Architecture Commons^™

Is Leed A True Leader? Studying The Effectiveness Of Leed Certification In Encouraging Green Building, Megan M. Turner

Pomona Senior Theses

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (or LEED) is the most commonly used green building rating system in the United States, bestowing upon LEED certified buildings the prestige of being considered more sustainable than their non-certified neighbors. The public often assumes that LEED certified buildings are completely sustainable or even net-zero with regards to greenhouse gas emissions, but in actuality buildings certified under the most popular version of LEED are only required to be 15% more energy efficient than required by most state building codes – a far cry from the energy usage cuts needed to stave off global warming. …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For Post Disaster Surveys, Thor Liland Larsen

Master's Theses

In the current built environment, structures require regular observation and maintenance. Many of these structures can be quite challenging to evaluate. The required scaffolding, lifts, or similar access facilities can become quite costly to rent and construct, and can be a long term disturbance to those who use and manage the particular structure. Furthermore, there are situations where examination for the purpose of detailed analysis can be quite hazardous, if not entirely unsafe for humans. In a post-disaster environment traditional methods may not be safe or adequate for gaining access to parts of a structure that require observation or analysis. …

Transportation Energy Analysis For Single-Family Residential Construction In California, Tyler Langley

Master's Theses

Transportation Energy Analysis for Single-Family Residential Construction in California

Tyler Langley

Since the oil crisis of 1973, energy use in the United States of America has been a growing area of concern. Studies have shown that the construction industry is responsible for almost half of all annual energy consumption. With this awareness, the analysis of energy use within the related construction fields has become an emergent subject. One facet of construction energy use that has been less studied than others is that of the energy consumed in transporting building materials from manufacturing plants to construction sites. This thesis proposes a …

Glorious Constructions: The Struggle To Preserve Salvation-Themed Visionary Art Environments, Molly Elaine Sheehan

Master's Theses

Salvation-themed art environments are a roadside rarity, built out of a strong visionary dedication to God, but the sites are disappearing simply because the work is misunderstood. The historiography on the subject is sparse, trending more toward coffee table books with big glossy pictures than real scholarly endeavors, but the consensus among all has been clear. The sites are a valuable part of the recent American cultural landscape, crossing several scholarly fields - art, architecture, and history - and uniting them into a cohesive preservation movement. On a series of trips to visit, see, and experience five of these sites, …

Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures, Mark Robbins, Stephanie Miner, Nancy Cantor, Julia Czerniak, Darren Petrucci, Jane Wolff, Mclain Clutter, Hunter Morrison, Damon Rich, Toni L. Griffin, Don Mitchell

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

A two-day conference on the benefits of creating urbanity in weak-market cities gathers twenty-one international experts in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design, as well as planning, policy, finance, economics, and real estate development. Participants share strategies for cities whose urban character has devolved radically due to economic, demographic, and physical change - cities that are now considered "formerly urban."

Owen Jones And The Conventionalization Of Ornament, John Kresten Jespersen Ph.D.

Kresten Jespersen

Owen Jones, an architect and theorist of ornament, is best remembered as an ornamenter of distinction. His theory and practice of conventional ornament, his powerful color, and his original forms which had their origins in the ornament of the Alhambra substantiate the claim that he was the greatest ornamenter of his age. The book analyzes the theory of conventionalization as it applies to ornament, color, architecture and interior design. In particular, the book explores repose as the psychological and spiritual outcome of his ornament.

Interview With Crystal Benson, Green Building Services, 2010 (Audio), Crystal Benson

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Crystal M. Benson by Alex Woolery at Green Building Services Portland, Oregon on August 12th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

An Architecture Of Amelioration, Geoffrey Russell Plagemann

Masters Theses

Scar: A lingering sign of damage or injury, either mental or physical.

Technological advancement scars the landscape. It has been our practice to ignore, or worse, hide these marks that have been made as society continues to advance. Industries past left us relics and ruins of bygone eras of promise and production. The time we live in has recognized the untenable failures of past generations, however there are methods of industry that continue to injure the landscape. We will leave our scars.

In this time we must rethink the scar, define it, and recognize its beauty. The first step of …

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 …

The Architect's Portfolio: Planning, Design, Production, Andreas Luescher

Andreas Luescher

This book offers a fresh step-by-step approach to achieving a reflective, attractive and successful representation of one’s work. Structured in four stages it takes the reader through each step needed in the creation of a successful portfolio, from understanding yourself and your market, to planning, designing and producing it.

British Civic Architecture In The United States Of The Ionian Islands, Nicholas Patricios

Nicholas Patricios

On 5th November 1815 the United States of the Ionian Islands was established under British protection through signature of the Treaty of Paris. British Residents were subsequently stationed on each of the seven Ionian Islands off the west coast of Greece as governors of each Island. During the Protectorate period, 1815-1864, the Residents carried out numerous public works from public buildings and structures to roads and harbors. The most prolific Resident was Charles Napier in Kefalonia. The civic architectural style of the public buildings and structures designed by British architects and engineers was inevitably Neo-Classical, ironically a new style for …

University Leadership In Energy And Environmental Design: How Postsecondary Institutions Use The Leed® Green Building Rating System, Shannon M. Chance

Shannon M. Chance

No abstract provided.

Urban Fabrication: The Architectural Heightening Of The Urban Tactile Sensibility A Fiber Arts Fabrication & Exhibition Center In Dublin, Ireland, Elizabeth Fallon

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The discipline of fiber arts has been in existence since the beginning of civilization to produce both functional equipment as well as aesthetically driven art pieces. The craft, at times highly specialized, often produces elements at the scale of the human body, due to the personal level by which fiber artifacts are produced. The making of artifacts and implementation of fiber art strategies have simultaneous cultural, environmental, formal, and gender-related relationships and implications. The design, construction and experience of buildings and inhabitable space at all scales can benefit from these relationships.

It is the contention of this thesis to merge …

Architecture For Disparate Communities In Transitional China: Urban Housing Stitch For Chinese Migrant Workers And City Dwellers In Rapidly Urbanizing Cities, Jennifer Hoi Ling Ha

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Problem:

Two housing types in China’s urban cities serve two specific demographics, the city dweller and the migrant worker. The high-rise and the urban village reside on the same block of land but cannot coexist. In order to save the urban villages from being demolished and to keep the migrant worker population within the city, there needs to be a more appropriate and aggressive housing concept to address China’s “changing contemporary social reality” between the two demographic.

Methodology:

The first step is to understand the two typologies of housing. Through the study of migrant housing typologies in different major …

Conspicuous Space: Parking Lot Suburbanism, Ian Nicholson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

What can be accomplished without a car? In a city: everything. In a suburb: nothing. Without a car, one cannot escape the city. Without a city, one cannot escape the car. Neither city nor suburb is an ideal habitat. The city has no nature. The suburb has no culture. What’s good about the suburbs over the city? According to economics: houses.

The American dream has long been “one’s own house with a private yard” (Nelesson xi); an acre and a mule for every free citizen. But this dream has created distance; a nightmare of endless commutes and oil addiction. What …

Undermining Impasse: The Role Of Architecture In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Laura Ondrich

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Undermining Impasse: The Role of Architecture in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Abstract

Laura Ondrich

Architecture is political, in that it can be used to further an authority’s agenda, and the relationship between peoples under that authority can be affected by it. As the political tool of a ruling power, architecture in a place of ongoing conflict may propel the conflict and submit to its perpetuity at the detriment of participating peoples. Though politics are often considered intangible, certain conflicts exist in real space, thus there is an opportunity for architecture to create an influence. In this case where architecture - concrete …

Gibbs, Marissa (Fa 478), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 478. Taped interviews conducted by Marissa Gibbs about the "Giles Cabin" built by Henry Giles and Janice Holt Giles near Kinfley, Adair County, Kentucky. Also includes a paper about the house. This project was completed as part of a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Civic Center For Municipal Corporation Of Delhi, Akanksha Sharma

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The thesis project proposes to explore into the design possibilities for the Civic Center for Municipal Corporation of Delhi and extract the richness of the site conditions into architecture through means of computational design. The computational design approach will provide a degree of variance which will be an interesting thing to explore in terms of defining spaces, program and systems.. The design would hinge on to one of the major centers of Delhi and aim to enhance social permeability through means of forms and articulation of spaces. It would cater to all classes of people and help in promoting small …

Contemporary Practices In Sustainable Design: Appraisal And Articulation Of Emerging Trend, Archana Sharma

Architecture Publications and Other Works

Sustainable design is a phrase commonly used in the realms of design practice and yet the definition of the same remains quite fuzzy, thus providing the motivation for this research. The paper looks at contemporary sustainable design practices in the area of architecture design, building construction and landscape architecture. The objective is to understand what the term “sustainable design” really means as used in practice and what strategies are being employed towards the goal of sustainable development. The practices are assessed for their empathies as per the currently defined social, ecological, economical well-being goals of sustainable development. The paper concludes …

Ralph Bunche Agape Neighborhood Vision Plan, Community Design Center

Project Reports

The Ralphe Bunche Neighborhood Vision Plan provides a general design framework to spur reinvestment in this 100-year old historic African-American neighborhood in Benton, AR. The plan aggregates attainable housing (under $100,000/unit) around two neighborhood parks―one existing, and one proposed. Since the city cannot afford comprehensive street and drainage improvements to accommodate redevelopment, the proposal retrofits streets and open space with Low Impact Development (LID) landscapes to remediate urban stormwater runoff. Housing unit types between 1,000 and 1,750 square feet are amassed around these LID landscapes and amenitized with screened rooms, balconies, terraces, and multiple-height living spaces.

Resistance: Contemporary Architecture:Sustaining Identity 2, Jim Roche

Articles

Economic globalisation has facilitated a glut of ‘spectacle’ works of architecture worldwide that often fail to celebrate the genius loci of places or the divergence of human culture. With the current crisis in world capitalism causing a meltdown in the mad rush to overbuild our physical environment it is pertinent to consider once again that architecture can actually contribute to a broader existential understanding.

A recent one-day conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London posited such a proposition. Curated by the Finnish writer and theorist, Juhani Pallasmaa and moderated by Jonathan Glancy, the Architecture and Design Editor of …

The Thinking Hand: Book Review, Jim Roche

Articles

In this new book Juhani Pallasmaa continues his phenomenological exploration begun in ‘The Eyes of the Skin (2005)’, with the ‘Thinking Hand’ here proffered as a metaphor for his contention that all our senses, have innate imbedded crucial skills which help us perform the most basic daily tasks – and to create inspired works of art and architecture.

The Architect As Expert Witness: A Survival Guide, Robert Greenstreet

Architecture Faculty Articles

Despite the challenges of deposition and courtroom pressures, expert witness work is both professionally interesting and financially rewarding, and many architects excel in the field. Being an expert does take you into the field of law, however, so it is advisable to sharpen up your skills of communication and presentation and thereby enhance your credibility and ultimate success.

Alien And Distant: Rem Koolhaas On On Film In Lagos, Nigeria, Joseph Godlewski

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

This article appears in TDSR volume XXI, II, 2010.

The abstract below is from the article:

This article seeks to evaluate Rem Koolhaas’s investigations of the sub-Saharan megapolis of Lagos, Nigeria. The literature on Lagos produced by Koolhaas and the Harvard Project on the City has been both lauded and criticized by several sources. Less attention, however, has been paid to two documentary films chronicling their Lagos “research studio.” The central component of this article is a close reading of these two films. It concludes that the research studio is a potentially effective method for learning about cities, though what …

Design Studio Involvement Of Real-World Stakeholders In The Fay Jones School Of Architecture, University Of Arkansas, Robert Jackson

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

There is evidence that architecture students are increasingly unprepared to enter the architectural workforce upon graduation. Some research has identified a growing gap between architectural education and architectural practice in terms of real-world concerns as the reason for students’ unpreparedness. By involving real-world stakeholders in architectural design studios – by which I mean individuals drawn from outside the academy with a professional, financial, or emotional investment in a project – educators may be able to create a more authentic learning environment that will better prepare students for architectural practice. This study describes my personal experiences as a student working on …

Preservation And Renovation Of Historical Downtown Bowling Green: The Galloway Resort, Brandy Nicole Hill

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For the past 50 years, urban development such as suburbs, shopping malls, highways, and retail chains have impacted the way that Americans live their everyday lives. While it is nice to quickly accomplish that daunting to-do list, these developments have demolished the main streets and downtowns of America. No longer do residents enjoy scenic shopping days, coffee in the park or simply a stroll around the town. Thus resulting in downtown business establishments closing and buildings became condemned. The property around what used to be an area full of life, fun and excitement became dull, boring and underappreciated. For this …