This study explores the appropriation of prime locations for informal activities, and the regulation of such activities, based on the lived experiences of the stakeholders involved. Despite a vast body of research on informal practices, its main focus so far has been on eviction practices and responses to eviction, using power relations as an analytical framework. Up to the present, therefore, little has been understood about the processes of space appropriation and strategies for regulating them (other than eviction) used by municipalities in areas designated or undesignated for such activities, and the spatial ramifications of such processes. The theoretical framework which guided the examination of these issues in this study focuses on reciprocal relationships between operators and prime locations, operators and the municipality, the context of social relations and policy frameworks, which are embedded in poverty, land use, location and governance discourses. The study uses a mixed method approach to arrive at its findings, drawing from both secondary data and primary data, in the form of 200 questionnaires, 43 in-depth interviews, mapping and observations undertaken in the city of Dar es Salaam. The process of accessing and using prime locations and the operators’ use of both legal and illegal means to do so, are investigated through the specific locations of Msimbazi and Uhuru Roads and the Mchikichini market, exploring the lived experience of informal livelihood operators in these locations. The study offers insight into the socio-economic characteristics of operators and the wide-reaching changes in the economy and policies that have influenced their participation in informal activities. Through a focus on prime locations, the thesis demonstrates how the appropriation of such locations contributes to social and material transitions which impact on the operators’ social, economic and environmental relationships. The municipality uses two main strategies to regulate informal activities, that is, in-space arrangements and in-time arrangements. The use and regulation of prime locations bring together stakeholders including the municipality, operators’ organisations, and other non-governmental organisations. The municipal regulatory model is dominant but ineffective, owing to challenges to the municipal institutional framework (collaboration, accountability and transparency), social relations, and political interference, which together result in an inability to realise planned outcomes for operators. It is argued that a fuller understanding of the processes of appropriation and regulation could provide a lesson for future regulatory programmes. Rather than opposing the informal operators, initiatives should take into consideration the shared experience created in the process of producing spaces and implementing policies for informal livelihood activities in Dar es Salaam.

The study examines the relationship between eighteenth and early nineteenth century British visual culture and the wealth created from slave-trading, Caribbean sugar plantations and the colonial transatlantic trade. Influenced by Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism - and drawing on the evidence of buildings, landscapes and archives - I demonstrate that imperial links were manifest not only, as Said argues, in British literature, but also explicit in the architecture, interiors and landscapes commissioned by Britain’s eighteenth century elite. But the visual connections between Britain and its maritime colonial empire were not just manifest in the design of individual buildings or landscape gardens. The growing prosperity of provincial ‘Atlantic’ ports such as Bristol, Liverpool, Lancaster, Whitehaven and Glasgow had a profound effect on Britain’s ‘cultural geography’ - a shift towards the Atlantic west that was manifest in new aesthetic attitude towards wild and untamed landscapes. The profits from colonial plantations helped transform the perception of remote, often agriculturally unproductive uplands of western Britain into places of aesthetic value. I show, for instance, how financial investments made by ‘Atlantic’ colonial planters and merchants in north Wales, Cumberland and Scotland were instrumental to the creation of ‘Snowdonia’, ‘The Lakes’ and ‘The Highlands’ as ‘scenic’ tourist destinations. The fashion for landscape tourism was not just confined to Britain. The celebration of uncultivated ‘Nature’ also became a means to dignify colonial exploration and travel. I investigate the significance of landscape theorists Edmund Burke’s and William Gilpin’s connections with the colonial Atlantic trade, the critical influence of absentee planters on the popularity of picturesque landscape tourism and discuss how landscape art was used to represent the Caribbean colonies at a time of growing anti-slavery sentiment in Britain.

This thesis takes the American architect Steven Holl’s design in Beijing, Linked Hybrid, as a case study to investigate the social, political and cultural context of China’s contemporary architecture. The research focuses on the development, in an urban zone in the Dongzhimenwai area of Beijing, of a socialist paper mill community from the late 1980s into the Beijing Linked Hybrid community in 2010. The urban development process was analysed through six emic concepts, which were discovered in the course of ethnographic fieldwork research. These concepts are dayuan (big community or 大院), guanxi (personal connection or关系), mianzi (face or 面子), shi (trend or 势), mofan (exemplary model or 模范) and shanzhai (fake product or山寨). Fieldwork trips were undertaken between 2007 and 2010 to understand how the local community members of the paper mill and Linked Hybrid perceived the changes in their living environment. Key community members and architectural practitioners were traced and interviewed during the period of research. Written documentation from the paper mill’s propaganda department archives and the personal archives of an ex-worker about the area before the construction of Linked Hybrid, provided the historical context for the case study. The Linked Hybrid occupants eventually built a wall to enclose their new residential community, which was specifically designed to be an open community to solve China’s problematic urbanism. Thus, the architect’s architectural ideals became ineffective when his architecture was situated in the Chinese context that is described in this thesis.

Architecture is made to support certain activities. This thesis asks how architecture might also nurture the uncertain. The program and the conventions of architectural drawing encourage ideas of certainty. The architectural drawing is a rehearsal of the architecture it represents. This thesis searches for ways of drawing to rehearse the sorts of engagement we might have with architecture that could nurture an indeterminate condition. This is studied through the invention of seven types of drawing instrument. The early versions represent an indeterminate relationship with architecture while the later instruments nurture an indeterminate engagement through the act of drawing. Indeterminacy is a condition of uncertainty. At first the instruments concentrate on working with the sublime, an existential uncertainty. In order to understand the spatial potential of picturing there is extended research into the natural history diorama. In parallel to lessons on projective geometry, the dioramas provide a convincing case for the power of the uncanny, an intellectual uncertainty. The lessons from these studies, embodied in Instruments Two and Three, achieved what had been set out in the initial question but also provided new questions, especially about the experience of making the drawing. The later instruments project paint rather than light and provide an engagement with the person who is drawing that is analogous to the condition that is being drawn. The process of drawing becomes a rehearsal for inhabiting the architecture. The instruments are informed by a number of parallel studies: one that asks questions about ways of appropriating the city (as an indeterminate reception of the world as it is given); another into an opening up of the program, studied through a house, and the discovery of a way to disturb our certainty in the shadow and the invention of an instrument to understand the potential of that discovery.

The Garden City Movement has been a trigger for the design development of the courtyard house for the working class single family in Northern Europe in the late-1920s. This house form was experimented with in the UK for three decades since the late-1950s, and has since been neglected as only few architects have explored its contemporary relevance. This research seeks to investigate the potential of reinterpreting the contemporary courtyard house for creating an urban housing that can adapt to the changing needs of its dwellers over time in the UK. Four main research problems have been identified: the lack of a comprehensive study of the courtyard house type in the UK; a mismatch between the kinds of house needed by a family throughout their life course and the house provided by the market; a paucity of knowledge regarding the concept for housing mobility; and the biased observations on the sustainability (thermal performance) of this house form in the UK. A holistic approach was used in this thesis to ensure that a greater insight can be developed in examining the potentials of courtyard housing in providing low rise high density and low energy housing in the UK. The research began with a literature review followed by a combination of different research method techniques such as content analysis, ordinance survey mastermap analysis and overt non-participant field observations to collect information about the contemporary courtyard house schemes in the UK. A post occupancy evaluation (POE) study was then carried out on three carefully selected recently completed courtyard housing schemes in the UK. A postal questionnaire survey, in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews and overt non-participant observation techniques were adopted to examine users' perceptions of the performance of this house according to a number of selected criteria. Next, the cross tabulations and logistic regression analysis techniques on data of censuses obtained from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (LS) were carried out to establish if there is any evidence to support the argument that design (housing and environmental) factors rather than economic ones influenced individuals' housing mobility. Finally, Ecotect, the thermal performance analysis tool was used to evaluate the thermal performance for different house forms in the UK. The tool was then used to investigate the best thermally performing courtyard house configuration in the UK. Furthermore, the case studies technique was adopted to examine architectural and environmental design strategies and approaches to design towards zero energy for space heating in a home. There are four key contributions in this research. Firstly, a systematic survey of courtyard housing schemes designed and/ or developed in the UK from 1950s to the present day was completed with the aim to provide a comprehensive database for designers, planners and policy makers. Secondly, the results from POE studies of three recently completed courtyard house schemes in the UK, show that the `Home' received the highest level of satisfaction in all cases. The evidence collected through the POE studies suggest that the courtyard house type (when it is well designed) is well suited for creating a contemporary family house in an urban area. Thirdly, the empirical evidence from the housing mobility study seem to suggest that design (housing and environment) constitutes one of the most important variable influencing individuals' housing mobility in the England and Wales. The best model to predict `house move' made by individuals between 1991 and 2001 Censuses in the England and Wales is a combination of variables from design/ environmental (accommodation type, population density and number of rooms in house), social (age, household type and number of person in house) and economic (social class). Last but not least, this study establishes that the long-narrow with the internal court configuration performed (thermally) better than L-, I-, Z- and T-shaped courtyard house. Careful planning and layout may improve its thermal performance to reach results that are better than terraced house. Additionally, nine architectural design principles were recommended to ensure low energy consumption for residential buildings in the UK.

Atria, particularly those enclosed by glass, have become popular features of many buildings in recent years. Due to the large amount of glazing, they are characterised by complex thermal processes and by levels of interaction with the ambient climate more intense than other types of buildings. Both the thermal processes and the local climate, place additional complexity for the designer of an atrium building. So far, research concerning atrium buildings and glazed spaces has focused on their energy performance and their potential contribution in minimizing cooling and heating loads of the adjacent buildings. The current research additionally concentrates on the need to achieve acceptable indoor thermal conditions, basic condition for environmental control of a space. However, the knowledge concerning occupant expectations and preferences in atrium buildings is limited, especially regarding warm to hot climates i. e. the Mediterranean climate. The research comprises the study of factors influencing temperature in glazed atrium spaces in Mediterranean climate and the conditions that result in relation to occupant comfort. The investigation involved: - literature review on atrium architectural forms and thermal processes; - observations of atrium buildings in the specific climatic context; - thorough analysis of the climate and climatic responsive design strategies; - occupant comfort surveys; - in situ physical measurements of a case study building in Greece during the peak seasons (winter and summer); empirical validation of the software. The results from the occupant comfort survey established the adaptability of the users to a wider range of thermal conditions in atrium buildings. The in situ physical measurements provided useful information on the building's performance. These results and the background research constituted a valuable input for the parametric study from which recommendations of design criteria for optimal atrium design in the Mediterranean climate were derived. The main conclusion of the research is that understanding the climatic attributes of a specific location, and the occupants' expectations, together with the selection of appropriate design parameters, leads to the design of a comfortable and efficient environment. The results of the study are applicable to designers at the conceptual stage as well as to cases of retrofitting.

This thesis explores standards of accessible design in Scotland's new and refurbished schools with the aim of suggesting practical steps towards creating school environments which actively promote inclusion of people with impairments and provide positive learning environments for children with additional support needs. Existing research of new and refurbished Scottish school buildings is inconclusive with regards to accessible design and at the midpoint of the largest school building programme in the history of Scotland, it is crucial that accessible design processes and practices be evaluated in order to inform future building projects. The research explores the relationship between impairment, disability and the built environment and the impact that the disability movement and its associated social model of disability on contemporary architectural profession. This allows a vision for architecture to be proposed through a 'social model of disability' which is used as a basis for examining school design issues. The inclusive education discourse and current research examining standards of new school design in Scotland are used to determine the parameters for practical investigations, which use a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods and involve a wide variety of stakeholders. Results are used to establish the extent to which 'the social model of architecture' is embedded within the school design process and give practical recommendations as to how this can be better achieved, including a proposed overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work 2013. This study highlights the need for a paradigm shift in the architectural design ethos and contributes towards the creation of an inclusive, inspirational and sustainable learning environment for current and future generations.

This thesis analyses the potential of the Deleuzian philosophical concept of 'expressionism' in accounting for and driving architectural design and research. An expansive literature considering the import of Deleuze in architecture is characterised by his simultaneous use in both poles of debates concerning Critical architecture at the centre of mainstream practice and as foundational source for minoritorian approaches to both design and research. Identifying this contemporary vacillation as a reiteration of traditional reductions of design to products or processes, and seeking development of an alternative trajectory, I propose the architectural project as an 'embodied' epistemological and ontological third term of an expressionist account of architectural design‐research. A series of critical encounters between philosophy and architecture exploring the accounts and practices of Robin Evans, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman and both professional and pedagogic design‐research undertaken by the author, articulate six key principles of a non‐representational, expressionist methodology for design and research in architecture. First 'expressionism' insists on a substantive distinction between nominal and real denying any essentialist component to architectural products or production. An encounter with Evans shows how architectural bodies both produce and are constituted by 'projective relations' external to architect, drawing and discipline. Koolhaas and Eisenman's divergent positions then demonstrate how projective distinctions are always embodied in two actual forms which select content and express an exterior. Fifth, a design for a non-human 'client' makes explicit the parallel and serial nature of processes of selection and projection. Sixth, community‐engaged design‐research demonstrates that active speculation towards positive change (outside of self and social habit) is a mechanism for the serial production of simultaneously ethical and aesthetical affective relationships. Extending and sharing the production of capabilities and powers of expression beyond the architect and architecture demonstrates the overarching principle of expressionism ‐ affirmative speculation is correlative with the creation of ethical joy.

This thesis investigates the role of spatial configuration on individual spatial decision-making. Over 100 participants take part in laboratory wayfinding experiments based on real-world images of street corners, using fixed and mobile eye trackers. Participants are asked to perform directed and undirected spatial tasks; stimulus-derived and task-related viewing patterns are accounted for. Responses to the spatial tasks are tested for task-related bias against responses in non-spatial tasks (recall, free viewing, and controlled search).   The evidence reveals that, during wayfinding, participants choose the more connected street, measurable with space syntax variables of relative street connectivity. Four space syntax variables are used: integration and choice at global and local scales. The resulting measure allows decisions made by individuals to be related directly to the space syntax analysis of spatial morphology. The fixation data allows for an investigation of how wayfinding choices and gaze bias may be linked. Viewing behaviour during the spatial tasks reveals areas of particular interest at each path alternative; these correspond to structural information in the built environment. A measure for identifying the location of such areas is proposed: "choice zones'". Choice zones are computed algorithmically, and are based on space-geometric measures visible in the scene. Choice zones offer a greater scope than existing measures because they are based on information visible in the real world; it is therefore possible to compute choice zones for images of different reference classes (eg. those with varying horizon or sky lines). The resulting measure has important implications for optimal routing and urban design, identifying those areas of the visual field that contain the most relevant environmental information pertaining to wayfinding.

This dissertation investigates architecture’s role in negotiating socio-political atrocities. It focuses on a case from Turkey, an arson attack that took place on 2 July 1993 in the city of Sivas. The site of this attack, the Madımak Hotel, has the quality of a prototypical case among the several sites of atrocity in Turkey, which, over the past couple of decades, have become subject to memorialisation projects—initially under the civil society discussions known as “facing and reckoning with the past” (geçmişle yüzleşme ve hesaplaşma) and later as part of a larger process of “post-coup democratisation” endorsed by the governing authorities. After continuing for many years to serve commercial purposes, in 2011 the Madımak Hotel was expropriated and turned by the state into a Science and Culture Centre, and an entire section of it called the “Memory Corner” was dedicated to the 1993 atrocity. The dissertation begins by analysing, both theoretically and empirically, the dynamics between violence and space. It discerns the inside-outside distinction as a fundamental material-spatial demarcation that has been both productive of and produced by the 1993 atrocity. The dissertation then goes on to study, through ethnography and archival research, the various spaces (both geographical and architectural) that have been subject to this demarcation and have hosted related examples of architectural memorialisation. These include the city and the building where the arson attack took place, a group of monuments and memorials across Turkey and in London, and those built in the aftermath of another atrocity in Germany that has come to serve as a reference case for the memorialisation debate in Turkey. The fundamental thesis is that the widespread opinion in Turkey that regards the judicial treatment of atrocities such as Sivas ’93 as flawed has imbued the sites where the atrocities took place (and those in which they are architecturally memorialised) with a quasi-judicial significance. The dissertation suggests that the material-spatial logic of memorialisation as a quasi-judicial force resembles rather than resolve that of the violence with which it is intended to help “face and reckon.” It concludes with a discussion of what this resemblance might imply as regards methodological and theoretical questions around temporality and agency in architectural memorialisation.