Evidence of Geometric Operators used to Shape Ancient Hulls

In some shipwrecks we can recognize factors such as units of measurement, use of segments and arcs, and repetition of shapes, which may have been rationalised during the transition from craft shipbuilding to a formal design process. This is an a posteriori assessment, as we do not know how hull‐shapes were planned and controlled in Antiquity. However the Cheops boat, and the Madrague de Giens, Anse des Laurons II, Fiumicino 4 and Yassi Ada II wrecks, display measurements and geometries suggesting rational approaches to hull‐moulding, with principles common to those of medieval and Renaissance shipbuilding and the traditional Mediterranean garbi. © 2012 The Author     

Confrontation and conciliation: the sami,the crown and the court in seventeenth-century swedish lapland1

This article aims to discover in what kind of legal cases conflicts may be traced between the Sami and representatives of the Crown, and in which situations conciliation is apparent; and it also answers the questions of how and why this happened. It is evident, from the court rolls from the court district of Jukkasjärvi (one of the two northernmost lappmarker in Sweden at this time), that the Crown prosecuted the Sami for sexual offences and crimes against religion. This was due to the prevailing ideology of the seventeenth century, in which Lutheran Christianity prevailed, and because the court was the arena for a power discourse: there was a “right” way to live and behave. This came into conflict with Sami tradition. The Sami themselves pursued a desire and need for conciliation, which becomes apparent in cases of crimes such as murder, manslaughter and grand theft, but also in civil cases, e.g. inheritance. This was due to the fact that the population was quite small, bound together in different relations, and because large-scale conflicts were not beneficial to Sami communities. Even though the Crown Court was an arena of power, it was also used by the Sami for their own ends, and thus we can see an interactive Sami society, independent of the prevailing political Lutheran Christian ideology and its discourse.     

Challenges to Western Participation in Shaping the Urban Landscape of Post-Socialist St. Petersburg: The Failure of International Competitions for Iconic Architectural Projects

The paper, based on a series of interviews in St. Petersburg conducted in 2009 and 2010 by an American geographer, discusses the failure of major iconic architectural projects awarded to Western firms through international architectural competitions. The projects, sought by Russian government and business leaders to enhance the city's re-emerging global status, are viewed as likely examples of diminished Western participation in the shaping of St. Petersburg's iconic urban landscape. The author attributes the failure to financial setbacks, and primarily also to a recalcitrant bureaucracy, red tape, overly strict building codes and regulations, corruption as well as negative reaction by local residents and media outlets.     

Documentation of the Yazdi-Bandi Vault at the Plaza of Sadr-e-A’zam,Tehran

ABSTRACT

This article intends to document a previously unsighted sample of yazdi-bandi over an outlying structure in the old Bazaar fabric of Tehran, namely a plaza known as Timché-ye Sadre-A’zam. Recent renovations of the plaza have concealed the work under an austerely flat drop ceiling in gypsum. The old yazdi ceiling was only accidentally discovered by the authors following the trail of hearsay and local legends. The plaza is of late 19th century construction, a period that witnessed an evolutionary and aesthetic climax in all aspects of architectural geometry in the country, including the various branches of kaarbandi. With the limitations that the authors faced, basic tools were used in the scanning and surveillance of the ceiling. Photographs were collected using a wide-angle lens. They served as raw data for the reconstruction of the yazdi plan in AutoCAD, This article presents the findings, and for a better understanding of the entire premise by the reader, supplements them with preambles on the evolutionary history, geometrical analysis, a preview of the state of scholarship and a collection of relevant terms and concepts in the study of yazdi, in particular, and kaarbandi as a whole.