Revised Ph. D. Thesis--University of East Anglia, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Patrick Lee Lucas; submitted to the School of Human Environmental Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-117).

This thesis was undertaken to unravel hitherto unattended histories of the built environment with particular reference to traditional East Asian architecture and the German organic tradition in the Modern Movement in 1920s Europe. The thesis paid attention to an unclassifiable discipline of feng shui with respect to architecture and urbanism within the intellectual tradition of East Asia. The thesis has elucidated that feng shui can properly be considered neither an art nor a science from the Western epistemological viewpoint, but a melange of arts and sciences which governs diverse human interests inclusive of architecture and urbanism, and is also the vehicle to embody an ancient cosmology. As opposed to the East Asian paradigm in architecture, the thesis intended to reveal a historical meaning of modern traditions in architecture in its emerging period, examining exactly how the dynamic forces of modern architecture could thread into Western modernism in general. The Puginian Gothic Revival and the Instrumentalism of J. N. L. Durand are considered as emerging currents of the Modern Movement in architecture: an attitude still subscribing to a transcendental mode of existence, as against an opposing current which takes scientific rationality as its ultimate virtue. Two opposing yet complementary tendencies within the Modern Movement are thus recognised; Geometric versus Organic. The significant intellectual enterprise of organic architects, such as Theodor Fischer, Hugo Häring and Hans Scharoun, often mistakenly viewed as Expressionism, is studied in particular. The German organic tradition is further compared with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright whose concept of organic architecture included a keen interest in Japanese art and architecture, especially in art printing. In response to the call for alternative traditions in architecture, this thesis suggests that a paradigm beyond modern science and Orientalism is needed for the synthesis of East and West and of old and new.

No abstract available / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / unrestricted

The opening decades of the twentieth century saw the marked rise of three interrelated fields—applied psychology, vocational education, and occupational therapy. This dissertation explores the effects of these emerging fields on architectural modernism, as it turned to perceptual science and vocational bureaucracy as a means to judge not just design but designers. This took shape especially in a field known as psychotechnics, a discipline that blended industrial management with applied psychology and was a central but understudied legacy of the First World War. This research explores the links between architectural design (in practice and pedagogy) and the emergent bureaucracies of vocational placement and occupational therapy in the Soviet Union, the United States, and Germany, showing the sympathies between psychophysiological research (particularly that of Hugo Münsterberg) and the designs and teaching methods of figures like Nikolai Ladovsky, Moisei Ginzburg, Hannes Meyer, and László Moholy-Nagy. In the search for a modernism beyond the formal precepts of the “modern movement,” the architectural laboratory became a central scene of action, grounding architectural production in new models of research that redefined architecture’s status as a discipline. Each chapter traces a particular thread of this encounter between psychotechnics and architecture. Chapter One explores its implications for pedagogy, exploring the influence of applied psychology (explicit and latent) in two much-discussed sites of interwar European architectural education, the Bauhaus in Dessau (particularly under Meyer) and VKhUTEMAS in Moscow, where Ladovsky instituted a Psychotechnical Laboratory of Architecture. Chapter Two asks whether Münsterberg’s psychotechnical work on distinctly urban occupations, notably those having to do with operating vehicles, implies something of a theory of the city, tracing the influence of psychotechnics in projects of urban design, whether by the Soviet ARU or in the planning of the German Autobahn. Chapter Three focuses on an emerging understanding of disability in the years following the First World War, asserting that the new fields of rehabilitation and occupational therapy are unspoken but central participants in shaping the modernisms of figures like Moholy-Nagy. What these episodes illuminate is a vision of an architecture whose modernity is not defined on the visual or technological grounds of the building, but rather in the nature of architectural “work” itself, understood in the aftermath of the First World War on a newly vocational basis.

This thesis analyses the roles played by international, national, regional and local organisations and discourses in the heritage valorisation and conservation of modernist architecture – a process that has so far spanned some three decades. A leading role in this narrative has been played by international conservation organisations, which have acted as a unifying front for conservation advocacy and defined a conservation ideology that integrates the principles of both the modern movement and the conservation movement. Partly, this international emphasis has stemmed from the characteristics of the 20th century Modern Movement itself, including its strong strain of cosmopolitanism, as well as its still controversial reputation today at a local level. This initially gave the proselytising of modernist conservation a somewhat elite, trans-national character, exemplified by pioneering organisations such as DOCOMOMO. Yet the ‘internationalism’ of modernist conservation is only part of the story – for to establish this innovative new strand of heritage on a more entrenched basis, the familiar, more locally specific organisations and discourses that had supported previous phases of conservation growth were also increasingly applied to ‘MoMo’ heritage. This ‘on the ground’ involvement represented a convergence with more ‘traditional’ conservation practices, both in advocacy and campaigning, and in the research-led documentation required to document buildings’ significance and continued fitness for purpose. These geographically-specific forces operate at both a national level and also a regional or even local scale, as the thesis illustrates by the two national case studies of Great Britain and the United States of America. Although both countries shared numerous cultural similarities, especially the 19th century veneration of private property, the far more emphatic 20th century turn towards state interventionism in Britain led to a strong divergence regarding modernist heritage, both in the overall character of the modernist architecture built in the two countries (far more ‘capitalistic’ in the US) and in the approach to heritage conservation (more state-dominated in GB). In Great Britain, following on from the comprehensive post-WWII government ‘listing’ programme, the statutory heritage bodies – ‘regionally’ differentiated between England and Scotland - have maintained their leading role in the conservation of modern movement heritage through initiatives to identify buildings of significance, and powerful city planning authorities have provided co-ordinated enforcement. In the US, on the other hand, heritage protection has stayed faithful to its philanthropic roots and the onus of modern movement conservation is left to voluntary advocacy groups who then must campaign to have buildings protected piecemeal by local city or state preservation bodies.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-135). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This study will undertake a critical analysis of the domestic architecture of Gawie Fagan so as to define its uniqueness in the South African architectural landscape, and the contribution the architect has made to the establishment of a place-specific architecture that is nationally and internationally recognized. It will attempt to increase the limited written knowledge of the work of South African architects and to add to the critical debate on South African architecture. The study will employ both descriptive and normative approaches as the built work and writings of Fagan are unpacked. This will be done through an analysis of the dichotomies, tensions and mediations that exist in his architecture. It will demonstrate that there are heterotrophic and typological tendencies present in his domestic oeuvre and that they represent a unique synthesis of the local Cape vernacular and aspects of the Modern Movement. It will attempt to provide a clear understanding of the man and his philosophies and through this process will add to the critical debate on South African architecture. Fagan's work will firstly be contextualized, after which an analysis will be undertaken to determine how external and internal influences have impacted on the design of his houses and how these have contributed to the development of a unique South African architecture. / Thesis (PhD)—University of Pretoria, 2012 / Architecture / unrestricted

No description available.

Aprofundar-se no estudo das propostas urbanas elaboradas pelas vanguardas do movimento moderno é, também, desenvolver um raciocínio sobre a relevância da arquitetura enquanto parâmetro de reflexão acerca da sociedade. O período de estudo deste trabalho — os vinte e cinco anos que separam as duas grandes guerras do século XX — representaram para a disciplina da arquitetura — e para os arquitetos — assumir um papel protagonista na forma de pensar (e propor) as cidades. Se o urbanismo, conforme definido por Françoise Choay, é uma matéria elaborada como tal para solucionar o problema específico da cidade maquinista, o urbanismo moderno agrega a este objetivo responsabilidades para com a transformação da sociedade como um todo. As vanguardas intelectuais do início do século XX, entusiasmadas com as possibilidades abertas pela nova realidade de um mundo em rápida transformação, enxergaram na mecanização o catalisador das mudanças sociais que trariam um novo equilíbrio nas relações entre o homem e seu meio. A possibilidade de interpretar todos os aspectos da vida a partir de um processo abstrato e racional parecia apontar o caminho seguro a ser seguido na busca de soluções às condições de vida degradantes nas metrópoles emergentes na nova ordem do capitalismo industrial. Seria através das leis da razão, aplicadas a todas as instâncias da vida, que seria reestabelecida a harmonia abalada pela incompatibilidade entre o novo mundo industrial mecanizado e as estruturas — físicas, culturais e sociais — das cidades existentes. A própria utopia maquinista é, portanto, metropolitana; é na metrópole que as mudanças devem ocorrer e é sobre seus porvires que serão elaborados os argumentos do discurso moderno. O objetivo deste estudo é refletir sobre a estrutura do discurso retórico da Utopia Maquinista no urbanismo e fazê-lo através de um paralelo com o cinema. Em ambos os casos, identifica-se um caráter de urgência e de catástrofe iminente que irá se impor, tanto como consequência dos avanços de um mundo mecanizado, quanto como resultado da incapacidade de se adaptar a ele. O medo — uma falácia retórica — é o argumento no sentido do qual são aplicadas as ferramentas de retórica — pathos, ethos e logos —, que estruturam este trabalho. O capítulo “Pathos — a manipulação das partes” trata da forma como o cinema e urbanismo manipulam os fragmentos no ímpeto de representar, de forma dramática, o todo. Foi através de associações patéticas à imagem da máquina que as vanguardas atribuíram valores e significados que deixassem bem claro a sua posição ideológica. Em “Ethos — tábula rasa e ressurreição” são identificadas as condições para que a utopia maquinista fosse posta em marcha. Se, por um lado, a realidade das metrópoles tornava a vida insuportável, fazendo com que a ideia de transformação radical fosse algo plausível e até desejável, por outro lado, vivia-se, desde meados do século XIX, um ambiente de ruptura da ordem socioeconômica vigente com desdobramentos, em muitos casos, traumáticos. “Logos — racionalismo e a metrópole do futuro” tenta dar conta dos planos de intervenção urbana que forjaram a ideia de cidade eficiente, nos termos de Taylor e Ford. É nos Estados Unidos que as vanguardas europeias vão buscar a terra prometida da era da máquina, com seus centros urbanos verticalizados e seus processos de produção em série. A metrópole maquinista propunha-se como cura definitiva para uma sociedade enferma. Um remédio que combinava doses de higiene e integridade estética no combate aos males da insalubridade e do subterfúgio academicista e que contaminava, de forma letal, a cidade-paciente. “Pathos, Ethos e Logos: por uma nova metrópole” apresenta uma nova cidade para um novo homem na forma de uma síntese infalível entre racionalismo e o “espírito da época”, causa e consequência da elevação do espírito humano e a única alternativa possível ao extermínio. O último capítulo do trabalho trata do herói — a figura-síntese que personifica todos os valores morais e éticos tidos como desejáveis — a serviço de quem a retórica que defende o argumento proposto pela trama é posta em marcha. O “Epílogo” busca identificar traços da personalidade do arquiteto-herói — o autor por trás do discurso — sem, no entanto, pretender uma análise psicológica completa nem tampouco mergulhar na psique de nenhum dos grandes nomes do Movimento Moderno. As características aqui descritas procuram, sim, aproximar autor e discurso, compreendê-lo como agente de transformação social que tinha como principal ferramenta de ação a disciplina da arquitetura. / To develop a study into the urban proposals developed by the modern movement avant-garde is, at the same time, also to develop the thought about the relevance of architecture as a means of reflection about society. This work´s timeframe — the twenty-five years between the two great wars of the twentieth-century – meant to architecture — and for the architects — to take a lead role in thinking and proposing the cities. If urbanism, as stated by Françoise Choay, is a discipline assembled as such with the goal of dealing with the specific problem of the machinist city, the urbanism of the modern movement attaches to this goal the responsibility of changing society as a whole. The intelectual avant-garde of the beginning of the twentieth-century, thrilled by the possibilities opened by the new reality in a fast-changing world, saw the mechanization as the catalyzer of the social changes that would bring a new balance to the relation between man and environment. The possibility of understanding each and every aspect of life as a rational and abstract process seemed to point the safe way towards solving the degenerating conditions of the newly-arising industrial metropolis. Through the laws of reason, applied to all instances of life, the harmony — disturbed by the incompatibility between the new mechanic world and the existing structures of the cities — would be restored. The Machinist Utopia itself is, therefore, metropolitan; it is within the metropolis that the changes should take place and it is about this metropolis’ future that the modern movement will propose the arguments of its speech. The goal of this study is to reflect upon the structure of the Machinist Utopia rhetoric speech in urbanism and perform it through a parallel with cinema. In both cases converge when structuring their speeches based on urgency and an imminent catastrophe that would take place, depending on which side of the debate one is, either as a consequence of technological advances in a mechanized world, or as a result of one’s inability to adapt to it. Fear – as a rhetoric fallacy — seems to be the argument towards which the rhetoric tools that structure this study — pathos, ethos and logos — are applied. The first chapter: “Pathos — the manipulation of parts” deals with the way urbanism and cinema manipulate fragments in order to represent, with dramatic gain, the whole. It was through pathetic associations that the avant-garde attached values and meanings to the image of “machine” in order to state its ideological standing-point. “Ethos — tabula rasa and resurrection” tries to identify the conditions for the Machinist Utopia to be put into practice. If, on the one side life in the metropolis was made unbearable, turning the idea of radical transformation into something reasonable and even desirable, on the other side society had gone since mid-nineteen-century through, sometimes traumatic, changes in its social and economic order. “Logos — rationalism and the metropolis of the future” tries to cover the urban plans that forged the “efficient city” in the terms of Taylor and Ford. It is the United States, with its vertical urban centers and production systems, that the avant-garde would take as the machine-age promised-land. The machinist metropolis proposed itself as the ultimate cure for an ill society. A remedy that combined doses of hygiene and aesthetic integrity to fight the maladies of academicist subterfuge and insalubrity. “Pathos, Ethos and Logos: towards a new metropolis” presented a new city for a new man as an infallible synthesis between rationalism and “spirit of the time”, the cause and the consequence of the uplifting of human spirit and the only possible alternative to extermination. The last chapter of this study deals with the hero, the synthesis of all desirable ethic and moral values, at service of whom the rhetoric that defends the proposed argument is put to work. The “Epilogue” tries to identify the personality traces of the architect-hero — the author behind the speech — with no intention, however, to perform a comprehensive psychological analysis nor to penetrate into any of the masters’ psyché. The characteristics described here try to bring together the author and the speech and understand this author as an agent of social transformation who had, as his or hers main tool, the discipline of architecture.