Susan Stewart

Glass particles in the clothing of members of the public in south-eastern Australia – a survey

This study was undertaken to test the validity of the proposal that there is a natural background level of glass particles on the surface of clothing of members of the community. A total of 2008 upper outer garments collected from random members of the public in three different metropolitan areas of south-eastern Australia were examined for the presence of glass fragments. Six fragments of glass were located, from six separate garments. The study results indicate that the prevalence of glass particles on the surface of randomly selected clothing is very low. Hence if an incident involved breaking glass, the significance of finding glass fragments in the clothing of a suspect is very high.

Childbirth Supporters' Experiences in a Built Hospital Birth Environment: Exploring Inhibiting and Facilitating Factors in Negotiating the Supporter Role.

Objective: To explore inhibiting and facilitating design factors influencing childbirth supporters’ experiences. Background: Birthing women benefit from the continuous, cooperative presence of supporters. However, little research has investigated how birth room design facilitates or inhibits supporters’ role navigation. Methods: We conducted an exploratory video ethnographic single case study of childbirth supporters’ experiences, within an Australian hospital birth environment. Video, field notes, and video-cued reflexive interviews with the woman, her midwives, and supporters were thematically analyzed using ethnographic/symbolic interactionist perspectives to frame supporters’ understandings. Results: Findings suggest supporters’ experiences are complex, made more complicated by sparse understanding or accommodation of their needs in the built environment. Supporters’ presence and roles are not facilitated by the physical space; they experience “an unbelonging paradox” of being needed, yet uncertain and “in the way” during “tenuous nest-building” activities. Conclusions: Suggested design guidelines to facilitate supporters’ well-being and their roles in designed hospital birth spaces are provided.

ARCHITECTURE REVIEWING THEORY: Sir Henry Wotton's Dialectical Articulation of the Vitruvian Tradition.

In the introduction to his text of 1624, The Elements of Architecture Sir Henry Wotton briefly, and critically, reviews the texts of the Vitruvian theoretical tradition to date. He concludes that none of his predecessors have adequately articulated the precepts of ancient architecture. Their texts, he variously suggests, are muddled, overly concerned with rhetorical style, or limited by their attention to purely local (non-English) conditions. He proposes his Elements of Architecture as a remedy for this lamentable slate of affairs. It would be an error to dismiss this introduction as mere rhetorical flourish, for its critical focus upon the style of Wottons predecessors draws attention to the deliberate construction of his own text. It reveals the parallel between the architecture of Wottons prose and that of an exemplary Vitruvian edifice: both building and text are ruled by order, clarity, symmetry, economy and decorum. Wottons text might be read as an eloquent argument for the proximity of theory to architecture. The analogous relation of these two realms of practice is a familiar theme within classical discourse. However, this paper argues that Wotton. for all his apparent simplicity, is making a sophisticated claim. He emphasises not only the intelligibility of theoretical discourse, but also its resistance to closure. The Aristotelian dialectic of his ‘method’ acknowledges the limits of authorship. In Wottons text the proximity of theory and architecture allows a reversal of the usual relationship: architecture reviews theory as much as theory reviews architecture. This paper reflects on Wottons dialectical method. and observes the potential for architecture to review theory

Gathering, Disposing and the Cultivation of Judgement in Sir Henry Wotton's the Elements of Architecture

Employing a hermeneutic approach to Sir Henry Wottons seventeenth century text on architecture, this paper discloses the discourse on judgement that lies at its heart. Wottons conception of judgement is Aristotelian, and refers to Aristotles Ethics; specifically his discourses on practical reasoning, legislation and political wisdom. Addressed to the aristocratic amateur architects of Jacobean England. The Elements of Architecture seeks to provide a ‘rule’ to guide the cultivation of good judgment in architecture. Nuances of the relationship between ‘rule’ and ‘example’ in Wottons conception of judgement are examined, highlighting a consonance with the play between logos and ethos that is characteristic of Aristotelian ethics. This play, it is argued, is crucial to Wottons conception of both judgement and architectural making