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This study consists of an examination of examples of civic design in Britain occurring within a number of large sized provincial settlements from about 1880 to 1914. The work also identifies the design and planning principles that appeared to govern civic design as well as investigating its features as it appeared in practice by analysing structural and technical design components, internal arrangements and the surroundings of public buildings erected at that time. In addition, this work provides an opportunity for the consideration of the influences upon the built environment during a time when a greater control of the urban environment was exercised by public authority, legislation relating to slum clearances was passed, municipal governments continued to develop, modern design cultures, such as the Baroque revival, emerged and imperial sentiments filtered into national and local affairs. The work endeavours to not only investigate the extent and features of civic design occurring in large English, Scottish and Welsh urban settlements during the late- Victorian and Edwardian period, but to also comprehend what civic design was understood to mean in terms of both its theory and practice at a time when formative town planning emerged, as well as identifying the professionals who undertook civic design from the end of the nineteenth century. Many of the influences upon civic design both in terms of local and national practice are noted and discussed within the course of the project, particularly matters such as the evolution of the system of local government, the growing expectation of public authorities to play a notable role in the process of urban improvement, the influence of philanthropists, the empire and foreign developments, such as the American City Beautiful movement. In so doing this thesis enriches existing literature on architectural design and urban planning, implicitly contributing to the history of British urban development, architectural and planning practice.

The current investigation concerns the behaviour of lightweight blockork infill panels bounded by reinforced concrete frames. A detailed and comprehensive review of the literature on different frame-inf ill combinations is presented. Details are given of tests on sixteen third-scale infilled frames and four open frames. These were tested under two types of loading: horizontal racking loading only and combined vertical loads on columns and racking loading. The complete load-deflection response is considered in detail including. initial elastic behaviour, influence of cracking and the formation of collapse mechanisms after the attainment of peak load. The variables investigated include the overall effects of the infill, the infill thickness, the vertical loads, the amount of reinforcement, the change in stiffness and strength of beams and of columns and the effect of reinforcement detailing. Those found to have a major influence are the vertical loads, the infill thickness, the reinforcement detailing particularly in the opening corners of the frame, and the workmanship. The principal parameters obtained from the tests are the initial racking stiffness, the infill cracking strength, the ultimate load and the plastic collapse load. Their values are compared to the available empirical and theoretical methods. None of these methods is found to safely predict the initial racking stiffness and the ultimate carrying capacity of this type of structure. A plastic analysis is presented to predict the two plastic collapse mechanisms identified in the tests. The penalty factor to allow for idealization of plasticity of the infill is found as part of the solution. A second penalty factor is introduced to allow for the limited ductility of the frame. The proposed method is found to yield satisfactory and safe predictions for the plastic resistance of these infilled frames. In conclusion some design recommendations are proposed for the initial racking stiffness and the cracking infill strength.

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This research concerns a quantitative examination of the influencing factors on the achievement of quality on construction projects. Quality performance on construction projects has been conceived as a function of the design process that occurs before the design of the product, site team collaboration and interpersonal relationships, high work-place-supervision, on-site motivation and role definition. This conception has culminated in postulated determinants of quality achievement on construction based on a theoretical understanding. Aspects of measure of perceived design core job characteristics and site organisationand- management phenomena were factor analysed. The verification of the postulated determinants was accomplished by testing of a network of eight main hypotheses using multivariate analytical technique in multiple regression. Varied results emerged with four main hypotheses supported, two partially supported and the remaining two unsupported by data. The assertion is that manipulative actions on design core job characteristics, team collaboration and consensus with mutual understanding and agreement on project goals, mutual exchange with site supervisory staff and subordinates, and role definitions conducted within an integrated framework would contribute an aggregated beneficiary effect on quality achievement on construction projects.

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