Studies on Types: Dormitories | EPFL Graph Search

Concepts of type and typology are not specific to architecture. Rather they represent an interdisciplinary approach to ordering knowledge and gaining insight. In the field of architecture, the study of types and typology offers a didactic perspective that allows us to see the complex network of inter-connections between theory and practice as an inseparable material and social construct. This publication is the result of a research project focused on dormitories as an architectural type, conducted at Laboratory EAST and produced in the frame of the teaching activities of the laboratory. Through a structured analysis, it unveils inherent knowledge of architectural solutions associated to the activity of sleeping collectively. The publication includes a theoretical framework with texts by Prof. Anja Fröhlich, Estelle Lépine, Arne Winkelmann, Tiago P. Borges and Vanessa Pointet.

Seawater intrusion processes, investigation and management: Recent advances and future challenges

David Andrew Barry

Seawater intrusion (SI) is a global issue, exacerbated by increasing demands for freshwater in coastal zones and predisposed to the influences of rising sea levels and changing climates. This review presents the state of knowledge in SI research, compares classes of methods for assessing and managing SI, and suggests areas for future research. We subdivide SI research into categories relating to processes, measurement, prediction and management. Considerable research effort spanning more than 50 years has provided an extensive array of field, laboratory and computer-based techniques for SI investigation. Despite this, knowledge gaps exist in SI process understanding, in particular associated with transient SI processes and timeframes, and the characterization and prediction of freshwater-saltwater interfaces over regional scales and in highly heterogeneous and dynamic settings. Multidisciplinary research is warranted to evaluate interactions between SI and submarine groundwater discharge, ecosystem health and unsaturated zone processes. Recent advances in numerical simulation, calibration and optimization techniques require rigorous field-scale application to contemporary issues of climate change, sea-level rise, and socioeconomic and ecological factors that are inseparable elements of SI management. The number of well-characterized examples of SI is small, and this has impeded understanding of field-scale processes, such as those controlling mixing zones, saltwater upconing, heterogeneity effects and other factors. Current SI process understanding is based mainly on numerical simulation and laboratory sand-tank experimentation to unravel the combined effects of tides, surface water groundwater interaction, heterogeneity, pumping and density contrasts. The research effort would benefit from intensive measurement campaigns to delineate accurately interfaces and their movement in response to real-world coastal aquifer stresses, encompassing a range of geological and hydrological settings.

Elsevier2013

On the Symbiosis of People and Building

Sytse de Maat

Controversies continue to exist between architects and the public about what is a good building. High-style modern architecture is often disliked by the public. Moreover, in everyday life people blame the architect for everything they find impractical in a building. The non-operable window is emblematic of this controversy. The kernel of the problem lies in the lack of knowledge about how people relate to their buildings. This thesis investigates the relationship between people and their buildings, a topic that lies on the interface of architecture, psychology, and anthropology. In architecture, many have attempted to create buildings that feel alive, although much of what is built today feels alien to those who inhabit it. Environmental psychology has its focus on perception and meaning, whereas in anthropology, the habitat is often observed in a cultural perspective. This thesis aims at building theory that connects the insights of these disciplines. The importance of the topic lies in the increasing alienation of people from their buildings. Although many architects work on buildings that we can better relate to, alienation and disconnection continue to exist because, to mention one aspect, the built environment is made by more people than only architects. In the multidisciplinary world, improvement of the relationship of people and building would surely benefit from the introduction of a clear focal point and an adequate conceptual framework. From literature, insights were collected that explain the relationship in four perspectives: human aspects, properties of buildings, its relation to society, and abstract systems. Together they form a model that can serve as the focal point. Next, in order to identify what is changing in the relationship, the model was used as research tool in different contexts, ranging from vernacular to modern. Fieldwork research was conducted in traditional habitats, state-of-the-art modern buildings, and settings in between: primitive housing in urban slum or informal settlement. Detailed research methods for the survey of people's interaction with buildings were newly developed in the field and combined with existing sampling and coding techniques. Architects tools like sketches, scale models, and photography were used next to interviews and participatory observation. Results are presented in several reports ranging from slum dwellings to hi-tech. Besides architecture, they describe the practice of everyday life, logic and inconsistencies in building methods, and effects on the people-building relationship. From the findings, we concluded that what happened to the people-building relationship in the transition from vernacular to modern could be described in five trends. These trends explain the current disconnection as well as the difficulties we face in creating live buildings. Thus, together with the focal point, a conceptual framework is created holding the patterns typical of the people-building relationship. This knowledge can be used as both tool and theory by the profession. The research suggests that in order to create a strong people-building relationship, the whole process of building, dwelling, and daily operation must be focused on inclusion of the end-user. Today's technology and regulations favor exclusion and therefore contribute to a built environment that is not humanly sustainable.

EPFL2015

Towards semantics-driven modelling and simulation of context-aware manufacturing systems

Damiano Nunzio Arena

Systems modelling and simulation are two important facets for thoroughly and effectively analysing manufacturing processes. The ever-growing complexity of the latter, the increasing amount of knowledge, and the use of Semantic Web techniques adhering meaning to data have led researchers to explore and combine together methodologies by exploiting their best features with the purpose of supporting manufacturing system's modelling and simulation applications. In the past two decades, the use of ontologies has proven to be highly effective for context modelling and knowledge management. Nevertheless, they are not meant for any kind of model simulations. The latter, instead, can be achieved by using a well-known workflow-oriented mathematical modelling language such as Petri Net (PN), which brings in modelling and analytical features suitable for creating a digital copy of an industrial system (also known as "digital twin"). The theoretical framework presented in this dissertation aims to exploit W3C standards, such as Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) and Web Ontology Language (OWL), to transform each piece of knowledge regarding a manufacturing system into Petri Net modelling primitives. In so doing, it supports the semantics-driven instantiation, analysis and simulation of what we call semantically-enriched PN-based manufacturing system digital twins. The approach proposed by this exploratory research is therefore based on the exploitation of the best features introduced by state-of-the-art developments in W3C standards for Linked Data, such as OWL and SWRL, together with a multipurpose graphical and mathematical modelling tool known as Petri Net. The former is used for gathering, classifying and properly storing industrial data and therefore enhances our PN-based digital copy of an industrial system with advanced reasoning features. This makes both the system modelling and analysis phases more effective and, above all, paves the way towards a completely new field, where semantically-enriched PN-based manufacturing system digital twins represent one of the drivers of the digital transformation already in place in all companies facing the industrial revolution. As a result, it has been possible to outline a list of indications that will help future efforts in the application of complex digital twin support oriented solutions, which in turn is based on semantically-enriched manufacturing information systems. Through the application cases, five key topics have been tackled, namely: (i) semantic enrichment of industrial data using the most recent ontological models in order to enhance its value and enable new uses; (ii) context-awareness, or context-adaptiveness, aiming to enable the system to capture and use information about the context of operations; (iii) reusability, which is a core concept through which we want to emphasize the importance of reusing existing assets in some form within the industrial modelling process, such as industrial process knowledge, process data, system modelling primitives, and the like; (iv) the ultimate goal of semantic Interoperability, which can be accomplished by adding data about the metadata, linking each data element to a controlled, shared vocabulary; finally, (v) the impact on modelling and simulation applications, which shows how we could automate the translation process of industrial knowledge into a digital manufacturing system and empower it with quantitative and qualitative analytical technics.

EPFL2019