There is a general lack of documentation which has been done on terra cotta production. Trends over the last several decades have shown that this industry is declining to the point where it could disappear completely. This project documents, through written descriptions and graphic illustrations, the process of terra cotta production in order to leave a record of what has been and what could be. Should the industry have a substantial resurgence to the extent that it is no longer in danger of extinction, or should general interest in the material develop further, this project will serve the purpose of an educational resource for the architect, preservationist, production industry and general public.It briefly covers the material and how it is formed, and how the way it is formed affects its limitations and durability. The project includes a history of the material from its most likely earliest applications to its current use. The history includes some of the major technological advances which have affected the material's production. A step-by-step guide to the production method involved in current terra cotta manufacture is included along with explanation of various related materials or processes which may not be commonly understood. Also included in this study is a look at the detection and correction of failures within terra cotta which is then outlined in a quick-reference tool for the preservation of terra cotta. The conclusion of the paper covers the outlook for the industry and the material along with ways for advancing both the knowledge of and desired use for terra cotta in new construction. / Department of Architecture

Plaster and compo are both materials used for cast architectural ornamentation. Preserving, repairing, and in-kind replacing cast architectural ornamentation is necessary to maintain the integrity of a space. Plaster and compo are visually and texturally very similar materials. Compo was invented to be a less costly substitute for plaster. Whereas the two materials are easily mistaken for one another, they are chemically quite different. The ingredients and methods used to create the two separate materials exemplify this difference. Understanding the differences is key to successfully preserving the ornaments and, thus, the spaces in which they are located. Repairing plaster with compo or compo with plaster can lead to the destruction of cast architectural ornaments. Furthermore, chemical paint removers that are safe to use on plaster can deteriorate compo. It is necessary to thoroughly understand the nature of the materials so that informed decisions can be made about their treatments. The study addresses the similarities and differences, the maintenance, deterioration, repair, and replacement of the two materials. / Department of Architecture

A new focus in Palaeolithic archaeology is to look at the possibility of the individual as a unit of analysis in the prehistoric record. This involves looking at the Palaeolithic actor as more than just an invisible entity that had a minor role in the production of long term patterns. The Palaeolithic individual was a ‘lived life’, with all aspects of agency, identity, and decision-making abilities. One area that is potentially illuminating for the examination of the individual is personal adornment, as this can lead to an understanding of the body and identity and the role of material culture in social life and self-making. A catalogue of Upper Palaeolithic sites in Europe and Siberia with evidence of items of personal adornment was recorded. From this information, patterns and sites that potentially show the individual are discussed through the categories of body, identity, and material culture.

The decorative and the textual have a complex and uneasy entanglement within the history and practice of modernist art. Sometimes celebrated as critical modernist strategies, sometimes denigrated or repressed as the opposite of Art, the decorative and the textual were understood as "foreign" forms that variously endangered, or, in turn, invigorated the power of art. My creative practice, which includes installation, painting, photography, text and an exhibition catalogue, exploits and explores this decorative and textual instability within modernist art practice. In my work, (visual) codes conventionally associated with the fields of writing and pattern, are re-examined and problematised by placing them within the context of visual art. When writing and pattern become the subject of painting there is an intriguing oscillation, complication and dialogue between the spaces and codes of reading and seeing, writing and pattern, the decorative and the abstract. The thesis also explores the decorative and textual instability within modernism by analysing some key contradictory moments in aesthetic thought and arts practice. In the writings of Clement Greenberg, a "decorative" painting is deemed the highest achievement of modernist abstract painting but to arrive at this goal, the decorative must be used against itself. In Frank Stella's early abstract paintings, decorative patterns structure the work, and yet the artist and his commentators only see the work as a kind of pure, abstract painting. In Lawrence Weiner's statement-sculptures, the terse, laconic text, that nominates materials and processes, is thought to be a "direct" form of art information that would remain unchanged even in reproduction. But as Weiner's work is reproduced in journals and magazines, this "direct" form of art is complicated through a variety of reproductive forms - documentary photographs, transcription errors and differences in the visual format and typography of the text. In these key moments of contradiction, concepts such as the decorative and the textual, that have often been regarded as peripheral to visual art, will be shown to have central significance in analysing its specific qualities.

This PhD by project is an examination of process-based architectural design. It offers an examination of one approach to undertaking process-based experimentation in architecture - based on reflection of my own practice and body of work - through which I have been able to consider a complex array of questions and issues that are associated with working in this way. By

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universität Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-218).

Thesis (M.C.A.-Res.)--University of Wollongong, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 70-79.

Rev. version of the author's Thesis (doctoral)--École pratique des hautes études, Paris, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Zürich, 1999.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1996. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-302). Also available via the Internet.