The Architect-Teacher’s Role in Formulating Architectural Pedagogy in China before 1952: The Examples of Huang Zuoshen and Liang Sicheng

This thesis examines China’s early modern architectural pedagogy before the 1952 restructuring of higher education under the Communist regime. In this context, it reflects on two key figures—Liang Sicheng (1901–1972) and Huang Zuoshen (1915–1975)—in their respective departments of architectural engineering at Tsinghua University (Beijing) and St. John’s University (SJU, Shanghai). I explore three themes—architect-teacher, makeshift modernity, and contested discourse—which encapsulate Huang’s and Liang’s teaching methodology and reflect their foreign-study experiences. Part 1 is dedicated to Huang: his studies at the Architectural Association (1933–1938) in Britain during its curricular revolution inspired by the Modern Architectural Research Group; his learning at the Graduate School of Design (1939–1941), not only from Gropius (the focus of previous scholarship) but also other modernists; and the SJU architecture programme Huang established in 1942, where he gathered an international faculty and promoted progressive approaches beyond Bauhaus principles. Part 2 features Liang’s environmental design pedagogy at Tsinghua: his concept of building (ying jian, culminating in his proposal for a College of Building); his methods of teaching city planning (which he added to his curriculum after the Second World War); and his influences from midwestern US institutions (i.e., the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the University of Michigan, and Taliesin) and Harvard’s Fogg Museum of Art. Finally, the thesis investigates Huang’s and Liang’s beliefs about the social position of the architect. It aligns Liang’s views on architecture’s relationship to society, engineering, and art with Huang’s commitment to architecture’s popular, scientific, and national aspects in post-1949 China. This thesis demonstrates that, despite the differences between inward-looking Beijing and outward-looking Shanghai, and between Liang’s and Huang’s respective backgrounds in the Beaux-Arts and Bauhaus modernism, these two figures embody the pedagogic plurality that characterised the establishment of architectural education in the first half of twentieth-century China

A Guide for Playing the Viola Without a Shoulder Rest

Knowing how to hold the viola is always the first step for not only beginners but also for those that progress to become teachers, professional soloists, orchestral musicians, and chamber musicians. Although there are pedagogy books and articles, these resources only devote a small amount to how to hold the instrument. There are also a number of videos online in which violinists or violists share their thoughts on this topic. As a violist, holding the viola is a lifetime issue because of the weight, and the variety of shapes and sizes of the instrument. These factors can cause more difficulty than holding the violin which is lighter and has less variety in size and shape. I had been searching for a way to hold the viola comfortably and without tension for many years. I found a comfortable and balanced way to play the viola without a shoulder rest and have been doing so since 2015. The main purpose of this dissertation is to share my experience on the thoughts of the chinrest and shoulder rest and how I learned to play without a shoulder rest. I hope these ideas will help other violists at all levels if they are interested in finding comfort and balance without a shoulder rest

Dynamic analysis of flexible mechanical systems using LATDYN

A 3-D, finite element based simulation tool for flexible multibody systems is presented. Hinge degrees-of-freedom is built into equations of motion to reduce geometric constraints. The approach avoids the difficulty in selecting deformation modes for flexible components by using assumed mode method. The tool is applied to simulate a practical space structure deployment problem. Results of examples demonstrate the capability of the code and approach

A finite element approach for the dynamic analysis of joint-dominated structures

A finite element method to model dynamic structural systems undergoing large rotations is presented. The dynamic systems are composed of rigid joint bodies and flexible beam elements. The configurations of these systems are subject to change due to the relative motion in the joints among interconnected elastic beams. A body fixed reference is defined for each joint body to describe the joint body's displacements. Using the finite element method and the kinematic relations between each flexible element and its corotational reference, the total displacement field of an element, which contains gross rigid as well as elastic effects, can be derived in terms of the translational and rotational displacements of the two end nodes. If one end of an element is hinged to a joint body, the joint body's displacements and the hinge degree of freedom at the end are used to represent the nodal displacements. This results in a highly coupled system of differential equations written in terms of hinge degrees of freedom as well as the rotational and translational displacements of joint bodies and element nodes