The current multiple crisis require architects, designers, citymakers and stakeholders to re-think their approach to the city and territory, under the urge for a sustainable and inclusive future. While uncertainty and technocracy dominate, they also enable a open investigation and understanding of different future scenarios of spatial transformation. A revision of the term ‘adaptability’ promises to contribute to a new holistic approach.This paper presents the outputs of our current research project on adaptability at architectonic and urban level. It departs from the spatial disciplinary literature, and a large database of projects where this term plays a role implicitly or explicitly. We revisit theories and reposition them in the current unstable context. With this, we can enlarge the range of interactions and scales to approach simultaneously. Based on this, we propose new variables, and vocabularies in a framework for urban development beyond traditional confines.In fact, a new framework for the design of architectonic and urban space is articulated. It responds to different transformations of users’, usages’ and environmental conditions based on dimensions (scale, time, space), domains (social, economic, ecologic, climatic), adaptability ingredients (modularity, flexibility, interactivity, etc.), and resources (design by research, extreme scenario-thinking). We show them in action thought design projects conducted with students in the Netherlands and Belgium.We aim at generating holistic insights on the concept and methods of adaptability through some of the research and educational outcomes. Ultimately, we want to expand the mechanism of planning for an adaptive approach -from the building to the network, making lines of research, education and practice collide to address urgently needed changes.
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Purpose: To establish age-related, normal limits of monocular and binocular spatial vision under photopic and mesopic conditions. Methods: Photopic and mesopic visual acuity (VA) and contrast thresholds (CTs) were measured with both positive and negative contrast optotypes under binocular and monocular viewing conditions using the Acuity-Plus (AP) test. The experiments were carried out on participants (age range from 10 to 86 years), who met pre-established, normal sight criteria. Mean and ± 2.5σ limits were calculated within each 5-year subgroup. A biologically meaningful model was then fitted to predict mean values and upper and lower threshold limits for VA and CT as a function of age. The best-fit model parameters describe normal aging of spatial vision for each of the 16 experimental conditions investigated. Results: Out of the 382 participants recruited for this study, 285 participants passed the selection criteria for normal aging. Log transforms were applied to ensure approximate normal distributions. Outliers were also removed for each of the 16 stimulus conditions investigated based on the ±2.5σ limit criterion. VA, CTs and the overall variability were found to be age-invariant up to ~50 years in the photopic condition. A lower, age-invariant limit of ~30 years was more appropriate for the mesopic range with a gradual, but accelerating increase in both mean thresholds and intersubject variability above this age. Binocular thresholds were smaller and much less variable when compared to the thresholds measured in either eye. Results with negative contrast optotypes were significantly better than the corresponding results measured with positive contrast (p < 0.004). Conclusions: This project has established the expected age limits of spatial vision for monocular and binocular viewing under photopic and high mesopic lighting with both positive and negative contrast optotypes using a single test, which can be implemented either in the clinic or in an occupational setting.
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