The dissertation explores the spatial practices of African migrant markets in post-Apartheid Cape Town. The research is framed by the fields of everyday architectures and subaltern studies, and argues that while the former field has expanded the understanding of architecture by recognising the ordinary spaces of everyday life, the latter field offers a critical reading in relation to marginal populations and contested sites. As a whole the thesis therefore suggests that beyond understanding these markets as everyday architectures, they should be understood as minor or marginal architectures, where their subordinate position is understood as a relative and contingent construct. The first part of the thesis discusses the methodological and theoretical approach developed through the research. Drawing on the dual framework of everyday architectures and subaltern studies, the research shows how these marginal architectures are rendered opaque as a result of spatial and political processes within the city, country and continent. This dual framework enables a recognition of the inventive micro-spatial practices of the markets, while simultaneously pointing to the impact of the broader context within which they are situated. The primary research methods employed are a combination of ethnographic research, interviews, observations and drawings. The subsequent chapters are structured according to decreasing spatial scales. They discuss the specificities of spatial stories and spatial practices through the acts of border crossing, public spaces, home making and unmaking and cross-border trading. Through these practices and spaces they point to questions of national belonging, migration, gender and race as having spatial, material and embodied expressions. The conceptual framing of the markets enables a view of these spaces beyond a topographical reading as sites of informality, deprivation, and poverty, to understand the complexity of the spatial and material processes which underpin these sites.

This thesis examines design strategies in architecture related to the production of positive feelings by buildings, and speculates on how to operate explicitly with them in order to intensify such experiences. Based on Spinoza’s theory of affect, and supported by a varied body of contemporary science, this thesis explores the conceptual structure and the geometric, material, and biological bases of positive emotional interactions between architecture, and the human body, its organs of perception, and action patterns. The thesis focuses on biomechanical, thermodynamic, aerologic, luminic, biological, and tactile relations that substantiate specific architectural emotions, investigating the internal mechanisms and resources on which they are based. The intensification of these relationships has been tested through the design of seventeen digital prototypes. The resulting architectural manifolds are composed of deeply articulated technical systems that include novel entangled definitions of flooring, interior and exterior enclosure, openings, building systems, lighting and vegetation, among others. They relate to each other in structural, performative, and ornamental terms constituting buildings. The thesis outlines a possible design method that enhances positive emotions and feelings in buildings. This led to six building projects, two of which were built where these principles were applied, providing reliable objects of disquisition and further study. These projects constitute a repository for concrete disciplinary findings and innovations. In addition, this thesis offers a broad theoretical background as well as concrete ideas and specific criteria for the design of the different elements and systems that constitute building, and the way they relate to one another. It offers a new invigorating design paradigm for buildings – at the intersection of performance and aesthetics and beyond pervasive paradigms such as functionality, efficiency or comfort.

A key issue in the architectural design of atria museums is the variety of ways users can interact with the three-dimensional layout of space to create emergent patterns of spatial navigation. This issue is addressed in the context of a coherent body of literature which, together with space syntax theory and method, real time observations, agent-based models and virtual reality environments provides a specific rigour in the spatial analysis of the layouts and exploration patterns. The intention is to evolve an overview of these three-dimensional spatial and navigational aspects; thus enriching the development of the two-dimensional space syntax approach and contributing to a better understanding of the architectural design of museums. Most space syntax studies on human navigation focus on spatial characteristics and route choices in two dimensions and have not yet properly addressed the effect of the third dimension on exploration. This thesis studies three European atria museums: the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which, taken together, provide a basis for investigating the theoretical and methodological questions of this thesis. The analysis begins from the apparent similarities among the museums, creating a suitable background for exploring critical differences with regards to their spatial layout and visiting patterns. The results deriving from this analysis are then used to create systematic variations in the virtual reality (VR) experiment being conducted at the Ashmolean Museum, examining correspondences between users’ experiences in the real and in virtual environments. Significant analogies are demonstrated between real and virtual behaviour with the findings showing how the museums’ three‐dimensional architectural design impacts significantly on the navigational processes of visitors. Although the atria in all three buildings are used as compositional devices structuring relationships between exhibition spaces and the three dimensional organisation of buildings, there are significant differences in terms of how this relationship is structured and the differing impacts produced on navigation patterns and gaze directions. The present study ultimately leads to a deeper understanding of architectural design regarding three-dimensional museum environments, and its implications for users’ social and cognitive processes.

The primary aim of this thesis is to explain the complex spatial organisations of polycentric urban regions (PURs). PURs are a form of regional morphology that often evolves from post-industrial structures and describe a subnational area featuring a plurality of urban centres. As of today, the analysis of the spatial organisation of PURs constitutes a hitherto uncharted territory. This is due to PURs’ inherent complexity that poses challenges for their conceptualisation. In this context, this thesis reviews theories on the spatial organisation of regions and cities and seeks to make a foundational methodological contribution by joining space syntax and central place theory in the conceptualisation of polycentric urban regions. It takes into account human agency embedded in the physical space, as well as the reciprocal effect of the spatial organisation for the emergence of centralities and demonstrates how these concepts can give insights into the fundamental regional functioning. The thesis scrutinises the role that the spatial organisation plays in such regions, in terms of organising flows of goods and people, ordering locational occupation and fostering centres of commercial activity. It proposes a series of novel measurements and techniques to analyse large and messy datasets. This includes a method for the application of large-scale volunteered geographic information in street network analysis. This is done, in the context of two post-industrial regions: the German Ruhr Valley and the British Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire region. The thesis’ contribution to the understanding of regional spatial organisation and the study of regional morphology lies in the identification of spatial structural features of socio-economic potentials of regions and particular areas within them. It constitutes the first comparative study of comprehensive large-scale regional spatial networks and presents a framework for the analysis of regions and the evaluation of the predictive potential of spatial networks for socio-economic patterns and the location of centres in regional contexts.

This thesis argues that the creation of buildings with the potential of functional and physical change over time is inextricably linked to what can be labelled as 'frameworks of uncertainty' - i.e. those tools of architectural theory and design that predict, enable and manage the accommodation of controlled changes. To this purpose, the differing contexts of British and Japanese post-war architecture, and more specifically the work of Cedric Price and Arata Isozaki, are investigated as instrumental in understanding this friction between fixity and freedom within architectural design. An interest in systems thinking and a performative conception of built form prompted Price to talk of 'Calculated Uncertainty', a phrase that conveys the paradox involved in any attempt to control loosely defined spaces. In Japan, this paradox was culturally longstanding due to a spatiotemporal conception of the built environment as an ever-changing entity. Isozaki, who today is mainly known in Western countries for his postmodernist buildings, in fact founded his first two decades of practice upon the application of cybernetics, interactive artistic/urban performances, and a profound knowledge of traditional Japanese architecture. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first presents a situated architectural history of the 1960s and 1970s through the clarification of relevant terms in the English and Japanese languages such as flexibility, interaction, ma and kaiwai. In the second part, Price and Isozaki are individually analysed within this context through their theories, design research, modes of representation and built projects. The final part offers a critical discourse on 'frameworks of uncertainty' based upon a series of arguments extracted from the two case-studies. Thus the thesis aims to provide a better understanding not only of Price's and Isozaki's influential work but also of those significant theoretical and design tools that attempt to balance control and change in today's architectural practice.

This dissertation discusses the construction of three distinct urban imaginaries during two cycles of urban renewal (1940s–60s) and downtown renaissance (1970s–90s) in Chicago and Detroit. It uses a wide variety of images to do so: photographs, films, maps, graphs and murals. It explores how these images were initially used for research, education and promotion supposedly to save the city from obsolescence; and later for social and political activism to gather support for preservation of landmarks and communities. To study how urban imaginaries shape the rebuilding of the city, in other words, how visuals shape thoughts, actions and interactions that could justify one mode of city building over another, I focus primarily on the visual and material exchanges between images, the city and its citizens. During the period of urban renewal (1940s–60s), I investigate how voluntary citizens’ councils in both Detroit and Chicago used blighted images as “reform publicity” to rally private organizations, public institutions and individuals to support and help organize the clearance and selling of large tracts of land to private developers. By contrast, during the period of downtown renaissance (1970s–90s), I track how public-private partnerships produced images of iconic buildings, skylines and multicultural festivals to pave the way for efforts to revitalize both downtowns. But even as downtown renaissance booster campaigns attempted to create a community of believers (and eventually consumers), images of decline resurfaced, disseminated by individuals and groups who together constructed a powerful counter-imaginary in order to spur popular resistance to the wholesale destruction of buildings, neighbourhoods and communities. By studying how urban imaginaries develop and change in time vis-à-vis dominant modes of rebuilding and governing the city, this dissertation contributes to existing histories of postwar American cities in the following ways. First, it does so by assembling an archive of previously unknown visual documents and collecting the oral histories of amateur and professional documentary photographers, curators and preservationists. Second, by placing these primary materials at the centre of an account of how urban imaginaries are constructed, it extends recent scholarship that considers how controversial and often damaging policies of urban renewal and planning gained widespread political and popular support. In particular, it draws attention to the previously unappreciated role of voluntary citywide citizens’ groups in creating a positive political climate for urban renewal and the influence of booster campaigns and opposition projects in downtown renaissance.

Reconstruction is the ultimate type of intervention a building can experience, usually contested in the context of built heritage. Records and available remains are used as a way to settle debates around it, primarily associated with monuments, leaving aside other types of heritage such as housing in historical areas. When disasters happen regularly — for example earthquakes — reconstruction processes also occur periodically and are unquestioned, due to the necessity to recover the dwelling space for the affected families. I use the case of Chile as a laboratory since earthquakes occur regularly. Even though changes in regulations have led to safer behaviour of buildings in earthquakes, especially in urban areas, the built heritage has been significantly affected, mainly because of the age of the buildings, lack of maintenance, poor regulations, accumulated damage and overall neglect. The pressure for quick reconstruction has led to a superficial understanding of heritage by offering solutions that ‘look like’ the previous houses but without using actual records and without considering other important aspects of their historical value, such as building techniques and human occupation. As a methodology, I surveyed three heritage areas in Chile — San Lorenzo de Tarapacá, Zúñiga and Lolol — throughout different periods using 3D-laser-scanning complemented by photography and interviews. From this, I explore the potential role of accurate records in what is considered heritage and its reconstruction, understanding the capacity of such technologies to be a virtual database for memory, preservation, demolition, intervention or replica. I also propose a series of alternatives based on using 3D-laser-scanning as a continuous practice of recording, as a post-earthquake assessment tool and as a basis for design, which act as a trigger for speculation and questioning over the nature of rebuilding. With this research, I intend to contribute to a much-needed debate in Chile with further implications for other changing historical environments.

My PhD thesis offers the first ethnography of skateboarding in South Korea, an in/formal network of everyday mobility. Drawing upon over six years of experience in the region and twenty months of fieldwork, I explore how skaters negotiate their presence in the city of Seoul through precise spatial expertise, minute bodily gestures, mixed-media praxes, and intimate social relations. Contrary to what much of the earlier research on European and Northern American skateboarding suggests, I argue that skateboarding in Seoul primarily dwells in the skatepark, as though it is an urban extension of the home. I propose phenomenology and sensory ethnography as frameworks to gauge the extent to which these well-outlined architectural spaces condition how Seoulites acquire everyday coping skills, and how this affects their perceptual experience of the built environment. Significantly, these skateparks tend to be spaces of stillness, closeness, and tranquility, providing a serene and placid alternative to the notion of skateboarding as a fundamentally spectacular and trick-driven practice. Within the contours of these formalised skateparks, Seoul-based skaters also give meaning to their everyday life and social position by verbally and non-verbally relating to and distancing themselves from the notion of Hell-Joseon (“South Korea as a hell-like society for younger generations”). I approximate the myriad of lived experiences and rhythms moving through these skateparks in my research film Reverberations. Although skateparks are the sine qua non to acquire bodily skills, the typology of found urban space (called begyon) is the preferred spatial backdrop for forms of audiovisual representation of the self and the city. In this thesis, I gesture towards the mimetic dimensions of this performative and emphatic exploration of found urban space, as well as suggest that this course of action tends to take place in the presence of a video or photo camera, affecting the techniques and routines of the acute and palpable encounters between body, skateboard, and architecture. The representational taxonomy of the choreography of such bodily skills and tricks is at the heart of my second research film, called VCR. It is through an emphasis on site-specificity and the everyday—established via a written ethnography, a contemplative film (Reverberations), and an essay film (VCR)—that my study explores the sensory experience of architectural and urban space, as well as filmmaking as a gentle tool to sense and approximate the local and embodied practice that we call skateboarding.

Around 66 long-term refugee camps, hosting some 1.5 million people, exist currently along the East African Rift. Many have existed for decades. The humanitarian assistance destined for them is dwindling, affected by donor fatigue and new pressing emergencies in other geographies. This impacts on the life of the encamped and their neighbours on many levels. In the last ten years, early childhood education has gained relevance in humanitarian assistance programming. From 2011 onwards, donors and camp managers have begun to focus attention and invest funds into centralised education facilities for the many three to six year olds who live in encampment. In light of these changes, this research seeks to elucidate the relationship between the built environment of the long-term refugee camps in the East African Rift and the learning processes of the young children who are born and raised there. A thorough study of these initial efforts is timely as few cases are currently standardised and replicated globally by the humanitarian apparatus. The aim of this research by architectural design is fourfold: to test architecture as a tool to produce novel data on the cases studied by including local voices; to understand the extent to which encamped children learn from the spaces they inhabit; to understand which actors create and modify such spaces; and, finally, to explore architectural strategies for improving the camps' learning environments. In this investigation, I used a multi-method qualitative approach including architectural, ethnographic and Participatory Action Research methods, and I draw on urban, assemblage, and actor-network theories. I first mapped and examined with an urban lens the built environment of seven camps in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, tracing the causes and ramifications of their spatiotemporal variation. Second, I collected and analysed the perceptions of children, parents, caregivers, and NGO members regarding the camps built environments as a learning source. Lastly I co-developed design speculations for two Rwandan camps with local refugees and architecture students. My findings show: - The whole built environment of a camp is a learning source, and its classification into formal, non-formal and informal learning environments can guide more effective refugee education policies. - Informal learning environments are paramount for young children and are primarily (re)produced by refugees and direct local hosts. Consequently, these environments and the role of refugees are unaccounted for in refugee education policies and in refugee camp planning and maintenance programs. - Architecture and design are useful tools for promoting the inclusion of long-marginalised voices in knowledge production circles and for improving the camps diverse learning environments. This research portrays a nuanced picture of the camps I have studied, it calls for empathic and contextualised approaches to both encamped refugee education programs and the maintenance strategies of the camps built environments.

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