5,394 research outputs found

    New meanings from old buildings

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    The three modest house projects described here are by three fellow travellers — the two authors and David Lea — interested in the Organic side of Modernism. Conversational partners who have worked together in various capacities over many years, they share a common conviction about ‘working with the given

    FotografĂ­a arquitectĂłnica estereoscĂłpica y la fenomenologĂ­a de Merleau-Ponty

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    Stereoscopic photography utilizes dual camera lenses that are placed at approximately the interocular distance of human beings in order to replicate the slight difference between what each eye sees and therefore the effect of parallax. The pair of images that results is then viewed through a stereoscope. By adjusting the device, the user eventually sees the two photographs merge into a single one that has receding planes of depth, often producing a vivid illusion of intense depth. Stereoscopy was used by photographers throughout the second half of the Nineteenth Century to document every building that was deemed to be culturally significant by the European and American photographers who pioneered the medium, starting with its introduction to the general public at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851. By the early 1900s, consumers in Europe and America could purchase from major firms stereoscopic libraries of buildings from around the world. Stereoscopic photography brought together the emotional, technical and informed acts of looking, especially with regard to architecture. In this essay, the focus in upon the first of those acts, wherein the phenomenal and spatial dimensions of viewing are examined. Images of architecture are used to argue that the medium not only was a manifestation of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, but also validated the philosophy. After an analysis of how stereoscopic photography and Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy intersect, seven stereographs of architectural and urban subjects are discussed as examples, with the spatial boundaries of architecture and cities argued as especially adept in highlighting connections between the medium and the philosophy. In particular, the notion of Fundierung relationships, the heart of Merleau-Ponty phenomenology, is shown to closely align with the stereoscopic viewing experience describing layers of dependency.  La fotografĂ­a estereoscĂłpica utiliza lentes de cĂĄmara dobles que se colocan aproximadamente a la distancia interocular de los seres humanos con el fin de reproducir la ligera diferencia entre lo que cada ojo ve y por lo tanto el efecto del paralaje. El par de imĂĄgenes resultantes se ven a travĂ©s de un estereoscopio. Ajustando el dispositivo, el usuario ve eventualmente las dos fotografĂ­as fusionadas en una sola que muestra planos de profundidad que se alejan, produciendo a menudo una ilusiĂłn vĂ­vida de intensa profundidad. La estereoscopia fue utilizada por los fotĂłgrafos a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX para documentar cualquier edificio considerado culturalmente significativo por los fotĂłgrafos europeos y estadounidenses pioneros en el medio, a partir de su presentaciĂłn al gran pĂșblico en el Crystal Palace de Londres en 1851. A principios de 1900, los consumidores en Europa y AmĂ©rica podĂ­an comprar a las grandes firmas bibliotecas estereoscĂłpicas de edificios de todo el mundo. La fotografĂ­a estereoscĂłpica captĂł miradas emotivas, tĂ©cnicas y destacadas, especialmente con respecto a la arquitectura. Este ensayo se centra en el primero de esos actos, examinĂĄndose las dimensiones fenomenolĂłgicas y espaciales de la visiĂłn. Las imĂĄgenes de arquitectura se utilizan para argumentar que el medio no fue sĂłlo una manifestaciĂłn de la fenomenologĂ­a de la percepciĂłn de Maurice Merleau-Ponty, sino que tambiĂ©n validĂł la filosofĂ­a. Tras analizar cĂłmo se cruzan la fotografĂ­a estereoscĂłpica y la filosofĂ­a de Merleau-Ponty, se analizan como ejemplos siete estereografĂ­as de temas arquitectĂłnicos y urbanos, con los lĂ­mites espaciales de la arquitectura y las ciudades argumentadas como especialmente aptas para destacar las conexiones entre el medio y la filosofĂ­a. En particular, se muestra que la nociĂłn de relaciones Fundierung, el corazĂłn de la fenomenologĂ­a de Merleau-Ponty, se alinea estrechamente con la experiencia de la visiĂłn estereoscĂłpica que describe capas de dependencia

    Chicora research contribution 403

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    This study reports on an intensive cultural resources survey of a 115 acre tract along the Savannah River in the City of North Augusta, Aiken County, South Carolina. The work, conducted for the City of North Augusta, is meant to assist the city in complying with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the regulations codified in 36CFR800

    The spiral stair or vice: Its origins, role and meaning in medieval stone castles

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    This thesis addresses a neglected area of castles studies - the spiral stair. It studies the origins, evolution, placing, structure, role, significance and meaning of spiral stairs in medieval stone castles between 1066 and 1500, so covering the rise, zenith and decline of the castle in England and Wales. Although focussed upon England and Wales, it has a wider geographical spread across Ireland, Scotland, Europe, the Middle East and Japan with particular regard to castles and on even wider when searching for the origins of the spiral stair, encompassing the whole globe. The date range was also extended, both much earlier than 1066 when searching for these origins and very selectively beyond 1500 when exploring how the spiral was used in the later medieval and early modern periods. It is proposed that the first known spiral stair was employed in Trajan's Column in the first century AD, that it was then used more selectively in secular and later ecclesiastical buildings during the first millennium AD and that, from the eleventh century onwards, the spiral stair became a common feature of the medieval castle. From the emergence of the spiral stair in Rome, this thesis places its principal use in European elite and ecclesiastical structures. Focusing on the castle, this thesis argues that it was employed as a vertical boundary marker to signal and control movement between two different types of spaces, from a more public to a more private space and from a general or less restricted space to a space which was more restricted, often elite domestic quarters. This use of the spiral is seen in and is traced through different types of English and Welsh castles, from stronghold to enclosure and on to the so-called sham or cult castles of the late medieval period. The thesis also looks at the spiral in a range of medieval castles and other defensive buildings outside England and Wales and finds that, in the main, spirals were employed in the same way. It also explores the presence and role of the spiral within other medieval buildings, both in England and Wales and further afield, and argues that, although there are some exceptions and variations, in the main spiral stairs played the same role in those buildings. This thesis interprets the spiral stair within the medieval castle as a key component of the landscape of lordship and argues that the interpretation of this elite landscape, hitherto focused on the environs and outward appearance of the castle, should not stop at the castle gate but should move inside. Accordingly, this thesis takes a step to bring the interior of the castle deeper into research and discussion; to explore individual items and features within the castle; and to consider their placing, access and meaning within the medieval world

    Frege on the Generality of Logical Laws

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    Frege claims that the laws of logic are characterized by their “generality,” but it is hard to see how this could identify a special feature of those laws. I argue that we must understand this talk of generality in normative terms, but that what Frege says provides a normative demarcation of the logical laws only once we connect it with his thinking about truth and science. He means to be identifying the laws of logic as those that appear in every one of the scientific systems whose construction is the ultimate aim of science, and in which all truths have a place. Though an account of logic in terms of scientific systems might seem hopelessly antiquated, I argue that it is not: a basically Fregean account of the nature of logic still looks quite promising

    The Structural and Material Evolution of Molana Abbey, Ballynatray Demesne, County Waterford, Ireland, Site WA037-011: A Mortar Composition Study

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    Molana Abbey, a ruin located in Ballynatray Demesne, County Waterford, Ireland, has religious roots in the sixth century but much of the structure dates to the eleventh-century. Molana became an important center of religion and education in southern Ireland. After Henry VIII dissolved Irish monasteries in 1546, the former abbey became a part of the land holdings of Sir Walter Raleigh. The abbey was then converted from a religious to a residential structure occupied briefly by English polymath Thomas Harriot. The structure fell into disrepair until the nineteenth-century when Grice Smyth, a new owner, transformed the ruin into a garden folly. At present, the ruin continues to deteriorate, occupying a middle ground between private ownership and government protection and preservation

    Civil Liability, Safety and Nuclear Parks: Is Concentrated Management Better?

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    Ultra-hazardous risky activities as nuclear industry cannot be considered as “normal industries” i.e. industries without abnormal environmental and health risks. Consequently, the industrial organization of these specific sectors is of the utmost importance. This paper aims at studying this question. We focus on the associated costs of prevention and civil liability. We analyze how civil liability rules may contribute to extend or to discourage the expansion of nuclear parks to new operators. The paper compares the consequences of extending the management of nuclear stations to several independent operators. This question can apply to the unification process of the European electricity market in which several public and private nuclear power operators are running. The paper shows that the choice between either a monopolistic scheme (one operator managing several plants) or a decentralized one (one operator by station) depends on the condition of application of the legal civil liability regime and on the strength of the safety control exerted by the Nuclear Regulatory Authorities. It is shown that when the control is high, then the safety costs generated by the monopolistic organization are less than the same costs of a decentralized one. However, conditions on the insurance policy can mitigate this result.Strict Liability, Electric Energy, Nuclear Plants

    Toward a Unified Theory of Access to Local Telephone Systems

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    One of the most distinctive developments in telecommunications policy over the past few decades has been the increasingly broad array of access requirements regulatory authorities have imposed on local telephone providers. In so doing, policymakers did not fully consider whether the justifications for regulating telecommunications remained valid. They also allowed each access regime to be governed by its own pricing methodology and set access prices in a way that treated each network component as if it existed in isolation. The result was a regulatory regime that was internally inconsistent, vulnerable to regulatory arbitrage, and unable to capture the interactions among network elements that give networks their distinctive character. In this Article, Professors Daniel Spulber and Christopher Yoo trace the development of these access regimes and evaluate the extent to which the emergence of competition among local telephone providers has undercut the rationales traditionally invoked to justify regulating local telephone networks (e.g., natural monopoly, network economic effects, vertical exclusion, and ruinous competition). They then apply a five-part framework for classifying different types of access that models the interactions among different network components. This framework demonstrates the impact of different types of access on network configuration, capacity, reliability, and cost. The framework also demonstrates how mandated access can increase transaction costs by forcing local telephone providers to externalize functions that would be more efficiently provided within the boundaries of the firm
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