Design Yearbook 2017

BA Dissertations
The Carpets of Venice: Was venetian façade ornamentation influenced by the carpet trade
1300-1600?
Angus Brown
Art historians have drawn a link between Islamic carpets and Italian painting. This dissertation
will attempt to establish a further link between oriental rugs and the ornamentation of
Venetian architecture (1300-1600). This will be achieved by examining the relationship
between Venice and the East centred around the carpet trade, followed by an exploration of its
influence on Italian paintings, before attempting to discover whether such a link can be drawn
to Venetian architecture.
The first chapter will discuss the early depictions of Anatolian carpets in Venice. To help
inform the discussion we will look at some of the common motifs and patterns displayed on
oriental carpets. Inventories will also help us to establish the extent of the carpet trade. The
second chapter will establish why vernacular architecture was receptive to Islamic influence
with analysis of the tripartite plan and Gottfired Semper’s Stoff-Wechsel theory. The third
chapter will address whether carpets have become part of the city’s permanent display,
discerning whether there is a connection between the mihrab niche found on Moslem prayer
mats and Venetian fenestration. To complete the discussion, we will analyse the surviving
façade paintings of the city and discern whether these too were influenced by the patterns
found on carpets.
Terrestrial Ecopoiesis: The choreography of life within an encapsulated world
Robert Thackeray
Whether it’s to travel into the depths of space, or to sit out the apocalypse here on earth, closed
system ecologies strive to provide a space that can sustain human life. By mixing together
disciplines such as biology, ecology, anthropology, and a whole load of other ‘ologies’ to go
with them, the closed systems created in the past present a very experimental architectural
typology.
Delving into these ideas, and how their ecologies will be inhabited by people, this essay
tries to emulate their experimental approach. Combining scientific analysis with descriptive
postulations and fiction, or using poetry, religion and myth to accentuate experimentations,
the essay strives to cross disciplines, and therefore styles, to give a rounded understanding of
such a multifaceted typology.
HygroSpores: A report into early experiments on the design and fabrication of bacteria
spore based actuators
Pippa McLeod-Brown
Energy reduction policies imposed by the government have led to technological innovations
to lower energy consumption in architectural design and building practices. Building systems
“reduce energy use by means of technologically enabled climate-responsiveness”. Actuators are
primary examples of this; they are used to regulate internal building environments by reducing
nuances such as solar heat gain. Bioclimatic design has been the focus for attaining lower energy
consumption figures, however the use of active building systems is still sporadically required
when external environmental conditions do not favour the passive systems implemented.
In recent years there has been a growing interest in developing organic material to replace
traditional mechanical systems. Natural systems perpetually respond to the environment using
genetically ingrained survival mechanisms. This has inspired a new generation of responsive
materials in architecture that are capable of reacting intelligently to their environment. The
properties of materials such as wood have been researched to understand how the natural
systems function so we can programme them to work for human benefit.
This dissertation will describe a series of experiments that explore a new type of hygromorphic
material which uses a mutated strain of Bacillus Subtilis spores that can be applied to a thin,
passive, polymer substrate and programmed into an actuating system.
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