Nicosias Municipal Theatre Collapse Structural Analysis

Nicosias Municipal Theatre Collapse Structural Analysis Property Building Nicosia Municipal Theatre Location Mouseiou Avenue 4 Nicosia, 1097, Cyprus Report Date 29 March 2017 Purpose of report: A structural statement towards Nicosias Municipal Theatre after its roof collapse by addressing concerns raised by the public with reference to its historical and cultural importance for its users. The report will include studying the buildings background and suggestions for the most appropriate reconstruction of the roof having in mind its structural strength, the original shape of the building before collapsing and its materials. Points of interest: Roof reconstruction during refurbishment. Weight of steel shears used over steel beams exiting structures strength. Materials used on the original design and during refurbishment. Type of steel beams used its construction method, why it was chosen and its use background Recommended actions: Repair beams structure with original material, or suggest a new more sustainable one. Investigate what might went wrong and repair as necessary the collapsed roof with particular attention to keep the original design always in mind. Thorough repair of all existing cracking to restore the overall structural integrity of the building. Remove redundant old structure remains (a sensible precaution for future consideration). Conclusion: Introduction Each building writes its own story and Nicosias Municipal Theater for half a century was a point of reference for the island of Cyprus, and so it should remain. The Nicosia Friends Association considering the historical value of the site supports that the building is marked among the timeless places of the island that the Municipal Theater was, and should remain, a serious outbreak theatrical, educational, and entertainment building for the country. It is an essential part of the citys story, one of the capital culture incubator unnecessarily deprived the last eight years. It is more than a melancholic and sad spectacle, the image of an important building abandoned and left to the mercy of time! Such buildings are living organs in our culture, and shouldnt be allowed to collapse, be useless to stand as haunted corpses waiting for the bulldozer to demolish mercilessly, eliminating them from the map of a town! There are some buildings that have acquired life and soul because of the role they have played or continue to play within our own lives. Because the building is not just a functional and aesthetic personality, but also a cultural, historical and a point of reference landmark in the city. Despite all the possible errors in the functionality or controversial style that a building might have, it is still commonly accepted benchmarks and objectively speaking important in our lives. The Municipal Theater of Nicosia, was a building that was a living cell in the cultural pulse of the capital for years. Without doubt, this building, even several decades ago, when it was designed, was anachronistic in style. The exterior being a neoclassical housing, with pediment and columns, in contradiction with its modern for the time interior. But what is important is to realize that creating a building, we create an object that can indeed be made from inanimate materials but has life and character of the time used and operated by its people. This building was more than such an organic mechanism, as it was called by locals, the instrument for cultural activity of Nicosia for many years, the area where the Cyprus Theater Organization lived the greatest of glories, which thrived on the stage of our leading actors, which hosted so many artists from all over the world. A place that hosted many outstanding and of high importance theatrical performances, political ceremonies, numerous works of world repertoire, musical performances by top musicians around the world, and was the focus of cultural life in Nicosia. General Information Historical and Cultural Background Architectural Description and Drawings: In describing the property references and drawings of the front, rear, left and right side elevations will be used, section, plans and structural analysis drawings. (Still pending- under processà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦)) The property is a Theatre of neo-classical style that was built in 1966 and it has been used for theatrical and dance performances, musical concerts, and other political and national ceremonies. It has the capacity of 1220 seats, central ground floor sitting and balcony seats, but also contained smaller dance studios and theatrical practice rooms on the rear sides of the building, and dressing-rehearsal rooms at the rear back of the building and underground. On the underground you could also find all technical material and equipment for the theatres use. The main accommodation is on two storeys with a further cellar/basement level below the rear part of the property. A marble covered faà §ade occupies the front of the building but no damages occurred to it from the roof and structure collapse, nor cracks or decay signs. Cultural and Historical Background: Before collapsing, the theatre was the main stage of the Theatrical Organization of Cyprus. As an only 50 years old building, its current structural and architectural stage raises several concerns by the locals, as it is considered a quite new, for its historical value, building. The Nicosia Municipal Theatre was designed by Pefkios Georgiades in 1966, a prime architect of its time in Cyprus, and built in October 1967. It has not only been Cyprus Theatre Organisations (THOC) centre of performances but the first choice of use by foreign artists as well. In July 2002, the municipality had chosen the same architectural practice to revise the theatres renovation in order for any upgrades to take place, having contemporary needs and safety protocols in mind. In March 2005, the responsible for the renovation construction company had been chosen and contracts were signed (A. Panayides Contracting Ltd) with the refurbishment works coming into completion by November 2005 for a total cost spen d to reach à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬5,580,072. After less than 3 years time, in June 2008, Cyprus experienced a disaster which could have been a tragedy, which could have caused a painful reference in the memories of the people of Cyprus for generations, as few hours before the roof collapsed there was a performance going on. The roof collapsed overnight on an empty theatre, few hours before a sold out, end of year performance, with the audience to be filled mainly with children and teachers. The fact that the roof structure collapsed only 2,5 years after the government expended nearly à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬6m on the buildings refurbishment is in any architects and engineers eyes a shocking, unexplained incident, with many still wondering What caused the entire roof to collapse so soon after so much . money were spent on improving the structural integrity of the building? Structural Related Information: The construction of the original design has been proven as conventional throughout and, from an optical examination, contained no rare detailing or materials which might arouse structural problems. The ministry of Culture denied any access to the public into the details of the structural report. The public announcement included a statement saying only that it seems like the steel structures resistance, on which the roof was placed, was not evaluated correctly among other things. It also addressed that the structure failure occurred on a part of the roof where only a replacement of the crenelated iron pieces of the roof and nothing to do with the support beams as any replacement or maintenance to them was believed to be needless. Furthermore it was said that the steel shears capability to endure the weight of what was going to be suspended from them was overestimated and wrongly calculated.The Inspective Committee stated as a final reason for the incident, technical reasons that cause d the failure. In general, the buildings material where mainly local stone for the walls construction, concrete for the foundations, marble exterior facades, wooden interior wall facades and lastly steel for the roof structure with steel shears as the covering material. The beams structure used, according to the public structural report released to the public, was a combination of the Quadrangular Truss and the French Truss along with Vertical Struts. A structure that can handle the shape and such function that the architect originally designed, for this kind of long spun structure of distance up to 60 metres long (197ft). This building has been a prime figure for Cyprus capital city, but yet was abandoned and left at its since then stage, ever since June 2008, when the structure collapsed, with no plans for reconstruction of the roof, although there is a high demand by the majority of Nicosians, the municipality is under a legal fight over the incident in contradiction with all those guilty in 2010. They sued the contractor, architect and engineers and requested a full payment for the reconstruction fee, assessed to be about à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬4m to reinstate the theatre. From the information released to the public, it is known that the original design for the roof was made from Steel, a combination of the Quadrangular Truss and the French Truss along with Vertical Struts. The main reason was the big length span of the buildings roof and also knowing that steel trusses are usually made of multiple angles, plates and eye bars, in order to create such shapes which are easily modified in order to resist a tensile stress rather than a compressive stress. This system of truss arrangements allows fewer of its members to be in compression, and also, its shorter members are in compression and the longer ones in tension. Purlins are used to support the rafters of the structure, so the distance between the struts, because of the fact that the roof is covered with iron sheets, fixed on the purlins, should not be more than 5 feet apart from each other. This is the most economical and practical method of construction, as the number of braces used depends on the roofs inclination, span and shape. A horizontal tie was used to avoid bending of the laterals. Furthermore, raising the lowest chord should be considered, in order to substantially increase the tension in the truss members in need. The reason is because a truss with its lowest chord with a rise of two or three feet is better aesthetically and visually, and of course stronger, as by raising the bottom chord will shorten the rest structure members, hence the more strength and forces will be distributed better. This specific structure was chosen for the roof of the theatre, having in mind its span of 190ftwith spacing, from center to center, of 20ft. The roof was made with 28 beams, which would be supported by purlins at points seen above in the diagram, marked with letters A, B, C, D, E, and F. Additionally a thinner steel sash was placed between C and D, for better light and ventilation to be allowed into the interior of the building when was needed. Parts marked with A and B was not part of the truss strength structure but they were placed there to be an additional frame work to upkeep the elevated roof and the stresses. One of the suggestions proposed for the refurbished structure was to turn the roofs structure bottom chord in a segmental shape, which will give to it an elegant framework, but also more efficient proportions for such a wide span structure. The parts built-in between the junctions A, B, C, D in a Quadrangular Truss, are simply struts external to the truss. In both above cases, original and suggested one, all members of this kind of truss are made of several angles, to take up any tension or compression. The involved stresses in this Quadrangular trusses, due to weather conditions, should consider, according to calculations for the maximum stress that might be created by any potential material choice or combination of loads for structures of 100 to 200 feet span. The topography of the site is unlike to might have caused any complications that may be connected to the incident, as there are no geographical problematic features which might have caused foundation problems. On the exterior, a small crack can be seen on the north side elevation, right above the top floor windows, which is spreading down to the rear end of the wall until reaching the side door, which leads inside the theatre. Also, on the south elevation of the building, a cracking can be seen above the central beam, which spans until the top floor windows and also at the ground floor main windows. (Drawings to follow). No other external cracking of significance could be located that might have been caused after the roof collapsed. On the interior, a large cracking can be seen on the wall between the main stage and the sitting area and also in the corresponding wall above on the top floor gallery (sitting area). Even though the cracking is relatively small in scale compared to the buildings damage, it appears to be quite new, which makes it look like it was caused from the incident and not prior to it. The majority of the affected areas are those which have been recently refurbished. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Historical structural steelwork handbook: properties of U.K. and European cast iron, wrought iron and steel sections including design, load and stress data since the mid-19th century. W. Bates; British Constructional Steelwork Association. London, 1984 Stiffness of joints in bolted connected cold-formed steel trusses, Zaharia, Raul; Dubina, Dan. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 2006, Vol.62 (3), pp.240-249 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Science Direct (Elsevier B.V.) Rotational stiffness of cold-formed steel roof purlin-sheeting connections. Zhao, Congxiao ; Yang, Jian ; Wang, Feiliang ; Chan, Andrew H.C. Engineering Structures, February 2014, Vol.59, pp.284-297 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Science Direct (Elsevier B.V.) http://www.lawyersincyprus.com/el/article/roof-collapse-whos-to-blame http://www.cyprusedirectory.com/articleview.aspx?ID=2604 http://chestofbooks.com/architecture/Construction-Superintendence/Chapter-II-Types-Of-Steel-Trusses.html#ixzz20ySOLRb5 Architectural Association of Cyprus Official Report of Incident ETEK Org

Rappaccini’s Daughter Essay: The Irony -- Rappaccinis Daughter Essays

â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† – the Irony  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter,† the reader finds numerous ironies, many of which are explained in this essay.    Morse Peckham in â€Å"The Development of Hawthorne’s Romanticism† gives an explanation of how Hawthorne uses historicism in his early short stories [â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† was in Twice-Told Tales in 1836] for an ironic effect:    The Romantic historicist used the past for a double, interconnected purpose. On the one hand it was a means for separating oneself from society. . . .He can be aware of the failure of the institution to fulfill its avowed intentions and its social function. . . . Romantic historicism, therefore, is never an end in itself but a strategy for placing the current social conditions in an ironic perspective. . . .(91-92)    In â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† the â€Å"failure of the institution† relaates to the medical establishment, which is traditionally sworn to uphold the health of people, but in this story Dr. Rappaccini, out of scientific zeal, has been skewed away from the fundamental purpose of medicine. It is indeed ironic that he poisons his own daughter and her boyfriend, alienating them from society and dooming them.    The tale takes place in Padua, Italy, where a Naples student named Giovanni Guascanti has relocated in order to attend the medical school there. His modest room is in an old mansion watched over by the landlady, Dame Lisabetta, a two-dimensional character given to religious expletives like, ``Holy Virgin, signor!'' She seeks to make the customer content with his lodging; she answers Giovanni’s curiosity about a garden next-door: ``No; that garden is cultivated by the own hands of... ...    Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter.† ElectronicText Center. University of Virginia Library. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id="HawRapp"&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public    Kazin, Alfred. Introduction. Selected Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Fawcett Premier, 1966.    Kaul, A.N. â€Å"Introduction.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.    Peckham, Morse. â€Å"The Development of Hawthorne’s Romanticism.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Swisher, Clarice. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.            

Maya Angelo Essays -- biographies bio biography

If I could have the honor of meeting that one person it would be Maya Angelo. She was an inspirational and phenomenal woman of her decade. Not only was she an actress and poet, she was a mother too. Maya Angelo was a beautiful black woman in her time that stood for what was just. She experienced slavery, and even endured it. Her legacy and history is passed on through many of her books like â€Å"I know why the caged bird sings†, or through her poems such as â€Å"A raisin in the sun† and â€Å"phenomenal woman†. Thanks to her tenacity and considerateness this younger generation that I am growing up in can visit the past time and time again through her magnificent writings. Maya Angelo style of writing was very different from the many black authors I had read in the past. I say that because her choi...

Recent Changes in Indian Capital Markets

Recent changes in Indian Capital markets Introduction A capital market is a market for securities (debt or equity), where business enterprises (companies) and governments can raise long-term funds. It is defined as a market in which money is provided for periods longer than a year, as the raising of short-term funds takes place on other markets (e. g. , the money market). The capital market includes the stock market (equity securities) and the bond market (debt).Money markets and capital markets are parts of financial markets. Financial regulators, such as the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) or the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), oversee the capital markets in their designated jurisdictions to ensure that investors are protected against fraud, among other duties. Capital markets may be classified as primary markets and secondary markets. In primary markets, new stock or bond issues are sold to investors via a mechanism known as underwriting.In the secondary ma rkets, existing securities are sold and bought among investors or traders, usually on a securities exchange, over-the-counter, or elsewhere. The primary market is the channel for creation of new securities. These securities are issued by public limited companies or by government agencies’ In the primary market, the resources are mobilized either through the public issue or through private placement route. It is a public issue if anybody and everybody can subscribe for it, whereas if the issue is made available to a selected group of persons it is termed as private placement.There are two major types of issuers of securities, the corporate entities who issue mainly debt and equity instruments and the Government (Central as well as State) who issue debt securities. These new securities issued in the primary market are traded in the secondary market. The secondary market enables participants who hold securities to adjust their holdings in response to changes in their assessment of risks and returns. Industry raises finance from the Indian capital market with the help of a number of instruments. Corporate have a choice of : – (1) Equity finance, and 2) Debt finance. Experience in the different countries has varied. Substituting equity finance for debt finance makes domestic firms less vulnerable to fluctuations in earnings or increases in interest rates. During the last decade, more than a third of the increase in net assets of large firms in Chile, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan and Thailand has been secured through equity issuance. This pattern contrasts sharply with that of the industrial countries, in which equity financing during the same period has accounted for less than 5 percent of the growth in net assets.The recent massive structural reforms on the economic and industry front in the form of de-licensing rupee convertibility, tapping of foreign funds, allowing foreign investors to come to India, have resulted, on one hand, in the qua ntum leap in activities/volume in the Indian capital market, and on the other hand and more importantly, that the Indian capital market has undergone a metamorphosis in terms of institutions, instruments, etc. The capital market in India is rightly termed as an emerging and promising capital market.The buoyancy in the capital market has appeared as a result of increasing industrialization, growing awareness globalization of the capital market, etc. Several financial institutions, financial instruments and financial services have emerged as a result of economic liberalization policy of the Government of India. Future of the capital market In the liberalized economic environment, the capital market is all set to play a highly critical role in the process of economic development.The Indian capital market has to arrange funds to meet the financial needs of both domestic and foreign resources. What is more critical is that the changed environment is characterized by cutthroat competition . Ability of enterprises to mobilize funds at cheap cost will determine their competitiveness vis-a-vis their rivals. Changes in the capital market Four sets of changes in the Indian capital market can be identified which set the market of the twenty-first century different from what obtained earlier.These can be categorized as follows:  »Introduction of new institutions  »Introduction of new instruments  »Changes in administrative control and regulatory framework  »Some recent initiatives Introduction of New Institutions The composition of the Indian capital market has undergone a total change. Till very recent times, Bombay Stock Exchange dominated the capital market in India. The daily turnover on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) alone exceeded the total turnover of all other exchanges put together.The BSE with the monopolistic claw like control over the market was posing a severe constraint on the spread and diversification of the capital market culture. It was content wi th practicing non-transparent time and resource consuming trading practices that failed to evoke confidence among new investors, both in primary and secondary market. Its trading practices were becoming somewhat totally out of tune with the ongoing communication revolution in India and worldwide. In response to this, the most important are the OTCEI and NSE.What is more important is that the NSE has worked as a catalyst of change for other exchanges, which are introducing on-line trading systems. Along with NSE, mutual funds have also emerged in the country. Different types of mutual funds catering to the needs of different types of investors have been set up in the country. The increasing growth of the capital market has witnessed the mergence of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) as significant players. Their sale and purchase decisions are already having a significant impact on the market conditions.Along with these new players, a set of new supporting institutions have also emerged on the horizon such as the Discount and Finance House of India, Securities Trading Corporation of India, Stock Holding Corporation of India, settlement and depository systems, etc. Introduction of New Instruments Capital market instruments are responsible for generating funds for companies, corporations and sometimes national governments. These are used by the investors to make a profit out of their respective markets. There are a number of capital market instruments used for market trade, including – * Stocks Bonds * Debentures * Treasury-bills * Foreign Exchange * Fixed deposits, and others Along with new institutions, new instruments have emerged on the capital market. These encompass both the domestic instruments and foreign instruments. Many new instruments of finance have already been introduced in recent years. Still, the current intensity of the Indian financial market reveals that there is a tremendous scope to deploy new financing instruments connected to eq uity, debentures, bonds, add-on products and derivatives.This may require appropriate changes in certain economic legislations and the will on the part of the Indian corporate enterprises to take risks and tune their decision-making to the investor psychology and market preferences. Changes in Rules and Regulations Responding to the changes in the environment, the administrative framework has also undergone a total overhaul. The earlier chains have been totally removed. The Controller of Capital Issues has been done away with. The Indian capital market has been left free to find its own depth and strength.However, it is a paradox of a free market economy that whenever chains are removed effective watchdogs have to be employed. This latter function has now been entrusted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was formed as an autonomous body empowered to regulate the stock exchanges, brokers, merchant bankers, mutual funds, underwriters and various other financial advisors and market intermediaries.The two pronged fundamental objectives of SEBI became investor protection and the orderly growth of the Indian Capital Market. The SEBI has been laying down guidelines to be followed by different players in the different segments of the market. Some Recent Initiatives  »Buy-back of shares by corporate has been permitted; this will enable the promoters of Indian companies to consolidate their positions.  »Disclosure of end use of funds raised in public issue in annual statements; it will impart transparency to the manner in which the funds raised from the public are deployed.This will also impose greater accountability on companies.  »One-time waiver of capital gains tax for corporatization of stock broking tickets; this will result in speeding up the pace of professionalization of stock broking operations, which will benefit investors.  »Provi sion of nomination facility in share certificates; this will ease procedures for transfer of shares in the names of the nominee in case of death of the shareholder. In short, the capital market has witnessed metamorphic changes in recent past and is all set to meet the varied needs of the changed liberalized economic environment.Globalization and the Indian capital market With the gradual opening up of the Indian economy, increasing importance of foreign portfolio investment in the Indian markets and drastic reduction in import tariffs that has exposed Indian companies to foreign competition, Indian capital market is acquiring a global image. Till recently, participants in the Indian capital market could largely afford to ignore what happened in other parts of the world. Share prices largely behaved as if the rest of the world just did not exist.At present, in sharp contrast to recent past, Indian capital market responds to all types of external developments, like US bond yields, th e value of the peso or for that matter of any other currency, the political situation in China, or new petrochemical capacity in South Korea, etc. In short, the Indian capital market is on threshold of a new era. Gradual globalization of the market will mean four things, as follows:  »The market will be more sensitive to developments that take place abroad. There will be a power shift as domestic institutions are forced to compete with the FIIs who control the floating stock and are in control of the GDR market.  »Structural issues will come to the fore with a plain message: reform or despair.  »The individual investor in his own interest will refrain from both primary and secondary market; he will be better off investing in mutual funds. Reference http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Capital_market http://www. bostonapartments. com/loans/finance/indian-capital-market. html http://www. advancedtrading. com/infrastructure/227500220? pgno=1

The Butterfly Effect Case Study

The Butterfly Effect Case Study How Narrative Is Used In The Butterfly Effect To Add Enjoyment For The Audience Narratives are used in â€Å"The Butterfly Effect† to add enjoyment for the audience in a number of different ways. â€Å"The Butterfly Effect† released in 2004 after 7 years being made, produced and recorded. This all began in 1997 and was a time consuming piece to begin with. The writers and directors â€Å"Eric Bress† and â€Å"J. Mackye Gruber† who previously written â€Å"Final Destination 2† which took in an average of ? 0,000,000 which shows that these two directors can write good story line making â€Å"The Butterfly Effect† and sure loved film. This can be justified by knowing and researching that â€Å"Final Destination 2† was nominated for four awards 2 of which were in â€Å"Best Story Line† in 2003 and 2004. This film has many institutions that have been used to represent this film. Using multiple institut ions like this is commonly known as a synergy or a conglomerate. This institute behind the film are â€Å"Icon†, â€Å"Warner Brothers†, â€Å"Newline Cinemas† and also â€Å"Film Engine Benderspink†. The producer â€Å"Chris Bender† who was newly producer for film like â€Å"The Hangover† and â€Å"I Am Number 4† Has made a big impact on the film â€Å"The Butterfly Effect† Also The other producers that have been producing the film alongside Chris Bender are as followed. A. j. Dix, Anthony Rhulen and JC Spink. These 4 producers up-to-date have never worked on the same film before The audience expectations are multiple genres of the film. Firstly a mystical type of film. This is given by the case of the DVD when we see the several layers of pictures that end up to a butterfly hence â€Å"The Butterfly Effect†. These layers are filled with the main star of the film, â€Å"Ashton Kutcher† and close ups of the human skull. This makes it look like there are problems with the mind and the physiological problems that this film or character is facing. Also another one is the fact that the people believe they are going to watch a film for all ages. But the 15 certificate was deserved for the twisted story line that this film is going on. Also whilst reading a review on IMDB. COM I have found out that people bought this film and watched this because they believed that it was going to be a calm film due to the name butterfly, which is one of the only animals that couldn’t hurt anything. But the twisted story line kept their eyes glued to the television and couldn’t stop watching. Narratives are used in the film; firstly we have todorov’s theory which basically changes something that should be causing and equilibrium. This works well in the film because with â€Å"Evan’s† childhood blackouts stick with him due to his family history, for example his father before him experiencing black =outs and went insane because of it. after this event, 7 years later the blackouts return but this time instead of ignoring them he goes to see his childhood sweetheart â€Å"Kayleigh Miller† who ends up committing suicide as soon as â€Å"Evan† begins changing part of the equilibrium. Changing the blackouts to bring Kayleigh back to life by stopping her father abusing her and changing the video camera moment to something different. This causes several equilibriums and continues for most of the film. This all ends after killing Kayleigh with dynamite as he visits the blackout a second time. This allows him to end the film and also the equilibrium in two possible ways. One is to return as a baby killing himself inside his mother’s womb, or secondly going back to a party that he first met Kayleigh and telling her that he never want to see or have anything to do with her ever again. This causes everybody’s life to be happier and on the downside he can choose never seeing Kayleigh again or killing himself. Until the present day when finishing college seeing Kayleigh walking along the street and begins to following. Causing the equilibrium to finish for good. The DVD case shows several layers. As the layer starts as a skull showing problems that hurts everyone in everything that he does. Then ends up as a butterfly with the problems coming to end and never hurting anybody else. Or in fact Kayleigh Antony Scott 12TJI

Case Study of an Architect: Steven Ngu

Ar. Steven Ngu Ngie Woon is an designer working in Garis Architects house. He is one of the senior designers working at that place and he leads the designing squad. Get downing from his childhood, Steven has already been exposed to this field because of his father’s business as a contractor. Bing the eldest boy in the household, he was brought up in a really rigorous mode. His slogan â€Å"do more, learn more† was besides an influence from his male parent. And because he was brought up to larn to be responsible for the things that he make, he ne'er does his work half-heartedly. Therefore, he was ever one of the top winners in his instruction. He is presently 34 old ages old. He graduated from University Malaya in twelvemonth 2006, he got his Ar. rubric two old ages after graduation. Ar. Steven’s favorite work is the Symphony Hills in Cyberjaya which he handled from the start till the completion of the undertaking, and it is besides a undertaking that has won legi on PAM awards. The intent of this essay is to understand the linguistic communication of architecture based on the designers childhood, instruction and working experience, the messages and significances the edifice carry, and the context of which it is applied within. Therefore I chose the direction office of Symphony Hills. Pic 1 – Front lift of the office Bing in a state with tropical clime, the designer has to believe of different methods as solutions to the rough clime in Malaysia. Cyberjaya is a topographic point that is bare and has no trees to supply shadiness from the searing heat from the Sun. There is non much precipitation and the air current is non really strong. Therefore, some design solutions are used against the climatic conditions in Cyberjaya. In order to avoid direct warming of the infinites of the edifice, green walls are placed on the frontage of the edifice. In add-on, in conformity to the way of the sun way, the green walls besides work as a perpendicular shading device to forestall blaze from the Sun rise and Sun set. Not merely that, big overhangs on the North and south facing of the edifice to supply shadiness. As for the edifice stuff, concrete is used because of it high capacity as a thermic mass and maps as a heat sink. Not merely does it absorb heat easy and detain the peak temperature of the indoor infinit es until the residents have left, it merely releases heat when the outside temperature is lower and that is merely during the dark clip when there is cipher in the office. Furthermore, in order to increase the heat optical density capacity, a green roof is used where the dirt will besides work as a heat sink. Besides, because of occasional heavy rain in Cyberjaya, a polycarbonate roof that extends out to about five metres is used to forestall the rain from making the gallery infinite where people walk from the office to the surau. Pic 2 – demoing the overhand and the construction of the edifice Compared to other subjects, architectural theory is limitless. It encompasses theories of architectural engineering, architectural history, and architectural design. Harmonizing to Professor Korydon Smith, architectural theory is defined as â€Å" the apprehension of nonsubjective rules and subjective values that guides the persons in determination about their ain and others architectural works.† Through this, what i identified was sustainable architecture and late modernism, besides known as structural expressionism. The chief intent of sustainable design is to â€Å"eliminate negative environmental impact wholly through adept sensitive design.† In order to accomplish the optimum comfort in the office without devouring much energy, the edifice uses H2O characteristics environing the edifice as an indirect evaporative chilling method. A green roof garden is besides used to take down the temperature of the edifice through the vaporization of H2O stored by the workss and the dirt. To farther cut down the heat of of import infinites like the office, non merely is the green wall is used as a perpendicular shading every bit good as a chilling device. By using assorted inactive chilling methods into the edifice design, the edifice is able to utilize less air conditioning system. Additionally, the edifice besides uses egg crates in the edifice design to avoid direct sunshine and warming into the infinites. However, it besides uses curtain wall on the frontage of the edifice to maximize the entry on sunshine into the infinites. Another theory used in this edifice is late modernism, besides known as structural expressionism. It normally exposes the structural elements of the edifice, together with the usage of drape walls. Its design is besides largely based on the map of the edifice, big interior infinites and easy entree to each floor. Pic 3 – Diagrams on theory Another factor analysed is the user, the simple program layout makes it easy for the user to do usage of the infinite efficaciously. When in an office, teamwork is of import, therefore an unfastened program was used to avoid individualizing infinite for each staff. With an unfastened program, the staffs are able to pass on with each other with minimum walking distance. The edifice besides has balconies to let people to hold private conversations while looking out to the beautiful landscape. Furthermore, since this is an office for Symphony Hills itself, the multipurpose hall was made to let Symphony Hill to do a impermanent flat salesroom. The salesroom takes into consideration that during the launching twenty-four hours of the undertaking, there will be many viewing audiences to come position the salesroom, therefore public furniture are placed in forepart of the salesroom to let the invitee to hold treatments with the gross revenues people after sing the show unit. Additionally, th e edifice scaled harmonizing to human proportion, non doing the user to experience alien in a on the job environment. Curtain walls are besides used to buoy up the infinites, doing it more environmentally friendly for the staffs when working, as a brighter infinite improves their on the job efficiency. Pic 4 – Diagrams on user Based on the factor analysed, the personal values that Steven used to plan in this edifice is evident. Since immature, Steven has been really discipline about his life style. He is a hardworking individual and he gets along with other people, even though he is busy, whenever person needs any aid or inquiries, he willing teaches them. Bing him, he makes certain that the edifice is functional and it responds to the site. He takes serious consideration on the site context of the edifice. Based on the climatic factor, he has placed much importance in environmental response of the edifice. Though Garis Architects is a topographic point that designs undertakings with a in-between scope budget, Sympony Hills is a undertaking that is considered to be on the higher scope, most likely because of the client. The client this clip is UEM Land and they manage to acquire 98 estates of freehold land in Cyberjaya cardinal concern territories. So due to the location, the clients purpose was to plan the topographic point for the high terminal community with incorporate installation and services. Using a green roof requires the usage of proper technology on the edifice roof and it is non inexpensive. To cut down the temperature of the milieus, Steven proposed the usage of H2O fountains and pools to environ the topographic point, non merely does it take down the temperature, it besides fits the clients demand to do Symphony Hills into a high-end luxury residential country. Pic 4 – Birdseye position of Symphony Hills Furthermore, while Steven has a avocation of traveling and sing celebrated architectural edifice, he tries to larn from the experience gained from the edifices and use it into his ain design. Previously, during his visit to Chandigarh in India, he took the chance to see Le Corbusier’s edifice every bit good. Throughout architecture classs, we have learnt that Le Corbusier is a maestro of designers and he is a modernist. However, modernism is a paradigm of architecture for the machines, it was a clip where the designers pushed their ain political orientation of making a perfect edifice that is suited for anyone. Modern architecture focuses on the honestness of stuffs, usage of modern stuffs and systems, generous usage of glass and natural visible radiation, accent on unfastened infinites, usage shadowing devices to accomplish optimum human comfort, and the accent on rectangular signifiers and consecutive lines. Steven learns from it, nevertheless he took it a measure farther in to late modern architecture, besides known as structural expressionism. Though there is non much of a difference between late modern architecture and modern architecture itself, there is one, nevertheless obvious differentiation between the two. That is late modern manner edifices are non as simple and straightforward as modern manner edifices, albeit rectangular signifier, it is considered as a extremely articulated structural signifier. Common characteristics include open structural frames, truss work, and it tends to be metallic. Pic 5 – demoing the metal constructions of the green wall and the stairway Additionally, whenever Steven designs, he takes into consideration the poetics of infinite, and the experience of the user and the residents of the infinite during the design procedure. Before this, he mentioned that his front-runner designer is Peter Zumthor. In a book Thinking Architecture written by Peter Zumthor, he mentioned that every edifice is built for it’s targeted usage, in its ain topographic point for its really ain society. He designs his edifice to seek to reply those inquiries every bit critically as he can. Though Steven learnt to plan following Peter Zumthor’s train of ideas, he used his ain method of using it into his edifice design instead than the usage of phenomenology architecture. What the client wanted for this office infinite was for it to advance efficiency in the on the job environment while making a friendly infinite to better the sociableness of the staffs. By utilizing a mixture of both type of infinites, an unfastened program together with a private infinite, Steven aimed to hold a big infinite where the staffs would be able to pass on with each other without traveling from their infinites. Through this, there will be less miscommunication between the staffs because they are able the discuss everything in the unfastened. As for the private infinite, it is the balcony, where the staffs will be able to hold a more relax conversation during lunch clip or break clip. Not merely does it assist in let go ofing emphasis and tenseness between the staffs, it helps in conveying them closer and understanding each other in a better manner. Furthermore, because there is no mosque near the site, the surau is located merely opposite the office to let the Malays to be able to pray with privateness and without perturbation. It besides makes it easier for them as they don’t need to go out of the compound to look for the mosque and in the terminal have a shorter clip spent for tiffin. And he places importance in the lighting of the infinite. What Steven did to buoy up up the infinite was through the usage of drape walls and skiding doors. When human plants, they will necessitate a minimal sum of illuming to work expeditiously, if non they will hold to strive their oculus in order to see, and sing the long sum of clip they spend in the office, if there is non adequate lighting, their efficiency lower and their wellness will deteorirate every bit good. In decision, with his slogan of â€Å"do more, learn more† , Steven ever tries to larn the values, and replies from whatever he does and attempts to use it in his design. He aims to ne'er halt larning throughout his life-time, and by making so, he will ne'er halt seeking to look for ways to better himself and his designs. Through this design, one can see the sum of work and clip spent in the design and development of the undertaking. Even though he is considered as a immature designer with small experience because of his age, he worked difficult to come up with a design that he is confident plenty about his design and be able to convert the client with it. Mentions A2modern.org, ( 2014 ) .What is modern: features of modern architecture – a2 modern | modern architecture in the Midwest | ann arbor modern | michigan modern | modern architecture in ann arbor. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //a2modern.org/2011/04/characteristics-of-modern-architecture/ [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] . De Gruchy, G. ( 1988 ) .Architecture in Brisbane =. 1st erectile dysfunction. Brisbane, Qld. : Boolarong Publications with Kookaburra Books. Epa.gov, ( 2014 ) .Green Roofs | Heat Island Effect | US EPA. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.epa.gov/heatisland/mitigation/greenroofs.htm [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] . Historicdenver.org, ( 2014 ) .Historic Denver | Resources | Late Modernism. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.historicdenver.org/resources/late-modernism/ [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] . Nyc-architecture.com, ( 2014 ) .New York Architecture Images-. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //nyc-architecture.com/STYLES/STY-struc.htm [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] . Passikoff, A. ( 2011 ) .A fac?ade of edifices. 1st erectile dysfunction. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Pritzkerprize.com, ( 2014 ) .Biography: Peter Zumthor | The Pritzker Architecture Prize. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.pritzkerprize.com/2009/bio [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] . Riorenewables.com, ( 2014 ) .Evaporative Cooling of Buildings: Improving Energy Efficiency. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.riorenewables.com/efficient-design/evaporative-cooling [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] . Smith, K. ( 2012 ) .Introducing architectural theory. 1st erectile dysfunction. New York: Routledge. Topdevelopers2012.iproperty.com.my, ( 2014 ) .Symphony Hills | Top Developer. [ on-line ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //topdevelopers2012.iproperty.com.my/project/symphony-hills [ Accessed 23 Jun. 2014 ] .

Corporate Governance in Malaysia

Corporate Governance is a concept in which it has been existence for decades; although not in the exact form that it has come to be understood today (Anandarajah, 2001). The term corporate governance was introduced in Malaysia in 1997 during the Asian Financial Crisis. It also drew the public’s attention on the weaknesses of the Malaysian corporate governance practice (Nor Azizah Zainal Abidin, 2007).Besides that, the downfall of Sime Bank, the Bumiputera Malaysian Finance (BMF) scandal, the irregularities in Renong Berhad, the Perwaja fiasco and the internal management problem faced by Malaysian Airline System (MAS) forced government to enhance corporate governance regulations (Norwani, Mohamad, & Chek, 2011).The High Level Finance Committee Report 1999 on Corporate Governance in Malaysia defined corporate governance as the â€Å"process and structure used to direct and manage the business and affairs of the company towards enhancing business prosperity and corporate account ability with the ultimate objective of realizing long term shareholder value, whilst taking into account the interest of other stakeholders. † (Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance, 2012). The code that governs the corporate governance in Malaysia is called the Malaysia Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG).This code was recently revised in March 2012 and it is known as the MCCG2012. Besides providing relevant information to investors, this code also aims to encourage transparency management of companies, to enable investors to guide the direction of the company (Nor Azizah Zainal Abidin, 2007). The MCCG 2007 was revised with the aim to enhance the directors’ duty to the companies. With the revised MCCG 2012, there are still many issues arising from corporate governance. However, to some extent there are improvements in some area of the corporate governance.The revised MCCG 2012 contained a few improvements in the recommendation. This Code now establishes clear roles an d responsibilities where ethical standard should be formalized through the code of conduct by the board to ensure its compliance. Through the company’s code of conduct, it mandates the board to formulate system of compliance and ethical standards. Besides, it also includes ensuring that the company’s strategies promote sustainability. There are many improvements made under reinforcement of independence. 3. 1 mandate boards to undertake an annual independent director assessment.For an individual to serve as an independent director, 3. 2 mandate a cumulative term to nine years. Under 3. 3, justification and shareholder’s approval is needed if the board retains as an independent director. And lastly MCCG 2012 recommends that a majority of independent directors must be in the board and the board chairman is not an independent director. These were not in the MCCG 2007. The most important improvement under the MCCG 2012 is to ensure timely and high quality disclosure. Under this the board should make certain the appropriate disclosure procedure and policies of the company.Also, for effective dissemination of information, board should encourage the company to leverage on information technology. This is to promote better use of technology. Furthermore, with the existing recommendation, MCCG 2012 also state that the board should also encourage pool voting in order for strengthening the relationship f the company and shareholder. This imposes duty to inform the shareholders of their right to demand a poll vote by the general meeting chairman. The concern here is whether the revised MCCG have enhanced the corporate governance of the companies in Malaysia.This code calls for voluntary compliance, coupled with the requirement in the listing rules of KLSE which make mandates disclosure of the extent of compliance with the best practice sets out in the Code, while allowing for some flexibility in its implementation by companies. The aim here is to provid e necessary information and encourage disclosure to investors who entrusted their funds to companies, so that they can monitor the way it is being run (Finance Committee on Corporate Governance, 1999). This Code has somehow reduced the number of financial scandal but definitely not completely clear it off.There are many scenarios that company collapsing due to financial scandal as what was initiated by the BMF (Bank Bumiputera Finance) scandal. The law governing director’s duty consist of various forms of law. These duties have been observed also contain a plurality of legal fields such as company law and employment law (Hee, 2003). Section 132(1) of the Companies Act 1965 requires a director to use reasonable diligence and to act honestly in the discharge of his duties. The duty to act in the best interest of the company as a whole also from common law covers the collective interest of both existing and prospective shareholders.It is suggested that the common law fiduciary d uty to avoid conflicts of interest should be codified to allow directors to be clear about their obligations in conflict situations. KLSE listing Requirements stipulates that public listed companies must got at least two independent directors. Individuals who are expressly excluded from being eligible to act as independent directors include major shareholders, professional advisers or relatives of an executive director or major shareholder of the listed company (Hee, 2003). This provides a better equilibrium of powers between directors and independent directors.The auditor actually provides a check on the information aspect of the governance system rather than having a direct corporate governance responsibility. As widely recognized, the duties of the audit committees have been related to internal audit financial reporting and external auditor. The importance of an audit committee in the framework of corporate accountability is where audit committees are expected to act as the guard ian of investors’ interests and corporate accountability suggested by the wide adoption of audit committee (Saidin, 2007).The main duties are to inspect and form an opinion as to whether the financial statements have been drawn up in accordance with the financial reporting standards of Malaysia and the Companies Act 1965; to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatements; and to examine and form an opinion whether the financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Company as of the financial year end and of its financial performance and cash flows of the year end (Yycadvisors, 2012).The pertinent issue in corporate governance is due to mismanagement, director’s duty not well performed, abusing the minority projection / shareholders and not having meetings often to update what is going on. Management or board should practice the commonly accepted principles of corporate governance such as i ndependence, accountability, roles and responsibilities, integrity and ethical behavior, and transparency. A company’s board should have a number of independent directors. They should be individual with no connection with the company other than a seat in the board.Also, selected independent directors should meet the â€Å"independence† test under the regulatory rules and also to serve with independence of minds. This process of selecting independent directors is likely to maintain their independent mindedness (Rahman & Salim, 2010). To create a system that holds decision makers accountable while according proper respect to their authority over corporation is a challenging thing for corporate governance. The market, shareholder voting, and civil and criminal liability is the regular accountability mechanism.In theory, to create incentives for deterring self-dealing and other forms of misconduct and for responsible decision making these mechanisms work together. However, in reality, these contain flaws that allow individuals to occasionally exercise an irrational discretion when making decisions that will affect many others. The impact can be distressing for investors, employees, and the economy when the governance system fails (Jones, 2010). Given the control of publicly held companies, management should be accountable to its board of directors.The board, in turn, should be accountable to the shareholders and other stakeholders. The principle of accountability can be enhanced by many ways, such as enforcing rules and laws, protecting shareholders’ rights, imposing duties on officers and ensuring the scrutiny of the company’s financial statements by independent auditors (Rahman & Salim, 2010). To provide creditors, depositors and shareholders creditable assurance that they will abstain from fraud activities, financial transparency would be an important mechanism.Timely and accurate disclosure should be made regarding all materials mat ter concerning the corporation is one way to ensure excellent corporate governance. The voluntary items disclosed in the annual reports, the time of the information to be released and quantity of information influenced by the board of directors. In disclosing all the relevant information in the financial reporting, the BOD will be transparent when they are independent and examine their responsibility to be accountable to the shareholders.To ensure the quality of the financial reporting process is one of the main functions corporate governance play. Financial reporting should be prepared with integrity which relies on corporate governance. Dependency of the integrity of financial reporting is highly on the performance and conduct of individual involved. What lead the company to reporting failure is when the corporate governance fails where most of them manipulated their financial statement to meet the performance expectation.Research also has found that there is a connection between weaknesses in corporate governance with bad financial quality, fraudulent financial statement weak internal control and earnings manipulations (Norwani, Mohamad, & Chek, 2011). Problems that arise in companies in Malaysia regarding corporate governance have to do with the political interference to certain extent. State/government can be said as the â€Å"real† company controller compared to law/policy regulated under corporate governance. For example, the famous corporate governance failure in Malaysia – the scandal of Perwaja Steel Sdn.Bhd.. Perwaja, a company owned by the government in collaboration with a Japanese company, Nippon Steel Corporation that was established by HICOM Bhd. in 1982, to fulfill the government’s mission in implementing the heavy industrial policy (Nor Azizah Zainal Abidin, 2007). This can be seen as an example where the state, as a shareholder in the company, has direct interest to it. Fraud and corruption can easily happen with the exi stence of this relationship. Due to the misconduct of directorship the corporate governance of Perwaja collapsed.Perwaja faced with corruption and mismanagement in tender and contract awarding. Furthermore, doubtful trading transactions and payments were carried out to non existing companies (Netto, 2004). There are one sided contracts between Perwaja and both local and foreign companies plus with erroneous records and many of millions ringgit were unauthorized (Norwani, Mohamad, & Chek, 2011). This shows the failure of corporate governance in Perwaja Steel Sdn. Bhd.. However, with fresh funds being injected by the government today, Perwaja is still in business (Netto, 2004).In other case, like the Malaysian Airlines System Bhd. (MAS) faced with internal management problems. Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli, the largest shareholder in MAS who held both Chief Executive Officer plus with chairman position, entered into unprofitable business activities whereby he had over expansion the flight de stination, has caused the occurrence of governance failure (Norwani, Mohamad, & Chek, 2011). The new management under Tajuddin Ramli had already cause MAS to suffered huge debts, prior to the Asian Financial Crisis.This had put MAS at risk during the crisis as all their transaction were done is UD dollars (Nor Azizah Zainal Abidin, 2007). Due to the veto power of the government in MAS’s management the decision on airlines destinations were subjected to government’s decision and approval. To comply with Malaysian foreign policy, MAS had to oblige and extend its services, where at that time, not popular destinations or less concentrated areas were decided by the government. This decision contributed lower return to MAS.From this point of view, we can see that the government/political involvement in business have a huge influence in the management of the company. Besides another reason of governance failure of MAS was due to increased in capital expenditure caused by many orders on planes from 1998 to 2001. It was simply a mismatch between earnings and expenditure in the financial reporting, whereby earnings were is ringgit while the latter was in US dollar. MAS ended up paying a higher cost than what was originally ordered for. MAS was then repurchased for more than double of the market price.The question here was before the government’s buyback, why an audit was not conducted which would have a very important bearing on the proper price of the government buyout. An international case study example would be the Satyam Linggam scandal, the biggest corporate scam in India has come to the most respected businessman. Satyam founder resigned as its chairman after admitting to cooking up the account book. The CEO was responsible for the board accounting improprieties that reported a large amount of cash holding that does not exist and overstating the company’s profit and revenue.With a successful effort on the part of investor’s in o rder to prevent an effort by the minority shareholding promoters to use the firm’s cash reserves to buy two companies owned by them, the scandal all came to know. Consequently, this failed the attempt of expansion on Satyam’s part, which in turn led to a collapse in company’s stock prices, followed by a shocking confession from Raju. History has played a part in the development of corporate governance in India. The first code for corporate governance was published in 1988, but by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) entitled desirable Corporate Governance.Unlike codes in some other countries, the CII code did not make statements of principle but addressed specific business issues in India. The code called for â€Å"professionally competent, independent non-executive directors† to make up the board. None should hold more than ten listed company. The code also called for audit committees. A year later 1999 a government committee released India’ s National Code on Corporate Governance (Ticker, 2009). Reflecting international standards, the code had the approval by the SEBI and incorporated into stock exchange rules.The government issued guidelines on corporate governance in central public sector enterprises in 2007, covering the composition of the boards, audit committees, accounting standards and risk management (Ticker, 2009). However, corruption remains entrenched in India, not at least in the government administration. The Ministry of Company Affairs and the Securities and Exchange Board need more competent staff experience in corporate governance matters. But rapid economic growth and potential in India suggest that the next few years will see significant changes in both attitude and practice (Ticker, 2009).The failure in corporate governance forced rules and regulations to be enacted (Norwani, Mohamad, & Chek, 2011). Recent corporate scandals and the near-collapse of the global ? nancial system all demonstrate the imp ortance of maintaining an effective corporate governance regime (Jones, 2010). With the revised MCCG 2012, duties of all the board of directors are clearly stated, and this will serve as guidance and should improve the corporate governance of the company.