Abstracts – Browse Results
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Adams, J (2019) Dynamic criticality analysis of industrial assets and system, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Institute of Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.
Al Asali, M W (2020) Craft-inclusive construction: design strategies for thin-tile vaulting, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
- Type: Thesis
- Keywords: built environment; crafts; industrialisation; labour; learning; policy; reinforced concrete; training; case studies; Cuba; Jordan; Rwanda; Spain; Syria
- ISBN/ISSN:
- URL: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.70426
- Abstract:
Design and digital analysis tools can be a fertile space in which situated building knowledge, represented in crafts, act in dialogue with methods of construction. This research examines this possibility in thin-tile vaulting - a Mediterranean ceiling-craft technique that employs less material, but more skill, than the conventional construction with reinforced concrete. Through historical analysis of buildings, ethnographic, and purpose-designed case studies, the research intersects three areas in the built environment: material limitations, vernacular construction, and building technology. The study focuses on three approaches to craft-inclusive construction: policy, training, and design. The policy approach is extracted from two historical studies on the industrialisation of thin-tile vaults in Cuba during 1960s and Syria during 1980s. The training approach is an ethnographic study that examines training programmes of vaulting during the construction of three thin-tile vault projects in Rwanda, Jordan and Spain. Learning from the two previous aspects, the approach to design uses design-build methodologies to explore how digital analysis tools can mediate between technology, policy, and labour for a craft-inclusive construction of vaults. This design-focused approach explores material alternatives, off-site manufacturing, and recyclable formwork for thin-tile vaulting. My PhD finds that construction for environmental resilience operates within the same limitations as vernacular construction. While local building crafts are useful for sustainable construction, they are usually excluded from policies and 'formal building regulations' as they are inherently difficult to be abstracted into codes. The thesis concludes that architectural design can play a decisive role in bridging this gap. At a policy level, architects can play an essential role in demystifying building crafts by using digital modelling and analysis to understand how they work. At a design level, they can develop construction tools in conversation with craftspersons to help the latter to find new possibilities of their craft, build faster, or build more efficiently.
Anagnostopoulos, I (2018) Generating as-is BIMs of existing buildings: from planar segments to spaces, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
Ariyachandra, M F (2021) Automating the generation of geometric information models to support digital twinning of existing rail infrastructure, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Bartlett, H V (2006) Understanding the implementation of sustainability principles in UK educational building projects, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge.
Baumgärtner, C E (2000) Collaboration between engineering consultants and their clients: characteristics of success, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Busic-Sontic, A (2019) Energy efficiency investments in residential buildings: does personality matter?, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Jimoh, I (2021) What explains the efficiency of major public project delivery in Nigeria?, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Jin, Y (2018) Supervised learning for back analysis of excavations in the observational method, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Konstantinou, E (2018) Vision-based construction worker task productivity monitoring, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
Lloyd, C A (2020) Modular manufacture and construction of small nuclear power generation systems, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Mándoki, R (2022) The social sustainability of standardisation in the Hungarian residential building sector, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Montali, J (2019) Digitised engineering knowledge for prefabricated fac?ades, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
O'Brien, S (2022) Critical infrastructure organisation management: an analysis of the transition to the Industry 4.0 era, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Pelenur, M (2014) Retrofitting the domestic built environment: Investigating household perspectives towards energy efficiency technologies and behaviour, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
Robertson, B (2020) On-site installation flexibility for disruption management in modular off-site construction systems, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.
TomasÌŒevicÌ, V (2004) Developing productive relationships in the construction industry, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
Vick, S (2018) Automated spatial progress monitoring for asphalt road construction projects, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
Zomer, T (2021) Institutional pressures and decoupling in projects: the case of BIM Level 2 and coercive isomorphism in the UK's construction sector, Unpublished PhD Thesis, , University of Cambridge.