La arquitectura vernácula en la selva tiene mucho valor histórico, ya que son las primeras construcciones de los primeros pobladores que habitaron en esta zona del Perú. En la región de Ucayali, las construcciones tradicionales están basadas en madera, bambú y hojas de palma, ya que son estos los materiales predominantes de la selva ucayalina. Así mismo, cabe recalcar que esta región era y es ocupada por la etnia Shipibo Conibo, quienes mantienen una cultura selvática con importancia a los dioses cósmicos, así también poseen mucha reverencia hacia la serpiente mítica el Yacumama. Pues, realizan ceremonias dirigido a estos personajes dentro de un ambiente con mucha importancia para estos, la cual es la maloca. Quien es una arquitectura de luz amplia con forma circular o rectangular y como concepto albergar a las principales autoridades de la etnia y/o todos los integrantes del grupo para realizar un evento; siendo este ambiente un espacio público. Por otro lado, el sistema constructivo empleado en épocas iniciales para la región está siendo desvalorizadas por los mismos ciudadanos en la actualidad. Ya que, lo califican como construcciones precarias, sin valor y de poca duración; por lo que se puede deducir que esta arquitectura antigua está en extinción en la ciudad. Por ese motivo se busca promover e incentivar; a través de arquitectura vernácula; a los ciudadanos, para que estos puedan usar materiales más accesibles y económico con un empleo de sistema constructivo reforzado, siendo la combinación de materiales industriales y naturales. / Vernacular architecture in the jungle has a lot of historical value, since they are the first constructions of the first settlers that inhabit this area of ​​Peru. In the Ucayali region, traditional buildings are based on wood, bamboo and palm leaves, since these are the predominant materials of the Ucayalina jungle. Likewise, it should be noted that this region was and is occupied by the Shipibo Conibo ethnic group, who have a jungle culture with importance to the cosmic gods, so we also have much reverence for the mythical serpent the Yacumama. Well, the ceremonies aimed at these characters in an environment that is very important for them, which is the maloca. Who is a wide light architecture with a circular or rectangular shape and as a concept to house the main authorities of the ethnic group and / or all the members of the group to carry out an event; this environment being a public space. On the other hand, the construction system used in early times for the region is currently being devalued by the same citizens. Since, what last as precarious constructions, without value and of short duration; so it can be deduced that this ancient architecture is in extinction in the city. For that reason it seeks to promote and encourage; through vernacular architecture; to citizens, so that they can use more accessible and economical materials with a use of reinforced construction system, being the combination of industrial and natural materials. / Trabajo de investigación

In the final quarter of the 18th century, a planter's dwelling overlooking the Caribbean Sea at Little Bay on the northwest coast of Montserrat in the British Leeward Islands was destroyed by fire and never reoccupied. Archaeological excavations in 2010 and 2011 yielded fragments of personal adornment, dress, household furnishings, and the house containing them providing an intimate portrait of an anonymous white male and his domestic arrangements. We do not know much about the planter class, though its members were central to the structure of 18th-century West Indian society. I use this rich archaeological data alongside archival, pictorial, and comparative analyses to particularize a West Indian planter and investigate the construction of colonial Creole identity. Evidence from archaeological, architectural, and ethnographic sources allow a reconstruction of the plantation house as a single-pile, three-cell plan, wood-frame structure with a raised masonry foundation and front gallery. This form, adapted to the Caribbean environment, altered English understanding and use of private and public spaces. Through archival research, I linked Little Bay to the Piper family, documenting its transfer through generations of unmarried male relatives. At the time of the fire the inhabitant was a Montserratian born, third-generation white male of English descent, meaning a white Creole. Ceramic gaming disks and glass beads identical to examples found in enslaved contexts indicate a household comprised of domestic slaves and planter. The head of household was a wealthy male versed in 18th-century British aesthetics as shown by a fob seal, coat buttons, and flintlock pistol. Punch bowls, glassware, tea and tableware reflect refined British cultural sensibilities, but as first-person travelogues recount, such goods were redeployed in distinctive colonial form with Creole open-door sociability and shared domesticity with household enslaved. Taken together, the finds demonstrate how this colonial Creole used English material goods to craft a distinctive form of white masculine identity within the West Indian planter class. In this world of mixed classes, races, and heritages, such formulations required choices. My research highlights how British objects and local practice combined to create new meanings for plantation society in Montserrat and the West Indies.

American undertakers first began relocating from downtown parlors to mansions in residential neighborhoods around the First World War, and by midcentury virtually every city and town possessed at least one funeral home in a remodeled dwelling. Using industry publications, newspapers, photographs, legal documents, and field work, this dissertation mines the funeral industry's shift from business district to residential district for insights into America's evolving residential landscape, the impact of consumer culture on the built environment, and the communicative power of objects. Chapters one and two describe the changing landscape of professional deathcare. Chapter three explores the funeral home's residential setting as the battleground where undertakers clashed with residents and civil authorities for the soul of America's declining nineteenth-century neighborhoods and debated the efficacy and legality of zoning. The funeral home itself became a site for debate within the industry over whether or not professionals could also be successful merchants. Chapters four and five demonstrate how an awareness of both the symbolic value of material culture and the larger consumer marketplace led enterprising undertakers to mansions as a tool to legitimate their claims to professional status and as a setting to stimulate demand for luxury goods, two objectives often at odds with one another. Chapter five also explores the funeral home as a barometer of rising pressures within retail culture, from its emphasis on merchandising and democratized luxury to the industry's early exodus from the downtown as a harbinger of the postwar decentralization of shopping to the suburbs. Amidst perennial concerns over rising burial costs and calls for greater simplicity, funeral directors created spaces that married simplicity to luxury, a paradox that became a hallmark of modern consumer culture. Notwithstanding their success as retail spaces, funeral homes struggled for acceptance as ritual spaces. Chapter six follows the industry's aggressive campaign to dislodge the home funeral using advertisements that showcased the funeral home's privacy and homelike comforts. In the end, a heightened emphasis within consumer culture on convenience and the funeral home's ability to balance sales and ceremony solidified its enduring and iconic place within the vernacular landscape.

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No description available.

The research hypothesis of this study states that the springhouses of Montgomery County, Virginia, are part of an established, regionally specific, rural vernacular building tradition. Over the one-hundred and fifty-year period examined for this survey, the form and design of springhouses remained consistent, but the size, number, construction materials, and functions of springhouses changed, in response to economic, social, and technological developments. The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to document existing springhouses in Montgomery County, Virginia, using photographs and an evaluation form; and secondly, to provide analysis and interpretation of regional springhouse design, construction, and use, based on fieldwork. While springhouses appear to be relatively few in number in comparison with other farm structures, such as barns, many were adapted and maintained for decades, and some are still being used today. Their continued survival, however, may depend upon sympathetic property owners who recognize the significance of the springhouse to the rural landscape. This work will comment on the physical and material contexts of the springhouse as a building type; describe springhouse characteristics; and provide a catalog of fifty existing springhouses in Montgomery County, Virginia. / Master of Science

No description available.

The concept of place is extremely important within today's contemporary society. As a result of hyper mobility, many people do not take the time to notice and understand the spaces surrounding them. A sense of place is subtle and fragile, yet can exist in the most humble of environments. In Appalachian, there are countless structures that dot the mountainous landscape symbolizing the sense of place in southwestern Virginia. The Virginia pole barn is important for the sense of place because of its direct tie to the land. Many of these structures were built from the indigenous American chestnut tree and crafted using traditional building techniques. These structures are an important contribution to the vernacular of the Appalachian region, and much of this is due to the material presence of these structures as they give balance and counterpoint to the ridges and valleys. Secondary research focused on theories about the creation of place, the spirit or character of a specific place, the role of symbols in these creations, and the importance of the American chestnut as a material. Primary research concentrated on the people who interact with these pole barns on a regular basis, the structures themselves, and the prevailing landscapes. / Master of Science

This thesis addresses the need for nurturing the human soul in the manmade environment. Qualities definable as nurturing to the human soul were selected from research writings in psychology, specifically those of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and Thomas Moore. Of the varied forms of soul care, four qualities were selected (for this study) based on their applicability to the built environment. The four qualities include Religion, Orientation, Beauty, and Solitude. The traditional Japanese family dwelling, minka, was selected for studying the possible forms and manifestations of these four qualities in the manmade environment. In the minka, Religion was revealed in its varied aspects including Gods, sacred reality, personification, symbols, myths, religious rituals and practices. The quality of Orientation was defined by Vernacular and Cosmic dimensions of space and time: vernacular orientation was provided by the vernacular nature of the minka; cosmic space was perceived through symbolic representation; and cosmic time was manifested by the celebration of seasonal festivals. Beauty, in the form of fine arts and crafts, was revealed in the nature and purpose of the tokonoma and the daily household chores. And Solitude was revealed by the harmony perceivable in the living environment by the human senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell. Thus, throughout the minka, the four soul-nurturing qualities were present either as direct expressions of the built environment or as experiences resulting from human involvement and interaction with the built environment. Analysis of the minka environment was used to draw conclusions fo1 contemporary living environments. / Master of Landscape Architecture

This work involves the presentation of an original critical theory, termed the "script-analogue", for the discovery of significance in works of traditional architecture within their cultural contexts. The theory includes a set of related ideas about the relationship of architecture and culture, and uses these ideas as a method to analyze the relationship of African women to African traditional architecture. The use of the script as an analogue refers to the script as it is used in theater, and indicates that the relationship of the individual, culture, and the architectural environment is dynamic and interactive. The "script-analogue" derives from post-structural thought, and modifies and expands on some of its themes to make them directly applicable in the context of architecture. lt represents a dynamic analytical alternative to the reading of architecture as “text”. In the "script-analogue" theory, culture is represented through the actions of individuals, who are members simultaneously of a culture and overlapping and modifying sub-cultures. Who an individual is, culturally and sub-culturally, is important in the relationship of the individual to architecture. The theory offers a means by which gender differences, in terms of "who" builds and uses architecture, can be addressed in research, through the investigation of metaphors of significance to women, and thus it can facilitate research which focuses on women. The concept of architecture is expanded to include both the built environment, and the unbuilt environment which is <u>designated</u> to be of significance through language. <u>Memory</u> is the means by which significance in architecture is given continuity. The term <u>commemorative</u> is used to indicate the commemoration, through architectural forms, of the appropriate actions of individuals within culture. The term <u>orientative</u> indicates that the locations of architectural forms and spaces, and the orientations of people to architecture, are factors in the memory of architectural significance and propriety of actions. The "script-analogue" proposes that architectural significance can be discovered through investigations of the <u>metaphor</u> in language, and that metaphor is the means by which cultural themes exist in an inter-connected relationship to each other. <u>Ritual</u>, as metaphorical action which takes place in an architectural setting, activates the script, and connects it to other cultural and sub-cultural themes outside of the local and specific conditions. This inter-connectedness is termed in the "script-analogue", <u>transcendence through metaphor</u>. The substance of this dissertation comprises both an explanation of the ideas involved in the "script-analogue" theory, and examples of its application. In addition to the findings generated by the application of the "script-analogue" to the relationship of African women to African traditional architecture, this dissertation suggests other applications of the theory, such as evaluations of housing design in Africa, and it attempts to bridge the gap between architectural theory and practice. / Ph. D.