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This research is concerned with the identification of the latent and unique contribution to knowledge embedded in the architectural practice of McGonigle McGrath Architects - Kieran McGonigle being the principal of that practice and the author of this thesis. Architectural design evolves through the manner and means of its production (associational, representational, contextual, contingent) rather more than being a consequence of a theoretic framing; this research avails of techniques of design practice to surface tacit knowledge through research into these manners and means of design production; as such the format of the thesis necessarily includes text, drawings, models and photography. The research was structured around biannual presentations over four years at the practice research symposia under the auspices of RMIT at their Barcelona campus, at which the latest individual research and practice outputs were peer-reviewed and discussed in open forum under the guidance of a panel of international experts. The symbiotic evolution over this period of both the research (leading to this thesis), and the work of the practice, is of itself a significant aspect and consequence of the research. The design output of the practice is substantial; a portfolio of single family houses, highly site specific to the north of Ireland. The work of the practice has received many design awards, including 11 RIBA Awards amongst many RSUA and AAI Awards. In 2019 the practice won the RIBA House of the Year Award for the best house in the UK. The research investigates personal histories, explicit and implicit interests, influences and influencers, existent dwelling typologies, a particular relationship of landscape and mapping, relationship to topography, concepts of scenography, forms of representation, construction and interiority, responses to found rural features, and certain compositional and representational characteristics shared within modern painting and photography. The research also articulates a manner of practice - patterns of behaviour within a particular social and professional context including the choreography of relationships with staff, clients and constructors and the subsequent curation of the body of work. Finally the research articulates the common ground within the symbiotic relationship of the architecture itself and the manner of its production.

This thesis studies design standardization in London's housing, understood as an interrelated set of standards and conventions that shape design outcomes towards specific forms. Working iteratively between theory and data, the thesis threads broader issues in housing - housing design, design governance, design quality - with an empirical study of housing designs in London at the dwelling unit scale. Integrating literatures on housing policy and regulation, real estate, state-market relationships, architectural practice, standards and conventions, the thesis conceptualizes design standardization. The empirical focus of the thesis is London's housing stock and its residents' experiences and practices of home. To this end, the thesis draws from a mixed methods research that consists of a descriptive statistical analysis of the spatial patterns in a sample of unit plans from inner London's housing stock (n=3,438), visual analysis of comparative floor plan matrices, an online survey with people living in London on their experience and use of their homes (n=234) and follow-up semi-structured interviews with some survey participants (n=22). Built largely over the last two hundred years, London's housing stock contains a variety of housing typologies. While new housing typologies designed for changing needs have emerged, older housing stock has been modified, subdivided, and converted. The research shows that existing housing interiors, in aggregate form evidence processes of standardization. Dwellings built in the past forty years, since the 1980s, show a high level of repetition in their dimensions and interior layouts. I argue this as the result of on the one hand a high-pressure housing market, a perpetual housing shortage and high land prices that all lead the market to function with strict design conventions, and on the other legislations, regulations, codes, and guidelines central and local governments introduce to sustain quality, affordability, and access. Dwellings from the older housing stock - terraced houses - show a wide variety of interior layouts. Despite this, however, there are spatial and organizational directions that emerge at the intersection of the architectural affordances of terraced houses, social change, asset-based welfare and permitted development. Based on a study of residents' experiences and domestic practices in relation to design patterns observed in London's housing, the research also found that existing housing does not sufficiently meet current needs, preferences and occupancy patterns. The assumptions of use and home underlying standards and conventions fail to acknowledge changing domestic needs. The thesis, studying London's housing at their intersection, makes original contributions to architectural design, housing studies, infrastructure studies, and material geographies by developing a design standardization framework that incorporates standards and conventions, by constructing a novel dataset of existing housing stock and providing up-to-date data on the housing designs, by analysing residents' domestic experiences and practices in London, and by analysing home alterations from a socio-technical perspective.

This is a collaborative research project concerned with the provision of housing by artist-led organisations. It is also an embedded ethnographic study of a particular house called Artist House 45, located in South Leeds. Artist House 45 is a pilot project by the artist-led organisation East Street Arts. In this thesis I introduce the term 'artist-led housing' and stake a claim to studying it as a critical spatial practice. I adopt multiple, situated, research positions; each of which constructs a different relationship between Artist House 45, the architectural sites through which I work, and theoretical texts. This allows the roles and programming responsibilities of artist-led organisations to be analysed in new ways in relation to housing provision. In addressing the questions of why artist-led organisations are providing housing, what critical and spatial roles artist-led organisations are occupying in relation to housing and how embedded research can influence these, I make original contributions to knowledge. I argue that artist-led organisations are conceiving of housing projects as both collective artworks and interventions within the housing market and sector. As such, artist-led organisations are occupying roles which differ from those of other 'alternative' housing practices such as community-led housing. Artist-led housing doesn't nest easily within preexisting participatory models or coalesce into a coherent housing movement with shared characteristics, demands and goals. In response to this, I have developed new strategies and approaches, rooted in and among the day-to-day processes of artist-led organisations, for communicating, translating and scaling artist-led housing. This has involved the use of collaborative mapping and 'multivoice' writing. By adopting multiple research positions in relation to Artist House 45, I have sought to critique the project from different, and competing perspectives. This 'moving in and out' has involved changing my physical proximity to the house (i.e. from library-based study to literally moving in to live in Artist House 45 as a Researcher in Residence). It has also meant moving between different ethnographic methods and writing styles. Through embedded ethnography, I have been able to feed research back to East Street Arts quickly, allowing responsive interventions to be made while Artist House 45 was unfolding.

This thesis examines the architectural and contextual connections between twenty-nine extant late medieval and early modern community buildings to establish whether they are sufficiently similar to be identified as a single building type. The buildings are located across different regions of England, the South West and East Anglia, and demonstrate a whole range of historical and modern designations, including 'church houses', 'guildhalls', 'town halls', and 'market houses'. Though the buildings are predominantly in rural settings, several in small towns are included. Together with the more frequently studied town halls and market halls of larger towns and cities, particularly from the second half of the sixteenth century onwards, these permit an assessment of whether the building type can be applied across the town/country divide. Though buildings remain the primary source, the value of documentary and historical visual records is considered for their ability to provide images of lost or altered buildings, or details as to construction, plan-form, and use. Previous research was found to be too narrow in scope to appreciate connections beyond artificial limits, such as analysis of individual buildings without reference to their wider architectural context, or buildings grouped by dint of their shared name (e.g. 'Church Houses in ...') or their location in towns (e.g. urban 'civic halls'). The study found a set of overarching characteristics relating to architectural form and plan with which the selected buildings across the towns and villages of South West and East Anglia conform, followed by a shared set of sub-areas in which variations occur. In addition, it was found that all the buildings are spatially, and most likely functionally, related to an extant or vestigial open space, such as a village square or marketplace. Not only does this have implications for function and use, but also for linking them to the similarly-sited buildings in larger towns.

Pakistan is an emerging economy with 210 million people and growing domestic energy demand, facing economic, geographic, geopolitical, energy supply and climate change challenges. The findings from this research are intended to support future government and energy industry policy in this area, especially the transition to a low carbon economy. Currently, 67% of Pakistan’s energy demand is met with non-renewable resources. The domestic sector consumes ~48% of Pakistan’s total energy demand, including biofuels. This thesis presents novel insights into Punjab (52% of Pakistan’s population) domestic sector energy demand drivers. A statistically significant 4597 responses obtained from a physical questionnaire survey conducted in 2017-18 allowed the derivation of domestic sector energy prediction models, along with the rooftop areas available for renewable energy generation amongst other unique data insights. The survey covered all ten Punjab divisions, enabling the models produced to be generally applicable to Punjab. The research found the key drivers of electrical energy demand per household are the number of appliances, number of lights, and the number and area of conditioned rooms. In the per capita models, the key drivers are the overall power rating of the appliances, particularly the power rating of the air conditioners for cooling. For annual gas use, the gross internal floor area and occupancy are found as weak demand drivers. The data obtained from the survey also allowed exploration of the potential for domestic solar renewable energy generation. The available rooftop area was shown to have potential to exceed the total current electrical energy demand of the domestic sector many times using current PV technology. A similar finding was achieved for the use of solar thermal technology for domestic hot water and space heating throughout the year. The thesis findings suggest that addressing the energy demand drivers of the domestic sector, and the encouragement of installation of domestic renewable energy systems could form a significant component in Pakistan’s transition towards a more resilient energy supply system and a low carbon future.

Country house domestic service is a ubiquitous phenomenon in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain and America. Whilst shared architectural and social traditions between the two countries are widely accepted, distinctive cultural identity in servant architecture remains unexplored. This thesis proposes that previously unacknowledged cultural differences between British and American domestic service can be used to rewrite narratives and re-evaluate the significance of servant spaces. It uses the service architecture itself as primary source material, relying on buildings archaeology methodologies to read the physical structures in order to determine phasing. Archival sources are mined for evidence of individuals and household structure, which is then mapped onto the architecture, putting people into their spaces over time. Spatial analysis techniques are employed to reveal a more complex service story, in both British and American houses and within Anglo-American relations. Diverse spatial relationships, building types and circulation channels highlight formerly unrecognised service system variances stemming from unique cultural experiences in areas like race, gender and class. Acknowledging the more nuanced relationship between British and American domestic service restores the cultural identity of country house servants whose lives were not only shaped by, but who themselves helped shape the architecture they inhabited. Additionally, challenging accepted narratives by re-evaluating domestic service stories provides a solid foundation for a more inclusive country house heritage in both nations. This provides new factors on which to value modern use of servant spaces in historic house museums, expanding understanding of their relevance to modern society.

The issue of energy conservation and rationalisation of consumption is one of the most important issues in the modern era, particularly in the building sector, with the residential sector consuming about 48% of the total national energy usage, where most of it is consumed in the operations of supplying the building with cooling and ventilation in the summers and heating during the winters. In search of future sustainability, it can be seen that Baghdad city’s housing is of two types: authentic architecture that embodies vernacular passive design strategies and contemporary design reflecting global sensibilities. However, it can be argued that neither of these housing typologies provide residents with both adequate comfort levels and efficient energy usage. This study aims to recognize and assess the cultural and environmental relevance of vernacular and contemporary housing in Baghdad, Iraq in order to establish a set of appropriate design approaches to inform future housing designs in Iraq, which can both enhance comfort levels while decreasing energy usage while remaining culturally responsive. In doing so, this study seeks to review previous literature to understand the current state of knowledge in this field of study and provide an academic basis for the identification of climatically appropriate passive design strategies. The study has included bioclimatic analysis using the psychrometric chart for Baghdad that analyses and identifies feasible passive strategies for application in Baghdadi climate. Most notably, however, this work aims to understand the public’s (the market’s) satisfaction with both contemporary and vernacular houses with regards to environmental and cultural performance. Further, experts’ perceptions of the potential for inclusion of passive design strategies in future Baghdadi housing designs were also evaluated. Findings from these four investigations: literature, bioclimatic analysis, public and professional perspectives were undertaken in the themes of the urban fabric, and architectural design factors and findings were subsequently synthesised to inform decisions on those passive design strategies most appropriate for adoption in future designs for new sustainable housing in Baghdad. These future design strategies will require a combination of contemporary technology with passive design fundamentals in order to provide better and naturally welcoming housing solutions that can satisfy both functional expectations and social needs.

The London grand hotel or hotel de luxe was a new building type, designed to provide luxury for a changing society. These venues were located at the intersection of public and private, and composed of a series of potentially contradictory characteristics. They combined an idealised past with the excitement of the future. They promised an experience of consumption rooted in traditional status which was also innovative. ‘Modern’ in terms of up-to-date technology, they also exhibited the modernity of shifting hierarchies and identities in an urbanised, industrialised society. Their desirability was associated with the excitement of the foreign, but also with their practical role as a convenient base . Monuments to wealth and fashion which constantly adapted, grand hotels both responded to and reshaped identity and social culture. Luxury is complex and elusive, defined according to place, time and person. Chapter I sets this thesis in the context of other examinations of the concept, its inherent duality as economic fact and medium to communicate social relationships, and its connection to the production of space. It argues for a set of characteristics of luxury around which the thesis is structured. Chapter II: Grandeur examines the hotels’ physical reality, size and status. Chapter III: Magic considers the representational encounter, promoted through a narrative of magical transformation. Chapter IV: Exclusivity examines the tensions between this crucial aspect of luxury and the need to attract clients, balanced via tangible and intangible thresholds of plan, design, and staff performance. Chapter V: Cosmopolitanism considers the attractions of foreign cultures, visible in the public-facing staff and in the gastro-cosmopolitanism of restaurants. Chapter VI: Comfort addresses the influence of changing ideas of physical and social comfort on public and guest rooms, and the new, private bathroom. Chapter VIII: Modernity examines the hidden production systems of luxury, and the social modernity on display in palm courts, where men and women could enjoy novel experiences in a new interior. Combined, these characteristics created the grand hotel.

Sustainability is a multi-dimensional concept when applied to our built environment. Not only does sustainability require that housing developments are designed, developed, constructed and managed in a way which minimises negative impacts on the environment and society as a whole but also the community of which the development is part can only be sustainable if it is a place where people want to live now and in the future. Malaysia's population growth and urban migration combined with its ambitious economic development objectives conflated to create an urgent need to house growing numbers of people in its major conurbations, particularly in the capital Kuala Lumpur. Many of these people were in low income groups and some part of a disturbingly large squatter population. In the search for a solution, policymakers turned to low cost high-rise projects, attracted by the high density housing such projects could deliver. This mixed methods research triangulates different types of data to produce a deep insight into the sustainability of low cost high-rise public housing in Kuala Lumpur. The research was partitioned into two separate studies, one qualitative and the other quantitative each differentiated by the corresponding data sources and methodological approach. In the case of the qualitative study these data were collected through user focus groups, one-to-one expert interviews, written observation notes, and location photography. For the quantitative study a residential satisfaction survey provided the data. A wide range of findings emerged from the quantitative study many of which highlighted a range of negative aspects of the high solution to urban housing policy challenges. However, many of these issues were within the remit and capacity of policymakers, designers and developers to address suggesting that despite the major challenges ahead it may be premature to abandon the high-rise option in the quest to house low income groups among rising urban populations. In some respects, the survey study contrasted by revealing a generally positive level of satisfaction among users. The thesis completes with a set of best practice recommendations which will be of interest to policymakers, developers and designers of low cost high-rise housing and all those interested in the sustainability of the built environment.

It is widely accepted that our housing industry is in crisis. Like most crises this has not happened overnight but comes after many decades during which little progress has been made from within and the numerous government white papers calling for change have gone unheeded. The proposition put forward in this thesis is that too much attention is being given to the benefits to be gained from innovation within the industry, at the expense of understanding the barriers that are preventing those innovations from being adopted, or possibly even from being considered. That lack of understanding represents a gap in our knowledge that could potentially mean the difference between our housing industry continuing on its current trajectory and it transitioning to a more sustainable path which can provide us with more, better quality, truly affordable housing. The initial aim of this research was to discover what those barriers were, by looking at the industry from all possible perspectives and capturing any influencing factors that might have been previously overlooked. The methods used to achieve this were a series of industry interviews across all sectors, together with on-line questionnaires and an analysis of government produced recommendations. By asking each sector in turn about their knowledge and perceptions of how the other sectors operated, a picture emerged of an adversarial, fragmented industry that was failing to understand the motivations and drivers of those it must collaborate with to bring about change. From this stemmed the realisation that, more than anything else, it was a process that was needed to help the industry deal with the many complex, interrelated problems it faces, that not only have to be recognised as such, but also assessed for their comparative impact on the decisions being made. Through a series of twenty case studies, a set of decision making tools were therefore developed, tested and validated against known issues spanning the whole remit of innovation within housing, using the concrete industry as the vehicle for this process throughout. There were many findings taken from this interrogation of the barriers to innovation, with relevance to the industry as a whole both from the perspective of those promoting and those wanting to adopt innovative solutions. By questioning what laid behind each barrier in turn, a model was constructed that showed a hierarchy of causes and consequences and exposed the true root causes that this process suggests must be dealt with. Whilst the practical lessons learnt from this exercise were strategically important, the more urgent message that should be taken from this is the need for a more holistic decision making process that can lay out the options available to the housing industry with greater clarity and allow decision makers to make their own, more informed choices.

The energy retrofit of homes is one of the most important and challenging issues for the decarbonisation of the global economy - having wider benefits for social welfare, economic development, energy security and public health. This thesis examines how new 'business models' and 'finance mechanisms', can promote a comprehensive 'wholehouse' approach to retrofit - involving integrated energy efficiency measures to the building fabric, low carbon heat measures such as heat pumps, and electricity microgeneration such as solar photovoltaics (PV). In addition, it shows how policymakers can support these new business models and finance mechanisms through innovation intermediaries. To deliver these aims, this research involved thirty-eight semi-structured interviews, combined with information from documentary sources and is split into four original articles, with a primary focus on the United Kingdom (UK). Article 1 shows how new business models can be a powerful tool for overcoming the challenges of whole-house retrofit. The article describes and compares five business model archetypes - ranging from the traditional, to highly innovative business models. These innovative models are characterised by: an emphasis on home improvement, aesthetics and comfort; industrialised processes and integrated supply chains; a holistic customer offering and single point of sale; long term energy-saving performance guarantees and integral project finance. Although the traditional model is suitable for the implementation of single energy-saving measures, it is argued business model innovation will be required to meet the UK's ambitious climate change targets. Article 2 explores the challenges of financing this retrofit activity at scale. First, it develops a novel typology of finance mechanisms for residential retrofit - highlighting their key design features. The article then explores how these features influence the success of these mechanisms in different contexts. Three outcomes are shown to be especially important: a low cost of capital for retrofit finance; funding for non-energy measures such as general improvement works; and reduced complexity through a simple customer journey. Most importantly, the article outlines how finance alone is unlikely to be a driver of demand and should be viewed as a necessary enabler, of much broader retrofit strategy. Article 3 outlines how the adoption of 'systemic innovations', such as whole-house retrofit, may necessitate business model innovation. Through a case study of the innovative 'Energiesprong' retrofit business model it highlights the central role of an intermediary in this business model innovation. The article shows how Dutch policymakers sought to promote business model innovation through creation of this 'market development team': developing a novel framework combining the components of business models with the functions of intermediaries. The article further argues that policymakers might promote business model innovation through intermediaries in other sectors. Article 4 outlines how recent policy initiatives in the UK, have failed to address four interrelated challenges that constrain demand for retrofits: 1) uncertain benefits and quality; 2) complexity, disruption and timing; 3) up-front capital cost and split incentives and 4) information, engagement and trust. Overcoming these challenges, will require a comprehensive and wide-reaching policy strategy - involving ambitious targets and regulations, and the creation and support of new finance mechanisms, business models and dedicated intermediary actors to support policy implementation. This thesis therefore demonstrates how a focus on business models and financing provides an effective means of integrating the social and behavioural, organisational management and economic and financial challenges of retrofit. Thus, providing a coherent picture of how these problems fit together, as well as making a conceptual contribution. It further illustrates how policymakers can act to support business model innovation, through innovation intermediaries, and thus overcome many of the challenges facing the diffusion of whole-house retrofit.

The history of 'risk' is bound up with the history of colonisation; colonial merchants conceptualised risk, and with this the principle of insurance, as a mechanism for trading commodities across turbulent seas. This transformation of risk into a separate, commodified object engendered an unequal distribution of its effects through a colonial understanding of value in relation to human life and resource commodities. This practice-led PhD project analyses risk in Lebanon through a study of the homes and lives affected by a limit condition of mechanised conflict and capitalist ideals for profit-making, first introduced into the Arab region through British and French colonialism. I investigate the unfolding of this condition in the present through an intersectional analysis of international law, architecture, and the human experience of violent affect. Spanning from the Second World War into the present, I demonstrate this limit condition of risk through two architectural typologies in Lebanon, materialised through potential destruction and development as the weaponised and commodified home: the Waad project, the redevelopment of homes in Haret Hreik in Beirut by Hizb-Allah following their destruction during the 2006 war with Israel; and yet-to-be-built luxury development projects across Beirut, which exist as life-sized architectural visualisations on hoardings that wrap construction sites. The thesis also examines the subjective experience of living with a protracted condition of risk in Lebanon. Having been excluded from the law, the often chaotic account of violence, here framed as 'poetic testimony', finds a place in art and cultural production. This is analysed through the practical aspects of the PhD project, for example in 'Points of Contact', an exhibition that I curated in Lebanon in 2018. Here I pose questions about the revolutionary potential of poetic testimony, as a method for breaking the asymmetric power relations entailed in a limit condition of risk.

This study assesses the environmental response, adaptation qualities and adaptation capacities of Arabic vernacular architecture, taking into account how these aspects help to provide suitable thermal comfort, while also catering to the psychological needs and preferences of inhabitants. The primary objective of this research is to analyse the features of traditional and modern architectures, and to assess which features better suits the hot arid climatic conditions in the Middle East. In particular, the study analysed how combinations of traditional techniques with modern technology can provide for better thermal control inside buildings. The research was carried out in two cities of Saudi Arabia: Riyadh and Al Madinah. The particular chosen sites were Addiriyah, Landform house and Al Madinah. The first and the last sites provided an insight into traditional architectonic forms, while Landform House depicted transitory or hybrid housing patterns. A questionnaire was distributed to two-hundred potential respondents. Data were also gathered from semi-structured interviews with fourteen individuals (assigned an anonymous sequential number from one to fourteen for ethical purposes). The research found that a combination of modern and traditional features can provide for better thermal control inside the house, making it more comfortable for the occupants and also enhancing their psychological wellbeing. The study also analysed the recent green building frameworks and the necessity to incorporate these into the construction of buildings. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that, for indoor spaces, architects consider the use of traditional spatial organization in Arab homes to improve the internal circulation of air, which helps to cool the various spaces homogeneously. Saudi Arabian regions can benefit from recognizing the need to have designs that address the effects of both warm temperature and humidity level.

After the end of World War II, in England was observed a proliferation of high-rises, replacing the destroyed buildings by the bombing and the existing slums. However, their popularity variated with time, at first being seen as a great improvement of the living condition, but later the authorities faced many complain that these buildings were unfit for normal living and especially for families and children. Nowadays England has to cope with a great heritage of towers from the 60s' and the 70s', as well as an increase in the construction of new high-rise buildings especially in the capital London. This research recognises the need to improve the design of the existing and future high-rises so they are in the same time sustainable and provide a better quality of life for the occupiers. Therefor an overall aim of the study was formulated: to investigate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the impact of high-rise buildings on quality of life through four objectives. The first one is to evaluate the connection between sustainability and quality of life indicators in high-rise buildings. The second one it to analyse liveability of high-rise buildings for better quality of life. The third one is to analyse energy-efficient solutions and their impact on enhancing quality of life. The final objective is to produce a conceptual framework for designing sustainable high-rise residential buildings enhancing quality of life. The methodology adopts an interpretive and realist paradigm and the data for this research was gathered from primary and secondary sources: interviews, observations and archival data. After searching SkyscraperPage database, it was found that two types of high-rise persist around UK and are numerous in London and Manchester: 12-16 storey buildings with brick cladding and 22-30 storey buildings with concrete cladding, so a limited number of buildings with these characteristics were selected for the case study. Actually, an effort to interview 3 to 5 residents in the same building at low, middle and high floors was made, instead of interviewing single residents from numerous different high-rises, in order to evaluate the significance of the height. The preferred method was interviews, as questionnaires were found to provide superficial data, open to misinterpretation from the researcher. Interviews, on the other hand, provided in-depth information about the social phenomenon: high-rise living, many surprising answers and most importantly, attitudes and preferences that were not influenced by the formulation of the questions but were formulated by the interviewees themselves. Seventeen interviews with residents were conducted in two old high-rises in Manchester and four in London to include the users 'needs into the research process. Twelve interviews with residents in new high-rises illustrated the existing variations for the design issues. Additionally, twelve architects shared their proven experience designing residential high-rises, offering invaluable expertise for the design of sustainable residential high-rises providing better quality of life. The data generated then were analysed by content analysis and dynamic simulations with DesignBuilder of an approximated model of one of the studied high-rise complemented the interviews, investigating different building envelops and HVAC scenarios. This quantitative method supported the somewhat subjective findings regarding thermal comfort and cost-efficiency from the interviews. The main findings showed that specific sustainable design solutions are adequate for enhancing the quality of life in residential high-rise buildings. Some alerting data from the interviews with the residents reveals difficulties imposed by the design on the social interactions, more common in the old high-rises lacking any amenities. Other important findings inform that both existing and contemporary designs are not orientated towards the needs of the families with children, a major weakness stated by both the architects and the residents. The observations provided support for a view that both modern and old high-rises often fail to enhance and improve the built environment by both appearance and mix of functions, a valuable facet of the high-rises' social impact. The analysis led to the elaboration of a theoretical framework that can be used by professionals and academics to guide their design process and constitutes the major contribution to knowledge.

Shape grammars have traditionally described a design language and replicated it using a procedure. In the majority of existing studies, one language corresponded to one grammar and vice versa; the generative procedure was univocal and language specific. Generic grammars, which are capable of describing multiple design languages, potentially allow greater flexibility and help describe not only languages but relationships between languages. This study proposes a generic housing process based on a parametric shape grammar, and uses this to investigate relationships between several grammars or families of designs. A study case of three single housing grammars was selected using the Palladian villas, Prairie and Malagueira houses. Specific parameterisation confers the sense of style required to define a language. From the generated corpora two methods were exercised to explore two research questions: 1. A qualitative method tested how the parametric space of a shape grammar corresponded with our intuition of similarities and differences amongst designs. This was performed using a set of questionnaires posed to both laymen and expert observers. 2. A quantitative method was used to test how well the parametric space of a shape grammar coincided with the design space expressed by the different corpora. Principal Components Analysis was used to inform if the set of parameters used to design the solutions would group into clusters. Results indicate that the expected relationships between individual designs are captured by the generic grammar. The design solutions generated by the generic grammar were also naturally perceived by observers and clustering was identified amongst language related design solutions. A tool such as a generic shape grammar captures the principles of design as described by the generative shape rules and its parameterisation, which can be used in academia, practice or analysis to explore design.

This socio-spatial study explores the meaning of home in an Arab context. It reinterprets the concept of the Muslim-family home (Arab courtyard-house), in terms of space arrangement/flexibility/use, gender, and privacy. The overall aim is to develop a deep understanding of the meaning of home from the perspective of users in Tripoli-Libya. It explores, therefore, the change and continuity, tradition and modernity in the physical form and use of the courtyard house. It also investigates how the role of the courtyard home influences the daily life of women in Tripoli. Over the past four decades, the courtyard house, once the most common type of dwelling in Libya, has been largely ignored in new housing development. On the other hand, the use of the courtyard house continues to be supported by a minority of architects in Libya, inspired in part by the ideas of Fathy. The opposition of these architects and more generally the ideas of Fathy, raise a series of questions that are the focus of this study: 1) Why has courtyard-housing declined in new development? 2) Can courtyard housing be justified in the present Tripoli? 3) To what extent do modern Libyan homes express points of continuity and change from traditional patterns? 4) How, as part of this, are they embedded into contemporary lifestyles and patterns of family life? To answer these questions, a mixed-method approach has been employed within two stages: the first, socially-qualitatively driven (i.e. questionnaire survey, interviews, focus groups and photoelicitation) and the second, architecturally-qualitatively driven (i.e. space-syntax). The first stage utilized two focus groups - the residents and the architects, conducted as a platform to simultaneously use photo elicitation, and semi-structured interviews. The second stage applied the space syntax to extract more hidden socio-cultural aspects of the Libyan homes (e.g. gender and access control). This study makes a contribution to the home research in a number of ways. Firstly, to the methods of housing user research, as the study utilized mixed-methods that combine the qualitative research with a socio-spatial analysis. Secondly, to understanding the production of courtyard-housing in Arab countries, applying the epistemological frameworks of Lefebvre and the methodological example of Boudon, integrated with the cultural prescriptive approach of Fathy, in an Arab context. In doing so, it provides an original perspective that has, hitherto, received little attention in the literature, particularly within Arab housing studies. Thirdly, to understanding the use of the home from women's viewpoint. The research has been undertaken from an explicitly female, Arab and architectural perspective. The most subtle characteristics of the Muslim-Arab home, for example, come mainly from its configuration of elements that were tested by people's traditions and culture. It is, therefore, very different from Western writings on the home, including feminist writings of the home, gender and space use. It is also different, however, from Arab studies of the home as these have been undertaken predominantly from a male perspective. Finally, the involvement of a woman as an insider/indigenous researcher provided access to a domestic world that it is not possible for male architects or housing experts.

The central problem addressed by this research is the fuel poverty caused by the thermal inefficiency of new dwelling stocks in Chile. By performing simulations to investigate different design options, dwelling types, building materials and passive envelope techniques, this research demonstrates that acceptable indoor occupant thermal comfort conditions can be achieved in dwellings at low extra-capital and without recourse to conventional space-heating and cooling. The planned outcome of the study is a modular low-carbon prefabricated prototyping system that uses locally sourced timber materials for delivering naturally conditioned dwellings at different multi-unit configurations and scales and to a number of site locations nationwide.

On the 4 April 2006, a municipal council was dissolved for the first time in the democratic history of Spain, making the housing crisis financially and politically apparent. In the Mediterranean town of Marbella politicians had been adapting the boundary between building land and the coastal commons to their own interests. The power to quantify and reclassify buildable space was at the core of an architectural struggle, as urban planning and the provision of housing had been designed upon the ambiguity of the highest tide in history. Since the 1988 Coastal Law, the Spanish shoreline has not been demarcated in its entirety yet: evictions and eminent domain have trapped the littoral commons in Court. Every twist of the shoreline reveals not where tides are active, but rather where landscape margins are entangled with real estate profit margins. This research investigates speculation and the housing crisis by using the materiality of the shoreline to understand dwelling struggles. The calculated construction of ambiguity in the demarcation of the littoral is analysed as a form of control and a form of resistance. Structured in three chapters, the practice-based research departs from the invention of the coastline in Spain to unpack the financialisation of space and the appropriation of the common good within the housing crisis. It investigates how the provision of ‘affordable’ homes as financial instruments relies on the global circulation of natural capital, coastal wetlands and offsetting operations. Through case studies in Europe and the US, it investigates the engineering of the shoreline by insurance companies after ‘natural disasters’ and the circumvention of mortgage debt offshore. Embedded in an analysis of housing from a critical finance perspective, this thesis demonstrates how rather than territorial boundaries being a circulation of capital, it is capital what needs to be read as a constant circulation of zoning laws and ambiguous borderlines, in order to anticipate alternative futures to housing inequality.

Rapid urbanisation in China is leading to significant demands for energy and resources. China's urban housing is therefore facing the following problems: on the one hand, due to the acceleration of urbanisation and improvement of living standards, there is a rising trend in new housing developments. On the other hand, many residential buildings in cities in China are below modern standards of energy performance, sustainability, or liveability, and they need to be improved. The aim of this research is to investigate the retrofit projects in Wales, UK, to explore the retrofitting of existing residential buildings at the community scale in Beijing, China, to find out how and to what extent the retrofit technologies and processes can be transferred from the UK to China, and the most suitable, sustainable, cost-effective combination of retrofit strategies to improve energy efficiency and sustainability. This is achieved through a holistic method based on qualitative research and simulation research including a literature review, case studies, on-site surveys, interviews, and modelling for the Chinese case studies. There are three stages in this research: first is to investigate low carbon housing retrofitting projects in Wales in the UK across environmental, economic and social aspects, to find out how and to what extent those technologies and processes can be transferred to China. Second is to investigate the retrofitting progress and development in China and explore the optimal retrofit solutions for different types of Chinese residential buildings at both building and community scale. The last stage looks at the research outcomes, addressing the multiple social and economic benefits, to provide suggestions and guidance for retrofitting residential buildings in China to create a high-quality living environment. The UK case study reviews seven retrofit projects. The findings show that most of the large-scale retrofit projects in the UK mainly conduct elemental retrofit, which uses one or two retrofit measures with relatively low cost, and can generally reduce energy consumptions and CO2 emissions of 10% to 30%. Meanwhile, there are some examples of deep retrofit in the UK at small scales, but the retrofit costs tend to be relatively expensive so that large-scale deep retrofit has not been considered to be financially available. Now the UK starts to look at multiple benefits of retrofit relating to issues like fuel poverty alleviation and job creation. From the case study in China, it is found that the fabric retrofit could reduce up to 54% of the gas consumption due to less heating demand with improved building envelop, while the electricity use can be significantly reduced through installing solar PV to the roof and the south facade above the third floor, with reductions of 82.2% to 90.9% for high-rises, and 168.8% to 179.2% for mid-rises and multi-storeys. The best retrofitting results can be achieved by applying the highest specification of the 'whole-house' approach, which combines fabric, system, and renewable retrofit measures, with annual CO2 emissions reductions of 75.6% to 80.6% for high-rises, and 104.7% to 105.2% for multi-storey and mid-rise buildings. The retrofit costs are ranging from 597.9 CNY/m2 to 1365.1 CNY/m2, and the payback years are between 10.4 to 12.6 years. Moreover, older buildings have more retrofitting potentials in energy savings and CO2 emissions reduction. In addition, there could be added benefits at the community scale, across economic and social aspects such as energy bill reduction, health improvement and job creation.

Against the current background of dependence on fossil fuels, climate change, global population increase and finite resources; this thesis investigates a performance-driven design method that combines modelling, low carbon technologies and architecture design to achieve an Energy Positive Housing (EPH) model that could potentially decarbonise the new housing sector and help, with a bottom-up approach, achieving a future low carbon built environment. Literature review identifies the main design guidelines for the EPH method. For modelling, the need of a simple and uncomplicated pre-design tool; for technologies, the need of a systems approach to reduced energy demand, building-integrated renewable supply and on-site energy storage; and for architecture design, the need of a replicable, affordable and sustainable design suitable for the UK’s climate and able to hit the mass market. Initially, the EPH tool is developed as a versatile pre-design modelling tool to size renewable energy supply and storage integrated with the grid, to simulate the system’s behaviour predicting demand, supply and storage profiles, and to evaluate the system’s potential considering autonomy, supply/demand ratio and export/import ratio. Afterwards, the tool outputs are used to design the EPH system, which combines photovoltaic panels and lithium-ion batteries, for electrical energy; and transpired solar collectors and a compact unit with exhaust air heat pump, mechanical ventilation heat recovery and hot water tank, for thermal energy. Finally, the energy system is integrated into the EPH design, which is highly insulated and airtight, and built with innovative materials such as low carbon cement, structural insulated panels, insulated render and low-emissivity double-glazed composite windows. The actual performance of the EPH method is examined to verify the tool’s accuracy, the system’s performance and the design assumptions, to provide future feedback for the EPH design’s application and to establish improvements for future implementation. Therefore, the EPH design is built as a real case study, known as Solcer House, and monitored over different seasons for three years. The extensive set of data from the case study allows to validate and calibrate the EPH tool so it is accurate and reliable; assess the performance of each component of the EPH system comparing real performance against manufacturers’ claims; and evaluate the holistic performance of the EPH design. When studying electrical energy, results indicate that the all-electric EPH design is energy positive achieving 70% autonomy, 1/1.03 supply/demand ratio and 1:1.13 import/export ratio, even though photovoltaic panels efficiency is lower than expected and batteries only use 25% of their full capacity. When examining thermal energy, results show components efficiencies to be 8% for the transpired solar collectors, 78% for the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and a 3.78 COP for the heat pump; but working as a system all together achieve a 5.15 COP with a contribution of 42% from the transpired solar collectors and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. Finally, when analysing the online survey to visitors, over 80% are impressed with the EPH replicable and affordable house model. The findings suggest that the integration of energy modelling, technologies performance and architecture design has resulted in a successful and viable EPH method that could decarbonise the new housing sector and help solving, with a bottom-up approach, the energy trilemma of security of supply, affordability and sustainability. The proposed EPH performance-driven design method leaves room for creativity, it is not a quantitatively defined standard, but rather a performance-driven design strategy that pays attention to both the principles of passive solar and the direct and active use of renewable energy, in particular solar radiation, therefore liberating the EPH design from the limitations of purely passive strategies such as the Passivhaus standard.

Sustainable architectural design is still in its early stages in many developing countries. There are many pressures that can reduce application of sustainable design; for instance over one billion people worldwide still lack adequate shelter and suffer from poverty. Algeria is an example of a country facing a pressing housing shortage which takes precedence over such features as energy efficient design. There is currently an inability of the government to effectively respond to housing needs in both qualitative and quantitative scales. The problem threatens cities with a large spread of informal settlements and slums around many Algerian cities. The main aim of this research is to investigate the Algerian housing sector and the housing policy adopted by the government, and to examine potential for future more sustainable outcomes. The problems and obstacles facing the sector are addressed with a particular focus on the city of Jijel. This research also aims to assess the professionals' awareness of the sustainability issues and investigates the aspects of traditional and contemporary architecture in Algeria which are suitable for the planning of sustainable settlements. The research methodology involved carrying out quantitative and qualitative analysis (mixed method) of the housing sector in Algeria using comparative analysis for different types of houses: collective apartments; traditional courtyard houses; and self-build houses. This involved descriptive, qualitative, and spatial analysis of case studies and the use of survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire helped to assess the inhabitants' satisfaction with their houses and was initially used with residents of 30 collective apartments from three different estates in the city of Jijel. Later, residents of 10 selected self-build family houses were interviewed. Finally, the survey was carried out with residents of traditional courtyard houses in the city of Constantine. This study found that despite being sustainable at the time of building, traditional courtyard houses can no longer be considered as an example of sustainable housing due to the degradation of the houses caused by age and poor maintenance. In addition, overcrowding and the occupation of a number of houses by non-relatives have caused a lack of comfort and privacy. The study also found that there is a wide neglect in all types of house of climatic design principles required to help achieve thermal comfort. Occupants are more concerned for spatial comfort and believe they can deal with thermal comfort using energy consuming appliances. However, the continual increase in fossil fuel use and energy costs in Algeria could make these houses either very expensive to run or even unusable in the future. In addition, the poor quality of the exterior environment and the lack of certain necessary amenities and services needed in daily life, have affected the satisfaction of residents. Most of the interviewed residents would prefer to participate in the design of their houses; a process that would enable them to improve use of space and thermal comfort. It was concluded that many problems facing the housing sector in Algeria cannot be solved by either state-led projects or by self-build informal construction. The research highlighted that the most important issue is the serious imbalance between housing supply and demand and unless lessons from the failures of previous policies are learned and new effective measures enacted by the government, the housing policy in Algeria is likely to fail again. This would further compromise provision of adequate housing and potential for future urban sustainability. Some suggestions are made for stakeholders and planners to aid in developing strategies to create new sustainable cities that can achieve both residents' satisfaction and reduce negative impact on the environment.

UN-Habitat recognizes that the right to adequate housing is much more than four walls. The indicators for adequate housing as described by UN-Habitat and that are of interest to this study are: affordability, participation, habitability, cultural identity, access to services and infrastructure. Self-help housing communities in Botswana are made up of housing of poor structural and architectural quality and they are lacking in basic amenities such as access to clean water, proper sanitary services and lack of clean sources of energy. The major challenge in these communities is a lack of finance and an informal approach to design and construction in self-help housing. Informal methods are usually poorly documented and they do not follow any set standards or good practices. The other challenge is that self-help housing developments are unregulated and unmonitored. This is because self-help housing is built incrementally over-time which makes it difficult to predict how and when housing improvements will take place. As a result the quality and delivery of self-help housing is compromised. The aim of this research is to explore how self-help housing can be designed and built to accommodate changes that are difficult to predict, and still be rooted in the socio-cultural and economic context of Botswana, without compromising the quality of housing. To address these challenges, this thesis examines the prospect of using a flexible housing approach as an effective strategy to improve the quality of self-help housing in Botswana. The design explorations were conducted using participatory action research and case study research methodologies. Thirty-five households were selected from five different wards in Mochudi as case studies. Scenario workshops, with focus groups involving local residents and local builders, were conducted to introduce and explore the application of flexible housing concepts. A flexible housing methodology is a simplified design system which allows for variations and incremental housing strategies. It is an effective design strategy that has the potential to responds to the continuously changing social needs of self-help housing in Botswana. The research findings revealed that flexible housing is economically and socially appropriate for self-help housing communities as they depend on informal livelihoods. Using this method allowed participants to expand their experience and knowledge of using progressive design approaches. This was a clear demonstration that a participatory approach empowers ordinary users and local builders with no formal design skills to create innovative housing typologies. The scenario workshops achieved their purpose of empowering participants with new knowledge and technologies for improving the quality of informal housing. The other achievement was to demonstrate that self-help housing can be subjected to the rigours of architectural design without losing its social and economic role.

This thesis investigates the so-called 'Dutch' houses of east Kent constructed between 1550 and 1750. The buildings represent a localised, east Kentish reflection of a broader Netherlandish architectural tradition visible elsewhere in England and globally where the 'Dutch' had a notable presence. East Kent was chosen, as previous research focuses predominantly on gable shapes and attributes the buildings to fashion or 'strangers' from the Low Countries. Moreover, existing contextualisation overlooks local circumstances and architectural developments across England and Europe. Hence this study explores why the buildings look like they do, are where they are and are regarded as 'Dutch'. Hundreds of 'Dutch buildings' have been analysed using a questionnaire, classification and typology, and the results contribute to knowledge in several important ways. Firstly, the buildings' external appearance and 'Dutchness' are now more clearly intelligible. Above all, the 'Dutch houses' are unique constructions rather than copies of structures in the Low Countries. Their hybrid, relatively homogeneous, Anglo-Netherlandish appearance reflects Flemish and Dutch stylistic inspiration, and incorporates numerous features perceived to be Netherlandish. Secondly, archival research enables an informed judgement on strangers' involvement in constructing the 'Dutch houses'. Since most examples have no documented Netherlandish links and are concentrated in clusters irrespective of where Netherlanders lived, direct input by the strangers is less likely than the local propensity towards 'Dutchness' and wider Anglo-Netherlandish cultural climate. Thirdly, such broader contextualisation has identified additional factors encouraging the development of the 'Dutch houses' including the proximity of east Kent to London and the continent, its above average wealth and the indirect effects of the strangers' presence. Fourthly, a subjective visual approach to assessing the buildings has been pioneered, which has reinterpreted and redefined their 'Dutchness'. Finally, investigations into timings and locations have resulted in a novel developmental timeline for Netherlandish influence on east Kentish buildings.

The survival of vernacular architecture in the world, and particularly in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, is under threat due to rapid modernization, urbanization, socioeconomic transformation, loss of its characteristics resulting from changes and development, and misinterpretation of its typology as well as serious issues of abandonment. Most Negeri Sembilan traditional Malay houses (NSTMH), in some cases over one hundred years old, are unprotected and are becoming derelict. The vernacular value of these houses and their preservation for future generations are therefore threatened. To date, little research has been undertaken into the challenges posed in the conservation of NSTMH from the perspectives of house owners and professionals, and how the changing patterns of their form, fabric, and function have shaped the challenges of preserving them. To explore this from a more holistic approach, existing local heritage legislation that protects traditional Malay houses in particular or timber vernacular architecture in general, and international charters were reviewed, as also successful cases of preservation of similar heritage. This research employs a multi-method qualitative approach by examining as a purposive sample selected 19th-century long-roof-type NSTMHs. The research methods consisted of semi-structured interviews with house owners and conservation experts, on-site survey of the houses’ changing patterns of form, fabric, and function, as well as reviews of the conservation heritage legislation context (national/ local) and international charters. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis, while the accepted concept model of cultural heritage was used for analysis of the patterns of changes in the cases examined. Documents were reviewed using template analysis. Findings from the research outline the main challenges that include a lack of appreciation and understanding of heritage among house owners, lack of traditional building skills, lack of government support as well as insufficient documentation. Nonetheless, there is no legislation in place at either a national or local level to protect the traditional Malay house. All of the findings were triangulated prior to the development of the initial framework and further expert validation was obtained to establish the final framework. This research makes a significant contribution in expanding the existing body of knowledge, through exploration of how the house owners understand, value, and appreciate heritage within their environment, in addition to including conservation experts’ perspectives in this regard. Moreover, the main contribution of this study is the provision of a Conservation Principles Framework for the NSTMH that may be used by house owners, conservation experts, officials, the Village Security & Development Committee, academics, and students as a form of guidance to the implementation of conservation works. It is also hoped that it may act as a starting point for the Negeri Sembilan state government to develop guidance aimed to safeguard this valuable Malaysian heritage.

The emerging problems from the rapid rural urbanization under the top-down ideologies and approaches in contemporary China have challenged the very fundamental definitions of architecture and architects originated from the Western discourse. It is within this broader context that this thesis started from an attempt to embed a thicker interpretation of Chinese rural villages in the major debates of contemporary architecture. Through conceptualizing and exploring an alternative form of architecture, the thesis aims to understand the up-to-dated situations and seek a sustainable path to transform Chinese rural villages under the current hegemonic urbanization. The form is manifested in the twin concepts – ‘hybrid building’ and ‘hybrid practitioner’, both emerged from and rooted in the rural-urban realities in the transitional China, and provide a modus operandi for a bottom-up architecture of social engagement. The first part of the thesis briefly interrogates the accumulated past and the present realities of Chinese rural villages from political, legislative, economic, cultural and social perspectives, which constitute the immediate operating context for architectural design and engagement in all its complexities and contradictions. The second part explores and examines six selected architectural cases and their overlooked production of objects, processes and infrastructures in Chinese rural villages from 2006 to 2016, narrating an architectural modus operandi of hybridity, of engagement, and of social sustainable transformation. Based on social-anthropological field research and socially-engaged architectural action learning, the thesis concludes that hybrid building and hybrid practitioner as an alternative form of architecture will not only navigate into the system of decaying villages, but also transform it in a more socially-resilient way, by prompting architectural activisms and triggering architectural hybridity from within the very fabric of Chinese rural villages. The thesis aimed to be the first attempt to place contemporary architectural design practice in Chinese rural villages within a broader framework combining anthropology and activism.

The physical construction of the Israeli state has brought massive destruction, demolition, dispossession, and expropriation of Palestinian cities, villages, lands, and natural resources. In addition, Palestinian common spatial memory and culture were blurred over nearly one century. The thesis explores and assesses the dynamics and processes which were caused - and occurred exclusively at Palestinian architecture, by the mechanism and practice of the 'Israeli Project'. Critical review of the literature on Palestinian villages and architecture in Israel has revealed that research has yet to read the relationship between the 'Israeli Project' practice, and the ‘aggressively’ transformed Palestinian domestic space, tectonics, making and its shaping factors. Furthermore, the current literature reveals misunderstanding of the traditional Palestinian architecture’s essence, its consistency, its intrinsic values and its evolutionary shaping factors. The thesis discovers that the traditional Palestinian house before 1948 had evolved in accordance with the evolution of Palestinian settlements; the Early/Pre-Form (nomadic), the Fluctuating-Form (rise and fall regularly), Emergence (birth), Deforming (into a better form or condition), Metamorphoses (complete homogenous village form), Heterogeneous Form (annexing of outsiders, group of interests), and the Ascendant Form (the urban). The thesis notably develops a thorough reading of the asymmetrical power or the intercultural relations between the Israeli order and Palestinian architecture and the spatial practice post-1948, integrating postcolonial discourse, and explores a range of critical issues through the concepts of 'dichotomy', ‘hybridity’, ‘third space’, ‘resistance’ and the ‘in-between’. During the last three decades, more and more Palestinians have embraced their culture in resistance to obliteration, exclusion and meltdown. As the thesis examines, an important aspect of this resistance is evidenced in crucial changes in the spatial boundaries of Palestinian dwellings, evolving from a space of inaction or reaction, to a space of action, thereby departing from a long history of cultural diffidence towards a new experience of resistance – towards a 'fourth space’.

Geometric models of indoor environments are useful for many applications. They provide a crucial foundation for assessing, modifying and communicating the internal layout of buildings. Despite the importance of this information and the increasing availability of sensors and methods for data capture, generating accurate as-built models of residential building interiors remains a challenging task. Users require accurate dimensions of spaces, yet few digital devices are available to consumers capable of delivering precise measurement. These individuals are not professionals with access to high-quality laser tape measures and are not necessarily willing to exhaustively measure internal walls, manually assemble and edit geometry to create an accurate and topologically correct plan. However, nowadays many individuals possess smartphones and tablets which contain a range of different sensors, albeit subject to various imperfections and error. Furthermore, buildings often exhibit predictable regularities in their construction which limits the likely structure of indoor spaces. This thesis considers the use of soft and hard constraints for improving building measurements to form the “best” representation of interior geometry. It investigates using prior knowledge of the building within an optimisation model to make automated adjustments to the geometry. The model exploits high accuracy, external geospatial data in the form of the building’s footprint, such as can be found in large-scale topographic mapping. In addition, knowledge of the topology of the space, assumptions regarding room shape and building construction and information learned from other interior layouts is utilised. All methods presented in this thesis are aimed at providing a semi-automatic, end-to-end system for indoor modelling. Quantitative evaluations of the improvements in positional accuracy arising from using the proposed methods are reported. These methods are evaluated and discussed in the context of CityGML modelling which provides an open and interoperable standard for defining 3D building information

The study aims to understand the passive design strategies of domestic vernacular buildings in hot dry climate and to apply design techniques which can utilize the favourable and at the same time can minimize the unfavourable elements of the local climate on a modern building. This aim was led to evaluate and propose application of design solutions of passive cooling techniques for improving the indoor thermal environment condition. However, this study was considering thermal performance of building envelope in naturally ventilated buildings toward reducing energy loads in hot arid zone of Libya and Ghadames city in particular in terms of using passive cooling techniques, which has the most profound effect on a building’s indoor environment.

My work, published essays and books listed below, provides new insights into architects’ approaches to housing design since the beginning of the twentieth century. Drawing on methods from both history and practice the work uses primarily drawn building studies familiar in professional journals for comparative analysis. Two interrelated issues, housing designed to be adaptable (or flexible) and housing designed for families other than the norm of the static, nuclear family, characterise the approach to the work implicit through the selection of case studies. A reflective essay considers the work in the context of attempts to introduce flexible housing typologies and the potential impact on the role of the architect and the consumer. Further context is provided in an appendix setting out an annotated chronology of relevant legislation, reports and recommendations, to raise questions about its complexities and the contemporary renewed focus on minimum space standards as the primary tool to improve housing quality.

This thesis investigated the implications of the integration of battery storage technologies on the architectural design of buildings, providing design considerations for architects and built environment practitioners. The study focused on the UK residential sector, considering ‘high energy’ battery applications in grid-connected systems, which provide the possibility of ‘island’ mode operation for a period of several hours up to several days. The implications were assessed in different scenarios in 2030, addressing business as usual, the implementation of energy efficiency and demand response measures, electric heating and electrification of transport. The research was split into three phases and was conducted through quantitative and qualitative methods. Phase 1 included the analysis of the energy storage side, which led to a classification of battery storage technologies and their characteristics into a database. The analysis in this phase was conducted through a systematic literature review, contact with battery manufacturers and other stakeholders, exploration of case studies, as well as interviews to battery stakeholders. Phase 2 included the modelling of the energy demand side, which explored the evolution of the peak demand and electricity consumption in various residential building scales in 2030. Phase 3 used the outputs from Phase 1 and Phase 2 to assess the applicability of nine battery technologies in different building scales, their spatial requirements, such as footprint, volume, mass, ventilation, location and their cost. The findings suggest that the implications for building design are of great importance regarding the applicability of battery technologies in different building scales and of minor importance as regards the footprint, volume and mass requirements. The study reveals the most suitable technologies for each residential scale and scenario in 2030 regarding their spatial requirements and cost.

Intelligent systems (IS) are seen as a vital component in improving building performance. The research reported in this thesis explored the potential role of such systems in improving the performance of courtyard house types in Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi government's intention to refurbish those courtyard houses that possess significant historical architectural value was based on modifying the ambient social and environmental condition to protect the occupants. The benefits of IS are generally to: provide environmental control and system control, reduce running costs, improve operational effectiveness and energy efficiency, maintenance/building upkeep, reliability/dependability, and last but not least monitoring and observation. However, the majority of IS research and development has been on commercial and office buildings, and although there were applications in dwelling houses, their potential benefit for certain house types, for example courtyard houses, has not been well understood. Against the background of the possible refurbishment of the courtyard house, the aim of this research is to explore the potential role of intelligent systems in improving the performance of the courtyard house type in Baghdad, Iraq. The main objectives of this research were to: (1) investigate the characteristics and features of the traditional courtyard house in Iraq, (2) investigate the meaning, nature and application of intelligent systems in buildings, (3) investigate the lifestyle of current users of traditional courtyard houses and how these buildings support their needs, (4) examine the potential role of IS in improving the performance of courtyard houses, and (5) make recommendations on the possible applications of IS to courtyard houses. Various research methods and strategies were adopted to achieve the defined aim of this research. These methods include an extensive literature review in both the areas of the courtyard house and intelligent buildings, and a case study was collected the data from two main sources through: (1) semi-structured interviews with twenty five architects and twenty four occupants, and (2) physical survey and observation of the traditional courtyard house type in the Al-Kadhimiya historic area. The qualitative method was used to analysis the data collection. Abstract The findings from the study identified the following new themes which provide the basis for exploring the research question: (1) Architectural value - key feature through the passive system of the traditional courtyard house type in the Al-Kadhimiya, (2) Limitation of space use, some spaces were not used, and the residents felt as if they were paralyzed at these times and (3) Requirement for new systems in this house type. It is concluded that the key features of the traditional courtyard house type are passive systems which support the lifestyle by achieving thermal comfort. Adding simple IS as applications which are integrated and wireless, with an actuator, will certainly help the residents enhance the house performance in Al-Kadhimiya. This will be done by: developing the level of control over the environment, reducing the environmental challenges, decreasing the social struggles, and supporting the response to the environment. This study contributes to the role of ISs in enhancing the performance of the traditional courtyard house. For the current users, these roles are achieved through three major steps: (1) the nature of IS in traditional courtyard house, (2) The priority of systems; (3) Using the courtyard house as a container for intelligent systems. Future users are likely to have a different lifestyle and so the level of intelligence may change; thus, the potential need for ISs might change too due to the type of IS and its operation. A clean air recirculation module is one application to be used in the traditional courtyard house type in Al-Kadhimiya, which can be selected to enhance house performance.

During the 20th Century, concern started to grow that the towns of England were losing their individual identity. This unease became most evident in the development of new houses. The aim of the study is therefore to produce a framework that encapsulates recommendations to assist in the development of regionally responsive houses. The research is located in England, and specifically in the market towns of the North East. This is because Northumberland is perceived as a remote county, and therefore strongly expressive of the region. Within the county, the market towns are centres of traditional lifestyles, and therefore places where regionalism is most likely to be found. The focus is on domestic architecture, as this is individuals’ most immediate and personal interaction with the built environment. An early part of the study was to investigate the concepts of regionalism and regional architecture. The history of regionalism has been a transition from local methods to increasingly standardised approaches to design. This has resulted in a loss of identity through the use of design strategies that are not context driven. It is a lack of focus on region that makes similar architectural responses ubiquitous. Without a concerted focus on specific places, the nuances of climate, culture, and materiality cannot be sufficiently explored. Although there has been significant research into variation of architectural response and material use, there is no overall picture of the significance of vernacular architecture. However, as these houses are historic by nature, questions emerge about their relevance and whether they are replicable. The neo-vernacular revival may be a response. The study confirms the widely-held belief that speculative housebuilders dominate the market for new homes in England. These housebuilders started to produce the same houses all over the country, with little challenge from development control. The response was residential design guides, which aim to preserve the unique qualities of the built environment that have contributed to the character of market towns. However, their consistent emphasis on the past, does not offer the basis for developing a framework that can deliver contemporary regionally-expressive domestic architecture. Thus, a fundamental appraisal of home was undertaken, as a means of unpacking positive interaction between people, place and building that can form a set of socio-cultural values. The purpose of the appraisal was to identify aspects that may contribute to regional identity. This was applied in terms of the development of market towns in England, and a system for the architectural analysis of their houses. Corbridge in Northumberland, was selected as a typical market town, and the system was employed to assess its houses. The outcomes were verified by similar analyses of schemes in three other market towns in the region. Residents in all four towns were interviewed to determine the factors that influenced their purchase of the houses. Architects, planners and house developers were also interviewed to determine their perspectives. All parts of the study contributed to the framework, which is organised in terms of historical context, geographical context and design considerations based on the architectural analysis.

Santals are one of the many Adivasi (indigenous) communities in eastern India and are particularly renowned for precision and craftsmanship in their domestic architecture. The visually stunning dwellings and settlements fascinated me as an undergraduate architecture student, and now, in this doctoral research project, I take this forward as a critical enquiry into the production, use and transformation of Santal built environments. There are two important concerns in the study. First, I examine Santal dwellings and settlements as both sites and processes, i.e., I analyse built forms, everyday life, domestic art practices, and people’s perceptions of important aspects of their surroundings in order to understand Santal senses of space and place. Second, I attempt to correlate architectural shifts to wider changes in the Santal and other Adivasi communities and the Singhbhum region in order that the architectural analysis may be brought to bear upon a wider understanding of Adivasi pasts. In short, using architecture as a lens, I aim to understand Santal senses of being-in-the-world and how these have transformed in the course of the past two centuries. This study is an important departure from architectural discourses on traditional environments since it examines processes of making and people’s experiences together with architectural forms. This approach allows a new kind of architectural history to emerge: one that is no longer about buildings alone, but that offers insights into peoples’ sense of their collective lives, and in particular their phenomenological engagements with the social, environmental and historical worlds that are in part defined by architecture. The project is inherently interdisciplinary in that architectural analysis is combined with ethnography and participatory visual methods in the effort to study senses of place. More significantly, however, I aim to contribute to critical discourses on traditional built environments and their historiography.

Research relating to the potential impacts of climate change on UK housing has increased in recent years. The future performance of dwellings that are currently considered sustainable may change under a changing climate. For example, well insulated, air tight homes that are energy efficient and comfortable now may be at risk of overheating in the future. Decision-making for sustainable house designs may become more challenging regarding dwellings that will perform well now and be resilient to climate change risks, such as overheating, in the future. This study evaluates the effect of overheating risk and future climatic uncertainty in designing UK dwellings. The main focus of the research is on the thermal performance of the external building envelope. The foremost aim is to future proof current designs in order to provide the best possible thermal comfort under likely warmer weather conditions produced by climate change. This research examines a number of constructional design options to reduce energy consumption and improve thermal comfort on the basis of climate change predictions up to 2080. The study develops a methodology by means of computer simulations to assess and predict the performance (in terms of total energy input, both heating and cooling, required to maintain thermal comfort) in a range of current, ‘high performance’ construction systems used on simple and typical UK house models in London and Manchester. The findings of this study show that UK sustainable homes, in their present format, are susceptible to a future overheating risk. It is argued that the substantial part of the overheating risk can be alleviated by the integration of modern smart materials and conventional design solutions, such as shading devices and earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHE). The research also proposes a new method of integrating phase change materials into the building envelope to reduce domestic cooling loads and overheating hours in the coming decades.

This thesis contributes to a growing literature on identity and the home. The study's findings enrich understandings of the way people organize the material culture of their homes, and the way objects and practices are drawn into their self-storying. The study reveals the agency in homemaking as a creative practice and highlights the particularity of homemaking experience. It expands the context for understanding the creative work of designing and producing the contemporary home. Home is a key site of intensive consumption and emotional investment in identity. Possessions in the home and in our interactions with them are integral to our experience and construction of who we are in the world. We make our interior landscape visible to ourselves and onlookers through our choice of objects, arrangements and practices. And yet insight into the lived experience of everyday homemaking is elusive. This calls for empirical research to engage directly with the subjective world of individuals. My thesis examines an archive of rich experiential data gathered in informal conversations conducted with homemakers in twenty-five middle-class London homes. Their narrations of subjective experience have been used to explore how people think and feel about their homes, and how and why they arrange certain things in certain ways within those homes. Identity is understood as a storied accomplishment and homemaking is formulated as a means of organizning experience. Material is part of self-representation and is regarded as a narrative resource. A reading of narratives and images in the light of this conceptualisation reveals the meaning in the object and the object in narrative. The theses demonstrates the endeavour of homemaking as a form of creative production that is empowered by individual agency and fuelled by storying interaction.

Concerns about anthropogenic climate change, fossil fuel depletion, energy security, and damage to our ecosystems are acting as a catalyst for action in many sectors of industry and society. One key sector which has been identified as crucial for addressing these issues is the building sector. Therefore, in the UK context, with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the requirements for new homes in terms of their energy efficiency are becoming ever more stringent, leading to the introduction of the zero carbon homes standard from 2016. Alongside this, broader priorities for sustainable development have been established in the UK, with a focus on the creation of sustainable communities. These are communities which support the diverse needs of residents and provide a good quality of life whilst protecting the natural environment. The literature suggests that the volume housebuilding sector is failing to meet housing demand in terms of either quantity or quality. Furthermore, it is apparent that the sector is failing to respond to voluntary stimuli for the delivery of zero carbon homes. Thus, it is with an overall aim of supporting the delivery of zero carbon homes and sustainable communities that this thesis has been undertaken. The UK Government suggested in 2011 that self-build homes, in which the occupant is involved in either building or commissioning the home, are more likely to be affordable, energy efficient and innovative than open market housing. Self-build housing accounts for only around 10% of new homes built in the UK, and group self-build is a small proportion of this. The UK Government has an aspiration to double the size of the self-build sector, with an expansion in the group self-build sector, over the decade to 2021. Literature on the self-build sector is limited, and that on the group self-build sector even more so. Indeed, gaps in knowledge in terms of the motivations for and benefits of group self-build exist. There are also gaps in knowledge in terms of the barriers to group self-building and ways in which the expansion of the sector could be best supported. Furthermore, existing literature on drivers for and barriers to zero carbon homebuilding is limited and fails to gather opinions from the broad range of professionals involved in the delivery of new homes. With the aim of addressing these gaps in knowledge, three complementary studies were conducted with an element of focus on the region of Cornwall, in South West England. With the aim of exploring opinions of professionals involved in the delivery of new homes regarding zero carbon homebuilding, a series of 34 semi-structured interviews was undertaken within the first study (Perceptions of zero carbon homebuilding). The second study was undertaken with the aim of investigating professional and expert opinions on the suitability of group self-build as a development model for zero carbon homes and sustainable communities (Self-build perceptions). This investigation employed the Policy Delphi method, an iterative, non-contact group research process in which data was gathered from participants through three rounds of online questionnaire surveys. This second study was formed of two concurrent studies; one employed a panel of national participants within England, the other a panel of regional participants within South West England. The third and final study aimed to explore the experience-based opinions of group self-builders through a series of 11 in-depth interviews (Group self-build reflections). The three studies are presented independently. However, each subsequent study is built upon the knowledge gained in the previous study. Within the final chapter of the thesis, the results are brought together and triangulated through a consideration of how the findings coalesce to cast light on the three central concepts of zero carbon homes, sustainable communities, and group self-build housing. The findings from this research identify and elucidate a number of themes of drivers for and barriers to zero carbon homebuilding. Themes of drivers include: legislative, economic, social responsibility, individual, and industry. Themes of barriers include: economic, skills and knowledge, industry, legislative, and cultural. Multiple potential support mechanisms for the delivery of zero carbon homes were also identified. The findings highlight the need for a cultural shift in the housebuilding industry, reducing the over-reliance on volume housebuilders. A broad range of benefits and motivations for group self-building have been identified and explored. However, whilst a strong appetite for environmentally sustainable development amongst group self-builders is established, this research casts some doubt on the central assertion that group self-build homes will be more energy efficient than speculatively built homes. Differences between the individual and group self-build sector were exposed both in terms of the motivations and the barriers faced. This thesis demonstrates how the benefits of group self-build housing serve to help create sustainable communities, and how they also serve to address some of the barriers to zero carbon homebuilding. The findings of this research demonstrate that group self-build housing offers a significant number of potential benefits towards the delivery of zero carbon homes and the creation of sustainable communities.

Cultural transition is a significant phenomenon in urban dwellings in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. House values, functions, meanings, and spatial configurations are changing in parallel with the process of socio-cultural transition. Through time traditional space configurations no longer fit with the new values and lifestyles. Meanwhile, cultural transition has also occurred in low-cost housing. Many occupants are dissatisfied because traditional values of the local society are perceived as relatively unimportant by the developers. As well as cultural transition, these occupants also have to cope with physical, spatial, and social issues. Therefore, the urban Balinese who live in these houses tend to continually adapt their dwellings to meet their current situation. In a study in 2003, Sueca used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the characteristics of the occupants in urban dwellings. These included socio-economic issues, education, demographic factors and occupation, in order to see how they contribute to the housing transformation phenomenon. Thus, comparisons of these characteristics were used to discover contributory factors, motives of transformation, and the processes and effects of this phenomenon. The conclusions of his research were made available for further work and to serve as a starting point for this current study. Over ten years later, a valuable study of this phenomenon can be accomplished to identify and investigate change through time. Systematically revisiting the dwellings and households of the previous study is a way of understanding this phenomenon, through a detailed analysis of documents, household interviews and spatial surveys. Covering over ten years, this allows a focus on the socio-cultural changes over time and produces information and evidence about this phenomenon and how the dynamics of the socio-cultural life of the occupants order and articulate the process of housing transformation. It is necessary to identify and differentiate between the core elements and the peripheral elements of the socio-cultural lives of the occupants, which can disappear or be replaced by new, highly valued elements. In terms of data, previously accumulated information was integrated with more recently collected fieldwork data in 2011. In this sense, the approach emphasises the need for a time series perspective of home environments and the importance of historical data for theory development in Environmental-Behaviour Studies. This study ultimately provides an understanding of the interconnection between occupants and urban dwellings in the process of housing transformation from a spatio-temporal perspective. Dialectic processes describe an essential dynamism in the process of becoming at home in the socio-cultural lives of this specific group. The study also explores the importance of the socio-cultural lives of urban dwellers in helping to define the nature of the Balinese, in terms of their lifestyles, values, preferences, and the nature of good or better settings for them. Finally, it aims to contribute to supportive housing design and policies in Indonesia.

This research investigates the concept of privacy in the context of Eastern region houses of Saudi Arabia. This concept had been explored in numerous fields in literature, such as psychology and internet security, where literature referred back to individual’s personal preferences that translated social and cultural needs. As a concept, privacy is one of the social elements that needed to be considered within the scope of spatial design, an element that filled some of the gap between architects and clients’ needs as expressed by literature. This research investigated the factors that shaped privacy inside the environment of the ‘house’ from the perspective of female users. Also, it looks at female perspective because of their role inside the house, interior spatial patterns in the house that reflect social patterns. For that, a qualitative ethnographic methodology was employed to help in the investigation process of the concept of privacy. Observation and interviews were the methods selected to communicate with a selected sample to get an insight of what privacy means to female users and the way they represented that meaning in the house design and patterns of use. The investigation was to study and analyse designs from traditional and contemporary houses supported with ethnographic data to document privacy interpretation inside the Saudi house. From that, spatial design elements were addressed in both traditional and contemporary houses that led to the developed design tool. The design tool, functional and spatial relationship guide, aimed to assist interior architects and interior designers in their design process of houses that respect social needs of privacy. That tool was evaluated by multiple focus groups taken by professionals from the field. The research contribution lies in identifying the meaning and boundaries of privacy in the perspective of Saudi female users of contemporary houses in the Eastern region. Moreover, the development of the design tool which helps produce house designs that are socially acceptable and respect privacy needs of users.

Reduction of carbon emissions is understood to be vital to help mitigate catastrophic climate change. In Europe, 40% of energy use is attributed to the built environment (European Commission, 2010), with a large proportion of this from dwellings. In line other legislation for decarbonisation under the Climate Change Act of 2008, the UK Government has agreed that all new housing will be ‘zero carbon’ from 2016 onwards. From a technical aspect this task is feasible using improved insulation performance, more airtight building techniques, efficient servicing, and renewable energy technologies. In practice however, post-occupancy evaluation studies highlight a discrepancy between design energy use and measured energy performance, with a tendency for real buildings to use more energy than designed and for projects regarded as ‘low energy’ in design to use an equivalent amount of energy as a pre-existing counterpart (Bordass, 2001; Branco, Lachal, Gallinelli, & Weber, 2004; Gill, Tierney, Pegg, & Allan, 2011). This difference between design and use - ‘the design gap’ - is attributed to both the physical ‘hard’ features of the building (form, area, systems) and occupant-driven or ‘soft’ features (ventilation & heating preferences) by a number of studies (Guerra Santin, Itard, & Visscher, 2009; Socolow, 1978). This body of work begins with a review of the field and state of the art - occupant influence on energy use in a domestic environment. The first contribution to knowledge is in the adapted utilisation of a piece of software by Richardson et al. which stochastically generated electricity use profiles for homes which are shown to be similar to measured energy usage, both in net energy use and in load profiles (Richardson, Thomson, & Infield, 2008). This adapted software was implemented to generate appliance use profiles for a number of dwelling models. These results are then interrogated and a regression model proposed based on a number of dependent variables identified in the input profiles. The theory of planned behaviour is used to underpin a survey in which a number of households are asked to comment on their attitude and behaviour with regards to energy use in the home – the homes in this case being new-build Passivhaus council-housing in Devon. The results of this project form the second aspect of this work’s contribution to knowledge.

When a conflict breaks out and whenever it is possible, foreign media workers travelling to cover it congregate in the same hotel to live and to work. This is where they cross paths with other protagonists of the conflict, thus converting this space into a site of strategic importance to the overall conduct of warfare. As the architectures from which conflicts are observed, analysed, discussed, and enunciated, ‘war hotels’ must be understood as playing an active role in the framing of conflicts: both the ways they are publically represented and the ways that we in turn see them unfold. Despite extended research into the mediatisation of conflict, little is known about the role of ‘war hotels’ as a crucial staging ground for the production of these representations. Through practice-led research, writing, and the making of a feature-length film, the past and present role of the phenomena of war hotels is examined in detail. While the film creates spatial and temporal conflations to depict what is, in effect, a non-specific meta-war hotel in a post-conflict environment, the written portion of the dissertation proceeds from an analysis of specific cases. A US Army training facility in California with its mock Iraqi villages and provisional hotel serves as a point of departure to establish and explore the concept of the war hotel as an optical device complicit in the production, representation and reception of conflict. With the advent of social media and distributed journalism conventional modes of war correspondence and coverage have been challenged and with it perhaps the necessity of a war hotel. Nevertheless, this thesis argues that this architectural-optical device has shaped the complex media constructions through which conflicts are seen and consumed and thus demands to be assessed theoretically and practically.

This thesis starts from an analysis of contemporary serviced apartments as they re-order and re-emphasise the importance of immaterial qualities in housing. They show that privacy, comfort and freedom as well as happiness, well-being and ease are not unequivocally positive ends which dwellings establish but that they are made possible in such a way that benefits for further capitalisation can be drawn from them. With serviced apartments, immaterial qualities are important for reasons other than people's good. This understanding of immaterial qualities opens up further investigations of dwellings that analyse the efficient entanglements of architectural design, productions of subjectivity and technologies of power. It shows that dwellings imply incorporeal engagements which are theoretically conceived as events, desires, foldings, diagrams, nomadisms, suspense and disavowal. And it analyses the consequence that these imperatives are not bound to any categorical architectural forms or functions but are identifiable, on a historical scale, in the many different ways in which dwellings were materially organised and, in terms of visual cultures and literature, in instances of life and living that can only be accessed in their particularities. Based on these organizations of immaterial qualities, this thesis proposes to understand dwellings as programmes which make living productive according to particular regimes of power, which work because of intensities that are experienced and made sense of and which are conceived architecturally in terms of appropriating the infinite, virtual and unaffected potential these intensities impassibly imply. This thesis claims that architectural design strategies which are meant to make dwellings serve people's good recognise workings that are in principle indefinite but actualise them so as to serve a capitalisation of living.

The traditional form of the Arab house was dictated by both its climate and the culture of its inhabitants. Islamic values, as well as socio-economic factors, have played critical roles in ordering and forming the built environment. However, the mid-1950s marked the beginning of Saudi Arabia's first rapid economic growth as a result of the discovery of oil, which dramatically increased the wealth and prosperity of the population, resulting in a new lifestyle. This period witnessed the introduction of the grid layout street pattern and the detached villa house type constructed in reinforced concrete, with large windows and balconies. This is still the prevalent style in Saudi Arabia and the central province in particular. While the traditional courtyard house created its own privacy and microclimate, this contemporary type is a solid building with a narrow open space between it and the next house. The initial investigation for this research revealed that the villa style creates fundamental problems for Saudi families, especially in terms of lack of privacy; and the air-conditioning has negative implications for the climate. The theoretical framework investigates the principles of cultures that are associated with the home, in order to clarify its concept and fundamental principles; illustrate the influence of culture on house form; and finally, demonstrate the nature of both the courtyard and villa house types. The methodology uses a survey strategy with questionnaires, interviews and building analysis. This study aims to highlight the need for a specific contemporary home style where both the treatment of place and the house design meet all the needs of Saudi households. The output of this research will be some guidance for house design that could satisfy 21st century aspirations, yet still respect Islamic culture and traditional values.

Economic globalisation is enabling India to reinvent itself as a development crucible, providing previously unrealised opportunities for economic transformation. One crucial transformation of economic success is the rapidly growing middle class. Whilst the growth in the middle classes indicates improvement in the quality of life of many, the rate of consumption has also been increasing exponentially. If they, the middle classes consume resources at the same rate as the British and Americans, India will become the world’s number one producer of carbon emissions. The attitudes and aspirations of the growing middle classes are a major factor in the increased, and perhaps impulsive consumption patterns. It is therefore the aim of this research to consider the bottom-up approach, which validates this thesis by examining middle class homeowners’ preferences in Mysore, a south Indian city. Mysore used to be recognised as having socially cohesive and inclusive housing typologies that were climate responsive and calibrated to local, social and economic needs. Changes in social conditions, cultural practices and lifestyle can be seen in the way homeowners use their homes to demonstrate affluence and status. A key challenge is to research ways in which sustainable housing in an Indian context can both mitigate carbon emissions and at the same time address the material aspirations and desires of a fast-growing middle class. Baseline characteristics and homeowners’ attitudes are established by means of literature research and fieldwork. The output of this stage is triangulated with further research to narrow the focus towards boundary conditions and transition spaces for an in-depth study of relevant factors contributing towards consumption, aspiration and sustainability. The second stage points to the importance of the external boundary of the site and the edge of buildings in terms of aligning meaningful, sustainable design strategies with the concerns and aspirations of the emergent middle-class. This thesis argues that, in the domain of sustainable housing, both a qualitative approach and quantitative strategies are essential to the understanding of social and cultural dynamics as well as to measure and benchmark performance. Because of the nature of this multi-threaded approach, mixed method research practices have been followed using triangulation methodologies and grounded theory. This has resulted in the revisiting and refining of the research focus and objectives throughout the research. During the research process, spatial scenarios for housing were developed to harmonise preferences and different sustainability agendas. The research focused on identifying and testing the critical building characteristics of the boundary location. Homeowners’ preferences were qualified by a multi-sorting task analysis and study model performance tested by sophisticated environmental simulation. This was triangulated with fieldwork studies to help propose sustainable housing strategies. The methodology adopted has been critical to supporting the architectural response to the cultural and economic condition on one hand (social methods) and the climate responsive, traditional design and simulation models (environmental design methods) on the other. Different sets of fieldwork were conducted at two stages that involved archival searches and detailed interaction with architects, builders, users, academics and government agencies. In total, 240 respondents answered a questionnaire survey and 146 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The outcome of this research demonstrates how, in the absence of any counterbalancing regulations, social perception and economic aspirations limit the acceptability of sustainable design and construction strategies. In India, middle class demographics and value systems are complex; where safety and security, and display of wealth have to go hand in hand. In this context, this research provides new insight into the way sustainability can be understood in the Indian context with qualitative values that are complemented by quantitative measurements. Finally, this research suggests ways of introducing sustainable practices through a negotiated understanding that balances aspirations with more responsive design. India has identified housing as one of the eight national missions to reduce carbon emissions as part of its commitment to reduce people’s vulnerability to the impact of climate change. In a geo-climatically, regionally and culturally diverse country like India, the top-down national policy can only be successfully implemented with an understanding of the local context. A bottom-up approach to identify sustainable strategies that acknowledge homeowners needs and aspirations should be a useful contribution to achieving carbon reduction and sustainable housing in Mysore. With minor adjustments, the methodology and research process could be adopted in other Indian cities.

In rural Scotland there has been a trend over the last 40 years towards mass market housing development which employs standardised housing models and suburban planning layouts. These have little relationship to rural landscape characteristics, regional climatic variations or historic rural communities. While they comply with current building standards, they fall significantly short of proposed improvements for energy performance which require all new homes to be ‘Zero Carbon’ by 2016/17 if practical and the European target of ‘Nearly Zero Energy Homes’ by the end of 2020. It is recognised that changes in legislation to reach these targets are falling behind schedule and energy analysis methods are flawed due to outdated calculation methodologies and imprecise climate data. This research firstly provides an in-depth context for rural housing provision outlining the drivers and legislative requirements. The first section of the literature review investigates planning and current practice in housing, whilst the second section outlines the requirements for improved energy efficiency from the European to Scottish contexts. The research then goes on to quantify the effects of regional climatic variation, in nine areas across Scotland, on space heating energy demand (SSHD). It utilises a best practice ultra-low energy housing prototype to demonstrate the requirement for regional solutions. All of the studies use a customised version of the Passivhaus Planning Package, an industry leading energy quantification methodology for heating energy calculations. A series of studies define the design envelope for achieving regional solutions by quantifying the relationship between the variation of design and form on the SSHD in the extremes of the Scottish regional climates. The variables relate to common metrics: orientation, glazing areas, roof forms and building typology. A separate study also compares the effect of Zero Carbon Homes and Passivhaus performance specification on SSHD. This method is developed further to determine the effect of building design on SSHD and heat load using seven contemporary Scottish Government exemplar housing designs. Improvements to the energy efficiency of these designs are made by considering variations to orientation and glazing design which are then discussed in relation to their impact on design quality. The results of the research demonstrate an increase of 81% in SSHD caused by regional variation across Scotland with up to a 29% increase from the UK average climate used in the UK’s legislative analysis method SAP. This requires significant increases in insulation levels to retain SSHD performance. Alterations to the buildings orientation demonstrate an increase of 165% SSHD when deviating 180° from south, which is significantly higher than guidance suggests. The analysis of existing exemplar designs demonstrate a threefold increase in SSHD due to building form and orientation in some designs. The optimisation of the same designs illustrates a 45% reduction in SSHD through improved orientation and glazing design. This thesis contributes to improving design thinking and assessment methodologies for new rural Scottish housing by highlighting the importance of climatically responsive design along with the consideration of appropriate energy efficient forms. The results of the thesis contribute to the debate surrounding the appropriate response of new housing in rural Scottish environments and highlights the importance of regional approaches and passive solar design for reduced housing energy use. This thesis contributes original knowledge on the effects of Scottish climate and building form on the SSHD of ultra-low energy housing in Scotland. The extent to which a number of principle architectural planning and design parameters can be varied and optimised across different climatic regions will give architects and designers a more quantitative understanding of their design decisions and impact on space heating energy performance across Scotland.

The thesis addresses the contributions of urban geometry under hot-arid summer condition in the Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia, toward both; the development of comfortable microclimate conditions in outdoor spaces at pedestrian level, and energy consumption from urban dwellers. The urban geometry is described in this thesis by three variables, including building height to street width aspect ratios (H/w), sky view factor (SVF) at pedestrian level, and the solar orientations of the canyons. These three variables are used in this study to investigate their influence on the microclimate conditions and the associated outdoor thermal comfort and energy consumption from urban dwellers. The work intends to shed light on the existing geometries of different urban locations in Riyadh City and the associated thermal conditions, as well as the thermal perceptions and preferences of outdoor users. Therefore, integrated empirical studies that are composed of three original surveys are carried out, including a study of land surface temperature of Riyadh City, outdoor thermal comfort survey, and in situ microclimate measurements in different urban locations at neighbourhood scale and within urban canyons. Following that, microclimate and energy modelling are carried out on a number of hypothetical urban geometries that proposed according to the current buildings and planning regulations in the Riyadh City, i.e. building materials, opening ratios on building facades, buildings and streets layouts and minimum width of local streets. Yet, since the study measures the impact of scenarios modifications of urban geometry on the issues under investigation, thus, additional buildings heights and different setback aspect ratios have been added. The proposed hypothetical urban geometries investigated include various street aspect ratio (H/st.) equal to 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2, and setback aspect ratio (H/sb.) equal to 0, 2, 4 and 8. The proposed urban settings that resulted from the combination of the various streets and setbacks aspect ratios are modelled on four different orientations, including EW, NS, NE-SW and NW-SE, and a total of 64 different urban geometries were evaluated.

This study investigates how the concept of 'urbanity' was defined, developed and applied to the design of housing in British post-war New Towns. A number of modernist architects, particularly Sir Frederick Gibberd, considered 'urbanity' to be a visual town-like quality. Such concepts were part of a wider movement to reconsider the aesthetic dimension of town planning; ideas developed through architectural discourse during the 1940s and 50s, responding to (and sometimes contradicting) the earlier modernist principles of the 1930s, which emphasised the social and functional aspects of architecture and planning. Reacting to the low-density suburban developments of the inter-war period, Gibberd developed his own ideas about urbanity. Gibberd was a member of the avant-garde Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS Group); however, developing such aesthetic notions went against the principles of mainstream modernism. Nevertheless, the 1946 New Towns Act provided the ideal opportunity for Gibberd to test his visual planning theories, since after the War, he was selected to plan Harlow New Town. He served the New Town from conception to completion, maintaining his ambition to create a sense of urbanity throughout. Much of the housing has remained unchanged since construction and a number of areas have been studied to reveal the application of urbanity elements over the period of study (1947-1967). By examining Gibberd's personal notes and sketches, as well as the discourse evident in architectural publications, Part 1 of the study aims to establish what 'urbanity' meant to Gibberd and other modernist architects during the 1940s and 50s. Through archive research, Part 2 investigates the ways in which Gibberd together with the Harlow Development Corporation (HDC) attempted to apply elements of urbanity to housing design at Harlow. The low densities prescribed by the Housing Manuals at first proved restrictive to Gibberd and the HDC, andchanging ideas about housing types, home ownership and 'social balance' also had an impact on the shape of Harlow. This thesis highlights Gibberd's key role in the development and implementation of principles of visual town planning throughout the 1940s and 50s. However, where other modernist architects reaffirmed their commitment to social aspects of planning, Gibberd's emphasis on aesthetics has led to the omission of Gibberd's work at Harlow from conventional narratives of modern architecture and planning. This study challenges this idea by arguing that the theory and practice of 'urbanity' formed an alternative, additional strand of modernist thinking about town planning.