Wong Chui Kwan, Alice. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2009-2010, design report." / "May 2010." / Includes bibliographical references. / Chapter Sep-Dec 2009 // Part I --- Research and Experiment: Designing Parameter / Chapter i --- Introduction / What is parametric? / Critics & Doubts / Thesis Statement / Thesis Components / Chapter ii --- Theoretical Research / Terminology / Parametric / Parametric VARIATION / Parametric COMPLEXITY / range / correlation / ambiguity / Parametric Architecture / Parametric Benefits / "Logic, Factor & Parameter" / Levels ofVariation / Precedent Study / Parametric Tool / Rhinoceros Grasshopper / Tutorial Examples / Chapter iii --- Parametric Design Exercise / Parametric Machine / Parametric Mechanism / Interpretation into Design / GH scripting process / Chapter Jan-Apr 2010//Part II --- Architectural Project: Parametric Design / Chapter iv --- Architectural Project / Parametric House / Early Development / Drawings / Photos / Spatial Sequence (Perspective Collage) / Chapter v --- Special Study / Documentation of Design Making (Process & Methodology) / Site Condition vs Massing / Spatial Organization vs Differentiation Principle / Program Distribution vsView Openness / Chapter Xtra --- Thesis Abstract / Reference Article / Timeline Schedule / Presentation Materials / Sem I Posters / Sem II Posters / DLN Awards Special Studies - Shaping Cities / Grassopper Scripts (Snapshot) / Postface / Acknowledgment

The notion of seriality describes such relations where each element has a processor. It could be also understood as a condition of sequential translation and transfonnation. This thesis investi gates “seriality” in the relationship to architecture and landscape. I begin my investigation with a criticism of the conventional relationship between architecture and landscape. This relationship is often static and inert while it should be more dynamic and interactive within the design process. Reconsidering the relationship between “research” and “design,” my attempt to connect the two using algorithmic design was instrumental in formulating a new design process. In this thesis, a new design process has been developed and examined in three different sec tions: 1) “Theoretical Approach,” 2) “Technical Approach” and 3) “Case Study.” In the theoretical section, I investigate “rhythm,” which is an underlying series of movements affecting on architecture physically and fundamentally, in both architecture and landscape. In re sponse to this theory, I propose a method known as the “Genetic Grid” to manage grid flexibly by receiving its new identities from “natural conditions.” In the technical approach, I introduce methods in algorithmic design to manage grid flexibly. The basic method is called the ‘UVN generator’ which is based on the algorithmic process com bining the scripting potentiality and flexibility of traditional 3D surface modeling. This technique contributes to a method to generate the “Genetic Grid.” In the third section, I examine this “Genetic grid” more closely throughout a proposed design process called “Condition Linkage.” By embedding “Gene of Place” into architectural elements, I hope to show an underlying harmonious relationship between architecture and landscape. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The method of Design/Build is known for its practicality and skillful designers and builders. However, high quality buildings produced by this method suggest there is an intellectual wealth hidden beneath this technical practicality. To uncover this wealth, a definition for the processes of design used in this method must be constructed to clarify its intellectual aspects. Such a definition begins with the assumption that design is an intelligent process through which people arrange their environment. To uphold the intelligence of design, the interaction between human (designer, tradesperson, client, or inhabitants) and architecture must be maintained throughout the process. The unique conditions in the method of Design/build allow the human intellect to freely interpret and intervene in the processes of architecture. To fully exploit these conditions, a designer must develop a particular view, seeing architecture as combined processes rather than as an end-result. Via this view, it becomes evident that the arrangement of lines, forms, and structures of buildings is just a material manifestation of a deeper reality, i.e. the agreed values that an individual or society holds. These values are translated into two groups of design principles in architecture. The first group is geometrical and includes proportion, symmetry, order, and unity. The second group is relational and leads to consideration of adaptability, nature, need, tradition, and material. These principles define the relationships of architecture, humans, and the environment, expressing the role of intelligence in man-made settings. In Design/Build, these principles can be incorporated into the processes of design far more than in any other method, because architecture is intimately connected to environment (social and natural), and there is a dynamic interaction between designing and building. This method sees architecture as a combination of processes, considering design not as rules and regulations, but as a process that is empowered and motivated by the events of everyday life. This method arrives at the rules and regulation of architecture only after recognizing this fact. Without the attendance of life in an architectural process, the geometrical and relational principles of design are dull and meaningless. By establishing this view, this paper hopes to construct a definition for the design process of Design/Build, a definition that does not deal solely with the technicality and practicality of this method but rather with the intellectual aspects of the process. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

This paper attempts to deal with architectural theory at the level of the design process. By concentrating on a particular idea, or really a particular type of idea construction, I intend to illustrate the nature of contemporary design process. The method of idea construction dealt with is the notion of paradox. The nature of the contemporary design process is illustrated through discussions which mark the transition from Modern to Post-Modern design. It is my contention that the paradox is a particularly strong vehicle with which to discuss the shift from the Modernist approach to the Post-Modern concept of designing. Further, I will illustrate how paradoxes possess innate qualities which are greatly prized by the Post-Modernists but which were not highly extolled by the Modernists. The qualities of paradoxes which are proving to be of considerable value to design are ambiguity and complexity. These qualities are held to be of great importance for creative work. Their special value today results from the diverse and rapidly transforming social and technological realms, which require complex yet integrated conceptual models in order to cope with rapid change. Paradoxes are shown to parallel the structure of creative thinking in-so-far as creativity has been described. Paradoxes are a special case of the bi-association used in creative thinking. In bi-association one entity is juxtaposed in a single framework with an antagonistic entity. The resultant conflict gives rise to the creation of new integrated ideas. In a paradox the conflict arises over the question of whether or not a contradiction is true or false. In fact the ambiguity that results from a contradiction that is both true and false at the same time is one of the most valuable properties of a paradox. The creation of an integrated idea that can deal with the ambiguity is to resolve the paradox and to perform a promising creative act. In short, a paradox can be defined as an apparent contradiction. It is to be valued for its ability to introduce indeterminate thinking to the design process. By definition, the paradox retains the idea that a contradiction is present, even while the contradiction is known to be false. I will maintain that an appreciation of a contradiction even after the contradiction is shown to be false has the ability to vault the designer to still higher levels of synthesis and abstraction. This movement between levels of abstract integration is held to be fundamental to the design process in general and to paradoxical thinking in particular. This paper introduces the idea of the paradox in preparation for a discussion of the complexity and indeterminacy that results when we attempt to apply it to particular examples. The body of the paper is taken up with the definition and discussion of the role of seventeen paradoxes. These paradoxes have been chosen for their ability to illustrate the transformation from Modernism to Post-Modernism, which in the broadest terms are described as the machine age and the communications age respectively. The intention has been to illustrate the character and role of paradox in specific instances. But additionally the selected examples are intended to reveal how paradoxical thinking has a natural affinity with the sensitivities and objectives of Post-Modern design. The general conclusion based on the insights gained from discussing the paradoxes is not radical. To conclude that the essential purpose of design must be to personify the perpetual act of creating meaning on many levels at the same time is to corroborate findings established in many quarters. The fact that the notion of paradox reinforces widely held beliefs does reveal the relevance of paradoxical thinking to mainstream design. Essentially, paradox is important to the design process as a rational construction of a type which incorporates irrational functions. A very potent creative tool results when both rational and irrational functions can be combined to compose meaning at a variety of levels at the same time. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Just as natural adaptation comes from evolutionary processes that lead to 'fit' of an organism to its environment, adaptive buildings come from design processes that lead to the 'fit' of a building to its environment. A building which 'fits' its environment is considered to be sustainable. The environment is defined to encompass economic, social and ecological context. Buildings are artifacts chosen by a designer from among possible designs based on human value judgements about internal and external constraints. It is hypothesized that a project design process will result in more adaptive buildings when: first, the project team has sufficient relevant information related to the environment; second, the project team is sufficiently motivated to 'fit' the project to its environment; and third, the project team develops specific targets for resource consumption. Design process occurs at both the team level (project design process) and the individual level (design process). A model of design as a complex adaptive system is developed. The model shows creativity as a phenomenon arising from the interplay of two forces: pattern and constraint. In design, a designer transforms the 'chaos' of new and unintegrated input (change agents) into emergent pattern by integrating the input so as to be consistent with existing patterns and responsive to constraints (conservation agents). This integration results in the 'click' which designers experience during design activity. The 'click' signals boundary-breaking between the designer's internal and external (content and context) constraints and patterns. Dynamic equilibrium arises from balancing between change and conservation of input and between integration and differentiation of that input. Total equilibrium arises from combined conservation and differentiation. Further it is suggested that oscillation between integration and differentiation will result in creative breakthroughs. The model is researched in a case study of a built project, tested in a design exercise in a seminar setting with students and professionals, and discussed in an interview with a noted designer. Indicators for sustainable buildings are developed. The model provides a new description of design process and the findings indicate that its use is likely to result in more adaptive buildings as measured by indicators for sustainability. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

My personal interest in cities and their layering of spaces and functions served as a starting point for this dissertation. Cities evolve over time, and the resultant networks of movement and public spaces are the filters through which most inhabitants experience the city they live in. By examining the Cape Town CBD and surrounds, it became apparent that these networks have become secondary to other commercial systems. Whilst Cape Town has some open public spaces of historic significance such as the Grand Parade and Greenmarket Square, the public space network has become fragmented and often overwhelmed by commercial interests which inevitably limit public access and use. Upon closer examination, it seems that economic concerns have shaped the city rather than a layering and balance between public and private, access and control. A discernible building typology can be found in the inner city, one which I have referred to as the tower block. The tower blocks have varying programmes but hold in common private ownership and controlled access, thereby limiting the connection to the city severely, and in most cases do not add anything of value to the public urban fabric. Instead, where the tower block access meets the movement and public space network of the city a hostile environment is created, where loiterers and security guards jostle for control. The inhabitants and users of the tower blocks step from the city into a controlled, sterile environment, and do not interact with the urban environment further. Most of these tower blocks naturally accommodate office space in the CBD. Whilst it is not realistic to lay the onus on private investors and developers putting up tall buildings in the city to contribute extensively to the public urban space, civic buildings should shoulder that responsibility. Historically, as with the Old Town Hall overlooking the Grand Parade, this is how the public space network was constructed. Civic building and the publicly accessible space which they created were the generative elements of cities. By examining the CBD it became clear that the last extensive civic building done by the city was during the apartheid era, buildings such as the Civic Centre and Customs House on the foreshore. Built to deal with the growing administrative apparatus of that era, and following modernist guidelines the public spaces created by these buildings are mostly unused, due to unsuitable location and being awkwardly scaled and imposing. The trend for the city to instead lease tower blocks of generic office space to accommodate their civic functions has further led to a deterioration of the public urban realm, as a building typology focused on disconnection from the city now has to accommodate a constant influx of people whilst still having to maintain security for its internal workings. The street, entrances and internal corridors become crowded with people which they were not designed to contain, leading to a frustrating experience for both public and public servant alike. The focus of this thesis became to challenge the conventional tower block that makes up much of our cities today, by putting forward spatial possibilities that are flexible for alternate uses and new crossprogrammatic possibilities for a partnership between private building and public building. The connection between the private and public was made through the programme of an office building, which in its generic form has already become a typology that houses both public (civic) and private.

Aim: Reconnect the City to the Sea through investment in the pedestrian and public space, supported by activity generating and accommodating architecture. Theory question: What architectural methods are being employed in global port-side cities to reinvent and make use of large tracts of de-valued inner city land? Technology question: What is the nature of the physical condition that the foreshore area presents and what impact has this had on the haphazard development of this inner city space? Sub Questions: What are the key factors in global cities' development and fabric which have resulted in large inner city tracts of undervalued land, and their condition? What are the implications of different modes of mobility within urban space, and particularly their effects on the resulting urban form, and utilization of this space? What negative effects of mobility in a global society are universal to all contemporary cities and societies, and what are some of the contextually derived typological solutions? What are the primary opportunities and technical challenges presented by the unique conditions of the foreshore to development?

The analogy between the two arts of music and architecture has been a central theoretical theme since the conception of either. Emerging from a background that is situated in both architectural and musical instruction, the correlation between the two has always provided a certain degree of fascination for me. Having understood the linear narrative running between the translation of music and architecture, I endeavoured to locate a more conceptual foothold from which to derive my arguments. The essays below outline my discovery and development of the topic, transforming a simple analogy into a conceptual way of reading context so as to create an architectural composition of space, just as a musician uses the tools of notes (sounds), rests (silences), instrument quality, beat (time) and sequence to create a musical composition. This thesis developed similarly to that of a musical composition: where themes are presented, then developed, then treated in new ways, and finally returned to, creating a final composition that moves through exposition (stability), development (heightened tension and conflict) and resolution.

My project is the design of a primary school in an urban context with an interest in developing a school that speaks about new type of learning environments. This typology will address the challenges of designing a school in an urban context, Cape Town, while rethinking how schools are designed with regards to its programme and layout. I am concerned with designing a school which will truly be a space for the learner. This environment is a space where he/she can work/learn together as a group or individually, in classes or in self-study-activities. This environment is a place where the learner can meet and play in an ungoverned manner, where the school building has an equal emphasis on learning and playing. The design of this building should address the needs of the learner as a child that needs to learn, express, move, run. At the same time, the school-building is no longer a sole institution used only by its learners. Rather, it becomes a building which can bring together learners from different schools, and other members of the public to become an active community building. This document will reveal the process of uncovering that Circulation-space is one of the primary spatial components in new School Design - This component will resolve my above-mentioned inquiries as it becomes the solution to architecturally resolving it. This document is divided into the following processes: Chapter l (The Design Principles): I will investigate 3 case studies of three different types of schools and conclude with design principle which will act as design informants for the school I will design. The primary conclusions will then be developed into conceptual ideas whose architectural expression will be addressed in chapter 4. In Chapter 2 (Site Selection), I start of by investigating 6 schools and their facility deficiencies located in close proximity to each other in the city of Cape Town. These deficiencies act as informants to what the Semi-public Shared facilities will be as part of the programme of my school. This chapter also includes diagrams and investigation into the site I have chosen. In Chapter 3 (Timber as Material) I look at different used of timber as a material in school design. Chapter 4 (Design Development), I focus my-design as responding to the challenges of an urban school, as well as further developing the concept of Circulation as one of the primary spatial components in School design. The rest of the chapter will include the spatial explorations of designing the new type of urban school.

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