Whose identity? Valuing the culture built heritage in diverse and tensioned societies

The UNESCO declaration on cultural diversity in 2002 has raised more questions than answers. More recent events around the World have highlighted the immediate need for legislative actions to protect cultural built heritage in tensioned societies. This paper discusses the potential global risks that face cultural built Heritage. The paper argues that such risks are not only limited to regions where military operations are taking place but also to nations where questions of identity and cultural diversity are raised. The paper questioned the reasons and the impact of the rise of ethno nationalism on the protection of cultural built heritage. The different discourses of these groups that will lead to destruction of cultural artefacts are also explored. In order to properly legislate means for the protection of vulnerable cultural built heritage in conflict areas, the underline value system should be clarified and the values under threat identified. The paper concludes with a plea to move our understanding and definition of culture from the previous \u27old\u27 definition with relation to &quot;people\u27 to a \u27new\u27 one which is more relevant to context.<br /

Residu de Grothendieck et forme de Chow

We show an explicit relation between the Chow form and the Grothendieck residue; and we clarify the role that the residue can play in the intersection theory besides its role in the division problem

The application of BIM tools to explore the dynamic characteristics of smart materials in a contemporary Shanashil building design element

Traditional architecture is known for its crafted facade features that respond to environmental, social and cultural requirements. Contemporary architecture produced façade features that attempted to enhance local design identity and local culture. Despite the advantages of modern technology, architectural elements have difficulties in fulfilling the idea of sustainable elegance that once traditional elements provided. This problem calls for an interdisciplinary design approach to deliver sustainable design solutions that positively adapt to the surrounding environment as well as maintain the state of elegance in design. With this in mind, the research aims to explore the role of new glass technologies to improve the performance and at the same time maintain the design value of traditional façade element “shanashil” in Baghdadi buildings. This research utilises BIM tools and uses smart materials to restore the lost value in design, which mimics the dynamic characteristics observed in nature, inspired by biomimetics strategies. Such qualities are found in the characteristics of smart dynamic glazing material particularly in the switchable, reversible properties of transparency and coloration efficiency. The material characteristics are attached to a 3D digital prototype to visualise the difference between dynamic and static properties through the use of technology tools Revit plugin and smart glazing virtual reality prototype. This research concludes that the dynamic characteristics of smart glazing materials are effective in delivering a multifunctional design quality to collectively blend in harmony with the surrounding environment

Smart Integrated Ecological Approach for Geelong, Australia

Regeneration of many cities is essential to enable their sustainable re-development but importantly to maintain their viability and creativity in this global and rapidly changing world. Most cities face major ecological challenges that require immediate intervention for their future survival. The predominant focus of current sustainable cities projects is concentrated upon the challenges of natural adaptation and mitigation practices these burgeoning metropolises present. Smart Cities is one of those terms, like sustainable, resilient, carbon free, post carbon cities that mean different things to different people. Smart could mean fashionable, stylish, and chic as much as intelligent clever and shrewd. This article argues that Intelligence is the ability of a city to vary its state or actions in response to varying situations and past experience, in other term, develops a self-organising characteristics; one of the principles of ecological systems. Regeneration initiatives provide opportunities for new approaches to urban development in regional Australian cities. There is a need for innovative re-think beyond terms, like sustainable, resilient, carbon free, post carbon cities that mean different things to different people. The paper discusses the development of Vision II, a regeneration project for the City of Geelong. The paper highlights the need for new ways to theorize, contextualize, and practice the design of future smart interventions in Australian cities. The realities of climate changes on the other hand, led to the urgency to channel our thinking into a new direction, one that is capable to engage our people, one that is capable of extracting hope from the structures of fear that underpins an obsolete mitigation agenda and outdated governance structures. Impacts of climate change is also one of the causes of the shift in city agenda that also include the general decline of infrastructure, conspicuous resource depletion, and the emergence of ecology as a new paradigm in urban studies. This paper challenges the capacity of a number of cities to deal with ecological stress adversities and the ability to bounce back and maintain well-being for their inhabitants. The presentation provides a broad critical analysis of the contemporary ecological challenges. The paper, through a study of an applied project directed by the author in Geelong, considers various strategies and guidelines that have formed regenerating existing urban forms and relationships. Keywords: regeneration, sustainability, post carbon, smart interventions, climate chang

Matrix-F5 algorithms and tropical Gr\"obner bases computation

Let $K$ be a field equipped with a valuation. Tropical varieties over $K$ can be defined with a theory of Gr\"obner bases taking into account the valuation of $K$. Because of the use of the valuation, this theory is promising for stable computations over polynomial rings over a $p$-adic fields.We design a strategy to compute such tropical Gr\"obner bases by adapting the Matrix-F5 algorithm. Two variants of the Matrix-F5 algorithm, depending on how the Macaulay matrices are built, are available to tropical computation with respective modifications. The former is more numerically stable while the latter is faster.Our study is performed both over any exact field with valuation and some inexact fields like $\mathbb{Q}\_p$ or $\mathbb{F}\_q \llbracket t \rrbracket.$ In the latter case, we track the loss in precision, and show that the numerical stability can compare very favorably to the case of classical Gr\"obner bases when the valuation is non-trivial. Numerical examples are provided

Diversity in the arts : perspectives and challenges of the production of art & architecture

This case study is an urban regeneration scheme in Belfast, one that was built on thehistorical success of the shirt industry in Derry with the intention to harness the iconic buildings capacity to overcome the divisive visual perception of the built environment.The paper examines how the two communities in Northern Ireland visually perceivetheir shared built environment and the extent to which architecture can access or createa blending of such visions, thus instilling a sense of symbiosis among the communities.The context of the paper is the explicit cultural frame, which appears to impact ondecisions in the design and implementation of urban regeneration schemes andarchitectural design in Belfast. By asking whether the culture concept has indeed a roleto play in the design and building of contemporary architecture in Belfast, what it pertains to do, but actually does, this paper calls for the rethinking of our assumptionssurrounding the question of how diversity is to be managed in order to be sustained