In his recent publications Christopher Alexander and his colleagues are mainly concerned with the description of what they call patterns. In 'A Pattern Language Which Generates Multi-Service Centers', these authors have stated that such patterns are tentative and based on much conjecture. They suggest that they need criticism and improvement. The authors further point out that these patterns do not establish an exact geometry of relationship to one another as they are studied and described in isolation. Thus the interrelationship between patterns and their geometry may vary from place to place. This thesis is an evaluation of such patterns, and therefore can be seen as an extension of the design method initiated by Christopher Alexander and the Center for Environmental Structure. The author believes that when patterns (the component parts of which are pre-designed to prevent specific conflicting tendencies from occurring) are combined to form a cohesive whole, they may not fulfil the purpose for which they were initially designed. The Acadia Park Clusters, the housing for married students at the University of British Columbia Campus was selected for the evaluation of patterns. The thesis looks at the out-of-house patterns of this project. Since this project was designed in the conventional architectural way and not according to the Pattern Language Method, an inventory of out-of-house patterns had at first to be abstracted from the design elements. The anticipated behavior of users relevant to these patterns was then posited. These positions became the hypotheses on which the created inventory of patterns was evaluated. The author has gathered this data empirically by recording over a period of three weeks the activities of the participants and their characteristics in their natural settings. The data shows that certain patterns fail to achieve their initial purpose when combined to form a cohesive whole. The study also points out that the physical arrangement of one pattern to another influences the intensity of use. It also suggests that when two patterns overlap, new tendencies develop. This study confirms the importance of evaluating patterns after they are combined to form a cohesive whole. It proves that this is necessary for their improvement and for the design of new patterns. If this sort of follow-up does not become a natural part of the design process, a communication breakdown between architect and user is bound to occur. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Professional education leading to a Master of Social Work degree has been offered at the University of British Columbia since 1945. In this period of time, more than 350 people have been awarded this Masters' degree. A large majority of these people have been caseworkers, while a minority have been groupworkers. There are two major focuses of this study. The first is a descriptive survey of the graduates for the purpose of gaining background and professional information. The second focus of this study is a comparative analysis of the caseworkers and groupworkers, with particular emphasis on vertical and horizontal mobility and on the factor of genericism. From the information which was obtained in a mailed questionnaire, many similarities and differences were identified between the caseworkers and the groupworkers. They indicated basically similar, patterns of upward social and professional mobility. Caseworkers and groupworkers have similar experiences in regard to such aspects of their profession as number of jobs held, number of settings in which they have practiced, length of time spent in one position, and geographical locations of their jobs. There are a number of interesting differences in the patterns of vertical mobility experienced by caseworkers and groupworkers, for example, a much higher percentage of group-workers than caseworkers entered supervisory and administrative positions in their first job after M.S.W. graduation. The section on genericism first outlines the three perspectives from which the concept can be viewed. A "generic" practitioner is operationally defined as one who spends not more than 80% of his time engaged in one method and at least 10% engaged in a second method. Fairly large numbers of both caseworkers and groupworkers were found to be generic Social Workers, but a significantly higher percentage of groupworkers than caseworkers could be so considered. Conclusions are drawn from the findings on mobility and genericism and possible implications are drawn for training and for the field. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate