Purpose of the articles posted in the blog is to share knowledge and occurring events for ecology and biodiversity conservation and protection whereas biology will be human’s security. Remember, these are meant to be conversation starters, not mere broadcasts :) so I kindly request and would vastly prefer that you share your comments and thoughts on the blog-version of this Focus on Arts and Ecology (all its past + present + future).

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[Photos] Rare Black-and-White Shots Reflect Hanoi Street Life in 1950

Wednesday, 24 June 2020. 
Written by Urbanist Hanoi.


No skim milk and saltine parties here.

By 1950, France was able to exert considerable colonial influence on Hanoi's commerce and architecture. Their bicycles and jeeps drove down wide avenues, beneath buildings featuring their nation's namesake shutters. Vietnamese of varying classes and westernization existed on the margins of open-air coffee shops where the French sipped cognac and prattled about politics. 

These photos were taken by American photographer and journalist Harrison Forman. His impressive career, which focused largely on China, included being one of the first westerners to visit Tibet, in addition to interviewing Mao Zedong. The diaries of Forman's career and 50,000 photographs are stored at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's digital photography archives.

Take a peek at the patrician proceedings below:


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Hanoi Approves Design of New Tu Lien Bridge Over Red River

Friday, 17 July 2020. 
Written by Urbanist Hanoi.


Hanoi Approves Design of New Tu Lien Bridge Over Red River ...

It will be called the Tứ Liên Bridge and was designed in part by Sun Group.

Dân Trí reports that the Hà Nội People's Committee has approved the bridge, which will connect Tây Hồ District with Long Biên and Đông Anh districts.

The structure, as well as its approach roads, will span 4.84 kilometers and be cable-stayed, the second such bridge in the capital after the huge Nhật Tân Bridge, which opened in 2015.

According to the design, the four abutments at either end will represent dragons ascending from the water, while the cables will signify columns of water shooting out of the river, a reference to Hà Nội's former name, Thăng Long, which means Ascending Dragon.

The new bridge will connect to Nghi Tàm Street, Hữu Hồng Street, National Highway 5 and the river's western embankment. It will be the longest bridge over the river, and sit between Long Biên Bridge and Nhật Tân.

The news source did not specify a timeline for the commencement of construction, or an estimated cost.

[Photo via Thoi Bao Ngan Hang]

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Ngõ Nooks: Duy Tri - One of Hanoi’s Original Cafes

Friday, 20 April 2018. 
Written by Chris Humphrey. Photos by Chris Humphrey.


Ngõ Nooks: Duy Tri - One of Hanoi's Original Cafes - Urbanist Hanoi

Modern-day Hanoi is a labyrinth of new developments, with some areas already feeling the effects of gentrification. That certainly wasn't the case back in 1936, when Café Duy Tri first opened its doors.

Since then, cafés have become ubiquitous in Hanoi, an increasingly popular theme being a self-consciously nostalgic style harking back to the early 1900s. Café Duy Tri, having opened nearly a century ago, doesn’t need to pretend, and the place is wonderfully free of posturing. Everything about the establishment feels genuine, albeit no frills.

The name derives from Duy Tri, the father of Pham Thanh Huong, who now runs the café, although it was originally opened by Phan Duy Sen, Huong’s grandfather. Since the beginning, the café has remained in the family, and framed photos on the walls document their history. One shot shows Duy Tri receiving an award from local government; others display a sword and badminton racket that used to belong to Huong’s grandfather and photos of their experiences during the war.

Coffee roasting equipment near the entrance.

“We source and roast our own coffee,” Huong says, the smell of which flows through the traditional tube house, creating a homely atmosphere. Their roasting equipment sits near the entrance beside containers full of freshly-roasted Arabica and Robusta, which you can buy in bulk.

“Our specialty is sữa chua cà phê [yogurt with coffee]. It’s thicker than at any other café in Hanoi” Huong adds. And she’s not wrong; there’s a surprisingly satisfying viscosity to the drink, the yogurt having been frozen beforehand, and the coffee filtering through like liquid velvet. They’ve become so well known for the drink that a Google search for sữa chua cà phê will take you straight to their café on Google Maps.

Low ceilings on the second floor.

Featuring three floors, the building at 46 Yen Phu is spacious and, surprisingly, very little traffic noise from the road can be heard. There’s ample seating space, although the ceilings are so low in places I have to bend not just my neck but my back to walk through.

A reasonable flow of people visit the café, but with so much space it never feels busy. You could just as easily come here to meet with friends as you could spend an afternoon working. On the third floor, there’s also a balcony that overlooks the street. 

Customers enjoying the balcony space.

Everything on the menu, including smoothies and various coffee options, is cheap: my drink only costs VND25,000. They mix Arabica and Robusta beans to make their own special coffee blend. And they must be doing something right, with the café's continued existence for over 80 years serving as a testament to its enduring popularity.

Café Duy Tri is located at 46 Yen Phu and opens from 9am to 10.30pm.

To sum up:

Taste: 5

Price: 5

Atmosphere: 3

Friendliness: 4

Location: 3

Chris Humphrey is a Hanoi-based writer, photographer and editor. 

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5 of the Fastest Fish in the Ocean


sailfish leaping from the water near Key West, Florida
A sailfish has been clocked at 68 mph (109 kph), although it was both leaping and swimming at the time. Ronald C. Modra / Getty Images

Earth's oceans are full of fast fish, but crowning the fastest fish isn't as simple as it might sound. Determining top speed of fish in the wild is challenging since both the fish and the water are moving, sometimes together and sometimes in opposite directions. There are also different metrics to compare: swimming speed versus leaps into the air, for example, or absolute speed (which favors larger fish) versus body lengths per second.

Although not all experts agree which fish is fastest, a few speedy species seem to be in a league of their own. Here is a closer look at those fish, all of whom deserve recognition for the incredible feats they perform on a regular basis — especially considering the limitations of their watery habitat, which is about 700 times denser than air at sea level.

Sailfish

A large sailfish hunting a school of sardines underwater

Sailfish hunt sardines off the coast of Mexico. Rodrigo Friscione / U.S. National Ocean Service / Public Domain

Widely cited as the fastest fish in the ocean, the sailfish belongs to a group of big, swift predators known as billfish. Billfish use their long bills not to spear their prey, but to slash and injure. Sailfish have been clocked at 68 miles per hour (109 kph), according to the U.S. National Ocean Service, but there's an asterisk. During speed trials at Florida's Long Key, a hooked sailfish took out 100 yards (91 meters) of fishing line in 3 seconds, according to the ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research. That's equivalent to 68 mph, but the sailfish was leaping as it fled, so that may not reflect its true swimming speed.

Recent research has also cast doubt on the reputed speed of sailfish. A 2016 study published in Biology Open, for example, measured how quickly sailfish muscles could twitch in response to electrical stimulus, then used that to calculate their top speed. The results suggest sailfish can't exceed 10 to 15 meters per second (22 to 34 mph), and as the authors added, that's also roughly the speed at which cavitation should begin to damage their fins.

Nonetheless, sailfish are still among the ocean's fastest sprinters, not to mention skillful leapers. And they also achieve impressive speeds in another way: when a sailfish slashes its bill back and forth through a school of sardines, the tip can accelerate at 130 meters per second squared, according to a 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which noted this is "one of the highest accelerations ever recorded in an aquatic vertebrate." Who needs to swim 68 miles per hour if you can do that?

Marlin

white marlin jumping out of water

A white marlin leaps from the water off the coast of North Carolina. Dominic Sherony / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

Marlins are the most biodiverse of the billfish, with about 10 different species scattered around the planet, including the blue, black, striped, and white marlins. Some marlin species are threatened by overfishing, often becoming entangled in fishing gear meant for other species.

Like sailfish, they are large predators — some measuring 16 feet (5 meters) long and weighing more than 1,400 pounds (635 kg) — with a long rostrum used for hunting. They are also strong leapers and fast swimmers, and at least one species, the black marlin, is sometimes cited as a contender for the fastest fish on Earth. The BBC has reported, for example, that a black marlin stripped line from a reel at 120 feet per second, equating to about 80 mph (129 kph), while the ReefQuest Centre reports marlins can leap at 50 mph (80 kph). Some experts consider those speeds unlikely, but nonetheless, marlins are famously fast and powerful swimmers, as immortalized by the blue marlin in Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea."

Swordfish

swordfish swimming deep underwater

A swordfish swims about 2,300 feet deep off the coast of Tampa, Florida. NOAA Southeast Deep Coral Initiative and Pelagic Research Services

The third group of billfish is the swordfish, a single species and the sole member of its taxonomic family, Xiphiidae. Found in warm waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, swordfish are big, powerful swimmers and capable of incredible leaps.

Swordfish are famous for their namesake "sword," but they also share the billfish family's penchant for speed. They can reportedly swim at more than 60 mph (100 kph), although that faces doubts similar to those raised for sailfish and marlin. Swordfish are undoubtedly fast swimmers, however, even if they have been overhyped. And while their speed is largely due to strength and body shape, scientists have also discovered another factor that makes swordfish so fast: oil.

According to a 2016 study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, MRI scans revealed a complex organ in the upper jaws of swordfish that features an oil-producing gland connected to capillaries, which "communicate with oil-excreting pores in the skin of the head." This lets a swordfish secrete oil when water moves past its head, creating what researchers suspect is a "super-hydrophobic layer" that reduces drag and helps the fish swim more efficiently to reach high speeds.

Tuna

Large blue and silver yellowfin tuna swims into a school of small mackerel fish

A yellowfin tuna swimming towards a school of mackerel. Rodrigo Friscione / Getty Images

There are 15 different species of tuna around the world, including some surprisingly large and powerful predators. Yellowfin and bigeye tuna can grow to roughly 8 feet (2.4 meters) long and weigh 440 pounds (200 kg), for example, while some bluefin tuna measure nearly 15 feet (4.6 meters) long and weigh up to 2,000 pounds (900 kg).

Tuna are strong, fast swimmers, but similar to the billfish, their top speeds are commonly inflated based on anecdotes or unreliable accounts. While some sources claim tuna can swim up to 75 mph (120 kph), research suggests that's unlikely. A 1964 study concluded yellowfin tuna can swim at about 46 mph (74 kph), and a 1989 study found the giant Atlantic bluefin tuna probably has a maximum speed of about 33 mph (53 kph). According to the aforementioned 2016 study in Biology Open, the little tunny (a common tuna species also known as bonita) may max out at about 16 mph (25 kph). Like the billfish, tunas' top speeds may be limited by the effects of cavitation on their fins.

Mako Shark

An open-mouthed, silver and white shortfin mako shark swimming in sea, West Coast, New Zealand

A shortfin mako shark swims off the west coast of New Zealand. Richard Robinson / Getty Images

The shortfin mako shark is commonly cited as the fastest shark alive today. Its top speed is as difficult to pinpoint as that of many other fast fish, but it has been reliably clocked at 31 mph (50 kph), according to the ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research, which also cites a claim of burst speeds up to 46 mph (74 kph). According to one account from New Zealand, in which researchers enticed a shortfin mako to chase a baited camera pulled by their boat, the shark at one point accelerated from a dead stop to cover more than 100 feet (30 meters) in only two seconds. That suggests it may have reached 68 mph (109 kph) during its sprint, although the ReefQuest Centre advises taking this lone finding with a grain of salt.

Regardless of its exact top speed, the shortfin mako deserves its reputation as a toothy torpedo. It makes a living by chasing down some of the other fastest fish in the ocean, including tunas, bonitos, mackerels, and swordfish. It's also famous for its acrobatic leaps while hunting, and in some cases has leapt into or even smashed through the boats of anglers trying to reel it in. Shortfin mako sharks are potentially dangerous to humans, although reports of attacks are relatively rare, and as with all sharks, we're far more dangerous to them overall. Due mainly to threats from fishing, both as bycatch and a target species, the shortfin mako shark is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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Singapore Towers are 56 Floors of Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction

ADDP architects DfMA to build Avenue South Park with PPVC.


Looking up at South Avenue Residences
Looking up at South Avenue Residences. ADDP Architects

Prefabricated modular construction has been the future of the building industry for at least half a century, so I was intrigued when I got a press release announcing "Sustainability, access to green space and innovative PPVC modulation are at the core of the two 56-story flagship development by the leading Singaporean architecture firm." I wondered "what's PPVC modulation?"

PPVC stands for Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction, a sophisticated version of what North Americans call modular construction. Modulation is, I believe, a mistake in the press release, and should have been modularization.

It is an interesting technology being used by ADDP Architects to build the Avenue South Residences which "fuse futuristic and ecologically-conscious modern housing while paying homage to the heritage of Singapore."

Sustainability is at the core value of ADDP Architects’ Avenue South Residences. The energy efficiency of both buildings is enhanced by the sensitive placement of the twin super high-rise residential towers, oriented in the North-South direction to capitalize on optimal passive solar design and airflow....The Avenue South Residences also feature the most advanced approach to sustainable PPVC construction, expertise championed by ADDP. Before assemblage, 80% of each module for Avenue South Residences was created off-site, with each module only requiring to be stacked and joined together on-site. 
Site landscaping

Site landscaping.  ADDP Architects

The project has other interesting features, including living walls (which grow like mad in Singapore). It's in an older area that is being redeveloped, but it "pays homage to Singapore’s historical past with the preservation of five existing buildings primarily for residential use."

Gardens in the sky

Sky Gardens. ADDP Architects 
Lush sky terraces inserted into the facade design of the two skyscrapers serve to break down the scale of the towers and create a visual connection to nature. These terraces are accessible to residents and offer multi-story green spaces are varying levels above the city. Inspired by elements of tropical architecture and multi-heightened positioning, the sky terraces, balconies and sun-shading screens harmoniously integrate with the overall building form and architectural treatment of the development. 

The Two Towers 
The Two Towers. ADDP Architects 

What is PPVC?

Stacking concrete boxes 56 stories high is not something you see often, and I had never heard the term PPVC, which comes after Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA).

PPVC Guidebook

PPVC Guidebook.  Singapore Building and Construction Authority 

Singapore's Building and Construction Authority has produced an extensive guide to the process of DfMA:

DfMA is a new approach in the construction industry. By planning more works offsite, manpower and time needed to construct buildings are reduced, while ensuring work sites are safe, conducive and have minimal impact on the surrounding living environment. The use of prefabrication methods in construction has been promoted as a way to improve productivity in a traditionally manpower-intensive industry. 
Stacking Units
Stacking Units.  Singapore Building Construction Authority

DfMA is then applied to the building technology:

Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) is one of the game-changing technologies that support the DfMA concept to significantly speed up construction. Modular is a general construction term to describe the use of technology that facilitates off-site manufacturing. Complete modules made of multiple units complete with internal finishes, fixtures and fittings are manufactured in factories, and are then transported to site for installation in a Lego-like manner. In the hierarchy of DfMA methodologies, PPVC is one of the most efficient and complete principles in improving productivity. 

They claim that PPVC improves productivity, reduces on-site manpower, provides a better construction environment and delivers better quality control. The modules can be made of either steel or concrete, as long as they are no higher than 14.76 feet (4.5 meters) (including the truck, which is a clever way of thinking about it) and no wider than 11.15 feet (3.4 meters) and no heavier than 80 tonnes.

Electrical Services

Electrical services in PPVC construction.  Singapore Building and Construction Authority 

The guide goes into all of the issues that have cropped up in modular construction before, including dealing with misalignment, leaking, coordinating services, even connecting electrical between units with special junction boxes. Get your own big PDF of it here.

PPVC and Unit Design

3-bedroom plan

3 bedrooom plan.  ADDP Architects

Meanwhile, back at the Avenue South Residences, ADDP Architects face significant restrictions in how they can design the units when they are limited to an 11-foot module, probably 10 feet inside. A significant amount of space is lost to the very thick walls between modules. One might want the living room to be a little wider, although hey can make them double-wide by leaving some of the walls out.

However, these could be very quiet apartments, with a foot of concrete between every room. And you certainly won't have what I have called the "Paul Simon Problem" where "one man's ceiling is another man's floor" – in modular, one man's ceiling is completely separate from the other floor, they can party upstairs and you will never hear it.

The kitchens are separate because Chinese cooking makes a lot of smoke and steam, and there is the ledge for the air conditioning condensers because everyone has their own systems, rather than relying on a central one.

Image

Image

One can make a case that the limitations on unit design inherent in PPVC are not such a terrible thing. A number of architects including me spent part of their weekend agog at plans designed by a very famous architecture firm for a building in San Francisco, where there was no rhyme nor reason nor logic to any of the plans. PPVC forces some discipline into the process.

2 bedroom units

2 bedroom units. ADDP Architects

These two bedroom apartments clock in at about 725 square feet and even with those thick walls, still deliver what looks like well-organized useful space.

Nothing New Under The Sun

Holiday Inn Yorkdale

Holiday Inn Yorkdale in 1980.  Chuckman Collection

There is really nothing new in PPVC; the Yorkdale Holiday Inn in Toronto was built with it in the 1970s, with every room being a concrete box that was stacked in place. It demonstrated some of the problems and flaws with the technology that I do not believe have changed with PPVC:

  • It takes a lot more concrete when you double every wall and put them 11 feet apart, more of an issue today for a green building when we are worried about the embodied carbon emitted when making the concrete.
  • It wastes a lot of space, having so many thick interior walls.
  • The modules are not repetitive; units on lower floors are carrying a lot more load than the ones on upper floors, and probably have thicker walls, more reinforcing, and perhaps even a stronger grade of concrete. You can't just crank them out and stack them up.

When they wanted to expand the Yorkdale Holiday in the 1990s, they used conventional site-built construction for the second tower.

But things may be very different in the 2020s. We have BIM, computer systems that can make building all those different reinforcing bar patterns much easier. Skilled construction labor (especially in a place like Singapore) is expensive and harder to find than ever before. Quality expectations and building standards are higher.

Sky Gardens

Sky Gardens.  ADDP Architects

It's also clear, at least in Singapore, that they have really given this a lot of thought. Forgive all the initials here, but there is a lot to learn from ADDP's use of DfMA to build Avenue South Park using PPVC.

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