The inability of the Iranian construction industry to satisfy the country's massive housing demand has transformed housing demand and supply into one of the major challenges facing the government. 1.15 million residential units need to be built each year for the next ten years. The Iranian construction industry is suffering from various deficiencies such as low productivity, small and unprofessional developers, huge waste, skilled labour shortages, defective management, unstable economy, severe fluctuations in demand and supply etc. Considering the potential advantages of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), the general belief is that the application of MMC will resolve may of the above issues. Meanwhile, Iran needs to learn from the experience of other countries such as the UK to avoid repeating their mistakes. MMC is a more complex subject in which various issues including standardisation, coordination, management, design, costs, sustainability, risks, etc, should be considered. Some of the above have become more important than others for Iranian stakeholders but prioritisation and partial consideration of these issues will not be effective. This study intends to investigate the viability and applicability of the UK's advanced construction systems in Iran. For this reason, several criteria including the building regulations and standards, practicality, economy, costs, culture, sustainability, and design have been addressed, and both countries compared with regards to these issues. The results show that, although MMC can theoretically enhance the current situation of the construction industry, issues such as education and research, industry, economy etc., need to be addressed in order to have successful application of MMC in Iran.

The Sugden House is consistently committed to the idea of functionalism in its direct, natural and honest take on materiality and construction, while the Mother& rsquo;s House is mostly ambiguous, inclusive and is made up of residual spaces and detached skins. In urban planning terms, the Sugden House represents a new order to the city, one that sensitively rose from a deep understanding of family and community needs, whereas the Mother's House represents an acceptance of suburbia and its noisy tendencies, a non-judgemental acceptance of 'what people' want.

Some Welsh Nonconformist chapels, particularly those having two doors in the entrance facade, have been characterised as an indigenous vernacular building type, distinguishing them from the more grandiose chapels of the later nineteenth century that were associated with urbanisation and industrialisation. This thesis questions this characterisation, firstly through a comparison of chapel buildings with their contemporary domestic vernacular and with chapels built elsewhere and secondly through the presentation of a new architectural history of Welsh Nonconformist chapels. The architectural history of Welsh chapels is constructed with reference to specific chapel buildings and through a synthesis of social and religious history and literary evidence. It is shown that the buildings would have carried meaning and symbolism evident to contemporaries, since the arrangement of chapel facades was representative of a non-ritualistic, sermon-centred religious practice. Welsh chapels were built by congregations with aspirations for social improvement and always designed to be recognisable and distinguishable from their contemporary domestic vernacular buildings. There is no discontinuity between the more simply-expressed lateral-facade chapels and the later gable-ended designs, a division that supports a particular interpretation of Welsh identity. The plan of the worship space is the same in both and Nonconformist congregations always built chapels that were intended to be recognisable as such and distinguishable from their contemporary domestic vernacular. Rather than adaptations of domestic architecture, chapels should be thought of as vernacular interpretations of a formal and theorised design.

No description available.

This study of the Wada of Maharashtra (India) attempts the first systematic overview of the courtyard house form in the present day state of Maharashtra, across its five traditional regions. Between 1700 AD and 1900 AD the wada received royal patronage and proliferated. It was first the Marathas, and later their successors the Peshwas, who patronized this house form which was found not only in Maharashtra but areas around as well, where their rule spread. Previous scholarships concentrated on small geographical regions, whereas this study attempts to evaluate the generalities and the variations across the entire state of Maharashtra. Regional and social variations have been identified while documenting 75 wadas across the five traditional regions of the state, covering over 30 towns. The data is organized in regional and sociological typologies, arriving at a classification of images, plans, sections and elevations. From this classification, the variables and commonalities become evident. These typologies have been studied in relation to the town plan, establishing a link with the broader urban context. Reasons for the development of the plan, its continuity and disruption, have been examined, while considering the determinants of space and form. Socio cultural, historical and geographical factors have been taken into account to understand their implications on space and form. The

The inter-relationship between the internal environment of buildings and the external environment is likely to alter in the presence of climate change. The potential implications of this changing relationship for the health and comfort of housing occupants in Neath Port Talbot (NPT), south Wales, are considered in this thesis through an analysis of health and comfort risk systems. A literature review of climate change, occupant thermal comfort, health and housing and architecture has been undertaken to establish the risk systems for risks to occupant health and comfort through the application of the source-pathway-receptor model of risk. This review has been summansed through the production of risk matrices including an evaluation of the potential for increase or decrease in the risk to occupant heath and comfort in the domestic environment due to climate change. Questionnaire surveys were undertaken to establish the current distribution of occupant hearth and comfort risks in households in NPT dunng hot summers and average winters, considered as temporal proxy for future average conditions. Further to this these surveys considered the influence of occupant behaviour and housing, neighbourhood and socio-economic factors. Detailed monitoring of a case study home, built in the year 2000, was also undertaken, using temperature and relative humidity loggers. An air leakage test and thermography survey were also undertaken. This enabled a quantitative analysis of conditions in relation to comfort thresholds dunng the hot summer of 2003. It has been found that homes in NPT present health and comfort risks to their occupants under current extreme climate during both the winter and summer. These risks include inadequate and excess heating, damp and mould and inadequate ventilation levels. Future work should focus on quantitative impact research and risk distribution in housing, as well as on passive methods to alleviate summer overheating, in order to avoid an increase in energy usage for cooling and its potential impact on climate change mitigation.

In the light of the growing global concerns about environmental problems and the importance of achieving sound management of the natural resources, this research proposal was developed. Though Egypt is now enjoying a secured energy supply for the short and medium terms, yet it is mainly dependent on fossil fuels. Building sector in 2007 was responsible for 23% of the total energy consumption in Egypt and is expected to reach 35% by 2030 and the construction sector growth rate was 15.8%. Developing an environmental assessment tool was the approach adopted by this study to address the building sector energy consumption levels in Egypt. The success of these tools in reshaping the design and practice worldwide has long been established. In the absence of an existing adequate measure to assess environmental buildings and with the concept of modern environmental design emerging in Egypt, the current study proposes the Egyptian Green Code for Buildings. The Egyptian Green Code for Buildings is an assessment tool specifically designed for the Egyptian environment. Three phases of surveys (questionnaires and interviews) were developed to create, evaluate and validate the proposed code. With the collaboration of the field specialists represented in: governmental officials, architects in practice and academics. The results reveal that this research has developed an understandable code, with categories relevant to the Egyptian environment, achievable credits and satisfactory overall classifications. The proposed code will insure a minimum level of applying green architecture principles in Egyptian buildings. It presents a unified, coherent and accurate method of assessment. It allows the designers and decision makers to identify the key points that need to be addressed to enhance the overall performance of a building and in turn make it beneficial to the environment. The application of the proposed code will result in green concepts being more in the centre of the architecture practice in Egypt and opening the possibilities to introducing new concepts and measures to achieve sustainability.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.