This research presents a preliminary study on finding predictable methods of controlling the self-folding behaviors of weft knit textiles for use in the development of smart textiles and garment devices, such as those with shape memory, auxetic behavior or transformation abilities. In this work, Shima Seiki SDS-One Apex computer-aided knitting technology, Shima Seiki industrial knitting machines, and the study of paper origami tessellation patterns were used as tools to understand and predict the self-folding abilities of weft knit textiles. A wide range of self-folding weft knit structures was produced, and relationships between the angles and ratios of the knit and purl stitch types were determined. Mechanical testing was used as a means to characterize differences produced by stitch patterns, and to further understand the relationships between angles and folding abilities. By defining a formulaic method for predicting the nature of the folds that occur due to stitch architecture patterns, we can better design self-folding fabrics for smart textile applications.
The Integral Living Research (ILR) group advocates for five foundational principles in the urban housing environment: 1) privacy, 2) security, 3) access to healthy nourishment, 4) access to green space, and 5) self-efficacy enhancement through a culture of care and creativity. These principles have emerged from almost a decade of work in communities of need and are intended to guide designers working towards solutions to reduce stress and enhance health for urban families. In this paper, we examine and analyze best practices in WELL Buildings’ pandemic response guide among others, within the framework of housing, specifically single-family urban housing. Here, within the 2020 pandemic, best practices for alleviating the challenges of the urban single-family home in an underserved community are considered. In this analysis, five areas of focus called “COVID-19 Home Signposts” have emerged and been given additional lenses of equity and access. We describe those inequities and consider how to improve pandemic housing health for those in at-risk communities. We identify further areas for empirical study that are urgent: 1) to promote better understanding of how home, health, and housing improvement all play a role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic; and 2) to devise appropriate strategies for addressing the fault lines in our cities and our society.
Abstract:The human residential city environment is the site of our future health as a race, and how the inequities in this environment play out across cultures and countries will be the focus of our next century of design. Many in the urban environment do not have access to adequate housing, or security in their housing situation. The emotional stress of housing insecurity leads to harsh effects on health such as high blood pressure and diabetes. (Bennet et. al, 2009) Design research and evidence-based design are both significant processes in an increasingly urbanized vision of future design. (Furjan, 2007) A novel course, Designing with Dignity examines how design and health research informs problem-solving for such underserved communities. The process created a new informed design process based on social determinants of health, which drive forward the consideration of the residential condition health and access, in the urban environment. The course is particularly concerned with underserved groups who may be suffering poor health outcomes due to their lack of access to safe and healthy living spaces. This article will examine how design research, trans-disciplinary design and human-centered concerns are applied to novel thinking about access to a home for underserved groups in service to future design and health speculation. Context and existing processes in both health and design will be considered to posit new frameworks in multi-disciplinary collaboration to drive informed health design in the built environment for the future.
The Integral Living Research (ILR) group approach derives from integral theory, appreciative evidence-based design, and social impact practices. This approach consists of a novel and collaborative design research method that melds the disciplines of architecture, interior design, public health, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields into a synergistic whole that improves the capacity for change. Lack of housing equity in America has spurred this group to develop solutions to reduce housing-related stress and support enhanced well-being for urban families. The Integral Living Research (ILR) group deploys generative and empirical design research and has focused all efforts on the development and deployment of five interconnected and interdependent principles for healthy urban housing: access to green space, access to healthy food; privacy; security; and enhanced self-efficacy. This paper will explore several of the projects arising from the proposed principles as a short case study in urban well-being.
In response to colonial legacies of divisiveness and paternalism underpinning the development of knowledge organization systems (KOS) and thus impeding their appeal, accessibility, and usefulness to diverse stakeholders (Castleden, Morgan, and Lamb, 2012), this case study explores the challenges and opportunities inherent to the design of a malleable, sustainable KOS as part of an mHealth tool called Map the Gap. Map the Gap intends to reduce the burden of housing insecurity in West Philadelphia. By examining the active cultivation of communal ties between the “epistemic” and “practical” actors (Callon, 4, 2004) who substantiate Map the Gap, as well as the sociotechnical infrastructure which shapes and is shaped by such ties, the processes of collaboration underpinning functionality decisions are delineated. This paper reflects on the way KOS sociotechnical structures defy and challenge traditional academic and community models of research and development, thus requiring a unique, temporally-conscious embracement of select and dynamic collaborations. By elucidating and evaluating the considerations and practices central to Map the Gap, we seek to yield a template for cultivating healthy KOS sociotechnical structures.
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