Architecture Commons^™

Towards Sociobiogeochemistry: Critical Perspectives On Anthropogenic Alterations To Soil Nitrogen Chemistry Via U.S. Urban And Suburban Development, Christopher D. Ryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ecological impacts of changes to land use are relevant to concerns about climate change, eutrophication of waterbodies, and reductions in biodiversity. As a foundational component of ecosystem functioning, changes to soil biogeochemistry have significant effects on overall ecosystem health. With cities continuing to grow and develop in extent, the impacts of urbanization and suburbanization on soils are of particular concern. Despite a wide range of natural climatic and geologic conditions, several factors have driven similar patterns of land transformation and management across the United States. In particular, federal initiatives including the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Federal Housing Administration, …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Scattered Fragments: Art, Architecture, And Archives In Revolutionary Urban Cairo, Mounira M. Makar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes how revolutions impact urban Cairo and its communities, specifically within artistic, architectural and archival practice while acknowledging the central role of public spaces in giving way to such revolutionary practices. Fundamentally, this paper highlights the foundational nature of such practices in developing urban communities.

La Ricarda Como Contexto Arquitectónico Y Simbólico De Las Prácticas Pioneras De J. M. Mestres Quadreny En El Origen Del Arte Sonoro En Cataluña, Isaac Diego García Fernández, Antoni Pizà Prohens

Publications and Research

Resumen

El presente estudio revisa y analiza la actividad artística desarrollada en La Ricarda o Casa Gomis (El Prat del Llobregat, Barcelona) durante la década de los años sesenta del siglo XX. Con ello, se pretende reflexionar sobre su relevante papel como espacio físico y simbólico en el impulso de prácticas creativas que pueden considerarse precursoras del actual campo del arte sonoro. En particular, se abordan diversas obras realizadas por el compositor catalán Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny (1929-2021), algunas de ellas en colaboración con el poeta experimental Joan Brossa (1919-1998), en el contexto de Música Oberta, iniciativa de conciertos …

Mimar Sinan, Aleesha Hafeez

Publications and Research

Mapping The Theaters Of Brooklyn's Past (1825-1925): A Gis Project, Elena Shefsky

Publications and Research

Despite its rich performance culture, Brooklyn remains underrepresented in theater history, eclipsed in fame by the well-known theaters of Manhattan. One of the most populous areas in America, Brooklyn has been an artistic home to actors, playwrights, directors, and impresarios for centuries. That said, there is a dearth of accessible information and scholarship on Brooklyn theaters. My objective was to update an ongoing mapping project, The City Performs, to include information and images of theater buildings from Brooklyn. The project is an interactive, open-source digital map that uses ArcGIS software to georeference data about NYC theaters. I collected data …

North Hall And Library Architecture Collection, 2008-16, Allen Thomas, Cynthia Tobar

Finding Aids

Finding aid for the North Hall and Library Architecture collection prepared by Bronx Community College Archives.

Variations In Family Child Care: Providers' Experiences Crafting Spaces In-Between School And Home, Eleanor Luken

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Family child care, which takes place in the caregiver’s own home, is one of the most common arrangements for American working parents, yet it remains low paid and undervalued in the ecosystem of early childhood care and education (Uttal and Tuominen, 1999). Little is known about how family child care providers organize space within their homes and the repercussions the location of care has on their daily practices with children, relationships with family members, and design of their homes. Even less is known about the strategies used by providers operating in dense, urban neighborhoods with high housing costs. This investigation …

Lighting In The Computer Rendering, Mi Tsung Chang

Publications and Research

We often take lighting for granted, but lighting plays a vital role in our physical world. In the world of 3D, we have to set up lights to simulate our world. It is a daunting task but makes computer rendering interesting and challenging. This section covers the basic lighting concepts and principles and takes a close look at how lights play an important role in defining space in computer rendering. Different rendering methods will also be discussed in this article.

Country Tech: The Adaptive Reuse Of A Former Theatre In The Catskill Mountains, Isimamwen Imarhiagbe, Calvin O. Walters Jr., Cheriyah Wilmot

Publications and Research

Our research centers on the birth, life, abandonment, and a proposed adaptive reuse of an early 20th-century former social hall theatre in Shandaken, a former company town for manufacturing furniture, within the Catskill Mountains. Adaptive reuse involves renovating a building or space by repurposing the existing structure and inserting a contemporary design/function. The building housed a variety of purposes throughout its lifetime: a theater, social hall, bowling alley, artist studios, and residential apartments. Our proposal is to return the building to its original purpose as a social hall, performance space, and a flex space for year-round use for art exhibits, …

(Not) Knowing, Jared Friedman

Theses and Dissertations

Jared Friedman’s work creates monuments out of banal common objects. Through acrylic paintings on- Astroturf, burlap, canvas, and upholstery fabric- he explores the ambiguity of the unremarkable, such as the condenser coils on the back of a refrigerator. In, (Not) Knowing, he parses the difference between knowing and understanding.

124 Notebooks, Andrea Lerner

Theses and Dissertations

124 Notebooks is a documentary about Brazilian architect and urbanist Jaime Lerner.

In 2010, two Brazilians were included in the TIMES Magazine list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, the ex and now re-elected president, Luiz Inacio da Silva, known as Lula, and the Architect and Urbanist Jaime Lerner. Lerner was listed among the 25 most influential thinkers for his 40 years working with urban sustainability, starting in the 1970s with his urban revolution of a once obscure city in Brazil, Curitiba. Curitiba is where I am from; Jaime Lerner is my father.

In 124 Notebooks …

"A Decorator In The Best Sense": Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Lilly Reich, The Fabric Curtain Partition, And The Articulation Of The German Modern Interior, Marianne E. Eggler-Gerozissis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Contributing to the burgeoning study of the domestic interior, a field of inquiry existing in the interstices of architecture, design, interior decoration, and material culture, this dissertation presents a thematic study of the modern domestic interiors of German/American architect/designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1965) designed in collaboration with fellow German architect/designer Lilly Reich (1885–1947) during the 1920s and early 1930s in Weimar Germany. Inspired by a revealing but hitherto overlooked statement by Philip Johnson in the catalogue for the influential 1932 International Style exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that referred to Mies as “a …

Salty: A Diffractive Inquiry Of Visceral Knowing And Embodied Aesthetics, Mei Ling Chua

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation takes a diffractive, onto-epistemological approach to everyday practices with salt in order to articulate an expanded understanding of meaning making and knowledge production. This research reckons with and challenges dominant modes of knowing that engage a Cartesian perspective to situate knowing as the exclusive domain of the mind in both form and topic of inquiry. This research acts simultaneously as both a direct practice of and metacognition about knowledge production by examining 1. the embodied (including sensory and emotional aspects) and 2. the relational (including interpersonal and socio-cultural) dimensions of experience as visceral knowing. This articulation of …

Developing Mexico: History, Architecture, Photography, And Esther Born’S The New Architecture In Mexico, Tyler Considine

Theses and Dissertations

Esther Born’s The New Architecture in Mexico (1937) presents the first survey of Mexican modern architecture and documents early works by Luis Barragán, Juan O’Gorman, among other Mexican modernists. This thesis examines Born’s architectural photography alongside that of Lola Álvarez Bravo, Guillermo Kahlo, and other photographers and within discourses of modernity, history, and representation.

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …

Limpieza De Asbestos En La Ciudad De Nueva York, Ariana G. Perez-Castells

Capstones

This is the story of how asbestos is removed in New York City, and who carries out the work. It's unclear how much more asbestos abatement is left in the county, and the U.S. has not completely banned the dangerous material, unlike over 50 other countries across the world. Both of these things could change soon. A new study that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will carry out by December 2024 would give us a better picture of how much asbestos there is still in buildings and how much more removal work is to be done. At the same time, …

Human Composting Is Changing The Landscape Of Death Care (Literally) — And It Could Be Legal In New York State As Soon As Next Year, Rachael Robertson

Capstones

Soon New Yorkers might have a new option for end of life care: Natural Organic Reduction, or human composting. Rather than being buried or cremated, New Yorkres might have the option of having their body composted and turned into soil as an environmentally friendly burial alternative. A bill legalizing Natural Organic Reduction in NYS and setting regulations similar to cremation is sitting on Governor Hochul's desk. Death, remembrance, and disposition are especially difficult in New York City, where there is not enough cemetery space for the number of people who die annually. Through audio, data, and print, I explore how …

Preservando La Playa Del Pueblo, Tasha A. Sandoval

Capstones

After more than 80 years, the only queer beach in New York City, the People’s Beach at Jacob Riis, is in danger. In 2022, the city announced the demolition of the Neponsit Hospital, a long-abandoned structure that shelters the beach from the street, creating a sense of privacy and safety. Can Riis Beach live on as a safe and joyous utopia for queer communities without the presence of the hospital buildings? Some beach-goers are campaigning to ensure that whatever replaces the hospital space centers the queer community and preserves the beach’s queer history, including the legacy of Ms. Colombia, a …

The Production And Destiny Of Public Space In An American City: Examining The Emergence And Disruption Of Brooklyn City Hall Square, Jason Montgomery

Publications and Research

Urban form should reflect collective value for place in communities. Urban squares in particular have the potential to serve as the nucleus of communities, urban artefacts that link place to memory and heritage while serving basic needs for everyday life in the city. Civic squares, those linked to governmental institutions, have further potential to facilitate community gatherings for memorialisation, commemoration, celebration and political action. Despite these important functions and potential, the incremental planning of Brooklyn in the early nineteenth century placed little emphasis on squares of any kind, despite the community’s expressed desires. Brooklyn’s first civic square, here referred to …

Techne Issue 06, Michael Duddy, Farai Matangira, Sanobar Nazirova, Ololade Tolu Owolabi, Darwin Diaz

TECHNE

INTRODUCTION Sanjive Vaidya, RA, Department chair

“Midnight on Feb. 5, 1952, a cross was burned in front of Stoughton Hall, where the 11 black members of the Harvard Class of 1955 lived… One of the 11 black students was the late J. Max Bond ’55, who became one the nation’s leading black architects, stressing socially progressive themes and public service.” -Hartman, Chester. “Cross burning in Harvard Yard?” The Harvard Crimson, 17 Sept 2014.

Symbolizing structural and social barriers for minorities and people of color accessing higher education, this violent scene is heightened by its setting. The venerated campus represents a …

Women Of Colour And Black Women Leaders Are Underrepresented In Architectural Firms Featured In Key Trade Publications (Review), Nandi Prince

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Student Self-Grading Form, Brett Whysel

Open Educational Resources

This is a word document that students use at the beginning, midpoint, and end of a semester to set relevant goals, measure progress towards goals, and self-grade. It is intended to build motivation, metacognition, and accountability. Instructors may use it on its own or to supplement other assessment tools, and improve the accuracy, validity, and fairness of final grades.

Building For A New National Body: The Architecture Of Manuel Amábilis And Neomaya Modernity, Emily A. Cocco

Theses and Dissertations

In the history of architecture following the Mexican revolution, Yucatecan architect Manuel Amábilis (1889-1966) has often been passed over in favor of discussions of architects working in the nation’s cultural and political center, Mexico City, many of whom engaged in neocolonial and functionalist modern style to envision a modern Mexico transformed by the revolution. This omission is short-sighted, since Amábilis’s Maya revivalist architecture provides an iteration of postrevolutionary Mexican architecture that visually and ideologically manifests the socialist and proindingenous aims of the revolution while imagining a paradigm of modern nationalism that was not rooted in Western ideals. Amábilis’ neomaya architecture, …

Nycha & Arcscholars: Senior Center, Naomi Langer-Voss, Tylee Rivera

Publications and Research

Who are we?

We are a diverse group of scholars ranging in age, gender, and background from all over New York City. We share a common interest in solving our urban challenges through studying and proposing improvements to the built environment. From professors at CUNY CITY TECH to NYCHA Design & Implementation specialists and NYCHA residents, we encompass a group of scholars united by this common purpose.

What are we here to accomplish?

This team of ARCscholars is working collaboratively, sharing lived experiences, creatively thinking & planning and applying our research discoveries to the proposed design interventions. We seek to …

Micro-Metropolis: Space, Work, And Waste In The Maquettes Of Constant And Bodys Isek Kingelez, Shoshanah B. Rosen

Theses and Dissertations

Constant Nieuwenhuys and Bodys Isek Kingelez both create futuristic utopias in the form of architectural maquettes. This comparative study explores each artist’s reverence for technology, global connectivity, and new forms of economic production. It argues that these utopias represent desires endemic to late modernity and capitalism, including consumption, nomadism, automation.

Contextualizing Britain’S Holocaust Memorial And Museums: Form, Content, And Politics, Rebecca D. Pollack

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The quantity of Holocaust memorials in Britain and their prominence in public debates beseeches the question: Why does a country with a modest Jewish population, that was neither occupied by the Nazis nor lost its citizens in the horrors of the Holocaust, devote large quantities of resources and time to memorializing the events of the Holocaust? While there are private and synagogue-based Holocaust memorials in Britain, this dissertation centers on Britain’s statefunded Holocaust memorials and museums, a substantial network of memorials that is often left out of the abundant literature on Holocaust memory. Each memorial project is examined through the …

Hudson Yards: Hybrid Capital's New Home, Massimo D. Scoditti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on the material and metaphysical aspects of the Hudson Yards, the largest private development in US History. With its roots in the administration of Michael Bloomberg, the site is representative of neoliberal ideology. It is also one in which cultural production is central. This is in terms of the rationalization and mythos of the building of the space itself and the dreamworlds created to obscure the mechanisms of extraction and accumulation that make such a complex possible. The Hudson Yards is particularly interesting because, as Cindi Katz might suggest, topography lines connect it to transnational capital. And …

Past-Futures Of Harlem: Black Urban Space At The Limits Of Spatial Justice, Dane C. Ruffin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The racial capitalist development of the U.S. metropolitan landscape has been shaped by the involuntary displacement and dispersal of Black communities. From the dispossession of the Half-Free Negro Lots around the Fresh Collect pond in the seventeenth century to the clearing of Seneca Village to build Central Park in the nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth-century police-facilitated “race riot” in the Tenderloin district of Manhattan, which fueled the move to Harlem, the four-hundred year history of Black Manhattan alone provides substantial evidence of this and is in no way unique in this regard. Incomplete, yet ongoing, is what …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …