Architecture Commons^™

Equitable Housing Generation Through Cellular Automata, Molly R. Clark

Masters Theses

This thesis seeks to experiment with the culmination of social, natural and built paradigms of sustainability using digital generation as an architectural process. Specifically, this thesis will explore cellular automaton and modular design approaches in the context of multifamily housing, asking if we can quantify the qualities of equitable housing and guide digital algorithms to generate efficient, flexible, human centered designs. Cellular automaton is a term used to describe a phenomenon in which the growth of one cell in a plant or animal is entirely dependent upon the already existing adjacent cell. Digital cellular automaton is a mathematical, rule based …

Feasibility Report On Water Recycling And The Housing Crisis, Tally A. Perry

City and Regional Planning

The western United States is experiencing increasing population, a housing shortage, and a drought. These challenges demand creative and unprecedented changes to development. Water recycling is slowly emerging as a viable solution for developers, home owners, and cities as a way to continue much-needed housing development while mitigating unnecessary water depletion. With all change, policy, feasibility, and awareness can be the largest influencers. Drought-ridden western-American states require additional and revised regulatory requirements to promote recycled water in new development. Currently, water reuse is largely used for agricultural and industrial purposes. To motivate and encourage housing development, water recycling needs to …

The Cost Of Urbanization: A Look Into The Transformation Of Mao Era Reforms, Tieren A. Dokes

Master's Projects and Capstones

Mao Zedong has played an influential role in Chinese society, whether for better or for worse. His policies have caused ripples throughout contemporary Chinese society, but nothing stronger than his desire for urbanization and economic land reform. Utilizing Mao’s drive for urbanization and economic reform as essential historical context, this paper connects how the contemporary governmental push for urbanization has been unyielding, and, in some ways, counterproductive as decade-old Mao-era institutions reverberate in an echo chamber with cracks that allow darker forces to seep in. Real estate and urban development companies and local governments are given monetary incentive to redevelop …

Big Problems, Small Solutions A Solution To The Housing Crisis Through Prefabrication., Connor Smith

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Coronavirus has come as America is in the midst of a crisis-level affordable housing issue. In 2019, 37.1 million households were identified as “housing cost-burdened,” spending 30% or more of their income on housing. 63% of Americans have been living pay-check to pay-check since the pandemic. And in addition to that, it has been estimated that we as a country have a deficit of at least 1,000,000 single-family homes. This is affordable housing as it stands today, with a huge percentage of Americans searching for permanent housing and unable to find any, and if they do, unable to afford it …

Proposal For Adobe Earthbag Disaster-Relief Structure, John Camacho

Construction Management

The science behind creating an adobe house has been around for thousands of years; the primitive mixture contains only dirt, water, and straw. Left to cure in bricks or as a single cast-in-place system, the structure will provide long-lasting protection from the elements. Science has taken this a step further with the introduction of cementitious admixtures and reinforcement. The result is an adobe structure with exemplary thermo-retentive properties and load-bearing capabilities. This project provides an analysis on the “SuperAdobe” earthbag system that has been put into practice by independent contractors and housing-relief initiatives. The goal of the project was to …

Re-Imagining Design For Affordable Housing In Mexico, Kenza Fernandez Dominguez

Scripps Senior Theses

Since the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, affordable housing developments in Mexico have been produced in a massive, unsustainable scale. The speed at which these developments are produced equates to the carelessness that goes into their planning. At large, the developments’ monotonous design is aesthetically dehumanizing and fails to promote a sense of community. These developments lack basic infrastructure, and their residents have abandoned them, which has incentivized increased criminal activity.

In this paper, I will be looking at successful models of affordable housing globally, exploring the histories of communal living, and function of architectural collages. Based on my findings, …