Flexibility in housing design has social, economic and environmental advantages and yet is currently often ignored. The first of two papers sets out the history of this issue.

Pattern languages help us tackle the complexity of a variety of systems ranging from computer software, to buildings and cities. Each ‘pattern’ represents a rule governing one working piece of a complex system, and the application of pattern languages can be done systematically. Design that wishes to connect to human beings needs the information contained in a pattern language. This paper describes how to validate existing pattern languages, how to develop them, and how they evolve. The connective geometry of urban interfaces is derived from the architectural patterns of Christopher Alexander.

The constraints of packing rooms together, and the flexibility of dimensioning allowed by rectangular arrangements, explain the predominance of the right angle in architectural plans.

How might flexible housing be achieved? ‘Determinate’ and ‘indeterminate’ approaches are examined using twentieth-century examples

There are at present considerable concerns with how architectural research will be assessed in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) of 2008. In RAE 2001, most architectural research was submitted to one of three Units of Assessment (UoA): 33 Built Environment, 60 History of Art, Architecture and Design, and 64 Art and Design. There were subtle, but important, differences in output definition and assessment criteria between UoA 33 and UoA 64 with respect to practice-led research. Most importantly, in UoA 33 practice-led outputs were accepted by the panel, but only as publications, whereas UoA 64 assessed practice-led research outputs accompanied by a 300-word statement that clarified the contributions of that particular research to the development of original knowledge in the field. The diversity of methods and complexity of output types, combined with the composition of UoA 33, led to results that many feel did not properly reflect the strengths of architectural design, particularly practice-led research. This methodology essentially disenfranchised a significant part of the community from the rae process to the detriment not only of the community, but to the credibility of the process itself.

Computers have come to play an important role in architectural practice. Nonetheless, the promise of computation as a creative partner in practice, and a means to better understand and support the design process has yet to be realized. This article considers aspects of computation, and alternative ways that these have been approached in order to make computation useful in architecture and other areas of spatial design.

This paper explores thermal comfort, following recent renewed interest in thermal comfort standards. It also reports on findings from the Thermal Comfort Task in the EU funded PASCOOL project which had an overall objective of promoting passive cooling and avoiding air conditioning. Finally, some tentative conclusions are developed together with their implications for architectural design.

Air conditioning is now recognized as a significant factor in global warming and climate change. In the search for alternatives, passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC) is proving to be both technically and economically viable in different parts of the world. Brian Ford describes the principles and current practice of this innovative approach to cooling in the hot dry regions of the world.

Architects, engineers and researchers alike often cite practical reasons for building with wood. Since the development of curved glulam beams and columns over a century ago, the widespread use of massive structural timber elements has allowed architects and engineers to design and build in wood with unprecedented speed and scale. Moreover, rising concerns of climate change and the carbon-dioxide emissions associated with construction encourage the use of wood as a viable alternative to steel and concrete, due to CO2 sequestration in trees.

In mid- and high-rise buildings, the current shift from steel and concrete towards massive structural timber elements like glulam, laminated-veneer lumber (LVL) and cross-laminated timber (CLT) is evident in a number of recently completed timber buildings in Europe, ranging from seven to nine storeys. Several speculative design proposals have also been made for ‘timber towers’ of thirty, fortytwo and even sixty-five storeys, recognising that designing with massive structural timber elements in high-rise buildings is still in its infancy. This paper offers a new perspective on building with wood at this scale, beyond carbon sequestrationand construction.

In recent decades, the interrelations between architecture and computation have fostered new design concepts and design methods, which challenge existing design and building processes. Specifically, the increased use of parametric methods and scripting allow for the development of modelling and fabrication techniques, which in turn challenge the role of drawing as one of the main tools for conceptualising and realising architecture. In 1975 Chuck Eastman proposed the conceptual basis for a more complete and effective role for the use of the computer in architecture with his ‘Building Description System’. During the 1980s, software developer Robert Aish contributed to the development of RUCAPS – one of the earliest applications based on the concept of ‘building modelling’. Later developments of building modelling envisaged further modes of collaboration between architecture, engineering, and construction in the (AEC) industry.

It has always been thought that there are two dimensions in museum experience: the experience of space which can be distinguished from that of exhibits, as the former is largely non-discursive while the latter is more in the discursive domain. This paper aims to contribute to the description and understanding of the intricate pattern of interdependencies between the two parameters of the microstructure of the gallery space, the design of space and of the display layout. The paper uses rigorous methods of ‘spatial data’ collection and analysis (analytic representations of spatial relationships, and systematic representations of the movement pattern) and on this objective foundation builds an interpretative and critical argument.

A series of changes is identified in the iconography of the English courtroom, which seems to indicate a gradual liberalisation in the architecture of justice. However, it is suggested that this masks a deeper continuity in the layout and space configuration of the law court building, which relates to the fundamental social programme which it has to fulfil. Configurationallyspeaking, the space of the courtroom, which appears so powerfully to integrate the actors in the courtroom drama, turns out to be ‘virtual’. Although the actors can see and hear each other perfectly well, they actually inhabit separate and mutually-exclusive physical domains. The locus of spatial integration is to be found in the backstage corridors of the law court which, it is argued, is the place where legal negotiations take place. Thus, though it would be theoretically possible to reproduce the social programme of the law court in a virtual reality courtroom, this would be at the expense of a vital generative function served by the building, which is to ensure that specific legal conflicts are resolved in the interests of a wider social justice.

Engineer-designed structures often attract the admiration of architects. The work of Freyssinet and Maillart and, more recently, Rice and Calatrava has been admired in this way. Few of these engineers have written about their work – but Freyssinet did, with great eloquence. Here, Andrew Saint introduces his translation of a particularly revealing essay by the great French engineer.

Today, at a time of unprecedented urban development, there is urgency to improve the environmental quality of cities. The present ‘greening’ of urban spaces is an ongoing response to a dirty industrial past and present, with a drive to transform cities to have better air and water, more tree-lined streets and open parks. But the amount of urban public green space varies massively between cities around the world and increasing this, or designing for it, is a particular challenge where there is pressure for space, resources, and development. The architectural fabric itself – building envelopes, roofs, and façades – has been targeted as an opportunity for additional greening. A number of strategies integrating vegetation and other photosynthetic systems onto buildings have been developed, which provide passive climatic control as well as aiding storm-water management and creating new ecological habitat, in addition to lowering atmospheric CO2. However, ‘green walls’, where plants and foliage are grown on the sides of buildings as a kind of secondary skin, have been less successful and have proven expensive to implement. Maintenance costs are significant due to the need to overcome gravity, primarily through mechanical irrigation.

This analysis shows how the increasing availability of computers in architectural practice and the steady development of electronic networks around the world could encourage the relocation of professional structures into countries with lower production costs. Starting from the existence of sharp professional wage differentials between developed and developing regions, it formulates the hypothesis that, in a few years, most architectural work could be documented in places such as South-East Asia and transferred digitally over to America, Australia or Europe.

Design is central to the discipline of architecture. Despite this, the question as to whether design constitutes a form of research seems to raise more questions and strong feelings than any other aspect of the UK Government's research assessments of university architecture schools (arq 6/1, p5). No one is better fitted to set out the arguments than Bryan Lawson: an architect and psychologist, he has acted as an assessor for the last two exercises, has extensive knowledge of the university sector and has undertaken research on the design processes of such influential designers as Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Herman Hertzberger and Ken Yeang. (See also leader, p99, and letters, pp101–106 in this issue.)

Photobioreactors (pbr) are transparent containers for the controlled cultivation of microorganisms such as algae. The BIQ house is the worlds first architectural project realised featuring flat panel pbr, generating biomass and heat as part of an integrated energy concept. The project is part of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg.

In order to implement this potential disruptive technological innovation, technical, ecological and social aspects have been looked at holistically to optimise and develop the system towards market maturity.

At the foreground of this monitoring project has been the intensive evaluation and optimisation of the energy efficiency of the technology in relation to the acceptance and reception of the building users.

After the successful implementation of the pilot project, a big step towards the market maturity of the system has been taken. Further improvements with respect to the efficiency and a closed value chain are required to demonstrate commercial feasibility and attract investors to implement the system more widely.

Completed in the sixteenth century, the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul has long been regarded as one of the great works of Sinan, the Ottoman Empire's foremost architect. In recent years, as our understanding of Sinan's design strategies and sensitivities has improved, a number of influential scholars have argued that there is a singular formal layering pattern present in Sinan's elevations. With the advent of recent advances in computational analysis it is possible to quantify the degree of visual layering (the hierarchical relationship between form, ornamentation and materiality) present in Sinan's Süleymaniye Mosque and thereby provide evidence, either for or against, this proposition. Using an advanced version of the computational fractal analysis method, the paper investigates the four facades of the Süleymaniye Mosque, along with two facade details, to provide a mathematical description of the layering visible in this building. Through this process the paper provides, for the first time, quantifiable data supporting the theorised properties of this famous building. In doing so, the paper also offers a description of the most advanced demonstration of fractal analysis ever applied in architecture.

The popularity of the concept of evidence-based design (EBD) has exploded over the past five years, picking up speed as a topic of attention in environmental design conferences, papers and articles, and books. Rooted in the healthcare environment, the EBD concept has now bridged out to design of long-term care settings, housing and workplaces, as well as facilities management. While evidence-based design is indeed a seductive term for those of us interested in advancing research-informed design – portending linkages between research-derived evidence and environmental design – we cautiously note that, as of this writing, in its current conceptualisation, its clout is stronger than its clarity. This paper is a clarion invitation to the environmental design research community to consider the concept of evidence-based design as emergent, warranting careful, critical examination regarding its meaning and underlying assumptions.

The idea of spanning a space with beams, none of which is long enough to reach clear across, is one which has long held a fascination for designers. Described by Villard de Honnecourt and by Serlio, variations on this form have appeared both in drawings and in actual use. This paper describes examples of both and considers the structural behaviour of this kind of arrangement.