Digital Commons Network^™

Umass September 11 Intervention, Mohamad Farzinmoghadam

Masters Theses

September 11 terrorist attacks not only affect the United States but also the entire international community. Hundreds perished; most of them innocent citizens from over ninety different nations. It has changed the history of America, much like Japan’s strike against Pearl Harbor. The 9/11 attacks triggered the United States’ ongoing war against terrorism, starting with Afghanistan as the first target to overthrow Taliban, changing the course of world history.

The significance of the incident and severity of that traumatic loss makes a case for a memorial on the UMass campus in tribute to those victims. It is worth mentioning that …

Restoration: Bridging The Gaps A Graphic Translation Of Ecological Restoration, Alyssandra Black

Masters Theses

The terms restoration ecology and ecological restoration are used interchangeably confusing the definition and work of ecological restoration and its many components. Restoration ecology is a type of scientific practice whose work will be a component of a restoration project while ecological restoration is the sum of practices, social, historical and ecological that constitute the field of restoration (Higgs, 2005). Within our rapidly urbanizing society the role of ecological restoration and restoring ecosystem services is increasingly important, especially within our coastal cities. The goals of restoration differ when the classification of restoration techniques is by ecosystem service, not ecological function, …

Art And Life - Make Invisible Visible In Cao Changdi Village, Beijing, China, Peng Zhang

Masters Theses

ABSTRACT

Why do we design architecture? How we design it? Why do we design architecture in this way, not in that way? What‘s the most important characteristic for architecture? How we can identity if architecture has realized all ideas we proposed before? With these questions, with the help from kind professors, I found one interesting place - Cao changdi, Beijing, China. Luckily, I found one interesting street and noticed there are some problems here. I needed to figure out what exactly are the problems and try to solve the problems with architecture.

I found that relations and connections are missing …

Innovation Of The Residential Buildings And Community In The Emerging City Rongcheng, Xing Yu

Masters Theses

Nowadays in China, every province is implementing urbanization, which is a national policy goal. In this process, Copinism is very obvious. Almost everything is being done by Western World rules, from buildings to lifestyles; apparently, China needs to learn a lot from the western world. However, with the development of urbanization, the inadequacy of this approach becomes more and more evident, especially in old cities with rich culture heritages. The overly rapid development speed even sharpens the resulted contradictions when it brings chances. With decades of “copying”, it’s time for China, a country with such a different culture system from …

The Spatiality In Storytelling, Xiang Yu

Masters Theses

Theatre has always been played a irreplaceable role in people’s lives, even nowadays where people have multiple choices for entertainment. Some theater architecture has also become the symbol of the city, such as Paris Opéra and Sydney Opera House. By taking a close look at various case studies, one will understand how the theatre architecture corresponds with their city representing its history, culture and visions for the future.

The development of my thesis is based on the integration of the ‘space’ of storytelling and the space of design. Will the quality of space bring out the memories that have been …

Intervening In The Lives Of Internally Displaced People In Colombia, Amy L. Carbone

Masters Theses

@font-face { font-family: "Cambria Math"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "MS Mincho"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }span.MsoFootnoteReference { vertical-align: super; }span.FootnoteTextChar { }span.citationtext { }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { }

Over the past fifty years, civil war has held a relentless grip on Colombia. Aside from the staggering numbers of casualties that have resulted, millions have been internally displaced and unwilling to return home. Many are fleeing from forced military recruitment of youths, sexual violence, …

The Role Of The Landscape In The Socialization Of Cohousing Communities: A Study In Western Massachusetts, Emilie Marques Jordao

Masters Theses

The cohousing movement started in the United States in the 1990’s and since then has spread to over 160 communities throughout the country. This type of community is characterized by small dwelling units, high housing density, shared facilities such as a common house, shared commons and grouped parking. These are pedestrian-oriented communities with car circulation restricted to the outskirts of the neighborhood. Cohousing settlements have the goal of promoting social interaction and sustainable living through design, programming, and shared ideals. Many design characteristics, such as house proximity, density, building height and size, the location of parking, the availability of common …

Building Hope: A Community + Water Initiative, La Villa De San Francisco, Honduras, Christopher D. Mansfield

Masters Theses

It is my contention that through activating participatory design and community engagement strategies, in conjunction with innovative construction methods that address issues of resource scarcity, the standard of living and level of accessibility to critical resources in impoverished portions of Honduras can be drastically improved. The newly provided model of construction can be done it such a way that it is cost effective in its building method, and provides highly sought after scarce critical resources. This allows participants to allocate more of their finances towards other necessary resources they normally would not be able to acquire.

A new community center …

From Shelters To Long Living Communities, Yakun Liang

Masters Theses

Disasters happen all the time, attention should be paid to refugees and help them build new homelands. Japan is an earthquake-prone area, every year there is at least 1 earthquake above 6 magnitude happens there. In 2011, Japan suffered from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and meltdown, the triple disasters. About 100 people died in the earthquake itself, and 20,000 people lost their lives in the tsunami, 465,000 people were evacuated after the disaster. Two years later after the triple disaster, more than half refugees still lived in temporary shelters. Efforts should be concentrated on the development of long living …

Merging Social Science And Neuroscience In Architecture: Creating A Framework To Functionally Re-Integrate Ex-Convicts, Kylie A. Landrey

Masters Theses

Every year the United States corrections system costs tax payers $52 billion. The failures of the prison system are both tangible and intangible. This Thesis research builds on existing literature to seek out a solution to the high rate of recidivism post release.

Can design be employed as a tool with the potential to reduce rates of recidivism in the prison population? The City of Springfield, in Western Massachusetts, acts as a test case to examine the inter-relationships of social science, neuroscience, and architecture. Initial research identified the primary obstacles individuals face after prison that contribute to keeping recidivism rates …

What Are The Physical Health Benefits Of Urban Tree Canopy In The Springfield, Massachusetts Neighborhoods?, Robert A. Hummel

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between urban tree canopy and physical health measures between different Springfield, Massachusetts neighborhoods. The study hypothesis was that there would be a correlation between urban tree canopy and human health. Statistical analysis was used to examine the correlation between available health data and urban trees. The existing neighborhood health data that was available comprised of asthma rate, infant mortality, and low birth weight. It also examined other data such as median household income, demographic percentages, home ownership, and green space. The research questions guiding this study were: Are there any correlations between urban trees canopy …

Designing Waste Creating Space: A Critical Examination Into Waste Reduction Through Building Techniques, Architectural Design, And Systems, Courtney M. Carrier

Masters Theses

Can we design waste? This is a question I seek to answer through the research of design and systems. Waste is an ever evolving and growing issue in our world today. Buildings and the spaces we inhabit contribute to the vast destruction and increasing detriment to our natural world. There are many “remedies” in the construction industry that attempt to regulate building waste and inspire sustainability, but are merely ruses for a much deeper rooted problem than sustaining the way we live. Sustainability is not enough, it simply means we are doing less bad while still perpetuating the problem of …

Developing An Ecological Sanitation Transect, Ian Kolesinskas

Masters Theses

A sanitation problem exists for people across the globe: basic human waste collection and treatment is inaccessible to much of the world’s population; and the status-quo gray infrastructure system of sanitation is unsustainable and unsuitable for widespread application. A paradigm shift is needed: this thesis makes the case for developing an Ecological Sanitation Transect to bring back the closed loop that connects consumption, waste excretion, sanitation, and food production. The Ecological Sanitation Transect is a synthesis of ecological sanitation, where human excreta is reused, and the urban transect, where development density is conceptualized along a continuum from rural to urban. …