Architecture Commons^™

Threshold Tectonics: Reclaiming Space Through Geomorphological Design, Amreeta Verma

Architecture Senior Theses

This research posits that a revitalization of indigenous earth architecture practices in a contemporary context can mitigate the immense waste and embodied carbon in the construction industry while engaging practices of land return and reclamation. Locally sourced earth materials are the focus of this research because when utilized in a circular consumption cycle, they can be reused or returned to the natural environment. Designing with a temporal understanding of material decay, changing site conditions, and project life cycle reduces the impact of construction waste on the burgeoning issue of environmental degradation and resource depletion. Material experimentation is used to develop …

Terra Dispositions: A Lithospheric Investigation Of Wet-Matter, Alec Rovensky

Architecture Senior Theses

Human intervention of the landscape by damming, filling wetlands and over-extracting is resulting in the rapid perversion of water bodies through the desertification or flooding of terrain and the ensuing contamination of reservoirs. In turn, these changes are disrupting ecosystems, reshaping geological borders, and causing irreversible damage that poses a threat to clean water supplies. As humans exert agency over local hydrology, there is scarce consideration of the ensuing ecological consequences. This thesis aims to expose the ecological transformations of territories laced with human agency by examining the residues left by water in order to deviate from the misplaced nostalgia …

Contaminated Mycoscapes: Designing With Living Organisms, Maria Gutierrez, Elise Zilius

Architecture Senior Theses

The Anthropocene has stripped the planet of its resources, leaving behind an abundance of contamination. The built environment no longer meets the standards set by our turbulent planet. Humankind has lost the privilege of agency in design and construction. Construction methods have failed to evolve concurrently to the intense accumulation of waste; remaining firmly rooted in the materiality of the past, they have upheld architectural notions of stagnancy, cleanliness, and hygiene and ignore the rapidly changing conditions of the environment. This investigation uses contamination to fuel mycelial growth and construct emergent forms whilst executing remediation strategies for polluted sites of …

Institutional Stewardship And Ecology, Arlan Nederhoff

Staff Work

"We are not to exploit, waste, or abuse the resources of God's world, but care for them and use them to serve God and humankind."

Posting about becoming environmentally conscientious from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/institutional-stewardship-and-ecology/

No Space Left Behind - Graduate Urban Design Studio - Landarch 606, Christopher H. Counihan, Matthew R. Hisle, Yanhua Lu, Maozhu Mao, Emilie Marques Jordao, James S. Prendergast, Michalagh C. Stoddard, Ruoying Tang, Jing Wang, Nelle Katharine Ward, Yuqing Yang, Yi Yang, Yu Yu, Kellie Fenton, Yue Li, Yuquing Wu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The following report documents the work of the 2015 Spring Graduate Urban Design Studio course in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. This fourteen week studio focused on using tactical urbanism to engage Springfield’s Metro Center neighborhood with visions to revitalize the downtown core of this legacy city.

In addition to completing the components of a traditional urban design studio (site analyses, schematic plans, spatial designs, and programming), the student teams also developed conceptual projects to immediately engage the public. These efforts culminated in a free afternoon walking tour throughout the Metro Center that presented several tactical interventions. …

Syllabus: Sustainable Cities/Community Development, Mark Hamin

Sustainability Education Resources

‘Sustainability’ is a concept and approach that has become more prevalent in ecological, economic and equity discussions over the last several decades, yet its historical and cultural roots are far more extensive than is generally recognized. This course aims to examine + evaluate the core principles and practices identified by advocates as well as adversaries of sustainability, and address a range of questions related to sustainability: the appropriate spatial and temporal scales of sustainable planning and design; the full scope of which systems and standards are best suited for achieving sustainable outcomes; the relative roles of ‘high’ vs. ‘low’/‘hard’ vs.‘soft’ …

Syllabus: Sustainable Cities Seminar, Mark Hamin

Sustainability Education Resources

‘Sustainability’ is a concept and approach that has become more prevalent in ecological, economic and equity discussions over the last several decades, yet its historical and cultural roots are far more extensive than has been usually recognized. This course aims to examine + evaluate core principles and practices identified by advocates as well as adversaries of sustainability, and address a variety of questions related to sustainability: the appropriate spatial and temporal scale of sustainable planning and design; the full scope of which systems and standards are best suited for achieving sustainable outcomes; the relative roles of ‘high’ vs. ‘low’/‘hard’ vs.‘soft’ …

Designing For A Resilient Waterfront, Laura Festa

Architecture Thesis Prep

The project will use soft infrastructure systems to create a more environmental, technical, and economically resilient waterfront development. The threat of rising sea level will become the framework for a flexible and holistic design between architecture, landscape, and soft infrastructure. By arraying the activities of recreation, ecology, and urban development along the waterfront and combining these design strategies with a soft infrastructure system, the coastline of East Boston has the potential to become a precedent for other urban waterfronts vulnerable to sea level rise. By rethinking the division between landscape and infrastructure to form a soft infrastructure system, solutions can …

Roger Williams Park Edible Forest Garden, Mark S. Scialla

Senior Honors Projects

An edible forest garden is a low-maintenance system that uses edible native and regionally-adapted plants arranged in beneficial relationships to meet human, wildlife and ecosystem needs. The forest garden in Roger Williams Park will transform underutilized urban land into a highly productive parcel producing market-viable fruits, nuts, vegetables, medicine and fiber. Forest gardens mimic natural forest systems in architecture and complexity. The design follows ecological principles to create a system that promotes biodiversity and enhances the surrounding ecosystem. This project also demonstrates the potential to grow food and create land-based livelihoods in the city.

Located on the edge of a …

World Takes: Design For Decline - A Remediation Ecology, David A. Schragger

Architecture Thesis Prep

"World Takes is a study of the decline of the small American city of Trenton, New Jersey. Urban formations that were generated by industry and the infrastructural necessities of density are currently being redefined by the dissipation of these forces. The new forces that are shaping the environment are enabled by absence and dereliction. A transgressive ecology is seeking a natural equilibrium within the augmented environment. World Takes is an architectural intervention that attempts to mediate and promote this ecological equilibrium within the post-industrial urban environment."