DalSpace Institutional Repository
DalSpace is a digital service that collects, preserves, and distributes digital material produced by the Dalhousie community.
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Communities in DSpace
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Recent Submissions
Beyond Passing: Reimagining Sites Adjacent to Transit Lines
(2025-09-09) Rasooli, Simin; No; Master of Architecture; School of Architecture; Not Applicable; Joyce Hwang; No; Cristina Verissimo; Catherine Venart
Transit lines often generate non-places—spaces of movement—shaped by efficiency and separated from civic life. This project explores how such spaces can be reimagined through continuity rather than interruption. By extending movement and allowing it to slow, overlap, and engage, transitional space becomes a threshold that supports presence and everyday life. The project looks at agora to understand how programs can be organized through historical and contemporary examples, such as arcades and courtyards, that show how movement shapes space. In doing so, it shifts the understanding from a purely functional definition toward grounded in programmatic interaction. Parking garages are studied as precedents where continuous movement defines form without fostering interaction. The thesis focuses on Gateway Station on the Expo Line in Surrey, BC—a growing transit hub with limited civic space—proposing the transformation of a transit-adjacent non-place into a civic environment responsive to urban rhythms and public needs.
Agency as Praxis: A New Building for the Nova Scotia Association of Architects
(2025-09-09) Hawkes, Logan; Not Applicable; Master of Architecture; School of Architecture; Not Applicable; María Arquero de Alarcón; Not Applicable; Michael Faciejew; James Forren
This thesis begins from the observation that architects operate with diminished agency, constrained by market forces and institutional structures. Architecture’s historic pursuit of autonomy has contributed to this, distancing the discipline from political and social engagement. In response, the thesis proposes a design method that prioritizes process over outcome. Where fixed concepts risk closing possibilities, process allows for emergence—open-ended engagement where agency is enacted through continual decisions, translations, and adjustments. The method is structured around extradisciplinary models, architectural precedent, architectural representation, and iterative heuristics. It uses translation and abstraction not to impose meaning, but to draw it out. To test the method, a segment of professional basketball was analyzed, diagrammed, and transformed into nine architectural propositions—each corresponding to a floor in a building for the Nova Scotia Association of Architects. The resulting design embeds dynamic and unconventional spatial logics within a conventional frame, offering both critique and provocation.
Understanding the Colonial Foundations of the Sri Lankan Civil War: Implications for Peacebuilding
(2025-08-31) Silva, Savandhi; Not Applicable; Master of Arts; Department of International Development Studies; Not Applicable; Daniel Salas - Gonzalez; Not Applicable; Nissim Mannathukkaren; Ajay Parasram
The Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) between the Sinhala-dominated state and the LTTE is often analysed in mainstream literature as a conflict rooted in discriminatory post-independence policies toward Tamils. While these accounts offer valuable insight into post-independence catalysts, they overlook the deeper structures that enabled a violent context to emerge. This study departs from such analyses by situating the trajectory of the conflict within the British colonial period (1815–1948). It examines administrative policies, constitutional reforms, and colonial ideologies that laid crucial foundations for civil war. Adopting a problematization of colonial structures as its methodological approach, the dissertation offers a critical re-narration of the war. In conclusion, it is argued that contextualizing the conflict within colonial legacies is vital for contemporary peacebuilding. Without this dimension, efforts risk reproducing the very structures that once facilitated violence, drastically limiting the prospects for peace.
Sacred Place // Makerspace: Repointing St. Patrick’s Catholic Church
(2025-08-29) Basilio, Ceasar (Jam); Not Applicable; Master of Architecture; School of Architecture; Not Applicable; Joyce Hwang; Not Applicable; Catherine Venart; Michael Putman
As more churches close due to declining religious participation, many historic buildings are left empty and at risk. This thesis explores how the idea of sacredness can guide the transformation of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Halifax into a new kind of public space. Instead of replacing the church’s meaning, the project strengthens it, like repointing mortar between old bricks to help a wall stand strong. The proposal adds three new programs inside the church: a library at the front, maker pods in the center, and an exhibition space at the back. These are organized using the sequence of gate, path, and place. Each space supports learning, creativity, and reflection. Inspired by the church’s original role in serving the community, the project brings new life through practical use while respecting its sacred qualities. It offers a way to preserve sacred buildings by reimagining them with care and purpose.
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PREHOSPITAL AIRWAY MANAGEMENT AND 30-DAY SURVIVAL AND HYPOXIA: A 5-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY
(2025-08-31) Stirling, Jeffrey; Not Applicable; Master of Applied Science; Department of Community Health & Epidemiology; Received; n/a; Not Applicable; Judah Goldstein; Samuel Campbell; Sanja Stanojevic; Jill Hayden
Prehospital airway management in respiratory failure remains controversial, particularly around the timing and choice of advanced interventions. This retrospective observational study reviewed 756 Emergency Medical Services activations in Nova Scotia, Canada, from 2015–2019 involving cardiac arrest, trauma, or medical causes. Trends in device use, outcomes, and associations with 30-day survival and hypoxia were assessed for bag-valve-mask, supraglottic airways, and endotracheal intubation.
BVM use declined sharply across all cohorts, while SGA adoption increased. ETI rates were stable in cardiac arrest cases but rose modestly in trauma and medical presentations. Care times were shorter with BVM, yet advanced airway attempts carried higher hypoxia risk. Adjusted analyses found no survival differences between devices in cardiac arrest, but in trauma and medical cases BVM use was associated with reduced 30-day mortality. These findings suggest growing reliance on SGAs and potential survival advantages of less invasive airway strategies, supporting refinement of EMS protocols.
The Scottish Reynard: Robert Henryson's Interpretation of Reynardian Fables
(2025-08-30) Timmons, Alex; Not Applicable; Master of Arts; Department of English; Not Applicable; n/a; Not Applicable; Andrew Brown; Trevor Ross; Kathy Cawsey
In medieval Europe, fictional depictions of animals were very popular. These works of fiction offer insight into the ways in which animals were viewed in this time. Scottish poet Robet Henryson offers a unique example of the depiction of animals in beast literature because he bends the rules of the literary genres he is working with and advocates on the behalf of animals. This is particularly apparent when comparing his works with stories and traditions that he took inspiration from, such as the “Reynard the Fox” cycle of fables. In his transformation of this popular narrative, Henryson creates a vibrant animal world that also allows a human reader to respect and relate to the creatures that occupy it, as well as considering how they may be more like beasts than they believe.