Limitations in landscape architecture's intellectual underpinning potentially restrict its capability to make places which are conducive to human fulfilment. This is evident as an aesthetic and technical bias in landscape architecture which overlooks experiential dimensions crucial to the achievemenot f human fiflfilment. In responsea new conceptualf ramework is developed ftom the tenets of expressivism; a broad cultural movement with roots in eighteenth century Romanticism. Expressivist landscape architecture affirms a holistic concept of the human-envirorunenrte lationshipa s a philosophical core for landscapea rchitecturea nd includes a reconceptualisationo f landscapea s expressivel andscapep lace; an experientiale ntity defined in terms of an integration of human psychological and emotional functioning and physical space. Developing from Christopher Alexander's theoretical structures, expressivist landscape architecture is made operational by features which stress the primacy of human expressive activity, design as language and the experience of creative participation in the making of expressive landscape places.

The computational nature of soft computing e.g. machine learning and AI systems have been hidden by seamless interfaces for almost two decades now. It has led to the loss of control, inability to explore, and adapt to needs and privacy at an individual level to social-technical problems on a global scale. I propose a soft machine - a set of cohesive design patterns or ‘seams’ to interact with everyday ‘black-box’ algorithms. Through participatory design and tangible sketching, I illustrate several interaction techniques to show how people can naturally control, explore, and adapt in-context algorithmic systems. Unlike existing design approaches, I treat machine learning as playful ‘design material’ finding moments of interplay between human common sense and statical intelligence. Further, I conceive machine learning not as a ‘technology’ but rather as an iterative training ‘process’, which eventually changes the role of user from a passive consumer of technology to an active trainer of algorithms.

The transformation of the office from the standard bullpen configuration to today's dynamic, flexible and open floorplans has required new design methodologies that incorporate tools and technologies that are readily available to interior designers. Moreover, the increased use of teams in the workplace challenges interior designers to create environments that accommodate group and individual tasks. This two-phased research study explored the use of a web-based pattern language as a new tool for designing and evaluating teaming spaces. Pattern language is a design formulation methodology developed in 1977 by Christopher Alexander and his associates. It consists of a series of interrelated physical elements combined to create a framework for design solutions. A web-based pattern language for teaming environments was created by this researcher and evaluated by an e-mail questionnaire sent to a sample of expert design professionals. The feedback from the survey was used to revise the existing language and was the tool used for phase two. This phase tested the pattern language against an existing teaming environment by having the researcher evaluate the space determining the inclusion of each pattern. A focus group was also surveyed and the results of both evaluations were compared for similarities. The results of phase one showed that of those design professionals surveyed, the majority believe pattern language could be a valuable design as well as evaluation tool. Phase two results showed similarities between the responses by the researcher compared with those of the focus group. In summary, pattern language may be a useful tool for the design and evaluation of teaming environments. / Master of Science

This research proposes sets of design patterns of learning environments as an innovative approach towards an intelligent architectural design process. These patterns are based on teachers’ spatial and pedagogical use of their learning environments. The study is based in the desired condition that learning environments are expected to host learning technologies efficiently, to adapt to the fact that its life span is much longer than that of any technology within it, and to accommodate a variation of teaching modes and learning styles. In an effort to address these issues; calls for designing flexible learning spaces have emerged, as well as recommendations for alternative layouts. Yet, more challenging questions emerge; how efficiently do these technologies integrate with other systems in the classroom space? What should architects and facility planners consider for a successful systems’ integration which incorporates learning technologies in the design of the classroom space? And how can these spaces support variations in pedagogical practice. This study attempts to answer these questions by developing a pattern language to support the early design phases of a technology-rich learning environment. The study is qualitative in nature, and based on interviews with a sample of teachers at academic year Governor’s science and technology schools in Virginia. The researcher attempts to capture problems and challenges related to occupants’ performance within the physical boundaries of the classroom when learning technologies are in use. The variation of teaching-learning modes is taken into consideration. In this process, the researcher focuses on integration patterns of learning technologies with the envelope and the interior systems. The findings are then translated into the design language in the form of a pattern language at the building systems scale. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research is to expand knowledge regarding the presence and quality of expression of certain place-making patterns that contribute to place being experienced as sacred. The results are intended to validate and make available an assessment method based on pattern presence and pattern quality for determining whether a specific built environment is more likely to be experienced as sacred or secular. In addition, the results are intended to provide architects with research-informed design guidelines for sacred place-making. This research explores the difference in the presence and quality of expression of certain placemaking patterns at two selected sacred and secular buildings, i.e., Rothko Chapel and Contemporary Arts Museum, both in Houston, Texas. Two key literature references were used as a basis for identifying place-making patterns used in this research: 1) Sacred Place: The Presence of Archetypal Patterns in Place Creation, authored by Phillip Tabb in 1996; and 2) Using the Place-Creation Myth to Develop Design Guidelines for Sacred Space, authored by Michael Brill in 1985. Three types of data were collected and analyzed: graphical data, questionnaire data, and focus group discussion data. Graphical data included photographs and sketches with field notes. A total of forty-eight (48) questionnaires (24 at each setting) were administered to twenty-four (24) Houston architects at the selected buildings. The focus group discussion panel consisted of 6 participants – three architects and three spiritual mentors from Houston, Texas. Relative frequencies were calculated for multiplechoice answers in the questionnaire, while open ended questionnaire items were subjected to inductive content analysis. Focus group discussion data was examined and coded by means of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The analyzed data were synthesized to test whether the presence and quality of expression of certain place-making patterns contributed to place being experienced as sacred. This study concludes that built environments which possess a higher presence and higher quality of expression of certain place-making patterns are more likely to be experienced as sacred than built environments with a lower presence and lower quality of expression of the place-making patterns. A set of design guidelines for sacred place-making were produced and a place-making pattern matrix was developed as part of this study.

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy used globally as well as emit asmuch as one third of greenhouse gas emissions. With small but widespread changes to theway we build and use our buildings, the built environment could quickly reduce our impact onthe environment. In Sweden young adults are leaving higher education with an everincreasing limiting set of choices, the housing market has been outstripping inflation for over20 years and the continuing deregulation of the housing markets, both private and municipalhas resulted in young adults returning home after their education has finished. Thereforethrough the design of buildings that are expected to last for at least 100 years there is a chanceto reduce our negative environmental impact and reduce the growing financial gap for youngadults, both important factors for sustainable developmentThe premise of the paper is to design a home for a small family that goes beyond greenbuilding standards of energy efficiency and takes into account the resource use and wasteproduction of the occupants. An autonomous house is identified and explored as the solution:a house that has no connections to the municipal systems that supply water and electricity northe municipal systems that deal with the waste produced by the occupants. This paper asks: Isan autonomous house possible in Sweden? And can one self-design and self-build anautonomous home as a way of avoiding the financial pitfalls of the regular housing market?This paper uses the Case Study methodology to follow the journey of the authors desire toreduce their impact on the surrounding environment. A final design is based upon the designmethodology A Pattern Language to develop and explore thoughts and ideas of the humanrequirements and the built environment’s interaction with nature. Given the length of timeallowed to produce this paper and to continue the narrative, the results of as-built home arealso presented and discussed. The final as-built solution thinks beyond the house as a singleentity and looks to the neighbourhood for solutions for resources that can be shared. The scaleof autonomy is expanded upon with autonomous communities seen as a solution with a strongrealisation that context is the main driver for design.

This thesis describes a systematic research enquiry into influencing more sustainable behaviour through design, which has produced communicable new knowledge in the form of a design pattern toolkit, called Design with Intent, developed and evaluated through an action research process. The toolkit aims to help designers create products, services and environments which in_uence the way people use them, primarily for environmental and social bene_t; it brings together techniques for understanding and changing human behaviour from a range of psychological and technical disciplines, illustrated with examples, with the aim of enabling designers to explore and apply relevant strategies to problems. `Design for behaviour change' has grown signi_cantly as a _eld in the past few years, to a large extent due to recognition of the contributions that user behaviour makes to the environmental and social impact of technology_and designed systems in general. People's behaviour is inevitably in_uenced by the design of the systems which they use, and it is not a great leap to consider that design could be used intentionally to in_uence behaviour where some benet would result. This thesis starts by identifying the need for a guide for designers working on behaviour change. It extracts insights from reviews of perspectives on in_uencing behaviour from di_erent disciplines, inside and outside of `design', which could be usefully applied in a design context. Through an action research process of iterative development and workshops with design practitioners and students, these insights are incorporated into a toolkit for designers, which is applied mainly to environmental and social behaviour change briefs. Versions of the toolkit are made publicly available, and feedback from early users in different contexts is analysed and implications for continuing development discussed.

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How can I design a good building? There are some buildings and some places that feel so alive and beautiful, and make me want to stay there forever. Is there any method I can use so that I can design one of them? The main goal of my thesis was to find the answer to that simple question. Supposedly an answer lies in the pattern language developed by Christopher Alexander to allow anyone to design a building that feels alive, and has a special quality that makes buildings and places beautiful. I developed my thesis to use his pattern language to design a 12-story mixed-use -- retail, office, and residential -- project located in downtown Washington, D.C. at 1000 Connecticut Avenue, NW. My thesis introduces the theory and methodology of pattern language, narrates the process of the project development, and presents the resulting building. It also includes the challenges I faced and, with the benefit of hindsight, my further reflections on the project, as well as a brief introduction to the area for further study. The book is organized in chronological order of thesis development. / Master of Architecture

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / Donald J. Watts / This thesis assesses concepts of architectural education both globally and regionally but ultimately presents a pedagogy aimed at the special needs of Afghan architectural education that will serve the needs of Afghan society. It is the author’s hope that this thesis may aptly establish the first steps for a renewed architectural education at Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan. The essence of this thesis presents a carefully reasoned and detailed educational strategy for teaching beginning architectural design. The new curriculum in the Department of Architecture at Kabul University requires new syllabi to achieve higher academic standards. The new design course syllabus should address the existing problems of Afghan society. This thesis begins by understanding the context and the current problems confronting the Kabul University Department of Architecture. It is by understanding these problems that I can begin to identify a solution. Understanding the Kabul Municipality rules and regulations, familiarity with beginning design terminology, a carefully stated and sequenced course description promoting gradual student improvement, understanding interrelationships between the interior spaces, environmental sustainable design, and finally introducing a new generation of conscientious architects to Afghan society are some of the main objectives for designing this course. Identifying the best strategy for teaching this course was a primary research question. Christopher Alexander’s great work, A Pattern Language inspired me to select it as the best methodology for my research. My early research focused upon the creation of a new syllabus for the first semester of architectural design at Kabul University. This new syllabus was launched during the first semester of 2009 in Kabul where I taught the new course alongside a junior Afghan faculty member. Establishing the new course materials for the first semester set the stage for my primary focus of this thesis. That is the creation of the second semester architectural design course using pattern language as my pedagogical framework. This pedagogy is fundamental for establishing architectural studies focused upon meaningful new academic criteria. The ultimate aim of my thesis is to lay the foundation stone for the reincarnation of Afghan architectural identity.