Plants are frequently used as design components for various types of interior settings. Design professionals may specify plants because of a subconscious awareness of the human need for natural contact, or as in may cases, such as in a "sunspace", because it is traditional to do so. Past studies by behavioral and horticulture researchers have documented human preference for plants, and have shown that plants positively affect people psychologically, but little research has been done to determine whether the use of plants in interior environments can influence human behavior. Interior plantscaping is a vital and expanding type of agribusiness, with millions of dollars being spent each year to install and maintain plants specified by design professionals. Plants are frequently used for clients in industry, health care, hospitality, retail, education, and in personal residences. Demonstrating that plants influence human physical behavior in interior environments would increase their value as interior design components, and provide a powerful sales tool to the plantscaping industry. Because of the potential importance of understanding more about the influence of plants in interior spaces on human behavior, this research examines whether user behavior patterns and spatial perceptions can be changed by the simple addition of interior plantscaping. This study was conducted to determine whether the introduction of trees and plants into an underutilized area of a newly constructed interior atrium would affect user perceptions of, and/or behaviors in the space. User perceptions of and activities within the atrium were recorded on questionnaires and behavioral maps, both before and after the installation of Ficus trees and Chinese Evergreen plants. Surveys were used to collect demographic information, suggestions for improving the atrium, and to determine user perceptions via the use of 13 polar adjective pairs on a six point semantic differential scale. Maps were used to record user behaviors on the lower atrium level where the plants were placed. The majority of data were analyzed descriptively by frequencies and percentages. Semantic differential analysis was done using two-tailed t-tests at p = .05. T-tests did not prove to be significant. There was mean movement of perceived perceptions from pre- to post-test. User behavior on the lower atrium level appeared to be affected by plant installation. A preference was shown for napping under the trees, and users spent more time on that atrium level when the trees and plants were present. / Master of Science

This study was conducted to explore interior design students' perceptions and attitudes toward creativity in design problem solving using CADD versus conventional drafting tools and to research whether CADD stifles or encourages students' creativity in that manner. Students' level of CADD perf onnance, past experience with CADD or other microcomputer software and level of CADD problems were used as the independent variables for this study. During the last two weeks of the spring semester 1989, 32 interior design students, who comprised the population for this study, were given two design problems, one to be done with CADD and the other with conventional drafting tools. After that period students were asked to fill out a survey questionnaire and participate in a group discussion. The collected data then was a subject of a descriptive and analytical statistical study. Findings of this study showed no relationship between students' level of CADD experience and their attitudes toward using CADD in creative design problem solving. On the other hand, a significant relationship was found between the level of CADD problems that students had and their attitudes toward CADD. As a result, although students liked using CADD in design and 78% of them did not feel intimidated by it, more than 65% of the students felt that they could come up with more design ideas with conventional drafting tools than with CADD. Most of the students attributed this attitude to their long experience with design and drafting tools. Other problems that caused discomfort to students when using CADD in design were lack of knowledge of DOS commands, unfamiliarity with computer hardware and software problems, and their limited time to work on computers. / Master of Science

Laotse has said, "Man's loss of his original nature comes from the distractions of the material world acting through the five senses.”1 That we have not regained our original nature is self-evident. Our society indicts us; its works convict us. We have become slaves to the extent that we have diverged from, as well as our own nature, the nature of our universe. It is to the cutting through the haze of invalidities which constitutes much of the atmosphere in which we design and build that this thesis is directed. First, in this search, this one for freedom in a sense, the nature of man, of universe, and the relationships which do and could exist between them, will be explored in terms of building. If, perhaps, subsequent analysis of existing relationships appear too critical, it must be borne in mind, that much is based upon, as well as observation, introspection. Second, cultures will be explored in an effort to more clearly establish the relationships which exist between man and the pattern he produces. With this relationship in mind, our contemporary pattern will be examined and an attempt will be made to evaluate the dominant trends which now seem to be directing it toward the contradictory expressions so apparent today. Third, designs will be given of a natural community and of a natural living unit, illustrating through application of these same natural relationships, but two of many levels of planning. A site in the Blue Ridge Mountains, northeast of Roanoke has been chosen as the area for development which, although topographically undesirable for building by present criteria, permits demonstration of the flexibility attainable through application of spirit and technics of natural building. This thesis is an attempt to see the whole more clearly in terms of its parts. Design today, as attested by almost every area of development, is in a state of chaos, less conscious of the world for which it was executed than it is of itself. The method of approach, not being purely scientific, is in itself a questioning of contemporary methods of inquiry. Natural law, in the academic sense, is but the notation of physically observed phenomena and has been taken more as a boundary than as a fluid instrument of understanding cognizant of omnipresent relativities. Natural law, in its broadest sense, at best, but an instantaneous approximation (for what has become of Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics), is here suggested as a criterion for design. A criterion which will continue to grow together with science and art in the interests of man. / Master of Science

This thesis examines stained glass windows in Indianapolis churches built between 1865 and 1915. It studies the trends in Indianapolis stained glass windows and compares them with the national trends in stained glass design. The evidence contained within this thesis indicates that a wide variety of styles popular at the time are represented in Indianapolis churches. The evidence also suggests that some national trends in stained glass did influence the design of the windows in Indianapolis. However, most of the windows in the surviving Indianapolis churches from the period are not typical of the high style trends in church stained glass found elsewhere in the United States. / Department of Architecture

Thesis--Genève. / "Thèse no 167." Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-165).

Thesis--Genève. / "Thèse no 167." Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-165).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1992. / Fourteen unnumbered p. containing figures 1-25 have not been filmed at the request of the author. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-227).

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Within media and communications studies, questions of taste have often been associated with the dichotomy of high versus popular culture. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has also used mass media products in his studies of class determined tastes and dispositions. In this paper the author uses the theoretical framwork of Bourdieu to examine aspects of social class and legitimate taste in the interior design magazine "Sköna Hem", a market leading magazine within it's genre of lifestyle magazines in Sweden. A specific type of feature article, where a real-life home is portrayed, is studied using the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough. The homes portrayed are predominantly affluent and display elements of conspicuous consumtion as mediated through legitimate taste and cultural capital. Common traits are identified in writing style as well as the furnishings of the homes portrayed. Deviations from the norm are also discussed. The author also discusses text production with an emphasis on the impact of informal chriteria of quality on the selection of homes portrayed. The results show that the aesthetic ideals represented in the magazine correlate well to the "aesthetic disposition" described by Bourdieu as closely tied to haute bourgeois habitus. Shared discoursive elements include an emphasis on form as a characteristic of quality, an attitude of detachment as a way of relating to the objects of culture and a distancing from questions of economic neccessity. These elements are projected rhetorically through modality markers of high affinity, leaving the impression of a general defintion of style and beauty. Given that these results are representative of lifestyle journalism as a whole, the author interprets this as a hegemonizing process wherein a subjective defintion of taste typical of the haute bourgeois comes to represent an absolute. She proposes that this contributes to a pathologizing of powerless groups in society.