The Edinburgh Strategic Alliance (ESA) Research Projects 2019
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The Edinburgh Strategic Alliance (ESA) Research Projects 2019 A joint research endeavour between The Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh and The School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot-Watt University. Copyright © 2019 Edinburgh College of Art, Heriot-Watt University and the author(s). Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF www.eca.ed.ac.uk Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS www.hw.ac.uk The publication of all the photographs included in this catalogue has been authorised by their authors. Image copyrights as marked. The use of images is for educational purposes only. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders for the images used in this book. Please contact Edinburgh College of Art or Heriot-Watt University, with any queries. Issue 3 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced Autumn 2019. in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information Material collated by Harry Smith storage and retrieval systems, without (Heriot-Watt University) and permission in writing from the authors. Alistair Fair (University of Edinburgh) Printed in Scotland by Allander for the Edinburgh Strategic Alliance. Print Limited. https://sites.eca.ed.ac.uk/ekep/ ISBN: 978-1-904443-86-5 Design, Nicky Regan, Edinburgh College of Art. www.eca.ed.ac.uk The Edinburgh Strategic Alliance (ESA) Research Projects 2019 A joint research endeavour between The Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh and The School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot-Watt University. Contents 01 Innovative Design 7 06 Culture and Theory 84 07 Social Inclusion and Urban Governance 116 02 Hybrid Design Processes and Digital Media 21 Housing and Property – 08 Planning, Design and Market Operation 138 03 Health, Wellbeing and Environment 36 Project Management and 09 Construction Technology 148 04 Global Cities, Spatial Planning and Place 50 10 Environmental Sustainability and Low Carbon 153 05 History and Heritage 62 11 Index of Researchers 170 6 7 Introduction: the Edinburgh Strategic Alliance CHAPTER 01 The Edinburgh Strategic Alliance (ESA) is the joint research endeavour of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Innovative (ESALA, University of Edinburgh) and the School Design of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society (EGIS, Heriot-Watt University). The ESA is built on For REF2014, ESA prepared a first First announced in 2011, the Kick interdisciplinarity and on joint submission, which is the point Start programme was developed to maximising the benefits gained of departure for the forthcoming stimulate innovative cross- from working at a range of scales REF2021. The joint submission university and multidisciplinary and approaches regarding the was second in the UK for research research, and with each project built environment and the urban. power. The ESA has a joint Alliance involving both Edinburgh and It enables complementary as Research Committee to foster Heriot-Watt researchers. well as collaborative research by excellence in research and support incorporating under one umbrella a range of techniques and This book is the third iteration of a a diversity of research approaches approaches to enquiry. In 2019, we research annual, a compendium of and fields that are vital for have inaugurated a joint ‘research current research carried out across understanding and transforming space’ in central Edinburgh, suitable the ESA. In its current state it is our built and natural environment. for meetings, retreats and events. partial – it does not reflect in a We explore processes, places We have strategy-formulating away comprehensive manner the entire and spaces over the whole life days and focused meetings for the breadth of research carried out in cycle, from planning to design, early exchange of information on our two schools. It does not present construction and usage. Together, particular research themes. We are our research centres and their we investigate the social, economic dedicated to developing the talent activities nor does it include all and political forces and processes of postgraduate research students relevant researchers or research which shape our world and the and early career researchers. projects. However, it does provide impact that our built and natural Opportunities range from working an overview and detailed sampling environments have on our health, on large, multi-institutional, of much of the research at the wellbeing and resilience, our ability Research Council-funded studies ESA in 2019. Further information to understand our past and to plan to taking a leading role on our including a comprehensive list our sustainable futures. Kick Start projects. of research outputs can be found on the schools’ websites. 01 8 9 By: Lisa Moffitt BY: Lisa Moffitt University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh With: Emma Bennett With: Emma Bennett Jamie Henry Years: 2015 – 2018 James Ness Vsevolod Kondriatev-Popov Laura Haylock Calum Rennie Rachel Briglio Prototyping Wind Tunnels Years: 2013 – 2019 Filling Tank Experiments as and Water Tables as a Design Architectural Design Tools Methodology Eight original wind tunnel and water table prototypes The engineering ‘filling box’ technique is appropriated use digital and analogue architectural fabrication as an architectural design tool, drawing on the science techniques to visualise airflow for use as a contemporary of thermodynamics to explore the atmospheric milieu design tool. of architecture. Wind tunnels and water tables These insights are in some cases Related publications: This research uses a physical Physical model studies are paired Related publications: make airflow associated with tectonic, revealing ways of thinking Moffitt, L. (2018), ‘From Instrument modeling technique from with writing that draws on the Moffitt, L. (2019), ‘Materializing pressure-induced natural about joints, surfaces, and assembly to Architecture: Environmental mechanical engineering, the filling science of thermodynamics to Convection’, Architecture and Culture ventilation, such as cross- logics. They are in other cases Models as Architectural Design box, as a speculative architectural explore the atmospheric milieu 2019. ventilation, visible. While physical responses to working with forces Tools’, Technology | Architecture + design tool. In the filling box, dyed of architecture, aligning an environmental simulation devices associated with pressure of air or Design (TAD) Journal, Nov. 2018, salt water is injected into acrylic increasingly ubiquitous concept ‘Environmental Model Prototypes: have largely been supplanted by weight of water. Fundamentally, pp. 229-239. models submerged within a tank in architectural design discourse – Working Models,’ Multimedia digital simulation, this research the prototyping process revealed of fresh water, simulating the thermal variability – with a Exhibition, ESALA Research suggests there is value in working air’s extreme sensitivity to both ‘Environmental Model Prototypes: introduction of cold air into a warm design technique that foregrounds Workshop, June 2019. materially with air and water flow constructional anomalies and Working Models’, Multimedia environment or, when mirrored, the this concern. Considered sometimes as a means for understanding external disruption, revealing Exhibition, ESALA Research introduction of warm air in a cooler purely physically, as literal Wispy plumes. Filling tank study with building environmental mediation. the complexity of creating steady- Workshop, June 2019. environment. The models make indications of air flow, sometimes outlets, 2018. Four wind tunnel and four water state environments. complex and beautiful convective more metaphorically, in terms Photo: Lisa Moffitt table prototypes hone the use of thermodynamic processes visible, of gradients or intensities, environmental models as an revealing insights about differentials or equilibrium, this architectural design methodology. environmental processes taking research proposes that it is often Prototypes are designed, place within and around buildings. in the mis-readings or failures of constructed and evaluated based on models – in this case, in particular, their ability to create a steady-state in the unintentional leaks – that environment of legible airflow. It is potent insights for design’s through the act of constructing the inflections reside. instrumentation of the model and the materialisation of air that models reveal architectural insights about environmental mediation. 10 11 ECA LEAD: Lisa Mackenzie University of Edinburgh wITH: Victoria Clare Bernie Artist Frazer McDonald Historical Geographer Falls of Tarf, Landscape Study, John Derbyshire Lisa Mackenzie. Ecologist Landscape Change: Reading rural funding: £5,899 Creative Scotland landscapes, actions and YEAR: 2013 –2 021 interactions This project tests the significance of ‘reading’ rural landscapes more deeply so that inherent cultural and environmental complexities are represented together in a form that carries meaning to wider audiences. Landscape is thick and thickening, The work seeks to discover Output: composed of, and in constant complementary strategies to 2013 Imagining Natural Scotland aggregation with, layer upon landscape planning in its current – The Valentine Project. A video of layer of natural and cultural history. form whereby drawing (as the conference presentation