Architecture Commons^™

Ramirez Solar House : A Case Study Of Early Solar Design, Joanna Kendig

Theses

The Ramirez Solar House in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is an early historic example of passive solar design. The house was designed by Henry N. Wright, a significant contributor in solar research. Wright's 1944 design with a large window wall and generous overhangs represents a significant step in solar design development. The house, now under the stewardship of National Park Service, has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

The Ramirez House's solar performance was a subject of this study. Instrumentation was set up to record temperatures, humidity and illumination in the unoccupied and un-heated …

Transformation Of The Urban Fabric In Siena During Fascism : Sventramento And Risanamento Of Salicotto, Formerly Known As The Jewish Getto, Joanna Szymanska

Theses

The subject of this thesis is the transformation of the urban fabric in Siena at the time of early 20th century Italian Fascism. The investigation focuses on the transformation of the neighborhood of Salicotto, formerly known as the Jewish Ghetto, that began with the removal of inhabitants to the periphery of the city, the neighborhoods of Ravacciano and Valli and subsequent Sventramento, 'disembowelment' demolition of housing and urban fabric. The rubble from the demolished housing was transported to Campo del Rastrello and used as fill for a new stadium. The process continued with the replacement of the original housing …

Transforming Nature Of Place And Route 280, Peteris Ratas

Theses

This thesis studies the nature of place, which is a specific, identified location in space, in the conditions of driving in a car on a highway. This study opposes the common opinion that highways destroy identity of a specific location and they have only utilitarian role. This thesis wants to prove that on Route 280 exist a possibility for an identity of a location and that the highway is a place, but the traditional dimensions of a place are modified by high-speed travel in a car. It will analyze actual observations on Route 280.

Traditionally, space was inhabited at slow …

Vital Communities Criteria For Urban Neighborhood Development, Peter Frederick Smith

Theses

It is the goal of this document to explore the issues and physical attributes related to the creation of vital communities. Research into North American and European precedents of planned community design, from the late 19th Century to the present, and the study of the qualities of vitality of two healthy neighborhoods; The Beaches in Toronto, Canada, and the Ironbound in Newark, New Jersey, have demonstrated that the model for neighborhood development is the main street.

Further research determined that Springfield Avenue, in the City of Newark, New Jersey, would provide the armature for the revitalization of an urban neighborhood, …

Flexibility And Responsiveness In The Design Of Research/Office Buildings : A Proposal For The Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Park, Bhebishan Achaibar

Theses

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was establish in 1943 as Project Y of the Manhattan Engineering District. It was set up to develop the world's first atomic bomb. LANL is a multi disciplinary, multi-program laboratory whose central mission still revolves around national security. (1) In it's 50 year history of design, development and testing of nuclear weapons, the laboratory has grown as technology has evolved. Today, LANL uses the core technical competence developed for defense and civilian programs to carry out both its national security responsibility and its broad based programs in energy, nuclear safety, biomedical science, materials science and …

Value Engineering For The Practice Of Architecture, Husam Akoud

Theses

The practice of value engineering has become a significant factor in the construction industry during the past five decades. To value engineer a product or an item is to examine carefully its components in relation to their respective performance. Alternatives are generated to enhance functionality and reduce cost.

Techniques and methods have been developed to assist in performing a value engineering study that has a substantial impact on the final product, whether an item in a system or a building component. The different phases of value engineering are the INFORMATION, SPECULATIVE, ANALYTICAL and PROPOSAL PHASES. Each phase has its unique …

Indifférance, John F. Pohorylo

Theses

The main intention of this thesis is to wrestle Derrida's notion of différance from an endless free-play of signification into some sense of boundedness, and to release meaning, knowledge and understanding from its relentless grasp. In achieving this goal, an entirely new field of "value" and "Quality" based discourse would open up within applied schismatic architectural theory.

Robert Pirsig offers a strong alternative to différance with his discourse on the Metaphysics of Quality, wherein he defines "Quality" as a pre-intellectual reality. This pre-intellectual reality, which I call "indifférance", is made up of the lenses of inorganic, organic and social …

A Critical Analysis Of The New Urbanism, Metin Cihan Yildirim

Theses

After suburbia, the new urbanism offers a fresh start to designing human settlements in North America. The movement returns to the traditional American models of human settlements to design the suburbs, to create new communities. The new urbanism seems to use the traditional town model without questioning any of its potentially negative aspects.

In this thesis, the author questions several aspects of the new urbanism movement. The criticism focuses on town location and town pattern. Some influential examples of automobile-age U.S. suburbs, which the movement ignores, are analyzed with new urbanist examples to point out that there may be better …

Lived Body Architecture : An Argument For Lived Bodies In Architecture And An Exploration Of Women's Lived Bodies In Society, Sherri A. Scribner

Theses

This thesis is about architecture's current disregard for the lived body and about the lived bodily experiences of women in Western society. Although these seem to be two different themes, they are connected. Architecture disregards the lived body, but it can never escape it. Architects design buildings from their own lived experiences of the world and architectural theorists most often write about architecture from their experience of being in the buildings they discuss. But because architecture has been built and discussed predominantly by men, Western theories of architecture reflect mainly a male interpretation. I begin by analyzing the paradigms of …

Doing Business In China : A Primer For Foreign Architects, Shijie Wu

Theses

With more and more U.S. and other foreign businesses investing in the Chinese market, it is a good time for American architectural firms to enter this great market and play an important role. This thesis analyzes the prospects and feasibility of cooperation between U.S. and Chinese architects by investigating China's construction market, architects and firms.

In an overseas investment and architectural project, foreign and Chinese architects have to learn how to co-operate. They will encounter many special problems in this new work, which is very different from projects in their own countries. American architects and businessmen urgently need a reference …

Bringing Ideas Back To The Evolution Of Design, Ayca Tuzmen

Theses

This thesis is an exploration into the evolution of design. It attempts to develop an awareness of the effectiveness of what we do as designers and users to improve design. To achieve this purpose, it elaborates on some of the implications of paradigms which have emerged in design evolution. It presents some of the evolutionary theories and their analogies. These theories and analogies develop a view of design evolution - a conception of design as a process which moves from a lower to a higher state. With this conception, concern is directed at the identification of past and current design …

Butler Center : A Case For The Adaptive Reuse Of Industrial Buildings, Lori J. Ryder

Theses

This thesis is a study of the viability of adaptive reuse principles through a comparison between the rehabilitation of the industrial city of Lowell, Massachusetts and the former American Hard Rubber Company building in Butler, New Jersey. Historical, social, and architectural profiles of both sites were made to support my feasibility study and designs for the complex at Butler. The site at Lowell was analyzed as a successful model of an adaptive reuse project to measure the proposals for Butler.

Butler's site has been reused, but this study found it to be largely deficient in its adherence to accepted adaptive …

The Architecture Of Ricardo Porro : Questions Of Form And Content, Mariano Alemany

Theses

Aside from the two Schools of the Arts built In Cuba during the early sixties, the work of Ricardo Porro is unknown to most American architects. This essay is intended to make available to an American audience a critical examination of Mr. Porro's work. His work consists not only of buildings which have been erected in Cuba, France and Liechtenstein, but also of numerous unbuilt projects. Ricardo Porro is not only an architect but also a painter, sculptor and cabinetmaker. He has also written various articles on architecture which have been published in European journals and, most importantly, he has …

Recombinant Architecture On Materiality In Architectural Methods, James P. O'Brien

Theses

This thesis is an argument for the development of a sound material method in architecture. In order to establish what constitutes a sound material method for artistic production, an historical survey is made of architecture, fine arts and literature in the 20th century. The primary method of research used is the critical analysis and comparison of artistic methodologies. Key sources in this analysis are Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and The Author as Producer.

It is found that artistic methods that use modern materials and methods creatively can be learned from to inform …

The Cyberspace Workplace : An Argument And Design For The Virtual Office, Richard C. Jones

Theses

The Virtual Office has become a viable solution to the need for a changing workplace. Technology, design, and a redefinition of work have combined to create something entirely new. An office not of walls and doors but of electronic peripherals, networks, and global digital communication. This concept allows workers to be free from their physical surrounding to conduct work from remote locations or in some instances in a totally electronic world commonly referred to as Cyberspace. Through research, interviews, and problem solving the virtual office concept presented will redefine the use of space as we know it. These concepts will …

Sensitivity Analysis In Energy Responsive Design, Bratati Biswas

Theses

Energy responsive design involves the conscious use of climatic elements and natural processes in the design of spaces. Buildings are designed to react favorably with the environment to produce balanced comfort conditions. Passive solar building design utilizes this concept to heat or cool a building by natural means. In this approach, building components and materials are articulated to make maximum use of solar radiation and climatic elements producing energy responsive spaces.

The purpose of this research is to help designers to design with energy in mind. Energy related decisions are required during conceptual design and is not an add-on item …

The Design Thing : A Study Of Design In Practice And Theory, Magd Donia

Theses

The main purpose of this study was to present an overview of design practices and theories in different domains that would enrich the perspective of architectural design. To achieve this purpose, the study presented the initial purpose of architectural design which is providing an adequate shelter for different human activities. Positive and negative aspects of shelter were briefly discussed to trace the evolution of the concept of shelter. Change, as an essential aspect of design was presented in the context of problem formulation and problem resolution.

A presentation of design practices followed. It started by presenting design practices that are …

Networking High-End Cad Systems Based On Pc/Ms-Dos Platforms, Dagmar Antje Brinkmann

Theses

The concept of today's technology has been dropped. Everything is now either oobsolete or experimental. Yesterday's technology is appealing only because it is tried-and-true and prices are reduced for clearance. Tomorrow's technology is exciting, somewhat expensive and not well tested.

In the field of architecture, where most firms are medium or small, having limited resources, the high cost initially required for a CAD installation was generally impossible to meet not too many years ago.

From spreadsheets and CAD graphics to network file systems and distributed database management, the basic systems and application tools have matured to the point that the …

User Interface And Data Structure Design For Architectural Expert System, Yonghua Ma

Theses

Computers are currently used to generate drawings in the architectural design process. This thesis anticipates the development of an Architectural Expert System, which could provide assistance in the decision-making processes in architectural design. The focus is on the design of the user interface of such a system. Architectural object-oriented data hierarchies are created. Also, a set of drawing tools, which assist the user in the creation of architectural objects such as walls, windows, and doors, are provided.

The Poetic Streetscape, Joan Wegman Profeta

Theses

Suburbia continues to consume more and more of the rural countryside, replacing the vistas of open fields and farmsteads with prolific road patterns and individualized residential structures. As the new growth continues, the local character disappears. In addition, the new development, with the exception of some individualized works, offers little in aesthetic replacement value. In response, the following work develops a Country Theory for aesthetic building in rural areas. As suburban growth revolves around streets, the theory is built around streetscape. What is streetscape, and in particular, what should it be when building streetscape in the country?

The discussion begins …

Every Day Art : Demonstrating A New Approach To Visual Arts For Children, Abigail Andrea Jones

Theses

Known phenomenal techniques found in the psychology of perception are combined with the architectural design of five non-classroom art environments in which children experience and understand visual arts. The art environments are: (1) Land Marks, (2) Art Marks, (3) Color Connections, (4) Art Openings, and (5) Art Amplitude. Drawing from research conducted on cognitive learning theory and information gathered from site visit interviews, cognitive learning concepts were incorporated into the design of the art environments. Five categories of perceptual phenomenon were used as the bases for the architectural design of a visual arts center for children. The categories are: (1) …

A Knowledge-Based Design System For A Housing Project For Altzheimer's [Sic] Disease Patients And Their Caregivers, Karin S. Bannier

Theses

Since the beginning of the 20th century, architecture went through several different developments. Throughout these developments a large number of movements and design models Emerged, based on different design knowledge. The motivation for design projects is related Mainly to historical, functional, or site related issues. Today's changes in social relationships and therefore living arrangements question the validity of existing traditional design solutions, especially in the case of disabled clients. A new or modified specific design knowledge base has to be considered in order to meet the specific client's needs. To satisfy the wide range of changing nontraditional criteria that face …

Integrated Component-Based Computer Design Modeling System : The Implications Of The Representation Of Control Parameters On The Design Process, Allen D. Jablonski

Theses

The design process is dependent on a clear order of integrating and managing all of the control parameters that impact on a building's design. All component elements of a building must be defined by their: Physical and functional relations; Quantitative and calculable properties; Component and/or system functions. This requires a means of representation to depict a model of a building that can be viewed and interpreted by a variety of interested parties. These parties need different types of representation to address their individual control parameters, as each component instance has specific implications on all of the control parameters.

Representations are …

Office Technology : A Determinant In The Organization Of Spaces, Se Hun Kim

Theses

Technological advances have initiated complexity in buildings and may also provide the means to manage it. Research in advanced technology development suggests new directions for development and application of advanced technologies to buildings.

The purpose of this research is to examine and develop an understanding of building related computer uses. This study is done by literature search and field survey. Through literature search the theoretical background is established. Through field survey practical guidelines are suggested.

Studies of social and physical organizational systems and building systems are surveyed, then computers and advanced technologies are introduced. This is to find out practical …

Toward A Model Of Instruction For Architecture Design Studio, Garry Allen Perryman

Theses

This inquiry addresses some fundamental issues raised in a debate over the effectiveness of architecture studio instruction. It argues that as currently structured the studio's potential effectiveness is often unrealized, because of the paucity of standardized educational resources and instructor's lack of training in educational theories of instruction. This has resulted in instructional planning that is seldom structured on educational theory or research. It is also argued that in order to maximize it's effectiveness, beginning studio instruction must be premised upon a theory of instruction which includes specifying explicit instructional goals and objectives and that this would create a more …

Towards A Theory Of Planning Aesthetics : Application To University Commons, Newark, Kathy M. Gonzalez

Theses

A theory of planning aesthetics will be developed and discussed in relation to a portion of the university area of Newark consisting of N.J.I.T., Rutgers, Essex County College, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The site is just east of the campuses and contains the Newark Museum and the Newark Library.

The aesthetics of order will be covered at a community scale (the urban context) which will then be detailed as a study of the fractile portion of that entity (the building entity) relative to open spaces which give both entities character. Important in this work is three-dimensional …

Computerize Data Information For Architecture Design, Syau-Yi Yu

Theses

Computer-aided architectural design is technically and commercially feasible yet experience in the architectural profession to date is paradoxical. Many who apply computers to architecture appear satisfied but the tangible benefits are seldom obvious and even where computers are used in firms it is not done to the fullest potential. Contents of this thesis are an attempt to help architecture better utilize the advantages of computer applications.To do this it is important to examine two question: what is design and what is the computer? They are similar yet distinct. Architectural design is a special kind of problem solving process; an information …

First Impression : The Study Of Entry In Architecture, Siriwan Polpuech

Theses

Entrance as an element of architecture has had an important role in the design process from the very beginning of the architecture. Its role varies according to culture and the belief of people. The characteristics of entrances are as diversified as are architectural style and historic periods.

Architectural styles continue to change. New forms and technologies add to the growth of styles. All these contribute to the eclectic of design ideas. The specifics of an entrance can arise from, be complementary to or in contradiction of a style. They always serve as a mediator between interior and exterior spaces. The …

The Architecture Of Automobile And Building Design : Learning From 100 Years Of Parallel Processes, Vojislav Ristic

Theses

The industrial revolution has had a critical impact on society in general and architecture in particular. How we design, build and use buildings is different due to industrial changes in materials, processes and techniques. A key manifestation of the industrial revolution has been the automobile. Since the automobile is a more direct result of application of technique, it is helpful to examine its design to better understand the less direct influences of technique in architecture. This is especially important at a time when the role of technology in architecture is becoming both more significant and more difficult to define and …

Planning Design Change : Focus On Ottawa, Illinois, Donna Jean Carney

Theses

The subject of the study is development change as it impacts the identity of small cities. Can small city development problems be analyzed as smaller versions of big city problems, thereby requiring smaller versions of big city design and planning solutions, or do they require responses different than reduced scale of form and land use?

The specific problem context is Ottawa, Illinois, a city in which past developments and plans for future change are representative of a large class of small cities in the U.S. Many towns of this size are caught in the dilemma of decline through not changing, …