Architecture Commons^™

Interactive Music Experience, Gaetan Jacques

Gaetan Jacques

In February of 2012, alternative rock band OK Go released a music video for their song “Needing/Getting”. The video explores a creative way of playing music, by driving a car through a constructed, choreographed environment. A driving track was set up as a large musical instrument which was “played” by a car. Architects, musicians, and artist are looking for innovative ways to develop active relationships between people, music, and architecture. The traditional passive relationship of these three is static, a design that does not promote interaction or participation. If we consider, behind a performance, there is a great deal of …

Bench – A Design Process To Make A Digitally Manufactured Furniture System Using The Spirit Of Japanese Joinery, Myles Richter

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone identifies and implements the spirit of Japanese joinery into a contemporary design process to develop a component based piece of furniture through means of digital manufacturing, namely CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machining. Through the aesthetic, functional, and structural results of this design process, the impact of applying the spirit of Japanese joinery as a guide for the development of the tectonic language of an object are revealed. The structure of this project will discuss an overview of the design process of an object which was designed in the spirit of Japanese joinery, and an assessment of the success …

Loving Blackness: A Sense Experience, Ricardo J. Millhouse

Feminist Pedagogy

The late bell hooks framed feminist pedagogies as a set of practices and systems that provide a description of feminism, a feminist learning environment, and ways to cultivate a community that is ready for feminist instruction. Using intersectionality, hooks (1992) discussed “loving blackness” as a representational and destabilizing practice to de-center whiteness. hooks (1992, 20) writes, “loving blackness as a political resistance transforms our ways of looking and being, and thus creates conditions necessary for us to move against the forces of domination and death and reclaim black life.” I propose a black feminist praxis teaching tool, “a sense experience,” …

Energy Efficiency Retrofit And Decarbonization Of Old And Historic Buildings In California, Daria Nikolaeva

Master's Projects and Capstones

Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of total global greenhouse gas emissions and the retrofitting of existing buildings is an essential part of solving the problem. About 75% of buildings in Californian were constructed before the first energy-efficiency building code was adopted in 1978. Old buildings are inefficient, responsible for large carbon footprints and must be retrofitted to stay on track with the state's climate targets. However, current policies do not require substantial changes and tend to favor historic preservation over energy efficiency, missing improvement opportunities. Recognizing the significance of carbon intensity, the 2019 California Energy Efficiency Action Plan shifted …

Gentrification And Displacement: Connections Between Changing Housing Typologies And Long-Time Residents’ Quality Of Life In East Austin, Texas, Grant Wilson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the impacts of gentrification on quality of life, displacement, and housing typology in East Austin, Texas. The neighborhood is examined as a case study and example of the concepts discussed. Evaluated through both a qualitative and quantitative lens, this study serves as a report and update on the continued disruption of the living patterns of minority residents in the city. Recommendations are given to mitigate displacement for East Austin residents and improve the quality of life for those remaining. By identifying the connection between changing housing typology and displacement impacts, this report aspires to give designers a …

Form From Color: Color Generated Form, Kyra Vreeland

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Form From Color: Color Generated Form evaluates the ability of color to be a three-dimensional and architectural space creator. While complex in history and connotations, color within this capstone is assigned a theoretical characteristic by which forms are generated from color solely. The produced results suggest that color can be a form generator and can have more spatial applications in design. This capstone has the mode of inquiry of a Creative Artistic Inquiry.

There are three series of tests within this capstone. All of which are based on Johannes Itten’s belief that primary colors correspond with primary shapes. The first …

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.

Memory And Resistance, Cami Quinteros

Masters Theses

The centuries-old neocolonial relationship between the United States and Latin America is marked by acts of silencing, either directly in the hands of U.S. foreign affairs organizations or by proxy governments economically supported by the United States. These attempts to de-memorialize the atrocities of the past consolidate the power dynamic between the inheritors of colonial rule, and those who were colonized. U.S. interventionist policies––borne of corporate interests, the safeguarding of capitalism, and a skewed sense of national security––have created mass and enduring violence in Latin America, resulting in waves of migration north, where the journeys of the displaced are often …

Visualizing The Operative And Managing Complexity: Communicating The Design-Fabrication Feedback Loop With The International Tile Industry, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

School of Architecture faculty members Joshua Vermillion and Paul Morrison led a multi-disciplinary group of students from Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Theater in a design-build elective, sponsored entirely by companies in the tile and coverings industry. The key to these sorts of collaborations between industry and academe is to see the production, fabrication, and assembly process as something that can inform design, and as a result, the design can augment production by strategic design decision-making. This feedback loop, connecting both ends of the design-production continuum, can yield interesting design research questions. One such question arose repeatedly throughout this semester of …

Iterating The Design Process Using Ai Diffusion Models, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

These studies span research and creative work to interrogate the generative capacity of text-to-image diffusion models that leverage artificial intelligence to produce architectural concepts, ideas, and imagery. These systems can generate an enormous amount of imagery in a very short amount of time based entirely from the written word, and we are still just beginning to understand how these digital tools might augment and/or disrupt, both, the design process, and design pedagogy within the discipline of architecture.

These AI models occupy a quickly evolving technology space with tremendous implications for how we design, as well as how we visualize—and verbalize—our …

Robotics In Architecture <> Robotic Architecture: Why Can’T A Building Be As Smart As A Car?, Josh Vermillion

Creative Collaborations

The built environment is rich with opportunities for embedding and integrating digital technologies and sensors to create responsive and adaptable systems—to become smarter. This poster outlines selected moments from a thirteen-year body of work in research, design, and prototyping of responsive systems that act spatially with the environment at installation scale.

Robotics, sensing, physical computing, and digital fabrication are all topics that have been prioritized by U.S. funding programs such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Education. This poster presents the start of a framework--based around the concept of tinkering--for introducing these systems …

The Saudi Households’ Requirements Of Dwelling Unit’S Components: A Case Study Of Riyadh, Ahmed Abdullah Alghamdi, Ali Salem Bahammam

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Abstract

Due to the large number of dwelling’s components and their big sizes, the size of a single-family dwelling in Saudi Arabia is big, which leads it to high costs. Such phenomenon has been shaped by the society during the period of economic ease, when easy access to free grants of residential plot and affordable Real Estate Development Fund loans were available, which later has been continued through the regulations of land division and building.

The study aims to determine the real needs (of the dwelling’s components, their number, and their areas), of the Saudi households who are wishing to …

Women Of Colour And Black Women Leaders Are Underrepresented In Architectural Firms Featured In Key Trade Publications (Review), Nandi Prince

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Prototype For A Rural Primary Healthcare Center In Paraguay, Maria Virginia Matiauda Schneider

All Theses

Primary Health Care Centers in Paraguay are the architectural settings for the first level of access to healthcare in Paraguay, providing health promotion, pre- vention, diagnosis, treatment, and health education. These centers are built based on four standard typologies, of which two consist of permanent health- care facilities and two of satellite or mobile units. Standard designs for these centers typically consist of residential scaled buildings, with spaces linked by a single central circulation corridor and lacking adequate attention to ventilation and daylight.

The public healthcare system in Paraguay is organized around four levels of care, and the complexity and …

Creating A Development Framework: A Generic Lens For Public Markets’ Analysis And Development In Integration With Their Zone Of Influence Revitalization, Nourhan Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses how the development of public markets through a structured framework can be a catalyst for revitalizing its zone of influence. Public markets have always been marked by their rich experience, and their central role in towns, cities, and villages, as they have been vital engines for urban growth and cities formation since their prevalence. Needless to mention their role in entrepreneurship and their significance for the social development of neighborhoods. Nowadays, local governments are rediscovering the central role of public markets and are putting them under focus to catalyze the urban growth and neighborhoods revitalization by their …

Shellter Beer Garden: The Redevelopment Of An Abandoned Parcel Into A Community Gathering Space, Madison Leonard, Lainie Kastner

City and Regional Planning

The Shell Beach neighborhood of Pismo Beach serves a quiet, active community in need of an enjoyable, outdoor community gathering space. While the current main street, Shell Beach Road, has undergone major streetscape improvements, there are still vacant parcels in need of refurbishments. A vacant lot on the corner of Shell Beach Road and Cuyama Avenue that previously served the community as a drive-thru restaurant, now provides a desirable site for business. At the location of 1901 Shell Beach Road, a community beer garden built out of shipping containers will provide an ideal space for the Shell Beach community to …

Extending The Role Of Architecture Intervention Across The Disaster Life Cycle, Khaled Zahra, Ayman Afify, Hiba Mohsen, Maged Youssef

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

Disasters have been a common occurrence since the beginning of time, yet they are increasing phenomenally worldwide and especially in developing countries. Factors that led to the cause of destructive disasters are often complex and interrelated; researchers detect human influence and rapid development is intensifying the damage and scale of disaster-prone areas through urban sprawl and human interference. Observing the disaster life cycle, it is made up of four stages: preparedness stage, resilience and mitigation stage, response and relief stage, and finally reconstruction and recovery stage. The main focus usually lies in the response and relief stage which comes immediately …

Colloquium, Or The Argument For A New School Of Architecture..., Austin Turner

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Colloquium, or an argument for the new school of Architecture... is an interrogation on the power of Architectural discourse and its impact on the built environment.

The research begins by analyzing the works and theories of four distinct architects: Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, and Bjarke Ingels. During my investigation, I ask myself, “What happened in their school environment that made them great,” or in other words, “What can a student, like me, do to be like these people?”

To answer this question, I found the best way to analyze this would be to look back on their own …

Service Hub: An Adaptive Reuse Advancing Communities And The Hidden Population, Biancha Claritt

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Why continue to approach the homeless community from the same angle? As cities grow and systems change, we as the housed community adapt to that and welcome these new forms of doing activities into our lives. But for the unhoused populations, we continue to do a lot of the same things which include shelters, providing special services within shelters, food pantries, and clinics all of which are vital to the homeless community but are places that the individuals have to go to which can become dangerous. As cities grow, redevelop, and economically improve a homeless person becomes a threat continuously …

The Labyrinth Archetype, Zachary Chimoff

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis looks at the myth of the labyrinth, a philosophical metaphor for life, and creates a modern version.

Where Dreams Begin: Challenging The Architecture Of Migrant Detention, Pablo Garcia

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Today, more than 40 million people living in the US were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants. Even though the US is a nation comprised largely of immigrants and their descendants, immigration remains one of the most fraught social and political issues of modern times. People dream of moving into the country seeking a better life than the one they are leaving behind. Yet, upon arrival, they face inhumane circumstances due to the recent influx of people seeking asylum within the US. According to the Department of Homeland Security, over 3 million people arrived …

Impact_ An Exploration Of Urban Ecosystems, Sophia Teresa Spock

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Genius Loci: Capturing The Distinctive Roman Spirit Through Pochoir, Carlee Mcguire

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone explores the concept of genius loci through photographic and artistic exploration and does so through a lens of study set on Rome, Italy. The first major goal of the process has been to discover the elements, moments, physical textures, and other design elements that comprise the genius loci of a city or space. The second goal has been to partake in a process that can be used by myself and other designers in efforts to make more conscious design decisions — gaining a better understanding of ‘sense of place’ can assist designers in straying from globalized, placeless design.

The Future Of Urban Technology: Exploring Smart Cities And Transportation Through Game Theory And Scenario Planning, Matthew Wilson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Technological innovation is occurring at a rapid pace in the world of personal devices. This trend of change has not been able to occur as fast in the city infrastructure. Consumers are curious about the next generation of technology and the integration of artificially intelligent technology in transportation and the urban fabric. In this project, I study the motivations and values of a set of characters involved in the integration and innovation of Smart City Technology. These characters create potential future scenarios of the city from their actions and reactions to specific decisions.

This body of work can provide a …

Plastic Bottles In Architecture: A How To Guide On Life-Cycle Through Reuse, Crystallyne Landram

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This booklet is a collection of 6 case studies that utilize reused plastic bottles significantly within their design. Prior to working with the case studies, much time was dedicated to research that justified the need for such a project. In-depth research on the environmental crisis, waste management trends, stewardship, sustainability, and ethics was conducted and recorded in the introduction to contextualize the need for an accessible how-to guide such as this one. Time was also given to establishing background information on bottles, reprocessing, and architecture to elaborate further on each piece of the content matter. It is curated as a …

Spatial Echelons: An Expose Of Spatial Power In The Built Environment, Sarah G. Lloyd

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of Architectural Acoustics And Design In Commercial Recording Studios, Mariana Henke

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Recording studios depend largely on architectural design to determine the sound characteristics of their space. Developing a series of industry standards and best practices will facilitate the design, construction, and material selection for commercial recording studios. Every aspect of a studio's construction will contribute to the space's acoustical characteristics: noise pollution, floors, ceilings, walls, HVAC systems, and acoustic treatment. In combining best practices from each, studio designers can establish ideal sound conditions within a recording studio environment. These established industry standards and best practices will be applied to a proposed recording studio design in order to further demonstrate an understanding …

Memorial Craze: How War Memorials Have Been Changed By War, Jillian Bass

War and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that memorials constructed after 9/11 were designed specifically in a way that privileged and focused on the dead individually. By taking a look at memorials throughout American history, the study of memorialization sets up the stage for the way the lives of ordinary people have been memorialized throughout history. 9/11 is one of the most memorable days in the history of the world in the 21st century. However, the academic world has generally ignored the study of war memorials throughout American history as a subset of memorials. Chronicling memorials from the Civil War period to present …

U.S. Army Medical Command’S Medical Treatment Facilities’ Response To Sars-Cov-2 (Covid-19), Seyedmohammad Ahmadshahi

All Theses

Starting in December 2019 to the current time in May 2022, COVID-19 was a devastating pandemic with approximately 440 million cases and 6 million deaths worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). The United States (US) with roughly 90 million cases and 1 million deaths (CDC, 2021) was one of the epicenters of the outbreak since the beginning. The pandemic has significantly impacted the health systems across the US with unpredictable surges of highly infectious patients with uncertain symptomology and acuity levels, requiring isolation and critical level of care (Brambilla et al., 2021).

Based on the findings from …

Sustainability In Industrial Architecture, Katerina Shuble

Honors Projects

The goal of this project is to complete an in-depth study and analysis of sustainable industrial architecture. Currently, sustainable industrial architecture is an emerging topic amongst architects and industry leaders. Topics involve battling with ideologies and company policies to better the sustainability of industrial architecture. This project will help fill the gap between industrial design and sustainability by creating research and project-based examples of how sustainable industrial design can be completed. The project will be a result of a thorough research study of current sustainable industrial design, and a proposal for new efforts that can be implemented. The goal of …