poster

Physical architecture and information architecture, NOT

Paul Nieuwenhuysen, Joni Nieuwenhuysen

  
Biography Paul Nieuwenhysen:
Since 1983 full-time member of the academic staff at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, nowadays as professor.
These days his functions include: member of the management board of the University Library, as well as teaching courses on online information retrieval and presentation.
At the University of Antwerp he received the degrees of Licentiaat in Physics, Doctor in Science, the Belgian post-doctoral degree (Geaggregeerde voor het Hoger Onderwijs) and the inter-university postgraduate degree in Documentation and library science.
He organizes international training courses on management of information in science and technology.
He is author or co-author of more than 30 refereed publications in international journals, he is a member of several societies and of the editorial board of journals in the area of information science, and he has been a consultant for various international agencies.

Biography Joni Nieuwenhuysen:
Graduated as Architectural Engineer from The Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Works as independent architect in Antwerpen, Belgium, with architect's firms.

Abstract

Introduction:

Design considerations are applied in physical architecture as well as in more virtual information architecture. An approach that is productive and useful in physical reality may also be applicable in the more virtual reality, in some analogous way.

Problem statement:

Which elements of reality are NOT well included in mainstream architectural design considerations, while they may nevertheless be quite important for the result of the design process?
How can such factors be incorporated in architecture nevertheless?
 
Results:
A. We found that analogous challenges face the architectural designers working in physical space and information architects working with virtual space, even when we focus on aspects that largely escape the mainstream architectural design process.
 
B. For an analytical view we have placed the hardly tangible architectural aspects that we have identified in a theoretical model to accommodate 3 dimensions.
 
C. Further we step from the theoretical considerations to more practical actions and decision making: for challenges that we have identified, we also make a recommendation on how to take them into account in the design process, in spite of their hardly tangible nature.