Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Detroit Mercy, 2004. / "23 April 2004". Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-96).

Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2008. / Supervisor: Dr Janet DeLaine. Bibliography: leaves 246-259.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-137). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.L.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Despite its monumental scale, its position at a turning point in the development of Gothic architecture and its visionary spatial conception, the cathedral of Bourges has remained an anomaly of medieval architectural history. Conceived and built concurrently with the cathedral of Chartres, Bourges has persistently been viewed as the lesser of the two buildings. This thesis attempts to contextualize supposed irregularities of Bourges' design and to review existing historiographical notions of the building in order to rearticulate its artistic character and redefine its historic position. Historically, Bourges has been overshadowed by the greater success of Chartres as a model on which subsequent buildings were based. In turn, the somewhat fragmented acceptance of Bourges' ideals has led to an historiography in which the building is perceived as a series of individual elements rather than as the embodiment of a powerfully focused vision. These factors, and the resulting insistent comparisons of Bourges with Paris as an antecedent and with Chartres as a contemporary, have nurtured a significant bias against Bourges and a consequent disparity in studies of High Gothic architecture. In seeking to redefine the role of Bourges in the history of Gothic architecture, it is essential to identify the unifying force which motivated the first architect of the building who envisioned the original design which was preserved, virtually intact, throughout the building's sixty-year period of construction. At Bourges, it was a fascination with spatial amplitude on a very large scale which fueled the builder's efforts, and it was toward the goal of spatial equilibrium that all elements of the building were oriented. The designer's highly integrated spatial conception was concretized through his use of form and structure, resulting in a building of powerful homogeneity. In the creation of its spatial configuration, and with respect to those buildings influenced by it, Bourges' elevation and structure are its most distinctive features. Bourges' elevation consists of five levels distributed over three planes, resulting in simultaneously two and three dimensional characteristics. The complete three-story elevation of the inner aisle is amply visible through the very tall main arcades so that the two elevations form a single aesthetic unit. At the same time, the three planes differentiate the volumes of the building without being spatially divisive. The elevation's individual components provide an element of vertical continuity while the multiplicity of its planes assures an expansiveness of space throughout the building. Although the elevation is perhaps a more obvious feature of the building's spatial configuration, Bourges' singular vision is no less a function of its structure. The flying buttress, which was introduced towards the end of the twelfth century, provided a powerful structural tool for the builders of both Chartres and Bourges because it provided the technology necessary to build very high, vaulted buildings without using a cumbersome, galleried construction. The artistic emancipation resulting from the use of the flying buttress provided a strong impetus, not only to re-evaluate the Early Gothic aesthetic, but also to develop an entirely new appreciation of structure itself. The Bourges architect capitalized on both aspects of the flying buttress, availing of the artistic opportunities it gave to the building as a whole, and of the aesthetic properties inherent within it. Bourges' flyers manifest a clear understanding of the structural dynamics of masonry construction and a profound desire to exalt those structural properties to a point where they visually contribute to the realization of the designer's spatial concept. They are daringly slender, steeply profiled, supporting members which transfer the thrust of the main vaults to the heads of similarly slight pier buttresses. The designer audaciously employed very spare supporting members, not only to economize on the amount of material used, but also to reduce the elements to essential visual minima. The flyers create the characteristically erect exterior profile of the building and provide a unifying element for its three tiers which correspond to the interior volumes. They are not only vital to the stability of the building but also to its appearance, betraying the designer's awareness of the aesthetic potential of structure which sets him apart from his contemporaries. Unlike Chartres, Bourges' vision was rarely reformulated in its entirety; its success as a whole was too heavily dependent on the building's size and particular configuration. Although its elevation was rearticulated in several buildings in France, Spain, and even Italy, and the building's structural system was extremely precocious, Bourges' design never became an architectural formula because it was ill-adapted to the thirteenth-century liturgy. Its lack of a transept and the consequent unification of space failed to reflect the separation of laity and clergy which became increasingly marked in the liturgy from the twelfth century on. Furthermore, the building did not provide the variety of liturgical spaces requisite to thirteenth-century worship. Although Bourges failed to make as visible and lasting an impression on subsequent buildings as Chartres, it represents a profoundly unique architectural statement which marks a particular, creative moment in the history of medieval architecture. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

The notion of information space (iSpace) is that a collective context of transmitters and receivers can serve as a medium to share, exchange, and apply data and knowledge between a group of human beings or software agents. Inhabiting this space requires a perception of its dimensions, limits, and an understanding of the way data is diffused between inhabitants. One of the important aspects of iSpace is that it expands the limits of communication between distributed designers allowing them to carry out tasks that were very difficult to accomplish with the diverse, but not well integrated current communication technologies. In architecture, design team members, often rely on each others' expertise to review and problem solve design issues as well as interact with each other for critic, and presentations. This process is called Collaborative Design. Applying this process of collaboration to the iSpace to serve as a supplementary medium of communication, rather than a replacement for it, and understanding how design team members can use it to enhance the effectiveness of the design process and increase the efficiency of communication, is the main focus of this research. The first chapter will give an overview of the research and define the objectives and the scope of it as well as giving a background on the evolving technological media in design practice. This chapter will also give a summary of some case studies for collaborative design projects as real examples to introduce the subject. The second chapter of this research will study the collaborative design activities with respect to the creative problem solving, the group behaviour, and the information flow between members. It will also examine the technical and social problems with the distributed collaboration. The third chapter will give a definition of the iSpace and analyze its components (epistemological, utilitarian, and cultural) based on research done by others. It will also study the impact of the iSpace on the design process in general and on the architectural product in particular. The fourth chapter will be describing software programs written as prototypes for this research that allow for realtime and non-realtime collaboration over the internet, tailored specifically to suit the design team use to facilitate distributed collaboration in architecture. These prototypes are : 1. pinUpBoard (realtime shared display board for pin-ups) 2. sketchBoard (realtime whiteboarding application with multisessions) 3. mediaBase (shared database management system) 4. teamCalendar (shared interactive calendar on the internet) 5. talkSpace (organized forums for discussions) / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Nowadays the evolution of civilization gives us the opportunity to have more and more free time and fun is taken as just like one of the opportunities how time can be used. Architecture going to be only a tool for developing and promoting business within amusement parks. But how does entertainment affect us? Do we need have fun? And what else can give a person a symbiosis of joy and architecture? The aim of this work is to analyze the problem of relations between fun and architecture and suggest a solution in a specific architectural intention.

No description available.

No description available.

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare open plan housing to semi-open and closed-plan designs on perception of crowding and reactions to crowding and (b) formulate a theoretical basis for explaining housing and human behavior. The objectives were to determine (a) if the number of people who could occupy open-plan housing without feeling crowded would differ from the number who could occupy semi-open or closed plans and (b) if the crowding accommodation time and reactions to crowding would be influenced by floor plan design. Analysis of Variance statistical techniques were used. Forty-five women who worked outside the home and occupied households of four or more persons with at least two children under the age of 18 were were randomly assigned to one of the three floor plan groups. Three identical models constructed with varying degrees of openness to 1" = 1'-0" scale represented the public areas of a dwelling approximately 1,150 square feet in size. Figures and furniture were constructed to the same scale. Subjects independently placed figures in the models in four typical family activity scenarios until one more figure was perceived as one too many. The scenarios, which represented goal-directed and non-goal directed activities, varied in the level of social interaction that was anticipated. After figures were placed to simulate crowding, subjects were asked questions related to their attitudes and responses to crowding. At the .05 level of significance, subjects placed fewer figures in the open plan model than in the semi-open and closed plans when given a scenario in which low levels of social interaction (privacy) were desirable. Significant differences were also observed among the four different scenarios. When scenarios represented goal-directed behaviors, fewer figures were placed, accommodation time was less, and reaction to crowding was greater than when scenarios represented unstructured social activities. The results suggest that small dwellings constructed for families with children should have some division of space in the living, dining, and kitchen area to support low-social interaction and goal-directed behaviors. Further research is needed to determine if uncontrollable high social interaction within a dwelling reduces goal-directed behavior. / Ph. D.