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School of Architecture

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College of Design

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 11

The physical environment and patient safety: an investigation of physical environmental factors associated with patient falls

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-11-21) Choi, Young-Seon

Patient falls are the most commonly reported "adverse events" in hospitals, according to studies conducted in the U.S. and elsewhere. The rate of falls is not high (2.3 to 7 falls per 1,000 patient days), but about a third of falls result in injuries or even death, and these preventable events drive up the cost of healthcare and, clearly, are harmful outcomes for the patients involved. This study of a private hospital, Dublin Methodist Hospital, in Dublin, Ohio analyzes data about patient falls and the facility's floor plans and design features and makes direct connections between hospital design and patient falls. This particular hospital, which was relatively recently constructed, offered particular advantages in investigating unit-layout-related environmental factors because of the very uniform configuration of its rooms, which greatly narrowed down the variables under study. This thesis investigated data about patients who had suffered falls as well as patients with similar characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and diagnosis) who did not suffer falls. This case-control study design helps limit differences between patients. Then patient data was correlated to the location of the fall and environmental characteristics of the locations, analyzed in terms of their layout and floor plan. A key part of this analysis was the development of tools to measure the visibility of the patient's head and body to nurses, the relative accessibility of the patient, the distance from the patient's room to the medication area, and the location of the bathroom in patient rooms (many falls apparently occur during travel to and from these areas). From the analysis of all this data there emerged a snapshot of the specific rooms in the hospital being analyzed where there was an elevated risk of a patient falling. While this finding is useful for the administrators of that particular facility, the study also developed a number of generally applicable conclusions. The most striking conclusion was that, for a number of reasons, patients whose heads were not visible from caregivers working from their seats in nurses' stations and/or from corridors had a higher risk of falling, in part because staff were unable to intervene in situations where a fall appeared likely to occur. This was also the case with accessibility; patients less accessible within a unit had a higher risk of falling. The implications for hospital design are clear: design inpatient floors to maximize a visible access to patients (especially their heads) from seats in nurses' stations and corridors.
Bayesian calibration of building energy models for energy retrofit decision-making under uncertainty

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-11-10) Heo, Yeonsook

Retrofitting of existing buildings is essential to reach reduction targets in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. In the current practice of a retrofit decision process, professionals perform energy audits, and construct dynamic simulation models to benchmark the performance of existing buildings and predict the effect of retrofit interventions. In order to enhance the reliability of simulation models, they typically calibrate simulation models based on monitored energy use data. The calibration techniques used for this purpose are manual and expert-driven. The current practice has major drawbacks: (1) the modeling and calibration methods do not scale to large portfolio of buildings due to their high costs and heavy reliance on expertise, and (2) the resulting deterministic models do not provide insight into underperforming risks associated with each retrofit intervention. This thesis has developed a new retrofit analysis framework that is suitable for large-scale analysis and risk-conscious decision-making. The framework is based on the use of normative models and Bayesian calibration techniques. Normative models are light-weight quasi-steady state energy models that can scale up to large sets of buildings, i.e. to city and regional scale. In addition, they do not require modeling expertise since they follow a set of modeling rules that produce a standard measure for energy performance. The normative models are calibrated under a Bayesian approach such that the resulting calibrated models quantify uncertainties in the energy outcomes of a building. Bayesian calibration models can also incorporate additional uncertainties associated with retrofit interventions to generate probability distributions of retrofit performance. Probabilistic outputs can be straightforwardly translated into a measure that quantifies underperforming risks of retrofit interventions and thus enable decision making relative to the decision-makers' rational objectives and risk attitude. This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of the new framework on retrofit applications by verifying the following two hypotheses: (1) normative models supported by Bayesian calibration have sufficient model fidelity to adequately support retrofit decisions, and (2) they can support risk-conscious decision-making by explicitly quantifying risks associated with retrofit options. The first and second hypotheses are examined through case studies that compare outcomes from the calibrated normative model with those from a similarly calibrated transient simulation model and compare decisions derived by the proposed framework with those derived by standard practices respectively. The new framework will enable cost-effective retrofit analysis at urban scale with explicit management of uncertainties.
An investigation on task interruptions and the physical environment for human performance

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-07-14) Seo, Hyun-Bo

Many dangerous or tragic events such as airplane crashes and medical errors are often the result of human errors, and these errors are often the result of a professional worker being interrupted during a critical task. Although their impact can be serious, the ways that interruptions are affected by the physical environment have rarely been examined in the study of architecture. Therefore, this thesis investigates how the physical environment helps manage the interruptions by observing the process of medication administration by nurses in hospital units. Nurse shadowing observation data showed that the level of visibility of work areas in and around nurse stations significantly contributed to the number of interruptions initiated by others. Therefore, this thesis concludes that the physical environment affects interruption events and discusses the design implications of observation-based findings and the potential impact of the physical environment on major clinical errors. As for future directions for investigation, this thesis suggests that interruptions become a more prominent subject for consideration in architecture, and the physical environment as a subject for analyzing interruption and performance in human factors and health care.
An ethnographically informed analysis of design intent communication in BIM-enabled architectural practice

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-07-05) Abdelmohsen, Sherif Morad Abdelkader

The building information model (BIM) is assumed to encompass all the required parameters, rules and attributes about a design product and process for Architecture-Engineering-Construction (AEC) practitioners in a way that is comprehendible by all participants sharing the model and that communicates their needs and intentions. The socio-cognitive day-to-day interactions that occur in the workplace imply however that there are discrepancies between what is exchanged as design information when sharing a model and what is exchanged as goals, needs and possibly conflicting intentions and interests when sharing a common ill-structured problem. The findings of an ethnographic study are presented. The study investigates affordances and limitations in BIM-enabled practice regarding the communication of design intent among design teams in the context of an architectural project. Grounded theory coding was used as a basis for analytic induction through constant comparison and examination of data from field observation, interviews and design meetings, to identify emergent conceptual categories central to the research inquiry. A "thick description" was provided that took into account the dynamic interactions among teams, including interdisciplinary, intradisciplinary and non-disciplinary interaction. By dissecting hypothetical models of shared project information offered by BIM, the dissertation identified interfaces of information exchange, states of the BIM model as a boundary object, and emergent and overlapping communities of practice that delineate the degree of completeness and correctness of a BIM model and describe its effectiveness in capturing and conveying the intent of participants upon interaction. To draw parallels to other contexts, the assumptions central to the study were discussed in relation to a spectrum of possible scenarios within the larger population of AEC firms. In light of the findings and "persona" descriptions identified in the study, the dissertation examined and proposed amendments and richer descriptions to existing surveys and market reports that address the use and benefits of BIM in the AEC industry, including topics such as the internal business value of BIM, top ways to improve value of BIM, and impact of project factors on BIM value.
Development of robust building energy demand-side control strategy under uncertainty

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-05-25) Kim, Sean Hay

The potential of carbon emission regulations applied to an individual building will encourage building owners to purchase utility-provided green power or to employ onsite renewable energy generation. As both cases are based on intermittent renewable energy sources, demand side control is a fundamental precondition for maximizing the effectiveness of using renewable energy sources. Such control leads to a reduction in peak demand and/or in energy demand variability, therefore, such reduction in the demand profile eventually enhances the efficiency of an erratic supply of renewable energy. The combined operation of active thermal energy storage and passive building thermal mass has shown substantial improvement in demand-side control performance when compared to current state-of-the-art demand-side control measures. Specifically, "model-based" optimal control for this operation has the potential to significantly increase performance and bring economic advantages. However, due to the uncertainty in certain operating conditions in the field its control effectiveness could be diminished and/or seriously damaged, which results in poor performance. This dissertation pursues improvements of current demand-side controls under uncertainty by proposing a robust supervisory demand-side control strategy that is designed to be immune from uncertainty and perform consistently under uncertain conditions. Uniqueness and superiority of the proposed robust demand-side controls are found as below: a. It is developed based on fundamental studies about uncertainty and a systematic approach to uncertainty analysis. b. It reduces variability of performance under varied conditions, and thus avoids the worst case scenario. c. It is reactive in cases of critical "discrepancies" observed caused by the unpredictable uncertainty that typically scenario uncertainty imposes, and thus it increases control efficiency. This is obtainable by means of i) multi-source composition of weather forecasts including both historical archive and online sources and ii) adaptive Multiple model-based controls (MMC) to mitigate detrimental impacts of varying scenario uncertainties. The proposed robust demand-side control strategy verifies its outstanding demand-side control performance in varied and non-indigenous conditions compared to the existing control strategies including deterministic optimal controls. This result reemphasizes importance of the demand-side control for a building in the global carbon economy. It also demonstrates a capability of risk management of the proposed robust demand-side controls in highly uncertain situations, which eventually attains the maximum benefit in both theoretical and practical perspectives.
Gregarious space, uncertain grounds, undisciplined bodies the Soviet avant-garde and the 'crowd' design problem

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-05) Ziada, Hazem

This thesis proposes a theoretical framework for spatial inquiry into conditions of radical social gregariousness, through probing the crowd design problem in the work of the Soviet Rationalist architects (1920s-30s) - particularly their submissions to the Palace of Soviets competition (Moscow 1931-3). Legitimizing the crowd construct as an index of collective consciousness, and examining the early-modern revolutionary crowd's struggles for proclaiming its self-consciousness, this thesis investigates the interwar political phenomenon of amassing large crowds within buildings as a device for constructing collective social relations. The research project is divided into two main parts. The first is concerned with the crowd design problem, identifying this problem not just as the technical task of accommodating large political crowds, but as the basis of the formulation a new kind of conceptual intent in architecture. Finding the competition brief inadequate to in-depth formulation, the thesis investigates three primary sources for the crowd design problem: mass-events, revolutionary-theatre and revolutionary-art. Four components comprise the Crowd Design Problem each seeking legitimacy in the mass of crowd-bodies: i) the problem of crowd configurations; ii) challenges from the kinesthetic-space conception evoked by theatrical director V.E. Meyerhold's Biomechanics; iii) the legitimacy of 'the object' within a spatial-field of intersubjectivity; and iv) the challenge of 'seeing' crowds from immersive viewpoints counteracting representational filters of class privilege. Part-II focuses on the response of the Rationalists--one of the groups participating in the competition--to the crowd design problem. The study unearths in their designs a logic of space-making founded in the construction of inter-subjective states of consciousness radically different from prevailing individualistic conceptions of social space. To explain this logic of space-making, it proposes the notion of Gregarious Space--a theoretical framework of inquiry into what Marx called "species-being", taking radical gregariousness as the primary, generative condition of society. Besides drawing on morphological principles, social theory, historical analyses, and philosophical reflections, the notion of Gregarious Space is found to be particularly amenable to design propositions. Within the proposed theoretical framework, the Rationalists' design-proposition of curved-grounds, dense notations, textured co-visibilities and empathetic graphic conventions - all comprise a founding spatial-principle trafficking in rhythmic fields between subjects and against non-commodified objects: a principle which challenges the material domain of Productivist Constructivism as well as Historical Materialism's canonical constructs of alienation. Moreover, its uncertain kinesthetics sustain dynamic, aleatory states of consciousness which subvert prevailing disciplinary techniques of Panopticon inspection.
Developing evidence based design metrics and methods for improving healthcare soundscapes

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-04) Okcu, Selen

Healing and clinical work requires a complex choreography of architectural acoustic design in healthcare settings. In most healthcare settings, medical staff members conduct vital tasks that may have life-and-death implications. Patients visit the hospitals to heal. Their expectations include fast recovery, restful sleep, and privacy (i.e., speech privacy). However, sound environment qualities of the care settings often fall far from supporting the mission of hospitals. There is strong and growing evidence showing that effective soundscapes in healthcare settings potentially impact errors, healing and stress for patients, families and staff but it is still not clear what measures of the sound environment best predict key healthcare outcomes and what design strategies best impact those measures. By using a multi-method approach (i.e., objective and subjective noise level measurements, in-situ impulse response measurements, heuristic design analysis, theoretical studies, acoustic simulations and statistical analysis), this study aims to develop evidence based design strategies by statistically defining the relationships between three types of variables: (1) architectural floor-plate design metrics, (2) acoustic metrics, and (3) occupant response. The research is conducted in three phases. The first phase of the study compared the objective and subjective qualities of the hospital sound environments with different architectural designs, assessed the effectiveness of a newer acoustic metrics in capturing caregiver perceptions, and evaluated the impact of particular noise sources on caregiver outcomes. The second phase of the study tested the validity of an acoustic simulation tool in estimating the acoustic qualities of the healthcare soundscapes. The third phase of the study systematically explored the relationship between floor-plate design and acoustics of complex inter-connected nursing unit corridors. Even though the relationship between design and acoustics of proportional spaces (a.k.a. rooms with more traditional dimensions) has been well documented, the number of studies linking design and acoustics of complex non-proportional spaces such as inter-connected corridors still remains limited. The findings of the first phase show that critical care sound environments with different designs can vary drastically and impact caregivers` perceived wellbeing and task performance (e.g., patient auditory monitoring). Despite their extensive use, traditional noise metrics sometimes may not be effective in capturing unique characteristics of healthcare sound environments. This study validated the effectiveness of a new more detailed noise metric, "occurrence rate", in capturing the differences between acoustic characteristics of healthcare sound environments. Moreover, particular noise sources such as impulsive noises are likely to dominate the ICU sound environments and interfere with perceived caregiver health and performance. The findings of the second phase suggest the potential effectiveness of acoustic simulation tools (with hybrid prediction programs) in estimating the acoustic qualities of complex inter-connected hospital corridors. The findings of the third phase suggest the potential significant impact of design features of particular hallways (e.g., number of turns, corridor length, and number of branches) and overall floor-shape characteristics of inter-connected corridors (i.e., relative grid distance, and visual fragmentation) on reverberation time. Overall, in the units with shorter, more compact, fragmented corridors with multiple number of branching hallways, reverberation times are likely to be less. Moreover receivers located at the corridors with less number of turns from the sound source also potentially experience lower reverberation times. According to previous research, the human auditory system`s ability to monitor auditory cues is likely to be higher in the less reverberant sound environments.
Unified framework for construction project integration and its potential association with project performance

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-04) Ospina Alvarado, Angelica Maria

The construction industry is not performing as desired by the stakeholders that compose it. Several authors and practitioners have claimed that moving the industry towards a more integrated approach to project delivery could notoriously improve the overall performance of the industry. The main purpose of this dissertation was to obtain a unified framework for project integration, by identifying the critical success attributes for achieving project integration, the different levels of importance of attributes other than the critical success attributes to improve the integration process, and by determining if there are major differences among the perceptions of respondents depending on their role in the industry. In addition, this study also sought to identify potential associations between the integration attributes and the different project performance or project success criteria. In order to develop this framework and to identify the potential associations between integration attributes and project performance, a survey was conducted. The sample of the survey was composed of construction industry practitioners; it included owners, facility managers, engineers, specialty consultants, general contractors, subcontractors, among other professionals. The sample size was 264 respondents. The main method used for developing the framework was the Thurstone Scaling Method of Successive Interval Procedure; in addition, this method was complemented and validated using correlation analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis and analysis of the means. According to the perception of respondents, 19 attributes out of the 45 attributes under study, were identified as critical for successfully achieving project integration. In addition, four other categories of importance were identified and the other integration attributes were categorized accordingly. No major differences were found between the perceptions that different project participants had in regard to the importance of the different attributes to achieve project integration, leading to the conclusion that the perception of respondents in regard to this matter is very homogeneous. The potential impact of the 45 attributes on 12 performance criteria was analyzed. According to the perception of respondents, most of the integration attributes have different levels of impact on the different performance criteria; however there is not a clear relationship between the level of importance for achieving project integration and the level of potential impact on the different performance criteria. Most of the integration attributes are divided in two groups depending on their behavior across all integration criteria; in addition there are three groups that have one attribute each. The potential impact of each of these groups differs from one performance criterion to the other; however there are some performance criteria where the behavior of the groups is similar. The groups have a similar behavior on cost, time, and productivity; they also behave similarly on quality and owner satisfaction; on functionality and user satisfaction; and on health and safety and environmental impact and sustainability.
Directed visibility analysis: three case studies on the relationship between building layout, perception and behavior

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-01) Lu, Yi

This is a study of the spatial affordances of buildings that allow them to organize and transmit cultural ideas and to support the performance of organizational roles. The particular affordances under consideration are those that arise from the manner in which buildings structure the visual fields that are potentially available to a situated observer. In studying directed visibility patterns, supported by the development of appropriate analytical tools, we focus on a previously specified set of visual targets and ask how many become visible from each occupiable location. Parametric restrictions concerning the direction into which a subject faces and the viewing angle sustained by the target object are also taken into consideration. The aim is to demonstrate how such refinements of visibility analysis, lead to more precise and penetrating insights as to how building users tune their behavior to the spatial affordances of environment, and how the environment impacts their understanding in turn. Three different studies were presented. The fist used directed visibility measures to evaluate the affordances of different nursing-unit designs relative to how well nurses are able to survey patients in different rooms as they go about their duties. The second study focuses on the manner in which nurses and physicians position themselves in a Neuro Intensive Care Unit (ICU), particularly when interacting. The third study investigates how aware exhibition visitors become of the visual structure of environment and how the visibility structure of exhibitions affects the ability of visitors to conceptually group paintings according to their thematic content. The case studies support the following conclusions. 1) The way in which people position themselves in an environment as they perform their assigned tasks is tuned to the way in which visual fields are structured. 2) The visual structure of environment is contingent upon the interaction between the underlying structure of visual fields and paths of movement. 3) Directed visibility analysis leads to stronger correlations with behavior and performance than generic visibility analysis. This implies that environments are layered. Their underlying spatial structure is charged by the distribution of the contents that are programmatically primary.
Theoretical framework for determinants of A/E/C firm value, strategy and continuity: an analysis incorporating corporeal, volitional and knowledge assets

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-03-11) Beard, Jeffrey L.

This research project endeavors to frame a methodology that can be used to categorize firm value strategies (production logics) and choices of factor inputs (tangible and intangible assets), which are used to fuel production cycles for goods and services outputs. A secondary goal of the research is to attempt to determine what asset group combinations (resources) are combined by various classes of firms to produce sustainable outcomes for the A/E/C firms in the survey. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently issued a system of national accounts (acknowledging both tangible and intangible assets) that reflects the macro-economy but at the same juncture, lamented the fact that a firm-level micro-economic schema did not exist to mirror the national system. This study makes an effort to redress that void by investigating how such a system of accounts - measured on the input side of the ledger -- could begin to fill in a gap in information and understanding as pointed out by participants in the National Academy of Sciences symposium of 2009 entitled "Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Growth." In brief, the research represents an effort to make a contribution to a growing body of knowledge about intangible assets by solidifying a framework within which both tangible and intangible assets may be more appropriately conceptualized and more adequately measured for purposes of current and future investigations. The research also provides a methodology for beginning to understand how some design and construction industry firms rely on specific asset categories for operating success, corporate stock value and business continuity. It is conceivable that managers would use a variation of the methodology to better balance ongoing investments in their firm's portfolio of tangible and intangible resources. The mixed methods used in this research support the following conclusions: 1) In terms of rank order of asset deployment categories by firms, intangible assets appear to have a modest edge over tangible assets for deployment by value shop firms (architecctural and engineering design firms), but these emphases are not consistent among value chain-oriented (construction) firms. 2) Although pronounced differences were expected, there was little evidence of differences in rank order of asset category accumulation and deployment by firms (according to the Delphi panel) regardless of whether the firm was focused on continuity and longevity or (alternatively) short-term profit maximization. 3) Because of their ambidexterity in production logic, the expert panel had difficulty placing EPC (Engineer - Procure - Construct), design-build and integrated services firms in a single Stabell - Fjeldstad value logic category, and a new composite category was posited based on Delphi panel feedback.