Master of Architecture

I live in a place out of balance, surrounded by a society based on youth and a climate-controlled 68 degrees. The cities are one of extreme scales and of a homogenous nature. The Seasons pass by with no clue except for maybe a change in our wardrobes. The social side of our human condition presses itself on us until our individuality is crushed or until we go numb. Alternatively, we can spiral in to our uniqueness while growing more and more delinquent of the responsibility owed to the whole. Corporate Icon Skyscrapers, Oppressive Anonymous Housing Blocks, and MacDonald Kings will continue to exist and are not necessarily evil in and of themselves, but they must be balanced out with portals back to our souls and doorways out of the profane and into the sacred. Statement of Intent Our cities, in their present state, can be seen to correspond to the mythical model of chaos: the condition of undifferentiated formless modality. Through an act of will, we can recreate the center and regenerate our ties to the greater whole of which we are part: nature. The object of this project is to create a microcosm that through the observation and experience of calculated phenomenas, recreates the link between an individual and the macrocosm of nature. If the world is to be lived in, it must be founded — and no world can come to birth in the chaos of the homogeneity and relativity of profane space" Mixcea Eliade The Sacred and The Profane / Master of Architecture

Post occupancy evaluation is part of a design-evaluation-design cycle in which designers learn from their successes and mistakes and subsequently improve their designs. But, if designers want to make most effective use of information collected in such studies they must be done reliably and validly—few studies give evidence to justify such a claim. In the present study, two commonly and interchangeably used POE observation methods (direct observation and time-lapse photography) were comparatively tested in order to assess their reliability. Reliability concerns the extent to which different observers or the camera yield the same results in observing the same situation. The test case was conducted in a heavily used urban space and much of the data, from observer to observer, and observer to camera, was found unreliable. Reliability decreased as pedestrian frequency increased but not so uniformly that data from this study could be used to determine an exact number of persons that can be accurately mapped. Reliability "checks" should be made in pretesting of direct observations, also in retrieval of data from film. Direct observation and time-lapse photography can be used conjointly with the intent of using camera as an accurate basis against which to assess the reliability of direct observations, but with precaution taken to ensure the accuracy of camera data. Standards of reliability and validity, with simple tests or approaches to measuring them need to be developed in order to make it easier for researchers to “check” the reliability and validity of their findings. / Master of Landscape Architecture