Victor Turner (in Dodds, 1992: 82) suggests to take every day elements and rearrange them in ways not experienced every day is to create a “monster”, which will achieve liminality in architecture. The titel of this dissertation is a result of this phenomenon. In this design investigation ways to transform liminality into a building are explored. Smith (2000) states, “liminality or the liminal refers to transitional space; neither one place nor another; neither one discipline nor another; rather a thirdspace in-between”. Various devices were examined to facilitate the transition from abstract concept into architectural possibility. The following devices: typology, technology, spatial experience, interlocking volumes, superimposition, programmatic bands and atmospheric effects have been examined. The final product is a fusion of theoretical notions and technology expressed as a hybridized typology, all these qualities are arranged in ways not experienced every day, resulting in a building called the Monster. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Brent Chamberlain / The physical environment influences mental health and inevitably well-being. While exposure to natural environments shows salubrious health benefits among those who maintain a consistent connection, little is known about how urban environments impact mental health. As urbanization increases worldwide, it is essential to understand the linkages between urbanized environments and public health. This project is guided by the research question: How do different environmental characteristics affect stress-related responses in users? The study will guide individual subjects (n > 30) to walk a designated route, exposing them to different architectural and environmental elements in downtown Manhattan, Kansas. Physiological biofeedback sensors, including electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate sensors, will be used monitor physiological behavioral changes; GPS will provide spatial location; and a GoPro camera will provide real-time first-person experience. Data from these sensors will be integrated into a temporal-spatial analysis to ascertain correlations between architectural and environmental elements in space and associated stress responses. Upon completing the walk, participants will take a brief survey asking for their perceptions, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of the different environments they encounter on the walk. Raw data collected from the biofeedback devices will be refined and analyzed spatially using GIS mapping software. This will allow us to visualize any associations between design characteristics and the elicited behavioral responses in order to determine the environmental characteristics that may illicit heightened stress responses. Analysis of the survey data will seek to identify any correlations between physiological and perception-based responses. The intent of the research is to provide a foundation for further studies into how public policy can be better informed and augmented to mitigate potential public health issues caused by urban design. Results will also inform architectural and engineering decision-making processes to further improve urban design by identifying characteristics that may improve or decrease mental health of those living and/or frequenting urban environments.

Det här är ett examensarbete i informationsdesign med inriktning mot rumslig gestaltning. Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att undersöka utvecklingsmöjligheterna för den rumsliga utformningen i X huvudentré, med målet om att rumsligt stärka informationslänken mellan företaget och besökare. Genom att skapa en förståelse för hur rummets gestaltning samspelar med människans upplevelse ges en större insikt i hur ett rum bör utformas för ett bestämt syfte, både för att kunna stödja en praktisk funktion och även en visuell upplevelse. Syftet med de undersökningar som utförts i examensarbetet har varit att få en uppfattning kring besökarnas upplevelse av den rumsliga utformningen i X huvudentré. Huruvida rummet som informationslänk fungerar mellan företag och besökare. Genom att använda mig av olika metoder såsom litteraturstudie, semistrukturerad intervju, observationer, notationer och enkäter kunde en bristande informativ länk konstateras. Med stöd av litteratur och olika forsknings- teorier har jag designat en modul där olika rumsliga element har inkluderats, för att på ett tydligare och mer integrerande sätt presentera företaget. Med modulens centrala placering skapas ett mer lättillgängligt informationsflöde i rummet. Modulens form och innehåll väcker besökarens intresse ”på vägen”. Det blir en central plats för information, där företaget genom sin moderna teknik kan förmedla nya projekt, sin visionsbild och på så sätt stärka sin image.

In what ways can historical power relationships be interpreted through a chronological analysis of historical maps, and how are these coded versions of history produced and reproduced through the modern tourist experience? I argue that historical maps can be interpreted to reveal the political influence and agendas inscribed upon the built environment. I review how the implications of these value systems can be seen in the cultural constructs and institutions that have been used over time to generate revenue through a two stage process,: first, through an analysis of historic and modern maps in two Southern cities, New Orleans and Charleston, South Carolina, and second, through personal ethnographic fieldwork. I analyze my findings to compare these two cities in their use of spatial representation to facilitate and contain a historic tourist industry that spawns local industries of historical tourism to both justify and codify these views as history.

Architectural lighting design is created to serve human needs. The human needs are constantly present and evaluated in all architectural light design-disciplines, such as natural and artificial light, interior- and exterior-wise, it highlights the human response and thereof the perceived experience. The standardized terminology does not declare the human response in terms of perceived experience. Another field of knowledge with both scientific and experience features are acoustics, where the different features are equally present and developed when designing. The fundamental difference between light and sound is that light is perceived by the vision and sound is perceived by hearing. Also, within the field of acoustics there is a well-developed terminology used for describing the perceived experiences of sound. The experience-based terminology explains how a certain environment is understood by those who is living within it and it is called “Soundscape”. The terminology soundscape and what it entails is what the lighting industry is missing in terms of describing the perceived experience of architectural light. The aim with the study was to explore the perceptual experiences of spatiality and develop the ability to create an architectural lighting design and hence an experience based language. In this study, the concept of perceived experience of spatial light denotes attentive observed light, which all of the widened terminologies with concepts and methods implies. However, little is explained about the spatial context and thereof the coherent perceived experience in today’s standards. Standards provide a foundation for concepts to establish and be communicated across disciplines. However, by raising mutual awareness of different approaches there is a great opportunity to constantly create a living language. A living language enables possibilities when considering how to turn, twist and share ideas of what has been done before and what can be developed. The study did not only consider the creation of a living language, but it also tracks the process of translating the very abstract source of information into a physical presence, in other words the physical demonstration of a concepts meaning. A living language is a shared language which is created by movements that is turning ourselves to each other. By breaking through a surface, there is a possibility of reconstructing where we are collectively and we are able to have a shared language through shared experiences.

Just north of Stockholm is a neighbourhood of wooden buildings, all of them a merge of three or four compact family homes placed carefully in the topography.This typology is challenging a housing stock dominated by the open plan. For several people living together, a sequence of smaller rooms, a raumplan, may instead be more functional, spatially varied, and flexible. The homes consist of rooms, niches, partitions, and lofts, separated by different materials and ceiling heights creating different ambiences, with some shared rooms to expand into or rent out. To further improve the spaces, I researched the movements dealing with making the most out of a smaller space, like minimalism and compact living, and used this to increase the feeling of space and the functionality. I hope the varied sequences of spaces give people the possibility of creating their own feeling of home.

L’âge de l’adolescence est celui de l’expérience quotidienne d’un espace de vie à soi tout en flirtant avec le monde. Dans une société où la division du rôle des sexes est encore prégnante, où les lieux sont des supports de maîtrise masculine de l’espace, comment appréhender la mise en configuration de l’espace par l’adolescent.e à l’épreuve du genre ? L’expérience sociale et spatiale de soi, des autres, de la relation aux lieux est constitutive de l’adolescence. Cette expérience questionne alors le rôle du genre et de l’espace dans la construction identitaire. Dans quelle mesure ces deux concepts, genre et espace du quotidien, se combinent-ils dans la construction identitaire de l’adolescent.e ? Si le genre est une catégorie structurante de l’expérience spatiale, comment les lieux en tant que condition de l’expérience humaine agissent-ils sur les attributs de genre ? Pour répondre à ces questions, il s’agit d’observer les rapports des adolescent.e.s à leurs lieux de vie à la fois en termes de pratiques (espace de vie), de représentations (espaces vécus) et de genre. Cet âge de vie n’est-il pas constitué d’expériences de rapport au monde, c’est-à-dire d’élargissement du territoire de vie et des temporalités à travers des expérimentations faites d’appropriation, de cheminement, de contournement et d’évitement en quête d’autonomie sociale et spatiale ? Notre terrain d’étude porte sur les lieux de vie de collégien.ne.s en classe de 4ème dans sept établissements scolaires du Calvados et de la Manche aux contextes géographiques différents (urbain, périurbain, rural). Cette approche suppose une analyse multiscalaire des pratiques routinières dans les espaces de vie (domicile, lieux de loisirs, école) par des méthodes combinées d’enquêtes quantitative et qualitative, de séances d’observation et de productions graphiques de la part des adolescent.e.s eux-mêmes. Se pose alors la question des mobilités des jeunes car expérimenter les lieux c’est territorialiser son rapport au monde. Les effets de lieu (urbain, périurbain, rural) participent à la construction identitaire d’un territoire. Et réciproquement : l’adolescent.e agit sur l’espace, en ce sens, il ou elle expérimente l’espace. / Teenage years are synonymous with the daily experience of one’s own social space while approaching the wider world. In a society where gender role division is still significant, where places are means to assert the masculine control of space, how can we comprehend the construction of space in the everyday life of teenagers faced with gendering? Is experimenting social space during adolescence partitioned according to one’s gender? This thesis aims at analysing the relationship between teenagers and the space they inhabit in terms of practices (social space), representations (lived space) and gender. During adolescence, teens experiment with the world around them. Don’t they expand their territory, their temporality through different spatial experiences such as appropriation and progress but also avoidance and alternative routes on the way to social and spatial independence? Approaching the spaces occupied by teenagers means analysing their daily social practices within their lived space (home, leisure, school) thanks to mixed quantitative and qualitative inquiries, periods of observation and the production of mental maps by the teens themselves. Hence the importance of mobility since roaming space means turning it into a territory and influences one’s relationship to the world. The effects of place (urban, suburban, rural) are essential in the construction of identity within a territory and reciprocally: teenagers act on space, in the sense that they experiment with space.

No description available.

This Master’s thesis is to delineate a luminaire design which has a flexible functional form, can be controlled by the user, and which creates multidirectional light distribution within an indoor space.  A lighting solution with varied light distributions can change a space’s different spatial experiences, granting a flexibility which is controlled by the user to direct light rays into walls, floors, ceilings or to create variations of these. A flexible luminaire in terms of light distribution allows, vertical and horizontal surfaces to be valued equally, because through a minimal intervention it is possible to shift the focus from one surface to another, providing a holistic interplay in space. The participants, who took part in the evaluation program of the final luminaire, freely introduced their possible activities in the predefined dining room, with different lighting proposals according to personal preferences of spatial experience. The designed luminaire was the only accessible tool to influence the space, and they managed to achieve their ideal atmospheres, and experiences, by the process of adjusting the luminaire with controlled light distribution. The varied results of the patterns of brightness and darkness on the vertical and horizontal surfaces in the predefined real space, prove the flexibility of the final design of the luminaire, MM Lamp. The luminaire fulfills the predefined design objectives of being user adjustable as well as creating varied light distribution.

Maps are essential tools for providing tourism information. Hence, it is imperative for tourism marketers to understand how tourists perceive spatial information and sense physical places virtually presented in digital maps. Based on sense of place, spatial cognition, and virtual reality literature, this study constructed a conceptual framework to measure how different interactivity levels of a digital map interface affect potential tourists' experience when exploring maps. In addition, the study explored how individual characteristics such as place attachment and spatial ability affect virtual-spatial experiences. An experiment was conducted to test the developed Virtual Spatial Experience model. Google Earth maps were manipulated using two experimental conditions: low level (satellite view map only) vs. high level (three dimensional (3D) dynamic objects). The questionnaire included self-report items regarding perceived map interactivity, spatial ability, affective place attachment, spatial orientation, spatial imagery, and spatial presence. Responses from 211 students were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study results showed that map interfaces influence human perceptions of map interactivity. Perceived map interactivity positively affected virtual spatial experiences: spatial orientation, spatial imagery and spatial presence. Spatial ability positively influenced spatial orientation which in turn led to greater spatial imagery and ultimately greater spatial presence. The results further demonstrated that affective place attachment positively influenced spatial presence. The findings provided evidence that sense of place in the real world, such as affective place attachment to the experimental setting (Walt Disney World, Florida), influences spatial experiences of an environment virtually presented in the map. Therefore, by applying place attachment to virtual environment studies, this study expanded the scope of theories used in exploring human spatial experience. Moreover, evaluating the influence of map interactivity, this study provided practical implications for designing destination maps. By applying 3D dynamic objects as a design feature in an interactive map, tourism marketers can produce enhanced virtual spatial experiences. As this study used Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park presented on Google Earth as the experimental setting, the collected data also informs the understanding of virtual experiences and perceptions of the park.