International Journal of Architectural Computing

Urban sprawl and complexity are increasing at an alarming rate causing huge energetic waste and affecting the quality of life of people and life on earth in general. This paper proposes Urban Dynamic Analysis as a feasible approach to address this negative phenomenon. Urban Dynamic Analysis is a multidisciplinary holistic method that inquires into temporal relations between structures and related characteristics in cities. A range of simulation tools are being adapted and developed aiming to assess different morphological configurations of urban spaces, to improve the welfare of citizens and to optimise energy consumption. All these tools are based on digital image utilization, with simple computational techniques.

Walter Benjamin and Rem Koolhaas developed two significant investigations, which explored the culture of Paris and New York through the analysis of their architectural artifacts. Their research projects successfully construct, from a few meaningful components of the built environment, an understanding of the overall city and its society. The objective of this paper is to address the similarities between the research carried out at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the work of these two acclaimed writers. Our group aims to select urban icons, from different moments and areas in Rio de Janeiro, to be studied in order to understand the city evolution in the XX Century. The distinguished Ministry of Education building is the investigation's prototype, analyzed thorough several 3D models and other digital techniques. We conclude that a thorough study of Benjamin's and Koolhaas' work should be considered a primary support for the interrogation of our own investigation.

This article documents research in the field of virtual reconstructions of the past. It makes the point that in order to truly develop the bases of a solid appreciation of cultural patrimonies, historic virtual reconstructions need to incorporate a willingness to achieve higher digital modeling and rendering qualities. And, they should also be well integrated into history courses at all education levels and through a variety of means of communication. In other words, our ability to explore, to interpret and to appropriately use digital tools needs to aspire to greater and more penetrating abilities to reconstruct the past.

As a case study, the paper presents the theoretical reconstruction of the Aztec Templo Mayor in Mexico (1). The presentation describes how a variety of digital approaches was used to grasp and appreciate the very significant architectural contributions of the early inhabitants of the Americas.

Despite the increasing interest in the functionality and humanization of architecture, there are few studies covering the occupation of buildings and methods to represent activities in spaces. This article explores new software for simulating and virtual modeling in order to facilitate the analysis and visualization of events in buildings. Of particular importance is programming the behavior of 3D-characters according to the probabilistic evolution of activities, and producing animations and interactive models. This approach was tested in a study of three emergency units of hospitals in Chile. Although a full integration of software was not possible, the process developed (in particular the subjective tours) demonstrated that the technique can provide new information about the functioning and spatiality of the units. In addition, it suggested operative and architectural improvements supporting the management and design of facilities.

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) has allowed the expansion of resources and possibilities for architectural applications. In order to take even more advantage of VRML, we developed an application of virtual menus within VRML using Java Script as a first step to the creation of a Synthetic Environment Laboratory for architectural design. This paper briefly presents the criteria used to define the menus, the utilization of Visual Basic programming to allow the addition of said virtual menus to any file with extension *.wrl, specific examples of applicability of the menus developed, and how they were inserted in a methodological model of architectural design.

As building projects become increasingly more complex, the number of project participants grows as does their spatial distribution. An effective decentralised work process and co-operation is of increasing importance. The global computer network, the internet, has great potential and recent times have seen the development of a variety of techniques in this field. The project described here is based upon this approach and also takes it a step further. A specific analysis of the topic and the subsequent identification of potential approaches formed the basis for an architectural application that brings the architect in contact with other project participants using the internet as a powerful yet simple and easy to use medium.

The main objective of this research work is to explore a new digital design process. This new method for the creation of spaces (referred to as Data Representation Architecture) entails the choice of any element from the everyday world, and the creation, by means of a digital a process, of either a real or a virtual space. In this particular case, the real element is music. Various melodies, some of them famous and some of them new or specially composed for the project, materialize their basic information and generate novel spaces. For each musical composition, many instruments were played, and the sound of each of them was then materialized in the final space. This is how alternative design processes are born, and a completely new architecture defined. In order to accomplish this research work, it was necessary to combine knowledge from different fields; namely, architecture, music, mathematics and computer science.

This project investigates the design, construction and experimentation in digital environments. The work intends to contribute to the evolution of the virtual universe by studying what can be particular architectural expressions of cyberspace. Specifically the project explores the potential architectural manifestations of existential situations in cyberspace. The design goal is to artistically express, through virtual environments, the invisible part of ourselves, our thoughts and emotions. This work critically engages the cyberPRINT, a ongoing creative-research project of Prof. Bermudez and the C.R.O.M.D.I team at the University of Utah in the U.S.A. [1] This project uses the cyberPRINT concept and technology of obtaining physiological data and translating them into digital spaces. However, it proposes a new “world” for the cyberPRINT. The final product consists in a performance where a dancer sends his biological signals to the computer to generate and transform digital environments, and also represents through his movements, the desired existential situation.