The demand for insulation is expected to rise in the UK to achieve National and International energy targets, such as the 2016 Paris Agreement. The majority of products currently installed in UK housing are manufactured from mineral and fossil resources. Research indicates that biomass-based products have lower embodied impact than most conventional products. The drivers and barriers associated with a large-scale shift to biomass-based products, such as the socio-economic impact and the availability of local resources, are yet to be explored. To do this, the supply and impact of insulation products will be investigated with a long-term and large-scale perspective focusing on the case of Wales, UK. The embodied environmental impact of mineral, fossil and biomass-based products is estimated using process-based life-cycle assessment. A forecast of demand for insulation from new and retrofitted dwellings is used as basis for future supply scenarios modelling different combinations of products. Baseline and alternative scenarios are built to model overall changes of environmental impact brought about by product substitution over time. The quantity of materials required to manufacture biomass-based products is compared to the regional capacity to supply such levels of resources. The socio-economic impact of products is investigated by surveying market prices and performing input-output life-cycle assessment. Multiplier effects for UK industry sectors are obtained via economic input-output analysis. Product prices and multiplier effects of the relative industry sector are used to estimate embodied work and gross value added associated with the various insulation products. The research shows that biomass-based products have better cradle-to-gate environmental and socio-economic impact than fossil-based products, whilst benefits are less defined in comparison to mineral-based products. However, the good environmental performance of biomass product is tied to the carbon sequestered in their material. If the products are incinerated at the end-of-life stage, the embodied carbon savings biomass products can be lost. Demand for biomass-based products in Wales could be sustained with local resources and bring environmental and socio-economic benefits, although capital investment and policy intervention would be required to establish local supply chains and lower product price.

As the overlap of real and virtual spaces takes place more and more frequently in our daily lives, it could be said that our sensibility towards embodied physical space is being affected by our experience of the virtual world. This raises the question of how architecture should respond to these changes. It seems there is a confrontation between the necessarily material dimension of architecture and the increasingly immaterial nature of the information age. A new strand of Japanese architects is pushing the limits of the dematerialisation of architecture, which has been called, by some critics, “weak architecture”. Some of the distinctive features of this weak architecture are simplicity, transparency and formal austerity, as well as a peculiar ambiguity in the expression of materiality. Through a detailed case-study of the work of SANAA – an internationally significant and prize-winning firm of architects whose works seem to exemplify this kind of weak architecture – the thesis investigates the meaning of the term “weak” in the context of architecture, and the role that materiality plays in realising such weakness, focusing primarily on three key material features that have been identified in their work: transparency, thinness, and whiteness. The project draws on Gianni Vattimo’s theory of weak thought, Gilles Deleuze’s concept of smooth space, the concept of liminality, and the idea of weakness in Taoist philosophy, to develop a new framework in which three themes of SANAA’s weak architecture are developed: 1. Diagram architecture 2. Architecture as landscape 3. Smooth architecture A more comprehensive understanding of the distinctive role of materiality in SANAA’s work has been established through the new theoretical framework and the case analysis of the Rolex Learning Centre and Louvre-Lens Museum. Materiality turns out to be a vital tool in the creation of ambiguous boundaries in three key areas: between conceptual and physical manifestations of architecture; between the building and its landscape setting; and between spaces and the functions they accommodate. To consolidate those meanings, the notion of “weak tectonics” is proposed. The ambiguity of “weak tectonics” leads to, among other things, a degree of uncertainty in visual perception which encourages active bodily exploration of space. The space becomes a liminal space between the real and the virtual. The meaning that SANAA’s architecture tries to convey by means of “weak tectonics” might ultimately be a reflection of the ambiguity and paradoxes of contemporary society.

The thesis will reconsider the thought and design work of the architect William Richard Lethaby (1857–1931). The research will focus upon Lethaby’s affiliation with the occult, with particular reference to alchemy. The relationship between nineteenth- and twentieth-century architects and occultism has been overlooked, and in many cases intentionally neglected, by scholars and historians. Current scholarship in the field has placed a greater emphasis on twentieth-century proponents of the occult. This detailed study on Lethaby and the occult therefore forms an original contribution to existing scholarship, highlighting the parallels between the nineteenth-century architect’s work and the ideology and imagery of the occult. The thesis will demonstrate Lethaby’s familiarity with occult concepts and the extent to which these were employed by him in his work. The study will then go on to examine how Lethaby’s fascination with occult themes and magic had a consequent influence on his contemporaries and question how far this interest in the occult impacted the future generation of designers and subsequent movements. The research will recognise Lethaby’s work within the context of its time and suggest it to be a product of its era. Alongside the well-documented Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth-century there also existed a spiritual revolution. This encouraged countless individuals, particularly members of the avant-garde, to reject the traditional religious pathways and to seek answers through more experimental and mystical alternatives. The majority of Lethaby’s working life was spent in London, where there was a revival of interest in the occult that included the foundation of such societies as the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The thesis will illustrate how Lethaby was profoundly influenced by the Zeitgeist, which was saturated with references to spiritualism, mysticism and the occult. Lethaby’s attraction towards mysticism and magic, as see in first published book, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth (1891), which was later revised and retitled Architecture, Nature and Magic (1928), was not confined to his theoretical work but also pervaded both his design and his completed work. A considerable portion of the thesis will therefore, for the first time, extensively scrutinise several of Lethaby’s drawings and architectural work to suggest how they embody his interest in the occult. The study will conclude by unearthing parallels between Lethaby’s completed works and those executed by prominent modern architects with recognised occult affiliations, such as Lauweriks, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, to suggest a comparable use of occult symbolism, with similar intent. The thesis will create a renewed interest in Lethaby and address the impact of occultism on the architect, his contemporaries and the wider Arts and Crafts Movement. Finally, it will put forward that subsequent twentieth-century schools or movements in architecture with spiritualist tendencies, such as the Bauhaus and the Modern Movement, were not so much revolutionary as evolutionary, advancing from a previous Arts and Crafts ideology.

Under the influence of place marketing, the aim of this study is to provide a new perspective on ‘place experience’, and encourage urban designers to focus more on place experience creation. An innovative approach named ‘people-generated image study’ is adopted to examine the theoretical perspective. Based on a combination of place marketing perspectives and urban design theory, this study considers place experience as a way of transferring specific place knowledge. As a product the place experience can be decomposed into four components containing different types of information, and as a process it can be divided into four steps where each step represents an information delivery. The four steps include defining the theme, setting the event, designing the stage and examining the emotions. Basically, the theme is presented as a story told in a variety of interrelated events on a particular stage. And following the emotion analysis, urban designers can identify the elements that should be preserved and enhanced, and the elements should be removed or replaced. In practice, place experience is obtained with different narratives in different kinds of urban space. Paths, including lanes, alleys, streets, and avenues, provide space for ‘rise’, which is comprised of a group of scenes showing an enlargement both in form and content. Portals, as the point of shift from path to place, are used to display the ‘preview’ of the places, exhibiting the most important characteristics of the ‘climax’. Places, including squares, gardens, and parks, service the ‘climax’, portraying the most dramatic moments of the whole narrative. In order to examine the theoretical perspective with an empirical case study, this research adopts people-generated image and then develops an innovative approach combining content analysis with image analysis to analyse the data. Instagram was selected to be the primary digital source for data collection, providing over 3.5 million pieces of data to case studies. Three advanced analytical tools are selected and employed, which include ArcGIS, IBM SPSS Modeler, and Cultural Analytics tools. The data sources involve photographic, text and geo-data. ArcGIS is used to narrow down the acquired data based on the analysis of geographic aggregation. IBM SPSS Modeler provides platform and tools to perform content analysis on textual information. Cultural Analytics tools are used to conduct a descriptive analysis on massive image data. The multiple case study is conducted in two Chinese cities, Beijing and Shanghai. Four precincts are selected, including Nanluoguxiang, Tianzifang, Sanlitun Village and Xintiandi, due to their high popularity amongst Instagram users. The comparative study of Nanluoguxiang and Tianzifang is designed to examine the theoretical framework for creating themed place experiences. And the analysis of Sanlitun Village and Xintiandi aims to evaluate the implementation of the framework in three kinds of urban space. A series of suggestions are ultimately proposed. This study brings a new perspective from the discipline of marketing to urban design, persuading urban designers to refresh their understanding of place experience and their skills in creating a specific experience for people. Besides, this study also develops an innovative approach to place experience studies, which will have great potential for application in the near future. However, there are several technical limitations in this study, which concerns the quantitative analysis of people-generated data. This will be the main direction for future research.

This work intends to investigate the relation between the architectural treatise and architecture through three case studies. In Vitruvius’s tradition, the treatise is taken as the ‘reasoning’ on the ‘making’. Nevertheless, from the semiotic point of view, the treatise and architecture, or more fundamentally, writing and building are different symbol systems. Both the mediums possess the making aspects. And they are in a concept-substance process also of formal analogy. This duality is demonstrated in the case studies on the Chinese architect Wang Shu’s PhD thesis Fictionalizing Cities and his built work the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art. Adopting a kind of semiotic approach, this study shows that Fictionalizing Cities and the CAA Campus are isomorphic forms. More generally speaking, the treatise and architecture are associated with two dimensions: they are developmental in time as well as transformational in space. Moreover, this formalist study distinguishes the treatise’s writing form and its social use. The latter is confined to the internal law of the former. The signification law permits one to distinguish the critique of culture and that of form in architecture. And the metaphor/metonymy contrast can describe the rhetoric nature of architectural critique discourses.

This thesis, is an explorative research, manifesting factors that influence the relationship between a designer and their design tool. The interest of the thesis is in the epistemic role of a design tool and how it can influence a designer’s thinking in the concept development phase of architectural design. A diversity of views regarding the effect of design tools on design thinking led the thesis to propose a new protocol think-aloud study framework for studying design behaviour based on the theory of Distributed Cognition, where cognition is seen to be distributed between the internal space of the mind and the external space provided by the medium of the design tool. The new framework used in this study, enables the protocol data from the design processes to be categorised and analysed based on the cognitive space they are associated with. It is applied to a case of six architecture students executing three design tasks using a different design tool each time; namely pencil and paper, and 3D modelling software Sketch Up and Rhinoceros 3D. The analysis is carried out qualitatively using a combination of ethnographic observations and representational graphs of the designers’ distributed cognitive activity. The results show that although a difference in design tool may not significantly affect the designer’s productivity in terms of number of ideas created, it affects their management of the task and the dynamics of their design activities. Three factors are identified that can influence a design tool’s effect on design thinking: 1- the amount of information a designer has to deal with in each frame of their design process, 2- the immediate availability of certain functions of a design tool and 3- the cost designers associate with retrieving from errors and mistakes when using a particular design tool. The thesis concludes by recommending further empirical research that use other methods such as brain imaging to complement findings of this study and examine the effect of each of the aforementioned factors on cognitive demand as the next step in the enhancement of design tools as supports for design thinking.

The impact of student populations, the technical revolution and social change have influenced innovations of future campus planning. Along with the evolution of pedagogical theory, the impact reflects the spatial configuration of the learning environment and the consequent student experiences therein. More specifically, the higher education informal learning spaces are increasingly being considered as essential to spatial expansion, meant to enrich the student experiences. How to design successful higher education’s informal learning space raises a broad spectrum of perspectives on different realms. This thesis reviews the considerations for designing informal learning spaces from four perspectives: The Architectural Perspective; the Pedagogical Perspective; the Building Management Perspective and the Spatial Configurational Perspective. The literature review reflects a dearth of empirical research on the impact of the design quality of the spatial organisation of the informal learning space on student experiences. Hence, the aim of this study is to critically assess the design quality of the spatial organisation of informal learning spaces that shape higher education students` spatial perceptions and activities within them. The study provides evidence relating to where, when, what, why and how students behave in informal learning spaces, while identifying the impact of student satisfaction with the design quality of the spatial organisation of informal learning spaces, with regard to the frequencies of student activities. It also explores the spatial design strategy for these contexts to better support the development of higher education’s ideal informal learning space. The case study method is employed to achieve the research aim. A mixed methods design, including the questionnaire, observation, interviews and focus groups, has been employed, at the Diamond at the University of Sheffield and the Newton at Nottingham Trent University. These were meant to study student activities, to obtain student preferences toward the design quality of the informal learning spaces, and to discuss the impact of the design quality upon student experiences. Consequently, the proposed framework of evaluating the informal learning spaces, including seven design quality aspects, the Physical Comfort, the Flexibility, the Socialising, the Openness, the Functionality, the Spatial Hierarchy and the Other Support, are discussed from a student perspective to identify and design better strategies for higher education informal learning spaces. The summaries could become a guideline for the architects and campus planners with the aim of creating better higher education informal learning spaces.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras. / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-19T17:48:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2014-09-26T02:23:07Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 183607.pdf: 6591745 bytes, checksum: 0ccb91ca51229495b5f5d1bd81ab1f0f (MD5) / O estudo Uma Política de Conversão: Niilismo e Amor na Ficção de Toni Morrison começa com a idéia de que a Literatura Afro-Americana apresenta um sentido de auto-reflexividade e hibridismo, através do qual autobiografia dialoga com romance, o espiritual se funde com o político. A partir deste traço dialógico a auto-reflexividade é politicamente estabelecida entre niilismo e amor. Na política de conversão, o estudo analisa as formas como mulheres negras, individualmente ou em grupo, fogem da escravidão para a liberdade, avançam da individualidade para a coletividade, ou substituem niilismo por amor. Metodologicamente o estudo apresenta sete capítulos. O primeiro discute os aspectos dialógicos que ilustram as conexões entre narrativas espirituais, de escravos e ficção, entre espiritualidade e política. O segundo examina o diálogo entre a conversão, pregação pública e formação da comunidade em Diário e Experiências Religiosas de Lee. O capítulo sugere que ao afirmar espiritualidade e humanidade a narradora abre profundo espaço para a mulher negra reclamar direitos civis. O terceiro discute o diálogo no interior da política de conversão entre narrativa de escravos e ficção. Este diálogo lida com niilismo e amor em Incidentes de Jacobs e Amada, Sula e O Olho Mais Azul de Morrison. Para a análise de niilismo e amor valores individuais e coletivos são considerados em relação a cinco aspectos: ambiente e agente antagonistas, agente de apoio, propósito da personagem e resultado alcançado. É visível, no estudo, o apoio que certas mulheres recebem de suas comunidades para contra-atacar antagonistas. O apoio nem sempre resulta na superação do niilismo e, por isso, derrota temporária pode ocorrer antes que elas sejam reintegradas à comunidade, como acontece com Linda Brent. O quarto capítulo examina as fraquezas e as energias da política da conversão e a reintegração de Sethe Suggs à comunidade de Bluestone Road. O quinto avalia como a comunidade de Bottom tenta controlar a individualidade de Sula Peace e como um grupo de mulheres lideradas por Nel Wrights consegue resgatar o espírito de independência da heroína. O sexto mostra como a política da conversão das mulheres de Lorain é incapaz de garantir a saúde mental de Pecola Breedlove, mas consegue criar um papel mais consistente para o grupo. No sétimo, a conclusão examina da relação dialética entre niilismo e amor ou auto-amor nas experiências dos indivíduos e dos grupos. O estudo sugere que em Incidentes a busca de Linda Brent por liberdade envolve elementos de autodestruição e de autoempoderamento. Da mesma maneira, o estudo conclui que em Amada o amor que Sethe Suggs tem para as suas crianças mata a própria filha, enfatizando, assim, o desejo de livrá-la da escravidão. Igualmente em Sula, a individualidade de Sula Peace não apenas limita, mas também expande as experiências do grupo, levando-o à emancipação. Finalmente, em O Olho Mais Azul a luta de Pecola Breedlove por amor e beleza reflete auto-ódio ao mesmo tempo em que reconstrói a auto-apreciação de toda a comunidade.

Atualmente as pessoas vivem sob constante nível de estresse, resultado das exigências do trabalho, da violência, de imposições e demandas sociais. O estresse crônico tem sido relacionado com inúmeros transtornos como ansiedade, alterações de memória, depressão, alterações cardiovasculares e transtornos alimentares. O ritmo de atividade na vida moderna leva a substituição de alimentos saudáveis por lanches prontos e industrializados que traduzem e exemplificam o que chamamos hoje de ocidentalização da alimentação. O sobrepeso e a obesidade, resultantes da ingestão de alimentos de alto valor calórico, vêm aumentando de forma alarmante em todo o mundo e atinge pessoas de todas as faixas etárias. Modelos experimentais de estresse e de obesidade são empregados por pesquisadores na busca de soluções para estes transtornos. Neste estudo avaliaram-se efeitos sobre parâmetros ponderais e bioquímicos da associação do estresse à alimentação hipercalórica buscando mimetizar o fenômeno da vida moderna. Utilizou-se para tanto ratos submetidos a um protocolo de estresse crônico por restrição associado a uma dieta hipercalórica conhecida como dieta de cafeteria. Utilizou-se 38 ratos adultos machos Wistar, pesando entre 200-250g, divididos em quatro grupos: controle total (CT)-ração padrão sem modelo de estresse, grupo estresse (E)-ração padrão e modelo de estresse, grupo dieta e estresse (DE)-dieta de cafeteria e modelo de estresse e grupo dieta (D)-dieta de cafeteria sem o modelo de estresse. Os animais foram submetidos ao modelo de estresse crônico por restrição diariamente entre 9h e 12h/5 dias da semana/40 dias. Utilizou-se um tubo plástico (25 x 7 cm) com diâmetro ajustável com a parte frontal aberta. Foram avaliados parâmetros ponderais, consumo alimentar, calórico e líquido, níveis séricos de: corticosterona, leptina, glicose, triacilglicerol, colesterol total, HDL, LDL e VLDL. Os dados foram expressos em Média+EPM, e analisados utilizando o teste ANOVA de medidas repetidas para peso ponderal e consumos, e ANOVA de uma via/SNK, P<0.05, para os demais parâmetros. A associação de um protocolo de estresse crônico a um modelo de dieta hipercalórica conhecida como dieta de cafeteria demonstra a supremacia da dieta hipercalórica na determinação de parâmetros como ganho de peso ponderal total, ganho de peso de tecido adiposo e aumento dos níveis séricos de leptina, mesmo na presença de estresse crônico por restrição. / Today we live under constant level of stress resulting from work, violence, and social demands. Chronic stress is associated with numerous disorders, including anxiety, changes in the formation of memories, depression and eating disorders. Long working hours, where time to make meals is reduced, leading to achievement of snacks that also abbreviate the time are low cost. Even those people who have time to eat properly are replacing more healthy foods for snacks and processed ready to translate and exemplify what we call western style diet. The overweight and obesity, resulting from ingestion of high calories, has been increasing alarmingly throughout the world and affects people of all ages. Experimental models of stress and obesity are used by researchers, this study linked a protocol of chronic stress restraint and hypercaloric diet known as cafeteria diet and examined the effects on weight and biochemical parameters in these animals. We used 38 adult male Wistar rats, weighing 200-250g. The animals were divided into four groups: control (TC)- standard food without the stress model, stress group (E)-standard food and model of stress, diet and stress group (DE)-cafeteria diet and stress model and diet group (D)-cafeteria diet without the stress model. Restraint was applied by placing the animal inside a 25 x 7 cm plastic tube, and fixing the tube with adhesive tape on the outside, so that the animal was unable to move. There was a 1 cm hole at the far end for breathing. The animals were subjected to chronic stress by restriction, one hour per day (between 9am to 12pm)/5 days a week/40 days. Parameters were evaluated by weight and consumption, and analyzed the serum: corticosterone, leptin, glucose, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. Data were expressed as Mean + SEM, and analyzed using the ANOVA repeated measures for weight and presented consumptions, and one-way ANOVA / SNK, P <0.05, for the rest parameters. The association of chronic stress model and cafeteria diet shows the supremacy of the hypercaloric diet in determination of parameters such as weight gain, total weight, adipose tissue and increased serum levels of leptin, although of chronic stress restraint.

Atualmente as pessoas vivem sob constante nível de estresse, resultado das exigências do trabalho, da violência, de imposições e demandas sociais. O estresse crônico tem sido relacionado com inúmeros transtornos como ansiedade, alterações de memória, depressão, alterações cardiovasculares e transtornos alimentares. O ritmo de atividade na vida moderna leva a substituição de alimentos saudáveis por lanches prontos e industrializados que traduzem e exemplificam o que chamamos hoje de ocidentalização da alimentação. O sobrepeso e a obesidade, resultantes da ingestão de alimentos de alto valor calórico, vêm aumentando de forma alarmante em todo o mundo e atinge pessoas de todas as faixas etárias. Modelos experimentais de estresse e de obesidade são empregados por pesquisadores na busca de soluções para estes transtornos. Neste estudo avaliaram-se efeitos sobre parâmetros ponderais e bioquímicos da associação do estresse à alimentação hipercalórica buscando mimetizar o fenômeno da vida moderna. Utilizou-se para tanto ratos submetidos a um protocolo de estresse crônico por restrição associado a uma dieta hipercalórica conhecida como dieta de cafeteria. Utilizou-se 38 ratos adultos machos Wistar, pesando entre 200-250g, divididos em quatro grupos: controle total (CT)-ração padrão sem modelo de estresse, grupo estresse (E)-ração padrão e modelo de estresse, grupo dieta e estresse (DE)-dieta de cafeteria e modelo de estresse e grupo dieta (D)-dieta de cafeteria sem o modelo de estresse. Os animais foram submetidos ao modelo de estresse crônico por restrição diariamente entre 9h e 12h/5 dias da semana/40 dias. Utilizou-se um tubo plástico (25 x 7 cm) com diâmetro ajustável com a parte frontal aberta. Foram avaliados parâmetros ponderais, consumo alimentar, calórico e líquido, níveis séricos de: corticosterona, leptina, glicose, triacilglicerol, colesterol total, HDL, LDL e VLDL. Os dados foram expressos em Média+EPM, e analisados utilizando o teste ANOVA de medidas repetidas para peso ponderal e consumos, e ANOVA de uma via/SNK, P<0.05, para os demais parâmetros. A associação de um protocolo de estresse crônico a um modelo de dieta hipercalórica conhecida como dieta de cafeteria demonstra a supremacia da dieta hipercalórica na determinação de parâmetros como ganho de peso ponderal total, ganho de peso de tecido adiposo e aumento dos níveis séricos de leptina, mesmo na presença de estresse crônico por restrição. / Today we live under constant level of stress resulting from work, violence, and social demands. Chronic stress is associated with numerous disorders, including anxiety, changes in the formation of memories, depression and eating disorders. Long working hours, where time to make meals is reduced, leading to achievement of snacks that also abbreviate the time are low cost. Even those people who have time to eat properly are replacing more healthy foods for snacks and processed ready to translate and exemplify what we call western style diet. The overweight and obesity, resulting from ingestion of high calories, has been increasing alarmingly throughout the world and affects people of all ages. Experimental models of stress and obesity are used by researchers, this study linked a protocol of chronic stress restraint and hypercaloric diet known as cafeteria diet and examined the effects on weight and biochemical parameters in these animals. We used 38 adult male Wistar rats, weighing 200-250g. The animals were divided into four groups: control (TC)- standard food without the stress model, stress group (E)-standard food and model of stress, diet and stress group (DE)-cafeteria diet and stress model and diet group (D)-cafeteria diet without the stress model. Restraint was applied by placing the animal inside a 25 x 7 cm plastic tube, and fixing the tube with adhesive tape on the outside, so that the animal was unable to move. There was a 1 cm hole at the far end for breathing. The animals were subjected to chronic stress by restriction, one hour per day (between 9am to 12pm)/5 days a week/40 days. Parameters were evaluated by weight and consumption, and analyzed the serum: corticosterone, leptin, glucose, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides. Data were expressed as Mean + SEM, and analyzed using the ANOVA repeated measures for weight and presented consumptions, and one-way ANOVA / SNK, P <0.05, for the rest parameters. The association of chronic stress model and cafeteria diet shows the supremacy of the hypercaloric diet in determination of parameters such as weight gain, total weight, adipose tissue and increased serum levels of leptin, although of chronic stress restraint.