Architecture Commons^™

The City Aetherus An Urban Design Methodology For Energy Use, Anthony Yan, Ermal Shpuza Phd

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

In the last few decades, there has been a growing awareness about the relationship between building design and energy use, environmental impact, and sustainability in general. Now, environmental design is a well-established field of architectural studies and practices. By contrast, it is only recently that the relationship between urban design and energy use has started to get due attention by the designer and planning communities. Due to our increasing energy needs and imminent global urbanization, humanity needs a solution to tackle the largest energy consumer: the city. This thesis is situated within the newly emerging discourse on the relationship between ...

Eco-Hub, Diego Vazquez De Santos

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have generated waste. With the age of industrialization came urbanization, and as a result, large populations quickly multiplied within cities. In 1842, a report entitled The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population, Edwin Chadwick argued for the need for proper removal and management facilities of waste. This report played an important role in securing the first law addressing waste collection. Today, only 26% of the estimated 75% of recyclable goods get recycled. This problem is more eminent within New York city which currently is the topmost wasteful city. New York City residents throw out ...

The Model Holistic : The Application Of The Adaptive Cycle To Rust-Belt Cities, Marysia Larosa

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

For too long, the relationship between the natural and built environment have been ignored, resulting in a disconnect between humanity, nature, and architecture. Can enforcing this relationship change the way we think about urban design and resiliency? Like ecology, cities act much like an ecosystem, going through four phases; exploitation, conservation, release, and reorganization. Over a slow period, these resources are conserved and protected rather than used for innovation. In the case of a disturbance, the vulnerability of the system at this point leads to eventual collapse and release of resources. Finally, as a result of this release, the system ...

Fluid Urbanism: Connecting The Tennessee River Mega-Region, John D. Koelsch

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Walkability Of Suburban Retrofits Of The Washington Dc Area: Immersion Into Qualitative Constructs, David Sweere

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The majority of the United States population is living in the suburbs, and yet the suburban built fabric has developed with spatial conditions that have failed to prove their efficacy on environmental, social or economic terms. Most contemporary architectural and urban theorists agree that the suburban condition is inherently problematic. In a 2010 Ted Talk, architect and urban designer Ellen Dunham-Jones discusses the problematic state of the suburban built condition, citing dependence on the vehicle, sparseness of built form, environmental costs, transportation costs, and even increased obesity rates (Dunham-Jones 2010). Because the suburbs comprise the majority of our “urbanized” areas ...

The Siltcatcher: A Sediment-Capture System For Wetland Creation And Coastal Protection In Western Lake Pontchartrain, Andrew M. Wright

LSU Master's Theses

The West Lake Pontchartrain region faces a number of long-term environmental challenges due to anthropogenic climate disturbance and landscape modification, including sea level rise, increased storm surge risk, shoreline erosion, and wetland degradation. In response, this thesis applies recent research in the fields of landscape architecture and civil engineering to propose a dynamic, natural-systems solution for wetland creation and shoreline protection. The project envisions a series of breakwater-like structures in western Lake Pontchartrain positioned to slow water released from the nearby Bonnet Carré Spillway, causing suspended sediment to settle and create self-building and self-sustaining wetlands capable of keeping pace with ...

Environmental Justice In Little Village: A Case For Reforming Chicago’S Zoning Law, Charles Isaacs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Chicago’s Little Village community bears the heavy burden of environmental injustice and racism. The residents are mostly immigrants and people of color who live with low levels of income, limited access to healthcare, and disproportionate levels of dangerous air pollution. Before its retirement, Little Village’s Crawford coal-burning power plant was the lead source of air pollution, contributing to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks per year. After the plant’s retirement, community members wanted a say on the future use of the lot, only to be closed out when a corporation, Hilco Redevelopment ...

Future Leader In Sustainable Enterprise — Prescilla Awino, Akudo Ejelonu

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

Prescilla is a trainer and a mentor of teenagers and young adolescent women. She successfully managed the Girls Leadership and Advocacy Series (GALS Kenya), a Program of Women Campaign International (WCI). WCI is a Philadelphia based non-profit organization that empowers women globally to actively participate in civil society, political leadership, economic development and peace building.

Barriers And Bias: Women In Water Utilities Are Breaking Them All, Swati Hegde

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

Around the world, women are the mainstays of society, from raising children to supporting families to caring for the needy. In developing countries, they are also usually responsible for collecting and providing water for the family. In doing so, their time, health, safety, education and income are compromised. Outdated and undisputed social norms create the biases that force women to bear the responsibility to secure and distribute water, thereby creating barriers to women’s advancement in educational opportunities and significantly reducing income-earning potential. Similarly, in the developed world, outdated social norms create biases and barriers in the water industry that ...

Amigos Por Agua, Pamela J. Lazos

wH2O: The Journal of Gender and Water

The role of non-profit organizations in outfitting the developing world with clean water has become more extensive as the world’s population grows, especially in places such as Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. Nicaraguans suffer high rates of kidney disease, respiratory illnesses and parasites as a result of water borne diseases. NGOs such as Amigos for Christ are stepping in to fill the void in Chinandega where the local government lacks the financial wherewithal to provide a basic WASH infrastructure to its inhabitants. It is the goal of Amigos for Christ to bring water to every ...

Elevator Or Stairs? A Dive Into Patron Decision Making, Lucas D. Elliott, Oliver W.A. Wilson, Melissa Bopp

Scholarship in Kinesiology

• When put in a situation to get to higher/lower floors of a building, there are many factors that go into play for whether an individual chooses to take the stairs (active) or ride the elevator (sedentary).
• Students were approached at waiting area for the four elevators in a University Library and were asked series of questions regarding their reasoning for taking the stair or elevator to ascend, as well as their thoughts on the stairwell appearance.
• Point of application #1: Stairwell appearance and aesthetics should be considered during the design process in order to increase use and physical activity ...

Weaving Material Connexion Into Curriculum, Shelley Woods, Gouthami Vigneswaran, Patricia Buckley

Publications and Scholarship

Weaving Material ConneXion into the Curriculum poster presented at OLA Super Conference 2020.

An Experiential Online Training Approach For Underrepresented Engineering And Technology Students, Arefeh Mohammadi, Kevin Grosskopf, John Killingsworth

Architectural Engineering -- Faculty Publications

Workforce pipelines are essential to sustain a productive workforce in an increasingly competitive, high-tech environment. Advanced automation, sensors, materials and data analytics will increase the need for highly skilled workers in the manufacturing (and manufactured construction) sector. Attracting and developing the next-generation workforce is not without its challenges; however, students are often deficient in technical skills and generally have negative perceptions about manufacturing and construction. As a result, new education and training models have been developed to provide instruction at all levels of the educational system, with a focus on both traditional students and non-traditional students, including ethnic minorities, women ...

Investigating Multidimensional Characteristics Of Noise Signals With Tones From Building Mechanical Systems And Their Effects On Annoyance, Joonhee Lee, Lily M. Wang

Architectural Engineering -- Faculty Publications

This paper investigates multidimensional characteristics of tonal noise from heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, besides loudness and tonality, to improve prediction of annoyance. Two studies were conducted: multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis to determine what other perceptual signal characteristics are important and perceptual weight analysis (PWA) to understand the impact of multiple tones in a signal. In the MDS study, paired comparison tasks were conducted to gather similarity and annoyance data. Results show that the latent perceptual dimensions are related to the signal’s tonality, loudness, sharpness, and roughness. Including metrics for these perceptions, except roughness, improves the performance of earlier ...

Rethinking Livability In Megacities: Applications Of Jane Jacobs’ Theories On Tokyo And Los Angeles, Kirara Tsutsui

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in Environmental Analysis compares critical infrastructure pieces in Tokyo and Los Angeles, on three discrete levels, with a particular focus on the pedestrian experience. As global population grows, with more people projected to live in urban cities more than ever, it is critical that we re-evaluate how we think about and “do” city-planning. Following Jane Jacobs’ theoretical framework, this thesis dissects what urban greenspaces, city neighborhoods, and sidewalks look like in LA and Tokyo. It analyzes, for each proxy, how two of the world’s most “developed” and largest cities have developed into the current landscape. Historical ...

Re-Imagining Nature In Dense, High Rise Urban Environment: The Present And Future Of Green Building Infrastructure In Singapore, Claire Yi

Pomona Senior Theses

From the futuristic Jewel at Changi Airport, the healing gardens at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Yishun to School of the Arts at Orchard Road, greenery has sprouted in buildings vertically and horizontally in Singapore, painting a growing green canopy for the dense, high rise city. This paper combines both analyses from first-hand site visits and case studies from external scholar studies to examine the performance of existing Green Building Infrastructures (BGIs) within Singapore’s unique urban context. The study reveals that the success of BGIs is highly dependent on the programming (i.e. thermal comfort design, accessibility, amenity facilities ...

Development Of Discourse And Criteria In Green Building, Ben Bronstein

Pitzer Senior Theses

The development of sustainable design rating systems and forward-thinking case studies create an increasingly holistic approach to green building that reflects and drives broader changes in sustainability discourse. Introduction of LEED by the U.S. Green Building Council alongside the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College transformed loosely defined notions of environmentally responsible and sustainable architecture into a tangible, comprehensive definition of green building. New rating systems in the late 2000s, Living Building Challenge and SITES, expanded green building to strengthen quantitative benchmarks, introduce qualitative standards such as biophilic design, and provide increased focus on site sustainability. Case studies ...

The Living Community Challenge: An Uncase Study In Biophilic Master Planning, Jordan Grimaldi

Pomona Senior Theses

In a world that is quickly urbanizing with a climate that is rapidly changing, the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Living Community Challenge (LCC) offers a whimsical yet highly relevant model for sustainable development—creating cities that are as connected and beautiful as forests. As no certified Living Community exists yet, this thesis serves as an “uncase study” of North Rainier, a neighborhood in Seattle that has registered for the Challenge. In an effort to assess the LCC’s perceived effectiveness as a model for sustainable development, this thesis first summarizes nearly 400 centuries of U.S. developmental history ...

Implementing Eco-Friendly Housing Techniques In Western Montana: Green Home Montana: Eco-Friendly Housing And Living Practices - Final Capstone Portfolio, Nicolas Ray Ream, Karlyn Roberts, Savannah Willison, Dylan Trent

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

While the green building movement is common practice in the commercial realm, it is not yet widely popular with residential buildings. We considered the question “How can residents of western Montana adopt eco-friendly housing practices that are locally appropriate and relevant?” There is an opportunity to increase green living practices among renters and homeowners in western Montana through retrofitting, gardening, composting, and similar behaviors. By considering climatic factors relevant to the region, suggestions for relevant eco-friendly practices can be made available to homeowners and renters alike. We will research green living practices used in other countries with similar climatic factors ...

Enlivening Spaces For The Dead: The Relevance Of Cemeteries In The 21st Century, Caroline Koh Smith

Pomona Senior Theses

Current cemetery practices can be harmful to public health and local ecologies and be intensive users of resources such as water and energy. However, given their spiritual benefits to mourners and community members, I believe that cemeteries are still justified in their construction for societies that wish to have a relationship with their dead. With a growing and aging population, more spaces will be used to house the dead; I examined how these could spaces benefit the living as well. Cemeteries can be designed within natural systems, both in landscaping and in burial, as well as spaces for communities and ...

Unaccepted Streets In Bayview Hunters Point: Addressing Spatial Injustice Through Public Open Space, Clare Blackwell

Scripps Senior Theses

Bayview Hunters Point is at the epicenter of environmental justice issues in San Francisco. The district has historically been the location of the city’s most polluting industries, as well as some of its poorest residents and its greatest concentration of public housing. As the city’s zoning developed over the twentieth century, the southeastern neighborhood on the bay became a patchwork of industrial and residential parcels of land, fueling spatial injustice, in particular a lack of access to public open space.

Increasing greenspace would likely address spatial injustice in Bayview Hunters Point. However, green gentrification–the consequence of resident ...

A Case Study: The Role Of Compassionate Cities, Healthy Cities, And Un Sustainable Development Goals In City Leadership And Planning, Lisa A. Berkley

Dissertations & Theses

This research is a case study examining the relevance of three holistic city frameworks—Compassionate Cities, Healthy Cities, and UN Sustainable Development Goals—to the intentional or tacit thinking of city leaders, community leaders, and activists of Marina, California. Beginning with a discussion of the origin and development of the three frameworks, the study occurred in three phases: Phase I involved interviewing the five elected leaders, city manager, community development leaders, and two planners; Phase II consisted of a survey of appointed city leaders and community organizers and activists; and Phase III was an analysis of relevant public discourse, drawing ...

The University Greening Movement: Is Carbon Neutrality Enough To Avert A Climate Crisis?, Sean R. Finlay

Student Theses 2015-Present

Because of the impact that educational institutions have on the intellect of the American youth, universities play a crucial role in our nation’s path towards sustainability because of their ability to guide educational focus toward the well-being of the environment. Through a unified movement among these institutions called the “University Greening Movement”, or UGM, campuses are utilizing current technological breakthroughs to their advantage by implementing them into the structures and foundations of their campuses to reduce and even eliminate carbon emissions. However, as monumental as these technological advancements and this movement has been, the question arises of whether or ...

A Bridge Between Earth & Sky: How The Natural World Shaped The Civilizations Of Ancient And Early-Modern Persia, Sophia Cabana

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project seeks to investigate the ways in which nature shaped the culture of ancient Persia through technology, architecture, agriculture, and art. Furthermore, this project investigates how the symbols and mentalities of ancient Persia were carried forward into the early-modern period. Achaemenid Persia and Babylon are studied as societies which influenced one another and combined to create the foundation of Persian culture as it is currently understood, which then combined in later centuries with other Middle Eastern and Central Asian cultural movements to produce the Safavid and Mughal Empires. The Safavids and Mughals imitated and revived Persian culture in order ...

The Relationship Between Separated Bicycle Lanes And Bicycle Crashes In Denver, Colorado., Wonsun Chang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Student Projects and Theses

Cyclists feel more comfortable when they ride in a bike facility separated from traffic. Therefore, cyclists tend to prefer separated bicycle lanes over other lanes. It follows that cities are increasing the installation of separated bicycle lanes for bicycle utilization and bicycle safety. However, previous research has proven that separated bicycle lanes cause more crashes. Through empirical study, this paper examined the impact of both separated bicycle facilities and shared roads on bicycle crashes and which is safer or dangerous among methods of the separation. This study deals with bicycle accidents in Denver from 2013 to 2019. This research creates ...

Enhancing Emergency Care Environments: Supporting Suicidal Distress And Self-Harm Presentations Through Environmental Safeguards And The Built Environment, Stephanie Liddicoat

Patient Experience Journal

Self-harming and suicidal distress are prevalent, worldwide healthcare issues. Existing literature explains that both self-harm and suicidal presentations at Emergency Departments are increasingly occurring, correlating to high costs in healthcare service delivery. This scoping review aimed to (1) identify the current body of literature which examined the relationship between design practice and service user experiences within Emergency Departments for self-harm and suicidal distress presentations, and (2) identify the ways in which the built environment could increase the efficacy of therapeutic efforts through improving service user outcomes and experiences. This scoping review established that there was a paucity of research at ...

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Sox Emission Control Technologies For Container Ships, Tongxu Zhang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Towards Implementing Integrated Coastal Zone Management In The Gambia: Coastal Adaptation To Climate Change And Human Impacts In The High Risk Zone (Cell 6), Lamin Komma

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Making Nature Present: Frank Lloyd Wright’S Magazine House In Iowa, Daniel J. Naegele

Architecture Publications

In 1945, as the war in Europe came to an end, popular press journals throughout America featured designs for houses to be built rapidly and inexpensively for returning solider and their future families. Frank Lloyd Wright, at the time seventy-eight years old, understood this need as an opportunity to populate the nation with his novel design for what he called "the little American house". Wright believed the domestic environment should be "organic" and "natural" and that each house, no matter how small, should be custom-fitted to its site. But the great demand for houses suggested they not be custom-fitted to ...