This article introduces Memetic/Metaphorical Digital Twins (MDTs) as a novel extension of Digital Twin typologies by twinning conceptual schemes, complementing Industrial, Human, and Cognitive Digital Twins. MDTs embed cultural, organizational, and semiotic knowledge into digital frameworks, enabling the recombination and evolution of knowledge structures across disciplines. Drawing on Schlaile’s economic perspectives and Mavromatidis’s architectural lens of entropy and constructal thermodynamics, this study demonstrates how MDTs can address systemic challenges in communication, knowledge transfer, and design. A Digital Community Platform, under development for supporting decentralized Personal Knowledge Management Systems (PKMS), provides the operational foundation, integrating iterative KM cycles to support knowledge co-creation. Its logic and logistics substitute the traditional document paradigm with a memetic approach by utilizing memes as replicable, adaptive knowledge units, thereby mimicking biological evolution and ecosystem resilience in digital platform environments. It aims to offer distributed, decentralized, bottom-up, affordable, knowledge-worker-centric applications prioritizing personalization, mobility, generativity, and entropy reduction; its mission is to serve a knowledge-co-creating community characterized by highly diverse individual Abilities, Contexts, Means, and Ends (ACME) facing increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous futures (VUCA). A Boundary Object Taxonomy to Omnify Memetic Storytelling (BOTTOMS) is proposed to further structure atomic units of meaning—such as memes, mythemes, narratemes, and reputemes—into a unified framework for authorship and dissemination. The article situates MDTs within a design science research paradigm, outlines current implementation progress, and identifies future developments, including AI-supported curation, personalized metrics, and expanded boundary objects. Together, these contributions position MDTs as a universal framework for adaptive, transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation.
ObjectiveMountains, forests, grasslands, and other landscape elements are all intricately connected by hydrological processes in watersheds, which are essential ecological communities. Theoretically, watersheds are the best geographical scale for effectiveness of ecological restoration since they are whole ecological units with cohesive biological processes. As ecosystem services having the most direct impact on human civilizations and serving as the primary determinants of the effectiveness of watershed restoration, water-related ecosystem services (WES) are vital connections between ecological restoration processes and human well-being. Additionally, one crucial metric for assessing the relationship between ecosystem services is the trade-offs between WES. Not merely the main source of WES, the ecological spatial pattern of watersheds is also the physical expression of coupled natural-anthropogenic processes, making it an essential analytical viewpoint for restoration ecology. In addition to improving effectiveness assessment, examining watershed restoration from the perspective of WES trade-offs may also help guide strategic approaches to integrated watershed management.MethodsAn integrated methodological approach is used in this research to assess the effectiveness of ecological restoration in the mainstream watershed of the Liaohe River from 2000 to 2020. To thoroughly assess restoration results, the research employs a multi-model approach that includes geospatial analysis, landscape ecology measures, and ecosystem service modeling. In order to measure changes in the composition and layout of ecological spaces, satellite imagery processed in ArcGIS 10.8 is used to create land use transition matrices and landscape pattern indices. Four important WES are assessed using the InVEST 3.14.1 model, namely water purification (nutrient delivery ratio module), water conservation (annual water yield module), soil conservation (sediment delivery ratio module), and habitat quality (habitat quality module). Root mean square deviation (RMSD) is used to calculated the trade-off intensity between various services, and Origin 2024 is used for data standardization and statistical analysis. Additionally, the research adopts multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR 2.2 software) to distinguish between natural elements (driven by climate) and anthropogenic elements (driven by land use) affecting WES trade-offs in order to pinpoint the driving processes. Through spatial explicit modeling, this analytical methodology makes it possible to diagnose the root causes of restoration effectiveness and quantify them across several dimensions (spatial pattern, individual service, and ecosystem service trade-off). To guarantee region-specific accuracy, local hydrological and ecological data are used to calibrate all model parameters.ResultsResearch results are summarized as follows (covering the period from 2000 to 2020). 1) Landscape transformation: The conversion of agricultural production space (2,765.45 km2) creates 1,873.06 km2 of new ecological space (including 292.67 km2 of forests, 980.10 km2 of grasslands, 382.96 km2 of wetlands, and 217.33 km2 of water bodies), and produces unique spatial patterns, such as aggregated growth down the mainstream (AI increases by over 17%), and dispersed expansion in upper tributaries (PD and LSI increase by 11.77% and 2.64%, respectively). 2) Despite regional variation, all the four WES display quantifiable improvements: There is a 9.14% improvement (with nitrogen output decreasing from 1.74×107 kg to 1.58×107 kg) in water purification (WP), mostly along the mainstream of the Liaohe River and upper reaches of its tributaries; a remarkable 184% increase (from 9.81×107 m3 to 27.86×107 m3) in water conservation (WC); a significant gain of 85.73×106 tons in soil conservation (SC), representing a 74.7% improvement from the baseline in 2000; and a modest but ecologically significant progress in habitat quality (HQ), with the watershed-wide mean index increasing from 0.315 to 0.321 (a 1.9% increase). 3) Two of the six trade-off connections under investigation indicate a decline in trade-off intensity (WC-WP: RMSD decreases by 0.0339; WC-HQ: RMSD decreases by 0.0035), while the other four show the reverse pattern (WP-SC: RMSD increases by 0.0219; WP-HQ: RMSD increases by 0.0192; WC-SC: RMSD increases by 0.0515; SC-HQ: RMSD increases by 0.0039). 4) In particular, the landscape composition is advantageous for WP, SC, and HQ but detrimental for WC, the landscape fragmentation is advantageous for WP but detrimental for SC, while the landscape aggregation is opposite. These ecological spatial patterns have opposite effects on WES, which is the primary cause of the increase in WES trade-offs. 5) In addition, the ecological spatial layout plan previously centered on water purification is a significant factor in the rise in WES trade-offs.ConclusionFrom the perspective of WES, this research has verified that ecological restoration in the mainstream watershed of the Liaohe River from 2000 to 2020 is a traditional single-objective ecological restoration mode, which is beneficial for single-objective local restoration, but detrimental for multi-objective coordinated restoration. Optimizing the ecological spatial pattern is a crucial tactic to raise the overall effectiveness of ecological restoration of territorial space and human well-being in watersheds. In the future, integrating the trade-off intensity of WES into the effectiveness assessment system will support the multi-objective coordinated development of ecological restoration in watersheds. This research provides factual support for the shift from single-objective to multi-functional watershed restoration strategies, as well as a replicable assessment framework. There are new avenues for operationalizing “ecological civilization” principles in real-world watershed management through the scientific fusion of landscape ecology, ecosystem service research, and spatial statistics.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
ObjectivePhotography, as an innovative method of recording Chinese gardens in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has a significant impact on the research on gardens both then and in later generations. In spite of this, garden research and photographic research do not overlap much as they are two parallel disciplines. The purpose of this research is to draw comparisons between photographic representations of space and garden research texts. As an emerging image material and a way to understand and review gardens, photography has driven a shift in gardening research, with the underlying mechanisms being investigated in this research. In addition, the research also explores the interaction between photography’s technical characteristics and gardens’ spatial characteristics.MethodsThis research adopts the case study of Osvald Sirén’s photographic images of Chinese gardens. The first research path takes photography techniques and photographic images as the starting point, and analyzes the tone threshold of photographic images to figure out the technical points of Osvald Sirén’s photography, with a focus on the quality of shadow, as well as the characteristics of the images of gardens that are reproduced under the scenarios in which these photography techniques are applied. Furthermore, this research examines how people’s perceptions of garden space have changed as a result of these characteristics. Another path is based on Osvald Sirén’s research experience, which aims to conduct a comparative study between photographic images and written documents regarding Osvald Sirén’s writings and research texts on Chinese gardens, so as to explore the reverse shaping of garden memories and garden understandings through image technology. This research is based on the intersection between the history of gardens and the history of photography, and provides an in-depth analysis of the interactions between garden space and photographic technique to explore their internal, non-obvious connections.ResultsThe results show that Osvald Sirén used a large-format camera, a medium-focal-length lens, and technical concepts similar to those of the zone system to increase the density of image shadow, deepen the details, and compress space during photographing. His early research on art history profoundly influences his approach to expressing photography and his perspective on interpreting gardens. The gardens photographed by Osvald Sirén often depict spatial scenes of significant depth. However, the close-up, middle and distant views of images can all be clearly presented, and even the details of the patterns and architectural decorations in the distant view are also very clear. The pursuit of shadow and texture in his photography dilutes the common obsession with space in garden photography. Photographs give an objective and accurate perspective to garden recording, giving birth to a more convincing and neutral approach. Osvald Sirén’s photographs are obviously not satisfied with this. In his images, sensitivity to art mingles with the other side of the extreme pursuit of photography, and gardening expresses the art of living. The expressiveness of Osvald Sirén’s individual works attempts to take into account all such elements as the complexity of gardens, the wandering line of sight brought about by scatter perspectives, the flow of light and the emphasis on the artistic conception of rocks. The localized images taken from different perspectives construct a distinct narrative language of gardens, an alternative spatial narrative language to the traditional garden narrative, accompanied by the emergence of an emerging research branch of garden space reading logic — a school of garden research based on modern iconography.ConclusionPhotographic interventions in garden space research were constrained by many technical conditions which posed substantial challenges to early photography. Osvald Sirén clearly solved these technical problems skilfully, and this is what distinguishes his works as valuable works of art from common garden photography. He applied a concept very similar to the area exposure method, generating images with personal characteristics. At the same time, these images of gardens with great detail content have formed a strong set of garden narratives, which in turn influence the perspective of garden research — a spatially compressed perspective with multiple details superimposed on each other, and a perspective that transforms spatial protagonists and garden narratives, which has begun to subconsciously influence the direction of garden research. The combination of this influence and western spatial research has formed a very common paradigm for garden research. From another perspective, photography interventions in garden space research are constrained by a plethora of technological conditions. This process of overcoming photographic practice constraints is also the driving force behind photographic equipment iteration. Photographers’ strong artistic aspirations under limited technical conditions have given garden photography, as a sub-category of photography, an exceptional artistic character. As a microcosm of the application of photography by modern overseas sinologists in their research on China, Osvald Sirén’s photographic practice provides an original and accessible perspective for the modernization of modern research.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Lucía Movsesian. Universidad Blas Pascal (Argentina)
María Lourdes Guevara Romero. Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (México)
Tomás Guevara. CIETES, CONICET y Universidad Nacional de Río Negro- Sede Andina (Argentina)
Eduardo Reese. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (Argentina)
Paula Nuñez. IIDYPCA, CONICET y Universidad Nacional de Río Negro- Sede Andina (Argentina)
Alejandro Migueltorena. IGEHCS, CONICET (Argentina)
Jimena Abraham Viera. Universidad de la República del Uruguay (Uruguay)
María José Bolaña. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales - Universidad de la República del Uruguay (Uruguay)
Florencia Girola. Instituto de CS. Antropológicas - Facultad de Filosofía y Letras - [UBA] Universidad de Buenos Aires
Gabriela Gómes. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento. (Argentina)
María de la Paz Toscani. CEUR, CONICET. (Argentina)
Paula Pavcovich. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
Leandro Daich. Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Diego Roldán. Conicet - Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina)
Juliana Marcús. Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Madianita Nunes Da Silva. Universidade Federal do Paraná (Brasil)
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
The need to “renew” the historical building heritage and, therefore, the possibility of introducing innovative technologies and components capable of ensuring its optimal performance pose the difficult question of assessing whether technological intervention for sustainable performance adaptability should be considered a “threat,” while acknowledging that it efficiently helps to safeguard an existing historical building in the long-term and to preserve its cultural value over time. This article presents the case study for the diagnostics, evaluation and maintenance of the Church of S. Giovanni Battista in Florence, designed by G. Michelucci after the catastrophic event of 2015 that partly destroyed its roof.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
This study was carried out in order to expose the opinions of the teachers teaching art education courses about the use of creative drama in art course. According to the nature of the study among qualitative research designs the case study design was used. This research using the case study was conducted with a total of 15 teachers including 5 elementary teachers, 5 visual arts teachers, 5 music teachers, who work in seven different schools, three of whom work in primary and four in middle schools. The data was collected by a semi structured interview form designed by the researchers. The data were analyzed by using the content and descriptive analyses. As a result of the research, regarding the use of creative drama in teachers' art education courses; it was found that they used creative drama mostly in music courses, besides they used creative drama method in art course. They indicated that from a teacher’s perspective it engages students in the course more easily, from a student’s perspective it provides more active engagement, students can more easily express themselves regarding the space, and it makes the subject more understandable and thus permanent learning regarding the subject. Based on the results, there is a tight and bidirectional relationship between art and creative drama. In order to use creative drama more effectively, organizing in-service training courses where teachers can improve themselves, increasing the time allocated to art classes, creating drama workshops and providing material support are among the implications of this study.
Buildings could play a critical role in energy and food production while making high-density cities more resilient. Productive façades (PFs), as flexible and multi-functional systems integrating photovoltaic (PV) and vertical farming (VF) systems, could contribute to transforming buildings and communities from consumers to producers. This study analyses the architectural quality of the developed PF concept drawing on the findings of a web-survey conducted among experts – building professionals in Singapore. The developed design variants are compared with regards to key design aspects such as façade aesthetics, view from the inside, materialisation, ease of operation, functionality and overall architectural quality. The study also compares and discusses the results of the web-survey with the results of a previously conducted door-to-door survey among the potential users – residents of the Housing & Development Board (HDB) blocks. The findings confirm an overall acceptance of the PF concept and reveal a need for synergetic collaboration between architects/designers and other building professionals. Based on the defined PF design framework and the results of the two surveys, a series of recommendations and improved PF prototypes are proposed for further assessment and implementation in order to foster their scalability from buildings into communities and cities.
The production of the detailed design in the public works has been updated several times, even recently through the adoption of the new Public Procurement Law. Two different approaches are still remaining: the centralization of the design activity in charge of the public contracting body or the externalization to private actors. The paper, beyond an investigation of the potentialities and criticalities of these approaches, outlines new scenarios that are progressively taking place. In particular, starting from the emblematic case of the student housing buildings launched in Italy with the law 338/2000, new possible prospects, new contents and models of production of the detailed design are identified.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
The various currents in post‐Second World War hospital architecture have shared one central aim: to ‘normalise’ the healthcare environment. Rather than looking obviously like hospitals, these buildings have gone from resembling office blocks, to shopping malls, to techno‐utopias, to zoned campuses with a distinct local feel and a focus on sustainability.Professor Annmarie Adams, of Montreal's McGill University, refers to examples across North America and Europe to illustrate the different ways architects have found of putting the patient experience at the heart of their hospital design strategy.
The Architectural Association conducts its pedagogical alchemy in a labyrinthine terrace of grand Georgian townhouses in London's Bloomsbury. Intimately intertwined with the school's sense of identity, the buildings form a responsive and still‐evolving armature for activities.A new masterplan commissioned from Wright & Wright Architects, currently taking shape, will consolidate the AA as a physical, institutional and cultural entity. Clare Wright, one of the practice's cofounders, explains how.
Jacopo Gaspari, Andrea Boeri, Valentina Gianfrate
et al.
The renewed interest for under used sites of historical city centres is addressing a change in design paradigms on existing buildings involving local communities in the process from the very beginning. The paper reports a recent cooperation, named “Anteprima Lab”, between the Department of Architecture (DA) of University of Bologna, the City of Bologna and Urban Center. The action is intended as an enabler of initiatives aimed at enhancing those places assumed as common goods by local communities. The pilot defined the functional and spatial features of an innovative participated environment that follows the socio-political trends characterizing the modern age of Bologna.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
“Moving stuff” was a performance in which mud and shipping pallets shifted repeatedly across a historic, geographic, cultural and political zone demarcated by the Whau River Estuary and Rosebank Road’s industrial sector, Auckland, New Zealand. It explored the complexities of notions of ecology and economy hinged to dynamic processes of material exchange and distribution. “Moving stuff” was also an extension of themes recurring throughout my creative work: labour as a time intensive, often excessively repetitive and seemingly monotonous act, and the female body, my body, an organ that is mine to use as only I can choose, as it is employed as a performative feminist tool. “Moving stuff” tested, therefore, both labour as an untaxed investment tied to capitalism, and labour as part of a feminist, embodied materialist critique. “Moving stuff” saw me toil for eight hours a day for two days, walk more than twenty kilometres, converse with more than 600 people, shift more than 160 litres of mud and 150 pallets and finally return the site to the state in which I found it. The only limit to this labour was my personal exhaustion.
This piece represents one a series of interconnected creative works oscillating around this original performance. Three of those works are presented in this journal: a video entitled Stratified Matter: Moving things again (2013), a recording of a presentation given in October 2013 at the Plenitude & Emptiness symposium, and finally this piece, a photo essay chronicling moments from the original performance. None of these subsequent works are adequate representations of the original, nor can they ever be, rather they are works in their own right. Here I ask the watcher/reader to interpret the scenes presented, or better to interpolate from the scenes presented. These pieces therefore represent an exercise focused on keeping the work moving, or as social scientist Bruno Latour advocates, keeping it in circulation.
Read the full article online at: https://drawingon.org/Issue-01-07-Moving
Architectural drawing and design, Drawing. Design. Illustration
The consequences of the economic crisis on a social level are bringing about a series of changes in how we live and reside. Some of these transformations are destined to become structural and affect how housing is designed, to take into consideration new housing models, cultural diversity, nomadism linked to working mobility, and the ageing of the population.The provision of social housing must adapt to these transformations in society and respond to the challenge by expanding the services available to residents, in a new framework of relations between the public and private sectors.Public operators are joined by new parties such as foundations while attempting new forms of support for the private initiative, which adapts to cover a part of the requirement of the middle classes made more fragile by the crisis.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design