Architecture Commons^™

Revitalization Through Rehabilitation: Enhancing Communities Through Re-Use, Jason Stuart Pimsler

Masters Theses

The densification of an existing community through the implementation of sustainable design principles, such as adaptive reuse, promotes revitalization. The re-inhabitation of the proposed abandoned structure along the BeltLine can lead to further development of the existing arts complex. As part of this revitalization, linkages established along a citywide master-planned path provide nodal connections between the local art district and the artists of the Goat Farm and educate visitors of the significant industrial history of the area. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the positive impact that sustainable architecture, adaptive reuse and proper planning can have on a …

Encapsulating History Of Place, Ashley Linn Lenentine

Masters Theses

Architecture has the ability to reveal the culture and history of a place, to support the community and educate society. The design becomes the vessel that retains the history of the place and increases cultural appreciation throughout society. This thesis looks to reinterpret how design responds to a historic context and incorporates culture and memory into the method for new design. A place is an accumulation of layers that tell a story of the past and overlay conditions of the present that enhance the experience of the place. The site, context, history, and culture can be identified as various layers …

[Re]Connection, Taylor Hahn

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I argue for a place where people can go to regain perspective, and to reevaluate their interactions, both with other people and their environment. This proposal explores ways in which architectural design creates a setting where the built environment is intrinsically connected to systems and forms of the natural environment. The design project consists of a facility in McLean, Virginia, just west of Washington, DC, on the southern bank of the Potomac River, for the temporary stay of people suffering from depression: who feel alienated in a world full of connections. Cases of depression are higher than …

Perform + Function: A Proposal For A Healthy Public Housing Community, Brandon M. Harvey

Masters Theses

PERFORM+FUNCTION: Proposal for A Healthy Public Housing Community

Architecture exists in Place, the integrated context of both the built and natural environments, including socio-economic, cultural, and political climates that influence our growth, development, and survival. As architecture necessitates around human purposes, it is important that architecture is built for and sited in an environment compatible for human well-being. My thesis focuses on human habitation and its immediate relationship with human health, assessing the performance and functionality of Place that have an impact on human health. Using public housing as the vehicle of my investigation, I will seek the appropriate application …

The Lateran Baptistery: Memory, Space, And Baptism, David Tyler Thayer

Masters Theses

In the fourth century, the Lateran Baptistery was sponsored by Constantine the Great; it is the first extant free-standing baptistery known from the Roman world. In the fifth century, Pope Sixtus III renovated the baptistery through a newly-emphasized spatial hierarchy and the appropriation of some of Rome's most cherished structural elements and decorating themes. The result was a unique space that created a dialogue with Roman memory for the specific function of the baptismal rite it hosted. This thesis will analyze the spatial and symbolic forms, and the baptism ritual to show Sixtus III’s interaction with the Roman tradition of …

The Life And Death Of An American Block: A Dialogue With Entropy, Micah Daniel Antanaitis

Masters Theses

My goal in this thesis is to frame, through design, an existing environment in a manner that fosters the witness and embrace of the reality and beauty of decay—which acts as a marker of the passage of time. My intent is to engage in a careful renewal of a neglected, and largely forgotten, urban landscape, which does not ignore its temporal context. My hope is to explore the full potential of the life cycle of buildings and discover the lesson of mortality in modern American ruins.

Things fall apart. This is a simple truth about the physical world that humanity …

Inhabiting The Periphery: A Dialogue Between Individual And Site, Robert Oliver Kown

Masters Theses

What is a periphery? We can think about this word in more than one way. First off, peripheries are places that exist as spatial conditions in cities, They indicate edges and places that have been left behind. Spaces that have lost their meaning. But in this thesis I will use the word in another way as well. What does the periphery mean for us today? What are those parts of our lives that have been marginalized, and how can we begin to reclaim what has been lost? It is the aim of this thesis to address these issues of the …

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 …

(Re)Discovering Civitas: The L.A.Gora, Douglas Russ Newby

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was the development of an architectural methodology capable of re-establishing polycentric civitas in the City of Los Angeles. To establish a new civic design framework for the city of Los Angeles, research and analysis was conducted in many fields using several different methods. A review of literature pertaining to the historic establishment of civitas serves an analysis of the different forms of public space in Western civilization. An analysis of urbanism in Los Angeles was conducted using existing literature related to the topic, while an analysis of the neighborhood chosen as the site for the …

Transformation Of Industrial Space, Xin Jia

Masters Theses

By the 1970s the international markets had begun to change and the region’s industries were becoming less competitive. Mines began to close. Factories that had operated night and day fell silent. Their gates closed and they became “brownfield” sites in need of restoration.

For the over past 20 years, city planners regenerated these derelict industrial lands in different ways especially focus on renaturalizing them. Less attention is being paid to them as active and strategic roles in contemporary affairs. Today, people’s thinking about this issue demands more the character of sentimental stimulus- for either the re-creation or preservation of past …