Powerscapes

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-151).In 2050, global oil supply will decline to 1/8 of today's. Migrating to the Post-Oil Era, over 10000's km2 of Powerscapes - the solar-collecting infrastructure - will be gradually constructed across the arid desert, for the indispensable production of solar energy to sustain Middle East's economy and global energy supply. The contingency of introducing the Powerscapes is a spatial problem. Unlike a powerplant that burns coal or oil, the scale of the Powerscapes is dramatically extensive. The inserted Powerscapes will interiorize the desert landscape and shelter the ground from the harsh direct sunlight that will be captured for power supply. Transformation in biological development, meteorological activity and geological phenomena will be inevitable, but the change that reduces the heat and evaporation rate will make its climatatic dynamics more habitable for human, animals and plants - an invaluable opportunity for the synthesis of energy production and climate conditioning. This thesis investigates the strategic programming and spatial configuration of such constructed landscape, capitalized by its new temporal characteristics, and sensitively adapting to it. Layers of material will be organized to form "Strata" of temporal conditions to be stretched across the landscape. To forge a symbiotic relationship between Solar Collection, human habitation, agricultural production and wild nature, the layers of material will delineate, push, flip, intersect, puncuate, wrap and merge, responding to programmatic needs and geographical dynamics that the natural geology and the Powerscapes together create. Such adaptive organization also permits certain geometrical and configuration logic to reiterate themselves in multiple scales, formulating a fractalic field with recursive part to whole relationships.by Chun Lun Otto Ng.M.Arch

Slipping through the net: Homeless people in Kent

This report sets out to present a snap shot of how the agencies, homeless people and the services that are set up to assist them, are perceived by each other. The purpose of the report is to generate debate and enable “both sides” to enter into open and honest dialogue. It is our hope that this will further improve joint working and allow us all to gain a deeper understanding of the problems faced by both the providers of services and those who need to use them. The report as the title suggests, highlights how people can slip through the gaps in provision and paints a picture of a “non system”. What we have to understand is how this feels for the people seeking shelter and support. The fact that many are already frightened, frustrated and angry may go someway to helping practitioners understand why vulnerable people vanish or do not respond positively to being told that they need to find their own way; this in a housing market that is out of their reach in terms of affordability and supply

Decentralization and democracy in Eastern Europe: a sceptical approach

The author focuses on the link between local government decentralizatio and democracy in Eastern Europe. It is shown that decentralization is a multidimensional concept and that actual local government systems can be positioned differently on each dimension (functions, control, and finance) depending on the implicit model of local government. Formal and substantive definitions of democracy are distinguished and some conventional measures examined; it is concluded that decentralization and democracy do not necessarily go together. The degree of decentralization and implicit models of postsocialist local government in Eastern Europe are then outlined, with a focus on the contrast between Budapest and Moscow. The development of social movements in the two capitals is taken as an index of substantive democracy and is shown to be influenced not only by�the extent of decentralization but also by other features of the local political context. This illustrates the earlier argument that the relation between decentralization and democracy is an empirically variable one rather than a necessary one.

Environmental policy implementation by local government in Hungary

Period of award 1 Oct 1995 - 31 July 1999Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3739.0605(000236379) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo