Cette enquête archéologique et historique vise à mettre en relief les rapports entre matériaux et immeubles au travers de l’histoire du bâti ancien bruxellois. <p><p>Des trois matériaux qui marquent le bâti bruxellois, deux seront étudiés :le bois et la céramique architecturale. Un troisième volet sera consacré à l’étude des remplois, recyclages et remaniements. Dans le temps imparti à ce travail, compte tenu des impératifs méthodologiques, des contraintes factuelles, il n’était pas possible de traiter de manière approfondie et novatrice des trois types de matériau. La pierre domine symboliquement (mais certainement pas quantitativement) le paysage bruxellois :son emploi caractérise en effet la production architecturale des grands ensembles monumentaux tels que l’Aula Magna, l’hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles ou encore la collégiale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule, pour ne citer que ces exemples. D’une manière générale pour l’ancien duché de Brabant, dans sa partie couvrant l’espace belge actuel, c’est le matériau le mieux étudié dans ses aspects divers (extraction, façonnage des blocs, mise en œuvre…). La pierre sera abordée indirectement, lorsque son emploi a des implications directes dans la mise en œuvre des matériaux étudiés. Une approche de l’ensemble des matériaux lithiques ainsi qu’une réflexion sur certaines mises en œuvre et le développement de futures pistes de recherche seront en outre proposées en conclusion.<p><p>Le choix s’est porté sur le bois et la brique, car leur emploi est, de manière générale, moins bien apprécié et moins connu en région bruxelloise par rapport à la pierre. Il fallait en fonder solidement l’étude. L’objectif est donc de pallier à cette lacune en proposant une lecture nouvelle de l’habitat selon des champs d’investigations spécifiques à l’histoire de la construction. La construction de typochronologies pour les planchers, les revêtements de sol, et la brique a pour but d’apporter aux archéologues des marqueurs chronologiques fiables pour l’interprétation et la construction de l’évolution des structures rencontrées. Mais pas seulement. La mise en place de ces typochronologies va de pair avec l’élaboration d’une réflexion sur l’ensemble des chaînes opératoires de la fabrication ou du façonnage des matériaux. Cette production n’est pas uniquement matérielle mais répond à des critères environnementaux, économiques, techniques et sociétaux. Il s’agit donc de comprendre ou d’ouvrir des pistes de réflexion pour appréhender les mécanismes qui ont permis aux bâtisseurs d’utiliser à Bruxelles une large gamme de matériaux et qui par ce biais a façonné le visage urbain bruxellois. L’apport de cette recherche, bien que se focalisant pour l’essentiel sur Bruxelles, a pour objectif de renouveler l’approche des matériaux de construction en apportant une base de références solides dans leur étude pour Bruxelles mais également pour les autres villes et de dépasser ainsi les méthodes traditionnelles d’histoire des formes pour développer une relation dialectique entre matériau, forme, usage et caractérisation sociale de la ville, de son habitat et de ses populations.<p> / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

MESMEG / Department of Mining and Environmental Geology / Although clay brick manufacturing has been going on for many years in South Africa, informal small-scale clay brick manufacturing enterprises are not officially regulated. Consequently, informal brick makers in the study area do not adhere to the demanding requirements of the South African National Standards for burnt clay masonry. Therefore, their clay bricks lack uniformity in terms of quality. Preliminary work revealed that over time, buildings constructed with these bricks develop cracks, thereby compromising safety. The importance of product quality management is not well understood in the informal brick manufacturing enterprises. As a result, they do not have any product quality management guidelines. The main purpose of this research was to develop the product quality management guidelines for ensuring quality in small-scale brick making enterprises in Dididi area. The specific objectives were to characterize the raw materials for clay brick manufacturing, identify and assess the technical problems of clay brick production, analyse the process of clay brick production and determine areas where product quality improvement is warranted. The research involved fieldwork which included soil sampling, analysis of clay brick production through the use of questionnaires and onsite observation of the production process, collection of samples of burnt bricks which were examined for compressive strength, water absorption as well as dimension measurements. These were then compared with the prescribed quality standards. Laboratory analyses of samples of raw materials were conducted and these included sieve analysis which was conducted in order to establish the particle size distribution of the raw materials; Atterberg limit tests were conducted in order to establish the physical characteristics of the soil. Chemical and mineralogical analyses were carried out to determine the chemical and mineralogical composition of the soil using XRF and XRD respectively. The textural characterisation of the material revealed abundance of sand sized particles and significantly low amounts of clay and silt. The plasticity of the soil used for bricks manufacturing in the study area was found to be ranging from slight to medium plasticity. Chemical analysis showed elevated silica contents with minor amounts of alumina and iron oxide. XRD analysis revealed the dominance of non-clay minerals with the highest concentration of quartz. The average compressive strengths of the tested brick samples for site A was 3.8, and 2.9 and 3.8 MPa for sites B and C respectively. The water absorption of the bricks was 13.5, 15.0 and 16.1% for samples from Site A, B and C respectively. The bricks dimensions met the recommended standards although their sizes were not uniform. v The survey conducted on brick manufacturing process revealed that the technical inefficiencies were mostly influenced by human and mechanical factors as well as the material inappropriateness. The production process was found to be too manual and labour intensive. Selection of the raw materials for brick manufacturing was based on indigenous knowledge and experience and most of the brick manufacturers lacked the prerequisite experience for making quality bricks. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that the materials used for manufacturing of clay bricks in Dididi are not well suited for making good quality bricks due to the reduced plasticity of the soil and the high concentration of quartz. These render the bricks brittle. It was also concluded that the production process also contributes to the poor quality of the bricks as the nature of the process was too manual. Selection of materials based merely on knowledge and experience and no scientific tests resulted in selection of inadequate materials which in turn affect the quality of the final bricks. It is therefore recommended that plastic clays be added to the raw clay materials to enhance its moulding property. In addition, materials such as internal fuels and anti-shrinkage materials should be incorporated into the process cycle to prevent cracking during drying and firing. Based on the findings of the analysis of the production process, it is recommended that mechanized techniques be employed in the operation and awareness training conducted to improve the understanding and skills of the brick manufacturers and to ensure production of good quality bricks. / NRF

In den letzten Jahren gewinnt der Leichtbau im Bauwesen im Zuge der Ressourceneinsparung wieder stärker an Bedeutung, denn ohne eine deutliche Steigerung der Effizienz ist zukunfts-fähiges Bauen und Wohnen nur schwer zu bewerkstelligen. Optimiertes Bauen, im Sinne der Errichtung und Unterhaltung von Bauwerken mit geringem Einsatz an Material, Energie und Fläche über den gesamten Lebenszyklus eines Gebäudes hinweg, bedarf des Leichtbaus in punkto Material, Struktur und Technologie. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein wissenschaftlicher Überblick zum aktuellen Stand der eigenen Forschungen in Bezug auf funktionsintegrativen Leichtbau im Bauwesen gegeben sowie erweiterte Methoden und Ansätze abgeleitet, die eine Konzeption, Bemessung und Erprobung von neuartigen Hochleistungs-Tragstrukturen in Leichtbauweise gestatten. Dabei steht die Entwicklung leistungs-starker und zugleich multifunktionaler Werkstoffkombinatio-nen und belastungsgerecht dimensionierter Strukturkomponenten unter dem Aspekt der Gewichtsminimalität in Material und Konstruktion im Fokus. Ein breit gefächertes Eigen-schaftsprofil für \"maßgeschneiderte\" Leichtbauanwendungen besitzen textilverstärkte Ver-bundbauteile, denn sowohl die Fadenarchitektur als auch die Matrix können in weiten Berei-chen variiert und an die im Bauwesen vorliegenden komplexen Anforderungen angepasst werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden hierzu vor allem Methoden und Lösungen anhand von Beispielen zu: multifunktionalen Faser-Kunststoff-Verbunden (FKV), funktionsintegrier-ten faserverstärkten mineralischen Tragelemente und Verbundstrukturen in textilbewehrter Beton-GFK-Hybridbauweise betrachtet. Von zentraler Bedeutung ist dabei die Schaffung von materialtechnischen, konstruktiven und technologischen Grundlagen entlang der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette – von der Leichtbauidee über Demonstrator und Referenzobjekt bis hin zur technologischen Umsetzung zur Überführung der Forschungsergebnisse in die Praxis. / In the last few years, lightweight construction in the building sector has gained more and more importance in the course of resource saving. Without a significant increase in efficiency, future-oriented construction and resource-conserving living is difficult to achieve. Optimized building, in the sense of the erection and maintenance of buildings with little use of material, energy and surface over the entire life time cycle of a building, requires lightweight design in terms of material, structure and technology. In this thesis, a scientific overview of the current state of research on function-integrative light-weight construction in architecture is presented. Furthermore, advanced methods and research approaches were developed and applied, that allows the design, dimensioning and testing of novel high-performance supporting structures in lightweight design. The focus is on the development of high-performance, multi-functional material combinations and load-adapted structural elements, under the aspect of weight minimization in material and construction. Textile-reinforced composites have a broad range of material properties for optimized \"tailor-made\" lightweight design applications, since the thread architecture as well as the matrix can be varied within wide ranges and can adapted to the complex requirements in the building industry. Within the scope of this thesis, methods and solutions are examined in the field of: multifunc-tional fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP), function-integrated fiber-reinforced composites with mineral matrix (TRC) and textile-reinforced hybrid composites (BetoTexG: combination of TRC and FRP). In this connection the creation of material, structural and technological foundations along the entire value chain is of central importance: From the lightweight design idea to the demonstrator and reference object, to the technological implementation for the transfer of the research results into practice.

Organic architecture is often used term especially in connection with the daring and experimental form. The exact definition or division is still missing. The founder of modern organic architecture is to be generally considered as Frank Loyd Wright. He was the man who created organic architecture and also made first definition in the early twentieth century, when formulating new architectural styles. Dissertation deals with insufficiently described problem of organic architecture. The main focus is on contemporary production of residential organic architecture in Central Europe. Especially on the particular realizations in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, Germany and Poland. Beside detail description of European realizations, the dissertation deals also with foundations of organic architecture in U.S.A. and important realizations here. Modern organic architecture primarily originated in the United States of America. The work presents most important contemporary realizations and architects creating resident living organic architecture in other countries around the world in order to complete the overview. The objective of dissertation was describing newest trends in designing buildings for living. Find position of organic architecture and give reasons for it´s increasing popularity, spread and necessity for new development in architecture according to the new trends. Organic architecture is an alternative way of contemporary residential living. It´s popularity is growing in last years in response to the development of modern technologies and materials, the need to protect our natural resources and also to the increasing negatives of globalization and to denial of local traditions and regional specificities. Aspects of organic forms were divided into three main groups according to their main characteristics: form, harmony and sustainable development. Another objective was find location of contemporary organic residential architecture in Czech Republic and abroad. It is rather spread all over the world than concentrated on certain places. Therefore I selected countries that are richer than the others on the occurrence of organic buildings. The objective was also to address architects, specialists, public and especially university teachers of architecture and students themselves. Communication with them was mainly connected with grant project in 2010. The theme of grant project was contemporary organic architecture in residential living. There were lectures about contemporary organic architecture and exhibition on the theme: Contemporary living organic architecture. The publication of the catalog was published under the title: Contemporary organic houses - Europe. I had the opportunity to visit a number of organic family houses abroad. Specifically houses in Slovakia, Hungary and Germany. Results of survey, which was realized by questions to owners and authors of chosen buildings, are included in dissertation. The mail results of dissertation are - make a detail review of organic architecture in residential living - define trends in contemporary organic architecture and residential living - obtain and process answers from owners and authors of chosen buildings within survey - analysis of organic house ( houses) in city planning and landscape - publication of catalogue focused on organic contemporary European houses - article about contemporary organic architecture and residential living will be published in 2012 on archiweb page

Soft soil reinforcement by inclusion is a growing technique caracterized by a pile grid and a granular embankment introduced between the reinforced soil and the structure. Unlike traditionnal methods, the load is partially transferred to the pile heads by arching in the embankment. The application area of this research focuses on the shallow foundations case, in which the thickness of the embankment is small. The litterature review shows that only a few studies were dedicated to that case, and that fundamental questions remains concerning the load transfer in the embankment. Chosen method for this research consists in two-dimensionnal physical modelling, analysis of the conducted simulations, and development of an analytical model in order to predict the load transfer to the piles by arching in the embankment. The results of this PhD thesis provide original elements of evidence of the load transfer in the studied system, proposes an analytical model based on block division of the granular embankment by shear bands - which is in good agreement with experimental data - and lead to a better understanding of arching in soils. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished