Genericamente, esta tese busca identificar a relação entre arquitetura e cultura de consumo, como definidora da identidade da arquitetura moderna de Miami no segundo pós-guerra. O conceito de cidade-balneário de Miami Beach foi transformado durante o decorrer da sua história. Os seus hotéis de inverno de meados da década de 1910 até 1945--destinados aos milionários associados à indústria automobilística--dão lugar a uma nova tipologia de hotel no pós-guerra, o hotelbalneário para a classe média norte-americana. Especificamente, este trabalho analisa os hotéis-balneários de Morris Lapidus (1902-2001) em Miami Beach na década de 1950, que definem a identidade da arquitetura moderna da cidade e que, por sua vez, caracterizam a sua própria imagem como cidade-balneário. A obra do setor da hospitalidade de Lapidus surge como informante de uma arquitetura com atenção máxima à escala humana do usuário. Suas lojas, construídas na época da Depressão, e seus hotéis do segundo pós-guerra, meticulosamente projetados para a classe média, surgem como veículos que contribuíram para a formação da cultura nacionalista, otimista e progressista, incentivada pelo governo federal de Franklin Roosevelt nesses períodos históricos. A histórica polêmica gerada sobre essa obra hoteleira de Lapidus, associada aos paradoxos presentes na composição arquitetônica de seus edifícios, está dividida entre a dogmática interpretação moderna do International Style e a leitura pós-moderna centrada na recuperação humanista. A narrativa da tese está fundamentada nessa polêmica cujo cerne está na questão sobre gosto e qualidade em arquitetura instigada por essa obra controversa. Este trabalho interpreta os paradoxos desses hotéis-balneários como uma metodologia de projeto de Lapidus, centrada na dialética de elementos de projeto contrastantes. Dessa dialética compositiva, nasce uma arquitetura híbrida, acessível à emergente classe-média, consumista e móvel, do pós-guerra. Esse hibridismo é estrategicamente elaborado como metodologia de projeto--uma colagem. A arquitetura como colagem nasce das escolhas de elementos extraídos de fontes diversas, que são apropriados e recriados pelo arquiteto. A diversidade de fontes de projeto advém da circulação de ideias--exposições, publicações e viagens. O apogeu da carreira de Lapidus é o hotel Fontainebleau (1954), o primeiro edifício do arquiteto de interiores que foi validado pelo seu conjunto de lojas da Main Street norte-americana. Os interiores derivam do método de projeto desenvolvido para as suas lojas, enquanto que a arquitetura do Fontainebleau descende da obra formativa de Oscar Niemeyer. A arquitetura moderna tropical do edifício contribuiu para a tipologia de hotel-balneário de Miami Beach no segundo pósguerra que, por sua vez, redefiniu o seu conceito de cidade-balneário. Após meio século, a arquitetura moderna hoteleira de Miami, originada com o Fontainebleau, está \"preservada\" sob a denominação Miami Modern-MiMo. No terceiro milênio, o MiMo, transformado em \"marca\" de consumo, é o veículo imobiliário da preservação da arquitetura moderna de Miami. / Generally, this dissertation aims at identifying the relationship between architecture and consumer culture, which defines the identity of Miami\'s modern architecture in the second post-war. The concept of Miami Beach as a seaside resort has been transformed throughout its history. Its winter hotels from the mid-1910s to 1945--intended for the auto industry millionaires--are replaced by a new typology of post-war hotel, the hotel-resort for the American middle class. Specifically, this work examines Morris Lapidus (1902-2001)\' hotel-resorts in Miami Beach in the 1950s, which define the identity of the city\'s modern architecture and which, in turn, characterizes the image of the city as a seaside resort. Lapidus\' hospitality industry work emerges as an informant of an architecture with maximum attention on the user\'s human scale. Its stores, built in the Depression era, and its post-war hotels for the middle class, both meticulously designed, have emerged as vehicles that contributed to the formation of the optimistic and progressive nationalist culture encouraged by the Franklin Roosevelt federal government in these historic periods. The historical polemic generated on such Lapidus\' hotel work, associated with the paradoxes present in the architectural design composition of its buildings, is divided between the dogmatic modern interpretation of the International Style and the postmodern review, centered on the rediscovery of humanism. The narrative of the thesis is based on this controversy, whose core is the question about taste and quality in architecture instigated by this controversial work. This work interprets the paradoxes of these hotel-resorts as a Lapidus\' design methodology, centered on the dialectic of contrasting design elements. From this compositional dialectic, a hybrid architecture is formed, accessible to the emerging middle-class, consumerist and mobile, of the second postwar. This hybridism is strategically planned as a design methodology--a collage. Architecture as collage is assembled from the choices of elements drawn from diverse sources, which are appropriated and recreated by the architect. The diversity of project sources comes from the circularity of ideas--exhibitions, publications, and travel. The heyday of Lapidus\' career as an architect is the Fontainebleau Hotel (1954), the first building by the then interior designer, who was validated by its collection of American Main Street stores designed during the Depression. The Fontainebleau Hotel interiors are derived from the design method developed for his stores, while its architecture descends from the formative work of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. The tropical modern architecture of the Fontainebleau established the typology of the post-war Miami Beach hotel-resort, which in turn redefined its seaside resort concept. After half a century, Miami\'s modern hotel architecture, originated with the Fontainebleau Hotel, is \"preserved\" under the slogan Miami Modern-MiMo. In the third millennium, the MiMo, transformed into a consumer brand, is the real estate vehicle for the preservation of the modern architecture in Miami.

Working through methods of abstraction and comedic mimicry I choreograph awkwardly balanced sculpture with objects of adornment as a means to defuse personal sensitivities surrounding my experiences of gender, desire, and home. The research that follows is concerned with the adjacent, the in between, above and underneath, because I feel that this kind of looking means that you are, to some degree, aware of what lies at the edges. Maybe this is what Gertrude Stein means to act as though there is no use in a center—because this concerns a way of relating, though there are many things in the room. ‘A spectacle and nothing strange’ is an arrangement of gestures, of made difference, of kinships, of orientations and possible futures, sustained tension, coded adornment, big dyke energy, shifts in hardness, leaning softness, much more than flowers, ...and in any case there is sweetness and some of that.

This project outlines the design proposal for an alternative public high school in Toronto, Ontario. For this project the school is re-imagined as a Community Learning Centre. The goal of the Community Centre model is to foster life-long learning in young people which can occur when space emphasizes social interaction, citizenship, and life long learning. The design of the Community Learning Centre is an attempt to align educational priorities with design, to create learning environments that best suit the needs of the users. The focus of the project, is on places between the classrooms where there is opportunity for informal learning to take place. The term schoolscapes is use to describe these spaces. They include all of the places between classrooms and are a way of reimaging the corridors as active, lively and engaging spaces. To support and expand on the idea of schoolscapes, how the environment impacts people and learning, the shifting values in education, and how public space can be related to school interiors, have been investigated. The work of Prakash Nair, Annalise Gehling and Herman Hertzberger, on school design and its correlation to public space have been extremely influential for this project, as has the work of Jan Ghel on lively city spaces. Jan Ghel identifies key features of good public space that can provide the foundation for the design of informal learning spaces. The writing of Nair, Gehling and Hertzberger will be used to support how these characteristics can be applied to the learning environment. The design of the Community Learning Centre explores how the ideals imbedded in public space can be carried over to the interior of a learning environment.

This project outlines the design proposal for an alternative public high school in Toronto, Ontario. For this project the school is re-imagined as a Community Learning Centre. The goal of the Community Centre model is to foster life-long learning in young people which can occur when space emphasizes social interaction, citizenship, and life long learning. The design of the Community Learning Centre is an attempt to align educational priorities with design, to create learning environments that best suit the needs of the users. The focus of the project, is on places between the classrooms where there is opportunity for informal learning to take place. The term schoolscapes is use to describe these spaces. They include all of the places between classrooms and are a way of reimaging the corridors as active, lively and engaging spaces. To support and expand on the idea of schoolscapes, how the environment impacts people and learning, the shifting values in education, and how public space can be related to school interiors, have been investigated. The work of Prakash Nair, Annalise Gehling and Herman Hertzberger, on school design and its correlation to public space have been extremely influential for this project, as has the work of Jan Ghel on lively city spaces. Jan Ghel identifies key features of good public space that can provide the foundation for the design of informal learning spaces. The writing of Nair, Gehling and Hertzberger will be used to support how these characteristics can be applied to the learning environment. The design of the Community Learning Centre explores how the ideals imbedded in public space can be carried over to the interior of a learning environment.

This thesis explores the extent to which elite women of the eighteenth century commissioned architectural works and the extent to which the type and scale of their projects was dictated by their marital status. Traditionally, architectural historians have advocated that eighteenth-century architecture was purely the pursuit of men. Women, of course, were not absent during this period, but their involvement with architecture has been largely obscured and largely overlooked. This doctoral research has redressed this oversight through the scrutinising of known sources and the unearthing of new archival material. This thesis begins with an exploration of the legal and financial statuses of elite women, as encapsulated by the eighteenth-century marriage settlement. This encompasses brides’ portions or dowries, wives’ annuities or ‘pin-money’, widows’ dower or jointure, and provisions made for daughters and younger children. Following this, the thesis is divided into three main sections which each look at the ways in which women, depending upon their marital status, could engage in architecture. The first of these sections discusses unmarried women, where the patronage of the following patroness is examined: Anne Robinson; Lady Isabella Finch; Lady Elizabeth Hastings; Sophia Baddeley; George Anne Bellamy and Teresa Cornelys. The second section explores the patronage of married women, namely Jemima Yorke, Marchioness Grey; Amabel Hume-Campbell, Lady Polwarth; Mary Robinson, Baroness Grantham; Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; Frances Boscawen; Elizabeth Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery; Henrietta Knight, Baroness Luxborough and Lady Sarah Bunbury. The third and final section discusses the architectural patronage of widowed women, including Susanna Montgomery, Countess of Eglinton; Georgianna Spencer, Countess Spencer; Elizabeth Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort; Elizabeth Home, Countess of Home; Elizabeth Montagu; Mary Hervey, Lady Hervey; Henrietta Fermor, Countess of Pomfret; the Hon. Charlotte Digby; the Hon. Charlotte Boyle Walsingham; the Hon. Agneta Yorke and Albinia Brodrick, Viscountess Midleton. Collectively, all three sections advocate that elite women were at the heart of the architectural patronage system and exerted more influence and agency over architecture than has previously been recognised by architectural historians.

The word endogenic means growing or proceeding from within, it is commonly used to describe the process of tectonic movement and earth crust formation caused by the extrusion of magmatic material. My project is a metaphorical exploration of the geological term “endogenic process” as well as an exploration of a design approach based on the term.The work explores soft form-bearing structures and textile bodies that contrast in relation to the hard framework of the rectangular room. It touches on material hierarchies in the living environment and the field of spatial design. The research explores the relationship between interior bodies and spatial frameworks. It aims to highlight the importance of the subject within the framework of the rectangular space that divides the interior of most buildings. My work involves exploring the endogenic process as a way of relating to the creative process and through the use of soft structures and drapery creating furniture that engages people with the spatial framework of the rectangular room. It is an exploration of spatial furniture that constitutes a connection and physical involvement between bodies and space, a kind of furniture providing a multiplicity of possibilities.

The growing demand in the industry towards sustainability and the globalization of manufacturing lead to an industrial climate of constant development and improvements, and automotive interior design is not excluded. In 2017 the European Union declared that the material used to generate the bright chrome surfaces of car interiors (CR VI) is toxic and carcinogenic. This implies that Volvo will ban the use of Chrome VI for decorative parts from September 2024.  Finding a more eco-friendly alternative to replace CR VI not only functionally but also in terms of perceived quality and user experience will be an urgent and decisive action.  In this project, the parameters of gloss, haze, color temperature, and metallic depth are investigated in order to figure out which elements ensure the perceived quality of chrome surfaces.  For this purpose, a user study based on different sensory tests and soft metrology was carried out with 48 people, as well as seven samples, five of them more eco-friendly alternatives. This project aims to introduce a set of tools to assess and guarantee the perception of quality by supporting the development of "chrome-look" surfaces in the automotive interior with new sustainable materials. Through this study, correlating soft and hard metrology, it is observed what makes a surface perceived as "high-quality" and which of the more eco-friendly alternatives could be the most optimal to replace Chrome VI in Volvo's car interiors.

This thesis explores the architecture, interior design and furniture design of Greta Magnusson Grossman (1906-1999), a pioneering Swedish Modernist who emigrated to the United States in 1940 and became part of the design movement California Modern in Los Angeles. Despite a productive and acclaimed career, her work was more or less forgotten until rediscovered in the early 2000’s.In this thesis, Greta Magnusson Grossman’s broader context is understood through literature studies of the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, the introduction of Swedish Modern at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the postwar design movement California Modern, and the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1948. Similar needs for well designed, low cost housing and furniture in the two countries are found.To further examine the work of Magnusson Grossman, her 1949 residence at Waynecrest Drive in Los Angeles is visually analyzed and compared with contemporary Case Study House #8 by American design couple Charles and Ray Eames from 1949, and Swedish furniture designer and architect Bruno Mathsson’s Exhibition Hall from 1950. Several correlations between the three environments are identified, and confirms Greta Magnusson Grossman’s progressive contributions in the fields of architecture, interiors and furniture design.

In the 1960s Czechoslovak Airlines (ČSA) set up offices in the countries to which they operated regular flights. ČSA branches abroad were to match high standards of other airlines premises. In those years travelling by air was still regarded a luxury. ČSA had to take these facts into consideration. The same group of architects, designers and artists who participated in the design of ČSA branch offices took also part in the outline of the new Prague Ruzyně international airport checking-in hall. This thesis aims to depict some former, now vanished, ČSA premises. In the 1990s ČSA closed down some offices abroad and the Prague Ruzyně international airport checking- in hall (now Terminal 1) was completely reconstructed. Press and other articles, archive documents, monographies as well as information provided directly by architects, designers and artists or their relatives were used in order to describe some previous ČSA publicly accessible premises and works of art that they included. On the basis of ascertained facts, it is obvious that in the 1960s ČSA offices abroad were not only to promote the good company reputation but further fulfilled a political role to create a positive picture of the Czechoslovak Republic. ČSA offices were designed by groups around Karel Filsak and Jan Šrámek. Their signatures can...