Design Informed

by Gordon H. Chong, Robert Brandt, W. Mike Martin

2010 · John Wiley & Sons

The Power of Evidence to Create Design Excellence This practical, accessible book—for design professionals and students alike—is about design excellence and how to achieve it. The authors propose an evidence-based design approach that builds on design ingenuity with the use of research in ways that enhance opportunities to innovate. They show the power of research data to both reveal new design opportunities and convince stakeholders of the value of extraordinary work. A guide for all designers who want to earn their place as their clients' trusted advisor and who aspire to create places of beauty and purpose, the book demonstrates: An approach to applying evidence to design that neither turns designers into scientists nor requires large-firm resources The wide range of types of evidence that can be applicable to design and where to look for it Direct, practical application of the evidence-based design approaches in use today Provides tools to distinguish strong evidence that can improve design decisions from misleading assertions resulting from weak research Benefits of evidence-based design, including improved human and building performance Two featured case studies illustrate the theory and practice of evidence-based design. The work of the authors' 2005–2007 AIA College of Fellows Benjamin Latrobe Research Fellowship provided an empirical foundation for this book, and addresses the use of rigorous research methods to understand relationships between design choices and health outcomes. The California Academy of Sciences, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Chong Partners Architecture, and Arup, provides transparent evidence that enhances building technology performance in the context of a powerful design expression. In-depth interviews and case studies are clustered around three research categories: modeling, simulation, and data mining; social and behavioral science and the physical and natural sciences; and including cutting-edge use of neuroscience to understand human response to physical environments. The twenty-two featured thought leaders include: William Mitchell, MIT Media Lab; Fred Gage, Salk Institute; Phil Bernstein, Autodesk; Sheila Kennedy, Kennedy & Violich; James Timberlake, KieranTimberlake; William and Chris Sharples, SHoP Architects; Vivian Loftness, Carnegie Mellon University; John Zeisel, Hearthstone; Paco Underhill, Envirosell; Susan Ubbelohde and George Loisos, Loisos+Ubbelohde Architecture-Energy; Chris Luebkeman, Arup; Martin Fischer, Stanford University CIFE; and Kevin Powell, GSA.

Sacrifice in Pagan and Christian Antiquity

by Robert J. Daly

2019 · Bloomsbury Publishing

Robert J. Daly S.J. examines the concept of sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world, and discusses how the rise of bloodless Christian sacrifice, and the use of sacrificial language in reference to highly spiritualized Christian lives, would have seemed unsettling and radically challenging to the pagan mind. Acknowledging the difficulties posed by an overwhelmingly Christian scholarly narrative around the topic of sacrifice, Daly specifically sets out to tell the non-Christian side of this story. He first outlines the pagan trajectory, and then the Jewish-Christian trajectory, before concluding with a representative series of comparisons and contrasts. Covering the concept of sacrifice in relation to prayer, ethics and morality, the rhetoric and economics of sacrificial ceremonies, and heroes and saints, Daly finishes with an estimation of how this study might inform further study of sacrifice.

Providence and Narrative in the Theology of John Chrysostom

by Robert Edwards

2022 · Cambridge University Press

This book is the first major study of providence in the thought of John Chrysostom, a popular preacher in Syrian Antioch and later archbishop of Constantinople (ca. 350 to 407 CE). While Chrysostom is often considered a moralist and exegete, this study explores how his theology of providence profoundly affected his larger ethical and exegetical thought. Robert Edwards argues that Chrysostom considers biblical narratives as vehicles of a doctrine of providence in which God is above all loving towards humankind. Narratives of God's providence thus function as sources of consolation for Chrysostom's suffering audiences, and may even lead them now, amid suffering, to the resurrection life-the life of the angels. In the course of surveying Chrysostom's theology of providence and his use of scriptural narratives for consolation, Edwards also positions Chrysostom's theology and exegesis, which often defy categorization, within the preacher's immediate Antiochene and Nicene contexts.