Existential experience : the unfolding

This paper reports on a project concerned with the relationship between person and space in the context of achieving a contemplative state. The need for such a study originated with the desire to contribute to the design of multicultural spaces which could be used for a range of activities including prayer and meditation. Given that the words ‘prayer’ and ‘meditation’ are highly value-laden and potentially alienating for some people, it was decided to use the more accessible term ‘contemplative’. While the project is still underway,several findings have emerged that can be reported on and are of relevance to the conference both methodologically and substantively. Informed by phenomenological methodology, data were collected from a diverse group of people using photo-elicitation and interviewing. The technique of photo-elicitation proved to be highly effective in helping people to reveal their everyday lived experience of contemplative spaces. This methodological aspect of the project is described more fully in the paper. The initial stage of analysis produced two categories of data: varying conceptions of contemplation and contemplative space; and, common understandings of contemplation and contemplative space. From this it was found that achieving a state of contemplation involves both the person and the environment in a dialectic process of unfolding. The unfolding has various physical, psycho-social, and existential dimensions or qualities which operate sequentially and simultaneously. In the paper, these are labelled:the unfolding of the core; distinction; manifestation; cleansing; creation; and sharing, and have parallels with Mircea Eliade’s 1959 definition of sacred as 'something that manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane’. It also connects with the views of Nishida Kitaro from the Kyoto School of Philosophy on the theme of ‘absolute nothingness’: ‘the body-mind is dropped off and we are united with the consciousness of absolute nothingness’ (Kitaro in Heisig, 2001, p. 169). According to Marion (2005), ‘nothingness’ is defined by givenness. In the paper, this fold of givenness is interpreted in the context of the qualities of the environment that accomplish the act of coming forward into visibility through the dialectic relationship with a person. (Eliade, 1959, Heisig, 2001, Marion, 2002)

Designing learning spaces for (partially) online lives : recombinant architecture

The notion of recombinant architecture signals a loosening of spatial connections between physical and digital-online environments (Mitchell, 1996; 2000; 2003). Such an idea also points to the transformative nature of the designing approaches concerned with the creation of spaces where bits meet bodies to fulfil human needs and desires and, at the same time, pursuing those human dimensions of space and place which are so important to our senses of belonging, physical comfort and amenity. This paper proposes that recombinant spaces and places draw on familiar architectural forms and functions and on the transforming functions of digital-online modes. Perspectives, approaches and resources outlined in the paper support designing and re-designing enterprises and aim to stimulate discussion in the Digital Environments strand of this online conference: 'Under Construction: a world without walls'.

Test architecture for prototyping automated dynamic airspace control

The automation of various aspects of air traffic management has many wide-reaching benefits including: reducing the workload for Air Traffic Controllers; increasing the flexibility of operations (both civil and military) within the airspace system through facilitating automated dynamic changes to en-route flight plans; ensuring safe aircraft separation for a complex mix of airspace users within a highly complex and dynamic airspace management system architecture. These benefits accumulate to increase the efficiency and flexibility of airspace use(1). Such functions are critical for the anticipated increase in volume of manned and unmanned aircraft traffic. One significant challenge facing the advancement of airspace automation lies in convincing air traffic regulatory authorities that the level of safety achievable through the use of automation concepts is comparable to, or exceeds, the accepted safety performance of the current system.

The YAWL Architecture

The YAWL system is structured as a service-oriented architecture. It is composed of an extensible set of YAWL Services [1], each of which is deployed at a certain endpoint and offers one or multiple interfaces. Some of these services are userfacing, meaning that they offer interfaces to end users, while others offer interfaces to applications or other services.

Building an ontology and process architecture for engineering asset management

Historically, asset management focused primarily on the reliability and maintainability of assets; organisations have since then accepted the notion that a much larger array of processes govern the life and use of an asset. With this, asset management’s new paradigm seeks a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to the management of physical assets. A growing number of organisations now seek to develop integrated asset management frameworks and bodies of knowledge. This research seeks to complement existing outputs of the mentioned organisations through the development of an asset management ontology. Ontologies define a common vocabulary for both researchers and practitioners who need to share information in a chosen domain. A by-product of ontology development is the realisation of a process architecture, of which there is also no evidence in published literature. To develop the ontology and subsequent asset management process architecture, a standard knowledge-engineering methodology is followed. This involves text analysis, definition and classification of terms and visualisation through an appropriate tool (in this case, the Protégé application was used). The result of this research is the first attempt at developing an asset management ontology and process architecture.

Art for architecture's sake?

The Architecture, Disciplinarity and the Arts symposium was organised by the Architecture. Theory, Criticism and History (ATCH) research group at the University of Queensland, run by John Macarthur and Antony Moulis, together with Andrew Leach who joined them last year and organised much of the symposium. The symposium ran for three days in a small room at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane (generously donated by director Robert Leonard), with about 40 people in attendance. Together with a long question time of an hour after every three speakers, the size of the room and the small number of people made it very different from most architecture or design conferences. The intellectual level of the symposium was high, without the speed dating aspect that one often sees at the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) meetings, where endless parallel sessions of short papers create an occasionally disorientating cacophony of words. The symposium was deliberately, unapologetically academic and the intimate nature of the forum made the discussion rich and collaborative, with an active audience. The title of the symposium, 'Architecture, Disciplinarity and the Arts', reflects the connection that already exists between the art history and the architectural history community in Brisbane, with both groups regularly attending each other's functions.

Decision support system architecture for consultant selection

Decision Support System (DSS) has played a significant role in construction project management. This has been proven that a lot of DSS systems have been implemented throughout the whole construction project life cycle. However, most research only concentrated in model development and left few fundamental aspects in Information System development. As a result, the output of researches are complicated to be adopted by lay person particularly those whom come from a non-technical background. Hence, a DSS should hide the abstraction and complexity of DSS models by providing a more useful system which incorporated user oriented system. To demonstrate a desirable architecture of DSS particularly in public sector planning, we aim to propose a generic DSS framework for consultant selection. It will focus on the engagement of engineering consultant for irrigation and drainage infrastructure. The DSS framework comprise from operational decision to strategic decision level. The expected result of the research will provide a robust framework of DSS for consultant selection. In addition, the paper also discussed other issues that related to the existing DSS framework by integrating enabling technologies from computing. This paper is based on the preliminary case study conducted via literature review and archival documents at Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia. The paper will directly affect to the enhancement of consultant pre-qualification assessment and selection tools. By the introduction of DSS in this area, the selection process will be more efficient in time, intuitively aided qualitative judgment, and transparent decision through aggregation of decision among stakeholders.

FIA : an open foresic integration architecture for composing digital evidence

The analysis and value of digital evidence in an investigation has been the domain of discourse in the digital forensic community for several years. While many works have considered different approaches to model digital evidence, a comprehensive understanding of the process of merging different evidence items recovered during a forensic analysis is still a distant dream. With the advent of modern technologies, pro-active measures are integral to keeping abreast of all forms of cyber crimes and attacks. This paper motivates the need to formalize the process of analyzing digital evidence from multiple sources simultaneously. In this paper, we present the forensic integration architecture (FIA) which provides a framework for abstracting the evidence source and storage format information from digital evidence and explores the concept of integrating evidence information from multiple sources. The FIA architecture identifies evidence information from multiple sources that enables an investigator to build theories to reconstruct the past. FIA is hierarchically composed of multiple layers and adopts a technology independent approach. FIA is also open and extensible making it simple to adapt to technological changes. We present a case study using a hypothetical car theft case to demonstrate the concepts and illustrate the value it brings into the field.

Relentless patterns the immersive interior

What happens when patterns become all pervasive? When pattern contagiously corrupts and saturates adjacent objects, artefacts and surfaces; blurring internal and external environment and dissolving any single point of perspective or static conception of space. Mark Taylor ruminates on the possibilities of relentless patterning in interior space in both a historic and a contemporary context.

Molecular architecture of the human sinus node: insights into the function of the cardiac pacemaker.

BACKGROUND: Although we know much about the molecular makeup of the sinus node (SN) in small mammals, little is known about it in humans. The aims of the present study were to investigate the expression of ion channels in the human SN and to use the data to predict electrical activity. METHODS AND RESULTS: Quantitative polymerase chain reaction, in situ hybridization, and immunofluorescence were used to analyze 6 human tissue samples. Messenger RNA (mRNA) for 120 ion channels (and some related proteins) was measured in the SN, a novel paranodal area, and the right atrium (RA). The results showed, for example, that in the SN compared with the RA, there was a lower expression of Na(v)1.5, K(v)4.3, K(v)1.5, ERG, K(ir)2.1, K(ir)6.2, RyR2, SERCA2a, Cx40, and Cx43 mRNAs but a higher expression of Ca(v)1.3, Ca(v)3.1, HCN1, and HCN4 mRNAs. The expression pattern of many ion channels in the paranodal area was intermediate between that of the SN and RA; however, compared with the SN and RA, the paranodal area showed greater expression of K(v)4.2, K(ir)6.1, TASK1, SK2, and MiRP2. Expression of ion channel proteins was in agreement with expression of the corresponding mRNAs. The levels of mRNA in the SN, as a percentage of those in the RA, were used to estimate conductances of key ionic currents as a percentage of those in a mathematical model of human atrial action potential. The resulting SN model successfully produced pacemaking. CONCLUSIONS: Ion channels show a complex and heterogeneous pattern of expression in the SN, paranodal area, and RA in humans, and the expression pattern is appropriate to explain pacemaking.

The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space

The article reviews the book "The Media City: Media, Architecture and Urban Space," by Scott McQuire.

Complex modelling of open system design for sustainable architecture

This paper argues a model of complex system design for sustainable architecture within a framework of entropy evolution. The spectrum of sustainable architecture consists of the efficient use of energy and material resource in life-cycle of buildings, the active involvement of the occupants in micro-climate control within buildings, and the natural environmental context. The interactions of the parameters compose a complex system of sustainable architectural design, of which the conventional linear and fragmented design technologies are insufficient to indicate holistic and ongoing environmental performance. The complexity theory of dissipative structure states a microscopic formulation of open system evolution, which provides a system design framework for the evolution of building environmental performance towards an optimization of sustainability in architecture.