In this thesis, I analyse the socio-cultural and imaginative spaces of the Globe and the Blackfriars through an examination of the repertory of new plays written for performance in both playhouses. Developing early modern drama scholarship which uses spatial theories, r provide a case study of two venues, focussing on the interactive relationship between repertory and early modern theatre space. I argue that companies responded to the socio-cultural and material qualities of their theatre, but also produced spatial meanings through their repertories. My focus is on the Globe and the Blackfriars because I wish to assess the unique position of the King's Men in 1609 when the company began performing at two playhouses. In summer they performed at the Globe, an amphitheatre on the South Bank of the Thames and, in the winter, at the Blackfriars, an indoor playhouse near the City of London. Before 1609, the Globe was the only venue at which the King's Men performed regularly. A company of boy actors, the Children of the Queen's Revels, occupied the Blackfriars from 1600 until 1608. I begin this thesis by arguing that the boy company at the Blackfriars and the adult company at the Globe produced different spatial meanings through their repertories at both playhouses from 1599 to 1609. ] then divide the analysis of these meanings into chapters addressing what I have called 'social', 'urban', 'playing' and 'haunted' space in order to demonstrate that the King's Men's pO/;t-1609 repertory emerged from the Children of the Queen's Revels' production of space at the Blackfriars, and that the adult company's plays developed the spatial meanings created by the boy company at the indoor playhouse before 1609. I conclude by assessing 'authentic' staging and questions of spatial memory at the reconstructed Globe in light of my claims about the first Globe and the Blackfriars.

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Building skins have become an expression of the unique forces that are defining their context, either tangible such as weather conditions or intangible, such as social and cultural heritage. Egypt is currently experiencing excessive importation of Western technology and design concepts in architecture due to the desire of rapid development accompanied by social and political changes, threatening its culture and causing an identity crisis. Nowadays, office building design in Egypt adopts the design principles of fully glazed western buildings that were built for different environmental conditions and cultures. The negligence towards local climates and heritage, especially in a country with a hot desert climate and a rich culture like Egypt, resulted in unsatisfactory building performance. The satisfaction of occupants with their work environment is important, both regarding well-being and productivity. Therefore, ensuring acceptable environmental conditions must be achieved along with the need to include sustainability–performance related features within any design. For office buildings, two of the primary energy demands are associated with artificial lighting and thermal comfort. Therefore, any approach that attempts to reduce excessive solar gains while enhancing daylight availability can be considered as a sustainable design strategy. Building skin is the key moderator between the internal and external environments. Historically, the environmental control through façade was static. However, recent technological advances enabled building skins to dynamically react to the external environment with the aim of enhancing internal conditions. Territorial adaptive building skin (TABS) is one example of this new types of building skins. The methodology proposed in this research employed a parametric modelling, building performance simulation and Genetic Algorithm tools for optimising the performance of TABS for a south facing office space in Cairo, Egypt, based on predefined criteria, at twelve different times during the year. The TABS integrated two subsystems: (1) Shading: a dynamic geometric pattern inspired by the Egyptian solar screen ‘Mashrabia’; (2) Daylight redirecting: active horizontal louver system, to harness the advantages of both strategies. The results showed that TABS achieved the required performance at all the twelve examined times using it's predefined capabilities regarding six performance indicators (task points illuminance levels, illuminance contrast ratio, daylight distribution, daylight penetration depth, solar gain and glare). Moreover, the TABS performance surpassed the performance of the fully glazed base case and two other optimised traditional façade solutions at all examined times. Furthermore, in this study, each physical appearance of the optimised TABS solutions was an authentic representation of the Mashrabiya form, which continually achieved to represent the Egyptian cultural identity. An empirical validation process was conducted using 3D printed physical models of optimised TABS in an artificial sky facility. Acceptable agreement between the validation and simulation models regarding illuminance values was achieved. Finally, the findings proved that TABS could be a complex geometry that satisfies the ornamental desires of the contemporary architecture and address the concerns over building performance and user comfort.

Despite periodical refurbishments, hospital buildings appear to become less resilient over the long term. This thesis considers the underlying reasons for this loss of resilience and examines the implications for the wider hospital system. Decisions made during a project can radically alter its course, resulting in highly successful outcomes or alternatively, in projects facing budget overruns, delays, partially or wholly unfulfilled objectives, disappointed end-users, and inadequate buildings. Refurbishment change is examined through the lens of resilience at three levels of magnification; initially, the focus is on refurbishment projects in hospitals; this is followed by an examination of the wider refurbished hospital building; and finally, consideration is directed towards the NHS Estate. Project changes may be particularly challenging when they relate to measures aimed at adapting buildings to future climate change. Specifically, there may be little enthusiasm for expenditure devoted to future needs, when funding is insufficient to meet today’s urgent priorities. Where Trusts have large portfolios of property, pre-emptive climate adaptation measures will take considerable time to realise, and accordingly, necessary measures must be in place before any climate-related risk to vulnerable patients becomes life-threatening. Hospitals are extremely intricate buildings, both in terms of function and of the services that underpin the care process. Relatively small changes, either temporary or permanent, made during the course of a project can have significant repercussions for the hospital. A systems approach has been adopted to explore the relationships and connectivities that may be affected by the hospital refurbishment process. The research findings include the identification of change and resilience mechanisms in refurbishment projects. A framework for mapping change trajectories is presented, to assist in the analysis of propagating changes that affect refurbishment processes. The thesis also makes recommendations for what should be considered in hospital refurbishment projects to improve their overall resilience and reduce vulnerability to major impacts, particularly those that may arise as the UK climate changes.

This research focuses on four main topics: Children’s’ Cognitive Development as it relates to age-appropriate interior design; Children’s Hospital Design and healing environments; Public Spaces in Hospitals – interior architecture and interior design; Contextual Issues – specifically, the religious, ethnic and national context of Palestine. Literature indicates that research is needed in the design of healing environments for children in order to create spaces that are child-friendly and meet their cognitive development needs. There is little research available about the design of the public areas of children’s hospital including the main entrance, atrium and thoroughfares. Also, most empirical research uses traditional social science methods to understand the requirements for healing environments for children (e.g. interviews, observations). Few studies use design- or arts-based approaches. Furthermore, most research has been conducted in the West, with little research from other countries, like Palestine, where few hospitals are devoted only to children. This research aimed to determine: (1) key design factors, functions, constraints and programme requirements for designing the public spaces of children’s hospitals in an age-appropriate way to promote healing; (2) how context-specific issues relating to Palestine play a role in determining the key design factors. From a critical analysis of the literature, specific research questions and the development of a primary research plan were developed. The main research question is: For a new children’s hospital in Palestine, how should the public areas (i.e., main entrance, atrium, and throughfares) be designed so that they are suitable for all age ranges and promote healing? In Palestine, qualitative data were collected during nine co-design and cocreation workshops that included arts-based activities and semi-structured interviews. Participants included children from 3-18 years, parents, doctors, nurses, reception and admissions staff, and four groups of designers. All participants, excluding the designers, participated in drawing and modeling activities. The use of drawings with children is an indispensable tool because their verbal expression is often not highly developed, and because preferences and ideas can be expressed more intuitively. Similarly, models can be effective tools because children can express ideas and preferences about form, materials and size through them in a way that words alone cannot describe. This study uses a thematic analysis approach to analysing the qualitative data. The results of data analysis were sorted into main themes and sub-themes. The key findings of this study are: context-specific issues (i.e. culture, gender, separation and religion issues); physical environments: interior architecture and interior design – medical spaces (e.g. emergency, outpatients, triage room and others); non-medical spaces (e.g. play areas, indoor and outdoor green areas, entertainment activities, spaces for eating, reception, waiting areas and admissions); interior design elements (e.g. image design, art, form and shape, wayfinding signage, and colours); and environmental considerations (e.g. noise, hygiene, smell, and light). These findings will inform guidelines and recommendations and will be supported by visual models for the design of children’s hospitals, particularly public spaces in the particular context of Palestine. The guidelines will contribute to the creation of supportive healing environments for all stakeholders, but particularly for children. This study demonstrates that practical design methods in the research process can be very effective in fostering creativity and in drawing out ideas and preferences from young children and other stakeholders. Such methods provide a novel approach to the design of healing environments for children.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the prediction of summer over-heating in naturally ventilated office buildings by dynamic thermal modelling. Three case study buildings were modelled using the commercial, TAS dynamic thermal modelling software and their internal air temperature levels monitored. To find the optimum level of modelling complexity that compared with the physically monitored data, dynamic thermal models were altered from an initial 'Basic' model through to a very complex modelling set-up. From the changes in internal temperature prediction, created by varying the complexity of the model set-up (allowing for variations in the modelling strategy applied and the estimates/data applied by necessity in the model e.g. weather file information, blinds usage etc.) the relative effects upon the building design of these results can be assessed. This assessment was conducted by viewing the results against current UK over-heating guidelines used in the building design industry and/or by building users. Further, where these current guidelines proved of little usability for the cross-comparison of the actual monitored summer data and the realistic modelling set-up decisions, a new overheating guideline criteria was proposed.

Present urban acute NHS hospitals are rigid architectural structures composed of spatial and medical planning requirements that are underpinned by complex inter-related relationships. One assumed relationship is medical technology’s affect upon hospital space. There’s limited research exploring the relationship between NHS hospital space and medical technologies. Furthermore, little is known about the implications of emerging technologies (ETs) on future urban acute NHS hospital space. This study investigates the link between hospital space and medical technology to visualise the spatial consequences of incorporating anticipated medical ETs into future urban acute NHS hospitals. A unique single futures prospective methodology is adopted with a mixed methods approach. This includes historical research, a quantitative investigation of four London case studies and a literature exploration of three medical ETs (biotechnology, robotics and cyborgization). Primary data generated from this study forms the basis for creating scenarios of future urban acute hospital environments. Findings reveal that medical technologies impact directly on hospital space, thus, confirming the existence of a link between hospital space and medical technologies. Results also reveal that even without nanotechnology progression, medical technologies decrease in equipment size during the course of their development. This trend contradicts recent medical planning practice which ‘super-sizes’ high-spec hospital rooms (see Chapter 3). Additionally, a campus-styled hospital typology is determined as the preferred flexible design solution for creating sustainable 21st century urban acute NHS hospitals. Findings lead to recommendations that guide medical planners with the future-proofing of acute hospital space by providing insight and alternative medical planning solutions that incorporate medical ETs into future urban acute NHS hospitals.

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Roman city walls impress even today through their scale and magnificence, but they remain relatively underrepresented in studies of monuments within the urban environment. This thesis explores the contribution that city walls can make to our understanding of urbanism and society in Augustan Italy. It concludes that city walls can reveal important insights into how urban space, cultural identity, political relationships and social behaviour were negotiated and defined. This research situates city walls within the context of monumental public architecture in Roman cities, providing an integrative analysis of city walls as part of the urban narrative. It argues that city walls and their gateways should be studied as a social and political statement in order to gain a proper understanding of their character and meanings. Built more for show than for protection, Augustan city walls were icons of visual dominance and cultural manipulation of the landscape. They manifested in physical form ideas of status, self-representation and civic pride. Much more than a functional defensive asset, city walls provided a symbolic and psychological frame to the urban area. City walls embodied community-specific decisions driven by practicality, ritual and ideology as part of an ordered and meaningful use of public space. They demonstrated how an urban community wished to be perceived, incorporating social and historical associations which reflected the needs, aspirations and memories of the community they enclosed. The thesis also presents a new and comprehensive collection of inscriptions from Roman Italy relating to city walls, which are analysed to investigate the power of patronage, the discharge of civic obligations, opportunities for self-promotion and the combined use of text and imagery to maximise impact and display.

The importance of the historic built environment to local communities and its ability to foster a sense of place is an issue at the heart of current heritage impact research. This thesis is primarily concerned with how public monuments, as a focus for the localisation of memories and narratives, can contribute to the development of social capital, sense of place, and a sense of community identity.