Appendix Item [2]

Memoing and Reflective Notes

Spread across a series of notebooks and time-dated loose papers that were thereon assembled, and re-assembled into codified folders, memoing and reflective notes played an integral role in the processing of theoretical insights, observations, speculations, ideas, concepts, experiences, feedback, challenges, and critical reflections on both my own research and practice, and that of those whose works I studied. Utilisation of the technique not only enabled sense-making of complex data, but also provided a chronological record of the development thereof, including the evolution of the patterns, categories, and themes that, ultimately, came to form the new WUI wildland fire resilience paradigm. While, in the initial instance, loose papers were not used by intent, but convenience [i.e. whereupon a notebook was not to hand], their flexibility [i.e. capacity for sorting] was found to be particularly useful in the analysis of data.

Codification

Data, including the case studies and narrative research, were codified by hand by means of identifying patterns, categories and themes for analysis, the process thereof documented in memos and reflective notes, and in the margins of the scientific papers, books, and other published materials that were utilised throughout the research programme. A method applied across the several disciplines as comprised the study, codification was fundamental to the development of a coherent narrative. Drawing on techniques from grounded theory (Grounded Theory Institute, 2014), including constant comparative analysis, saturation (sensu Charmaz, 2006), and the formation of theoretical models, the codes emerged and evolved throughout the course of the research programme. Thereon, the themes drawn from the codification process were communicated via discussion, narrative, tables, and diagrams, as collectively form the process models, these being activities that helped to refine both the codes and modes of their communication.

Systems Mapping and Visual Modelling

Throughout the processes of memoing, reflecting, and codifying data, systemic concepts, and in particular the informatic and material flows between the principle components, were hand-sketched in a series of loose papers and notebooks that served as working progress tools that helped to understand, define, conceptualise, and visualise data and the ideas that stemmed from the analysis thereof. Integral to the development of a “world picture” of the phenomena and processes to hand (Hawking and Mlodinow, 2011), in simulacra maps and models were also utilised when writing research-in-progress publications including articles, essays, chapters, and presentations, while also creating a physical log of the theoretical lineage of the hypotheses in development, this being a method as has historically been utilised by numerous systems thinkers including Morin (1992) and da Vinci (2017). Spanning genres including analogical, assembly, catastrophe, ecosystem, socio-ecological, and futures, the systems maps and visual models that were utilised included both adaptions of pre-existing constructs, such as the Adaptive Renewal Cycle (Holling, 1986, Gunderson and Holling, 1995, 2002), which was utilised to map the flow of information and material at scales ranging from that of an object to a city, and the development of original works that express research findings and concepts that are central to the thesis, including the Circle of Variability.

Metaphor and Metamorphosis

In the words of Richard Dawkins, “if you push novelty of language and metaphor far enough, you can end up with a new way of seeing”, which “can in its own right make an original contribution to science” (Dawkins, 2016, p.xx). Historically, whereupon utilised in the conceptual exploration of the phenomena of fire, metaphor and metamorphosis have been so very potent in their capacity to illuminate systemic ideas and concepts as to be omnipresent in millennia of mythology, legend, and storytelling as relates thereto. In the context of this study, metaphor and metamorphosis served as a means of exploring the theoretical and practical potentialities as may become manifest whereupon the processes of flora and fauna, and of the assemblages they form, are migrated to the design of the information and material flows within and of the wildland urban interface. Metaphoric and metamorphic concepts were recorded in both writing and sketches in loose papers and notes, and employed extensively in work-in-progress talks and presentations, together with analogy, which I found to be a particularly effective means of communicating the complexities of socio-ecological systems, while also serving as memory cues.

Thematic and Narrative Development

Thematically, the emergent nature of the research programme produced findings, thereon hypotheses and other outputs, which became progressively more sophisticated as time progressed. While some of the themes, namely those that were drawn from the literature review of systems theory (i.e. biological heterogeneity generally facilitating greater ecological resilience than homogeneity), became firmly established within the hypotheses from the near-outset, others, some most unexpected, materialized upon the synthesis of data from disciplines of which the combined study is relatively novel (i.e. the triangulation of insights from fire ecology and the wider Earth sciences, architecture and urban design, ICT and other fast-developing STEM sectors, and building codes and policy). In addition to the assembly and analysis of transdisciplinary data, throughout the term of the study, sensu stricto Socrates, I utilised manifold opportunities to discuss and debate my research and the hypotheses and, more broadly, theoretical and applied ideas stemming therefrom, in a range of scientific, commercial, and public settings, as described below. The experience thereof enabled me to experiment with different oral, visual and experiential communication techniques, to gather feedback from diverse demographics, to familiarise myself with the different research dissemination platforms, and to develop my awareness of how, where, and why it may be relevant to share the research insights and other outputs both during, and upon the completion of the PhD research programme and write-up thereof.

Continue to Appendix Item #3 here.

The thesis is also available in PDF format, downloadable in several parts on Academia and Researchgate.

Note that figures have been removed from the digital version hosted on this site, but are included in the PDFs available at the links above.

Citation: Sterry, M. L., (2018) Panarchistic Architecture: Building Wildland-Urban Interface Resilience to Wildfire through Design Thinking, Practice and Building Codes Modelled on Ecological Systems Theory. PhD Thesis, Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research [AVATAR] group, University of Greenwich, London.