Description
Students will work individually with a tutor to develop a thesis to inform the architect’s role in fire safe design. They will be encouraged to pick a particular subject area where fire safety has the capability to strongly influence design. The thesis can be undertaken as a predominantly design-based study or as a written/experimental study as is appropriate to the subject that has been chosen.Ìý The theme of this study will be developed through lectures, tutorials and seminars and will involve original research, as well as reference to trans-disciplinary scholarship.Ìý
Learning OutcomesÌý
On successfully completing the module you will demonstrate the following learning outcomes:
1. Evaluate relevant theory sources to develop an original argument based on critical reasoning skills.
2. Apply appropriate means of gathering evidence and other research materials.
3. Apply comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of one or more relevant fields of scholarship
4. Develop original research using writing as a support to further design work in order to facilitate new forms of architectural knowledge.
5. Develop expertise in the editorial production and design of an illustrated report, integrating both written arguments and supporting visual information. Ìý
Reading List:Ìý
Bachelard, G. Fragments of a Poetics of Fire. academia.edu, 1990. https://www.academia.edu/download/58030259/Fragments_of_A_Poetics_of_Fire_full_text.pdf.
Bachelard, G. Psychoanalysis of Fire. New edition. Boston: Beacon Press, 1977.
Bobbette, A. ‘A Forensics of the Future: Fire Insurance Underwriting, Contingency, and Early 20th Century Materials’. Journal of Architectural Education 67, no. 2 (3 July 2013): 285–87.Ìý
Cleveland, K., S. G. Knowles, and R. Shineha. Legacies of Fukashima: 3.11 in Context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021.Ìý
Eigen, E., and R. Martin. On Accident: Episodes in Architecture and Landscape. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2018.
Fernández, G., and L. Fernández-Galiano. Fire and Memory: On Architecture and Energy. MIT Press, 2000.
Frierson, C. A. All Russia Is Burning!: A Cultural History of Fire and Arson in Late Imperial Russia. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.
Goudsblom, J. Fire And Civilization. London: Penguin, 1994.
Knowles, S. The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.Ìý
Knowles, C. C., and P. H. Pitt. The History of Building Regulation in London 1189-1972. London: Architectural Press, 1972.Ìý
Massey, J. ‘Risk Design’, 4 October 2013. http://www.we-aggregate.org/piece/risk-design.
Medvedkova, O., and P. Malgouyres. ‘4 In the Beginning, There Was Fire: Vitruvius and the Origin of the City’, 75–99, 2015.Ìý
Miller, R. American Apocalypse: The Great Fire and the Myth of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Pyne, S. World Fire: The Culture of Fire on Earth. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.
Rosen, C. M. The Limits of Power: Great Fires and the Process of City Growth in America. Cambridge Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Ross, L. ‘Creative Uncertainty: Arup Associates, Fire Safety and the Metaengineering of Government’. In Neoliberalism on the Ground: Architecture and Transformation from the 1960s to the Present, 270–93. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.
Ross, L. ‘On the Materiality of Law: Spatial and Legal Appropriations of the Lagos Set-Back’. Architectural Theory Review 20, no. 2 (4 May 2015): 247–65.Ìý
Ross, L. Pyrotechnic Cities: Architecture, Fire-Safety and Standardisation. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2022.
Ross, L. ‘Regulatory Spaces, Physical and Metaphorical: On the Legal and Spatial Occupation of Fire-Safety Legislation’. In Industries of Architecture, edited by T. Amhoff, N. Beech, and K. L. Thomas. London: Routledge, 2015.
Ross, L. ‘Spectres of Edo Castle’. In Grand Gestures: Gta Papers 4: Volume 4, 64–85. Zürich: gta Verlag / eth Zürich, 2020. Zografos, S. Architecture and Fire. London: Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Press, 2019.Ìý
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Plus these periodicals:
BSOL British Standards Online BSI. https://bsol.bsigroup.com/.
Fire Safety Journal – E-journal from 1977
Fire Technology – E-journal from 1965Ìý
Fire and Materials - E-journal from 1976Ìý
International Journal of High-Rise Buildings: http://ctbuh-korea.org/ijhrb/
Journal of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat – E-journal from 2014Ìý
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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