Architecture Commons^™

Urban Politics And Policy, Susanna F. Schaller

Open Educational Resources

This class will focus on urban politics and policies as they relate to the economic, social and spatial development of metropolitan areas. We we will ask why cities and place matter and explore patterns of urban spatial development in the US. We will investigate the politics and policies that have led to “urban sprawl” and uneven development, particularly in post World War II period. We will discuss the social, economic, political implications of this form of development, focusing especially on the politics of race and class. By inserting cities, especially NYC, into the global context, we will read about neoliberal …

Combating Urban Stratification: Expanding Options For Nycha Build To Preserve, Jason Montgomery

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Young Children's Play In High-Rise Housing: A Window Into The Changing Lives Of Urban Middle-Class Families In Pune Metropolitan Area, Sruthi Atmakur-Javdekar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to identify the combinations of spatial arrangements and physical features that influence young children’s access to play and the quality of their play opportunities in a heterogeneous sample of high-rise housing in India. Using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model of Human Development as a framework, the study examines two large umbrellas that contribute to young children’s play opportunities in high-rise housing developments: (1) The play environment that is made available for children by developers and design professionals; and (2) Parents’ and caregivers’ ways of using the designated and undesignated spaces based on their own play values and beliefs. A …

Campus Design And The Community College Experience: An Exploration Of Stress, Belonging And Scholarly Identity, Vanita Naidoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This mixed methods research study examines factors that influence the development of scholarly identity at a community college campus. It uses survey methods and a focus group with undergraduate students at the Bronx Community College (BCC) campus to examine how campus design relates to a sense of belonging, the process of reflection, and the development of a scholarly identity. Academic attrition and low performance are challenges at urban community colleges. The study aims to address how campus design, specifically green space, impacts undergraduate students at a community college. It seeks to better understand the experience of the diverse student population …

Modernity In Miniature: Maoism And The Beijing Department Store, Samuel M. Hellmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the Beijing Department Store as a contradictory structure embedded in the world’s largest Communist revolution. By looking at the urban planning decisions behind constructing a colonial form in the center of the socialist capital, I attempt to unravel the complex intersection of economic development and egalitarian mass action in the early Maoist period. Constructed in 1955 during the first Five Year Plan, the Department Store sheds light on the specific parameters of post-revolution modernization campaigns. Furthermore, by looking at the conceptualizations of the building by the Party, architects, and the workers inside the store, I examine how …

The Object Memory Palace, Amra Causevic

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in orchestrating instances of potentiality or concrete possibilities that proposes the futurity of play through means of touch, activation, assembly, and interaction within art spaces. The installation mentioned is composed of found objects and repurposed materials that address themes of place, memory, object-ness, and the archive, through gestural means of poetics and map making. It is an invitation to create new logics and find moments of empathy, connectivity, and hopes for a collective.

Testing Reliability Of Biophilic Design Matrix Within Urban Residential Playrooms, Ellen Marte

Theses and Dissertations

Biophilic interior design in urban playrooms has been greatly understudied. We measured inter-rater reliability of the Biophilic Interior Design Matrix (BID-M) and matrix items by quantitatively coding images of 45 New York City residential playrooms. Findings suggest that the BID-M needs to be modified to better assess urban playrooms.

Beyond The Market: A “Public-Commons-Partnership” For Housing, Arielle Lawson

Publications and Research

The commodification of housing has led to new levels of unaffordability for tenants all over the country. With skyrocketing rents and an explosion of homelessness, we are faced with the glaring failures of our capitalist housing system to meet people’s most basic human needs. Recognizing the inherent limitations of “affordable housing” within a profit-driven system, we need a paradigm shift around housing that can change the terms of the debate, and advance a real alternative to the speculative market. A growing housing justice movement — combined with a renewed politicization of tenants — is leading the way. From new rent …

Community Building At Amalgamated Housing Co-Operative, Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

Amalgamated Housing Co-operative is located north of the Jerome Park Reservoir in The Bronx. Sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union (A.C.W.U.), this development opened in 1927 under the New York State Limited Dividend Housing Law of 1926.1 Built as affordable housing for moderate-income workers, the limited dividend housing legislation granted tax exemptions to the co-operative for a period of 20 years. Its residents were "co-operators," not tenants, who would own shares for their apartments in the development. Now in its ninth decade of operation, the Amalgamated is the oldest limited dividend housing development in the country and has been …

Excavating A Future Vision Past: Mike Davis’ City Of Quartz, William Blick

Publications and Research

When Mike Davis published City of Quartz in 1990, his work was widely praised by many and dismissed as liberalist hysteria by others. The reflections it contains on architectural design as a reflection of sociopolitical tumult still strike chords today. This article sets out a reexamination of the text through hindsight, using contemporary and subsequent reviews to consider how the book was relevant at the time of its publication, how it may be relevant today and how it has had a profound impact on sociological and cultural studies.

Teaching A Broad Discipline: The Critical Role Of Text Based Learning To Building Disciplinary Literacy In Architectural Education, Jason Montgomery

Publications and Research

Architecture is a demanding discipline with multiple, complex concerns and identities shaping the profession. The discipline requires analysis of complex and multifaceted issues and synthesizing broad knowledge through a focused creative process. While twenty-first-century education may leverage many sources to educate students of architecture, texts remain the primary repository par excellence of the rich and diverse body of knowledge and ideas that continue to inspire and ground architects, theorists, historians, planners, and policy makers tied to the discipline. Perusing and engaging with the diverse body of architectural literature is a strong approach to support one’s learning to think, speak, and …

Mapping Urban Performance Culture: A Common Ground For Architecture And Theater, Ting Chin, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

Our co-taught course focuses on theater history, with an emphasis on performance architecture. Assignments are designed to illuminate the ways in which architectural design and technology inform performance practices and audience reception. The pivotal assignment for exploring interdisciplinarity is a three-week module on mapping historical theaters in New York City. Open-source Global Information Systems (GIS) software serves as a common mechanism for students to situate theatrical productions in the context of the built urban environment, deepening their understanding of the social, economic, and artistic forces that contributed to performance culture. Mapping is a shared pedagogy for analyzing and presenting research …

Competence Of A Spray Passive Down-Draft Evaporative Cooling (Pdec) System For Space Cooling, Daeho Kang, Richard K. Strand

Publications and Research

A spray PDEC system has been relatively less considered than other passive cooling strategies as one of the viable low-energy solutions in the cooling of buildings while having a great potential in energy savings. This study is intended to evaluate the capability of a spray PDEC system for space cooling. It comprises four simulation scenarios to see the system response and influence of indoor thermal environment when a spray PDEC system is adopted as a primary cooling system in two different climates. The simulation results show that a spray PDEC system causes a substantial variation in the indoor thermal environment …

Quantification Of Heat Flows Through Building Entrance Doors On A Winter Day, Daeho Kang

Publications and Research

The current methods for the prediction of the heat flow through building entrance doors have been used for years while involved with a certain degree of uncertainty. This paper describes an experimental method that accurately quantified such heat flow. The experiment monitored local environmental parameters in a college building on a cold winter day. The results of the experiment demonstrated that the experimental method is viable to accurately estimate the heat flow throughout the entrance doors and the presence of a vestibule moderated heat losses from the conditioned area. The results will be used for validating the existing methods.

A Series Of Acts That Disappear: The Valparaíso School’S Ephemeral Architectures, 1952–1982, Elizabeth Rose Donato

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1952, Chilean architect Alberto Cruz (1917–2013) and Argentine poet Godofredo Iommi (1917–2001) launched one of the most idiosyncratic experiments in postwar art and architectural pedagogy in the industrial port of Valparaíso, Chile. Founded on the premise that architecture must be “co-generada” with poetry, the so-called Valparaíso School developed an expanded conception of the discipline that encompassed ephemeral forms, from urban drifting to performative and ludic actions. This dissertation examines four specific “acts” in the Valparaíso School’s corpus: the exhibition, the poetic act, the journey, and the game. Across these different forms, I identify a tendency toward openness, improvisation, indeterminacy, …

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 …

Mapping In The Humanities: Gis Lessons For Poets, Historians, And Scientists, Emily W. Fairey

Open Educational Resources

User-friendly Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the common thread of this collection of presentations, and activities with full lesson plans. The first section of the site contains an overview of cartography, the art of creating maps, and then looks at historical mapping platforms like Hypercities and Donald Rumsey Historical Mapping Project. In the next section Google Earth Desktop Pro is introduced, with lessons and activities on the basics of GE such as pins, paths, and kml files, as well as a more complex activity on "georeferencing" an historic map over Google Earth imagery. The final section deals with ARCGIS Online …

Defense In Desolation, Dounia Bendris

Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses different forms of defense strategies in architecture throughout history as well as how a building’s function morphs over time in relation to the political and social climate that surrounds it. Both of these concepts provide a framework for understanding my thesis drawing, “Defense in Desolation,” which uses bunkers in abandonment as a reference to the psychological impact of architecture outside of functionality.

Staging A Modern Nation: The Art And Architecture Of The Peruvian Pavilion At The 1939/40 New York World’S Fair, Alida R. Jekabson

Theses and Dissertations

At the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair, the Peruvian government installed a multimedia display of objects and products in a foreign pavilion. An examination of the building and its contents provides a basis to understand how art and commerce work together to construct narratives of authenticity, nationalism and modernity.

In Present Past: Sun Tunnels And The Historic Reconstruction Of Vision, Patrice M. Capobianchi

Theses and Dissertations

The following study investigates how Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels makes effective use of time and land to reprogram the modern viewer’s eye. By utilizing sculpture that is reminiscent of pre-historic observatories as an observational framing device against the landscape topography, the artwork succeeds in presenting a historic reconstruction of vision.

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, …

Cultural Heritage Preservation In The Context Of Climate Change Adaptation Or Relocation: Barbuda As A Case Study, Martha B. Lerski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This case study introduces an arts camp methodology of engaging communities in identifying their key cultural heritage features, thus serving as a meta study. It presents original research based on field studies on the climate-vulnerable Caribbean island of Barbuda during 2017 and 2018. Its Valued Cultural Elements survey, enabling precise identification of key tangible and intangible art forms and biocultural practices, may serve as a basis for further studies. Such approaches may facilitate future research or planning as climate-vulnerable communities harness Local or Indigenous Knowledge for purposes of biocultural heritage preservation, or towards adaptation or relocation. I report on findings …

Penn Station Virtual Reality, Lenny S. Marin

Publications and Research

Penn Station, which is a local hotspot, not only to New Yorkers but for tourists from around the world, serves as a gateway to New York City. The understanding of the original Penn Station and its beauty has been lost to history with the current Penn Station design. No longer does the space welcome you into the city with its grand scale and natural light; instead you arrive at a labyrinth of window less hallways.

Through this research, we look at the possibilities 3d modeling and virtual reality offer in recreating realistic experiences of important buildings. Through the use of …

Solar Responsive Façade In An Urban Environment, Cheriyah Wilmot

Publications and Research

Due to the high energy consumption in cities like New York, I am designing a shading system to be retrofitted on an existing façade that responds to external thermal conditions. I’ve conceptualized the functions of the shading system to either block/allow sunlight and analyzed its effectiveness in terms of energy use and illuminance in comparison to the modeled office space. Materials will be explored as well as how it’ll function in the future.

Lab‐Grown Meat And Veganism: A Virtue‐Oriented Perspective, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feed- ing a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only in terms of the best conse- quences for the environment, animals, and humans, or in terms of deontic princi- …

Constraint And Control, Patricia Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

I have long considered themes of the body. Drawing on my knowledge as a fashion designer, I bring materials and hardware from the fashion industry into my artwork transforming and rendering them non-functional. My sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. The following pages will analyze how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds. Furthermore, they will examine how the Catholic Church controls people’s minds and behavior through a ritualistic belief system.

North American Data, Joseph A. Burwell

Theses and Dissertations

North American Data fractures and reconfigures pre-existing narratives into new, unauthorized forms of storytelling. Core samples extracted from various narrative sources are reassigned new roles according to their proximity to each other. This paper functions as an introduction to the essential actors and their dramatic inclinations within fluctuating scenarios.

Housing Along The Brooklyn Waterfront: A Story Of Shipping, Industry, And Immigrants, Kurt C. Schlichting

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Experimental Applications Of Virtual Reality In Design Education, Amber Bartosh, Phillip Anzalone

Publications and Research

By introducing rapid reproduction, algorithms, and complex formal configurations, the digital era of architecture began a revolution. Architects incorporated the computational capacity of the computer into the design process both as a tool and as a critical component of the theories and practice of architecture as a whole. As we move into what has been coined “the second digital turn,” a period in which digital integration is considered ubiquitous, how can we consider, prepare, and propel towards the next technological innovation to significantly inform design thinking, representation, and manifestation? What tools are available to investigate this speculative design future and …

Public Land Revisited: Municipalization And Privatization In Newark And New York City, Samuel Stein, Oksana Mironova

Publications and Research

Public land plays a central role in contemporary urban planning struggles. Using a comparative case study approach focused on the north-eastern US cities of Newark and New York City, we uncover patterns of land acquisition and dispossession that fit five broad and often overlapping periods in planning history: City Beautiful, metropolitan reorganization, deindustrialization, and devaluation, followed by hyper-commodification in New York City and redevelopment amidst disinvestment in Newark. Through this periodization, we find that accumulation and alienation of urban public land has largely taken place through two modes of municipalization (targeted and reactive) and two modes of privatization (community-led and …