Architecture Commons^™

The Reasons For Not Implementing Green Pyramid Rating System In Egyptian Buildings, Rania Rushdy Moussa

Architectural Engineering

Green Pyramid Rating System ‘‘GPRS” was established in 2009, Yet sustainable architecture practices in Egypt does not shows constant steps of growth. This research discusses the reasons behind the negligence of implementing GPRS into projects as a sustainable design approach. The research intends to identify the gaps between the architectural curriculum’s and GPRS aspects. Research methods are divided into two parts the first part is a survey questionnaire targeting senior architecture students at Egyptian private universities and public universities, as well as experienced architects in order to determine their level of awareness toward the aspects of the GPRS. While the …

Long-Term Changes Of Open-Surface Water Bodies In The Yangtze River Basin Based On The Google Earth Engine Cloud Platform, Yue Deng, Wei-Guo Jiang, Zhenghong Tang, Ziyan Ling, Zhifeng Wu

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

The spatiotemporal changes of open-surface water bodies in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) have profound influences on sustainable economic development, and are also closely relevant to water scarcity in China. However, long-term changes of open-surface water bodies in the YRB have remained poorly characterized. Taking advantage of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform, this study processed 75,593 scenes of Landsat images to investigate the long-term changes of open-surface water bodies in the YRB from 1984 to 2018. In this study, we adopted the percentile-based image composite method to collect training samples and proposed a multiple index water detection rule …

Tigard Triangle, Portland State University. Center For Public Interest Design, Sergio Palleroni, Sarah Dunn, Molly Esteve

Center for Public Interest Design Projects

The City of Tigard is in Washington County, Ore., and is part of the Portland Metro area. Within Tigard an isolated portion of the city is surrounded by three main roadways to create the Tigard Triangle (see highlighted location to the left). While an analysis of urban walkability scored Main Street in Downtown Tigard as 66/100, the Triangle area only received half that score (City of Tigard, n.d.-c). This is due to the limited number of sidewalks, low residential density, and relationships of buildings to the streets. Demographic data in this report compares the Triangle to Tigard as a whole …

Marlborough Street, Newport, Ri: A Cultural Landscape Analysis, Arianna C. Marchetti

Historic Preservation Capstone Projects

Marlborough Street in the downtown district of Newport, Rhode Island is a historically and culturally rich area of the city. It is home to several noteworthy historic structures, some of which date back to the seventeenth century. Despite its unique character, its history has remained obscure. This report aims to answer why the history of Marlborough Street is not as recognized as it should be. Its goal is to provide readers with a detailed history of its existence from the seventeenth century to present day. It will then conduct a cultural landscape analysis by examining the existing conditions of the …

The Renaissance Of Worcester’S Canal District: A Post Industrial Revitalization, Vincent Pacifico

Architecture Theses

If we carefully analyze what exists currently in our industrial neighborhoods, we see that they all have very close proximity to our existing transportation systems. What used to be utilized for shipping raw materials and manufactured goods can be now used for commuting to and from other cities on a public transportation system. Many of these 19th and 20th century buildings in these neighborhoods are perfect spaces which we can start to use for modern day working, living and commercial space. By looking at ways in which we can reuse and incorporate these older buildings into a 21st century development, …

Citizens Of God's Little Acre: The Lives And Landscapes Of African Americans In Newport During The Colonial Era, Marjorie Drew

Historic Preservation Theses

The purpose of this research is to discover biographical information, community interactions, and property ownership regarding the enslaved and emancipated individuals interred in God’s Little Acre Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. This research will further the understanding of how the African and African American community contributed to the development and cultural landscape within Newport. God’s Little Acre Cemetery is one of the oldest African American cemeteries in the United States and is the foundation for this research. The history of slavery and the stories of the enslaved Africans and their emancipated descendants within New England have been discussed, but marginally …

Linking Space: A Transit Oriented Design, Jessica Vara

Architecture Theses

I propose to impact change for people and planet by architecting a community within a dense living space that is sustainable by means of public transportation that would enable travel to all essential activities as well as many leisurely places, events, stores, shopping centers and theaters. The carefully planned and architected ecosystem would blend commodities of life with dense living spaces to provide a self- sustaining community within a city. People who work outside of the ecosystem could utilize it by connecting through branches of the public transportation system. People who live within the ecosystem could depend on various means …

Feasibility Of A Fiber Reinforced Polymer Retrofit For Non-Ductile Concrete Walls, Rory S. De Sevilla, Jerry Hue Truong Luong, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Peter T. Laursen, Mike J. Deigert

Architectural Engineering

A significant number of pre-1980’s non-ductile reinforced concrete (RC) structures in California have been identified as deficient, many of which utilize RC shear wall systems to resist earthquake lateral forces. These non-ductile wall systems are typically lightly reinforced and lack adequate boundary element detailing. Engineers suspect these walls to susceptible to brittle, compression-controlled failure modes due to damage from concrete crushing and bar buckling. As a result, one approach designers are taking is to seek fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) retrofit solutions that improve the compression capacity of high-stressed wall end zone regions based on effectiveness of these approaches with columns. …

Digitally-Mediated Practices Of Geospatial Archaeological Data: Transformation, Integration, & Interpretation, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristin Landau

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digitally-mediated practices of archaeological data require reflexive thinking about where archaeology stands as a discipline in regard to the ‘digital,’ and where we want to go. To move toward this goal, we advocate a historical approach that emphasizes contextual source-side criticism and data intimacy—scrutinizing maps and 3D data as we do artifacts by analyzing position, form, material and context of analog and digital sources. Applying this approach, we reflect on what we have learned from processes of digitally-mediated data. We ask: What can we learn as we convert analog data to digital data? And, how does digital data transformation impact …

Tiny Houses In Metropolitan Areas Of Nebraska: Seasonal Or Permanent Living Environments, Michele L. Hybner

Interior Design Program: Theses and Other Student Work

This study is designed to determine if tiny houses offer a viable seasonal and/or permanent living environment for Nebraska residents. Two objectives are used to assess the viability of tiny housing in this Midwestern state. The first analyzes the economics (demand, supply, and cost) of tiny housing in metropolitan areas of Nebraska. The second identifies barriers to occupancy of tiny houses in the state. The results of this research are significant because tiny housing presents a means to address the state’s need for more affordable housing options available to Nebraska residents. At the time of this study, 11.4% of Nebraska’s …

Designing Single-Family Residences: A Study Of The Positive Impact Of Interior Design In Creating New Home Value, Shawn M. Falcone

Interior Design Program: Theses and Other Student Work

This study seeks to demonstrate that interior designers should be included as primary stakeholders in the home construction market. The market demand for new single-family homes in America is a relative constant. The primary stake and role that land developers, architects, draftsman, home builders, bankers, appraisers, real estate agents, and buyers have in the home construction market is clear. What is less clear is the role in value an interior designer has in the home construction market. This thesis examines the impact designers have on home value when their expertise is utilized in space planning (i.e.: layout, function, room utilization, …

Advanced Photogrammetric Modeling Of Dranoc Kullas Using Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, George Gebert, Liam Griffin, Justin Lawlor, Lauren Davis, Kylee Vander Velde, Sami Ali

Student Works

Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), also known as drones, offer new capabilities for cultural heritage preservation activities. Student researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University have applied photogrammetric techniques based upon sUAS captured imagery to assist with historical site documentation and cultural heritage preservation in the Republic of Kosovo. Imagery from three locations -- Isniq, Dranoc and Junik -- highlight this work. Student researchers created georectified orthomosaics and 3D virtual objects. At each of these three locations the object of interest was a type of building known as a kulla. These kullas are fortified homes built for protecting large families and are …

"Its Cargo Is People": Repositioning Commuter Rail As Public Transit To Save The New York–New Haven Line, 1960–1990, Seamus C. Joyce-Johnson

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

This essay explores the creation of the Metro-North Railroad in 1983 as a public agency to provide commuter train services on the New York–New Haven Line. The essay begins by bringing out the central role commuter rail services played in the negotiations over the New Haven Railroad’s bankruptcy in the 1960s. I argue that New Haven Line’s near liquidation during the bankruptcy prompted advocacy from commuters, urban planners, and politicians that pushed back against the trend towards automobile-centric urban transportation planning. In the next section, I use the New Haven Line’s subsequent operation in the 1970s under subsidy arrangements with …

The Five Tribes Of Machine-Learning: A Brief Overview, Jens G. Pohl

Architecture

This paper reviews recent advances in automated computer-based learning capabilities. It briefly describes and examines the strengths and weaknesses of the five principal algorithmic approaches to machine-learning, namely: connectionism; evolutionism; Bayesianism; analogism; and, symbolism. While each of these approaches can demonstrate some degree of learning, a learning capability that is comparable with human learning is still in its infancy and will likely require the combination of multiple algorithmic approaches. However, the current state reached in machine-learning suggests that Artificial General Intelligence and even Artificial Superintelligence may indeed be eventually feasible.

An Ethnobotany Of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Meredith Savage

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The historical and continuing cultural significance of the Black Hills to Native Peoples is well documented, as is the relatively recent mineralogical significance of the area to non-indigenous Americans. Human habitation of the area may go back thirteen thousand years and many tribal groups are known to have occupied, used, or otherwise laid claim to portions of this region. Full recognition by non-native Americans of the long-standing and very different cultural significance the Black Hills held historically and continues to hold for Native Peoples is still a work in progress. It is the author’s hope that this ethnobotany of Mount …

Workforce Development Through Online Experiential Learning For Stem Education, Arefeh Mohammadi, Kevin Grosskopf, John Killingsworth

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The U.S. workforce is increasingly comprised of older adults, women, and minorities who lack basic skills and are unable to acquire these skills through traditional educational and training programs. New approaches are needed to provide effective training to the adult learner and flexible support for nontraditional students who must balance work-life demands with limited educational opportunities. Contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) is a form of experiential learning that blends both basic skills and occupational training together in environments that allow students to relate subject matter to real-world situations. Virtual CTL environments can be created to better engage students, provide immediate …

Review Of "Rights And Reproductions: The Handbook For Cultural Institutions" (2nd Ed.), Georgia Westbrook

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

The second edition of Rights and Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural Institutions provides an updated look at intellectual property, related laws, and appropriate use for cultural institutions. The authors provide a robust and clear explanation of relevant issues and serves a wide range of users employing the text as a reference work.

Development Of A Framework To Support The Effective Adoption Of Bim In The Public Sector: Lessons For Ireland, Shiyao Kuang, Alan Hore, Barry Mcauley, Roger West

Conference papers

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been formally adopted by many countries with the promise of creating greater economic, social and sustainability benefits. Several authors and institutions have presented alternative BIM policies and tactics which have been adopted by developed countries. However, there is evidence to indicate that BIM adoption theories are not well established and, in particular, the linkage between BIM public sector adoption strategy outcomes and their contribution to achieving Government policy objectives are underdeveloped. This paper will present the outcome of the first phase of a systematic literature review of published studies (including journal papers and noteworthy international …

Diversity, Inclusion And The Exceed Teaching Workshop, Allen C. Estes

Architectural Engineering

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Teaching Workshops are currently in their 20th year of existence and have been highly successful. There is a growing body of literature on creating a multi-cultural classroom that celebrates diversity, accounts for the global differences and experiences of students, and deliberately fosters inclusivity. This paper examines the content of the existing culturally inclusive literature and quantifies how much is already present in the current ETW curriculum. It then suggests how much more could be included if a deliberate effort is made to include diversity and inclusivity into …

James Joyce Run: Why Are We On The Move Again If It's A Fair Question?, Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

I write a blog www.jj21k.com which looks at the works of James Joyce, the environment which he wrote about and changes that have taken place since he wrote about them. The blog posts are predominantly about Dublin.

During a time of injury, instead of running I was able to cycle. This blogpost describes the journey James Joyce made through houses in Dublin that he lived in whilst growing up. This is paralleled with a cycle I made and narrative I wrote.

You can see more background information and other posts on www.jj21k.com.

E-Learning Tools To Facilitate Instruction Of A Large Enrollment Structural Engineering Course, Maelle Van Thienen, James Boon Piang Lim, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Pablo Garcia, Wyatt Banker-Hix

Architectural Engineering

A significant challenge in teaching large civil engineering courses is engaging and providing feedback to students in a meaningful and timely manner. This paper presents a solution that uses e-learning tool Xorro-Q in the successful instruction of a Structures II course of 250+ second year students since 2016 at a research-intensive university in New Zealand.

During the course, Xorro-Q has been utilized as an online practice-based learning tool where students can repeat questions without penalty and automatically receive detailed instructor-developed feedback (diagrams, text, or link to website/video) in response to specific incorrect answers. Additionally, Xorro-Q permits a variety of questions …

Exposing Undergraduates To Design, Fabrication, And Large-Scale Experimentation In A Structural Steel Design Course, Jenna Williams, Mark William Wright, Michael James Deigert, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

During Fall 2017, Spring and Fall 2018 quarters, various hands-on design, fabrication, and large-scale experimental projects were incorporated into a 10-week undergraduate structural steel design course offered in the Department of Architectural Engineering at California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo. Through these projects students investigated one or two unique steel lateral force resisting systems (LFRS) consisting of either: special moment frame (SMF), special concentric braced frame (SCBF), and/or buckling restrained braced frame (BRBF). Students completed design calculations per the American Institute of Steel Construction steel building and seismic codes, visualized their final design using AutoCAD software, constructed and …

Interactive Physical Experiments In An Advanced Undergraduate Structural Dynamics Course, Charles D. Facciolo, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

This paper describes a number of physical models and hands-on lab activities incorporated in an advanced undergraduate structural dynamics lecture and laboratory course pairing offered within the Architectural Engineering department at California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo. These course modifications were designed and implemented in the Winter 2018 quarter to enable students to:

-Collect acceleration data during free or forced vibration tests using a smartphone accelerometer application to generate data plots in Matlab; -Conduct free vibration tests on various single-degree of freedom (SDOF) systems to investigate effects of varying mass, stiffness/height, material type, and damping type (pendulum or …

Analysis Of The System Response Of A Spray Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling System, Daeho Kang, Richard K. Strand

Publications and Research

A spray Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) system achieves great savings for space cooling and improves indoor environmental quality by supplying a large amount of fresh outdoor air. As previous studies heavily focused on the energy saving capability of a spray PDEC system due to lack of methods for a detailed analysis, the influence of cool humid supply air from a spray PDEC system in a space in buildings has not been comprehensively studied. This study is intended to evaluate the competence of a spray PDEC system as a primary cooling system in typical spaces in a primary school building …

Measuring Up: A Case For Redrawing The System Boundaries Of Sustainability At The University Of Kentucky, Brent Sturlaugson, Rebekah Radtke, Anita Lee-Post

Architecture Faculty Publications

The primary goal of this paper is to examine the role that sustainability assessment and reporting plays in creating a sustainable campus for academic excellence. A prototype sustainability assessment and reporting system is developed for triple bottom line impact analysis of the built environment of the newly expanded and renovated Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. The prototype system utilizes a toolkit to collect environmental, social, and economic data of the building's built environment for sustainable design performance analyses. The system also employs a comprehensive set of sustainability metrics to measure and report the building's …

Machine Learning In Architecture: Connectionist Approach To Architectural Design, Andrew Chase

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Previous applications to design processes intend to enhance a building’s schematic design using quantitative data. Therefore, most applications to the early design phases are passed by as simple overarching ideas informed by the designer and users’ knowledge. Although this is a preferred method of choice making, the knowledge used to inform conceptual and schematic design process can be limited. With the increase of computation in all major industries, a new increase in data to describe forms of infrastructure is required. These forms being objects to analyze their performance and potential, and active forms that can describe the disposition of urban …

Incentivising Multidisciplinary Teams With New Methods Of Procurement Using Bim + Blockchain​, Alan O'Reilly, Malachy Mathews

Conference papers

This paper researches a potential method of incentivising AEC industry professionals to design to better than NZEB standards. Analysing the potential of a purposefully designed local microgrid storing excess energy generated by solar technologies embedded within the building envelope; the microgrid excess output is measured and recorded using a (Post Occupancy) “Blockchain” application and measured against the data provided at design stage on a (Predictive) “Blockchain” database. This paper researches how energy output predictions at design stage, by multidisciplinary teams, may be enhanced by BIM + Blockchain Technology. The paper researches the potential of a digital twin (predictive versus post …

Fortifying Lower Manhattan's Shoreline, Krystel Campuzano, Mathlyn Mckie

Publications and Research

Lower Manhattan comprises less than 1% of the entire city’s land area, but generates almost 10% of the city’s total economic output, as measured by Gross City Product, and is the location of over 10% of all New York City jobs. Workers in Lower Manhattan come from all parts of the city. The District’s growth is supported by excellent access to transit, with 19 out of 25 subway lines and 26 ferry lines passing through the District. Any climate impacts in the District will resonate across the city as a whole and beyond. Because Lower Manhattan is a critical economic, …

Generative Suburban Frameworks: Emerging Architect-Guided Optimization Workflows Within Suburban Mass Production, Chris Reeh

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

The mass production of single-family housing has led to a number of overlooked design problems, including enormous physical footprints, subpar construction, and hastily installed infrastructure (Florida 2017). The continued growth of this development strategy has decreased the disparity of the building type, which also undergoes far less design consideration than other building typologies. Solutions to these issues have been oriented around concepts of modular construction and prefabricated elements. These ideas have typically remained in conceptual design stages, and when actualized they tend to lack the simplicity, speed, or cost of current residential construction practices. Additionally, several of these approaches could …

Blend Space: Architectural Storytelling In The Age Of Mixed Reality, Grant Moehlenhoff

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Storytelling and narratives have long been traditions for communication in human culture. Hieroglyphics, cave paintings, and stone tablets became the mediums in which this common method of communication began. The reasons why people tell stories are numerous, the most common ones being to entertain, to keep cultural heritage, to transfer knowledge, or provide warnings to others of danger. In addition, cultures often use architecture as a place to embed these narratives.

As technology has rapidly developed, so have the modes for telling stories. Today, stories are moving beyond the physical, and into both virtual and mixed realities. Virtual and augmented …