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As one of the most visible signs of the modern world, the myriad of shopping places and types can be considered as a valuable lens through which to examine the contemporary city. In Alexandria, Egypt, the situation was particularly interesting because retail space was moving in two polarized directions: exclusivity and entropy. First, there was an emphasis on creating high-end restricted modern space while at the same time, low-end retail, both modern and traditional, were proliferating and becoming less organized. The high-end modern retail created exclusive spaces in which traditional forms of gendered space could be upheld, although in a reconfigured manner. On the other hand, the proliferation of lower-end retail space allowed greater female participation in consumerism but in an increasingly insecure situation. Insecurity took many forms including lack of personal safety, price volatility, unpredictable earnings, and an unreliable supply of goods. This dissertation will examine how the retail spaces in Alexandria affected gendered space and how ideas about space were reconfigured to allow women to navigate the modern globalized world without abandoning their status or virtue. This research specifically targets the difference between the shopping mall, as the embodiment of high-end retail, and the urban shopping street, as popular retail space. Through these two environments, we will see how they are defined in opposition to each other, particularly in terms of status, and their appropriateness for women, and how they are gendered differently. Specifically this research will examine the extent to which the genders mix, in terms of goods sold, shoppers, and shop workers, as well as the extent to which women are allowed privacy. This will show how the retail environment of Alexandria responded to its citizens' desires to be modern and globalized through both the creation of exclusive spaces and devolution into chaotic zones.

chap. 12; The Khan al-Khalili is located in the heart of the historic city of Cairo near the great mosques of al-Hussein and al-Azhar, and adjacent to the working-class district of Gamaliyya. Though it changed extensively in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is considered the oldest market in Cairo and a symbolic place of the old city that widely became known through the eponymous novel by Naguib Mahfouz. A tour of the market, presented as an archetype of an oriental market, is a main attraction for tourists in Cairo. It has become a site emblematic of the future of mass tourism in Egypt, and it was, as a result, the target of two terrorist attacks, one in 2005 and one in 2009. Composed of a thousand shops facing the street mostly dedicated to sales, the Khan is a dense commercial area where goldsmiths and jewelers dominate. Activities that were formerly present are today increasing, as are new bazaars with stalls filled with diverse products for tourists. At the geographic crossroads of districts specializing in various types of production and sales (textile, copper, aluminum, marquetry, etc.), the Khan al-Khalili is also an illustration and a showcase of the trends and evolution of the old central districts of Cairo, of competition and the dynamics of economic activities, and their numerous translations in the metamorphosis of the urban landscape. Lastly, the Khan al-Khalili has become a model and a sort of "label", the toponym being used to describe a number of shops or modern shopping centers, elsewhere in Cairo or in Egypt.

This research study aims to enhance the effectiveness of the architectural design process regarding the exploration and framing of the best visual connections to the outside environment within built environments. Specifically, it aims to develop a framework for developing and integrating an inside-out design approach augmented and informed by digital 3D geospatial data as a way to enhance the explorative ability and decision-making process for designers regarding the visual connection to the outside environment. To do so, the strategy of logical argumentation is used to analyze and study the phenomenon of making visual connections to a surrounding context. The initial recommendation of this stage is to integrate an inside-out design approach that operates within the digital immersion within 3D digital representations of the surrounding context. This strategy will help to identify the basic logical steps of the proposed inside-out design process. Then, the method of immersive case study is used to test and further develop a proposed process by designing a specific building, specifically, an Art Museum building on the campus of Virginia Tech. Finally, the Delphi method is used in order to evaluate the necessity and importance of the proposed approach to the design process and its ability to achieve this goal. A multi-round survey was distributed to measure the consensus among a number of experts regarding the proposed design approach and its developed design tool. Overall, findings refer to a total agreement among the participating experts regarding the proposed design approach with some different concerns regarding the proposed design tool. Doctor of Philosophy Achieving a well-designed visual connection to one's surroundings is considered by many philosophers and theorists to be an essential aspect of our spatial experience within built environments. The goal of this research is to help designers to achieve better visual connections to the outside environment and therefore create more meaningful spatial experiences within the built environment. This research aims to enhance the ability of designers to explore the best possible views and make the right design decisions to frame these views of the outdoors from the inside of their buildings. Of course, the physical presence of designers at a building site has been the traditional method of determining the best views; however, this is not always possible during the design process for many reasons. Thus, this research aims to find a more effective alternative to visiting a building site in order to inform each design decision regarding the quality of its visual connection to the outdoors. To do so, this research developed a proposed inside-out design approach to be integrated into the design process. Specifically, it outlines a process that allows the designers to be digitally immersed within an accurate 3D representation of the surrounding context, which will help designers to explore views from multiple angles both inside the space and in response make the most suitable design decision. For further developing the proposed process, it was used during conducting this research to design an Art Museum on Virginia Tech Campus.