The Dissertation 2nd Edition: An Architecture Student's Handbook Architecture Design

341 Pages·2006·4.1 MB·English

by  Iain Borden

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The Dissertation
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The Dissertation
An Architecture Student’s Handbook
Iain Borden and Katerina Rüedi Ray
AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD
PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO
ELSEVIER
Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP
30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA01803
First published 2000
Reprinted 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005
Second edition 2006
Copyright © 2006, Iain Borden and Katerina Rüedi Ray. All rights reserved
The right of Iain Borden and Katerina Rüedi Ray to be identified as the authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying
or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally
to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder
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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7506-6825-5
ISBN-10: 0-7506-6825-3
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
Why Write a Dissertation? 1
The Handbook 2
2 Starting 4
What is a Dissertation? 4
Selecting a Dissertation Subject 5
Assessing a Dissertation Subject 8
Choosing and Working with a Supervisor 13
Writing a Proposal 15
3 Researching 17
What is Research? 17
Historical and Critical Methodology 18
Research Techniques 24
Libraries and Archives 33
The Internet 44
4 Preparing 49
Structuring a Dissertation 50
Working Methods 53
Illustrations 56
Referencing 57
vi Contents
Bibliographies 59
Plagiarism 62
Submitting a Draft 64
Word-Processing 64
Alternative Dissertations 66
5 Presenting 70
General Presentation 70
Illustrations 74
Computer Software 76
Assessment Criteria 76
Oral Examinations 77
6 Afterwards 79
Further Research and Study 79
Publications 81
Troubleshooting 84
7 Dissertation Excerpts 88
Susannah Bach 89
The Barber-Surgeons’Anatomy Theatre
Megha Chand 105
Interrogating the Indian Condition: Some Problems
with the Frameworks of Architect Charles Correa
Nic Coetzer 121
The Production of the City as a White Space: Representing
and Restructuring Identity and Architecture, Cape Town,
1892–1936 (PhD)
Katherine Ewing 156
Investigation of a Traders’Route: Analysis of the Street Edge,
which Informs Public Space, with Reference to the Indian
City of Jaipur, Isfahan in Iran and Harare, Zimbabwe.
Alvin Foo Tze Yang 176
ASociety in Transition: the Social and Spatial
Production of the Aged Identity in the Changing
Landscapes of Care Environments
Alexander Franklin 191
The Architecture of Omniscience: Codes, Grafts and the
Representation of the Work of Michael Sorkin
Contents vii
Paul Gardiner 206
The Museum of the Museum
Olivia Gordon 213
Word-robe: an Investigation of the Cupboard
( . . . as prompted by Lucy)
Robert Holford 231
The Blooming D’Or
Michael Levey 232
The Charterhouse of Parkminster
Yeoryia Manolopoulou 254
Drawing on Chance: Indeterminacy, Perception and Design
(PhD by Architectural Design)
Anna Radcliffe 278
This Dream Upon the Water: the Representation of a City in
Literature – Venice
E.J. Taylor 296
ASpeculative Investigation into the Sacred and Aesthetic
Principles of Alexander ‘Greek’Thomson’s Architecture, with
particular reference to St. Vincent Street Church
Huw Williams 319
I’m Astounded By People Who Want To ‘Know’The Universe
When It’s Hard Enough To Find Your Way Around Chinatown:
an Essay In Unsymbolisation
Index 325
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Acknowledgements
Katerina Rüedi Ray offers her sincere thanks to Assistant Professor
Deborah Fausch for her extensive help and encouragement, and to
Assistant Professor Pamela Franco for her advice, both of the School of
Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Thanks also to Sherry
Bates for his role in developing the agenda of the Image/Text dissertation
group at The Bartlett, to Alex Zambelli for his role as a teaching col-
league, and to Peter Cook and Stephen Gage for their support for the
programme.
Iain Borden wishes to thank all of the various tutors who have worked
in the History & Theory and PhD areas of the Bartlett School of
Architecture, UCL. Similar thanks are also due to the many students on
the Diploma Architecture, Masters in Architectural History, PhD
Architecture and PhD by Architectural Design programmes at the
Bartlett, and particularly for doing things differently.
We wish to acknowledge Katherine MacInnes at Butterworth-
Heinemann, whose original suggestion it was to produce the first edition
of this book, as well as Miranda Housden, Leonie Milliner and Nancy
West at the RIBA. Ian Latham and Katherine Shonfield also played a part.
Special thanks are due to Ruth Kamen, former Director of the British
Architectural Library at the RIBA, who generously supplied much of the
information regarding internet research in Chapter 3.
And of course our particular gratitude to all those who have graciously
allowed us to reproduce extracts from their dissertation: Susannah Bach,
Megha Chand, Nic Coetzer, Kathryn Ewing, Alvin Foo Tze Yang,
Alexander Franklin, Paul Gardiner, Olivia Gordon, Robert Holford,
Michael Levey, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Anna Radcliffe, Edward Taylor
and Huw Williams.
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