Architecture Commons^™

Tall Timber In Denver: An Exploration Of New Forms In Large Scale Timber Architecture, Andrew P. Weuling

Masters Theses

Wood has been utilized by humans for thousands of years in the construction of our built environment. More recently, our expanded understanding of the material and the advancement of engineered wood have allowed us to use wood like never before. Concrete and steel, however, have emerged as the main materials used in large scale construction in the late 19^th and 20^th Centuries. As we are battling and searching for solutions to climate change, the importance of wood in large scale construction has increased as not only is its carbon intensity is lower than steel and concrete, but its …

Re-Envisioning The American Dream, Elain Tang

Masters Theses

The United States of America is globally known as the land of opportunity, freedom, independence, equality, and above all, the American Dream. American writer and historian, James Truslow Adams, coined the phrase “American Dream” in his 1931 book The Epic of America. The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, they can attain their own version of success in society through hard work, sacrifice, and taking risks. Post-World War II, the demand for home ownership rapidly increased. The development of Levittown provided single-family homes for white nuclear …

Bridging The Gaps In Public Conversation By Fostering Spaces Of Activism, Karitikeya Sonker

Masters Theses

Spaces for protests, demonstrations, and activism are shifting under contemporary social, cultural, and governance structures. While particular conditions for physical space were once fairly unified in their ability to establish space for activism and dissent; social media and digital platforms have fundamentally changed the nature of those areas. This thesis aims to investigate frameworks of space-making that can potentially reposition spaces of activism as everyday events that represent the mood of the society. This in turn will also help in revisiting the terms of human engagement with the help of spaces that facilitate a deeper understanding of the people around …

Exploring The Use Of Grid-Scale Compressed Air Energy Storage In The Urban Landscape, Connor S. Slover

Masters Theses

Energy storage is becoming a crucial element to the renewable energy grid, and new facilities will have to go somewhere. This thesis will propose to co-locate compressed air energy storage on a site with residential units, and a community park.

This thesis will make the argument that co-locating a compressed air energy storage system with residential units could create a new start for the communities most harmed by fossil fuel infrastructure. This thesis will propose a design for a site in East Boston; a community badly scarred by heating oil and natural gas storage; with the goal of creating a …

An Assessment Of Four Selected Communities Along The Appalachian Trail In Relation To Emile Benton Mackaye's Original Vision Of Regional Planning, Jessica Ann Schottanes

Masters Theses

Planner, conservationist, forester, and geographer Emile Benton MacKaye envisioned a revolutionary, extensive foot trail that would promote the interaction between communities throughout the United States' distinctive eastern region. His 1921 plan for the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) focused on balancing the basic requirements for life in and out of the urban context by developing an ‘indigenous’ environment and developmental mold (Bower 1962, 372). However, almost a century has passed, and MacKaye's approach to the planning process, organization, environmental development, and the rural economy remains hidden beneath the mountain forest canopy extending from Maine to Georgia.

Four of the forty-nine designated communities …

From Sanctuary To Home In The Post-Interstate City, Morgan B. Sawyer

Masters Theses

The removal of New York Interstate- 81’s (I-81) 1.4 mile stretch of raised, four-lane highway in Syracuse will highlight the critical role of socioeconomics, accessibility, and community building in urban neighborhood reclamation. The removal of what had been previously deemed an urban renewal project, presents Syracuse with new opportunities for space restoration and place-making efforts, atoning for careless and traumatic historic divisions, all the while exploring more substantive design responses tailored to the realities of the City. This thesis explores these fundamental planning considerations through a design lens; by proposing a comprehensive and integrated vision of physical and spatial opportunities …

An Architecture Of A New Story, Nathan Y. Lumen

Masters Theses

As the world reckons with an uncertain future at the hands of global climate change and biodiversity loss, the question of how to proceed seems ever more urgent. Approaches to sustainability in design tend to focus on technological solutions to what is often presented as a technical problem. This approach overlooks the ways in which the forces that have led us to this point are born out of our cultural story of what it means to be human, what the natural world is, and what our relationship is to it. This is the story that has permitted if not encouraged …

The Homestead Helper Handbook, Courtney A. Jurzynski

Masters Theses

When the pandemic hit, and grocery stores and other necessities started to shut down and create havoc amongst the general public, it became clear that having the ability to rely on a self-sufficient homestead might be the only way to survive and thrive. As a graduate student who has studied architecture and sustainability, this idea seems possible. As an average human with no prior architectural or homesteading knowledge, this idea is daunting.

This thesis is asking, is there a systematic way to develop a tool to evaluate, and aid in the design of, a self-sustaining, off-grid homestead? Can this tool …

Detroit: Revitalizing Urban Communities, David N. Fite

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between architecture and planning in Detroit. The relationship between these two disciplines has reinforced gross inequality in socioeconomic status over many decades. It has been compounded by racism which planning policy and Architecture exploited during the 20^th Century for private interests. This impacts the built environment at all scales. Today division is reinforced through small details such as how handrails are placed on benches, but it extends to planning metropolitan areas, and how they are divided up into city and suburb. At the scales between, both architecture and planning reinforce the segregation within their …

Physical To Virtual: A Model For Future Virtual Classroom Environments, Stephen J. Fink

Masters Theses

Virtual reality is a technology that has seen unprecedented growth since the turn of the century with increasing applications within business, entertainment, and educational applications. As virtual reality technologies continue to develops and markets expand, the world may see an increased demand for virtual classrooms: virtual environments (VEs) that students may access through immersive virtual reality technologies to receive guided instruction, conduct simulations, or perform tasks typical in a classroom setting. While many studies document how virtual reality is beneficial to educational processes, there is little discussion on how virtual environments should be architecturally designed. Thus one may hypothesize that …

River Tapi Rejuvenation: Elevating The Ecological Corridor Of Surat City, Kinjal Desai

Masters Theses

With rapid urban sprawl, comes new challenges to the trends in urbanization. The recent trends in urban development bring urban systems and urban experiences into daily contact with natural habitats. So, it is extremely important to consider natural systems in play while designing for an Urban ecosystem, which is one of the principles of Landscape Urbanism. It is a design practice that intervenes Natural landscape and habitation to form an integrative systems approach. This thesis is built upon approaching an urban riverfront development project through the perspective of Landscape Urbanism. It aims at developing design strategies for the ecological restoration …

Cultivating Food Justice: Exploring Public Interest Design Process Through A Food Security & Sustainability Hub, Madison J. Dehaven

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses the deep-rooted systemic issue of food justice, through the development of a Food Security & Sustainability Hub in Northampton, Massachusetts. As part of the thesis process, I initiated engagement with local stakeholders and organizations using established practices of public interest design. This included a series of meetings and site visits with the leaders of a nonprofit social justice farm in Northampton, MA. These conversations shaped the project scope and design. In doing so, the thesis project tested ideas about social process and the overarching role of discourse in design. My hope is that through thoughtful analysis and …

The Beige Conundrum, Alma Crawford-Mendoza

Masters Theses

Color is an essential part of everyday life, but it is often not given the consideration it deserves. Simply, waking up in the morning and pulling on a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt is an example of a decision made about color. What behooves a person to dress in a certain color? Is it related to their mood? Is it related to the kind of work they do? Similar questions can be asked about the exterior color of a person’s home. Why did they choose that color? How do they feel about their house’s color? Did they …

Firesafe: Designing For Fire-Resilient Communities In The American West, Brenden Baitch

Masters Theses

The perception that wildfires are completely preventable has caused many structures and communities to be built in locations that will inevitably experience an uncontrollable fire event, risking human lives and infrastructure. Modification of built environments into fire-adapted communities has been explored in this thesis, through multiple strategies. Central to this analysis is the idea that sustainable human developments could adopt a form of biomimicry and indigenous design informed by the adaptions of plants, animals, and native groups that endure and even thrive with regular cycles of fire. This possibility has been assessed through the scope of fire adaptation strategies available …

Creating New Cultural Hubs In American Cities: The Syrian Diaspora Of Worcester, Massachusetts, Aleesa Asfoura

Masters Theses

Architectural design can be used as a tool to assist in integrating Syrian immigrants into American culture. Conceived of as a vital place-making technique, architecture can build Syrian community in the United States, while maintaining and promoting the links to Middle Eastern heritage. This thesis draws upon the lived experience of a large Syrian population in Worcester, MA, and makes a case for design in the development of a Syrian-American community center. This Syrian-American community center seeks to satisfy three goals. First, it offers a space for Syrian immigrants to better transition into American culture while also staying strongly connected …

Loneliness / Togetherness : Interiority And Connection Under Isolation, Huaqin Chen

Masters Theses

Inhabitants’ perceptions can be greatly impacted when they are in an enforced space, a state of incarceration. That sense of confinement can cause mental or physical health issues on account of the loneliness, lack of interaction or confusion of time and space. Living through enforcement and isolation deeply affect human cognition and behavior. We can also easily find precedents of living through enforcement in the plots of films. By studying narrative, this thesis reconstructs domestic space by investigating the changes in our daily life after our current pandemic. A spatial sequence is created according to the relationwship among time, space …

Space Between Memories: Pause, Young Jae Cho

Masters Theses

The early 20th century was an important time for economic development and modernization around the world. However, the Republic of Korea spent decades suffering under Japanese colonial rule. For that reason, preservation or demolition of buildings built during the Japanese colonial period remains a polarizing topic. Many of these structures have been demolished or neglected, unrecognized for their historical and architectural value. Although Koreans learn about the colonial era in school, if those physical places experienced in their daily life gradually disappear, they will forget this difficult history. These structures should be a space where people can feel historical lessons …

Cultural Acupuncture: Decentralization And Deocratization In Chinese Exhibition Design, Ruohan Duan

Masters Theses

There is an imbalance between the opportunities for aesthetic education in big cities and underdeveloped areas in China. Taking Shanghai and Beijing as examples, museums in big cities consume most art educational resources. People who live in rural or small towns hardly have access to the arts, making the aesthetic gap larger between cultural centers and cultural deserts.

This thesis proposes a new exhibition system that could send a series of accessible and sustainable exhibition structures around China to narrow the educational resources gap and synchronize cultural curriculum between different places. Decentralizing and democratizing the cultural center and bringing the …

Reclaiming Modern Architecture: An Urban Visual Narrative Of Kuwait City, Yara Hadi

Masters Theses

For a city to be remembered, to be successful, to be desired, a distinct connection has to be made between the city-dweller and the city itself. In 1938 Kuwait transformed from a town that relied on trade into a single resource exporter of oil, fueling a booming modern economy. The influx of the automobile and modern solutions to Western ways of living would forever change the city. In the speed of these developments, critical aspects of city planning such as the pedestrian and the harsh desert climate were overlooked. Kuwait began to lose a connection between the city and its …

Ascents And Descents In The 21st Century: Restoring Chand Baori, Japneet Pahwa

Masters Theses

Water is a basic human right and a resource that should be accessible to all. The largest and deepest stepwell in the world, Chand Baori in dry Abhaneri, Rajasthan, is visited by many but serves its purpose for none. This hundred foot deep subterranean structure once allowed access to fresh water during hot and dry seasons, and served as a cool sanctuary for pilgrims, caravans and villagers.Unfortunately, due to climate change and political discourse, the underprivileged, rural population of modern India often does not have access to water. Stepwells were built in India in the 3rd century CE, in the …

The Retrieval Of Memory: Holding Time In The Shanghai Gasometers, Liman Wei

Masters Theses

Shanghai was primarily an industrial city from the 19th century to the 20th century. By serving as a carrier of time, the past industrial architecture in Shanghai is invested with the collective memory of its past inhabitants. Now that Shanghai has entered the post-industrial period, according to the Shanghai 2035 Urban Plan, the Yangshupu Industrial Zone will be transformed into a new Central Activity Zone. As a result of this plan, old residential neighborhoods nearby will be demolished and replaced by new high-rise residential buildings. The relationship between old residential areas and industrial buildings will be uprooted. Memories of industry …

Woven Healing: Reimagining The Rural Health Center, Mahasweta Jayachandran

Masters Theses

Seventy-five percent of India’s population is rural. Of those rural citizens, almost nine out of ten lack access to adequate health facilities. While the existing composition of any village in India is housing, temple, and agriculture, the physical well-being of residents has no home. When the local government builds a new isolated healthcare center, these disconnected centers become deserted and a place of unhealthy activity.

How do you effectively embed a new spatial intervention within an existing system of the village that supports health, rather than extending the boundaries of the village into sprawl? Historical study of medical practice in …

The Second Home: Breaking The Cycle Of Lonely Death, Woohee Kim

Masters Theses

Lonely Death Syndrome is a phenomenon in which an isolated person suffers a lack of social relationships and dies alone. This is a serious problem in modern South Korea, particularly among poor elderly people living in Seoul. Though the government has tried to help, there is an obvious bureaucratic limit in resolving the sense of loneliness. In Seoul, Nowon-gu is one of the districts that has the highest concentration of poor seniors, and high-rise rental housing built for this population. These apartments are uniform in design in order to house as many people as possible economically in a limited space, …

Overflowing Boundaries: Competition And Mutualism In Urban Villages, Chen Zhang

Masters Theses

Villages besieged by urban sprawl have been isolated and forgotten, broken from urban texture and social relationships. However, this kind of encirclement has no clear boundary and is entirely permeable. Infiltration and overflowing occur on various scales. On the urban scale, the old villages gradually abandoned the agricultural lifestyle and connected with the new industrial city. On the architectural scale, urban villages attempt to integrate with cities by imitating the urban façade wherever they come into contact along the fluid boundary. Some warehouses, small plants, and small workshops have appeared in urban villages. On the human scale, people's lives overflow …

The Future Of Beijing Urban Courtyards, Zhuoqi Xu

Masters Theses

The Beijing Siheyuan is typical and representative of traditional Chinese residential construction. It is not only an architectural form but also a reflection of the traditional modes of living in Beijing. However, with the changes in family structure and people’s living needs, the spatial pattern of traditional courtyards has been unable to meet the life and economic needs of modern society. The scarce public space, poor living environment, and the low-quality of residents’ life led Siheyuan to lose its original status. Despite these challenges, whether for the protection of the overall style of Beijing’s old city or the renewal of …

Remember Me: How We Can Modify The Home For People With Dementia, Wenjin Wang

Masters Theses

More than 50 million people live with dementia worldwide. For reasons of familiarity, affordability, and psychological comfort, the home is uniquely preferred by people with dementia (PwD) and their caregivers for aging in place. Ample studies show that built environmental features (e.g., furnishing, lighting, layout) influence the daily lives of PwD. These features can be modified easily and with fewer disruptions to daily life at home. However, most PwD and their caregivers usually have little knowledge of what can be achieved through simple interventions to environmental features.

There is a great need for an exhibition to explain the dementia-friendly home …

Unraveling The Living: Reframing Cramped Housing As A Social Living, Dong-Zoo Han

Masters Theses

In Seoul, people of the poorest economic status live in compressed units no larger than 32 square feet, known as “sliced housing.” The majority of these residents hope for better living conditions, but they are unable to move for multiple reasons. This is an interwoven sociological issue that requires intervention proposals that improve the physical and mental wellbeing of the people in these housing situations. This thesis demonstrates possible architectural interventions that will enhance the quality of life and support systems within Seoul’s “sliced housing” villages.

Other urban villages in Seoul in similar states of degradation have been destroyed, with …

Rural Acupuncture: Carefully Introducing Tourism Within An Underground Village, Shangyun Zhou

Masters Theses

Di Keng Yuan(地坑院) are traditional cave dwellings in northern rural China, with a history of over 4,000 years of use. Today, living in Di Keng Yuan represents poverty and lower social status. Most Di Keng Yuan are ignored and abandoned by local people more interested in urbanization and the evolution of society. Yaodi Village is facing such a challenge of hollowing, meaning 1.young rural labor flows spontaneously into big cities, resulting in increased rural aging and 2.residents living in rural areas have gradually moved to the surrounding areas, resulting in the abandonment of cave dwellings, and the village is becoming …

Remembering Chinatown: A Fusion Of Food, Identity, & Memory, Robert Yang

Masters Theses

In 2016, the Chinese American Restaurant Association recorded a total of 50,000 Chinese restaurants operating in the United States, far exceeding the number of McDonalds, Burger Kings, KFCs, and Wendy’s combined. In the near two centuries that Chinese people have been a part of the American fabric, our food has become one of the country’s most popular ethnic cuisines. While these restaurants stand as testaments to the tenacity and entrepreneurship of the Chinese immigrant, they are also reminders of the centuries of adversity Chinese Americans have endured. The racial divisions triggered by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 have resulted …

Beyond Pasta: Understanding Italian American Culinary Culture In Federal Hill, Chufan He

Masters Theses

Nuances of culture are lost from an outside perspective. This one–sidedness perception brings confusion and can lead to stereotypes. As a “Country of immigrants’” it is crucial to break stereotypes born in America to understand the complexity and uniqueness of every immigrant's culture. As for stereotypes of Italian culture in America, these are always related to food. As an Italian American neighbourhood with many layers of history, Federal Hill has experienced several transitions. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route which brought a large number of Italian immigrants to New England. Providence …