1,720,959 research outputs found
Problem definition in a participatory design process.
No full textAlthough there exist substantial literatures on individual design processes and upon problem definition, there is little attention to how participatory design groups define the problems on which they work. This lack occurs because of the difficulty in learning about what goes on inside design groups. However, participatory and collaborative design is a widespread and growing mode of design practice that demands a better understanding. This dissertation consists of an in depth study of one participatory design process that occurred in a federal laboratory setting. It was a multi-disciplinary activity that initially involved representatives from five research and development departments. These representatives collaborated over seven months to create a project proposal that would incorporate technology and design contributions from each of their specialities. The final proposal comprised a design problem definition including specific design components, schedule, budget, and system integration requirements. The central thesis states that collaborative or participatory design is especially appropriate for defining a design problem, as opposed to systematic design methods that are more appropriate for seeking a solution to that design problem. Several propositions devolve from this thesis, notably the idea of alternative paths toward a common goal. The research approach was research-in-action. The author served as a facilitator of the participatory design process, recording their activities and the outcomes of their efforts. The facilitators developed and employed a number of participatory design methods to address specific issues and to encourage the participants to build a consensus upon a proposal. Most of these methods failed to produce the intended results but at least one succeeded for each issue, and eventually the participants took the initiative to forge the essential consensus. This consensus proved critical to the proposal's success. The analysis of the results relies upon direct observation and upon an extensive literature review of precedents in design participation. The attendance data reveal that most of the facilitator and participant interaction occurred outside the formal meetings. A meta-analysis of the observations shows they are largely consistent with precedent, plus a few important new insights. The findings indicate that the design problem definition moved through a sequence of states known in the literature: from "condition of irresolution," to, "wicked problem," to "ill-defined" problem, to a final "well-structured" problem state. The participatory design group's consensus upon the project content and internal relationships proved a crucial step in forging the final design problem definition. The conclusion presents a new model of design participation, in which the design group's consensus upon a problem definition acts as a gateway between problem-defining and solution-seeking.Doctor of Architecture (DArch)ArchitectureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/104731/1/9610061.pdfDescription of 9610061.pdf : Restricted to UM users only
The architecture of artificial gravity environments for long-duration space habitation.
No full textGravity deprivation (weightlessness) leads to a multitude of problems for people during spaceflight. For reasons of health, comfort, and practicality, scientists have often proposed to provide artificial gravity by spinning the spacecraft. The spin-induced centripetal acceleration would act as an imperfect surrogate for natural gravity. Thus far, design studies for artificial-gravity spacecraft have emphasized the artifact rather than the environment. A great deal of engineering has gone into station dynamics, orbital mechanics, propulsion, power generation, structural capacity, and other aspects of satellite design. Very little has been written about the appropriate environmental design to support intelligent life under such a novel condition. The effort has gone into transplanting elements originally designed for earth-normal or microgravity environments, rather than developing a new paradigm. This dissertation aims to advance the science of environmental design for artificial gravity. It consolidates current knowledge from engineering, life science, and architecture, and introduces new material through mathematical derivation and computer simulation. The history of artificial gravity shows an evolution of assumptions, goals, and strategies that provides a precedent for further design development. The debilitating effect of prolonged weightlessness argues in favor of artificial gravity, but the discomforting effect of rotation sets limits on radius and angular velocity. Rotation is the only viable means of providing artificial gravity, but motion within a rotating environment involves Coriolis accelerations and cross-coupled rotations that have a detrimental effect on comfort and habitability. As the radius of rotation is reduced, the apparent gravity becomes increasingly twisted, regardless of the rate of rotation or the intensity of the gravity. With this twisting effect, east and west (prograde and retrograde) emerge as gravitationally distinct directions, similar to up and down. This suggests that the basic architectural grammar of wall, floor, and ceiling should be augmented in artificial gravity to recognize a fundamental gravitational distinction between walls. The goal of environmental design in artificial gravity is not to fool people into thinking they're on Earth, but rather, to help them orient themselves to the realities of their rotating environment.Doctor of Architecture (DArch)Aerospace engineeringApplied SciencesArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129238/2/9423117.pd
Hospital obsolescence: Its perception, effects on facility planning.
No full textHospitals are changing rapidly due to medical technology and medical practices. The dynamic process of such changes continuously affect the hospital environment. Architects and hospital planners have usually attempted to take these processes into account, but have so far merely succeeded in slowing obsolescence. It is therefore necessary to further explore obsolescence characteristics specific to hospitals. This research was developed for that purpose. Traditionally, architectural research in hospital obsolescence has focused on the inadequacies and limitations of the physical plant for the production of quality and low cost services. In this research hospital obsolescence has been viewed not only in terms of quality and cost of patient care services that are supported by the plant, but also in terms of this plant influence of the level of demand for such care. Therefore, hospital obsolescence has been conceptualized as the result of lower levels in quality of patient care services and/or lower patient demand. These two types of manifestations were called respectively product and demand manifestations of obsolescence. Based on this conceptualization research themes were formulated as hypotheses. These hypotheses were tested with an analysis of perceptions of obsolescence and focus of physical facility planning gathered from five major constituencies in eighteen hospitals (218 respondents) randomly sampled from the State of Michigan. These constituencies were the physicians, senior administrators, nurses, engineers and board members. The principal instrument used to collect information on perceptions was a questionnaire that was mailed to the participating hospitals. In addition interviews with the hospital senior administrators and engineers as well as visits to the participating hospitals were conducted to complement the information obtained from the questionnaire. Information on hospital characteristics that were hypothesized to be related to such perceptions were obtained from hospital organizations from the state of Michigan. This study findings indicated that perceptions of obsolescence are related to both the demand and product performance of a hospital. Also, perceptions of an adequate, or inadequate, level of hospital performance, and consequently perceptions of hospital obsolescence, varied among hospital constituencies because of their differing roles in hospital activities. These constituencies' perceptions were related to the attention given to the various plant problems in facility planning. The findings of this study have also shown that perceptions of the performance of the hospital, and consequently, of hospital obsolescence were related to the frequency of physical plant problems in the hospital. The frequency of these plant problems were also related to the attention those problems were given in physical facility planning. Finally this study has shown that the competition among area hospitals and specific hospital characteristics such as their physical age, performance and type have varying effects on the frequency of plant problems, perceptions of hospital obsolescence and focus of physical facility planning.Doctor of Architecture (DArch)ArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsHealth and Environmental SciencesHealth care managementSocial SciencesUrban planningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129163/2/9409609.pd
The Architectural Oracles Game: A Futures Tool for architecture and design.
No full textArchitecture is a dynamic, complex system that is subject to an endless number of uncontrolled variables. Such complex systems must respond and adapt to constant changing variables in order to survive in the future. The profession needs to understand these worldwide changes and their impact on architecture. The goal of this dissertation was to help architects and designers to recognize major facets of change. This was accomplished through a gaming/simulation methodology that engaged groups of design professionals in a future-orientated architecture and design problem scenario. Specifically, a game model was designed, called The Architectural Oracles Game, which incited three teams of architects and/or designers, in a workshop setting, to speculate about change and its consequences to the architecture profession as we move into the next millennium. Six separate case studies, each consisting of nine design participants, were conducted. Data generated from the six game runs, in conjunction with the global futures research literature, provided the basis for five major external patterns and five internal patterns that will impact the future of architecture. The external patterns are forces aimed at professional practice that originate from outside architecture and include: (1) globalization, (2) change in corporate America, (3) advanced technology, (4) new market needs and clients, and (5) demographics. The internal patterns are forces that arise from within the profession itself. These include: (1) changing composition of architectural practice, (2) CAD changes in practice, (3) competition from other service consultants, (4) traditional versus non-traditional service offerings, and (5) continued education of the architect. The successful execution of the game and generation of research data concerning the future of architecture and design suggests that The Architectural Oracles Game is a stable research instrument and can act as a Futures Tool. It conveyed the complex and systemic gestalt of architecture, provided an awareness of key social and political elements, improved communication, and broadened participants' awareness of the future.PhDArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131738/2/9929907.pd
Building cultures by designing buildings: The corporate elite, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and Eero Saarinen.
No full textTo many of the American corporate elite, victory in World War II presented a key moment of managerial opportunity. Much of what was understood about the world had changed; much of what was hoped for was suddenly within reach. One aspiration of that elite was that postwar America be considered one of history's greatest civilizations. Before this could happen, one deficiency needed attention: Americans had to become cultured, had to understand the prominent role the performing arts could play in their lives. To reveal the utility of the architectural elite and the monumental architectural artifact to this culture-building project, this dissertation studies the actors, actions, and intentions of the American corporate elite which directed the design of America's Acropolis, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It focuses especially on Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Repertory Theater, of which Eero Saarinen was the architect. Research methods included archival searches, interviews with individuals who worked in Eero Saarinen's office or worked on the Lincoln Center project, site visits, the consideration of interdisciplinary scholarly texts and numerous popular texts, and attendance at Lincoln Center performances. The Lincoln Center elite gave programmatic form to the cultural capital of the world by promoting the centralization of the performing arts and asserting a hierarchy that encompassed the opera and orchestra and other performing arts activities aimed at preempting potential rivals and suppressing opposition to the project. The Lincoln Center architectural elite followed suit by adopting the paradigm of an inward-turning cultural fortress model buttressed against the neighborhood, designing five formidable buildings dominated by the Metropolitan Opera House, and fashioning an aesthetic and formal language of power which unified the cultural campus and marked it as a key site of a great new American civilization. The makers of the Vivian Beaumont Repertory Theater, including Saarinen, did not reach such agreement: a main stage was designed which accommodated both proscenium and thrust productions, compromising both; and a controversial temporary theater was built in Greenwich Village. In time, these disagreements led the Lincoln Center directorate to intervene and re-organize both the repertory theater elite and the architecture. In revealing a robust transactional setting inhabited by constellations of brokers, key men, and prime movers, this dissertation challenges the architectural field's reliance upon exclusive characterizations of clients, patrons, and architects. Instead, it analyzes a multivalent and multi-layered corporate elite which directed the architectural design process and an architectural elite to give form to their vision of a dominant, historically significant postwar America.PhDAmerican studiesArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsSocial SciencesSociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129698/2/9610150.pd
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Air Force architecture: Its influence on quality of life at England Air Force Base.
No full textThe United States Congress and the Air Force are interested in creating Air Force bases for military personnel to work and live that are good environments comparable to well designed and constructed civilian facilities. Good facilities have been intuitively regarded by decision-makers as important elements in quality of life. The decision-makers are interested in knowing how users perceive of their environment and if improving the environment will result in a payback; this is a two part question. This research dealt with the first part of the question and focused on the following questions with respect to quality of life: how satisfactory do users feel the working, living, and general Air Force base physical environments are; what are the important physical aspects of the base; and what physical changes would they make in the base environment? England AFB, Louisiana was selected by TAC HQ as an appropriate Air Force environment for study. The goal was to identify and measure users' perceptions and satisfaction with certain physical aspects of the built environment at England AFB. Data was gathered using four research methods; (1) a representative sampling of fifteen percent of the working population (552 respondents), (2) group discussions with the representative sample, (3) interviews with seven selected decision-makers, and (4) the researcher as participant observer. The findings of this study establish a statistical and qualitative profile of users perceptions of their physical environment that forms a baseline of information; (1) against which change can be measured with future research for studying the payback question, (2) for preparing architectural compatibility guidelines, and (3) for decision-maker and designers to know what aspects of the built environment users perceive as needing improvement. The major aspects of the built environment needing improvement at England AFB identified in the findings are: parking in general; dormitory room size and storage; workplace building size, HVAC, layout and noise; yard privacy for on-base housing, and the need for more integral development of "hometown" feeling in the base environment.PhDArchitectureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162154/1/8920481.pd
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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