Introductory Chapter: A General Reading Process on Landscape Architecture

From introductory paragraph: Landscape architecture is a multidisciplinary of different fields of knowledge that combines various artistic, technical, and scientific sphere aspects such as visual arts, design, descriptive geometry, history and architecture theory, urbanism, fundamental notions of botany, pedagogy, hydrology, sociology, economics, and so on. It supports a clear combination between designing and managing according to certain principles and techniques of external functional spaces in which human activities will take place, where the activity of the landscape architect addresses both urban and rural environments, irrespective of its jurisdiction (private or public).</p

Introductory Chapter: Overview on Grass Topic

A regulate analysis of the connotation of the word “environment” in the sustainability explains clear circumstances of a being or thing (social, economic, and physical). Moreover, the meaning covers the systematization of the environment upon the physical process. The environment in a broad sense also contains all the natural and artificial factors of the physical, chemical, biological, and social nature in which a human being is a factor motor of community that develops. The importance of maintaining a steady state, the human relationship, and its living environment requires an ability to control the environment in an optimal arrangement of ecological balance. For creating a competent urban zoning, it is necessary to state that green areas in general and grass in special require a delimitation based on a unitary structure of territory structure organized. It has to be created by successive stages (valuable parts), which in the functional aspect consists of areas characteristic of the dominant aspect, the weight of one of the functions, or a greater diversity of the functions, mono-functional multifunctional space [1]. Grasses in the planted area (as a functional urban area) are shaped to serve the specific areas for beauty or recreational purpose. The grasslands have an esthetic function, which can be presented byAn essential element to highlight architectural objectsA significant decorative value (by shape or color)</ul

Sunlight analysis for the Kuwaiti Government dwelling design and effects on householders’ health

This paper discusses access to sunlight and daylight in contemporary Kuwaiti Government dwellings. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among the Kuwaiti population is related to a lack of exposure to sunlight radiation. Householders’ of the contemporary Kuwaiti Government dwellings in Al-Nahda town in Kuwait have been selected as a case study for the research project. Householders’ were interviewed about sunlight access into their dwelling and health issues associated with living in the dwelling. The research project includes a new design for the Kuwaiti Government dwellings, which has been analysed for sunlight and daylight access as related to Al-Nahda town location in Kuwait

Introductory Chapter: Overview of a Competent Sustainable Building

etween the human being and the protective building space, always a relationship with a reciprocal character a permanent arrangement, where the human being interest is to create the necessary poise to his different well-unfolded activities, under that cover as space. The building is a major element of human life. It is a major concern, a major purchase, and has a major effect upon our lives [1]. We spend over 90% of our time indoors. Today, the technological archetypes of the modern buildings are formed of a mixture of many components such as materials, energy, and construction configuration systems, which influence directly on human life and health. In marketing vision, architectural product being creations of the human work, a time-consuming good, as any other manufacture, it has not only to be produced but also to get the user’s disposal [2]. Although in sustainable design, the building becomes the system, subsystem should be examined. The climate has a solid impact on the conceptions of habitat forms and configuration of internal space [3]. While the holistic integration of systems is critical to sustainable building, every system within the system has its climatic advantage or disadvantage. The human being entered the third millennium without the hope of achieving permanent peace on our beautiful earth, sustainable development, and equality for all, where the earth is our sustainer, the chain of ecological survival. In the future, sustainable considerations will be a regular part of our basic beliefs and knowledge. Both of our norms and behavior as the physical environment must be automatically based on an environmentally balanced mind-set, not alone but along with many other considerations. Within planning, means that the green will be taken far to be more seriously that reuse of our cities will gain even more importance that green areas will be actively involved and that traffic patterns will be turned upside down. Reliability is the key to our human continuum and our prime resource for building. Earth sheltering, earth handling, and earth escaping are more clearly pronounced in the vocabulary of architectural planning and design. Trees for shade and windbreak can bear a consideration in architecture and landscaping. But general landscaping is regarded apart from the architecture, whereas in intelligent bioclimatic design, it is most effectual as an integral part of the architecture and interresponsive with its inland farming and landscaping. The building experience managed to isolate the building from the unfavorable climatic conditions, determining an inside microclimate able to provide for physical comfort. At lower latitudes, the climate moderates and summer heat, as well as rain, becomes significant. Windows are designed to admit the winter sunshine while excluding it in the summer. Insulation is used to minimize heat loss, and ventilation helps to counteract heat gain. Sustainability is an overall vision of creating quality in all parts of the building by making a whole positive in building manipulation, where an appropriate balance must be ensured between the environmental, social, and economic considerations, but also with the context in which the building is part—the city and society. In other words, the overall construction industry faces a significant transformation. A change that really matters to the development community, that keeping in mind that ecology means the doctrine of keeping communities, so take care of things. Sustainability is not mysterious, but requires common sense, consideration, and action. It became clear to understand that sustainable building is a designation of the edifice that meets UN criteria for sustainability [4]. A sustainable city is organized so as to enable all its citizens to meet their own needs and to enhance their well-being without damaging the natural world or endangering the living conditions of other people, now or in the future [5]. The concept of “sustainable building” comes from the concept of “sustainable development.” It was coined in the Brundtland Commission’s report after the first green conference in the UN’s Director had taken place in Stockholm 1972. The main task, of sustainability in building design, is to a great extent reduce the energy consumption of other buildings and other environmental loads, which has also been the cause of the authorities since the oil crisis in 1973. Since the oil crisis, there are still tightening rules for building energy consumption through the building regulations; but new rules in building regulations only apply to the new construction, which is limited in number to the total building stock. Therefore, in the case of renovations and extensions to existing buildings, it is up to the homeowner to take into account the environment. Sustainability in building sector means that account should be taken of the construction on the environment, both in the long term and in the short term. In addition, through all phases of a construction process, from the production of building materials until it returns as waste. But also the environmental burden that settlement means in the form of property, where building sustainable is to build for the future. In this concept, it is necessary to meet our generation’s needs without destroying the ability of future generations to meet their own necessities. That is, a building is sustainable in both environmental, economic, and social terms. In other words, it means that a building is responsible for the environment as little as possible, that the building’s overall economy from construction to demolition is as good as possible and that construction is as good as possible for people to live. In pursuit of sustainable solutions, there are many examples of choices and solutions that can immediately be sustainable, but which cannot be considered sustainable in the full perspective. For example, a unilateral focus on energy savings without regard to the indoor climate can result in imbalances between environmental and social quality, thus resulting in a nonsustainable solution. Another example is an unqualified requirement to use locally produced materials to minimize transport without looking at the energy used for the production of the materials. There has been a tendency for sustainability in construction to be perceived and introduced as single measures that can make the building sustainable. However, sustainable construction implies that planning and decision-making are based on an overall perspective, which cannot be ensured by individual measures. Low-energy buildings, environmentally friendly construction, green construction, and sustainable construction—are these all the same concepts? The answer is no—although they all aim to reduce energy consumption and to some extent limit environmental impact, sustainability differs significantly from the others [6]. The basic quality requirements for buildings will be expanded to include low resource consumption, recycling building materials, etc. In the sustainable building, planning and decision-making must be based on an overall perspective, which aims not only at low energy consumption, a good economy, or a good indoor climate. Instead, it should be said that the construction as a whole is sustainable and contributes to solving the environmental and societal challenges that we face.

City Phenomenon between Urban Structure and Composition

Cities are not just a sum of buildings, but especially a set of social relations that their inhabitants develop. Cities are characterized by a wide variety of social groups and lifestyles. An urban composition represents a form of the city in which it gets a formal order, so that the shape of any urban ensemble is not linked to a random phenomenon, but to an intervention mastered and understood as such. For the city, the urban composition represents what the architectural composition represents for a building. This concept regarding the composition is common both to the architecture and to the city. The main property of the composition is that it transforms a possibly dispersed ensemble into a whole, resolving the contradictions that arise when the requirements and conditions of the project are numerous. Spatial forms and urban compositions are built over time, longer than that of architectural composition. On the other hand, “design of the urban environment” is understood by us as a complex formation of public spaces of the city, located on the ground floor level of the city building and ensuring the vital activity of the urban community. This chapter will study the city phenomenon on a large scale

Introductory Chapter: Overview of Sustainable Cities, Theory and Practices

Introductory paragraph: Human settlements are the result of the dynamic adaptation of the human community operating in a given territory in the conditions of social, economic and historical relations. The areas on which human settlements are located are distinguished by the components of the physical-geographic structure, by the diversity and by the potential natural conditions, as well as by the economic and social factors in which the human settlements appear and develop [1]. Human settlements represent the totality of human communities, villages and towns, regardless of their position, size and functions. Human settlement can be considered a geographic landscape integrated with the natural and social conditions necessary for the existence of housing, work and equipment (power supply, water, transport, communications, sanitation, etc.). Human settlement is a body of land known to be a regular form of property with a hearth on which communal and territorial attributes develop [2]. The term “locality” defines a human, rural or urban settlement, delimited according to the number of inhabitants, the nature of the built-up area, the degree of the social endowment, the technical-public amenities, the function, etc. Hence, human settlements or human habitat refers to some components such as population, construction, markets, streets, industrial platforms, recreation and recreation areas. Human settlements support the unity of natural, social, material, spiritual, cultural and organizational factors, including housing, labor, energy supply, communications, water, sanitation, services, social security, administration systems, cultural facilities, recreation, etc. [1]. The village is the oldest form of human habitation that presents ethnographic, historical, economic, social or urban characteristics. A village is a group of houses and people who are leaving their means of existence of a determined social space.</p

Introductory Chapter: Housing Policy Matters

This book is proposed as both a general reading of the discipline for students in architecture and urban planning, and offers a variety of materials for professionals of local and international organizations. It brings together studies with new perspectives and relevant subjects from different geographical areas. The book gathers the contributions of international researchers and experts. It is divided into three parts and eight chapters: Part I, "Introduction to Housing Affairs," includes a chapter that discusses a general reading of housing as meaning and action in social, economic, and environmental city life. Part II, "Case Studies Upon Housing Policies," includes four chapters. It consists of many examples from different geographical areas and domains. Part III, "Housing Quality and Affordability," includes three chapters; housing quality, sustainability, and development are the main subjects for this part.</p

Passive and Low Energy Housing by Optimization

Introductory paragraph: The house is not only a roof, but also a home, the place where it is formed the moral climate and on which lasts the family spirit. UN has classified habitat settlements and identified 10 general functions that every habitat should have. (Recreations and interpretation, Preparing the foods, Eating, Relaxing and Sleeping, Study , WC, Hygienic necessities, Cleaning, Circulation and storage, Exterior circumstances). Housing is a human right is a multi-platform documentary portrait of the struggle for home. The house, being a product of the human work, a long time user product, like any other product it has not only to be produced but also to get the user’s disposal. A house is a home, shelter, building or structure that is dwelling or place for habitation by human being. Sustainable design’s principles of energy and healthy architectural spaces and material durability help make a home affordable. Presently becomes incorrect work manner when we take the building phenomenon such as (passive and low energy building), detached from the large concept of architecture. (Amjad Almusaed 2004). The passive and low energy housing represents one of the most consistent concepts of sustainable building and brings with consideration of energy saving concept. Presently becomes incorrect work manner when we take the building phenomenon such as (passive and low energy building), detached from the large concept of architecture. The architectural product, being a product of the human work, a long time user product, like any other product it has not only to be produced but also to get the user’s disposal. The human comfort is a vital aim of architecture, and it classified such variable level. The interaction always appears between the energy such abstract act and human comfort such human feeling. The balancing condition is extremely complex. </p

Blending Human Ware with Software and Hardware in the Design of Smart Cities

Sustainable innovation entails realizing society-oriented value creation in an environment-friendly manner. A smart city can be viewed as a holistic paradigm that avails of state-of-the-art information and communication technologies (ICTs, in other words) to advance the so-called “Internet of Things.” This aids the management of urban processes and improves the quality of life for the citizens. Smart cities are bound to keep getting “smarter” as the ICTs keep developing. While the technological factor represented by the IoT, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, urban digital twinning, cloud computing, and mobile Internet is a driving factor unarguably, innovation in urban ecology is a vital socio-economic factor that will spur the transformation of urban areas in the world to smart cities. In this chapter, the authors answer the “what,” how, and “who,” so to say, of the paradigm—smart cities—with real-life examples and a case study. They emphasize the importance of human ware and remind readers that technology—the all-encompassing Internet of Things with its infantry of cameras, sensors, and electronic devices—though powerful, is a humble servant in the service of the inhabitants of a smart city