Special edition: recent advancements in architectural science for the twenty first century

Architectural Science for the twenty first century is no longer simply about the science of buildings. Designing structures and spaces that minimize adverse environmental and social impacts is not just an architectural problem. It is more than that. Before we design structures and spaces, we need to understand the context, the site, the climate, the environment surrounding the habitable spaces. Improving indoor environment quality, for example, can only be successfully and effectively achieved, if we first improve the outdoor environment. Architectural Science for the twenty first century is also about the science of smart approaches, smart thinking and techniques, supported by smart technologies including digital technologies.

This Special Edition of Architectural Science Review presents a range of articles addressing ‘Recent Advancements in Architectural Science for the twenty first century’. The selected articles have been extensively developed from the necessarily shorter and narrower scope of papers initially presented at the 50th Architectural Science Association Conference, held in Adelaide, South Australia, from 7 to 9 December 2016. They represent a very brief sampling from the breadth of topics that architectural science and architectural scientists must consider now and in the future. Our sample of seven articles ranges over several different aspects of urban climatology, through different techniques for calculating the daylighting of buildings and spaces, to the development of innovative methods of construction. Don't let anyone tell you that Architectural Science is a narrow topic!

The first article by Ehsan Sharifi and John Boland is entitled ‘Limits of thermal adaptation in cities: outdoor heat-activity dynamics in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide’. It reports on a study in three Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, to investigate the outdoor neutral temperature threshold for people in these three cities which would allow them to conduct outdoor activities without any concerns over thermal discomfort caused by outdoor heat stress. Data collected on the type of outdoor activities, people's clothing and activities, as well as on the microclimate measurements were mapped together. The results show that outdoor neutral thermal threshold was between 22 and 34°C. Such a finding is important to enable the design of the urban envelopes that would result in the above outdoor thermal threshold.

The two articles that follow also deal with urban level issues focusing on ventilation of outdoor areas. Wei You, Jialei Shen and Wowo Ding are concerned with ‘Improving residential building arrangement design by assessing outdoor ventilation efficiency in different regional spaces’. They used computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to explore the correlation between different residential building arrangements and the ventilation of the surrounding outdoor spaces. Their findings reinforce the importance of wind direction and building orientation for improving the ventilation efficiency around residential neighbourhoods.

The interactions between indoor and outdoor spaces are also addressed in the following article by Weiwen Wang and Edward Ng. In ‘Large-eddy simulations of air ventilation in parametric scenarios: Comparative studies of urban form and wind direction’ the authors employ a large-eddy simulation (LES) model to evaluate the effects of building form and wind direction on urban ventilation. The authors put forward a number of important conclusions and recommendations for urban planners.

Reducing environmental impacts and reliance on fossil fuels is one of the main challenges of the twenty first century. Among a number of strategies, installing solar photovoltaic panels allows buildings to be self-sufficient in electricity, thus reducing the environmental impacts. In the previous century, the most common strategy was by placing photovoltaic panels on the roof to generate electricity to be used in the building. Advanced technologies of the twenty first century have allowed new technologies for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) so that the solar panels are placed on the façade instead of on the roof of a building. The challenge is to find out whether adding solar panels as the building façade would reduce the amount of daylight in the building. The fourth article by Yi He and Marc Aurel Schnabel proposes a methodology to calculate daylight in a space of a building with BIPV facades.

Calculating the amount of daylight in a space is usually done by performing daylight simulation over a full year. Such simulation can be a long process, depending on the complexity of the building geometry and surfaces as well as external conditions. To reduce simulation time, James Sullivan and Michael Donn have proposed ‘Some simple methods for reducing daylight simulation time’. Random sampling of a small number of hours per month rather than a full annual simulation is suggested as adequate for preliminary design purposes, and it is claimed that lower resolution grids can be used with confidence.

The advancements of architectural science to face the challenges of the twenty first century are also about advancing knowledge about the production of buildings and the innovative techniques to construct them. The final two articles in this Special Edition address precisely that. The first article is by Robert Doe and is concerned with ‘Facilitating integration of computational design processes in the design and production of prefabricated homes’. The title says it all and the article details how the author set about identifying potential solutions The second paper is by Gregory Nolan and entitled ‘Managing risk while translating architectural research into construction innovation’. The article addresses the complex issues around construction and construction innovation, and suggests ways to manage risks when the results from architectural research are being realized into real constructions.

Finally, it is our great pleasure to thank all of the reviewers for their exacting commentaries and suggestions, all of the corresponding authors and their co-authors for responding to these with alacrity, and of course the editorial team at Architectural Science Review – Richard Hyde and Peter Smith – for facilitating this Special Issue so efficiently.