Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary Catherine E. Kingery-Page / Over the past centuries, modernization and industrialization has resulted in increasingly disconnected communities. With the advent and increased availability of the personal vehicle, the desire for larger homes on larger lots, and a steady increase in population, cities are all-too-often relinquishing their open and community-oriented spaces to concrete and mortar. Gone are the medieval days in which cities and towns were centered on large community spaces - places where residents could gather, work, shop, and play together. Therefore, this Master’s Project and Report proposes the reintroduction of the town square – the quintessentially European notion of a central city space – as a means to unify modern American cities. To support this proposal, existing research regarding the various characteristics and qualities of squares is compiled. The resulting information, including work by Carolyn Francis and Claire Cooper Marcus, Cliff Moughtin, Leon Krier, and Camillo Sitte, is then critiqued and synthesized in order to establish function, form and spatial organization typologies of squares. These typologies address not only the use and formal attributes of individual squares, but also where squares should be located and how they can link to one another in order to form larger networks. Together, the research and types substantiate the square as both a refuge from the city and a place for community members to connect. In order to test the community connectivity of public squares, the research and typologies are applied to Super Neighborhood 22 in Houston, Texas. Houston established Super Neighborhoods as a means to link neighboring communities. In many cases, though, disconnections occur between the various natural and social systems found within the combined neighborhoods. Therefore, this Master’s Project and Report proposes a network of public squares as a means to unite the contrasting land uses, residents, and natural systems found within Super Neighborhood 22’s eleven smaller communities.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Fachbereich III--Universität Trier, 1996. / Notes bibliogr.

A survey of the painted frieze in Rome from the pre-Christian era to the 1630s shows that it had been a significant ornamentation for the interiors of buildings in Rome, in the sixteenth century becoming the major decoration for palaces of Roman nobility, an important conduit for narrative and heraldic information necessary to a family's prestige and social role. After 1560 the requirements of Catholic Reform and theoretical texts such as G.B. Armenini's treatise On the True Precepts of Painting influenced developments in both style and subject. Moralising messages simultaneously contained meanings specific to the patron. In addition, the genre of landscape became a popular subject capable of expressing spiritual ideals. The thesis then focuses on the Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona, Rome, where Giambattista Pamphilj commissioned ten narrative fresco friezes in two phases, originally to mark his promotion to cardinal (1629-1644), then to celebrate his ascendancy to the papal throne as Innocent X (1644-1655). Little has been written on the decorative programme and the thesis seeks to explain why Rome's leading patron adopted the 'old-fashioned' frieze when a more 'modern' form of decoration, the illusionistically painted barrel-vaulted ceiling, had been chosen by Innocent's predecessor, Urban VIII Barberini (1623-1644), whose family residence appeared likely to set new trends. Art historical problems of style, iconography, dating, attribution and patronage are addressed throughout.

Herman Melville's Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories which first appeared individually in Putnam's Magazine; subsequently Melville re-edited them, wrote a title story, and had them published as a collection. Hitherto the stories have been analysed individually rather than collectively; this thesis, on the other hand, points out the numerous recurrent features in the tales, and it adduces evidence from the title story to support the view that the collection should be regarded as a unit. This supposition leads to a fresh critical view of the individual tales; it also helps to illuminate Melville's artistic development at a time which shortly precedes his transition from fiction-writing to poetry. After discerning briefly the critical history of the Piazza Tales and the situation which led Melville to adopt the short story as a new medium of writing, this thesis analyses the title story both as a story in its own right and as an introduction to the collection. Since it is Melville's last quest story in prose and is written retrospectively, the nature of the questor's disappointment on the mountain throws a light on the meaning of the collected stories. Thus his retirement to the uninvolved viewpoint from the piazza and the theme of human isolation, captured in the figure of Marianna, emphasize salient features common to the following stories. With these generic features in mind, each story is analysed; the last, chapter evaluates these common characteristics from the viewpoint of Melville's development. Thus, the Piazza Tales not only show inner artistic consistency but appear as an important milestone in Melville's literary career, as an important link between Pierre and The Confidence Man, after which Melville gave up publishing fiction altogether. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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ABSTRACT This study endeavors to elucidate how students are using the social media tool, Piazza, in their study of biology and which aspects do they find most valuable. Student perceptions of factors contributing to a community of practice through the use of Piazza were also explored. Students used Piazza primarily to communicate online with their classmates on both conceptual and administrative issues. Student use of Piazza varied according to the needs of the student with the majority of students accessing the site at least once a week. Students highly valued the ability to read posts left by other students to clarify questions. They especially appreciated the 24/7 online access of the site. Another dimension of accessibility that the students cited was that they often found explanations provided by peers easier to understand and therefore more accessible than from content experts. Students tended to post questions anonymously, however reported a strong sense of community although not a true sense of collaboration. Students took from the interactions what they individually needed even if it was a different way of looking at content, or finding out how a lab report needed to be formatted while still maintaining a sense of "being in this together". Social media allows for interactivity and content creation although most students in this study participated primarily as observers. Recommendations and suggestions for further study were provided.

An investigation of Piazza della Libertà in Trieste calls for a resurrection of its western garden along the harbour wall, and replacement of Sala Tripcovich, the former bus station which is used for theatre, with a new public building. The following project proposes a building with three small but different theatres for high-quality performances and lectures, a shared workshop, café, and a roof garden with views over the harbour wall. Its orientation on the site clarifies a path between the stations for trains and airport buses and the City's waterfront, and its V-shaped floor plans provide a wide range of spaces: from intimate and vertically entangled balconies to horisontally scattered rooms for gatherings, and slopes and terraces in the roof garden. Double-skin facades give a good acoustic environment, thermal insulation, and ventilation. The architecture intends to meaningfully reflect and catalyse the multiplicity of movements and city patterns at Piazza della Libertà. / En undersökning av Piazza della Liberà i Trieste efterlyser en återupplivning av dess västra trädgård längs tullmuren, och ersättning av Sala Tripcovich, fd busstationen som används för teater, med en ny publik byggnad. Det följande projektet föreslår en byggnad med tre små men olika teatrar för högkvalitativa föreställningar och föreläsningar, en gemensam verkstad, café, och en takträdgård med utsikt över tullmuren mot hamnen. Dess orientering på platsen klargör en väg mellan stationerna för tåg och flygbussar och stadens sjösida, och dess V-formade våningsplan ger ett brett utbud av rum: från intima och vertikalt intrasslade balkonger till horisontellt utspridda rum för sammankomster, och sluttningar och terrasser i takträdgården. Dubbelfasader ger en bra akustisk miljö, värmeisolering, och ventilation. Arkitekturen avser att meningsfullt återspegla och katalysera mångfalden av rörelser och stadsmönster på Piazza della Libertà.

Over the past decade scholars have begun to examine in greater depth the pivotal role that foreigners played in the development of the Early Modern European city. In Rome foreign communities had a major part in shaping the urban landscape, more permanently with national churches, hospitals, chapels, neighborhoods, and temporarily through public processions and festivals. This dissertation examines the Spanish National Church, San Giacomo and San Ildefonso degli Spagnoli, founded in 1450 to provide a religious and charitable center for the growing Castilian expatriate community and their many co-nationals visiting on pilgrimage. When San Giacomo opened its doors it was a small, unpretentious space, with a hospital attached, facing the medieval street of Via del Sapienza. Over the next hundred years, the church expanded significantly and a second, statelier entrance was added opening onto the Piazza Navona, which had become a locus for grand secular and religious celebrations in the city. Significantly, these changes at San Giacomo coincide with the growing prestige and influence of the Spanish community on the European stage. This dissertation will provide the first art historical monograph produced since the 1950s of San Giacomo from its origins through the 1560s. In contrast to previous studies, I will set my discussion of the architecture and art within the historical context. In this way I will demonstrate that the Spanish used the most common languages available in Roman culture--the visual and spatial--as a rhetorical device to set forth their political aspirations and religious values and promote their nation in Rome. I also connect this project to other Spanish commissions in Rome, which has not previously been undertaken, and illustrate that they shared characteristics by which the nascent Spanish nation sought to define itself. Reexamining the church within the historical background allows for a thorough iconographic reading, not previously attempted, of the most well known chapel in the church, that of Cardinal Jaime Serra, designed by Antonio da Sangallo and decorated by Pellegrino da Modena and Jacopo Sansovino. I provide an explanation for the patron's choice of content, taking into consideration both Spanish ambitions and the pressing political concerns of both the Pope and the curia. My analysis will also take into account recently discovered archival evidence that the Sangallo architectural ornamentation was actually designed and constructed two decades after the chapel was decorated. This is the first lengthy discussion of the architecture based on the new date. Moreover I use it as a base on which to reconsider the patron's motivations for refurbishing the architecture of the chapel. Finally, this study proposes that national churches in Rome, as a group, should be recognized for the vital role they played in society. Within their community they provided a safe haven and a space from which foreign nationals could deal with the rest of society. Simultaneously, they were a primary means for the public recognition of a nation within this cosmopolitan city. Consequently, tracking the art and architecture of these churches, and the changes made over time, offers a unique opportunity to gauge the way an Early Modern European country saw itself, and the way they wanted to be perceived. / Art History

A good urban space must fulfill the promises of complexity and variety. This thesis investigates how to define an urban plaza in terms of universal elements employed to achieve that complexity. An alternating grid, a, b, a, composed of squares of five and ten feet provides an order for all the elements on the site. Each element is generated and organized from this grid. The dominant elements are thirty-foot tall concrete columns. These columns and their subsequent structural armature define the structure of buildings and an underground parking structure. The columns form a continuum which ties together every aspect of the thesis. Visually, they are present everywhere in the plaza and define very specific views of the plaza and the surrounding city. Together with an intricate mosaic floor pattern created from overlapping ellipses, also based on the grid, the massive columns and fine-grained floor define the extremes of the plaza's scale. The development of a number of potential elements always failed when put together to form a cohesive idea of a contained plaza. A clear order was necessary to bring together different elements into a cohesive whole. This led to the definition of a plaza as a sensibly apparent and rationally knowable outdoor public building contained within a city or town. For an area which previously lacked any structural cohesion, the ordered plaza now defines a strong structural element within the city. The grid and columns define space but do not force a single usage. They define how the plaza is used as it weathers the continual change of an urban environment. The plaza does not exist as an independent element within the city. The many framed views offered by the columns create new perspectives of the surrounding city. The universal elements, the columns, reference the site specifically in their scale and proportion. Applicable in a wide range of projects, the grid of columns in this project orders a pedestrian environment connecting downtown and a baseball stadium. Three buildings which derive directly from the grid create additional small openings to the city beyond. While focusing toward the center, the buildings define a permeable edge which allows interaction. / Master of Architecture

Dario Fo (Nobelpreis 1997) ist einer der herausragendsten Erneuerer des italienischen Theaters des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ein Überblick über die wichtigsten Stationen seines künstlerischen Schaffens zeugt zunächst von Fos stetem Bemühen um innovative Ansätze in Bezug auf Theaterkonzeption und –praxis: immer gilt es, sich von den Konventionen des literarischen, bürgerlichen, subventionierten, weitgehend passiv rezipierten Theaters abzugrenzen und das Theater für das Publikum wieder ganzheitlich erfahrbar zu machen. Doch nicht selten geraten er und seine Truppe dabei in Konflikt mit den herrschenden politischen und gesellschaftlichen Umständen. Dies trifft auch auf sein Stück "Morte accidentale di un anarchico" (1970) zu, dessen Analyse im Zentrum dieser Arbeit steht. Ein realhistorischer Fall, der "Fall Pinelli" (bzw. "la strage di Piazza Fontana") 1969, diente Fo als Grundlage seiner sehr zeitnah entstandenen grotesken Farce, die aufgrund ihrer politischen Brisanz für Aufruhr sorgte und die auch im Ausland bis heute immer wieder auf den Spielplänen zu finden ist. Die Arbeit geht daher nicht nur auf die Produktion, Inszenierung und Rezeption des Stücks in Italien ein, sondern nimmt auch die Adaptationen und deren Rezeption in Frankreich und Deutschland in den Blick, wobei die italienspezifische Ausrichtung von Fos Theater (Rekurs auf Traditionen des italienischen Volkstheaters, Verarbeitung (tages)politischen Geschehens etc.) eine besondere Herausforderung für die fremdsprachige Bearbeitung des Stückes und seine Inszenierung darstellt. Neben den produktions- und rezeptionsästhetischen Grundbedingungen des Textes von Dario Fo werden in diesem Zusammenhang auch Spezifika der Bühnenübersetzung beleuchtet und Alternativen hierzu aufgezeigt, die auch bereits von Fos Truppe genutzt werden. / Dario Fo (Premio Nobel 1997) è uno dei drammaturghi e capocomici più innovatori del teatro italiano del ‘900. Verranno mostrate le tappe più importanti del suo percorso artistico che attestano una ricerca incessante di approcci innovativi per la concezione e la prassi teatrali: una lotta acerrima contro le convenzioni del teatro letterario, borghese, sovvenzionato e fruito in modo passivo. Comunque, cercando di ristabilire l’evento teatrale come esperienza olistica, Fo e la sua compagnia si ritrovano spesso in pieno conflitto con la realtà socio-politica e i suoi rappresentanti. Era anche questo il caso del pezzo "Morte accidentale di un anarchico" (1970) di cui questo lavoro presenta un’analisi. Scritta poco dopo la strage di Piazza Fontana (dicembre 1969) e quindi a quell’epoca di scottante attualità politica, questa farsa grottesca fece sorgere grandi tumulti e rimane finora uno dei pezzi più rappresentati, anche all’estero. Pertanto, questo lavoro contempla non solo la produzione, l’allestimento e la ricezione del pezzo in Italia, ma tiene anche conto degli adattamenti e della loro ricezione in Francia e in Germania. Verrà mostrata la sfida per gli adattamenti stranieri che risulta dall’italianità del teatro di Fo (ricorso alla tradizione del teatro popolare italiano, trattamento di fatti socio-politici quotidiani etc.). In questo contesto verranno spiegati anche elementi specifici della traduzione per la scena e indicata qualche alternativa che anche la compagnia di Fo già utilizza.