Architecture Commons^™

A Place For Family: Support Health Through Community, Jiaqi Li

Masters Theses

Traditional hospital care and medical treatment view patients as individuals, without considering the network of family members or friends who that person relies on for health, or who may themselves rely on the patient for wellbeing. Hospitals focus on healing in a vacuum, and hospital architecture plays a negative role in separating patients from friends and family. As a result, a single person’s illness can break networks of support. There is need for a new kind of program that considers the most important part of this network, family, as a whole. A system of buildings within a single neighborhood surrounding …

We Can Be Heroes: Enriched Spaces For Men Of Color, Ann Mckinnon

Masters Theses

Young men are dying in the custody of law enforcement in the United States in rates that are unappropriated to the population. Many of these men are often unarmed. This thesis proposes the creation of an Enrichment Center where a young man, between the ages of eight years to twenty years old, will gain help with homework, guidance through daily life challenges and personal mentorship as they head into the workforce.

Providing a space that also encourages an increase in high school graduation rates among Black and Hispanic men, we can eliminate this negative conflict between men of color and …

Above The Urban Surface, Xirui Zhang

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to solve inland urban flooding in residential communities of southwestern Washington D.C. by refining the current urban surface there.

By learning from the natural mountainous surface of the area, this study proposes a plan to add a new layer of urban surface above the original highly developed ground, in order to collect, recycle clean rainwater, and reduce the stress on the urban sewer system. The conclusion of the design strategies rebuilds a sustainable urban infrastructure system for the decaying urban residential area, with influence from the disciplines of both landscape and architecture.

Hybrid Spaces In The City, Zhihao Li

Masters Theses

This investigation is about the edge, hybrid space, and public engagement in the urban environment in Washington, DC. There are three phases of this research. In Phase 1, the investigation focuses on clarifying the definitions of terms such as edge, transition, vegetated, and constructed spaces. In Phase 2, the study explores methods of understanding urban fabric based on the experiential and physical analysis. In Phase 3, the investigation generates critiques of the site conditions between Union Station and Union Square in Washington, DC.

The film The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William Whyte, which shows people’s different behaviors …

Origami Condition Design, Yin Lu

Masters Theses

Origami is not a brand new discussion anymore, since its value in robotics had been recognized in recent decades. However, no clear or deep discussion happened on how to apply origami on architecture or other practical scale design, because they barely share common characteristics of material and operation. Architects try hard to blend origami into architecture design, what they pursue is the form. I am confused that whether origamishaped design could be regarded as origami design, or in other words, when we talk about origami design, what is it?

The first thing I’d like to clarify in thesis project is …

Curating Architectural Spaces : A Way Of Architecture Production, Cheng Yang

Masters Theses

Once I was a painter and a curator in art museum and I find similarities between curating and architecture. I define curating by firstly building relationships between curator’s narrative and objects implicitly or explicitly, and then arrange the sequence of the objects along with narrative. And architecture is an organized spatial system, it is designed according to architect’s narrative about the holistic condition of program, user, site. As an analogy, curator’s narrative is the principle to build relationship and design the sequence, while architect’s narrative is the principle to execute specific action in organizing spaces as part of architecture production …