The Court of the Lions has been known for its architectural beauty which is universally admired. However, a closer look at the current gravel-surfaced Courtyard does not seem to harmonize with the pinnacle in architectural representation of its surrounding and the once “state of the art” technology of the fountain at the centre. According to The Official Guide - The Alhambra and Generalife published by the Petronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (1999, p. 115), "…It is not known for certain whether the four parts were paved or if they were gardens”. This uncertainty became the catalyst for this Grounded Theory landscape architectural research which employs concept mapping techniques. Computer concept and illumination models were then used to test a design concept through a series of simulations. Lastly, the possible landscapes were interpreted using photorealistic computer images and animations, re-enacting the original garden atmosphere in the year 1391 AD. The study describes the process to simulate the garden atmosphere of the Court of the Lions with the absence of primary sources of information. The approach can be used for other historic sites in similar site condition.

In 1963, architect Cedric Price, theatre producer Joan Littlewood, and cybernetician Gordon Pask proposed a new kind of leisure centre called the Fun Palace. Though never built, the project continues to influence architecture and is the inspiration for this thesis. Known also as the “Laboratory of Fun,” the Fun Palace developed a compelling yet problematic narrative: people would have the freedom to design their own spatial experiences, but their behaviours would be monitored and probed. Innovations from the cybernetic committee had propelled the Fun Palace beyond mundane reality and into the virtual. In fact, the Fun Palace was more than a building; it was an information interface where architecture and humans were connected by cybernetic feedback. Of particular importance to this thesis is the way the Fun Palace antici- pated how digital technology would transform the world, and how it can be understood as an early prototype of the digital city. The model of space that the Fun Palace proposed shifted our understanding of architecture from autonomous and static to complex and dynamic; from an architecture of walls to an architecture of fields. This thesis is organized along three lines of inquiry. Firstly, that architecture is participatory. Secondly, that architecture is multidimensional. Thirdly, that architecture is generated by real-time transactions. The thesis concludes with a speculation called In The Fields: a mobile laboratory for co-creation in the digital city.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Art History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-163).

Although the work of Edwin Lutyens has received much careful scholarly study since the 1980s his important projects in Spain remain very little known. Presently, only a brief article by Gavin Stamp and Margaret Richardson is devoted solely to Lutyens' work, and they are merely touched on in his published biographies, especially that by Christopher Hussey. Unfortunately, Lutyens was unable to complete his Spanish commissions, mostly because of the deterioration of Spain’s economy and social order in the 1930s, and this has played a major role in keeping these projects in the dark. Furthermore, the devastation caused by the Civil War obliterated most of the evidence once held in Spanish archives. Some of the projects of Edwin Lutyens in Spain are remarkable and unique for their use of what may loosely be termed a ‘Spanish style’. The identification of this characteristic can be understood as demonstrating a growing knowledge of and appreciation for Spanish architectural heritage on the part of British architects and architectural historians by the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time, the fact that the design of important private residences in Spain were commissioned to an English architect shows the growing anglophilia of Spanish economic and political elites under Alfonso XIII's reign. During these years, the economic and political ties between Britain and Spain became closer than ever before, which also had an impact on the architecture of the time. Ultimately, this dissertation is predicated on the assumption that it is important to study further, and understand better, the Spanish projects of Edwin Lutyens in order to gain fuller and further insight into his methods as a designer. The first three of them (the first project of the Palace of El Guadalperal, the Palace of La Ventosilla and the Palace for the Count de la Cimera) cast light on Lutyens´s work during the Great War years, a relatively obscure period of his career which was, however, extraordinarily fruitful. The second project for the Palace of El Guadalperal is even larger than his previous Spanish projects, approaching the grandeur and magnificence of the Viceroy’s House in Delhi. In this respect there may be seen to be a correspondence between these otherwise discrete and apparently un-related projects, running from Britain, through Spain, all the way to India. Moreover, given their scale, along with the design input required to make them successful and coherent buildings, they must be appreciated as pivotal moments in the design development, if not built oeuvre, of Edwin Lutyens as an architect. Finally, the Reconstruction of Liria Palace, is not only his last commission in Spain but it can also be considered as the last building he designed. Only when these projects are brought to the fore and analysed properly can a full understanding of Lutyens as an architect be reached.

Pour l’étude de l’histoire architecturale du palais beylical du Bardo à Tunis, nous avons jugé utile de répartir notre recherche en trois grandes parties. La première partie, intitulée présentation historique, est réservée à l’étude des sources et des conditions générales de la création architecturale à Tunis pendant l’époque des réformes (1824-1881). La deuxième partie, intitulée palais du Bardo : étude monographique, est consacrée à l’étude architecturale des monuments qui subsistent encore dans le palais du Bardo ainsi qu’à l’étude des chantiers de construction et de restauration qui se sont déroulés dans le palais à l’époque des beys réformateurs (Husayn Pacha, Mustafâ Pacha, Ahmad Pacha, Muhammad Pacha et Muhammad al-Sâdik Pacha). La troisième partie, intitulée la construction beylicale à Tunis à l’époque des réformes, est réservée à l’étude des caractéristiques de l’art de construction à Tunis pendant l’époque des réformes, à travers les données présentées dans les deux premières parties. / To study the architectural history of the Beylical Bardo palace in Tunis , we have chosen to divide our research into three main parts, the first part entitled historical presentation , is reserved for the study of source and general conditions of the architectural creation in Tunis during the time of reforms (1824-1881). The second part entitled the Bardo palace; monographic study, is reserved for the architectural study of the monuments that still remain in the building sites and restoration that took place in the palace at the time of the reforming Beys ( Husayn Pacha , Mustafâ Pacha , Ahmad Pacha , Muhammad Pacha et Mohammad al-Sâdik Pacha )As for the third part , entitled the beylical building in Tunis at the time of reforms, is reserved for the study of the building art characteristics in Tunis during the era of reforms inferred (derived ) from the data that we have drawn from the two firs parts.

The purpose of my diploma thesis is geodetic survey and creation of the drawing documentation of the first two above-ground floors of the rear palace, four above-ground floors of the adjacent prismatic tower and the facades of the two assigned objects accessible from the courtyard. The geodetic survey was made in connection with the previous measurements of the neighboring English tract by the combination of the polar and the standard measures. The calculation of the obtained data was done in Groma and the required drawings were made in Microstation. The result of my thesis is the drawing documentation consists of four plans, longitudinal section, cross section and two views.

The aim of the proposed changes are aimed at creating a vertical division of functionality. The basement will be used for public purposes, the 1st floor will keep it's use as commercial spaces for rent, with less exposed parts of the disposition being converted into administrative spaces. The 2nd floor will be converted into flats of different sizes to accommodate a broad range of social classes, which should help bring life back to the city center. Much consideration is given to budgetary concerns, since the private owners have limited resources, while the changes should affect the daily routines of the tenants as little as possible. Another goal is to remove some of the insensitive building interventions made during the communist era, to restore the historical values of the entire building.

While historians often point to the rise of the United States as a major global player and technological leader on the world stage in the 1890s and early 1900s, this study argues it was the 1850s, not the 1890s, that this transition occurred. It utilizes transnational methodologies to analyze European perceptions of the United States, American international businessmen, and new ways Americans thought and talked about their place in the world. During the 1850s, European travelers to the United States began to recognize the young nation was taking the lead in technological innovation, while American businessmen like Samuel Colt began to take mass-produced goods to Europe and the world. American politicians, infrastructure boosters, and the commercial press worked to reimagine the place of the United States in the world, not as peripheral to Europe but rather at the center of a global commercial system. These trends would only be amplified as the nineteenth century wore on, until Europeans like the British journalist William Stead announced the “Americanization of the world” in the early 1900s. This study analyzes the origins of this process in the United States of the 1850s.

This dissertation offers a critical examination of the Mangana Quarter in Byzantine Constantinople, which was renowned for the Mangana Complex consisting of an imperial monastery and a palace commissioned by Constantine IX Monomachos (reigned 1042–1055), through an archaeological perspective. The Quarter was situated on the eastern slopes of the Acropolis of Byzantion and today is concealed by the gardens of the Topkapı Palace in Sarayburnu. The area remains one of the least-explored urban districts in Istanbul, thus a void in current scholarship on the historical topography and archaeology of Byzantine Constantinople. To this date, the only large-scale archaeological fieldwork in the area was conducted by Robert Demangel and Ernest Mamboury between 1921 and 1923. However, the findings of this excavation have been found problematic, especially with respect to the identifications, architectural chronology and functions with regard to the architectural complexes of the Mangana Quarter, such as the Hodegon monastery, the Mangana Gate and the Church of Christ the Savior. This dissertation revisits the textual and archaeological evidence on the Mangana Quarter and resituates it within a broader historical context of the urbanism of the acropolis and city of Constantinople. In doing so, it offers a fresh perspective about the Byzantine monuments of Sarayburnu drawing on new archaeological evidence. As such, the dissertation presents the first comprehensive analysis of the Mangana Complex and its place within the monastic and palatial architecture of the Middle Byzantine period. Archaeology is given a particular emphasis, and new discoveries from Sarayburnu are examined with the sight of deconstructing the Byzantine-period building complexes of the Mangana Quarter. The dissertation reaches three main conclusions that offer new insights into the archaeology of Byzantine Constantinople, as well as the history of Byzantine archaeology in Turkey. First, through a thorough analysis of Ottoman Turkish, French and Turkish archival documents, the dissertation yields significant insights about the history of the previous fieldwork in Sarayburnu both conducted by the French Army during the occupation of Istanbul after World War I -a period entirely overlooked in previous scholarship- and by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Secondly, the new archaeological evidence from the Mangana Complex, analyzed for the first time in this dissertation, challenges previously held architectural chronologies and interpretations, and suggests alternative locations particularly for the Mangana Palace and the Mangana katholikon. Lastly, on the basis of this critical reading of the archaeology of the Mangana Complex, the dissertation reconsiders the architectural history of the church of St. George Tropaiophoros and its alleged pivotal role in manifesting cross-cultural interactions between the Caucassian and Byzantine lands.

How does future shopping look like? At the moment the physical shopping spaces are threatened by the e-commerce – A type of shopping that very often is a cure of boredom. It’s not a memorable experience, no story surrounding the object creating added value neither for the object or to the story connecting it with yourself. This thesis have been an investigation of physical retail architecture followed by a proposal: A 500 meter long railway tunnel, like a very long arcade, turned into a space for textile exhibitions, shopping and performance. Like an inverted Crystal Palace. All interior built up by scaffolding, ready to be torn down for the tunnel to once again serve the military in case of emergency. The walls are not made by glass, but lit up rock, reflecting the artificial light. It’s a linear experience. It goes from light to dark to colour. Dusk to dawn. The hidden becomes reviled, the unfocused becomes clear. It’s a space for your imagination, to experience new things, deepening your knowledge and escapism.