This dissertation document began as a journey of discovery of a new city, filled with many hidden historical treasures, some sadly forgotten about, left abandoned and neglected falling to ruins, misused and unappreciated. Relocating from Durban to Johannesburg, my eyes where opened to a completely new city scape, sparking an interest in the layered history of it development and growth over the years. Through my journeys of the many streets of Jo’burg I began to notice the abundance of charmingly crafted architecture, quietly resting between the busy streets, many neglected and unused, creating a sense of sadness amongst the vibrant and multicultural movement surrounding them. I began to question the possibility of reviving such buildings to included them back into the city where they can once again be filled with life and no longer simply passed by without a care. The aim of the document was to research the many opinions and approaches surrounding preservation of historic architecture, resulting in a formal strategy of rehabilitating the old structures and breathing new life into them. The strategy adopted was to imagine the life of a building as a book of many chapter, with the view that building need not reach their final lines, through the continued writing on new pages, adding in whole to the layered tapestry of uses, events and years through which it was witness to. The new chapter proposed for the building became that of a safe house for victims of trafficking where the process of rehabilitating their identity and image of self became possible within a building which too had undergone a process of rehabilitation. Through research of statistical information and theoretical theories, strategies are formed to create a building in which layers of time are woven together and architecture is created allowing for users to feel safe whilst remaining connected to the city, regaining a sense of identity through contact with the building witnessing it transformation from once being in a state of disrepair to that of becoming a striking example of persevered architecture and history.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Architecture and Environmental Studies)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 371-395). / This dissertation examines the dominant conventions of architectural practice in the United States between 1919 and 1933. It proceeds from two assumptions: first, that by the 1900s, both the American Institute of Architects (AlA) and the numerous professional journals available to architects across the country solidified the profession nationally and yielded a coherent field within which practitioners could debate the content of their professional service; second, that within the context of its national discourse, the architecture profession drew inspiration for its effort to identify a social function for itself from the White City Movement which forged a link between the architect and a national political, industrial and cultural leadership drawn together by American Progressivism. The study focuses on the period following the demise of the White City Movement during which American architects cast off their allegiance to its traditional aesthetic formulae but retained the aspiration to associate themselves and their work with prevailing trends in a national political and social milieu. It demonstrates that in their efforts to redefine the terms of their professional service, American architects invoked the popular terminology of Scientific Management, Technocracy, Fordism, and the nostrums of the 'New Era' and promised 'efficiency' in their work and in the industries they presumed to manage. It reveals that within these efforts of professional redefinition, the professional ideology supporting the architect's aspirations for work converged with a modernist idealism espousing the value of technical expertise as a medium of social emancipation and progress. By giving evidence of a widespread and indigenous modernism that perceived a social benefit in the architect's capacity to utilize industrial technology, this project amends the dominant historical view which attributes the re-emergence of an American Modem Movement in the 1930s to the 'diaspora' of European artists and intellectuals before to WW II. This study has two parts. In Part One, it examines first the canons of Beaux-Arts Classicism and their gradual dissolution after World War I under the pressure of criticism from writers such as Ralph Adams Cram, Louis Sullivan and Lewis Mumford and through the work of the AlA's PostWar Committee; and second, the institutional structure of the AlA and its organizational ideologies in the 1920s. In Part Two, it looks more closely at the evolving conventions of professional service, demonstrating that American architects reached a consensus about the necessity of a 'new' architecture which identified itself in three areas: first, in its rejection of the Beaux-Arts method of interpreting a building program through a stylistic rendition of its social 'character' in favor of design strategies that maximized usable space; second, in its abandonment of the visual paradigm of the White City in favor of the expansionist rhetoric of Regional Planning; and third, in its disavowal of stylistic conventions based on historical precedent in favor of styles that both demonstrated a discontinuity with the past and celebrated an evolving consumerist 'utopia' populated by industrial commodities. / by Paul Louis Bentel. / Ph.D.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A racionalização do uso da energia elétrica nas edificações é um assunto atual e de grande importância face ao grande impacto ambiental produzido. O consumo de energia elétrica no Brasil nas edificações residenciais, comerciais, de serviços e públicas é bastante significativo. Calcula-se que quase 50% da energia elétrica produzida no país seja consumida não só na operação e manutenção das edificações como também nos sistemas artificiais, que proporcionam conforto ambiental para seus usuários como iluminação, climatização e aquecimento de água. O Regulamento Técnico de Qualidade do Nível de Eficiência Energética de Edifícios Comerciais e Serviços e Públicos, RQT-C do INMETRO surge como uma contribuição à etiquetagem do nível de eficiência energética das edificações de uso coletivo. Para a determinação da eficiência são considerados três requisitos: envoltória da edificação, sistema de iluminação e sistema de condicionamento de ar. Todos os requisitos têm cinco níveis de eficiência que variam de A (mais eficiente) até E (menos eficiente), que associados com algumas bonificações (uso da energia solar, ventilação natural, etc.) tornam possível a atribuição de uma classificação geral para o edifício em seu todo. Neste trabalho objetivou-se avaliar esse desempenho energético para o prédio do Instituto Brasileiro de Adminstração Municipal -IBAM, situado na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, de concepção modernista. Foi mostrado como as decisões arquitetônicas tomadas e o uso da ventilação natural podem influenciar na avaliação de sua eficiência energética. / Nowadays, the electricity energy conservation in buildings is an important subject due to the environmental impacts produced. The electricity consumption in Brazil in the residential, commercial, and public service buildings, is quite significant. It is estimated that nearly 50% of the electricity produced in the country is consumed not only in the operation and maintenance of the buildings, but also in artificial systems that provide environmental comfort for its users such as lighting, air conditioning and water heating. The Technical Regulation of Energy Efficiency in Commercial and Public Buildings RQT-C raises to provide an energy efficiency certification for buildings of public domain. To determine the efficiency three criteria are considered: the building envelope, the illumination system, and the air conditioning system. All requirements are classified into five levels from A (most efficient) to E (least efficient), which could be associated with some subsidies (solar energy, natural ventilation, etc.), making possible the attribution of a classification standard for the building as a whole. The aim of this work is to apply this procedure to analyze the energy efficiency of the building of the Brazilian Institute of Municipal Administration (IBAM), located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The study of the building, created under modernist architectural concepts. It has been showed how architectural decisions and the use natural ventilation may influence the evaluation of its efficiency energy class.

No description available.

This thesis aims to analyse the architectural production in Turkey during the Second World War period with reference to its socio-political contexts, by examining and scrutinizing an architectural periodical published in this period: Yapi. The conceptual framework of this study about the practical and ideological aspects of the discipline are drawn by considering the developments and dynamics of the early Republican Period. In the first chapter of the study after the introduction, the functions of periodical publications for the cultural atmosphere and the architectural periodicals for the discipline of architecture in particular, are examined in the direction of clarifying the reason of choosing a periodical for an architectural analysis of a specific period. In the following part of this chapter, the early Republican architectural periodicals are introduced together with their reasons of establishment and the architectural conditions of the period. Lastly, the focus of this study, Yapi, is introduced with its identity as a periodical by examining its founders, content and publication quality. In the second chapter, firstly architecture of the country throughout the early Republican period is examined by focusing on the significance and effects of the Second World War on Turkey so as to reveal the existing medium that compelled the architects and intellectuals to reconsider their points of view. The second part of this chapter attempts to make a comparative architectural analysis of the period based on the approaches and articles of Yapi by determining the characteristics and objectives of the periodical and demonstrating the main arguments of the editors and authors on contemporary architectural practice and ideology. In the conclusion part, the outcomes of the analysis of Yapi and its arguments on the architecture and contextual developments of the Second World War period are evaluated in correlation with the meaning and place of these struggles in the contemporary medium of architecture.

No description available.

No description available.

It is commonly believed that by involving the user in the design process of his dwelling unit, a higher level of satisfaction could be achieved. Attempts have been made in several countries to include users in the design process of their units using different communication media including computers. However, today computers have been implemented primarily for the use of architects. This study aims at narrowing the architect-user communication gap by using computers in multi-unit housing design. The author reviews past work in user involvement in the design process through the use of computers and the possibility of introducing computers into the North American homebuilding Industry. Through an algorithm the author will demonstrate how the communication process can take place. Two simulations were conducted in order to test the proposed system in a realistic situation. The results of the study suggest that the user is able to make his own decisions, control his budget and satisfy his needs independently within a reasonable amount of time. These results could have further positive impact on the architect, user, building industry and the built environment.

The profession of architecture is passing through challenging times. Technological progress and a rapidly changing society have brought confusion into the profession regarding the self-image of architects and the image of architects from the viewpoint of clients and the public. This has a concomitant echo within the images communicated by the built environment; buildings do not always perform the importance of human benefits among the economical, technological or expressionistic advantages.Throughout history, the image of architects reflected the position of the profession in a particular time and place. Architects carried with them the tags of genius, God creators, heroes, etc. The more recent history of architecture has brought changes in the practice and services that architecture offers. Differentiation of the building and design aspects of practice was the result of the growing complexity of the building market. The new aspects of the practice have been followed by a corresponding confusion regarding the images of the profession.Architects in North America today are experiencing the declining power of the profession; the public cannot clearly recognize the role of architecture and its extensible possibilities within society; and clients are less blindly trustful of the genius of the architect and are more specific in defining their goals. In addition, the marketable image cf a building has grown in demand, further prompted by signature architecture popularity on the one side and the profit oriented building market on the other. This diminishes human benefits - such as contextual, environmental and functional demands, to a name few - that architecture, as a social practice, should provide.The hypothesis proposed by this paper is that the declining power and shaken authority of the architectural profession produce the possibility of a manipulation by those who perceive buildings as a market product which in turn significantly threatens human values and the quality of life.In order to better understand the problems that are facing the profession the author conducted a one-year, full-time internship employment in a New York City based architecture & interior design firm, observing in particular the architect-client relationship and the design process itself. This paper analyzes present conditions in architectural practice concerning issues such as the images which society and the profession itself hold of architecture, how these images influence the physical environment that architects are creating, especially the relationships that are making possible the misinterpretations of these images.The most important issues that this research reveals relate to perceptions about the role of the architects in the building process and in the society. perceptions which consequently frame the possibilities of architectural practice. The everyday professional practice of architecture is influenced by a variety of factors and participants, which together tend t,-; limit architects to a singular and specific position, thus rendering them vulnerable to control the building process and the final product. / Department of Architecture

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-91). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.