The profession of architecture is passing through challenging times. Technological progress and a rapidly changing society have brought confusion into the profession regarding the self-image of architects and the image of architects from the viewpoint of clients and the public. This has a concomitant echo within the images communicated by the built environment; buildings do not always perform the importance of human benefits among the economical, technological or expressionistic advantages.Throughout history, the image of architects reflected the position of the profession in a particular time and place. Architects carried with them the tags of genius, God creators, heroes, etc. The more recent history of architecture has brought changes in the practice and services that architecture offers. Differentiation of the building and design aspects of practice was the result of the growing complexity of the building market. The new aspects of the practice have been followed by a corresponding confusion regarding the images of the profession.Architects in North America today are experiencing the declining power of the profession; the public cannot clearly recognize the role of architecture and its extensible possibilities within society; and clients are less blindly trustful of the genius of the architect and are more specific in defining their goals. In addition, the marketable image cf a building has grown in demand, further prompted by signature architecture popularity on the one side and the profit oriented building market on the other. This diminishes human benefits - such as contextual, environmental and functional demands, to a name few - that architecture, as a social practice, should provide.The hypothesis proposed by this paper is that the declining power and shaken authority of the architectural profession produce the possibility of a manipulation by those who perceive buildings as a market product which in turn significantly threatens human values and the quality of life.In order to better understand the problems that are facing the profession the author conducted a one-year, full-time internship employment in a New York City based architecture & interior design firm, observing in particular the architect-client relationship and the design process itself. This paper analyzes present conditions in architectural practice concerning issues such as the images which society and the profession itself hold of architecture, how these images influence the physical environment that architects are creating, especially the relationships that are making possible the misinterpretations of these images.The most important issues that this research reveals relate to perceptions about the role of the architects in the building process and in the society. perceptions which consequently frame the possibilities of architectural practice. The everyday professional practice of architecture is influenced by a variety of factors and participants, which together tend t,-; limit architects to a singular and specific position, thus rendering them vulnerable to control the building process and the final product. / Department of Architecture

Thesis(M.Arch.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty Of Architecture, Building and Planning.

Vun Ka Yan Emily. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 1999-2000, design report." / Includes bibliographical references. / Introduction / Chapter I. --- RESEARCH AREA / Chapter 1. --- Background studies / Chapter 1.1 --- Housing Design Trend in Hong Kong / Chapter 1.2 --- Housing Arrangement in Hong Kong Families / Chapter 1.3 --- Life Cycle of Buildings / Chapter 2. --- Historic Context of Housing in Hong Kong / Chapter 2.1 --- Traditional Housing / Chapter 2.2 --- Learning from the Early Public Housing Designs / Chapter 3. --- Spatial Dynamics of Multi-Generation Families / Chapter 4. --- Visits to Elderly Housing / Chapter II. --- FROM CONCEPT TO THE BRIEF / Chapter 5. --- Concept Development / Chapter 5.1 --- Preliminary Scheme and its Limitation / Chapter 5.2 --- Moving into the Community Aspect / Chapter 6. --- Getting into the Site / Chapter III. --- DESIGN DEVELOPMENT / Chapter 7. --- "The “Square Design""" / Chapter 8. --- "The ""L-shaped Design""" / Chapter 9. --- The Final Design / Chapter IV --- SPECIAL STUDIES / Chapter 10. --- Integrating Low Rise Elderly Housing in High Rise Environment / BIBLIOGRAPHY / APPENDICES

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture,Building and Planning, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 371-401).

Architect and soldier Sir J.J. Talbot Hobbs was born on 24 August 1864 in London. After migrating from England to Western Australia in the late 1880s, Hobbs designed many buildings that were constructed in Perth, Fremantle, and regional areas of the State. Although Talbot Hobbs has previously been recognised as a significant and influential contributor to architecture in Australia, his development as an architect has not been documented, nor has his design output undergone critical analysis. A number of problems confront attempts to interpret Hobbs' contribution to architecture. One is that a number of his most prominent building designs have been demolished. Another is that national recognition for his achievements as a First World War Army General have overshadowed his extraordinarily productive pre and post-war career as an architect. Military service was intrinsic to his character, and thus is woven in to this architectural biography. The thesis examines Hobbs' life and work, filling the gap in documented evidence of his contributions, and fitting it within the context of Australian architectural and social history. The main proposition to be tested is whether Hobbs' Australian architecture, of English derivation, combined with vast community service, warrants his recognition as an architect and citizen of national significance. Completely new important issues, information, discussion and facts that have resulted from the research for this thesis are: 1. Biographical knowledge about Hobbs' life – including his upbringing, education and training in England, and his fifty years of comprehensive work and community service in and for Australia; 2. The elucidation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century architectural issues that were relevant to Hobbs and other architects in Western Australia; 3. Examination of the important works of Hobbs' architect predecessors and contemporaries in Perth, and the setting of his own work within this context; 4. Revelation of his primary and pivotal role in war memorial design and organisational work for the far-flung theatres of Australian Army conflicts and selected personal design works within Australia itself during 1919-38; and 5. A chronology and summary of Hobbs' life, with thorough documentation of his output as a sole practitioner in the period 1887-1904 by development of a detailed web-based database - an extremely valuable tool for future researchers.