The thesis questions the ways in which architecture might embody the notion of modernity in different cultures and regions yet achieve appropriateness relative to place. In the early twentieth century in the industrialized world, the issue of modernity in architecture was identified with the notions of abstraction and rationalization that colored the development of the modern movement. The second generation of the modern movement queried the roles of human experiences and urban and architectural contexts in architectural design. With the spread of the modern movement to the rest of the world, the issue of context in architecture grew stronger. Following this line of thought, this dissertation examines the tension between modernist abstractionism and urban and architectural contexts in place in which the presence and the role of local knowledge and traditions in architecture remained influential. It investigates modernity in architecture through a specific Asian reading and through an analysis of the work of Geoffrey Bawa of Sri Lanka. Selected works of Geoffrey Bawa are chosen because the significance of his oeuvre is often contested by interpreters who see it as reflecting various contemporary approaches, including regionalism and vernacularism. Thus, in an effort to refute such simplistic explanations of his work, this thesis examines selected works of Bawa, analyzing their spatial organization, formal arrangement, materials, techniques, and building details. In particular, it attempts to highlight the ways in which Bawa articulated the notions of experience and memory in his architecture. These analyses are then placed within the framework of the social and cultural situations that his architecture confronted in Sri Lanka. It is within this framework that we might determine the ways in which modernity and locality were embodied in Bawa's work. Interpretations of his work take into account the understanding of modernity as a cultural practice and an attitude. Modernity as an attitude relates to a specific modernist subject who is able to use reason for judgment in addressing context. In this dissertation, a reading on the work of Walter Benjamin on modernity, the pasts, and traditions frames this understanding of this modernist subjectivity. In architecture, modernity as an attitude means that is not a style but a way of thinking and formulating design intent. This inquiry is then used as a framework within which this dissertation will interpret the relationship between modernity and local identity. The conclusions of the dissertation contribute to an understanding of the achievement of modernity in architecture in tight relationship to context. On a more focused level, it also hopes to contribute to an appreciation of the extant works of Geoffrey Bawa, which the author of this dissertation deems exemplary of what modern architecture might achieve in Asia.

Thesis (M.A.)--Saint Mary's University, 2007. / Includes abstract. Supervisor: John G. Reid. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 633-722).

The author's Habilitationsschrift (Universität Zürich, 1983). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-326) and index.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Mynatt, Elizabeth D.; Committee Member: Edwards, W. Keith; Committee Member: Grinter, Rebecca E.; Committee Member: McDonald, David W.; Committee Member: Potts, Colin. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

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The thesis seeks to investigate primarily the philosophical treatises with the title pe?? [?] which were written in the Hellenistic period, that is from the age of Alexander to the end of the Roman Republic. It aims to discover their contents, purposes, similarities and differences, and so to illuminate the attitudes of philosophers and other educated men to the Hellenistic monarchies. Each work discussed is put as far as possible in its historical context in order to demonstrate the relationship between philosophical theory and political practice, and in order to show how philosophers influenced and were influenced by the kings they advised. The Introduction discusses the origins and growth of ideas about kingship in the archaic and classical periods: it treats in outline the main influences on later thought. Part I deals with the known evidence for works pe?? [?]. Chapter 1 concerns treatises addressed to Alexander or written during his lifetime. In particular the evidence for Aristotle's relationship with Alexander is discussed in connection with his alleged pe?? [?]; his section on kingship in book iii of the Politics is analysed; and the Arabic treatise recently discovered is shown to be a forgery of Roman imperial date. The works of Xenocrates and Anaxarchus are also discussed. This chapter is particularly concerned with the rivalries between the various philosophers around the figure of Alexander. Chapter 2 deals with the other Hellenistic treatises whose authorship is known, by philosophical schools - the Peripatetics, Epicureans, Stoics, and 'Pythagoreans'. Chapter 3 gives the fragmentary evidence from papyri and Suidas. Part II attempts to fill out this picture, and show the inter-relationship between native and Greek traditions in the world of Hellenistic literature, by taking three extant prose works where a theoretical attitude to kingship can be seen. Again these works are discussed in detail, reconstructed where necessary, and an attempt is made to date them and relate them to their historical background. Chapter 1 deals with the work of Hecataeus of Abdera on Egypt, and especially the section on Pharaonic kingship (preserved in Diodorus book i). Chapter 2 discusses the letter of Aristeas to Philocrates, and especially the relationship between the section on kingship which it contains and the purpose of the work as a whole. Chapter 3 is an analysis of Philodemus, On the Good King according to Homer, which attempts to show the purpose of the work, and the limitations on the use of ideas of kingship in the Roman political world of the late Republic. There are four appendices, the last of which contains a translation of the new text of the Arabic letter of Aristotle to Alexander On Government, by myself and S.M. Stern; it is given here purely for the convenience of the examiners, since it is unpublished, and should not be considered part of the thesis proper.

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