This study examines the refurbishment of residential tower blocks in the UK according to the EnerPHit standard, which is an adaptation of the Passivhaus standard for retrofit. Currently, no single high-rise building in the UK has achieved this standard. The research focuses on the case study of Wilmcote House, a social housing tower block in Portsmouth owned and managed by Portsmouth City council. Wilmcote House is the first UK tower block being refurbished using the EnerPHit standard. Nevertheless, the building will not fully achieve EnerPHit by the time of project completion due to a lack of compliance with the primary energy demand. The Wilmcote House case study involves an investigation of the project process from the tender early stages to the delivery of the building. Research methods such as interviewing the project team members, direct observations of the project proceedings on site, attending site meetings, and archival research into the design process have led to important insights into the challenges of the pioneering real-life project. The study also investigates the refurbishment project of Tipton House and Edgbaston House, two other social housing tower blocks in Portsmouth, to make cross-case comparisons. Portsmouth City Council appointed the same architects to propose a design for the refurbishment of the blocks based on EnerPHit, but they decided not to proceed with the project following the feasibility stage. The rare opportunity of the author to work with the architects at the initial stages of the Tipton House and Edgbaston House projects and to carry out embedded research has provided a critical understanding of the project complications. Based on the case studies, the research aims to uncover the specific requirements and difficulties related to the process of applying EnerPHit to UK tower blocks. The study also examines possible solutions to overcoming the challenges encountered at different stages of the process. The research reveals that the approach of the client and the architects towards the tower block refurbishment are two determining factors in adopting EnerPHit; the physical properties of tower blocks can create difficulties with meeting EnerPHit criteria such as primary energy demand, and the requirement for EnerPHit training and lack of sufficient communication between the teams can seriously complicate the construction stage.

This thesis examines the architectural patronage of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle (1593-1676). It consists of several great houses, chiefly Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, Welbeck Abbey and Nottingham Castle, Nottinghamshire, Newcastle House, Middlesex, and minor works in Antwerp, Yorkshire and Northumberland. The assumption that there is a connection between building and power is reassessed in the light of William's building programme. While it can be argued that there are connections between its timetable and his court career, this ultimately dissatisfies as an explanation. William's political career was characterised by disappointment, as Chapter One shows, and a level of royal toleration for the biting criticism aimed at him for his behaviour and conduct in the Civil War. This criticism extended right into the heart of his household, with allegations of sexual misbehaviour being made by and against its members. An underlying explanation for his building programme, therefore, which is also valid for the periods when he was estranged from the court, arises from the micro-politics of the household and family. In Chapter Two, an exploration of the building process reveals the limits of William's agency to control his architectural self-image. His amorphous household emerges as a generator of the Cavendish style discussed in Chapter Three, which fuses positive local and historical characteristics with the classical knowledge that William acquired in London and Italy, and which has previously been privileged by art historians. Chapter Four examines the buildings' function: the household hierarchy and access to William's presence were constantly contested. William's buildings, then, are seen not as symbols of power, but of power struggles. Chapter Five argues that they capture an exchange in a discourse between court and country, between the local and international influences within their patron's cultural capital, and between William and his own family. A second, factual volume, containing a Gazetteer of William's projects supports the argument.

Orientador: Maria da Conceição Lima de Andrade. / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação.

Orientador: Maria Salett Biembengut. / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação.

Orientador: Osmar de Souza. / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação.

The threat of the natural resources exhaustion is pronounced by the unsustainable linear depletion by extraction, production, consumption, and disposal as a waste at the end of service. Realisation of the fact that there is indeed a limit to the carrying capacity of the earth makes it imperative for humanity to retrace its path from the unsustainable practices that destroy the natural environment and threaten the world’s stock of natural resources to the more sustainable practices. The built environment is the largest resource consuming human activity and is at the centre of the unsustainable resources depletion trend; which is further demonstrated by the statistics of the enormous amount of construction and demolition wastes produced annually in some economically developed countries of Europe and America. Nonetheless, amongst the preindustrial societies of Nigeria, there is virtually zero demolition wastes. This study is a descriptive investigation that documents the phenomenon of the end-of-life management of buildings in Nigeria and develops a conceptual model that represents the real-life situation of the practices among these native societies. Furthermore, the paradigm of improving the performance of the construction industry through learning from other sectors, as in the development of the concept of lean construction, was used to explore the feasibility of adopting the best practice models in the end-of-life management of materials from other sectors to improve the Nigerian practices of the end-of-life management of buildings. The best models from the automobile, aviation, ship, cell phone, nuclear industry, and the natural ecological systems were studied and their possible implications on the Nigerian construction industry examined. A semi-structured interview based on priori themes developed from the best practice models in the different sectors were used for the collection of data; and template analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data that were interpreted to develop the conceptual model. The conceptual model was validated through two workshops. The participants were selected on purpose based on experience in demolition projects and a predetermined stakeholder groupings quota system; a snow ball technique was used to recruit additional participants. Inconsistent with the assumption that the construction industry is lagging and should learn from other industries, the findings of this research revealed that the Nigerian construction industry is on par with other sectors by producing virtually zero building demolition wastes. The Nigerian practices of the end-of-life management of buildings were discovered to be largely compliant with the sustainability principles, with few concepts that may be transferred from other sectors. This thesis proposes that rather than transferring lessons from other sectors, the Nigerian construction industry can be a source of inspiration for developing a sustainable system for the end-of-life management of buildings using the paradigm of ethnomimicry. Ethnomimicry is defined as, the systematic study of the models of the native societies for inspiration to develop sustainable solutions.

This thesis combines academic research and the knowledge of bodily functions and mental techniques with musical practice. As an introduction, it deals with the question of talent in general, as well as various factors affecting a musician’s success, diligence and appropriate motivation among them. The main body of the thesis focuses on the creative process and ways to induce creativity, concentrating on the effectiveness of practice and its specific characteristics: the most suitable time of the day, the optimal length of practice, goal planning and individual techniques. This section is accompanied by an overview of the most frequent mistakes made while memorising compositions and a description of the mental process of committing information to long-term memory, including the most effective learning techniques. Finally, the thesis examines the issue of mental preparation for public performances and discusses long-term as well as short-term preparation techniques, considering the question of lifestyle and dietary recommendations before and after a concert.

No description available.

This thesis tests Amos Rapoport’s theory of ‘vernacular design as a model system’ through research by design, in order to develop and refine a model for contemporary design. The vernacular buildings in Wales are used as a foundation for the exploration. The research aim is to develop and demonstrate a design method by which buildings may be distinctive to place. A further aim is to develop a model that may be transferable to other geographical contexts. The research builds on Rapoport’s approach of ‘learning through analysis’ rather than literally reproducing the past, through abstracting and adapting principles from tradition for contemporary design. A model for design is developed and tested through a series of sequential and linked designs, based on traditional housing typologies relevant to current affordable housing need in Wales and elsewhere in the UK. Supported by literature, contextual and precedent studies they are used to inform, interrogate and refine the model. The primary objective of these investigations is to examine the applicability and appropriateness of a model for use by architects and designers. The research demonstrates that the vernacular as a model for design as proposed by Rapoport in its redefined form can offer an effective tool to guide design. It reveals that some aspects of the framework are strong such as siting, form, materials and construction, whereas others were found to be much weaker, such as cultural and experiential aspects of tradition. These elements are harder to uncover and are concerned with the subjective as opposed to the objective. The research establishes that these elements of the model are critical to the development of a design process that promotes connection to place.

This work explores the problem of implementation of environmental design in architectural training. This problem has been identified as a disconnection between the delivery of information by lecturing, and the application of that information in the studio. The essential nature of students in that view is passive, and their task is to correctly apply information developed by others. This work pursues the idea that 'environmental knowledge' can be grown from within the conversational nature of the design process based on the active nature of the student. The main contribution is the proposal of an ecological approach to learning, in which the whole person of the learner is deeply engaged with his learning environment. The present understanding has been informed mainly by the ecological approach to perception of James Gibson, and the conception of design of Donald Schon. Through the view of Donald Schon, environmental design comes forth as a particular instance of 'conversations' with environmental situations, involving the modeling of actual phenomena, as a central element of the learning process. Seen from an ecological approach to learning, the implementation of those 'conversations' appears as part of a larger orchestration of affordances of the learning environment, involving tangible and intangible resources. This proposal is intended to illuminate other implementation strategies of environmental design in other schools.