Urban Design Typologies, Process and Products

“A good city is not a result of individual, independent and selfish decisions”

(Enrique Penalosa, Mayor of Bogota)

The city is a collage of overlapping precincts, places and linkages (Rowe and Koetter, 1978). How should these elements be designed and organized? Is the urban design a product or a process? This book is not only to provide a typology of procedures and products of the urban design field but also to present a number of case studies that illustrate the range of interpretations of urban design.

This book is written by Jon Lang, a master in urban development and design program of University of new South Wales Sydney, Australia. The book is consist of 4 (four) comprehensive parts. Part I is the nature of urban design and urban designing. In this first part, the author discusses the public realm of cities and urban design, urban design process and the evolving typology of urban design process.

Architectural Research Methods

Architectural Research Methods (written by Linda Groat and David Wang)

Architectural Research Methods is essential reference for architecture students and researchers as well as architects, interior designers, landscape architects and other professional related to building and or urban design.

Numerous research programs in architecture and built environment exist in all over the world. Many of them offer a multiple area of specialization or emphasis. Research method is typically a required course in those programs. Obviously there is a need for comprehensive book that introduces a range of method across multiple areas.

The aim of this book is to provide an introductory guide for anyone wishing to conduct research on an aspect of built environment. The full range of research method available and applicable to the diverse array of topics of architectural research is provided in this book.  A case study of each research methods strategies gives a clear discussion.

This book divided into 2 (two) major parts. Part one describes the domain of architectural research.

7 KEAJAIBAN REJEKI

Buku 7 Keajaiban Rejeki karya Ippho Santosa bukanlah sebuah buku yang mengajarkan bagaimana seseorang bisa meraih kesuksesan. Tetapi buku ini menunjukkan apa yang harus dilakukan oleh seseorang jika ingin memperoleh percepatan - percepatan, lompatan - lompatan atau keajaiban - keajaiban dengan sentuhan Islami. Percepatan, lompatan atau keajaiban tersebut dapat diterapkan dalam berbagai aspek kehidupan, apakah itu dalam hal keuangan, kesehatan, impian, prestasi dan sebagainya.
7 keajaiban yang menjadi Inti dari buku ini dituliskan Ippho dengan istilah yang cukup unik. Mulai dari Sidik Jari Kemenangan, Sepasang Bidadari, Golongan Kanan, Simpul Perdagangan, Perisai Langit, Pembeda Abadi dan Pelangi Ikhtiar. 7 Keajaiban tersebut saling kait mengkait satu sama lain sehingga merupakan satu kesatuan yang tidak bisa dipisahkan.

Jangan remehkan kloset jongkok

Para ahli dari berbagai negara telah mengkaji perbandingan pemakaian kloset jongkok dengan kloset duduk sejak 1980-an.  Salah satu peneliti, yaitu Dr. Saeed Rad dari Iran menyimpulkan bahwa, posisi jongkok saat buang hajat lebih baik dibandingkan posisi duduk. Hasil temuan ini serupa dengan kesimpulan para ahli lainnya, yakni pertama, posisi jongkok membuat pembuangan lebih lancar dan tuntas. Otot-otot sekitar usus besar lebih nyaman bekerja karena otot paha saat jongkok ikut membantu peregangan. Hal ini dapat mencegah terjadinya hernia.

Selain itu saat posisi duduk dan mengejan, ada beberapa syaraf rentan terkena tekanan misalnya syaraf kandung kemih, prostat, dan rahim. Sementara posisi jongkok melindungi syaraf-syaraf tersebut dari kerusakan.

Ketiga, ketika seseorang dalam posisi jongkok, katup antara usus besar dan usus kecil menutup. Sehingga, mencegah usus kecil terkontaminasi bakteri dari usus besar.

Keempat, khususnya bagi ibu hamil, posisi berjongkok menghindari rahim tertekan ketika membuang air. Jika dilakukan setiap hari, maka akan membantu persalinan secara normal. Posisi jongkok juga merupakan posisi alami manusia saat melahirkan.

ENVI-met, Microscale Urban Microclimate Model

ENVI-met is a three-dimensional computer model which analyzes micro-scale thermal interactions within urban environments. It is one of the first models that seek to reproduce the major processes in the atmosphere that affect the microclimate, including the simulation of wind flows, turbulence, radiation fluxes, temperature and humidity, on a well-founded physical basis (i.e. the fundamental laws of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics). The software uses both the calculation of fluid dynamics characteristics, such as air flow and turbulence, as well as the thermodynamic processes taking place at the ground surface, at walls, at roofs and at plants.

ENVI-met developed by Michael Bruse as a result of his PhD Thesis under the topics “The Influence of Local Environmental Design on Microclimate” at University of Bochum Germany in 1999. It is also regulary updated and freeware. Latest version of ENVI-met V3.1 released on October 2009 at www.envi-met.com. On this website, Mr, Bruse announced that the ENVI-met V4 has already developed but has not been published yet.

Numerous researchers have used this software to analyze the research problems as their research’s objective. It’s relatively few input parameters and complex meteorological output parameters are the reason why this software is widely use by the urban environment researchers.

The comparison of ENVI-met results with field studies is important question, in order to solve the problem of lacking validation, which is still common for most urban numerical models. Ali-Toudert (2005) found a satisfied result when compared the microclimate field measurement on Ghardia that has hot dry climate and the result from ENVI-met simulation.