DHVSU-ARCHITECTURAL THESIS MANUAL 2020-2021

Chapter 01
Chapter 01: INTRODUCTION

1.1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

1.1.1 INTRODUCTION/ BACKGROUND

This part is supposed to give the reader a clear idea of what your
thesis is all about. Remember, clear idea. Therefore, you cannot go
discussing anything you come across without understanding how it
relates to what you want to achieve in the end.

Here are some of the point you have to cover to make sure that you
Introduction will give the reader a strong vision of the direction
you want your project to take.

1. Present the problem and concerns, which will bring you to choose to
work on your proposal. You should do this without using the word “I”
and without presenting your proposal just yet.

2. Inform your reader about the present scenario – the unsatisfactory

conditions and problems that your feel need to be solved (and that YOU
can actually solve ARCHITECTURALLY). These would include such aspects
such as technical problems; absence/ incompatibility of present site;
need for proper planning need for recognition of potentials; etc. Make
sure, though, that you stick only to the relevant factors.

3. State the reason/s why it is necessary to conduct the study, which

will lead to your solution. This is sometimes called the “RATIONALE”
(which is also a tip: this is where you rationalize what you
are doing) why in the world must you do this? Will it make the world a
better place?)

4. Does your problem has a historical background? Most problems do.

Trace it. Then present it clearly and coherently. However, be careful
about delivering too much on the historical context. Once you have
connected the historical events with present developments and
the problem at hand move on.

5. Ask yourself these questions: Do you have a clearer and

deeper understanding of the conditions pertinent to your problem? Do
you want to find a way to solve it? If there are already
existing ways of solving it, are you interested on going the extra
mile to come up with a better solution? If your answer to these
 DHVSU-ARCHITECTURAL THESIS MANUAL 2020-2021

questions is a resounding “YES!”, then tell your reader so (again: do

not use “I” and do not actually address your reader). All you have to
do here is to convince your reader that your project is worth your
effort and the reader’s attention.

6. Describe the condition of your study locale. You should do this in

an informative manner, which is not too technical for readers with no
background in architecture. In addition, you should do this whether the
locality is being used as a source of basic data or a targeted site for
application.

7. Wrap up. Before you start with the next part, make sure you have
linked all the things you have discussed. Do not leave the
reader wondering where you got the idea of conducting this study. If you
can come up with a clever parting statement here, then by all means, DO!

1.1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This is composed of a GENERAL STATEMENT of a MAJOR

PROBLEM and SPECIFIC QUESTIONS or SUB PROBLEMS pertaining to your thesis
topic. If you have formulated them in the introduction, you only need to
repeat them in this section.

Since you will be focusing on several RESEARCH TOPICS, you may be

able to come up with different specific needs that you have identified
are supposed to make your project unique from other studies. Let
your reader know this by stating your problem is a SIMPLE, CLEAR and
DIRECT manner.

1.1.3 ARCHITECTURAL THESIS GOALS/ OBJECTIVE/ STRATEGIES

1.1.3a ARCHITECTURAL THESIS GOAL

There is one very important word here and that is
“ARCHITECTURAL”. You can begin “selling” your project here by
defining what kind of structure you want to see in the
translation of your study. A brief description of the outcome
could also help so that a conceivable “Image” may be
formed. Keep in mind that you are doing an architectural
thesis. Refrain from devising PROGRAMS for the operation of your
project.
 DHVSU-ARCHITECTURAL THESIS MANUAL 2020-2021

1.1.3b OBJECTIVES
Objectives are more SPECFIC targets, which eventually
lead to the attainment of your architectural goal. You may want
to group them by certain categories as determined by your
goal, or arrange them accordingly to importance.

1.1.3c STRATEGIES
Strategies are particular actions you have to do to
achieve each specific objective. Forget about architectural for a
while and focus on RESEARCH WORK. What you need to know, study,
research on, survey, observe, estimate or program in order to create
a body of knowledge that will lead to meeting your objectives. It
would, therefore, be more comprehensible if you allow the
succeeding outline in stating your thesis goals, objectives and
strategies.

Goals :
OBJECTIVES :
1.
STRATEGIES
1.
2.
2.
STRATEGIES
1.
2.
3.

As you enumerate the objectives and strategies, keep checking their

relevance to your goal. If you do not see a direct relationship, scrap
the objectives before you get carried away identifying the strategies.
In addition, please be consistent with your sentence structure. If you
begin the GOAL and the first OBEJCTIVE with “To + verb....” use the
format until you ran out of objectives to state.

Strategies are very different thing. They are structured in

the imperative form (the better to scare you into doing them,
perhaps?).
1.1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

1.1.4a SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This is very important that you state in the clearest manner
possible the coverage of your study and project. To do this, you must
first ask yourself what you need to do and why you need to do them.
Once you have identified this you can again categorize or group them to
gauge the task better.

Let us say you will be covering a lot of investigation with respect

to the site. Identify what you need to know as required by your
project. Then let us say again that you also have to conduct a deeper
research about your thesis topic/s. do you know why? Of course, you do.
Write your purposes. Elaborate if possible. Then let us say further
that you’ll be conducting case studies. What will be your subjects?
What will you be looking into? Will it be the locale, the
users, the activities, what? Then (as you may have already guessed)
you have to explain why. Then let us say you stop. Good.

1.1.4b LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Most researchers make the mistake of using this part of the paper
to state simply what their project will NOT be about. But then again,
who said that you are like most researchers? You are not, right? Right.
So make this a statement of the constraints or limiting
factors that might affect your research and therefore, the
final output. Some examples would be budgetary limits (don’t we
all have this??) , unavailability or inaccessibility of data,
and not of course our favorite excuse: time constraints.

However, these limitations determined only to keep your study at a

realistic level in no way should be used as an excuse for personal
shortcomings o blocks in the outcome of the projects.

1.1.5 PURPOSE/ RELEVANCE/ SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THESIS

Who will benefit from your studies? How can this study be of
any help in fostering a better architecture? These are few of the
questions you have to take into considerations in writing the
significance of your thesis. This may deal with the social,
economic or cultural aspects of the project. You can even combine
or address all of the aspects if you like. But HOLD IT! Do not
 think of yourself as some kind of God who can actually SOLVE the
problems with your thesis in blink of an eye. You cannot alleviate
poverty nor improve the whole bureautic system through your study.

But it can be a TOOL. (and it MUST be a tool if that is what

you aim). Always keep in mind that you are an architect, not a
psychologist, sociologist, physician, nor a politician. And
so you must always direct your discussion on the
ARCHITECTURAL aspect of your work. Oftentimes you get
carried away by the description drawn from the client’s
project proposals and thereby forgetting the architectural
contributions you want your project to have. Example, if
you are working on Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents, you
will not say that your thesis can actually heal these addicts.
Instead, you can state your possible contributions, as an
architect, to meet this concern.

1.1.6 ASSUMPTION

The thesis, though a theoretical exercise which need

to immediate application, should however be REALISTIC and
ACHIEVABLE as possible. It would only mean that you will be dealing
assumptions which will support your study and give substance
to your work. These may be conditions where you base your
study that needs some validation through key informants you
have interviewed. Your client’s name, the possible funding source,
the organization which will run the proposal and the likes are
example of these. Your assumptions can be of great help when
dealing with programming and cost analysis. Further, it can bring
your project into a more realistic sense and create a
more formidable framework for the design.

1.1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS AND CONCEPT

One in doing this: this is NOT a mini-dictionary. And

so you are reminded that you will just write words that you
believe that are TOO TECHINICAL for your readers. Do not
include terms which are only unfamiliar to you. You might end
up doing a list of terms for you not your readers.

The following are some guidelines in writing an effective

definition of terms:
 1. Only terms, words or phrases which have special or unique meaning in
the study are defined. Example: learning areas may be defined as a
classroom, but may take another meaning is to what your study is all
about, say a laboratory or a drafting room, study room.

2. Terms should be defined operationally, that is, how they are used in
your study. For instance the study is about accessibility. What do you
mean by accessibility? To make the meaning clear you have to
define what covers the term, essential for a clearer understanding of
your study.

3. You may develop your own definition of from the characteristic of

the term defined. Thus, a house made of light materials as one made of
bamboo, nipa, buri, etc. this is also an operational definition.

4. Definition may be taken from valid sources. Encyclopedias,

reference books, magazines and newspaper are samples of these.
And hey, because these are printed and published materials, you need to
acknowledge them in any form possible. Definitions taken from these
kinds of materials are called conceptual or theoretical definitions.

5. Acronyms should always be spelled out especially they are

not commonly known or if they were used for the first time. You may be
using and typing the same long meaning of Department of Environment and
Natural Resources for a hundred times or even more along your
work. So don’t you think DENR would be a better alternative?

6. Use simple words in defining your terms. It would be more

complicated if you will not, and therefore building another bulk of
things to be defined.

7. Definition should be as brief, clear and direct as possible. Need we

say more?

1.2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

 When you already established your scope, you probably would
have also known the coverage of your thesis. Hence, you are
ready to define varied literature related to your study. These are
summarized versions of articles, researches, write-ups and other thesis
works which are somehow related to your topics(s). The key here is
simple. The more you read, the better! And therefore the easier for you
to visualize and understand the needs of your work. This would also help
you know where will you take-off. Having known what were already written
and published, you will then have the idea where would you start study.
Will it just be a continuation of an existing project? Will you just be
pushing a new theory related to those previously stated? Or is it a
totally new project with totally new concepts related to the existing
ones? To help you further understand, here are some guidelines
on citing related literature.

1. Materials must be as recent as possible. New informations

are discovered every day. Your piece of literature may be true
and relevant today but not in the next months or years. It is not that
changes occur that abrupt but developments may arise which may have
altered the theories presented on your researched literature.

2. Materials must be as objective and as unbiased as possible. You have

to avoid materials which are obviously and extremely siding an
organization, group or an individual figure, whether political,
religious, or otherwise.

3. Materials may not be too few or too many. It is always best to know
where and when to stop. Maintain a balanced presentation of
literature, just when enough, not to overwhelm your readers. In an
undergraduate thesis like yours ten (10) pieces of literature
for review is recommended.

1.3 THEORETICAL/ CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Your thesis is a research-based thesis. It means that you are

supposed to formulate ideas based on your gathered facts and
information to later on be applied to a specific project. To know
the applicability of these theories, it is essential that
you create a framework. Something which will bind your
thoughts into one concrete THRUST— where ALL your inputs as
well as your outputs will be based. Usually, your research topics
correspond to be supportive ideas in the development of your
study, if not the main end of it.

This will be the part where you will inform your readers if
there is a theory you want to prove e.g. a limited area can affect
 the behavior of a drug dependent, or a concept you want to test
say, a moving space is a best suited for the healing mind.

You might wonder what the difference between a theory and a

concept is. According to humans (1967), a THEORY has three basic
components (1) conceptual scheme (2)set of propositions
stating relationships between properties or variables and (3)
context for verification. Your Theory of Architecture subjects
(T.ARCH 1, 2, and 3) clearly state this as a relation between two
properties, in the given example, space and behavior.

Theories have been subjected to further studies by various

people and yet they are still something that can be verified. Your
thesis can be a supportive study and a test if the theories
presented are really true. A theory is something which already has
a proponent. It means that a person before you had already proposed
this theory and other people have been verifying this as
well. Therefore, your framework should be based from a proponent
and the consolidation of studies made as well to see the extent of
verification done.

CONCEPTS on the other hand are just ideas or concrete expression of

terms (see chapter on concept). These may be based on your OWN ideas
and NOT coming from another researcher or proponent. If your research
topic will be working on this type of framework, then you have to state
so. Yes, this may sound a little bit confusing and difficult at first
but you have already done this before, haven’t you? You are just to
organize and give your work a more solid basis by stating
the theories and/or concepts and HOW will you go about this. Again,
these may just be part and parcel of the research topic of
the entire thesis.

1.4 METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

In any research, it is not only important that you know WHAT to

do but more essentially HOW you will do it. The methods of research
will help you with this process. You see, this is an
organized table or framework which explains the step by step
process of doing your study. You can choose from a number of
methods used in an architectural research (descriptive,
analytic or a combination), you have to enumerate them and
elaborate and explain as well why are you using them. If it is an
interview: what? whom? Why? Etc. if it is a survey: what type of
question will you be asking? How were you able to
establish them? And so on and so forth... it is also recommended
 that you prepare a WORK PLAN. This is a synthesis of your plan and
how are you going to conduct the study.

a. SYSTEM OF INQUIRY

b. RESEARCH DESIGNS

c. RESEARCH TACTICS

1.5 METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

This is the list of reference (books, magazine, interviews,

etc.) you have consulted in the development of your book.. Here
items are arranged alphabetically regardless of the articles a, an,
and the. You may provide bibliographies for every chapter and have
them listed at an end. You can break down rather long
bibliography according to topics or type of publication, but
you have to maintain an alphabetical arrangement within each
section.

Remember to put the authors’ surname first, then the first

name and middle name or initial (if any). Separate the major
elements with a period. Page numbers are only necessary if the
source s an article, but if it is a book, you need not indicate
them.

The following are some examples of possible sources and the

manner by which you should include them in the Bibliography.

1. Bibliography style for a book by one author

Jodidio, Philipi. Architecture Now. Cologne, Germany: Taschen GMBH,
2001,
2. For a book by two Authors. Use
comma to separate names
Kirk, Stephen J. and Spreckelmeyer, Kent F. Enchancing Value in
Design Decisions. New York: Random House, 1993

3. For a work cited in another work.

Walpole, Jane R. Why Must the Passive Be Damned” College Composition
and Communication. 30:3 (October, 1979), 251. In Bush “The Passive.”
Techinical Communication, 28:1 (First Quarter 1981) 19-20, 22.

4. For articles. Give title of article in quotation marks, title of

Periodical underlines, volume number and issue number and date
and inclusive pages that the article appeared on Lacayo,
Richard. “Buildings that Breathe” Time Magazine. (September 2, 2002),
60-62. With newspapers, it is sometimes necessary to give the section
number or name with the page number Clines, Francis X. “The Mother
Tongue Has a Movement.” New York Times (June 3, 1984), 8E.

5. From an on-line information. This is treated as a printed material,

but with a reference to the source/site at the end of the
entry. Walpole, Jane R. Why ust the Passive Be
Damned?” [www.archieoverload.blogspot/com~waltrj\passive]

6. For a computer software program.

 Include the name of the writer of the program, if known.

 Underline the title of the program

 Label Computer Software neither underlined nor enclosed in

quotation marks.

 Separate items with periods, but place between distributor nad

the year of publication.

 Add any pertinent information like the computer for which the
software was designed, the number of units of memory, and the

form of the program