THE UNIFIED BUILDING PROCESS: VARIABLES WHICH PRODUCE A COHERENT STRUCTURE OF SPACE (GREECE)

This work is based on the fundamental assumption that wholeness, as a geometric quality of space, is dependent upon the process that generates it.;The purpose of this work is to analyze the practical aspects of the making process. Design and building are examined in the light of empirical evidence, actual results and real projects. Process and outcome are brought into close juxtaposition, to search for, identify and pin down the particular aspects and characteristics of the building process that are primarily responsible for inducing the quality of wholeness in the outcome, or for preventing it from being fully manifest.;This being the underlying goal, the specific objectives of the thesis are: (i) To identify the aspects of the building process which have a direct positive impact on the quality of space; (ii) To investigate the specific role that each of these aspects has on the quality of space; (iii) To investigate how the variation of each aspect affects the quality of space; (iv) To specify the implications each aspect has on design and construction.;These aspects of the process are called building variables since the emphasis is on their variability when in use, and on the effect of the variation on the quality of space.;Design and building, as processes, have as their ultimate end the manifestation of harmony and geometric order--wholeness--in the built environment. A making process seen in this perspective immediately sets the framework within which space has to be created.;The identified building variables are: (1) Degree of unification between design and construction. (2) Dependence on actuality vs. abstract ideas. (3) Degree of unpredictability of form. (4) Extent of repetitiveness of form: Differences vs. similarities. (5) Extent to which the innate structure of space is defined at the beginning of the process. (6) Importance of the site and the newly emerging actuality. (7) Making centers in parallel vs. making centers hierarchically. (8) Extent to which decision making is congruent to the unfolding of space. (9) Extent to which distribution of labor is congruent to the structure of space.