Patterns of Growth: Operationalizing Alexander's "Web Way of Thinking"

Christopher Alexander was often characterized - and sometimes seemed to characterize himself - as "sui generis," a radical and perhaps even eccentric thinker on architecture, technology, culture, and nature. That perception in turn has led many to dismiss Alexander's work as too idiosyncratic to be operationalized in the pragmatic world of planning and building. Here we show, however, that Alexander's core ideas have strong parallels in contemporary network science, mathematics, physics, and philosophy, and in the pragmatic world of technological design (including computer software). We highlight a remaining gap in translating Alexander's work into practical tools and strategies for implementation - a gap that is tantalizingly near to being bridged

Design Methods Movement, 1944-1967

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-282).In the mythic construct of the West, nature, for a considerable era, has served as a seminal broker in basal underpinning discourse. This is despite nature's commutative, convertible and contradictory disclosures. As the antithesis of socio-culture, nature has been the arena of the given, of necessity and compulsion, and a zone of constraint. As "Nature" it has worked as the precipitate of humanity and ministered as the model for human activity. To violate the norms of nature, to be unnatural, has been considered unhealthy, amoral and illegal.Following the Second World War, constructs of nature, socio-culture and norms were altered in design education and practice. Postwar, an emerging discourse of computer-related technologies contributed to reconfiguring representations of architecture, engineering, product and urban planning in the US and UK. The collective driving these changes became known as the Design Methods movement. Together with trajectories of thought in psychology and psychiatry, discourses materializing from such fields as cybernetics, operations research, information theory and computers altered design processes and education.This dissertation ranges from examining the politics of funding surrounding an urban planning research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts to elucidating conferences concerning, architecture, engineering, urban planning and product design in the UK. Taking from media theorist Friedrich Kittler that technologically possible manipulations condition what can become a discourse, this dissertation is structured around two threads.(cont.) One thread concerns how computer-related technologies configured a re-conceptualization of nature and socio-culture in design practice and education. A second thread examines how psychology and psychoanalytic concerns were reworked for design through a lens of computer related technologies. A line between the natural and the normative is questioned concerning concepts of abnormality and deviation.by Alise Upitis.Ph.D

Advance sheet no. 29

The Clerk of Court’s Office publishes the South Carolina Advance Sheets that contain the published opinions and orders of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, along with notices, rule changes and other documents of general interest

Typology and built environment

This thesis examines and seeks to validate typology - the study and/or listing of types - in the comprehension and design of the built environment, particularly public urban space. It addresses typological thinking as a way of indexing knowledge in post -Enlightenment and post- Renaissance thought and presents a critical analysis of the application of type and typology in architecture, including rule -driven approaches to building design. The thesis demonstrates that urban space in western cities is primarily generated by systems of movement and access, and (through examination of the spatial structure of Edinburgh, Scotland and Winnipeg, Canada) that, once created, it has greater permanence than the buildings that front onto it. The thesis argues that typology, including the identification of archetypes and ideal types, remains a common approach to human comprehension of complex phenomena. The thesis notes, however, that typology has gone in- and -out of fashion in architecture - particularly as a basis for the design of buildings - but has been applied more consistently in urban design, both as a vehicle for comprehension and to inform design decisions. The study culminates with a series of quasi -experimental exercises, undertaken with design students, in categorizing space types in Edinburgh and Winnipeg on the basis of their suffix names (odonyms). This includes an examination of the denotations of the 27 space / name types common to both cities and identification of nine distinctive space / name types - gardens, square, park, bridge, promenade, avenue, path / pathway / walk, boulevard, street - that are proposed as constituents of a common vocabulary for urban designers

The development of the domestic interior in Makkah, Saudi Arabia : from the traditional to the modern way of living

Arab architecture has, through the ages, been a reflection of the environment and the characteristics of the civilization in which it appeared. Civilizations, in which the Arab architecture flourished, were the result of religious, social, cultural, political and physical interaction. These factors gave each society its distinguishing features that differed from age to age and place to place. Arab architecture has participated in expressing the relationship between man and nature. This can be seen in many examples of Arab architecture and it is clear in the Arab house that most of its elements were characterized by the harmonious relationship with natural settings externally, and internally by the organic relationship between the spatial layout and the lifestyle of the inhabitants. There are special features that distinguish Arab architecture from other styles of architecture around the world, for example its simple form and usage of local materials, with geometric decoration and calligraphy, also the effective control of natural forces through climatic modifications. Above all, the Arab house became the embodiment of Muslim values in built form.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceSaudi Government : Umm Al-Qura UniversityGBUnited Kingdo

Product performance assessment

This thesis describes a formal methodology for defining and assessing product performance and its implementation in a prototype computer system. The methodology is based on abstract descriptions of the operations that are conducted within the design process. It is, consequently, extremely generic and creates a bridge between physical product performance and actual user requirements. The methodology is based on defining product attributes in terms of observable parameters of the product in use. Defining an attribute in this way inherently reflects its required interaction with the user and consequently can truly be said to be in "user terms" A product will have a range of attributes and a performance indicator is proposed, such that the attributes are combined in a way that reflects their relative importance to the user. At the conceptual stage of the design process, when the actual product does not exist, and only some abstract representation is available, it is vitally important to be able to model or simulate and hence evaluate the product attributes. This area of design has often been associated with non algorithmic design procedures, because of its intangible nature. In this thesis the attribute methodology has been used to implement a prototype Computer Aided Design Evaluation Tool (CADET), which has been used and tested with an existing product range. The methodology being abstractly defined supports a wide range of product attributes. It also gives an indication of how the correspondingly wide range of existing analysis software could be integrated into a powerful single Computer Aided Design system. This work has resulted in the publication of two papers in refereed Journals and the presentation of eight other papers at refereed International Conferences. A list of the publications is included in the Appendices

2008 GREAT Day Program

SUNY Geneseo’s Second Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1002/thumbnail.jp

'A little easy and modern for the times' : a documentary of productions of Ben Jonson's plays by major professional theatre companies in England, 1977-2000

This thesis is a collation and discussion of productions of Ben Jonson's plays in England between 1977 and 2000. It focuses on mainstream theatre productions. Therefore, amateur and Fringe productions, adaptations and productions by small-scale theatre companies are not included. It contains previously unreleased material of interviews with theatre practitioners who have been instrumental in staging the productions covered. Whilst scholarship has concentrated on recent productions of Shakespeares, tudies in Jonsonianp erformanceh ave been neglected.W ith the recent resurgence in popularity of Jonson's texts in the English theatre repertoire, it is now pertinent to assessth e methodsu sed to staget he work of this playwright. This thesis focuses only on the staging of texts presented between the two dates; this does not cover all of Jonson's texts. Contained in two volumes, Part One raises issues of performance, whilst in Part Two productions are considered within chapters on each play. An Afterword (in Volume One) considers the future of production and the action needed to be taken for future progression in performance and performance studies. The Appendix (in Volume One) contains detailed venue information. The thesis is intended as a documented record of productions, in order to stimulate future research into Jonsonian performance methods. By examining recent productions the failures and successeso f the contemporaryt heatre's approacht o Jonsonh ave been noted. This will contribute to an understanding of how Jonson's texts continue to work on stage. The title of this thesis comes from Bartholomew Fair, a play that addressesth e need to assimilatet he presentationo f theatre within contemporary concerns