The project aims to investigate, analyze and intervene a market in the Indian city of Ahmedabad. A specific target group consists of people living on the market in tents since they can't afford to buy an apartment in the city, and if they move outside the city they lose their right to a market spot they have inherited for generations. The project deals with social aspects and the possibility to keep it running with help from temporary visitors, mainly backpackers.

This thesis supports the Master of Fine Arts exhibition entitled A Blending of Purpose at East Tennessee State University, Carroll Reece Museum, Johnson City, Tennessee, November 4 – 22, 2004. It discusses the artist’s desire to create exceptionally crafted functional work which focuses on both compelling aesthetics and strong utilitarian considerations. Topics include the artistic validity of functional works, aesthetic and functional qualities, tactile sensation as a consideration, machine-made works versus hand-made works, a characteristic described as the Life Quality, and the piece’s completion in use. The artist examines her influences including work ceramists Dan Finnegan, Nick Joerling and Ken Sedberry, as well as form and design elements found in the art and architecture of India. Practical application in form and process of these ideas and influences is discussed.

Built form, or human spatial organization, has usually been studied in cultural anthropology and archaeology as dependent on other factors such as social organization. Studies have been limited by a lack of measures permitting comparisons over time and space, so buildings remain little understood despite their visibility in the archaeological record. One approach emerging from multidisciplinary work emphasizes topology over physical characteristics such as shape and size; it examines linkages rather than individual components. The space syntax model of Bill Hillier and the Unit for Architectural Studies at University College London recognizes that spatial patterns are both the product and the generator of social relations. Built form is treated as part of a system of spatial relations, facilitating movement, encounter, and avoidance--both among occupants and between occupants and outsiders. Methods developed through analysis of a broad range of buildings and settlements are available to examine built space and its changes over time. A space syntax model allows a re-examination of great houses in and near Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, built from the mid-A.D. 800s to the mid-1100s. The great houses examined in Chaco Canyon are: Una Vida, Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo, Pueblo Alto, and Kin Kletso. The outliers are Salmon Ruin and West Aztec Ruin. Where sufficient data are available, the control and access features formalized through floorplans are graphed and quantified, allowing comparisons over construction phases and between different sites. The goal is to reevaluate past interpretations, ranging from heavily-populated villages to largely empty redistribution or ceremonial centers. More diversity rather than consistency is apparent from individual great house floor plans, but certain spatial characteristics emerge. Access patterns tend to be asymmetric and non-distributed, becoming deeper over time. Yet the occasional presence of rings, allowing alternate routes within a building, differs from earlier and later building forms. Access patterns differ between and within east and west wings, and the core units, even during comparable time periods. Seen from the perspective of the floor plan, the examples of Chacoan architecture suggest differentiation both within and among great houses.

Le site archéologique de Senji se situe dans l’Etat du Tamil Nadu en Inde du Sud. Il est connu pour son ensemble fortifié qui se déploie sur trois impressionnantes collines de granit, qui a contribué à forger une partie de l’histoire de cette région du XVe siècle au XIXe siècle. Célébré pour son système défensif, l’architecture religieuse de Senji n’a jusqu’à présent jamais été étudiée dans son intégralité. Cette thèse se propose de faire une étude détaillée des temples et des lieux de cultes hindous de Senji et de sa région proche. Elle traite des édifices de pierres dédiés aux grandes divinités du panthéon hindous et analyse les relations idéologiques qu’elles entretiennent avec les divinités locales et de village, dont le culte ne s’exprime pas toujours par des structures pérennes. Les monuments sont replacés dans leur contexte historique, datant majoritairement du XVIe siècle pendant la période de domination Vijayanagara- Nāyaka. L’histoire de la dynastie Nāyaka de Senji est examinée afin de comprendre les motivations des commanditaires. A travers une étude architecturale détaillée et une analyse des thèmes iconographiques présents sur le site, on tente de déterminer les principes qui régissent la construction de ces temples à l’époque, ainsi que leur utilisation politique dans un contexte militaire et troublé, servant des besoins d’affirmation et de légitimité du pouvoir des souverains de Senji au XVIe siècle. Cette étude contribue également à considérer le site sous une vue plus patrimoniale et en terme de protection des monuments historiques et de l’héritage architectural indien. / The archaeological site of Senji (Gingee) stands in Tamil Nadu, in Southern India. Senji is famous for its fortified walls and castles built upon and between the three main granitic hills of the area, which contributed to change this part of the Tamil country History between the 15e and the 19e centuries. Known for its military aspects, the religious architecture of Senji had yet never been under proper and full study. This dissertation tries to make a detailed study of the Hindu stone temples and places of worship in Senji and its close area. The research focuses on the pan-Indian Hindu temples and analyses the existing relation between them and the local goddesses whom places of worship are not systematically built in long lasting materials. Monuments are situated in the original historical context, mainly in the 16e century during Vijayanagara-Nāyaka domination. The history of Senji’s Nāyaka dynasty is also analysed in order to understand the concepts that rules temples constructions à these times, and the use of religious architecture in this troubled and warfare context, serving the purpose of legitimacy of their power on the 16e century. This research also tries to consider Senji as the object of conservation and preservation, and in terms of Indian cultural and architectural heritage.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This thesis uses the lens of building technology to examine cultural exchange and its relationship to the building crafts. By focusing on masonry vaulting in India, my research brings together two worlds – one that shines light on the variety of innovative masonry shell construction techniques that exist in the county and another that seeks to evaluate the scope of tile vaulting, an over 600-year old Mediterranean building technique, within India’s evolving building crafts culture. This thesis is organized in three parts: PART ONE Tile Vaulting and Relevance Today | A Brief History of Masonry Shells in India Part one introduces tile vaulting’s unique principles compared to other vaulting traditions while contextualizing its relevance to present day India. A survey of varied masonry vaulting techniques and modules, endemic and imported, practiced across India is presented against the backdrop of what is a predominantly reinforced concrete-based construction industry. PART TWO Modules, Methods and Motivations The second part of this research comprises case studies that include some of India’s most iconic buildings such as the Villa Sarabhai by Le Corbusier, the National Institute of Design by Gautam Sarabhai and Sangath by B.V. Doshi, each of which employed innovative construction techniques for its vaults. The production and use of the enigmatic ceramic fuses in India is examined for the first time alongside their indigenous cousins: burnt clay tubes. Together with Muzaffarnagar vaulting, the case studies reveal cultural motivations for architectural expression and production in postcolonial India. PART THREE Prototypes | Comparatives | Limitations & Extension of Research Part three presents five tile vaulting prototypes in India constructed with local artisans to gain understanding of its cultural reception, assess effective transfer of skills and potential internalisation. Recommendations for tile vaulting’s potential uptake into mainstream architectural production is evaluated by comparing findings against prevalent building methods and by contextualizing current architectural trends and social policy. Limitations and scope for extension of research are also discussed.