Ph. D. in Architecture

Representative Ph.D. in Architecture Dissertation Abstracts (1996-1999)

The Design Practices of Architects in Relation to the Models of Design: Analysis-Synthesis and Conjecture-Analysis

Towards a Comprehensive Approach for the Identification, Evaluation, and Management of Historical and Cultural Resources in Jordan: "Paradigm Shift in Conservation Ideology

Impact of a Family-Centered-Care Approach on the Design of Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Subjective Responses to Daylight, Sunlight, and View in College Classrooms with Windows

The Analysis of Factors Affecting Energy Consumption of Duplex Residences In College Station, Texas

Effects of Dwelling Floor Level on Factors Related to Residential Satisfaction and Home Environment in High-Rise Apartment Buildings

Boolean operations on polygon meshes

How to Get There from Here: Way-Finding in Complex Environments

Critical and Sustainable Regions in Architecture: The Case of Blueprint Demonstration Farm

Decision Support for Real Estate Development Cost Estimating

The Concept of Framing and Its Role in Teacher-Student Negotiations during Desk Critiques in the Architectural Design Studio

Theorizing in Architecture: An Examination of the Texts of Frampton, Rossi, and Lang

An Analysis of the Benefits of Photovoltaic-Coated Glazing on Owning and Ooperating costs of high rise commercial buildings.

Author: Connell, Grady Eric

Publication date: 1996

Title: The Design Practices of Architects in Relation to the Models of Design: Analysis-Synthesis and Conjecture-Analysis

Abstract: Architectural design is understood to operate within two models, Analysis-Synthesis (AS) and Conjecture-Analysis (CA) conventionally referred to as the rational and intuitive methods. Conceptually the models seem viable but in practice lack the richness and complexity associated with architectural design. This study examines the design processes of 12 men and women architects chosen from a variety of practices in nine locations. Ethnographic methods were used for data collection. Data were content analyzed comparing the processes of practicing architectural designers against the two models. Findings indicate that architectural design is more complex than the models AS and CA represent. Architectural design is more accurately represented the aspects of continuity, anticipation of unpredictability and explicit involvement of others as part of the process are taken into consideration.

Author: Daher, Rami Farouk

Publication date: 1995

Title: Towards a Comprehensive Approach for the Identification, Evaluation, and Management of Historical and Cultural Resources in Jordan: "Paradigm Shift in Conservation Ideology"

Abstract:Research related to conservation of the natural and manmade environments is shifting towards a broader definition of the word "conservation".This new paradigm shift does not limit the domain of conservation to aesthetic preservation of cultural artifacts and historic monuments, or to a struggle for a better natural environment. The current approach to conservation looks upon the world as a global system, which encompasses both natural and built environments. Under this broader conception of the world, conservation can be best defined as the "dynamic management of change" in order to ensure the well being of humankind. Currently in Jordan research in the area of conservation is often limited to historical analysis and architectural documentation of historical sites. In addition, management of the cultural heritage is restricted to rescue and salvage archaeology and does not address the conservation of the more recent and diverse cultural heritage. The research adopted a multi-method approach through the incorporation of between method triangulation to increase the internal validity of the study. The first method used was an exploration in the contexts and dynamics of heritage conservation in Jordan. This exploration took the form of an expedition (traveling workshop) and consisted of a field reconnaissance-level survey of post-1700 AD historical and cultural resources public meetings and a one-day workshop, and a conservation questionnaire. The second method was a study of the evolution of conservation movements in different geographic and cultural contexts (United States, France, and Egypt). The main advantage of the multi-method approach was not the quantity of data it provided, but rather the data's diversity and the opportunities for comparison that this diversity afforded. The outcome of this research is to suggest a comprehensive-regional approach for the identification evaluation, and management of historical and cultural resources in Jordan; taking into consideration local culture values, dynamics, and context. This research goes beyond being an intellectual exercise or an advocacy to save monumental and appealing architecture; it is a rhetorical argument (a scientific, methodological, and historical argument), based on maximizing the voices of authority and understanding the key players in conservation in Jordan to build a broader understanding of Jordanian local, national and place identities.

Author: Fournier, Marie-Andrée

Publication date: 1999

Title: Impact of a Family-Centered-Care Approach on the Design of Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Abstract: The presence and involvement of families in the neonatal intensive-care unit offers a unique way to humanize the healthcare experience for infants, their families, and their caregivers. Unfortunately, the physical environment of intensive-care units has been identified as an obstacle to the effective practice of family-centered care. A better understanding of family-centered care in the perinatal context is essential to optimize the design of the physical environment. This qualitative study explored the human behaviors and interactions of families and caregivers in the physical environment of a neonatal intensive-care unit. Inspired by an ecological model that considered all aspects of a situation–physical, social, and organizational–the research proceeded with a multi-method approach that included plan analysis, observations of participants, interviews with the caregivers, and questionnaires to families. Data were content-analyzed to provide a better understanding of the role played by the environment in enhancing and/or obstructing the implementation and practice of family-centered care, as well as the impact of a family-centered care approach on the use of the space. As a result, information was first encoded in three types of categories corresponding to the three types of interactions occurring in the NICU: 1) interactions between parents and infants; 2) interactions between families and caregivers; and 3) interactions between caregivers and infants, and among caregivers. Analyzing families’ and caregivers’ behaviors, four environmental themes emerged as central concepts to understand the relationships between the environment and families’ and caregivers’ coordinated action in the NICU: 1) privacy and intimacy; 2) social support and interaction; 3) comfort and image; and 4) functionality, flexibility, and accessibility. Those themes were important to conceptualize the performance of the environment in supporting a family-centered care approach. Findings led to the elaboration of final recommendations to guide the design of Planetree neonatal intensive-care units practicing family-centered care.

Author: Kim, In-Kon

Publication date: 1997

Title: Subjective Responses to Daylight, Sunlight, and View in College Classrooms with Windows

Abstract: In recent times, because of full air conditioning and permanent full or supplementary artificial lighting, the function of windows has changed in the United States. As a result of this change, the psychological aspects of the window functions are more important than the quantity of the light or ventilation provided by the window. The qualitative or psychological aspects of the window functions require a different window design from a design for the quantitative aspects of the window. This study investigates the psychological effects of daylight, sunlight, and view provided by the classroom windows to provide the new design criteria for classroom windows. This study includes two separate experiments: the first experiment is to investigate and window classrooms, and the second experiment is to investigate how different window configurations impact psychological responses. The windows in the classrooms provide positive emotion to the classroom environment and serve to increase academic satisfaction with the classrooms. However, there is no difference between classrooms without the windows and with the windows, which do not provide view and natural light. This result clearly shows the necessity of the windows in the college classroom. The attribution of view through the windows is the most important factor in window design for college classrooms. It is necessary that the orientation of the windows is decided by considering the outside view. Sunlight might be welcomed by classroom occupants, unless sunlight reaches to the workplane and becomes a glare source. Many small windows are better for windows might have occupants feel more alive and pleasant and increase the effect of view types. The best window condition selected by participants in this study is eight small windows providing sunlight and a good view. The worst condition is two large windows providing daylight (no sunlight) and a poor view.

Author: Kim, Suk Bong

Publication date: 1998

Title: The Analysis of Factors Affecting Energy Consumption of Duplex Residences In College Station, Texas

Abstract: The overall purpose of this research was to characterize the variability of energy consumption due to a series of construction, occupant, and weather-related effects in duplex residences in College Station, Texas. Spline regression was used to estimate cooling efficiency, heating efficiency, base load, modified cooling balance temperature, and modified heating balance temperature for monthly billed kWh and average daily outside temperature. These estimates were used to predict normalized annual consumption. Best subsets regression and multiple regression were used to explore the relationship between energy consumption and construction occupant, and weather-related factors. Normalized annual consumption, actual energy consumption, cooling efficiency heating efficiency, and base load were used as dependent variables. Construction-related factors included market value, floor area, perimeter, length of common wall, year built, wall materials, roof reflectivity, shading factor orientation perpendicular to the common wall, and number of bedrooms. There were seven occupant-related factors: winter thermostat-set temperature, summer thermostat-set temperature, programmable thermostat setting, adjusted thermostat setting, number of occupants, student or not, and monthly rent. Weather-related factors included cooling efficiency, heating efficiency, base load, modified cooling balance temperature, and modified heating balance temperature. The sample for this study was 140 duplex residences which used only electricity for cooling and heating, and had one year minimum occupancy in College Station, Texas. The spline regression models with weather- related factors achieved adjusted R 2 values averaging 0.82. Construction, occupant, and weather-related factors were determined to be components of energy consumption. In the final modeling, construction, occupant, and weather-related factors accounted for 0.96 of the variance for the actual energy consumption of duplex residences. Some significant differences were found between the models which contained the weather-related factors and the models which did not contain the weather-related factors. This study demonstrated that weather-related factors were a very important factor in the analysis of energy consumption.

Author: Kim, Wonpil

Publication date: 1997

Title: Effects of Dwelling Floor Level on Factors Related to Residential Satisfaction and Home Environment in High-Rise Apartment Buildings

Abstract: The wider context for this study is the premise that high- rise apartment living has negatively contributed to a variety of problems related to the physical conditions of existing apartment buildings. Critics of high-rise housing attack the very concept of apartment living. Regarding high-rise living environments, building height is an important physical dimension of a resident's perception. The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to residential satisfaction and home environment, and to examine the effects of dwelling floor level on these factors and personal characteristics. The review of literature and factor analysis identified six important environmental factors physical quality of dwelling unit, safety/security, social interaction, self-expression/place-identity, physical qualities of neighborhood environment, and management/maintenance. Seven hundred and fifty subjects were randomly selected from eight high-rise apartment communities in major U.S. cities. Three hundred and ninety- six residents responded to the mail survey. The average respondent was an unmarried, over 40, female, employed Caucasian with at least one college degree. This group had typically lived in their current high-rise for 6 to 9 years and had an annual income, ranging from $40,000 to $59,999. Contrary to general assumptions about high-rise apartment buildings being inappropriate housing alternatives, these groups of residents reported a high degree of satisfaction with their high-rise residences. An examination of dwelling floor effects on the six factors indicated that the physical qualities of the dwelling unit were the only significant relationship. It was also found that no personal characteristics except gender and type of tenure were significantly related to the dwelling floor level for this specific group. Multiple-regression analysis found that both physical quality of dwelling unit and management/maintenance were important predictors of residential satisfaction and home environment on all floors. Although this study investigated the effects of dwelling floor level on factors explored, only a small portion of these relationships were significant. "Living on a different floor" in high-rise apartment buildings does not contribute significantly to the problems associated with high-rise living. Therefore, blank condemnation of high-rise dwellings that does not consider specific contexts should be questioned. When the buildings were well-designed and well-maintained, these particular residents showed a high degree of satisfaction at all floor levels.

Author: Kitagawa De Leon, Midori.

Publication date: 1993

Title: Boolean operations on polygon meshes

Abstract: Geometric modeling studies how to construct and represent shapes of objects. The shape of a physical object can be measured and represented as a geometric model on the computer. The shape of a non-existing object can be designed and represented as a geometric model on the computer. Algorithms for Boolean operations construct complex models from simpler models. This research presents a simple, robust, and fast algorithm for Boolean operations on polygon meshes. The proposed algorithm systematically classifies the relationship of two intersecting polygons into four types and subdivides intersecting polygons by using one of three methods. Singular intersections are defined and a method which locally classifies polygons in singular intersections is documented. As well as 2-manifold objects, certain types non-2-manifold objects are acceptable as input. The robustness of the algorithm is graphically illustrated by resulting objects constructed by an implementation of the algorithm. The binary index list subdivision methods (BILS methods) presented here for geometric search are simple but powerful: the methods allow the Boolean operation algorithm to have computational time which is linear in the size of the input. The BILS search methods are described and experimental evidence is presented to show that the complexity of the algorithm is linear in the size of the input.

Author: McCormick, Mary S.

Publication date: 1996

Title: How to Get There from Here: Way-Finding in Complex Environments

Abstract: This research compared environmental properties that influence way-finding-plan complexity, signage, vistas, and landmarks-to the observed, way-finding behavior of some 5,000 patients and visitors at a major health-care facility, in order to generate design guidelines for expansion. Observations of the way-finding behavior of patients and visitors were made at choice points where they had to decide which way to go, where plan complexity was high and signage was poor. An ANOVA data analysis showed that the presence of vistas and landmarks at choice points was associated with significantly less way-finding difficulty than, where vistas and landmarks were absent. A second ANOVA showed that way-finding difficulty decreased with the presence of appropriate environmental properties: 53.4% of participants showed way-finding difficulty when vistas and landmarks, were absent, 48%, when vistas were present, 38.5%, when landmarks ,were present, and only 30.5% of participants showed way-finding difficulty when both vistas and landmarks were present; these results were all statistically significant. Unanticipated findings were that high traffic volume reduced observed way-finding difficulty greatly. Half of all patients and visitors parked in disadvantageous places and entered the wrong building entrances, through conflicts between signage and the perceptual characteristics of roads and building entrances. According to the neurosciences and environmental psychology, way finding combines orientation with navigation in consistent ways. A survey of some prehistoric and isolated societies revealed architectural forms associated with orientation and navigation. Concepts from phenomenology and Gibson's direct perception yielded a model of being in place and moving through space. Resulting design guidelines recommend a central trail connecting all the buildings indoors and out, to integrate the health-care facilities and organize the campus for future growth. Landmarks at nodes and vistas along links should be added to reduce plan complexity and guide patients and visitors to their destinations. Elevator stacks must become distinctive and visible from the trail. Way-finding design recommendations for the campus as a whole include distinctive site entrances separated by function, streams of traffic directed by destination, vistas and landmarks to guide approaching drivers, parking terraces near building entrances, and unique building entrances visible from site entrances.

Author: Nobe, Michael Dean

Publication date: 1996

Title: Decision Support for Real Estate Development Cost Estimating

Abstract: This research examines the theoretical underpinnings and associated advancements related to the built environment and decision support systems (DSS). Specifically for the built environment this includes the disciplines of real estate development, construction science and project management finance, statistics and economics, for decision support systems this includes management science and decision analysis, and computer science. The purpose of this research was to design, develop and evaluate a prototype development cost estimating decision support system for use in the pre- development planning stage of real estate development. Particular emphasis was placed on synthesis of each discipline's models and/or advancements which support design and development of a decision support system; derivation of real estate development cost; and evaluation of risk. The results of the design and development phases of this research are embodied in the Real Estate Development Decision Support (REDDS) system as documented in this dissertation. Following design and development of the system, it was tested on a group of real estate development and construction management students at Texas A&M University. It was hypothesized that such an interdisciplinary methodology, which utilizes a decision support system framework, would facilitate generation of consistent and timely analysis of real estate development cost and associated risk and elevate the confidence of the user in the decision making process. Test results indicate that the REDDS systems does significantly reduce conceptual cost estimating preparation time. Further it was determined that the REDDS system does not significantly change the confidence of the user in the decision making process. Finally, this study shows that use of the REDDS system provides a consistent and sophisticated framework for evaluating development cost and risk, which leads to less variation and more accurate estimates.

Author: Rogers, Julie S.

Publication date: 1996

Title: The Concept of Framing and Its Role in Teacher-Student Negotiations during Desk Critiques in the Architectural Design Studio

Abstract: This research investigates negotiation through the identification of frame categories evidenced in verbal communication in desk critique settings in the architectural design studio. The study provides an interpretative account of communicated frames and their relationship to the development of the architectural design project. The basic assumption of this research is that an understanding of the types of frames (or interpretative schemes) the teacher and the student are invoking, the content of their interpretations and the extent to which the interactants redefine or shift frames is critical to understanding negotiated order in the architectural design studio.

Author: Spence, Karen Cordes

Publication date: 1996

Title: Theorizing in Architecture: An Examination of the Texts of Frampton, Rossi, and Lang

Abstract: Recent discussions of the subject of theory in architecture often presuppose what is meant by the term "theory." As a result, the term has been used rather loosely and with a wide array of meanings. This study examines the subject of theory in order to begin an elucidation of what it means to theorize, framing the possibilities of this subject to allow a better understanding of its elements and characteristics. Such an elucidation aids the accessibility of theoretical investigations in the profession, provides a fundamental structure for the activity of theorizing and the construction of theorems, and discourages the postrationalization of connections between idea and form. The investigation begins by examining traditional definitions of the term theory." Theory" is defined as a clarification. It may be in the form of a doctrine or explanatory scheme. The activity of clarifying is distinguished from the clarification resultant recognizing a distinction between "theorizing" and theorem." From this beginning, a number of other characteristics are identified in theorizing. This elucidation of theorizing is then used in an examination of several recent texts that are commonly recognized to be a part of the subject of theory in architecture. Specifically, the writings of Kenneth Frampton, Aldo Rossi, and Jon Lang--selected because of the nature of their approaches--will be studied to evaluate their contents, noting strengths and weaknesses. These works will also be considered in terms of their correlation with the previously noted elements and characteristics of theorizing. Investigating selected writings provides an understanding of how theorizing functions in architecture as well as examines and tests the identified elements and characteristics of theorizing. The elucidation of theorizing, along with Frampton's critical theory, Rossi's typological and analogical approaches, and Lang's behavioral science, present a beginning for a deeper understanding of theorizing in architecture. Correlations and conflicts are identified to disclose the variety of perspectives that constitute the subject of theory in architecture.

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