Previous studies on acoustic requirements for performers of classical music proved that early reflections were of critical importance for good ensemble conditions. However, strong early reflections may produce an unpleasant tone quality. Diffusers are sometimes used to reduce the negative effects caused by large specularly reflecting surfaces. The aim of the research project is to better understand what happens when diffusers are applied to the enclosure walls of a stage in a concert hall. Two aspects are examined: the changes produced to the sound field measured on the orchestra platform, and the manner in which musicians perceive diffuse early reflections in comparison with specular early reflections. Results of objective measurements show that the most noticeable property of diffusers on the early sound field is the smoothing of the impulse response. Diffusers attenuate strong early reflections. Besides, diffusers give a better sound energy distribution by providing reflections outside the specular sector: the standard deviation of several acoustic parameters is somewhat smaller with diffusers. It was found that diffusers do not eliminate comb filter effects and that they do not have a great influence on EEL, ST and clarity. The subjective aspect resulting in the greatest consensus among the subjects is the following. The overall tone quality is improved by diffusers. The overall sound quality is influenced by the amplitude of early reflections and by the reception angle of the reflections. Diffusers may also affect articulation, clarity, self and mutual hearing, but to a minor extent. Musicians' requirements regarding the fine structure of early reflections differ according to the size of the ensemble who is performing, the room volume, the power and directivity of the instruments played, and the type of music (or desired tone quality).

No description available.

The aesthetics of motorway architecture has not received attention within theoretical photographic discourse and has never been the subject of an academic photographic research project. This project begins from the understanding of the motorway as one continuous piece of architecture that crosses international boundaries on its route across Europe – an architecture so large that it cannot be perceived in its entirety. As a research-by-practice PhD, photography is used to identify and record incidents of the sublime in the route of the motorway. The photographs are produced with a large field study from the Swiss Alps to Naples, where numerous complex topographical and spatial conditions are found. This results in incidents of the sublime within its architecture when the motorway is forced to negotiate these conditions during its route. The research domain was chosen for its significance within the history of art and literature in European cultural history. Travelling in these regions was and is strongly related to the development of cultural concepts of the sublime. The questions that this research investigates are: Is it possible to make a depiction of architectural, spatial, topographical factors combined in a sublime incident? Can a methodology be defined to photograph these structures? How can photographs be made of large-scale architecture that cannot be seen or experienced in their entirety? The meaning of the term sublime has become diluted in contemporary usage, often being used inaccurately in description of something exquisite or delightful. This project revisits 18th-century formulations of this aesthetic categorisation, alongside historical travel literature, representations of landscape in painting and photography and contemporary architectural and photographic discourses. These references enable a thorough understanding of principles of aesthetic composition, resulting in the creation of a new understanding of the sublime and methodology for photographing large-scale motorway architecture. Employing a photographic aesthetic that embraces representation and post-production enhancement of Fine Art practice, the project culminates in the production of 29 photographs that form a narrative series exploring incidents of the sublime within motorway architecture between the Alps and Naples.

No description available.

Sports stadiums have a considerable impact on the urban, environmental and social context. In particular, where several new stadiums are built within the same city for a single mega-event like the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games or Soccer World Cup the implications are significantly higher. Therefore the requirements for operation of each stadium after the mega-event are of great importance to ensure sustainable integration into the urban, environmental and social context as well as maximized utilization on a long-term basis. In the first part of this thesis a review of the subject is presented. A brief history of the development of stadium design in the Olympic context, evolving requirements for staging Olympic Summer Games, the structure of organizations involved, existing literature research and certification methods are summarized. In the second part the methodology and development of the bespoke research tool based on existing certification systems such as BREEAM, LEED and DGNB is described. Subsequently, case studies for three different stadium types (Olympic Stadium, Indoor Stadium and Football Stadium) used for the Olympic Summer Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) are analysed based on literature research, field surveys and interviews. The comparative assessment of each stadium type is conducted with an evaluation matrix in three denominations: urban category, environmental category and social category. In each category two indicators with two respective parameters are evaluated based on a five-point score system. Subsequently the general applicability of the research tool is verified with an example appraisal of Wembley Stadium which was used for the Olympic Summer Games in London (2012). Conclusions are drawn in the third part of the thesis, separately for each of the three denominations urban category, environmental category and social category. In the urban category sports stadiums built on a site previously used for sports venues or adjacent to other existing venues are rated significantly higher, because existing sites are already integrated into the urban context and located in proximity to the city centre as well as other mixed-use areas resulting in synergy effects with extended catchment areas and good connectivity. In the environmental category sports stadiums are rated higher if specific requirements for operation of the sports stadium after the Olympic Games are already considered in the design to ensure maximised adaptability and flexibility. Dismantle of the overlay (tailor-made structures/installations required for staging the event) after the Olympic Games reduces energy consumption in subsequent operation. Overlay designed for permanent usage or reuse at a different venue further increases the level of sustainability. Usage of energy efficient systems with power generation and water conservation preserves resources. In the social category sports stadiums are rated higher if a balanced proportion of sport usage and other usages is achieved. The long-term utilization of a sports stadium correlates with the level of urban integration, urban context, building type and usage mix. Sports stadiums utilized by more than one home team and integration of other usages (e.g. retail, commercial, recreation, etc.) achieve a significantly higher level of utilization. The last chapter summarizes recommendations for stadium design in the Olympic context. To ensure a long-term utilization of each sports stadium after the Olympic Games it is suggested that applicant/candidate cities carry out comprehensive feasibility studies in collaboration with an operator to develop a bespoke project brief and business plan for operation of each venue at bidding stage. In order to enhance the existing knowledge base it is further recommended to collect and compare operational data (e.g. water, energy consumption etc.) from the different venues of the hosting cities to allow an independent assessment of the level of sustainability during long-term operation. Additional data to verify indicators relating to design efficiency such as average construction area per seat as well as dead loads of spectator stands and roof structures should be compared for establishment of benchmarks to verify the efficiency of the structural elements for an even more sustainable design of sports stadiums.

A substantial amount of credible evidence shows that properly designed healthcare built environments can positively impact upon the health outcomes of the building users. This offers an opportunity to improve the quality of healthcare through appropriately designed healthcare built environments. Evidence-based design (EBD) emerged within healthcare building design practice to enhance the process of designing with credible evidence. This research explored improvement opportunities for EBD in the UK which would subsequently improve the quality of healthcare through built environment interventions. Specifically, three key research gaps were addressed during this research. Firstly, this research explored current practices of evidence use during healthcare designing and opportunities to increase the direct use of research-based evidence and alternative ways of conveying research-based evidence into the design process through other source of generic evidence for design. Secondly, this research explored how evidence could be effectively expressed within healthcare design standards, guidance and tools (SGaTs) in the forms of performance and prescriptive specifications. Finally, considering the unique nature of built environment design, this research explored how project unique contextual circumstances impact EBD processes and how practitioners reflect on these circumstances. These challenges were then transformed into six objectives. Following a comprehensive literature review, this research was divided into four phases. First, a model of the sources and flows of evidence (SaFE) was developed to represent evidence for EBD within generic evidence for design. The initial conceptual model was developed through desk study, based on the literature review, self-experience and the experience. This model was then verified with the comments from five un-structured interviews conducted with lecturers and senior lecturers of the School of Civil and Building Engineering. Finally, the model was validated using 12 semi-structured interviews conducted with design practitioners from the industry. In addition to the validating the sources and flows of evidence these interviews revealed rationales behind design practitioners use of evidence from four types of evidence sources. These results revealed improvement opportunities to increase the intake of research-based evidence use during healthcare built environments designing. The main data collection method for this research was case studies. Eight exemplar design elements within three case studies were investigated to explore details of evidence use practices; practices of using performance and prescriptive specifications; and impact of project unique contextual circumstances for EBD process and how design practitioners reflect on these circumstances. Results of this research revealed that EBD needs to be supported by both externally published research evidence and through internally generated evidence. It was also identified that EBD could be significantly facilitated through research- evidence informed other generic design evidence sources. Healthcare design SGaTs provides a promising prospect to facilitate EBD. Performance specification driven healthcare design SGaTs supplemented by prescriptive specifications to define design outputs and design inputs could improve effective use of evidence-informed SGaTs. These results were incorporated into a framework to guide development of healthcare design SGaTs. Finally, by exploring how projects unique contextual circumstances impact EBD processes and how practitioners reflect on these circumstances, this research identified the need for procedural guidance for designers to guide evidence acquisition, evidence application and new evidence generation.

Town halls are the key expression of civic consciousness in the urban environment. They were constructed at a period of change for local government, when there was an urgent need for transition to an altered method of control. They enable a degree of civic access and ritual, and encapsulate important messages of local culture and heritage, in an effort to appropriate them to boost the legitimacy of the political process. The change expressed by their building can be read as a microcosm of the town; and from the town, the city and country: the majority of concerns and triumphs expressed at local level echoed those being voiced nationally, tracking flux in the narrative of social and political history. This research shows that the town hall provides the resolution of local authority change: it is a static statement of a great political transformation, easing the passage of a local authority’s development from a point of weakness and uncertainty to a position of strength. For this transition to be managed effectively, the ability of the town hall to express power is vital. This power is expressed through a broad range of source materials, including local and national sources of culture and history, and latterly, international inspiration as well. The function of the town hall’s architecture as a civic space designed for social ritual changed dramatically during the period studied, from making public involvement the design’s key driver in nineteenth century designs, to their relegation to external gathering spaces in the twentieth century. The social history of a locality was a frequent tool in the legitimisation of town halls – an effect heightened by the numerous strategies employed by their municipal designers to inculcate the suggestion of power within their construction. These could include the inclusion of redundant but impressive features, widespread demolition or the use of a culturally-significant location. This thesis describes how the narratives of power, ritual and civic access, drawn out during the construction of town halls, mirror those of contemporary society. It addresses the question of the role of town halls for urban society, and how they serve as monuments to distinct periods in the development of urban civilisation.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate to what extent regulated office clothing affects the perception and adaptation of office workers to the thermal conditions surrounding their work environments, focusing on the city of Enugu in South Eastern Nigeria which has hot humid climatic conditions. Clothing, regarded as a second skin, allows us to adapt or adjust to the thermal conditions in our immediate surrounding environment. It also affects our perception of the thermal environment. In some offices however employees are expected to wear regulated clothing or uniforms, during the working day; for various corporate identity reasons. Field studies were undertaken in office spaces in Enugu involving the behavioural and environmental analysis of thermal comfort conditions in six typical case study office spaces, at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). The thesis adopted a mixed‐mode methodological process; combining a quantitative and qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. The field research analysis found that all office spaces analysed were in compliance with the adaptive thermal comfort component of the ASHRAE Standard 55‐2013. The results however did not comply with the adaptive thermal comfort of CEN/EN 15251‐2007. The thermal sensation component of the results suggests a neutral temperature of 28.80C, with 80% thermal satisfaction, in a comfort range of between 25.40C and 32.20C. The thermal comfort vote indicates that approximately 85% of office workers with flexible clothing policy were comfortable at that comfort range, whilst only 55% of workers who had to adhere to a strict uniform policy voted that they were comfortable. The key research findings were: Firstly, the field observations and semi-structured interviews undertaken indicated that the strict uniform policy of FRSC office workers contributed substantially to the limited adaptation of staff to their workspace thermal conditions. Also, of all the thermal variables recorded during the field survey, clothing insulation had the strongest correlations to the thermal sensation of participants in the survey compared to indoor operative temperature, outdoor air temperature, relative humidity or metabolic rate. Furthermore, it is possible for workers in naturally ventilated office buildings in the hot humid climate zone of Enugu to achieve thermal comfort in higher temperature conditions through clothing adaptation.

Auslöser dieses Sammelbandes war eine Exkursion in die Franche-Comté mit Studierenden der Europastudien und Europäischen Geschichte der Technischen Universität Chemnitz im Juni 2009 unter dem Titel: „Franche-Comté – Die Erfindung einer Region in Transnationalität und Transkulturalität“. Der vorliegende Band will Einblicke in die Franche-Comté und Besançon geben. Er lädt Sie ein, die Region und Ihre Hauptstadt zu entdecken und gemeinsam mit den AutorInnen eine virtuelle Reise zu unternehmen.

The biological need for lighting by an individual differs from the merely visual purpose, such as viewing objects and doing work or movement. Lack of adequate daylight for biological stimulation can lead to health problems, for e.g. imbalanced circadian rhythm. The importance of daylight is vital for hospital patients who are mostly physically and/or psychologically stressed. As, many patients stay indoors for 24 hours, they might be vulnerable to the lack of daylight which is necessary for health reasons. Hence, for hospital patients, daylight can be a strong therapeutic environmental design element to ensure good health and accelerate clinical recovery. The complex relationship between daylight environment and individuals responses are not fully understood. Controversy results that are debated by the previous researchers, has made the implementation of daylighting strategies in the architectural design of hospital in-patient rooms critical, mainly for therapeutic purpose. Strong evidence needs to be established that can build confidence to both architects and policy makers to use daylight for therapeutic purpose and integration of therapeutic effect of daylight to in-patient room architecture is necessary as well. This thesis provides information to architects (with examples) for incorporation of therapeutic effect of daylight in the design of in-patient rooms to reduce patient length of stay (LoS) in hospitals. A triangulation research method was applied in this work, where theories were developed qualitatively and tested quantitatively. Literature review was carried out to establish the potential effect of daylight on patient health. Retrospective field investigations were conducted to establish the quantitative relationship between daylight intensity and patient LoS inside in-patient rooms by developing Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) models under a general hospital environment. Using the daylighting goal to enhance therapeutic benefit for hospital patients, referred from literature and verified from field investigation data, a daylight design concept (sky window configurations) was developed and evaluated by prospective simulation study, and found better compared to traditional standard hospital window configurations, in order to enhance therapeutic benefit for hospital patients. A dynamic annual Climate-Based Daylight Modelling (CBDM) method that uses RADIANCE (backward) raytracer combined with a daylight coefficient approach considering Perez all weather sky luminance model (i.e. DAYSIM), was used for simulation analysis. This thesis develops strategies for architects to incorporate therapeutic effect of daylight in the architectural design of hospital in-patient rooms, including guidelines to support architectural decisions in case of conflicting situations, and to identify the range of daylight intensities within which patient LoS is expected to be reduced. The strategies also consider the ultraviolet radiation (UVR) protections and discuss the challenges of climate change for daylight researchers for the incorporation of therapeutic effect of daylight in the design of hospital in-patient rooms. The thesis provides a contribution to knowledge by establishing strong evidence of quantitative relationship between daylight and LoS, and by presenting new architectural forms for hospital in-patient room design as one of the possible ways to incorporate therapeutic effect of daylight in the design of hospital in-patient rooms effectively. It is expected that the research will encourage and help architects and policy makers to incorporate therapeutic effect of daylight in the design of hospital in-patient rooms, efficiently.