Digital Commons Network^™

The Urban Shelf : A Hybrid Between Architecture And Infrastructure, William Morales

Masters Theses

As one of the most prominent and in-famous pieces of infrastructure in the built environment of the city, the freeway has created nasty conditions of socioeconomic division, segregation, mono-functional zoning and land use, and urban sprawl. In the case of Downtown Los Angeles, the city has evolved into two predominant zones of manufacturing and commercial uses. This process has pushed out housing and other necessary infrastructure to the outskirts of the city, making commutes to work, grocery stores, healthcare, and other basic necessities long and burdensome. In general, the ability to acquire resources is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.

With the …

Urban Acupuncture : Can The Deliberate Use Of Tactical Interventions Reinvigorate Informal Settlements?, Robert Samir Diaz Vicente

Masters Theses

Due to the rapid development of informal settlements, essential urban conditions such as public spaces, infrastructure, and amiable living conditions are lacking from the urban context. These hyperly urban communities lack an overall organizational strategy that preserve their successes i.e. human scale, community interrelations, hyper functionality while addressing its downfalls organic chaotic growth and lack of general systems.

Conventional design and planning used in “formal’ urban spaces focus on long lasting strokes of urbanisation, this means that the built geography moves slow, and are designed for this slow pace changing. Informal Settlements are dynamic and perpetually rearranging themselves to suit …

No Long Urban, Can't Be Rural, Definitely Not Suburban : The Experience Of Detroit, Karin Jane Hostettler

Masters Theses

Detroit is a city of makers, dreamers and doers. When pushed to the brink the city does not step down, but instead continues to fight through grassroots movements, community advocates and neighborhood innovators. In this way Detroit has regained notoriety, not through corporate industry, banking or sports, but through those residents who have put their own difficulties aside for the betterment of their communities. However, the current economic and social developments in the city are centered around the downtown core of posterity, ignoring the work done by those individuals within the greater community context. In these neighborhoods, where autoworkers once …

Tanzania : A New Architectural Pedagogy, Cameron Leandri

Masters Theses

According to Habitat for Humanity, the impact of poverty on education in East Africa remains one of the biggest challenges faced by the region. Self sufficiency is the most sustainable way to advance a society and is a missing link that would help empower developing communities. This thesis imagines a more accessible network of education for the greater region of Kigoma, Tanzania. It proposes this through a two-step system, the first programmatic, the second architectural. Both strategies seek to strengthen the connection between local and global communities, as an education mission.

The proposed educational network utilizes a Central Hub located …

Slowness In The Fray : Architecture That Orients To Nature, Colin Christensen

Masters Theses

We currently live in a digital age that is marked by the rise of virtual reality and instant access to information and entertainment through smartphones. These technological developments are not inherently bad, but they have reduced our attention span and ability to focus on the world around us. This phenomenon is best stated by social scientist Herbert Simon,“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a …