26 research outputs found
(De)signs for dignity
No full textIn spite of regulations aimed at ensuring that all people can enter and move through spaces, the need to create physical solutions that do not separate or segregate disabled populations has been overlooked. Further, the response of architects and designers is often to meet these regulations without considering the emotional impact of their designs, or the need for all users to be able to retain a sense of dignity as they enter and move through buildings and open spaces. This gap calls for a (re)generation of the urban form with a totally new agenda. My research argues that designing spaces for disability should focus on designing places for dignity. Aimed at upcycling everyday environments as enabling environments, this research identifies and comparatively analyses typologies of apartment buildings and neighbourhoods in Athens, Greece, where the experience of dignity is ubiquitously threatened due to a planning pathogenesis. Here, typologies are evaluated using dignity-based criteria, and new design guidelines and actions are proposed. This research and its findings will enrich access-knowledge through their innovative urban design paradigms with the potential to transform spatial environments into dignified spaces for all
Alcestis Barcinonensis: mythology and eschatology in the late antiquity
No full textDie vorliegende Arbeit hat die Alcestis Barcinonensis zum Gegenstand, ein – je nach Ausgabe – ca. 120 Hexameter langes lateinisches Gedicht eines anonymen Autors, das im 4. Jahrhundert in Ägypten entstanden sein dürfte. Überliefert wurde es im Zuge der Papyri Barcinonenses und geht der Gattung nach in die Richtung eines Epyllion. Der Fundus des Erzählverlaufs speist sich aus dem Alkestis-Mythos. Dieser hat im Laufe der griechischen Dichtung verschiedene Gewänder bekommen, als der wohl gewichtigste Bezugspunkt gilt die Alkestis-Version des Euripides. Generell gibt der Alkestis-Mythos die Erzählung von Alkestis und ihrem Mann Admet wieder, der auf Geheiß des Apoll sterben soll, aber ein Ersatzopfer für ihn in den Tod gehen lassen kann. Vater Pheres und Mutter Clymene lehnen diesen Tausch aus verschiedenen Gründen ab, Alkestis lässt sich für ihn vom Tod hinwegraffen. Der entscheidende Punkt in der Ausarbeitung des Euripides ist der, dass am Ende des Erzählverlaufes Herakles auftritt, um die Heroine aus den Klauen des Thanatos zu erretten und sie ihrem Gatten wieder zurückzugeben. Im spätantiken Alcestis-Gedicht geschieht dies nicht, dort hört das Gedicht an dem Punkt auf, wo Alcestis physisch stirbt – ein Ausblick ins Jenseits wird nicht gegeben und es kommt auch kein Herakles. Gerade dieser Sachverhalt stellt die dem Gedicht innewohnende Problematik dar. Wenn der Autor in christlicher Zeit gelebt hat, warum schreibt er dann so ein Gedicht? Von seiner zeitlichen Verortung her hält sich der Autor in einem Zeitraum auf, zu dem das Mittel der Allegorie und Allegorese nicht unüblich war, Literatur zu produzieren und rezipieren. Die Ambivalenz des Gedichtes und die Problematik der rechten Interpretation des Gedichts ergeben sich daraus, dass es sich aus verschiedenen geistigen Strömungen speist und sich der Autor nicht klar positioniert. Im Laufe der Arbeit wird versucht, auf den Sachverhalt, weshalb Herakles fehlt und kein Einblick ins Jenseits gegeben wird, nach Antworten zu suchen; eine unumstößlich passende Lösung hierfür gibt es aber keine, dafür verschiedene Lösungsansätze, die nach und nach erarbeitet werden.The main focus of the thesis is placed on the Alcestis Barcinonensis – a long Latin poem consisting of about 120 hexameters (the length depends on the edition), whose author is unknown, and which was most probably written in Egypt in the fourth century AD. It was passed on together with the Papyri Barcinonenses and shares similarities with the genre of an Epyllion. The narrative of the work is based on the myth of Alcestis, which in the course of ancient Greek poetry was rendered in different ways – with the Euripides version being the most outstanding one. Generally, the myth of Alcestis is centred around the relationship between said Alcestis and her husband Admet, who at the behest of Apollo is doomed to die but whose life will be spared if someone else is willing to sacrifice their life for his. However, both his father Pheres and his mother Clymene refuse for various reasons to give their life instead of their son’s; in the end it is Alcestis herself who is willing to do so. In Euripides work, there is a decisive twist at the end of the story when Heracles appears in order to save the heroine from Thanatos’ evil grip and to restore her to her husband. This element is not embedded in the later version of the Alcestis poem, which ends when Alcestis dies physically – there is no Heracles and no outlook into the afterlife. It is this fact in particular that poses the inherent problem of the poem. If the author lived in Christian times, why would he write a poem like that? Regarding the contextualization in literary history, the stylistic devices such as allegory and allegoresis were in common use with respect to the production and reception of literature. The ambivalence of the poem and the problem of interpreting it adequately both arise from its diverse philosophical trends it draws from, and from the author’s not clearly defined position. Therefore, the thesis means to explain why Heracles is not mentioned at all and why no insight is given into the concept of the afterlife. However, one has to keep in mind that there is not just one irrevocably correct answer to that problem but a variety of possible solutions, which shall be elaborated on in due course
Bricolage urbanism for urban social cohesion
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, 13-16th July, 2015It is expected that 83% of the European population will be living in urban areas by 2050. This prospect brings enormous pressure on European cities that are already facing serious challenges due to financial crisis, globalization, demographic change, increasing flows of migration, disparities among and within cities, inner city decay, urban sprawl, climate change etc. These challenges have a cumulative effect on deepening social exclusion, social polarization and increasing urban violence and spatial segmentation (Urban-Net, 2011; Dhéret, 2015). For the aforementioned reasons, social cohesion resurfaced in the public sphere and became a foremost need for the contemporary European society, centring on the rights of the individual. Europe has to deal with rapid and radical changes, which upset the mechanisms that have traditionally ensured the maintenance of social bonds. European cities are delegated to play a leading role and tackle the challenge of inclusive growth. They agglomerate all the complexities of social life on a concentrated territory, and they import/export factors of cohesion and fragmentation of their own system on a daily basis. Furthermore, the views of how social fragmentation and cohesion should be addressed vary significantly among groups and people, but also among different types of actors within cities (Urban- Net, 2011). The emergent call for socially cohesive cities is proved by the recent provision that approximately half of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the period 2014–2020 will be spent in cities, enabling them to design and implement cohesion policies and test new ideas in urban development (European Union, 2014). In the quest for urban social cohesion macro-structural and local reinforcing processes must interact and “people based” policies need to be complemented by “people and place” ones (Meegan and Mitchell, 2001). For socially cohesive urban futures Urban-Net report (2011) recommends re-orienting current modes (academic and practice) of urban design and planning towards “socio-spatial cohesion” and “environmental sustainability” at multiple scale levels. Developing a common European methodology through an urban social cohesion based approach, the report argues for a shift from the global-metropolitan to the “local” dimension with particular attention to participation and empowerment of inhabitants of neighbourhoods.Published Versio
Architectural education ‘in’, ‘for’, and ‘through’ heritage
No full textOur research reframes architectural education at the intersection of cultural heritage and contemporary design challenges. Rather than approaching heritage as a backdrop or constraint, it proposes a pedagogical model that engages in, for, and through heritage by respecting its historical depth, advocating its future relevance, and using it as a medium for critical design thinking. Through theoretical investigation, historical case studies, and the development of an international design workshop in Athens, the authors demonstrate how historic or sensitive environments, such as the landscape of Plato’s Academy, offer fertile ground for promoting context-responsive, interdisciplinary, and ethically driven design approaches. The educational strategies discussed not only prepare students to engage with and reinterpret the historic environment but also empower them to create inclusive, sustainable urban spaces embedded in cultural continuity
Bricolage urbanism for urban social cohesion
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, 13-16th July, 2015It is expected that 83% of the European population will be living in urban areas by 2050. This prospect brings enormous pressure on European cities that are already facing serious challenges due to financial crisis, globalization, demographic change, increasing flows of migration, disparities among and within cities, inner city decay, urban sprawl, climate change etc. These challenges have a cumulative effect on deepening social exclusion, social polarization and increasing urban violence and spatial segmentation (Urban-Net, 2011; Dhéret, 2015). For the aforementioned reasons, social cohesion resurfaced in the public sphere and became a foremost need for the contemporary European society, centring on the rights of the individual. Europe has to deal with rapid and radical changes, which upset the mechanisms that have traditionally ensured the maintenance of social bonds. European cities are delegated to play a leading role and tackle the challenge of inclusive growth. They agglomerate all the complexities of social life on a concentrated territory, and they import/export factors of cohesion and fragmentation of their own system on a daily basis. Furthermore, the views of how social fragmentation and cohesion should be addressed vary significantly among groups and people, but also among different types of actors within cities (Urban- Net, 2011). The emergent call for socially cohesive cities is proved by the recent provision that approximately half of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the period 2014–2020 will be spent in cities, enabling them to design and implement cohesion policies and test new ideas in urban development (European Union, 2014). In the quest for urban social cohesion macro-structural and local reinforcing processes must interact and “people based” policies need to be complemented by “people and place” ones (Meegan and Mitchell, 2001). For socially cohesive urban futures Urban-Net report (2011) recommends re-orienting current modes (academic and practice) of urban design and planning towards “socio-spatial cohesion” and “environmental sustainability” at multiple scale levels. Developing a common European methodology through an urban social cohesion based approach, the report argues for a shift from the global-metropolitan to the “local” dimension with particular attention to participation and empowerment of inhabitants of neighbourhoods.Published Versio
Comparative Analysis of the Treatment of the Alcestis-Stuff by Euripides and by Wilder
No full textThis is the starting point of the following analysis: Life and death belong indissolubly together, but nobody of us knows what is waiting for us when we will have died. According to Christian religion the dead shall resurrect again and start immediately into an eternal life full of happiness in an unknown atmosphere without any sorrows and any problems to overcome. The ancient writers, that lived before Jesus Christ, had at hand an underworld as the realm of that god that is responsible for death. In very rare and exceptional cases a very deserved dead is given the allowance to enter again into his former earthen life. This procedure of bringing a dead person back to life might be a kind of deal between deities and mankind in this way that another person had to die and then to live in the underworld instead of the doomed person. This stuff is a subject-matter of legends, fairy tales and finally of classical drama. The heroes of the drama are Admetus and Alcestis – a royal couple; Admetus is doomed to death and his wife Alcestis wants to die instead of her husband. This treatise is written by an author who is as well a lawyer as a philologist. The treatise uses modern methods of literary comparison, that the author did learn at the examples of ancient texts and modern texts at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Saarland (Germany). The comparison between the Euripides-version and the Wilder-version is not an end in itself, the comparison aims to show the given literary differences based on the history of the development of the Alcestis-stuff in the light of the fact that the ancient text is the source for the modern text. Thus it becomes once more clear that the texts of old Greek authors do live on in a figurative sense until modern times. Wilder himself is a modern American author who consciously sought connection to antiquity, also because he did go through very intensive university courses in archaeology. This connection to ancient Greek literature, of course, makes modern American literature very attractive for European readers and for readers from other areas of the world
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ShelfLife@Texas January 2010 Blog Archive
No full textCONTENTS: Hamilton Book Awards Call for Submissions -- Barbecue, Football and Regional Pride -- "Alcestis" explores unknown story of character in Greek mythology -- Author Elizabeth McCracken Joins UT Faculty -- THEN CAME THE NOVEL -- Linguist Chronicles the Life and Death of Texas German -- Events Rule Supreme at The University of Texas School of Law || BOOKS MENTIONED IN CONTENTS: “Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket” by Elizabeth Engelhardt -- "Alcestis" by Katharine Beutner -- "Then Came the Evening" by Brian Hart -- “The Life and Death of Texas German” by Hans Boas -- “Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark” by Mimi Clark GronlundDivision of Campus and Community Engagemen
θυραῖοϛ ou οἰκεῖοϛ au vers 811 d’Alceste ?
No full textDeux leçons antonymes sont proposées dans les manuscrits pour le vers 811 de l’Alceste d’Euripide : l’auteur les analyse et propose une explication.Two antonymous readings are proposed in the manuscripts for the line 811 of Euripides Alcestis: in this article the author analyses them and provides a commentary
Scholia in Euripidis ›Alcestin‹
No full textThis edition contains the Greek text of the scholia (vetera and recentiora) as well as the glosses for Euripides' Alcestis. It is accompanied by a critical apparatus and an apparatus of loci similes. Preceding the text is an introduction comprising two chapters: the first chapter offers a more detailed examination of the manuscripts and the medieval and Renaissance traditions of the scholia on this drama, while the second chapter outlines the history of exegesis and critical interpretation of Euripides' text in antiquity. Additionally, the author appends an edition of the Triclinian scholia for Alcestis from Laur. 32.2, along with a metrical analysis of the choral sections.
The aim of this work is to enhance Schwartz's edition, both in terms of its recensio and the constitution of the text. The recensio has been broadened to encompass 16 manuscripts, as opposed to the four considered by Schwartz. This reassessment includes a comprehensive examination of all the surviving witnesses of the drama
Un'interpolazione in Valerio Massimo IV 6 1?
No full textIn the chapter De amore coniugali of Val. Max. iv 6 1, among some shining Roman examples
of marital love, features a reproachful apostrophe to Thessalian king Admetus, husband of Alcestis,
who consented to his wife’s decision to sacrifice her life to save him. The passage seems out of place in
the Roman section and separates examples linked by the author. Furthermore, structural as well as
stylistic and linguistic features persuade to consider the passage a Christian interpolation
