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This thesis examines the architecture of Leicestershire churches within a period of c.1260 to c.1350. It is the result of a field study of nearly three hundred churches both within Leicestershire and the surrounding counties, in order to define stylistic similarities and differences. Part of the work has investigated the question of whether the term 'Decorated' requires some re-definition. Chapter I establishes that very little writing before the 20th century examined the architecture of Leicestershire churches in any detail, and even subsequently, major research has been sparse. Having observed the early sources, it continues with a review of the current general literature. Chapter 2 submits that the term 'Decorated' - as currently defined - is too wide to cover the entire period under discussion. The term 'Geometrical' as applied to late 13th-century architecture, should not be used to define the Decorated style. Examples set out to justify the argument that some of the motifs found in 14th-century Decorated architecture did not exist in the later 13th century. Since later chapters deal with dis-aggregated features, Chapter 3 commences with a set of case studies of the individual churches along the Wreake Valley, before moving on to discuss how the different elements of Decorated are applied to Leicestershire churches. The following two chapters examine the economic background to the mediaeval county and the practicalities of masons, quarrying and building practices. The amount of data collected - which appears in the Appendices - has led to the introduction of new ideas, namely, that basic elements were stock-piled, and that templates were of more limited use than has been previously supposed. The remaining chapters deal with individual features, including two major chapters on Windows and Arcades: that on Windows provides the first ever detailed classification of window types within the county, whilst that on Arcades reveals much new evidence on building practices. Volume 1 contains the text, Bibliography and list of all churches surveyed; Volume 2 contains all illustrations, appendices and maps.

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Wayfinding tasks comprise decision points and interconnecting paths leading to a destination. Path choice at decision points is critical to the successful completion of wayfinding tasks. Research has found that signage is not the only influence on path choice and that influences vary depending on familiarity with an environment. People familiar with their surroundings have a cognitive map - a prior understanding of the environment - against which they can compare the environment as they experience it in order to orientate themselves. People unfamiliar with their surroundings, and therefore lacking a cognitive map of them, are found instead to rely upon wayfinding strategies to inform their path choice decisions. This study investigates how aspects of the spatial design of buildings may assist unfamiliar users in finding the destination they are seeking within the building. Observations of people wayfinding in an unfamiliar building suggested that four aspects of spatial design affected route choices made at decision points. Four wayfinding strategies describe the behaviour observed: I) Maintain a Straight Bearing through the building; 2) Avoid a Change of Level; 3) Walk Towards a Brighter Space; 4) Choose the Wider Corridor. Evidence supporting three of these was found in the literature. For the fourth - Choose the Wider Corridor - only limited evidence was available from the literature and hence further work was carried out to test the predictability of its influence on wayfinding behaviour. An online experiment was conducted to investigate to what degree corridor width influences path choice and the interaction between the Choose the Wider Corridor and Maintain a Straight Bearing wayfinding strategies. A means of categorisation, comprising two wayfinding principles, was devised for information in the environment and means of undertaking wayfinding tasks: Reassurance Principle - wayfinding strategies reassuring the wayfinder that they are taking the correct route and Tools Principle - signage, maps, landmarks and other sources of information in and representing the environment, available to aid wayfinding decisions. This thesis looks at strategies for wayfinding reassurance. It is proposed that unfamiliar users would find buildings more intuitive to wayfind within if they were designed with routes to likely public destinations that conform to the four wayfinding strategies. An applied test was conducted to confirm whether wayfinding ease could be predicted by analysing the routes within that building against the behaviours described by the wayfinding strategies. It was found that ratings of difficulty given by test participants matched predicted ratings based upon an analysis of the building'S conformance to the wayfinding strategies. It is suggested that if this analysis was conducted at the design stage it could limit potential wayfinding difficulties. Some possible designs as means of achieving this in new buildings and refurbishments are discussed.

The combined effect of climate change and the urban heat island phenomenon is likely to reduce the space heating needs and cold-related mortality risk of urban populations in mid latitude countries during winter; however, it is also expected to increase overheating and heat-related deaths during summer. Identifying the determinant factors for energy demand and thermal comfort across a city is hence a key requirement for energy efficient retrofit and public health strategies. The aim of this thesis was to assess the relative impact of urban warming, built form and fabric characteristics on domestic energy use and overheating risk across a major city, using London as a case study. Two housing stock models were developed: a heat demand model based on steady-state energy use calculation techniques and a multiple linear regression overheating risk meta-model of an existing dynamic thermal simulation program. Input data was derived from existing Geographic Information System databases, national housing surveys and local urban air temperature models. The heat demand model successfully reproduced the ranking of urban areas based on their actual gas consumption (R² = 0.817) in a case study area containing 8.6% of London's dwelling stock. The heat island was found to decrease the average annual domestic heating load by 14% in these urban areas compared to a rural reference site. It was shown that the overheating meta-model can replicate the output of the thermal simulation program (R² = 0.763). It was indicated that highly exposed dwelling types, such as top floor flats and bungalows, as well as internally insulated buildings are likely to present an indoor overheating problem during periods of hot weather. However, the agreement between modelled overheating levels and monitored data collected in 101 London homes in summer 2009 was relatively weak, thus highlighting the modifying role of occupant controlled ventilation for indoor thermal conditions.

Architects tend to organise a building in a most unnatural way. The organisation and formation of space is a complex matter which traditional approaches tend to flatten into something quantifiable, to allow the task to be managed and planned. This process is inherently determined by the way we perceive the world spatially; constituting a model defining the conceptualisation of space, which is implicit to the way an architect conceives and approaches the task of organising a building. This thesis argues that space is produced through activity. A product of interaction, patterns are determined through feedback between the state of an entity and its interpretation of its context. These patterns restrict autonomy, effecting constraints which enable organisation. In this way space is perceived productive: created through action and being, whilst at the same time creative through constraints effecting the constituents of an arrangement. The study explores a decentralised approach to configuring space, drawing on the concepts of self-organisation and emergence to reapproach how architectural space is organised. A series of models are presented, exploring how the authority of traditional methods may be transferred to the components of a system. An interdisciplinary piece of work, this explorative study draws on fields such as artificial life, qualitative reasoning, and biosemiotics to define an approach to configuring space which embraces the autonomy of natural systems. Using the computer as a tool to emulate natural phenomena, the food foraging behaviour of ant colonies and the aggregative behaviour of slime moulds are looked at as models of organisation; these are leveraged and steered to generate spatial formation. The thesis concludes with a model, conceived a body of swarms, that demonstrates a qualitative-semiotic conception of spatial configuration; alongside an appraisal of how the relations between components of a system might emerge in a creative process of production.

The thesis is concerned with the interactions between solar irradiance and buildings in urban situations in tropical arid regions. It attempts to reveal the effects of the geometry and surface reflectance of buildings on the initial, interreflected and final irradiance on the external surfaces off buildings and define their interrelationships. A computerised mathematical model is developed to simulate the interactions at the external surfaces of buildings, embodies the relevant physical processes and factors involved and enables the irradiance load to be evaluated. The model is used to carry out systematic and detailed investigations for the most common forms of buildings and urban configurations for Khartoum, a location typical of the tropical arid regions. These identify the ranges, the significance and the effects of the geometrical parameters and surface reflectance of buildings on the initial, interreflected and final irradiance load and define their interrelationships. On this basis, simplified economical solution procedures for the evaluation of the initial and interreflected irradiance are developed, irradiance indices, and measures of form performance are established and guidelines for the manipulation of the form parameters for the control of the irradiance load are defined. The generative potentials of the model, its capabilities, flexibility and applicability in the design process in minimising the irradiance load on buildings are illustrated. In order to carry out the prograame of work described above, a major preliminary investigation of solar and sky radiation in tropical arid conditions had to be carried out. This is also presented in the thesis.