Architecture Commons^™

Architecture Of Dreams, Alex Jing-Seng Wong

Masters Theses

Architecture, both of reality and of dreams, is constructed to serve the needs of its world. The environments of dreams are akin to movie sets in that they correspond to a particular story. Recognizing (“remembering” unconscious knowledge) the significance of objects and forms to the story of a dream reveals the essence of these things as perceived by the self. Those understandings not resulting from individual life experiences may be identified as inherited and universal.

Blueridgelivin' : Environmental Development And Suburban Sprawl, Chris Villalta

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on investigating how precolonial Blue Ridge Cherokee construction was resilient to time and weather, integrated place, and respected the environment, traditions, and politics, to better integrate landscape, climate, ecology, and regionally specific architecture.

A City's Culture Should Include Birds : To Rethink Of Architecture With Birds In Mind, Pan Sun

Masters Theses

The truth of a city’ s culture is that Birds and Human live in a single-shared ecosystem boundaries. Architects as human always think of architecture according to human’s needs and neglect animals’ demands. However, the architecture and a city should acknowledge and response to the cultural need and value of the society of which it interacts—birds and human. Architecture needs to create spaces connecting these two species by boundaries. The thesis seeks to explore the transition area between these boundaries—a type of space providing a chance for birds and human living tog ether harmoniously.

Specific : And Practices In The Urban Periphery, Sam Wesselman

Masters Theses

This body of work attempts to revisit the American suburban condition as a potential site of healing for the United States. Polarized politics have drawn hard lines between different groups of people in the US, typically along urban and rural identities. If the suburb is potentially defined as neither urban nor rural, what can it teach us about bridging cultural gaps that have opened up in America?

The suburb, generalized into a concept I call “peripherality”, can teach practices that are decentered and heterogeneous. Architecture, as a discipline whose role could be defined in this peripheral sense, always acting in-between …

Vacancy Never Vacant, Marina Bibidakis

Masters Theses

Vacant buildings are never truly vacant. They might not be used as originally planned but there are still signs of life inside them. Even in a state of ruination, nature takes over or undocumented humans use them as temporary shelter. Instead of going the route of completely redesigning, I would like to embrace the qualities created from the transition periods in between to categorize and articulate the thesis, the focus will be on industrial buildings. My interest is directed on revitalizing buildings. My interest is originally designed for human occupation or appreciation, but rather for machines. Part of the research …

Tolerance : Material Conversations On Life & Architecture, Keyan Hansen

Masters Theses

Tolerance is an investigation of the phenomenological aspects and latency of material in architecture through physical manipulation and sensory interaction. It is an investigation into the space between society and material, in which one can find new insight and appreciation for architecture at all scales. The word tolerance holds multiple definitions that wonderfully encapsulate the elements of this work:

• The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular, the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

• An allowable amount of variation of a specified quantity, especially in the dimensions of a machine or …

Living Together : Revisiting The Sro + New Forms Of Collectivity, Elizabeth Parker

Masters Theses

The current affordable housing crisis has reached a boiling point. Home prices are increasing at double the rate of wage gains, and almost half of all renters in the United States are considered costburdened (spending 30% or more of their income on rent). There simply isn’t enough affordable housing available to meet the growing demand and people are being priced out. The housing market, as it stands, is in desperate need of re-examination.

Options that better reflect the demographics of growing cities and promote inclusion are of vital importance for a sustainable future.

This directed research project responds to the …

About Intimacy, Jiamin Lin

Masters Theses

Imagine that there is a person who goes everywhere carrying a chair. From the moment she places her chair down on the ground, this action defines a space around her. The shape of this invisible entity keeps changing. However, I still feel a specific way of “closure”. My thesis started from this moment, about defining intimacy.

Time may be translated into measures of movement and occupancies of space. Film and architecture both mobilize spatial and temporal modes of perception. My exploration of spatial intimacy started from filming the interaction between human being and larger entities. It exploits the filmic capacity …

Wrinkle Architecture : The Public Relaxation Pavilions For Geriatric Community In Cities Of Zhejiang After 1980'S, Yi Lu

Masters Theses

Wrinkles of the city just like the wrinkles of human. They are symbles of aging as well as the carriers of story. They are existing in unexpecting places in the city or in human faces. The wrinkle of the city is the texture of city during its urbanization process. They are small and chopped. They are between temporary and permanent.

This thesis integrates the “wrinkle architectures” of Hangzhou to improve the relaxation space and provide a better environment for in the elderly community of Hangzhou.

Two-Gather / Collective Living : Housing And Recreational Facilities In Suburban Mumbai, Rashi Harshil Lalaji

Masters Theses

Collective form of living is a relevant framework to reconsider way of living in contemporary Mumbai. The thesis explores shared communal architecture elements in a specific housing typology called chawls. These elements are analyzed through its programmatic use of space and scale. Understanding the chawls as a module for communal living situated within a larger city context of Mumbai. The thesis further argues that collective forms of living are possible and should be a precedent for developing the present affordable housing typologies in the urban city.

Adaptive Reuse Pattern Book : Re-Evaluating Historical Capital, Taylor Mccabe

Masters Theses

Vacant buildings in post-industrial America are produced by a metabolism of neglect and disinvestment. Challenging the conventional approach of demolish and rebuild, an alternative path is possible that acknowledges the built environment as it exists.

I am specifically looking at vacant structures in the city of Baltimore. Currently there are approximately 16,000 structures consisting of mostly rowhouses. Inherent to these buildings are shared walls and continuous facades which when subjected to decay will directly impact the physical condition of adjoining properties. Baltimore City is characterized by blocks and blocks of rowhouses, which tell a history of the development of the …

Relocation Community Revival, Zhan Zhang

Masters Theses

The thesis tries to revive/re-imagine the public spaces of relocation community in Jiangsu, China by re-designing the in between spaces of the existing apartment buildings, dealing with the misfit of relocated residents to their new living environment during the rapid urbanization process.

Playgrounds : Symbiosis Of Humans, Nature, And Architecture, Hannah Langmuir

Masters Theses

As we have adapted to learn how to best take advantage of our natural resources, we have evolved into the beings we are today. However, once we shifted away from natural environments to embrace new technologies and confine ourselves to our human-built spaces, we began to take a step backwards in our evolutionary timeline, returning to a confined, limited state.

As a result, this project examines play as a solution to connecting humans, nature, and architecture. By integrating these new programs into existing offices in downtown Providence, this process was an exploration in adapting our architecture to provide spaces where …

Change Of Plans: The Subversive Kit In The Planned Community, Hugo Caldwell

Masters Theses

My thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between the prescriptive forces of urban planning with architecture. Through extracting elements and characteristics from an existing context, I implement a subversive system/kit of parts that work together to challenge the ideas behind top-down planning while painting a new picture of Columbia, MD, and planned communities as a whole.

In-Between Through : Bordering Bodies ; A Spatial Containment, Aroly Enamorado

Masters Theses

Due to the continuous struggle for undocumented migration, the U.S. Mexico border has always been on of the most misunderstood. This thesis tries to form awareness of the number of migrants that are seeking asylum in the United States. Most of these people are coming from Central and South America to experience the American dream, a concept that many do not get to achieve. Understanding the physical and cultural aspects from departing their homeland, arrival at the border, possible deportation, the admission into the country, and starting from zero. Nowadays, the southern border wall has turned into a cancerous divider …

Transform Through Architecture : A Journey Of Discovery At The Providence Place Mall, Haoning Li

Masters Theses

Changes can be subtle, but nevertheless they are ever lasting. When one encounters the other, the experience of the encountering changes us. It not only happens with people but also with spaces. Each space tells a story of it’s own, and when we encounter each space we are changed by it. Each space carries with it different imprint and shows different personalities. Therefore, when we encounter them, we are all listeners and transmitters to carry those stories onwards.

Seeing architecture as fertile and breeding ground to welcome, transmit and exchange ideas, the hidden potentials in common building types and structures …

The Story Of Market House, Patrick Spence

Masters Theses

Our encounters of space are charged with narratives of the past. These narratives help us define who we are, speaking to our values and providing us with our identity.

The Story of Market House is an exploration into the narratives of the 245-year-old Market House of Providence, Rhode Island. Like the additions and alterations to its form, Market House is layered with generations of unique Providence history.

This project aims to remember and tell an unbiased and empathetic narrative, true to the comprehensive histories of this unique place; and from this present an architectural proposal that projects a new chapter …

Intimacy In Infrastructure, Andrew Sponseller

Masters Theses

This thesis employs public transit to establish regional reclamations of infrastructure, empowering cultural identities through a vernacular that is realized and matured into the capacity of today. The decaying state of our mass transit infrastructure is due to a decline of community ownership and regional identity represented in their architecture.

“Communities” can be considered cities, neighborhoods, towns, or entire regions of States depending on the scale of the infrastructure. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania clearly exhibits the range of this decline. A city that went from being the center of the Pennsylvania Railroad, now is sprinkled with infrastructural shells of the past. These …

Possibilities In Void, Fangyu Wei

Masters Theses

The interaction between architecture surfaces and urban environment is being more active, this transient boundary demarcates the inner core and external diverse environments to provide a different experience for human. The uncertainties in attitudes that have existed over time to the interior and exterior conditions, thus, the spatial tension between these 2 surfaces naturally form into several void spaces. As I observed that through individual action, ideas, and criticality, urban voids have become catalysts for social interaction and creative experiments. Re-appropriation of vacant sites by means of inhabitation or (new) subtle ecologies to emerge in the Taipei urban area. Residents …

Occupying The Public : Humans, Space & Identity, Brittany Knowlton

Masters Theses

My thesis is understanding spectacle and the spatial organization of human society. What is the role of architecture to create performance?

Un-Black Boxing Mitigation Infrastructures : Proposing Alternative Imaginaries For Mono-Functional And Under-Utilized Urban Backstages, Min Jin Kook

Masters Theses

Cities are full of risk-mitigation infrastructure to protect ourselves from floods, erosion and threatening natural disasters. These infrastructures include underground retention tanks, dams and channelized river. They are purposefully hidden away because they are under highways or underground. Most of risk-mitigation infrastructures are under-utilized ninety- five percent of the time. They only serve one function for two weeks every year. They are empty most of the year. Is there an alternative project to consider these risk-mitigation infrastructures while they are completely mono-functional and under-utilized?

Along with my inquiry to utilize risk-mitigation infrastructures, I am critiquing the “blackboxing” and “under-utilization” of …

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 …

Architecture And Wilderness: An Exchange Of Order, Ashley Lepre

Masters Theses

If wilderness refers to those spaces that are unoccupied by humans while architecture is one major way that humans occupy space, the terms seem to be mutually exclusive. However, this thesis argues that wilderness and architecture have a fundamental similarity: they are both ways that humans understand and relate to the world.

This thesis looks critically at the notion of wilderness by acknowledging that throughout time and history, humans have understood wilderness in innumerable different ways and, as a result, have treated those spaces that are deemed wilderness in innumerable different ways as well. It acknowledges wilderness as a “profoundly …

Photosynthesizing The Workplace: A Study In Healthy And Holistic Production Spaces, Kaeli Howard

Masters Theses

Throughout time nature has been a prescribed healer of stress on the human condition. Its vital integration into our daily lives has been proven by scientific evidence. The majority of Americans spend approximately 1/3 of their life working, whatever that job may entail. Therefore, it makes sense that the environments that we spend so much of our life in for work at extremely important to our physical and mental health, however, current workplace models are not acknowledging that. Redefining the workplace to integrate nature would start to change work life in this country and how work itself is viewed.

This …

Therapeutic Community: For Refugees, Raghad Alrashidi

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the different aspects of therapeutic architecture through the design of a therapeutic community for refugees who suffer from PTSD. To understand a therapeutic space a depth of understanding of what space, atmosphere and stimulation of senses is explored through the effects of light, shadow, and color psychology. The methodology exploration studies different lighting strategies and massing models to understand the relationship and aura of the space being designed.

Architectural Synergy: A Facility For Lifelong Learning In Academia And Practice, Ryan Rendano

Masters Theses

Historically, a disconnect has existed between the education and practice of architecture. Architectural education has long prided itself on the value of creative problem-solving, research, and the fine arts. In contrast, the practice of architecture has evolved to emphasize technical knowledge, specialization, communication, business, and collaboration. This disconnect has led education to miss opportunities to teach students business skills and knowledge required for the workplace, and allowed practice to lose sight of the importance of artistry and research. Architecture educators, students, and practitioners each have a unique set of knowledge and skills to offer the other, and a corresponding set …

Pro Bono Publico: The Architect As Developer, Daniel Hurshel Hodge

Masters Theses

The profession of architecture now encounters a precarious economic landscape because of the separation of economy and the value chain. Architecture has historically succeeded on the backs of its craftspeople and the intangible tangibility of its productions. Yet, in our current economic era, where everyone is disconnected from value creation and imbibes value through the medium of brand, architecture has responded with niche reforms and feeble assertions of legitimacy. What follows is a reevaluation of its professional values in a valueless climate. From the standpoint of the architect, coupling its systemic elements with that of the real estate developer may …

The New Parallel: Urban And Agrarian Political, Environmental, And Architectural Landscapes Of The Demilitarized Zone, Robert Vincent Truka

Masters Theses

North and South Korea share the most heavily armed military border in the world. Technically both sides are still at war dating back to 1950. The 38th parallel, also known as The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a 156-mile long by 2.5- mile wide border condition with over two million plus known landmines buried with-in its boundaries. The Juxtapositions of the financial, political, economical, and military modalities could not be more drastically different between North and South Korea. North Korea is a communist autocratic military dictatorship and has one of the worlds lowest Gross Domestic Products (GDP). South Korea is a …

Integral Perspectives, Henry Brian Cheek

Masters Theses

Integral Perspectives is a method to architectural design that encompasses four different approaches. The four approaches, or perspectives, I chose to focus on include: Cultural, Experiential, Performance, and Systems. Designing with each of these perspectives in mind, I intend to create a more holistic and integral design solution. My thesis explores this methodology using the affordable housing crisis in Nashville, TN.

Logistical Bodies Of Fulfillment, Michael Steven Frush

Masters Theses

existence occurs in a spatial assembly of multiple scalar experiences that is intensified and brought to perception by the exponential advancement of a virtual extension.

the physical realm that human cognition experiences acts as a bound container influenced by natural law and trusted forces. the virtual realm exists as a medium through which linkages are made that suppose unseen law, forces, and connections. the human existence experiences an interface between the multiplicities of the physical and the virtual. as technologies advance exponentially the recognition of a multiple temporality is intensified by digital networks and spatial extensions. the trusting of physical …