Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing environmental informants to architectural discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The question gains more significance as our knowledge of the greater environmental domain becomes more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich human particularities in situ. This research focuses on the implications and applications of Critical Environmentalism (CE) to propose a corresponding epistemological framework to wide-ranging socio-environmental complexities occurring across architectural endeavors, primarily within urban and community developments as comprising the greatest number of intersections between human constructions and the greater environmental domain. CE addresses environmental issues reciprocally emerging across numerous disciplines and theoretical stances and fosters critical and systemically collective approaches to knowledge integration, amalgamating multiple stakeholder perspectives within an interconnective and operational goal of creative communal development and betterment of the human condition in relation to environmental concerns. Situating the environment (Umwelt) as an interconnecting catalyst between divergent points-of-views, CE promotes a multi-methodological, co-enabling framework intended to foster increased ethical and participatory dynamics, communal vitality, co-invested attention, and productive interchanges of knowledge that cultivate an overall quality of knowing and being within the intricacies of the greater domain. As such, it engages broader definitions for architecture within its social community, significantly embodied and epistemologically co-substantiating within a shared, environmental life-place. Fundamentally a hermeneutic standpoint, this investigation elucidates conceptual connections and mutual grounds, objectives, and modes-of-operation across knowledge domains, initiating an essential, socio-environmentally oriented framework for architectural endeavors. In this, it brings together common threads within critical social theory and environmentalist discourse to subsequently promote distinct interconnective components within a framework of socio-environmental thought for architecture. The research then provides case examples and recommendations toward stimulating progressive environmental initiatives and thus increased capacity to improve existing epistemic conditions for architecture, urban design, and community development within the broader scope of Critical Environmentalism.

Esta pesquisa focaliza a relação entre rito e arquitetura considerando o rito como o fluxo semiológico e está embasada em estudos de semiologia e semiótica aplicadas à arquitetura e às teorias da linguagem. O conceito de rito semiológico está desenvolvido a partir das transformações dos elementos significantes tanto em aspectos diacrônicos quanto em aspectos sincrônicos, determinando as noções de fluxo e mutação. A arquitetura é compreendida como uma relação entre duas formas: a forma de expressão e a de conteúdo, conceitos retirados dos estudos de linguagem. Associa-se a este fato ser também entendida como um produto cultural, pertencente a um determinado diagrama histórico, principalmente o contemporâneo e suas alterações diagramáticas. As bases teóricas partem das leituras de Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Ferdinand de Saussure e Louis Trolle Hjelmslev e das comparações possíveis com textos sobre arquitetura e projetos. Os fundamentos da história da arquitetura são trabalhados no decorrer do texto conforme os autores, pela cronologia das idéias e não das publicações. A pesquisa procura demonstrar uma arquitetura em movimento através do conceito de rito, sua pertinência na história da arquitetura como uma forma de linguagem. Averigua, também, a pertinência deste conceito quanto a quatro categorias estabelecidas como base para a arquitetura, sendo estas: significação, poética, materialidade e técnica, e por elas, se verifica a relação entre rito e arquitetura. / This research focuses the relationship between rite and architecture considering the rite as a semiological flow and it is based on semiology studies and semiotics applied to the architecture and the theories of the language. The concept of semiological rite is developed starting from the transformations of the significant elements as much in diachronic aspects as in synchronous aspects, determining the flow and mutation notions. The architecture is understood as a relationship among two forms: the expression and content, extracted concepts of the language studies. It associates to this fact to also be understood as a cultural product, belonging to a certain historical diagram, mainly the contemporary and its diagrammatic alterations. The theoretical bases leave from Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Ferdinand de Saussure and Louis Trolle Hjelmslev readings and from the possible comparisons with texts on architecture and projects. The foundations of the history of the architecture are worked on elapsing of the text according to the authors, from the chronology of the ideas and not from the publications one. This research search to demonstrate an architecture in movement through the rite concept, its pertinence in the history of the architecture as a language form. It discovers, also, the pertinence of this concept as four established categories as a base for the architecture, being these: significance, poetic, materiality and technique, and for them, the relationship is verified between rite and architecture.

Esta pesquisa focaliza a relação entre rito e arquitetura considerando o rito como o fluxo semiológico e está embasada em estudos de semiologia e semiótica aplicadas à arquitetura e às teorias da linguagem. O conceito de rito semiológico está desenvolvido a partir das transformações dos elementos significantes tanto em aspectos diacrônicos quanto em aspectos sincrônicos, determinando as noções de fluxo e mutação. A arquitetura é compreendida como uma relação entre duas formas: a forma de expressão e a de conteúdo, conceitos retirados dos estudos de linguagem. Associa-se a este fato ser também entendida como um produto cultural, pertencente a um determinado diagrama histórico, principalmente o contemporâneo e suas alterações diagramáticas. As bases teóricas partem das leituras de Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Ferdinand de Saussure e Louis Trolle Hjelmslev e das comparações possíveis com textos sobre arquitetura e projetos. Os fundamentos da história da arquitetura são trabalhados no decorrer do texto conforme os autores, pela cronologia das idéias e não das publicações. A pesquisa procura demonstrar uma arquitetura em movimento através do conceito de rito, sua pertinência na história da arquitetura como uma forma de linguagem. Averigua, também, a pertinência deste conceito quanto a quatro categorias estabelecidas como base para a arquitetura, sendo estas: significação, poética, materialidade e técnica, e por elas, se verifica a relação entre rito e arquitetura. / This research focuses the relationship between rite and architecture considering the rite as a semiological flow and it is based on semiology studies and semiotics applied to the architecture and the theories of the language. The concept of semiological rite is developed starting from the transformations of the significant elements as much in diachronic aspects as in synchronous aspects, determining the flow and mutation notions. The architecture is understood as a relationship among two forms: the expression and content, extracted concepts of the language studies. It associates to this fact to also be understood as a cultural product, belonging to a certain historical diagram, mainly the contemporary and its diagrammatic alterations. The theoretical bases leave from Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Ferdinand de Saussure and Louis Trolle Hjelmslev readings and from the possible comparisons with texts on architecture and projects. The foundations of the history of the architecture are worked on elapsing of the text according to the authors, from the chronology of the ideas and not from the publications one. This research search to demonstrate an architecture in movement through the rite concept, its pertinence in the history of the architecture as a language form. It discovers, also, the pertinence of this concept as four established categories as a base for the architecture, being these: significance, poetic, materiality and technique, and for them, the relationship is verified between rite and architecture.

The thesis deals with the history and the interpretation of the development of sacral architecture during the first half of the twentieth century. It interprets the topic in a broad framework, which mentions the historical preconditions of this development and in the most important cases also its international relations. The introductional chapters list all up-to-date publications to the topic and suggest certain means of interpretation of sacral architecture which reflects the natural division of this topic between the disciplines of architectural theory and religion science. The own thesis begins with characteristics of social and religious situation in the Austria-Hungary and its consequences of sacral architectural development. It mentions basic examples of sacral buildings and the measure of their relation to the contemporary architectural development in general. Subsequently it mentions transformational influence of World War I and of declaration of souverain Czechoslovakia, which led to the emergence of new churches with their own architectural ambitions and also to the focus shifting of discipline to new contemporary topics. It follows the parallels with contemporary architectural trends of 1920's and the level of their use in the specific field of religious buildings also in relation to individual churches with their different architectural developments. Further it mentions sacral building development in 1930's with the emphasis in relation to the contemporary social atmosphere and in accent transformation between conservative and progressive religious approach. Than it follows with a review of religious culture transformation during World War II in Protectorate Czech Moravia and shows particularity of unnumerous examples of church buildings and projects from this era. The final part than reflects the evolution of the social role of religion after the War as well as an influence of communist coup in 1948 at potential of sacral architecture. It states the negative influence of both totalitarian regimes on the quality of sacral buildings of following period and on a poor measure of disciplines theoretical knowledge, which among others results in unsufficient primary sources, from which this thesis would likely have taken. Even when this thesis have not and cannot have an ambition of full exploration of the topic, it presents the factography and collecion of interpretations, by means of which the significant gap in the historiography of 20th century Czech sacral architecture can be at least partially bridged.

Att läsa på högskola och universitet innebär att på egen hand läsa och förstå kurslitteratur. Det är en grundläggande del av att lära inom högre utbildning. Samtidigt kan det finnas en tystnad kring hur läsningen ska ske och hur den utförs av studenter. Vetenskapliga artiklar är en publikationskälla som är välintegrerad inom akademin och utbildningar. Vetenskapliga artiklar riktar sig till andra forskare och inte till studenter under utbildning, vilket kan innebära att läsningen försvåras för studenten. Studiens syfte är att förstå studenters läspraktik av vetenskapliga artiklar och om ett stöd i form av en läsworkshop påverkar deras läspraktik. Den metod som använts är aktionsforskning som inkluderar planering, utförande och utvärdering av en läsworkshop med läsförståelsestrategin THIEVES som del. Intervjuer har genomförts med läsworkshopdeltagare. Den teoretiska analysram som appliceras på materialet är praktikarkitekturteori. Resultatet av studien visar att studenterna uttrycker att artikeltexten blir svårläst på grund av svåra ord och många fakta, samt att läsning är krävande, men ger behållning. Studenterna använder strategier med syfte att behålla fokus under läsning av vetenskapliga artiklar. De kan vilja påverka miljön runt om dem för att få bästa koncentration och motverka ett förlorat fokus. De strävar efter att vara tidseffektiva, samtidigt som de inte i förväg kan veta hur lång tid läsningen av en vetenskaplig artikel kommer att ta. De väljer mellan att läsa artiklar digitalt eller utskrivna, och ser olika fördelar med varje läsformat. De markerar och slår upp ord, men deras anteckningsvanor varierar efter syftet med läsningen. Deras läsvanor påverkas av deras självbild och behov, och även om de gärna samarbetar med andra har de svårt att se hur ett samarbete kring läsning ska ske. Läraren blir ett stöd i att förtydliga viktiga fakta och förhållanden för att förstå i texten. En läsworkshop med läsförståelsestrategin THIEVES kan påverka läspraktiken, förbättra läs flyt och textförståelse till det bättre. Det innebär inte att alla instruktioner i THIEVES upplevs lika hjälpsamma under läsning och inte heller att alla väljer att följa THIEVES.