The modern construction industry accounts for a significant share of global natural resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. A viable response is Urban Mining, which recovers secondary materials, including aluminum, from the existing urban fabric rather than relying on traditional extraction. Utilizing recycled aluminum in facade systems significantly reduces production energy intensity and the embodied carbon footprint.. However, sustainable design also requires rationalizing material consumption. While standard engineering models ensure structural safety, their inherent computational simplifications often fail to accurately reflect the actual spatial interaction of wind-loaded facade elements. Analyzing strain measurements from an operational building provides the critical data necessary for further material optimization of such structures. This paper presents a hybrid methodology combining laboratory testing, FEM numerical simulations, and curtain wall strain measurements using FBG (Fiber Bragg Grating) sensors. Integrating Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) with Urban Mining principles enables a precise understanding of the facade's static behavior. This facilitates profile optimization, leading to raw material savings, lower CO₂ emissions, and the establishment of rational operational alarm thresholds for high-rise buildings.
This article presents the Place Alphabet method as a tool for the analysis of architectural context based on field observations and freehand drawing. The point of departure for the described method is the concept of the Kazimierz Alphabet, developed by Konrad Kucza–Kuczyński. This concept has been further developed and formulated as a systematic research procedure applicable in any cultural and geographical context. The article discusses the role of architectural drawing as a cognitive medium and a tool of synthesis. It presents the Kazimierz Alphabet as the foundation of the method and describes the successive stages of the Place Alphabet method, including field observations, drawing documentation, analysis of recurring motifs, identification of the letters of the alphabet, and the formulation of the alphabet itself. The effectiveness of the method was verified through field research conducted in Bahrain. During this research, the author created 60 field drawings documenting the characteristic features of the local cultural landscape. The proposed method enables the synthetic identification of the characteristic elements constituting the identity of a place and their representation in the form of drawings. The findings indicate that the Place Alphabet method may serve as a universal tool for the analysis of architectural context, making it possible not only to define the existing relationships and characteristics of a place but also to formulate design assumptions based on an in-depth understanding of its identity.
This article addresses the architectural design of preschool facilities that respond to the needs of all their users, with particular attention to children with motor disabilities. The preschool is the first institutional environment a child encounters outside the family home, and the quality of its space directly affects the child’s sense of security, independence and social development. The paper traces the origins of the institution and of its architecture – from the shelters and the kindergarten movement of the nineteenth century, through the pedagogical and modernist experiments of the first half of the twentieth century, to the typified Polish preschools of the post-war decades – and identifies the determinants that shape contemporary preschool architecture: location and site development, the quality of the internal environment, the legibility of the functional layout, and accessibility understood in terms of universal design. Against this background, an architectural concept for a preschool in Tuchów (Lesser Poland, Poland) is presented. The building is organised around a top-lit, two-storey atrium acting as a communal and performance space, and is supplemented by rehabilitation, corrective and sensory-therapy rooms, barrier-free circulation and a zoned playground. The study is based on an analysis of the literature and of the applicable regulations, on case studies of built preschools, and on the authors’ own design work.
This article attempts to translate the assumptions of Maria Montessori's pedagogy into the language of architectural solutions for a preschool facility. The category of the prepared environment, central to that method, is in design practice most often reduced to the fittings of the classroom interior, whereas in fact it encompasses the entire spatial arrangement of the institution together with its natural surroundings. The aim of the study is to demonstrate that adopting this category consistently as the point of departure for a concept leads to decisions concerning the volume, the functional layout, the manner in which the site is developed and the choice of materials, and not merely the arrangement of furniture. The theoretical part presents the assumptions of the Montessori method and the architectural guidelines that follow from them, and then analyses three contemporary Montessori preschools, identifying recurrent spatial strategies: the direct connection of teaching rooms with green areas, the treatment of vegetation as teaching material, and the introduction of lightweight structures supporting children's exploration. Against this background, the authors' own concept is presented for a single-storey preschool accommodating five groups of children aged three to six, located in the Drabinianka district of Rzeszów. The closing section formulates conclusions concerning the design of preschools of this type.
This article presents an architectural concept for a children’s museum in Rzeszów, Poland, and sets that concept against the wider discussion on the place of the child in the contemporary city. Children’s museums differ from traditional museums in that their exhibits are made to be touched, operated and played with, and they work as institutions of informal education rather than as collections. Poland still has no facility that fully corresponds to this model, although the withdrawal of children from public space, the monotony of standard playgrounds and the passive character of a conventional museum visit are all well documented problems. The study is based on an analysis of the literature and of the applicable technical regulations, on case studies of three built facilities, on site analysis of the selected plot on Lubelska Street in Rzeszów, and on the authors’ own design work. The proposed building takes the form of a long, linear volume composed of shifted modular blocks that slide between the existing rows of mature trees. Its functional program combines a flexible exhibition hall with a café and reading room, a room for toddlers, an orangery, and a multipurpose hall for performances and workshops. The development of the grounds carries the educational program outdoors and includes a vegetable and herb garden with raised planters, azalea beds, a petting zoo, and an informally shaped park with a grassy mound. Accessibility was treated as a starting point for the concept rather than as a later adaptation.
