Yangyang Gu, Ieee Yuhu Cheng Member, Ieee C. L. Philip Chen Fellow
et al.
Proximal policy optimization (PPO) is a deep reinforcement learning algorithm based on the actor–critic (AC) architecture. In the classic AC architecture, the Critic (value) network is used to estimate the value function while the Actor (policy) network optimizes the policy according to the estimated value function. The efficiency of the classic AC architecture is limited due that the policy does not directly participate in the value function update. The classic AC architecture will make the value function estimation inaccurate, which will affect the performance of the PPO algorithm. For improvement, we designed a novel AC architecture with policy feedback (AC-PF) by introducing the policy into the update process of the value function and further proposed the PPO with policy feedback (PPO-PF). For the AC-PF architecture, the policy-based expected (PBE) value function and discount reward formulas are designed by drawing inspiration from expected Sarsa. In order to enhance the sensitivity of the value function to the change of policy and to improve the accuracy of PBE value estimation at the early learning stage, we proposed a policy update method based on the clipped discount factor. Moreover, we specifically defined the loss functions of the policy network and value network to ensure that the policy update of PPO-PF satisfies the unbiased estimation of the trust region. Experiments on Atari games and control tasks show that compared to PPO, PPO-PF has faster convergence speed, higher reward, and smaller variance of reward.
Architectural competitions play a crucial role in shaping public buildings by fostering innovative designs and ensuring fair selection processes. This study critically examines the Muratpaşa Municipality Multipurpose Performance Center, a public building realized through a national architectural competition in Antalya, Türkiye. The research aims to evaluate the center’s architectural and urban contributions, spatial organization, and cultural significance within its urban context. As a qualitative research, the study employs Hugh Pearman’s architectural criticism methodology, which includes descriptive, analytical, and judgmental criticism, to systematically assess the project’s architectural attributes. By analyzing the center’s design approach, spatial relationships, and urban integration, this study provides insights into how architectural competitions influence the realization of public buildings. The findings offer a critical evaluation of a cultural building realized through an architectural competition and, in this context, contribute to the critical discourse of architecture by highlighting key considerations that may inform future architectural competitions and public architecture practices.
ObjectiveRiver defence plays a vital role in the development of the Ming Great Wall’s military defence system. The spatial arrangement of river defence, represented by the Yellow River defence, embodies the ancient practice of adapting to local conditions, optimizing resource utilization, and transforming challenges into the guide of construction. This research takes river as a focal point to investigate the intricate relationship between the water system and military defence system. The analysis of the spatial pattern of river defense can improve the theoretical framework of the Great Wall defense system, thus fully integrating the multiple resource values of the Great Wall and the Yellow River. MethodsThe quantitative analysis is conducted using the ArcGIS geographic information platform, involving the review of historical documents, the field investigation of existing sites, the utilization of drones for low-altitude image data collection for purpose of generating 3D real scene model, and the integration of historical aerial films and other multi-source data.The specific methodology comprises two key components: Firstly, analyzing the constituent elements of the defense system of river defence space and summarizing their functional attributes based on the theoretical framework of the Ming Great Wall’s military defence; secondly, summarizing the spatial distribution characteristics of river defence elements by incorporating changes in geographic location, hydrology, environment, and other natural factors. Indicators such as elevation, slope, and distribution distance are extracted to analyze the spatial characteristics of river defense under varying conditions. Then, the spatial distribution characteristics of the defense system in different modes were quantified. Ultimately, historical aerial films and real 3D point cloud data are utilized to reproduce the original appearance of defence facilities at river defence nodes. ResultsResearch results are summarized as follows. 1) In terms of the composition of element systems, the military river defense space focuses on strengthening the construction of the border wall system, military settlement, and beacon transmission system within each subsystem of the Ming Great Wall defense system. These systems are combined through points and lines to form a tight defense network of “waterfront warning−border defense−information transmission−reinforcement and response−military command−logistics support” to jointly realize the construction of a military defense pattern in the river defense space. 2) In terms of spatial distribution and site selection, military defense facilities have formed three geographical spatial distribution patterns under the influence of river morphology and specific natural factors. Starting from Laoniuwan, the Yellow River in the research area runs from north to south through Louziying to Hequ, with its southernmost end reaching Shiti Pass. During this process, the Yellow River experiences changes in elevation from high to low and water velocity from fast to slow, forming a geographical spatial change pattern from a curved river valley to an accumulation of shoals. 3) In the development of node facilities, city defense facilities and border wall nodes are tailored to cater to the requirements of river defense. This includes expanding corner ramparts for frontal enemy protection and incorporating passes and water gates on border walls to manage water flow. Using data extracted from historical aerial photos and 3D Real Scene point cloud, the original historical original appearance of Hequying City (a river defense node) and its border walls is restored.ConclusionDriven by the intricate river water environment and military defense demands, a layered military defense network has emerged within the spatial pattern of river defense, and a comprehensive defense layout has been established by fully leveraging the natural terrain. Research results underscore the intrinsic relationship between the Great Wall’s military defense system and the natural river elements, which can promote the value research and comprehensive preservation of the military river defense space in Ming Dynasty. This research is envisioned to interconnect the Yellow River and the Great Wall National Cultural Park networks through river systems, thus contributing to the establishment of a comprehensive national cultural park system and the creation of significant symbols of Chinese culture.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Local resources can provide industrial production opportunities to improve processes while enhancing biodiversity and the use of raw materials. This research profiles currently underused bast plant fibres for environmentally sound textile applications in architecture – a sector heavily reliant on non-renewable resources – by comparing their technical properties and environmental impacts to support material selection. It also reconstructs production scenarios by evaluating fibre material typologies, their processability in textile-based building materials, and the existing fibre processing and textile manufacturing infrastructure.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Extended Reality (XR), an umbrella term for Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR) technology, has the potential to enhance experiential learning and to close educational gaps, but the implementation of XR in higher education requires the competency of instructors, as well as guidance. In the fields of design (architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, urban planning, etc.), XR brings exciting opportunities to students for design visualization and presentation. However, how the XR-based immersive experience may supplement design learning is relatively underexplored and under-researched. This study investigates the role of co-created (with learners) VR modules in landscape architecture education, with a specific focus on landscape construction through an exercise focused on the construction detail of the iconic benches in the High Line Park (NY). This study aims to delineate the pedagogical possibilities and challenges of the implementation of XR in landscape architecture (LA) curricula, thereby offering LA educators actionable insights and frameworks for utilizing the new learning tools. Implementing a mixed methods approach, this research engaged undergraduate students (n = 16) to assess the pedagogical value of XR among five types of instructional modes—lectures, hand sketching, 2D drawing, 3D modeling, and a fully immersive co-created VR experience showcasing students’ work. A focus group discussion with graduate students (n = 7) provided additional qualitative insights. The results indicate that, while all instructional materials were received positively, the 3D modeling was rated most effective in the learning process by the students, due to its versatility as a foundation and its overlap/integration with the other instructional modes e.g., hand sketching, 2D drawing, and VR creation. Although VR-aided teaching creates an immersive learning experience allowing learners to gain a clearer understanding of the learning topics, positioning it primarily as a visualization/presentation tool may limit its utility. This study concludes that repositioning VR at different stages of the educational framework may result in enhanced engagement and, by extension, improve its pedagogical effectiveness. These findings contribute to the ongoing discourse on the optimal integration of emerging XR tools and technology in LA education and other design disciplines and afford new avenues for future research.
Beatrice Turillazzi, Andrea Boeri, Saveria Olga Murielle Boulanger
et al.
The promotion of participatory processes in initiatives such as Energy Communities (ECs) can prompt behavioural change in ecological transition. The paper presents the experience of the Municipality of Cesena and the University in the EN-ACTION project aimed at increasing awareness among students and citizens about energy transition through initiatives involving various stakeholders. The first section outlines the state of the art on energy citizenship and universities in ecological transition. The methodological section illustrates the participatory approach of EN-ACTION. The third section describes the results. The conclusions emphasise the central role of active citizenship in the transition, and the role of the public in shared management of energy.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Gizem Özkan Üstün, Mehmet Onur Üstün, Asena Soyluk
Çalışma, mimarların deprem sonrası hasar tespitindeki kritik rolüne odaklanmaktadır. Hasar tespit çalışmaları sırasında mimarlar, inşaat mühendisleriyle iş birliği içinde deprem sonrası yapı hasarlarını analiz ederek, duvarlardaki çatlaklar ve taşıyıcı elemanların durumunu detaylı bir şekilde inceleyerek, yapının hasar derecelerini belirlemektedirler. Bu çalışma, mimarların, yapıların deprem sonrası durumunu değerlendirme sürecinde önemli bir rol üstlenebileceğini ve deprem risklerine karşı alınacak önlemlerde multidisipliner çalışmaların önemini, Malatya İli Çayırköy Mahallesi’ndeki Donatısız Yığma Yapılar hasar tespit çalışmaları özelinde, vurgulamaktadır. Sahadan örneklerle birlikte donatısız yığma yapı stoğunun deprem sonrası durumunun gösterildiği bu çalışmada, mevcut kırsal konut stoğunun deprem yüküne dayanıksız olduğu bir kez daha ortaya konmuştur. Afet sonrasında ve hatta afet öncesinde yapılı çevrenin oluşumunda ve korunmasında mimar – mühendis işbirliğinin önemini gösteren bu incelemenin, ileride yapılacak farklı araştırmalar içinde önemli bir bilgi kaynağı olacağı düşünülmektedir.
Depth estimation models have shown promising performance on clear scenes but fail to generalize to adverse weather conditions due to illumination variations, weather particles, etc. In this paper, we propose WeatherDepth, a self-supervised robust depth estimation model with curriculum contrastive learning, to tackle performance degradation in complex weather conditions. Concretely, we first present a progressive curriculum learning scheme with three simple-to-complex curricula to gradually adapt the model from clear to relative adverse, and then to adverse weather scenes. It encourages the model to gradually grasp beneficial depth cues against the weather effect, yielding smoother and better domain adaption. Meanwhile, to prevent the model from forgetting previous curricula, we integrate contrastive learning into different curricula. By drawing reference knowledge from the previous course, our strategy establishes a depth consistency constraint between different courses toward robust depth estimation in diverse weather. Besides, to reduce manual intervention and better adapt to different models, we designed an adaptive curriculum scheduler to automatically search for the best timing for course switching. In the experiment, the proposed solution is proven to be easily incorporated into various architectures and demonstrates state-of-the-art (SoTA) performance on both synthetic and real weather datasets. Source code and data are available at https://github.com/wangjiyuan9/WeatherDepth.
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has brought about a qualitative change in the design and management of construction projects because it represents a digital simulation of the physical characteristics of the build-ing, and this increases its efficiency before the actual construction begins. In Iraq, most construction pro-jects still use CAD two-dimensional drawing for the purpose of the implementation process, especially gov-ernment projects, and this causes many problems due to the difficulty of communication between the vari-ous disciplines involved in the design and misunderstanding during implementation. This type of problem is reduced by combining BIM drawings prepared by designers and making them into a single model. In this process of merging conflicts are found using BIM tools such as Autodesk Navisworks. There are three main types of detection. This article includes how a clash detector can help improve clashes in the design phase before starting to construct a specific building using BIM applications and focuses on hard detection type (overlap of a particular element with the others). The methodology involved in this research is to study an educational building (24-classroom model school) consisting of structural and architectural BIM models only, clash detection analysis is done using Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Navisworks Manage software.
M. Khodak, Neil A. Tenenholtz, Lester W. Mackey
et al.
Factorized layers--operations parameterized by products of two or more matrices--occur in a variety of deep learning contexts, including compressed model training, certain types of knowledge distillation, and multi-head self-attention architectures. We study how to initialize and regularize deep nets containing such layers, examining two simple, understudied schemes, spectral initialization and Frobenius decay, for improving their performance. The guiding insight is to design optimization routines for these networks that are as close as possible to that of their well-tuned, non-decomposed counterparts; we back this intuition with an analysis of how the initialization and regularization schemes impact training with gradient descent, drawing on modern attempts to understand the interplay of weight-decay and batch-normalization. Empirically, we highlight the benefits of spectral initialization and Frobenius decay across a variety of settings. In model compression, we show that they enable low-rank methods to significantly outperform both unstructured sparsity and tensor methods on the task of training low-memory residual networks; analogs of the schemes also improve the performance of tensor decomposition techniques. For knowledge distillation, Frobenius decay enables a simple, overcomplete baseline that yields a compact model from over-parameterized training without requiring retraining with or pruning a teacher network. Finally, we show how both schemes applied to multi-head attention lead to improved performance on both translation and unsupervised pre-training.
Leonardo Paris, Maria Laura Rossi, Angela Moschetti
<p>The 60s of the last century were characterized by a great cultural ferment on the theme of urban space and its transformations resulting from conurbation. The political, social, economic, and environmental implications of this phenomenon were notable, to which we attempted to give both a cultural and scientific response. An important aspect concerned the need to govern urban and territorial transformations, guaranteeing the quality of urban space but, at the same time, safeguarding the memory of the historic centers which, precisely in those years, were undergoing the strong pressure of conurbation dynamics. One of the key studies is undoubtedly The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch from 1960 in which the author analyzes the role of environmental images in the perception of the city and its space. These studies are followed by other equally famous contributions (Cullen, 1961; Rossi, 1966; Norberg-Schulz, 1979) which, by exploring the mechanisms of the individual’s perception of the environment, have given rise to a vast literature in the international field. Experiments in which the authors deal with urban reality, with its experience and the history of the traditional city in an attempt to develop codes to interpret and evaluate not only the characteristics of the physical city, but to look at urban spaces as spaces of relation.<br />Subsequent studies were started from the theories developed by Lynch and Cullen which define different methodologies for analyzing the urban landscape, to support the planning of new interventions and the transformation of pre-existing urban areas. Between the 70s and 80s, a group of researchers from University College London laid the foundations of what is now defined as spatial syntax, also known as configurational theory, applied to studies and analyses of urban space.</p><p><span class="TextRun SCXW184135118 BCX8" lang="IT-IT" xml:lang="IT-IT" data-contrast="auto">DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.31.2023.</span><span class="TextRun Highlight SCXW184135118 BCX8" lang="IT-IT" xml:lang="IT-IT" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW184135118 BCX8">7</span></span></p>
Bu çalışmanın amacı farklı ülkelerde lisans düzeyinde bulunan animasyon öğretim programlarındaki derslerin çeşitliliğini ve dağılımını araştırmaktır. Çalışma kapsamında ABD, Avrupa, Birleşik Krallık, Kıbrıs, Singapur ve Türkiye olmak üzere 52 farklı üniversitedeki animasyon lisans öğretim programlarındaki 1030 adet ders incelenmiştir. Çalışmada nicel araştırma yöntemlerinden doküman analizi yöntemi kullanılmış, elde edilen veriler betimsel olarak yorumlanmıştır. Ders ismi-üniversite matrisi, derslerin ait oldukları üniversite-bölüm, zorunlu-seçmeli ders olma durumlarını gösteren belirtke tablosu hazırlanmış ve ders çeşitliliği frekans ve yüzde değerleri halinde sunulmuştur. Araştırma sonucunda, programlarda farklı isimde benzer içerikli, aynı isimde farklı içerikte derslerin bulunduğu, derslerin geleneksel uygulamalı dersler, dijital uygulamalı dersler ve teorik dersler olarak üç ana gruba ayrıldığı görülmüştür. ABD, TR, BK ve AB’de geleneksel tabanlı derslerin %63, dijital tabanlı derslerin %37 oranında yer aldığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Uygulamalı dersler özelinde ise dijitale nazaran geleneksel tabanlı dersler ABD (%62), BK (%58) ve TR (%57) programlarında ağırlıklı yer kapladığı, yalnızca AB programlarında %48 oranı ile dijital uygulamalı derslerin gerisinde kaldığı görülmüştür. Zorunlu ve seçmeli ders dağılımlarında ise zorunlu derslerin oranının ABD (%75), BK (%65), AB (%76) ve TR (%61) programlarında daha yüksek olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
Abstract The transition to intelligent manufacturing provides a fulcrum for the revolution of product lifecycle like design, manufacturing and maintenance, so does it for process planning. Specifically, digital twin manufacturing cell (DTMC) is regarded as a new means of and also a basic unit for implementing intelligent manufacturing. Incorporating process planning in DTMC could improve the integrity of DTMC and enhance the feasibility of process planning. Consequently, this paper proposes a deep learning-enabled framework for intelligent process planning towards DTMC. Firstly, a process knowledge reuse network (PKR-Net) that takes deep residual networks as base architecture is embedding into the framework, which could understand design intents expressed in a drawing or a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) model via its views and automatically retrieve relevant knowledge for the quick generation of theorical processes. Then, an evaluation twin is constructed to transform the theorical processes into practical operations and produce an optimal process plan. Finally, a test bed of the framework is constructed and the experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach.
Face-swapping models have been drawing attention for their compelling generation quality, but their complex architectures and loss functions often require careful tuning for successful training. We propose a new face-swapping model called ‘Smooth-Swap’, which excludes complex handcrafted designs and allows fast and stable training. The main idea of Smooth-Swap is to build smooth identity embedding that can provide stable gradients for identity change. Unlike the one used in previous models trained for a purely discriminative task, the proposed embedding is trained with a supervised contrastive loss promoting a smoother space. With improved smoothness, Smooth-Swap suffices to be composed of a generic U-Net-based generator and three basic loss functions, a far simpler design compared with the previous models. Extensive experiments on face-swapping benchmarks (FFHQ, $Face-Forensics++$) and face images in the wild show that our model is also quantitatively and qualitatively comparable or even superior to the existing methods.
The changing and evolving forms of crisis, to which Architecture is asked to give an answer, lead to a metamorphosis not only of the spaces of contemporary living but also of the way of thinking about them as an opportunity to design a “Possible Quality”. Abandoning the logic of waste and increasing awareness of “responsible freedom” by coming to terms with the “roots of change” is the mission to which we are called by current events. In relation to these events, we must have an optimistically concrete, feasible vision of the future, founded on historical memory and aware that progress and innovation have both strengths and weaknesses that must be managed with wisdom and humility.
As Paolo Portoghesi tells us: Architecture is not only a noble mental exercise. The deep knowledge of the places, on which the architect’s work has the responsibility and the privilege of leaving its imprint, leads to the prudent and responsible consideration: we must satisfy real human needs and not false demands. A responsible ecological vision leads us to recognize that every place on the planet is a sensitive receptor and the impulse of transformation rather than metamorphosis, whether beneficial or harmful, inevitably has repercussions in all the other part of the system, in a condition of preordained unstable equilibrium as in Alexander Calder’s Mobiles.
In synthesis, architecture is an involving and infinite dialogue; on this issue, Paolo Portoghesi takes the floor, the predestined of architecture that “breathes, communicates, inflects and embraces us” with the awareness of the responsibilities we have towards future generations.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Abstract This article outlines the basic design of digitally transformed social theory. We show that any digital world is created by the drawing and cross-tabling of binary distinctions. As any theory is supposed to be concerned with truth, we introduce to and insist on the distinction between true and false distinctions. We demonstrate how flexible matrix-shaped theory architectures based on true distinctions allow for the reduction and unfolding of the entire complexity of analogue social theories. The result of our demonstrations is the idea of a theoretical Supervacuus. The social equivalent of a universal Turing machine, this supervacuous social theory is virtually empty as it is based on only one proper theoretical premise (the idea of distinction [between true and false distinctions]), and therefore able to simulate all other social theory programmes. We conclude that our digitally transformed social theory design is particularly useful for observations of a digitally transformed society.
The five sections of this essay explore the way some of the old world’s leading architects, especially from Northern Europe, develop their architectural design by creating an intrinsic and natural blend of disciplines. The scope is to achieve a unity of content and form, signifier and signified, whose process cannot be fragmented into phases, mansions and specialism for procedural terms only, whereas we maintain it must inevitably be progressively carried out as a project-based unity in any case.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design