Digital Commons Network^™

Rural Acupuncture: Carefully Introducing Tourism Within An Underground Village, Shangyun Zhou

Masters Theses

Di Keng Yuan(地坑院) are traditional cave dwellings in northern rural China, with a history of over 4,000 years of use. Today, living in Di Keng Yuan represents poverty and lower social status. Most Di Keng Yuan are ignored and abandoned by local people more interested in urbanization and the evolution of society. Yaodi Village is facing such a challenge of hollowing, meaning 1.young rural labor flows spontaneously into big cities, resulting in increased rural aging and 2.residents living in rural areas have gradually moved to the surrounding areas, resulting in the abandonment of cave dwellings, and the village is becoming …

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 …

Shifting The Tide: Transit-Oriented Development And Active Transportation Planning In Los Angeles, Forrest Chamberlain, William W. Riggs

Focus

Los Angeles (LA) has the reputation of an auto dependent city. Although the region is served by a robust public transportation system, the majority of the population commutes by automobile and has developed in sprawling manner leading to poor air quality, traffic congestion and unsafe streets. Despite this, in recent years, the LA region has made significant headway in reversing sprawl and automobile use. This has included encouraging greater land use densities around transit stations, coupled with investments to active transportation systems. This article presents an overview of the historical context of automobile dependency in Los Angeles, the current transit-oriented …

Architecture As Communication: A Study Of The Role Of Form, Function And Context In Evoking Meaning, Priyanka Sondhi

Theses

The aim of this thesis is to understand and design an architecture that includes as part of its program, the function of communication of a certain encoded idea(s) through the public's everyday interaction with it. This thesis is divided into two parts - exploration and design project. The exploration part studies the methods and history of communicating meaning through architecture. Based on this study a design project was defined which included picking an appropriate site, identifying the meaning to be communicated for the site context, studying the context for such communication and designing a building program and form.

Rochester, being …

Designing For Future Buildings: Adaptive Resuse As A Strategy For Carbon Neutral Cities, Sheila Conejos, Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Craig Langston

Adapting existing buildings is a viable alternative to demolition and replacement in order to mitigate climate change and global warming. Australian cities with inherent cultural heritage fabric, like Melbourne and Sydney, are actively promoting building adaptive reuse as a strategy that supports their programme for developing carbon-neutral cities. Thus, designing for future buildings with embedded adaptive reuse potential is a useful criterion for sustainability. Building adaptive reuse entails less energy and waste, protects the buildings’ heritage values- its socio-cultural and historic meanings; while giving them a new lease of life. This paper looks into urban conservation-- an interdisciplinary field that …

Designing For Future Buildings: Adaptive Resuse As A Strategy For Carbon Neutral Cities, Sheila Conejos, Craig Langston, Jim Smith

Sheila Conejos

Adapting existing buildings is a viable alternative to demolition and replacement in order to mitigate climate change and global warming. Australian cities with inherent cultural heritage fabric, like Melbourne and Sydney, are actively promoting building adaptive reuse as a strategy that supports their programme for developing carbon-neutral cities. Thus, designing for future buildings with embedded adaptive reuse potential is a useful criterion for sustainability. Building adaptive reuse entails less energy and waste, protects the buildings’ heritage values- its socio-cultural and historic meanings; while giving them a new lease of life. This paper looks into urban conservation-- an interdisciplinary field that …

Re-Engaging Historic Military Sites, Gina Hartness

All Theses

Historic Conservation seeks to protect the historically significant built environment while
allowing for more current uses. As it pertains to land planning, this effort extends current
land-use tools beyond the historic and conservation districts to include buffer districts and
heritage areas. We need these tools because preservation, which is defined as maintaining
an unaltered environment, does not adequately address managing change over time. Fort
Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina is one example where historic preservation
and conservation merge to address the adaptive reuse of this former military installation.
At Fort Moultrie, many of these former installations are in disrepair …

Designing For Future Building Adaptive Reuse Using Adaptstar, Sheila Conejos, Craig Langston

Sheila Conejos

Designing future buildings with embedded adaptive reuse potential is a useful criterion for sustainability. Adaptive reuse is an emerging and significant design strategy that supports global climate protection and emissions reduction. Building adaptive reuse is a viable alternative to demolition and replacement; it entails less energy and waste, and can offer social benefits by revitalizing familiar landmarks and giving them a new lease of life. This paper describes the development of a new rating tool known as adaptSTAR, suitable for assessing future adaptive reuse potential at the time a building is designed. This paper reports on the methodology used to …

Designing For Future Building Adaptive Reuse Using Adaptstar, Sheila Conejos, Craig A. Langston

Craig Langston

Designing future buildings with embedded adaptive reuse potential is a useful criterion for sustainability. Adaptive reuse is an emerging and significant design strategy that supports global climate protection and emissions reduction. Building adaptive reuse is a viable alternative to demolition and replacement; it entails less energy and waste, and can offer social benefits by revitalizing familiar landmarks and giving them a new lease of life. This paper describes the development of a new rating tool known as adaptSTAR, suitable for assessing future adaptive reuse potential at the time a building is designed. This paper reports on the methodology used to …

Green Building In The Mile High City: An Economic And Historical Analysis Of The Sustainable Landscape In Denver, Colorado, Jessica Nicole Gabriel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to provide a more in depth understanding of the green building landscape in Denver, Colorado than was previously available. The past and present of sustainable structures as well as the vernacular architecture of the region are analyzed in order to make useful projections about the future of the city and its buildings and potential planning policies. In conducting this analysis, methods utilized include case studies, histories, archival research, as well as a brief spatial analysis that outlines the extent of current green building trends in Denver. As a result of this research, it is …