Architecture Commons^™

Urban And Community Tree Cover In The Mountain West, Zachary Billot, Zachary Walusek, Annie Vong, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet examines data on tree cover and impervious cover in urban land for the United States and for the five states in the Mountain West: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The original report includes data for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Making Pla(Y)Ces: Softening The City Through Play, Shivani Pinapotu

Masters Theses

Cities that grow naturally over time integrate spaces of gathering that allow for serendipitous happenstance. However, the cities we design today instruct and codify through intentional planning and design; they assign use, hardening specific function to place. Such strategies lead to spaces devoid of spirit, inculcating in city-dwellers to a sense of disconnect from the city.

In contrast to this, the places we make as children, express our intuitive, direct, and unselfconscious relationships with space and one other. These spaces embody softness through their malleability and adaptability, borrowing from the world around them and imbuing the ordinary with imagination. …

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Urban Wildlife Management Planning Process And Conflict Mitigation: A Case Study Of Denver’S Canada Goose Management Plan, Brent Johannes

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

In 2019 and 2020, the USDA in coordination with Denver Parks and Recreation removed 2,174 geese from 6 different parks within the City of Denver. The removals and use of lethal methods to manage the concerns related to the geese population in Denver’s parks caused a public conflict and resulted in multiple legal challenges with the City of Denver. The opposition group claimed that the city did not sufficiently engage with the public in the formation of the goose management plan, and did not provide any public notification about the plan to remove geese. City officials have claimed that attempts …

Building With The Floods, Kim Khanh Quan

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Throughout Vietnam's wet season, flooding is a reality that residents face annually. Vietnam's wet season is known to cause serious detriment to communities, and severe weather conditions are becoming more frequent due to climate change. The annual high tides are rising every year. Flooding within dwellings can already reach up to waist or shoulder height and even beyond. Blocking the floods with dikes and other structures can only help to an extent. Water will go somewhere. Elevating a structure also has a limit - many residents have already elevated the ground level of their home to the maximum height that …

Chinese Gardens: Solutions For Urban Nature Deficit, Zachary K. Warner

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Research shows that time spent in nature is good for human health and well-being. However, as the world’s population becomes more concentrated in urban areas regular time in nature, especially extended time, is becoming more difficult to have. On the other hand, Chinese gardens can provide one solution to this problem because they have a unique way of providing a naturalistic space within a small area. Despite this fact, there aren’t many Chinese style gardens outside of China. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to identify possible barriers to using Chinese garden design principles and construction techniques, then address …

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Democracy And Bureaucracy Of Smart Place: Coral Gables, Fl And The Role Of Aspirational Content In Local Governance, Ramon Trias

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role aspirational content on democracy and bureaucracy for governance of place in the United States. Place is a fundamental concept for municipal democracy and bureaucracy, as it defines the physical qualities of a community and their effect on people and quality of life. Smart Place would update theory and practices for local governance. Research reviewed process and content for the implementation of place, a gap in public administration theory. Literature review, historical research on 20^th century planning and zoning, research on 1920’s best practices on architecture and archival, qualitative findings and quantitative data on Coral …

Intermodal Transit Terminal: Integrating The Future Of Transit Into The Urban Fabric, Guy Vigneau

Masters Theses

The very foundation of transportation relies on its ability to efficiently move people and goods through a transitional space. Transportation hubs are key to achieving this goal. However, many transit terminals are outdated or poorly designed to fit the needs of the modern world. At the core of this thesis are two overarching questions. First, how do we design intermodal transit terminals so that they successfully integrate into an existing urban fabric? Second, how do we design for innovative modes of transportation, such as hyperloop technology? This thesis explores how architectural design can recover existing transit connections within an urban …

Evaluating The Policy Outcomes For Urban Resiliency In Informal Settlements Since Independence In Dhaka, Bangladesh: A Review, Ishrat Momtaz Badhan, Asma Siddika

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

Today's cities are characterized by the process of urbanization, which in most cases is integrated with the escalation of informal settlements due to excessive migration followed by a housing crisis. This is a common situation for most cities in developing countries, such as Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Dhaka has emerged as one of the fastest growing megacities in recent times, which receives a major number of rural to urban migrants annually due to its growth as the major economic hub of Bangladesh. Dhaka has one of the largest populations among all global cities, which results in a critical …

Solar & Rain Catching Canopy "Urban Oasis" 1.1, Afolabi Ibitoye, Alexander Aptekar

Publications and Research

Accumulation of water runoff during rain storms affects New York City’s combination water system, forcing water treatment plants to release untreated excess water. Rather than allow this grey water to overfill the sewer system, pocket parks and gardens can be used to absorb rainfall. By harnessing nature’s resources through today’s technology we can also create solar and rain catching canopies to beautify, educate, and bring growth and social awareness to local businesses.

In order to design the canopies to collect the maximum amount of rainwater and maximize solar collection, we analyzed expected rainfall and optimal solar angles. The canopies will …

Proposal For An Advanced Structural Elective Pertaining To Fire Protection, Avery James Kwong, Taylor Sanchez, Lindsey Macdonald, Alvaro Gonzalez

Architectural Engineering

ARCE 401 Fire Protection is a class that will finally give ARCE students an introduction to fire-resilience and its major importance in the structural and planning spheres. The class would have a structural emphasis along with interdisciplinary qualities, unlike the graduate classes offered in the CE and ME departments. ARCE 401 covers a broad spectrum of topics and is meant to bring ARCE students closer to a comprehensive understanding of the overall work environment.

Solar And Rain Catching Canopy. Urban Oasis, Afolabi Ibitoye, Langston Clark, Elena Zimareva, Evan Banks, Alexander Aptekar

Publications and Research

The Urban Oasis is designed to work within existing “pocket parks” in New York City as a combined rainwater collector, personal electronics charging station and resting designation for New Yorkers. Intended to not only lessen the demand on the city power grid by using renewable energy to charge devices, the urban oasis is also intended to mitigate grey water overfill in New York’s combined sewer system and, in general, serve as a model for responsible environmental stewardship in urban areas.

The important technical aspects of the canopy specifically analyzed were:

a) how much rainwater could the canopy be expected to …

Divine Intervention: Designed For Social Evolution By Integrating Natural Order, Anatoshia L. Wyatt

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

There is a long tradition in architecture of using ordering systems found in nature and science to create built space. This thesis builds upon such line of thought to propose new design methods based on ordering systems with a particular focus on social relations. It focuses on the design of a community center in the city of Atlanta which is considered as a catalyst for jumpstarting the betterment of society through improvement of social bonds, community involvement, activism, meditation, and the integration of nature in the community. The design is situated on the Bellwood Quarry site and creates an ecological …

The Shenzhen Activist Program`, Hyunggyu Kim, Jae Hyun Kim

Architecture Senior Theses

There is a gap between being an architecture student in western countries and working as an architect in underrepresented communities. Architect Teddy Cruz defines the role of an activist architect as "expanded mode of practice", and the task of "deigning the protocols or the interfaces between communities and spaces".

This thesis contends that architecture schools need to continue to embrace the widely-accepted norm of studios studying abroad and working in an international studio. Current study abroad programs tend to skew towards being touristic field trips and there is not a curriculum or programmatic investment in cultivating relationships between the visiting …

The Seed | Urban Vertical Farming Germinated, Michael Lima

Architecture Senior Theses

A city works as an ecosystem in many ways. However, we currently do not live within that ecosystem, as the difference between an ecosystem and a city is the waste output and food input . Nature and society do not exist independently because there are no spaces of nature unaffected by man. With this in mind we need to reestablish our relationship with nature. Architecture and engineering can be used to create buildings that will allow humans to turn cities into ecosystems. This thesis argues that Urban Vertical Farms will produce social and economic hubs that will be a new …

Animal Cities: Post-Human Urban Wildness, Jing Huang

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis contends that architecture should be designed in a way to foster closer human-animal relationships. Cities are typically designed solely with the human in mind, and over time, animals have been pushed out of the city, decreasing biodiversity. Peoples’ tendency is to separate themselves and domesticate animals, resulting in sterile and tame urban centers. This is a result of the different attitudes humans have cultivated towards animals; dirty/clean, pleasant/annoying, useful/useless, harmless/dangerous, awe/disgust, etc., and utilizing architecture as means of filtering the presence of those that are beneficial to us, rendering animals as an afterthought. In a way, humans have …

Adaptive Reuse Of Traditional Chinese Shophouses In Government-Led Urban Renewal Projects In Hong Kong, Esther Yung, Craig Langston, Edwin Chan

Craig Langston

Conservationists and government authorities acknowledge that adaptive reuse of historic buildings contributes to urban sustainability. Traditional Chinese shophouses are a major historic building typology found in the old districts of Asian cities. In Hong Kong, the few remaining shophouses are generally deteriorating and are increasingly under threat of demolition for urban renewal. However, adaptive reuse of these buildings has created many social concerns. In light of these concerns, evaluating adaptive reuse potential needs to incorporate a much broader sustainability framework than simply physical building conditions. This study examines the extent to which obsolescence, heritage value and redevelopment pressures have affected …

Volunteered Geographical Information: An Alternative Solution For Overcoming The Chasm Between Stormwater Management And Community Participation, Yanfu Zhou

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

It is a dramatic challenge to promote public engagement in stormwater management and green infrastructure initiatives. When traditional outreach approaches made important influence on public engagement, their limitations are also obvious. With the development of Web 2.0 technology, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has been emerging as one of the most important user-generated geographic contents. The crowdsourcing data that generated by volunteers through geo-web, smartphones, and other geo-devices provides invaluable mass data for decision-making. VGI can provide a better understanding of planning issues and other challenges. The research aims to develop a mobile information platform to allow citizens to report the …

Collective Counter Cartography From Prinzessinnengarten, Berlin, Gabriel Wulff

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Prioritizing Stormwater Management: Comparing Integrated Best Management Practices In Urban And Suburban Neighborhoods, Danielle Kathleen Norman

Masters Theses

This thesis demonstrates a comparison of two design proposals that integrate Best Management Practices to address stormwater runoff volumes in urban and suburban neighborhoods. The thesis investigation includes the selection and comparison of two diverse neighborhoods to inform design decisions. It then assesses the environmental, social and economic implications of the design proposal in each neighborhood.

The site selection process is a method that overlays specific criterion such as residential land use, topographic features, and median household income (3) nested scales; the watershed scale, the sub-watershed scale, and the neighborhood scale. For the purposes of this paper, nested scales are …

Synergistic Green Networks To Transform Lonsdale Suburbia, Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Greenways Design In Context Of Sustainable Development: Towards Landscape Synergism, Archana Sharma

Architecture Publications and Other Works

Greenways design and planning has been largely framed as a multi-functional, multi-objective approach to address socio-cultural and ecological concerns (Fabos,2004; Hough 2004, Steiner, 2002; Fabos, 1995, Ahern, 1995; Ndubisi, 1995; Forman,1995). Social well-being, identity and memory have been predominant socio-cultural concerns while biodiversity preservation and natural resources conservation have been key ecological concerns. These concerns have now been superseded by the more urgent concerns of sustainable development such as availability of energy resources, both food and fuel. Whether and how the design and practice of greenways meets these sustainable development challenges is the primary question raised through this paper.

The …

Greenways As Instrument Of Landscape Synergism_Chinese Translation, Archana Sharma, Hui-Cheng Zhong

Architecture Publications and Other Works

This paper explores whether and how the design and practice of greenways meets the sustainable development needs of food and fuel. It outlines three predominant design typologies of greenways: connector design, containment design and composite network design. It also advocates for composite network design typology of greenways for its scalar versatility enabling neighbourhood to city level applications and illustrates the sustainable development outcomes related to socio-cultural, ecological and economic wellbeing as generated through green network design at neighbourhood scale, and. It articulates greenways as synergistic landscapes that create harmony amongst the urban system with broader biophysical system. Essentially, the paper …

Loosening The Ties That Bind: Grangegorman Masterplan, Noel Brady

Articles

Interview with James Mary O'Connor, Architect and Masterplanner with Moore Rubel Yudell designers of the Masterplan for DIT at Grangegroman, Dublin

Green-Switch: Reducing The Conflict Between The Industrial And The Residential Interface, Archana Sharma

Architecture Publications and Other Works

The dilemma of co-existence of human-industry has been a constant topic of debate among the realms of landscape planning, many times without being clearly articulated as such. This paper examines the conflict through the study of industrial-residential domain. Natural resources such as water and land are primary reasons of conflict. The paper explores the potential of landscape design to address this conflict. The proposed landscape design strategy green-switch combines the landscape planning concept of “greenways” and applied ecological engineering concept of “constructed wetland” to address the conflict.

Green-Switch: Reducing The Conflict Between The Industrial And The Residential Interface, Archana Sharma

Archana Sharma

The dilemma of co-existence of human-industry has been a constant topic of debate among the realms of landscape planning, many times without being clearly articulated as such. This paper examines the conflict through the study of industrial-residential domain. Natural resources such as water and land are primary reasons of conflict. The paper explores the potential of landscape design to address this conflict. The proposed landscape design strategy green-switch combines the landscape planning concept of “greenways” and applied ecological engineering concept of “constructed wetland” to address the conflict.

Analysis Of Per Capita Expenditures Of Suburbanizing Communities In Maine, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This study analyzes per capita expenditure trends among selected fast-growing Maine towns from 1970-2004. The ten communities studied are termed as “suburbanizing” towns. This term is used to describe towns that over the past 30-40 years have been in the process of transition from rural to suburban – in terms of their population and housing densities, their forms of government, and the services they provide, as well as other characteristics.1 Such towns are of particular interest because they have been absorbing a healthy percentage of the state’s population growth during this time period, often at the expense of Maine’s service …