Given the qualitative, exploratory and comparative nature of the investigation, this study has employed a mixed-methods approach. According to the conceptual framework of this research, the emphasis of the study is on mechanisms and interrelationships that affect the process and product of urban sustainability assessment. Accordingly, this study has concentrated on the identification of the urban sustainability indicators, data sources and assessment methods and their strategies and interests within the environmental, socio-cultural and economic contexts in which they operated. To this end, the study has enjoyed the insights from 64 participants including experts, scholars, practitioners as well as high-ranking officials across the ministries, municipalities and local authorities, through carrying out a questionnaire survey and conducting a series of semi-structured interviews in Iran. Due to a lack of established and well-documented data, it was initially required to find out what kinds of sustainability assessment methods have officially been used in Iran. This led the researcher to conduct a survey of Iranian local authorities and government departments. The findings of this survey were reviewed, discussed and compared to the UK sustainability assessment methods. As a result, the study suggests a detailed proposal for developing an urban sustainability assessment model in Iran including a comprehensive urban sustainability indicator set. The research also concludes that there is an urgent need for establishing a bottomup organisational structure in Iran to pursue the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability assessment within the public and private sector. The unique contribution of this study is that it has done a systematic research on the principles and frameworks of developing an urban sustainability assessment mechanism in Iran based on the UK experience and achievement in this area. It has also explored various weaknesses and barriers in the current Iranian urban planning and development system. Examining these barriers and weaknesses may form the demand and objectives of reforms in the current Iranian planning and development systems. Furthermore, the findings of this study provide insights into the issues that policymakers and practitioners need to consider in developing programs and efforts dealing with the problems of urban sustainability assessment. It will enhance the theory and literature within the knowledge bases of evaluation of urban sustainability in Iran tackling the existing issues and making suggestions which will depict the most appropriate way for the development of Iranian urban sustainability assessment mechanisms considering the three substantial pillars of sustainability: environment; society; and economy.

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Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / LEED, Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, assists our building industry to become more sustainable. This paper examines three case studies of existing buildings which have evolved to become LEED certified through the rating system of LEED: Operations and Maintenance. Understanding how older generation buildings may still rejuvenate and become sustainable will provide benefits for the people, planet, and profit. As with many things, there are some drawbacks when it comes to LEED certification such as their fees and universal approach for credits acquired.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / In the United States, commercial rooftops are too often an afterthought, serving only to house HVAC systems and other utilitarian building components. Rooftops are the most underutilized valuable spaces in buildings. They comprise a great deal of real estate that could help boost a building’s energy efficiency, aesthetics, and even the wellness of occupants. Buildings are the leading contributors to energy consumption in the country, and implementing green roofs could significantly mitigate this energy use, so costly to society in so many ways. This proposal studies the benefits of implementing a green roof on the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA) in Tucson, Arizona. Extensive research was conducted on the implementation of a green roof in this hot arid region, as well as a survey among a pool of 50 occupants. The conclusions drawn: a green roof would be utilized by occupants, and would bring about benefits including cleaner air, an expanded roof lifespan, and reduced heat island effect. Conclusions also demonstrate that the cost of implementing a green roof might not be offset by energy savings alone, but when considering the benefits and costs to society, a green roof ultimately proves beneficial economically as well.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / The southwest region of the United States is stressed for potable water and needs to positively utilize its current water resource. With the urban environment being mostly made up of concrete, it is now crucial to assess its development and application. The concrete used today is a mixture of cement, water and aggregates and is not permeable. The non-permeable property of common concrete prevents natural water absorption by the earth and greatly inhibits water to percolate back into the local water table. As concrete, has developed, porous concrete has been discovered. Porous concrete or pervious pavement is made in the same way that concrete is made with cement, aggregate, and water, but the aggregate used in porous concrete creates pores that allow water to pass through. By allowing water to pass through concrete, urban development will result in greater ground water recharge. As global warming intensifies weather patterns across the planet, Tucson, Arizona will experience heavier rainfall seasons. As the world’s climate changes, Tucson will experience heavier monsoon rain fall events. With heavier rain fall events urban flooding will become more of an issue. Grey infrastructure is needed to manage flooding caused by heavy rain fall. Porous concrete can be used as an effective way to manage storm water. This capstone has undertaken an extensive range of literature reviews to identify where porous concrete can be used for storm water harvesting. The literature reviews range from climate change to the benefits of storm water harvesting. Porous concrete allows storm water to infiltrate through it and back into the local aquifer and directs storm water into retention ponds for treatment and reuse. Porous concrete is a low impact development (LID) building material, which will turn urban development into Sustainable development. Porous concrete if used correctly for storm water harvesting can reduce potable water stress, reduce pollutants found in local waters, and reduce the strain on current storm drains. The required maintenance associated with porous concrete is minimal and not costly, therefore will be only briefly explained throughout this research. While porous concrete has a wide range of benefits ranging from water percolation to the reduction of the heat island effect, this paper will focus on its use as a means of storm water harvesting.

This narrative is retrospective and reflective as well as projective. The thesis of a PhD by publication does not inherently align with a principal proposition. The building, books, chapters and articles collected in this PhD have been shaped by interaction with varied professional, academic and cultural environments and milieus. Professional contexts that have triggered research questions and enriched research methodologies range from architectural practice to scholarly research and collaborative field research undertaken internationally; cultural milieus include Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and, recently, countries of the Global South. The work was not produced with a singular destination in sight; rather, it proceeds along a set of distinct, but interdependent vectors, through changes in direction, displaced vantage points, and transposition between corporeal, architectural and urban scales. This narrative juxtaposes, confronts and discusses the work collected in the portfolio, but does not seek to unify through imposing a singular thesis. The portfolio comprises of a building project, introductory essays to three edited books, three book chapters and nine journal articles, designed and built, written and published over a period of eighteen years from 1998 to 2016. The narrative reconstructs successive questions about diagrams that led to the building project, books, and articles, and the contexts which prompted the questions and frame the work. Rather than aligned to a linear narration, the work is presented along four parallel but interrelated paths of enquiry (Sections A, B, C, D) in which one output led to another, sometimes directly, at other times over detours and longer intervals. The work is introduced through four themes that cut across those paths. While framing and consolidating a retrospective view, the narrative of this PhD also exposes previously unrecognized resonances. New meaning arises from juxtaposition, grouping, contextualising and ordering of outputs and trajectories. In this sense, the retrospective view becomes prospective and projective.

This thesis describes the methods by which individuals and associations give meaning to the concept of profession within the English building industry in the late modern period. The hypothesis is that professional associations control occupations. Whilst this might be accepted in a wider literature, building professionals identify with a far bleaker, late modern, interpretation of profession. The literature portrays a 'backwards' industry without a determinant authority, characterised by fragmented and servile professional associations. The thesis utilises Burrage's (2006) four-goal-framework to structure its investigation through semi-structured interviews with professionals and their associations. This proposes that associations control admission and training, define and defend a jurisdiction, set up a system to govern their own members and seek to improve their corporate status. This work concludes that professionals and associations strategically engage with these issues. There are problems facing professions, but their demise is not one of them. Indeed, rather than be defensive, associations are enhancing their controlling systems. This involves a looser coupling between associations and their membership, which creates some fracturing to the construction of identity. However, the result is new forms of occupational provision, in alliance with both clients and the state, that establish clear dialogues for identity and very specific types of service that are well separated from external 'quacks'. Faced with an environment that is ostensibly deeply sceptical, associations are selective in how they defend and enhance both their status and control systems. This has led, for example, to a withdrawal from controlling entry in the face of government demands to widen participation, to be replaced with strong regulatory schemes for members. This creates standardisation and practical guarantees of competency, a powerful executive in a quasi-judicial regulatory role, and clear rules of behaviour and permanent training through CPD. The result is 'competent', 'safe', 'good' and 'ethical' occupational jurisdiction.