Digital Commons Network^™

Present Case Studies Highlighting Practical Implications Of Architectural Design Choices, Emily Barnes, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The interpretability of deep neural networks (DNNs) has become a crucial focus within artificial intelligence and machine learning, particularly as these models are increasingly used in high-stakes applications such as healthcare, finance, and autonomous driving. This article explores the impact of architectural design choices on the interpretability of DNNs, emphasizing the importance of transparency, trust, and accountability in AI systems. By presenting case studies and experimental results, the article highlights how different architectural elements—such as layer types, network depth, connectivity patterns, and attention mechanisms—affect model interpretability and performance. The discussion is structured into three main sections: real-world applications, architectural trade-offs, …

A Peer Review Benchmark Portfolio For Architectural Design Studio: Situate, Matthew Miller

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio examines a third-year architectural design studio that emphasizes the development of designs that consider site and context. As part of a four-year sequence to gaining a Bachelor of Science in Design, this studio takes on a critical discourse of the impact designs may have on the environments they inhabit, the community of people that they interact with, and the cultures and practices followed within a region. This research examined how different modes of teaching could help with building narratives and identifying the measurable impact a design would have on its environment, community, and culture through repetition of verbal …

Architectural Design Of School Buildings In The View Of Concepts And Applications Of Artificial Intelligence, Nervana Osama Hanafy

Journal of Engineering Research

An enormous amount of data is usually needed for the design in the early phases of projects. Right now, computational tools are accessible to help the designer use data and information quickly and effectively to do this. Artificial intelligence, or AI,is a recent field of study that uses, analyzes, and manipulates data to complete tasks and reach goals. Modeling, anomaly detection, association, and grouping are just a few of the many sub-fields that make up the current state of AI, The goal of the current study is to make clear the benefits of using AI into architectural design and to …

Architectural Design Of School Buildings In The View Of Concepts And Applications Of Artificial Intelligence, Nervana Osama Hanafy

Journal of Engineering Research

An enormous amount of data is usually needed for the design in the early phases of projects. Right now, computational tools are accessible to help the designer use data and information quickly and effectively to do this. Artificial intelligence, or AI,is a recent field of study that uses, analyzes, and manipulates data to complete tasks and reach goals. Modeling, anomaly detection, association, and grouping are just a few of the many sub-fields that make up the current state of AI, The goal of the current study is to make clear the benefits of using AI into architectural design and to …

Revolutionary Artificial Intelligence Architectural Design Solutions; Is It An Opportunity Or A Threat?, Mahmoud Desouki, T. A. El-Haddad, Bahaa El-Boshey

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Architectural design is uniquely complex, time-consuming work, so AI promises major benefits but also risks. Architectural design software programs have recently made an impressive development, especially those that use artificial intelligence. AI could transform design and construction with tools enabling generative design, parametric modeling, simulation, and optimization. However, AI’s impact remains unclear. Adoption depends on architects leveraging AI to augment judgment rather than replace it. Factors limiting AI include limited education/experience, threats to creative skills architects value, and unreliable AI design tools. While many see AI as an opportunity, not an endangerment, optimism and uncertainty prevail. AI may ultimately enhance …

The Impact Of The Architectural Design Of Kindergarten Buildings On The Formation Of The Identity Of The Child, Eman Ahmed Ebrahim, Ahmed Eltantawy Elmadawy, Asmaa Nasr El-Din Elbadrawy

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The stage of human childhood is one of the important stages in a person’s life. At this stage, the child’s abilities grow, his talents become clear, and all the possibilities of his physical, emotional, social and mental personality open up. This stage represents the cornerstone of the growth of psychological functions in the following years. Therefore, taking care of childhood and paying attention to its activities is one of the most important influences that contribute to the progress of societies, and there is no doubt that the process of growth for the child takes place during the child’s interaction with …

How Metaverse Evolves The Architectural Design, Sheida Shakeri, Muhammed Ali Ornek

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Architects have long relied on visualization tools to develop their concepts for specific design problems. From the early traditional drawings to the three-dimensional visualizations and virtual environments, all have enabled architects to demonstrate design outputs relatively early in the process. Real-world projects are similar to what architects imagined from the beginning. In other words, the design process has always started by creating the digital representation of a project and then attempting to replicate it in real life. Once the digital representation of design parts is complete, architects prepare their design for construction. However, the final visualization emerges from actual architectural …

Embry-Riddle Housing Options For Sophomores, Jacob Bauer, Rui Harrison, Liam Abraham, Cooper Goodnight

University Student Success UNIV 101

Purpose: To help you make an informed decision about where to live next year.

How are we going to achieve this: We will analyze the important characteristics of each dorm and compare them.

How we will analyze the characteristics: The book “ Student Learning in College Residence Halls : What Works, What Doesn't, and Why” by Gregory Blimling (2015) discusses the many factors that go into making a residence hall a great learning environment. We will use his findings.

Scaffolding: Medium, Mediator, Mediated, Mono Yingyi Mo

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates, analyzes, and fictionalizes scaffolds, seeing scaffolds as a medium (that which is being neglected and unquestioned), a mediator (that which is actively executing shaping powers), and a to-be-mediated being (that which requires to be reimagined). Scaffolds in this thesis is registered as a polydimensional group of frameworks, tools, and agreements, ranging from scaffolds in the built environment, architectural drawing convention, CAD program interfaces and interaction modalities, and codes and scripts behind the digital programs. Together, these scaffolds simultaneously enable and prescribe architectural design processes. The project aims to make the scaffolds seen, de-familiarized, and rediscovered. The current …

Moving Through Time, Anca Gherghiceanu

Masters Theses

Post-communism life in Romania is a duality: people fleeting the country in search of a better life and the simultaneous shrinking cities due to this migration. The built fabric of the city holds distorted nostalgia for those who have left and the burning reality that surrounds the ones that remain. It results in popular villages and cities starting to be abandoned at a massive rate. The migrant story in search of a new life cultivates a journey of loneliness, sacrifice, and sorrow.This thesis will shine light on the physiological effects of mass migration in Romania through satirical editing and storytelling, …

A Digital Surreal, Michael Garel-Martorana

Masters Theses

As architects, much of our work lives within our various computer softwares. Rendering within architectural practice allows us to fabricate highly calculated, realistic representations of our work- a method by which we place ourselves within a space, inhabit it, or make it familiar.

“A Digital Surreal” seeks to explore how rendering can be employed as a space for the production of narratives that instead challenge our perceptions of space. Drawing from artwork from the Surrealist movement, the project considers the characteristics of work by artists including Rene Magritte, Kay Sage, and Conroy Maddox, amongst others, along with contemporary architectural precedents, …

Astoria Houses: A Resilient Community, James Juscik

Masters Theses

As climate change leads to more intense and frequent storms throughout the northeast, architecture needs to adapt to be able to protect life and property. As we can see from Superstorm Sandy, and the more recent Hurricanes Ida, and Henri the current architecture and infrastructure is failing its purpose. Nowhere is this more true than in Astoria Queens.Among the New York City neighborhoods most impacted by climate change, Astoria has received little investment to make it more resilient. The Astoria Houses public housing complex becomes the perfect site to design a new mixed density, resilient neighborhood of the future.

Astoria …

Prioritising Storage Practices: A New Approach To Housing Design Thinking, Elena Marco, Katie Williams, Sonja Oliveira

Interiority

Inhabitants of UK housing have more possessions than ever, whilst space for living in standardised houses is at a premium. The acquisition of material possessions, and how it affects both space and inhabitants’ wellbeing, has not previously been considered in architectural practice or housing policy research fields. This paper addresses this gap, by exploring how practising architects design for the storage of material possessions in housing. For the first time, it places storage practices at the centre of housing design thinking, by engaging practising architects in a design intervention to explore original design solutions that support inhabitants’ lives and lifestyles, …

Architectural Design Of Multifunctional Center In Prishtina, Bard Bajqinovci, Lulzim Beqiri

UBT International Conference

Trade and the business process, the system of human development has undergone major transformations in relation to the development of life style of the urbanites, moreover with improvement of human standard of living. The main purpose of this paper is to promote greater architectural design knowledge in the field of multifunctional contemporary structures, and thus further encourage of academic research. Through a review of the literature, the paper explores various aspects related to the planning, design, philosophy, convenience, policy, sustainability and efficiency of those nowadays structures. The following research methods are used for the purposes of this paper: the basic …

Too Much ‘Stuff’ And The Wrong Space: A Conceptual Framework Of Material Possessions, Elena Marco, Katie Williams, Sonya Oliveira

Interiority

Space for living in new build houses in the UK is at premium and households have more stuff than ever before. The way this stuff is accommodated in dwellings can significantly affect residents’ quality of life and well-being. This paper presents a new conceptualisation of material possessions that could be of use to those involved in housing design. Three universal characteristics of material possessions; value, temporality and visibility are used to identify the space in the home that possessions might require. A conceptual framework that integrates these characteristics with spatial information about the interior of the home is developed. The …

Origins Of Computational Design In Architecture, Ossama Mohamed Al-Rawi

Future Engineering Journal

The changes that the computer is bringing to architecture are one part of a revolutionary social upheaval. Tools not only change individual patterns and behaviour, but also cause transformations in institutions. Just as other tools have in the past, the computer is in the process of conditioning our understanding of the world and our perception of our place in it. The application of computers to architecture is more than anew sophisticated tool that can be manipulated like a pencil or pen. It is rather, “the culmination of the objectifying mentality of modernity and it is, therefore, inherently perspectival. The tyranny …

Architectural Renovation Of Stadiums As A New Vision For Sustainability Case Study (Renovation Of Castelão Arena Stadium, Brazil & Soldier Field Stadium, Chicago), Sherif Khashaba, Ghada Rehan

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

By reviewing the current situation of some existing stadium buildings, many stadiums are not applicable to sustainability requirements, with the absence of the required principles in this field, where sustainability is considered now as one of the important current trends. Rehabilitation of existing Buildings considers a crucial contributor to most sustainable development aspects. It is a starting point for the redevelopment which promotes social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. Both FIFA and UEFA support the need for sustainable stadiums. They set out some of the objectives which can achieve sustainability in stadiums. These objectives include efficient use of energy, …

Make And Break Details: The Architecture Of Design-Build Education, Claire Nicholas, Arlene Oak

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Faculty Publications

In the imagination of prominent architects and architectural theorists, the detail figures as both a promising and perilous element of built form. This paper explores the tension of the “make or break” qualities of the architectural detail(s) in the learning and doing of design, through an ethnomethodologically informed ethnography of North American design-build architecture education. The discussion parses three episodes which highlight the generative qualities of the detail, in terms of its pedagogical value for architecture, and as a heuristic for the study of design practice. As both the material process of joining disparate elements, and a locus for complex …

0823: Robert And Sidney Day Collection, 1894-2009, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The collection consists of materials from Robert L. Day and Sidney L. Day’s education and professional lives as architects in Huntington, West Virginia in the early to mid-twentieth century, with the majority of the collection relating to their professional careers. Dates for the materials range from 1894 to 2009 with the bulk of materials created between 1910 and 1960. Multiple material formats are found within the collection. Formats include paper documents such as business correspondence and project estimates, industry tools and instruments, industry catalogs, clippings, and brochures, architectural blueprints, architectural renderings, and educational certificates, with blueprints and renderings consisting of …

Fractals As Basis For Design And Critique, John Charles Driscoll

Dissertations and Theses

The design profession is responding to the complex systems represented by architecture and planning by increasingly incorporating the power of computer technology into the design process. This represents a paradigm shift, and requires that designers rise to the challenge of both embracing modern technologies to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks without compromising their objective to create meaningful and environmentally sensitive architecture. This dissertation investigated computer-based fractal tools applied within a traditional architectural charette towards a design process with the potential to address the complex issues architects and planners face today. We developed and presented an algorithm that draws heavily from fractal …

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 …

Architectural Stewardship: Exploring Interpretation Architecture Through The Lens Of The Visitor, Graham A. Oden

University Honors Theses

This undergraduate thesis investigates the experiential impact of interpretation architecture in the natural setting, specifically through the lens of its users. The need for this study arose when visitors were not approached or included to be part of the design process or studies in the renovation of Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve's Visitor Center. The only visitor related information used by the contracted firm was ten year old demographic and quantitative studies provided by the NPS. This gap of knowledge was then addressed by the proactive engagement of visitors in a design workshop ranger program at the park. …

Augmented And Virtual Reality Technologies In Contemporary Architectural Design, Osama Altamimi

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Technological developments and the digital revolution have succeeded in integrating many technological applications and launching them into applications that are more complex and penetrated into all aspects of technology that affect architecture. The most important of these is the technology of augmented and virtual reality, which unleashed the architects' freedom of thought and creativity without restriction, High flexibility; they transferred architecture to the virtual reality world. The role of the computer in architecture is no longer limited to presentation and imagination, but a main shift in the traditional standards of the design process and the transformation of the computer into …

Understanding Dwelling Beyond The Terrestrial, Sungkyu Yang

Masters Theses

One of the first places humans have lived outside of Earth is the International Space Station. However, the quality of life on the station is dehumanizing because it was designed to be a laboratory, not a dwelling. The condition of the existing space is monotonous and dooms residents to a boring and tedious life. The expression of beauty inherent in human nature is missing. The operation of the ISS as a space environment research laboratory is scheduled to end in 2024. This thesis explores how to utilize the adaptive reuse potential of the International Space Station to better understand human …

Evoking The Divine : From Secular To Sacred And Back Again, Dragos Tiberiu Alexandru

Masters Theses

While creating for religious use, designers should ask what interventions will transform the secular into the sacred. Spaces used for worship should have qualities that enhance the mission of the church and the religious activities occurring within. These qualities include the use of light to suggest spiritual illumination, acoustics to enhance the congregation’s experience of music and sacred speech, materials that projects beauty within believers , and an environment separate from worldly distractions.

The client for this project is a megachurch congregation. Most of these churches are disinterested or in denial of church typology principles, resulting in spaces that lack …

The Space In Between : Liminal Space, Wei-Chun Cheng

Masters Theses

Drawings are not just a representation of the architecture. We ask questions through drawings and solve questions by drawings. Every line on the paper is constructing a thinking, an idea. The moment you draw, ideas start to evolve. The way you draw reflects the way you think. Your drawings will function as a trigger to stimulate your brain to imagine the world differently.

This thesis is a journey of discovery through draw “boundary”. The site, architecture language, and program will emerge from the process of drawing.