Thesis (M.A.)--Taiwan da xue. / Reproduced from ms. copy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-127).

Thesis (M.A.)--Taiwan da xue. / Reproduced from ms. copy. Bibliography: leaves 125-127.

A large amount of garden residential blocks were built in Shanghai in the 1930’s, which manifested the real estate surge of that time. These villas, which used to serve a single family (mainly for foreign expats in Shanghai), however, have been changed dramatically through the time, both socially and physically. Many of these old villas experienced the take over and invasion in the war time, process of socialization and subdivision in the 1950s and the chaotic period during the Cultural Revolution. The intricate property right situations and over-ridden housing condition make adaptive reuse difficult. Columbia Circle, as one of the most outstanding but obscure garden residential estates serving for foreign expats originally, mainly planned and constructed between 1928 and 1932 in succession, is a unique example to show the transition of the garden residential blocks in Shanghai. This thesis will focus on “Columbia Circle” to study the tracing of changes of its social fabric between the 1930’s and nowadays. Based on the historic study of the development plan and and current field survey, the research focuses on two aspects of the transition: one is the demographic composition of the community and the way of life; the other is the way of use of the villas and their property statues. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The study on urban morphology has been widely developed in Western countries especially in Europe and America after the mid-20th century. The urban morphology of a place has a corollary of the urban form which encompasses urban planning, building fabric and land utilization pattern. The evolutionary process of urban morphology, otherwise known as urban form or urban landscape, appears to be unique in many other countries, including East Asia. However, there has been little attention paid with systematic method on the study of Chinese cities adopting this cross-disciplinary approach. This study attempts to investigate the urban morphology of Guangzhou by looking into the interrelationship between urban fabric and building typology, as well as their changing pattern in the historical context. Guangzhou was the Chinese city where the first large-scale urban re-structuring attempt was made by the Nationalist Government to transform it from a pre-modern, walled city into a modern metropolis in the early twentieth century. The complexities and dynamics associated with the growth of the city are valuable information for reviewing the theories and improving our level of understanding on urban morphology. Based on the review of literature, a theoretical framework, urban form as an outcome of the urbanization process with an emphasis on building typology and urban fabric, was established in this thesis. Within the framework, the concepts and methods of morphological analysis are adopted to analyze the physical aspects of the city at both micro and macro scales. By examining the transformation of the traditional residential building types, five selected prototypes are investigated and their corresponding evolutionary process as components of urban fabric is analyzed. Morphological analysis on urban fabric was made through the comparison on four urban districts of similar background in order to find out the distinctive characteristics for them. On a macroscopic scale, the urban fabric has undergone a transformation in relation to the building use pattern and their forms. Three models in relation to the urban blocks of study in Guangzhou have been established as a reference and consideration when carrying out urban design and planning activities in future. The first model is the linear development of building transformation in urban blocks and the effect simultaneously infiltrating into inner layer parallel to streets. The factor of whether or not the cases which are within the ancient walled city is not a matter in respect of transformation. The second model is the fringe development infiltrating to the core whereas the fringe albeit becoming intact cannot protect the inner core from occurring transformation. The last model is the corner development of urban blocks which has become an increasingly common phenomenon, revealing the significant value to a paradigm of the transformation process. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

Space conditioning and lighting together account for about a third of end-use energy consumption in residential buildings in Hong Kong. Previous research shows that such energy consumption can be significantly reduced by employing energy-efficient building envelope design. However, despite that fact, the envelopes of many residential buildings in Hong Kong are designed in ways that impair building energy performance. For example, most residential buildings in Hong Kong have single-glazed windows and solar-absorbing roofs, many leak airs, and some have no external wall insulation or exterior shading. There are many energy-efficient envelope (EEE) design measures that improve overall building energy efficiency, but their selection has been widely recognized as a difficult task for design decision-makers, as it requires good engineering judgment and substantial building performance data. Apart from the energy considerations in EEE design, the reasons why professionals do or do not incorporate EEE design measures voluntarily into building design have not been thoroughly investigated. The majority of previous studies have focused on evaluating design alternatives after the design decision is made, but largely overlook the issue of informing the design before the decision-making process. The aim of this research is to inform design decision-making for selecting appropriate EEE measures for residential buildings in Hong Kong. The research included three major interrelated steps. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review was conducted of the energy-related parameters and non-energy-related factors critical to the selection of EEE design measures in the Hong Kong context. Secondly, the influential design parameters identified from the literature review were used for detailed parametric simulation and analysis. Their effects on building energy performance were evaluated, and their relationships with selected outputs were analysed. Thirdly, a survey was set up to investigate the perceptions of building professionals about EEE design decision-making criteria and factors affecting the adoption of EEE designs. Taken together, these three study components contribute to the development of a decision support framework that buttresses the effective selection of appropriate EEE design measures for low-energy residential buildings in Hong Kong. The framework shortlists the critical parameters in EEE design, highlights their effects on building energy performance, points out the drivers and barriers to adoption, and suggests strategies to expedite the adoption of those measures. The findings should support the effective comparison and selection of EEE design measures for delivering low-energy residential buildings in Hong Kong. They should also help to achieve the targets of relevant industry and government programmes in Hong Kong for expediting the adoption of EEE design measures. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Science in Engineering

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

The research of traditional Chinese urban dwellings mainly focuses on the dwelling forms in large cities, like Beijing and Guangzhou. The urban form and architectural typology in prefectural level cities (Zhou 州 and Fu 府cities in history) are generally overlooked. The city of Chaozhou (潮州), a typical southern Chinese prefectural city, has large areas of well-preserved urban fabric constituted of courtyard houses with unique local characteristics. However, a thorough study of its urban forms and architecture is yet to be explored. This thesis aims to explore the relation between dwelling form and urban fabric in Chaozhou’s historical district, and to look into the elements of urban fabric in Chaozhou, including the shaping of urban structure, sub-dimension of urban blocks, the location of houses within urban blocks, and the way that houses are arranged. The urban fabric of Chaozhou is examined at four levels. First, the transformation of urban structure and public space is represented based on the analysis of primary sources. Second, a typological approach is adopted in this thesis to analyze the urban fabric and traditional dwelling forms based on the field study in “Yi xing jia (义兴甲)” Historical Conservation Area of Chaozhou. The dwelling units are categorized into 14 types, according to the layout and scale of the courtyard houses. The survey and illustration of courtyard dwellings has been done with the help of open-ended interviews. Third, the relation between dwelling form and plot pattern is carefully examined, and a set of modules that control and influence the urban fabric and dwelling forms are analyzed through maping. Finally, the transformation of dwelling forms in Chaozhou from imperial China to the Republic era is reviewed, through the comparison between courtyard houses of Chaozhou and Beijing, as well as urban dwelling and rural dwelling. The findings of this study prove firstly that the shaping of Chaozhou city’s form is a process of natural growth and a result of planning, which leads to the irregular urban blocks with an organic pattern, and also the regular urban blocks with a grid pattern. Secondly, a clear module of urban fabric in Chaozhou controls the depth of urban blocks and the dimension of plots, and ultimately affects the choice of dwelling forms within the urban blocks. This research argues that three elements of urban forms (urban block, plot pattern and dwelling form) have interrelationship with each other. Fundamentally, all the plot patterns and dwelling forms are constrained by the block sizes. Streets changed very little, and as a result, the traditional residential fabric has remained through the long-history of socio-economic upheavals in Chaozhou. Finally, Chaozhou has developed a variety of residential building types, and this variety has been shaped over a long historical process. Several original dwelling types were largely determined by the socio-economic condition of the householder and the original land divisions. During the early modern time, with the introduction of modern building materials and technology, as well as the influence of overseas cultures, Chaozhou’s dwelling types transformed in several ways, adopting more free layout and forms / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

In the last two decades, China's economic reforms in general, and rural reforms in particular, have had an immense effect upon China's urbanization patterns. A large rural surplus labor force has transformed itself into irresistible migration waves sweeping across most of China's big cities. / An essential question is how could Chinese cities avoid going through the same process of trial and error as other Third World cities, or what are the feasible ways to accept and integrate migrants within the existing urban systems. The answer to this question could only be explored to a large degree by examining the current situations in existing migrant communities. / This thesis focuses on the study of the use of domestic space in migrant houses as a means to examine the question from an architectural perspective. A case study of Zhejiang Village, the most influential migrant community in Beijing has been conducted. From 30 survey samples, 15 are analyzed according to the range of economic activities pursued by the migrants. Two other samples from Zhejiang vernacular houses are also examined in order to conduct a comparative study. Detailed drawings and analysis are arranged to show how ingeniously they combine their businesses within their meager domestic space. / The study shows that economic activities and cultural traditions are the vital factors that influence the use of domestic space in migrant houses. It also confirms that the physical integration of migrants must take into account their cultural background and spatial traditions.