This article contributes to a growing body of design patterns in interaction design for cooperative work, while also describing how to go from field studies to design patterns. It focuses sociable face-to-face situations. The patterns are based on field studies and design work in three sociable settings where desirable use qualities were identified and translated into forces in three design pat...

This paper focuses on soundscape planning, or acoustic design, in the planning and management of open space in both urban and non-urban areas. It is based on notions, promoted over several decades, that the acoustic aspects of open space can, and should be, subject to design in the same way as are the visual dimensions. The current paradigm for the management of the outdoor acoustic environment...

The integration of onsite, decentralized, and satellite wastewater treatment systems into existing urban water infrastructure is an attractive option for recovering water and nutrients locally for multi-purpose reuse. To facilitate wastewater treatment and reuse, tailored to local needs, a hybrid membrane treatment process is proposed that couples sequencing batch reactors with a membrane biore...

Although urban planning has used computer models and information systems since the 1950s and architectural practice has recently restructured to the use of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer drafting software, urban design has hardly been touched by the digital world. This is about to change as very fine scale spatial data relevant to such design becomes routinely available, as 2dimension...

The compact city is becoming a prevailing paradigm in the world to control urban sprawl and achieve a pattern of sustainable urban development. However, discussions of the area's overcrowded neighborhoods, its health problems, and the destruction of its green areas have inspired self-examination with respect to the compact city paradigm. High population density attracts even more residents and ...

Developers and governments around the world are struggling to achieve socially sustainable neighbourhood communities in master-planned residential developments. This paper discusses research in progress that seeks to conceptualise the organic development of community in these sites as ‘communicative ecologies’. Focusing on the network qualities of social interaction in communities of place, the...