This thesis explores the practices, motivations, and sensorial experiences of Montreal’s metro buskers. By examining the lived experiences of ‘street’ performers in the stations and connecting passageways of Montreal’s underground transit system, I consider what it ‘means’ to be a metro busker from the perspective of the performers. Informed by my ethnographic fieldwork among metro buskers, I detail their performance practices, ‘staging’ strategies, uses of technology, bodily dispositions, and subjective perceptions in relation to the public, each other and the spaces of performance. In the process, I make visible—and audible—the variable and improvisational nature of busking practices, and how these are constituted in relation to the physical features of the performance sites. More broadly, I explore the co-productive relations between body and space, the sensorial experiences and spatial practices of everyday urban life, and the potential for moments of micro-social encounter and appropriations of spaces that are not designed to foster conviviality and creative engagement. I locate ‘the busker’ within these questions not as a fixed identity or subject-position but as an embodied assemblage-act that is socially and materially situated and subjectively enacted through highly variable practices, perceptions and experiences. In detailing the moments of social encounter precipitated by metro buskers, I propose understanding busking as a form of Gift-performance that finds certain parallels in sensory ethnographic videography. I show how the influences of diverse participants—human and material—on the filming, editing, and distribution processes changed the course of the audio-visual production in this research. Finally, I introduce a notion of ‘expanded trajectory’ that links performer and space, researcher and participant, and may enable new acts of encounter and exchange, new processes of social and material circulation, new forms of Gift. / Graduate / 2018-05-15 / 0326 / nick.wees@gmail.com

This practicum is an exploration of the role of the “visionary community designer” described by Randolph Hester in his recommended participatory design process “a refrain with a view.” The question of this practicum is simply this: what lessons can be learned about how to function as Hester’s visionary community designer while conducting a participatory design process as a service learning project? This practicum is both pragmatic and transformative in philosophy. It uses a subjectivist research strategy in which research outcomes are qualitative and the knowledge generated is subjective. This practicum includes a case study comparison of seminal approaches to the participatory design of public spaces in the United States; records a brief participatory design process conducted as a service learning research project in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia; and culminates with lessons learned during the participatory design process with regard to acting as Hester’s visionary community designer. / May 2017

Nowadays, the impact of technological growth‏ ‏on people’s life and our society is remarkable, ‎inevitable and also worrying. The excessive influence of technology in ‎individuals’ lives has caused our community to change towards more privatisation and ‎secluded life. At this point, the role of urban public spaces in social life has become more ‎prominent and significant. Issues of social life in public spaces and the relations with creating a ‎vibrant and dynamic city has not been given too much attention in urban planning and design. ‎This thesis raises the question of considering public spaces and how urban public spaces ‎‎(especially squares) can encourage/persuade citizens ‎to increase social interaction‎. Initially, it describes a clear definition of public spaces and urban squares. Thereafter, the study addresses ‎effectual factors from the human perspective which can help to achieve the successful design of an ‎urban public square. The aim of the work is to comprehend how it might be possible to improve ‎social life and behaviour in public spaces (squares) and consequently to attain a framework in ‎order to design. Ultimately, a design is proposed for Fisktorget (Fish Square), which is one of most important public places in the Karlskrona city in Sweden. The proposed design is based on studies and analyses that have been done throughout this thesis.

City streets are the most widely distributed and heavily trafficked urban public spaces. As cities strive to improve livability in the built environment, it is important for planners and designers to have a concise understanding of what contributes to quality streetscapes. The proportions and scale of buildings and trees, which define the three-dimensional extents of streetscapes, provide enduring, foundational skeletons. This thesis investigates how characteristics of such streetscape skeletons can be quantified and tested for appeal among human users. The first of two journal-style papers identifies a concise set of skeleton variables that urban design theorists have described as influential to streetscape appeal. It offers an automated GIS-based method for identifying and cataloging these skeleton variables, which are practical to measure using widely available spatial data. Such an approach allows measurement of tens of thousands of street segments precisely and efficiently, a dramatically larger sample than can be feasibly collected using the existing auditing techniques of planners and researchers. Further, this paper examines clustering patterns among skeleton variables for street segments throughout Boston, New York, and Baltimore, identifying four streetscape skeleton types that describe a ranking of enclosure from surrounding buildings--upright, compact, porous, and open. The types are identifiable in all three cities, demonstrating regional consistency in streetscape design. Moreover, the types are poorly associated with roadway functional classifications--arterial, collector, and local--indicating that streetscapes are a distinct component of street design and must receive separate planning and design attention. The second paper assesses relationships between skeleton variables and crowdsourced judgments of streetscape visual appeal throughout New York City. Regression modeling indicates that streetscapes with greater tree canopy coverage, lined by a greater number of buildings, and with more upright cross-sections, are more visually appealing. Building and tree canopy geometry accounts for more than 40% of variability in perceived safety, which is used as an indicator of appeal. While unmeasured design details undoubtedly influence overall streetscape appeal, basic skeletal geometry may contribute important baseline conditions for appealing streetscapes that are enduring and can meet a broad variety of needs.

Public space in the city. Social aspect and design for functional urban planning on the example of Prague The theme of this thesis is the formulation and revision of the general criteria of the functionality of urban public space in particular voluntary activities with the emphasis on user experience. The work as a whole combines theoretical and empirical approach to examining this issue, as these two views are complementary and mutually enriching. In the theoretical part, the theme of public space is imbedded in a broader sociological context. From the theoretical approach it is gradually moved to empiricism, which includes mainly the coverage of the concept of observable and measurable functionality indicators. In the empirical part, the formulated criteria are applied in practice within the observation of selected areas of Prague and also within their qualitative evaluation by the space visitors themselves. The universality and portability of these aspects in a different environment has been reviewed by comparing the theoretical aspects of functionality with the empirical evaluation of the observers. The work in its final section gives suggestions for the functional urban planning, based on newly uncovered contexts and dimensions. Key word: city, urban public space, functional urban planning

In the last years placing of poems in public space has become popular in the Netherlands. The poems are to be found in the cities, mainly on the walls and in the pavements, as well as in the nature. They are specific form of poetry which was not described thoroughly so far. This thesis describes the phenomenon (for which the term wallpoems is used) from three different points of view: it is poetical object by itself, part of the city as a social space and part of literature. (1) The wallpoem is poetical object in which the interaction is very strong between the text and the medium. The interpretation of the poem is strongly influenced by used material (bricks, stone, glas, metal), typography and location (wall, pavement, nature). The location has own social cultural context that influences the perception. Thanks to the unusual placing outside of any book the poems can be seen by another public. Very important is for the reader the surprise and unexpectedness of such a meeting with poetry. (2) The wallpoem is part of the city space. The most poems are part of organised projects which also influences their perception. Some of them have common theme or background idea given by the initiators. These projects can represent particular aspects of the city or create an image of it. Such image is meant as...

L'image de la ville de Bénarès (Kāśī, Varanasi) est liée à son ensemble de ghāṭ – berges en forme de gradins – qui se déploie de façon monumentale sur la rive concave d'un méandre du Gange. L'aménagement de ce front d'eau s'inscrit dans un contexte culturel particulier qui nécessite un rapport de proximité avec l'eau du fleuve. La construction et le développement de ce front d'eau dans le temps et la manière composite dont les éléments architecturaux s'y sont intégrés, interrogent aujourd'hui cette grande unité urbaine qui forme un espace public de plus de 6 km de long. L'objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre les éléments qui ont concouru à la naissance et au développement de ce front. La forme architecturale et urbaine du ghāṭ est considérée comme un dispositif construit modulable adapté à un milieu fluvial, à une topographie et à des pratiques liées à la culture du lieu, qui facilite l'accès à l'eau quel que soit son niveau. M'appuyant sur des images anciennes, sur une série d'enquêtes de terrain et de relevés architecturaux, ainsi que sur des plans de travaux officiels, j'étudie les techniques de construction face aux contraintes de l'eau, j'observe et j'analyse le dialogue de cette forme de berge avec la géographie et le paysage urbain pour en mieux approcher son architecture et j'explique la matérialisation du ghāṭ par les pratiques diverses qui s'y déploient et les parcours symboliques qui y font référence. La relation toute particulière que la ville entretient avec son fleuve par l'architecture des ghāṭ explique son potentiel urbanistique inhérent à son développement dans le temps et le long de la berge / The image of Benares (Kāśī, Varanasi) is closely associated to the architecture of its riverfront composed of ghats – steps and terraces – that stretch out in a monumental way on the concave bank of a meander formed by the river Ganges. The expansion of this riverfront has to be understood in relation to a cultural tradition that demands a close proximity to the waters of the river. The construction and development of this riverfront in time and the various ways in which each architectural element is integrated with the river bank, calls into question its impressive urban unity that forms a public space extending more than 6 km. The aim of this thesis is to identify the elements that have contributed to the origin and the development of this front. The architectural and urban form of the ghat is considered as a constructed flexible device adapted to a specific river environment, a characteristic topography and to practices linked to the culture of the place, which allows for easy access to the varying levels of the river's water level. Based on pictorial archives, interviews, measure drawings done on site and on official planners' drawings, I examine the techniques of hydraulic constructions best adapted to counter the river's currents, I observe and analyze the relations between the riverbank, the geography and the urban landscape so as to better approach the ghats' architecture and I explain the materialization of the ghat through the diverse practices and the symbolic trajectories that surround it. The particular relation that the city entertains with its river, through the architecture of ghats, explains its urban potential inherent to its development in time and space i.e. along its river bank

In religious faith I am finding the similar principle to the placebo effect. Placebo effect is associated to human belief and it is so powerful phenomenon that if the new drug in medicine is tested it has to be done through double-blind studies to eliminate the effect of placebo. Without this elimination, even non-working medicaments are having positive impact. In medicine, a placebo is commonly used to cure physiological or psychological problem, to achieve the effect, result. But there are other ways where we can meet placebo and is not it so easily recognized. Placebo can be a message, political doctrine or religious belief. Placebo investigates a mysterious area of effect without apparent cause, it is merely a reflection of our state of mind. Religion wraps its doctrine in sparkly packaging, tinsel, so that it is easily consumable and friendly. But under the wrapping is nothing but a placebo pill, we are attracted to, and which we may or may not believe will work. The pill is nothing, has no content, it is empty. It is in some way false, fake and illusory. But the most interesting part is that works reliably for decades.

Primary objective of master's thesis named Media image of changes at Wenceslas Square in the context of urbanism and architectural quality is to analyse the media coverage of important architectural and urban changes of Wenceslas Square between 1997 and 2015. The two main topics chosen for the analysis are the Revitalisation of Wenceslas Square and the development of Euro Palace. The purpose of the analysis is to answer the following question: "Do readers of generally oriented periodicals have an access to objective information about architectural and urban projects?" I will apply a quantitative content analysis to answer this question and prove that media contents are unbiased. After that, we would be able to say in case of Prague the architectural topics are covered enough and readers have a chance to form their own opinions or not.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional and Community Planning / Jessica Canfield / As urban populations continue to grow, parks will become a critical component to creating and sustaining healthy cities. A review of literature related to landscape performance and 21st century parks reveals a paradigm shift in the ways we engage our built landscapes. No longer is it environmentally or fiscally responsible to implement and maintain resource consumptive city parks that are exclusively concerned with fulfilling social needs. To create environmentally, socially, and economically beneficial spaces, 21st century parks must include design elements and best management practices that ensure long-term sustainability. In Manhattan, Kansas, most of the city’s parks are recreation centric and primarily focused on fulfilling social needs. However, Fairmont Park has yet to be fully realized, and therefore presents the city an opportunity to implement its first sustainable park. Using the Sustainable Sites Initiative’s 2009 Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks as a guide, a series of sustainability evaluations were conducted on Fairmont Park’s existing conditions in order to reveal its current level of sustainability. To understand how the park was originally envisioned to perform, the same analysis was conducted on Fairmont Park’s 1998 Master Plan. Findings from this process revealed an opportunity to update the park’s current master plan, in order to achieve enhanced environmental, social, and economic benefits. Guided by 21st century park design, implementation, and management strategies, the redesign of Fairmont Park will not only help Riley County fulfill its goal of becoming a State leader in sustainable design, but it will provide the Manhattan community with a state-of-the-art productive park, which promotes environmental education and stewardship, physical activity, local food production and composting, and stormwater management practices.