Québec’s historical attachment to Roman Catholicism is visible: there is still a great amount of church buildings throughout the province. However, changing attitudes in Québec (as in other regions around the world) are leading to a chronic desertion of spaces of worship. Conceived as the heart of a community, churches constitute imposing presences in the built and social fabrics of the neighbourhoods they serve. In today’s context, this status is shifting, and communities are now striving to somehow re-engage with the churches they have abandoned. However, the sacred nature of these buildings often frames a specific way of looking at them, which can limit a potentially innovative reuse. Given this situation, how can a church be granted anew its status as a public space in a plural environment, thus preserving some of the exceptional qualities of its architecture? Looking at the case of the abandoned Roman Catholic church Très Saint-Nom-de-Jésus in Montréal, this thesis challenges the current approaches to church preservation by converting the building into a bathing space. Characteristic elements of church typology, such as the quality of light and the ritual, are preserved and revised in a contemporary manner, opening the building to a more diverse society. This strategy of valuing intangible elements of church architecture leads to a proposal that demonstrates the responsiveness of this typology and offers ways in which it can regain its role as a space for the public in an increasingly multicultural community, thus challenging the traditional look, both conservationist and the larger public, at a church.

Québec’s historical attachment to Roman Catholicism is visible: there is still a great amount of church buildings throughout the province. However, changing attitudes in Québec (as in other regions around the world) are leading to a chronic desertion of spaces of worship. Conceived as the heart of a community, churches constitute imposing presences in the built and social fabrics of the neighbourhoods they serve. In today’s context, this status is shifting, and communities are now striving to somehow re-engage with the churches they have abandoned. However, the sacred nature of these buildings often frames a specific way of looking at them, which can limit a potentially innovative reuse. Given this situation, how can a church be granted anew its status as a public space in a plural environment, thus preserving some of the exceptional qualities of its architecture? Looking at the case of the abandoned Roman Catholic church Très Saint-Nom-de-Jésus in Montréal, this thesis challenges the current approaches to church preservation by converting the building into a bathing space. Characteristic elements of church typology, such as the quality of light and the ritual, are preserved and revised in a contemporary manner, opening the building to a more diverse society. This strategy of valuing intangible elements of church architecture leads to a proposal that demonstrates the responsiveness of this typology and offers ways in which it can regain its role as a space for the public in an increasingly multicultural community, thus challenging the traditional look, both conservationist and the larger public, at a church.

En studie i undersökningen av takpotentialen på Hötorgshuset 5 i Stockholm. / An investigation of a rooftop potential of Hötorget Building 5 in Stockholm. This project proposes a program on floor 17, 18 and 19 (rooftop level) of the high-rise building containing a restaurant and a health centre with fitness facilities, group training and hamam-inspired steam sauna. The challenges have been to fit in a program in a space traditionally meant only for office use. The aim has been to provide a business that is useful for the place but at the same time provide architectural qualities by structural alterations to make vertical spaces with skylight, maximizing sightlines, keeping constant access to the façade and thereby access to the view outside. Other aims have been to create a brand and identity by adding an oriental hamam-theme into the project. Lastly the project intended to catch the “natural qualities” that are offered by a place of this height by giving access to the roof-top and letting the visitor experience the open sky and the city panorama throughout the year.

The subject of this thesis study is &Ccedil / ukur Hamam, one of the remarkable edifices in Birgi town in &Ouml / demis district of Izmir. The aim of the study is to create a restoration project for &Ccedil / ukur Hamam to provide its survival by integrating its neighbourhood to the social life of the city. During the study the edifice and its periphery was documented carefully by using 3D Laser Scanner. In the historical and comparative study the original status of the edifice was researched. With respect to the data gathered from the studies, a restoration project which includes the intervention decisions for the conservation of the physical condition and authentic elements of the edifice.

Projektet är ett kombinerat kvinnocenter och hamam i Rinkeby. Det bygger på en analys av det offentliga rummet i Rinkeby och de föreslagna förändringarna av det offentliga livet i och med Järvalyftet.

Today, the loss of many qualified twentieth century buildings and the scarcity of studies for conservation of these buildings indicates the need for researches on this topic. In that respect the subject of the thesis study is to prepare a conservation proposal for the case Atat&uuml / rk Orman &Ccedil / iftligi Hamami, which was designed by an important architect of the Republic period buildings architect Ernst Egli in 1937s a part of a complex with Beer Factory and its mass housing. The building couldn&rsquo / t keep up within the transformation of the site and lost its function. Today the building is away from attention and under danger of destruction due to several material and structural problems. As a milestone project of modernization of a nation, Atat&uuml / rk Orman &Ccedil / iftligi&rsquo / s important role on the community, with its recreation areas and industrialization of agriculture has also been evaluated in the study and the building is studied as a whole with its close environment. In that respect a new function is proposed that will help the transformation of site in a positive manner together with considering the problems and the values of the building. By this way the building existing situation is documented, the values and problems are revealed out by systematic methods / and with proposed new function a conservation project that fore seen to reveal the importance of the building, preserve it by using and pass inheritence to next generations.

From the middle of 20th century, as a result of devastating effects of world wars conservation activities intensified on the protection in area scale. Together with central government and local authorities, the owner or the user of the building, entrepreneurs, groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and society were meant to be included in the process. Today, local authorities play important role in the implementation of the restoration or street rehabilitation projects. Today in Turkey, municipalities are the second most important actors in the field of conservation after Ministry of Culture and Tourism. There are seen important changes after 1980s in Turkey in the field of conservation, which are that the localization in conservation increased and the role of local governments became more important. From the beginning of 2000s, the power of municipalities increases with the transfer of decision-making power to the municipalities. In this thesis, the role of local authorities in the field of conservation was discussed with the case of Hamam&ouml / n&uuml / -Ankara, a good example of the conservation implementation of a local authority showing the approach and study process of the municipality. Before explaining implementations of Altindag Municipality in Hamam&ouml / n&uuml / and their different effects on site and the people / a short start giving general information about development of role of local authorities in the field of conservation throughout the world was done and the legislative process in Turkey was stated. Moreover, after the assessment of implementation under different titles, some proposals for future of Hamam&ouml / n&uuml / were done.

Historical Turkish baths still keeping their functional systems represent their original architectural and building technologies. Studies on the functional systems of historical baths are therefore needed to discover such technologies and to maintain them in working order. This study was conducted on a 15th century historical Turkish bath, Seng&uuml / l Hamami, in Ankara for assessment of its water supply and drainage systems. These systems comprised of hot and cold-water supply, wastewater and rainwater drainage, were examined in terms of their adequacy, capacity and faults. Comparisons were made with certain other historical Turkish baths to determine their original water storage and consumption capacities. The investigations were made by using non-destructive methods. Among them, the calculation methods used for discharge capacity assessment of drainage systems in Seng&uuml / l Hamami and consumption capacities of its water supply system were adapted and developed from the calculation methods used for contemporary buildings. Serious dampness problems arising from certain roof drainage faults were identified in the building. The wastewater collection and discharge system was found to have serious problems due to improper grading and inadequate flow dimensions of drains and wastewater channels. The ideal situation for the improvement of discharge systems was discussed together with some suggestions on the urgent remedial interventions, preventive measures and future improvements. The methods developed in this study were considered useful for the calculation of adequacy and capacity of wastewater and roof drainage systems and of water storage and consumption capacities of water supply system for the other historical baths.

Comprehensive studies are needed to discover materials and construction technologies contributing to the thermal performance of historical buildings and to keep them in working order over time. Examined in this study were the thermal performance characteristics of Seng&uuml / l Hamami, a 15th Century Ottoman bath, to discover original thermo-physical properties of historic materials and to assess thermal failures in present situation by taking into consideration recent incompatible repair work. The analyses were done by using non-destructive investigation methods, such as microclimatic monitoring, quantitative infrared thermography (QIRT), heat and water vapour transfer calculations, supported by laboratory analyses on thermo-physical properties of historic materials. The results were evaluated in terms of thermal properties of historic materials establishing the historic dome section, microclimatic characteristics of Seng&uuml / l Hamami, its original thermal characteristics, and thermal failures occurred in time due to wrong repairs. An in-situ assessment method was also developed for the identification of thermal and moisture failures at real boundary conditions by joint interpretation of QIRT and heat transfer calculation results. The study showed that historic dome structure of Seng&uuml / l Hamami was originally configured to provide sufficient thermal insulation characteristics owing to good thermal properties of its materials. That success was attributed to conscious use of low-density, high-porosity historic materials having low thermal conductance and high vapour permeability characteristics. It was seen that the thermal performance of historic structure was severely destroyed by recent repairs using concrete and cement-based materials, which were incompatible with historic fabric of the structure due to their different thermo-physical properties.

This study aims the real-time monitoring of gases (CO2, N2, O2, H2, H2S, CH4, He, Ar) discharging from natural pools in the Tekke Hamam geothermal field (Denizli) in addition to the geochemical characterization of the field along with the Kizildere geothermal field, both located at the eastern segment of the B&uuml / y&uuml / k Menderes Graben. The continuous gas monitoring experiment (November 2007-October 2008) conducted in the Tekke Hamam geothermal field has revealed temporal variations in the gas compositions, gas flow rate and pool temperature. Different variation components, such as daily variation profiles and peak/Multi-day signals, are detected in the monitored data, which are mainly correlated with shallow and deep processes involving mainly meteorological factors and seismicity induced variations, respectively. Particularly, the coupled variations in the gas compositions and flow rate seem to correlate with seismicity induced permeability modifications within the subsurface during the absence of significant meteorological factors, such as high rainfall and varying atmospheric pressure. The noble gas characterization of the fields have revealed both high 3He/4He and 4He/20Ne isotopic ratios, suggesting a mantle contribution of about 18% for Kizildere and 34% for Tekke Hamam, whereas the other noble gases (Ar, Ne, Kr, Xe) are of atmospheric nature. The different mantle contributions observed in both fields can suggest a different mantle-He flux variably contaminated by crustal helium. The chemical (cation-trace element-anion) and stable isotopic (&amp / #948 / 18O-&amp / #948 / D) contents of the thermal waters reveal high temperature water-rock interaction accompanied by the effects of deep origined gases (mainly CO2 and H2S) discharging from the fields.