Context Considerations
Conflicts of Copyright and Contextualism View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robert Greenstreet
In the past few years, there have been extensive international efforts to enhance the protection of architectural ideas through copyright legislation. Stimulated by the Berne Convention, such legislation as the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act in the United States have been largely successful, although unwittingly have created some unforeseen challenges for architects. One of the challenges that has recently emerged is the question of contextualism, an important component in design practice within towns and cities, and its potential conflict with copyright laws. Contextualism, the response to existing environmental characteristics in which a new building in created, provides an important framework for urban coherence by establishing a shared language of design derived from the elements of existing forms in their style, materials, proportions and massing. Contextualism is well established in design theory and forms a fundamental part of education and practice. However, the principal tenet of contextualism – the striving for a common architectural vocabulary to ensure visual coherence – may be in contradiction to the requirements of copyright laws, which protect originality and prevent their use in subsequent designs. This paper examines the legal underpinnings of copyright protection and its relationship to originality while questioning the inherent contradictions with contextual design and exploring the potential consequences of conflict between the two. It concludes with a suggested structure of clarification of the use of architectural language that provides a balance between the need to protect architectural originality while preserving the urbanistically sound principles of contextualism.
Featured Commercial Construction Ethical Decision Making: Authentic Case Studies View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session John R. Weber
This paper explores and promotes the effective use of case studies to teach ethical decision making to construction management (CM) students. The importance of ethical decision making in commercial construction and leadership is presented emphasizing critical societal and economic impacts of industry. Quantitative and qualitative findings from a 2021 instructor survey of American Council of Construction Educators (ACCE) are presented based on themes found in literature. Authentic case studies are discussed along with important topical research that could benefit society. Future research pertaining to CM including non-rational factors and personal relationships in decision making, unique pressures and an “everybody does it” attitude, systemic ethical transgressions, whistleblowing, and instructor views on their program’s ethical decision-making content are identified. CM instruction developing student awareness of consequences of their individual decisions through the use of authentic case studies could contribute to both industry and society.
A Systematic Review of the Design of Sustainable Education Spaces View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nükhet Hotar, Seda Nur Apdi̇k, Ayça Tokuç, Bahar Baran
This study critically examines the literature on sustainable education spaces via bibliometric analysis. The context is a compilation of the publications in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Analyses include: the distribution of the publications by years; countries with high broadcasting rates, journals and universities; authors and high rates of cited publications; distribution of publications by WoS categories; research areas and keywords. These analyses were conducted through VOSviewer and Carrot applications. The results show that the studies in this area increased significantly after 2017, most studies were from China and America, most of the studies are in the field of green sustainable science technologies. Studies in the fields of architecture and education emerged less during the examinations. Later, the relationship between the concepts of sustainability, education and architecture was investigated. Consequently, there is a gap in studies in which education, architecture and sustainability disciplines are together, and they should be increased to fill the gap. This study contributes to sustainable education environment designs and can help to develop future studies.
