Design Yearbook 2017

The Modernism of Birth
Emma Cheatle
History, Cultures and Landscape
This research examines the impact of buildings and interiors on the history of English
maternity. From the 1750s, concurrent with the rise of the novel, the incidental spaces of
home birth were succeeded by lying-in hospitals run by newly established man-midwives.
Across the nineteenth-century, birth was further medicalised and institutionalised in
these purpose made spaces. Analysing particular buildings and novels, this research traces
the developing relationship between the places in which birth took place, the women
and men involved, and the development of instruments and practices. The related Being
Human Festival project, Maternity Tales, spring from the above research.
Key References:
Emma Cheatle, Part-architecture: the Maison de Verre, Duchamp, Domesticity and
Desire in 1930s Paris (Routledge, 2016)
Emma Cheatle, ‘Recording the absent in the Maison de Verre’, in IDEA Journal (2012)
Standardised Assessment of Building Adaptability
John M. Kamara
Industries of Architecture
The aim of this project is to refine and test a theoretical model for rating the adaptability
of buildings as a first step towards a methodology for the standardised assessment of
building adaptability. The theoretical model is based on indicators of the adaptability
of different elements of a building in relation to six adaptability features: adjustability,
versatility, refit-ability, convertibility, scalability, and movability. Empirical evidence
through case studies and analytical techniques will be used to model building change
and test and refine the theoretical model.
Collaborators:
Dr Oliver Heidrich (school of Civil Engineering, Newcastle University), Dr Vladimir
Ladinski (Principle Architect, Gateshead Council), Professor Mario Dejaco, Professor
Fulvio Re Cecconi and Dr Sebastiano Maltese (Politecnico do Milano, Italy)
Phenomenological Affordance Analysis
Kati Blom
Processes and Practices of Architecture
My thesis laid foundations for an analysis of unique architectural experiences which have
heterogeneous elements. The corresponding building offers a set of negative or positive
affordances which may become noted in an experience. To analyse environmental
relations via perception psychology (Gibson) proved to be useful particularly in
evaluating glass buildings and the memorable experiences triggered by them. This
analysis reveals continuities and discontinuities of surfaces of material substances, as well
as the analysis of affordances within. Both exterior and interior can be looked as concave
or convex surfaces.
The Architect as Shopper
Katie Lloyd Thomas
Industries of Architecture
This project investigates the emergence of the architect as ‘shopper’ and handmaiden of
the building products industry in the interwar period – a transformation much debated
at the time, but now largely forgotten, and an unquestioned aspect of contemporary
architectural practice. It explores the role of women who, on the one hand were just
entering the architectural profession, selling building products or working in the
electrical industry, and on the other, were actively targeted as key consumers of building
products. The research is in conjunction with the Building Centre (London) and a
Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal) research fellowship to prepare the book
proposal.
Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KSc5m9mWQs
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