What is the Architecture Studio?

What is the Architecture Studio? What is the studio? Where do architect’s make architecture? What happens in architecture studios at QUT? How does QUT architecture provide assessment feedback? Why is QUT architecture Experimenting with Change?

Custom digital workflows : a new framework for design analysis integration

Flexible information exchange is critical to successful design-analysis integration, but current top-down, standards-based and model-oriented strategies impose restrictions that contradicts this flexibility. In this article we present a bottom-up, user-controlled and process-oriented approach to linking design and analysis applications that is more responsive to the varied needs of designers and design teams. Drawing on research into scientific workflows, we present a framework for integration that capitalises on advances in cloud computing to connect discrete tools via flexible and distributed process networks. We then discuss how a shared mapping process that is flexible and user friendly supports non-programmers in creating these custom connections. Adopting a services-oriented system architecture, we propose a web-based platform that enables data, semantics and models to be shared on the fly. We then discuss potential challenges and opportunities for its development as a flexible, visual, collaborative, scalable and open system.

Custom digital workflows : a new framework for design analysis integration

Flexible information exchange is critical to successful design integration, but current top-down, standards-based and model-oriented strategies impose restrictions that are contradictory to this flexibility. In this paper we present a bottom-up, user-controlled and process-oriented approach to linking design and analysis applications that is more responsive to the varied needs of designers and design teams. Drawing on research into scientific workflows, we present a framework for integration that capitalises on advances in cloud computing to connect discrete tools via flexible and distributed process networks. Adopting a services-oriented system architecture, we propose a web-based platform that enables data, semantics and models to be shared on the fly. We discuss potential challenges and opportunities for the development thereof as a flexible, visual, collaborative, scalable and open system.

A viable and sustainable key management approach for a national e-health environment

To protect the health information security, cryptography plays an important role to establish confidentiality, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation. Keys used for encryption/decryption and digital signing must be managed in a safe, secure, effective and efficient fashion. The certificate-based Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme may seem to be a common way to support information security; however, so far, there is still a lack of successful large-scale certificate-based PKI deployment in the world. In addressing the limitations of the certificate-based PKI scheme, this paper proposes a non-certificate-based key management scheme for a national e-health implementation. The proposed scheme eliminates certificate management and complex certificate validation procedures while still maintaining security. It is also believed that this study will create a new dimension to the provision of security for the protection of health information in a national e-health environment.

Sustainable, safe, smart—three key elements of Singapore’s evolving transport policies

Sustainability, safety and smartness are three key elements of a modern transportation system. This study illustrates various policy directions and initiatives of Singapore to address how its transportation system is progressing in light of these three components. Sustainability targets economical efficiency, environmental justice and social equity by including policies for integrating land use and transport planning, ensuring adequate transport supply measures, managing travel demand efficiently, and incorporating environment-friendly strategies. Safety initiatives of its transportation system aim to minimize injuries and incidents of all users including motorists, public transport commuters, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Smartness incorporates qualities like real time sensing, fast processing and decision making, and automated action-taking into its control, monitoring, information management and revenue collection systems. Various policy implications and technology applications along these three directions reveal that smart technologies facilitate implementation of policies promoting sustainability and safety. The Singapore experience could serve as a good reference for other cities in promoting a transportation system that is sustainable, safe and smart.

Design and modeling of collaboration architecture for security

Threats against computer networks evolve very fast and require more and more complex measures. We argue that teams respectively groups with a common purpose for intrusion detection and prevention improve the measures against rapid propagating attacks similar to the concept of teams solving complex tasks known from field of work sociology. Collaboration in this sense is not easy task especially for heterarchical environments. We propose CIMD (collaborative intrusion and malware detection) as a security overlay framework to enable cooperative intrusion detection approaches. Objectives and associated interests are used to create detection groups for exchange of security-related data. In this work, we contribute a tree-oriented data model for device representation in the scope of security. We introduce an algorithm for the formation of detection groups, show realization strategies for the system and conduct vulnerability analysis. We evaluate the benefit of CIMD by simulation and probabilistic analysis.

A framework of promoting stakeholder mutual benefits for sustainable housing implementation

Strong regulatory pressure and rising public awareness on environmental issues will continue to influence the market demand for sustainable housing for years to come. Despite this potential, the voluntary uptake rate of sustainable practices is not as high as expected within the new built housing industry. This is in contrast to the influx of emerging building technologies, new materials and innovative designs as showcased in office buildings and exemplar homes worldwide. One of the possible reasons for this under-performance is that key stakeholders such as developers, builders and consumers do not fully understand and appreciate the related challenges, risks and opportunities of pursuing sustainability. Therefore, in their professional and business activities, they may not be able to see the tangible and mutual benefits that sustainable housing may bring. This research investigates the multiple challenges to achieving benefits (CABs) from sustainable housing development, and links these factors to the characteristics of key stakeholders in the housing supply chain. It begins with a comparative survey study among seven stakeholder groups in the Australian housing industry, in order to examine the importance and interrelationships of CABs. In-depth interviews then further explore the survey findings with a focus on stakeholder diversity, which leads to the identification of 12 critical mutual-benefit factors and their interrelationship. Based on such a platform, a mutual-benefit framework is developed with the aid of Interpretive Structure Modelling, to identify the patterns of stakeholder benefit materialisation, suggest the priority of critical factors and provide related stakeholder-specific action guidelines for sustainable housing implementation. The study concludes with a case study of two real-life housing projects to test the application of the mutual-benefit framework for improvement. This framework will lead to a shared value of sustainability among stakeholders and improved stakeholder collaboration, which in turn help to break the "circle of blame" for the current under-performance of sustainable housing implementation.

National architecture conference 2012

May was a particularly busy month with lots of exciting architectural things happening in Brisbane, including the sell-out 2012 National Architecture Conference. The total number of conference attendees was 1,625, which was the largest number of attendees to any Australian National Architecture Conference to date. This was the first time that the National Architecture Conference had been held in Brisbane in over 20 years, and the enormous turnout of 947 Queenslanders to the conference was testament to the positive decision to include Brisbane as a conference venue. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘experience’. Building on ideas introduced in the recent ‘natural artifice’ conference, creative directors Shane Thompson, Michael Rayner and Peter Skinner focused closely on the real, sensed experience of architecture within its natural and constructed settings and the experience of designing and making architecture. The conference attracted a variety of high profile international speakers, including architect and professor, Wang Shu, the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate and co-founder of the Amateur Architecture Studio in China. Other highlights included presentations from Peter Rich [South Africa], Kathryn Findlay [United Kingdom], Rachel Neeson [Australia], Anuradha Mathur & Dilip da Cunha [United States] and Kjetil Thorsen [Norway]. QUT had a strong presence at the conference. In addition to pleasing attendance rates from QUT School of Design students and staff, our Head-of-School Professor Paul Sanders, was given the honourable task of introducing keynote speaker Peter Rich, and facilitating the Q&A session after his presentation, which received a standing ovation. There were many events organised for students and young architects by QUT’s SONA reps, including a masterclass, opening party, collaborative design and construction of the SONA Pavilion, and finally, organisation of the all important SONA Hangover Breakfast, the morning after the closing party. The 2012 National Architecture Conference was truly memorable and an experience not to have been missed. I encourage anyone with a passion for architecture and a desire to be completely inspired by current and emerging leaders in our exciting profession, to start making plans to attend next year’s conference.

Sustainable infrastructure operations : a review of assessment schemes and decision support

Infrastructure forms a vital component in supporting today’s way of life and has a significant role or impact on economic, environmental and social outcomes of the region around it. The design, construction and operation of such assets are a multi-billion dollar industry in Australia alone. Another issue that will play a major role in our way life is that of climate change and the greater concept of sustainability. With limited resources and a changing natural world it is necessary for infrastructure to be developed and maintained in a manner that is sustainable. In order to achieve infrastructure sustainability in operations it is necessary for there to be: a sustainability assessment scheme that provides a scientifically sound and realistic approach to measuring an assets level of sustainability; and, systems and tools to support the making of decisions that result in sustainable outcomes by providing feedback in a timely manner. Having these in place will then help drive the consideration of sustainability during the decision making process for infrastructure operations and maintenance. In this paper we provide two main contributions; a comparison and review of sustainability assessment schemes for infrastructure and their suitability for use in the operations phase; and, a review of decision support systems/tools in the area of infrastructure sustainability in operations. For this paper, sustainability covers not just the environment, but also finance/economic and societal/community aspects as well. This is often referred to as the Triple Bottom Line and forms one of the three dimensions of corporate sustainability [Stapledon, 2004].

Corporate commitment to sustainability : is it all hot air? An Australian review of the linkage between executive pay and sustainable performance

Across time, companies have increasingly made public commitments to sustainable development and to reducing their impacts on climate change. Management remuneration plans (MRPs) are a key mechanism to motivate managers to achieve corporate goals. We review the MRPs negotiated with key management personnel in a sample of large Australian carbon-intensive companies. Our results show that, as in past decades, the companies in our sample have MRPs in place that continue to fixate on financial performance. We argue that this provides evidence of a disconnection, or ‘decoupling’, between the sustainability-related rhetoric of the sample companies, and their ‘real’ organisational practices and priorities.

Making more sustainable urban environments by responding to neurodiversity in later life

The ageing population is increasing worldwide, as are a range of chronic diseases, conditions, and physical and cognitive disabilities associated with later life. The older population is also neurologically diverse, with unique and specific challenges around mobility and engagement with the urban environment. Older people tend to interact less with cities and neighbourhoods, putting them at risk of further illnesses and co-morbidities associated with being less physically and socially active. Empirical evidence has shown that reduced access to healthcare services, health-related resources and social interaction opportunities is associated with increases in morbidity and premature mortality. While it is crucial to respond to the needs of this ageing population, there is insufficient evidence for interventions regarding their experiences of public space from the vantage point of neurodiversity. This paper provides a conceptual and methodological framework to investigate relationships between the sensory and cognitive abilities of older people, and their use and negotiation of the urban environment. The paper will refer to a case example of the city of Logan, an urban area in Queensland, Australia, where current urban development provides opportunities for the design of spaces that take experiences of neurodiversity into account. The framework will inform the development of principles for urban design for increasingly neurologically diverse populations.

Electronic functionality in graphene-based nanoarchitectures : discovery and design via first-principles modeling

Graphene has promised many novel applications in nanoscale electronics and sustainable energy due to its novel electronic properties. Computational exploration of electronic functionality and how it varies with architecture and doping presently runs ahead of experimental synthesis yet provides insights into types of structures that may prove profitable for targeted experimental synthesis and characterization. We present here a summary of our understanding on the important aspects of dimension, band gap, defect, and interfacial engineering of graphene based on state-of-the-art ab initio approaches. Some most recent experimental achievements relevant for future theoretical exploration are also covered.

Delphi study for improving sustainable construction project management in universities

As sustainability becomes an important principle guiding various human activities around the globe, the higher education sector is being asked to take an active part in educating and promoting sustainability due to its moral responsibility, social obligation and its own needs to adapt to new circumstances. There is a global trend of higher education institutions embarking on responses to the sustainability challenge. On-campus building performance is one of the most important indicators for “sustainable universities”, because buildings carry substantially environmental burden such as considerable consumption of raw materials and energy as well as huge amount of waste generation and greenhouse gas emission. Plus, much research proves that building performance can impact on students and staff’s awareness about and behaviours related to sustainability. The past studies rarely discussed about sustainable construction projects in universities’ unique context. Universities are labeled with distinct characteristics such as complex governance, multiple cultures and juggling missions and so on. It is necessary and meaningful to examine the project management system in terms of universities’ organizational environment. Thus, this research project applies Delphi study to identify primary barriers to green technology application in on-campus buildings, critical factors for sustainable project success, key actions in project phases and strategies for project improvement. Through three rounds of questionnaires among panel experts, the authors obtain a profound understanding of project delivery system in universities. The research results are expected to provide sustainability practitioners with holistic understanding and generic information about sustainable construction project performance on campus as an assistance tool.

A comparative analysis of the integration of SOA elements in widely-used enterprise architecture frameworks

In recent years, enterprise architecture (EA) has captured increasing interest as a means to systematically consolidate and manage various enterprise artefacts in order to provide holistic decision support for business/IT alignment and business/IT landscapes management. To provide a holistic perspective on the enterprise over time, EA frameworks need to co-evolve with the changes in the enterprise and its IT over time. In this paper we focus on the emergence of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). There is a need to integrate SOA with EA to keep EA relevant and to use EA products to help drive successful SOA. This paper investigates and compares the integration of SOA elements in five widely used EA frameworks: Archimate, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), Department of Defence Architecture Framework (DoDAF) and the Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework (MODAF). It identifies what SOA elements are considered and their relative position in the overall structure. The results show that services and related elements are far from being well-integrated constructs in current EA frameworks and that the different EA frameworks integrated SOA elements in substantially different ways. Our results can support the academic EA and SOA communities with a closer and more consistent integration of EA and SOA and support practitioners in identifying an EA framework that provides the SOA support that matches their requirements.

Catalysing design principles through the dreaming of sustainable subtropical cityscapes : the collaborative construction of new place identities

This paper addresses the question of how to open up pathways and build capacity to facilitate the movement towards sustainable sub-tropical cities. The focus is on outlining a collaborative planning and co-design process that can help catalyse the emergence of sustainable place-habitats and so re-weave and colour anew the tapestry of our sub-tropical cities. Cities are portrayed as self-organising complex adaptive system phenomena, being constantly re-shaped by local and global social-political, environmental, cultural and economic forces as well as planning regimes. While constructing a sustainable city is at essence a design process incorporating new sustainable practices and legislation to reinforce their use, these steps are necessary but not sufficient. Sustainable sub-tropical city-making could be re-thought as a dreaming-re-storying process. This paper explores a new co-design process, which can channel collaborative efforts around re-inventing sustainable place-habitats across the cityscape. A further outcome of this co-design process is the alignment of the emergent design principles and planning actions that can trigger the re-storying of a new sustainable sub-tropical city. Besides a new co-design process, we also advocate the building of sub-tropical city learning networks to facilitate the cross-fertilization for Dreaming sustainable sub-tropical cities.