Architecture Commons^™

Carbon-Neutral Design Guidelines For Medium Density Urban Areas In Warm-Humid And Cool-Dry Climates, Jennifer Delane Stewart

Masters Theses

This thesis combines Architecture 2030’s carbon-neutral performance targets with the SmartCode transect-based development principles, to generate guidelines for design of medium-density carbon-neutral districts. The topic examines these guidelines in medium density planned and built sites (transect types T4, General Urban Zone, and T5, Urban Center Zone) in representative cities within a cool-dry climate (IECC climate zone 5B, Denver) and a warm-humid climate (IECC climate zone 3A, Atlanta). The thesis assumes that a carbon-neutral district is more effective and potentially easier to achieve than designing independent carbon-neutral urban buildings. Within an urban context, it is now possible to connect buildings to …

Block 271, Reviving An Industrial Artifact, Jared Thomas Pohl

Masters Theses

Vacant industrial sites are scattered throughout our cities all across the country. These sites, these remnants of industry, are occupied by a very interesting category of buildings. They are artifacts from an industrial era that served very unique and specific functions. These service buildings suffered programmatic failure and have lost their vitality. They have entered a form of hibernation, waiting for the post-industrial epoch to wake them up.

The building stock under investigation makes up a large portion of the city’s structures. Identifiable by their heroic scale, clean articulated lines and tendency to be vacant, these service buildings raise arguments …

Agri[Culture]: An Alternate Paradigm For The American Landscape, Melissa Erin Morris

Masters Theses

Throughout the Appalachian region, one can experience the vast disappearance of the American landscape as we know it. Whether driving through the rugged coal mining towns of Virginia, or the suburban sprawl taking over the rural farmland of Tennessee, it becomes clear that this is a spreading epidemic. Without an appropriate balance of urban, suburban, and rural areas, we begin to loose the landscape which has always been so closely linked to this country’s cultural and physical identity.

This thesis focuses on the agrarian Appalachian culture with a proposal for a project rooted heavily in cultural identity. With programs based …

Change By Design: A Study In The Potential For Architecture And Design To Encourage Healthy, Conscious Behaviors And Enduring Sustainable Change, Kathleen Michelle Lewis

Masters Theses

Sustainability is more than a technologically based, financially motivated option for living. Instead, it is an invigorating opportunity for creating healthier environments on a mental, physical, and deeply personal scale. The intent of the following study is to inspire long-term sustainable solutions. The foundation for this course of inquiry will be an exploration, analysis, and synthesis into the potential for architecture to engender quality experiences by satisfying basic human needs, instilling environmentally responsible values, and promoting sustainable behavior.

Reconsidering Firmitas: Durability As An Integral Function Of The Sustainably Built Environment, Katherine P. Yzurdiaga

Pomona Senior Theses

Architecture is an inherently functional art – buildings have functions, some more vital than others, beyond the objective of sheer aesthetic appeal. Yet at the same time, aesthetic appeal is an integral part of the human experience that many agree is vital to sustainability objectives, including those of the built environment. Ideally, a building would be able to embody and honor both principles, both form and function, but some contend that in the current architectural climate, the emphasis on beauty has surpassed the importance placed on functionality. This discussion is particularly relevant to sustainability in the built environment: Sustainability as …