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This thesis describes an investigation of the traditional houses of the western region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the Hedj=az region) which has aimed to identify the cultural core of the region's domestic architecture and its components, and the environmental elements that were most supportive of that core. Since these traditional houses are no longer the prevailing type of dwelling, and the lifestyles that operated in them have also vanished, the research drew upon the experience of elderly Hedj=az=i <i>mu'allem=in</i> (master-builders) who are among the few surviving traditional architects. As the descendents of many generations of builders, their knowledge covers a large span of the history of the craft, as well as familiarity with the social convictions of Hedj=az extending from the traditional period (1700s) until today. Further interviews with prominent families who had lived in traditional houses have also helped to reconstruct both the physical and socio-cultural processes of producing the traditional homes of Hedj=az. The study of the traditional Hedj=az=i house reveals that they each and collectively represented a pattern of relationships, the aim of which was to bring order, integrity and meaning to people's life - a series of connections between person, group, house and the world. The traditional Hedj=az=i's effort to make the home a sacred place served both to legitimise the group itself and its occupation of the land, for in this way the town at large, and the home within it, formed a part of divinely-ordered nature rather than being a merely human creation. The design and building processes provide a clear evidence of the desire for correspondence between man, universe and building, each of them a 'dwelling' in the true sense. This expressed the idea of a supreme unifying order in the universe which is embodied in man. It is this order that the traditional <i>mu'allem</i> has tried to grasp and interpret in his works. This central idea was reinforced by rituals, language and by the building itself. Various forms and metaphors were employed which served as devices to remind people of the primordial event from which all order was generated.

Buildings are an important record of a country's history and cultural heritage, and make an important contribution to modern cultural identity. Any intervention which changes their appearance, or the manner in which they contribute towards the living environment,should therefore be considered rigorously prior to such intervention being carried out. Stone cleaning has been applied widely to many buildings over a period of more than three decades, producing a varied range of results. This project is concerned with the development of a reliable methodology which can be employed as part of a decision making process, to help ensure that future stone cleaning takes full account of the implications for overall value (overall value is conceived of as the aggregate of financial, environmental and heritage values). Stone cleaning has been completed in the past within an environment where although guidelines of best practice have been available, questions of the resultant value changes have been considered only indirectly through client preference, planning consideration and availability of finance. This project strove to explore the Value system surrounding stone cleaning, and thus provide an assessment mechanism through which value can be considered in the future. Assessment of the financial requirements and implications of stone cleaning indicates strongly that not only are short term gains in financial value uncertain, but that any longer term maintenance requirements as a result of cleaning will be likely to balance those gains. The environmental assessment methodology (using the contingent valuation method) has produced encouraging results, indicating that the level of bid is influenced by both the respondent knowledge of cleaning and the stone type. These provide powerful indicators for use in the overall assessment. Methodologies used previously to assess heritage value have been considered, and an approach developed through which the objective and subjective elements of the value assessment can be related. The approach to overall assessment emanating from this research structures a series of assessments, ensuring that gains in the short term cannot override potential losses over the remaining life cycle. An ultimate aim of all stone cleaning is to enhance the built environment in some respects. The aim of this value assessment is to ensure that cleaning is completed only where an overall gain or benefit in value is attainable.

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No description available.

Concern about the global environment has been increasing in recent years. Efforts to sustain the globe as well as human beings have increased, especially in the late twentieth century. Co-operation between industries is required, in order to limit our production and waste within global capacity. This current study researches one of the solutions which can contribute to sustaining the world environment. Although the issues are on a global scale, solutions are sought on a regional scale, in this case Korea. Assessment and proposals are made for high-rise apartments, one of the most popular construction types nowadays in Korea. Since the volume of high-rise apartment construction is so great, a small improvement in each building will make a great contribution to reducing environmental impact. Assessments are made over the life-span of apartment buildings by using a tool for Environmental Impact Assessment for High-rise Apartment (EIAHA), which includes passive design strategy; issues on construction and building materials; energy consumption during building operation; and management & maintenance. The assessment applies to the current high-rise apartment development in Korea as well as in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore. Through the comparison of the development in those countries, proposals for future Korean high-rise apartment development are suggested. Solutions for sustainable future development of Korean high-rise apartments are categorised into (i) energy saving strategies, which include energy use for construction and use of materials as well as energy in use, and (ii) the importance of longer-life building. At the end of this study, as a conclusion, implications for planners, architects, legislators, managers and residents are outlined, in order to meet the targets.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a theoretical framework that is based on the body and on the theme of Movement, for the analysis, interpretation and creation of Architecture. My research pro poses that Movement rather than Form may be the way forward for Architecture. A theory that is based on the experience and perception of Movement, requires a Movement-focused re-search of Architecture, and is furthered by examining the discipline that is primarily concerned with the design of human movement in space, namely Choreography. My central argument, therefore, is that there is sufficient commonality between the process of creating Architecture and that of Choreography to warrant examining principles of the latter, to advance our knowledge of the former. The term 'movement' can conjure different associations and so it is necessary to define the scope of the term as it pertains to the research at hand. This study identifies five treatments of Movement: Pictorially Affective, Literal, Animated, Choreographed and Ex pressed, which are subsets of three broad categories based on the movement of: 1 - people in space: P, A, C 2 - the building (actual) : L 3 - the building (implied) : E The thesis a) critiques the historiography of Architecture from a movement-themed perspective, and provides a brief over view of Choreographic theories about Movement, b) uses photographs, video and other digital media as tools to analyse both Architecture and dance Choreography, interpreting the treatment of Movement in Architecture, according to P/L/A/C/E and, lastly, c) the thesis explores a syncretic approach towards the making of a movement-based Architecture, informed by Choreography. Video capture and editing are among several methods explored in order to study the design of movement in an architectural con text, evidence of which is presented on an accompanying DVD.

This research explores the production of informal spaces in England. Informal spaces are those used by people who do not own the land. The research focused on how such a space is produced, through a variety of processes and activities. The use and function of informal spaces is rarely prescribed by governmental agencies and is often determined on an ad hoc basis by its users. These users are sometimes consensual and symbiotic, however there is often conflict and dissidence amongst users. The sub-text to these myriad inter-relationships is the production (and re-production) of power. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is employed to address the research question ‘how is informal space produced’ using an empirical case study. A multi-method approach using: interviews, observations and documentary materials/mediated data yielded a thick description of multiple actors in the research site and augmented the ANT methodology. The research contributes to knowledge in three principal areas: empirical, theoretical and methodological. The empirical contribution relates to the specific case-study area that has previously not been studied. The theoretical contribution to knowledge concerns the combination of ANT ‘translation’ framework enmeshed with the fine-grained accounts and intricate ethnographic type work generated from the fieldwork, particularly to such a ‘spatial’ field of study. Thirdly, the adoption of a hybrid methodological approach drawn from a range of transdisciplinary practices contextualised within ANT contributes to new methodological knowledge.

In this study a thermal comfort ventilation strategy called ‘ventilation shaft’, which is a vertical shaft located at the rear of a single-sided unit and with an exhaust at the building’s flat roof, is proposed for a single-sided residential unit in high-rise buildings in Bangkok. The main aim is to investigate its potential to maximize the unit’s indoor air velocity and to extend the occupants’ thermal comfort, which, therefore, reduces high electricity consumption due to cooling systems. By using the validated CFD code in DesignBuilder simulation software, the ventilation shaft’s effectiveness was examined and its design was optimized. It was found that the proposed strategy can effectively increase the unit’s air velocity from 0.05ms-1 to 1.44ms-1 (approximately 36% of the external wind speed of 4ms-1under wind incident angle of 0°). The external wind speed and direction relating to the unit’s main window were found as the most influential external parameters, while the vertical shaft’s size as well as the inlet and outlet’s size and location with respect to the occupied area were the most influential design factors to determine its performance. A shaft height of at least 1m above the building flat roof, as well as an opening width of at least 50%-75% of the wall’s width, is recommended for ensuring the best results. Openings’ length, particularly the inlet’s, only to cover the occupied level is also suggested to avoid excessive solar heat gain from the environment. Regarding thermal comfort, the ventilation shaft with its optimal design was attached to the rooms from floor 6th to floor 25th of the hypothetical building and found able to produce the required air speed for creating physiological cooling effect in most units. This could extend the occupants’ thermal comfort time for up to 33% and 64% per day for a south- and a north-facing unit in the hypothetical building, respectively based on ASHRAE’s adaptive comfort model, and could lead to significant energy savings of up to 68.8MW per annum and 5,291MW per annum for a typical residential building in Bangkok based on a typical electric ceiling fan and a split type air conditioner respectively. In conclusion, the proposed ventilation shaft is an effective windinduced strategy to increase the air velocity and create cross ventilation in a single-sided residential unit, which can enhance the natural ventilation potential to provide thermal comfort and reduce the a/c systems dependency in typical high-rise residential buildings in Bangkok and other hot-humid climates.

Much of the existing UK housing stock has a poor standard of energy performance and the residential sector currently accounts for around 25% of the country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The eco-refurbishment of dwellings is a key action if the UK is to meet national targets for reducing carbon emissions, mitigating global warming and alleviating fuel poverty. Older properties tend to be the hardest to heat and the most difficult to refurbish, and this is particularly true for the UK’s five to six million terraced homes, many of which not only date back to the 19th century, but they represent early examples of mass urban living, hence they have strong cultural and architectural resonances. It is a significant challenge to the building industry, therefore, to sustainably renovate these buildings whilst maintaining their aesthetic character. This research analysed large amounts of monitoring data provided by the government’s ‘Retrofit for the Future’ programme for a 19th century, solid wall end-terraced house in Liverpool, England, in order to determine how the key features of the retrofit design would contribute to the improved energy performances of the refurbished houses. The aim of this renovation was to go beyond current UK thermal building regulations and to achieve the more exacting German Passivhaus standard. Analysing two years of extensive monitoring data revealed that the retrofitted house used 60% less energy and produced 76% fewer CO2 emissions than the estimated figures for a pre-refurbished house. Solar thermal panels provided over 61% of the hot water required in two year of occupancy. During the first year of occupancy the highest indoor air temperature was 26.5°C and indoor CO2 levels exceeded 1000PPM for 340 hours, or 11% of the occupied time. Using probabilistic UK future weather data and the dynamic thermal modelling software, DesignBuilder, the thermal performance of the house was simulated under different climate change probabilities with results indicating that the need to minimise over-heating, together with maintaining acceptable internal temperatures, will become increasingly important factors in retrofit design decision making. Finally, long term energy cost savings and carbon payback times for this case study were evaluated. The results of these calculations showed that the most favourable energy bill savings occurred when gas prices were rising – this gave a payback time of less than forty-three years. A carbon payback time of less than eight years means that there was no need for climate change sensitivity analysis of the model and the measures in the carbon payback time study. In addition, the Cost per Tonne of Carbon Saved (CTS) calculation showed that fabric measures, especially external wall insulation, are the most cost and carbon effective measures in the eco-retrofitted Liverpool terraced house.