2.1 Introduction
As new demands for comfort emerged in buildings during the 1970's, adaptation concepts became more prevalent. The term adaptation is mentioned in architecture to describe the process performed by systems in which specific properties of a building are changed within a specific time frame in order to manage changing environmental conditions or occupant's demands. The environment is in a constant flux over time and space, thus there is a need to accommodate and manage the environmental changes for the occupant's satisfaction. For example, "an ideal cladding system would have quite different thermal and optical properties at different times of the day and night, at different outdoor temperature conditions, and in summer and winter" [Gregory 1986].
Three categories can be defined for the performance level of adaptation based on the dimension of change and the functional features of each category, as illustrated in Figure 2.1: (a) flexible adaptation - 2D change of surface orientation; (b) transformable adaptation - 3D change of spatial configuration; and (c) responsive adaptation - 4D change of time and space. The proposed classification aims to reduce the overlap of adaptation definitions found in literature (e.g. Lelieveld 2007), as well as it emphasizes the importance of the dimension of changes to define each adaptation category.
Brief elaborations on the adaptation categories are presented in Table 2.1. The table presents variables, attributes, and featuring elements of each category; it also classifies exemplary and representative projects in literature based on the proposed classification. Further details on some of the representative projects are specified in section 2.6.
Flexible
2D change: referring t...
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...ft: Mangrove habitat, Dominican Republic. Right: the deposition of salt in the form of crystals on older leaves close to falling.
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2.5.2. Morphological
Morphological adaptation is a structural feature that enhances the adjustment of organisims to their particular environment and enables better performance for survival purposes. Various structural features influence living systems adaptation, among which are size, form, colour and pattern. The special form of stem, sma and thin leaves, and extensive root system, are a good example for morphological adaptation among desert plants (Figure 2.5). Such stems allow for water storage and self-shading ability, small leaves reduce water loss while the extensive root system
The first one of these adaptations was conformity. This is the most widely practiced form of adaptation. Conformists buy into the conventional goals of society and they believe they need to work hard in order to achieve these goals. These people strive for success through hard work. Even if they realize that their aspirations may be a little high, they continue to follow social rules (Gomme, 2007) and “grin and bear it” (Winfree & Abadinsky, 2003) the legitimate way. If they fail to achieve their goals, they place the blame upon themselves and still strive harder to obtain
The simplest definition of adaptation sees it as the process by which an organism that adjusts to the environment, both in physical and mental conditions. It is a dynamic process of mutual influence in the ultimate goal of maintaining life in changing circumstances. However, adaptation does not refer only to organisms, but also to the organization to which we can apply the rules of living systems because they are not just material goods but rather the people.
Senesac, P. (2013). The Roy adaptation model in practice. Implementing the Roy adaptation model: From theory to practice. Retrieved from http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/son/faculty/featured/theorist/Roy_Adaptation_Model
Paleolithic age presents the era when key human adaptations evolved in response to a variety of environmental changes experienced at the time. This period of human evolution coincided with change within the surrounding of man. Such included cooling, drying and unpredictable climatic patterns over the time. This increased amount of variability in environmental conditions raised the level of uncertainty and instability in their respective terms of survival, necessitated the man to adopt new habits to increase adaptability to the new and changing surroundings. The evolved structures and behaviors led to specialization to enable coping with changing and unpredictable conditions.
Each plant species has a unique pattern of resource allocation that is genetically determined but not fixed. Plants can adjust there allocation pattern when they experience different environments and the presence of other species. Phenotypic plasticity goes hand in hand with resource allocation as well. When a plant has to adjust itʻs resource allocation, sometimes it uses itʻs resources to help the plant grow different characteristic so that the plant can have a greater chance of living in the environment. For example, if a plant from an environment that does not experience wind on the regular basis enters a new environment that has a lot of wind the plant may change itʻs resource allocation and spend more of itʻs resources growing deeper
A biologist, known as Piaget was interested in how an organism adapted to their environment, especially behavior adaptation to the environment. Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called "reflexes." However, in human beings an infant uses these reflexes to adapt to the environment, these reflexes are quickly replaced with constructed schemes. Piaget described two processes used by the individual in its at...
environments. Evolution is the idea that while organisms exhibit certain traits, they are not fixed and are able to be altered through progressive adaptation. Adaptation occurs through the passing of traits from an organism pa...
However it is important to accentuate that factors influence each other and that the experience during the process of adaptation will vary.
In The Genetic Theory of Adaptation: A Brief History by H. Allen Orr the article discusses adaptation and how it was affected by micromutationism, phenotypic evolution, and sequence evolution and various models that arose through the years. Prior to getting into detail the article explains that “adaptation is not natural selection,” as emphasized in the 1930s by Ronald A. Fisher (Orr 1). It glosses over how evolutionary geneticists define and distinguish between the two terms and how the recent models on adaptation characterize evolutional patterns and fitness.
So, it would seem that human beings are able to adapt to a wide range
Evolution is the process through which the genetic makeup of a population changes over generations and is the key focus of paleoanthropologists who specialize in the study of human evolution. Random forces surrounding a particular population have been known to contribute substantially to evolutionary change, not to undermine the impact that adaptation, “a series of beneficial adjustments of organisms to their environment”, has on evolutionary processes. Adaptation is deeply tied to the theory of evolution through a process called natural selection, first theorized by Charles Darwin during his observation of various ecosystems around the world between 1831 and 1836. Natural selection is “the principle or mechanism by which individuals having biological characteristics best suited to a particular environment survive and reproduce with greater frequency than individuals without those characteristics”. Humans are unique in their ability to adapt to changes in their environment both biologically and culturally. As humans developed and continued to expand their territories of inhabitation, an increased
Examining sex and recombination, the ability for species to have sex and procreate allows the rate of adaptation to increase while in a new environment. Jackson and Colmer researched the stresses of flooding and plants ability to adapt to these changing stresses in their environment (Jackson and Colmer, 2005). The pressure for the species of plants to adapt is important for their survival. As they adapt to the environment, according to rate of adaptation, they will pass on their genes for a best fit offspring that can deal with the pressures, creating a better adapted offspring. A mutation that may be an advantage to a pressure in a specific environment may end up changing again to increase advantages in the next generations. Adaptations will change with the environment to create new species and morphologies for best fit species and ultimately for survival. However, mutations occur depending on the population size, a small population may not be able to mutate and adapt as fast as a large population can. A large population tends t...
There are 25 major specialties in engineering that are recognized by professional societies. In any one of those 25 specialties, the goal of the engineer is the same. The goal is to be able to come up with a cost effective design that aids people in the tasks they face each day. Whether it be the coffee machine in the morning or the roads and highways we travel, or even the cars we travel in, it was all an idea that started with an engineer. Someone engineered each idea to make it the best solution to a problem. Even though engineer’s goals are similar, there are many different things that engineers do within their selected field of engineering. This paper will focus on the architectural field of engineering.
What makes modern architecture? Before answering this, one would need to understand what the term “modern” exactly describes. In architecture, modernism is the movement or transition from one period to another, and it is caused by cultural, territorial, and technological changes happening in the world. In Kenneth Frampton’s Modern Architecture: A Critical History, he details these three major societal changes that impact and create modern architecture.