AAU - Ambiances, Architectures, Urbanités

Advances in computer graphics algorithms and virtual reality (VR) systems, together with the reduction in cost of associated equipment, have led scientists to consider VR as a useful tool for conducting experimental studies in fields such as neuroscience and experimental psychology. In particular virtual body ownership, where the feeling of ownership over a virtual body is elicited in the participant, has become a useful tool in the study of body representation, in cognitive neuroscience and psychology, concerned with how the brain represents the body. Although VR has been shown to be a useful tool for exploring body ownership illusions, integrating the various technologies necessary for such a system can be daunting. In this paper we discuss the technical infrastructure necessary to achieve virtual embodiment. We describe a basic VR system and how it may be used for this purpose, and then extend this system with the introduction of real-time motion capture, a simple haptics system and the integration of physiological and brain electrical activity recordings.

The domain of urban ambiances has developed apace over the past twenty years. It was introduced in order to describe and design the sensory fabric of the urban world more effectively. An ambiance can be provisionally defined as a space-time qualified from a sensory perspective. It involves a socio-aesthetic approach that enables us to grasp everyday urban atmospheres. The aim of this article is to highlight the close links between ambiance and perception. We shall seek to demonstrate that one of the key imperatives for the notion of ambiance is a reappraisal of the situational, sensory, and practical character of perception. Three main arguments are developed: ambiance can be characterized as the quality of a situation, as a motor stimulation, and as a sensory background.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping is now widely adopted by many applications, and researchers have produced very dense literature on this topic. With the advent of smart devices, embedding cameras, inertial measurement units, visual SLAM (vSLAM), and visual‐inertial SLAM (viSLAM) are enabling novel general public applications. In this context, this paper conducts a review of popular SLAM approaches with a focus on vSLAM/viSLAM, both at fundamental and experimental levels. It starts with a structured overview of existing vSLAM and viSLAM designs and continues with a new classification of a dozen main state‐of‐the‐art methods. A chronological survey of viSLAM’s development highlights the historical milestones and presents more recent methods into a classification. Finally, the performance of vSLAM is experimentally assessed for the use case of pedestrian pose estimation with a handheld device in urban environments. The performance of five open‐source methods Vins‐Mono, ROVIO, ORB‐SLAM2, DSO, and LSD‐SLAM is compared using the EuRoC MAV dataset and a new visual‐inertial dataset corresponding to urban pedestrian navigation. A detailed analysis of the computation results identifies the strengths and weaknesses for each method. Globally, ORB‐SLAM2 appears to be the most promising algorithm to address the challenges of urban pedestrian navigation, tested with two datasets.

This paper presents a framework for studying design thinking. Three paradigmatic approaches are described to measure design cognitive processes: design cognition, design physiology and design neurocognition. Specific tools and methods serve each paradigmatic approach. Design cognition is explored through protocol analysis, black-box experiments, surveys and interviews. Design physiology is measured with eye tracking, electrodermal activity, heart rate and emotion tracking. Design neurocognition is measured using electroencephalography, functional near infrared spectroscopy and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Illustrative examples are presented to describe the types of results each method provides about the characteristics of design thinking, such as design patterns, design reasoning, design creativity, design collaboration, the co-evolution of the problem solution space, or design analysis and evaluation. The triangulation of results from the three paradigmatic approaches to studying design thinking provides a synergistic foundation for the understanding of design cognitive processes. Results from such studies generate a source of feedback to designers, design educators and researchers in design science. New models, new tools and new research questions emerge from the integrated approach proposed and lay down future challenges in studying design thinking.

The sense of embodiment refers to the sensations of being inside, having, and controlling a body. In virtual reality, it is possible to substitute a person’s body with a virtual body, referred to as an avatar. Modulations of the sense of embodiment through modifications of this avatar have perceptual and behavioural consequences on users that can influence the way users interact with the virtual environment. Therefore, it is essential to define metrics that enable a reliable assessment of the sense of embodiment in virtual reality to better understand its dimensions, the way they interact, and their influence on the quality of interaction in the virtual environment. In this review, we first introduce the current knowledge on the sense of embodiment, its dimensions (senses of agency, body ownership, and self-location), and how they relate the ones with the others. Then, we dive into the different methods currently used to assess the sense of embodiment, ranging from questionnaires to neurophysiological measures. We provide a critical analysis of the existing metrics, discussing their advantages and drawbacks in the context of virtual reality. Notably, we argue that real-time measures of embodiment, which are also specific and do not require double tasking, are the most relevant in the context of virtual reality. Electroencephalography seems a good candidate for the future if its drawbacks (such as its sensitivity to movement and practicality) are improved. While the perfect metric has yet to be identified if it exists, this work provides clues on which metric to choose depending on the context, which should hopefully contribute to better assessing and understanding the sense of embodiment in virtual reality.

Abstract. The Town Energy Balance (TEB) model has been refined and improved in order to explicitly represent street trees and their impacts on radiative transfer: a new vegetated stratum on the vertical plane, which can shade the road, the walls, and the low vegetation has been added. This modification led to more complex radiative calculations, but has been done with a concern to preserve a certain level of simplicity and to limit the number of new input parameters for TEB to the cover fraction of trees, the mean height of trunks and trees, their specific leaf area index, and albedo. Indeed, the model is designed to be run over whole cities, for which it can simulate the local climatic variability related to urban landscape heterogeneity at the neighborhood scale. This means that computing times must be acceptable, and that input urban data must be available or easy to define. This simplified characterization of high vegetation necessarily induces some uncertainties in terms of the solar radiative exchanges, as quantified by comparison of TEB with a high-spatial-resolution solar enlightenment model (SOLENE). On the basis of an idealized geometry of an urban canyon with various vegetation layouts, TEB is evaluated regarding the total shortwave radiation flux absorbed by the elements that compose the canyon. TEB simulations in summer gathered best scores for all configurations and surfaces considered, which is precisely the most relevant season to assess the cooling effect of deciduous trees under temperate climate. Mean absolute differences and biases of 6.03 and +3.50 W m−2 for road, respectively, and of 3.38 and +2.80 W m−2 for walls have been recorded in vegetationless canyons. In view of the important incident radiation flux, exceeding 1000 W m−2 at solar noon, the mean absolute percentage differences of 3 % for both surfaces remain moderate. Concerning the vegetated canyons, we noted a high variability of statistical scores depending on the vegetation layout. The greater uncertainties are found for the solar radiation fluxes received and absorbed by the high vegetation. The mean absolute differences averaged over the vegetation configurations during summertime are 21.12 ± 13.39 W m−2 or 20.92 ± 10.87 % of mean absolute percentage differences for the total shortwave absorption, but these scores are associated with acceptable biases: −15.96 ± 15.93 W m−2.

The article develops a fundamental conception of atmospheres which is incorporated into a phenomenology of the felt body [Leib]. It builds on a critique of a splitting of the world into a private inner world as the location of experience and of emotions, and an external world that is separated off from that – a split already made in antiquity. Set against this notion is the conception of the felt body as space without area. What is meant by the felt body is what one can sense as belonging to oneself without recourse to the five senses. Atmospheres represent another category of spaces without area. They are regarded as a total or partial occupation of a space without area in that sphere that is experienced as being present. A distinction is made here between atmospheres of the felt body, atmospheres of emotion, and those atmospheres that are not emotions. The example of living [in the sense of dwelling] is used to clarify how people achieve their own space of emotion from the atmospheres of emotion available at places.

The aims of this study are to highlight the microclimatic phenomena to which the energy consumption of a building is the most sensitive and to compare different approaches to coupling microclimate and building energy simulation models. We first present a study in which spatial variations in outdoor air temperature are not taken into account so as to compare the relative effect of convective and radiative heat flux on the outer surface energy balance. Then, several coupling methods are implemented, for which energy consumption in winter and indoor temperature in summer are compared between insulated and non-insulated buildings. Results show that for the urban context, taking into account long-wave radiative heat fluxes is crucial. Moreover, representing local modifications in outdoor air temperature is necessary for non-insulated buildings in summer, but can be neglected in winter. In conclusion, an intermediate coupling method that can be used under certain assumptions is proposed.

Résumé La thématique de la marche en ville occupe la littérature du xix e siècle. Au point qu’aujourd’hui, la figure du flâneur de Benjamin domine encore nos représentations. Pour autant, si marcher en ville requiert un art du voir dont le flâneur demeure un artiste accompli, il engage aussi le corps et les sens du piéton. Le propos de cet article est de révéler cette dimension sensorielle de la marche. Il s’appuie sur une lecture des travaux récents de l’anthropologie, de la sociologie et de l’urbanisme. Décrite comme une « technique du corps », comme un « acte social ordinaire », la marche reste « l’instrument de composition de la ville ». Elle demeure surtout un moyen de s’ancrer à la ville.

Perceptual simulation represents an attempt to anticipate physical reality, whereby people can experience and interpret future environments from a subjective perspective. Working on experiential simulation for urban and landscape design requires an understanding of the relationship between man and the environment from a perceptual and cognitive standpoint. In fact, only by investigating the sensing and cognitive processes behind perception can we establish an informed approach to simulation of places and their ambiances. In particular, we propose a parallelism between man/environment and man/simulation relationships, aiming at giving back a framework for replicating in simulation the multisensory aspects that occur in the perception of the physical world. Hence, the objective of this article is to present how we approach the dimension of perceptual simulation within our research and professional work as urban designers. From a methodological point of view, we explored the topic through two main tasks, namely the selection and reconstruction of the research context and the key issues of perceptual simulation finalized in the second task, i.e. the construction of a set of simulation tools for urban design, intended as a matrix of possible practical applications. In particular, the theoretical framework presented in this work consists of a selection and overview of references relevant to urban design, comprehension of the research context and delivery of the set of tools implemented within our research unit. This matrix of tools represents the novelty of this work and is intended as a practical reference for orienting the choice among different simulation tools within the urban design practice. For instance, it is important to highlight the efficacy of each type of simulation in mimicking the man/environment relationship.

In this paper we present an immersive virtual reality user study aimed at investigating how customers perceive and if they would purchase non-standard (i.e. misshaped) fruits and vegetables (FaVs) in supermarkets and hypermarkets. Indeed, food waste is a major issue for the retail sector and a recent trend is to reduce it by selling non-standard goods. An important question for retailers relates to the FaVs' “level of abnormality” that consumers would agree to buy. However, this question cannot be tackled using “classical” marketing techniques that perform user studies within real shops since fresh produce such as FaVs tend to rot rapidly preventing studies to be repeatable or to be run for a long time. In order to overcome those limitations, we created a virtual grocery store with a fresh FaVs section where 142 participants were immersed using an Oculus Rift DK2 HMD. Participants were presented either “normal”, “slightly misshaped”, “misshaped” or “severely misshaped” FaVs. Results show that participants tend to purchase a similar number of FaVs whatever their deformity. Nevertheless participants' perceptions of the quality of the FaV depend on the level of abnormality.

Green areas induce smaller increases in the air temperature than built-up areas. They can offer a solution to mitigating the urban heat island impacts during heat waves, since the cool air generated by a park is diffused into its immediate surroundings through forced or natural convection. The purpose of this study is to characterize the effect of several variables (park size, morphology of surrounding urban area, and wind speed) on the spreading of cool air. A parametric study is performed to run computational fluid dynamics simulations. The air temperature entering the computational domain was set at 35 °C, and the 2-m high surface included within the 34 °C isotherm was defined as an indicator of cool air spreading. The effects of park shape and orientation were negligible in comparison with size effects. The number of buildings was better correlated with the cooled surface area than the typical urban parameters identified in the literature (i.e., building density, aspect ratio, or mean building height). Since the number of buildings is obviously related to the number of streets, this result suggests that the greater the number of streets around a park, the wider the area that cool air spreads.

The building simulation tools available to evaluate energy consumption are numerous. Nevertheless, the main lack of the majority of these tools is the ability of consider the environment where the studied building is. Moreover, some of them impose strong constraints such as the choice of walls composition limited to several predefined walls or the value of the convection exchange coefficient which can not be modified. The 3D numerical tool SOLENE-Microclimate takes into account the unsteady building thermal behavior using the SOLENE thermo-radiative model, which can (or not) be coupled with the outside airflow computed with the CFD tool Code_Saturne. The main advantage of this tool is the representation of the whole urban environment which can modify both radiation exchanges (short- and long-wave radiation) and meteorological condition outside the building. The urban planning impact can also be evaluated by taking into account green soil, walls and roofs or trees influences. Thanks to all these abilities, building envelopes efficiencies can be evaluated in realistic urbanconfigurations. After a presentation of SOLENE-Microclimate, three examples of projects dealing with the influence of considering or not the environment on envelope balance are exposed: • A study of the VegDUD project evaluates the influences of green walls and green roofs on building energy consumption. • The project Merrubi studies the influence of both thermal radiation exchanges with environment and wind distribution. • The project EVA aims to quantify of the modification of the albedo values several districts.

The urban microclimate is due to complex physical interactions with the contribution of water balance, thermo-radiative exchanges and airflows. In this paper, we present and discuss modeling of heat island effects and mitigation techniques in order to give consistent results considering different time and space scales, and different fluxes (heat, water and winds) from ground to urban canopy, including buildings. The models and numerical descriptions are presented in detail and illustrated on typical examples of heat island mitigation techniques. At the neighborhood scale, alternative rainwater management techniques are studied by considering their impact on both seasonal water table depth and surface-atmosphere heat fluxes. Assessing the building thermal performance interactions with the microclimate requires adapted models that have to be refined for a better description of building envelope and systems effects. Two examples at the street and the neighborhood scale, modifying the building radiative properties or using green envelopes, show how simulation brings out the potential benefits of these techniques for the heat island mitigation and building energy performance.

Following development and validation of the SOLENE-microclimat tool, the underlying model was used to compare the impacts of various “greening strategies” on buildings’ summer energy consumption and indoor comfort. This study distinguishes between direct and indirect impacts by successively implementing the test strategies on both the studied building and surrounding ones; it also considers insulated vs. non-insulated buildings. Findings indicate that green walls have a direct effect on indoor comfort throughout the entire building, whereas the effect of green roofs is apparently primarily confined to the upper floor. Moreover, the indirect effect of a green wall is greater, mainly due to the drop in infrared emissions resulting from a lower surface temperature. It has also been proven that the indirect effects of green walls and surrounding lawns can help reduce the loads acting on a non-insulated building.

This paper presents the situated Function-Behavior-Structure (sFBS) model of co-design, developed within the FBS ontology. In co-design, designers interact with their co-designers and with their own cognitive experiences. In this model, we describe a representation of the overall co-design activity, while preserving a fine-grained representation of each designer’s interactions with their co-designers and with their internal cognitive processes. The relevance and potential of our model are illustrated through multiple examples.

The paper describes current research efforts in the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) at Ball State University seeking to assess and make creative use of the instructional potential of immersive simulation implemented in virtual reality (VR) environments. We have conducted graduate and undergraduate design studios using the CAP VR Environment, which is a fully implemented VR environment equipped with a Head-Mounted-Display (HMD) system complete with spatial tracking capabilities. Through these implementations we have contributed to the validation of the use of the CAP VR Environment in design studios and have started to develop teaching/learning methodologies for effectively using this immersive VR environment for aiding novice students in the design of architectural spatial experiences. Assuming that only tools that allow us to simulate presence through time may effectively aid the design of spatial experiences, the CAP VR Environment has been used as such a tool for simulating and testing the effectiveness of architectural spatial experiences. The paper describes the learning outcomes in the application of the CAP VR Environment within the studio setting and the level of satisfaction of the students. It also addresses the potential for future research in the use of immersive VR tools.

Abstract The research presented in this paper explores how engineering students cognitively manage concept generation and measures the effects of additional dimensions of sustainability on design cognition. Twelve first-year and eight senior engineering students generated solutions to 10 design problems. Half of the problems included additional dimensions of sustainability. The number of unique design solutions students developed and their neurocognitive activation were measured. Without additional requirements for sustainability, first-year students generated significantly more solutions than senior engineering students. First-year students recruited higher cortical activation in the brain region generally associated with cognitive flexibility, and divergent and convergent thinking. Senior engineering students recruited higher activation in the brain region generally associated with uncertainty processing and self-reflection. When additional dimensions of sustainability were present, first-year students produced fewer solutions. Senior engineering students generated a similar number of solutions. Senior engineering students required less cortical activation to generate a similar number of solutions. The varying patterns of cortical activation and different number of solutions between first-year and senior engineering students begin to highlight cognitive differences in how students manage and retrieve information in their brain during design. Students’ ability to manage complex requirements like sustainability may improve with education.

Le conflit socio-environnemental de Notre-Dame-des-Landes est actuellement l’un des plus importants conflits de ce type en Europe. Malgré sa longévité et sa complexité, malgré les coûts politiques et financiers qu’il engendre, malgré les formes d’innovation que l’on peut y trouver et les questions de gouvernance qu’il adresse à tous, ce haut lieu est peu enquêté par les sciences sociales. Dans la première partie, nous examinons le lieu du conflit et les conditions de la recherche dans ce lieu. Dans la deuxième partie, nous proposons d’élargir le périmètre habituellement considéré et d’offrir un récit réaliste de l’expérience de la « zone à défendre ». Ainsi, nous voulons montrer comment s’articulent la figure du haut lieu politique et des mises en réseau plurielles et à des échelles variées. Au travers de ces trois entrées, nous suggérons la réalité d’un « habiter en conscience d’habiter » comme ressource politique construite et partagée par des acteurs hétérogènes.

Abstract This paper presents the results of studying the brain activations of 30 engineering students when using three different design concept generation techniques: brainstorming, morphological analysis, and TRIZ. Changes in students’ brain activation in the prefrontal cortex were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results are based on the area under the curve analysis of oxygenated hemodynamic response as well as an assessment of functional connectivity using Pearson’s correlation to compare students’ cognitive brain activations using these three different ideation techniques. The results indicate that brainstorming and morphological analysis demand more cognitive activation across the prefrontal cortex (PFC) compared to TRIZ. The highest cognitive activation when brainstorming and using morphological analysis is in the right dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and ventrolateral PFC. These regions are associated with divergent thinking and ill-defined problem-solving. TRIZ produces more cognitive activation in the left DLPFC. This region is associated with convergent thinking and making judgments. Morphological analysis and TRIZ also enable greater coordination (i.e., synchronized activation) between brain regions. These findings offer new evidence that structured techniques like TRIZ reduce cognitive activation, change patterns of activation and increase coordination between regions in the brain.