'Cathartic Dismantling' - design update

Level 2 now has evidence of 'cathartic dismantling'. I need to explain the ruinous nature of the walls, clearly acknowledging the precedents of 18th century garden ruins and the picturesque while at the same time stating that my intention is not to represent this but rather a 'cathartic' demolition or dismantling of the original structure. Just a bit though...

Level 2 was originally a privileged space occupied by the house surgeon/doctors, complete with billiards table in the large living space at the front. This space is now being taken for the use of the residents - the 'patients' - the building hierarchy is being reversed.

The arrangements of spaces on level 1 could be explained as a release or freeing of the orthogonal arrangement of rooms below with their long corridors - these are now released, freed up(wards) and arranged in a more humanistic, social way.

Find some nice metaphors for this release.

The heaviness of the eaves and dark entrance doorway versus the light filled (open) stairs up through the roof, with trees and birds.

Adaptive modelling in Revit...The Roof

First attempts at using freshly procured 'adaptive modelling techniques' - finally got something to work but obviously the roof needs a lot of work (I get too impatient).

• The roof needs to sit more closely over the level 1 rooms, and low so that it blends in with the existing but at the same time is obviously different
• It needs to look more 'blanket' like. 
• I do like the translucent nature of the material.
• Qualities of a blanket - comfort, enveloping, safe, individualised/customised for the need at hand, not rigid

Go ask Lynda...

Movement - the sliding door & Japanese footsteps

Notes from 'The Elegance of Hedgehogs'...(Muriel Barbery)
In this novel, one of the narrators (Renee) is in awe of films of Yasujirō Ozu - a Japanese director and screenwriter, in particular 'Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice'.

Sliding Doors

Doors that move silently, refusing to offend space.

A normal door creates an interference, and intrusion into the space of the room and a 'gaping hole adrift in a section of wall that would have preferred to remain whole.' But sliding doors allow the room to be transformed without affecting the balance of the room. The sharing of space and reunion between 2 rooms can occur without intrusion.

"Life becomes a quiet stroll - whereas our life, in the homes we have, seems like nothing so much as a long series of intrusions." - p152

Break & Continuity

Renee is also fascinated by the movement of Japanese women when entering a room.

They come in, slide the door along the wall, and take two quick steps that lead them to the foot of the raised area where the family rooms are located; without bending over they remove their laceless shoes from their feet and with a supple, gracious motion of their legs pivot upon themselves as they climb, back first, onto the platform. Their movement is energetic and precise and their bodies easily follow the slight pirouette of their feet - which leads to a curiously broken and casual series of steps. While such hindrance in gestures usually evokes constraint, their lively little steps with their incomprehensible fits and starts confer onto the feet...the seal of a work of art.

"When we Westerners walk, our culture dictates that we must, through the continuity of a movement we envision as smooth and seamless, try to restore what we take to be the very essence of life: efficiency without obstacles, a fluid performance that, being free of interruption, will represent the vital elan thanks to which all will be realized. For us the standard is the cheetah in action: all his movements fuse together harmoniously, one cannot be distinguished from the next, and the swift passage of the great wild animal seems like one long continuous movement symbolizing the deep perfection of life.
When a Japanese woman disrupts the powerful sequence of natural movement with her jerky little steps, we ought to experience the disquiet that troubles our soul whenever nature is violated in this way, but in fact we are filled with an unfamiliar blissfulness, as if disruption could lead to a sort of ectasy, and a grain of sand to beauty.What we discover in this affront to the sacred rhythm of life, this defiant movement of little feet, this excellence born of constraint, is a paradigm of Art.
When movement has been banished from a nature that seeks it continuity, when it becomes renegade and remarkable by virtue of its very discontinuity, it attains the level of aesthetic creation. Because art is life, playing to other rhythms."

Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment

Below are notes from 'Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment' by Henri Lefebvre

The overall theme of the book is an exploration of what an architecture of enjoyment is...Architecture being the production of space ranging from furniture to gardens and parks, and landscapes, probably more what we would call the 'environment'. The architecture of imagination - which has similarities to Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space in some parts.
Architecture is redefined as a mode of imagination rather than a specialised process, building, or monument. Lefebvre calls for an architecture of jouissance—of pleasure or enjoyment—centered on the body and its rhythms and based on the possibilities of the senses.

An architecture of enjoyment will involve a space that is more or less the analog of the 'total body' - by this Lefebvre means not to use the body as a model or to symbolise it or signify it but to allow, lead and prepare the body for enjoyment. The 'total body' = the appropriated body, or use. The characteristics of such a space will:

• value the multifunctional and transfunctional rather than merely functional
• not fetishize (separately) form, function, structure, as the signifiers of the space
• substitute the idea of perfection  with that of perfect in-completion which discovers a 'moment' in life (eg. expectation, presentiment, nostalgia), making this moment the base for the construction of ambiance
• not privilege any particular sense or communication of space; the greater the architect's familiarity with a wide number of codes, the greater his ability to choose and manipulate them - that is, codes being anything that can be inventoried, referenced, counted, perhaps principles?

'...This does not mean that the architect considers himself in terms of a sensation-based aesthetics, that is, as and artist. The production of space overcomes older categories separating art from technology, the knowledge of sensation and sensuality. The architect is a producer of space.' (p151, Conclusions)

Which means that the architect acknowledges and uses many different elements - water, earth, fire, air - and natural rhythms. The use of water is interesting, given the different use of this element (and the others generally) in the East and West eg.

• East: water circulates inside inhabited spaces and is an essential part of its appropriation
• West: water is dominated by the dwelling, whether a river, pond, lake or stream

The space of enjoyment is not a building, but rather be somewhere, a genuine space, with encounters take place, moments, friendships, festivals, rest, quiet, joy, love, sensuality, as well as understanding and struggle. Places of instants of moments. With No Signs.

'It is not through form but content that the architect...can influence social practice.'

Phenomenology - something imagined

What is the nature of human consciousness?
What do we know of the world?

If your foot itches, you scratch it. I'm aware that I'm scratching my foot. But just because I'm aware of the fact that I'm scratching my foot does not make it less itchy...Reflective consciousness does not stop the itch...
Knowing that it itches and being conscious of the fact that I am aware of this has absolutely no effect on the itch...
This apparently is something that no 'other' animal is capable of, that we are conscious of the fact we are scratching ourselves. A cat, on the other hand, will eliminate the uncomfortable situation of an itch with a quick flick or two of its paw.
Our reflective consciousness, the sign of our ontological dignity (ontology = the study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality), apparently saves us from biological determinism.
However, since we are animals, subject to the cold determinism of physical things, the instincts and reflexes that keep us alive, this surely is not relevant?

What do we know of the world?
Transcendental idealism suggests that we can only know what appears to our consciousness (ie. the thing that apparently rescues us from our animal self). What we know is only what we have perceived and are therefore conscious of. So actually, according to some philosophers (eg. Kant), it's the idea that our consciousness forms of the world that we know, not necessarily the reality.

All this at 5.30am in the morning!

Phenomenology backgrounder

Phenomenology (from Greek: phainómenon "that which appears" and lógos "study") is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness, founded in the early 20th century by Edmund Husserl.
Based on Husserl's definition, phenomenology is mostly concerned with reflection on the structures of consciousness and the phenomena that appear in acts of consciousness. Experience. This ontology (study of reality) is different to Cartesian methods of analysis which see the world as objects and their interaction.
Phenomenology stems from the philosopher Immanuel Kant's (1724–1804) distinction between "phenomena" (objects as interpreted by human sensibility and understanding), and "noumena" (objects as things-in-themselves, which humans cannot directly experience).

Phenomenology & Architecture

My first introduction to phenomenology was in reading texts by Martin Heidegger. His conversations about dwelling were particularly interesting to me - the phenomenon of dwelling is an important concept in phenomenology. Heidgger, in his famous essay 'Building Dwelling Thinking, links dwelling to what he refers as (this is where it gets a bit more esoteric) the "gathering of the fourfold" - the regions of being as entailed by the phenomena of (1) the saving of earth (2) the reception of sky (heavens) (3) the initiation of mortals into their death (4) and the awaiting/remembering of divinities (waiting to die???).
The essence of dwelling is not architectural per se but is associated with the experience of the place.
The sensory aspects of architecture are crucially important in experience (rather than merely looking), and senses other than visual sometimes have a stronger like to our imagination and memory.

The environment is often defined as "place" when talking about phenomenology - it's more than just the location, it's the materiality, shape, texture, colour, smell etc plus the cultural and environmental conditions that all combine to create an atmosphere.

Phenomenology is all about subjectivity - the unique relationship between building and place (not just the architecture). A distinction between nature and man-made, inside and outside (or earth and sky), and the character of the place and how things exist as participants in their environment.

Phenomenology & the poetics of space

The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard - such a lovely title but I was not enthralled with the content like those who recommended this book. I felt that, like some movies, all the good bits were in the shorts or the trailers that I'd read about in other books. A shame, as I really did like the title.
Bachelard applies the method of phenomenology to architecture to the lived experience of architecture by considering spatial types such as the attic, the cellar, drawers. The implied message behind the text is that architects should base their work on the experiences it will encourage and create within, rather than on abstract theories.


See also my other entries on phenomenology and Peter Zumthor

Ideas to work on - ruins & the roof

[ideas after meeting with Bill this week]

Level 3 is now opened up to the sky & weather - except for the front quarter which still has the roof pitch as I want the building to still look like this from the front.
The next idea is to further break this up, perhaps to get a ruin aesthetic going...something falling apart. The metaphor being that your life has fallen apart, like this building.

Level 3 was where the doctors used to reside and the front room held a billiards table. This is now reversed in that the patients will inhabit this space now. The billiards table could be returned to where it originally stood.

A large open fireplace could extend down into the level below - this level is on the same level as the main dwelling spaces so could be the place they use when the weather is bad.
Previously this level was used first as the doctors residence (also complete with billiards table), then when level 2 was built it became an admin and reception area.

The roof - cover the individual scattered dwellings with a continuous roof, like a wing/cloud. The material should be translucent and seeming to glow when seen from a distance. This design will allow the individual dwellings to be seen from below (but slightly obscured). The roof form should extend down over to the ground in places, like a blanket.

The dwellings are obviously different to the ground floor, they are 'scattered' and not all lined up in a row. The logic behind the placement will be to allow sun and views into each bedroom, plus allow a central living space for each 5-6 bedrooms. Each cluster will include residents with similar disease etiology (eg. depressed/manic/etc), and will have different interior treatments reflecting this.


 
 The wing that previously held the surgical rooms, the operating theatre (for nasty things like lobotomies) and the medication and pharmacy rooms now will have a large heated swimming pool open to the air. The reflections from this pool will be seen moving across the walls when you're entering the building from the back stairway. These reflections will also be seen when walking the therapeutic walk.
...The steam rising up from the water obscures those in the pool so you feel secure and slightly hidden, not exposed, even when leaving the safety of the water the steam envelopes you and keeps you safe from prying eyes until your can reach the cave like changing room. The textures and materials around the pool deafen echos so there is no white-tile-public-pool-sterile feeling. This is more primal with darker colours, no slippery tiles but dark textured slate instead, like an expensive spa.

There are now stairs up from the therapeutic walk to the open courtyard on level 2.

...You walk up these stairs to go higher and higher, above the terracotta roof with views down onto this roof and the people below. You're part of this life but apart from it, observing but unseen (hidden behind the windows). Up in the treetops, the phoenix palms and the pigeons. The feeling of being up high, weightless and free from the concerns of the ground with it's therapy rooms, the café patrons and staff. There are nooks to curl up in on this level which allow views out over the entrance to Kingseat so you can watch people arrive and leave.

Precedents for the 'therapeutic walk'

The elevated walk is becoming one of the more significant elements of this design - the sensory aspect plus connections to nature and memories. Precedents:
The High Line -  Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and planting designer Piet Oudolf
The Garden Bridge - Thomas Heatherwick
NB. Thomas Heatherwick has been chosen to design a new Maggie Centre in Liverpool.

Personas (for the narratives)

Name | age | occupation/education | family circumstances | hobbies/interests | reason chosen as a resident (all had multiple admissions to acute care facilities)

Person with depression
Claude Van Zyl | 24 | studying for a degree in computer science at Auckland University but hasn't finished | mum/dad/older married sister all live in rural Waikato | music, watching sport, used to play the guitar, chess, science fiction | no stable friends to stay with, suicide attempts while flatting in Auckland

Person with anxiety disorder
Amber Jones | 28 | worked in a community library, trained as a librarian | mum and much younger brothers live in Christchurch | reading, swimming, walking her dog | did not want to return to Christchurch (worried about the earthquakes, cause of current anxiety disorder), no suitable friends in Auckland to live with, could no longer cope with living on own, brief time spent living on the streets

Person with bipolar/manic disorder
Jubilee Potini | 32 | didn't finish school, has spent much of his teenage and young adult years in psychiatric hospitals  | parents both dead, older brother is a patched gang member who lives in Gisborne | chess, mythology | homeless or living with friends who were not supportive

Person with schizophrenia
Abe Newton | 46 | trained as a landscape gardener, worked recently for a nursery | elderly parents live in Rotorua, ex wife lives in Auckland, no children | used to play touch rugby, reading | domestic settings exacerbated his condition

Ideas to work on (design) - opening up the original building

[ideas after talking with Bill today]

Extend the 'spa' idea..
Look at the original uses of the spaces and subvert or extend these:

• Open up the wing used originally for surgery and medication as an indoor swimming pool - eg. take off the roof.
• Add a waterfall over the rooms which were originally used as continuous water therapy (continuously running baths)
• Make the wings used for seclusion into a library - old idea of seclusion was to be left alone with your own thoughts, but in a library you're alone with several thousand other's thoughts (on paper)
• Kitchen - remains as is but perhaps becomes more 'alchemy' like?
• Wards, sleep, treatment spaces - ? 
• Dayrooms  - areas for socialising with family/friends
• Admin areas

 

 Different treatments for

1. the outside of the 'blanket of dwellings' at the back, the area where the path is - natural textures, details, interesting bits compared with the other side which will be smooth and appear to disappear into the sky when viewing from the driveway.
2. the dwellings themselves, depending on patient etiology:
• those with manic/anxious tendencies will be in a calming environment with minimal stimulus. They may be able to hear the water in the pool or waterfall, birds, no public noise or chatter
• those who tend to be depressed will be in the opposite end where they may be able to hear chatter of other people, deliveries, normal sounds of everyday life

Present the building with paths of various people/residents/public winding through and associated various points on these paths with narratives, descriptive texts on what the person is doing there, what they're hearing and feeling.

The path becomes the central concept

• find other precedents eg. like the High Line.
• add in more haptic elements eg. water (waterfall, pool), fire (outdoor fireplaces, pits, gathering around these), air (up high off the ground, swing bridge)

Mise–en–scène

(ˌmē-ˌzäⁿ-ˈsen, -ˈsān)

= the arrangement of actors and scenery on a stage for a theatrical production, stage setting

Bats in the Belfry

People downstairs, for example members of the public in the cafe, will be able to hear those above 'Bats in the Belfry' (phrase refers to craziness see here for a definition and origin of the phrase)

Brain mapping imagery

Based on an fMRI of a single subject, view from inside the brain showing areas of activation.

http://www.brainmapping.org/MarkCohen/research/Representing/index.html

Brain waves & anxiety

An EEG (electroencephalogram) records electrical activity in the brain usually via electrodes placed on the surface of the head.
They are usually used to look for seizure activity or other abnormalities but can also be used to map activity related to symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, attention and memory deficits.

Types of brain waves

Measured in frequency or Hz (cycles per second)
Delta 0.2-3.0 Hz - slow waves associated with very deep dreamless sleep. Predominant in newborns but should not be dominant in adults (excess delta waves can be associated with brain damage) when awake. Associated with the release of growth hormone, healing and the 'resetting' of your internal clock.
Theta 3-8 Hz - daydream like states, drowsiness, dreaming sleep (REM). Excess is associated with attention problems. Associated with the production of catecholamines. The state most receptive to hypnosis.
Alpha 8-12 Hz - (eg. lower wave pattern in image above) relaxed wakefulness, or light REM sleep. Associated with the production of serotonin (which modulates sleep, anger, aggression, mood in general). When you close your eyes, you start to produce more alpha waves.

• Associated with the ability to recall memories, reduce discomfort and pain and reduce stress and anxiety.
• Too little alpha wave activity can be associated with alcoholism, insomnia, anxiety.

Beta 12-27 Hz - (eg. higher wave pattern in image above) wide awake, mentally alert, concentration but also associated with flight or fight response, worry, anxiety.

• Too little beta wave activity can be associated with attention problems, and learning disabilities. Too much is associated with anxiety, insomnia

Gamma above 27 Hz - associated with formation of ideas, language and memory processing, and various types of learning. Absent during sleep induced by anaesthesia.

This chart is typical of a seizure (cluster of spiking in the middle). Each horizontal line represents a reading from an electrode on the scalp. Each vertical column represents one second of recording time (showing pulses per second).

You can tell a lot about a person simply by observing their brainwave patterns. For example, anxious people tend to produce an overabundance of high beta waves while people with ADD/ADHD tend to produce an overabundance of slower alpha/theta brainwaves. Likewise, there are differences in brain wave patterns in patients with schizophrenia and those without (plus also in their siblings, see Nature research):

Researchers have found that not only are brainwaves representative of of mental state, but they can be stimulated to change a person's mental state, and this in turn can help with a variety of mental issues.

A normal healthy person's day will show oscillations from delta/theta (sleep) to alpha (awake but relaxed) then back to delta/theta. However, many people instead have a predominance of delta/beta waves if sleep is not good and daily life is stressful in general. Some treatments for stress and anxiety have focused on stimulating more alpha waves...

Entrainment

Entrainment is a principle of physics. It is defined as the synchronization of two or more rhythmic cycles. The principles of entrainment appear in chemistry, neurology, biology, pharmacology, medicine, astronomy and more. Brainwave Entrainment refers to the brain's electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation, such as pulses of sound or light. 

When the brain is presented with a rhythmic stimulus, such as a drum beat for example, the rhythm is reproduced in the brain in the form of these electrical impulses. If the rhythm becomes fast and consistent enough, it can start to resemble the natural internal rhythms of the brain (brainwaves). When this happens, the brain responds by synchronizing its own electric cycles to the same rhythm. This is commonly called the Frequency Following Response (or FFR). FFR can be useful because brainwaves are very much related to mental state. For example, a 4 Hz brainwave is associated with sleep, so a 4 Hz sound pattern would help reproduce the sleep state in your brain. The same concept can be applied to many other mental states, including concentration, relaxation and meditation.

Subverting the axial hierarchical frontality...

At the moment there is only one main entrance, one 'grand' entrance and yet traditional villas had impressive entrances and steps on both the front and 'back'.

Add stairs which are to be used only by the residents to one side of the main building at both the front and back of this block. Instead of entering at the front, you can instead walk around the building to another 'main' entrance at the back which leads directly up to the dwellings.

The public and staff enter via the main front entrance.

Stairs

Stairs can be used as platforms, viewing areas, seating. Stairs are a journey, a path. They involve activity and movement by the person using them (unlike a lift).

Porirua hospital museum visit...

'Porirua', like Carrington, Tokenui, Kingseat, is still associated with the stigma of mental illness. Our guide through the museum gave us plenty of examples from his long and enthusiastic memories of this place.
The only remaining original building from the old Porirua Mental Asylum is the remains of 'F' block which was where all the 'hopeless' cases were put. Built much earlier than Kingseat (c1914) and also because of it's purpose, this was much cruder architecture but had some staged rooms with old artifacts which was what I was after.
Our guide had especially opened the museum for me that day and this is obviously his passion, sharing memories of the old hospital and its history. We couldn't quite figure out (and didn't want to ask) what his association was but in the end his stories were too detailed not to have been either a doctor or nurse at the hospital...or perhaps a close association with a patient there.

Some interesting details:

• double and triple locking was not quite what we thought
• ECT treatment machines
• pumice lining
• the bath
• the secure bedroom peep holes, similar to Carrington

thesis: what I need to do...

1. think about title & start reworking an introduction: include a discussion about the use of the word 'placebo'; define the boundaries of my thesis, that is, what I will and won't cover and discuss, the context, the fact that it isn't scientific (not a scientific-like study of the effects of this architecture)
2. design something! so that we have something to build on...stop procrastinating
• include bold architectural elements, don't just fiddle about with details
• the design is not intended to be a 'good design', rather it should be something that supports my thesis or provocation completely
• alternate between the top and bottom levels to keep things fresh
• at the same time as designing also write short thought experiments and/or graphic novel like strips to explain how the place might make you feel, the intention behind the design
3. drawings will not convey my ideas well so use narratives/stories instead, 'thought experiments'
• narratives, stories, descriptive text
• look at Katherine Mansfield's style of writing (descriptive)
• read the Janet Frame book...find snippets of text, quotes
• perhaps include thought bubble-like bits next to plans/sections in the final presentation

'Thought Experiments'

Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment

"...the process of employing imaginary situations to help us understand the way things really are (or, in the case of Herman Kahn’s "scenarios", understand something about something in the future). The understanding comes through reflection upon this imaginary situation. Thought experimentation is a priori, rather than an empirical process, in that the experiments are conducted within the imagination ("laboratory of the mind"), and never in fact."

Or, a better discussion of this concept can be found here:
Thought experiments are devices of the imagination used to investigate the nature of things. ... Thought experiments should be distinguished from thinking about experiments, from merely imagining any experiments to be conducted outside the imagination, and from psychological experiments with thoughts.
They should also be distinguished from counterfactual reasoning in general, as they seem to require an experimental element.

The primary philosophical challenge of thought experiments is simple: How can we learn about reality (if we can at all), just by thinking? More precisely, are there thought experiments that enable us to acquire new knowledge about the intended realm of investigation without new data? If so, where does the new information come from if not from direct contact with the realm of investigation under consideration?...

Historically their role is very close to the double one played by actual laboratory experiments and observations.
There is widespread agreement that thought experiments play a central role both in philosophy and in the natural sciences and general acceptance of the importance and enormous influence and value of some of the well-known thought experiments in the natural sciences, like Maxwell's demon, Einstein's elevator or Schrödinger's cat... Much of ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind is based firmly on the results of thought experiments as well, including Searle's Chinese room or Putnam's twin earth. Philosophy, even more than the sciences, would be severely impoverished without thought experiments, which suggests that a unified theory of thought experiments is desirable to account for them in both the sciences and the humanities. There have been attempts to define “thought experiment”, but likely it will be better to leave the term loosely characterized, so as not to prejudice the investigation. Many of the most important concepts we deal with are like this, e.g., religion or democracy.

Try using this concept in my thesis as a way of exploring the design outcomes.

See this interactive example...be aware though that this one is about your views on abortion.

So, for my thesis...

• describe the experience of walking into a (badly designed) modern hospital room, then contrast this with a description of (1) an historical hospital room (2) a home - these descriptions will include sounds, smells, and texture/touch as well as what they look like
• then pose the question about the likely things you're feeling in each scenario under certain circumstances - which is better, why? - how do certain elements compound this feeling? (or contradict it)
• create different personas to help explain this, eg. create a person with a set of memories (past events, places they felt safe in etc, the smells etc associated with these places)
• 
  

Placebo versus Reassurance....

I was thinking of using 'architectural placebo' somewhere in my thesis title but have been having second thoughts about this. While it's a nice phrase, I'm very aware of the fact that many people associate 'placebo' with a fake or sham, perhaps something slightly underhand or having 'snake oil' connotations.

A placebo is by definition a neutral stimulus with no therapeutic effects...

However, the environment does have a therapeutic effect on mental health.

My use of the term is associated with my knowledge that the placebo effect, in medicine, is a very real effect acknowledged by the medical profession and specifically accounted for when conducting placebo controlled trials of 'real' medication.

However, the alternatives sound kind of boring - something along the lines of

• environmental effects on psychological wellbeing
• environmental therapy, architectural therapy, healing architecture (ugh!, too 70's), 
• The Architecture of Reassurance - that's probably a better phrase

I also want something that sounds scientific but also quirky or unexpected so you're not presented with something that you may have an immediate reaction to (eg. negative preconceived ideas about). Unfortunately there's nothing particularly 'quirky' about reassurance. You hear the word, you immediately know what it means, there's no thinking about it, wondering..

• reassurance = comfort, support, faith, hope, (insurance?), solace
• reassurance = to restore confidence,
• the architecture = health insurance
• environmental health insurance
• architectural health insurance
• investment in this will reduce the risk of ill health

Barry White Workshop...

Barry White sure knows his soul but what about thesis writing?..Below are notes from the very good/useful/succinct/timely workshop taken by Dr W. Barry White (though the aforementioned may well have an honorary degree).

Illustrations - see book by Edward Tufte 'Beautiful Evidence' See his website: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Thesis definition

• an original proposition, statement or assertion advanced and maintained by argument
• where it's not possible to  encapsulate the thesis in a title, it should be stated early in the text (eg. at the beginning of the introduction)
• ideally expressed as a question - this provides a focus; state this question at the beginning
• or a purpose statement instead of question

By writing down what your thesis is not about, you can more easily draft  a statement of what it is about. Far easier to disprove something than to prove it. The null hypothesis.

Vocabulary

Use appropriate vocabulary. Science - investigates, Humanities (architecture) - explores. 

Can use language which hedges (eg. the example of the DNA discovery) eg. 'appears to' 'suggests' etc 

Systematic arguments (usually only applies in science) versus Inductive arguments (sound or unsound) - 'likely' 'possible' etc

• eg. inductive - you are human; most humans eat fish; therefore you are likely to eat fish OR you are human; some humans eat prawns; therefore it is possible that you eat prawns

Title

Concept: Specific boundaries

Eg. 'The rhetoric of adolescent fiction: the pedagogy of reading practices in south…etc…

Or

Concept … Specific boundaries

Make sure you always have a title - this will most probably change over time

Examiner will want to see your title concepts defined - the focus

The title should assist examiners to understand what your intention is. Thus, all terms used in the title should be defined early on.

Introduction

Delimitations - define the limits of your research (chapter one). 

Likewise, the key concepts need to be defined early (eg. what is meant by architectural placebo, phenomenological etc)

The introduction sets the tone of the thesis - be assertive in the purpose statement at the start.

Purpose statement
Explanation about what is to come next
Then indicate the topic area and emphasise its current or future importance/relevance (why am I doing this?)*
Provide definitions of terms and phrases as used in the thesis, as required (eg. architectural placebo,  salutogenics, my interpretation of these phrases)

• What are the origins of my research?
• *Why is this research important?
• What are the major issues and debates around the topic?
• What are the key concepts, theories and ideas?

Generally, the introduction could use the following format:

1. Purpose of the research
2. Structure of this chapter
3. Theoretical framework
4. Definition of terms
5. Context
6. Focus of the research
7. Significance of the research
8. Structure of the thesis (then including sections outlining what is in each chapter)

The relationship between the introduction and the conclusion is close - all the questions and issues raised in the introduction will need to be addressed in the conclusion.

Structure - general

• Metatext, to make the writing reader friendly by providing explanations of text to follow, how it's going to be structured etc
• Chapters - very flexible - make up each chapter as relevant, but explain why this structure is appropriate
• Be careful not to overquote. Try to incorporate into your own sentences. Also, be discriminating about what references you use and/or put things like 'see for a good example, …'

Conclusion

Rather than 'wrap things up', good conclusions 'open things up'. 'join the conversation' about this topic NB. Summary versus conclusion (these are different)

Examiners are looking for your unique insight - the indeterminate qualities 

De Hogewey & 'reminiscence therapy'

See these links for an elderly nursing home with a difference - each area is designed slightly differently depending on the backgrounds of the residents. They put those with other like-minded people of similar backgrounds and experiences to live closely together.
http://www.detail-online.com/architecture/news/dementia-village-de-hogeweyk-in-weesp-019624.html

1. extended boulevard, 2. pond park, 3. theatre square, 4. boulevard, 5. passage, 6. green square, 7. large square, 8. eastern corner

They share bungalows - in groups of 6, 7, or 8 with others who share their interests.