This thesis explores the possibility that a well designed and situated urban art gallery might improve a problematic urban condition in Vancouver. The aim is to vitalize a neglected urban space, and connect the waterfront seawall with the downtown core, while exposing the gallery to the public. By playing on the potential of a formally rich urban context— characterized by viaducts, SkyTrain rails, tunnels, underpasses and abrupt elevation changes — the project aims to celebrate the site’s unusual formal qualities while reclaiming it for human, rather than vehicular, activity.

How can architecture connect us to our environments? Is architecture responsible for connecting its user to their surrounding context? Can our spaces inform us about the world around us? There are numerous ways that humans can feel a connection to nature. But, what ways are more universal than others? What aspects of the natural world cross geographical and cultural boundaries? Perhaps, architecture can connect us to our environments by revealing the universal passing of time through natural daylighting by way of structure, materiality, and texture. As the primary instrument, daylighting will be used in this body of work to explore time on an hourly and seasonal basis. It will do this by housing two light-sensitive programs, a painting conservatory and gallery space. By pairing these programs together, the architecture will investigate time by comparing and contrasting two user types and their corresponding needs from each program. Finally, by setting the architecture in the center of a urban block, the thesis can draw upon this high contrast to reinforce the connections it has constructed and made between the user and the natural environment. / Master of Architecture

"Architecture itself is linked not only to other arts but also to the broader context of life; it is only on that scale that we may understand its specific contribution to the formation of the communicative space of culture."* - Dailbor Vesely 2004 Architects have explored Art Galleries as a medium throughout the ages. In 2014, the Corcoran was sold, dismantled and divided between the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University signaling the end of an era of art display in the Nation's Capital. This transformation of a major DC art collection was the impetus for this thesis: to mark the end of an era and to create a new home for the Corcoran Collection. To house this orphaned collection, I have studied similar elements that earlier architects have studied such as light, shadow, and reflection, taking into account the dawn of the next generation of art galleries. The role of this museum is to educate and facilitate information about the collection and the art. Contemporary art galleries that have been built recently included additional areas of services that were originally not part of the Corcoran Museum's building program, such as the role of conservation of historical objects including paintings and works on paper. Another area of my research was the relationship between the viewer and the building. The Corcoran has an extensive collection of American art and art directly from D.C. and it is important to allow direct access for the community and accommodate enough wall space to give context to the art. With the setting of the contemporary art gallery framed, we return back to the research to really question how each of those elements were thought about moving forward. We need light to see, but what had been seen and depicted on great Master's canvases should be protected from light. Should natural light be brought into the gallery spaces even though it damages works on canvas and paper? Can gallery spaces change over time to mirror the objects that they hold? Can the building reflect the area around the gallery but also act as a space of meditation and self-reflection? To adopt means to take another's child, but it can also mean to embrace an idea. In this case we are adopting the collection of William Corcoran and combining it with newer elements found in modern museums. On further evaluation of the gallery it has strong ties to historic D.C. because of its collection and its community outreach however its weakness was due in part of turning its back on the same community that made it strong. I propose moving the collection into the heart of Washington D.C. and combining it with newer ideas of light and gallery services. This process will allow the Corcoran to continue its evolution as a great American collection. *Dailbor Vesely, "Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation." (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2004), 88-89. / Master of Architecture

By entering this thesis was to create exposure Earthen Architecture in the fortress Rymice, resolving outdoor exposure with clay workshop. Outdoor space devoted clay consists of two main parts. These are the elements of clay production and exhibition features. The exhibition section consists of clay trails and glass showcases for exhibits, which form a linear streaks, and thus linking production and exposure space.

By entering this thesis was to create exposure Earthen Architecture in the fortress Rymice, resolving outdoor exposure with clay workshop. Outdoor space devoted clay consists of two main parts. These are the elements of clay production and exhibition features. The exhibition section consists of clay trails and glass showcases for exhibits, which form a linear streaks, and thus linking production and exposure space.

Significant technical barriers currently prevent the wide spread adoption of WGM lasers as building blocks in large-scale photonic integrated circuits. The first challenge is to reduce the electrical power consumption at desirable levels of light output power. The second target is to obtain directional light emission without sacrificing other laser performance metrics. The best opportunity for success lies in the pursuit of small micro-Pillar lasers with spiral-geometry cavities. Process technology has been demonstrated for making high-performance WGM lasers including a refined ICP etching process for fabricating micro-Pillar cavities with sidewall roughness less than 10 nm and a new hydrogenation based approach to achieving current blocking that is compatible with all other processing steps and robust in comparison with earlier reports. A comprehensive photo-mask has been designed that enables investigation of the interplay between device geometry and WGM laser performance. Emphasis has been placed on enabling experiments to determining the impact of diffraction and scattering losses, current and carrier confinement, and surface recombination on electrical/optical device characteristics. In addition, a methodology has been developed for separating out process optimization work from the task of identifying the best means for directional light out-coupling. Our device fabrication methods can be proven on WGM lasers with pure cylindrical symmetry, hence results from these experiments should be independent of any specific light output coupling scheme. Particular attention has been paid to the fact that device geometries that give the best performance for purely symmetrical cavities may not yield the highest level of light emission from the spiral output notch. Such considerations seem to be missing from much of the earlier work reported in the literature. Finally, our processing techniques and device designs have resulted in individual WGM lasers that outperform those made by competitors. These devices have been incorporated into multi-element, coupled-cavity optical circuits thereby laying the groundwork for construction of digital photonic gates that execute AND, OR, and NOT logic functions. / Ph. D.

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Thesis (M.A. (Fine Art)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Abstract: This research is the culmination of a four-year investigation and analysis into the principles of Interaction Design, particularly those that are found to be most suitable when designing and developing interactive navigation systems. The research was undertaken as a Masters degree by project. The project consists of a CD containing an online gallery showcasing works of art and an accompanying exegesis. The exegesis is structured into seven chapters, which consider, analyse and define what the key characteristics of Interaction Design are, where it comes from, and how it improves the quality of interactive multimedia applications. The exegesis includes four case studies that look at how other practitioners in the digital realm have created systems for showcasing narrative or creative content online. I examine alternative artworks and how they have shaped the development of creative media. I investigate what experts in the field define as good Interaction Design and what guidelines and principles they recommend. I show how these guidelines conflict with more creative approaches and how good design and creativity can be merged to be usable and friendly to users. I also look at the history of opponents of guidelines and principles and how their contribution helps make design better. By creating the example gallery I aim to help designers working within the field of ID to understand the principles behind good design in order that they may deliver higher-quality user experiences relevant to the content they are displaying. By creating this gallery I also hope to help artists understand the principles behind good design in order that they may showcase their artworks in ways appropriate to their artwork. By designing and building an example I aim to provide a better understanding of how to construct a feature-rich application in an easy to use and understandable environment.

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