Dean Hawkes

The theoretical basis of comfort in the ‘selective’ control of environments

Abstract This paper draws together the main results and conclusions of a programme of research, into the theory and practice of environmental control in buildings, which has been conducted over a period of ten years. A study of the theoretical basis of the ‘environmental system’ is shown to have informed a series of field investigations into the way in which the users of buildings respond to the physical environment and, consequently, exercise control over it. A fundamental distinction is drawn between the ‘exclusive’ and ‘selective’ modes of environmental control, and the results of the field studies are used to develop some general principles of the nature of a ‘selective’ mode building. These are illustrated through the development of a ‘generic’ cross-section for the teaching wing of a primary school building.

Towards the sustainable city

This paper presents a selection of architectural design projects produced since 1983 by the practice of Stephen Greenberg and Dean Hawkes. Each of these, in some way, incorporates aspects of the research into low-energy design which has followed the increase in energy costs which occurred in the early 1970s. The aim of the paper is to show how these individual projects may be seen collectively as elements of a low-energy city, or as steps towards the idea of a sustainable city. The paper develops a critique of this proposition and concludes with a speculation about the nature of the truly sustainable city.

Research into practice: A case study in the application of technical studies in architectural design

The purpose of architectural research is to equip the architect with a broad understanding of technical principles and to provide detailed support for decision making in the context of a design project. This paper highlights the thorough integration of building design and research in the area of energy efficiency for a library and office building.

Bridging the cultures: architecture, models and computers in 1960s Cambridge

ABSTRACT In the 1960s a unique research centre was founded in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Before that date research in architecture was fragmentary and consisted largely of individual studies of topics in architectural history. Under the direction of Sir Leslie Martin, who had been appointed Professor of Architecture in 1956, a group of young architecture graduates embarked on a programme of research in the newly established centre for Land Use and Built Form Studies. Informed by the interest in the idea of the ‘model’ that was prevalent across the disciplines in Cambridge at this time and by using the power of the University Mathematical Laboratory’s ‘Titan’ mainframe computer, the group developed conceptual and mathematical models that operated across the range of architectural scales from building to city. This paper describes that work and sets it in the context of Leslie Martin’s role in reshaping architectural education in Britain.

Aarhus Town Hall and the ‘other’ environmental tradition

The first chapter of Nikolaus Pevsners The Englishness of English Art is entitled ‘The Geography of Art’. In this he presents a reflection on the validity of geography as a means of interpreting art and architecture and in it he proposes that, ‘there is a whole string of facts from art and literature [that are] tentatively derived from climate’. The instrumental connection of architecture and climate is widely accepted in the literature of socalled ‘architectural science’. But the influence of geography and the specific conditions of climate may be shown to have a more fundamental influence on architecture than simple pragmatism.

The shaping of architectural research Transatlantic transactions

The growth of formalized research has been one of the most important developments in architectural education in the last half-century. It is now axiomatic that most, if not all, faculty members in schools of architecture will undertake some measure of research. In this the academic architect stands alongside, and is indistinguishable from, colleagues in the other disciplines. But in the middle decades of the last century the case for the development of a research culture in architecture was not so clear cut. Two of the central figures in the debate about the establishment of research were Serge Chermayeff in the United States and Leslie Martin in the United Kingdom. DEAN HAWKES compares and contrasts their pioneering work.