For example, most recently the Clearview AI facial recognition system has generated major concerns on the privacy issues. Australian police have been using this unaccountable facial recognition service that combines machine learning and wide-ranging data gathering practices to identify members of the public from online photographs. As stated by Golenfein [ 189] "Beyond the ethical arguments around facial recognition, Clearview AI reveals Australian law enforcement agencies have such limited technical and organizational accountability that we should be questioning their competency even to evaluate, let alone use, this kind of technology". Similarly, the New South Wales state government of Australia is using AI to spot drivers with mobile phones (often mixed phones with other rectangular items), and the Australian government welfare agency Centrelink is using AI (often incorrectly) to issue debt notices to welfare recipients [ 190].

6. Conclusions

The study reported in this paper offers a novel contribution to the literature by mapping out the scientific landscape of the understudied 'AI and the smart city' area. This study helps not only in identifying the current and potential contributions of AI to the development of smarter cities-to aid urban policymakers, planners and researchers-, but also in determining the gaps in the literature to bridge them in prospective studies. The study also gives a heads up for urban policymakers, planners and scholars for them to prepare for the disruptions that AI will cause in our cites, societies and businesses [ 200].

The broad findings of our systematic literature review findings reveal that: (a) AI has an evident potential-but only if utilized responsibly [ 201]-to provide a positive change in our cities, societies, and businesses by promoting a more efficient, effective and sustainable transition/transformation [ 202, 203], and; (b) Particularly, AI, with its technology, algorithms, and learning capabilities, can be a useful vehicle in automating the problem solving and decision-making processes that, in return, could reform urban landscapes and support the development of smarter cities [ 62].

The specific findings of our systematic literature review disclose that: (a) AI in the context of smart cities is an emerging field of research and practice; (b) The central focus of the literature is on AI technologies, algorithms, and their current and prospective applications; (c) AI applications in the context of smart cities mainly concentrate on business efficiency, data analytics, education, energy, environmental sustainability, health, land use, security, transport, and urban management areas; (d) There is limited scholarly research investigating the risks of wider AI utilization, and; (e) Upcoming disruptions of AI on cities and societies have not been adequately investigated in the literature.

AI provides a new hope for addressing some of the urbanization problems we failed to solve due to the complexities involved. Nevertheless, AI is not a silver bullet. While we are currently far away from such advance application of AI, there are numerous contributions of the rapidly developing technology for our cities and societies. Some of these contributions are presented in the paper and some warnings have been made for the good use of the technology. While there is a promise of the emerging advanced technologies, such as AI, our rapid urbanization, industrialization, and globalization practices are perhaps making even technology struggle with coming up solution. The recent anthropogenic climate change triggered environmental catastrophes and disasters-such as 2020 Australian Bushfires-and urbanization and globalization triggered epidemics-such as COVID-19-require more than technology for them not to be repeated again.

The paper opened with a viewpoint on technocentric solutions being widely seen as remedies for global issues-including climate change and urbanization problems. Indeed, AI and other technologies will definitely equip us with better data analytics and prediction models in more efficient and effective ways. To date, there are two different approaches to AI: rules-based (coded algorithms of if-then statements that are basically meant to solve simple problems) and learning-based (diagnoses problems by interacting with the problem), where both AI approaches have valid use cases when it comes to studying the environment and solving climate change. In other words, when it comes to helping solve climate change, a learning-based AI could essentially do more than just crunch CO ₂ emission numbers, where a learning-based AI could actually record those numbers, study causes and solutions, and then recommend the best solution [ 204]-'in theory'. We say 'in theory', because "fully functioning AI systems do not yet exist, and it has been estimated that they will be with us anywhere between 2029 and the end of the century" [ 195].

While we do not disagree with the positive contributions of technological prescriptions-such as AI and other urban technologies-[ 205], we close the paper with the following quote by Andrew Ng, co-founder and lead of Google Brain. "Much has been written about AI's potential to reflect both the best and the worst of humanity. For example, we have seen AI providing conversation and comfort to the lonely; we have also seen AI engaging in racial discrimination. Yet the biggest harm that AI is likely to do to individuals in the short term is job displacement, as the amount of work we can automate with AI is vastly bigger than before. As leaders, it is incumbent on all of us to make sure we are building a world in which every individual has an opportunity to thrive."

Author Contributions

T.Y. designed the study, supervised the systematic review, and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. L.B. and F.R. undertook the systematic review tasks, and identified the key findings. K.C.D. contributed to the write up and improved the rigor, relevance and reach of the study. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. The authors thank the managing editor and anonymous referees for their invaluable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix A

Table A1. Analysis Highlights of the Reviewed Literature.

Author

Title

Journal

Aim

Relevance

Domain

Paradigm

Application

Method

Technology

Abduljabbar et al. [ 98]

Applications of artificial intelligence in transport

Sustainability

To provide an overview of AI techniques applied to transport.

Advocates that AI in the transport field is aimed at decreasing VKT thus reducing emissions and other environmental degradation.

Environment

Smart Transport

Ajerla et al. [ 99]

A real-time patient monitoring framework for fall detection

Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

To develop a framework that uses edge computing to send data from wearable devices.

Describes the use of machine learning in improving fall detection devices.

Society

PM
ML

NN
CV

AR

IoT
Smart Health

Alam et al. [ 77]

Data fusion and IoT for smart ubiquitous environments

IEEE Access

To review existing literature on data fusion and IoT with a focus on mathematical models.

Discusses the benefits of AI in relation to data fusion.

Economy

IoT

Allama & Dhunny [ 100]

On big data, artificial intelligence and smart cities

Cities

To provide information on the use of AI and big data in smart cities.

Provides insights regarding the application of AI to public safety and security.

Governance

ES
NN

FS

IoT

Bajaj & Sharma [ 82]

Smart education with artificial intelligence-based determination of learning styles

Procedia Computer Science

To develop a framework for student learning styles using learning models and ratification intelligence.

Develops a framework for AI to improve adaptivity in teaching.

Society

Smart Education

Chassignol et al. [ 85]

Artificial Intelligence trends in education

Procedia Computer Science

To identify the prospective impact of AI technologies on the study process.

Identifies the potential for AI to develop innovative teaching methods, and improve student outcomes.

Society

ML

NN

n/a

Smart Education
Augment. Reality
Virtual Reality

Chmiel [ 74]

INSIGMA

Multimedia Tools and Applications

To investigate using intelligent transport systems for improving safety, mobility and environmental outcomes.

Describes using intelligent transport systems to improve congestion.

Environment

PM
ML

CV

IR
MV

Smart Transport

Chui et al. [ 86]

Energy sustainability in smart cities

Energies

To show ways in which AI can support energy sustainability.

Provides insights in the use of AI to monitor energy consumption.

Environment

ML
SO

EA

GA

IoT
Smart Energy

Cortes et al. [ 136]

Artificial intelligence and environmental decision support systems

Applied intelligence

To provide an overview of the impact of AI on environmental decision support systems.

Identifies how AI can assist in environmental decision-making

Environment

LB
KB
PM

Expert System
DN

n/a

Smart Environment

Dobrescu & Dobrescu [ 87]

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Global Economic Observer

To present trends, analyses and perceptions of AI.

Presents the benefits and disadvantages of integration of AI into all areas of socio-economic life

Society

PM
ML

NLP
CV
NN

n/a

Drigas & Ioannidou [ 71]

Artificial intelligence in special education

International Journal of Engineering Education

To review studies that use AI methods in making accurate diagnosis.

Discusses how AI can stimulate problem solving, particularly in special needs students, to enhance the way children interact with their environment.

Society

LB
KB
ML

ES
NN

FS

Smart Education

Feng & Xu [ 63]

Hybrid artificial intelligence approach to urban planning

Expert Systems

To present a hybrid AI system for use in urban planning.

Describers how AI can assist with knowledge-based decision making.

Environment

LB
KB
ML

ES
NN

FS
DL

n/a

Garlík
[ 79]

The application of artificial Intelligence in the process of optimizing energy consumption in intelligent areas

Neural Network World

To monitor and control the operation of selected smart objects.

Discusses the use of AI for energy optimization

Environment

ML
SO

NN
EA

GA

Smart Energy

Håkansson [ 91]

Ipsum: an approach to smart volatile ICT-infrastructures for smart cities and communities

Procedia Computer Science

To create smart volatile ICT infrastructures in cities.

Discusses using AI for customized health care.

Society

ML

n/a

n/a

Hariri et al. [ 112]

Uncertainty in big data analytics

Journal of Big Data

To review big data analytics.

Identifies AI techniques as beneficial to the accurate and timely analysis of big data.

Economy

ES
DN
EA

FS
BN

IoT

Iqbal et al. [ 114]

Intelligent remote monitoring of parking spaces using licensed and unlicensed wireless technologies

IEEE Network

To develop an intelligent parking system model

Describes using AI for parking utilization and optimization.

Environment

PM
ML

CV
NN

IoT
Smart Parking

Leung et al. [ 117]

AI-based sensor information fusion for supporting deep supervised learning

Sensors

To present an AI-based system which supports deep supervised learning of transport data collected from sensors

Describes using AI-based sensor to collect data from multiple sources.

Environment

ML

NN

DL

Li et al. [ 118]

Intelligent metasurface imager and recognizer

Light: Science & Applications

To propose the use of a smart metasurface imager and recognizer, empowered by a network of ANN to control data flow

Identifies the potential for AI enabled sensors and other devices to monitor health.

Society

ML

NN
CV

DL
MV

IoT
Smart Surveillance

Liu et al. [ 93]

Object tracking in vary lighting conditions for fog based intelligent surveillance of public spaces

IEEE Access

To improve the robustness and accuracy of the correlation filter-based trackers for handling intense illumination change.

Describes the use of intelligent surveillance systems in detecting abnormal circumstances, identifying and tracking targets.

Governance

PM
ML

CV

AR
IR
MV

Smart Surveillance

Nápoles et al. [ 96]

MUSA-I: towards new social tools for advanced multi-modal transportation in smart cities

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Proceedings

To describe the general architecture and current implementation of an explicit multi-modal transport demand system for smart cities.

Discusses using AI for transport demand management.

Environment

PM
ML

CV

AR
IR
MV

Smart Transport

Pence
[ 152]

Artificial intelligence in higher education

Journal of Educational Technology Systems

To explore the use of AI in education

Identifies the need for education to be adaptive in the face of rapid technology advances, and changes to employment.

Society

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Pieters
[ 141]

Explanation and trust

Ethics and Information Technology

To investigate the relationship between explanation and trust in the context of AI

Describes the importance on online security for trust in AI systems.

Governance

LB
KB

ES

n/a

n/a

Reaz
[ 73]

Artificial intelligence techniques for advanced smart home implementation

Acta Technica Corvininesis-Bulletin of Engineering

To develop a platform which serves as a reference point for developing more cutting-edge smart home technologies.

Identifies how AI can be used to provide more efficient power consumption

Environment

FS
AR
MAS

Smart Home

Streitz
[ 131]

Beyond 'smart-only' cities: redefining the 'smart-everything' paradigm

Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing

To present the various manifestations of the smart everything paradigm.

Identifies the need for privacy-by-design to empower people and enforce a citizen centric approach to data collection.

Governance

ML

NN

DL

IoT

References

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Figure 1. AI knowledge map, derived from [ 25].

Figure 2. Literature selection procedure.

Figure 3. Smart city conceptual framework highlighting key domains, derived from [ 62].

Table 1. Selection criteria for formulating categories.

Selection Criteria

Determine the literature relevant to the research aim by using the eye-balling technique;

Identify the suitable literature pieces focusing on AI and smart cities after reading the full-text;

Group the identified AI technology, algorithm and application areas with similarities into broad categories;

Narrow down the selected categories and review the reliability of these against other published literature;

Review the selected literature again and update the shortlisted categories if necessary;

Confirm and finalize the categories selected for the classification of literature;

Catalog the literature selected for the review under the selected categories.

Table 2. The common AI paradigms and applications identified in the literature.

AMA Style

Yigitcanlar T, Desouza KC, Butler L, Roozkhosh F. Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature. Energies. 2020; 13(6):1473. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13061473

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yigitcanlar, Tan, Kevin C. Desouza, Luke Butler, and Farnoosh Roozkhosh. 2020. "Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature" Energies 13, no. 6: 1473. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13061473

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. Interest in the use of AI for urban innovation continues to grow. Particularly, the rise of smart cities-urban locations that are enabled by community, technology, and policy to deliver productivity, innovation, livability, wellbeing, sustainability, accessibility, good governance, and good planning-has increased the demand for AI-enabled innovations.

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Copyright

License

Published in Frontiers in Engineering and Built Environment. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO), in 2019, estimated that 7.5% of people in India were already affected by mental health disorders which are likely to increase significantly because of the pandemic. It also states that India has only one psychiatrist per 1,30,000 people. The pandemic is not simply a medical experience, it also affects the mental health of individuals by causing anxiety, mental stress, depression and many more ( Moukaddam and Shah, 2020; Javed et al., 2020). Due to lockdown restrictions, in order to break the chain of transmission of the virus, people are asked to stay in their homes. Quarantine and isolating oneself can bring in abnormal effects on their psychological health. To overcome the psychological health, different measures and actions ought to be taken.

According to WHO, psychological and physical health are interlinked with each other, and hence mental health is an important factor for the healthy well-being of an individual (WHO; Investing in Mental Health, 2003). In a review by Hart (2021), it is found that many patients have been affected by issues like depression and anxiety ( Hart, 2021).

The psychological state of people has taken a downward turn because of the pandemic. Families and friends of patients suffering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), doctors and many others suffer psychologically due to the pandemic ( Itani et al., 2021). Thereby, understanding the impact of the pandemic and the place they are quarantining is equally important for the improvement of their mental health.

Healthcare facilities (HCFs) is a place where people with health issues opt for treating illness. Because of its nature, the healthcare industry is constantly working towards overall improvements, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reviews the research articles concerning the design of HCFs and homes.

2. The review strategy

2.1 Aim

The review aims to supply a summary on "healing environments" to investigate through the review of literature on how HCFs and residences can increasingly have an effect on recovery people due to the built environment during the pandemic by having a healing environment.

2.2 Literature methodologies

The screening process involves different stages of the selection process for the literature review. In the initial stages, the screening was done on various online publication platforms. The set of keywords used to find the articles are HCFs, patients, homes, healing environment, COVID-19, mental issues, psychological health, depression, mental stress, anxiety and the built environment. Based on the keywords with relevance to the objective, the articles were selected after reading the title and the abstract. Articles were selected from various journals like Sage, PubMed, Routledge Taylor & Francis, ScienceDirect and Emerald databases, news articles, official web pages and magazines that have been referred. The papers were then segregated into various factors which have been laid below in literature review.

3. Literature review

The literature review has been undertaken by revealing its context through a framework based on the healing environments of HCFs, patients, their families, environmental factors, homes and the built environment.

3.1 COVID-19 and its impact on the mental health of an individual

COVID-19, the pandemic, has affected many frontline workers and their families. Mainly people working in HCFs like doctors, nurses, and many others have been involved directly with taking care of patients and have an enhanced risk of getting infected ( Herron et al., 2020; Singh et al., 2021). They are not just worried about their own safety but also their family members, which decreases productivity and the quality of work ( Singh et al., 2021).

Various mental issues with respect to people have been studied in correlation with the quality of life ( Nathiya et al., 2021; Suryavanshi et al., 2020). Maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies have been used by the healthcare workers (HCWs). From the survey by Singh et al. (2021), among 348 HCW, 242 were doctors and 106 were nurses. Out of that, 190 of them had insomnia, 154 had anxiety, 188 had depression. Nurses, mainly females, were affected by insomnia more than males ( Singh et al., 2021). Similarly, among 592 HCW, 363 subjects were females and 229 subjects were males. Out of which 264 of the subjects had anxiety symptoms, and 229 of the subjects had depressive symptoms. The rate of anxiety and depression levels is significantly higher in females than their male counterparts ( Gallopeni et al., 2020). More females have been diagnosed with this kind of mental health issues which can be brought down by having different healing strategies.

In research done by Maheshwari et al., 51 patients were assessed, and it was found that the worst affected parameter was the environment's quality which affects psychological health ( Maheshwari et al., 2021). The built environment, including low quality, less open space and noise, is associated with depression ( Rautio et al., 2017). Different senses of an individual can be used to assess the environment by understanding the space ( Mazuch and Stephen, 2005). Interior design elements like the room's colour, materials, also have an effect on an individual's mental health based on their behaviour ( Kim, 2020).

With the research done by Lahiri et al. (2021), based on the questionnaire survey, out of 1,081 responses in total, 13.32% had a moderate degree of clinical insomnia, and 1.85% had a severe degree of insomnia ( Lahiri et al., 2021). Compared to the younger age group, the middle age group had a higher degree of insomnia during COVID-19 ( Lahiri et al., 2021). Mild anxiety and mild stress had effects on insomnia. It was majorly because of isolation due to COVID-19, afraid of not getting the supplies ( Lahiri et al., 2021). In paediatric groups, the mental stress is because of loss of educational routine, isolation and depression which was braced by mental health systems and emergency departments ( Golberstein et al., 2020; Cloutier and Marshaall, 2020).

3.2 Built environment

Healing is an individual process and personal experience ( Marshall, 2008; Firth et al., 2015). The quality of life is based on aspects like mobility, disability, physical activity, aggressive behaviour, mental stress, anxiety, depression, social engagement, garden usage, disorientation, sleep disorders, sense of privacy and sense of control. The above aspects can be enhanced or diminished by having proper site optimization, Outdoor environment, place of residence, Unit configuration, Daylight, and artificial lighting, arrangement of furniture, fixtures and equipment ( Joseph et al., 2016).

3.2.1 Patients' comfort and care

Homelike environments can decrease the physical and emotional pain of the patient ( Kligler et al., 2011; DuBose et al., 2018). In addition, an environment that provides elements for recreational activities and visual art creation seems to help patients to maintain their health ( Reynolds and Prior, 2006; DuBose et al., 2018). It provides an exclusive and dependable place for patients which provides control to them ( Fenner, 2011; DuBose et al., 2018).

Physical characteristics of a space, the feelings and familiarity that space creates and connection with nature. The motif of a homely nature, with the depiction of similar rooms within the home. It is also identified that having a space for their family members will increase healing ( MacAllister et al., 2016).

3.2.2 Access to views and nature

Mental stress and anxiety can be reduced by having a connection to the outside world and having indoor plants ( Park and Mattson, 2009; Lechtzin et al., 2010; Linebaugh, 2013; DuBose et al., 2018). Contact to the surface world will provide a better quality of life ( DuBose et al., 2018). Indoor courtyards and atrium spaces with green areas increase positive emotions and reduce negative emotions. For providing a pleasant view of nature, garden spaces can be designed with proper access and sitting spaces for better interaction, a positive distraction that connects the external environment ( Zhang et al., 2018; Hesselink et al., 2020). The development of the water, the blue spaces within the built environment increases a healing and relaxing nature ( Lengen, 2015).

3.2.3 Daylighting

By providing natural lighting in a patients' room, it had increased positive thoughts ( Timmermann et al., 2014; DuBose et al., 2018). Exposure to natural lighting may be a vital phenomenon for a healing environment. East facing windows give better natural lighting which helps in reducing mental stress and thus supports healing ( DuBose et al., 2018).

People from extreme northern latitudes experience "sunlight starvation syndrome" which weakens muscles, chronic irritation, fatigue, etc. ( Schweitzer et al., 2004). M Schweitzer et al. also talks about the colour, intensity of the light at different times of the day and also during different seasons. While talking about natural and artificial lighting, she said most artificial lights lack ultraviolet (UV) light, a biologically crucial component of sunlight that "has been found to stimulate blood circulation. Early morning sunlight decreases the timeline of stay in hospitals for those people. Less mental stress and pain have been seen when patients receive more daylighting ( Zhang et al., 2018).

3.2.4 Noise control

If space is designed with noise acoustics, or if space is located far away from noise-producing elements, it will decrease interfering noise and also mental stress of people in that space ( Linebaugh, 2013; Park and Mattson, 2009; DuBose et al., 2018). Soothing music in a space is also one of the mending tools for calming mental health ( Kreitzer et al., 2009; Smith and Jones, 2013; DuBose et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2018). In hospitals, the noise level is generally high and creates a negative impact on patients by increasing their perception of pain and sleep deprivation ( Schweitzer et al., 2004). An increase in blood pressure and heart rate, reduction in patient satisfaction can be because of an increase in noise in the surroundings ( Schweitzer et al., 2004).

3.2.5 Privacy

M Schweitzer et al. said that having a private single-bedded room is generally preferred in terms of privacy for better functionality, decrease medical errors by professionals, reduce the spread of infection and provide comfortable interaction with the family members. It provides better patient satisfaction ( Schweitzer et al., 2004; Mahmood and Tayib, 2019).

3.2.6 Sense of control

Individual's having the control of the space with the help of built features will have a psychological impact on their care ( DuBose et al., 2018). Studies by many researchers have shown that when pictures in hospitals are more of homely nature with connection to the outside world will give more control to people ( Kligler et al., 2011; DuBose et al., 2018). Sense of control can depend on direct and indirect control over the built environment. It reduces mental stress when an individual can physically manipulate the environment by having direct control over the arrangement of furniture, lighting and temperature, etc. ( Becker, 1985; Beemer et al., 2019). Lack of interaction can also bring negative outcomes in a person's mental health. So, having a better interaction among and within patients and staff will have indirect control over the space ( Kawachi, 2001; Thoits, 2011; Beemar et al., 2019).

3.2.7 Safety

The safety of the residents may be identified based on healthcare-associated infection (HAI), patient fall-related injuries and medication errors. By bringing in the outdoor environment, having better room configuration, having proper arrangement and location of furniture, having a bath/toilet grab bar and proper non-slip flooring will increase the resident safety factor in the environment ( Joseph et al., 2016).

3.2.8 Social support

The actions of the patients will depend on the people that are surrounding them. HCFs can be designed in such a way that it will increase the social interaction among patients ( Keysor et al., 2006; DuBose et al., 2018). Having better practical and emotional support between friends, relatives and professionals will increase healing ( Hesselink et al., 2020).

3.2.9 Colour

It is the first thing to notice and has the ability to alter the apparent size and warmth of a room, evoke memories, induce feelings and influence our physiological functioning ( Schweitzer et al., 2004). Different colours affect the moods, behaviours of people and enhance brain activity which also helps in treating mental stress, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and depression ( Schweitzer et al., 2004). Calming and restoring colours are used in places where the mental stress is at a higher level among people or in places where high attention is required. It can also reduce the feeling of loneliness ( Zhang et al., 2018).

3.2.10 Interior appearance and thermal environment

In the study made by Mahmood and Tayib (2019), the interior space can feel homely, light with different colours, textures and views. Ceilings can be designed to look interesting and clean ( Mahmood and Tayib, 2019). The thermal environment should be at a comfortable level with respect to people which has an effect on the betterment of people's mood ( Schweitzer et al., 2004).

Schreuder et al. (2016) found that if a hospital is in need of increasing the healing nature, one main thing any hospital should change is their patients' room which will have a stronger impact with respect to appearance, colours and materials ( Schreuder et al., 2016).

3.3 Home as a healing place

A home is a place where a person has a physical, mental and social connection with the environment. It will reflect our style, culture and it will also depict a person's individuality. It is considered to be a place with ultimate safety and security. Even though the private nature of a home has changed, the want for healing has been increased in today's situation considering the pandemic ( Marshall, 2008).

4. Discussions

This systematic review has analysed the influence of the built environment on the healing of mental health of patients and families. The review enveloped different strategies and subjective thoughts about healing. In spite of the fact that we recognized a few broad considerations, there was a common need to think of the effect of results in a holistic way. As specified within the preceding segment, a bedroom with just one patient explains both privacy, security and consolation of the quiet and is hence put in both subject bunches.

In spite of the reality that privacy is a basic element of an individual in a healing centre, the rapid change of making "residentiality" in cutting-edge HCFs has been discussed all through. These findings trace the differential ideas in association to the "healing environment". Thus, it requires clear portrayals.

The healing environment in HCFs is very different from the healing environment in residences. Even though the parameters are same, the usage of those parameters might differ based on the type of surroundings, economy, private or public space. Plants and gardens as relationships with plants provide a powerful ongoing connection with life. Greeneries can be used for isolating effects of buildings. It can lift the spirits and calm the mind. In HCFs, there are restrictions on the usage of certain plants because of the medicinal restrictions. Few patients may or may not be allergic to certain plant types. But in residences, there will be liberty to choose the kind of surrounding a person wants. Indoor plants can visually and functionally bring the outdoors in. The plants can boost up your energy. Trees can be planted for the sounds they themselves make when the wind blows through them. The type of activities which happens in a particular place will have a major impact on the healing nature. The activities we engage in our daily life like sleep, food preparation, eating, bathrooms, workplace, relaxation, birth, children, the elderly and dying.

5. Conclusion

In HCFs design and construction, it is necessary to deal with the healing method, and therefore the physical environmental impacts of the patient, family and worker's well-being have been investigated. This literature review focuses mainly with respect to HCFs. It has been noted that the "residentiality" has been focused on HCFs, but considering the current situation, during a pandemic, even our respective homes need healing as everyone has been in some sort of mental health issues like mental stress, anxiety and depression.

In short, its additionally necessary to grasp the link between an individual and the residential environment. It is also important to find out in which typology will people feel better to reside in such as an individual house or an apartment. There are different mitigation strategies for reducing the infection of the COVID-19 virus. However, there is very little research about the strategies which can be used by people in users' and the designers' perspective to deal with psychological mental health problems during the pandemic. Although we continue to know more about a persons' mental health, it is also equally important to understand the impact of any built environment on psychological health.

References

(2021), "High numbers of Covid patients report impact on mental health", Research Shows, https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/06/04/high-numbers-of-covid-patients-report-impact-on-mental-health-research-shows/?sh=4a6877781d08 ( ).

(2013), A Systematic Literature Review of Healing Environments in the Inpatient Healthcare Setting, repository.arizona.edu .

(2020), "Psychiatrists beware! The impact of COVID-19 and pandemics on mental health", https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychiatrists-beware-impact-coronavirus-pandemics-mental-health ( ).

(2006), "The role of art-making in identity maintenance: case studies of people living with cancer", European Journal of Cancer Care, , Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 333-341, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2354.2006.00663.x ( ).

(2004), "Healing spaces: elements of environmental design that make an impact on health", Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (New York, NY), , Vol. 10 Suppl 1, pp. S71-S83, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15630824/ ( ).

Further reading

"Mental health crises among women in the wake of COVID-19| countercurrents", https://countercurrents.org/2021/06/mental-health-crises-among-women-in-the-wake-of-covid-19/ ( ).

(2005), "The meaning of healing: transcending suffering", The Annals of Family Medicine, , Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 255-262, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1466870/.

(2020), "[Coronavirus] WHO warning on lockdown mental health", https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/147903 ( ).

and Center For Health Design (Concord, Calif and Wood, R. (2004), The Role of the Physical Environment in the Hospital of the 21st Century : A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity, Center For Health Design, Concord, CA.

. (2021), Coping with Stress, https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/stress-coping/cope-with-stress/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fdaily-life-coping%2Fmanaging-stress-anxiety.html.

Corresponding author

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Effects of built environment on healing the mental health of the people-literature review

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Effects of built environment on healing the mental health of the people-literature review - Author: S. Pragati, R. Shanthi Priya, Prashanthini Rajagopal, C. Pradeepa

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Defining educational architecture and its key principles | Spotless Agency Blog

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Do you know the peculiarities of building innovative educational spaces? These are educational architecture professionals who know the answer to this question. Learn what educational architecture is and what modern trends dominate in it nowadays.

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The living room, also known as a sitting room or lounge, is a central space in a home used for relaxation, entertainment, and socializing. Its history can be traced back to ancient civilizations, where a central gathering space was common in homes.

During the Middle Ages, the great hall was a large communal space in castles and manors where family and guests would eat, socialize, and attend events. In the 16th century, wealthy Europeans began to develop private sitting rooms, known as parlors, as a place to receive guests and conduct business.

The concept of the living room as a more casual space for relaxation and entertainment emerged in the 19th century. With the rise of the middle class and advances in technology, such as gas lighting and central heating, homes began to have dedicated spaces for leisure and entertainment. In the United States, the term "parlor" was eventually replaced by "living room" in the early 20th century.

It is additionally possible that in some cultures or traditions, a living room or other communal space may be used for holding wakes or mourning rituals after a death in the family. This practice is still common in some parts of the world, and in such cases, the space may be referred to as a "mourning room" or "wake room". But it's important to note that such usage is specific to certain cultural contexts and does not reflect a general historical trend in which living rooms were commonly referred to as "death rooms".

The term "living room" first appeared in the English language in the mid-19th century, replacing earlier terms such as "drawing room" or "parlor". The term "living room" reflects a change in the function and perception of the space, from a formal room used primarily for entertaining guests to a more casual and comfortable space for daily living.

The term "living room" likely originated from the German word "Wohnzimmer", which means "living room" or "family room". German immigrants to the United States in the 19th century may have popularized the term, which was then adopted into English.

Living rooms have evolved over time to reflect changing lifestyles and design trends. In the mid-20th century, open floor plans became popular, blurring the lines between living, dining, and kitchen spaces. Today, living rooms often serve as multi-functional spaces for work, entertainment, and relaxation, and are designed to reflect individual tastes and lifestyles.

While the living room has undergone many changes over the years, it remains a central space in the home where families gather to connect and unwind. Whether you prefer a formal parlor or a cozy living room, this space reflects the history and culture of our homes and families.
Portions of this article were written using ChatGPT.

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The History of the Living Rooms | Property Specialists, Inc.

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The living room, also known as a sitting room or lounge, is a central space in a home used for relaxation, entertainment, and socializing. Its history can be traced back to ancient civilizations, where a central gathering space was common

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David Celanto

- Ali Rahim, architect

While a few "starchitects" are being showered with praise, the forecast for many in the profession is partly to mostly cloudy. In 2005 only 2% of architects in Britain were "very happy" with their jobs-scoring at the bottom of thirty professions surveyed, and below civil servants. These sentiments are hardly limited to Britain, as Dana Cuff illustrates in her Architecture: The Story of Practice. Many among the general ranks of architecture are dismayed by the elusiveness of success and by their diminishing impact.

There are two primary reasons for these phenomena-one cultural, the other methodological. Architects are among the very few providing custom design services in a product-infatuated society. This presents a profound problem, especially since few clients possess an understanding of the efforts necessary to create custom products, and even fewer are willing to adequately ﬁnance them. Second, while emerging digital technologies offer architects radically new possibilities for designing and building, current architectural speculation remains largely conﬁned to timid evolutionary steps. Many in the profession are ﬁnding it difﬁcult to leave behind the security blanket of past working traditions, while a few are simply choosing to pull it resolutely over their heads.

Architects' refusal to embrace technological innovations invites their extinction. Less hidebound professions are ruthlessly shoving their way onto the turf once the sole domain of architects. The capabilities now provided by furniture system designers, sustainability consultants, construction managers, and engineers of all stripes have become so advanced that Martin Simpson of Arup Associates suggests that architects may eventually become unnecessary-except, perhaps, as exterior stylists. To avoid obsolescence, architects need to increase demand for their skills by embracing emerging technologies that both stimulate and satiate consumer desires. For savvy architects with a dash of fortitude, revolutionary opportunities for creating enhanced predictability, complexity, branding, feedback, and economies of scale glimmer on the horizon.

In this essay I will focus on the potentials of new design and building technologies, centering my comments on improving architecture's marketplace success. I invite speculation about the profound impact these technologies will have on designers' aesthetic, political, and social powers, which I will not address here.

The Case for Revolution

The New Yorker's architecture critic Paul Goldberger is among those encouraging technological and business revolution, suggesting that, due to a rise in visual literacy and an insatiable quest for status among consumers, the time is ripe for architects to better harvest consumer desires. At the Fixed Income Forum in 2004 he noted, "I have to admit that the guy who drives a BMW or an Audi (whose parents drove an Oldsmobile) is not doing that only because he knows the Audi looks better - he is also doing it because of the status that ascribes to that name, and now, that status is available to (and sought by) a far broader segment of the population than it once was." Why don't people lust after ﬁne buildings to the extent that they do BMWs and Audis? The answer is simple-they can't. Architecture is sold in units of one.

Architect-writers Dan Willis and Kieran Timberlake point toward technologies like BIM (building information modeling), mass customization, parametric design, and prefabrication as ways to pull architects out of their deepening ditch. To this list we should add rapid prototyping, digital fabrication, ubiquitous computing, and online web ordering that permits product customization. What follows is a kind of Rough Guide for the Intrepid Architect -an insider's look at emerging technologies harboring both speculative possibilities and potential rocky shoals.

Tailor-Made: Lessons from the Past

The question of whether to continue making "one-off" products or to make multiple variations of a product is one architects need to address. The saturation of manufactured goods today has had a profound impact not only on consumers, but also on providers of custom-made goods. Consider the once ﬂourishing tailoring trade, which, as a consequence of mass production, has shrunk to one sixteenth its size from 1920 to 1990. Today, industrialized societies have gleefully traded ﬁt, ﬁnish, and durability in exchange for savings, variation, brand-name identity, transient fashions, and immediate gratiﬁcation. To imagine that this trend has little meaning for architects today would be foolhardy: "Architecture, as an industry, broadly conceived, has become less and less able to deliver a superior evolving and popularly engaging product that can compete with other more successful products. . . . And the less successfully architecture has competed with these diverse 'growth industries,' the less architects have been entrusted with time and money to perform work on a scale and with a quality that could perhaps turn things around," wrote Michael Benedikt in these pages.

Rapid Prototyping Evolves to Rapid Fabrication

Would that client-related problems were architects' sole challenge. Because few innovations are speciﬁcally geared toward the construction industry, Toshiko Mori urges architects toward a practice model invigorated by "creative appropriation of advances made in non-architectural areas." One such advance unnoticed by most architects (but celebrated by industrial designers, engineers, and manufacturers) is rapid prototyping technology-exciting for what it already is but deliriously enabling for where it will go.

First introduced in 1986 by 3D Systems as stereolithography (SLA), this three-dimensional printer uses laser curing of resin, built one layer at a time, to create scale models. SLA still thrives and has been joined by a number of other rapid prototyping devices that now include printing in plaster, plastics, rubber, resins, and even powdered metal that can be fused into durable parts by companies like Extrude Hone. Once conﬁned to volumes of less than 1,000 cubic inches, these machines have grown within twenty years into wizards capable of printing full-size human ﬁgures. Rapid prototyping-with weak modeling materials is evolving into rapid fabrication of high-quality components used directly in medical implants, machinery parts, and aerospace applications. The rapid prototyping industry is burgeoning, with both scale and quality predicted to increase, while price declines. In fact, the 3D printing craze is just beginning, with Professor Hod Lipson of Cornell University recently launching an open-source project at fabathome.org with instructions on how to build your own 3D printer for $2,400, which can print in a variety of materials, including chocolate.

As this trend continues, 3D "printing" of full-scale building structures seems inevitable-especially considering that graduating digital designers are now creating 3D models by printing them and are eager to realize large-scale fabrication of complex forms that can't readily be built by hand. Large 3D-printed structures (up to 14′ x 20′ x 8′) can already be made in concrete using a prototype unit developed by University of Southern California industrial engineer Behrokh Khoshnevis. Khoshnevis can see no reason why rapid prototyping technology won't eventually be scaled up, especially as material costs come down and funding increases. Architects using rapid fabrication technology at a building scale could economically create complex singular designs as well as customizable multiples. First these will appear as building components and later as full-scale structures.

Such structures would replace traditional stick-framing and allow a variety of traditional forms and materials to continue, but could also be fully exploited by Modernists interested in displaying the intrinsic nature of these monolithic materials. Structures printed in multiple materials could integrate expensive nuisance items like mechanical chases, extruded plumbing channels, and conduits complete with electricity-conductive slurries. Integrating features like showers, sinks, shelving, cabinets, furniture, and far more would eliminate much of the current time-consuming coordination between various trades. Electrical power could be fashioned like circuit boards with plug-and-play wiring harnesses like in computers or cars, serving as a nerve-like web running just below the building's skin, eliminating traditional outlets and permitting power almost anywhere.

Environmentalists will rejoice over printed buildings, since 92% of building waste is now the result of renovation and demolition. Dramatic reductions would be possible because "printed" structures would be almost entirely recyclable, since the diverse materials used would easily be disassembled and auto-sorted much the way trash is today. Additionally, designers will be able to easily perform analysis of ﬁnite structural elements, enabling a whole new level of structural comprehension and daring, and wresting a good deal of power from structural engineers. Best of all for consumers, the duration, amount of material, and cost of a project will be fairly precisely known in advance. Of course, the inevitable curve ball hurled at architects is if (read: when) people themselves design and build their "dream houses" using programs like Google's free 3D modeler SketchUp in conjunction with intrepid 3D-printing contractors, thus ensuring lively design review hearings for some time to come.

Parametric Design

Because parametric design is ideally suited to the mastery of rapid fabrication, John Nastasi of the Architectural Product Lab at Steven's Institute believes that parametric design skills need to be among the dozen or so capabilities that deﬁne the digital toolboxes of forward-looking architects.

Parametric design allows users to modify relationships between various features while tracking the history of those changes, thus updating all interrelationships performed after the modiﬁcation. A very simple example of this might be a hole in a wall that will always be automatically placed at one half the height of the wall, regardless of the wall's size. This is a common technique used in product fabrication, but the precision involved in manufacturing software (accurate to thousandths of an inch) can be limiting to free architectural design exploration.

Thus several architects like Greg Lynn, Ofﬁce DA, and Penn's Graduate Design Research Studio's director Ali Rahim have instead adopted the animation program Maya because it permits more ﬂuid design exploration with less emphasis on manufacturing tolerances. Maya has several beneﬁcial attributes that aid in conceptual design studies: Manipulation of mathematical algorithms using Embedded Language scripting can autogenerate forms as complex as skyscrapers (commonly done by students of Kostas Terzidis at the GSD), ease rapid prototyping of study models, and create compelling and informative walk-through animations. The number of potential parametric relationships is limited only by the diversity of data and the imagination of the designer. The beneﬁt for architects is that a fully developed singular parametric design project may be easily tweaked to create wildly dissimilar results for other projects. Complex results dazzle the uninitiated, but can be surprisingly simple to generate for those with an understanding of how parametric design works.

BIM

Parametric design goes well beyond mere formal pyrotechnics. Inherent to Building Information Management (BIM) is parametric design software tied to data contained in spreadsheets. Changes made to either the digital model or the database automatically update and coordinate throughout the model and spreadsheet. Due to the extent of the previsualization it allows prior to construction, BIM diminishes ambiguity, reduces errors, and generates savings for clients. The AIA, through its Technology and Architectural Practice committee, even has a new special awards program for BIM projects. In theory, since architects deal with ever-changing information, BIM sounds almost too good to be true. In practice, beneﬁts will not be realized without some possibly serious drawbacks that I will soon discuss.

Chris Kasabach, director of product marketing for BodyMedia (Cooper Hewitt's biomedical darling), 27 indicates that because of digital design models, industrial designers are changing their processes and teaming up with fabricators early in the design phase. The result is that during the prototyping phase an increasing amount of digital redesign is being done remotely by fabricators. When asked who pays for this redesign, Kasabach enthusiastically responds, "The prototyping companies do. Essentially, they consider 'design' an insigniﬁcant and necessary cost of manufacturing."

Despite the disparity between products and architecture, the General Services Administration (GSA) has required architects to perform full BIM modeling on selected projects since 2003 and is now requiring partial BIM models on all federally funded projects, and is considering full BIM for all future projects. Their experience is a reduction in change orders saving the GSA up to 10% of total construction costs.

Clearly clients are beneﬁting, but what about architects? When I questioned Luciana Burdi, head of Capital Asset Management for the State of Massachusetts, on the lack of increased architectural fees for BIM projects, she replied, "Architects are paid to provide buildings without errors, why should they be paid more to do this?" For clients, BIM infatuation is easy to understand-they want savings, and the rigorous BIM process complies. Unfortunately, this magic elixir has one possibly terminal side effect for architects-clients are developing an insatiable expectation for perfection from uniquely made buildings. While BIM possesses fairly powerful tools for error reduction, it is simply incapable of error elimination. Burdi went on to express frustration over an expensive error in a recent BIM project-one that she felt should have been caught by the architect prior to construction-thus underscoring that for architects there is a distinct danger that BIM will result in a triple-whammy: more work, less proﬁt, and increased liability.

Despite these challenges, 34% of architects are using some form of BIM modeling. But for most this is only during conceptual stages to generate rudimentary cost data and quantity takeoffs helpful in evaluating the expense impacts of various schematic designs-not for full BIM production. Proﬁtable implementation of full BIM seems to require at least one of two components. The ﬁrst is for architects to retain ownership of BIM data so that they may use that data in future projects of similar typologies to amortize the ﬁrst use-costs of development. However, the GSA prohibits this and wants sole ownership of the data. The second, using the industrial design model, is for architects to bring fabricators with BIM skills into the design process early for assistance in the development of the digital BIM model. This, too, is prohibited by the GSA since they require traditional design-bid-build process.

Ostensibly the group with the most lobbying power for beneﬁcial BIM conditions for architects is the AIA TAP committee. Stephen Hagan, Director of the GSA's Project Knowledge Center, has served on this committee for the past four years and was Chair last year. When I asked Douglas Paul, AIA Director of Professional Practice, whether this relationship might not be an overly cozy one for the GSA at the possible expense of architects' well-being, Paul indicated that this concern had never been raised before. Hagan seems a good fellow and has earned FAIA wings, but if I'm the ﬁrst to question-make that be astounded by-this relationship, one can only wonder who is spiking the AIA's water cooler.

The power of BIM is well documented, and its software will continue to improve. However, full BIM modeling for singular enterprises is ultimately not beneﬁcial for architects, since the time (and thus, cost) of such a complex endeavor is much higher than normal one-off design services. Development of a full BIM model is almost as complex as physically making the actual object and one that makes economic sense only in a mass-production / customization context. Alternatively, one could also be paid very handsomely for singular full BIM modeling-but this seems unlikely.

An imperfect but illustrative parallel in manufacturing would be if Boeing were contacted to digitally design and construct a one-of-a-kind "blue-sky" airplane. The client is interested in exclusive rights to Boeing's ﬁve years worth of design data, prohibits Boeing from making more than one plane, will only pay for error-free parts, and expects to pay little (or no) more than the cost of a standard plane of similar size. Boeing wouldn't even bother to return the call, yet architects are competing for design opportunities where the conditions aren't that much different.

The Digital Master Builder

Once, as "master builders," architects both designed and built structures. However, architects relinquished their direct role in the building process centuries ago and have instead relied on 2D drawings to describe their visions to specialized builders. Today this communication process is rapidly changing as a direct result of digital fabrication introduced in 1971 by technology developed at the French automotive company, Renault. Drawings are being augmented-if not entirely replaced-by processes that permit 3D fabrication of complex forms directly from architects' data. In this context, the much-vaunted 1997 Guggenheim Bilbao, celebrated for its convoluted artful forms, is far more groundbreaking for its use of innovative digital construction processes in which Gehry's ofﬁce assumed responsibility for the accuracy of fabrication.

Although this is not in itself news, direct digital communication has reinvigorated the concept of master builder for a few architects. Repopularized some thirty years ago by the radical Jersey Devil architectural group, the design-build method means the responsibility for design and production are provided by the same party. Pedagogically signiﬁcant since it opens up a fertile dialectic between design and tectonics, there is again tremendous interest in this model in academia-most notably in the revered Rural Studio, initiated in 1993 at Auburn University by the late Samuel Mockbee. Many other schools have adopted design-build in their curriculum, often relying on digital fabrication for components in such things as Solar Decathlon projects, material research, formal investigations, and community-based initiatives. The upshot of this is that more emerging practitioners are once again enthusiastic about possibilities inherent in varying levels of participation in the actual making of design.

Design-build today has two distinctly different branches-the decidedly larger one (dominated by contractors) deals primarily with proﬁt optimization, while the smaller (but more interesting tectonically) deals with product optimization. A few architectural ﬁrms have thrown themselves into the opportunities presented by this latter area by exploring the union of 3D design with 3D fabrication, creating works that range from sculptural objects and surfaces to full-sized buildings. These provocative offerings (often exploiting the possibilities of parametric design) are from the likes of Bill Massie, Thom Faulders, Forsythe + MacAllen, Evan Douglis, SHoP, John Nastasi, Byoung-Soo Cho, and many others. The attention that these efforts are receiving suggests that design-build innovation can readily yield increased stature for talented newcomers.

Further reason that architects should pay more attention to this area is that at the current rate of change in the building industry, design-build project delivery is expected to surpass traditional design-bid-build methods by 2010. For architects with the courage to branch out from their well-entrenched methodologies, tremendous opportunities for increased complexity, control, and economies of scale through digital fabrication lie ahead. Such endeavors permit industrious architects to focus design efforts and material explorations on speciﬁc areas of architectural signiﬁcance (regardless of scale) and thus reassert themselves as master builders.

Prefabrication

As was outlined in a report by the British Department of Trade and Industry, the advantages of building houses in factories abound-reductions in time for site work, weather disruptions, coordination of workers, delivery, labor shortages, waste, damage in shipping, and water and energy use, plus increases in recycling, precision, and quality control. Collectively these beneﬁts generate a dramatic reduction in total embodied energy and environmental impact of structures, despite the cost of shipping the ﬁnished product.

Prefabricated housing (including "mobile homes") is a $54 billion industry in which the United States provides 80% of the stock globally. The U.S. leads sales, with 6.4% of its population living in prefabricated units, followed by Japan, and with Latin America the fastest growing market. Ninety-seven percent of manufactured homes move only once from factory to site. While possibly energy efﬁcient and well made, prefabricated homes have struggled to gain cultural acceptance in the U.S. due to the lingering dread associated with sagging mobile homes propped up on blocks with wheels dangling like vestigial organs-an unexpected result of tax and zoning laws. Convincing antidotes for this unsavory image have been presented in delightful neo-Modernist efforts presented by Dwell magazine and by over thirty designers at www.fabprefab.com -many of whom address possibilities of prefabrication decoupled from a static foundation.

Why has prefabrication failed to catch on? My sense is that several components are missing from current efforts, and a few large hurdles remain to be cleared. The obstacles come in the form of close-minded community groups, outdated zoning codes, cainophobic design review boards, and restrictive covenants. These fears stem from a stigmatization of the typology that arose as a result of the post-WW II housing boom when prefabrication (think Levittown) meant "cheap" in both economic and cultural senses. By contrast, Sears's homes prior to WW II were neither, selling over 100,000 from 1908 through 1940,45 many of which bear historic plaques today. Within Sears's treasured antique catalogs are salient clues for future efforts-the creation and wide promotion of desire, industrial commitment large enough so that results are not simply regional, and tight integration of diverse systems. Kieran Timberlake have soundly scored on many of these counts with their recent Loblolly house built by LivingHomes, an environmentally focused prefabricator. Steven Glenn, founder of Living Homes notes, "If our major focus is making the product better, quicker, cheaper, and with a smaller ecological footprint, we need a high level of technology integration."

What follows is a paradigm-shifting vision for dwellings. For the adventurous, the recreational vehicle (RV) offers an often overlooked alternative form of prefabrication. Travel trailers (RVs without engines) were once so popular that in 1935, the predictor of the stock market crash, Roger Babson, hazarded another shocker, "Within twenty years, more than half of the population of the United States will be living in automobile trailers." Indeed, prior to World War II, there were over 400 manufacturers of travel trailers, yet Babson's power of prognostication failed to identify the war that quickly gutted the industry. Today, with Baby Boomers eagerly embracing alternative retirement lifestyles, tremendous growth is once again occurring in the market for mobile dwellings. A University of Michigan study indicates that one in twelve vehicle owners currently possesses an RV, and one in six surveyed intends to buy an RV within ﬁve years. For increasing numbers, RVs have become a desirable form of temporary or permanent living reinvigorated by wireless voice and data technology, easy ﬁnancing (complete with second-home tax beneﬁts), signiﬁcant conﬁgurability, integration of premium technologies for home theater, advanced energy management, integration of green elements like biodiesel fuel and solar electricity generation, and, perhaps most appealing, "drop-of-the-hat" mobility surrounded by one's "stuff."

The design of mobile dwellings represents a signiﬁcant opportunity not being taken by architects, with the exception of Christopher Deam in his work for Breckenridge and Airstream. Architects could and should be pushing the boundary of RVs in the form of technologically enabled customizable structures with interchangeable components that would permit a variety of shipping techniques over land and sea. And with some ingenuity, the results need not look anything like the lumbering behemoths squatting near highway exit ramps.

Mobile dwellings have something else going for them. With enough shipping containers now in existence to wrap around the equator-stacked two high-inventive dwellings made from these modules makes some sense from a purely economic point of view. Work by Wes Jones of Jones Partners, Los Angeles; Jennifer Siegal of Ofﬁce for Mobile Designs, Los Angeles; Hybrid Design of San Francisco; LOT-EK of New York City; Quick House designer Adam Kalkin of Bernardsville, New Jersey; and others has inventively explored the prefabricated shipping container as a base module for homes. While these projects may have the ripped-designer-jeans crowd worked up into a lather, their raw industrial quality will ultimately hinder wide public acceptance. However, they do offer an estimable lesson to carry forward: a standardized chassis using existing globally integrated transportation techniques. Mobile products based on such a chassis would allow multiple designers to create products that could easily work together to permit mass customization in a way portentously touted twelve years ago by Joseph Pine, author of the groundbreaking book Mass Customization. Like the prefabricated living suites by Piikio Works for the cruise ship industry, these creations need not look at all like shipping containers.

Storing increasing numbers of RVs is not a trivial problem. Rather than being parked in rural driveways or at sprawling storage facilities and camp sites (as is done with most RVs today), these dwellings could be lived in daily and driven, towed, lifted, stacked, and slotted into a variety of attractive rural, suburban, or urban structures and thus partially supplant vacation cottages, rental apartments, condos, and college dorms. They could be cleverly integrated into well-disguised slots in homes and high rises, or displayed in full "messy vitality" depending upon their context.

Today, with almost one third of the U.S. population renting their dwellings, architects pursuing this new typology might increase homeownership for low-income people. Imagine giving your newborns their own chassis at birth-their ﬁrst home, something they could take with them when they leave the nest, replacing at least a decade of apartment rentals with minimal "docking fees" as they educate themselves, move about, and develop their careers.

Instead, a spicy little structure could be ready to ship to a new location in an hour or less, consuming a fraction of the energy required to move into (and live out of) a bloated McMansion. Architects should be pioneering the design of these enabling, product-like dwellings along with an expansive range of ever-evolving components. Architects could also provide the vision necessary for a whole new typology of dynamic "docking" structures beneﬁcially integrated into the urban context. We now see an explosive growth of rural-bound RVs, partially since cities are simply incapable of accommodating them. Cities that embraced mobile structures would certainly beneﬁt on many levels from an inﬂux of the highly desirable, increasingly mobile "creative class," while reducing commuter congestion and increasing tax revenue.

Ubiquitous Computing

Mark Weiser, the recognized father of embedded technology, has written, "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." Accordingly, intelligent architectures, with the ability to recognize and incorporate sophisticated sensors already inherent in cell phones, clothing, and other products would permit powerful feedback loops about their users, thus improving the design and usefulness of environments.

With origins in 1946 Soviet spy devices, various forms of ubiquitous computing-embedding computation into the environment and everyday objects-today appear in such amenities as EZPass, cardswipe doors, automated parking systems, and tracking of library books. Radio Frequency Identiﬁcation (RFID) tags (small radio receiving chips) enable this technology.

Branding Desire

These emerging technologies with implications for architecture include some necessary ingredients-but require a generous dollop of desire. According to a recent article by business professor Banwari Mittal, our culture relies heavily upon brand-name products for self-identity, and membership in today's consumer collective is gained through the purchase of celebrated popular products rather than unique hand-knitted sweaters from Grandma. Oxymoronically, people assert their "individuality" through their display of mass brands and accessories. Accordingly, one begins to understand the challenges for Modernist architecture as outlined in Anthony Alofsin's The Struggle for Modernism -deviation from commonly accepted architectural practices is for visionaries, heretics, and hippies, not ordinary consumers.

As Michael Sorkin suggested in his pungent Harvard Design Magazine article "Brand Aid," "to create the success of any commercial multiple, the brand is critical. . . . And, of course, celebrity is the main measure of authority in Brandworld." With several starchitects already on the lips of today's consumers (Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Michael Graves, Philippe Starck, . . .) fame may be enough to generate desire-but only if your name is already a brand. Peggy Deamer weighs in on the topic of fame versus brand: "[Architecture] does not conform easily to what we have said characterizes fame (inaccessibility and the clear identiﬁcation of author with product). Likewise, its size, expense, and long production time make each object unique and singular, precluding it from notions of branding (repeatability and accessibility). It is perhaps for this reason that fame and branding are both elusive in architecture." Yet Deamer seems to wafﬂe about the importance of brand, squeezing off a potshot at brand-makers, "Fame is still linked to creativity, while branding is linked only to calculation." Mass-produced products gain popularity and fame for reasons that go well beyond simple branding, including ostensibly stolid ones: reputation, value, desire, durability, and performance. Branding is not the destination but simply the vehicle that propels products into the limelight. To wit, and perhaps contrary to Deamer's assertion, OXO Good Grips have not garnered over ninety awards simply because their name is a calculated palindrome.

True, brand manufacturers enjoy the ability to chart quantitatively the sizzle in their steak through market share statistics. Conversely, architects seem to rely more upon an ethereal drool index based on abstract qualitative data like published work, who is invited to serve on what jury, the number and type of awards received, and intangible associations with glitterati including the usual heavy-hitting patrons, critics, notables, and fat cats. Do these divergent methods suggest a lack of creativity for manufacturers or a lack of reality for architects?

Architects who seek wider success may need to brand their work in recognizable ways. Instead of trying to launch a brand from a position of obscurity, architects might associate with recognized brand names as Michael Graves did in partnering with Lindal Cedar Homes and Target to offer customizable pavilion structures through Target's website. The one formidable aspect, as in dating, is that such partnering requires give as well as take.

Accessorizing Desire

A stunning example of a saturated online experience worth emulating may be found at www.miniusa.com, where we can fantasize about our new individualized Mini Cooper that (BMW swears) can be built in over ten million conﬁgurations. These include tasty options like sports suspension, Bang and Olufsen stereo, and of course, racing stripes-complete with a running total of the price and the ability to save your order for future ﬁdgets. Architects harnessing this process could interact with consumers to customize their fantasies in a way that both ﬁnd rewarding. A provocative conceptual poke in this direction may be seen in the Resi-Rise Skyscraper by KOL/MAC, exhibited at the 2004 Venice Biennale International Exhibition, complete with a conﬁgurable online ordering system.

A Peek at the Future

John Habraken, theoretician and former head of architecture at MIT, suggested at the 2007 conference Global Place: Practice, Politics, and the Polis that "Modernism was in essence an age of transition. Architecture needs to be well informed and restless, offering advanced personal environments." Even the venerable Frei Otto expresses concern for the current architectural climate, writing, "Today's architecture is at a turning point. The big trends of the last decade are outlived and only a few buildings in the world manifest architectural perfection while paving new ways into the future." These warnings, considered in light of the dramatic and unprecedented changes which our society is rapidly undergoing, suggests we are reaching a tipping point toward new architectures.

Architects are teetering on this tipping point. The current architectural model is unduly weighed down by centuries of outdated working methodologies and singular prototype creation. Three primary limitations must be quickly dealt with. First, the absence of substantive feedback loops (loops evident in product-design but absent in architecture) prohibits in-depth analysis, adaptation, and evolution of our work. Second, a lack of economies of scale because of one-off production prohibits architects from fully integrating new technologies. Third, consumers' desire for an architecture that evokes status and collective identity is not well-served by the one-off, brand-free model of most architecture.

Despite architects' fear of global homogeneity, people's expectations for all products (yes, including architecture) have been dramatically reshaped in the last decade by increasingly positive experiences with Web ordering processes that suit their needs and lifestyles. As a result, a desire is growing among consumers for architectural alternatives that go well beyond architecturally erotic, post-rationalized digital forms, moving architecture into a realm that Ali Rahim suggests is "useful, meaningful, and sustaining."

To increase its desirability and market share, architectures need to harness emerging technologies and tap more deeply into consumer desires, using both plurality and branding in product delivery methods. These efforts would be self-correcting-they provide an opportunity for architects to evaluate the success of their offspring quantitatively. Doing so would also encourage architects to move beyond "isms" geared toward revolutionizing aesthetic and social agendas every decade or so-a phenomenon that architects themselves can't even keep up with-let alone the public at large, since architectural journals which feature these sorts of rapid-ﬁre volleys (including this one) are rarely found nestled between The Economist and Vanity Fair at newsstands. Two decades of fanciful catalogs stuffed in mailboxes have done more to shape popular taste (and educate people about design) than the club of architectural priests that has elevated its game by preaching to the converted while leaving out the laypeople that architects ultimately need.

There are manifold implications inherent in these musings that are beyond the scope of this essay; I will leave the morality plays for others. What appears certain is that enhanced business success for architects will depend on weaving the technologies explored here into the making of more desirable and functional environments for an evolving populace experiencing tremendous technological, cultural, and environmental change. Who is better suited for this task than those who envision futures and coordinate innumerable specialists already? For architects, embracing these possibilities is on the one hand frighteningly simple and on the other hand scandalously improbable, for it involves nothing more than the abandonment of thousands of years of precedent.

Lacking at the start of the twentieth century was the information needed to effect real change in the way we build. Tools to represent and transfer information instantly and completely are with us today. They allow connections among research, design, depiction, and making that have not existed since specialization began during the Renaissance.

- Kieran Timberlake

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Innovate or Perish: New Technologies and Architecture's Future - Harvard Design Magazine

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Innovation is a development that people ﬁnd useful or meaningful. To be innovative, architects-and works of architecture themselves-must become more responsive [...]

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Publication: Environmental Reviews

1. Introduction

Biodiversity, broadly defined as the variety of life and its processes, including genes, species, communities, and ecosystems and the ecological and evolutionary processes that keep them functioning ( Noss and Cooperrider 1994), has been in decline for centuries due to human activities but only became a global concern over the past 40 years with increased public awareness. Losses of biodiversity have continued despite a 1992 international agreement to halt them ( Convention on Biological Diversity 2010a,b), where nations, including Canada, agreed to take the urgent actions necessary, by 2020, to stop all losses of biodiversity.

We review the current state of knowledge to determine if boreal terrestrial biodiversity is being lost, reduced, or changed as a result of natural resource development. Our objective is to address four questions.

1.

2.

3.

4.

We answer these questions to the extent possible for the major factors influencing boreal forests including forest management and other natural resource development activities that occur in boreal forests (e.g., mining, hydroelectric, and oil and gas development). Some possible effects of global climate change and non-native species on biodiversity are dealt with in accompanying papers ( Price et al. 2013; Langor et al. 2014). This review includes selected taxonomic groups and species that are relatively well studied in boreal forests and that have the potential to reveal the effects of natural resource development including trees, understory vegetation, fungi, arthropods, amphibians, birds, and some mammals. Our review does not address aquatic ecosystems (see Kreutzwiser et al. 2013 and Webster et al. Manuscript in preparation) nor do we consider the impact of atmospheric pollutants such as acid rain, or the impacts of agriculture, hunting, or harvesting of nontimber forest products.

1.1. A short history of boreal forest management

Forest management has been the most pervasive, long-term, and best-documented human disturbance in the Canadian boreal forest. Selective logging of mostly pines ( Pinus spp.) for shipbuilding began in Newfoundland in the 1600s, but industrial-scale harvesting was not widespread in the boreal zone until the 1800s, with sawmills in Quebec and Ontario established in the 1830s and in the west by the 1870s ( Canadian Encyclopedia 2011). Vast area allocations for forestry in northern Alberta occurred as late as the 1990s ( Burton et al. 2003).

Forest management practices changed continually in response to policy direction, market conditions, and technological advances in harvesting equipment and regimes. Early harvesting (1800s) was mostly for saw timber. The first pulp mills were built in boreal forests in the 1900s. Initially, harvesting was conducted in winter using horses to haul wood to rivers; the wood was then floated to mills in the spring. This labour-intensive work could seasonally employ agricultural workers, their horses and equipment. Early cutting used handsaws, but chainsaws were common by the 1940s. Horse logging was usually effective in preserving advanced regeneration (understory trees and saplings) but did not favour regeneration of boreal pines that need full sunlight and regenerate best following fire (e.g., Sims et al. 1990). By the 1940s and 1950s, tractors had become common for hauling wood, but most harvesting was concentrated near river and lake transportation networks. Harvesting was fully mechanized by the early 1960s and road networks had become more extensive. The first skidders had narrow wheels that caused considerable rutting, especially in wet soils, leading to poor regeneration on many sites. Skidders and the more recently developed harvesting machines and forwarders were later equipped with wider wheels and eventually with low-pressure tires to reduce soil disturbance. Mechanization of harvesting also coincided with the introduction of tree planting and the use of chemicals and mechanical site preparation methods to improve boreal forest regeneration.

Accompanying this evolution in equipment, improved scientific knowledge and rising pressure from the public and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and have led to many policy changes including the development of discrete management areas, mandatory management plans, biodiversity objectives, and rules for featured and threatened species ( Reed and Associates 1978; Epp 2000; Burton et al. 2003). The most recent period of forest management has been shaped, in large part, by a combination of public opinion, organized NGO campaigns, court actions by NGOs and aboriginal groups, technological advances in mapping, forest certification, and a vastly increased scientific understanding of forest ecosystems. One consequence has been the development of "sustainable forest management systems" based on the principle of emulating natural disturbances ( Hunter 1990). These evolving harvest techniques, management regimes, and policy frameworks (mostly provincially mandated) have each affected biodiversity through the suite of post-harvest conditions they generate. Second-growth forest ecosystems across the boreal landscape are thus the result of a composite of activities over time.

1.2. Why is there concern for biodiversity in Canada's boreal forest?

In Canada, less than 40% of the total boreal forest is under industrial forest management ( Table 1). The remaining 60%, generally in the north, is less productive (e.g., Bickerstaff et al. 1981; Band 2000), often sparsely treed, and has severe operational constraints hindering management, such as deep wet soils, peatlands, and permafrost. Species richness also declines with higher latitude ( Currie 1991). Hence, the concentration of harvesting and other industrial developments in the productive southern boreal forest, all of which accelerated dramatically after 1980, are a major underlying concern for biodiversity in the boreal zone (e.g., Brandt et al. 2013), particularly because much of this diversity is not duplicated in the northern unmanaged area.

Table 1. Area of boreal forest, area of boreal forest suitable for forestry, and area already logged in Canada (harvest data from table 1.1 in Burton et al. (2003), which is from the World Wildlife Fund available at www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles)*.

The original data from this publication could not be verified but are consistent with other sources. An approximate verification of the values in Table 1 can be estimated based on information provided in the National Forestry Database 2014. For example, in Quebec the annual harvest rate is estimated at 0.8% and in Ontario the estimate is 1% per year, except where it declined to 0.6% after 2002 (Ontario). Assuming this rate has been ongoing since 1960, about 40% of the forest in Quebec and 50% of the forest in Ontario has been logged mechanically. Using about one third to one half that rate for the horse logging and tractor periods, at least another 20% was logged in each province prior to 1960, suggesting the total area harvested has been between 60% and 70% of the productive boreal zone for Quebec and Ontario, respectively, which is comparable to the data in Table 1. This is also consistent with papers by Cyr et al. (2009) and Boucher et al. (2009b) who showed about 15% old forest remains in Quebec, far less than has historically been present. This is also consistent with Ontario estimates ( Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 2002) that there is approximately 23.5% of old growth remaining as of 2002 with an estimated 7% that has been cut since. In Alberta, by 1999 only 10% of the managed boreal forest area was still old forest ( Timoney 2003).

Widespread mechanized timber harvesting after the 1960s led to different post-harvest forest successional patterns than wildfire or horse logging at site, stand, and landscape scales, converting conifer forests to mixedwood stands over extensive areas of eastern Canada (e.g., Johnston and Elliot 1996; Thompson 2000; Carleton 2000; Drapeau et al. 2000; Commission Coulombe 2004; Boucher et al. 2009b). The area of conifer-dominated forests declined by 21% in Ontario between the 1970s and 1990s ( Hearnden et al. 1992; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 2007) and by 4%-18% in Quebec ( Environment Canada In press). In Quebec and Ontario, approximately 75% of the boreal forest suitable for forestry has already been logged at least once. The comparable figure in western Canada ranges from 35% to 72% depending on the jurisdiction ( Table 1, see also Brandt et al. 2013). Harvest rates are generally lower in the west than in the east. For example, in Saskatchewan only 0.25% of the managed area has been harvested annually over the past decade ( Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment 2009), whereas Canada-wide, between 1975 and 2009, 0.40%-0.69% of approximately 2.18 million km ² of commercial forest area were harvested annually ( National Forest Information System 2014; World Wildlife Fund 2010). On a smaller scale, clear-cut harvesting in the 1930′s resulted in about 75% unlogged forest in some managed forest landscapes, whereas current landscapes have only 15% unlogged forests remaining ( Boucher et al. 2009a). This trend factored into a Quebec decision to reduce its annual allowable harvest by 20% ( Commission Coulombe 2004). During this period of active forest management, much more of the total Canadian boreal forest (i.e., including the mostly northern unmanaged portion) has been disturbed annually by fire or insects than has been harvested (see Brandt et al. 2013). In the managed portion, however, the area disturbed by harvesting exceeds that disturbed by natural causes.

Beyond area and rate of harvest, anthropogenic disturbances influence terrestrial biodiversity by affecting niche space ( Carey and Harrington 2001), through changes in the distribution and relative abundance of ecosystem types, forest age classes, tree and understory species composition, and patch sizes, and structural features such as snags, fallen dead wood, and multi-layered canopies. Habitat selection models for vertebrates show that landscape pattern or structure affects population size. For example, woodland caribou use large landscapes dominated by old conifer forests and will abandon landscapes dominated by young forests with only small patches of old forests (e.g., Courtois et al. 2003). If long-term forest management produces landscapes whose structure deviates from that of unmanaged landscapes, the associated animal communities will change ( Hobson and Schieck 1999). From an ecological perspective, forest management can be considered as a passive experiment on an enormous scale whose effects on biodiversity have been largely unpredictable ( Hunter 1990; Thompson and Welsh 1993; Drapeau et al. 2000; Voigt et al. 2000). Forests in naturally disturbed landscapes are the appropriate baseline for evaluating these effects. Fire and insects, the major natural disturbances, vary among years, forest types, and region ( Kurz and Apps 1999; Gillett et al. 2004; Lavigne et al. Manuscript in preparation). Forest harvesting, insects, and fire differ substantially in their effects on ecosystem processes and regeneration trajectories ( Bergeron et al. 1998; Hobson and Schieck 1999; Hobson and Bayne 2000a; Carleton 2000; McRae et al. 2001, but see Reich et al. 2001 for an example where no differences were found in tree species diversity, composition, productivity, or nitrogen cycling between post-harvest and post-fire stands). The type and intensity of harvesting will also substantially alter forest successional processes. These patterns are explored in Sect. 2 on tree diversity responses.

To ensure a continued supply of fibre, boreal forest management typically truncates or normalizes the age-class distribution of stands (especially conifers) compared with the long-tailed distrtibutions typical of natural post-fire landscapes ( Drapeau et al. 2000; Timoney 2003). Current management regimes, which rely mostly on clear-cutting, typically have rotation ages shorter than the mean fire return interval (e.g., Cyr et al. 2009).

A key question concerns the long-term ecological convergence of forest ecosystems of natural and managed origins and whether the original biodiversity will be maintained in managed forests ( Thompson and Welsh 1993; Drapeau et al. 2000). Uncertainty over convergence is important because up to 70% of the productive portion of boreal forests is already under management and none of the mechanically logged second-growth forest is yet sufficiently old to be classed as mature or old growth; thus, no clear comparisons can yet be made between managed and unmanaged stands (but see Reich et al. 2001). Consequently, researchers and managers have tried to project the long-term effects of current forest practices and to recommend modified practices that are more likely to maintain biodiversity. The cumulative results from those investigations are explored in the sections that follow. We address the uncertainty over convergence by examining three factors that influence how forests respond to the key disturbances of forest management: forest ecosystem type, stand age and structures, and landscape composition.

1.3. Anthropogenic disturbances other than forestry

Beyond forest management for timber production, numerous other human disturbances occur across the Canadian boreal zone ( Brandt et al. 2013) including mines; road, rail, and pipeline networks; impoundments for hydroelectric development; transmission corridors, agriculture, and livestock grazing; and primarily in parts of Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories, oil and gas exploration and development. Individually, these developments, other than oil and gas, cause small- to medium-scale habitat loss, but their cumulative effects over extensive areas are regionally significant and of increasing concern (e.g., Bradshaw et al. 1997; Nitschke 2008; Yamasaki et al. 2008). They may also target specific site types important for biodiversity, such as riparian areas. Although this review has focused on forest management as the main disturbance in boreal forests, future research must move towards a more integrated assessment of the cumulative effects of all industrial developments on biodiversity in the boreal forest ( Schneider et al. 2003; Boutin et al. 2009; Heckbert et al. 2010; Strimbu and Innes 2011). In addition, although outside the scope of the current review, it will be necessary to consider the additive and interactive effects of climate change on boreal forest ecosystems ( Price et al. 2013). With data from more than two decades of research on forest management-related impacts, Canadian forest scientists and managers can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how cumulative human impacts across a landscape influence boreal ecosystems and how management can help avoid crossing critical biodiversity thresholds.

2. Response of tree species composition and forest structure to natural resource development

Our review begins by examining the effects of forest management on tree species composition and forest structure because changes in overstory will have profound effects on the distribution of other forest taxa. Effects are discussed within the context of three subzones of the closed boreal forest ( Canadian National Vegetation Classification 2013). The primary east/west division in northwestern Ontario, separating the eastern and west/central subzones, reflects the transition from humid and perhumid climates in eastern Canada to subhumid climates in central and western Canada ( Ecoregions Working Group 1989; Crins et al. 2009). Segregation of the western and central boreal subzones occurs in the foothills of Alberta, extending into southwestern Northwest Territories, where the biogeographic boundary between cordilleran (e.g., lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon)) and boreal (e.g., jack pine ( Pinus banksiana Lamb.)) species occurs (sensu Udvardy 1975; Cronquist 1982; Takhtajan 1986). We examine regional effects on major commercial species and broader landscape-level effects on forest structure and composition.

Impacts have generally been greatest in areas with the longest histories of commercial exploitation (e.g., southern and eastern areas of the boreal zone with good water or rail transportation), high tree species richness, and forest management approaches that have deliberately or inadvertently simplified post-harvest stand composition ( McLaren and Pollard 2009).

2.1. Disturbances and stand dynamics

Boreal tree species differ in longevity and shade tolerance ( Table 2), but most boreal tree species possess multiple regeneration strategies ( Zasada et al. 1992; Greene and Johnson 1999) and occur in a variety of forest types or ecosystems. Steady-state forest conditions (sensu Bormann and Likens 1979) rarely occur, reflecting both the frequency and severity of natural disturbances such as wildfire and insect outbreaks, and continuing long-term adjustment to climate-related changes in disturbance regimes and functional niches ( Weir et al. 2000). Wildfire is generally considered the primary natural stand-replacing disturbance in the closed boreal forest, particularly in western and central subzones ( Rowe and Scotter 1973; Bergeron et al. 2006). Fire in mature forests usually results in replacement by stands of similar composition at a given developmental stage ( Stocks et al. 2003), although composition often varies substantially among stages. Fire in conifer stands too young to produce large seed crops (e.g., less than 25-40 years of age) may result in subsequent deciduous dominance ( Johnstone and Chapin 2006; Chen et al. 2009; Burton 2013).

Table 2. Tree species of the Canadian boreal forest and their associated regeneration characteristics (Sims et al. 1990). All nomenclature after Farrar (1995).

Geographically limited boreal distribution.

Distribution across the closed Canadian boreal forest.

2.2. Forest management effects on major commercial boreal tree species

2.2.1. Black spruce

The greatest impacts of harvesting on black spruce ( Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) have been on rich mesic sites in upland areas. Here black spruce often formed an important component of mixed conifer and mixedwood stands, but its proportional representation has typically decreased following harvesting because of intense competition from faster-growing species, as well as a lack of propagule sources and suitable microsites ( Bonner 1949; Brumelis and Carleton 1988). Without deciduous control, black spruce plantations on these sites also have frequently failed ( Hearnden et al. 1992).

Nutrient-poor upland sites supporting dense older fire-origin stands dominated by black spruce have been extensively utilized by the forest industry in the central and eastern boreal subzone. Mechanized harvesting without planned regeneration greatly reduced black spruce abundance on these sites ( Hearnden 1975; Fraser et al. 1976), while often increasing balsam fir and trembling aspen abundance ( Richardson 1975; Blais 1983; Carleton and MacLellan 1994). More recent regeneration treatments (site preparation together with planting or natural seeding) have increased black spruce abundance, although the species is often rapidly overtopped by abundant faster-growing deciduous species and pines (lodgepole and jack pine). This result has been characterized as regeneration failure ( Hearnden et al. 1992; Carleton 2000), despite the fact that the species is similarly overtopped following wildfire ( Methven et al. 1975; Ilisson and Chen 2009a). Conclusions regarding major long-term shifts away from some upland black spruce cover types may thus be premature ( Symons 1996; Bowling et al. 1997; Greene and Johnson 1999; Lieffers et al. 2008). The evolving stand composition and structure will likely depend on conifer seedling densities, ingress, and mortality rates ( Bowling et al. 1997) and the length of time before the next stand-replacing disturbance.

2.2.2. White spruce

In earlier decades, lack of advanced growth protection or silvicultural treatments such as scarification often precluded adequate white spruce regeneration ( Yang and Fry 1981). On highly productive mesic sites this often resulted in overmature hardwood-dominated stands characterized by irregular regeneration and stand structure, and with increased trembling aspen, balsam fir, and shrub components in the succeeding stands ( Navratil et al. 1991; McClain 1996; Laquerre et al. 2009). More recently, failures of white spruce plantations or their reversion to mixedwood and hardwood-dominated stands has further limited white spruce abundance ( Brace and Bella 1988; Navratil et al. 1991). It has also been suggested that fire suppression, contributing to expansive tracts of older forests with larger trees, and a warming climate have contributed to increased spruce beetle ( Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby) and western balsam bark beetle ( Dryocoetes confuses Swaine)-induced mortality of white spruce and subalpine fir ( Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) in the western boreal ( Doak 2004; Berg et al. 2006; Raffa et al. 2008; Safranyik et al. 2010).

2.2.3. Jack pine and lodgepole pine

Prior to the use of site preparation in the 1960s, jack pine regeneration on all harvested site types was poor ( Candy 1951; Cayford et al. 1967). However, given sufficient stand opening and seedbed exposure using scarification ( Cayford 1959; Jameson 1961; Ball 1975) or prescribed fire ( Chrosciewicz 1983), adequate regeneration (either natural, planted, or direct seeded) and rapid site occupancy have usually been achieved ( Walker and Sims 1984; Chrosciewicz 1990; Bowling and Goble 1994). On well-drained more nutrient-poor uplands previously occupied by mixed conifer forests this has often resulted in a shift to greater proportional representation of jack pine versus black and white spruce ( Symons 1996). Less obvious, however, is a general post-harvest decline in jack pine abundance on mixedwood sites where the species occurred naturally as a secondary stand component following wildfire ( Longpré et al. 1994).

The history of, and ecological conditions for, lodgepole pine regeneration in the west are similar to those of jack pine (e.g., Crossley 1976; Landhäusser 2009), but given the lack of extensive exploitation before the widespread adoption of mechanical site preparation this species did not suffer the same historical declines in abundance across the landscape ( Crossley 1978). However, increases in the frequency of older lodgepole pine stands through fire suppression and creation of monocultures through past harvesting and regeneration have enhanced the severity and extent of the current mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk.) outbreak in the boreal regions of British Columbia and Alberta ( Shore et al. 2000; Taylor et al. 2006). Infestations on drier, less productive sites usually produce multi-storied, self-perpetuating lodgepole pine stands, whereas on richer sites where pine is a seral species, outbreaks often hasten succession to subalpine fir and spruce ( Axelson et al. 2009, 2010; Kayes and Tinker 2012). In northern areas with enhanced lodgepole pine cone serotiny and thick humus layers (i.e., limited seed release and seedbed availability), lodgepole pine regeneration in damaged stands may be poor, resulting in open, understocked stands dominated by advanced growth of subalpine fir ( Astrup et al. 2008).

2.2.4. Balsam fir

2.2.5. Trembling aspen and balsam poplar

2.2.6. White birch

2.2.7. White pine and red pine

Some of the most significant impacts of forest management on individual tree species have been on eastern white pine ( Pinus strobus L.) and red pine ( Pinus resinosa Aiton), reflecting their economic value, large size, impact on stand structure ( Ellison et al. 2005), and relative accessibility ( Lower 1938; Gaudreau 1999). The boreal range of these species is restricted to southern portions of the central and eastern boreal vegetation subzones ( Rowe 1972) that are less susceptible to crown fires ( Lowe 1994; Flannigan and Bergeron 1998). Here, red pine and white pine stands on shallow or coarse-textured soils, together with white pine in mixedwood stands on a variety of sites, historically formed an integral component of the forest landscape ( Simpson 1996; Munro 2001). Regeneration and maintenance of both species was favoured by periodic low-severity ground fires, a disturbance regime difficult to emulate in a managed forest setting. These species were often the first targetted during the initial harvesting eras, leading to their early commercial removal from much of their boreal range ( Horton 1962; Munro 2001; Boucher et al. 2009a). For white pine this was exacerbated by blister rust ( Cronartium ribicola J.C. Fisch.), an introduced disease that readily kills seedlings and saplings, and infects larger trees of this species, particularly in boreal environments ( Gross 1985; Lavallée 1986; Loo 2009).

2.3. Forest management effects on stands

2.3.3. Salvage logging

Salvage logging following fire or insect outbreaks in boreal forests has become increasingly frequent over the last two decades, reflecting decreases in allowable cuts, government incentives, and regulatory requirements ( Nappi et al. 2004; Saint-Germain and Greene 2009). Extensive salvage logging can potentially restrict regeneration by reducing post-fire seed inputs through removal of aerial seed banks of species with serotinuous cones and by destroying newly established seedlings and vegetative propagules ( Fraser et al. 2004; Greene et al. 2006). In mountain pine beetle-damaged lodgepole pine stands, salvage logging may have little effect on lodgepole pine regeneration ( Collins et al. 2010), particularly if conducted within a few years of the outbreak when seed sources are still available ( Teste et al. 2011a, 2011b). Indeed, Collins et al. (2010) suggested that without salvage logging some beetle-killed pine stands may become dominated by subalpine fir or spruce.

2.4. Forest management effects on landscapes

2.4.2. Disturbance spatial scale and complexity

Wildfire and insect epidemics have usually resulted in much larger individual tracts of even-aged forest but less frequently created than those resulting from harvesting (see Brandt et al. 2013) (e.g., DeLong and Tanner 1996; Perera and Baldwin 2000; Thompson et al. 2003a). On a decadal scale, the majority of the area burned by fires consists of individual fires greater than 10 000 ha in size. In contrast, harvesting, particularly in the later decades of the 20th century, has produced a large proportion of smaller-sized patches, even with contiguous harvesting over several years. In the less fire-prone area of the eastern boreal subzone dominated by spruce and fir forests, fires still produce large patches of early successional species (trembling aspen, white birch, and jack pine) ( Charron and Greene 2002; Bouchard et al. 2008), whereas harvesting on similar sites, particularly without substantial ground disturbance, perpetuates spruce and fir dominance ( Candy 1951; Boivin 1977; Groot and Adams 2005; Fenton et al. 2009).

Larger fires are associated with greater edge to area ratios and an increased proportion of live residual trees and unburned forest patches ( Eberhart and Woodard 1987; McRae et al. 2001; Smyth et al. 2005). By contrast, harvesting, through the use of more dispersed, relatively small, even-sized cutblocks, has created a finer-textured landscape ( Tinker et al. 1998; Perera and Baldwin 2000; Elkie and Rempel 2001). These landscapes have more regular edges and disturbance shapes and thus less shape complexity, lower edge to area ratios, reduced core area sizes, and less variation in patch size than fire-origin forests ( DeLong and Tanner 1996; McRae et al. 2001; Etheridge et al. 2006; Wang and Cumming 2009). Harvest-related road building further fragments stands with persistent, regularly spaced, linear edges, and nonforested areas ( Reed et al. 1996; Tinker et al. 1998).

Insect infestations, however, may also result in distinctly different landscape structures than wildfire, with increased patch numbers, isolation and shape complexity, and decreased forest patch size and patch interspersion (adjacency of patches) ( Coops et al. 2010). Compared with spruce budworm outbreaks, harvesting may create larger and more persistent openings, thus producing a coarser-grained mosaic over a given proportion of the forest ( Belle-Isle and Kneeshaw 2007). As with harvesting, the spatial impacts of insect outbreaks also change over time, with patches of infestation coalescing and producing a more contiguous distribution as an outbreak spreads.

Structural complexity also varies with disturbance type; natural disturbances commonly result in greater quantities of residual islands and edge structural complexity than clear-cut harvesting ( Mladenoff et al. 1993; DeLong and Kessler 2000; Smyth et al. 2005). This often leads to increased propagule availability associated with fire and insect outbreaks than with clear-cut harvesting, and therefore greater tree diversity and intergenerational continuity in terms of tree composition, density, and structure in the subsequent stands ( Zasada 1971). Forest management activities, including fire suppression and increased landscape fragmentation ( DeLong and Tanner 1996; Weir et al. 2000; Lefort et al. 2003), have also resulted in a greater number of small fires, a reduction in mean fire size, and a lengthening of the overall fire cycle compared with wildfire in northern regions with little forest management activity ( Bergeron et al. 2004; Cumming 2005; Li et al. 2005).

2.5. Alternative long-term trajectories for boreal forests

Some boreal ecosystems demonstrate threshold responses to combinations of heightened disturbance intensity, frequency, and extent, whereby the degree of disturbance has reduced the capacity of the previous tree community to recover ( Romme et al. 1998; Scheffer and Carpenter 2003). Most frequently, such changes occur on acidic, infertile soils that support few alternative tree species that can fill regeneration niches left unoccupied ( Damman 1975), although highly productive riparian forests also experience threshold changes after logging (e.g., Timoney et al. 1997). For example, black spruce - feather moss forests may shift to open spruce - lichen woodlands if disturbances (e.g., combinations of logging, spruce budworm defoliation, and wildfire) recur at more frequent intervals than those required for the current stands to begin producing abundant seed crops (e.g., 20-40 years) ( Lavoie and Sirois 1998; Jasinski and Payette 2005). Alternatively, such shifts may occur in black spruce - Kalmia ( Kalmia angustifolia L.) communities following harvesting or low-severity fires where thick residual organic horizons restrict black spruce regeneration while encouraging vegetative reproduction of Kalmia ( Mallik 1995, 2003; Mallik et al. 2010).

Paludification, the build-up of humus leading to wetter, colder, less fertile soils on wet minerotrophic sites ( Lavoie et al. 2005; Fenton et al. 2005), can result in forests reverting from mixedwood or dense even-aged black spruce-dominated to open multi-aged black spruce stands with a tamarack component ( Lecomte and Bergeron 2005). Relatively low-lying areas with poorly drained soils (i.e., low permeability lacustrine and marine clays) in humid climates are particularly susceptible to paludification ( Crawford et al. 2003). Fire plays an essential role in maintaining the productivity and plant diversity of these sites by reducing the thickness of organic layers ( Miyanishi and Johnson 2002; Simard et al. 2007, 2009), increasing nutrient availability, and providing niches for a variety of other tree species including poplars, white birch, and jack pine or lodgepole pine ( Le Goff and Sirois 2004; Lafleur et al. 2010). Through increased fire suppression and the use of harvesting systems that minimize ground disturbance, current management activities may be hastening paludification of these sites ( Lecomte and Bergeron 2005; Fenton et al. 2009).

3. Responses of key taxa to anthropogenic change

Section 2 identified the key types of forest change that have implications for changes in other forms of biodiversity: change in forest type, truncation of age-class distribution, and change in forest structure both at stand and landscape scales. In Sect. 3 we examine the effects of the major types of forest change caused by anthropogenic activities, and, in addition, we examine the impact of direct damage and forest floor disturbance.

3.1. Direct damage and forest floor disturbance

3.1.2. Direct damage and impacts of forest floor disturbance on fungi

3.2. Changes in forest stand or ecosystem type

3.2.1. Understory vegetation

3.2.3. Amphibians

3.2.4. Birds

Changes in vegetation as a result of forest management have been implicated as having extensive major impacts on bird communities in boreal forests ( Welsh and Fillman 1980; Edenius and Elmberg 1996; Drapeau et al. 2000; Hobson and Bayne 2000a). For example, large-scale conversion of the southern portion of the Quebec boreal forest from mixed to deciduous forest is suggested to be one of the most important threats to bird communities in these forests ( Drapeau et al. 2000). Management operations that consistently convert one type of forest to another will affect the ability of the forest to provide bird habitat in natural proportions ( Welsh 1987). Although stand-level data indicate conversion of forest types is occurring, the spatial extent of this conversion is unknown, and the data to assess it are unavailable.

3.2.5. Small mammals

Most studies examining the effects of forest management and other disturbances on small mammal communities have controlled for forest type; that is, they have compared unmanaged and managed responses for one forest type or another. However, we do know that small mammal communities are distinct among different forest types, particularly between mixedwood and hardwood forests on fine soils in comparison to other (mostly coniferous) boreal forest types (e.g., Boos and Watt 1997). In their comparison of mammal communities between managed and unmanaged landscapes, Malcolm et al. (2004) found that changes in forest types contributed nearly as much to the differences as changes in forest age. Deer mice ( Peromyscus maniculatus) were more abundant where there was more young deciduous habitat, whereas meadow voles ( Microtus pennsylvanicus) and meadow jumping mice ( Zapus hudsonius) were more abundant where young conifereous habitat was abundant.

3.3. Changes in stand age and structure

3.3.1. Understory vegetation

3.3.2. Fungi

Trees in managed stands are often harvested before they experience extensive decay ( Durall et al. 2005). Thus, managed stands have few older, decayed trees, with less diversity of decay fungi. The presence of only a few species of decay fungi will affect decomposition and affect the formation of mycophagous arthropod communities. Although studies on the effects of silvicultural practices on fungi in the boreal forest are few, it is likely that any changes in tree growth and survival would result in changes to the symbiotic fungi. Changes could include redistribution ( Houston 1998) or facilitated spread of these fungal species with partial habitat alteration but also, in the extreme, death and perhaps extirpation of fungal species with widespread loss of suitable habitat ( Castello et al. 1995).

3.3.3. Arthropods

Significantly different epigaeic and saproxylic assemblages also occur in young post-fire and post-harvest stands compared to mature stands over 70 years old ( Buddle et al. 2000, 2006; Langor et al. 2008). The fauna of mature stands include species with limited dispersal abilities and species tied to the oldest habitats. Harvesting systems (e.g., short-rotation aspen harvesting) that do not allow adequate recovery following the first harvesting pass may threaten persistence of some arthropod species in the boreal forest if no old forest remains. Salvage logging following wildfire results in greater impacts than either of these disturbances alone for both saproxylic beetles ( Cobb et al. 2011) and epigaeic ground beetles ( Koivula and Spence 2006; Phillips et al. 2006; Cobb et al. 2007). In the case of saproxylic beetles, negative effects on one species of woodborer ( Monochamus scutellatus (Say)), likely adversely affects nutrient cycling ( Cobb et al. 2011).

3.3.4. Amphibians

In Ontario, managed boreal forests had lower populations of wood frogs and American toads up to 50 years after logging ( Crewe 2004). Populations of toads in managed stands appeared to be sustainable while those of wood frogs were low, suggesting a long-term negative effect. On the other hand, Thompson et al. (2008) found no differences in capture rates of American toads or wood frogs in regenerating stands at least 32-50 years following harvest in north-eastern Ontario boreal forests, compared with capture rates in old unmanaged stands, suggesting no long-term effects of forest management on either species. An explanation of the disparate results of these two studies could be that the western Ontario boreal receives about half the precipitation that falls in the eastern Ontario boreal. Hence, litter depth and moisture content in the upper soil layers may be important factors in amphibian habitat selection (e.g., Waldick et al. 1999; Constible et al. 2001; Baldwin et al. 2006). Pearce and Venier (2009) found that salamanders ( Plethodon cinereus and Ambystoma laterale) were generally more abundant in old forests than in regenerating stands less than 25 years old, but overall densities were very low. There is limited evidence for, or against, the long-term effects of forest harvesting in boreal forests on amphibians, and amphibians generally remain largely unstudied in boreal forests.

3.3.5. Birds

Stand structure is closely associated with stand age, and there are several important trends in forest age conversion that have resulted from forest management as outlined in Sect. 2. Many forest bird species show preferences for particular age classes ( Helle 1985; Pojar 1995; Stelfox 1995; Kirk and Hobson 2001; Venier and Pearce 2005), and some show a preference for older age classes, including the Canada warbler ( Wilsonia canadensis), golden-crowned kinglet ( Regulus satrapa), ruby-crowned kinglet ( Regulus calendula), red-breasted nuthatch ( Sitta canadensis), bay-breasted warbler ( Setophaga castanea), brown creeper ( Certhia americana), boreal chickadee ( Poecile hudsonicus), and black-backed woodpecker ( Picoides arcticus) ( Schieck et al. 1995; Imbeau et al. 1999; Thompson et al. 1999, 2012; Drapeau et al. 2000; Venier et al. 2011). Stelfox (1995) showed that 21 of 33 species had their highest abundance in old stands (more than 120 years old) as opposed to mature (50-65 years old) and young stands (20-30 years old). Old-forest specialists account for almost one-third of all birds breeding in older boreal forests in both Finland and Canada ( Imbeau et al. 2001). It is these late-successional species that are most likely to be negatively affected by even-aged forest management regimes that truncate the forest age-class distribution.

3.3.6. Selected mammals

3.3.6.1. Small mammals

Habitat complexity is suggested to be highly correlated with total abundance, and Carey and Harrington (2001) suggested that management-induced simplification is a threat to system diversity and resilience, and to the ability of small mammal communities to support predator communities. Thompson et al. (2003a) noted that characteristics of intensively managed plantation forests, such as uniform tree species and tree age, reduced vertical and horizontal structure, and uniformly closed canopies result in lower niche space and reduced small mammal species richness. Stelfox (1995) similarly argued for the importance of complexity in natural mixedwood stands. Small mammal species attained highest abundances in complex, old stands, and followed by young stands that had high complexity because of fire-associated residuals, followed finally by mature stands. Several authors have noted the importance of ground cover complexity, especially of shrub cover and downed woody debris, in fostering small mammal diversity ( Carey and Johnson 1995; Thompson et al. 2003a; Brannon 2000) that responds in part to heterogeneity and gaps in the canopy ( Stelfox 1995; Fisher and Wilkinson 2005).

The net effect of management-induced truncation of forest age is difficult to predict. In north-western Ontario, Andruskiw et al. (2008) found few differences between small mammal communities in managed forests 30-40 years old (with about 10% residual uncut stands) and unmanaged landscapes. In a model of the effects of 80-year rotation ages for a management unit in north-eastern Ontario, removal of 10% of post-rotation age forest per year over a 200-year period resulted in a reduction in red-backed vole populations by some 32%, primarily as a result of forest age changes. Malcolm et al. (2004) found highly significant reductions in habitat supply in harvested versus unharvested landscapes for red-backed voles, heather voles ( Phenacomys ungava), northern flying squirrels ( Glaucomys sabrinus), red squirrels, short-tailed shrews, and star-nosed moles ( Condylura cristata). Conversely, significant increases were observed for masked shrews, deer mice, meadow voles, and meadow jumping mice, although the increase for the latter three species depended on regeneration scenario. When considering the mammal community in its entirety, differences in forest age were somewhat more influential on differences between the two landscape types than differences in forest types. Indications of higher populations in old versus mature forests and the possibility of increasing habitat value with stand age ( Malcolm et al. 2004; Pearce and Venier 2005) suggest that, for small mammals, truncation to rotation-aged stands (80 years) would result in landscape-level population changes.

Coarse woody debris has been widely cited as an important habitat feature for this species, with the potential to provide cover, moist microclimates, burrow sites, and substrates for food such as fungi, lichens, plants, and invertebrates ( Fisher and Wilkinson 2005). Numerous studies have found correlations between coarse woody debris amount and abundance (e.g., references in Stelfox 1995; Simon et al. 1998; Moses and Boutin 2001). Late decay-stage coarse woody debris appears to be especially important ( Vanderwel et al. 2010), perhaps because of the moist microclimates and (or) fungal resources it provides (see also McCay 2000; Le Blanc et al. 2010). Similarly, several studies have found the presence of a well-developed understory to be a correlate of abundance ( Martell 1983; Carey and Harrington 2001; references in Fisher and Wilkinson 2005; Vanderwel et al. 2009). Pearce and Venier (2005) noted that coarse woody debris and vegetative cover may interact in supplying suitable cover, which may explain a variable response to coarse woody debris.

Deer mice are also an abundant rodent in the boreal forest that are associated with early successional habitats and use more habitat types and more xeric habitats than red-backed voles ( Martell and Radvanyi 1977; Boos and Watt 1997). Logging in boreal forests generally results in shifts from communities dominated by red-backed voles to those dominated by deer mice ( Martell 1983; Moses and Boutin 2001). In his meta-analysis, Zwolak (2009; see also Fisher and Wilkinson 2005; Le Blanc et al. 2010) found that deer mice increased in abundance in response to all disturbances, although the increase was strongest following fire. Ten to 20 years after the disturbance, however, their populations were not significantly higher than in undisturbed forest, and harvesting in deciduous stands did not alter their numbers ( Martell 1983; Zwolak 2009).

3.3.6.2. Snowshoe hare

Cycling in snowshoe hare ( Lepus americanus) populations is well known and appears to be related to food and predation at various stages during the cycle ( Krebs et al. 1995; Hodges et al. 1999; Krebs et al. 2001). Some evidence has suggested a damping of hare cycles in sub-boreal populations ( Hodges 1999; Murray 2000), and many long-time boreal forest researchers have noticed an apparent damping over the past 20 years in managed boreal forests.

3.3.6.3. Lynx

There are no explicit tests of the hypothesis that lynx habitats in regenerating natural-origin and post-logging forests are the same. Lynx populations are largely food regulated, primarily by availability of cyclic snowshoe hare ( Brand et al. 1976; Brand and Keith 1979; Poole 1994; Mowat et al. 1996). Historically, periodic fluctuations in populations of snowshoe hare and lynx can be attributed to area burned, which is related to the abundance of hare habitat (e.g., Fox 1978). Some authors have speculated that, if the harvested forests are regenerated to conifer-dominated stands, lynx populations should be similar to levels in natural-origin forests (e.g., Mowat and Slough 2003; Fuller et al. 2007). The most likely negative effects of forest management on lynx populations may be reduced preferred successional habitat because of fire suppression ( Mowat and Slough 2003; Steury and Murray 2004), actions that considerably reduce horizontal cover, such as pre-commercial thinning (e.g., Squires et al. 2010), stand conversion from lodgepole pine to mixedwoods ( Mowat and Slough 2003), and increased competition by coyotes that have expanded their range in the southern boreal ( Fuller et al. 2007; Bayne et al. 2008a).

3.3.6.4. Marten

3.4. Changes in landscape compostition and structure

3.4.1. Understory vegetation

Forest harvesting increases the area of edge habitats and decreases the area of interior habitats relative to the landscape structure produced by fire ( Jetté et al. 2008). The oldest stands are increasingly isolated within a matrix of young even-aged stands ( Jetté et al. 2008). The effects on understory vegetation of loss of connectivity due to long-term forest fragmentation have been widely studied in European and in North American temperate forests ( Vellend et al. 2006; Krauss et al. 2010), but the effects have been far less studied in Canadian boreal forests ( Harper et al. 2005) where fragmentation tends to be recent and emphemeral. From these studies, we can extrapolate that lack of connectivity among mature stands remaining on a managed landscape will impede the dispersal of species with low dispersal capabilities. It may also favour the introduction of invasive non-native species, which are mainly associated with open habitat and are more mobile. While there are relatively few boreal understory species that can be considered obligate forest interior species, the competitiveness of many plant species is affected by their proximity to a forest edge (see, e.g., Harper and Macdonald 2002). Species that are competitively disadvantaged by a decrease in the area of interior habitats (typically shade- and moisture-adapted late-seral herbs, bryophytes, and lichens) can be expected to undergo long-term population declines as a result of forest fragmentation. Thus, the harvest of the oldest could lead to the displacement of understory species restricted to such environments. Because of the importance of natural disturbance regimes in determining diversity patterns of understory communities ( De Grandpré et al. 2000), the regional pool of understory species able to re-establish in second-growth stands may also be reduced by extensive harvesting. Uniform even-aged stands lack the structural and microsite heterogeneity needed to support the full variety of understory plants.

3.4.2. Fungi

Isolation of mature forest stands, partial cutting, and various variable retention practices cause a partial disruption of the habitat continuum; thus, effects on forest fungi tend to range from significant but not severe ( Komonen et al. 2000; Lazaruk et al. 2005) to minimal or none ( Wästerlund and Ingelög 1980; Kranabetter and Kroeger 2001; Summerbell 2005). Limited research is available on the effects of partial cutting on the mycorrhizal status of residual trees, although these trees have been shown to be important inoculant sources for seedlings growing in adjacent openings. Hence, increasing the numbers of residual trees in a harvest block will increase the abundance and richness of EM fungi colonizing those seedlings ( Outerbridge and Trofymow 2009). Nonetheless, the long-term persistence of EM fungi species in patches of residual trees, or on isolated individuals, remains to be determined.

As noted previously, clear-cutting has minimal effects on the community structure of saprotrophic fungi and so partial harvest would tend to have even less effect ( Durall et al. 2005). Partial cutting can increase abundance of root rot fungi such as Armillaria solidipes (syn. A. ostoyae), which can rapidly colonize cut stumps and spread to live trees ( Cruickshank et al. 1997; Laflamme 2010). Such post-harvest spread can vary, however, as partial cutting in wet southern boreal forests moderately infected with Onnia tomentosa did not increase abundance of the fungus, though this might not be the case in forests with higher initial incidence of the fungus ( Newbery et al. 2007).

3.4.3. Arthropods

3.4.4. Birds

There has been little loss of boreal forest area ( Kurz et al. 2013), and forest harvesting generally results in a mosaic of age classes at the landscape level. It appears that in boreal forests, bird abundance is more strongly associated with habitat loss or gain than this mosaic structure ( Schmiegelow and Monkkonen 2002; Schmiegelow et al. 1997). However, changes in the mosaic structure of mature and regenerating habitat may be long term if harvesting patterns consistently differ from natural disturbance patterns.

At the landscape scale, the amount of habitat is expected to explain the abundance of birds, but the relationship is not necessarily linear ( Drolet et al. 1999; Imbeau and Desrochers 2002; St-Laurent et al. 2009). For example, the bay-breasted warbler was absent from 100 ha landscapes with less than 55% forest cover and blue-headed vireos ( Vireo solitarius) were disproportionately more frequent in well-forested landscapes ( Drolet et al. 1999), suggesting that even though habitat was available locally (at the stand level) the local abundance was also a function of landscape habitat availability. Whitaker et al. (2008) suggested that populations of many common boreal songbirds are resilient to a moderate amount of clear-cutting. Only 2 of 14 species had lower apparent survival rates in landscapes altered by clear-cutting as opposed to naturally fragmented landscapes. Low sensitivity of many boreal songbirds to harvesting at a landscape scale has been reported in several studies ( Bayne and Hobson 2002; Whitaker et al. 2008; Dalley et al. 2009), and it has been suggested by others ( Schmeigelow et al. 1997; Niemi et al. 1998; Imbeau et al. 2001; Lampila et al. 2005), likely because birds in boreal forests are adapted to frequent disturbance in natural boreal forest landscapes. Further, it is important that the forests in the boreal zone are generally being maintained as forest, unlike agricultural areas with true fragmentation and habitat loss ( Hobson and Bayne 2000b). Nevertheless, long-term effects on old-forest species remain uncertain (e.g., Venier and Pearce 2007; Thompson et al. 2013).

Isolation effects examined through studies on gap crossing and homing reveal that most birds are more likely to cross forest than gaps ( Desrochers and Hannon 1997; St. Clair et al. 1998; Gobeil and Villard 2002). Management affects the movement of birds across the landscape ( Mitchell et al. 2009), and isolated habitat fragments may have reduced colonization ( Bélisle et al. 2001). The speed with which ovenbirds and white-throated sparrows ( Zonotrichia albicollis) moved through the landscape was positively correlated with the proportion of suitable habitat in the landscape ( Gobeil and Villard 2002). In Eurpean boreal forests, Andren (1994) found no evidence for isolation effects on forest birds, but Mönkkönen et al. (2000, cited in Schmiegelow and Mönkkönen 2002) found that species richness and abundance of resident old-forest species in northern Finnish reserves declined with distance from continuous forests. Other studies have found much weaker effects of landscape variables than stand-level variables that explained numbers of boreal birds in Ontario ( Venier and Pearce 2007; Thompson et al. 2013). With most of these landscape-level variables, the evidence suggests that there are weak (relative to stand-scale influences), species-specific effects resulting from changes in habitat configuration related to increased isolation, edge density, and composition at the landscape scale.

3.4.5. Mammals

3.4.5.1. Small mammals

Most work on small mammal populations has been at the stand level, and the net effects of landscape-level changes have rarely been considered. Nevertheless, changes in small mammal populations and communities are determined not only by the net changes in the abundance of stand types at the landscape level (i.e., an aggregation of stand-level effects) but also by interactions among stands reflecting their spatial configuration ( Thompson et al. 2003a). In general, evidence for landscape-level effects of spatial configuration of habitats is limited for mouse and vole populations in boreal forests. Some evidence suggests that deer mice may prefer forest edges ( Sekgororoane and Dilworth 1995; Bayne and Hobson 1998) and that red-backed voles may be more common in forest interiors. Moses and Boutin (2001) noted that the one plot on which meadow voles did not appear shortly after logging was the most spatially isolated. However, several studies that considered characteristics of the surrounding landscape in addition to local stand characteristics found little or no support for landscape effects on small mammals, although exceptions do exist. For example, Bowman et al. (2001) found that the abundance of red-backed voles was negatively correlated with the amount of plantations in the surrounding area. Presumably, the general lack of strong landscape-level effects is the result of several factors including relatively high numbers of individuals even in small patches, a broad habitat niche, and high dispersal capacity in fully forested landscapes.

3.4.5.2. Marten

In British Columbia where much of the landscape supporting marten was composed of young deciduous forests, Poole et al. (2004) found the animals preferred the more limited areas of mature conifer forest. In Newfoundland, marten made use of all conifer forest types older than about 20 years and with heights greater than 3.5 m, probably as a result of predator release ( Hearn et al. 2010). Most often, however, in boreal forests, survival and fitness are lower in managed than in unmanaged forests (e.g., Thompson 1994; Andruskiw et al. 2008; Johnson et al. 2009). Populations of marten in sink habitats can persist with periodic influxes from source populations in unmanaged forests, as was suggested for relatively young regenerating burned forests in Alaska ( Paragi et al. 1996) and logged regenerating forests in Ontario less than 40 years old ( Thompson 1994).

In all studies where marten occupied managed boreal forest landscapes, patches of unharvested forest influenced home range location and movements by marten, except in Newfoundland ( Hearn et al. 2010), but the animals made use of regenerating forest stands (e.g., Thompson and Colgan 1987; Potvin et al. 2000; Cheveau et al. 2013). Managed landscapes with minimal old forests generally supported fewer marten than landscapes with a large proportion of old-forest patches (e.g., Thompson and Harestad 1994; Thompson 1994; Potvin et al. 2000; Godbout and Ouellet 2008; Thompson et al. 2008). In Newfoundland, however, marten inhabited a landscape with less than 35% mature or older forests ( Hearn et al. 2010). Marten persistence in managed landscapes appears to be related to old-forest habitat remaining, prey abundance, sufficient structures, and predator release, although densities are generally highest in unmanaged forests ( Thompson at al. 2012). Long-term population levels remain uncertain because managed boreal forests have not yet reached old age.

3.4.5.3. Large Mammals

Several large mammalian species in the Canadian boreal forest are listed nationally or in some provinces as threatened including woodland caribou (boreal population), grizzly bears, wolverine ( Gulo gulo), and wood bison ( Bison bison athabascae; COSEWIC 2012). The reasons for population declines among these species varies but are generally related to anthropogenic changes acting through various mechanisms, but in all cases species population densities are low and these species respond to changes at very large scales.

Woodland caribou (boreal population)

Wolverine

Grizzly bear

3.5. Response of key taxa to mining and oil and gas exploration and development

Here we have briefly summarized the known impacts of mining and oil and gas exploration and development on boreal forest biodiversity, although relatively little direct evidence is available. The spatial extent of mining disturbance is difficult to estimate. There are over 10 000 sites in Canada where some form of mining exploration or activity has taken place, requiring various degrees of rehabilitation ( Tremblay and Hogan 2006), and at least 1300 abandoned mines in the boreal zone ( Brandt et al. 2013; but see also CESD 2002; CDL 2005; Cowan et al. 2010). In Quebec, 2200 mining sites have been inventoried, including 14 182 ha of mining-disturbed lands of which 3307 ha have been "restored" by 2000 ( Tremblay, 2001). The total open-pit mining footprint in Ontario is 300 000 ha ( Ontario Nature 2011). The National Orphaned/Abandoned Mines Initiative ( www.abandoned-mines.org) was created at the request of mines ministers across Canada in response to recommendations from industry and public interest groups. Its objective is to support the reclamation of abandoned mines, but the task is daunting given the number of abandoned mines and the expense of reclamation. New regulations and industry-driven initiatives are more rigorous with respect to avoidance or minimization of impacts and reclamation (e.g., MAC 2013; Government of Alberta 2013; Government of Ontario 2013), but little published literature is available that tests their effectiveness for maintaining or restoring forests. In addition to mines, the oil and gas industry has more than 220 000 well sites in Canada's boreal ( Brandt et al. 2013), with 10 000 or more new well sites per year ( Wells et al. 2010). There are about 1.7 million km of seismic lines in the boreal zone ( Brandt et al. 2013) and more are approved annually ( Machtans 2006). The effects of mining and oil and gas developments goes beyond the direct footprint of the mines or well sites and includes other infrastructure such as rights-of-way for access roads, power lines, pipelines, and hydro lines and noise from traffic and pumping stations. All of these cumulatively influence rates of other disturbances including hunting, traffic related mortality, fragmentation, and predator access.

3.5.1. Fungi

Mining and oil and gas development involve the complete removal of trees and the forest floor and severely damage soils through digging and turning, resulting in habitat loss and destruction or tremendous disruption to soil communities, including fungi ( Zak 1992). Rapid recovery is unlikely, and the degree of long-term recovery is unknown. Mycorrhizal networks are eliminated and the taxa capable of growing in the overburden material are typically reduced to generic E-strain fungi ( Wilcoxina mikolae, Wilcoxina rehmii, or related species) or disturbance tolerant Cenococcum graniforme ( Danielson 1982; Danielson et al. 1983). These latter species often survive in the soil in most adverse situations, frequently by means of sclerotia or other structures, and then colonize pioneer species ( Trappe 1971; LoBuglio et al. 1996).

Efforts to reclaim mined areas, in the form of soil replacement and amendments such as peat, sewage sludge, or fertilizer, have been tried with varying results ( Danielson et al. 1983; Zak and Parkinson 1983). Generally successful, these authors suggest that the eventual return to a pre-industrial state of fungal assemblages is unlikely without active measures such as artificial inoculation of mycorrhizal fungi species on seedlings ( Trofymow and van den Driessche 1991) or transplantation of donor plant communities, soils, and the attendant soil biota (e.g., Cobbaert et al. 2004). There is a general dearth of ecological studies on all groups of fungi and their interaction with other organisms within these newly created environments. Several authors have discussed the ability of fungi to tolerate certain toxic metals including copper, aluminum (e.g., Høiland 1994; Fomina et al. 2005), and uranium ( Fomina et al. 2008), suggesting or claiming an important role for fungi in environmental detoxification as metals are bound in the fungal hyphal mantle and not taken up by the tree. Ectomycorrhizae may mitigate plant responses to elevated levels of fluoride and sodium chloride ( Calvo-Polanco et al. 2009).

Reduction in EM fungi as a result of nitrogen deposition from the oil and gas industries has been noted in Alaska ( Lilleskov et al. 2002; Whytemare et al. 1997). Stavishenko et al. (2002) further noted that in the course of oil and gas production in Siberia, large amounts of pollutants are discharged to the surrounding boreal forest causing a decrease in xylotrophic fungi, while the weakened trees succumb to pollution-tolerant phytopathogenic species.

3.5.2. Amphibians

Since oil sands developments began in the mid-1970s, about 761 km ² have been cleared or disturbed by oil sands mining, 182 km ² are covered by tailings ponds (although this number may drop as recently developed tailings management processes and technologies come into more widespread use), and about 1 km ² has been certified reclaimed ( Government of Alberta 2012). It is reasonable to suppose that most amphibian habitats and populations in surface-mined areas have been lost. Associated wetlands formed with oil sands tailings were ecological traps for at least 7 years, whereby animals were attracted to the resource but were unable to reproduce or died; however, tadpole survival in tailings wetlands older than 7 years was similar to that in reference areas ( Hersikorn et al. 2010).

3.5.3. Birds

Chronic industrial noise from compressor stations along pipeline systems has also been shown to reduce the abundance of ovenbirds ( Habib et al. 2007) and a number of other passerines ( Bayne et al 2008b). Birds were less abundant up to 700 m from compressor stations as compared to disturbed but quiet well-pad sites. As of 2005, there were more than 5600 compressor stations in Alberta's boreal forest as well as many other noise-generating energy industry facilities. In Habib et al.'s (2007) study area there were approximately 900 compressor stations in a 10 million ha area. With an impact radius of 700 m, the impact area would be approximately 150 ha per station or 135 000 ha impacted in the area. This amounts to approximately 1.35% of the total area. Technology to reduce noise exists but has not been implemented in wilderness areas ( Habib et al. 2007).

3.5.4. Mammals

3.5.4.1. Woodland Caribou

There are no positive effects of oil and gas development on caribou and most effects are long term because of forest loss, increased predation, and establishment of infrastructure (e.g., Hervieux et al. 2013). The most endangered populations in the western boreal zone have ranges that are affected substantially by oil and gas developments ( Sorensen et al. 2008; Athabasca Landscape Team 2009; Environment Canada 2011). Habitat loss ( Bergerud 1974), noise ( Bradshaw et al. 1997, 1998; Seip et al. 2007), roads ( Dyer et al. 2001), total human activity ( Dyer et al. 2001), increased predation ( Sorensen et al. 2008), and seismic lines ( James and Stuart-Smith 2000; Athabasca Landscape Team 2009) associated with energy production all have negative effects on woodland caribou habitat, survival, and (or) productivity. These studies together indicate that oil and gas developments cause habitat loss for caribou through multiple mechanisms. Schneider et al. (2003) modelled the cumulative effects of oil and gas development plus forest management on a 60 000 km ² study area in north-eastern Alberta and predicted a reduction in caribou habitat of more than 86% after 20 years under a business-as-usual scenario.

Caribou avoid disturbances by considerable distances, often up to several kilometres ( Dyer et al. 2001). Boulanger et al. (2012) reported a 14 km zone of influence of open-pit mining on avoidance by barren-ground caribou, including effects on migration routes. Polfus et al. (2011) reported caribou avoided high use roads by 2 km, low use roads by 1 km, mines by 2 km, and towns by up to 9 km, suggesting a loss of 2%-8% of high quality caribou habitat in British Columbia. Johnson et al. (2005) reported that major developments such as mines have major negative effects in species occurrence (wolf, bear, caribou, wolverine), followed by exploration activities in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

3.5.4.2. Lynx

The only study to assess oil and gas developments suggested that road density and human activity levels have had a strong negative influence on lynx populations in preferred habitats ( Bayne et al. 2008a).

3.6. Response of key taxa to hydroelectric developments

Riparian and wetland sites provide critical habitat in terms of microclimate and floodwater siltation as well as reduced fire frequency for geographically rare tree species with more southern affinities, as well as large balsam poplar, eastern white cedar ( Thuja occidentalis L.), and white spruce ( Carleton 2000). Flooding and siltation play primary roles in stand composition, forest dynamics, and succession in these sites ( Nanson and Beech 1977; Walker et al. 1986; Scott et al. 1996; Hughes 1997; Dixon et al. 2002). Hydroelectric dams can substantially reduce these habitats by upstream flooding and further restrict tree diversity by altering flow regimes and restricting siltation downstream ( Rosenberg et al. 1997). Reservoirs (and flooded standing forest) used in generating hydroelectric power now occupy 95 100 ha within the boreal zone of Canada ( Kurz et al. 2013). In the Boreal Shield ecozone ( Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), hydroelectric development has altered 85% of the drainage basins, with 77% containing major dams, 25% having major reservoirs, and 33% having rivers whose flow has either been augmented or diminished by water transfers ( Urquizo et al. 2000). Little direct information is available, however, on site-specific effects of hydroelectric developments on boreal forest terrestrial biodiversity. Mahoney and Schaefer (2002) reported that caribou abandoned an area of up to 3 km from a newly constructed dam in Newfoundland for at least 2 years following construction. Additionally, there is strong evidence for increases in methylmercury in dam reservoirs ( Rosenberg et al. 1997). Methylmercury bioaccumulates in fish, which are then consumed by birds and mammals. Toxic effects include behavioral, neuro-chemical, hormonal, and reproductive changes ( Scheuhammer et al. 2007), but these effects are at the scale of single reservoirs. Rosenberg et al. (1997) reviews impacts of hydroelectric development on biodiversity but most effects are on aquatic species, except for loss of terrestrial habitat due to flooding.

3.7. Evidence for long-term effects

3.7.1. Convergence

3.7.1.1. Fungi

Little is known about the effects of harvest rotation age on forest fungi or the time required for species convergence following disturbance in boreal forests. Studies from temperate and boreal zones ( Visser 1995; Outerbridge et al. 2009; Paillet et al. 2010) suggest community stabilization and species convergence can take from 27 to 65 years following disturbance. Community convergence is dependent on the proximity of suitable older forests to provide inocula for late-stage EM fungal species to colonize regenerating forests. Partial cutting, variable retention forestry, small cutblock sizes, prompt seedling emergence or proximity of a plantation to old stands, and mixed tree species are among the factors facilitating convergence of fungal species richness in managed areas, although frequently with changed species composition ( Bradbury et al. 1998; Jones et al. 2002; Outerbridge et al. 2009). The long-term implications of such shifts in the fungal community structure are still unknown.

Reclamation of former mining and oil sands sites is dependent on re-establishing productive soils and soil microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) for successful revegetation. Biogeochemical cycling between soils, microbes, and plants is important for forest ecosystem function and productivity ( Maynard et al. 2014). Studies of reclaimed sites indicate some evidence for convergence towards natural soil microbial communities ( Hahn and Quideau 2013) but degree of convergence is dependent on environmental conditions, the target ecosystem, and material and methods of reclamation ( McMillan et al. 2007; Dimitriu et al. 2010; Hahn and Quideau 2013).

3.7.1.2. Arthropods

There is a risk that, in upland landscapes that experience heavy and sustained harvesting, convergence of assemblages in harvested blocks may be hindered because patches with populations of potential colonizers continue to be removed from the landscape before faunal convergence in neighbouring disturbed areas has occurred. Species with poor dispersal abilities, such as large-bodied flightless ground beetles ( Niemelä et al. 1993), and rare species ( Pyper 2009) may especially be at risk.

The medium- to long-term convergence of arthropod assemblages in the wake of wildfire and harvesting was investigated in aspen-dominated stands in the boreal forest in north-central Alberta. Using a chronosequence design, epigaeic and saproxylic assemblages were compared among harvest- and fire-origin stands that were 1-2, 14-15, and 28-29 years post-disturbance and also compared with mature pyrogenic aspen stands more than 70 years old. For epigaeic ground beetles, rove beetles and spiders ( Buddle et al. 2000, 2006), and saproxylic beetles ( Langor et al. 2008), assemblage structure in harvest- and fire-origin stands converged over time, suggesting resilience following harvest. However, not unexpectedly, all assemblages still remained significantly different from mature stands more than 70 years old.

3.7.1.3. Birds

Immediately after fire or harvesting, bird communities tend to be most divergent ( Schieck and Song 2006; Thompson et al. 2013; Simon et al. 2002). Post-fire stands are generally dominated by cavity nesters ( Imbeau et al 1999) where the presence of large dead and dying trees results in a high abundance of saproxylic beetles for prey as well as cavity trees for nesting ( Hobson and Schieck 1999; Hoyt and Hannon 2002). There is usually increasing overlap of forest bird communities as stands age ( Schieck and Song 2006). In western Canada, bird communities were very similar by 60 years ( Schieck and Hobson 2000). In the eastern boreal, partial convergence was achieved for managed stands by 31-52 years, where counts of 7 of 13 old-forest species did not differ. Notably, three species were absent from most managed stands: brown creeper ( Certhia americana), boreal chickadee, and blackburnian warbler ( Setophaga fusca). In post-fire stands in Labrador, 4 of 10 common species had lower abundance in stands up to 27 years post-harvest compared to post-fire ( Simon et al. 2002). Drapeau et al. (2000) found that large-scale conversion of conifer forests to mixedwoods would likely have lasting effects on the avian community structure, but they did not predcit any extinctions.

In a meta-analysis of bird responses to uniform partial harvesting, Vanderwel et al. (2007) found that uniform harvests with 70% retention show declines of only 25% for a few species, whereas 50% retention caused substantial reductions of many species. Less than 50% retention is expected to cause serious declines in abundance of some species and might exclude others. Current forestry practices generally require approximately 10% retention, suggesting that the effects on late-successional bird species will be profound in the short term. However, given their relatively strong dispersal capabilities, birds do not require the continuous occupation of stands if suitable stands are developing at the same rate as they are being cut in the surrounding landscape. Landscape-level planning that ensures the continous supply of stands representing a full range of successional stages, may be more important for bird community persistence. For birds, the main purpose for retention may be the potential to provide late-successional structure in young forests, thus speeding up convergence of bird communities ( Rosenvald and Lõhmus 2008). An alternative approach to uniform retention is aggregate retention; this leaves mature forest in patches interspersed within a harvest block or area. Aggregate retention can help maintain a wide diversity of stand structures in a forest landscape, including tree sizes, composition, snag sizes, and condition. It also allows for multiple canopy layers, the maintenance of understory plant communities, and an intact forest floor ( Franklin et al. 1997). The implications of this approach are somewhat different in that small forest patches do appear to maintain habitat for some late-successional species ( Schieck et al. 2000). Lance and Phinney (2001) showed that aggregate retention maintained high levels of forest birds even with relatively low levels of retention (15%-22%). Norton and Hannon (1997) found that seven out of eight species that were absent from clear-cuts were maintained by aggregate retention, although at lower abundance.

3.7.1.4. Mammals

In the Canadian boreal forest, extirpations have occurred mostly along the southern fringes as a result of habitat change or directly from exploitation soon after colonization of Canada by Europeans. For example, the Newfoundland wolf ( Canis lupus beothicus) and eastern cougar ( Puma concolor couguar) are extinct largely because of hunting. In the managed continental boreal forest there have been no extinctions, and the only mammal species that have declined sufficiently to warrant listing are woodland (boreal) caribou, wood bison, wolverine, and grizzly bear, so convergence should still be possible. The decline in populations of these species reflects the extensive landscape-scale changes that have occurred through a cascade of effects related to habitat change (e.g., Environment Canada 2008, 2011; Bowman et al. 2010; Festa-Bianchet et al. 2011), so it is unlikely that they will be able to re-occupy southern-most areas. Forest recovery following forest harvesting is now also being affected by global climate change, and boreal forests are already showing the effects of warming (e.g., Soja et al. 2007; Price et al. 2013). As a result, the long-term effects of natural resource development will be confounded by the long-term effects of climate change and separating these effects with respect to convergence may not be possible.

It appears that the mammalian community of the boreal forest is mostly intact after 60-80 years of forest management over large landscapes. Nevertheless, this does not suggest that there have been no changes in the relative abundances of species as a consequence of human activities or that the future boreal forest mammalian community will resemble what existed before European settlement (e.g., Thompson 2000; Laliberte and Ripple 2004; Bowman et al. 2010). For example, several species have advanced north hundreds of kilometres as the climate has warmed following the last glaciation, and these species, including white-tailed deer, coyote ( Canis latrans), grey squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis), and fisher ( Martes pennanti), are predicted to become more common in boreal forests, while the distributions of moose ( Alces alces) and caribou will continue to contract northwards (e.g., Thompson et al. 1998; Thompson 2000; Varrin et al. 2007).

Questions about boreal forest communities altered by anthropogenic habitat change have not been well examined for all mammals. Suspected changes as a result of loss of apex predators and increased meso-predator abundance have been proposed for other forest ecosystems (e.g., Prugh et al. 2009; Ritchie and Johnson 2009), but the major boreal forest apex predator, the wolf, remains common throughout the boreal zone. Changes to the boreal forest mammal community may be the result of increased access, increased mixedwood, and less coniferous forest, and less structure than in the past could have reduced red squirrel, deer mouse, and red-backed vole populations on a large scale with consequent effects on foxes, fisher, marten, and other meso-predators. Similarly, more young mixedwoods than in the past may have resulted in higher snowshoe hare populations, with positive effects on lynx and marten. Unfortunately, few historical data are available to test these hypotheses.

3.7.2. Trends

One indicator of these cumulative effects is long-term population trend. Very few taxa other than birds and some caribou populations have reliable long-term trend data to address this question. According to long-term breeding bird survey trends, at least 40 taxonomically diverse species of boreal landbirds experienced population declines in the boreal zone and range-wide, over the last 30 years ( Blancher 2003). Declining species use a variety of habitats, with a wide range of foraging and migration strategies, and therefore causes of declines are likely to be diverse. For example, rusty blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus) is a boreal species that is federally listed as a species of special concern ( COSEWIC 2006) and is declining in its entire range and throughout the boreal zone ( Blancher 2003), but the causes of its decline are mostly attributed to effects on the wintering grounds ( COSEWIC 2006). Canada warbler ( Cardellina canadensis) is listed as threatened and is declining throughout its range ( COSEWIC 2008). The reasons for Canada warbler decline are not known, but there are suggestions that habitat loss on both wintering and breeding grounds are potential threats ( COSEWIC 2008). Among declining species, few are old-forest specialists with boreal chickadee being an exception ( Thompson et al. 2013), and, in general, other old-forest specialists have not shown decline including brown creeper and blackburnian warbler.

Olive-sided flycatcher ( Contopus cooperi) and common nighthawk ( Chordeiles minor) are declining boreal forest birds that are also part of a general decline among aerial insectivores for which the causes are unknown but are potentially related to food availability ( COSEWIC 2007a, 2007b). Alternatively, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessment of the olive-sided flycatcher suggested that declines in populations may also be related to habitat loss and change. This species may be an early post-fire dependent species that is attracted to harvested forests that have similar structural conditions to early post-fires habitats, but these may function as ecological sinks because of increased nest predation ( COSEWIC 2007b). Other threats to the common nighthawk are thought to be habitat related but more because of reforestation in the southern portion of its range ( COSEWIC 2007a).

In a detailed analysis of forest bird trends in Ontario's boreal forest, Blancher et al. (2009) found that 13% of forest birds (of the 121 assessed) are showing moderate to large declines in contrast to 38% showing moderate to large increases. Both declines and increases, however, are indicative of change in forest ecosystems. They also found no differences in trend status for different habitat associations, which gives no clue as to the causes of declines or increases. The trend reliablitity for the boreal zone was ranked poor for 60% of the species due to a low degree of coverage, limited control over potential biases, and limitations of the methods. It is recognized that documentation of large-scale patterns in bird population trends for the boreal zone is seriously hampered by a paucity of data and lack of standardized sampling techniques ( Schmiegelow and Monkkonen 2002; Blancher et al. 2009), yet data for birds is of higher quality than any other species group with the exception of a few large mammals of conservation concern.

4. Discussion and conclusions

4.1. How have Canadian boreal forests changed due to natural resource development?

In managed boreal forest there is evidence of conversion of some forest types and reductions in others. Harvesting has reduced white spruce abundance, size, and average age, and upland black spruce and jack pine have also become less common. Conversely, trembling aspen and balsam fir have increased substantially as a result of logging, especially in eastern Canada. Also, extensive logging of white and red pine in southern portions of the eastern boreal during early logging has greatly reduced their abundances. There is evidence that the landscape-level structure of the managed boreal forest has changed compared to the original forest, with more young forest, more mixedwoods, and fewer conifers than expected under the normal range of natural disturbances and variation ( Carleton 2000; Drapeau et al. 2000; Perera and Baldwin 2000; Timoney 2003; Cyr et al. 2009; Bouchard and Pothier 2011). A key consequence of forest harvesting is the truncation of the age-class distribution with a smaller proportion of older forest than would occur in a landscape driven by natural disturbance. Disparities between age-class distributions of managed and natural landscapes are greatest in the eastern boreal, where the natural fire cycle and history of harvest are generally longer than in the west. There is also evidence that forest management has reduced the amount of coarse woody debris, particularly when fire- or insect-damaged stands are salvage logged.

Landscape configuration has also been altered by forest management. Harvesting produces relatively small, even-sized disturbances compared to much larger stands created by natural disturbances; therefore, the landscape is finer textured with more regular edges and less shape complexity, more edge and reduced interior area of remaining forest. Road building and other linear features, especially those associated with oil and gas exploration and development, have further fragmented the landscape and resulted in pervasive disturbances and direct mortality (hunting and trapping) that are sufficient to affect sensitive low-density species at a population level including caribou, wolverine, and grizzly bear.

Much of the habitat loss caused by oil and gas development and mining is long term. Hydroelectric development has altered many drainage basins in the boreal zone and has substantially impacted riverine and wetland sites that contain geographically rare species with more southern affinities as well as large balsam poplar, white cedar, and white spruce.

4.2. How has biodiversity been affected?

We examined the responses of understory vegetation, fungi, arthropods, amphibians, birds, and mammals to the three major forest changes attributed to forest management (forest conversion, change in age class and structure, change in landscape configuration) and from direct and forest floor disturbance. There is a lack of long-term information for all of these taxa, and what is available varies considerably among the taxa. Soil compaction damage to soil structure is expected to affect understory vegetation with shallow root systems, or with limited seed or spore dispersal or regenerative capabilities and no persistent seed bank. Direct damage of trees has resulted in increased spread of root and stem decay fungi.

The effects of forest conversion on biodiversity have been studied at the stand scale. Since most taxa demonstrate strong habitat affinities for specific forest types, forest conversion will alter the expected natural habitat availability of the boreal forest and result in shifts in plant and animal communities. Our challenge in assessing the state of boreal forest communities is that we do not know the spatial extent of the forest conversion and so cannot predict the overall long-term impacts on biodiversity. Large portions of the southern boreal have been harvested (∼75% in Ontario and Quebec, 35%-72% in western Canada), but not all harvested areas have undergone conversion. A second important challenge is that large proportions of the arthropod and fungal communities are undescribed and microhabitat and obligatory associations are unknown for most species. These groups play key functional roles in boreal ecosystems including herbivory, pest control, pollination, and decomposition, so changes in their composition and abundance could have major ecological impacts.

Many species demonstrate preference for older forests that will be reduced with a truncation of the age distribution. A truncated age distribution will also greatly reduce the availability of coarse woody debris that accumulates most rapidly in older forests. This likely has important implications for tree species diversity (notably white spruce and white cedar that can establish on rotten log substrates), as well as for many saproxylic organisms (mycoheterotrophic plants and bryophytes, birds, mammals, arthropods, and fungi) that depend directly or indirectly on dead wood. The loss of older forest and salvage logging of recently burned areas results in losses of both snags and dead wood and declines of cavity nesting, dead-wood foraging, and dead-wood specialist species.

The increased amount of edge, old-forest isolation, and decreased amount of core area has been demonstrated to affect movements of plants and animals and to alter habitat suitability for some species across large portions of the landscape. Taxa with larger home ranges, such as marten and caribou, appear to be more sensitive to habitat composition at landscape scales than organisms that operate at smaller scales. Fragmentation of habitat types probably impedes the dispersal of many forest herb and bryophyte species that are short distance dispersers and favours the introduction of pioneer and non-native species with long-distance dispersal. There is some evidence that fragmentation, although partially ephemeral in the longer term, also impedes the movements of forest birds and caribou for periods of at least 20 years.

4.3. Will the biodiversity of second-growth forests converge with that of primary boreal forests?

Lack of convergence of forest communities after natural and anthropogenic disturbances is one of the key indicators of long-term forest change, but convergence has been difficult to assess because logging history is too short to provide old second-growth forest stands. Furthermore, not all second-growth forests follow similar recovery trajectories because logging methods and policies have continually evolved, altering successional patterns. Studies to date suggest that convergence is incomplete, unknown for old-forest age classes and that differences in species composition occur between mature fire- and harvest-origin stands. For example, songbird communities differ between 50- and 100-year-old forests of all types (e.g., Drapeau et al. 2000; Thompson et al. 2013), and there is little evidence that woodland caribou can persist in second-forest landscapes ( Environment Canada 2011). Further, for forest types that have recovered to altered states after harvesting, convergence is unlikely to occur. Such differences are likely to become more exaggerated with multiple rotations. Long-term data for the boreal forest are scarce; however, our conclusions about convergence in communities between managed and primary forests remain tentative, although few species have been lost outright (see below). Over and above these possible changes in habitat quality is the issue of permanent roads and mines that result in human access, functional habitat loss from disturbances, and mortality of large mammals.

4.4. Are we losing boreal forest species due to natural resource development?

There is little current evidence that species are in danger of complete extirpation from the boreal zone as a result of industrial activity, although hunting caused some early local species losses (Newfoundland wolves), and there have been local extirpations (e.g., caribou, wolverine, and grizzly bear in southern boreal areas). Boreal forest ecosystems are dynamic and highly adapted to recover from severe disturbances, and in this respect the system appears somewhat resilient to anthropogenic change. However, boreal forest systems in Fennoscandia, where forest management has a much longer history, have seen the rapid decline of many species with 739 threatened forest invertebrate species in Sweden ( Berg et al. 1994) and 727 in Finland (Rassi et al. 1992 cited in Siitonen 2001). Although Canada and Fennoscandia are not entirely comparable, this pattern suggests that boreal forests in Canada may be facing an extinction debt whereby cumulative effects may, over time, lead to species losses and that may be exacerbated by climate change. Most species, especially those that have strict habitat requirements, achieve their highest population densities in certain preferred habitats, but they can also persist at lower populations in less optimal habitats. Species that are forced into marginal habitats or low-quality landscapes often eventually become extinct ( Pimm et al. 1995). Data on habitat-related fitness are not available for most boreal species, but information for moose, caribou, red squirrel, snowshoe hare, and marten, among others, for example, supports the concept that productivity is highest in preferred habitats (see, e.g., Thompson 2004 for discussion and references). Clear changes in community composition, local diversity losses, and population reductions as functions of conversion of forest types, loss or reduction of stand structures, changes in age-class distribution, and changes in landscape structure and quality have all resulted from forest management and cumulative effects with other developments. Functional habitat loss alone associated with road building has resulted in reduced populations of some species including caribou, wolverine, and grizzly bear through noise and mortality.

Some boreal forest species have undergone long-term population declines. In particular, woodland caribou range has declined by 25%-40% depending on jurisdiction, primarily as a result of cumulative anthropogenic developments. Data for forest birds suggests that many species are undergoing population changes, some positive and some negative. Although impacts outside of Canada are the suspected causes of declines by some species ( Martin and Finch 1995; Imbeau et al. 2001; Thompson et al. 2009), others are thought to be directly affected by forest management and other industrial developments ( Greenberg and Matsuoka 2010; Drapeau et al. 2009). Although we have framed the question in terms of species loss, a declining trend in abundance, for which mitigation should be considered, is a significant warning sign of the loss of ecological integrity in the forest system.

4.5. Conclusions

There is ample evidence that the boreal forest is changing in response to natural resource development including forestry, oil and gas development, mining, and hydroelectric development. Changes include habitat loss, conversion of forest types, truncation of the age-class distribution, decreases in dead wood and stand structural diversity, and increased edges and old-forest isolation. At stand and landscape scales, we have found evidence for varying degrees of impact of these forest changes on all groups of species examined including trees, understory vegetation, fungi, arthropods, amphibians, birds, and mammals. A significant gap in our ability to assess the effects of natural resorce development on boreal biodiversity as a whole is the lack of extensive, long-term spatial information on the cumulative forest changes described above. Forest change and its impact on biodiversity are predominantly studied at stand and landscape scales. Scaling up to regional and boreal-wide impacts is not possible without a better understanding of regional and boreal-wide forest change. As well, the effects of natural resource development are difficult to isolate from the pervasive effects of climate change. Cumulative stresses including interactions among drivers and interactions among taxa are poorly understood, greatly reducing our ability to assess impacts.

Long-term trends that can provide indications of boreal-wide change are only available for a select group of species. Long-term monitoring is not (and has not been) conducted for the vast majority of boreal taxa. Some large mammals that operate at large scales have shown significant declines that have been attributed to habitat loss and change due to industrial development. There have also been declines and increases in boreal landbirds, but it has been more difficult to determine the ecological significance and direct causes of these changes.

In response to some concerns about forest harvest impacts on biodiversity, harvesting and silvicultural approaches have been developed that can ameliorate the effects of logging on many boreal forest indicator species. Approaches include riparian buffer strips that provide reserves of old-forest habitat for small species; corridors that provide movement habitat to reduce isolation, extended rotations, and partial harvesting; and green-tree retention that may provide refuges for old-forest species or legacy structure for successional stands. As well, there have been some reclamation efforts of mining and oil and gas developments to ameliorate impacts on forest sustainability. The success of these efforts has yet to be scientifically evaluated.

Biodiversity is changing at stand and landscape scales. It is more difficult to draw conclusions at a boreal forest-wide scale, although there are several species for which population declines at this scale are well documented. Identifying the spatio-temporal scale at which a decline in biodiversity becomes unacceptable and requires remediative action (under Canadian law and treaty obligations) is a complex scientific and social question that has not been adequately answered for most components of Canada's boreal forest biodiversity.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ken Baldwin, Darcie Booth, Kim Chapman, Roxanne Comeau, Kevin Ethier, Art Groot, Eliot McIntire, Christian Messier, David Price, Paul Way, Maureen Whelan, and several anonymous reviewers for contributions to the manuscript. France Gelinas, Kerrie Wainio Keizer, and Stephanie Wilson provided logistic support. Copy editing was provided by Sheila Bourque.

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Effects of natural resource development on the terrestrial biodiversity of Canadian boreal forests

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Much of Canada's terrestrial biodiversity is supported by boreal forests. Natural resource development in boreal forests poses risks to this biodiversity. This paper reviews the scientific literature to assess the effects of natural resource development on terrestrial biodiversity in Canadian boreal forests.

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Metropolis profiles CannonDesign's behavioral-health studio-a multidisciplinary pool of in-house experts that helm projects in their highly specialized field.

The threshold holds special fascination for architects. A doorway, hall, or garden is a spatial manifestation of transition between two phases and can make all the difference in the experience of both. In the design of mental-health-care spaces, where a patient may literally enter in one state and exit in another, the threshold is particularly important.

"We look at the sequencing as you move from the outside through the inside," says Stephanie Vito, a lead architect in the behavioral-health studio at CannonDesign. "We really spend a lot of time looking at the nuances."

With 27 people-architects, planners, designers, engineers, programmers, and advisers-spread over six of the firm's offices in the United States and Canada, the studio operates as a pool of experts tapped to helm projects in the highly specialized field of behavioral-healthcare design, in which everything from drywall to faucets requires consideration different from that in other health-care environments. CannonDesign has been creating behavioral-health-care spaces for three decades, so it has had ample opportunity to track the field's evolution. When the firm's first behavioral-healthcare facility, Canada's Ontario Shores (then Whitby Psychiatric Hospital), opened in 1996, it was considered a watershed project. "The facility was based on wellness-helping patients get well," says Tim Rommel, a behavioral-health architect who directs the studio. "Previous to that, most were more like long-term-care facilities. Patient lengths of stay were measured in years versus months or days."

In the United States, mental-health care is under-delivered and faces challenges on multiple fronts, from social stigma to scarcity of beds to inadequate insurance coverage. One in five Americans experiences some form of mental disorder, but less than half of affected people receive treatment. The picture is especially dire for children. Diane Osan, the leader of CannonDesign's pediatric practice, calls it a "crisis," describing children's hospitals as "being inundated in ways that they've never been before around behavioral health." She points to a range of public-health traumas that affect children: academic stress, bullying, intolerance of gender nonconformity or sexual preference, separation of families, and school shootings, as well as violence in communities and the opioid epidemic.

More than ever, behavioral-health architects must consider how to design physical and programmatic thresholds that facilitate productive exchange-between patient and caregiver, patient and researcher, patient and community or family. These thresholds not only support the therapeutic functions of care environments but also battle stigma and remove barriers to treatment. "There is a broader recognition that behavioral-health care is a vital part of overall health," says Rommel. "Mental-health issues cost this country more in terms of GDP than the first five leading physical ailments combined, and that includes cardiovascular diseases and cancer. I think our society is starting to realize that and take steps."

For many, the first threshold of treatment is not a designated behavioral-healthcare space at all, but the emergency department, or ED. To provide a calmer setting and avoid hospitalization for those who may not need it, firms like CannonDesign are increasingly asked to design hybrid areas where patients exhibiting both mental and physical distress can be assessed for treatment. Known as crisis-center intervention units, such integrated-care areas are becoming more common in children's hospitals, which recognize that good design can alleviate the strain on staff and young patients, says Osan.

Outside the ED, CannonDesign uses the term "therapeutic platform" to describe the combination of environments that supports healing. Rather than being thought of as bonuses, these environments of daily life, CannonDesign believes, should actually be integral to treatment protocols. The therapeutic platform comprises units-which, depending on the patient group, can include clinical settings, activity spaces, and outdoor areas in addition to bedrooms-and areas outside the units, such as shared and semipublic areas for recreation and other uses.

Key to a therapeutic platform's success is patient choice. Private rooms, which help preserve patient dignity and a sense of normalcy, are now favored over dormitory-style rooms with multiple beds, and have the added advantage of designing out gender specificity-critical for transgender and nonbinary patients. That said, CannonDesign prefers that the bedrooms' design intentionally hews to the basics to encourage patients to leave them. Providing variety elsewhere-larger spaces for active groups, smaller ones for quiet-allows patients to step away when they need to without retreating completely.

As the field seeks alternatives to physical and chemical restraints for calming patients, clients are turning to design-driven ways to de-escalate high-risk situations or avoid them entirely. CannonDesign's Margaret and Charles Juravinski Centre for Integrated Healthcare at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton in Hamilton, Ontario (2014), includes a range of spaces for just that purpose. The facility, which treats patients with acute mental illnesses and also offers medical outpatient services (another effort to battle stigma), has a "therapeutic mall" with fitness spaces, a bookstore, billiards and table tennis, a laundry, and a salon. When the firm's University of Kansas Health System project opens in 2019, it will include a basketball court and cookout area in its central courtyard. Other facilities have had swimming pools, yoga studios, and in one instance a bowling alley, says David Sass, a lead architect in the behavioral-health studio. Though not everyone is permitted to visit all spaces at all times, the goal, he says, is to open thresholds and provide more and more freedom; not to replace life outside the center but to help patients return to it.

Designing for general well-being can have particular benefits in behavioral-health-care spaces, since facilities that foster calm can reduce the need for overt restraint and surveillance. A number of studies support the intuitive wisdom that natural light and access to nature are beneficial to patients, as well as the idea that physical activity and mental health are intimately connected. With this in mind, CannonDesign makes a point to provide access to exercise and the outdoors in all its facilities. At the Virginia Treatment Center for Children at VCU Medical Center in Richmond, this meant including indoor and outdoor activity areas for patients, and utilizing glazed window walls to bring in natural light and views. At Juravinski, which required tighter security, CannonDesign provided a "gradient" of outdoor spaces ranging from secure to fully public and situated inpatient areas toward the back of the building, where there are private views of the property.

Creating spaces with nature in mind has also yielded thoughtful threshold treatments, bringing the outdoors in through courtyards and atria that aid in circulation. Slated to open in 2020 in Baltimore, Sheppard Pratt Health System's new psychiatric hospital is organized around a courtyard. Besides drawing people in through an open and welcoming entrance, it is, Sass says, a "physical unifier," traversed by a central corridor at all levels of the building. The nature-forward approach has also guided how the firm treated the site, resulting in a light touch that will preserve the existing slope and trees for a landscape that patients, visitors, and staff can all enjoy. "The premier concept for the entire hospital is this idea of healing in nature," says Sass. "It's all part of the idea that nature and healing are one."

As current thinking about health and wellness becomes more holistic, behavioral-health-care facilities-which, by definition, must treat mind and body together-are a reminder of how design for the "whole person" can dramatically improve our overall health and happiness. The architects at CannonDesign's behavioral-health studio are united in their conviction that design decisions directly affect users' lives-something they evaluate regularly through postoccupancy studies. "To me and to the CannonDesign team, it's a pretty big responsibility," says Rommel, "but it's something that really makes you want to get up in the morning."
You may also enjoy "This New Clinic in New York Leverages the Tools of Hospitality Design to 'Feel Human.'"

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How Architecture Can Help Address America's Mental-Health-Care Crisis - Metropolis

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Metropolis profiles CannonDesign's behavioral-health studio-a multidisciplinary pool of in-house experts that helm projects in their highly specialized field.

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Ethnicity & Identity Within the Four-Room House

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Ethnicity & Identity Within the Four-Room House

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The process of determining ethnicity is a problematic venture, even more so when interpreted through the archaeological record. Despite this issue, evidence, such as the four-room house, has been preserved that can be interpreted to represent ethnic markers and help illuminate the lives of individuals and groups from the past. Following the theoretical perspective of Fredrik Barth, ethnicity is understood to be a malleable and self-ascribed phenomenon within a particular group. In light of this, the artifacts found within the archaeological record have the ability to illustrate how a particular group identified itself and how it perpetuated this identity. I propose to demonstrate this act of self-ascription and perpetuation of ethnic identity through an examination of ancient "Israelite" architecture, namely four-room houses during the Iron I and Iron II periods of the central highlands. This analysis will include an interpretation of the structure, function, and origin of the four-room house, as well as a cross examination with biblical passages suggesting possible Egyptian parallels as well as an egalitarian lifestyle.

Determining Ethnicity

The definition and interpretation of ethnicity has evolved over the last century and new methods and perspectives have been adopted. This shift occurred in the late 1960s with the work of Fredrik Barth. Barth sparked this evolution with the hypothesis that ethnicity is malleable, can vary, be learnt, and change. Prior to this interpretation, theorists such as Durkheim and Weber understood ethnicity to be static, an understanding that continued until the late 1960s CE. According to Barth, ethnic groups are a form of social organization that is constructed in response to self-ascription and the ascription of others. In other words, an ethnic identity is formed through a group's understanding of itself as an ethnic group, as well as how others outside the group understand them. This self-understanding is accomplished through self-identification, a process that often includes a conscious construction of identity by the group. This may be influenced by factors such as individual psychology, relationships, family, community, nation, and so on. Geoff Emberling argues that the process of self-ascription is likely the most "fundamental characteristic of ethnicity," stressing common genealogy and cultural construction as key factors. [Emberling, 302] Key to both Barth and Emberling's concept of ethnicity is the emphasis of "social facts" rather than biological, meaning that ethnicity is more than a simple "genetic relatedness."[Emberling, 302]

If an ethnic group is not simply determined according to genetic relatedness then other determinative factors must be considered; these include, but are not limited to: language, religion, cuisine, clothing, household objects, and architecture. For the purposes of this paper, however, architectural remains will take precedence over the other factors simply due to the focus on four-room houses and the identification of ethnicity through architecture.

Returning to the process of self-ascription, Elizabeth Bloch-Smith begs the following questions: what shared interest forged the bond of Iron I Israel, and what shared institutions perpetuated group identity? Contrary to her analysis of the subject, I suggest the development and use of the four-room house as a possible solution to both questions. The four-room house represented more than a simple domestic dwelling type; it represented ideological and ethnic behaviours that were expected and required by those that utilized it. Granted, biblical sources appear to omit the significance of house plans, but this is not to say that significance was totally absent. Biblical sources represent one resource; they are not the ultimate judges of fact, and they most certainly do not represent the most historically accurate source; however, Bloch-Smith's critique does bring attention to the issue of incorporating biblical archaeology with biblical scholarship. Although the two depend on one another to a certain degree, the process is far from simple.

As Emberling notes, the issue for the archaeologist determining ethnicity is the identification of objects and characteristics that were socially meaningful. As the debate among scholars suggests, uniform consensus is far from existent in the interpretation of the four-room house as an ethnic marker and the same can be said for other determinative factors. This issue of interpretation is addressed by Ziony Zevit who argues for a greater attempt toward objectivity in scholarship, particularly within biblical studies and biblical archaeology. Essentially, Zevit stresses the impact of one's worldview upon his or her behaviour. A student or scholar of the past must recognize her own preconceived worldview in order to bracket out such standards that may be incompatible with the subject of study. In other words, it is problematic for an individual of the 21st century to differentiate between what was, and was not, meaningful in antiquity, and it is quite possibly this process that creates debate among scholars in this subject area. With this in mind, however, one may proceed to interpret the archaeological evidence while simultaneously taking the problematic nature and consciously bracketing one's own worldview into consideration.

The group in question here, namely the early Israelites, provides an interesting case for the interpretation of ethnic identity.

In light of this discussion, a definition for ethnicity has yet to be provided in order to clarify my purpose. Eloquently put, Norman K. Gottwald describes the term ethnicity as "a clearly articulated shared identity within a population group, attested by claims of common history, culture, and values." [Gottwald, 29] In response to this definition, the term ethnicity will be utilized here in reference to the group identity that has been constructed by the group in response to ecological, political, socio-economical, and/or religious factors. It is also in relation to their collective memory and collective identity as understood by itself and by those outside the group. Basically, ethnicity is to be understood as consciously constructed rather than merely biological inherited, and is not only self-ascribed but ascribed by others.

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The group in question here, namely the early Israelites, provides an interesting case for the interpretation of ethnic identity. Although the origins of the Israelites in Canaan are not the focus of this paper, it is important to note the ambiguity of their arrival to the region as well as the largely contested interpretation among scholars. Popular theories include the pre-existence of Israelites in Canaan, suggesting that the material evidence does not support the arrival of a new semi-nomadic people; this is in contrast to the alternate theory in which the influx of rural settlements during the early Iron I period is interpreted to represent the arrival of a new cultural or ethnic group. Not wanting to give preference to one theory over another, I propose a more intermediate solution.

As the end of the Bronze Age and late 13th century BCE represented a turbulent time throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, it is entirely possible that a variety of peoples settled in the central highlands of Canaan. William G. Dever suggests a similar argument in that the "Proto-Israelites" were not homogeneous from the beginning. Instead, the members of this group may have included displaced Canaanites, urban refugees, migrant farmers, Shasu-like Bedouin, and so on. Assuming this was the case, over time a unified group and ideologies would have developed in response to a new self-awareness as has been the case in other similar situations. This seems like a highly plausible situation, especially considering the socio-economic situation during this period such as the destruction and abandonment of various Canaanite urban centers and the possibility that various groups (not exclusive to the displaced urban dwelling Canaanites) may have chosen to settle in the highlands. Not only does this situation seem reasonable, but it seems ridiculous to assume only one group either chose or were permitted to settle in this area, especially due to its adaptability to subsistence farming. However the Israelites arrived in the central highlands, it is the representation of newly found ideologies and self-awareness that is most important to this discussion and it is through the analysis of the four-room house that these constructs can be interpreted.

Four-Room House Structure

The use of the term "four-room house" should be prefaced with an explanation. In the context of this paper the "four-room house" of the central highlands is not limited to domestic dwellings with four rooms alone. As a matter of fact, such houses may have three, four, or more rooms. It is also important to note that pillars are not always present either. Despite these discrepancies, the term "four-room house" is preferred over the alternate "pillared courtyard house" or "Israelite house" due to the problematic nature of labeling them as "Israelite houses" without more direct evidence to prove that the houses were used exclusively by Israelites.

The typical layout of the four-room house consisted of a rectilinear plan divided into three, four, or more spaces/rooms. A larger central space was separated by one or two rows of stone pillars, with an entrance that led from an exterior courtyard into the central space. Additional rooms may be added or subdivided, but the basic plan follows the description above. A deep cistern was often included in the courtyard, as were clay or mud brick ovens and hearths for cooking. This suggests that the majority of domestic tasks were performed outdoors, especially as the side rooms were often utilized for livestock as is suggested by the existence of cobbled floors, or as storage space. Both single, double, and possible triple, storied structures have been uncovered, supporting the theory in which the inhabitants slept and ate in the upper story, separated from the animals.

The structure would have possessed a flat roof, optimal for drying foodstuffs and additional storage, although one of the long rooms, usually the one in the center, may have been unroofed. In terms of protection the community generally seems to have possessed a perimeter wall. Such walls are not to be confused with a defense system; on the contrary, as with the over three hundred courtyard houses excavated, no defense walls were identified. Both Dever and Killebrew describe the oval settlement of four-room house communities, explaining that the design creates a perimeter wall utilizing the buildings themselves. Quite simply, defense does not appear to have been a priority of the four-room house inhabitants, as is expressed through the lack of weapons, sudden destruction or burning discovered. Instead, the perimeter wall suggests that the inhabitants drew their livestock within the walls in the evening so as to protect them from other animals or marauders.

Food remains and animal bones suggest that the communities consisted of farmers and stockbreeders, with enough storage space for their goods to suggest that they were self-sufficient. Additionally, evidence of household facilities for making stone and flint tools, potters' workshops, olive and grade processing installations, loom weights, etc. have been excavated further supporting the self-sufficiency theory, while also demonstrating that the society consisted of small family holdings, representing a kin-related, closely-knit group. Interestingly enough, Dever emphasizes the parallel between the identification of these communities as kin-based to the biblical tradition, supporting the "Israelite" origin theory. In addition, another interpretation of this material defines the community as egalitarian or communitarian, again drawing parallels to Israelite society and its egalitarian character, a concept to be interpreted in more detail later on.

An additional interpretation of four-room house remains includes the identification of public or monumental structures. Both Killebrew and Faust attest to the lack of such structures, while Dever suggests that the four-room house plan was adopted for public structures of various sorts. Once again the issue of interpretation comes to the front. Who is overlooking or omitting evidence, and who is correct? The dominant opinion within secondary sources suggests greater legitimacy for a lack of public structures, but the mere existence of an alternate theory deserves recognition and consideration. Without access to the original excavation reports, and from a total outsider's perspective, the truth may not be attainable. Herein lies the ever-present conundrum of archaeology and scholarship; all that is possible to determine are theories, never fact.

It is possible, however, to determine the chronology of the structure. First appearing in the central highlands in the late thirteenth- early twelfth centuries BCE, the four-room house developed in response to environmental and socio-economical needs. Although originally adopted for its functional qualities, the design of the four-room house would not "crystallize," or become more uniform, until the later twelfth-eleventh centuries BCE.[Killebrew, Biblical Peoples, 82] Ann E. Killebrew suggests that this crystallization represents something other than selection due to functionality. Instead, the development of a uniform four-room house suggests that the inhabitants chose the design as the result of ethnic behaviour. This concept of ethnic behaviour or group identity influencing a group's actions is not limited to the four-room house in the central highlands. In fact, Peter J. Burke and Jan E. Stets stress the importance of identity of a group and "how their identities influence their behaviour, thoughts, and feelings or emotions."[Burke & Stets, 3] Simply put, the selection of the four-room house as the uniform dwelling structure was not an accident and was not limited to functional purposes.

The use of four-room house was the result of conscious selection on behalf of the group, a group that may have originated in Canaan or emerged from elsewhere. Either way, the popularity of the four-room house during the Iron Age represents a deliberate choice on behalf of a distinct ethnic group reflecting their ethnic behaviour and needs. Faust demonstrates the relationship between the architectural design and the group identity where he claims:

Four-room houses, by the very uniformity of their plans, the egalitarian ethos reflected by them, and their dominant position within the society discussed, were used to reinforce the community's values and ideology, and to strengthen the sense of togetherness of the population.

The four-room house type was certainly not the only style that was functional for the environment of the highlands, and it was certainly not the only one available during this time period. The four-room house served more than functional purposes; it served ideological and social purposes as well. Put quite simply once again, the selection and use of the four-room house occurred because of a collective decision made by the group in response to their ethnic behaviour.

Socio-ECONOMIC Influence

Quite separate from scholars such as Shlomo Bunimovitz, Dever, Faust, and Killebrew, Finkelstein is a strong supporter of the emergence of the four-room house as a result of socio-economic conditions. This is not to say that the aforementioned scholars completely disregard this theory, however, they argue that the uniformity and survival of the structure for over six hundred years suggests something more complicated. Although I agree with this argument, the interpretation of socio-economic conditions still requires attention in order to gain a better understanding of the context in which the four-room house was developed.

If we accept the theory that the four-room house originally developed in response to socioeconomic conditions, and we also accept the theory that the inhabitants of the central highlands were primarily subsistence farmers and herders, then an examination of the environmental conditions will prove useful in interpreting the evolution of four-room houses. Unfortunately, "we cannot paint a truly realistic landscape of the area in the Bronze and Iron Ages, because archaeologists have rarely recorded evidence useful for reconstructing the ancient environment."[Stager, 4] Stager creates a bleak picture, but he goes on to theorize that the soil of the central highlands likely resembled terra rosa, the most common soil in the Mediterranean world. This soil is described as shallow, but fertile and agricultural production began as early as 1200 BCE with the appearance of terraces, therefore, suggesting that the central highlands were ideal for cultivation and habitation, easily proven by examining the number of settlements during the Iron Age.

As we have already investigated the structure of this house type, the dwelling layout can be readily interpreted as practical for farm life. In fact, like Finkelstein, Stager suggests that it was the successful adaptation of the four-room house to farm life that was the first and most important feature of the building, a concept that is also supported by Bloch-Smith suggesting that the structure of the four-room house "favors function rather than an ethnic rationale." [Bloch-Smith, 44] Of course, the four-room house is interpreted as ideal for farm life, and rightly so. But for Stager, Bloch-Smith, and Finkelstein to disregard a deeper significance seems nothing short of problematic.

Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman justly argue for the difficulty of distinguishing between "expressions of status and manifestations of ethnicity," asking how an individual can determine what is a stylistic choice and what is an ethnic marker.[Finkelstein, 203] This sort of issue has been addressed earlier with the problem of interpretation and bracketing one's worldview. Quite frankly, aside from the biblical texts, which were written and compiled much later by a "restored Judahite community" in response to disruption and dispersion of both communities and traditions,[Gottwald, 38] there is a complete lack of written material regarding the highlands during the Iron Age. Finkelstein also emphasizes the lack of cemeteries and grave goods, typically significant sources for determining cultic and religious practices in addition to temples, sanctuaries, and shrines, all of which are also absent. Without such evidence, the ceramic tradition, architectural tradition, and foodways are all that remain for investigation, making the interpretation of a group's identity much more complicated.

Taking issue with Dever who suggests that the four-room house of the "Israelites" was adopted from the lowlands, Finkelstein argues that the only Bronze Age house that can be identified as a proto-type of this house is found in Tel Batash. Granted, this is certainly contradictory of Dever's theory, yet afterwards he offhandedly dismisses the connection between the four-room house and an ethnic group, arguing that the adaptation of such a structure is simply due to the "socioeconomic condition of their inhabitants and the need to adapt to the hill environment."[Finkelstein, 201] This argument would carry more weight if evidence or further discussion was provided to support such a close-minded claim; however, as it stands Finkelstein presents himself as a scholar with limited vision. That being said, Finkelstein is not entirely incorrect in his theory; he is simply focusing his argument too narrowly. Bunimovitz, Dever, Faust, and Killebrew all support the socio-economic origin of the four-room house type; this is never disputed. Yet to argue that the structural type that survived for so many centuries served only a socio-economic function and no other is certainly illogical.

Quite simply, to argue that the four-room house held no greater significance than utilitarian and agricultural purposes is negligent. The manner in which scholars such as Finkelstein address the concept of interpreting ethnicity through the archaeological record is clearly predetermined, as if no attempt to investigate the concept has or will be made. In fact, there is one simple question that Bunimovitz and Faust address that may prove most useful for those such as Finkelstein: if the four-room house was so suitable to peasant life or subsistence farming, then why was it discontinued following the destruction of the First Temple and the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods? There is no evidence for significant changes in subsistence patterns after the 6th century BCE, so could this house type represent the "Israelite house" as suggested by Dever, perhaps discontinued after the Babylonian Exile in addition to the other reforms of the time? At this point in time there is not enough evidence to confirm or disprove this theory, but it is certainly an issue that scholars interpreting four-room houses should address.

The four-room house should not be completely disregarded as a possible ethnic marker. In fact, Emberling suggests that a household structure has the ability to be "methodologically valuable because of its close, meaningful relationship to daily life,"[Emberling, 325] Carol Meyers argues that the house represented the "most important locus of economic production and social interaction in traditional societies,"[Meyers, 427] and even Stager claims that the "'house(hold)' was at the center of ever-widening social spheres."[Stager, 22] Granted the latter was in reference to the family or individuals within the dwelling structure, yet the principle remains the same; the house was and can be understood to be socially significant.

Through this perspective it is entirely practical to interpret the four-room house as an ethnic marker because of its direct relationship to the daily life of members within an ethnic group. This is argued through the understanding that the four-room house served as a physical representation of a communal or ethnic identity that was expressed through mutually understood symbols within the group. The four-room house was the creation of a built environment, it did not occur by accident and must be understood to exist in response to social divisions as well as environmental or economic. Granted, Finkelstein and Stern do not argue against the theory that four-room houses should be understood as a result of social circumstances, but they do not argue in favour of it either. As a matter of fact, they appear to completely overlook several social factors as if none of which are factors in the formation of an ethnic identity.

As mentioned previously, MacKay presents psychology, relationships, family, community, nation, etc. as influential factors for the identification of ethnicity. I propose to adapt this list to include more specific social divisions such as gender, generation, and rank as suggested by Bunimovitz and Faust, as well as religion or cult. All of the factors listed here possess the capacity to influence the development of domestic structures and society more generally, as is suggested by Finkelstein and Stager; yet such factors are also capable of influencing a groups understanding and identification of itself. In other words, what scholars such as Finkelstein and Stager appear to misunderstand, or disregard, is the significance of the influence that social divisions may hold over domestic architecture.

Concepts such as gender, generation, rank, and religion are readily interpreted as influential factors in the development of a group of society, they can also be understood as influential to the creation the group's identity. Why, then, is it so unreasonable to assume that a group's collective identity would be reflected in the architectural traditions, especially one that endured for such a long period in a crystallized or uniform state? Granted, environmental and economic influences must be considered when interpreting architectural traditions, but they are not the only resources available nor should they be the only ones considered.

Egalitarian & Purity Functions

When describing the structure and possible function of the four-room house, an egalitarian community similar to the society within the biblical tradition appears to be expressed. As this theme surfaces in a variety of scholarly sources it deserves special attention and so we shall examine it more closely here in addition to purity concerns. Aside from the evidence that suggests the communities composed of four-room houses to have been self-sufficient, the layout of the house tells us much more. Yes, the communities appear to have been self-sufficient, but they also appear to have demonstrated egalitarian or communitarian values, and purity values as well.

Beginning with the egalitarian values, this concept is expressed through the "tree-like" shape of the plan as described by Bunimovitz and Faust. This plan allows for immediate accessibility from the central courtyard to any room in the house, a concept in direct contrast to contemporary houses in northern Israel such as Tell Keisan, Tel Qiri and Tel Hadar. In these contemporary houses, the plans require the inhabitant to enter each room in a particular sequence suggesting a hierarchical nature. This is relatively absent from the four-room houses of the central highlands, with the exception of subdivision of rooms among the rural and elite. Even this, however, is limited due to the lack of depth in the house and simplicity of the layout.

So can the lack of depth or access hierarchy truly represent an egalitarian society? Determining the solution to such a question is problematic, but the evidence suggests that it may. In this situation the biblical text may prove beneficial, although it is important to utilize it cautiously. The biblical text serves as an excellent resource in regards to the social life of the ancient Jewish, or Judean, population, but it must be understood to be the memories and interpretations of "historical" events and group identity through the eyes of a generation that existed much later than the events in question. With this in mind, the egalitarian nature of the ancient Israelites as expressed by the later authors, may represent a legitimizing myth, or even worse, fabricated history.

Returning to the archaeological remains, perhaps the four-room house does not represent the egalitarian nature as described in the biblical text. As a matter of fact, the variance of house sizes supports this theory suggesting the existence of both poor and rich households; however, in a somewhat complicated manner the biblical text supports the construction of the egalitarian value of the four-room house. If the biblical text is understood to represent a later interpretation or "legitimizing" mythology of Israelite identity, then the apparent egalitarian quality found within the four-room house can also be interpreted as a symbolic form of Israelite identity. Essentially, both the biblical text and the four-room house represent a conscious effort by the community to express a particular quality. The fact that an effort was made suggests that this quality in question was both important to the community and attested by those outside of it, possibly demonstrated through the appearance of varying house sizes. In other words, there was a reason behind the need to express this concept of identity in such a public or visible manner.

In addition to the association of egalitarian societies, purity concerns are also associated with the biblical texts, later Judean identity, and with the "tree-like" plan of the four-room house. In terms of the layout of the four-room house, purity concerns and values are believed to be demonstrated by the ability of an inhabitant to enter any room directly from the central courtyard. This concept of accessibility demonstrated through the layout reminds the observer of the biblical purity laws expressed in Leviticus 12 in which menstruating women are deemed "unclean." Although they are not required to leave the house, it is reasonable to assume that they were expected to stay in separate rooms so as not to render the other inhabitants of the household unclean as well.

Through the analysis of the dwelling plan, privacy is deemed important according to the "movement" that occurred within the house. If not for privacy, then the regulation of contact was likely implied as is reflected in the nature of the house itself. As expressed previously through an analysis of the egalitarian nature of the four-room house, it is clear that the inhabitants had access to any of the adjoining rooms directly from the central room or courtyard. If the purity laws expressed within the biblical text are to be interpreted as factual then the layout of the dwelling must have reflected this; and so the nature of the biblical text comes into question once again. Were the ancient Israelites truly concerned with purity laws or was this a result of Deuteronomic history attempting to emphasize particular themes such as the exodus and the covenant? Or, was the biblical text reminiscent of the architectural tradition in which an ethnic identity was expressed through the material accommodations made in response to established purity regulations? Assuming the latter is correct, then the purity laws expressed within the biblical text are not entirely fabricated. This is not to suggest that the narrative that accompanies the laws is entirely factual, but perhaps the origins of such laws can be associated with the individuals inhabiting the four-room houses. If this is the case, then the purity laws that exist in the final form of the Hebrew Bible represent a distorted memory originating in the Iron Age. Perhaps the earlier sources utilized by the biblical authors included architectural traditions in addition to unknown written sources. This seems entirely plausible since architecture has already been established as a form of communication and an expression or result of group identity and ethnic behaviour. Unfortunately as is often the case within biblical scholarship, this argument is entirely conjecture. We simply do not possess enough direct evidence to prove or disprove the historical legitimacy of the entire Hebrew Bible, nor do we possess enough evidence to determine whether or not the four-room house demonstrated an egalitarian society concerned with purity laws.

Egyptian & Militant Style?

Thus far we have examined the structure and socio-economic features of the four-room house, yet an analysis of the origins of the dwelling type has yet to be properly addressed. Both Michael M. Homan and Manfred Bietak put forth interesting hypotheses that suggest an Egyptian and militant source of origins. More specifically, this source of origins is understood by Homan and Bietak to be a tent. One may immediately imagine the Tabernacle, and this is certainly a parallel which Homan addresses associating it with the tent and military camp of Ramesses II and the battle of Qedesh during the 13th century BCE. As a matter of fact, the resemblance between the two is remarkably strongly, supporting the theory in which biblical authors were ultimately inspired by non-Israelite sources; although, the biblical authors likely collected this knowledge through earlier Israelite sources rather than directly from the Egyptians.

Homan describes the military camp of Ramesses as possessing a 2:1 scale with an entrance in the middle of the short wall, oriented east. Located directly in the middle of the camp were a long room tent, with 3:1 proportions, and a 2:1 reception tent within. The proportions and orientation of the military camp are demonstrated by Homan to directly correlate with those of the Tabernacle as described within the biblical account of author P, the priestly source. Homan suggests that the parallels between the Egyptian military camp and the Tabernacle strengthen "Yahweh's role as a warrior god."[Homan, 114] Now, determining whether or not this claim of Yahweh as a warrior god is true or inaccurate is outside the focus of this paper; however, the suggestion that ancient Israelite's were inspired by Egyptian stylistic and militant models suggests an interesting origins theory. Clearly the description of the Tabernacle did not develop in a vacuum. Of course, it is possible that the similarities between the Tabernacle and the military camp of Ramesses are sheer coincidence, but Homan provides other examples in the ancient world that suggest similar parallels to disprove this hypothesis, including: Bedouin and pre-Islamic tent shrines, Ugaritic and Hittite mythology, portable shrines from Phoenicia and Carthage, and Mesopotamian.

In order to explain the stark similarities between the Tabernacle and the Egyptian military camp, Homan suggests that the biblical author responsible for describing the Tabernacle, namely author P, utilized the historical records that were available to him. Such records may have pictorially or verbally described an earlier Israelite tent-shrine, but the methodology is very similar to what we have encountered throughout this paper. Biblical texts appear to be the result of an attempt at self-ascription and self-identification. As a post-Exilic construction, the author of the text would have been struggling with identity construction and the representation of a common heritage or ethnic identity. As Gottwald describes, members of a "self-defined" population will often connect meanings to their claimed ethnicity. As such, it is probable that the similarities shared between the Tabernacle and the Egyptian military camp style illustrate this practice of self-ascription, while also serving as an additional example in comparison to the self-ascription produced through the development of the four-room house.

We must note, however, that the Egyptian influence upon Israelite architectural style was not limited to the tabernacle. In fact, Bietak argues that evidence of a four-room house has been uncovered in Medinet Habu next to the mortuary temple of Ramesses III. This structure has been identified as a workmen's hut, conforming to the typical layout of the four-room house. The workmen would have inhabited such structures following the death of Ramesses III in approximately 1153 BCE, at which point the workmen were ordered to demolish the temple of Ramesses III. This places the workmen's hut as a direct contemporary of the four-room house located in Canaan, prominent from 1200-568 BCE according to Bietak. As the hut corresponds with the layout of the four-room house it is seems probable that the inhabitants of the workmen's hut at Medinet Habu may have been Israelites, and if not Israelites, then they must have been "proto-Israelites."

Whether or not the inhabitants of the workmen's huts were Israelites is an issue far too expansive for the parameters of this paper. The existence of a contemporaneous four-room house far outside of the central highlands, however, is greatly important. As evidence such as the parallels between the Tabernacle and the Egyptian military camp suggest, the Israelite architectural tradition may have been the product of external influences, perhaps unknowingly or perhaps unconsciously. Assuming that the four-room house type was influenced by an Egyptian tradition, or that the four-room house was an "Israelite" tradition later transferred to Egypt, the significance attributed to the structure as expresses through the layout and popularity is palpable. Whether the four-room house originated in Egypt or Canaan, the parallels between the two geographical locations suggests a portable ethnic expression through the use of architecture that cannot be overlooked.

Conclusion

Throughout this paper the ethnic identity of the inhabitants utilizing four-room houses within the central highlands has been described as malleable and self-ascribed. Through an examination of structure, function, and possible origin and influence theories, the use of architecture has been demonstrated as an example of non-verbal communication that sought to articulate the collective identity of the group. Through a cross-examination of the archaeological remains and the biblical text, a conscious effort towards self-ascription by the group has been observed, attempting to express particular qualities such as purity and egalitarianism through an architectural tradition. Not only were such qualities expressed through the four-room house, but also through the uniformity in which they were uncovered which suggests a "taxonomic principle" that was specific to a particular ethnic group. Essentially, this means that by living within this particular style of house, the occupants were constantly made aware of principles such as purity and egalitarian, while simultaneously demonstrating a strong sense of "us," or homogeneity, in contrast to the "other." In conclusion I simply propose the following: the four-room house represented a conscious effort of the community that both developed and utilized it to visually express their understanding of their ethnic identity. Factors such as purity and egalitarian values may have been demonstrated through the use of non-hierarchical plans and a particular level of privacy; factors that the group deemed important to their own identity and essential to their ethnic behaviour. Perhaps most importantly, with the crystallization of the four-room house type, a sense of uniformity was achieved, successfully producing a prominent medium for self-expression.

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Ethnicity & Identity Within the Four-Room House

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The process of determining ethnicity is a problematic venture, even more so when interpreted through the archaeological record. Despite this issue, evidence, such as the four-room house, has been preserved...

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Abstract

Regenerative design holds great promise for a new era of sustainable and positive impact architecture, sparking considerable interest among architects, building professionals and their clients. However, the translational arm of regenerative design in practice is in a relatively primitive state. Although a number of theoretical definitions and studies have been initiated, the early returns point to several inherent application problems. In this regard, the professional and scientific potential of regenerative architecture can only be fully realized by the identification of the key barriers to projects design, construction and operation. In this paper, we compare two state of the art buildings to address the critical steps in the transition from the negative impact reduction architecture to the positive impact regenerative architecture, utilizing life cycle analysis. The case studies analysis and comparison can serve as an inspiring eye opener and provide a vision for architects and building professionals in the fields of high performance buildings and regenerative architecture.

Introduction

The ecological and economic crises have been present for many years now. The economic system is showing its weak points in a dramatic fashion, unemployment is growing at a fast rate, the end of our fossil energy and other resources are apparent. There are more people who are becoming aware of the consequences of the climate change and the speed at which the biodiversity is diminishing is far beyond human imagination. Historically, buildings and architecture in particular had a central meaning for the sustainable development of the society. Remnants of the built environment of many cultures suggest that architecture played an important role in the social, economic and environmental life, but a review of the last century reveals that architecture tended to diminish in importance while other forms of discourse, such as the political, economic, technological, media had a more definitive impact on culture. Looking today to the challenges for planning and design of sustainable built environment including, carbon emissions, climate change, human health, water problems, biodiversity, scarcity of resources, depletion of fossil fuel, population growth and urbanization; sustainable architecture will play a key role for the sustainable development of society as a whole. Cities and buildings can be seen as microcosms, a potential testing ground for models of the ecological and economic renewal of the society.

Building construction and operation contribute greatly to the resource consumptions and emissions of the society. In Europe, building acclimatization alone accounts for roughly 40% of the total energy consumption (Huovila, 2007). When the effort required for construction, maintenance and demolition adds up, it is safe to assume that roughly half of the overall energy consumption can be attributed directly or indirectly to buildings. According to estimates nearly half of the all raw materials are employed in buildings, and a staggering 60% of all waste is the result of construction and demolition. The great significance of buildings and dwellings is evident in the way the building sector occupies in national economies. Private households spend roughly one third of their disposable income on housing (Eurostat, 2012). In Western Europe, 75% of fixed assets are invested in real estate (Serrano & Martin, 2009).

Thus the resources (land, water, energy, materials and air) we need to provide for decent housing and high quality life in the built environment are in decline because they are being used, exhausted or damaged faster than nature can regenerate them. In the same time, our demand for these resources is growing. The industrialisation exhausted the planet's carrying capacity and destroyed ecosystem functions and services. Populating growth in many regions of the planet has brought with it the need for decent housing with low greenhouse emissions, while in those countries with consolidated urban development process it is the existing built environment that demands transformation. When setting out the issue of satisfying these needs, we must consider both local and global environmental limitations. However, during the last 50 years architects and building professionals have been mainly concerned by only reducing the environmental impact of the built environment (Meadows, Meadows, Randers, & Behrens, 1972). Even today the dominant operating paradigm to face the economic and ecological crisis remains the same reductions resource efficiency based paradigm.

In this context, it is not enough to aspire to mitigate the effects of human activity. On the opposite we need to increase the carrying capacity beyond pre-industrial conditions to generate ecosystems functions and services to reverse the ecological foot print. This approach is promoted through the regenerative paradigm that seeks to develop renewable resources infrastructure and design building with a positive environmental impact. Therefore, this research explores the two paradigms and presents two state of the art case studies that represent each the efficiency and regeneration paradigm. The purpose of the study is to provide an understanding of both paradigms through practical examples and demonstrate to building designers their adequacy in meeting the challenges of the design and operation of the built environment. The research methodology is based on the life cycle analysis and evaluation of two cases studies through comparison. Comparison is the highest cognitive level analysis involving synthesis and evaluation. The first case study is the Research Support Facility (RSF) of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) representing the reductionist paradigm. The second case study is the Green Offices high performance building representative the regenerative paradigm. The paper explores the difference between two different paradigms regarding their embodied energy and monitored performance. The comparison of two state of the art high performance buildings is valuable because it permits researches to measure constructs more accurately and as a consequence shape an effective theory-building of sustainable architecture. It helps us to answer the main research question of this study: Can the resource efficiency and impact neutrality paradigms help us to solve the economic and ecological crisis we are living? The juxtaposition of both building performance results allowed the research into a more creative, frame breaking mode of thinking. The result was a deeper insight into both paradigms. The significance of the study documents a paradigm shift and its increasing influence on the architectural and building design and construction practice through two state of the art examples.

The results of this study are considered as an eye opener and guidelines for building professionals including designers, owners and architects. The accurate and specific determination of regenerative characteristics of buildings can help designers to make fundamental choices in the design and construction of sustainable architecture. Choices that achieve thermal comfort, occupant's well beings enhance sustainability by working together toward a positive footprint. On the long term this article can lead to reformulating and rethinking the definition of sustainable architecture while increase the uptake of positive impact buildings in practice and consequently lead to a paradigm shift. The paper is divided into section sections. The first two sections introduce the research problem and explore the historical background of sustainability in the architectural practice during the last century while setting a definition for negative and positive impact built environment. The third section explains the comparison methodology and the assumption used for the life cycle assessment (LCA). Then, section four and five present the two case studies and their comparison results. Finally, section six provides an extended discussion and conclusion on the paper findings.

Section snippets

Definitions and paradigm shift

In order to understand the changes that accrued in the field of architectural, building design and urbanisation practices during the last hundred years we must follow the history of sustainability in the built environment. We can classify this history under five major phases that shaped the architectural discourse and practice we are witnessing today. Four out of five of those phases were influenced mainly by a major reductionist paradigm that defined sustainability for architecture and

Methodology

In order to answer the research question in broad terms on the effectiveness of the efficiency paradigm versus the effectiveness regenerative paradigm it is important to build theory from case studies. Two specific case studies were selected to represent the paradigms. We looked for selecting two appropriate high performance buildings with extraneous variations to define the limit for generalising the findings. The two selected buildings provide examples of two polar types classified as state

Case studies

The selection of both case studies was based on their similar office function and the awards they received in the USA and Switzerland. Both projects represent the excellence in sustainable architecture and green construction in their countries obtaining the highest green rating certification LEED Platinum and Minergie-P-ECO. The RSF received the award of Excellence for Green Construction from the American Concrete Institute AIA. Also it received the 2011 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Award.

Results

The results of the LCA applied to two high performance buildings in the US and Switzerland is highlighted below. When assessing the sustainability and environmental performance of high performance buildings it is very important to use universal indicators and consider carefully all life cycle phases and subsystems.

Summary of main findings

The regenerative paradigm was found closer to reverse the ecological foot print and provide a positive impact building. Thanks to the biogenic Co2 calculation approach the life cycle stages responsible for creating the positive and the negative environmental impact related to global warming are presented, eventhough there is no consensus in literature or practice to used carbon sequestration or carbon bio generation. The regenerative paradigm increased knowledge about the materials and embodied

Acknowledgements

This paper was prepared for Liege University as an inaugural speech for the chair of Sustainable Architecture and Building Construction at the Faculty of Applied Sciences. Special thank is dedicated to architect Conrad Lutz and the NREL team including Paul Torcellini and Shanti Pless. The work could have been done without the support of Jerome Payet from EPFL. I would like to extend my thanks to Architecture et Climat and in particular Prof. Andre De Herde for the development of the historical

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Towards regenerative and positive impact architecture: A comparison of two net zero energy buildings

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Regenerative design holds great promise for a new era of sustainable and positive impact architecture, sparking considerable interest among architects...

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Kirsten Kaya Roessler, Academic Editor, Brady Wagoner, Academic Editor, Sofie Pedersen, Academic Editor, and Mads Bank, Academic Editor

Abstract

There has been a recent interest in how architecture affects mental health and psychological well-being, motivated by the fact that we spend the majority of our waking time inside and interacting with built environments. Some studies have investigated the psychological responses to indoor design parameters; for instance, contours, and proposed that curved interiors, when compared to angular ones, were aesthetically preferred and induced higher positive emotions. The present study aimed to systematically examine this hypothesis and further explore the impact of contrasting contours on affect, behavior, and cognition. We exposed 42 participants to four well-matched indoor living rooms under a free-exploration photorealistic virtual reality paradigm. We included style as an explorative second-level variable. Out of the 33 outcome variables measured, and after correcting for false discoveries, only two eventually confirmed differences in the contours analysis, in favor of angular rooms. Analysis of style primarily validated the contrast of our stimulus set, and showed significance in one other dependent variable. Results of additional analysis using the Bayesian framework were in line with those of the frequentist approach. The present results provide evidence against the hypothesis that curvature is preferred, suggesting that the psychological response to contours in a close-to-reality architectural setting could be more complex. This study, therefore, helps to communicate a more complete scientific view on the experience of interior spaces and proposes directions for necessary future research.

Keywords: indoor architecture, interiors, contours, affect, behavior, cognition, spatial experience, virtual reality, well-being, mental health

1. Introduction

Built (man-made) environments have become fundamental components of human existence. For the majority of our waking time, we navigate and interact with architectural environments while we live, connect, learn, work, and recreate. The spaces encountered in daily life vary in their physical and aesthetic properties, and may have an influence on affect, behavior, and cognition, and eventually impact mental health and psychological well-being [ 1, 2]. These effects are likely the outcome of an interaction between the physical properties of the perceived space on the one hand, and the perceiver's characteristics and the meaning they create on the other [ 3, 4, 5].

When accounting for the considerable time spent inside buildings, two-thirds of which is in dwellings [ 6], the glaring gap in linking variations in physical features of architecture to psychological states is surprising [ 7, 8]. It has been previously suggested that this can be attributed to methodological and disciplinary incongruences between architecture and psychology [ 7, 8, 9]. Architectural research connecting the human response to design relies on philosophical constructs, whereas traditional psychological research investigating the human-environment relationship relies on observation and subjective measures [ 9, 10]. A better understanding of the human-environment interaction could contribute to informing design strategies in ways to optimize psychological well-being and mental health [ 11]. Although the discussion has been initiated, a commonly accepted methodology across disciplines is still lacking [ 12].

A domain in which first successful attempts have been made to link architectural features to psychological responses in human beings concerns contours. We refer to contours here to describe the "edge or line that defines or bounds a shape or an object" [ 13]. The interest in the response to contours derived from empirical studies in various disciplines such as arts, aesthetics, visual cognition, and (social) psychology among others, which have reported differences in perception. Early studies from the first quarter of the 20th century have found that straight lines were associated with unpleasant "feeling tones" that denote strong motor expression (e.g., agitating, hard, furious, and serious), whereas curved ones were associated with adjectives indicating relatively more pleasantness and less movement (e.g., gentle, quiet, and lazy) [ 14, 15]. Subsequent studies have investigated the hypothesis that curved/rounded/curvilinear conditions are more appealing to humans than angular/edgy/rectilinear ones. This hypothesis has been shown to be correct using different types of visual stimuli including lines [ 14, 15, 16, 17, 18], font types [ 19, 20], geometric shapes and simple forms [ 21, 22, 23, 24], irregular shapes and meaningless patterns [ 3, 4, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30], images of familiar objects [ 3, 26, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36], sketches of familiar objects [ 33, 37], in addition to sketches and images of designed products [ 38, 39]. Different studies have found the effect to be present across species humans and apes [ 35], cultures-Western vs. non-Western [ 14, 16, 19, 24, 29, 35, 38, 39, 40], and ages-toddlers [ 27] and infants [ 18, 23]. However, the source of this preference is still under debate. Some researchers proposed that angularity conveys threat, suggesting that the preference reflects adaptive behavior [ 31, 32]. Other research has attributed the observed effect to higher cognitive processes and susceptibility to the influence of semantic meaning and perceptual qualities that are not strictly limited to contour [ 35]. Conversely, additional studies proposed a "curvature effect" that was not linked to a negative response to angularity for what it affords but rather caused by intrinsic characteristics of the curved stimuli [ 29], with preference modulated by positive valence [ 34]. Moreover, other studies have investigated additional variables beyond simple curves and angles. Those included both properties of the stimuli-e.g., complexity [ 22, 24, 28, 29, 30, 38], symmetry [ 24, 36], balance [ 22, 24], novelty/innovativeness [ 38], meaningfulness [ 26, 29], typicality [ 38, 39], familiarity [ 4, 33], as well as individual differences of the perceivers-e.g., sex [ 3, 27, 30], expertise in art/design [ 3, 4, 24, 33, 38], academic degree [ 33], personality traits [ 3, 22, 33], cognitive styles [ 26], and neurological disorders such as autism [ 4, 21, 30], in an attempt to understand whether they affect or modulate contour perception. Different outcome measures have been used in previous studies, including forced-choice response [ 29, 31, 32], rating/visual analogue scales [ 4, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 29, 30, 33, 37, 39], and selection procedures [ 26], in addition to more implicit measures, such as association [ 14, 17, 20, 25, 28] and approach-avoidance tasks [ 3, 16, 28, 36], reaction and/or viewing time [ 18, 22, 26, 27], and observed postural behavior [ 21]. With regard to contours in the indoor environment, similar effects were proposed by the scarce set of studies available until now. Spaces with curvilinear/curved features, in comparison with those with angular/rectilinear ones, were preferred among different ages [ 41], and induced higher positive emotions such as pleasure [ 42, 43, 44, 45], relaxation, safety, privacy [ 46], and a desire to approach [ 44]. The majority of these studies relied largely on subjective semantic scales, where stimuli were rated according to a limited list of paired opposite adjectives to depict emotional responses (i.e., valence, arousal, approach-avoidance, and some spatial properties). It is worth noting that the stimuli used, for the most part, did not reflect realistic environments. More recent research used different approaches and new experimental tools to investigate the architectural experience. The effect of contour on aesthetic judgment and approach-avoidance decisions was examined in one of the very first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies to examine architectural perception [ 8]. Images of existing real-life indoor environments were presented for three seconds in the scanner, and participants rated each image and used a joystick to indicate whether they would like to enter or exit the environment. Results showed that curvilinear interiors were more likely judged as beautiful, compared to rectilinear ones. Moreover, they were found to activate the medial orbitofrontal cortex-titled as anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the publication exclusively, which has previously been related to positive valence and pleasantness [ 47]. In contrast with previous fMRI evidence from studies investigating familiar objects [ 31], no amygdala activation for rectilinear spaces was found. Consequently, given the amygdala's role in processing information related to fear and arousal [ 48], the results did not confirm the hypothesis of the threat effect evoked by angularity. Additionally, unlike what was hypothesized, contour did not affect approach-avoidance decisions. The stimulus set was partially tested in more recent studies that examined individual differences. Eight images were presented to experts and laypersons [ 49], and 80 to quasi-experts, individuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC), and a matched neurotypical group [ 4]. Results were not consistent across the different studies, with the latest one finding a preference for rectilinear spaces within all three groups. Two major setbacks may have caused the inconsistencies between the reported results. The first concerns the use of 2D images (static stimuli) to represent realistic environments and investigate a real-life experience [ 50], and the second relates to the fact that the stimuli were not well-matched. Creating controlled testing environments in which separate architectural design features can be altered and tested each at a time represents, in fact, one of the main challenges in quantifying the impact of design on human experience [ 7]. With the recent technological advancements in virtual reality (VR) and computer-aided design (CAD) software, it is now possible to develop experimental settings that can replicate the experience of a real environment under controlled conditions [ 51, 52], while evoking similar user responses [ 53, 54]. Combining human monitoring techniques with advanced VR environments can enable the acquisition of objective evidence for evaluating the human response to indoor design [ 9, 52, 55]. For example, one study investigated different interior form features using VR combined with electroencephalogram (EEG), during active exploration of empty white-colored virtual environments [ 10]. Results showed higher pleasure and arousal ratings and increased theta activity in the ACC when exploring curved geometries, as opposed to more linear ones. However, source localization of the EEG signal in the brain is a complex task with forward and inverse problems, calling the exact location of the source ACC into question. Another example study examined neurophysiological and behavioral responses during the appreciation of virtual environments, using EEG and explicit ratings of novelty, familiarity, comfort, pleasantness, and arousal [ 56, 57]. Despite the fact that the two virtual rooms used in the studies represented contrasting contours (i.e., the "modern design" room had angular furniture, and the "cutting edge design" room displayed furniture with rounded edges), the researchers rather focused on style in their categorization of the stimuli. Whereas the interest of the study was not in finding a preferred environment, but rather to explore the relationship among each of the perceptual dimensions and correlate them with brain activity, modern and cutting edge environments were perceived, respectively, as more familiar and more novel, but no differences in ratings of pleasantness, arousal and comfort were reported. Taken as a whole, the evidence for curvature preference, although seemingly robust with abstract shapes and lines, is yet far from being confirmed in the context of indoor architecture, and requires further thorough investigations.

Another line of research exploring the response to built environments has investigated the restorative properties of indoor spaces. The attention restoration theory (ART) proposes that natural environments, filled with "soft fascinations", could restore cognitive capacity, reduce mental fatigue, and increase focus and attention [ 58]. Being in restorative environments could, therefore, change negative states to positive ones. Building on the biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that humans have an innate connection with nature [ 59], a framework for biophilic design has emerged [ 60]. By bringing elements of nature into living spaces (directly or indirectly), positive effects might be initiated. Studies investigating biophilic interventions in virtual indoor environments have found a stress reduction and restorative effect [ 61, 62].

Within the scope of the present study, we aimed to systematically examine the influence of contours (angular versus curved) in virtual indoor architectural settings on affect, behavior, and cognition. Given the significant time urban dwellers spend in the home environment, which has considerably increased since the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, we selected the residential space as the context of our present investigation. Interiors are considered a major part of architecture, more than ever in the revolutionary works of modernist architects who regarded interior spaces as the essence (e.g., Bruno Zevi, Hans Scharoun), highlighted the importance of furniture, and influenced modern furniture design (e.g., Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer). Furthermore, we wanted to account for the evidence that architectural style and layout influence the response to form [ 44], and to architecture per se, knowing that results of studies on the perception and evaluation of style are inconsistent [ 63, 64]. Hence, we included style as an explorative second-level variable. Previous studies investigating aesthetic styles have used classifications such as modern/contemporary vs. classical [ 65, 66, 67] vs. traditional [ 68], among others. We opted for "modern vs. classic" for the interdisciplinary potential of the dichotomy. We refer to "classic" to denote the variant styles of the traditional abacus of architecture, up to the beginning of the 20th century [ 69]. "Modern", on the other hand, refers to the architecture of both 20th and 21st centuries, starting from modernism and the stream of styles it inspired by completely breaking with the past [ 70].

As we aimed to delve deeper beyond the mere investigation of pleasantness, beauty, and arousal, our behavioral measures covered a larger set of affective and psychological dimensions, for a better overview of spatial perception. To inspect the impact of contour on cognition and restorativeness, we included a measure of perceived restored attention, building on the attention restoration theory (ART) [ 58], and a mental arithmetic task from the Trier social stress test [ 71], previously used in environmental VR studies [ 72]. We present here a new paradigm that allows the collection of both explicit and implicit measures of the human response to indoor environments while allowing for a close-to-reality experience. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous studies have explored high-quality photorealistic, yet well-matched virtual stimuli representing contour contrasting conditions within a free-exploration setting, while controlling for style. Extending on the findings of the scarce studies inspecting contours in the architectural context [ 8, 10, 44, 46, 49, 73] and the seemingly robust scientific and empirical evidence supporting curvature preference in other domains (references above), we expected curved conditions to positively impact the self-reported emotional and spatial experience, and to improve cognitive performance as well as the self-reported feeling of restorativeness.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Participants

A sample size estimation using G*Power-version 3.1.9.7 (Dusseldorf University, Dusseldorf, Germany), resulted in the need for 36 participants to enable medium effect size. Due to the high potentiality of technical errors, and the increasing rate of cancelled sessions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recruitment process was kept open until reaching N = 36 individuals who provided usable complete sets of behavioral VR data. Eventually, 48 healthy adults were enrolled, aged between 18 and 40 years, with no severe visual impairments. Further inclusion criteria included fluency in German language and absence of diagnosed mental or neurodegenerative disorder or cognitive impairment. Subjects were recruited through the Castellum Database of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin (MPIB) and an online platform ( https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/) and were compensated with 10 euros/h. All participants signed the consent form before the experiment.

2.2. Stimulus

Two pairs of living rooms were created for the purpose of the study ( Figure 1 ). Rooms of each pair were identical in their design, except that one had angular window openings, furniture, fixtures, accessories, patterns, and other specific details, while the other had curved counterparts. The main contrast between the pairs was style (classified under: modern vs. classic), with some differences in layout, furniture components, and materials, which were seen necessary to reflect the style. "Classic rooms" included features from the neo-classicism period (e.g., "ornamental" furniture of Louis XV and VI style; wallcovering; detailed door and windows; more objects in the room), while "modern rooms" followed the "less is more" principle (e.g., Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) in a minimal style (e.g., less detailed furniture, door and windows; less objects in the room). Moreover, the classic pair included elements of biophilic design (e.g., wood furniture, plants, images of plants, more surfaces with green color). The main challenge was to design objects/elements that reflect well-proportioned, yet matching counterparts in both contour versions, without causing a change to style or familiarity. Hence, furniture design was inspired from common pieces that exist in both contour versions, although changing contours or proportions of famous designer pieces was completely avoided. In order to control for additional confounding factors, rooms' boundaries, ceiling, floor, door and windows locations, main seating positions, main light, and primary color (green) were kept identical between the pairs, in addition to the outdoor window view portraying a natural environment.

The size of the virtual room was similar to the MPIB VR lab space dimensions and fixed accordingly to (L × W × H = 4.9 × 3.9 × 3 m) so that free movement was possible during participants' exploration. Three-dimensional models of all the objects and details of the rooms were created using 3Ds Max-version Theseus, 2020 (Autodesk Inc., Mill Valley, CA, USA), and the paradigm with all the tasks was implemented using the gaming software Unity-version 2019.2.1f1, 64-bit (Unity Technologies, San Francisco, CA, USA). The rooms were rendered in real-time during the experiment, using Unity High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP, version 6.9.1) and were displayed with Steam VR (Valve Corporation, Bellevue, WA, USA)-multiple updates during experiment, no standing version to report, through an HTC Vive Pro headset (HTC corporation, New Taipei, Taiwan), connected to a wireless adapter to allow for unobstructed movement. In order to increase immersion, a real physical large couch was included in the set-up, positioned at the same location as in the virtual rooms. Participants could use it within their exploration time, and were asked to sit on it to perform the cognitive tasks ( Figure 2 ).

Additionally, a virtual training room was created, simulating the lab appearance ( Figure 2 ) including the physical couch, with one version having angular edges (for the couch, lighting fixture, and door accessories), while the other had curved counterparts.

As the study comprised a within-subject design, all participants were tested under all conditions in randomized order, always starting with the training room. Participants with odd ID numbers were first exposed to the training room with curved features, while those with even IDs were assigned to the one with angular ones. Using counterbalancing through a Latin square design, and after eliminating sequences where rooms of the same pair would have been shown successively, four groups were identified, to which participants were randomly assigned: Group A (AM, AC, CM, CC); Group B (AC, CM, CC, AM); Group C (CM, CC, AM, AC); and Group D (CC, AM, AC, CM), where AM is "angular modern", CM is "curved modern", AC is "angular classic", and CC is "curved classic".

2.3. Measures

The main part of the experimental paradigm consisted of the VR session. In each room, participants started exploring the virtual space for 3 min, followed by a 2-min cognitive task in a sitting position, and responded to a set of questions. Multiple questionnaires were administered before and after the VR session (we mention below only those included within the present analyses).

2.3.1. Questionnaires

The in-VR questionnaires included two sections assessing respectively the affective and spatial experience (ASE), and momentary affective state (MAS). ASE consisted of 20 items related to the subjective perception of emotional and spatial dimensions. Participants provided self-reports on 20 bipolar (−5 = "describes strongly", 0 = "neutral", 5 = "describes strongly") dimensions using 11-point numeric scales, tagged by two opposite descriptive adjectives on each of the sides. Dimensions encompassed valence, arousal, and dominance, but also covered other spatial aspects (e.g., organization, spatiality, naturalness), and were retrieved from previous studies [ 7, 8, 56, 74], with some additions that were found to be relevant to the study ( Table S1). All anchor adjectives were translated to German, for the purpose of this experiment. MAS was assessed using 11-point intensity rating scales for 11 dimensions (original German version used in previous studies [ 75]). The dimensions assess different domains: emotional feelings, bodily sensation, valence and arousal, and cognitive and motivational states ( Table S2). The first 6 scales were unipolar (0 = "little", 5 = "neutral", 10 = "very"), followed by 5 bipolar scales tagged by one to four descriptive adjectives as anchors (−5 = "describes strongly", 0 = "neutral", 5 = "describes strongly"). A pre-measure was also collected before the VR session to control for the baseline affective state. In sum, participants responded to 31 dimensions, in-VR, after exposure to each of the rooms, with a total of 155 questions (including the training room).

As part of the post-VR PC-based questionnaire, subjects reported on more aspects of the virtual, spatial, and cognitive experience. Perceived restorativeness (PR) was measured using an adapted 12-item German version of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) [ 76], under four categories: fascination, being away, coherence, and scope ( Table S3). Each item was rated on a five-point Likert scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (completely).

2.3.2. Cognitive Task (CT)

Cognitive performance was evaluated using the results of an in-VR two-minute skip counting task [ 72]. After exploring each of the simulated conditions, participants were asked to keep subtracting 13 from a starting 4-digit number that was shown on a virtual screen and to pronounce the intermediate results out loud. When participants made mistakes they were prompted to start anew from the same starting number. The sequence of numbers was the same for all participants, and answers were collected manually by experimenters. Individual scores were calculated by dividing the total number of correct answers (in all attempts) by the number of attempts.

2.3.3. Additional Measures

To evaluate the overall VR experience, and control for specific undesired effects, cyber-sickness was measured using an adapted German version of the Simulation Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) [ 77], administered both pre and post-VR sessions. SSQ consists of 16 items based on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (symptom not existent) to 3 (very severe symptom), which can be computed into three representative subscores: Nausea-related (N), Oculomotor-related (O), Disorientation-related (D), in addition to a Total Score (TS) representing the overall severity of cybersickness experienced by participants. Moreover, presence was assessed using the iGroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) [ 78]-adapted from the German version available online ( www.igroup.org, Accessed on 15 September 2020) administered post-VR. IPQ contains 14 items rated on a five-point Likert scale (1-5) tagged with different anchors, according to the four sub-scales that measure different components of presence: General Presence (GP), Spatial Presence (SP), Involvement (INV), and Experienced Realism (REAL). Both SSQ and IPQ were administered right after the VR session, as part of the post-VR questionnaire. Additionally, we collected information related to demographics and other individual differences that are beyond the scope of the present analyses.

2.4. Procedure

All experimental sessions were conducted in the VR lab at the MPIB (November to December 2020), in compliance with the institute's COVID-19 regulations for lab hygiene. The experiment was composed of three parts: (1) pre-VR questionnaires and preparation; (2) immersive session; and, (3) post-VR questionnaires and tasks. Participants received the consent form via email before the day of the experiment. They were encouraged to read and sign the form, and to fill in the pre-VR questionnaire before coming to the lab, otherwise, those were completed on the day of the experiment. Upon arrival, participants were presented with an introduction to the study, filled a PC-based questionnaire to collect baseline measures for the affective state and simulation sickness symptoms, and performed a short training session on the cognitive task. Next, they were prepared for the VR session. Details were described thoroughly, the head-mounted display (HMD) was put on with the help of the research assistance staff, and subjects were guided to stand in the teleportation areas next to the room door. The VR session started with an empty teleportation room showing instructions for 20 s, followed by the training room, for familiarization with all in-VR tasks. Each room was simulated for 3 min of free exploration, and participants were encouraged to explore as they needed to, until they felt they could later recognize the room from a photo. At the end of the exploration time, a message was shown at eye level with a message to sit on the couch. Instructions for the cognitive task were displayed on a screen at the wall facing the couch, and when participants confirmed readiness, the starting number was shown. Answers were manually written down by the experimenter, who prompted the participant to "restart" after a wrong number was named, until a "stop" sign was shown at the end of the 2 min. Later, a screen appeared in the middle of the room with instructions on how to answer the questionnaire using the controller. Once all questions were answered, participants were asked to leave the controller on the couch and go to the teleportation spot at the door. The sequence of events and tasks is displayed in Figure 3 (upper side). The process was repeated for all rooms, with the teleportation instruction room presented for 20 s in between. At the end of the immersive session, a sign was shown at eye level indicating "the end", HMD was dismantled, and participants took a break. The third part of the experiment included the PC-based questionnaire in addition to further tasks that were not used for the present data analysis. Details of the experimental paradigm are displayed in Figure 3 .

2.5. Data Analysis

We preregistered our research plan, which can be retrieved from ( https://aspredicted.org/vp93z.pdf, Accessed on 23 February 2021). During data preprocessing, sessions with technical software/hardware errors, and those where participants requested breaks or showed severe symptoms of simulation sickness were excluded. Out of the 48 participants enrolled, a range of 36-40 (85.36% born in Germany; ASE and MAS: F = 25, M = 16; CT: F = 27, M = 15; PRS: F = 23, M= 13) were included in the analyses ( Table S4).

Self-reports assessed with questionnaires (MAS, ASE, PRS) in addition to the cognitive task scores were analyzed using paired samples two-tailed t-tests to examine differences in contour (angular vs. curved) and style (modern vs. classic). When the normality assumption was not met, instead of paired sample t-tests, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used. Statistical tests were performed separately for each of the dimensions of the ASE and MAS. For ease of reference, we will be referring to rooms according to their condition in the following parts of the paper (e.g., angular rooms, classic rooms, etc.).

Considering that we collected 33 separate outcome variables, and conducted two different tests with each (angular vs. curved, modern vs. classic), eventually we had to conduct 66 frequentist statistical tests. When performing multiple statistical tests, one should take into account that setting the alpha value to 0.05 will result in 5/100 significant results purely by chance, in our case 3.3 significant tests. According to the Bonferroni correction method, which strongly controls for family-wise error rate, the critical value for each comparison is the type I error rate divided by the number of comparisons: α/k = 0.05/66 = 0.00076. However, we also checked for the false discovery rate (FDR) correction, as the Bonferroni correction has been considered overly conservative [ 79]. FDR correction controls for the proportion of "discoveries" (significant results) that are false positives.

To examine if the observed non-significant results in the frequentist approach represent an absence of the predicted relation between room contour and dependent variables measuring mood and cognition, we examined the amount of evidence in favor of the null hypothesis using the Bayesian framework [ 80]. The BF ₀₁ in the Bayesian framework indicates how much more likely it is that the data occur given the null hypothesis.

The analyses within the frequentist approach were conducted using R Studio-v1.4 Tiger Daylily (RStudio, Boston, MA, USA), and Bayesian analyses using JASP-version 0.14.1.0 (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

3. Results

3.1. Behavioral Measures

3.1.1. Affective and Spatial Experience (ASE)

The paired-samples t-test revealed that participants rated angular rooms higher compared to curved rooms on dimensions novelty ( t(40) = 3.95, p < 0.001), order ( t(40) = 6.20, p < 0.001) and symmetry ( t(40) = 2.13, p = 0.039), whereas curved rooms were rated as more exciting ( Z = 2.01, p = 0.044) and harmonious than angular rooms ( t(40) = −2.39, p = 0.022).

Regarding the room style, modern rooms were perceived as more novel ( Z = 5.31, p < 0.001), more simple ( t(40) = 6.26, p < 0.001), more ordered ( t(40) = 2.78, p = 0.008) and more spacious ( Z = 2.49, p = 0.013) compared to classic rooms, while the latter were rated as warmer ( t(40) = −3.23, p = 0.002) and more enclosed ( Z = −1.45, p = 0.014) than modern rooms.

We found no statistically significant difference in any of the dimensions: pleasantness, beauty, lightness, calmness, brightness, comfort, cheerfulness, liveliness, familiarity, experience, and naturalness neither for contour nor style comparisons. Participants' responses on the affective and spatial dimensions are illustrated in Figure 4 .

3.1.2. Momentary Affective State (MAS)

Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find any effects of contour on momentary affective states. Moreover, Bayesian factors show that the evidence for no effect ranges from anecdotal evidence for a null result for contour effect on the self-report of being active (BF ₀₁ = 1.16), to moderate evidence for a null result in the case of self-reported fear (BF ₀₁ = 8.41). Similarly, there was no effect of style on momentary affective state, and Bayes factors span from anecdotal evidence for the absence of the style effect-on the heartbeat (BF ₀₁ = 2.00) up to moderate evidence-in the case of alertness (BF ₀₁ = 5.37). Participants' responses are shown in Figure 5 .

3.1.3. Perceived Restorativeness (PR)

There was no difference in self-reported restored attention after having been immersed in angular compared to curved rooms- t(35) = −0.79, p = 0.436, nor in modern compared to classic rooms- t(35) = −0.94, p = 0.352. Bayesian factor indicates that there was anecdotal evidence in favor of an absence of effect of contour (BF ₀₁ = 2.7) and moderate evidence of absence of style effect on perceived restorativeness (BF ₀₁ = 3.7).

3.2. Cognitive Task (CT)

In line with the behavioral data, we found no effect of contour ( Z = −0.43, p = 0.667) or room style ( Z = 0.59, p = 0.552) on cognitive performance. The evidence in favour of null results is moderate for both contour (BF ₀₁ = 5.12) and style (BF ₀₁ = 4.79) effects on cognitive performance.

3.3. Virtual Reality (VR) Experience

A paired sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated a significant increase of the overall cybersickness symptoms experienced by participants ( Z = 4.5423, p < 0.001) from pre- ( Mdn = 7.48, IQR = 22.44) to post- measurements ( Mdn = 26.18, IQR = 29.92) ( Table S5). This suggests that the total stay in VR increased the simulation sickness symptoms. We calculated a (post-pre) total score and performed additional analyses to control for the effect of simulation sickness on participants' responses. However, no main effects were found.

IPQ scores were computed for each of the subscales. On a 1-5 scale, mean scores were respectively GP ( M = 3.93, SD = 0.91), SP ( M = 3.44, SD = 0.63), INV ( M = 3.27, SD = 0.98), and REAL ( M = 2.68, SD = 0.47), indicating above medium values for all the subscales, and an acceptable feeling of presence.

3.4. Additional Analyses

Out of the 66 frequentist tests we conducted, we expected 3.3 to be significant by pure chance. However, five returned significance in contour comparison, and six in style (marked with asterisks in Table 1 and Table 2 ). When applying the Bonferroni method, with the corrected threshold of p < 0.00076, four tests survived the correction: novelty and order in contour comparison in favor of angular rooms, in addition to novelty and simplicity in favor of modern rooms when comparing style. However, when applying a less stringent correction method, the FDR correction, warmth remains significant in style comparison with classic rooms perceived as warmer than modern ones.

Table 1

Dependent Variables

Contour (Angular × Curved)

Central Tendency

Classical Frequentist Approach

Bayesian Approach

Angular

Curved

Paired sample t-test

Hypothesis

BF₀₁

Questionnaire assessing momentary affective state

Questionnaire assessing affective and spatial experience

Questionnaire on perceived restorativeness

Cognitive task scores

Table 2

Dependent Variables

Style (Modern × Classic)

Central Tendency

Classical Frequentist Approach

Bayesian Approach

Modern

Classic

Paired sample t-test

Hypothesis

BF₀₁

Questionnaire assessing momentary affective state

Questionnaire assessing affective and spatial experience

Questionnaire on perceived restorativeness

Cognitive task scores

In line with the frequentist approach findings and the FDR correction, the harmonic mean of the Bayesian factors BF ₀₁ only indicated strong evidence for the alternative hypothesis (<0.1) in the case of the five aforementioned dimensions in the respective comparisons. All statistical tests and Bayes factors are reported in Table 1 and Table 2 .

4. Discussion

Within the scope of the present study, we primarily examined the potential psychological response to indoor virtual living rooms with contrasting contour conditions (angular and curved) on affect, behavior, and cognition. Such findings would contribute to understanding the relationship between humans and the built environments they occupy, and would inform the design of therapeutic settings in ways to optimize cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and well-being. The very few studies that have investigated these conditions in indoor architectural settings have used for that purpose either photos of existing spaces [ 4, 8, 49], computer-generated three-dimensional images in color [ 45] and greyscale [ 44], sketches and line drawings [ 46], or schematic virtual environments where the overall form of the room was manipulated [ 10, 73]. Most of these studies reported a preference for, and higher positive emotion in curved/curvilinear conditions as opposed to angular/rectilinear/linear ones (references above), with more recent studies reporting an opposite effect [ 4]. This may be the result of problems that are prominent to this new field of study [ 12], among which is a lack of systematic development of a coherent theoretical and experimental framework [ 57]. We took several measures in an attempt to address some of the methodological shortcomings of previous studies. The first one concerns the nature of the stimuli. For that, we ensured that the virtual environments presented are fully matched in terms of contour contrast, and avoided the possible effects of other confounding variables (e.g., lighting conditions, outside view, room size, floor finish, ceiling height and finish, door location and size, and so on). All these variables were kept identical in all four simulated rooms. Moreover, we included a second level-variable, architectural style, so that we presented to participants a variety that could cover different aesthetic preferences, noting that findings of previous studies were inconsistent with regard to preference. The second shortcoming is related to the lack of real-life architectural experience in previous studies and the predominant use of static stimuli. Therefore, we opted for a VR set-up that stimulates 3D rather than 2D perception, with a free-exploration paradigm and no restrictions on the path; subjects were able to explore the space from different viewing angles, whether standing, sitting, or crouching to see a specific detail. Moreover, we presented high-quality and detailed immersive environments, which were created via high-definition photorealistic instant renderings and post-processing methods (videos of the room can be found on https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rIPx0GBHubAsQaWxBWnkY7odOPXn_yiL, Accessed on 19 September 2021). However, we respected the recommended guidelines to reduce VR-induced symptoms and effects by providing high-quality graphics and ensuring that the immersive session did not exceed the recommended maximum duration [ 81]. Moreover, we familiarized all our participants with the VR system by means of a training session. Third, with regard to outcome measures, we aimed to extend beyond the limited conventional ratings of valence and arousal, criticized by some as not representative of the spatial aesthetic experience [ 53]. Hence, we included a relatively large set of affective, behavioral, and cognitive measures. Extending from previous evidence on the curvature preference and positive affective effects in both non-architectural and architectural settings, we expected the curved conditions to positively influence momentary affect, emotional and spatial experience, cognitive performance, and perceived restorativeness.

To our surprise, we did not find relevant positive effects of contour in most of the outcome measures, although the study had a comparably large sample size (e.g., N = 18 [ 8], 17 [ 10], 71 × two groups [ 49]). In fact, the only differences observed between the two contrasting conditions, after correcting for false discoveries, favored angular versions on "novelty" and "order" ratings. This finding stands in contrast to some experimental studies where ratings of pleasantness, attractiveness/beauty, and arousal indicated more positive responses to curved rather angular conditions (e.g., [ 8, 44, 46, 49]). In particular, we were surprised that in our analysis, differences in self-reports on both "pleasantness" and "beauty" were statistically insignificant. While results indicated a non-significant trend in the predicted direction indicating higher pleasantness ratings for rooms with curvature, the Bayes factor indicated no evidence in this direction. As for beauty, ratings' means were very similar in both conditions. This is in line with a previous study, where contour had no effect on beauty judgments in laypeople [ 49]. We also did not find any differences in ratings of arousal dimensions neither in ASE nor in MAS (e.g., excitement, liveliness, calmness, interest, tension, heartbeat, alertness, activity). In terms of momentary affect in general, our results mainly indicated no evidence for the threat hypothesis, as ratings on "fear" were at the lower extreme in both conditions. As a matter of fact, all scores on negative affect were considerably low (e.g., shame, anger, sadness), while all items related to positive dimensions in both MAS and ASE were above average (considering 6 is the midpoint of the 1-11 scale) for both conditions. This effect is consistent with a previous study [ 56, 57], where no differences were reported on valence (pleasantness, comfort) and arousal dimensions between simulated furnished rooms (cutting edge with rounded furniture and modern with angular edges), albeit those were highly rated when compared to an empty room. One could think that participants reported a pleasant experience in all of the furnished rooms because they were impressed by the degree of realism in those, or by the virtual experience per se. But then the effect would drop after "affective habituation" [ 82]. As response bias was proposed as a function of presentation order in lengthy sequential preference judgments [ 83], we controlled for the stimulus presentation sequence and found no main effects. We also did not find any differences in perceived restorativeness, nor in cognitive performance, while Bayes' factors showed poor evidence of the alternative hypothesis.

In our exploratory analyses of style, results primarily validated our stimuli's second-level contrast with modern rooms being rated significantly higher than classic ones on the "traditional/novel" scale. This effect was reconfirmed within the Bayesian analysis which indicated strong evidence for the alternative hypothesis. No main difference in the general assessment of style on positive or negative affect or aesthetic value measures was observed, consistent with some previous studies [ 63, 65, 66, 67], except for complexity and warmth, in favor of classic rooms. While the results of complexity ratings confirmed some previous findings [ 67], and could be argued as a natural result of the classical style being inclusive of more details (e.g., ornaments) in its principles, the slight difference in the color palette between the two styles could be a confounding factor in the case of warmth. On the other hand, the inclusion of more "green" or "biophilic" features did not impact ratings on naturalness or perceived restorativeness. We also find this surprising as these elements are considered within the biophilic design framework. No other effect of style was found in any of the other outcome variables. Future studies primarily investigating architectural style should aim at maximizing the control for confounding variables by providing well-matched high and low-level properties.

Comparing our almost null results in terms of contour comparison to previous findings of studies that investigated indoor environments and familiar objects, it could be explained by several points. The first concerns the relatively extended viewing time in our study (3 min of exploration time), when compared with previous ones, which mostly relied on gut reactions, by either presenting the stimuli very shortly (84 to 3000 ms) (e.g., [ 8, 31]), or by instructing participants to immediately respond without thinking (e.g., [ 44]). Previous investigations have found that preference for curved stimuli, which was pronounced under limited times (84 to 150 ms), faded when the stimulus was displayed until response. This finding was replicated with images of real objects [ 26, 35] and abstract shapes [ 29]. An influence of meaning and semantic content on preference was suggested. In fact, when presenting the same images of indoor environments until response, effects were not consistent with previous studies [ 4, 10, 46], and a preference for rectilinear interiors was actually found across the three groups of participants in the most recent study: individuals with autism spectrum condition, neurotypical adults, and design and art students. Another point to consider concerns the use of forced-choice dichotomous scales in some of the previous studies reporting the preference of curved conditions (e.g., beautiful/not beautiful, or like/dislike). The lack of a response options in the middle might have boosted the preference response, as proposed by some researchers, when interpreting the different effects found in their study investigating abstract shapes [ 29]. We opted for a psychometric 11-point scale to allow for undecided responses. The third point relates to the fact that most of the previous research investigating contour, in general, has targeted similar populations, particularly female participants and psychology students [ 30], causing limitations in terms of generalizing results. However, we included a rather heterogeneous sample, recruited via more diversified databases. Last but not least, additional potential reasons concern the cultural and individual differences between the populations of the different studies. Culture was proposed to effect aesthetic preference and sensitivity, with the latter suggested change over time, exposure, and perspective [ 3]. From an architecture point of view, interiors, with the potential affordances (see James Gibson) they create, host the complex interaction between specific atmospheres shaped by different spatial compositions, the perceiver's characteristics, and their interpretation [ 5]. A probabilistic model of aesthetic response was proposed to explain the ongoing interaction between humans and their physical environments [ 50], and identified, in addition to design attributes, a series of factors including biology, personality, social and cultural experience, goals, expectations, associations, and internal constructs. These factors are suggested to contribute to the aesthetic response, impacting affect, physiological response, and behavior. The model acknowledged the complexity of the architectural experience, and further highlighted the major limitation caused by the neglect of the human movement's influence on the spatial experience in studies that use static stimuli. More than two decades after its publication, most of the known effects still relate to static stimuli rather than real-life experiences.

Even though recent research is targeting inter-individual differences in shape preferences in spaces and objects' contexts, the role of individual measures on preference is as yet uncertain, requiring further investigations [ 33, 84]. However, when looking closely at previous studies, an interesting sex effect appears. While a curvature preference was observed when the sample predominantly consisted of female psychology, art, and design students [ 44, 49], environments with rectilinear properties were preferred when the sample had a prevalence of male (design students, neurotypical or autistic participants) [ 49]. The same set of images showed a preference for curved interiors when the sample size consisted of more females than males [ 8, 49]. The authors interpreted the preference for rectilinear spaces in their study as the result of familiarity, which was previously found to be relevant for preference formation [ 34, 38], although other studies investigating drawings of familiar objects have found it to modulate preference for curvature [ 33]. The sex effect was also found when presenting sketches of familiar objects, where females judged curvilinear objects as more peaceful than males [ 37]. Additionally, another recent study presenting abstract shapes as stimuli has found that curvature preference was stronger for female students in psychology [ 30]. This effect was potentially attributed to gender rather than biological determinants. In this present study, post hoc analyses showed a sex effect, however, beyond the preference of one of the conditions over the other (Post-hoc)). Namely, when looking solely at angular rooms, males performed better than females in the cognitive task. Additionally, they rated those rooms higher than females on six out of the 20 affective and spatial dimensions, and reported higher scores on positive affect after exploring them. Although such results could possibly hint at a higher appreciation of angularity in males, this finding is to be interpreted cautiously for many reasons. First, our sample was not balanced in terms of sex and consisted of females more than males. Second, higher scores related to angular conditions do not necessarily indicate the preference of a shape over the other. This suggests that future works could benefit from including equally sized sex groups.

However, there are some limitations to the present study. Although the stimuli were still presented during rating tasks, the evaluation time was relatively long (3 min of exploration vs. an average of 9 min for CT and self-reports). Participants had to provide ratings in each room for 31 questions. This might have caused an effect known as the "museum-fatigue effect" [ 85], which has been found in many experimental observations and laboratory experiments. Causes were originally attributed to fatigue, but later to other cognitive factors such as satisfaction, information overload, and limitations in attentional capacity [ 83]. In terms of momentary affect, we had selected a scale that includes a broad range of negative emotions, to evaluate the threat hypothesis previously proposed [ 31]. However, participants scored very low on negative emotions and used more of the given scale for questions that offered both positive and negative anchors. In future studies, more focus should be directed to positive emotions. Concerning cognitive performance, the selected task was stress-inducing, which is why it is part of the Trier stress test. Although it had proven efficacy in previous studies investigating physical environments [ 72], it could be that the stress induced by the task might have overlapped the possible effects of contours.

Future studies may want to focus more strongly on implicit measures of emotions, less stress-inducing cognitive tasks, a lower number of outcome variables, and a more positive set of emotions. Sex could be further explored through the selection of a well-balanced sample. One route is to examine inter-individual differences, which include personality traits and expertise in arts and design. However, more differences should be taken into account, such as cultural background, previous experience with VR, information on familiar and lived architectural environments, among others.

5. Conclusions

In summary, while the evidence for curved contour preference in the context of abstract shapes and lines seems robust, it does not appear to be as strong in architectural settings, as multiple studies fail to demonstrate or replicate findings. The present study addressed previous limitations and found that exposure to contrasting contours in virtual interiors within a heterogeneous sample did not elicit significant differences in response to a broad set of psychological dimensions, with tasks and questionnaires administered directly after free exploration, yet within the virtual space, to record an immediate response. The fact that we assessed multiple domains during a close-to-reality architectural experience of fully controlled stimuli, not finding major effects in any of them, makes the study the most comprehensive in the field until now. This suggests that the psychological response to indoor design is much more complex and cannot be reduced into a generalized effect of contour or style, and could involve further multifaceted layers that affect the judgment of spaces on a more individual and contextual level. These results will help to convey a more real-life perspective of the response to the architectural experience in experimental settings and highlight the necessity of further investigations by providing directions for future research.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Rami Saad Architects (Beirut, Lebanon) for offering the 3D modeling of objects and furniture.

Supplementary Materials

The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/ijerph182312510/s1, Table S1: Affective and spatial experience (ASE) dimensions with their respective domains, along with the tagged descriptive adjectives and numeric scales, Table S2: Momentary affective state (MAS) dimensions with their respective domains, along with the tagged descriptive adjectives and numeric scales, Table S3: Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) items, along with the respective original subscales they represent, Table S4: Included/excluded participants for each set of measures, along with reasons for exclusion, Table S5: Scores on the SSQ, including the three subscales (Nausea, Oculomotor disturbance, and Disorientation), in addition to the total score, Post-hoc: Exploratory analysis of sex, Videos: Short videos inside the rooms

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, S.K., N.T. and I.M.S.; methodology, S.K. and N.T.; software, K.P.; formal analysis, S.S. and N.T.; investigation, N.T. and I.M.S.; writing-original draft preparation, N.T.; writing-review and editing, S.K.; visualization, N.T.; supervision, S.K.; project administration, N.T., stimulus design, N.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Local Psychological Ethics Committee of the psychosocial center at Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf protocol code LPEK-0215 20 October 2020.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Data is available from the corresponding authors upon request.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Footnotes

Publisher's Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Living Space: Psychological Well-Being and Mental Health in Response to Interiors Presented in Virtual Reality

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There has been a recent interest in how architecture affects mental health and psychological well-being, motivated by the fact that we spend the majority of our waking time inside and interacting with built environments. Some studies have investigated ...

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Architectural designs’ effect on mental health

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Architects could possibly be the catalyst for change in America’s mental-health-care crisis, research on the history of medical-use architecture proves that.

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Covers the design, construction and operation of green and sustainable buildings

Presents real-world built case studies on regenerative design

Focuses on practical issues that are relevant to building professional without an in-depth background in sustainability

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

About this book

This book is a guide to energy efficiency and environmental impact assessment in high-performance buildings projects. It compares four state-of-the-art buildings to examine the steps needed for a transition from negative impact reduction architecture to positive impact regenerative architecture, utilizing life cycle analysis. The book provides a solid grounding in the areas of energy-efficient building and building materials life-cycle assessment, discussing carbon efficiency within a wider context that includes its technical, socio-cultural and environmental dimensions and covers the key areas for green buildings performance (operational and embodied energy). The analysis and comparison of four case studies of state-of-art modern building projects in Europe and North America serve as inspiring examples for architects and building professionals in the fields of high performance buildings, ecological materials and carbon efficiency.

Authors and Affiliations

Sustainable Architecture & Building Technology, Liège University, Liège, Belgium

Shady Attia

About the author

Prof. Shady Attia is an architectural engineer and professor of sustainable architecture and building technology at the University of Liège in Belgium. He is a faculty member of the United States Green Building Council specializing in high-performance buildings, including net zero energy buildings and regenerative design. As an independent consultant and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-accredited professional, he has worked with several governments on building efficiency programs, and with private building design and energy consulting companies in the areas of building energy efficiency, green building certification and sustainability decision support.

Bibliographic Information

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Regenerative and Positive Impact Architecture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Covers the design, construction and operation of green and sustainable buildings Presents real-world built case studies on regenerative design Focuses on practical issues that are relevant to building professional without an in-depth background in sustainability Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout Table of contents (8 chapters) This book is a guide to energy efficiency and environmental impact assessment in high-performance buildings projects.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
More than hundred years ago, in 1901, important architect later known as Louis Kahn was born in today's Estonia. His family was very poor and they emigrated to the USA because his father feared to be called to serve in the military during Russo-Japanese War.

He has built many important and interesting buildings, the most known is probably the Salk Institute.

Even though expressing of internal mechanics was perfectly acceptable in modernism, Kahn felt that people should remain without knowledge of the functions in buildings.

Therefore he categorized space into two categories. Served and servant.

Servant spaces are supporting the main areas of the building. Toilets, storage and technical rooms, stairs and corridors, duct shaft and kitchens are main examples of spaces that are considered as servant spaces.

Servant spaces are not meant for habitation, they will be visited only briefly or by internal staff. They are mostly meant for mechanical equipment, ducts and pipes.

Served spaces are the primary areas. Concert halls, commercial spaces, living rooms, bedrooms, auditoriums, classes and exhibition spaces are common examples of served spaces.

Served spaces are meant for habitation and are meant for primary occupants of the space or visitors. They are meant for people.

One of the few houses Kahn designed is Esherick house, Philadelphia.

On that example, we can analyse the practical use of his principles. Kitchen, bathroom, stairs, dressing and shower are servant spaces. Living room, dining, lobby and bedroom are served spaces.

On simplified plan, you can also see how both types of spaces are layered. This rhythmic arrangement is typical for Kahn.

For the practical purpose, I would suggest to create a third category - circulation. I think circulation elements such as corridors and stairs do not exactly fit into the same category as storages and technical rooms, because they are meant for the primary inhabitants of the space.

From Kahn's work, we can learn to group technical spaces together, that usually helps with an easier arrangement of ducts and pipes. As you can see in the example below, one of the possibilities might be to use one shaft for ducts and pipes from both kitchen and bathroom.

I hope you liked this post and now you can use Kahn's theory to improve your own design work.

Cheers

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What are served and servant spaces? - Constructing Architect

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
More than hundred years ago, in 1901, important architect later known as Louis Kahn was born in today's Estonia. His family was very poor and they emigrated to the USA because his father feared to be called to serve in the military during Russo-Japanese War.

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Can Architecture aid the healing process? How does it affect human psychology? What can we do to make Therapeutic Architecture?

Architecture is an art, which has many facets to it as it is an amalgamation of science, expressions, aesthetics, technology, and satisfaction of human needs. Architecture if practiced correctly has the ability to create meaningful spaces but an architect who possesses little knowledge about his domain is equally capable of creating blunders. Churches, mosques, and cathedrals planned centuries ago; it is a testimony to architectural marvels as they engulf a sense of magnificence, royalty, glory, serenity, and peacefulness. The intriguing details of the spaces were meant to induce positive feelings and emotions and are considered as masterpieces of architecture to date as they continue to fascinate historians, researchers, and travelers from across the globe. In a rat race to achieve modernization in terms of lifestyle; humans prefer adopting lifestyles that revolve around built environments and prefer less interaction with the natural environment. The volume of the crowd getting attracted to shopping complexes in comparison to natural parks is proof of that.

Humans have a tendency to achieve nuances by constantly developing something new in hope towards a better future. But, hardly realizes that this urbanization has led to so much dependence on technology that our lifestyle is completely mechanized leading towards busy work schedules, increased toxicity levels, reduced green spaces, un-planned and un-pleasant surroundings, congested living environments and many more. The long-term effect of it is a multitude of health issues and diseases; leading towards overindulgence on medication, chemical drugs, and health care centers.

With the ever-increasing population and their indulgence in using medicines to treat illness, it has become all the more important to rely on natural means, treatments, and remedies; which are being neglected due to lack of awareness among the masses. The current trends are towards designing and developing state of the art health centers that not only focus on having aesthetic enhancements (to reduce stress and anxiety) but also make a deliberate effort towards promoting patients' health and healing mechanisms. Such spaces can be a very good medium for instilling emotions, i.e. the aura of space can bring a positive change in a person's perception and mood while using the space.

The work aims to discover how architecture and aesthetics can create an environment conducive to the healing process. The work nowhere thrusts that the architecture, when used independently, has the ability to heal; but the architectural manipulation of space can act as a catalyst in creating a healing environment that may affect the physical and psychological behavior of the patient. The objective of this study is to analyze the following:

1. a) How spaces can be designed in line with the healing process of patients.

2. b) To discover various facets of architecture viz-a-viz human psyche.

3. c) To study the concept of sensory architecture to understand the relation of man and his environment.

4. d) To study how natural elements can be a catalyst in the healing environment.

1. Literature Survey

The placebo treatment is a pseudo-medical treatment that seems to be real but actually is not. This treatment tries to treat the body through the mind. Such a treatment effect can be very well seen through Maggie Centers by Charles Jencks 2010, who believed in the architectural placebo effect. He used this philosophy and created an Architectural environment through his designs in a manner that helped in treating many cancer patients. Such an environment not only helps patients receive mental and social support for dealing with cancer but also boosts their emotions. Such a discovery was earmarked by a renowned American philosopher William James who believed "the greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." (Levitt, Andrew. 2015). This way adopting such a spatial design that caters to physiological and psychological needs will not only help people interact better but also add more meaning to therapeutic architecture. Practicing such architecture by designing exquisite spaces closely associated with the natural environment will certainly lead to human healing and well-being. The concept of designing Architectural spaces by considering natural factors like sound, light, color, smell and pleasant views certainly connect to human senses and proves to show more ability in the physical and psychological healing of patients. Architectural spaces directly affect human emotions in a way that pleasant Architectural space helps in the natural process of healing.
Source(https://inhabitat.com/beautiful-light-filled-maggies-cancer-center-opens-up-to-nature-in-manchester/)
"Architecture is the masterly, correct magnificent play of masses brought together in light." Light and color also play a vital role in sensory design in terms of visual effect. Shadows help in representing mass and volume better by way of depth. "In great spaces of architecture, there is constant, deep breathing of shadow and light; shadow inhales, and illumination exhales, light." (Juhani Pallasmaa, 2012). The sense of vision also gives an opportunity to connect to other human senses at times. When we are hungry and see a photo of a nice cuisine; it certainly connects our vision to other senses of taste and smell. This combination of senses leads to sensory balance; thus bringing different reactions depending on mood. An acoustically designed space will hold a different meaning that non-designed space which brings a lot of echo and sound reflection. The space with no acoustical treatment will be perceived differently than the space with proper acoustical treatment which will certainly be more comfortable and pleasant. One may not see acoustic Architecture but it is significant in our perception and experience of space; apart from our appreciation of space in terms of structure and articulation. These days the old prisons are replaced with modern rehabilitation and correction centers as their motive is not to punish criminals but rebuild them by providing proper counseling and training. Likewise, the hospitals are replaced with health care centers which also provide a soothing and pleasant environment to the patients and lead to faster recovery. Therefore, Architects must associate themselves with therapists and sociologists and discuss the healing capacity of place through design. One must interpret data through the multi-sensory aspect of space through past experiences and memories, which allows making own conclusions on a space with an idea to enhance through different Architectural elements like light, fenestrations, Colors, Materials, etc.

2. Role of Architecture in the Healing Process

For better planning and designing of health care centers, architects and researchers have closely observed and tried to analyze the correlation between the physical parameters involved in creating health care centers and their effect on patients health-related outcomes such as patients comfort level, recovery, his length of stay, medication intake, stress levels, etc. Individually examining and studying these parameters on patients of different age groups can actually help in demonstrating how one can design healthy environments and spaces that can reduce stress and anxiety levels and address issues related to patients' comfort.

Many clinical studies have proven the positive effect of nature and exposure to the outdoors; towards distraction from stress and anxiety levels of patients in a Health care setup. A study published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, clearly indicated that for patients suffering from dementia; aggressive behavior associated with a stressful experience could be reduced significantly by the frequent playing of recorded nature sounds. The study by Professor Irving, Biermann, of the University of Southern California has found that when people view scenes that are soothing to mind and eyes and are universally accepted - like beautiful panoramas, sunsets, hill views, a grove of trees- the nerve cells of the brain become active and the brain's natural painkillers starts flowing thereby reducing the stress levels of the patient and make them calm.

Light plays a critical role in human life and daily affairs that we can hardly imagine our existence without it. It permits one to function at a basic level and it also plays a key factor in our psychological and physiological health.

Importance of Natural Light

In a study conducted, 92% of the patient's considered sunlight to be pleasurable and calming respectively. Whereas only 2% and 1% of patients considered sunlight to be a nuisance and unfavorable. Whereas, 31% and 35% of the staff members considered sunlight to be pleasurable and calming respectively. Whereas 62% and 26% of staff considered sunlight to be a nuisance and unfavorable. The reports were quite contrasted with patients and staff.

Importance of Artificial Light

The artificial lighting should be highly flexible and adaptable to one's needs, i.e. it should provide a comforting feel to patients while reading and well illumination to staff for carrying out examination or surgical treatments. Interior designers while designing a house or building should take into consideration the amount and the available type and dimensions of light in design. The job of interior designer is not only restricted to designing but also has to handle the intricacies of important facilities to be provided in medical projects such as proper placement of installation channels and air vents in the ceiling keeping in line with the installation standards and the space lighting.

Ulrich through his work 'power of the window' has shown and proven scientifically how the patients in hospital recovered faster when their rooms had a direct view of the external natural environment rather than a blank wall. According to a study the patients who could see and feel nature around (be it in the form of trees or chirping of birds, cool breeze, sunrise, and sunset, etc.), required less narcotic pain medication than the ones who stayed in a room with brick walls and no window.

Colors can have a significant impact on the psyche of patients; certain colors intend to encourage activities, while others promote passive behavior. According to color therapy, colors have the ability to influence many facets of our lives, including our emotions, mental state, mood, and energy level. Each color is considered to be in line with the seven energy centers or chakras. The concept of color therapy is based on the fact that our physiological behavior responds and functions in a predictable defined manner to colors.

Materials too are considered to leave a direct influence on the overall sense of the environment like the ability to affect the sound environment, circulate movement, increase /decrease comfort and various other actions. Building materials used in therapeutic architecture should be carefully chosen - like natural materials if used in such spaces have not only a healing benefit but also an ecological one. If a building is harmonious and close to nature, it has a positive effect on the environment too. By designing spaces that are self-sufficient, "eco-cycle houses," or agriculture systems, architecture can work with nature in harmony. Using local materials allows for the community to play a role in the construction process, as well. Natural materials that have been handcrafted are unique, which is as appealing as it is authentic.

Blomkvist et al 2005, through his work, has tried to show how the improved acoustics can have a positive effect on the psychosocial environment and how it can contribute towards reducing risks of conflicts and errors in the health care environment. The negative effects of sound and noise are associated with a patient's slow recovery and increased levels of stress. In a study, Bayonet al.1995 made an observation that the most important noise sources were located primarily inside the hospital and majorly affected the patients' comfort but had little implications on their recovery. One of the major side effects of a high noise level was on patients' quality and quantity of sleep. Sources of disturbance that were identified were therapeutic procedures, staff talking, and environmental noises, etc. Most disturbances were noted in the multi-bed unit having multiple patients due to erratic patient interventions by staff, keeping little time for condensed sleep. Moore et al. attempted to provide solutions for multi-bed patient care units by reducing noise levels by 6 dB (A) on average by following procedures such as closing patient doors, a change that patients readily acknowledged. However, an adverse effect was seen in the ICU where closing doors increased noise levels, primarily because of the noise that resonates with equipment within the room. Harris & Reitz 1985 studied the effects of room reverberation and noise on speech discrimination by older adults. They demonstrated that under the same reverberant noisier conditions; the older normal-hearing subjects performed much poorer than younger normal-hearing subjects and a sharp decline by 48% in speech discrimination was observed among older adults with a hearing impairments from the best acoustic condition (quiet + shorter reverberation time (RT)) to poorest (noise + longer RT). For having good effective acoustics in healthcare design, the research implies that ceilings should be made sound-absorbent and reverberation time be shortened so as to reduce noise propagation for increasing speech discrimination among older patients.

It can be concluded that a great amount of forethought and expertise is needed in conceptualizing and designing healing environments. Spaces have a great potential of having a positive impact on the psyche and emotions of people and their relevance has more significance in the context of patients. It requires a great deal of expertise in maintaining a good design balance of the use of light, color, texture, and materials. Interior designers and architects need to recognize how every design component can be explored as an opportunity for impacting the health and well-being of the patients. Today, in the process to recover and heal faster, spaces need to permit the patients to connect with their spirituality. It is considered as an important thread of the treatment.

References:

Lawson, B., Bassanino, M., Phiri, M., & Worthington, J. (2003). Intentions, practices, and aspirations: Understanding learning in design. Design Studies, 24(4), 327-339.

Pallasmaa, J. 2. (2005). Lived space: Embodied experience and sensory thought. Encounters: Architectural Essays.

Levin, D. M. (Ed.). (1993). Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision. Univ of California Press.

Schneider, S. M., Prince-Paul, M., Allen, M. J., Silverman, P., &Talaba, D. (2004, January). Virtual reality as a distraction intervention for women receiving chemotherapy. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 31, No. 1).

Architect - Restorer with major experience in design of buildings and related structures & specialized in rehabilitation & restoration of historical & monumental buildings. My Objective is to utilize my skills and knowledge to solve problems, interact with people and maintain high standards of performance, can work under pressure and flexible in deadlines.

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Therapeutic Architecture: Role of Architecture in Healing Process - Rethinking The Future

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Can Architecture aid the healing process? How does it affect human psychology? What can we do to make Therapeutic Architecture?

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Technology is radically changing what is private and what is public in our daily lives. Our personal, professional, and financial interactions increasingly take place online, where almost everything is archived and thus potentially permanently searchable and publishable. Cameras are ubiquitous in public plazas; our strolls are recorded by storeowners, government agencies, and, of course, our friends, who post and tag pictures of us. We share our location both deliberately via updates to locative social media and inescapably via our location-aware smartphones.

Communication technologies have been disrupting our notion of privacy for over a century. In 1890, Warren and Brandeis wrote "The Right to Privacy," one of the fundamental legal articles on privacy, and many of the concerns it raises are still troubling today.

Recent inventions and business methods call attention to the next step which must be taken for the protection of the person, and for securing to the individual what Judge Cooley calls the right "to be let alone." Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that "what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops." (Warren and Brandeis 1890, 195)

Historically, human interaction was local and ephemeral; only those nearby could witness it, and the words, once spoken, disappeared in the passing of time. Today, however, our interactions, and other's observations of them, can reach across space and persist in time. Surveillance cameras open seemingly private rooms to distant and unseen observers; archives retain casual conversations and outgrown profiles, forever enabling their out-of-context and possibly inopportune redisplay. These technologies make it difficult to distinguish between what is private and what is public. We are often unaware of the recording of our words and actions, and do not intuitively grasp that casual interactions, once fleeting and ephemeral, are now permanently etched digital artifacts.

Privacy is about maintaining control of information about ourselves. This can include what we are thinking, what we said to another person, what we did last night, our undressed body, our favorite book, and so on. Privacy is also contextual (Nissenbaum 1998, 2004). I may dicuss my family problems with one friend, but not another, and I certainly would not want them to be publicly broadcast. I may be comfortable naked with my spouse, but not my coworkers. Privacy varies from situation to situation and culture to culture. I can freely share my taste in books if it is innocuous, if it is congruent with the mores of my community, or if I live in an open and tolerant society. But if my taste reveals my deep religious commitments in a vehemently secular context or, vice versa, proclaims my atheism in a religious world, I may prefer to keep my reading habits more private-not necessarily secret, but limited to the people who I feel are accepting of my beliefs.

Privacy is important because access to private information about us by the wrong person or agency can be harmful. The direst concern is with an intrusive and repressive government, like Big Brother of 1984 and the spies and agencies of recent and ongoing totalitarian regimes. Even for those of us lucky enough to live in a more open society, history shows that governments are in constant flux, and there is no guarantee that today's democracy will be free forever. The data now collected for innocuous reasons may be used tomorrow by a less benign authority.

There are also concerns about employers and insurers who can hire, fire, and deny services based on information they have been able to glean about us. More insidiously, there are people and institutions who may not directly harm us, but whose motivations do not align with our own. Marketers, for example, are among the most voracious amassers of information about what people do and say online. Are they working for us, helping us find the goods and services we need? Or are they working against us, manipulating our tastes and values to make us believe we have a ceaseless need for new purchases?

In these examples, we are concerned about protecting our privacy from outside agencies, from governments and corporations that seek to constrain and influence our beliefs and behaviors. But there is another, social aspect of privacy. We need privacy to maintain a variety of relationships with diverse people (Rachels 1975). I may tell an off-color joke or use profanity in front of my friends, among whom it is an accepted way of speaking. But I would not use this language in front of my great aunt, who would be shocked, or my children, to whom I try set an example of model behavior, or my colleagues, whom I want to think of me as composed and dignified. Thus, I would be quite discomfited to find that a recording of my friends and me joking around in this manner was circulating among my relatives, kids, or coworkers. Until recently, it was unlikely that such a recording would exist. Today, camera-equipped phones, designed for easy and instant publishing of their content, are present in most social situations, making every acquaintance a potential paparazzo. Dinner-party attendees post live updates from the table about the conversation and the food. Both online and off, it is becoming harder to discern who is privy to one's words and easier to promulgate conversations and other activities to people outside the intended audience. Technology is eroding our ability to keep separate the many facets of our lives.

Privacy is important, but more privacy is not always better. We can protect our privacy by saying nothing and leaving no traces. Taken to an extreme, a very private world is anonymous, lonely, and anarchic. We need to have public realms, where we encounter new people and new ideas and where self-imposed constraint on actions, rather than the absence of watching eyes, maintains privacy. Vibrant public spaces are of great value to a community. Public spaces are for celebrations and protests, for commerce and socializing; by being out in public, we see how others appear and act. There is an energy that comes from being seen by others and making the effort to act in our public role.

In some ways, technology is making our world more private. It was not so long ago that we could easily see what our fellow subway riders were reading because their books and magazines were clearly visible. Today, tiny screens hide what people are reading or listening to on digital media. This is a small but significant loss in the social vividness of the city, as taste in books and music is one way people define their social identity. Many workplaces have become eerily silent, as employees who once gathered to chat at water coolers now stay in their offices (or even at home), communicating mostly online. The sociability that was once available simply by being in a public space is diminishing.

In other ways, technology is creating new public spaces. The Internet provides numerous platforms for public speech; we can voice our opinions, display our photographs, and publish our songs to a global audience with unprecedented ease. What we do in these new, mediated public spaces is much the same as what we do in traditional public spaces: we seek out entertainment, support political causes, and meet new people. But mediated public spaces are significantly different; words and images persist indefinitely, audiences are often invisible, and people's identities range from wholly anonymous to extensively documented. These new forms of public information can help reinvigorate public space, but they can also be a nightmare of violated privacy and repressed behavior. (And the line between physical and mediated spaces grows blurrier. We enter mediated public spaces when we go online from the privacy of our computer screens. We also enter them, perhaps unwittingly, when we walk into a space where cameras and other recorders are transforming ephemeral physical actions into archived data traces.)

The design of new technologies shapes private life and public space. Design can make a camera invisible or prominent, and it is a design choice to publicly display its video to the people it records or to show it secretly only to a distant watcher. It is a design choice for a social network site to allow its users to present different facets of themselves to different people or to insist that they present the same view to all. Yet knowing which design to choose is complicated. Privacy is not an unmitigated good: it involves trade-offs with public life, sociability, safety, and convenience. Furthermore, a design that seems to protect privacy may ultimately compromise it. For example, if I write something today in a conversation that is kept private among a small group, but my words persist into an unprivate future and are eventually publicly revealed, might my privacy have been better protected if I had never had the expectation of privacy and acted accordingly?

Privacy and publicity are complementary and need to be in balance. A world in which everything is private, in which you see little of your fellow inhabitants, is a world without society. It is a world where people act in isolation, one where social mores have no place to develop. Alternatively, a world in which everything is public is one where social control is overwhelming, where every act and expression is open to scrutiny. We need public space, where we can encounter the new and unexpected, where we can see and be seen by others. And we need private space, free from the constraining norms of the greater world, in which to act as an individual and with a smaller group.

Indeed, public and private form a continuum. Many of our actions are public to some group-our family, our coworkers, our fellow cross-dressers or cat fanciers-but private to our other social groups and the rest of the world. The street is obviously public, but even in "the privacy of your own home" your family is also a public, with its own set of rules for how one behaves. How much control you have over the norms of a situation affects whether you perceive it to be public and controlled by others or private and controlled by you. danah boyd notes that teenagers think of the family as public space and their friends as the private world, whereas adults perceive the opposite (boyd 2006).

Tolerance also affects our need for privacy. The drawbacks of a highly public world-intense social control, endless scrutiny-are ameliorated in a society that accepts and protects diversity of opinions and behaviors. When the public sphere is liberal and gives people much freedom, there is less urgency for privacy.

Many of the designs we discuss in this book change the balance between privacy and public space. For example, visualizations of interaction history can make past actions accessible to new, unforeseen audiences for far longer than if they had passed into the back pages of the digital archive. A designer who is aware of the privacy issues involved can modify the visualization to create the desired balance, in this case possibly by limiting the amount of older material that is included or personalizing the view so that people see only material they would have had access to at the time it was created. The goal of this chapter is to help the reader think through what that "desired balance" is in different situations, for we need to balance the public and the private, the collective good and personal liberty, for society to thrive.

In a plaza, we assume that other people in the space can see us; we may be aware, too, of those looking out the windows of overlooking buildings. But new technologies make it harder for us to see those who see us. We are often unaware of the cameras that make us observable from miles away and for years to come. Online, we may know that we are posting a remark in a public forum, but we may not intuitively grasp the scale of the audience, nor the ways that this remark may become part of our growing virtual persona. Design plays an important role in enhancing privacy by clarifying the scope and boundaries of our ambiguous public spaces; it can help us understand what is public and what is private.

The illusion of privacy induces people to act, erroneously, as if they were in a private space. Online, many spaces feel as if they are very private-that one's actions are seen by no one and that one's words are perused by only a few. In fact, these actions are happening in a space that is not only public, in that many eyes can see it, but is also hyperpublic in that it can be seen for an extended time, in many contexts.

Designs can mislead us about the public extent of a space or they can make it quite legible: a hidden camera breaks open a space without the knowledge of those observed, a visible camera makes them aware of the possibility of being recorded and watched from afar, and a prominent live video feed makes it more vividly and intuitively clear that what happens in the space can be seen by distant and future viewers. We act differently in private than in public and need to be able to perceive those distinctions in order to act appropriately. Our knowledge is, however, inevitably asymmetric: a public display of the images and data gathered in a space provides proof that it is public, but just because there is no such display does not mean that the space is private.

Individuals' standards of personal privacy vary; some desire attention whereas others seek isolation. A well-designed space, whether virtual or physical, should help them see who can see them and understand how far their words and actions can travel. It is then up to the person to choose how to act and what to reveal.

Making Audiences Visible

In our face-to-face communication, we take for granted the ability to see who is listening. Online, however, the audience is often invisible; we are aware of the people who participate actively, but we forget about the silent readers, who may greatly outnumber the vocal ones (Nonnecke and Preece 2003). This lack of audience awareness helps create the feeling of intimacy that can characterize even very large online discussions: people feel-and thus write-as if they are addressing only a few known companions, not the multitudes who may actually be reading. This can be good; the intimate tone of informal speech and personal revelation makes for more interesting reading than the stiffly self-conscious voice of someone addressing a vast audience. Yet this lack of awareness can create a voyeuristic dynamic in which people reveal far more than they would were they aware of the scale of the discussions.

We can redesign discussion sites to make the audience visible. One approach is to show the size of the audience without revealing the individual readers' identity. We see such audience counters on Web pages; they are anonymous and do not discourage people from reading. However, they are not very intuitive: a page with a note at the bottom saying that there have been 10,000 visitors is not viscerally different from one that claims only 50. A graphical approach, even one simply showing dots for visitors, would provide a more vivid impression (figure 11.1).

Making the size of the audience visible transforms the social dynamics of the interaction. A writer who becomes more aware of how large her audience is or how many strangers are in it might write more formally and disclose less personal information. Publicly disclosing the identities of the readers would have an even greater impact, making them more circumspect about what they could be seen perusing.

For readers, the obvious privacy concern is with controversial or embarrassing material. But making readers visible would also affect behavior around seemingly innocuous social material. Let us look at how this would affect, for example, status updates. As an invisible reader, I can peruse the updates of many friends and acquaintances, stopping to comment on only a very few, if any. The friends whose proud achievements, vacation photos, or latest jokes receive no comment from me do not know if I have said nothing because I do not care, cannot think of something to say, or simply have not seen them. As a named and visible reader, I would need to be more selective about what I read. And because it would be apparent that I was aware of something, I would often feel obligated to respond. I might choose not to read what promises to be an accounting of an important event, because I do not have the time to respond properly and do not want people to know that I have read and am aware of the event, but have said nothing. Visible readers have greater social responsibilities.

Our existing social norms influence our understanding of privacy. If we frame online writing as conversation, we often expect all participants to be visible. This is why, as we saw in chapter 7, nonparticipating readers may be called, pejoratively, "lurkers" even though as readers they benefit the active participants. In a face-to-face conversation or a telephone call, the norm is to be aware of the audience; an unseen listener is an eavesdropper. Allowing the speaker (or writer) to see who is listening is courteous rather than invasive. On the other hand, if we frame the writing as publication, we expect privacy for the readers. Reading privately is a revered right. Thus, if we think of social media as being like publishing, then making the audience visible is itself an invasion of privacy, reminiscent of asking libraries to reveal their patrons' borrowing records or the concern over electronic books keeping tabs on their readers (Ozer and Lynch 2010). Naming the readers of, say, an online political tract has unpleasant overtones of state surveillance.

To support privacy, designs need to clarify the conceptual model underlying participants' expectations of what they can see and what they can hide. The publishing model, with its invisible audience, is suitable in some situations, and the conversation model, with its mutually visible participants, is suitable in others. A social medium can follow either model; designing it to support privacy means providing cues to ensure that participants' expectations match the medium's affordances.

Seeing Surveillance

In some situations, the best way to protect privacy is to remind people that they are in public and that their audience may include unintended watchers. Mistaken expectations about privacy are frequent at work (Nord, McCubbins, and Nord 2006), especially as communication technologies blur the distinction between office and home. We chat online with friends while in the office, and keep up with professional duties from home. Employees often feel that their email and other communications are private, but they actually are not, especially if they are using company equipment and accounts. If a company says that management may scrutinize all email, it is important that the employees habitually think of their email at work as public communication. Yet although they may receive notices that their correspondence may be read and their online activities monitored, employees frequently do not understand that there is not a zone of privacy for personal correspondence or forget they may be observed.

Imagine a workplace common area with a big dynamic display that shows the flow of email in the company (see, for example, figure 11.2). Such a display is interesting as a social map of the company, but it also functions as a visceral reminder that these emails are not private. If I am secretly dating someone in the next department, it would make me think twice about sending him a note via company email. Do I want a connection between us to show up in a public display? If not, I need to find another way to reach him. If I want to schedule a confidential meeting with Human Resources to complain about my boss, it reminds me that he may read my email. Perhaps I should call, instead.

The display would not reveal the contents of the email; you could still send confidential company email to coworkers without any of the material being revealed to casual visitors, but you would be reminded and come to intuitively feel that your actions, when using the company's communication technologies, are open in various ways within the company. It makes the virtual space semipublic, like the glass-walled offices that are popular in many businesses. We can close the door so no one hears what we are talking about, but anyone can see who is meeting with whom. This type of display would have a chilling effect on users, but that can be a good thing. Given that the employees' correspondence is already monitored, they benefit from greater awareness, and the company benefits by having employees focus on work-related issues. (One might argue against tightly monitoring employees, but then the solution is for the monitoring to stop or be limited, not for it to exist while its subjects are only vaguely aware of it.) Design needs to balance the benefit of providing people with the knowledge that they are or might be watched with the cost to them of the pervasive anxiety this knowledge can cause.

In 1785, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed the "panopticon," a prison designed so that prisoners could be under surveillance at any time but would be unable to tell at any given moment if they were actually being observed or not (see figure 11.3). Though at any particular time they might be unobserved, they would need to act at all times as if they were under an omniscient and omnipresent eye (Bentham 1791). The concept of the panopticon resonates in a world where surveillance is increasingly ubiquitous. Social theorist Michel Foucault wrote in Discipline and Punish, his history of prisons and punishment, "The panoptic schema, without disappearing as such or losing any of its properties, was destined to spread throughout the social body; its vocation was to become a generalized function" (Foucault 1979, 207).

Though the phrase "ignorance is bliss" sounds unsettlingly like the Party's slogans in 1984, it actually comes from an eighteenth-century poem that suggests that given the inevitability of suffering and death, it is better to enjoy life without being consumed with thoughts of the misery to come (Gray 1753). How much should we be aware of the possibility of surveillance? When is it better to know, and to anxiously limit what we say and do, and when is that self-censorship itself a problem? The answer depends on who is watching.

Who Is Watching Us?

Our feelings about being observed depend on who is observing us. Why are they watching us? Is it for our own good, or does it harm us? Is it an asymmetric observation, where they watch us while we are unaware of them? Or is it an experience of mutual assessment? This book focuses on private and public social interaction, where controlling and revealing personal information is part of negotiating trust and establishing bonds among individuals. Yet we need to be aware of others who observe our actions-governments, employers, insurers, marketers-whose purpose may be detrimental to us. They add a cost to our interactions that may be steep enough to make us rethink how we act or demand a greater degree of privacy in our social spaces.

Most readers of this book live under nearly constant government surveillance in public spaces. Security cameras, increasingly able to recognize faces, monitor stores, parks, and streets. This surveillance is increasingly pervasive in seemingly private spaces too. Private phone conversations may be surreptitiously recorded and one's shopping, Web browsing, and travel activity analyzed. The aim of this surveillance is to combat terrorism and crime; many citizens support it, especially at times and in places where fear of attack is high. It is benign to the extent that the government's laws and actions are just. Yet even a just government can have corrupt or overzealous departments and individuals. And governments change, whereas databases last forever.

Governments are not the only watchers. Corporations watch, too. They want to know if you are credit worthy, insurable, or employable. Many people in Europe and the United States see this as a more immediate concern than government repression, for though they think of themselves as generally law-abiding, they have done things that could make them ineligible for a desired service or position. Feeling that all your actions, everywhere, must conform to a company's ideal puts tight constraints on behavior. Yet, some of this observation is for our own benefit. Having our data used for medical purposes is generally helpful, letting us and/or our doctors make better decisions for our health. However, insurers' use of that same data is often harmful to us when they seek information that allows them to refuse to reimburse us for medical expenses.

Surveillance can be indirectly beneficial. The government may intrude on our privacy for our own good, claiming that it needs information about everyone to protect against terrorists and criminals (Baker 2003; Cole and Dempsey 2006). We may benefit from the government having access to other people's information, but we do not derive any benefit from-and arguably are harmed by-their access to our own information. Here we need to weigh the benefits against the privacy costs. (What has been disturbing in the years since 9/11 is the claim that fighting terrorism is infinitely important, trumping all costs.) Can the government maintain security with lower privacy costs, for example, by diligently destroying information as soon as it is reasonably deemed irrelevant? And what are the social costs? If the government uses the data it finds this way for suppressing dissent, the cost is extremely high.

Whether marketers' use of our private information is beneficial or not is up for debate. They claim that by being able to better target advertising to our wants and needs, they can provide information that is more relevant to us-which sounds helpful. However, the "benefit" of being persuaded to consume more, of ever more skillfully and subtly being made dissatisfied with what we have, benefits the advertiser and its client, but is arguably quite costly to us-and the environment.

The benefit to us of employers, school admission offices, and the like having access to private information is also complex. Admission and employment are generally zero-sum games; someone will be hired, and one person's loss is another's gain. The key issue is whether the information the employer is using is relevant to the decision. If it is-if it helps her make a better decision and is in line with what the community thinks is pertinent information for assessing that sort of job or opportunity-then it is beneficial. Though it may cost one person the job, another, presumably better-suited person does get it. The problem is when the information used is not materially relevant to the decision. This is a matter for the community to decide (though what constitutes the community and how they made this decision is not always clear). The United States as a country is a community that has outlawed racial and other forms of discrimination in hiring. Interviewers are privy to the applicants' race and gender, but are barred from using it in their assessments. We need to make similar determinations about the use of all kinds of private data: health information, online comments, photographs, and so on.

In his essay "On Face-Work," Erving Goffman wrote:

Every person lives in a world of social encounters, involving him either in face-to-face or mediated contact with other participants. In each of these contacts, he tends to act out what is sometimes called a line-that is, a pattern of verbal and nonverbal acts by which he expresses his view of the situation. ... The term face may be defined as the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact. ... A person may be said to have, or be in, or maintain face when the line he effectively takes presents an image of him that is internally consistent, that is supported by judgments and evidence conveyed by other participants and that is confirmed by evidence conveyed through impersonal agencies in the situation. ... A person is said to be in the wrong face when information is brought forth in some way about his social worth which cannot be integrated ... into the line that is being sustained for him. (Goffman 1967, 5)

A very different category of observers is other people in a social setting: "Although Big Brother actions may threaten life and liberty, it is interpersonal privacy matters that figure primarily in decisions about technology use on an everyday basis" (Palen and Dourish 2003, 130). This is the privacy of social mores, of social expectations, of keeping face and experiencing embarrassment. This social privacy is changing as our interactions move online, where they are stored, archived, collated, visualized, and permanently retrievable. We are entering a world where the impression we make comes not just from our present demeanor, but also from a vast shadow of past words, photos, and others' comments. Much has been written about technology and changing expectations of external privacy, but the impact of new media on social privacy and public space is not as well understood. Why do people want to know private information about each other, and why do people want to provide it? Is this beneficial or not? Who benefits? Who loses?

In the physical world, we maintain privacy through the separation of different facets of our lives. Coworkers with strongly differing political or religious beliefs can get along by not discussing those facets of their lives at lunch together; parents of young children can be silly and warm at home yet in charge and imposing at work. For everyday privacy, the distance between work and home, or between different sets of friends, can be sufficient to keep different aspects of our identity separate. Online, we need stronger walls between the aspects of our lives we wish to keep distinct.

We all work to create an impression on other people-to make them think a certain way about us. This impression, or "face," changes given different audiences and varying contexts (Goffman 1966). Sometimes we may want to seem authoritative and knowledgeable, while at other times, with other people, we may want to seem loving or sinister, empathetic or helpless. But we cannot always present the face we ideally wish to show. I may want to show my boss that I am really brilliant and responsible, but if my job is very menial, I may have little opportunity to do so. Or, information may surface that is contrary to what I want the others to know-that disrupts and distorts the face I wish to present. For example, if I'm out with a group of new and old friends, one who has known me for a long time might tell revealing stories from my past that contradict my current image. Such disruptive information is a form of privacy violation: information that was meant for one context has been revealed in another one (Rosen 2000). These violations need not be malicious or even intentional. Indeed, simply being in the presence of people you know from disparate social contexts makes such privacy violations likely. It can be awkward to encounter people from various social circles together-simply choosing which voice to use means that to some members of the mixed audience you will seem to be acting out of character.

Mixing social contexts can also be beneficial, providing depth to the impressions we have of each other. It is nice to know that your friend is a well-respected expert in her professional life, or that your highly efficient colleague is sweet and silly with his toddler. Politicians running for office strive to keep a balance between the humanizing effect of allowing us to see them with their families and maintaining the aura of authority and competence that their official image conveys.

Technology Collapses Contexts

In the pre-Internet face-to-face world, it was relatively easy to keep one's social contexts separate. Online, however, these contexts often collapse. On a social network site, readers of your updates and the writers of comments about them may include your colleagues, your anarchy-espousing college roommate, and your prim great aunt (Donath and boyd 2004). Technology, including search engines and social network sites, makes it more difficult to maintain the separation we have in the physical world between different roles and facets of our personality. Sometimes this is deliberate. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has stated that one of his goals is to break down these social walls between people; and Facebook's design strongly encourages people to present personal updates, including photos of family vacations, announcements of work travel, statements of political opinion and religious belief, in a single undifferentiated context. "You have one identity," Zuckerberg has said; "having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity" (D. Kirkpatrick 2010, 199).

This demand for a single, un-nuanced self-presentation oversimplifies the complexity of human personality and human social existence. Furthermore, this stance is at best naive about the importance of privacy to people outside of the mainstream, whose beliefs and practices leave them vulnerable to harassment or persecution. It is easy to espouse the extreme transparency of an unprivate life when your religion, tastes, and lifestyle align with the values of those in power. For others, privacy is essential to be able to safely discuss their ideas, practice their religion, show affection for their lover, and so on. However, not only the marginalized seek privacy to avoid conflict. Our ability to have a diverse society-to build communities of people who are different, and who disagree about things-depends on our ability to mask our differences when necessary. Indeed, "politeness" is primarily concerned with preventing overly honest interactions; we learn to be gracious when we are actually irritated, to say thank you when we are disappointed, and to act calm when we are seething inside. Both in the course of trying to present ourselves in as good a light as possible and in striving to be nice to others, we may act in ways that are at odds with how we actually feel.

What is the social effect of being unable to present different facets of ourselves in different circumstances? One possibility is that people will be more circumspect. They will keep more information offline, and say mostly innocuous, even banal things. Many users of Facebook have said they follow this strategy in order to not offend or act out of character to the diverse set of people who are privy to their updates (Lampinen et al. 2011). Another, perhaps utopian, possibility is that people, upon seeing more about each other, will become more tolerant. In 1985, the communication theorist Joshua Meyrowitz argued that media (at that time, primarily mass media) were breaking down the barriers between social groups by exposing facets of their lives and ideas that had previously been hidden from each other (Meyrowitz 1985). Understanding the role of technology in pushing society toward tolerance or divisiveness is complex. Online forums bring together very diverse groups of people, but these gatherings often result in highly polarized antagonisms. Simply throwing people with fundamentally different beliefs together does not by itself promote tolerance; usually the opposite occurs. Time can bring better results, as when you learn that someone with whom you already have some bond is less similar to you than you had thought; here the existing tie motivates learning more about why the other holds these disparate beliefs.

As a group of people gets to know one another better, the experience of being together transforms from the public experience of being amidst strangers to the more trusting and private experience of being among friends. As strangers, we are circumspect about what we tell each other and unable to predict each other's actions. As we learn anything about another, it helps us to categorize him, to feel as if he is a familiar type, and to know what to expect from him. Furthermore, we may exchange confidences with someone, private information that functions as a social currency which we trade to establish trust. This engenders trust through secrecy; confidants have the bond of trusting each other with information they do not share with others. Telling something to me and no one else signals that you trust me; if you tell me along with one hundred other people, there is no longer a special significance. Sharing information widely diminishes the trust achieved through shared confidences.

To connect with others we need to be somewhat vulnerable, somewhat open. We must reveal a bit of ourselves. It is part of the constant trade-off of privacy versus accessibility in the social sphere.

Creating Context with Pseudonyms

Online, the extremes of identity-anonymity and real-name identity-are relatively easy to implement. It is the gray space of everyday life that is difficult to replicate, the incomplete but functional privacy that comes from the spatial and temporal separation of home and work, friends and family. We can attempt to recreate our faceted identities, using multiple identifiers-pseudonyms-for different roles. People do this by using one email address for games or dating, another one for work, a third for shopping or political activity, and so on. Face to face, the separation in place and time between our social, familial, and professional worlds is usually sufficient to give us the privacy we need to maintain the distinct facets we present to each. Online, however, search engines conglomerate all data and activities carried out under a particular identifier, requiring a more radical separation of different identities. These separations are delicate, for once there is a single public connection link between the two personas, the identities are linked.

The notion of "local" is central to privacy. In the physical world, the difference between private and public is often a distinction in space: you are in your room (private) or out in the street (public). Between these extremes is "locally public." Many private spaces are locally public: a classroom, restaurant, office, a party at someone's house. A private matter can be locally public, within a small group; the privacy violation occurs when it spreads beyond the bounds of the intended group. As our actions and interactions move online, privacy centers around identification: you are anonymous (private) or named (public). Pseudonyms are local identities; they are identifiers that maintain history and reputation, but are distinct from their creator's real-world identity; one can have multiple distinct and separate pseudonyms.

I can create a pseudonym that I will use, say, for doing product reviews online. We would like these reviews to not be anonymous; part of their value is that we can see a whole history of someone's taste, so you know if it aligns with yours. A pseudonym keeps these reviews from being part of my public persona. Why should I care? I may be reviewing personal products, whether medicine for itchy feet, or the book I just read, or even just the restaurants I eat at or the hotdogs I buy. Is this private information? Some of it is. What parts of it are private is a personal decision. One person might like to have all the fantasy novels that he read be part of what all people know about him; for others, it is a private taste and not part of the public persona that they wish to fashion. One person might want others to know about the elegant restaurant he visits (indeed, this display might be for him the main point of the visit), while another might feel uncomfortable about publicly displaying such extravagance. I may want to discuss controversial political matters without my opinions being part of my real-life public identity. I may simply want to keep private how I spend my days: I might have no problem with others knowing that I read the Times or buy Palmolive, but I do not want the fact that I spend hours embroiled in virtual discussions to be part of my identity.

There is a whiff of the illicit about this, for in our ordinary life we seldom, unless engaging in a forbidden activity, resort to using a false name. Yet pseudonyms provide both accountability and privacy if they are implemented in a manner that encourages people to establish a good history and reputation with them. (The data portraits we discussed in chapter 8 are one approach to creating a memorable representation of an individual without relying on his or her real name and physical appearance.) Online, pseudonymity recreates the level of personal privacy we expect in our everyday lives.

Twentieth-century America was in many ways the most private of societies. Huge numbers of people migrated to the relative anonymity of cities, surrounded by strangers. It was the century in which going to the bank went from a social exchange with a clerk with whom you exchanged pleasantries and greetings to the much more efficient but impersonal interaction with a bank machine. Big companies transferred their employees every few years, resettling them in new faceless suburban tracts with wide and empty streets. Television moved entertainment from public theaters to private homes. Not only did we not know our neighbors' secrets, we did not even know their names. Privacy slid into isolation. Yet at the same time, it was becoming the most public of societies. At the beginning of the twentieth century, women ventured out only if properly covered up from wrist to ankle; by midcentury, they were on beaches wearing bikinis. Television let ordinary people expose their personal quirks in front of millions, coyly at first with programs such as The Newlywed Game, and accelerating to today's relentless broadcasts of plastic surgeries, family court battles, childbirth close-ups, and hoarders' piles of dirty laundry.

Richard Sennett, in his book The Fall of Public Man (1976), traces changing expectations among the upper class in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries about how much knowledge one was expected to have in advance about new acquaintances. Eighteenth-century court society was a small world in which everyone knew or knew about everyone else. Upon introduction, the greeting convention was for the person of lower social standing to flatter the other extensively, mentioning his accomplishments and position. The assumption was that while you might meet new people, they would not be total strangers, but known-of entities within your greater community. As the center of social life moved from the court to the city, such meetings, even in the same rarified upper class, became encounters between strangers who as the decades passed knew less and less about each other. Public space became a world of encounters with strangers and people became more private in their public behavior; for example, public clothing became more guarded and less expressive.

Entering the twenty-first century, American society is also, for the most part, a tolerant one. This, plus the abundance, if not excess, of privacy, creates a world in which many people place a low value on privacy. We post updates about our dates, our health, and our political beliefs. At the extreme, we allow cameras to follow us day and night, discuss our family's unhappiness on TV, and describe the minutiae of our daily life in tell-all blogs and memoirs. The openness of our society appears to be self-perpetuating: the more we see and hear of others' thoughts and actions, the less shocked we are by differences and the more tolerant our society becomes-and the less value we place on privacy.

America is the "Wild West" of privacy in two opposite ways. First, the myth of the frontier, of the endless ability to move West and start over as an unknown, history-free stranger, is deeply rooted in its culture; this is privacy through reinvention (Copple 1989). Second, however, privacy is not well protected. In America, it is open hunting season on data, as compared to Europe, where numerous laws govern the collection and use of citizens' information (Bignami 2007). Europe does not have the mythology of endless reinvention: many people still live in the towns and villages of their ancestors, deeply aware of how long one's history can linger. Europeans also have more immediate and vivid memories of the horrors a totalitarian regime can inflict and how it can use records to terrorize people. Thus, as we attempt to understand the rapid, technologically precipitated changes in our current experience of public and private, we need to keep in mind that our sense of "normal," of the proper balance between the two, was formed in a particular place and time, and is neither culturally nor historically universal (Solove 2002).

In the 1990s, it was difficult to find out much about a person who was neither famous nor personally known within one's social group. Today, whenever you come across a new person-a name mentioned in a news article, a person seated across from you at a business lunch, a potential babysitter-the first thing you are likely to do is to Google him. For some people, there is still very little information. But many others have extensive dossiers: pages of links to papers they've written; articles about them; photos at parties; blog postings reaching back several years; court records of their divorce and custody battles; their arguments in forums; and their reviews of shoes, hotels, and antifungal creams. Our social expectations are changing. It now seems strange if no information comes up in a search on someone you meet in a professional context. Has she really left no mark online, not even a posting? Has she not inspired anyone to say anything about her? Today we expect to be able to find data about others. This also changes what we expect others to know about us. If I am meeting someone for the first time, say, a researcher from a distant university, how much should I know about him? If I know nothing, it can seem a bit insulting, as if I did not think he was important enough to look up. Yet if I do such a search, and now I know that his dog recently died or he spent several years living in Mumbai, how do I bring up this personal knowledge I have about someone who had been a stranger only minutes before? We need new etiquette to help us appear to be interested and attentive, but not creepy stalkers.

Like celebrities who both crave fame yet complain about the cameras that follow them, we are ambivalent about whether we want more publicity or more privacy. People's reactions to these social changes vary greatly. A newspaper article about sharing in social media described people who enthusiastically and publicly post such things as what they ate, the clothes they bought, and where they are (Stone 2010, A1):

Mr. Brooks, a 38-year-old consultant for online dating Web sites, seems to be a perfect customer. He publishes his travel schedule on Dopplr. His DNA profile is available on 23andMe. And on Blippy, he makes public everything he spends with his Chase Mastercard, along with his spending at Netflix, iTunes and Amazon.com.

"It's very important to me to push out my character and hopefully my good reputation as far as possible, and that means being open," he said, dismissing any privacy concerns by adding, "I simply have nothing to hide."

It prompted an outpouring of almost unanimously negative comments, such as:

Lack of common sense. That's all I can attribute it to. Seriously, what real or tangible purpose does posting everything you do or purchase serve. You can call me old fashioned, but privacy is something I (and countless other millions) would like to continue to enjoy.

And:

I am a very private person and find appalling this need people have to expose everything about themselves on the web. I do not understand it. But I generally find the entire culture, from the worship of vapid celebrities to 50 percent high school drop out rates, appalling. None of it bodes well.

And:

Years from now, when we look back, this sort of thing will be to the 2010s what polyester pants were to the 1970s.

Is this sharing part of a growing trend toward decreasing privacy, or is it a temporary fad? Perhaps it is more akin, in its risks and long-lasting repercussions, to taking acid in the 1960s than to wearing polyester pants, but nonetheless it still could be a passing fashion. By the time you read this, many of the websites mentioned will be gone. In a couple of years, the way we provide information will have transformed, so that today's "status updates," "tweets," and "check-ins" will indeed sound dismally out of date. However, the concept of sharing extensive and seemingly mundane information online may well continue, for its social value goes beyond satisfying narcissistic tendencies.

Permanent Records

Judge Benjamin Cardozo wrote in 1931: "What gives the sting to writing is its permanence in form. The spoken word dissolves, but the written one abides and perpetuates the scandal." The online world is a hyperpublic space that extends in time. The biggest transformation in privacy and public space the Internet has created is the retention of data into the indefinite future. Our spoken words are ephemeral, disappearing as soon as we utter them. Our traditional written words on paper are relatively controllable, individual objects: photos and diaries can be destroyed. But the words and images that reside online are tenacious. They are easily copied and live on in backups and other archives long after you think you have erased them. Although some things do indeed disappear, it is reasonable to assume that anything published online is there forever.

We think of the past as private, with time creating a curtain that shields our present self from our earlier days. Our mobile society has a mythology of personal reinvention and redemption. We believe in moving on, in creating a new life for ourselves. More prosaically, you may have spoken openly when you were young and single and jobs were plentiful, but now you want a more serious job or insurance. Or, you are now going through a difficult custody battle and wish to be able to present yourself as being as mainstream and vanilla as possible. But an ineradicable data shadow makes the past a part of the present.

A generation ago, students went off to college as blank social slates, able to start fresh, create a new identity independent of their high school role. Of course, not entirely new: personalities, skills, and interests did not change, and the careless, charismatic athlete was quickly distinguished from the awkward and introverted mathematician. But they could escape the roles they had outgrown; in entering a new social ecology, they could find a new niche. Today, students arrive with roommates already friended on Facebook, already calling them by the nicknames they had wished to shed.

For those of us who grew up in a time when every move was a fresh start, this new inescapability seems invasive. Yet those dislocating moves were a painful severance as well as a liberation, a harsh chopping away from the past as well as a fresh start. The new inescapability is also a new continuity, ending an era of disposable pasts. Our ineradicable data shadows certainly present enormous challenges to privacy. Yet making the past go away can be undesirable. The nightmare of 1984 is not only the pervasive surveillance, but also the constant rewriting of history. Winston, the novel's protagonist, works in the Ministry of Truth; his job is to revise past news stories to keep them in line with the Party's current positions.

We are living in an experiment, shifting rapidly from a culture in which reinvention was singularly easy, owing to great mobility and the relative anonymity of city life, to a culture in which the past is inescapable, a culture in which everything goes into your permanent record. Perhaps the cultural response to this will be a great belief in personal transformation. We may be more empathetic if we know more of the struggles someone had in becoming the person he is now. Or perhaps we will discount the past when it is too dissonant with the present. Many teens have been mortified when their mother brought out their baby pictures to entertain their date; but these pictures, no matter how embarrassing, seldom affect the date's impression of the present-day self. The diapered baby is too distant to connect to the current person.

Some legal scholars have proposed "reputation bankruptcy" as a potential (but problematic) solution to temporal privacy issues. The idea is to allow people to make a fresh start by removing some or all of their history from the online record (Rosen 2010; Zittrain 2008). There are legal precedents; convictions can be expunged from one's records, and one of the important tasks for a trial judge is determining what evidence-what tales from the past-can be heard during a trial.

Leaving out the considerable (and given the reproducibility of information, probably insurmountable) technological problems of instituting "reputation bankruptcy," a fundamental social question remains: what about the past do we as a society feel is legitimate to erase? We have rules about what constitutes normal personal information polishing and what verges on deception. Your resume, for example, is a history of your past jobs and education. You may omit things, and even rearrange the document to obscure these omissions (for example, the years you were out of the job market because of family, cult membership, or incarceration). But you are not allowed to pad it with nonexistent accomplishments; if caught doing so, you could face losing your job and possible legal prosecution. Social situations are murkier. Advice columns frequently feature questions from people unsure about what they must tell a new romantic partner about their past-other lovers, financial bankruptcy, marriage, an arrest?

In the physical world, we take for granted that we spend time and money crafting our appearance. We need to learn to craft our virtual self, too. For most people, the notion of consciously shaping what is online about you is still an abstraction. Those who frequently study other people's online data, who have a visceral sense of the portrait that data can draw, are the ones most likely to monitor and craft their online presence (Madden and Smith 2010). The visualizations of conversations and other social data that we discussed in the first half of the book are useful not only for perceiving others-they are an invaluable mirror for reflecting and grooming one's virtual self.

Observed Everywhere

Walking down a street today, I can see many people (strangers) going about their business. Although we are all out in public together, we retain quite a bit of privacy. I do not know where they are going or why, nor do I know much about them beyond what they have chosen to reveal about themselves. Our privacy comes not from being hidden, but from being obscure. Today, the footage from the increasingly ubiquitous surveillance cameras in public spaces effectively shows anonymous people going about their unknown business. Only when there is reason for suspicion, like a robbery, is the effort made to figure out who they are.

But once computers can recognize people and attach to their physical selves the vast hoards of official, commercial, and social information about them, obscurity evaporates. As face recognition improves (and in our online socializing, many of us unwittingly help by tagging images of our friends and ourselves), anyone will be able to point a camera at a stranger on the street, identify her and see a vivid portrait of the data she has generated, the reputation she has accrued, and the records she has left.

Today, this seems creepy; it is the end of privacy. Think of how self-conscious you feel when someone is looking closely at you. Now imagine that he can see a tremendous amount about you-not just your face, hair, clothes, and body, but also all the information that is publicly available about you. Maybe this is not such a bad thing for you. Maybe all the public records about you are things you are proud of: your job success, the articles you have published, and the winning races you have run. However, maybe there are things about you online that make you cringe: a negative article; an embarrassing photograph-maybe you were drunk, or maybe the picture just makes you look as if you were; the nasty flame war you got into years ago, the one that ended with everyone calling each other Nazis. Did you write a review for bad breath remedies, or for a book you read on what it is like to be married to an alcoholic? What about your search history? How much time do you spend watching celebrity meltdowns, how much do you spend on weight-loss products? You might well find the merging of the virtual and physical selves uncomfortable, knowing that anyone else in the park or the café who might be curious about you could see all this.

But the future inhabitant of that hyperpublic city, upon looking back at our current world, might find it unsettlingly opaque. Enigmatic strangers surround us. Yes, the astute observer can read quite a bit of identity information from passersby; we can recognize businesspeople versus construction workers, wealthy versus poor. Yet some wealthy people seek to be inconspicuous, whereas others who are poor strive to appear successful, and many people are reticently indeterminate, hiding lives of extraordinarily complexity under an unremarkable exterior. Our unaugmented public display, though not entirely uninformative, provides a layer of privacy through vagueness, ambiguity, and the ease of imitation.

Perhaps most unsettling to the time-traveler from the future would be our ignorance of whether the strangers around us are dangerous. Is the man on the playground park bench just reading his book or is he a child molester scouting his prey? Is the passerby who offered to help us with our flat tire a kind Samaritan or a potential thief? Because of this ignorance, we treat everyone with suspicion. If our car breaks down, we are told to stay inside with the doors locked, telephone the authorities for help, and check their (low-tech) ID carefully through the window before accepting aid. Safety concerns such as these may give us our first taste of widespread social augmentation. It is not hard to imagine a government deciding that in the name of security, all convicted felons or sex offenders must virtually broadcast their status, perhaps with an easily read RFID (radio-frequency identification) tag. For the traveler from the augmented, hyperpublic, fully identified future, accustomed to knowing so much about everyone, our current world would seem unnavigable, its inhabitants socially blind.

In a world of ubiquitous surveillance, being in private requires being unidentifiable: surveillance cameras glean little about a hooded and masked populace. If people feel oppressed by the watching eyes, they may respond, like paparazzi-hounded celebrities, by venturing out only if thoroughly disguised. But intense suspicion may fall on anyone who cannot be recognized. The question of how identifiable one must be in public is already a subject of intense debate: "On grounds of security ... I believe that both coverings [niqab and burqa] should be banned, as one cannot have faceless persons walking the streets, driving cars, or otherwise entering public spaces" (Pipes 2006).

World Changing

In 1999, Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy: "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it" (quoted in Sprenger 1999).

In December 2009, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" (CNBC 2010).

In January 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that's evolved over time" (quoted in M. Kirkpatrick 2010).

There is good reason to think that privacy, as we have known it, is disappearing. As we shop, socialize, and gather information online, we build a detailed and persistent trail of data about our interests and intentions. We build some of it ourselves, with our check-ins, status updates, political rants, and product reviews. Even without ever touching a computer, we amass a personal data shadow. Cameras-whether hidden surveillance eyes or the ubiquitous snapshots of the tourist panopticon-transform our physical movements into archived data. Marketers and others who stand to gain immensely from knowing us better, whether to guide our purchasing or influence our opinions, work to ensure that our daily tasks, whether virtual or real, are heavily instrumented to record our every action. The move to less privacy is perhaps inevitable and unstoppable. We may not, at least in the foreseeable future, without some catastrophic upheaval, turn back on the data collection of this new information age. The coming century will be one in which more and more is known about everyone. And as we lose our privacy, we gain a more public world. What does this mean?

In a world where there is a great deal of privacy, where we know little of each other, people are free to act as they will, and there is little social pressure on them to conform. Privacy supports diversity; where people have protected private space, they have the freedom to be different from the public mainstream ideal. The more we know about each other, the more we can enforce social norms. The more information that individuals must reveal about themselves in a society, the more influence the society has over what they do.

Thus, the permissiveness and openness of a society determines the value of privacy. In an intolerant society, privacy is very valuable, especially if you in any way deviate from the accepted norm. Many forms of behavior are unacceptable and those who engage in them must do so secretly. On the other hand, a society that is publicly intolerant but also provides a great deal of privacy might seem to us to be hypocritical, but it provides its members opportunities for private liberty while also having the benefits of a conforming public culture.

Repressive regimes are intolerant of dissent both in public and in private. When imposed by the government, this is totalitarianism. But people also sometimes choose to live in highly conformist societies with little privacy; for example, they may join a strict religious group. For those whose individual norms fit well with those of the group, this can be a satisfying communal, cooperative life (Sosis 2003). How pleasant life is in any community in which everyone knows everything about everybody depends on how narrow the community's norms are, and for the individual, how well they fit them. In a liberal and tolerant society, privacy is less valued because the society does not seek to tightly control the individual; revealing personal data about yourself does not result in negative societal consequences. In a very open (and so far, utopian and theoretical) society that tolerates and even celebrates differences among people, extreme transparency is possible because there is no cost to being different; privacy here would be pointless.

In practice, privacy protects diversity. It can be very difficult to tolerate those who are significantly different from us, which brings up the issue of the tolerance of intolerance. When we believe in something strongly, we see those who do not share our beliefs as wrong. By permitting people to have private space, a society can give people room to have their own beliefs, to act according to their practices-to, in the privacy of their home or their church, be less tolerant than is required in the greater public space.

In a society where diversity thrives through privacy, people of different beliefs are segregated from each other. Alternatively, in a society that has little privacy but is flexible and tolerant, people of different beliefs have the benefit of exposure to each other. As we contemplate a future of diminished privacy, we must seek this societal ideal. But the more diverse the society is, the more difficult it is to ensure tolerance. Nor is it guaranteed over time. A society that is open minded today-about your religion, sexuality, political beliefs, behavior-may not be so open minded tomorrow.

Ultimately, to retain freedom and safety-the benefits of privacy-our designs must address the larger issue of safeguarding tolerance and supporting individuality in a growing public sphere.

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Technology is radically changing what is private and what is public in our daily lives. Our personal, professional, and financial interactions increasingly take place online, where almost everything is archived and thus potentially permanently searchable and publishable. Cameras are ubiquitous in public plazas; our strolls are recorded by storeowners, government agencies, and, of course, our friends, who post and tag pictures of us.

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Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan.

This volume examines the growth and nature of such civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance, raising important questions about the changing roles of and relations between central and local government, and between citizens and the state, in managing shared spaces. Themachizukuriprocesses studied here can be seen as the focus of an important emerging trend toward increased civic participation in managing processes of urban change in Japan. The contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the machizukuri phenomenon through examination not only of theory and history, but also of case studies illustrating real changes in the institutions of place making and neighbourhood governance.

Living Cities in Japanwill be of particular value to readers interested in social, urban, geographical and environmental studies.

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Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan.

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2005 Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture
By Sanford Berman

ALA Council approved "Library Services for Poor People," Policy 61, in 1990, fifteen years ago. It should enjoy the same status as the "Library Bill of Rights," anotherALA policy that establishes norms or standards for collection development and facilities use. But it doesn't. Unlike the immediately preceding policy on minority concerns, ALA units have never been canvassed on what they had done or would do to implement it. Hundreds of institutions have formally adopted LBR as their own policy and often frame and display it in the library itself. I know of no library that has similarly adopted and publicized the Poor People's Policy (PPP). Indeed, only weeks ago a library board candidate in Minneapolis pointedly asked the MPL director about such an adoption. The answer: the library's for everybody. Why focus on one particular group or demographic?

Right now, according to Worldcat, Street Spirit and Mother Warriors Voice-two outstanding vehicles for poor people's news, opinions, graphics, and poetry-are held by exactly four and eight libraries, respectively.

Within the past year or two:

In Denver, Colorado, an advocacy group for low-income communities charged that libraries in Denver 's poorest areas are open fewer hours than those elsewhere, noting that fewer library hours contribute to learning gaps between low-income and more affluent students.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, twenty branches were slated to become "express libraries," open only from one to five daily and staffed solely by clerks. That plan, conceived without consulting frontline staff, friends groups, or neighborhood associations, would-say critics-"underserve some of the city's poorest neighborhoods." (As a parenthetical aside: ALA Policy 61 advocates "equity in funding adequate library services for poor people in terms of materials, facilities, & equipment.")

Kansas City Missouri , unveiled a new downtown library. It cost fifty million dollars to renovate a 98-year-old bank building. A Kansas City Star columnist applauded the attractive facility, but added, "It should be just as open and inviting to homeless people as the old downtown library was. People on the street had always sought shelter, read books and periodicals, used computers and napped at the old library until it closed in JanuaryÃ¯Â¿Â½

The main branch was a midway stop for people walking from shelters east of downtown to the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral for a free midday meal. Now the city's neediest people may be 'poverty profiled' and kept from the new library. Officials also are proposing a 'compassion campus' near shelters to keep homeless people away from downtown's new library and upscale condominiums and loft apartments.

The compassion campus could include a homeless day center and soup kitchen. But people I talked with were outraged by plans to limit their freedom. One homeless man said the irony is people like him would be excluded from the area they've helped rebuild. Homeless people often are picked up as day laborers rehabbing old buildings for new occupants."

That same writer does an annual trek to some twenty libraries, dressed in an old army coat, black knit cap, faded jeans, and a frayed shirt. During his latest investigation, he found that "Many libraries aren't keeping up. Branches could use some of the wealth sunk into the new downtown library. There were never enough computers. Libraries help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor. I also found," he said, "that the downtown passers-by should be the occupants of a 'compassion campus.' for yet another year, they treated me badly because of how I was dressed. They need to see everyone regardless of appearance as a human being. What's happening now adds to the misery of the homeless. 'Anybody can become homeless,' said Cindy Butler at the Grand Avenue Temple. 'Everybody falls down sometimes.' She's right. Everyone needs kindness and warmth, especially at libraries."

Shortly after that report, another columnist commented wryly on KCPL's "customer behavior expectations," brochures "handed out by library security at the entrance" and intended "to thin the new library's down-and-out ranks." Said the writer: "Moses needed only ten commandments. Downtown KC's trendy new library has 33."

In San Luis Obispo County, California, a new law explicitly bans "offensive body odor" and sleeping in the city-county library.

In Salt Lake City, Utah, a Deseret News report claims that "Especially during the day, the library is filled with the homeless, who sometimes bother other library patrons with their odor, intoxication, or noise level. And while librarians stress they don't want to ban the homeless from the building, they also don't want leery residents to be fearful of enjoying the city's pristine new library.

In search of a solution, the city library system is launching a new civility campaign designed to teach the homeless, children and others how to behave while in the library."

(As another parenthetical aside, ALA Policy 61 specifically suggests seeking advice from poor people & antipoverty advocates, as well as sensitizing staff to issues affecting poor people and to attitudinal & other barriers that hinder poor people's use of libraries.)

To continue on the smelly theme, the Washington Times recently quoted an ALA official, who reputedly said: "Body odor is an enormous problem." And a branch manager in Maryland allegedly confirmed: "We have trouble with poor hygiene."

In Houston, Texas, the city council passed a series of new library regulations that prohibit "sleeping on tables, eating packaged food, using rest rooms for bathing, and 'offensive bodily hygiene that constitutes a nuisance to others.'" It also bans "large amounts of personal possessions."

In Elgin, Illinois, on the four tables in the library concession room, a notice reads: "In consideration of all who may wish to use these tables, use is limited to one hour per day." There is no 24-hour shelter where homeless people can gather in Elgin.

And in Wheeling, West Virginia, the Ohio County public library complained bitterly when an old social security building-coveted by the library for more parking space-was instead transferred to an agency that provides treatment and support for homeless people. (Federal law required that homeless support agencies get first priority on vacant federal buildings.)

As an editorial gloss to this dismal litany: how can an ala official proclaim "body odor" an enormous problem when the director of the San Luis Obispo library himself has declared: "In twelve years, I can think of less than half a dozen incidents where people smell so bad that you can't get within ten feet of them."? And in calculating "enormity," isn't homelessness itself an "enormous problem," perhaps greater even than body odor? Why, instead of declaiming against lost parking space and people coming into the library without first stopping at the spa, hairdresser, manicurist, and couture clothing boutique-people perhaps coming with bags and maybe kids, people who may not have anyplace else to go (in Minneapolis, for instance, shelters are only allowed to open overnight), people who possibly don't look, smell, or "behave" like us, like folks with money, like solid middle-class persons, but who nonetheless pay taxes and even work (though not earning enough to afford housing), people who often need the library not solely for sanctuary, but also for job searching, education, entertainment reading, and emailing-why aren't poverty, homelessness, & hunger the primary objects of our wrath, our discomfort?

Lest the foregoing seem like an absolutely unmitigated tsunami of insensitivity, stereotyping, callousness, & bourgeois arrogance, here are some mitigating items:

In San Luis Obispo , a county government watchdog declared: "I think that rather than smelling bad and having no other place to go, we should look into shower facilities." He urged supervisors to approach the issue in a "kind and compassionate" instead of a punitive way. Subsequently, Cal Poly & local community service providers announced a forum & resource workshop on homelessness to be held at the library. The Salt Lake City library director not long ago joined the mayor and a low income advocate on a panel titled "helping each other: what our homeless friends teach us." Said the director: "Dozens of homeless people frequent the library daily. Some come to escape the heat or cold, and others to read, access e-mail or socialize. You see someone who appears to be a street person and they head for the wall street journal and you learn something. These folks are not completely disconnected, and like most people want to be left in peace." Noting that the safety net is getting weaker, she mentioned the need for more psychological care & other services. If nothing else, she said, the homeless have taught her: "when we treat people with respect, it comes back twofold."

Remember Houston ? One city council member voted against the new, repressive rules, saying, "when we have heat waves, they encourage people, including the homeless, to go into public buildings, including libraries. What is the plan now?" And some library users criticized the prohibitions, one observing that "when you're tired and do your work, of course you want to rest your head on the table, or you have a headache & just want to let go." A DC Public Library spokesperson reported that "body odor is something we cannot regulate as a library." (A judge had earlier ruled that DCPL's "offensive body odor" policy was unconstitutional & could not be applied uniformly, stating that the smell of a heavily perfumed woman or a painter in overalls could also be considered offensive.) The DCPLer also remarked that many homeless people in the library are using computers to email family members or doing research to find jobs.

In Elgin, Illinois, a local columnist & library board member stated that homeless people have always gathered at the library, but the board has not had to address any problems due to it. "They're there every day," he said. "I'm there regularly and I see them reading, not just hanging out." He continued: "Our library is made up of people from all walks of life and it's open to everyone. That's what a public library is all about." (Commenting on the one-hour table limit, Michael Stoops from the National Coalition for the Homeless wondered: "If a rich person in a three-piece suit were there, would he or she be allowed to stay in the vending machine area for more than an hour?")

So-returning to my main theme: why this pronounced failure to adopt and promote ALA 's poor people's policy? And why the rush to further burden and even criminalize people who already have next to nothing and certainly don't enjoy a level playing field? Why the cascading efforts to exclude them from public spaces, deny them fair access to library resources, and treat them as "problems," as pariahs?

I don't think there's a single, pat answer. Rather, it seems to result from a mix of factors, among them the reality of living in a plutocracy (incidentally, not yet a Library of Congress subject heading) where money & wealth not only rule, but also determine status and social worth; the widespread, almost religious grip of the "American Dream," that myth of unlimited mobility and opportunity & luxury; and an ingredient or aspect of the dream: Oldtime calvinist predestination, which posits a divine, a holy, basis for owning property and being rich. Poor people don't have the dollars to make influential campaign contributions. They can't afford memberships in politically powerful organizations. They have no access to the mainstream media, no way to tell their stories. And given the thesis of the American dream, if they're not prosperous, it must be their own fault, hardly the consequence of bad luck, racism, sexism, disability, downsizing, outsourcing, corporate greed, union busting, or an inadequate safety net. Worse, from the deeply ingrained calvinist perspective, it's god's will. If they're poor, that's the way the deity wants it.

The hostility-or at least lack of sympathy-toward low-income people manifests in various barriers and kinds of discrimination. All together, the prejudice and what flows from it-the belief and the acts-can be called "classism": favoring one class over another, valuing middle & upper classes more highly than people at or below the poverty level.

If librarians and others can first recognize their own attitudinal hangups, understanding what makes them view welfare mothers and homeless people, for example, unfavorably, and ultimately grasping that poverty-not poor people-is the problem, that poverty can be reduced if not ended, and that the most vulnerable and dispossessed among us are citizens & neighbors who deserve compassion, support, and respect-if we can do these things in our heads and hearts, then there's a real chance to overcome classism.

These are a few words of poor people themselves, culled from the pages of street spirit and welfare warriors' songs from the mamas movement:
Why Can't We Raise our Families Up
(to the tune of "America the Beautiful")

Moms go to school to lift ourselves
Our "leaders" block our way
We're s'posed to work and go to school
But work they give don't pay
Why can't we raise our families up
This scapegoating's a lie
They blame the poor for poverty
Our "leaders" must be high
Bloated Big Business Has No Shame
(to the tune of "Old Mcdonald Had a Farm")

Old Sam Walton had a store
Ee ay ee ay o
And in this store he robbed the poor
Ee ay ee ay o
With a low wage here, no benefits there
Part time here, and no time there
Old Sam Walton robbed the poor
Ee ay ee ay o
General Motors built some cars,
Ee ay ee ay o
Yet many workers didn't get far
Ee ay ee ay o
With a lay-off here, and a downsize there,
Jobs gone south, the bosses don't care
General motors built some cars
Ee ay ee ay o
Away in the Shelter
(to the tune of "Away in a Manger")

Away in a shelter no crib and no bed
My family is homeless
Cries ring through my head
I look at my family i try to protect
emembering home that state ignorance wrecked
It's income we need and not "self-esteem"
Their jobs are at stake so they're not what they seem
It costs more to feed us and house us I know
They offer us "services" but money? Hell no!
Why?
By Joan Clair

In the bookstore's bathroom,
A woman has just washed herself and
Stoops down to get her possessions,
Enclosed in plastic garbage bags.
I don't look at her directly, but what I see is an aura of beauty
Emanating from her face.
And the question is why?
How can the radiant sun
Be enclosed in a lotus of clouds?
A Wet One
By Michael Creedon

In the early morning light
Elmo rolls up his blanket
And climbs out of the bush
He slept under. He needs
A cup of coffee.
Elmo can see his breath
In front of his face; last night
Was a cold one. Today he has to
Try to get into the shelter.
The pain in his bones
Is getting to be too much.
He has 75 cents in his pocket
But he'll need more than that
For a cup of coffee.
He heads up to
40th and Broadway to hit
Someone up for a quarter.
An hour later
He's standing in front of 7-11
And he still doesn't have
His coffee. To top things off
It's starting to rain.
Finally a lady in a new car
Gives him a quarter,
Mostly out of embarrassment,
He thinks.
Now he can start his day.
It's going to be a wet one.
Breakfast on 4th Street
By Randy Fingland

It was the usual group
Awaiting the day-olds
At the back door
To the bakery
'cept for this new guy
Who gave us all
A lot of free advice
About sharing street bounty
Then he got the two biggest
Pastries & took off
With not so much
As a glance back.

Okay. If we finally acknowledge poor people to be human-like us-and dedicate ourselves to evening that playing field, what can we actually do? These are four or five ideas:

Support with time & resources the agenda or shopping list developed by John Gehner for the SRRT Poverty Task Force, including an ALA-wide survey on PPP implementation; fact-finding on what libraries are actually doing to service poor people throughout the country; creation of a curriculum and toolkit to aid in humanizing and extending poor people's services; and establishment of an online library/poverty clearinghouse for news & information, and of awards to help publicize & encourage outstanding individual & institutional efforts to seriously address poverty issues.

As individuals or organizatioins, support antipoverty legislation like BAHA (the Bringing America Home Act), living wage laws, national health insurance, and welfare payments sufficient to sustain persons and families in dire need.

Get local library systems to adopt and implement PPP

Collaborate with community shelter providers, food shelf operators, affordable housing groups, welfare rights organizations, and interfaith social justice networks with respect to library programming, producing bibliographies & webliographies, stocking resources useful to poor people, and effecting local public policy changes (e.g., decriminalizing sparechanging and "camping," and permitting shelters to remain open during daytime hours).

Recommend authentic books, magazines, and videos for the library collection in order to provide poor people with a voice and sensitize the "comfortable" to poverty as a critical issue.

Examine internal policies to determine whether they contribute to excluding or stigmatizing poor people: for instance, can library cards be issued on the basis of a shelter or the library's own address? What about fines & fees? (Although they unduly discriminate against low income people, fines-especially-will continue to seem attractive, even essential, revenue sources in the absence of stable, adequate public funding. Everyone's priority should be getting public libraries financed more generously & continuously, perhaps through the formation of special taxing districts. Once achieved, better funding might permit libraries to abandon their dependence on fines & fees.)

Library school teachers & students can follow the stellar models of Mary Lee Bundy in Maryland, Fay Blake in California, Julie Hersberger in North Carolina, and Kathleen de la Pena McCook in Florida, researching and critiquing local library & information services, as well as intervening in public policy debates and interning with antipoverty groups and service providers.

Lastly, here are a few passages from a profile of Danette, or Dee, Cornelius, a 48-year-old homeless woman in Oakland , who sells street spirit on sidewalks to make a few bucks:

" Dee was homeless for the first time back in 1997. She had been working at various temp jobs and acquired a variety of skills, but then she had a stroke. 'Once I had that stroke, that kind of threw me for a loop,' she explains. Dee describes how becoming homeless changed her life. 'What a lot of people don't realize is that homelessness is getting a stigma. Everybody thinks that they can't get there. You just don't know. Some people are one or two paychecks away. When illness happens, especially if you (don't have) medical coverage, the rent man, your landlord, does not want to hear bout (why) you can't pay rent.' In spite of her poor health, Dee would like to have a regular job. She has experience and marketable skills. But, as she points out, 'when you have nowhere to stay, it's hard to get a job because, first of all, you have to find somewhere that you're able to have hygiene, and a telephone, and somewhere to stay and somewhere to be able to iron your clothes.'

She had a car at one time but it blew a head gasket so she couldn't move it and eventually it was towed. 'Once my car was towed, I wasn't living out of that any more,' she says 'I really was out of luck. It's hard. It's hard being homeless, it really is hard. Some people think it's a choice.'

Even standing here,' she says, 'I find a lot of people are nice to me, but then you're going to have some people that act like it's going to rub off. You don't have to give me money. Not everybody is able to give. But, you know, the acknowledgement, the smile, the speaking, being courteous, doesn't hurt anyone.

'

Because whether you give to me or not, I'm always going to tell you, 'have a nice day,' and they're telling you, 'No, not today.' That's because they've already preconceived that you're about to ask for something so they're not listening to what you're actually saying. Or even saying hello, or good morning'."

Well, it's time for libraries to listen and to say "hello."

About Sanford Berman

Former Head Cataloger at Hennepin County (Minn.) Libraryfrom 1973 to 1999, Berman founded the American Library Association Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT)Task Force on Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty.He received Honorary Membership status from ALA in 2004. He co-authored the 1990 ALA Policy on Library Services to Poor People and helped gestate Karen Venturella's pioneering Poor People and Library Services (McFarland, 1998).Now "unretired," Berman serves as an editorial advisor or contributor to Unabashed Librarian, Journal of Information Ethics, Counterpoise, and Multicultural Review.Locally, he's an Advisory Board member for the Tretter Collection, a University of Minnesota GLBT archive; an activist with the Edina Affordable Housing Group; and a volunteer picket during nurses', bus drivers', hospital employees', and hotel workers' strikes.He has also guest-lectured at various colleges, including the University of Illinois distance-education program, and appeared on a number of public-access cable shows. For more biographical and related details, see sanfordberman.org, a website created and managed by Madeline Douglass, and Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sandy Berman But Were Afraid to Ask, edited by Chris Dodge and Jan De Sirey (McFarland, 1995).

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Classism in the Stacks: Libraries and Poverty

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2005 Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture By Sanford Berman ALA Council approved "Library Services for Poor People," Policy 61, in 1990, fifteen years ago. It should enjoy the same status as the "Library Bill of Rights," anotherALA policy that establishes norms or standards for collection development and facilities use.

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Polyculture cropping systems are important parts of the agricultural landscape in many areas of the world. Although farmers often use polycultures without applying fertilizers or pesticides, polyculture yield advantages are not restricted to low-input conditions. Much more research is needed before increased yield stability can be assumed to be a general characteristic of polycultures; in cases where stability does increase, more research is needed to understand the causal mechanism. Burdon noted that without appropriate experimental designs, it is impossible to tell whether improved resource use efficiency or decreased incidence of disease symptoms is responsible for higher yields in polycultures. Little research has yet been done on the ecology and management of plant pathogens in polycultures. The task for the future is to better understand the dynamics and complexities of polycultures so that these systems may be refined, transferred, and adapted, and so that benefits can be gained predictably.

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Polyculture Cropping Systems | 10 | v2 | Agroecology | Matt Liebman |

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Polyculture cropping systems are important parts of the agricultural landscape in many areas of the world. Although farmers often use polycultures without

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BUILDING’S SKIN | L’ATELIER ARCHITECTES & INGENIEURS

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A building’s skin is the boundary between inside and outside. The introduction of air conditioning shook the very foundations of tropical architecture.

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Anderson, Elijah. “‘The White Space’ - Yale University.” Race, Space, Integration, and Inclusion?, 2015, sociology.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pages_from_sre-11_rev5_printer_files.pdf.

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This dissertation challenges the notion that architecture can ever be complete, shifting the conversation from 'architecture as product' to 'architecture as process' and effectively accepting that architecture is subject to change.

The inhabitant can act as this force of change over the course of the building's lifetime, making it 'living' architecture.

Unfortunately, formal or conventional architecture tends to forget this, negating the dweller's inhabitation and agency as a valid contribution to architecture. Instead, it perceives the dweller as a contingency, reducing the creative inhabitant to a generic user in an attempt to create a false sense of stability and completion.

However, inhabitation and dweller agency produce their own architecture: the architecture of inhabitation.

If to inhabit is to create and to contribute by means of this agency, then to inhabit is inevitably to transgress the boundaries of formal architecture.

While designing with people rather than for people is a step in the right direction, it is imperative that we seek ways to facilitate designing by people.

In emphasising process over product, the dissertation itself is very process-driven. Structured in an inductive manner, different parts of the study continuously loop and feed into each other reciprocally.

Different sources of data (literature, observation, and interviews with dwellers and professionals) are layered onto each other and triangulated to ensure the validity of the study.

Rather than oversimplifying the formal and informal as a binary condition, it is essential that such concepts are understood along a spectrum, recognising hybridisation instead of difference.

Agency, defined as the creative action of individuals to induce change, also varies across the spectrum.

The study recognises that inhabitation and transgression of formal architecture occur across a spectrum. While this is not a dissertation about boathouses, the boathouse serves as a means of exploring agency & inhabitation within the local context. In most cases, the boathouse serves as a secondary seasonal dwelling, verging closer towards the 'informal' and inhabitation.

The three fieldwork locations, selected based on the largest number of boathouses and area, are Armier, St Thomas Bay, and Mellieħa (beneath Gerbulin Area and Santa Maria Estate). The three sites too exist along a spectrum in terms of their origins.

Such settlements are situated by coastal peripheries. On an island, we are even more susceptible to categorising land and sea as a duality; however, the transitional space between the two opens new opportunities of hybridity. Their marginal setting endorses freedom, endowing such in-between realms with a sense of otherness.

Thus, the coast emerges as a forgotten fantasy open to all possibilities while tempting playfulness and transgression. "A border is an undefined margin between two things. ... It is an edge. To be marginal is to be not fully defined" (Levy, 1993, p.73). The gaps which open up at such edges allow the inhabitants to claim them as their own and make a space for themselves.

At the boundary between land and sea, we play with the boundaries of architecture. Its peripheral qualities make the coastline a space where terms such as 'architecture' and 'architect' can be contested and negotiated, boundaries are transgressed, and formal distinctions are blurred.

The dwellers interviewed welcomed me into their homes and shared their life stories with me. They acted as co-researchers in this study. The social connections formed with the participants was one of the most meaningful outcomes of this research.

Theories of liminality suggest a continuum between creating and experiencing space. Such a reconceptualisation of architectural time hints at the idea that completion is an illusion, constituting only a single moment in a building's lifetime and signifying its beginning rather than its end. Redefining architecture as ongoing and unfinished accepts it as a never-ending work-in-progress open to incremental change.

The unending evolution of dwellers' needs and wants manifests as a succession of changes and adaptations of space through inhabitation.

Outward extension represents extended dwelling as a gesture of life pouring onto the street.

The transition from impermanence to permanence connotes improved resilience, comfort, and liveabilityas part of gradual change. The initial state of impermanence is usually strategically executed for the sake of quick appropriation and claiming territory until it is secured and made more durable and habitable.

Extended living and accumulated permanence imply all kinds of ancillary functions and integrated facilities as the boathouse accrues a myriad of appendages. These appendages can be interpreted as inevitable traces of living, creating a secondary village of support
structure as a consequence of human deposits and accretions clinging onto the coast.

As part of an ongoing process, maintenance is treated as a seasonal ritual, symbolising the care & dedication invested in one's space.

Visiting the sites across different times of year allowed seasonality to be explored in terms of what remains. Once most of the population relocates back to the primary dwelling in winter, the settlement empties, like a mollusc that migrates leaving its shell behind.

The residual appendages range from metal frames stripped of their enclosures, to folded chairs seemingly-forgotten in the parapett and patiently waiting for their inhabitants' return.

The fallacy of passive users incapable of transforming space must be replaced by the notion of active and creative dwellers who are able to not only change an existing space and its meaning, but to create a new space themselves. This potential to contribute to one's environment is the essence of agency.

As humans, we experience an innate urge to make stemming from the "latent architect" within each individual. This instinctive capability and creativity should not be inhibited, but developed further.

Thus, "the [dwellers]' experiences construct the architecture as much as the architect"
(Bo Bardi, n.d., as cited in Sara, 2013, p.54).

Dwellers' agency and contribution are explored along a spectrum.

When questioned about their spatial contribution to the boathouse, most dwellers proclaim that as far as they are able to do so, they will create and adapt the space themselves. This in itself allows them to develop their skills and abilities, additionally imbuing the space with passion and pride. Moreover, the boathouse grants more liberty in fulfilling their wishes than the primary dwelling as the absence of regulations compels people to experiment and contribute to architecture. Personal contribution to the boathouse encourages dwellers to self-inscribe and weave their own narratives within space, infusing the process of caring for their boathouse with meaningful memories.

If inhabitation intrinsically entails creative agency and contribution to a greater or lesser extent, then to inhabit is to transgress. The conscious exclusion of inhabitation insinuates that formal architecture is choosing to ignore an elemental fact of life: an unavoidable and often subconscious manifestation of living and dwelling.

At one end of the spectrum, one may question how dwellers, as creative agents, inhabit and possibly transgress formally designed space, i.e., designed by an architect. At the other end of the spectrum, one could explore how people transgress the boundaries of formal architecture by creating architectural space themselves. This verges deeper into the realm of bottom-up architecture and extends the notion of inhabitation beyond the occupation phase to the stages of design and construction too.

Inhabitation, being an inherently transgressive act, can be framed through deterritorialisation as a process of breaking away from patterns of living conditioned by space, and reterritorialisation through which people find their own patterns.

The boathouse is well positioned to explore de/re-territorialisation as it is not always a predefined building which is then appropriated, but it is itself a process of appropriation.

Affordances define potential actions and meanings relative to space, hence affecting one's agency. An environment offering restricted affordance demands more energy to resist and re-establish patterns. On the other hand, the boathouse is open to appropriation, affording infinite ways of engaging, manipulating, and inhabiting. The spectrum of affordance and agency between boathouses and apartments was conjointly studied in the researcher's Thesis Project alongside this dissertation.

The remoteness of the boathouse lends itself to the sense of escape or żvog (release/escape) it exudes. The routine and everyday problems entangled with the primary dwelling are all but forgotten when fleeing to the boathouse. Thus, the need for escape can also be read as a form of transgression.

In contemporary discourse, agency carries political undertones of protest, which need not be interpreted as negative; it is a claim for power. While agency can be political, it sometimes emerges as unintended power. Transgressive agency can materialise as an accidental by-product of inhabitation. After all, the agency of forming one's environment is a primal and natural habit.

The reimagining of space from abstract container to space as active and socially produced was propagated by Lefebvre (1991). The liberation of our agency contributes to the creation and transformation of space, be it in terms of material or meaning. Thus, space as a social construct is dependent upon human action and agency.

The social relationships embedded within space make it politically charged and can be envisioned as "lines of power and agency written and unwritten in space" (Boano, 2013, para.16).

The political dynamics of space are also rooted in territoriality, a socio-spatial relationship by which people seek control over other persons and resources through the control of space.

The initial move in consolidating one's territory involves setting boundaries to define one's property and lay claim upon it. This first step of infiltration is facilitated by pre-fabricated components. Although such land-grabs are more controlled today, they are still visible towards the peripheral hinterland of such settlements at the borders with unoccupied territory, making for active zones of no man's land in which boundaries are constantly negotiated. Once base-camp has been secured, the next phase involves further expansion and colonisation.

Under these conditions, space is produced in a scattered and fragmented way arising from spatial appropriation, which subverts space through unanticipated modes of inhabitation.
Appropriation is a political and transgressive act with the potential to create new space and meanings by the fluid redefinition of social space and innovative interchanges between the public and the private.

These gestures are often manifested through small traceable acts of production or transgression which can be read in space. "To live means to leave traces" (Bejamin, 1986, p.155), and it is these remnants and by- products of everyday life and dwelling that intertwine to create the rich narratives which enliven the architecture of inhabitation.

Ever-changing appropriation is enacted by a chess-like game with its own set of rules where domestic traces replace the usual pawns and bishops.

The material and meaning of social space is continuously made and remade, enacting its contested nature. Social negotiations and intersecting agencies partake in the endlessly active reconfiguration of space.

Apart from the ever-changing constellations of intentionally/unintentionally-politicised paraphernalia varying from potted plants, dining sets, and barbecues, to laundry, vehicles, and chalked hopscotch, space is also appropriated by parapetti and canopy structures, some of which evolve into external living rooms with the finishes and fixtures to match.

Apart from uncovering the unwritten rule sof negotiation, such manifestations also represent a sense of tolernce which is missing in most urban settings today.

Boathouse communities make basic human nature perceptible by hosting slightly more extreme conditions to reveal otherwise-unclear human patterns and behavioural code. The concentration of life in such settlements distils how all of us inhabit and dwell.

Despite their apparent chaos and lack of top-down control, bottom-up settlements exemplify an emergent order and capacity to self-organise emanating from a "multiplicity of small acts" (Ceridwen et al., 2013, p.214). It is by virtue of this meshwork of productive forces that the community can collaborate in the collective construction of its spatial identity.

Collaborative agency can build community just as much as it builds dwellings.

These tightly-knit networks are revealed in the community-based system of supply and knowledge; it would seem that dwellers are a lot more dependent on each other in boathouse communities.

Communal agency provokes self-organisation, perhaps most apparent in activities organised by the community itself, many a time quite spontaneously. Perhaps the sense of community is strengthened by the common threat of eviction and mutual transgression.

Such settelemts tend to feed into the myth of an ideal community. furthermore, links with traditions, family, & religion act as tropes in attempting to legitimise their existence & indicate the politico-kinship basis of Maltese society.

The origin of architecture and dwelling is often attributed to caves, nests, shells, and other forms of shelter which inspired the first signs of building by man, heralding stories of the primordial hut. However, the genesis of dwelling is frequently reduced to the need for physical shelter, overlooking the sheltering of the soul linked to the psychological requirements of dwelling.

Like a nest for our embodied selves, the house materialises from the act of moulding the earth around our bodies. Hence, the house is not merely the built house, but it is created and adapted through inhabitation and experience: "One must live to build one's
house, and not build one's house to live in" (Bachelard, 2014, p.126).

Heidegger (1971) further defines the relationship between building and dwelling: "To build is in itself already to dwell" (as cited in Sharr, 2007, p.39).

The process of dwelling and actively transforming one's context into a supportive habitat inherently bestows meaning upon those surroundings. When the people who make are the same as those who dwell in a place, it inescapably ignites feelings of embeddedness within that space and community.

Apart from adapting the environment to suit one's needs, self-actualisation and self-expression emerge as important facets of this process. Home is both an extension and an expression of the self, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Uniquely personalised spaces and façades become the realm for differentiation through the expression of identity and pride. The outdoor space serves as the face shown to the outside world with the parapett acting as an inverted living room by putting the family on display.

Many boathouses express signs of resourcefulness, conveying practical adhocism, a process by which immediately-available resources are assembled in juxtaposition to fulfil a specific need. Leftovers from the primary dwelling are often recycled at the secondary boathouse in the form of architectural bricolage.

By acknowledging the dweller as a creative agent, this study questions
formal architecture and the agency of the architect. This is interpreted not as a threat, but as an opportunity to self-reflect as a profession while opening up architecture to include and enable the inhabitant and the everyday processes of inhabitation, generating new forms of hybridity and co-creation.

To further explore how architects can enable the architecture of inhabitation, we must understand that our involvement can range across a spectrum, from formal to more 'informal' approaches and contributions.

The proposed shift in mindset reimagines our own agency as architects as a conduit for dwellers' agency and has the potential to transform our role by expanding our scope beyond building, simultaneously reprioritising humanistic motivations.

Thus, the notion of architecture beyond building introduces a new axis to the spectrum.

While realising that this is an ongoing conversation with no definite conclusion, initiating the dialogue is already a step in the right direction in exploring alternative ways of doing architecture.

The passion and motivation behind this dissertation have always lied in the potential recognised in individual human beings. This creative potential and agency should be harnessed as well as celebrated, not only as a productive resource towards architecture, but also as a human right by nourishing self-actualisation and fulfilment.

These sentiments have made me question what kind of architect I want to become and my own agency. On a personal level, this study has fuelled my desire to pursue socially-relevant work and has inspired me to make an effort to involve and empower the inhabitant as much as possible through my own agency while intentionally seeking to create the right environment for collaborative relationships to blossom.

May this serve as a reminder of why most of us were inspired to pursue a career in architecture to begin with, i.e., to help people. This seemingly-simple purpose has perhaps become overshadowed by a multitude of other factors, yet it is vital that people remain at the heart of architectural intentions. People's direct involvement in the field could only serve to ensure this, thus reorienting our primary ambition towards helping people help themselves in the bettering of their lives.

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1. the architecture of inhabitation: transgressing the boundaries of formal architecture 2021 m. arch. dissertation This dissertation...

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Around the world, many former industrial buildings have been transformed into high-end housing or art galleries. But now a new wave of projects honours the manufacturing heritage of these built structures, repurposing them for the makers of today
Words by Francesca Perry
Twentieth-century urbanisation and deindustralisation left behind scores of empty buildings in cities that had once been used for manufacturing and heavy industry. The next step in the story is familiar to most: regeneration takes hold, the pressure for housing (and profit) rises, and if the former industrial structures don't get knocked down, then they are inevitably turned into stylised high-end housing (or at least in more interesting cases, art galleries).

The transformation of culture is often expressed in the built environment and vice versa: as manufacturing and making is replaced by computer working, so high-rise glass offices replace old industrial buildings. But in recent years, perhaps as a reaction against the overwhelming digitisation of our lives, making and crafts have made a comeback - and with them, the desire for makerspaces, workshops and fabrication labs. Will this new cultural shift then have the power to reverse some of those trends in the built environment?

Rotterdam's Innovation Dock also transforms a shipbuilding warehouse, for use as a co-working makerspace

The last five years have seen an array of projects suggesting so. In Rotterdam, an enormous shipbuilding warehouse has been transformed into the Innovation Dock, home to RDM Makerspace and dozens of small creative studios, maker projects, fabricators and light manufacturing enterprises. In London, Turner Prize-winning practice Assemble converted a former manufacturing premises in Walthamstow into Blackhorse Workshop - a public, shared workshop for local makers and craftspeople. In New York, a collaborative design and fabrication centre - New Lab, designed by Marvel Architects - breathed new life into a former shipbuilding factory as part of the evolving Brooklyn Navy Yard workplace hub.

Bit by bit, we are seeing the rise of former industrial spaces - shipyards, forges, factories - returning to industrial use in a second life, fit for the 21st century, and helping to reignite the public's interest in making. Here are five diverse projects - recent or in progress - from around the world that demonstrate the trend.

The Forge, London
Emrys Architects

Once a metal workshop at the southern edge of the Isle of Dogs, The Forge is now home to Craft Central, the UK charity supporting craftsmanship and craftspeople, having welcomed an inventive design intervention from London-based practice Emrys Architects which completed in October last year.

The original Forge building was erected in 1860 as part of a complex that housed vital metal workshops for the busy shipbuilding industry in the local area. After the majority of that shipbuilding activity moved to the River Clyde, the building became used as a steelworks for the construction of railway bridges. But this too drew to a close by the 1950s, and since then the building - which was listed in 2003 - has lain empty. The other buildings that formed part of the complex were torn down and replaced by housing blocks in the mid Noughties, having not been listed, as the area witnessed an influx of residential development linked to the everexpanding Canary Wharf hub close by.

The Forge itself narrowly avoided being turned in to yet another Tesco Metro - Tesco's planning proposal was refused at the last minute - but it did undergo restorative work in 2005 including a new roof and windows. A decade later, still empty save for the occasional party and movie shoot, the building was sold to Threadneedle Properties, and soon enough Craft Council discovered it as the ideal new setting for the organisation's HQ. But it was a tricky undertaking: not only the exterior structure, but the interior beams, cranes and columns were all listed and could not be touched by new works - demanding an unusual 'don't-touch-the-sides' insertion.

Although this sounds like a stifling restriction, what Emrys Architects has created - with design development from iSpace Interiors - is surprisingly successful. 'We came up with the concept of a structure within a structure,' explains project architect Catriona Jones. 'We like to think of the design as two ships in a dry dock.' Strangely, this reference makes a lot of sense; with a central line of metal columns running down the building, the space is naturally split into two sections, which - due to the inability to touch the columns - resulted in two structures, both with the same design.

Constructed out of birch plywood with steel supports and glulam beams, each block contains just over 30 variously sized studios (there are 67 studios in total) across two floors. The size of these blocks leaves enough space to comfortably walk around them, enabling users to engage with and appreciate the older structure as much as the new ones. At the front space of the building, the wooden studio blocks descend down to the floor level using a bleacher seating design, which simultaneously creates a natural hub for events as well as an aesthetic recalling the stern of a cruise ship.

Craft Central's studios are rented out to a variety of different makers as well as local businesses - glass engravers, bow makers, spectacle makers, among others - but the building serves as a hub for the community, too, hosting workshops, exhibitions and fairs that engage the public in crafts and making. 'A part of our charitable objective is to interest the public in craft,' explains the organisation's chair of trustees Sue Webb. With the rapidly growing residential population of the local area, that engagement looks set to blossom.

Kearny Point, New Jersey
WXY architecture + urban design and Studios Architecture
Once a shipbuilding facility, the WXY-designed Building 78 is now a co-working hub for creative enterprises. Photo : Barkow Photo
Kearny Point, a large-scale redevelopment of a historic shipyard in Kearny, New Jersey, sits across the river from Jersey City and less than five miles from Manhattan. Once home to the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Kearny Point was one of the world's most prolific shipyards during the two world wars, employing roughly 30,000 daily workers. In the 1960s, the real estate and recycling company Hugo Neu acquired the 53ha site and for decades used it as a location for warehouses and recycling activity.

But in 2012, the devastating Hurricane Sandy struck the region, and the whole site was flooded. Hugo Neu was advised to demolish all the remaining shipyard buildings, but instead a new vision took hold and it is now undergoing a transformation into a thriving hub of workplaces for the 21st century. In total, the Kearny Point project is set to reactivate 186,000 sq m of industrial space.

WXY architecture + urban design was commissioned to work on the masterplan for the site alongside Studios Architecture, as well as to deliver one of the first buildings, Building 78, as a co-working hub for creative enterprises. The four-storey, 19,510 sq m Building 78, once a federal shipbuilding facility, opened at the end of 2016 and has been filling up since then. With polished concrete floors, heavy floor-load capacity, and 4m-high ceilings, the building offers flexible office spaces home to various creative businesses, from craft-food producers and dressmakers to printers and filmmakers.

WXY has been carefully working with the historical infrastructure of the site. 'The most resonant and I think interesting design ideas are linked to the historical uses and scale opportunities of the shipyard-era building structures and walls, in addition to the hulking precast buildings that are the context for the area,' explains Claire Weisz, principalin- charge of WXY. 'The masterplan design really uses what is there, including the old rail lines.' In Building 78, the old freight elevators were made into double-height studio units.

Following Building 78, Kearny Point's second phase will involve over 10ha of new public green space and the redevelopment of Building 100, Building 54 and the Power Plant into creative workspaces by Studios Architecture.

Hugo Neu, unlike some developers, focuses on investing in enterprises that support economic, social and environmental justice and sustainability. 'If the approach to Kearny Point results in a new outlook for the area, it will connect to the history of the Federal Shipyard as being a beacon of opportunity, in particular for women and black Americans who had access here to high-skilled jobs for the war effort,' comments Weisz. 'Today if the project spawns new growth for small business and startups who appreciate both the design and being in a reclaimed industrial site, the process of linking a design vision to a masterplan will have accomplished what we set out to do.'

Station F, Paris
Wilmotte & Associés

If there is an architectural structure emblematic of the nineteeth-century European Industrial Revolution it is surely the large, majestic train shed. Landmarks of how advances in industrial production were shaping architecture, transport and cityscapes, train sheds were immortalised in paintings such as Monet's Gare St-Lazare series (1877). Now, from London's King's Cross to Paris' Station F, they are the triggers for wide-ranging regeneration schemes.

Station F, the new name given to the repurposed Halle Freyssinet train depot in south-east Paris, is a €100m project which has taken the former transhipment hub designed in 1927 by the engineer Eugène Freyssinet and turned it into the 'world's biggest startup campus', accommodating over 1000 techbased startup businesses. Transformed by French architecture firm Wilmotte & Associés, with restoration work from 2BDM Architectes, Station F opened in June 2017.

Conceived as an incubator space with a university campus feel, Station F is designed in three sections, each occupying a chunk of the 34,034 sq m, pre-stressed concrete structure. The first comprises a 370-person auditorium, meeting rooms, event spaces, a co-working coffee shop and a full makerspace called the Tech Lab, where 3D printers, laser cutters and workshops are accessible. The second section of the building is the main workspace for the startups, with approximately 3,000 desks; the third section, meanwhile, is due to launch in May as a large-scale, 24-hour restaurant open to the public.

By necessity - the building was listed as a Historical Monument in 2012 - the project honours much of the original architecture, with all the concrete structural elements retained, restored and exposed. There are nods to its industrial heritage in the fit-out too: shipping containers are repurposed as modern meeting room spaces.

The project is the brainchild of French telecommunications mogul Xavier Niel, who chose the site in 2012 as the location for his idea to create a hub for the many dispersed startups across Paris and the wider region. But the ambitions don't stop at workspace: linking in to and improving the local public realm has been a key part of the project, with an esplanade on the north side of the building and tiered garden to the south, with two new side roads lined with shops. And much like a university campus, accommodation will form part of the complex. This aspect is due to open in three blocks in nearby Ivry-sur-Seine later this year. The approach is one of 'coliving', to match that of co-working, with the creation of 100 six-bedroom apartments, where young entrepreneurs live together and share amenities.

The Silver Building, London
SODA Studio

Hidden between a flyover and an inaccessible part of east London's riverside, next to a still-active Tate & Lyle factory, lies a hulking brutalist structure, once home to British Oil and Cake Mills before it was used as a factory for Tetley and Carlsberg.

For the past 20 or so years, it has been left derelict, save for some film and TV shoots - and the odd rave. This area, close to Royal Victoria Dock, is known as Silvertown, and despite the fact it has its own DLR stop, looks straight across the Thames to the bustling activity of the Greenwich Peninsula, and has London's cable car soaring directly overhead, it remains a strange, hidden away and largely industrial riverside stretch.

As is unsurprisingly inevitable in London, however, all this is set to change, when in 8-10 years, a new road tunnel is built connecting this spot to North Greenwich, and a swathe of residential development follows suit.

But it is what happens in the meantime which is perhaps most interesting. The site of the former factory, now owned by Keystone Property Group, was given over to entrepreneur Nick Hartwright to do with as he saw fit (for eight years, at least). Hartwright - who currently operates 18,580 sq m of workspace and hotel space across London - believed the area would benefit from affordable workspace, and with the support of the GLA Regeneration Fund and the design expertise of SODA Studio, has been turning it into The Silver Building, a hub for creative industries and local SMEs - from set builders and artists to fashion designers. 'It's vital that more affordable workspace is made available to creative enterprises, artists and startups,' explains Hartwright. 'There's a shortage of suitable space in London for these types of businesses. Part of the GLA's long-term strategy is to turn the Royal Docks into a new business centre focused on the creative industries.'

SODA came on board two years ago, and the practice's approach - in response to the brief - has been incredibly light touch, working with the existing 4,645 sq m brutalist structure (designed in 1964 by Belfast architectural firm Munce & Kennedy), which has included restoring original elements such as the terrazzo staircase. SODA's first step was to make the building safe to use (by removing asbestos and stripping out dilapidated features), before remodelling former cellularised offices into a range of studios with a minimal aesthetic, as well as adding communal features such as a reception-cafe and shared gallery space.

'We started with the question: "What's the minimum we can do?"' explains studio director Russell Potter, whose practice worked alongside Hartwright's in-house designer Justin Burt on the fit-out. 'The brief was simple,' adds Hartwright. 'Keep it pared back and utilitarian, and retain the character of the building.'

The basic fit-out keeps the studios affordable for tenants. The communal reception-cafe space, intended to enable collaboration between creative tenants, boasts a newly poured concrete desk/bar, embedded neon strip lighting, salvaged furniture, a huge wall panel for art, and flourishes of colourful paint.

In the next phase of the building's transformation, a series of experimental, modular workspaces will be created on the roof. Yet the fact remains that in 8-10 years, the building will likely be torn down. 'At some point in the next 10 years it will make way for a new final scheme to include around 18,600 sq m of commercial space,' says Hartwright, who is working closely with the GLA, Newham Council and the developer to provide the long-term workspace and cultural spaces for the final scheme. 'The tenants we bring on board now will flourish and grow, and transition into that final scheme,' he adds. 'A significant portion of them will have purpose-built spaces within it.'

Potter, meanwhile, reflects that it would be nice to keep the building as is in the new development. When the time comes, hopefully the developers will see the value of not only retaining some of London's industrial brutalist built heritage, but of embracing a ready-made creative workspace hub, instead of knocking it down and starting again.

Museum of Making, Derby
Bauman Lyons Architects

The Museum of Making project will redevelop the Derby Silk Mill - a dedicated museum of industry and history housed in part of what is widely regarded as the first fully mechanised factory in the world - into a new museum complex that re-introduces manufacturing to the site.

Set to open in 2020, the Museum of Making aims to celebrate the local industrial and making heritage, as well as work in collaboration with communities and organisations to enable future creators, makers and innovators to develop new skills, thus positively addressing the skills gap in the region. The museum will create new maker spaces and facilities for public use.

Leeds-based practice Bauman Lyons Architects was commissioned to create the design plans for the building, and has been working collaboratively with the wider project team, as well as exhibition designers Leach Studio.

The project has involved a major participatory programme to date with the local community, which will continue throughout the development, involving more than 500 people in the making of the museum. A 'Mobile Museum of Making' bus will go on the road in autumn of this year, engaging a wider array of communities in the project throughout Derby and Derbyshire.

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The new industry: former factories transform into modern makerspaces

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Words by Francesca PerryTwentieth-century urbanisation and deindustralisation left behind scores of empty buildings in cities that had once been used for manufacturing and heavy industry. The next...

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While social housing is a new term in the U.S. policy landscape, existing affordable housing models like public housing and limited equity cooperatives incorporate aspects of the three primary goals of social housing: insulating housing from market forces, promoting social equality, and enabling residents to exercise democratic control over their housing.

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Highlights studies to show how smart cities generate urban economic development

Uses case studies to explain how smart economies change urban spatial systems

Highlights how a smart city benefits from less bureaucracy, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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About this book

The present book highlights studies that show how smart cities promote urban economic development. The book surveys the state of the art of Smart City Economic Development through a literature survey. The book uses 13 in depth city research case studies in 10 countries such as the North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to explain how a smart economy changes the urban spatial system and vice versa. This book focuses on exploratory city studies in different countries, which investigate how urban spatial systems adapt to the specific needs of smart urban economy. The theory of smart city economic development is not yet entirely understood and applied in metropolitan regional plans. Smart urban economies are largely the result of the influence of ICT applications on all aspects of urban economy, which in turn changes the land-use system. It points out that the dynamics of smart city GDP creation takes 'different paths,' which need further empirical study, hypothesis testing and mathematical modelling. Although there are hypotheses on how smart cities generate wealth and social benefits for nations, there are no significant empirical studies available on how they generate urban economic development through urban spatial adaptation. This book with 13 cities research studies is one attempt to fill in the gap in knowledge base.

Editors and Affiliations

School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi (SPA-D), Calicut, India

T. M. Vinod Kumar

About the editor

Professor T. M. Vinod Kumar have 43 years of professional experience and had specialised in Urban and Regional Planning, Urban and Regional Infrastructure, Urban Environmental Management, Application of GIS in Urban Planning, Models in Planning , Urban Design and Smart Cities. He has vast consultancy experience all over India on urban and rural development, infrastructure, tourism, health care and in Malaysia on New Town Planning and Development, City centre and housing planning and Structure Plan. He has worked in Bhutan, China, Pakistan, Nepal and India for Energy for Mountain Development Program of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development as Regional Program Coordinator. Academically he has worked in the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi as Professor, Head of Department Urban Planning, Head of Centre for Analysis and Systems Studies, Head Centre for Urban Studies and finally Dean of Studies of School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He also worked as Planner-Engineer with the Ford Foundation; India. He was visiting Professor at Bandung Institute of Technology Indonesia, and now in National Institute of Technology, Calicut. He is author of many books and journal articles and Project Manager for many consulting projects in India and abroad.

Bibliographic Information

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Highlights studies to show how smart cities generate urban economic development Uses case studies to explain how smart economies change urban spatial systems Highlights how a smart city benefits from less bureaucracy, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout The present book highlights studies that show how smart cities promote urban economic development.

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In many societies, architecture is inherently portable. Nomadic communities around the world have developed unique residences and other structures to accommodate their mobile ways of life, designing ingenious solutions to diverse environmental challenges or societal needs. From yurts on the steppes of Central Asia, to tipis dotting the American plains, to Tuareg tents of the Sahara Desert, many of these design solutions were devised and refined centuries ago.

Yet in modern industrial communities, nomadic lifestyles are much less common. As a result, the need for portable architecture in some places has all but disappeared. The materials used in most modern homes are not suitable for mobile structures, and instead have led to increasingly uniform domestic architecture. However, more and more individuals are abandoning suburban conformity and embracing nomadic lifestyles within industrial communities, or otherwise turning to portable residences out of necessity. Fortunately, there are many innovative architects willing to meet their needs.

A new tradition of portable architecture, especially domestic architecture, is beginning to emerge, one that combines modern materials and post-industrial aesthetics with ancient design solutions and practices. Some projects are directly influenced by nomadic architecture, while other projects address entirely new problems. Yet all of these designs, forced to depart from convention and to rethink the fundamentals of static design, offer dazzling new opportunities for architecture, and with it, for ways of living.

Building off the legacy of R. Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, Tejlgaard & Jepsen's Dome of Visions functions simultaneously as a greenhouse, performance space and vehicle for social commentary. Designed as a foil to contemporary construction projects in the city, this simple, portable structure - consisting of a wooden frame and polycarbonate shell - suggests an alternative trajectory for Danish architecture.

The project, 'O' De Squisito, by X Architects, belongs to a longstanding tradition of mobile architecture - house boats. The structure resembles an archetypal modern home, but has the added benefit of being able to float along the coast of Dubai, its transparent glass façade providing stunning views of the city and the sea beyond.

Höweler + Yoon's project UNI (short for Urban Neighborhood Institution) offers a mobile solution for community spaces in urban environments. Functioning as a portable library, the project lacks any structural elements, distilling a library down to two basic elements: seats and shelves. What the design lacks in stability, it makes up for in flexibility, portability, inclusivity and accessibility.

Small Skyscraper, a collaboration between Taalman Koch Architecture and the artist Chris Burden, takes a humorous approach towards the limits of architecture and the laws governing architectural practice. Designed to circumvent building regulations in Los Angeles, Small Skyscraper is a four-story structure which does not require a building permit and is lightweight and portable. The project suggests the constrictive effects of architectural regulations while demonstrating the potential for working outside of them.

The design for Blob vB3 was also born out of deliberate attempts to sidestep building regulations. Intended as a comprehensive, yet portable, residential structure, the Blob makes efficient use of space with built-in furniture and utilities. Its distinct (and comical) appearance makes the Blob both pleasant and accommodating: the structure's curved walls make the most of the house's limited interior space.

The Transition unit uses design principles for portable architecture to address housing needs in underprivileged communities. Intended as a temporary home for those transitioning from informal settlements to properly designed residences, Transition Units are prefabricated structures with an extremely simple design. The project prioritizes efficiency, flexibility and an economy of resources in an attempt to make Transition Units accessible to as many households as possible.

The Pop-up Habitat, by the People's Architecture Office, looks more like a tent than a home. It fulfills only the most basic criterion of a shelter, comprised of nothing but walls made from repurposed materials. Yet the design takes full advantage of modular design and its potential for infinite scalability. While a single Pop-up Habitat resembles a primitive, portable shelter, the structure may be attached to other Pop-up Habitats, enabling users to create larger and more complex forms. The project embodies an ostensible contradiction in architecture: the smaller and more modest the design, the greater the possibilities.
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Made to Move: Architecture That Pops, Floats, Rolls and Defies Regulation - Architizer Journal

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A new tradition of portable architecture is beginning to emerge, one that combines modern materials with ancient design solutions and practices.

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Public libraries: A community-level resource to advance population health

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Policy makers and public health practitioners rarely consider public libraries to be part of the health system, even though they possess several characteristics that suggest unrealized potential to advance population health. This scoping review uses an…

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Landscape architects have begun to venture from the confines of garden, park, and plaza into more adventurous practice. Now the field needs a new name: landscape science.

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The latest edition of "Architizer: The World's Best Architecture" - a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe - is now available. Order your copy today.
Wellness and well-being are an industry that is thriving and evolving at an exponential rate. Whether it's an individual seeking to get fit or to work on their mental health, a team striving to push the limits of speed and strength or cities committing to nourish their communities. Concerns about sports, recreation, wellness, well-being and general health are at the forefront of science, research, education - and architecture. Over the last decade, our awareness of the importance of good health and nourishment has established wellness and well-being as pillars that support a prosperous, functioning society.

Each day, individuals and athletes alike track their fitness, heart health, hormone cycles, genetics, thoughts, and diet to become healthier, happier, and more fulfilled. Architects and designers are charged with the challenge of creating spaces to facilitate these lifestyle choices. While huge shifts are being made in the industry around inclusivity, body shaming and diet culture, spaces of acceptance, encouragement and safety are emerging all over the globe thanks to design teams embracing research and technology to inform their projects.

Beloit College Powerhouse by Studio Gang, Beloit, WI, United States Photographs by Tom Harris
Jury Winner & Popular Choice, 2021 A+Awards, Gyms and Recreation Centers

The Beloit College Powerhouse is an adaptive reuse project of a decommissioned coal power plant that swept the Gyms and Recreation Centers category at the 2021 A+Awards, taking home the Jury and Popular Choice prizes. In a bid to rejuvenate the student experience, Beloit College partnered with Studio Gang to reinvent a former coal-burning power plant as a student union that is centered on recreation and wellness.

The expert renovation cleverly blends the existing dominating industrial structure with a brand new, futuristic field house that houses state-of-the-art fitness and wellness solutions. A suspended three-lane running track reimagines the spatial distribution of the building's interior, while students also have access to a recreational gym, eight-lane competition swimming pool and an indoor turf field house alongside study areas, coffee shop, auditorium and conference center.

Bardales Urban Training Center by Natura Futura Arquitectura, Babahoyo, Ecuador Photographs by JAG Studio

Taking a different angle, Ecuador's Bardales Urban Training Center exemplifies intelligent, considerate thinking. The community training center is the brainchild of a local couple who transformed their home as a direct response to the lack of accessible well-being support within their local neighborhood.

Local labor, materials from the region and a system of hybrid structures - between wood, concrete and metal - were included, allowing us to adjust to the needs and possibilities. Designed as a true social enterprise bartering labor for membership, the center revitalizes its urban location and encourages a healthier way of life in an otherwise overlooked neighborhood.

Apfelhotel Torgglerhof: In Full Bloom by noa* network of architecture, Saltusio, Italy Photographs by Alex Filz

Apfelhotel is a family-run hospitality enterprise that prides itself in its connection to nature and promise of rest, rejuvenation and true wellness. The latest addition to the property and evidence of the family's dedication to the health and well-being of their guests is The Brunnenhaus Spa.

The spa and wellness center is embedded into the green hillside within the Apfelhotel grounds, and its beautiful design has won many prestigious awards. Architects noa* have masterfully added to the original hotel landscape, creating an authentic oasis set in a tranquil refuge of meadows and gardens that reinforces positive physical and mental health while incorporating all the traditional spa and fitness center facilities.

Allegiant Stadium by MANICA Architecture, Las Vegas, NV, United States

Allegiant Stadium is a stadium made for Las Vegas. Just of the famous strip, the state-of-the-art home of the NFL Raiders is nothing short of space-age. Coming in at an astronomical $1.9 billion and inspired by luxury sports car design, the stadium is flashy and eye-catching and could fit nowhere better than Las Vegas. The stadium is an architectural and engineering marvel. The unique features of the domed stadium include a cable net truss system where the seven-acre ETFE roof is suspended by 100 stainless steel cables to create the lightweight roof structure diaphragm. The translucent roof also protects spectators from the blistering summer heat while preserving the atmosphere of an outdoor stadium.

Additionally, the team found a way to facilitate a real grass field in the desert by designing a retractable field system that allows the natural grass field to move outdoors for sunlight and water. This feature provides the stadium with the versatility of using natural grass and artificial turf playing surfaces.

FLYT Bathing Installations by Rintala Eggertsson Architects, Moss, Viken, Norway Photographs by Ryan Coats and Ëdag Jenssen Moss

FLYT is the outcome of an art-in-public-space competition that was launched to revitalize a formerly industrial area of Moss. Designed by Rintala Eggertsson Architects, the winning project was a series of bathing installations located upon floating piers. The bathing towers include diving towers and saunas. The structures reflect the political and industrial landscape of the area while providing a functional yet visually compelling set of spaces that make the popular activity of outdoor bathing in the central region of Moss much more accessible to the general public.

Al Janoub Stadium by Zaha Hadid Architects, Al Wakrah, Qatar Photographs by Hufton+Crow.

The first of the stadiums to be completed for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Al Janoub Stadium has not been without controversy from its aesthetic to the design team's political responsibilities. However, regardless of its bureaucratic frictions, the 40,000 seat football stadium is an impressive feat of sports stadium architecture.

Anticipating the intense heat of Qatar, the stadium is fitted with an operable fabric roof and cooling technologies. When deployed, the roof operates like a sail to shade the field of play. Passive design principles, computer modeling and wind tunnel tests were used to maximize the effectiveness of the enclosure for player and spectator comfort.

Jiunvfneg Bubble Pool and Supporting Facilities by line+, Mount Tai, Tai'an, China Photographs by ZY Architectural Photography
Popular Choice, 2021 A+Awards, Spa & Wellness

Another A+Award Popular Winner is Jiunvfneg Bubble Pool from line+. Located on a rocky ridge above Dongximen Village in northern China, the shell-inspired formations, constructed from stainless steel and glass, take advantage of the building's cantilevers and curves to create a unique and inspiring spa and wellness retreat. The opening offers panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and forests, while glazed partitions render the demarcation between inside/outside ambiguous. The organic shapes appear to rise out of the surrounding landscape in an almost sci-fi reminiscence.

Quzhou Sports Campus by MAD Architects, Quzhou, China Images by MAD Architects
Jury Winner, 2020 A+Awards, Unbuilt Sports & Recreation

Designed by renowned practice MAD Architects, the Quzhou Sports Campus is a huge undertaking; it is a sports campus like no other. The park covers a vast area and includes a 30,000-person capacity stadium, a 10,000-person capacity gymnasium, a natatorium, outdoor auxiliary training grounds, athlete service and experience center, as well as a science and technology museum and children's area.
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Set in a naturally lush area, MAD has developed the campus to respect the plot, embedding the buildings into the ground and covering them with greenery. The site becomes rolling hills and meandering walkways, and the contours and curves of the surface function as pedestrian walkways offering the opportunity to 'climb' the architecture for the general public. While dedicated to competitive sports and training, the complex will also become a place for leisure activities for the public.

Sam Frew is an interior designer with ten years of experience in the high-end hospitality industry. She is one-half of Campbell | Frew Design Studio. Over the years Sam has collaborated with some of the world's biggest hotel brands including Accor, Millennium, Ensana and Radisson.

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Heavy Lifting: 8 Ways Architects Are Championing Health and Wellness Through Design

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Concerns about sports, recreation, wellness, well-being and general health are at the forefront of science, research, education - and architecture.

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Once considered the 'last frontier', post World War II perception of a limitless North American landscape directed development into country lands. Even an apparently boundless landscape, however, had a limit. This became increasingly clear in the second half of the 20th century as suburban sprawl covered over once-fertile agricultural lands. Ecological, environmental, and social relations were negatively affected by the new residential planning pattern. Yet, positive changes can still be brought about, especially in the suburbs that border cultivated areas. This paper outlines the processes necessary for the development of sustainable suburban agriculture that can be integrated into new communities. The concepts demonstrated here can reunite ecological, economical, and social factors, which are demonstrated in a "real" project design by a team headed by the author that supports farming in a suburban Montreal, Canada, setting.

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Farming in Suburbia - Author: Avi Friedman

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When you first think of ice cream, it often triggers a positive memory or craving - whether it was the sound of the ice cream truck down the street on a sizzling summer day, or the time someone bought you a scoop of your favorite flavor. With scoop shops across the U.S., Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams taps into this universal emotion of joy with immersive spaces that help realize the brand's mission "to make better ice creams and bring people together." With black chalkboard menus, playful wall art, and a colorful, plant-filled loft, the Gensler-designed location in Washington, D.C. encourages customers to linger and explore.

Merriam Webster defines joy as "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires." Joy is an emotion, and emotions are wordless. On a scientific level, we feel joy in our neurotransmitters, the tiny chemical "messenger" cells that transmit signals between neurons and other bodily cells. They're pure physical sensations in our bodies. We express the emotion of joy in many physical ways. For example, we jump for joy when we have successfully accomplished a goal, or we double over in uncontrollable laughter when someone tells a hilarious story.

So, how can physical spaces evoke an intense emotion like joy? What are ways we can experience joy through immersive design? Immersive design needs to incorporate multiple characteristics and fully engage our senses to be considered an immersive experience.

Let's break it down to the five senses.

Sight:

Spending time in nature has been shown to have positive impacts on our physical and mental well-being. That's why people find joy being in or seeing a treehouse. It is the practice of mindfully being in nature that brings joy. A great example is the Gensler-designed Starbucks in Cali, Columbia. The circular glass architecture displays the beautiful natural surroundings. As a centerpiece within the coffeeshop is a large, majestic tree. The visual connection to nature gives the end user a fully positive immersive experience as they take a sip of their coffee.

Color can also have a positive psychological impact on how we feel and respond to our environments. Gensler partnered with REACH LA to design a welcoming and vibrant space for the nonprofit, with signature colors inspired by the diverse local demographics and cultures to provide a sense of identity and comfort for the end user.

Touch:

Research shows that touch can release serotonin and dopamine, brain chemicals that can enhance our mood. The joy we can feel with positive experiences of touch are some of the simple yet most meaningful pleasures of life. But what is it that makes a hug joyful? Is it the sense of security and comfort? Designing a space that gives a sense of security and comfort can bring joy to the end users. For example, the company OTO created the " Hugging Chair " for people with autism or sensory integration disorders. The chair was inspired to decrease sensory overload by providing a response to being held very tightly or to being hugged. Research proves that deep pressure can help the end user be more aware of their environment, to feel their body limits, and be more at peace.

Using touch within a space can also create engagement and empowerment to spark joy to the end user. At the AKC Museum of the Dog in New York, Gensler created and placed digital touchpoints and self-guided touchscreens throughout to help implement an immersive educational experience. Each visitor is given the opportunity to create unique experiences with the content to connect on a deeper, personal level.

Sound:

Confucius once said that "Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." Music has an incredible impact on our emotional state. We all have those sounds that bring you to tears, the playlist that gets you pumped up, or the song that makes you simply smile. How do we integrate sound into our spaces to enhance user experiences? Think about how elevator music can distract you from realizing that you are locked in a small little room going up 50 feet within 3.7 seconds. Sound can help create a much more pleasant experience and trigger positive emotions.

Retailers often use sounds to help promote their brand and increase their sales. The soundscape of an environment can help support a brand and can make that connection with their desired targeted audience. By understanding their audience and market, retailers can align the interior's soundscape to help comfort and create a unique customer experience that is inviting and positive.

Taste:

Like music, food experiences can also provoke strong feelings. This is evident in how many cultures connect food with community and social connections - things that also bring us feelings of happiness. This is also why people gravitate towards more food and beverage amenities. It connects them back to community and people, which can spark joy.

The Denver Beer Co. project in South Downing is a great example of how the brewery not only revitalized the surrounding neighborhood, but it also promoted community and a sense of belonging. With an ice cream shop, BBQ area, outdoor seating, and a family play zone, the brewery is a place where all ages and backgrounds can gather, including kids and pets.

Smell:

As with our auditory senses, our sense of smell can strongly connect us with memories and emotions. There are certain scents that remind us of loved ones, take us to a certain time and place, and give us a sense of calm and relaxation - like how the smell of suntan lotion or sunscreen reminds us of family vacations by the beach.

Using scent is a wonderful way for space to create a more immersive experience that is positive and memorable. Retail and hotels use signature scents to attract customers and promote sales. Westin Hotels uses a signature scent to help elevate their guest experiences. As guests enter any of their hotels, the scent conjures a sense of relaxation and luxury. For more examples and studies, see Gensler's "Beyond the Senses" sensory research.

To evoke joy within a space, it is essential to stimulate our senses to create a more positive experience and long-lasting memory. Being joyful can bring inspiration, passion, and motivation to one's life. Research shows that joyful people are healthier, have better relationships, and are more productive. As you experience joy, be conscious of your five senses - what do you see, feel, hear, taste, and smell? If designers can create beautiful spaces that tap into these senses and spark joy, we can make this world a much happier, healthier, and more pleasant place to be in.

For media inquiries, email .

Jaimelynn Shah
Jaimelynn is a studio and design director in Gensler's Newport Beach office. She is also the Work Sector leader and Technology practice area leader for Gensler's Southwest region. In her 19 years of experience, she has built a portfolio of award-winning work. Contact her at .

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Creating Spaces That Evoke Joy Through Immersive Design

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Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 53 offices and 7,000+ professionals across the Americas, Europe, Greater China, and APME.

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The Largest Urban Regeneration Project in the World

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Back to the future

For decades most real estate in China has been ground up development. Older buildings were almost always torn down for new glass facades. So when we found ourselves staring down an enormous century old industrial steel facility in Beijing, we were facing a new challenge. How do we turn this colossal collection of warehouses into a modern and vibrant space for creative office and community? We partnered with Shougang Group Co., Ltd., a Chinese state-owned-enterprise, to begin this landmark urban regeneration case - the largest in the world.

Repurposed for the next generation

At the project, Chang'An Mills, we created the new out of the old. We helped to realize a different perspective and experience on this built environment. Our design pays respect to historical relics, while stripping away the dirt and pollution to create a vivid place where customers want to work and shop.

Stories still to be told

To add to the public profile, Chang'An Mills is at the site of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Big Air games. In addition to the state-of-the-art office and retail spaces, the park is hosting some of the competitions, accelerating the already rapid growth in the area. Chang'An Mills is a prime example of how a public and private partnership can revitalize a neighborhood and bring accessibility to the community.

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The Largest Urban Regeneration Project in the World

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For those of us who have chosen to focus our careers on healthcare design, we're inspired and touched by the positive experiences of the patients, families, and caregivers who use the facilities we design. It's heart-warming to have that kind of positive impact on people during their most traumatic or joyful life moments. But every once in a while, as a designer, you're given the opportunity to work on a truly transformational project-providing an experience that lingers long after opening day. I recently had the opportunity to work with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) on just such a project.

CAMH is Canada's largest mental health teaching hospital and one of the world's leading research centres in its field. Headquartered in Toronto's Queen West neighborhood, CAMH offers clinical care to more than 34,000 patients each year. Stantec has been working with CAMH since 2008, first on phase 1B which opened in 2012, and now on phase 1C of its long-term redevelopment project. The latest phase-which helps the hospital achieve its vision of inclusive and recovery-oriented mental health care-features the addition of two new buildings on Queen Street West: The eight-storey McCain Complex Care & Recovery Building and the seven-storey Crisis & Critical Care Building.

My team's interactions with CAMH, and with our partners on the Plenary Health team, PCL Constructors Canada, we talked a lot about how to design a modern, purpose-built mental health space in the heart of downtown. Early on, we considered several questions: How can you keep spaces feeling as "normal" as possible to help break the stigma surrounding mental health issues? How do you create spaces that are well integrated into the community? How can you accomplish both of those goals while establishing a safe environment for patients, caregivers, and visitors?

When designing a new mental health facility, you're afforded the opportunity to create a fully tailored environment that responds to the unique needs for safety, privacy, and dignity of the facility's caregivers and patients. Here are a few points to keep in mind.

Establish a friendly atmosphere

A sense of openness and visual interest in lobbies, the inclusion of intriguing artwork, and interactive elements can help to create a friendly and inviting atmosphere. As one young former client said during a design consultation, perhaps a mental health facility could feel more like a university campus space or a modern library. Keep safety features unobtrusive so the experience feels less institutional.

For example, at CAMH, visitors are still buzzed into certain spaces for safety and security. But, the environment feels welcoming with care desks positioned in a way to blur the lines between caregivers and patients, creating opportunities for interaction and dialogue. The more private spaces at CAMH, like the inpatient floors, also feel comforting with great city views, fully integrated interactive art pieces, and uplifting accent colors that aid in intuitive wayfinding.

Make mental health accessible to the public

Making mental health accessible to the public is not just about location. When a facility is located right within a downtown neighborhood, how do you further encourage passers-by to visit and seek treatment?

CAMH's new buildings, located in the bustling Queen West neighborhood and next to vibrant green spaces, are universally accessible by the broader community during times of crisis and for every day mental wellness. The entrance for the dedicated mental health emergency department-the only one of its kind in the city-is tucked just south of Queen Street with clear, visible signage, and is accessible by foot, public transit, or car. The new 300-seat auditorium will be used for community events (with enough space to keep people physically distanced, if needed). CAMH's new library, offering information on research and treatment, is highly visible and publicly accessible from Queen Street. A teaching kitchen located on the ground level offers patients a place to learn life skills. Former patients are included in many art and theater projects, in treatment as peer support workers, or in on campus food operations. Creating and fostering employment opportunities is an important part of CAMH's vision for client recovery.

Select safe materials that feel non-institutional

When selecting materials for your mental health space, the detailing, safety features, and performance must be considered along with the look and feel. It's vital to normalize the space through furniture, fixtures, or other materials so it looks and feels non-institutional. A sophisticated and biophilic palette inspires well-being and makes spaces feel modern and connected to nature. At CAMH, we used a combination of real wood, wood-look materials, stone, porcelain, terrazzo, and linoleum-all in timeless neutrals you might find in your own home-to serve as a backdrop to the accent colors and integrated artwork program.

Sound absorption is critical in creating a comfortable and less disruptive interior environment. Achieving acoustic control while maintaining safety and cleanability of materials can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are now more options on the market that are sound absorbing, easy to clean, and secure.

Infection control is important in any hospital, but especially in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we used materials that are easy to wipe down and non-porous, but the infection control qualities are not necessarily obvious to the eye. In some areas at CAMH, we're using a plastic laminate that looks like wood, but it has an additional coating that makes it even more durable. The upholstery materials on the built-in benches and furniture are resistant to hospital grade disinfectants, which is important given the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing required. It means the upholstery won't get damaged easily by disinfectants.

When selecting materials, the detailing, safety features, and performance must be considered along with the look and feel.

Design open areas to avoid congestion and promote physical distancing

When it comes to mental health spaces, overcrowding and congestion can cause agitation. Large exterior spaces, like courtyards or terraces, provide people with places to heal outdoors and enjoy fresh air. Inside, wide corridors with built-in benches and open concept dining areas and lounges allow easier access and more personal space choices. Well-planned open areas help to alleviate overcrowding and lend themselves to appropriate social distancing.

Integrate artwork that creates a welcoming space

Recognizing the value art has on a space, CAMH offers a therapeutic art program in addition to artistic base building elements proposed by the design team. CAMH's Therapeutic Art Project is a donor-funded art competition featuring pieces by people with lived experience, including former patients and local artists. This creates a nice link to the art galleries and artistic culture of the neighborhood. Art in a mental health center can engage, act as positive distraction, aid in wayfinding and landmarking, and tell uplifting stories.

Artwork is not always part of a project's budget. Even so, there are ways that artistic elements can be integrated into the base building design. Pattern and imagery can be incorporated as part of wall protection, image walls and privacy film, glazed divider panels in waiting areas, and even through sculptural lighting elements. These elements should be well integrated in the design, and not appear to be an afterthought.

An inspiring vision

The experience of creating a space for healing and support for CAMH will remain with me. It's been a pleasure collaborating with our project partners, and we're grateful for the involvement of Infrastructure Ontario and for the important work by KPMB and Montgomery Sisam Architects as the Planning, Design, and Compliance team. Design can encourage community integration and help destigmatize mental health care. By operating under the recovery model of care, and by blurring the lines between public and treatment space so patients can thrive in their community, CAMH has inspired me with their vision.

Ena creates supportive and patient-centered environments, placing an emphasis on design for mental health and senior-friendly design. Her imaginative work is grounded by her ability to draw out the needs and concerns of client user groups.
Contact Ena

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Warm welcome: What to consider when designing a modern mental health space

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We're inspired and touched by the positive experiences of the patients, families, and caregivers who use the facilities we design.