Digital Commons Network^™

Green Arteries, Jiapan Wei

Masters Theses

My thesis asks how transportation infrastructure in a shrinking city such as Detroit, can be redefined as a malleable, generative, efficient synthetic system that can develop, manage and distribute urban resources, production, knowledge and skilled labor.

To achieve this, the highway system can be entwined with other systems in the city, such as food, energy, media, education, and water and waste. In the process, it will be reinvigorated as an engine for the city, a center of productive energy versus mere connective tissue linking former factories to outer suburbs, ports and distant markets.

The thesis uses a “cradle to cradle” …

Adaptive Reuse As A Means For Socially Sustainable (Re)Development: How Reuse Of Existing Buildings Can Help To Establish Community Identity And Foster Local Pride, Ian Gauger

Theses

Two trends in building today are urbanization and a focus on sustainability. Concerns about sustainability, especially in building and city design, have been growing for decades now, and are being driven forward by fears over the effects of climate change. Urbanization is rapid population growth in many cities around the world caused by an influx of people from suburban, exurban, and rural communities. In some parts of the United States which experienced suburbanization during the middle part of the 20th century, this is a return of population to the city, or a reurbanization. This growth has led to a need …