Do-it-yourself (DIY) is the practice of household members undertaking home improvement or maintenance on their own, instead of hiring professional help. While DIY is a substantial and steadily growing cultural and economic phenomenon in several developed countries, in India, it is still in a stage of infancy. The objective of this research is to understand whether DIY can be introduced and developed in India as a significant consumer activity based on an understanding of the DIY markets in developed countries (like USA, UK & France) and the business models in place to service them. The concept of DIY started sometime in middle of the 20th century in the USA and it eventually spread to UK and rest of Europe in the later part of the century. Currently, in most developed countries DIY constitutes a significant portion of the Home Improvement and repair Market and there are specialized organized retail chains to cater to the DIY demand. In India and most developing countries, DIY is not an established practice and does not contribute at all to the Home Improvement and repair Market. Organized retail in most developing countries is very small and most of the Home Improvement Market is serviced through local decorative and hardware distribution outlets. Brazil is an exceptional case due to its large organized retail structure for servicing the home improvement market. Organized retail to service the Home Improvement and repair Market in China has started in a big way and is witnessing exponential growth year on year. Similar phenomenon has started in India as well. However, both in China and India, there is no specific demand for DIY products and the same clearly needs to be created. Existing research literature on DIY, focuses mainly, on the determination of variables that influence the decision to take up a DIY or a home improvement project. Apart from this, a large number of business reports and studies profiling specific DIY markets are available over the internet. Work has also been done to trace and record the history of DIY and its impact on culture and society. While there has been some research work carried out that deals with the development of strategy for DIY markets in developed countries, no such work has been done in the context of developing countries. The purpose of this research is to do just that but the scope is limited to household painting and carpentry. The pilot study (focussed group discussions) and the questionnaire survey reveal that, in India, there is a clear bias against DIY mainly on account of perceived lack of time and knowledge. But it is possible to define a demographic profile of people that will show the highest inclination towards DIY. The survey reveals that this profile varies depending on the type of the DIY activity (Electrical, Plumbing, Indoor Painting, Outdoor Painting, carpentry and Gardening). The final part of the research involves the formulation of a holistic marketing strategy, based on the research findings and the understanding of prevalent business models to service DIY in developed countries, to create and service demand for DIY products related to household painting and carpentry in India.

Tradicinės dailidystės bei medinio paveldo apsaugos klausimų nagrinėjimą įgalino XX a. septintojo dešimtmečio paveldosaugos krizė, kada refleksyvios paveldo apsaugos istorijos studijos bei postmodernizmo idėjos padėjo išsilaisvinti iš moderniojo paminklų kulto. Praktiniame lygmenyje buvo nusivilta modernia paveldotvarkos praktika. Cheminių medžiagų bei pramoninių produktų naudojimas nepateisino paveldotvarkos lūkesčių, todėl pradėta ieškoti išeities kelių iš modernaus tradicijos ir technologijos supriešinimo. Į paveldosaugos diskursą buvo įvesta istorinės sociokultūrinės aplinkos sąvoka, o paveldo koncepcija suvokta santykyje su aplinkos, kraštovaizdžio, atlikimo technikos autentiškumu. Šiuolaikinė paveldosaugos samprata rėmėsi atsigręžimu į tradicines praktikas, kurios turėjo užtikrinti istorinį tęstinumą. Vis plačiau diskutuotas alternatyvusis - proceso autentiškumo išsaugojimo, kelias, įteisinantis kūrybinę paveldo recepciją. Vienas iš pirmųjų darbo tikslų, buvo išsiaiškinti postmoderniosios paveldosaugos impulsus bei ištakas, komparatyvistiniu metodu nustatyti jos santykį su moderniąją paveldosauga bei tradiciniais reliktų apsaugos būdais. Atlikus istorinę rekonstrukciją, reziumuota, jog kūrybinis paveldo įsisavinimo kelias buvo būdingas nuo Antikos iki moderniosios paveldosaugos susiformavimo. Istorinio tęstinumo nutrūkimas didžiąją dalimi buvo sąlygotas modernizacijos reiškinių: industrializacijos bei urbanizacijos. Ilgiau tradicinė dailidystė gyvavo Lietuvoje, kurią... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The research on protection of traditional carpentry techniques and wooden heritage was enabled by the crisis of heritage protection in the 7th decade of XX century, when reflexive studies on heritage protection and postmodern ideas helped to disengage from modern cult of monuments. The disillusion with modern praxis of heritage protection was felt even in the practical sphere. The use of chemical materials and industrial products belied the expectancy, so the search for the means of recourse from the modern contraposition of tradition and technology was started. The notion of historical socio-cultural setting was introduced into the discourse of heritage protection, while the concept of heritage was perceived in relation to authenticity in environment, landscape and workmanship. Contemporary conception of heritage protection has already been based on the turn to traditional praxis, which ensured historical continuity. The alternative way – protection of process authenticity, which enabled creative reception of heritage, was presented. One of the main aims of the study was to examine the impulses of postmodern heritage protection, to measure its relation to modern and traditional protection of the relicts in the comparative manner. Historical reconstruction revealed that from the antiquity to the development of modern heritage protection reception of heritage was rather performed in the creative way. Historical discontinuity was conditioned by phenomenon of modernization... [to full text]

The doctoral research revolves around a comparative study of timber modern methods of construction for low-rise, residential buildings in Scotland. The building techniques studied involve both timber-frame panel construction (open-panel and closed-panel systems and structural insulated panels) and massive-timber construction (cross-laminated and nail-laminated timber panels). A non-timber technique is also included in the study: more traditional, load-bearing masonry (blockwork). These different building techniques have been analysed from two complementary aspects: environmental impacts and thermal performance. The environmental study is based on the life-cycle assessment methodology and embraces various aspects: environmental impacts (e.g., climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, etc.), consumption of energy (renewable and non-renewable resources) and production of waste (from non-hazardous to radioactive). The assessment takes a cradle-to-gate approach and, in its structure and method, is informed by the current recommendations of the international standards in the field (i.e., ISO 14040 series). Various environmental trade-offs between construction methods have been identified. In terms of global-warming potential (excluding biogenic carbon sequestration), results suggest that timber-frame buildings show a better performance than masonry buildings; this is particularly true for the open-panel system, which emits about 10% less carbon than the masonry counterpart. Massive-timber buildings tend to cause more carbon emissions than masonry ones. In terms of consumption of non-renewable primary energy, timber buildings do not generally show significant advantages with respect to blockwork-based masonry. In particular, structural-insulated panel systems tend to show very high energy requirements. Timber-based buildings show a tendency to cause increased acidification, eutrophication and creation of low ozone than their masonry counterpart. The level of offsite fabrication that is employed for the erection of the buildings plays an important role in the magnitude of most environmental impacts, which show an average decrease between 5% and 10% when some of the operations are shifted from the construction site to the factory. v The thermal study investigates the performance of the building envelope, and, in particular, of external walls, by means of tests whereby the thermal behaviour of a sample of walls (of full-size section) has been observed and measured over time. On the outside, the walls were exposed to real, natural weather variations throughout the summer. The study especially focuses on the time-dependent response of three different walling systems (which results from their individual cross-sectional arrangements of building components and the associated combination of heat-storage capacity and thermal resistance): a timber-framed wall, a cross-laminated-timber wall and a masonry wall. Thus, the main goal of the study was to characterise the thermal-inertia parameters of these walls. This type of thermal behaviour is related to the repercussions of global climate change at UK level, especially in terms of increase in solar irradiance and temperature, which requires an adaptation of the building-envelope such that it can perform well both during wintertime and summertime, by providing maximum indoor comfort with minimum economic and environmental costs from the construction and operation of buildings. The timber-framed wall possesses the greatest capacity to slow down the propagation of temperature waves from the outer surface to the inner surface (time lag), whereas the masonry wall performs best with respect to reducing the amplitude of temperature oscillation on the inner surface (decrement factor). The cross-laminated-timber wall exhibits intermediate values of both time lag and decrement factor, relative to the other two walls. Both the thermal and life-cycle assessment of the construction alternatives aim at assisting the design and decision-making process in the residential field and at suggesting areas that need to be addressed and improved, towards a coherent evolution of the building techniques included in this study and a step forward in the realisation of sustainable, low-rise dwellings.

[pt] Este trabalho almeja apontar a necessidade de se voltar o olhar para a construção do discurso hegemônico, com foco em questões de gênero e de etnocentrismo, partindo do que, de tão cotidiano, passa despercebido. Um curso de marcenaria para mulheres – no qual um professor homem interage com dez alunas mulheres – constitui o objeto desta investigação. Sob uma ótica qualitativo-interpretativista não essencialista, as interações em questão serão geradas a partir de uma perspectiva etnográfica de pesquisa e analisadas à luz da Sociolinguística Interacional e da Análise de Narrativas. De forma a dar abertura para o potencial problematizador de questões latentes, a teoria queer representa um construto indispensável para um olhar crítico sobre o tema. Com base em tais perspectivas críticas, será observado, especificamente, como se faz, na construção das relações entre professor e alunas, a sustentação de hierarquias de gênero e de viés etnocêntrico, sobretudo em relatos de narrativas dos participantes das interações. Assim, é analisada a performance dos envolvidos, examinando como se alinham nas sequências de enquadres da interação nas aulas de marcenaria em pauta; observando estratégias discursivas utilizadas pelo professor na construção de sua performance e na manutenção de seu piso conversacional; e como as alunas sustentam suas falas, percebendo a importância do contexto situado. Por fim, é analisada a interação metarreflexiva entre a pesquisadora e uma das participantes do curso um ano após em contexto de entrevista aberta. / [en] This work aims at presenting the need to observe the edification of the hegemonic discourse through the focus on issues related to gender and ethnocentrism coming from what goes unnoticed for its mundane ordinariness. A carpentry course for women – in which a male teacher interacts with ten female pupils – constitutes the object of this investigation. Under a nonessentialist qualitative interpretativist standpoint, the interactions at stake will be generated from an ethnographic perspective of research and analyzed in the light of the Interactional Sociolinguistic and Narrative Analysis. As to provide openness to problematization of latent issues, the queer theory represents an essential construct to a critical view on the concerned subject. The understanding of performance and performativity, the comprehension of what builds the ethnocentric perspective and unequivocal truths which are imposed by the dominant discourse, as well as the concept of ethnographic authority constitute the touchstone for the present research. From such critical perspectives and taking into account the relationship teacher/pupils, we will observe the maintenance of hierarchies of gender and the ethnocentric standpoint, above all as it happens in narrative accounts of the interacting participants. Therefore, the performance of the parties involved will be analyzed through the investigation of the way they align in the framing sequences of the carpentry lesson in question; by observing the discursive strategies adopted by the teacher while building his performance and keeping the floor; and also by the way the pupils support his speech, taking into consideration the importance of the situated discourse. Finally, we will analyze the metareflexive interaction between the researcher and one of the course participants a year later in the context of open interview.

The thesis is focused on building and technological project balcony house in the Czech Třebové. The project contains all the essentials of building technology project that can be used for project implementation in practice. Instead of a plot is real and if the city Czech Třebová allow this construction, will be implemented by this work.

This diploma thesis solves processing of documents for realization of hotel construction in Špindlerův Mlýn. The work contains technical report, coordination situation, time and financial plan of construction, construction technology study, project of construction site equipment, design of construction machinery, plan of material resources, technological regulation for truss realization, plumbing and roofing, control and testing plan protection of health at work, playground project.