Thesis (DPhil (Linguistics))-University of Pretoria, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: Scholars have called for better understanding of the generative process, a process underlying the creation of urban form that often has positive qualities such as coherence, human scale, flexibility, and adaptability. The generative process is incremental and continually refined, producing urban settlements that respond to feedback. Redefining the pattern language as a system of knowledge generation, and a method to acquire essential information and re-create historical contexts, this dissertation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the generative process and the corresponding urban codes of traditional cities. The dissertation consists of three complete yet interconnecting articles. The first article examines the structural components of the generative process— place-based norms and urban codes—and their roles in generative development. Two traditions of urbanism with distinctive and coherent forms and different levels of imposed regulations were investigated: medieval European and Arabic-Islamic. The study finds that place-based norms are the core of any generative process. Whenever written codes do not control urban space, these norms emerge to operationalize the building process. The second article investigates the generative process through the operationality of patterns, properties, and a sequence in the creation of the traditional form of the town of Hoian, Vietnam. The recurrence of each property and the pattern of its repetition in urban elements are investigated to assess the impact of generative forces on the urban form of Hoian. Fifteen of Alexander’s properties and ten of Lynch’s qualities were also combined into a set of twenty properties of urban elements. Finally, the third article observes and then explores the unfolding of the generative process using the virtual online platform OpenSim, thereby verifying the operationality of the generative process revealed in the previous two articles. The paper substantiates the proposition that the generative system includes patterns and urban properties that can serve as rules for directing urban growth. These rules build diverse and unified urban settlements. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2015

As technology becomes increasingly intelligent and pervasive in the physical context of daily life, it is crucial to consider the design of technological artifacts to develop new interaction paradigms that can expand technological capabilities, shape behaviors, establish new practices, and broaden our worldview. This thesis proposes using principles of animism to inform the design of interactive objects as a way to encourage people to reflect on their relationships with the world around them, and to perceive objects beyond their roles as mere tools or ephemeral fashion products. Animism, as a design metaphor, can be powerful in creating expressive, affective, and empathetic interactions with interactive objects. Through the use of behavioral, physical, and social metaphors, an animistic object can communicate in a more nuanced way with its changing form and behavior within a given context. An animistic object can connect in multi-sensorial ways to provide an individual and idiosyncratic experience, which can afford one to construct new meanings with their surrounding objects and re-form their relationship with them. Animistic objects aim to create a poetic dialogue between themselves and their humans, fostering a deeper relationship that surpasses their utilitarian and aesthetic value. The goal of this thesis is to define animism in the context of industrial and interaction design, examine dimensions of animistic qualities, and evaluate implications of animistic objects in building rapport between human and artifacts.

Form language - a language for all of us? is a thesis in information design with a focus on spatial design. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a design proposition that exemplifies how the form language can be used to guide museum visitors, thus promoting the flow of movement and information retrieval. The work is based on the thematic exhibition Framtidsland at Arbetets museum in Norrköping. This thesis is a small part of a major survey to find out how spatial information affects visitors' flow of movements in thematic exhibitions. The overall information design problem includes motion flow and navigation in exhibition environments. Many thematic exhibitions do not communicate how the visitor should relocate and lacks clarity in structure and implementation. With the support of acquired empirical information from an informant interview, expert interview and a three-way site analysis on Framtidsland, the existing problems have been identified. The basic issues in the exhibition include ambiguous spatial information and guidance, which complicates the flow of movement and information retrieval for the visitor. There is a need for clearer guidance, structure, a line of argument and a coherent form language. Based on theory of wayfinding/wayshowing, cognition, design rules and design principles, combined with results from a user test, a design proposition has been developed. The design proposition shows that form language is a language for all of us, and that it affects us more than we think. This study shows that spatial information can contain guiding design and visual balance to create better structure as well as facilitate movement flow for visitors in thematic exhibitions. / Formspråk – ett språk för alla? är ett examensarbete inom informationsdesign med inriktning mot rumslig gestaltning. Syftet med arbetet är att ta fram ett gestaltningsförslag som exemplifierar hur formspråk kan användas för att vägleda museibesökare och därmed främja rörelseflödet samt informationsinhämtningen. Arbetet utgår från den tematiska utställningen Framtidsland på Arbetets museum i Norrköping. Examensarbetet är en liten del av en större undersökning att ta reda på hur rumslig information påverkar besökares rörelseflöden i tematiska utställningar. Det övergripande informationsdesignproblemet omfattar rörelseflöde och navigering i utställningsmiljöer. Många tematiska utställningar kommunicerar inte hur besökaren ska röra sig och saknar en tydlighet i struktur och genomförande. Med stöd från inhämtad empiri av en informantintervju, expertintervju samt en tredelad platsanalys på utställningen Framtidsland har de befintliga problemen kunnat identifieras. De grundläggande problemen i utställningen omfattar otydlig rumslig information och vägledning, vilket försvårar rörelseflödet och informationsinhämtningen för besökaren. Det finns behov av en tydligare vägledning, struktur, en röd tråd och ett sammanhängande formspråk. Baserat på teori om wayfinding/wayshowing, kognition, gestaltlagar och designprinciper samt resultat från användartest har ett designförslag utvecklats. Den framtagna gestaltningen visar att formspråk är ett språk för alla, och att det påverkar oss människor mer än vi tror. Denna studie visar att rumslig information kan innehålla vägledande design och visuell balans för att skapa bättre struktur samt underlätta rörelseflödet för besökare i tematiska utställningar.