This review looks at ‘EcoResponsive Environments: A Framework for Settlement Design’ which proposes an exciting new integration of design thinking and skills across scales – extending the lucidity of the ‘Responsive Environments’ urban design approach beyond cities – to the design of wider settlements and going beyond human needs to embrace the topographical and ecological features of natural systems.
Sitting is distinctively urban; the practice of sitting in chairs increased in response to global industrialization and urbanization. Sitting is the foremost contributor to sedentary lifestyle, which has recently been proven to shorten life span. This article guides readers to re-think chair sitting from the perspective of Body Conscious Design. Section 1 reviews the anatomical and physiological problems of right angle chairs and of sitting in general. Section 2 briefly recounts the history of chairs dating back to neolithic times and analyzes historically significant chair designs that remain popular today. Section 3 offers postures and equipment alternative to sitting on chairs based on biomedical research and innovations in chair design, and our direct experience. It also describes ways to modify a regular chair when forced to use one. Section 4 focuses on sitting reforms for public urban spaces that exemplify more body friendly policy and design.
Developing masterplans of large-scale areas such as campuses involves formulating multiple scenarios, considering various social, functional, environmental, and aesthetic factors, and pursuing multi-objective optimization to fulfill various conflicting quantifiable and non-quantifiable design objectives. However, current practice lacks an integrated methodology that enables automatic evaluation of those scenarios and visualization of their results to stakeholders. Using computer-performed simulations with innovative design methods to dynamically investigate and empirically assess how campus characteristics influence its inclusiveness, users’ behavior, and social interactions can help identify designs that stimulate human-centered principles. This paper introduces the integrated parametric BIM-based campus life simulation as a decision-support tool. It unifies the design and analysis cycles with scenario generation and design automation through a human-centered methodology. The supports interactive design processes that involve space exploration, analysis, and optimization, allowing the usage of multi-objective optimization methods to develop detailed design alternatives that fulfill conflicting quantifiable and non-quantifiable objectives. Thus, it functions as a descriptive and predictive tool and supports theory-testing and development.
