Meanings and values of built heritage vary from factual and explicit meanings which are relatively easy to present, to more tacit knowledge, which is typically more challenging to communicate due to its implicit and often abstract character. In this paper, we investigate how tangible interaction influences the communication of this tacit knowledge of built heritage, and how it affects the experience of visitors. Through a between-group comparative study in a real-world museum context, we examined how the tangible characteristics of an interactive prototype museum installation influence how visitors perceive a particular story containing tacit heritage knowledge. The communicated story relates a historical journey in ancient Egypt to the physical and architectural characteristics of the entrance colonnade at the Djoser Complex in Saqqara. Our experimental conditions consisted of an interactive navigation (input) and a passive representation (output) components, ranging from traditional digital displays to fully tangible means of interaction. We report on our findings, which showed various differences and commonalities between our three experimental conditions. We conclude with a number of discussion points and design recommendations: (a) to strive for balance between navigation and representation modalities in terms of affordance and the required cognitive effort; (b) to take advantage of physical representation and grasping, such as conveying particular physical details and characteristics; and (c) to consider design aspects of embodiment, physical abstraction and materiality for future research or potential further development of communicating the meanings and values of heritage.

Understanding the spatial transformation of architectural heritage over time is crucial for documentation and conservation purposes, but also for communicating the salient architectural features of the buildings’ evolution to the public at large. With the rapid evolution of physical computing technologies such as electronics, sensors and digital projections, we believe that the technique of projection mapping offers great potential in communicating heritage in-situ because its graphical depiction on the heritage itself can more directly relate to the real context in more experiential ways. Furthermore, digital projections can include various interactive functionalities that together with its architectural size provide an immersive experience that is dynamic and adaptable to the interests of the visitors. Consequently, this paper aims to investigate the deployment of an interactive projection mapping installation in-situ which can be steered by a tangible user interface (TUI). Through an in-the-wild study, we deployed a mixed-method evaluation to investigate how such an interactive projection mapping enhances the communication of the spatiotemporal transformation of a medieval chapel that occurred during the last 850 years. Our findings show how the in-situ projection positively affects visitors’ understanding and memorability of the aesthetic features, and how its combination with a tangible interface enhances the communication of the spatial features of the chapel over time, and allows for more social interaction among them. The paper concludes with several discussion points and recommendations for applying interactive projection mapping and TUIs in the context of architectural heritage.

Context is crucial for understanding meanings and values of heritage. Several heritage artifacts from recently destroyed monuments are exhibited in different museums around the world. As such contextualizing those isolated heritage artifacts enables museums to communicate architectural and spatial qualities of the original context to their visitors. With the rapid evolution of digital technologies, museums started to incorporate Augmented Reality (AR) to present and interpret their collections in more appealing and exciting ways. AR allows both an enrichment of heritage communication, and also encouragement of interactivity in museums. Through a field study in a real-world museum environment, we investigated how AR enhances the communication of the original context of an isolated artifact from the Nimrud palace in Iraq. We deployed a mixed-method evaluation methodology that led to an effective and engaging communication of the architectural context of that artifact, particularly perceiving and recalling architectural features and spatial dimensions. We conclude the paper with a set of discussion points about how AR positively affects visitors’ memorability of architectural qualities, and how it provokes their curiosity to explore more information. We highlight some considerations about AR visualization, such as how levels of embellishment direct user’s focus of attention, and which aspects should be considered when using AR abstract visualization to communicate heritage. We outline several design recommendations to overcome current AR usability issues in museums about intuition, freedom of movement, and age-related differences.

Novel social, civic or entertainment opportunities might emerge when spatially distributed public displays become interlinked in meaningful ways. Yet little is still known about the effect of intrinsic design dimensions, such as how multiple displays should be spatially arranged, how their content should be linked, and how their locations and content should dynamically change over time. We therefore conducted a two-month long design study of a distributed public display system that invited passers-by to answer hyperlocal questions. By comparing the performance of different content and location arrangement strategies, we reveal distinct spatiotemporal user engagement patterns, and the specific local conditions that shaped them. We also discovered several contextual factors that inhibit more widescale engagement, among which the conceptual novelty, the apparent purpose, and the perceived cumulative effort to engage with several displays. Consequently, this study provides insights on how public displays can be linked to augment the effects of distribution.

Accessibility plays a main role among the aspects that contribute to the conservation of Cultural Heritage sites. Seismic stability, fragility of the artefacts, conflicts, deterioration, natural disasters, climate change and visitors’ impact are only some of the possible causes that might lead to the inaccessibility of a heritage site for both researchers and visitors. The increasing potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the conservation field has resulted in the development of Augmented and Virtual reality (AR and VR) experiences. These ones can be very effective for what concerns the description of the visual experience, but also improve the understanding of a site and even became analytic research tools. This paper presents an inaccessible Buddhist temple in the Myanmar city of Bagan as a case study for the realization of a VR experience that aims at providing accessibility to knowledge and therefore a better understanding of the cultural value. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the VR for this purpose, a user study has been conducted and its results are reported.

Reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams mainly fail in shear, brittle and sudden in nature can lead to calamitous consequences. Thence, it is critical to determine the shear characteristics of RC deep beams accurately due to involving many parameters at same time. Some of the recent researches have shown that current equations for predicting ultimate shear strength are non-conservative when applied to high strength concrete (HSC) beams as well as some of design codes provisions. There are different approaches for analyzing the behavior of beams in shear. In this paper, a semi-empirical approach is adopted in which a database of existing experimental and literature results of deep beams, d > 300 mm & d 300 mm, failing in shear under two point loads statically at mid-span, was constructed. The database, 725 deep beams, was used to propose two simplified shear equations using multiple regression analysis, IBM-SPSS-Statistics, to find out and evaluate the most important factors affecting the ultimate shear strength formulating them in a suitable predictive equation for the ultimate shear strength of deep beams without web reinforcement (stirrups). The test database covers a wide range of individual parameters as: cylindrical concrete compressive strength (20
f′c
104 MPa), longitudinal main steel reinforcement ratio (0.17%
qs%
6.64%), effective depth of deep beams “d” (127–1000 mm), shear span to effective depth ratio (1
a/d
2.5), Beam width “b”; b/d 1, where all database from literature were based on two point loading. This paper concluded that, the proposed equations seem to predict the ultimate shear strengths well, conservative and give lower coefficient of variation “COV” and smaller range of results when compared with the available methods of design; ECP203-2007, ACI 318-14, CSA, and BS8110 codes and other equations proposed by Sudheer Reddy, Zararis, Bazant, Zsutty and Shah.

Reinforced concrete (RC) deep beams mainly fail in shear, brittle and sudden in nature can lead to calamitous consequences. Thence, it is critical to determine the shear characteristics of RC deep beams accurately due to involving many parameters at same time. Some of the recent researches have shown that current equations for predicting ultimate shear strength are non-conservative when applied to high strength concrete (HSC) beams as well as some of design codes provisions. There are different approaches for analyzing the behavior of beams in shear. In this paper, a semi-empirical approach is adopted in which a database of existing experimental and literature results of deep beams, d > 300 mm & d 300 mm, failing in shear under two point loads statically at mid-span, was constructed. The database, 725 deep beams, was used to propose two simplified shear equations using multiple regression analysis, IBM-SPSS-Statistics, to find out and evaluate the most important factors affecting the ultimate shear strength formulating them in a suitable predictive equation for the ultimate shear strength of deep beams without web reinforcement (stirrups). The test database covers a wide range of individual parameters as: cylindrical concrete compressive strength (20
f′c
104 MPa), longitudinal main steel reinforcement ratio (0.17%
qs%
6.64%), effective depth of deep beams “d” (127–1000 mm), shear span to effective depth ratio (1
a/d
2.5), Beam width “b”; b/d 1, where all database from literature were based on two point loading. This paper concluded that, the proposed equations seem to predict the ultimate shear strengths well, conservative and give lower coefficient of variation “COV” and smaller range of results when compared with the available methods of design; ECP203-2007, ACI 318-14, CSA, and BS8110 codes and other equations proposed by Sudheer Reddy, Zararis, Bazant, Zsutty and Shah.

Currently, Development of high strength reinforced concrete HSRC applications worldwide is going faster than the researches on it. Where, the shear mechanism of deep beams without stirrups still fully not understood due to its complicated behavior and conditions. In this paper, a comparative study on the shear mechanism of RC deep beams by considering values of current experimental shear strength and those calculated by international design approaches; ACI, CSA & FIB and also by the equations proposed by Sudheer, Zararis, Bazant, Zsutty, Russo and Shah. Eighteen simple span HSRC deep beams , practical size, without stirrups were tested under monotonic two point loads at the mid span to examine the contribution of various parameters on the shear capacity of deep beams. f’c=80 MPa, (ρs%) three values of main steel ratio (0.73%,1.21% &1.83%), (a/d) shear span to effective depth ratio ( 2,1.5 &1) and constant beam width for all tested beams “b= 250” mm were selected to mainly study the shear capacity and behavior of HSRC deep beams, where typical shear failure can be anticipated. As a conclusion of this paper, ACI and FIB code provisions for shear in High strength concrete (HSC) are safe for use with the exception that CSA should be used with care. Despite numerous studies, there is still a need to develop a clear understanding of the shear behavior of practical size of HSRC deep beams without web reinforcement. Therefore, this experimental program was arranged to evaluate the shear behavior and to increase the shear database on HSRC deep beams.

Currently, there is no general agreement on a theory describing the response of reinforced concrete members without web reinforcement. Many structural systems rely on design is usually performed using empirical or semi-empirical expressions provided by codes of practice that do not consider the influence of many governing parameters. In this paper, a comparison between values of current experimental shear strength and those of various international design approaches have been calculated and analyzed on 18 simple span HSRC deep beams without web reinforcement were tested under monotonic two point loads at the mid span to examine the contribution of various parameters on the shear capacity of HSRC beams like; fcu=60 MPa, three values of tension reinforcement (0.73%,1.21% &1.83%) and shear span to effective depth ratio ( 2,1.5 &1) were selected to mainly study the behavior of deep beams, where typical shear failure can be anticipated.

Currently, there is no general agreement on a theory describing the response of reinforced concrete members without web reinforcement. Many structural systems rely on design is usually performed using empirical or semi-empirical expressions provided by codes of practice that do not consider the influence of many governing parameters. In this paper, a comparison between values of current experimental shear strength and those of various international design approaches have been calculated and analyzed on 18 simple span HSRC deep beams without web reinforcement were tested under monotonic two point loads at the mid span to examine the contribution of various parameters on the shear capacity of HSRC beams like; fcu=60 MPa, three values of tension reinforcement (0.73%,1.21% &1.83%) and shear span to effective depth ratio ( 2,1.5 &1) were selected to mainly study the behavior of deep beams, where typical shear failure can be anticipated.