Current debates on design and manufacturing support the claim that the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’ has already started due to Additive Manufacturing (AM) and 3D Printing. The process of solidifying liquid or powder using a binding agent or a melting laser can save time and transportation costs associated with importing primary material if locally sourced material is available. This research investigates a framework approach, titled SAFE, for discussing the functionality, economic viability, production feasibility, and aesthetic and cultural value lent by 3D printing on an architectural scale through a construction known as a Mashrabiya. This traditional window screen has distinguished aesthetic, cultural yet functional constraints, and there is a manufacturing gap in the market that makes it a viable product option to be 3D printed. The practical element and design process related to reviving this screen are examined, from complex geometry development to cost and fabrication estimations. 3D printing technologies potentially offer solutions to solve issues in construction and assembly times, reduce labour costs, and address the loss of hand craft making skills in a variety of cultures, typically Middle Eastern ones; this was a factor in the abandonment of old Mashrabiya in houses typified with Bahrain as a case. Presently, there is a growing wealth of literature that highlights not only the strength of Mashrabiya as a design concept but also as a possible 3D printed product. Interviews with a total of 42 local Bahraini manufacturers, academics and architects as well as 4 case studies and 2 surveys and 11 focus groups are hybrid mixed methods used to define a new 3D printed Mashrabiya (3DPM) prototype. The future of the 3D Mashrabiya prototype is further supported by economic forecasts, market research, and interviews with global manufacturers and 3D printing designers’ insights into the subject in an accretive design process. The research contributes to an understanding of the implications of technologies that enable mass customisation in the field of 3D-printed architecture in general and in the Bahraini market in particular. The process for developing a prototype screen and in determining its current economic value will prove significant in predicting the future benefits and obstacles of 3D-printed large scale architectural products in the coming five years as advised by industry experts. The main outcomes relate to establishing boundaries determining the validity of using 3D printing and a SAFE framework to produce a parametric Mashrabiya and other similar heritage architectural archetypes. This can be used to enhance the globalism of the design of Middle Eastern dwellings and to revive social identity and cultural traditions through innovative and reasonable yet superior design solutions using a hybrid architectural design language.

This thesis aims to establish a context of the relationship between internal and external elements of a villa in Shaqra, Saudi Arabia. The study tends to represent the surrounding environment through the use of local and readily available building materials, rammed earth, in constructing the structural building walls. The walls of the villa designed to be built with the rammed earth, as they seem they grow out of the ground and belong to the ground, in which it has the same soul and character of the surrounding area. / Master of Architecture

Projektets utgångspunkt är ett nytt konstmuseum i Uppsala, i området bakom Uppsala centralstation, som nyligen genomgått ett ansiktslyft. Museets långsmala karaktär har hämtats från det intilliggande godsmagasinet och från tomtens form. Genom byggnaden har ett diagonalt stråk öppnats, för att ge möjlighet åt fotgängare att passera genom byggnaden och för att skapa liv och rörelse på platsen. Genom fönstren i passagen kan förbipasserande få en skymt av vad som händer inuti muséet. I passagen ligger museets entré, den pedagogiska verksamheten och ett kafé för allmänheten. Museets fasad är inspirerad av den arabiska mashrabiyan. Byggnaden har fönster längs hela fasaden, som i sin tur är täckta av skärmar tillverkade av sträckmetall. Ljuset tillåts komma in i byggnaden samtidigt som sträckmetallen täcker fasaden och bevarar något av museets hemligheter för förbipasserande. Museets inre väggar består av massiva betongskivor, placerade i ett rutnät som fått sin riktning av passagen genom huset. Betongrutnätet bildar två typer av rum, de inre rummen med en mer stängd karaktär och en traditionell, fyrkantig rumsform, och de yttre triangulära rummen som får dagsljus utifrån, genom sträckplåten som täcker de yttre glasväggarna. Under kvällstid lyser museet själv upp omgivningarna genom hålen i sträckmetallen. / The project is about creating a new art museum in Uppsala, situated in the area behind Uppsala centralstation, where extensive retouching of the area recently was made. The long and slender character of the buildning derives from the shape of the old cargo warehouse next to the museum, and from the shape of the plot. Through the building runs a passage that lends pedestrian a shortcut through it, which will bring life to the area. Along the passage through the museum, the ground floor of the building is entirely covered by windows, in order to give passing strollers a glimpse of what is happening inside the museum. The entrance, the educational activities and the café is situated along the passage. The facade of the museum is inspired by the arabic mashrabiya fenomenon. The exterior facade of the building is entirely covered with windows which in turn are covered with screens of expanded metal. Daylight may enter through the tiny holes in the screens, while at the same time the metal screens manages to keep some of the secrets of the museum from the people passing by. The inner walls, made of concrete, form a diagonal grid inside the building, creating two types of rooms. The inner rooms, which are quadratic and have a more closed and darker character, and the outer rooms which are triangular and receive light from the outside through the expanded metal screens. At nighttime, instead the museum itself lights the place around it.